Back To Bliss: A Journey To Zero - Santosh Jha (best authors to read .txt) 📗

what he would talk with him. This time, he had the time, the whole evening and night to plan and prepare for the proposed morning meeting with the owner but he did not feel the need for preparation. He sat by the window of his house watching and enjoying the blank sky. The blue sky would gradually turn grey and finally black. The darkness of the sky was what he was waiting for. He had a feeling it would look wonderful.

He reminisced and smiled. How many times in his life, he found and cherished loads of beautiful purposes. He smiled because he realized how important stupidities of life are... how they extend you the chance to be wise. How people miss the relevance of stupidities as catalyst of wisdom. He recalled the efforts and pain he had to invest in the preparedness for attaining his purposes at different stages of his life. The brilliance of the conspiracy of almighty...whenever he prepared hard and meticulously for a purpose, he wanted to attain, he would invariably fail. He would feel bad, low and frustrated about the wastage of his investments. Most of his successes came when he had done the least preparation and was not even sure of the purpose. He had finally accepted that preparation and purpose had a strange relationship. He understood that preparation for a purpose is a misnomer. The preparedness is required for something which is uncertain. His father would often tell him – ‘hope for the best and be prepared for the worst’. He realized it that what is certain and a definite purpose is what falls in the realm of hope and preparedness is required for what is uncertain and does not form a purpose. If preparedness and purpose were linear realities, there would have been far more success stories on earth. Success has traditionally been referred to as object of desire, hope and dreams. The real world faces the trouble that failures are the rule and most people are least prepared for it.

Mayank realized that one needs to be in the state of readiness not for a specific purpose but as life in general. One needs not to prepare but to be ready. Preparedness is for a specific purpose whereas readiness is for all time and circumstances to come. Readiness itself is the larger purpose for all preparedness. Preparedness is only a process whereas readiness is the end product, the final destination. The readiness is required not only for failures but also for successes. Handling success is more tedious task than handling failures. Success requires larger readiness.

Mayank was in the readiness and that’s why he did not feel the need for preparedness before his crucial meet with the owner of his newspaper next morning. The smile on his face was the shine of satisfaction of the readiness. He smiled as he realized he had attained readiness. When you attain, you go blank. The zero is the highest point of readiness. He thanked the almighty for bestowing upon him a series of crises and loads of stupidity. He however prayed that the wisdom of zero remained with him. He wished to continue with his readiness and not be part of any preparedness in future.

He had realized his stupidity. The road ahead was clear to him. He had gone past the fear factor in his life. And, the readiness, the ultimate and exalted beingness was just beyond the confines of the fear factor. He remembered, how since childhood, he struggled to conquer a series of fears he thought he was born with. He grew up demolishing them but only to realize that he had added more fears than he overpowered. The existential fears were replaced by fears that society offloaded on him. He grew up accepting so many benchmarks of successes and goodness that his family, his peer group, his seniors, icons and leaders lined up for him to follow. He grew up preparing hard to win all the benchmarks and in time got more apprehensive of failures and loses. Even successes, that came when he expected them the least, made him burry deeper in the abyss of fear. Each success only stretched the benchmarks and prolonged the process of preparedness. The fear never went away; rather it grew up engulfing his beingness totally. He could not understand the elusiveness of the state of readiness; a stage after reaching where he could say he had finally arrived. He could not understand the hydra-headedness of the fear; that no doubt egged him to higher stage of preparedness but never allowed him the basic urge of a lasting satisfaction. He had even started believing that life is a never-ending struggle for the elusive satisfaction.

