Way of The Seekers — Page 75
75 THE uncivilized behavior; to be trigger-happy; to hurl bogus threats under minor provocations. The case of the two Hindu Banyas (shopkeepers) will illustrate the point. They were quarreling. One was cursing. In reply, the other would challenge his opponent to curse him again. He would say: I will break your skull if you curse again. Now the joke was that he could easily have tried to smash the other fellow’s head the first time he was abused. He did not have to wait to be cursed twice. The other fellow too was equally shallow. Every time he was challenged, he would say: I shall curse you a hundred times. But he did not dare actually repeat the curse. Each time he was told: If you curse me again, I shall break your head. At the time, I was a child of eight and was an interested spectator of this strange sight. I waited for long to see if the first Banya would repeat the curse and earn a broken skull, but nothing happened. Soon each retired to his shop. Suddenly the verbal battle was again joined. One of them again abused the other who in turn gave the same old repeat performance. He came out of his shop and shouted: I shall break your skull if you abuse me again. The altercation continued for a long time but nothing happened. This is vacant, witless puerility. It also shows cowardice. Similarly to be over-aggressive is also a sign of fatuity. It is also a form of inner weakness to start shouting and grumbling at the slightest provocation. At this stage, Huzoor interrupted his address and said: Asking questions during the course of an address is not desirable. But since the subject under discussion is of great importance, I feel I should try to answer some of the questions which friends have thought fit to address me. One is: Which professions according to me are mean? The answer might land us into unnecessary controversy which I would rather like to avoid. Nor would I like to decline answering the question. I would, therefore, simply say that to my mind professions which obstruct progress may be called mean. Another question that has been asked is: What is the difference between tamaa (greed) and hirs (avarice), the two vices I mentioned earlier.