(Section 4: Impressionist)
On 10th October 2008, early morning I walked alone on the beach of Pondicherry near Aurobindo Ashram. That morning I met a person named Mr Selvan who runs a small business in Chennai.
Our meeting was unexpected. Actually I got a bit annoyed initially with his sudden show of interest to talk. I almost avoided him at the beach; but later at the breakfast table we met again and there we talked.
I introduced myself.
He said “Good morning Manish. Who are you?”
He kept repeating this question even after I spelt almost my biography and then I gave up.
“What do you see?” I asked finally.
“I see a bee”.
“A bee?”
I admit he had something in his personality that made me listen to him. He spoke, "In the valleys of Himalayas, there are lakhs of bee colonies. Northern states in India like J&K, Punjab, and Uttaranchal etc are abode of millions of bees. There, each bee lives a life like we do. Together they work, grow and die”.
“You mean they live a purposeless life?” I asked.
“No. I think there is a purpose in each of the bee’s life. Worker bees produce honey; the queen bee has to reproduce. There is no one without a purpose”.
“So what is the message?”
“The message is they do it together. I want to tell you that your identity is ‘how you contribute’ to the society that mandates togetherness”
“Mr Selvan, I understand your point. But I feel lost in crowd at times. Don’t you think my contribution must make an impression or shall I say difference? Don’t you think a progressive society requires some kind of innovation?”
“Indeed it does. But difference must not mean isolation; it should not come at the cost of togetherness. The day such arrogance or isolation takes over you, there is every possibility that you will lose your purpose (contribution) and hence your identity (who are you)”
I realized he must have seen me walking alone early morning in my own world. He may have felt the loneliness I never intended.
“I have lots of friends Mr Selvan”, I smiled.
“I am happy to hear that. This is how it should be. Without your friends, you are no one”, he smiled too.
“But there are many lonely and isolated souls in this world. Will you be worried about that Mr Selvan?” I asked.
“Manish, I am a member of Auroville. Indeed such isolation may break the balance we seek in our society”. Then I saw he was getting into a kind of abstraction.
“Manish, I have always felt there is a ‘bee-farmer’ watching us. Is he the God? I don’t know. I also do not know whether he is as merciful as we think. I am not sure whether he creates the earthquakes and tsunamis.”
I kept listening.
“What if all, this world is one of those thousand experiments a bee-farmer does with multiple combinations of bees to set up a productive bee-hive. A bee may never know the overall purpose of the bee-farmer but the bee-hive will be destroyed if the bees are unable to stay together.”
He continued, “Immaterial to the purpose of an individual life, we must acknowledge the purpose of overall human life, else this experiment will fail. Our future lies in our ability to stay together and that should be the purpose of our life, and our identity”.
I nodded. I visited Auroville that day.
The Bee Farmer expects us to go ahead and make as many friends as possible. The companionship will let us know our contribution and the answer to ‘who we are’.
On 10th October 2008, early morning I walked alone on the beach of Pondicherry near Aurobindo Ashram. That morning I met a person named Mr Selvan who runs a small business in Chennai.
Our meeting was unexpected. Actually I got a bit annoyed initially with his sudden show of interest to talk. I almost avoided him at the beach; but later at the breakfast table we met again and there we talked.
I introduced myself.
He said “Good morning Manish. Who are you?”
He kept repeating this question even after I spelt almost my biography and then I gave up.
“What do you see?” I asked finally.
“I see a bee”.
“A bee?”
I admit he had something in his personality that made me listen to him. He spoke, "In the valleys of Himalayas, there are lakhs of bee colonies. Northern states in India like J&K, Punjab, and Uttaranchal etc are abode of millions of bees. There, each bee lives a life like we do. Together they work, grow and die”.
“You mean they live a purposeless life?” I asked.
“No. I think there is a purpose in each of the bee’s life. Worker bees produce honey; the queen bee has to reproduce. There is no one without a purpose”.
“So what is the message?”
“The message is they do it together. I want to tell you that your identity is ‘how you contribute’ to the society that mandates togetherness”
“Mr Selvan, I understand your point. But I feel lost in crowd at times. Don’t you think my contribution must make an impression or shall I say difference? Don’t you think a progressive society requires some kind of innovation?”
“Indeed it does. But difference must not mean isolation; it should not come at the cost of togetherness. The day such arrogance or isolation takes over you, there is every possibility that you will lose your purpose (contribution) and hence your identity (who are you)”
I realized he must have seen me walking alone early morning in my own world. He may have felt the loneliness I never intended.
“I have lots of friends Mr Selvan”, I smiled.
“I am happy to hear that. This is how it should be. Without your friends, you are no one”, he smiled too.
“But there are many lonely and isolated souls in this world. Will you be worried about that Mr Selvan?” I asked.
“Manish, I am a member of Auroville. Indeed such isolation may break the balance we seek in our society”. Then I saw he was getting into a kind of abstraction.
“Manish, I have always felt there is a ‘bee-farmer’ watching us. Is he the God? I don’t know. I also do not know whether he is as merciful as we think. I am not sure whether he creates the earthquakes and tsunamis.”
I kept listening.
“What if all, this world is one of those thousand experiments a bee-farmer does with multiple combinations of bees to set up a productive bee-hive. A bee may never know the overall purpose of the bee-farmer but the bee-hive will be destroyed if the bees are unable to stay together.”
He continued, “Immaterial to the purpose of an individual life, we must acknowledge the purpose of overall human life, else this experiment will fail. Our future lies in our ability to stay together and that should be the purpose of our life, and our identity”.
I nodded. I visited Auroville that day.
The Bee Farmer expects us to go ahead and make as many friends as possible. The companionship will let us know our contribution and the answer to ‘who we are’.
