Friday, January 15, 2010

GURU-CHELA:NOT SO STRANGE BED-FELLOWS


From my book: Wit & Humour of Haryana:

NOT SO STRANGE BED-FELLOWS

The guru-chela (master-disciple) relationship in Haryana has never assumed much of significance for the reason that mostly this duo consists of wandering modas (ascetics). It is primarily for acquiring the assets owned by the gurus in their ashrams t...hat the so-called disciples have been found to be most of the times the cronies of their ‘spiritual masters’, at some stage of their life, or the other. So, the non-serious type of guru and chela were readying for sleep on a winter night, in their hut. The guru asked his chela to shut the window as the cold breeze was becoming intolerable for the half-clad guru. “Guru ji cover yourself with the quilt and for you atleast the window is closed,” said the lazy chela. “O.K. put off that diya (earthen lamp) bacha,” asked the guru. “Guru ji cover your face and all will be dark around you,” suggested the un-obliging chela. Quite annoyed, the guru commanded, “Acha bacha shut the door lest some one should break in”. And with a banter, the chela quipped, “Look guru ji I have performed two tasks; the third one, you carry out yourself.” Another of the above described cult of chelas was setting forth for Haridwar and the hut of a sadhu (hermit) was on the way. He stopped there, and just by the way, asked the sadhu if he needed anything from Har-Ki-Pauri. “Get me a good shankh (counch) bacha,” the sadhu demanded. The villager returned from the pilgrimage and on reaching the village-outskirts, he was reminded of the sadhu’s demand. He searched for, and laid hands on a dried-up, donkey-skull. On reaching the sadhu’s hut he found him sitting crosslegged on the assan (platform) out side the kutia. With an expression of pride in his eyes, he offered the sadhu the ‘sought gift’. The sadhu tried in vain to produce a counch-like sound by blowing breath through the skull. Ultimately, he said, “But it does not produce any sound bacha.” Replied our friend the pilgrim, “It is only a matter of time baba ji, otherwise its sound could be heard at miles’ distance.”See More

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