Destiny Calls

Morpheus: Do you believe in fate, Neo?

Neo: No.

Morpheus: Why not?

Neo: Because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.

If Morpheus asked me that, I’d pretty much say the same thing as Neo. But not anymore. Now, things have changed – drastically! Just one incident changed the way I look at life and perceive it. I’m still fresh out of that incident and hence haven’t really found the right words to express my feelings.

I had been to Tumkur yesterday. My mother planned the trip suddenly and we left. On a different day I would have said “no” to the trip because it was a Sunday. But this time I agreed. We went to the hills there, to a temple, offered our prayers. We then suddenly decided to come back home in train. We went to the railway station at 3; the scheduled train at 4 was off. So we decided to take the train at 6 pm which was delayed by an hour and a half. Something unusual happened at 5:30. I saw a wandering monk. A simple Buddhist monk. I was drawn to talk to him. I knew I had to talk to him. Call it intuition if you may. He was 72 but he looked many years younger than that. He was a well-built doctor and knew 15 languages. He hailed from Sri Lanka. What was he doing in a remote village in Karnataka where there’s no monastery even. Lucky me eh? He spoke to me about Buddhism and his way of life. He gave me a few tips to grow healthy. He asked me to meditate. He spoke about walking meditation. He spoke about Goenka. He spoke to me about gain and loss, good-repute and ill-repute, praise and blame, joy and sorrow. I had a few questions for him regarding meditation, the Universe, Buddhism as a religion, kundalini, and the importance of a Guru, so on and so forth.

He constantly kept telling me that I should preach. He asked me to read as many books as I could and start preaching. He said that just within two minutes after meeting when I had virtually told him nothing about myself. The conversation lasted well over 2 hours. I’m not sure what I learnt from him. But I know I learnt a lot. I had many demons in my mind while talking to him. At the same time I knew I had to trust everything the universe has in store for me. It is foolish and ridiculous to believe that I’m in control of my life. Just take life as it comes. Just let it flow and be a witness of it all.

“Though Destiny a hundred times waylays you, in the end it pitches a tent for you in Heaven. It is God's loving kindness to terrify you, in order to lead you to His Kingdom of safety.” ―Rumi