Journey to Nowhere: A Spiritual Comedy

JOURNEY TO NOWHERE

A Spiritual Comedy

Munish Markan

Copyright 2014 Munish Markan

Smashwords Edition

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

The book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead is purely incidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

Edited By: Shilpy Malik

Cover design by: Brandi Doane McCann

Preface

This book is designed to evoke an experience, rather number of experiences, in you, the reader. On the periphery, you would find laughter. But don’t remain contended with the humor alone. Try to find the greatest possible messages hidden in and between the lines for living a fulfilling life.

The framework of the book has been borrowed from a childhood story aka joke which most of you as children might have heard of. Here the joke goes: A child was not well and was adamant on not taking the medicine despite all efforts of his mother. The mother devised a trick. She encased the medicine in a soft spongy sweet (Rasgulla), which the child liked very much and offered it to the child, hoping that he would gulp the medicine along with the sweet.

Humanity has evolved over the years. This is an era of science and technology. The spiritual message delivered so far by and large is encased either in abstraction or in narrow religious doctrines, which do not appeal to the modern mind, particularly the youth. Therefore, an interesting story has been created (Rasgulla) and amidst laughter and extreme humor, driblets of spiritual message have been sprinkled. As the story unfolds and reader is attuned to it, story takes a turn and the message is poured out in abundance and universally acceptable language.

But….The story of the child is not yet finished. The child happened to be rather smart. He ate Rasgulla and informed his mother that though he finished the sweet, he found a stone inside which he threw away. This is the danger which an avid reader needs to be careful about while reading the book. The temptation to finish the book may result in throwing the stone which was meant to be eaten and eating the Rasgulla alone, which was just a via media for the stone. Well, then every man is free and this freedom is the glory of man.

If you are unable to eat the stone, I don’t blame you. Probably, you are not yet aware of the fact that you need it. Never mind, then enjoy the Rasgulla.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1-University- The Launch Pad

Chapter 2-The Journey To…

Chapter 3-Ashram-The Gateway

Chapter 4-Exploration of

Chapter 5-The Land Far off

Chapter 6-Wisdom from the west

Chapter 7-Another Day In Paradise

Chapter 8-Science of the Soul- Prelude

Chapter 9-The Science BEGINS

Chapter 10-The Trap and the Escape

Chapter 11- In the End…The beginning

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Chapter 1-University- The Launch Pad

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Rishi, your wife would either divorce you or worship you, Jyoti commented on my future.

Forget about my would be wife. Think of yourself. You seem too impressed, for no reason, I countered.

Of course, it’s not only me, there are many. The list is long, she said walking towards ‘Stucee’ the student centre, after our philosophy class. Rachna and Jyoti were keeping a secret eye on me ever since I joined the department of philosophy. Similar was the case with other girls in the class too. My looks were not bad but the facial expressions were reflective of an introvert, egoistic person which belied my jovial and non-serious nature. Right from day one, I had impressed my teachers and fellow students alike with my intellectual prowess, clarity and depth of understanding of all the subjects. I had joined post graduate course in philosophy as it allowed me the privilege to stay in hostel for two more years. My father insisted that I join Civil Services but I cared damn about it. I could not have thought of becoming a bureaucrat even in wildest of my dreams. But I liked to spend time in University library reading all kinds of philosophical, non-fiction stuff.

During student life, you are lost in your own mental world of imagination & illusion. Illusioned, though we remain throughout our life but nobody disturbs it during student life. Rather, you are allowed to strengthen your illusions silently, largely without any interference from the outside world. A small 10’ x 7’ hostel room, littered with all kinds of photographs and slogans, ranging from semi nude, erotic posters to those of inspiring quotes of the likes of Swami Vivekananda are the hallmark of a typical dwelling place during student days. Challenges faced by a person of outside world do not confront you. The most important part of student life is that time is on your side. You can afford to take any kind of risk because you have nothing else to lose. As far as time is concerned, losing it does not seem to matter as you have plenty of it. It’s like a rich man having plenty of money does not bother about wasting a part of it, so is the case with students wasting time in their misadventures, though many term it as the exploration into unchartered territory. Twenties is the period when you are physically vigorous, sexually super active, and intellectually flamboyant. You have the power to imagine and be creative. Though you lack experience, but the passion and the energy which propels you makes you care damn about the consequences.

