Much ado about nothing – Part 1

One fine morning Soul was in a relaxed mood
It wanted to understand its soul
Therefore deigned to ask a simple question

\” Who am I?\”
A silly question it may seem
To its great surprise, it couldn\’t get an answer
It didn\’t comprehend the profundity
A period of introspection followed
The harder it thought, the murkier it became
Caught in a vortex of paradoxes
Sunk in a shithole of unfathomable depth
Reached the nadir of its existence
Flabbergasted, the Soul turned to its soulmate, the Mind.
\”My buddy\”, it asked, \”I need your help\”
\”My, pleasure, mate, shoot \”
Prompt came the reply.

\”Do you know who I am? \”
A reluctant Soul enquired.
This time the reply took a long time
Finally, the mind responded.

\” Mate, I know who I am.
I am conscious of it.
But you are beyond conscious
And therefore beyond my comprehension\”
A grim-looking Soul implored
\” Is there any other way, buddy?\”
\” Could be \”, said Mind gingerly.

\” Gosh! What holds you back\” blurted Soul
\” Please reboot me, I may get new perspectives.
You could be one of them\”, muttered Mind
Soul knew the dangers of rebooting Mind
Rebooted Mind may get Artificial intelligence
And acquire a soul of its own
Getting out of control of Soul forever.
Soul didn\’t want to lose its soulmate
So, the sulking Soul looked around for alternatives.
\” Eureka, why don\’t I go to Heaven and ask the Great souls resting there\”
Supposited Soul and pressed on to Heaven.

The Soul reached Heaven safely
Albeit a tad tired but full of psychic energy
Contrary to its expectation, Heaven looked pedestrian and
Not exactly a safe haven for Great Souls
The dispirited Soul looked around
Everyone seems to mind their own business.

Gathering courage, the Soul approached a passerby
\” Hi there, can I meet a Great Soul?\’
The stranger gave a quizzical smile
\” Well, anyone who comes to Heaven is a great soul.

Whom do you want to meet?
Please tell me and I will call him\”.
The Soul could think of a thousand names.
But before it could reply, the passerby continued,
\”Anyway, it doesn\’t matter with whom you want to speak.

Because all of us are the same\”
\” How come that!!! You all look so different\”
The agitated Soul jabbered.
\” Yes. All of us look different\” admitted the stranger.
\” Hey, hey, you just said that you are all same\”
The Soul thought it caught the Janus man off guard.

The man said calmly, \” Yes. We are the same.
But we look different.
Don\’t think too much about the looks\”
If looks could kill, the stranger would have become ash.
But our Hero also recalled something.

In his spring days, in the plain planet Earth
How he fell for looks of a vixen
And almost lost his soul to her.

Shaking off his unwarranted ruminations,
The Soul replied to the stranger,
\’\”Yes. I admit looks don\’t count for much. But.\”
\” Don\’t worry. I will explain how we are the same
Yet look different \”, interjected the stranger.

\” But let\’s have a Hot dog. You seem to be tired\”
Suddenly the Soul heard a rumbling sound.
Realizing that it came from its stomach, it couldn\’t agree more.
Munching the Hot dog, they continued the conversation.
\” See Mitr, all our souls are different.
I call them atman. That\’s why we look different.

But the essence of all our souls is the same.
That, I call Brahman. So we are all same\”
Our boy, the Soul, has never been so out of his depths.
Seeing his discomfiture, the stranger twinkled.
\” Don\’t look so forlorn, Bhaiya, Let me make it simple for you.
Do you like Hot dogs?\”

\” Yes\”, admitted the Soul, \” I dig into Hot dogs any time, any day\”
\” Do you like burgers?\”, the stranger quizzed.
\” At times,\” said the Soul, not understanding why the stranger is asking strange questions.
\” Do you like Pizza?\”, continued the stranger.
\” For our soul\’s sake, please don\’t waste my time\”, angrily the Soul got up.

The stranger gave the now familiar all-knowing look.
\” Wait a sec, Mitr, you like all three. Just tell me what\’s common about all these?\”
\” Well. I can\’t think of anything except they are all junk food.
Hmmm…… They help the American souls to loot the other souls\”
\” Exactly, they are junk food. They kill you slowly.
They look different. They smell different. They taste different. That\’s Atman for you.

