I am going to relate a true life incident. This happened while I was a counselor in Arena Animation Academy in Kankurgachi.
There was one faculty, Uday Da. Very favorite and much sought after among his students. Well, as colleagues we share a lot many things like personal likes, dislikes, involvements etc. So he was one rebel during his youth and had even gone to the extent of getting personally involved in the ‘Ram Janma-bhoomi and babri mazid ‘ episode that took place in India couple of years ago. He had related to us the gory sights that he had witnessed and eventually he came back – alive – also realizing that such fights and tiffs are nothing but political games – no true religious sentiment is involved in it whatsoever. He was also a great admirer of Swami Vivekananda and he used to tell me incidents of Swami ji’s life that I had never read and was really delighted to listen to His stories. So this is about Uday da in brief.
Time passed. I came into Sahaja yoga – read, practiced, experienced and came to know many things about spirituality. One of the things was the essence and importance of listening to ‘Azaan’. I immediately downloaded ‘Azaan’ and I was listening to it. Uday da was passing by my cabin – he happened to hear it and came in – he said ‘ Aparna – this is Azaan going on’ ( I usually started my day listening to bhajans). He continued ‘Azaan…you know, a call to prayer for Muslims ….for the Muslims….’,I said ‘ Yes I know, its very good listening to it you know (and then I gave him little bit of ‘gyan’ about the spiritual significance of it). He looked at me, smiled and said ‘Well you know best’ and went out.
Junaid, another colleague of mine, was standing at the reception. He used to be very lean and thin (he seems to have put on weight now- I saw his recent FB pics). Uday da hugged him from behind and said – ‘Junaid, why are you so thin, you don’t eat or what? You tell me I will get extra tiffin for you in the morning, as it is my wife makes tiffin for me so I can get little extra for you…eat eat buddy, eat. ‘ (He said all this in hindi). I was smiling and looking at both of them. Suddenly Uday da saw me giving him a knowing smile – and he is pretty sharp – he immediately understood why I was smiling at him…….He knew I meant to say that ‘ I was just listening to Azaan…but you are hugging him!’
Conclusion: I think we all are too evolved to indulge in such petty things….lets not let some power hungry bloke destroy the beauty of co-existence of religions.