I used to read profusely, and was able to argue on any topic. Any explanation offered by me carried a story as well as a punch line to make the argument interesting and lethal. I soon realized that the way to impress girls was sharp intellect, not shapely muscles, fancy clothes, and big cars, though the latter definitely act as icing on the cake. But my purpose of reading was not to impress girls. I wanted to gain knowledge about anything and everything under the Sun; including the Sun. Little did I realize at that time that I had identified myself with the thoughts in my head. I had become an intellectual. I could not see a better way to establish my identity. Whenever I argued well and saw a glitter in the eyes of the listener, I felt a great sense of elation, as if lifted above the ground. A deep sense of satisfaction engulfed my being and prompted me to accumulate more and more knowledge.

Now it was not an ordinary pursuit. I did not realize that I had started looking for my identity in the eyes of others. Nobody thinks about ego and its various manifestations during student life. In fact, urge to expand and to do something worthwhile hardly leaves any time to ponder over the deeper meaning of life. Besides, the life has not given you a hard knock so far. During that phase, hardly anyone made me realize the dangers of being popular, intellectual and of being identified with my thoughts. Though I read the so called spiritual stuff a lot but used the knowledge of Self in the service of little self. Every now and then, I would support my arguments with Sanskrit Shalokas(couplets) from scriptures. Hardly anyone knew Sanskrit language, so it was quite easy to impress people by mixing it in ordinary conversation.

It is not difficult to remember the names of Upanishads and quotations from scriptures. Neither have you known the essence nor your listeners. Even the literal interpretation of verses was enough to mesmerize the gullible listeners.

This overemphasis on memory invariably clouds the intelligence. By the time one reaches university; there is enough practice to rote. Education system in India woefully lacks any mechanism to foster intelligence and develop spirit of entrepreneurship. Coming out of university, you realize the fine truth of ‘I was born intelligent but education ruined me.’

Chapter 2-The Journey To…

Let us go to Haridwar, Shivam Kalia proposed one day.

Can’t you find a better place to go? Paul retorted back.

I can ensure a free stay at an ashram for you guys. Our family is associated with an ashram in Kankhal, Haridwar, and we have a room permanently reserved for the members, said Kalia.

How do we go? By train or by bus? asked Paul.

Well, winters are approaching. I can arrange a car for the trip, I made the offer.

What is the connection between approaching winters and arranging a car for the trip? asked Jaissy inquisitively while adjusting his specs.

Like every year, I will ask my father for car to transport quilts and other woolen stuff to the hostel for the approaching winter season and we can make the trip on the weekend to Haridwar, I explained.

You should be ashamed of making fool of your parents, Jaissy tried to scratch my head.

Yes. I am. You want to make the trip or want me to commit suicide out of guilt. You decide, I said.

Ok. We will go Dutch, Paul made it clear at the outset.

We decided to give the pool amount to Jaissy who would spend the money from time to time on common expenses. Jaswinder Singh alias Jaissy was a man of integrity. I always admired his credibility as much as I deprecated the shrewdness of Paul and stupidity of Kalia. Everybody liked Jaissy as he was quite easy going and would not disappoint anyone. Jaissy did not know how to say no. Even if you go to him at midnight and ask him to accompany you for going to eat paranthas (stuffed fried rotis), he would invariably oblige. If you are having drinks, he would surely join you. If you bunk the class and find yourself roaming lonely outside the class, you could ask Jaissy to bunk it too and come, and he would oblige.

Many a times, I told him that a friend of everybody is a friend of nobody and advised him to learn to say ‘No’ but in vain. Not only that, on one of his birthdays, I gifted him a book titled Don’t Say Yes When You Want to Say No by Herbert Fensterheim and Jean Baer. He used to read books other than those related to computers, his area of specialization in which he was pursuing his post graduation from the University campus. But all our well intentioned advice to stay away from the crowd fell on his deaf ears. Habits die hard, if H goes, a-bit remains, if A goes, bit remains and even if B goes, it remains. Somehow down the line, I also learnt that anything which comes for free has no value, particularly free lecturing does not help much. The more you advise, the more the other person remains entrenched in the same position. In fact, advice is one thing given freely and given most in the world and at the same time it remains the only thing that is taken least in the world.

Dhiraj Paul was a wonderful man in some ways. His honesty at admitting himself to be completely dishonest was one thing I always admired. He made no pretensions about being dishonest at his dealings with people. It seemed that after completing his graduate course in Law from the University campus, he would turn out to be a very good lawyer even though he had no family background in Law. On the contrary, Kalia, who was pursuing his MBA, looked and behaved like a sensible and decent person but somehow his looks did not go well with his character. He was good looking and knew the manners to impress girls. But I could never sense any sincerity in his conduct.

