For all the gains I could reach, I owe my great masters, among whom Dr. Shamal Durvey from Mumbai, is the most revered. She once said, “We are all the time doing and thinking.....in between if we suddenly stop for a minute? Let us see what happens......perhaps some realisation.....“ Thinking is the activity of the mind while in doing, all the constituents of the body are involved. I have quite a baggage full of unanswered questions on right thinking and doing. Random esoteric answers do not satisfy me at all. A few months back, I happened to see the picture of a very old lady, sitting aside the market street in Kolkota with variety fries for sale. The exclusive on her said that she is very very weak, still she brings the fried food stuff everyday from a distant place where she lives. As I understand, her thinking and doing is limited to making fries, selling them and thus supporting her promoters.
Some other time, I remember to have read about one Abhmanyu Samal from Odisha, a young man in his forties. He is professionally a garbage mechanic. He developed a helicopter with the engine of a scooter, general pipes and tin. The forty thousand rupees he spent on the project was not spoiled. He flew his homebrew copter at a speed of 120 kms. It is difficult to define and categorize this young man’s world of thinking and doing. It is unlimited by time and space. Scientists, thinkers, social/religious workers and even politicians fall in this group. These people follow much precision in whatever they do. I remember the inaugural address situation of an acknowledged US president, Abraham Lincoln. A rich man stood up and asked him, “Mr. Lincoln, you should not forget that your father used to make shoes for my family.” The whole Senate laughed. Lincoln looked at the man and said, ”Sir, I know that my father used to make shoes in your house for your family, and there will be many others here. His shoes were not just shoes; he poured his whole soul in it. ……… But as far as I know, nobody has ever complained about my father’s shoes. He was a genius, a great creator and I am proud of my father”. The whole Senate was struck dumb. Lincoln was talking about a man who did something with great pride; perhaps he would have been referring to a man who did what he is supposed to do, without monitory motives. Human deeds can’t be classified into a few social categories, I know. My Master Shamalji once said, “When we are struggling, we need to ask ourselves - is this action appropriate? Is this my role at this moment? We need to drop struggles..... That is low energy....and when we do something with happiness that is high energy.......” I endorse this categorization, according to which all deeds are classified into those with high energy and that with low energy. But I doubt if there are situations that do not fall in any of these.
A man came home from work and found his five children outside, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife’s car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap, and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked: “What happened here today?” She again smiled and answered, ”Well, today I didn’t do anything".
Joseph Mattappally
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