I am beyond that!

A story narrated to me by my father, taken from a book by Osho and one of the finest short stories I have ever heard. My guess is that it will sound best in the original tongue, i.e. Hindi but I'll try my best to translate it. I am not sure if you will enjoy it as much as I did, but if you are even slightly inclined towards spirituality, I think that you will surely like it.

Once upon a time there was a woodcutter in a village. He used to go to the forest daily, cut wood, take it to the market, sell it and bring some money back home. On some days, he would find a Sufi saint sitting on the sidewalk (Sufi saints are well known mystics and wanderers and rely on alms and donations for their minimum livelihood requirements).

One day, when he was returning from the forest with the day's wood, he found the Sufi saint sitting there. The Sufi saint asked him where he was coming from. He replied that he was a woodcutter and had been going to the nearby forest for last many years for getting wood and then sold it in the market. The saint said, "You get satisfied very early. Just beyond this forest, there is a sandalwood forest. You can go there and get sandalwood and earn more money."

The woodcutter went beyond the forest and to his astonishment, found a sandalwood forest. Happier, he started going to this forest daily and got richer. After a few months, he again found the same Sufi saint on his return way. He thanked the Sufi saint for helping him get richer with the sandalwood business. However the saint replied that he was easily satisfied and told him that beyond the sandalwood forest, there was a silver mine and he could dig silver and become more wealthy.

As you may guess, the story goes like this, the Sufi saint's advice led him further to gold and then diamond mines and made him wealthier than never before. One day, when he was returning from the diamond mine, he found the same Sufi saint at the sidewalk. The Sufi saint enquired about his whereabouts and he replied, "I am mining diamond these days and have got even richer. Thank you for all your directions".

The Sufi saint laughed and said, "You are still very complacent. If you had gone a little beyond, you would have found something even more precious." Ignorant and frustrated, he asked the Sufi saint, "What can be more precious than diamond? What is it that is more precious than diamond and beyond it?"

The Sufi saint smiled and said, "I am beyond it!"

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Inspite of being aware of all these "materially-enriching" resources, the Sufi saint was still not running after them. Pink Floyd has very appropriately put this running after "more and more" in Breathe as:

Run, rabbit run. Dig that hole, forget the sun.

And when at last the work is done.

Don't sit down It's time to dig another one.

Rather, the Sufi saint had achieved a state of existence where he had no attachments for these material allurements (I don't advocate mendicancy, but well that was the way of living of Sufi saints in old times!). He was able to selflessly direct the woodcutter towards these sources while staying a mendicant himself and finally bring him to learn what he had learnt – I am beyond everything and if you discover that I, which in spiritual jargon is also called as the Self (so self with an upper case S), you'll reach the destination of life.

Do you remember the last scene of the movie Guide, in which Devanand says, "Mein hoon, Sirf mein hoon"? There too, mein is indicative of the Self and not the normal egoistic self. And when that is realized, I guess there will be no further need to run.