There’s a beautiful, mystical
quality to Life. It has its own form of natural justice.
Everything that you or I do comes back to
us in this Lifetime. One way or
the other. You are kind to people. Kindness pervades your Life. You let down
someone. And someone lets you down in return. You touch a Life with love,
compassion and care. And people touch your Life the same way.
I was moved by a story Javed Akhtar, the
famous and immensely soulful Bollywood lyricist, poet and story writer, shared
on his TV show ‘Legends’ on Zee Classic recently. The year was 1966 and Javed saab was a struggler in Mumbai. He had
no job and no money. And nobody wanted to check his work and worth out. In
those days, he made the acquaintance of the then famous lyricist and Urdu poet
Sahir Ludhianvi (1921~1980) and had begun to treat Sahir as his mentor. One
day, he lamented to Sahir how desperate he was for a break and how he was on
the verge of being thrown out of his house, because he had not paid the
landlord for months. Sahir apparently took out Rs.200/- (a princely sum in
1966!!) and giving it to the young Javed said: “Keep this. You will get a break
soon. Until then, this will help you survive. Return it when you are able to.”
As luck would have it, Javed did get a break the following week and has never
had to look back, financially at least. Over the years as Javed’s career in
Bollywood peaked, he would often meet Sahir in parties and industry forums and
even worked with him in a couple of movies __ where Javed was writing the story
and Sahir, the lyrics. Javed would openly state that Sahir’s ‘shagun’ (goodwill money) of Rs.200/- had
indeed broken the jinx for him and so, he would not return the
money out of fear that his luck, and good times, would run out! Sahir, in
return, would often rib Javed saying, “I know how to take this back from you.
One day, mark my words, I sure will.” On October 25th, 1980, Sahir
suddenly died of a heart attack at age 59. Since he was not married, and he
left behind only two sisters, Javed and couple of other friends arranged for
his burial. Sahir, in his last years, had really not had much work and so was
out of cash personally. The burial over, as the friends came back to Sahir’s house
and were reviewing next steps__of clearing up the worldly belongings that Sahir
had left behind__the undertaker from the Juhu (a downtown Mumbai locality)
Muslim cemetery came up to the door. Javed opened it and was told by the
undertaker that the cost of the burial service was Rs.200/- and that he needed
to be paid. Javed had rushed instantaneously upon hearing the news of his
mentor’s demise, and so he had not carried his wallet, but he had exactly
Rs.200/- in his shirt pocket! When Javed paid off the undertaker, he recalled
with his eyes welling up on the TV show, the realization dawned on him:
“Finally, Sahir indeed took back the Rs.200/- from me,” confessed Javed saab!
As it is said in the Bible, “What goes
around comes around!” (Genesis 29: 1-30).
Osho, the Master, tells us this other story
that highlights the same learning. There once lived a very skilled blacksmith
in ancient Rome. His name and fame had spread to far-off nations. His creations
were selling like hot-cakes, in far-off marketplaces. Gradually, an enormous
amount of wealth began to gather at his doorsteps. One day, Rome was suddenly
invaded. The invaders demolished Rome, and captured the top hundred citizens.
Amongst the top hundred citizens, the blacksmith was one. All of them were
handcuffed and chained, and were taken and left on a faraway hill to die or
await their execution. Among the 100 prisoners, 99 were crying. Only the
blacksmith seemed to be calm and composed. He knew that the moment the soldiers
abandon him in the hill, he would easily unlock the handcuff and the chains. He
had that skill. So, the moment the soldiers abandoned him and left the first
thing he did was to look at the handcuffs and chains that imprisoned him. He
was shocked with what he saw. With his handcuffed hands he started beating his
chest and began to wail in remorse. What did he see in the handcuff and the
chains? A very strange thing which he had never imagined he would ever see in
his Life! He had a habit to emboss his signature on whatever he created. And
that is what he saw on those chains and handcuff, his own signature. They were
his creations, which had got sold in some far-off marketplace, and eventually
had come back to him through the invaders. Now, for the first time he became
nervous and paranoid. He knew it was impossible for him to unlock himself,
because he had never created anything weak. He was well acquainted with his
creations. He had always designed and created the strongest and the best
objects. Obviously, he had never imagined or dreamt that that the handcuff and
the chains he had created, would one day imprison him. Osho teaches us the
moral of this story thus: “No man ever foresees the fact that the chain and
handcuff he has been creating, will be the very chain and handcuff of which
he'll be ultimately held captive. No man ever dreams that that the cobwebs he
has been weaving are the very webs that he will eventually get entangled in, in
his Life.”
So, appreciate this sense of
natural, cosmic justice! Make sure you understand this and live
intelligently__always doing good!
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