On faith and attachment...

Jignasu had problems with blind faith in anything. In the beginning, when he did not know Jnani well, he used to doubt everything Jnani said. Jignasu argued, how could one have faith in someone one didnt know well, how could he be sure that Jnani was not one of the hundreds who only look but don't see, hear but don't listen, know but don't understand? How could he be sure that Jnani had true wisdom and not just knowledge? Did not the kathopanishad say that people arrogant in their knowledge that they alone know the supreme and their followers are like blind men led by the blind man on a hilly region...forever destined to roam without peace?
He asked the same question to Jnani once and he calmly smiled and told him a story...

Once there was a mountaineer who wanted to conquer a peak. He wanted to set a record and was climbing at a very fast rate. He left all his team members far behind. He was climbing fater and faster and wanted to make it to the summit before the sunset. The weather became rough and a violent storm appeared on the flanks of the mountain. But the mountaineer kept on pushing determined to reach the summit. It became quite dark, yet he kept on moving braving the stormy weather. But as fate would have it, there was an avalanche and the mountaineer dropped into the abyss below...As he began to fall, all his life passed before him like a flash, he thought he would die and suddenly his rope became taut and he was there hanging in the air... in pitch darkness. He had lost the orientation and didnt know where he was. He remembered God and prayed him to save his life. There was a voice from above, which said, 'Son do you want me to save your life?'. Please do, replied the mountaineer. 'Then cut the rope' said the voice. On listening to this, mountaineer kept quiet and held on more tightly to the rope.
In the morning, his other team members found his body, hanging from a cliff...Just four feet above the ground.

In our life, things we do and the goals we seek are towards a purpose; and that really is to understand ourselves better and be happy. But like an archer, we can strike the target partly by pulling and partly by letting some things go. So are the things in our life, if we cling to our past, the arrow will never leave the bow. and if we don't reflect and act in the present, the arrow will fall short of the target in future. So son, having faith is important before you have capability to see the truth yourself. Have faith and realise the truth. But having faith in truth does not imply that you should cease your quest. It infact should motivate you to realise the truth. And finally, like true love, true faith will make you stronger. If it does not, then neither is it true love nor is it faith. Its just another delusion.

Jnani now turned to Jignasu and asked, how tightly do you hold on to your ropes son?

Epilogue:
To those of you who read a lot of quotes, etc many of the entries in this blog may sound familiar. Indeed they are, these ideas have been absorbed by me over the years and I don't really know their source most of the times. So, I do not claim to be an original author. I stand on the shoulders of great thinkers of all ages (this is similar to Issac Newton's quote :) ). I would consider my effort successful if I can evoke the same feelings, I feel when I think about these issues, in the readers as is the norm in the Indian dramatic tradition.