BE AWARE

(The man and the horse)

There was a village in the backdrop of beautiful mountains of the Himalayas and lush green cascades of deodars, where lived this man. He was the head of this tiny hamlet, where people lives in utter simplicity and are content with their way of life.  But not this fellow. His lifelong ambition was to own and ride a beautiful horse. Innumerable times, he dreamed of mount on a beautiful white horse and ride to the other side of the mountain, where he can meet new people and can boast about, how important a person he is back in his village. It became his pastime for him to sit down and dream about this. Only once in his lifetime, he had this opportunity long back, when he was just a child. His maternal uncle took him on his horse and showed him a glimpse of the outside world. The memories are just a foggy picture in his eyes now and he want to relive it again and this time on his own.

The village had only a few malnourished horses, belong to those, who toil all day long in the jungle, collecting firewood and carry them on the back of those horses in evening. After lots of efforts, the man learned to ride with one of the poor horses and now want to buy one of his own, with his little savings. Now, the challenge is to find his dream horse. He searched for a month in his neighborhood villages downhill, but impressed with none. One fine day he heard about a monk living uphill a solitary life, who owns a healthy horse. Once in a while, he visits downhill to the villages to deliver his sermon at request of some old friend and in return accepts some maize or wheat for his living. The man got the address of the monk and visited him at his hut uphill. He was pleasantly surprised at the instant of his arrival, when he saw the grazing horse in the small yet beautiful garden that the monk owned. It was exactly identical to what he had been dreaming for so long.

He approached the meditating monk and conveyed purpose of his visit. Before the monk gave any response, he described his wishes he held dear for so long and that he can give him a good amount for the horse and can provide with ample maize from his village in return favor. The monk smiled.

‘I would give you son. But this is no ordinary horse. You will not be able to ride him’, the monk told.

‘No sir, I will. I have learned riding for long and now I’m a consummate at this’. The man could not hide his temptation laced with anxiety. This might be the only opportunity to fulfill his dream.

‘That’s perfectly all right son, but as I said this is no ordinary horse. It does not follow the general commands that you know. It does not start running or stop at your whip or by pulling the rein that you have learned’.

The man stared at him anxiously. The monk continued.

‘You have to say ‘Oh God’ to make him run and to stop, order ‘Hololuyu’’.

The man found this utterly funny and strange, but thought it as simple things. Just two commands, what’s the big deal!

‘That’s so simple sir, I will manage’, the man pressed.

‘OK, I will give you my horse’, the monk replied gravely.

The man was drifted to a different world, imagined how he is living his long standing wish, roaming around the world at the other side of his own and how important he becomes when he is back to his village and depicting his encounters to eager looking, open mouthed gathering below his verandah. Dreamt all of this in less than a second.

The man handed over his pouch of coins to the monk and approached towards the horse.

‘Son, be aware. You are in dream. Be in present’, the monk told him from behind.

‘Yes yes’, the man nodded. This just sounded like a usual sermon from a monk, the man thought and jumped on to the saddle without giving any thought, what the holy man had just said. The man in rapture forgot all that had just been instructed to him and pulled the rein.

‘Run, run’, commanded the man.

The animal reacted the way it should, sensing the alien on his back and roared up in air on his rear legs.

‘Oh God’, the man shouted in instinct.

Now that’s it. The obedient animal followed his instinct and started running. For a second, the man felt helpless and looked around to find where the monk was. As soon as he realized his mistake, instead of showing his guilt, he pretended as if he had done it with full awareness and waved good bye to the holy man and moved forward. He was never happier and in this excitement he pulled the rein again to stop for a while. The animal didn’t seem to be impressed with this and jumped wildly.

‘Oh God’, cried the man. Getting his usual command the horse started speeding. 

Already in panic, he again exclaimed ‘Oh God’. Now the horse is at his level best speed. Ahead was the edge of the cliff and the animal is in no mood to slow down.

‘Stop, stop, please stop’, shouted the man, failing to comprehend what to do next.

Suddenly it dawned upon him and he said it for the first time.

‘HOLOLUYU’.

It was the edge. The horse stopped in a jerk, just less than an inch before the gorge.

Heavily sighing man, looked up at the sky in gratitude and blurted out,

‘OH GOD’.

And he said it for a last time.

Upon reflection, we can relate to this story, where at one point of time or other we all acted impulsively, carelessly, out of ignorance and suffered. In most cases it’s our conditioning that misguides us and compels us to act on an impulse, very much like the man in the story. The essence of the story is be aware of all that is happening with you, around you and be in present.

Be Aware. Live in present.