Kalia wanted to join elite IAS (Indian Administrative Service) but I never saw any intellectual spark in him. Just like most of us, he was also propped up by his father who was a Food and Civil Supplies inspector, a petty government official, to prepare and compete for civil services. This tendency of government class fathers wanting their children to join the elite bureaucracy has ruined the careers of thousands of young boys and few hundreds of girls who aspire to join bureaucratic service without the slightest realization of their potential and aptitude to serve the nation the bureaucratic way. Not just this, while looking for a match, someone who does not have anything better to mention in the CV, will commonly write ‘brother of girl is preparing for IAS’, as if appearing for civil services examination is a qualification. It appears that national psyche is still overawed by the British Era Civil Service syndrome. Majority of this crowd belongs to middle class, having nothing else to fall back upon. In India, chances of a businessman having his son a bureaucrat are very low but his chances of having a bureaucrat son- in- law are very high. It is recognition of an old principle: Power attracts Money and vice versa.

Kalia’s father had probably accumulated a lot during his tenure of public service. Looking at his house, it appeared as if public service meant public being at your service. He had a palatial bungalow located at one of the posh areas of the city. The house seemed ordinary from outside because of high walls but from within, it was no less than a five star hotel.

We planned to start early in the morning, well before sun rise so that we could cover maximum distance before world wakes up and take to roads. India is a crowded country where children are considered to be God’s gift and are therefore produced in plenty. The thought that we should produce less is strangely not taken as the divine message though it is more in tune with the idea of sustainable living. It is a place where surrender is the only way to live. Right from the water in the tap to the take off of a flight, there is always an element of uncertainty here. Precisely for this reason, it is a religious country. Religion plays an important role in the lives of people because you never know which cat will cross your way when.

You seem to be a follower of Zen, Jaissy remarked, looking at the model of our car Maruti Suzuki ‘Zen’.

If you ask the owner of this car, my father, he would not even know the meaning of Zen. Besides, you should know that Zen has no following at least in this part of the world, I reverted back.

We placed our bags in the boot of the car. Jaissy took the driver seat, with Paul accompanying him on the front seat. Kalia and I comforted ourselves in the back space.

Wait, I have to take my goggles out, said Paul, about to open the door.

At 5:30 in the morning, do you have to stare at owls on the trees wearing your goggles? Jaissy remarked.

No. I know you will not stop mid way, he again insisted.

You better remain here. I will take it out. Tell me where it is. It’s already with great difficulty that I had placed luggage in the boot. I know you will mess it up all, Jaissy came out of the car and opened the boot.

It may be either in the front pocket of my red bag or the side pocket.

Disgusting! Jaissy slammed the door of the car and threw the glasses at Paul while taking the driving seat.

Thank you.

Not mentionable. By the way, may we know the reasons as to why do you need condoms at a religious place like Haridwar? Jaissy asked making apparently weird faces, having discovered the same from Paul’s bag.

You never know when you need it. It’s better to be prepared than to lose the opportunity, came the response from Paul.

Kalia yesterday told me that behind the ashram, across the stream, there is a virgin forest, I tried to add flavor.

Do you think that with this small balloon, you will be able to make inroads into the forest? Listen, we are going to a sacred place. Do not do any stupid thing. We are not going to save you. The place is full of crowd, so you will not be able to escape the prying eyes of the watchman Babaji. Babaji there keeps a stick and one stroke of it can make your stick useless, Kalia looked defensive and warned Paul.

By the way, if it was used to its optimum, there would not have been so much of crowd in this country, Paul was in no mood to relent.

Excess of everything is bad. You would not have come into existence if that was the case and mother earth would have had been saved of the burden of a big fool, Kalia bounced back.

I had an uproarious laughter which forced them to stop the topic. Jaissy started the car. Kalia folded his hands and slowly uttered, ‘Jai Sai Ram".

No more passengers on our Merc. Kalia, if you take Sai Baba along with you, we are going to charge you for extra passengers, Jaissy remarked.

You fools, you should be happy that Sai Baba ji is with us. We must seriously pray to God Sri Sai Baba who is omniscient and omnipotent, for a happy and safe journey, Kalia sounded like a bhagat (Devotee).

Can you ask Him to grant us little humor and liberty of expression on the way? said Jaissy.

Suddenly, the sound of an odorless and loud fart (courtesy Paul) made the auspicious beginning and amidst laughter, we zoomed through the university and the silent city roads, and in about fifteen minutes, we were out of the city on the highway.

I tried to take a nap but knew it very well that jokers on board were going to spoil any plan for peaceful and silent rest. Every time we passed by a temple or a Gurudwara(a religious place of worship of Sikhs), Kalia would fold his hands and say Jai Sai Ram.

Does your Babaji not understand one salutation? Why do you have to be a sycophant to get His favor and prostrate every time you see something resembling religious? said Paul looking back through the small mirror in the Sun shield.

"You