How far will you carry the baggage?

Once a guru and his disciple were walking in the forest and came across a river. At one end of the river were a few young women who wanted to cross the river as well. But the water was too deep for them and they were not able to cross the river. Seeing this, the guru picked up each one of them one by one and carried them to the other side of the river. In the end, they crossed the river themselves and kept on walking on their course.
Now, the younger monk got to thinking; for a sanyassi it is wrong to touch a woman! How come then, his guru, an age-old, respected monk, not only touch a woman, but carried a whole bunch of them across the river? He thought not only had his guru committed a terrible sin, but in fact cheated the whole order of monks, and hence betrayed him! "How blindly did I trust this man! But he is a traitor and has cheated me. He is no Guru, he is a quack!" Such were his thoughts throughout the journey.
At the end of the day, they reached a small hut where they were planning on staying for the night. All this time, the guru had seen the restlessness of the disciple, but kept quiet. But for the disciple, it was becoming too much! Finally, it became impossible for him to hold it in anymore! He blurted out "How could you touch those women and carry them in your shoulders? Dont you know it is a sin to touch a woman's body for a monk?"
At this, the Master simply smiled, and replied "My child, they are not women for me, but simply human beings, who were in need of help. And it is my duty to help whoever is in need of it!
However, I left the women at the bank of the river. But you kept carrying them in your mind all this time!"
At this, the young disciple realized that his guru is a realized man! No sin can touch him, but it is his own folly, which makes him think bad of his guru. He apologized for his behavior and there was no more any doubt in his mind!


In some way or another, we are all like the young monk. Not because he doubted, but because he was carrying an unnecessary baggage with him. Since the time a man begins understanding things, there is a feeling in him that the world is unfair to him! Everyone is unfortunate in some respect, some more than others! The people we meet always inflict pain to us in some form or another! A trusted friend betrays you, a dear relative you like very much hurts you or an unknown person in the street insults you for no reason! We expect a person to behave in a certain manner, and when he/she does not, we become extremely unhappy. All these stay in our mind for so long, pecking at it minute by minute and make us miserable! We all have this extra baggage that keeps pulling us down!

So what do we do? We should throw away this baggage! True that the world is unfair to you! True that the people around you could have been and should have been more considerate and supportive of your feelings! True you deserved more affection! But what is the solution to it? One option is to become a victim of the situations and stay victimized. Curse the fate, cry over it and loose all hope!

The other, more righteous approach is to rise like a phoenix! Become a bigger person and show it to the world. When one is a child, one fights all the time in school for the simplest of things. At that point of time, it is a matter of life and death to the child! However, if the same two kids meet when they are older, the matter for which they once fought is forgotten. Their spectrum has widened, the outlook changed! Why cant we have the same outlook towards life? Why cant we carry the message of love for the world? When you start caring for the world, when you see the amount of suffering in the world, the small things around you seem so trivial that it is almost a sin to care about them! For a king ruling a kingdom, the feud in two villagers in not a thing to worry, he has a whole kingdom to care!

There was a photograph in a forward going around some time back. It was of a small African child dying out of malnutrition. It had the tiniest possible arms, not a single muscle to show, and it was lying on the ground with eyes barely open, giving a helpless look. A vulture was standing right by it, ready to take a bite of that most unfortunate child as soon as it dies! It is the most shocking photo I have ever seen! (The photographer was given a prize for the picture and he committed suicide within 6 months because he could not bare the trauma of that sight!)

Can there be more misfortune in this world? What importance are the smallest of the things in life when a child has to see its own death waiting to take a bite from his body? Who cares if there is less sugar in a tea when millions around the world have not had a single decent meal all their lives? What right do we have to complain of a simple momentary pleasure denied to us when thousands around the world have no idea what comfort means?

It is with this perspective that we need to leave all our baggage behind! The world is at the same a very wonderful and a very horrible place. It is for us to enjoy and mend at the same time! We have to uplift our lowly lives to the level where the happiness of all around us becomes our happiness! Without expectations, without a possibility of recognition, with strong determination and immense strength, we should lift ourselves and try to achieve this goal of happiness for all! We have to fly in the sky as high as possible, all of us together! The sooner we leave the baggage behind, the higher shall we rise!

Let us all get the strength to fly high! Let us all learn to love and forgive, let us become free of all the baggage!