The recently consecrated, wayside temple turned out to be a disappointment for the trustee. A force majeure - the bylane now became a cul de sac as the end of the lane has been permanently blocked.
For the presiding deity Ganesha and his inseparable co-squatter Mooshik, the bylane becoming a cul de sac turned out to be a force majeure blessing in disguise. The trustee had his worries, Ganesha and Mooshik had time to ponder.
Suddenly Mooshik broke the silence. “One look, he appears scholarly, another look he hangs out like an illiterate. Third look gives you the feeling that he is a philosopher and the fourth takes your breath away, you can see through him.”
Ganesha: What about the fifth and the sixth and the seventh?
Mooshik: I am yet to come there. Have a little patience. If you want, I will talk about the first four.
Ganesha mentally calculated the odds and liked the
even number that turned up.
He said, Go ahead. Why did you assume it was a
scholarly look?
Mooshik: He looked at you and then at me. Then
spent some time looking at the sky. Again, looked at you and then at me for a
few more seconds. Then looked at the tree and stood like a statue for
considerable time. Now in the second feature, the illiteracy surfaced.
Ganesha: What did he do now?
Mooshik: He stood looking at you with a frozen
look, then ...
Ganesha becoming curious asked, "Tell me. Then what happened?"
Mooshik: It was the feature of the philosopher, I
saw. He was trying to swath himself in philosophical ropes and then encircle
us. That look was really disturbing. It had an incisive, probing and questioning.
After scrutinizing me for a few moments, the probing eyes shifted their focus on you. My Lord, the relief washing over my entire body, to say the least, was heavenly.
Ganesha instantly became concerned. Now, a fully relieved Mooshik will wax eloquent adding extra appendages to unsettle him. But at the same time, he felt happy that Mooshik had no power to unseat him. He asked. ,"What about see-through look?"
Mooshik feeling a little worried said, "Let me describe the other impression I got from that 'seeing through' person. He did not look at the sky, did not alternate from me to you, did not stand still like a statue and lastly did not send probing looks at either of us. This was scary and hairs on my entire body stood and stayed up respectfully. The bone chilling see-through feature held me in awe and fear.”
Ganesha became irritated to note that Mooshik’s tail never stood up as a mark of respect for him. How dares he, now to admit that the hairs on his entire body stood and stayed up to show respect to the feature of a mortal?
Ganesh started sensing a sort of Asura character trying to break through this current Avatar of Mooshik. He could easily cut his tail short, but Mooshik without tail ...both of them will be looking odd, even in the makeshift shelters called wayside temples.
Deciding to search for a punishment involving less disfigurement, Ganesha questioned him, “Why the awe? Why the fear?’
“The see-through feature was not only for visual inspection. He could tune it to intercept brainwaves. In that short time, he managed to capture and decode our brainwaves, just like that!
To allow Ganesha to recover his poise, Mooshik asked, “Willing to hear a story what my Asura guru used to tell to make us believe in optimism?”
Ganesha thinking that it might be less scary and interesting, said “go on”.
Mooshik: A lion was caught and kept in an enclosure. Every day a knot of people stood outside the enclosure and gazed at it. Initially the lion became angry and frustrated as he could not do anything about it, except belt out some mighty roars. As time passed by, it started looking at things a little differently. It was getting food, water, medical aid and alone time every day and on time. Slowly it started to build upon these positives to become an optimist. It started to think that one day it will come out of the enclosure.
Ganesha: What this story has to do with your observations?
Mooshik: I learnt a new perspective to the feeling called optimism. Earlier I used to spend some ‘disappointed’ times, in comparing the difference in status between us. Now, with the old story, new perspective and the changing face of that person has boosted my optimism to a different level.
Ganesha became curious, perplexed and worried to know where this all would lead! He asked. "Is it the end of that story?"
Mooshik: No. The second part was much more powerful. Want to hear it now?
Ganesha: Whether I want or not, you are not going to stop. But let me hear it at the end. You had sufficient time as a face reader. Now tell me what was all going through that person's mind?
Mooshik: As a scholar, he was trying to fit you and me in a mathematical
equation, subject us to chemical reactions and compare us with known physical
concepts. Short of nuclear reactions, he tried out everything.
Ganesha: Finally, what did he
do?
Mooshik: What else? Added one universal constant and kept quiet.
Ganesha: Did he understand us?
Mooshik: No. But he will make another attempt, soon. The lesser educated
person’s case is simple to solve.
Ganesha: How?
Mooshik: This face had worries written all over it. Not having many
equations to try out, he banked on the age-old practice.
Ganesha: What was it?
Mooshik: To accept us with nucleated doubts.
Ganesha was a bit taken up by the term nucleated doubts. He looked at Mooshik suspiciously but kept quiet fearing a fissioning doubt or a fissioning doubt. Nodded at Mooshik to continue.
Mooshik: The feature of the philosopher exhibited the struggles to find strings of confusing thoughts and express them in equally confusing sentences, in the vain hope that someone will understand them.
Ganesha: To understand us, why he needs to be philosophical and confused?
Mooshik: In human life, it doesn't work simply like that. This face needs a base of believers in his form of philosophy to accept himself as what he wanted the base to understand him first. His philosophy as much as I could decode is ‘strong and broad base maketh a tall edifice.’
Ganesha: With this sort of thinking, do you hope he will understand and
accept us?
Mooshik: I am not sure. Only time and his philosophy can tell that!
Ganesha: Then why at all have a
philosophy in the first place?
Mooshik: This is beyond me. Probably the next time, he
will leave us with some clue!
Ganesha: Common, what about the
see-through face?
Mooshik: What should I say? Did I not talk about the icy-chill experience of his probing eyes. Even now, it gives me jitters.
Ganesha: Mooshik, stop the chatter and tell me the operative part?
Mooshik: He had intercepted the brainwaves of the other three persona. But if he had stopped there it would have been good....”
Ganesha: Do I hear asides between you and your brain? Are you worried about saying them aloud. Be a sport Mooshik!
Mooshik: Ok. Here it goes. He intercepted my thinking and understood my level, both at the physical & philosophical level. And on intercepting your brainwaves he thought, how come an extolled deity be so naive and believe that devotees and their devotion is his strength, ... If had stopped there ...”
Ganesha: Common, I can't bear any more suspense.
Mooshik: in spite of possessing the physical and philosophical reach.
Ganesha felt sheepish for having egged on Mooshik. He could have stopped after hearing the word strength. Hmm, will the water let out of a dam come back to it?
At an inopportune moment, Mooshik asked whether he could complete his Asura guru’s second part of the story.
Ganesha knitting his eyebrows together, simply shook his head. The
philosophical feature had laid the groundwork for the see-through feature to
apply the power brake. He closed his eyes to analyse why his physical, philosophical reach had not
helped him to be a ‘sophisticated god’ instead of being categorized as ‘naïve’.
