BUDDHA- THE REVELATION

Moon-Buddha: Moon Buddha represents the three faces of Buddha, Old Man, Young Man and Child (Source:www.papaha.com)

I don’t remember anything else about the day. Initially while beginning this post I thought let’s add some narration to the post and may be some message but then I felt it would take the light off the main thing. So it is what I remember about the true incident of my life which I think has added to my sensitive side. At that time I was residing in Varanasi. I was in class ninth and had joined a coaching center. The classes used to be held in the evenings and by the time the classes ended it used to be fairly dark. Since the coaching was nearby to my house I didn’t have a vehicle to commute instead used to come back on foot.
The road that I used to take to my house was one of the most silent and empty roads to my house. My mother had often told me to take a longer route to home than that road but in order to avoid walking long I still walked the same road. It was also one of the darkest roads with only one street lamp at a bend in the stretch of 100m that branched off the main road and that too was placed closer to the main road so as soon as one had passed the lamp one could only see the dim light of the next lamp. It was a wintry December night. I had attended some class but don’t remember which, I couldn’t have after I had witnessed that incident.
I was wearing a sweater and a jacket but could still feel the cold. It was one of the times of the night when people will prefer to be in the cozy beds inside the thick quilts waiting for the some night movie. It was absolutely mute and except the typical sounds of the crickets at night nothing could be heard. I was walking briskly as I normally do. As I approached the lamp post I looked at the figures beneath the lamp. It was a couple- beggar by appearance. The female was dressed in just one thin sari, torn at places. The light shone on her sari which was as dusty as could be. She was sitting on the ground with her legs crossed and her left leg was shaking some packet on her lap. The packet was wrapped tight with lot of cloth which was dirty again. I realized it would have been her child. She was sitting with her shoulder touching the male. The male had a grim face, with a very much overgrown beard and hair on the head. One might easily mistake such appearance for some miscreants’. But not him!
I noticed them only when I had come closer. He was muttering something but it was inaudible and I could only make out, “ae..ae..ae..” and he was repeatedly shaking his hand with palms open and drawn out. I have seen a lot of beggars but may be he had caught me by surprise or it was poignancy because of my age but I was dumbstruck seeing that. 5 or 6 people passed me by but I didn’t notice them. I didn’t stop but slowed down with my head turning towards them as I walked past the bend. When I was a little into the dark portion of the road I paused for sometime and looked at the couple. The man was still shaking his hand and the woman her leg but the bundle didn’t move at all-their shadow on the ground all the more terrifying. The scene got etched on my mind. When I returned home I couldn’t enjoy watching the TV, I couldn’t even sleep properly. That night in the nightmare (it couldn’t be called a dream) I saw them again and woke in bed with a heavy heart beat and lot of perspiration. I didn’t discuss this with anyone at my home but I at least quit the road the next day. I wanted to do something for the couple. The least that I could do was help with my pocket money. I don’t remember what I decided. But then the next day I was on the same road and hoping to meet the same couple. But they were not there, same with the next evening and other countless evenings until I lost hope. Who knows what happened to them and who knows at all if the child was alive when I saw him, who knows at all if the parents of the child knew he was alive. Even if I was going on that road I would look at the spot. It was as if for some time my whole life had stopped.
It has been 10 years since that experience but sometimes still when it comes back to me I have sort of goose bumps on me. Somehow I find some similarity in the nature of my experience and Gautam Buddha’s. It came through different means but it did move me to slightly change my life. The difference was that it took me couple of incidents to finally “realize” it. I had seen beggars in even more poor state earlier. It’s just the whole scene, my being isolated that day, left to think on my own which made the difference. But difference it is, for times that have past and times to come.