Yes, An Awakening: A Real Story!

The Magadh?of eastern India has a number of ancient historical places around. I am lucky to have been born and brought up there.

As 13–14 years of age, our favourite weekend activity was to take our bicycles and pedal down to go to the nearby historical places. There was a quicker route after the nearby river.

We were just four or five of us boys, the childhood buddies, who will go together on these trips. The fun used to start immediately as we reached the ever-enchanting river, gloriously glistening under the morning sun.?

The rest of the journey was all about racing with each other through the narrow roads, speeding past the countryside.?The villages, the huts, the people, the cows, the buffaloes, the greens would pass us in a blur.

The sun beating on our heads, the wind caressing our cheeks, sweat trickling down our foreheads… none of these deterred us; nothing else mattered; just furious pedalling to stay ahead did.?

We practically noticed nothing on the way. It looked as if the countryside, so beautiful, so pure, so serene, stayed out of our vision.?It was just the road, the bicycles and we?—?a group of noisy adolescents.

Then we would reach the town of Rajgir,?which had historical sites of ancient ruins dating back to the Mauryan times. A small town, a tourist destination, always full of tourists and monks.

Though I kept going over there on so many weekends, there was always?something powerful, and yet calming on all those sites.?Once on those sites, all my bubbling energies used to take a pause.

Maybe the feeling of power came from the most glorious emperor, the great?Ashoka, who ruled from this place. The calm came from the fact that?this was?The Great?Buddha?and?Lord?Mahavira’s?earliest site of preaching.

Apart from the ancient historical ruins, Rajgir had a good number of Buddhist monasteries and temples. A good number of Monks and Priests were always present in the town. You could see them in their spartan and elegant robes which made them stand out on the sites and in the streets.

As a bunch of boys, on a fun trip, the time spent at the ancient ruins used to become different for us?—?more of curiosity and wonder. We would imagine the times and the people over 3000 years back, and would enact them too.

Among all the ancient sites, Rajgir also has natural hot sulphur springs. The hot springs were our favourite among all the sites,?as it meant a lot of fun. Though often crowded, we could occupy a corner of the water body for a long time to have a great time together.

As mentioned earlier, the monks were always around. They were there even near the hot water spring. Possibly, waiting for the spring to get relatively free to take bath or maybe just observing people.

One day, a monk, who was watching us from the side, asked me,

“What are you doing?”

“Enjoying life,” I said.?

The interaction continued…

The Monk said, “Oh life! What is life?”

“Having fun with friends,” I answered.

“What else?” The Monk followed up.

I said, “Family, studies, good food.”

The Monk asked again, “What else?”

“Sports, movies, festivals,” I responded rather jokingly.

The Monk, with a smile, “Is this all life is?”

A tad irritated, I said, “May be, just staying alive is life.”

The Monk sensed my irritation and stopped his questions.

To avoid him, we moved to the other part of the hot spring. By this time, it was the second half of the day, time to dry up, dress up, and eat something.

The day-long trip and hopping from one site to another used to sap us up, but the ride back always had the same fun-filled energy?—?furiously pedalling to stay ahead, making noises, and noticing nothing around.

But today, it was different for me.?The villages, the people, the cows, the buffaloes, the trees, the plants in the field… all were so visible.?I also noticed that they appeared to be looking at us. I was observing all, I was seeing more ….

The Monk’s first question,?‘What is life?’?and the final one,?‘Is this all life is?’?stayed with me.?I was less boisterous, rather pensive, and quite slow.

For a 14-year-old, it was too early to think seriously about such questions, but something got triggered in me. It reminded me I was actually born within a few kilometres of?Bodh Gaya, the place where The Great Buddha attained his Nirvana.?

My maternal grandfather never missed an opportunity to remind me of that. As if being born and brought up near such enlightened places of knowledge and wisdom puts the onus on you to know more, and learn more. Or maybe I accepted that onus upon me as I was always curious.

I did not let this trigger die. My next visits to these and other historical places were different. I was reading the information available on the site. Now, it was I who, out of curiosity, was asking questions.?

Though I desperately wanted to, I never saw that monk again. I believe he came just for me… to wake me up.

A bit early in life, but?Yes, An Awakening!

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Excerpted from my book?‘The Penta Life’.