Desire 10 feet under.

Please read the title of this writing very carefully because at the end, you require to recall, you need to regain what desire 10 feet under is. Somehow I managed to find this title and according to me it is quite appropriate for what I have experienced one day in Nepal. Before this moment I saw, everything was perfectly fine; every event I went through could be defined as perfect vacation trip. I had nice tours of Snow Mountains, lakes, caves, streets and monasteries etc. After covering almost the whole touring spots of Nepal my body begged for a relaxing day. I gave all due respect to my body and allowed it to go into hibernation for one day. I slept quietly on a vacation and at the same point of time I postponed some of my visit of some important places. After a relaxed day and relaxed mind my journey begun again.

            It was a New Year gift from the nature that it wouldn’t allow the whole Nepalese public to see the sun. On same cloudy day I decided to move out of my room to a well known place of kathmandu called “Pashupatinath temple”. The temple which I have heard many times from people’s mouth and that made this destination must visit destination. It is immaterial to say that most of the Indian visit Nepal for two purposes, either “to ask the desire” or “to fulfill some desire” (I belong to none of them). Those who are close to their death or busy in opening the thread of this complicated life visits all possible temples of Nepal and beg for the desire. Second kind of people is in their twenties or thirties visit Nepal to fulfill their sexual desire. So visit defines the purpose and the purpose also depends on the age of the visitor. Without discussing further on the definition of the purpose I will share my experience.

            I entered into the premises of “Pashupati Nath” temple and gave a panoramic look to the whole compound. You cannot expect a place to be clean when almost thousands of people visit daily with their “Hindu” mentality. For me Hindu mentality means we believe in GOD and that GOD is an object of feeling who is sitting somewhere on the top of the head or in the temple for giving what we need. God is having a “Danda” to punish for our wrong deeds and for that we ask for “Kshama” and God is having lots of “materialistic khajana” from which he can give whatever we need. Now for that matter we always try to impress the God with all material stuffs. And no doubt priests take full opportunity to make us fool on this issue, “Higher the price, better the darshan”. I went inside the temple with full faith and sat there for sometime and meditated. After opening my eyes I saw how good priests are bargaining for the desire. So altogether it was not worshiping, it was the dealing of desires. “Ek haath de, dooje haath le”. With a smile on my face I started walking inside the premises and kept on watching people and priests.

            And suddenly I reached to a temple behind the main temple where some old age people were singing some “bhajans” and “aarti”. I liked the way they were playing the instruments and singing. I prefer to spend sometime there, with them I also sung some bhajans till now everything was fine. Suddenly, some sound strike into my ears, sound of people crying. I turned behind moved couple of feet and tried to reach to see what is going on. I reached to the boundary wall of the temple premises and saw a group of people were crying because of death of their beloved one. And just beside that there was a stair which was connecting the temple and the place of cremation area. I stared that stair for couple of minute and I saw that stair was like a connecting link between “Desire” and “No desire”. I mean temple and the cremation area and the height was just 10 feet. 10 feet above where people were busy in begging for desires and trading with god, just 10 feet below nothing exists. No world, No cloths, no perfume, No deo, No car, No home, No beta, No beti and the list is endless noting else matters. Then someone expressed his feeling from behind “Aji marne ke baad aapke ghar wale do din nahi rakhte aapko ghar me”. Sounds funny but true. With all anxiety I left the temple premises immediately and went to a place from where I could see both the scene together. People 10 feet above were looking feverish and greedy. People 10 feet down were looking close to the knowledge of liberation. I spent almost 3 hours over there with absolute silence inside me. Saw 1, 2, 3, 4 cremated bodies and after that I also started enjoying the play of life. And come up with these couple of lines:

“The thing I learned at Pashupatinath temple: Between desire and No desire there is only one thing that is breath...Know Your Breath.”

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