Visions of Champaklal

The Sage and the Old Book

1980-09-28

We started with a few persons none of whom was known to us. Suddenly, I got isolated. I do not know how it happened. I looked around, but they all had left me and gone away. I was wondering what I should do. In the meantime, someone came and asked me, “Why are you sitting here?” I narrated the whole incident. He told me, “Never mind, come with me, a train will come for you soon.” He, then, asked me to sit down and left.

I decided to walk around. Just then, I saw something like a shop, but when I went in I found that it was not a shop but a library. There, a few persons were engaged in reading—but most of the time they kept chatting. Near the entrance, there was a waste-paper basket in which I saw something like a long notebook. I picked it up hesitatingly and found that the writing was done only on one side of each leaf leaving the other side blank. It must be an old notebook as all the pages had become yellow. I enquired of a person sitting nearby whether someone had thrown it there by mistake, “No, no, it is old and useless; you can even see the colour of the pages.” I said, “It is very old and there is some writing inside.” He said, “It is a meaningless prattle of some mad man.” “May I take it?” I asked. They all burst into laughter. “Yes, yes, you can certainly take it.” One of them laughed and said, “You have done a good job and reduced the load.” Everyone laughed again. At first, I had picked it up with the intention of using the blank sides of the leaves, but I got more interested in it when I heard that it was the prattle of a mad man, because, what is generally ignored by us as a mad man's prattle is sometimes very interesting. Hence I took it to look at it at leisure.

There was a garden closeby. In the meanwhile a car came and the watchman ran and opened the door. In the car, a sage was sitting on the rear seat, while the front seat alongside the driver was occupied by a rich-looking man in simple clothes. I do not know the reason why I thought him rich. As the door opened, I followed the car. But the gatekeeper shouted, “Hey, wait.” Hearing him shout the sage asked to stop the car. The man sitting in front said, “Swamiji, this is not for us.” Still Swamiji enquired what had actually happened. On seeing me, he asked me to sit with him in the car. He was very pleased to see in my hand the book which I had picked from the waste-paper basket and asked me, “Is this yours?” I said, “It is mine as long as the will of the Omnipotent allows me to keep it.” Swamiji said, “What do you mean?” I described in detail how I had got the book.

Swamiji said, “This is a rare book. Many years ago there was a saint who remained unrecognised. My Guruji had told me only about this. I was searching for this book, but in vain. Today, I have got it by chance. Although what we think to be a chance occurrence is really not so. Now, you come with me.” I went without any hesitation. On seeing Swamiji treat me with due respect, the other gentleman too did so. We went into a building specially constructed for Swamiji, which was situated at such a place that we felt as if we were in the Himalayas. Swamiji showed me the whole place and lovingly insisted on my staying there. I told him that I must go and meet the people who were with me. Swamiji said that it was not possible as they had left me intentionally. I was not convinced. Swamiji smiled and said, “I expected that you would not believe it, but it is true. You stay here. You cannot read everything that is written in this book, you may understand only a little here and there. Even if I read it for you, you need experience in order to understand it. I will enjoy explaining all this to you.” I told him that he could keep the book if he wanted to. Swamiji said, “It is all the same, whether you have it or I have it. Right now, you may go and take rest in the front room.” My eyes opened.