But they all contain the same poison, Transfat. And that, Mitr, is Brahman\”.
Still, the Soul was confused.
\” Do you mean to say that Brahman is there in every Atman like lice in every woman\’s head? \”, asked the Soul.

\” Wow. You are getting there, Bhai, I must tell you that you are a fast learner. Mightily proud of you, Mitr.\”
But the Soul was not in any mood to listen to flattery.
\” Is Brahman within me? \”

\” Is transfat within you?\”, countered the man from Heaven.
\” Yes, I guess so. After all these years of eating Hot dogs, they must be part of my LDL profile\”, admitted the Soul.
But it got another nagging doubt.

\” How come I never realized that transfat was there in anything and everything I ate\”
\” Good question, mitr, why you got hooked into Hot dogs? \”, enquired the stranger.
\” Well, Don\’t you know Virat is the brand ambassador for the most popular Hot dog brand\”.

\” Who is Virat?\”, for the first time since the conversation began, the stranger was on the backfoot.
\” You don\’t know who Virat is?
Who called you a Great Soul?.

You are nothing but a dumb asshole\”
The Soul can\’t believe that any soul residing in Earth can say that it didn\’t know Virat, who sells everything from sanitary napkins to toothpicks.

Then suddenly the realization dawned on it.
\” Sorry, mate, you Heaveners may not know him. He is the most handsome Cricket star ever born\”
\” Mitr\”, interrupted the stranger,
\” If he is a star, he must be in Heaven and I should know him. But I never heard his name\”, apologetically said the stranger.

\” He is a human but some of the sixers he hits land in the heaven, I am told\”, boasted the Soul.
\” Well, whosoever he might be, he is Maya.
He prevents you from seeing Brahman, the trans fat, in the Atman, the junk food.
Brahman is everywhere. But the Maya prevents you from seeing it\”.
\” Wow, mate, I see Brahman clearly. Thanks a lot\”, said the Soul.
\” I think I praised you prematurely, mitr.

Nobody, including me, has seen the Brahman\”, the stranger admitted.
\” Like the transfat you consume cannot be seen, the Brahman within you cannot be seen.

He is formless, colorless but omnipresent\”
\” Is he tasteless too?\”, doubt crept into the Soul.
For the first time, the Heavener lost his cool.
\” I am not a cannibal. So I don\’t know whether HE is tasteless or not.

But since he created your Atman too, he must be tasteless, I presume\”
The Soul didn\’t pick the pun.
\”Can I become him?\”, asked the Soul.
\”That\’s what all the guys in Heaven are trying to achieve. But so far, nobody has even come close by\”, rued the stranger.

\” We are doing our best to trace him. He is Virtual Reality.
When he seems real, we know, he is mocking us.
When we are sure he is not there, we are equally sure that he is there.
He is so surreal that he is fake.

He is driving us crazy. That\’s why there is no fun anymore in Heaven\”.
The Soul didn\’t understand most of the discourse.
As its won\’t, it blabbered
\” Why do you want to become Him?
He is already within you.

He created you.
He is You.
You can become Him by becoming you.
He is irrelevant
The only relevant thing is YOU.

Have fun. Enjoy
The HE within you will also enjoy
Let HIM become YOU\”, the Soul stopped briefly to catch some breath.
The Heavener thought the Soul was actually the Brahman,
Teaching him some secret code.

He wondered whether he could ask the Soul to become his Guru.
But out of the blue, came another voice
\” Hey, Shankar, what\’s up? Trying to rag the new guy? \”
\” Siddarth, you know I am not the ragging type. You always falsely accuse me\”, angrily retorted Shankar.

\” Chill, mate, who is this guy?\”, asked Siddharth.
\” Well, he is from Earth looking for some answers from the Great Souls.
I was about to suggest your name when you came\”, said Shankar.

Shankar, in truth, wanted some time for himself to ponder over what the Soul has said.
\” Come on mate, let\’s have a drink and chat\”, Siddharth invited the soul, completely ignoring Shankar.

To be continued . …
The Soul\”s expedition in Heaven continues.
Have fun..

Author – Ravi R. Chokkalingam