“Dirty Deeds Done Dirt
Cheap…” sang AC/DC back in 1976. If anything, those dirty deeds are done lot
cheaper these days. We can buy law or at least a part of it for much cheaper
than before. We can buy law makers if we can just afford it. We can even hire
law breakers for rates which are very competitive. And the effect of this on
our society, our nature and us is so profound that I seldom need to explain.
What has also gotten
cheaper is the value for one’s life. Mines are dug deeper and wider than how
much is allowed. Pollutants are leaked to environment without second thought.
Just a short drive had so much pollutants fed into my system. So much so that cleaning my eyes alone left it dry and hazy. However, it would be unfair to blame my dried eyes on just the pollution. It was also due to all the sleepless nights I had been having. And each of these sleepless nights used to turn into train of thoughts which stopped only at the crack of dawn. Lately, these sleepless nights are putting me into a state of trance. Due to which, I have just not been able to ascertain if some event really did take place or was it all a dream.
Few nights ago, as I
was lying on my bed looking at the ceiling, I started to wonder if a man’s
heart can also be as polluted as his lungs. If so, what can that pollutant in
the man’s heart be. Can it be the lack of love towards other humans? Can it be
lack of love towards other living beings? The pollutants which affect the lung and heart
may of course differ. But both have been polluted nonetheless. Most
importantly, what can more of such pollution in a man’s heart, mind and lungs,
in future lead to? While I was just pondering on these thoughts, I fell asleep
and started dreaming that…
We had dug the earth far and wide to find things which nature had tried to hide from us in the first place. We had set fire to what we found and energized the world we had created, tearing apart the delicate balance of nature. While nature created clouds where we always found our silver lining, we had created clouds which stopped the sun shine from reaching us.
Hiding in my car, I saw
that the thick dark clouds had given way to a rain. The rivers and lakes which
otherwise opened up their surface to welcome every new drop from heaven, that
day, wore an armor from which the rain's drop bounced off. I wonder if it was
the oil in our rivers which bounced the water drops off or if what was raining
was so poisonous that the rivers were not even accepting it.
I am not sure what were those drops of rain made of but whatever it was, the roof of my car was just not able to hold it back. It burnt right through the roof. In panic, as I looked around yelling for help, I saw that there were many around me whose roof had burnt down exposing to these drops of rains which were more like droplets of acid. I heard the people say that their concrete roof had got melted by these droplets from hell. As the panic and cry rose every minute, I realized that neither the empire I and many others like me had built, nor the paper wealth many of us had sold ourselves for, was able to stop this rain from burning everything in its path and setting our skin on fire.
Desperate for a way to save myself, I folded my hands for my first prayer in years and prayed for that fabric which could save me from this rain. If not a fabric, at least a twine, with which I will be able weave the fabric together. Just when I finished muttering the last word of my prayer, I heard a voice telling me that the only thing which can save me and everyone else from this rain is the person who loves us the most and love us unconditionally. To whom we are the world and for whom we have been the reason they ever wanted to live. Even before I could make out the direction of the voice, the voice continued that the fabric which will be capable enough to save us from this rain would be their skin and their flesh. The twine which will stitch these together would come from their nerves, their veins. And our survival would be possible only because of their sacrifice.
Stunned and clueless about who that person who loves me the most was, I began running and hunting for him. After searching every nook and corner where I thought I would find them, I wasn’t able to find them because I had let go of them and had left them behind ages ago when I had set on this journey to amass the worldly wealth. When I looked around, I sadly witnessed that I wasn’t the only one going through this ordeal. I saw many like me stranded and left to burn. Their mistake was just like mine.
Tired and dejected, I sat down under a tree, under the protection of the leaves. The tree had lost most of its leaves and few which were left were trying to shield me from this rain and getting burnt one after the other. Though it stood on the road I take every day, I never had noticed this tree nor done one bit to save it from all the axes: whose wounds it bore. In short, I hadn’t done anything for the tree to love me either, but here it was still trying selflessly. Giving up, I closed my eyes and faced down waiting for the drops to pierce through my skin after the last leaf had burnt itself to death.
As my life flashed before my eyes, I got a glimpse of those fortunate beings who had been saved by the person who loved them the most. I also saw some more fortunate beings to whose rescue had come many people. Even after knowing the sacrifice they will have to make to save their loved ones. It was also heartening to know how they always kept track of their loved ones and were able to reach them at times required.
On this judgment day, even a mother was given a choice to choose only one of her kids. And I guess I know who my mother had chosen today. And my father, of course had chosen my mother. Honestly, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. However, it made me wonder if all that I had earned was of any value at all. It was a revelation of sorts to know that no one had come to save me. I repented that how much better it would have been if we were just loved by many others. It certainly would have been so much better if my deeds would have earned me some love more than anything else. A lesson too painful but too late.
Just when I was realizing what a scum I have been all my life, I realized that I still had chance to take one last decision and make that one last choice. The judgment day also meant that I could save the one I love. I realized that I had this one last choice to either, wait and hide beneath the ones who love us and survive, or take this one last chance to go looking for the one I love the most and protect them. As I took the first step towards my sacrifice, I faced the first drop of this rain tear through my body. In pain, I looked up again but with a different prayer this time. I begged that I survive long enough and there is at least that much of me left in me to save the one I love.
As I frantically searched for the one I loved amongst all the chaos, I began wondering as to why all this was happening in the first place. The reply came to me in these verses from Bhagavad Gita.
Yadaa Yadaa hi dharmasya glaanirbhawati Bhaaratah,
Abhyuthaanamadharmasya
tadaatmaanam srijaamyaham.
Paritraanaaya
saadhunaam vinaashaya cha dushkritaam,
Dharmasansthaapanaarthaya
Sambhawami yuge yuge.
But just that God had seldom come to destroy us as He just gave us what we sent Him, as rain and was making us pay for the mistakes we consciously committed. However, He did not come to save us either, as He was busy building a better world for the ones who had given up their lives for their loved ones.
With the little life that was left in me protecting the loved one I had found, I saw that after the heavy downpour, the dark clouds had begun to lighten up. I saw hope in the form of a silver lining as the clouds shrunk. I also saw a hope that by the time every bit of cloud has rained, we will have a world where all the scum like would have got burned down, either because no loved one came looking for them, or they had changed, found the one they loved the most and sacrificed their life.
I was happy at the end
that I finally let myself be a part of humanity and love. I was proud to have
decided to protect than be protected. In the end, somehow, it felt better to
bear the burn on skin and see the one I love survive than to see the one who
loves me, be burnt before me. Looking at my loved one for that one last time, I
was about to smile while the last drop hit me hard. It was hard enough to wake
me up from my dream.
“What a dream”, I told myself. And at least since that night, I have been able to sleep. Sleep in peace knowing how to prepare for that rain I dreamt. I can’t help but feel that such a rain is imminent and inevitable. What remains to be seen is how sooner or later we will have one such rain. A rain that will wash our mind, our heart and our world. Come to think of it, this reminds me of a dialogue from an old movie I was watching just before I fell asleep that night,
“Someday a real rain'll come and wash all the scum
off the streets”.
