I was listening to one of the discourses of Shri Murari Bapu one of these days last year. I say one of these days as the discourse had a thought-provoking effect on me; which almost seems like yesterday. My first thought was, why on earth am I listening to a saintly figure at this age? A nano second later it occured to me that perhaps the guy is good at his job. No organiser would pay millions to arrange for such a large gathering! It made sense to me so I prodded on. Bapu, as people affectionately call him loves to talk about Lord Hanuman. Through his talks there are several messages that he derives and copious morals attached to them. Also, he excels at shattering myths and man-made perceptions.
While speaking he opened one of the many questions listed on a piece of paper. The question was written by a lady. She had asked him as to why on earth are women in India not allowed to touch Lord Hanuman. Bapu smiled and said, "In that case, even men should not be allowed to touch the Lord!" Considering it a joke, the audience smiled as they were trying to draw obvious comparison. To which Bapu said, "Yes, I am not joking; Lord Hanuman is terribly ill. He suffers from an acute illness. And that illness is reaching out to Lord Ram all the time. If you touch him, you are sure to be inflicted! If the women touch Lord Hanuman, you won't find them doing all the mundane and miscellaneous, not to mention thankless duties for the men. They would all be ultimately reduced to chanting the name of Lord Ram!"
Bapu smiled, as he victoriously looked at the guilt ridden audience. He further explained the equation of Ahem; loosley transalated as Ego. Throughout the discourse he went on to describe the grandeur the negative Ego has, on us homo sapiens. Moving forward he also explained that people unknowingly also have an excess dose of the good Ego. Most readers who read about the negative connotations of the Ego hope secretly that there has to be another side to this coin; as rightly commented by my friend Arun. Sure there is the flipside about the good ego. It makes you go ballistic about being well bred, well educated and even hopelessly tom toming about the hours you dedicate remembering the Almighty. Does anyone really do that in this day and age?
I'll leave that as an open ended statement. If you get the message; good for you! The point I am trying to make here is that good or bad, an ego is an ego. And it doesn't take long for the good ego to change its colour. Sure it's up to you to decide what's good and what isn't; but frankly do we really have the time to get into this mundane activity! Food for thought!
Cheers to a bright and sunny day!
PS
