1. God and the Banana: A Story
2.
Proving God |
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- a short story by Joost Boekhoven
"Forget
it" they said all three. "Long live our Flag and our Country!"
And Death stared them in the face.
It had been a long,
long war and nobody knew who had started it, or why. But everyone
kept their spirits high and their mind fixed on the Meaning of Life.
What was it that gave life Meaning? Why, of course, it was defending
the Honor of the Flag and the Honor of the Country!
Now
there were three brothers fighting in this war, Jada, Tamak and
Sadhak. For many years they did heroic deeds. They fought like lions
to defend the Honor of their Flag, they fought like tigers for the
Honor of their Country, they suffered and sacrificed for this highest
of all causes. But finally there was a day when things went wrong:
the enemy captured them.
When they were brought before
the enemy's commanding officer, he liked their spirit. He saw their
qualities as soldiers and he wanted them to fight on his side. He
promised them that together with him they would defend the Honor
of his Flag and the Honor of his Country, and after a short time
they would surely feel that it was also their Flag and their Country.
It was a just a matter of getting into the habit, he explained.
But the three brothers bravely refused. Now this commander
was a good man, but he had to follow the rules of his profession.
So he barked and bellowed, and threatened that he would have them
executed if they kept refusing. But the three brothers didn't flinch.
"Forget it." they said all three. "Long live our
Flag and our Country!"
The commander had no choice
but to call the firing squad. "You can have a last wish,"
he said, and he promised that they would get the time to enjoy whatever
they would wish. He trusted that they would wish for something honorable.
Jada, the youngest of the three brothers, asked for a
packet of cigarettes and the firing squad patiently waited with
shooting him until he had smoked the whole packet. Jada's last thought
was "I wish I could smoke more..." After a short time
he reincarnated as the chimney of a chemical factory.
Tamak, the second of the three brothers, said he wanted to drink
as much alcohol as he could before they executed him. They brought
ten bottles of wine and he drank and drank and drank until he felt
dizzy but rather happy. His last thoughts were not very clear, but
they had something to do with being full of alcohol. A short time
after his execution Tamak reincarnated as a bottle of wine.
Sadhak was the eldest of the three brothers and he had always
been a bit different. When it was his turn for the last wish, he
said he wanted to get self-realization.
"Self-what?"
the commander inquired rather vehemently. "Self-realization.
It means that you have a flash of deep insight like you have never
had before and the whole world changes in front of your eyes."
Sadhak explained enthusiastically. "At that moment you have
discovered your real Self, you feel how you are connected with everything
else in the world, and you understand everyone and everything. And
you feel at peace with whatever will happen in your life."
The commander blinked a few times. Then he said he was
very sorry, but could the wish not be about something simple?
Sadhak explained that the matter was actually quite simple.
He would do deep meditation for some time, and then the self-realization
would come automatically. "Afterwards you can still execute
me," he reassured the commander.
So he was allowed
to do meditation. He did this for several years, while the war went
on and on. The commander thought that the fulfillment of this wish
took a little longer than he had expected, but he was a man of his
word and let Sadhak continue. Then, after more than five years,
something unexpected happened . . .
One fine day, because
of all his meditation, Sadhak got self-realization. When his mind
returned in this relative world, he looked so happy that the commander
ordered the execution to be delayed so that he could ask a few questions.
"I can't describe what happened," Sadhak answered,
"but you can have the experience for yourself." And he
taught the commander of the enemy how to do meditation. The good
man filled all his free hours with meditation and after some time
the soldiers of the firing squad came and requested if they also
could learn it. Soon more soldiers came and Sadhak became well known,
even outside of the army. Many people of the country started volunteering
for the army, men and women alike, because they also wanted to learn
meditation and get self-realization.
And then, soldiers
began to desert from the army. Everyone who had done meditation
for some time, got the feeling that it was silly to fight for something
limited like the Honor of the Flag and the Honor of the Country.
So it happened that after several years all the people of the country
were doing meditation and refused to fight in the army anymore.
And the war came to an end.
Unhindered the enemy crossed
the border. Its soldiers occupied the country, and suppressed the
people. At last peace could reign, they declared. Sadhak was brought
back to his homeland and welcomed as a hero, and he lived long and
happily ever after -well, that was what he was supposed to do. But
after all these years of meditation he found the victory of his
country completely unimportant. He didn't even feel that he belonged
to that particular country -he simply felt part of the one human
family on this planet. And he felt sorry for the suppressed people
in the occupied country. They were not allowed to keep their own
culture, they had to accept that of their suppressers. They were
not even allowed to do meditation anymore.
So one day
Sadhak secretly disappeared to that country and started to teach
the people there again. But this time he taught them that they had
to fight.
"But we don't want to fight," they
said, shocked, "we want to do meditation and love our enemies."
Sternly he shook his head. "You should not fight
for a country -but you have to fight for your freedom and for the
right to do meditation. What else gives meaning to your life?!"
He convinced the people. Since they all had done meditation
for some time, their minds were strong and their determination unshakable.
They organized themselves quickly and freed their country in a short
and fierce fight. Then they left their enemy in peace.
Sadhak worked until his death as a yoga teacher in both countries
and the only thing in his life he regretted was that he hadn't taught
his brothers Jada and Tamak meditation. Even when he died he had
this thought in his mind.
Sometime later he got reborn
as a highly spiritual person. When he married, he became father
of two children and they were unexplainably familiar to him. As
soon as he could, he taught them meditation...
Linköping,
August 1993
This story was taken from the book "Wishes,
wishes" by Joost Boekhoven.
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