"SADHU nahi hote to CHOR kahan chhipte...."

Recently on a train trip to Delhi, I met a hindu saint who got me thinking about the educated people's prejudices against saints...

He boarded the train ( without ticket..) at a station before Mathura and came to our already packed compartment to request for a seat till Mathura. As already agreed upon by the pessengers, we refused him a seat. He kept standing there. Finally we told him to sit down.

As soon as he took seat, a fellow pessenger, Saleem started to pull his leg.. "Baba kuch chamatkar dikhao", he said..Baba calmly said "Mujhe koi chamatkar nahi aata beta.". Saleem now started narrating an incident when a dhongi baba came to his village, did some magic tricks and fooled people into giving away hundreds of rupees. He then boasted "Main in sab chalo mein nahi aata, maine ek rupiya bhi nahi diya". Baba was listening with patience as Saleem said "Ye sab dhongi baba hote hain" and concluded the story.

Saleem was expecting the baba to be embarassed, instead baba said "Beta, fir bhi tum mujhe chamatkar dikhane ko bol rahe the." Saleem instantly went in to a hole and did not speak for the next few minutes.

I was not involved in the conversation as I was already preoccupied with thoughts of moving to Delhi. But Baba's reply got me instrested.

I was already embarassed with my fellow pessenger's bid . "Sadhu ke bhesh mein dhongi bhi ghumte hain na baba." I said as if to make up for Saleem's act. Baba said "Beta, Jungle nahi hote to mor kahan chhipte, sadhu nahi hote to chor kahan chhipte." and looked at me, I gave a silent nod as if no more explaination was required.

I then started asking curious questions, all of which he answered patiently. Finally he deboarded the train at Mathura, but not before leaving a mark on all pessengers (including Saleem...!)

Law of inertia applied to humans..!!

Great scientist Newton gave three laws relating to motion of bodies in a straight line. These laws form the fundamental principles for other theories pertaining to rest and motion of a body.

The first law also known as the law of inertia states that every body has a tendency to maintain its state of rest or motion unless a force acts on it. While Newton thought strictly on scientific lines and used 'every body' in his principle, we being in a free democracy can take the liberty of extending this law to human behaviour and use "everybody" in the same statement.

Can we not say that human beings also have the same tendency. Whatever is our daily routine, becomes a habit and we start living with it. Humans get into a comfort zone in both static and dynamic states - the states can be thought of as professional, academic, personal, relating to relationships or of any other type. We grow and sustain a routine which seems impossible to break.

It takes a great deal of motivation to bring a change in this routine. One is apprehensive while moving from school to college, from college to job, from one job to another, from a single status to courtship.

Like Newton says, if you roll a marble on an ideal frictionless floor, it will always remain in this state of motion and will roll forever.Similarly a bachelor in the back of his mind does not want to give away of the freedom ( like that of a rolling marble) and enter into marriage. He does so because of internal ( insecurity, loneliness) and external ( social pressure) forces.

Even the most brilliant of people of any profession will need some time after a long break to get into their job. All this time they are applying a force on themselves to overcome the inertia of their comfort zone.

I guess I am facing the same challenge of getting over my inertia and getting into my new routine. Once I start, I wish to be like the rolling marble on the frictionless force.