My friend Rakesh once wrote to me saying, “You are an inspiration, Gurvinder, please don’t turn into a monk”. This triggered a series of thoughts.
A monk, me?
Why would I who has embraced the entire universe, want to be confined to a monastery or a religious order?
On second thought, aren’t we all monks in varying degrees? After all, we require stability, order and routine in our lives.
Nothing is more tiring and depressing than to encounter highly religious people. Most monks are like that only. They drone on in a dry lifeless manner, mistakenly believing, if they avoid pleasure they will avoid pain and if they avoid life they will successfully avoid death.
We also need to explore the limits of our being. We need adventure and learning for which we must possess curiosity and a mischievous nature. In that sense, we are all rascals.
Why do I say ‘rascal’?
‘Rascal’ is an affectionate term for a mischievous or cheeky person.
We will not dare to come out of our shell, without some mischief, We will merely exist and rarely experience anything new or exciting. That would be a dreary life and we all long for some mischief.
The less fearful we are the less need for rigidity, because everything becomes an adventure. The excitement of life is experienced in encountering the unexpected and feeling the adrenaline rush.
There is a bit of a monk in each of us, who emerges and recedes depending on our wants and fears. There is also a bit of a rascal in all of us, who also rises and sleeps depending on opportunities and threats.
If we fear nothing, want for nothing and see situations not as opportunities or threats, life will be an adventure where we scale the highest level of our material and intellectual capabilities whilst plumbing the greatest depth of human emotion and spirituality.
That is why I say we are cosmic dust peppered with bits of monk and rascality.
