Middle Path

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"The Cistercian monks, whose abbey stood there in the thirteenth century, wore no clothes but rough tunics and cowls, and ate no flesh, nor fish, nor eggs. They lay upon straw, and they rose at midnight to Mass. They spent the day in labour, reading and prayer; and over all their lives there fell a silence, as of death, for no one spoke.

A grim fraternity, passing grim lives in that sweet spot, that God had made so bright! Strange that Nature's voices all around them --- the soft singing of waters, the whisperings of the river grass, the music of the river wind --- should not have taught them a truer meaning of life than this. They listened there, through the long days, in silence, waiting for a voice from the heaven; and all day long and through the solemn night it spoke to them in myriad tones, and they heard it not."

....Three Men in a Boat

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That may be Jerome K Jerome's view. The monks may have quite another. And they have every right to live their lives their own way...sure.

It always annoyed me when I was forced to take a stand; for or against. And I would gladly have taken both and many more in between.

Lord Buddha was asked if God exists...and he kept quiet.

And then he was asked if God didn't exist...and he kept quiet.

Perhaps his silence meant that the answer is not all that important...

Folks thought it was easy to take the Middle Path that Buddha wanted them to take...they soon became nuns and monks and missed his message and were driven away...by Thugs.

Gandhi wanted to be equidistant from Hindus and Muslims...and he was shot dead by the one before the other had a chance.

Nehru wanted to be equidistant from the US and the Soviet Union...and his Non-Alignment-Movement (NAM) exists only in name now...for jet-setters at the taxpayers' expense...I too paid my Income Tax last month rather reluctantly...apparently Swedes and Danes run to pay their taxes and are proud of it...it takes all sorts to break this world.

And Nehru also wanted to be equidistant from Capitalism and Communism...and since then his countrymen have always been at the cross-roads, not knowing which one lines their pockets faster.

If you ask me as a student of Physics if the world is Classical or Quantum, I would blush and keep silent like the Buddha, for, "it depends"...if you think, like the electron, you can have it both ways when no one is looking, you will land in mud.

Some countries keep left while driving and some others right. But in Hyderabad, everyone wants to be in the middle thinking that they would reach there fastest; and end up either in the morgue or in the police station...makes no difference here.

The middle child is supposed to be the most independent. For, the first one is father's love and the last is the mother's. 

Arjun was the middle child (not counting Karna); and he won Draupadi...and lost her to his brothers.

The middle path is indeed tough to keep. Prof MSS was a non-practicing Sikh although he wore his beard. He was a physicist and believed in nothing else as a valid outlook. He used to say that we are middling in every way...residents of a middle-class galaxy, a middle-aged sun, a midsized planet midway in the solar system....

But, when the Akal Takht was attacked and sikhs killed all over North India later on, he cried; and I asked him why. And he admitted frankly that all of us 'belong' somewhere or the other and it is tough be rational in worldly matters. 

It appears that everyone wants to safely 'belong'...if you ask me if I have a weakness for South Indian Brahmins, I must say maybe or maybe not...it all looks so silly. 

My wife was clearer in her mind...she wanted a South Indian Brahmin Daughter-in-Law and she got her choicest.

And I am the Enjoyer of my wife's Dreams!!!  

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