Life simulated.

Life had been tough on him for some time. He was very close to an utter breakdown and to avoid it, he took a break. He ran away to Rishikesh with no specific plans. Early Saturday morning he reached there on a rickety bus and set off with his bag on his back. Till it was still warm, he walked around the city, through the narrow lanes and the lines of shops selling things ranging from gemstones to adventure sport gear. When it got too hot he decided to go to a restaurant and spend some time in isolation. By the Laxman jhoola, he decided to take refuge in the german bakery. Sitting by the window, staring at groups of excited adrenalin soaked people rafting; he wrestled the multitude of thoughts bickering in his head. He was not himself but the thoughts taking him in random directions, lost and aimless. A few hours was all he had to cope with and then the temperature would go down enough for him to pick up his bag again and start walking. None of it made sense, this strange city with its attractions and distractions was just a placebo, but he was ready to munch on anything what would offer respite.

Exhausted by the unnerving calm, he decided to battle out the heat and soon set out. He was walking away from the ghats, towards the entrance of this circus. Near the parking he saw a set of stairs that offered short cut to the road that went spirally around the elevation. As he neared it he saw a group of holy men sitting on the stairs asking for alms. One of them he noticed was talking in his broken English to a backpacker, and he decided to sit beside them for no obvious reason. They seemed to ignore him. Soon their conversation died out and both of them sat down idly watching the people as they passed by, and so did he.

The holy man noticed him and asked him, what is bothering you? Perplexed by his assumption that something was bothering him, he smiled and after a while said that there was nothing.

The holy man asked; If he was in a hurry or had time to listen to a little story. Obviously looking for nice ways to kill time, he nodded and said he did have time. And so began one of the most astounding stories he had ever heard, of course all of it in hindi.

The thoughts are like a tornado, if you make it too big it will lose strength, keep it small and concentrated and it will have strength. Similarly, if one tornado has multiple extensions, each of them will be individually weaker than what a single extension could be. A man who lets his thoughts expand and exist in multitudes will soon see them dissipate. It needs to be preserved and kept focussed on the correct objectives.

Now there are many forces that try to break it. Consider there being a live inflatable toy dog. When your tornado expands and loses focus, this dog feeds on this energy and inflates itself so large that it can destroy the thought process itself. This represents the addictions. They feed of your weakness to get things done which they want. It might be a stupid toy dog but it is still get the best of you, the reasons for which are thus obvious.

There are other forces too like the six handed, horned bear. It is a large scary monster that frightens you into hiding. It exists in the same world as your thought tornado and though there is not much to fear from it, it does exert power. It represents the possibility of failure. It is imaginary, weird and bullying, but what if it were true. This very question keeps us in check.

Then there is you. But not in the form that you know of yourself physically; in the form that you envision yourself. Like you my friend, envision yourself as a person whose hands and feet are plastered and the only movement he can do is chicken dance. So you envision yourself as an awkward, constricted, incapable man. This is your ego. This is you as you exist in your mind and sadly this is more important than your physical existence. You know why?

Because if standing on the plane of your thought and the toy down and the bear and yourself you look! You will see the universe. The universe is your creation and is inside you… what is outside is the projection of that which is inside based on the senses. What you know as white is not white or what is felt hot is not hot but the image of so, painted by your mind, within.

Also, you know what the ego you have inside, is connected by the cord to the universe, your ego creates the real universe through the thought tornado. The other creatures existing here like the dog and the bear too are connected independently to the universe but they are not free as their tornados can’t change form and have only one extension, so can serve only one job. The universe inside is both finite and infinite. When you are observing something, that is the boundary of the universe, however when you transcend it and extend your observation beyond the observed, the boundaries expand too.

So, if you can start with your ego and free it, then control the thought tornado to make it more powerful and focussed, you will be able to battle and better control the other beings residing in your world. With these independent force out of the control of your being now allied, you will be able to master your universe.

He realised the holy man had been speaking for some time. The backpacker had left sometime in-between. He was too confused to make any sense of it or speak anything in return.

They continued to sit there in silence.