indispensability

:-))

I don't know,
which one to start with...
a joke,
or the serious part of it :-))

The joke is a bit old one (but not famous, since it did happen 'along' with me in it :-))...}

A girl of about 11 or 12 asked me (it was some 45 years ago)... “What is the meaning of indispensable”?

She was in a school at a very remote village, and teachers were not too-vulnerable to being exposed for their ignorance.. They parry (deflect, like arrows are thwarted) such queries with a standard reply “look into the dictionary... when will you learn to use it?”

I looked into her eager eyes...
She had 'great expectations' out of me... (she and her younger sister used to enjoy the 'mind set' via accents, styles and dialogues of a city youth like me... for a rustic kid, it was ample entertainment).

So, I picked that 'route'...

I said, suppose you go to this toilet ...
(I have to briefly explain the 'this-toilet'... They had very recently 'housed' a modern toilet –flush type-- though Indian style of seating, and ... the search for a small place left them with no choice other than a tiny room adjoining a main hall, meant to be stuffed with junk toys, old items of disuse, etc... Their usual toilet was too simple... a large pit, with good stone pillars laid across, and a wall around it, with a tiled roof, about 100 metres away from the dwelling... water was carried from a well.. it was excellently hygienic, though of an old style... the 'collections' were regularly made into good manure, and no harmful germs/insects were allowed to thrive)...
“this toilet”.. I continued.. “ has a tap with a small water tank overhead, connected... somebody forgot to switch on the motor, and the tank is dry... Some guests are in the hall... you need water to wash, and then come out of the toilet... you can't shout, as-usual... 'mom, no-water...!!'... Now, tell me, don't you 'find' water to be 'indispensable'?”...
As expected, this tiny girl burst into an uncontrollable laughter, and I had to wait, till she finished with her laughing bouts.. (Something so-good about these simple village girls was, they are quite intense with their emotions... they thoroughly live-through every thought-process, and therefore the learning-curve was too-good!)...
Then she collected herself (the laughter session brought her mom, my aunt into the hall, leaving something burning on the wood-stove, at the old-style-kitchen!... She first stared bewildered, and then joined in the joke, to laugh together with her child....).
As if to amply reward me ... this girl declared, “Never again will I require to look at its meaning for the rest of my life!... I guess, I can even use this word all-by-myself, to its best potentials!!!”...

....

What I found was... most people around , due to sheer desperation of ensuring a 'decently-respected-survival' try to make even 'themselves'.... quite indispensable , at least at crucial or vital areas of activity...
It touches a ridiculous low... when a spouse says... “Without me, he can't even reach a towel by himself/ without me, she can't even ...... (I prefer to leave it blank.... readers may guess anything)..

At school... a clerk holds the management to ransom, by abruptly disappearing on 'fee-collection' day...
At work place... say banks... the annual closing phase, the year end... is a strict-no-absenteeism week...
The list is endless...

People are reluctant to share with their expertise, for fear of becoming redundant... once 'anybody' can do a job!

Unfortunately, spiritual concepts... when they are by-themselves so-mystic already, ... the aam aadmi finds it so-convenient to blame the fellow who is a bit familiar with its intricacies!...
Unlike empirical laws (its knowledge)... these concepts are 'purely-experiential'... we jump into the cauldron, like the chemicals we put inside a test-tube, and see-for-ourselves!... Yes, nature has been amply generous to give us the basic tools already... But we made/rendered ourselves into such a state, that even to 're-introduce' us to our own basic tools, a guide is needed (and therefore, the debate, ... whether a Guru is really needed!).

Recently somebody asked me, “This Shani temple entry... is it biologically not good for a woman?”..
Now, the word 'biologically' itself, assumes the 'asker's' own absolute-certainty, that no-other aspect is going to be vulnerable... the non-biological areas like the mind, its psychology, and the 'being' (by whatever name we call it, the prime energy that keeps ticking inside us as 'life')...

I had a choice...
I could have suggested: “Did you verify the credentials of that 'brigade' ?” (Some vested interests could have backed the protests, assuring some kind of highlighting, social fame etc.. Politicians are so-seriously upset, when one top politicians abruptly closed the pipelines of illegitimate income.. Aadhaar linking made the siphoning of 'subsidy' in the LPG cylinders difficult... Neem-coating of Urea made its cheap subsidized availability for industrial use impossible.. the cascading effect renders thousands of parasitical bureaucrats of even lower level to starve for their luxury expenses, out of unearned income!)...

I could have asked: “Did those protesters clearly spell out, what they lost-exactly, by being deprived of a prayer inside the sanctum?...” (it implies that the deity... is not 'really' as powerful as thought-of-to-be.. and the attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence etc are mere ornamental embellishments, and have nothing to do with existential applications :-)) it also implies that, a clear understanding about the process of consecration, etc is assumed)...

I granted the 'benefit' of doubt... and explained it 'my usual way'... (and I knew, even this is going to just render the asker out-of-stock, unless, the intent is to pursue me with irrelevant and side-tracking queries)...

It was my spiritual journey which reassured me that I was quite right about my choice (while practically, I found myself an odd-idiot, when I easily shared what ever I knew with almost anybody around, )... and my choice was based on a simple logic (maybe my own stupidity), that... when I make the next person do what I can, and especially if that person is 'branded' as a dumb-fellow, is it not an extension of 'myself', and therefore my functionality through my-extension, with the same dexterity, as that of mine, ... in doing that job?... Am I not being in Unison with the cosmic law, that everyone is closely knit, in their deep inter-dependence with everything and everyone around?

Whatever... I did not feel having lost anything much out of keeping aside that fear of becoming redundant, when I abstain from attempting my-own-indispensability... instead, maybe ... I learnt something more... about that very expertise... plus... the other person, whether it is his ability to learn, or otherwise :-))

dispensably yours,

psn(18th April, 2016)