Serving

Once, Pedro chose to fast with his friend during the month of Ramzan. The first few days were difficult but eventually his mind and body got used to not eating during the day. In fact, even in the night, his eating got lesser and lesser as the days went by.

On occasion of the Eid lunch, Pedro was finding it difficult to eat. He asked his friend, ‘are you comfortable gorging on food after a month of fasting?’ Pedro’s friend smiled and said, ‘we eat a bit as it forbidden to fast on Eid. Anyway, the joy is more in the serving than in the eating!’

What a wonderful sentiment… the joy is in the serving! So often, we find hosts have no urge to eat as they are full of happiness seeing their guests eat. The mind is satiated by the satisfaction that comes from seeing the other satisfying his hunger.

Indeed, we discover contentment every time we serve the hungry. In the lockdown during the pandemic, the gladdest have been the ones who served the hungry. We must play the host to every person who does not have enough to eat. That will bring us the greatest happiness!

Give up the urge of excessive eating

Choose joy that comes from serving!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Flaunt

Ten years ago, I conducted a three day residential camp for college students. I had to go home in the night. I would leave after 10pm and return early next morning before 6am for the outdoor session. My colleagues would stay back.

In the morning, when everyone assembled, I asked who had stepped out of the campus at night. Everyone denied the transgression. Eventually I pulled up two boys for violating the basic rule. They confessed that they had erred.

Years later, one of the youth came up to me and asked me who had squealed about them going out in the night. I smiled and told him, ‘You!’

I had found out through a Facebook photo and status put by him. He had flaunted what he was doing. He was young and brash and probably did not think that I may see his post as I was not on his friend list on Facebook.

The boys were young. But grown-ups too brag about what they consider to be their feats of breaking the rules. The ostentatious display seeks to provoke envy or admiration or to show defiance. But the fall is in the flaunting!

In the lockdown, we find people showing off how they have slipped out to walk, meet, celebrate, indulge and do things which are prohibited. Though they may have treaded into action gingerly, once the act is done, they want to flaunt it. The slip shows and it is revealed by the owner on social media.

Thanks to your tendency to flaunt…

The world knows your shady jaunt!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Which side are you?

Which side are you on boys?

Which side are you on?

-      Lines from Pete Seeger’s song ‘Which Side Are You On?’ written by Florence Reece as a response to being terrorised by the mining mafia

So often, there are two sides. There is sensitivity and there is insensitivity. Selflessness and selfishness as contrasting sides. Responsibility and irresponsibility are on opposite sides as are compassion and indifference. Justice and injustice are never on the same side.

We have to decide which side we are on. The song rightly says that ‘there are no neutrals here’. We are either part of the problem or part of the solution. We are either on the right side or we are in the wrong. Nobody needs to hold a mirror to us. We have to introspect and realise where we are.

The present pandemic is a situations of extreme constraint and also a test of our true character. We must reach out to the other side. We must think of ‘we’ instead of only ‘me’. All prejudice has to be shed as we walk towards the common good for the deprived ones.   

We must be on the side of the less privileged, the marginalised and the underserved. We must feel their pain and do what we can to ease the discomfort. Our world has survived because of the responsiveness of the ones who reached out to other human beings. Now again is the time!

Keep answering the query, ‘Which side are you?’

With the ones who truly need you or select few?

~ Pravin K Sabnis

 

Doubt

The passing away of actor Irrfan brought to mind the roles he played so well. One such role was from the film ‘Life of Pi’. The storyline revolved around the protagonist Pi telling a writer about his life story and how at the age of 16 he survived a shipwreck. One of their exchanges goes like this:

Pi: Faith is a house with many rooms

Writer: But no room for doubt?

Pi: Oh, plenty on every floor. Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith, until it is tested.

In today’s world, we find ourselves in a corner of our chosen belief. And we decide to lock ourselves down in that corner. Many of us are hostile to the ones in other corners and many of them carry a similar contempt. We stick to our corners as we leave no room for doubt.

To doubt is to open minded and consider other viewpoints. It is about being ready to listen to questions and being ready to answer them. It is good to be confident about one’s perception but it is irrational to believe that belief is beyond questioning!

We stick to a corner just because we have ended up there. We defend the indefensible only because we have closed our mind to any doubts. Our logic gets perverted to the point of ‘because I believe so’ and we treat even small disagreements as enmity or mutiny.

To leave such weak corners, we must move to an uncluttered mind and be open to the test of inquiry. Answers are found when questions are asked. The Zen principle of ‘tolerance for ambiguity’ leads to a wider perspective of other possibilities. Like Pi says, ‘Doubt is useful!’  

Room for doubt is not about mutiny

Faith must stand the test of scrutiny!

~ Pravin K Sabnis