In Zen, a Buddha
(Sanskrit: awakened) is one who has become fully enlightened. Nearly 30 years
ago, I met a Marxist who was a student of philosophy. We had a common interest
in Zen. Narayan Desai was three times my age when I met him but the gap never
mattered. His exuberance towards learning was simply amazing.
As a writer, he
wrote over 20 books in Marathi, Konkani, English, Gujarati and Hindi; Biography
of Lenin, Swami Vivekanand in 21st century, Me - a socialist, Buddha – my
companion, etc. He also compiled a Spanish-to-Marathi Dictionary. As Director
of Thinkers' Academy, Mumbai, he devoted his entire life to research and
writing.
Desai never gave up on learning and kept updating himself with global as well as local happenings. He de-emphasized theoretical knowledge in favour of direct individual experience of one's own true nature. He would say that ‘thinking and experiencing’ was the only to live. He refused to play dead, till he died on 5 August 2007.
It is easy to awaken the sleeping. But you cannot wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep. When we pretend to sleep, we choose to be selectively insensate to the incidents around. Our vision is adversely affected if our viewing lenses are cracked or coloured. We cannot hear right if we allow negative ‘noise’ to clutter our mind.
Desai never gave up on learning and kept updating himself with global as well as local happenings. He de-emphasized theoretical knowledge in favour of direct individual experience of one's own true nature. He would say that ‘thinking and experiencing’ was the only to live. He refused to play dead, till he died on 5 August 2007.
It is easy to awaken the sleeping. But you cannot wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep. When we pretend to sleep, we choose to be selectively insensate to the incidents around. Our vision is adversely affected if our viewing lenses are cracked or coloured. We cannot hear right if we allow negative ‘noise’ to clutter our mind.
We must learn from Narayan Desai who did not play dead. He
chose to open his mind to the diverse reality. He sought to learn and was ready
to unlearn. He did not get stuck in the mire of prejudice. He chose to be
awakened all through his life. And he chose to awaken others too!
16 December 2019 marks the start of the centenary year of
Narayan Desai who lives through his awakened thoughts and reflective writings. The
greatest connect with his inspirational ways would be for us to awaken. We must
shed blinkers of single prejudice that prevents us from seeing the wide
perspective of multiple stories.
Don’t play dead, don’t look away
Awaken to the reality every day!
~ Pravin K Sabnis
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