I have been listening to the phrase "You are a devil" from many people around me including my parents, my brother and also from my friends on a lighter note. I always wondered, was that really true? and I was always unable to infer why until some thing happened which made everything clear to me. On a sluggish Sunday morning I woke up and was ready to take the day as easy as possible to relax my mind from the whole weeks turmoil. To wake up at around 9 in the morning then sitting in front of the TV for an hour or so and then to proceed with a heavy breakfast then back to TV. Things seem so easy and peaceful. I could feel time ticking second by second so slowly. I always enjoyed that. This Sunday was no different.
Before going for a bath I thought of shaving my lightly grown beard so that I don’t have to shave on the Monday morning. Anyways the first feeling of waking up on a Monday morning itself is bad hope I had an option to wake up directly on a Tuesday morning. I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the shaving mirror looking at the handsome character in the mirror :-), I couldn't stop staring at myself. I saw the beard, it was very light infact. Thoughts to shave it or not started in my mind. Just to avoid the Monday morning blue I thought of going for it. I put some foam on my beard and mustache; smeared it evenly all across. Again looked at my face in the mirror, raised my eyebrows and a final sigh before starting to shave it off. It was a new razor and hence the shave was smooth. I cleared everything around the cheeks and lower part of the chin and near the throat except for my goti. Foam still remained on my chin and on my mustache. Now I wanted to shave the mustache off. Cleared it from sideways and was about to shave below the nose and damn... the tip of the new blade cut the tip of my nose. For a fraction of a second everything seemed normal and then it started to bleed. I just looked at it for a couple of seconds I didn't know how it happened or what was I supposed to do. I just stood there watching my tip of the nose bleed.
I remembered a saying in Kannada saying, translated to English here "Anger resides in the tip of the nose of a human being". A wicked smile was seen on my face. All of a sudden I rushed out to my mom who was preparing breakfast for us and said, "Your son is one step closer attaining nirvana". She turned back and asked me what was I talking about and was amused to see my nose bleeding. She asked me what happened and I iterated, "I am one step close to attain Moksha (nirvana or enlightenment)". She asked me what I meant. I told her that today I let go of all my anger since I had cut my nose tip. And we started laughing. My mom called my dad and bro to take a look at the great achievement I had done. They were all proud of me... hahahaha LOL
As a human being we have six bad qualities called as "Arishadvarga" in us by birth as per the Hindu philosophy. They are Kama (lust, craze, desire), Krodha (anger, hatred), Lobha (greed, miserliness, narrow minded), Moha (delusory emotional attachment), Mada or ahankara (pride, stubborn mindedness) and Maathsarya (envy, jealousy, show or vanity, and pride). One who can give away all these qualities can become a supreme human being and can attain Moksha or nirvana or enlightenment as its called.
So I was one step closer to attain the same since I had cut off source of anger from my body. This is how tried to put it. I came back to bathroom just to clean my nose from blood and to put some after shave. As soon as I applied the after shave it started to burn like hell but I thought this was a small price I was paying for such a life time achievement. I heard my brother come behind me and say "You proved you are a devil today". I asked him how. He replied I resembled "Shurpanakha".
Shurpanakha is a mythological character in Hindu epic of "Ramayana". Shurpanakha is the sister of Ravana, the devil king of Lanka and was a devil herself. She comes to Lakshmana the brother of Rama, the Hindu god, with a proposal to marry him. Lakshmana rejects her and makes fun of her. In order to take revenge, she attacks Sita, queen of lord Rama, which Lakshamana opposes and cuts her nose and sends her back to Lanka. Humiliated Shurpanakha goes to her brother Ravana and complains about it which leads to whole story of Ramayana.
Since I had cut my own nose and resembled her, I was part of the devil family now and the puzzle of everyone calling me a devil unfolded with proof infront of my eyes. I couldn't deny the charges made on me, neither was I angry. I also understood that you lose something (anger) to gain something (being devil). I went to office on the next Monday morning and did share my experience with my friends and colleagues. This was the experience with which I wanted to start my blog but that’s ok... When the feeling of cutting the nose itself is so good everything else seems OK... :-)
- a man cuts a bit of nose on Woman's day & moves a step closer to Nirvana!! :)
I wish all nips & cuts that stray humans suffer from leads to some unusual phenomenon like this! The world will be a better place indeed.
Couldn't understand the devil part though.. It wud mean that u are a nobler human being.. something akin to an angel perhaps..
:P
Thanks Radhika. Nice to see your comment. The nose cut happened on Sunday 21/Feb/2010 so its not Women's day special :-). Devil since I resembled Shurpanakha and Nirvana since I got rid of anger, virtually though...
Thank god I travel with a devil every day to office and then back to home. I don't need to worry about any outside devils ;) Good to read through for an easy way to attain the state of Nirvana!
Just one step. Go ahead and try your luck to Nirvana today. I am sure you will be happy as I am. :) Would you need any other devil when you have such powerful one with you ;)
Nice article bro..