Love made him realize for the first time what wins all fears. Love taught him to rise above the process of preparedness to the ultimate stage of readiness. He truly understood why he felt fearless when in love. When true love happens; all good and cherished ideals of humanity fall in your lap, they fill your being. Love embodies all goodness – honesty, transparency, selflessness and egolessness and above all the compassion. It does the magic. It makes the willful merger of individualism into the collectivity; the individuality of I dissolving into the collectivity of us. Love fills the heart and mind with compassion and when compassion plays the music in the heart, all cherished ideals and goodness of humanity get drawn into the mind. The fear goes away the next moment as this happens. He thanked the almighty for making him understand the fear factor and its dynamics. Since ages, the genius of mankind had listed the ideals and ultimate goodness for all people to follow and he realized that they were good and ideal because they made one fearless. Honesty makes you lose fear as you are not apprehensive of being caught with a lie. Transparency makes you fearless as you are not apprehensive of being caught hiding anything. When you are with these ideals, you don’t fear the loss or losing out. When you attain zero, you do not fear to lose as you have nothing. You do not fear as you have nothing to hide. Being fearless is the ultimate readiness. He thanked almighty that he was chosen to be blessed with love and compassion which made him fearless. But he understood that love too was only the higher stage of preparedness and not the readiness. Love just shows you the road. The readiness is attained when one totally personifies all the cherished goodness and ideals of humanity. Love leads you to the door, the entry point of zero but then, you have to step ahead to be into the zero. Every human being is blessed by the almighty to attain this readiness as all human beings are given at least one chance to experience love. Only few of them understand love. To the blessed ones is revealed the music of compassion when in love. Very few people are worthy enough to understand and appreciate this music of compassion that love plays for them. Those who understand hit the road to readiness. Love and compassion reveals the road to real preparedness – prepare to be compassionate, to be honest, to be transparent, to be selfless, to be egoless. It reveals the necessity to prepare oneself for the joy of giving, the importance of us. Love and compassion leads one to the ultimate empowerment of self – the ability to forgive. When forgiveness becomes the first instinct, it is a sure sign that the stage of readiness has been attained. The forgiveness is attaining the blank, the zero, the ultimate empowerment, the readiness. You accept nothing - no pride, no self, no ego, no I and you give everything as you forgive. The state of zero is the readiness.

Mayank sat on the chair in front of the couch that the owner preferred to sit. He had arrived at the hotel ten minutes earlier than the appointed time. As usual, the owner showed no expression on his face as he greeted him. Mayank knew the boss did it purposely. He was always a businessman and not for a second, a true businessman would let off his guard. Toughness, emotionlessness and matter of fact disposition are considered core benchmarks for smart operators in business. The boss wore his mask as usual and Mayank understood it that the boss perceived this meeting also as a business deal. No problems…he just smiled.

“What you have in mind”, the owner asked him casually, not even looking at him.

“Nothing specific...I have come here with a blank mind”, he said smiling.

“I had expected that you would join your duties after I had assured you we would talk. That’s why I am asking you. Are you considering other options?”

“No, I am not going anywhere.”

This changed the expression on the face of the owner. Mayank understood; loyalty mattered most to the boss. The media world is such a small place. He realized that somebody must have informed the boss about the offer he had got from the rival newspaper.

“I appreciate your inputs and you will get due return for your good intentions. We have our growth plans in the right place and I firmly believe in home grown leaders taking key positions in my organization.”

The boss looked at Mayank expecting him to be happy as a reaction to his assurance. He however showed no reaction. His thoughts were on something different.

“Last time, when we talked here, I had told you a story. Can I tell you another one, would you mind?”

“I won’t if I understand it.”

“It is a very simple story. You might even have heard it before.”

“May be but when you tell them, they seem to carry a different message. Go ahead.”

“Once upon a time, there was a king named Uttanpad. He had two wives, Suniti (wisdom) and Suruchi (beauty) but he loved the later more. From both wives, he had a son each and only naturally, he loved the son from his favorite wife Suruchi more. One morning, the son from the second wife Suniti, called Dhruv saw his brother playing in the lap of the king and he too desired the same. His step mother however chided him and drove him away. Dhruv was only five year old. He narrated the story to his own mother. His mother told him that he should instead aspire to be in the lap of Lord Vishnu who is all powerful and rules the universe. Dhruv took the advice and headed straight to the forest for penance to attain his desire to be in God’s lap. In the forest Sage Narad accosted him and knowing the resolve of Dhruv to appease Lord Vishnu, he taught him a very difficult regime of worship to test his resolve. Dhruv followed the method for over five months and finally the Lord appeared before him. Lord Vishnu asked him to seek anything, any attainment which he thought of. Dhruv meekly said to him that he was just a child and asked Lord Vishnu to give him the power of words so that he could sing hymns in his praise. Little Dhruv even forgot to ask for what he had done all this impossible penance. Lord Vishnu gave him what he wished and also bestowed him the pole position which no man has ever got. He was positioned as star above the universe and Lord Vishnu blessed him that the universe might someday end but he would still sign as the star.”

The owner lighted a cigarette. Did not say a word for a few minutes as if he was trying to absorb and assess the story. He rose from his couch and before going to his bedroom, he handed out the pack of cigarette to Mayank. He lighted the cigarette this time and had the time to finish it as the owner returned to his seat after five minutes.

“I think; I should not waste my grey matter. It