Swami Madhava Chaitanya,
A few years back I was in God's own country Kerala. There I had a friend. His skin color was very black. He used to joke that all the beautiful women he approached to get married saw his body color and frowned. I often jokingly asked him, why don't you black man marry a black girl? He would laugh. And he would have avoided answering that question.
One day we went to a handloom clothing store together. In Kerala, handloom fabrics are very popular. There was only one girl under the age of 25 in that handloom clothing store. From the necklace with a cross around her neck, I guessed she was a Christian. But what surprised me was that her color was so dark. She told us that her father was the real owner of the shop and he went out for some essential work. She told us to wait until her father came. From our conversation, I felt that she could speak beautifully. Pointing to my friend, I laughed and told her: "Why haven't you met each other before?" She understood what I meant. She laughed and told me: "I am not interested in a wedding". I felt that her smile was full of sadness. I just asked her: "You have a lot of pain in your inner. is it because of your color?" I had some guesses about her reaction.
I thought she would react emotionally. I asked her such a question thinking that she would get relief if she responded. But her response was beyond all my assumptions. It was an explosion. My friend went out to smoke, so it was easy for me to control the situation. Knowing that there was no other answer to such expressions than silence, I stared into her eyes and remained silent.
Her first question was "Do you know why I'm alive now?" I was silent. "I now live only by remembering about my parents. Do you know how long I thought of committing suicide? Do you know how much humiliation I have suffered since childhood? Do you know how much I hate people?" She asked me a bunch of questions like this. I do not know if it was the peace she achieved for herself or my silence. Within a few moments, she calmed down. When I realized she was calm, I asked: "If you do not want to get married then what is the purpose of your life?" She replied with great determination: "I want to be a nun". She wants to be the bride of Christ. "But my parents do not allow me to do that. For them, I have to marry and live with my husband and children. They force me to do it. What should I do?" She asked me for a counter-question. I laughed and said: "You must obey your parents". She looked me sharp and asked: "Is it because I am not a man, I can't be? You are a monk, why can't I tried to explain to her: "It's not because you are a woman. But if you go to the monastery with a restless mind, life will go to hell".
She was not ready to accept my arguments easily. By then her father had returned. This incident made me think deeply about my student days. Calling other students by their nicknames was our hobby. Create names according to shape and color, such as black, fat, bone, fool, and deaf. Call it a joke. All of this was the entertainment of the students, including me. It amazed me that such entertainment can only hurt the mind so much. The wounds inflicted on the human mind by the actions of ignorance are profound. The truth of the great saying that ignorance is the root cause of human evil always remains. What we do unknowingly, we do for fun and pride, plunges many human lives into hell.
Another issue to consider in this regard is that apartheid is not limited to white countries. Kerala is not a white people area. I have seen such race discrimination in many countries including China. I also met a young French woman of white descent in Shanghai who was married to an African man named Frank who was my friend and a singer. As we can see from this, racial discrimination is not limited to any one population or country. It is spread across all countries and communities. It's just that the color of the skin is also used to compete between humans. Most of the people who insulted her did not do it knowingly. But she hates human beings. Thinking from her side, she has never received anything in her life that makes to love people. From her words, it seemed to me that she loved God because she hated people. She chose the path of God to hide her hatred and enmity.
This is one of the most dangerous things lurking in the path of God. Many people with mental and physical disabilities choose the path of God to cover it up. A group of sex addicts and hypocrites see the path of God as a means to secure their passions. It is easy to find many such hypocrites in the path of God.
A young man I met in the middle of a train journey asked me if I could help him. I replied to him: "How can I give you my word without knowing the subject? You tell me the subject first". I replied that young man: "I will try if you tell me things that are true". At my insistence, he introduced the subject with the assurance that I would not tell anyone else. I agreed to him. He told me that he was a regular visitor to a famous spiritual ashram in the Southern part of India. He was very close to the ashram founder chief. He took his fiancé to the ashram and introduced it to the chief. She was a Malaysian citizen. She too became very close to the chief of the ashram. He raped her. Then a young man asked me: "How can I take an act of revenge?" I told you, in the first step you have to do a police complaint. He said he can't do that. I asked for the reason. He said: "My mother and sister are living in that ashram". I asked: "What about your fiancé?" He said: "She doesn't want to do a police complaint". She takes the Ashram chief as her teacher. How can give a police complaint against her teacher?" I said to him: "It is a very complicated issue. It is not so easy for a human being to handle such issues. Please pray to God".
The path of God is considered the purest path in all human societies. Why the same God’s path becomes one of the filthiest? For the world to be peaceful, God's way must be cleansed first.
The next part of the story will upload very soon
