Sometimes you can find philosophy at the most unlikely of places. I heard it from a taxi driver recently. I was on the way to the airport on Sunday afternoon and struck a conversation with a Meru Cab driver.
He questioned the extra police bandobast near our area and I mentioned to him that recently a wall of a place of worship had fallen and that members of the community had expressed their anger by assaulting whoever they could place blame on, even if those unfortunate souls had no clue of what hit them and why, just like so many of our countrymen who don't know what they're fighting for.
This was in the backdrop of the impending judgment in the Ayodhya title suit.
He gave his philosophy of how God resides in every person and not in mandirs or masjids. We've heard of this before. He added a new aspect to this explanation which I've not had occasion to ponder over, and hence refrain from agreeing or disagreeing.
He said that before a person is born, he/she has darshan of God every day, and he requests God to release him out of this bondage, not knowing what awaits him in this world, with the promise that he/she would pray and salute the Lord everyday for the rest of his/her life. God has subjected the person to a tapasya which he has to break in order to take birth and experience the world. But once a child is born it forgets this promise, and gets entangled in worldly prejudices. Our true purpose is to find our promise and the earlier we find it, the better.
We could argue about this forever, as to whether what he said was right or wrong, but we shouldn't miss the point. Philosophy is found in the most unlikely of places, and has nothing to do with what strata of society one belongs to or which school one attended.
He also added later that our humilty and politeness define us as human beings. For this he told of a time when he had cancelled a booking of a person who addressed him disrespecfully. It was good to hear a person who was so sure of himself and knew exactly what he is! I have a recording of what he said, which I'd preserve. I can say its no less than what modern-day babas rant about!
