….contd….
“they dislike you and bad mouth you so
many times because you say what they don’t want to hear, can’t you atleast stop
doing that? It’ll atleast stop them from talking ill of you” Rahul pleaded. He
never liked when others talked ill of her. But he had never voiced this to her.
And today he was trying to do away with the cause to some extent.
“Surely I can do that if my aim or
desire was to make friends and admirers here. But it is not unfortunately.
Moreover, if even I don’t tell them the truth, who will and how will they come
out of their ignorance?” she replied with a smile.
“But why do you do that Guruji and so
repeatedly too?” there was pain in Rahul’s voice. Pain that she was not
understood by others. Pain that her love and hardwork was returned with
ill-treatment, anger, resentment, hatred and what not.
“Have you even seen a mother who pushes
bitter medicine down the throat of her child – the most precious of all in the
world even when he is kicking her stomach and chest vigorously and she is in
terrible pain because of that? Does she stop giving that bitter medicine
because of her pain. Her pain is nothing when compared to the pain she is
suffering because of her child’s ill-health. For her at that point of time only
thing that matters is to cure him. She is not bothered that he spits on her
face or calls her ‘a bad mother’. I’ve even heard some children asking their
mother ‘to die’. And yet mother does ‘what she ought to do’. Her purpose in his
life is complete only when she plays her part so.
I won’t come this way again. So let me
play it the right way this only time I have” she explained handing out one rose
to each one of us.”
We were dumb-stuck. ‘aah’ cried Priya.
We looked at her and she showed her finger and said ‘thorn of rose’. We all
laughed. This has happened so many times with us. We knew that feeling. We all
had been there some time or the other.
“And yet you didn’t throw the rose away.
It pricked you and you changed it to your other hand but did not abuse it or
throw it away. With beauty comes a thorn too. With love comes pain too. You
can’t have one and leave the other. And you would be a fool to leave the rose
for its thorn. Similarly, because it pains, I can’t let go off my love can I or
should I?” she asked as she looked into our eyes.
We sat beside her. We smiled. She knew
our answer. We knew what she meant. But more than that we knew we need to look
into our relationships. I know for sure that she didn’t say all this to talk
about herself.
Just like me even Rahul and Priya must
have come with complaints about relationships and she as ever without
embarrassing us showed us where the problem was and how to see it, heal it and
live it. We had complaints that Love hurts. But here she taught us that love IS because you want to contribute something good, meaningful, beautiful, useful in others life. You love not because it removes your pain but because you can't see the other in pain and are desperate enough to remove that pain from their life. Well, I and others need to meditate on love and know it......and yes, it's a huge subject.......but for now.....
Talk continued and laughter filled the atmosphere till late night and
bright moon shone so brightly as if sharing our happiness. When we took leave
our faces and hearts matched the brilliance of moon above……
concluded....