This birthday, a colleague sent me a quote from Rumi—“There is a field beyond right doing and wrong doing. I will meet you there.” The lines have been roaming around in my mind since then. How many people have we met in the field that is beyond right doing and wrong doing? That kind of connection would be beyond everything.
Few years back, two friends and I signed up for a car rally. All three of us had already had various escapades together, like only the young and carefree can! We were a motley crew of Neville, the doctor, Johnson, the musician, and me, the whatever. All of us came from different backgrounds, different regions and even different religions.
The car rally was like a common landmark in our life histories. I was the driver and those two were the navigators. We drove through the jungles of Quepem, all the time wondering if we were on the right track or would we end up in Mangalore? Like one does in life, we went through some real rough patches too. At one point both of them had to get off from the Bolero and find huge rocks, put them in a line, and create a pathway, so that I could drive the car through a rain created rivulet. Our water and biscuits got over quite early, but the laughter never did.
We were the first to reach the finishing line, much to the chagrin of all our 130 competitors. But we didn’t care! The journey itself had been so immense, who cared about the goal? Thoroughly exhausted, but still meandering between explosive laughter and light hearted banter, we went home. Last month, all three of us had a reunion lunch, and again the banter and laughter ensued, no matter how many years had passed in between, or how many grudges too! And we were again on ‘Rumi’s field’, beyond reasons and motives.
There is so much common ground in every human heart that it far outweighs the differences. And yet there are entities like Muthallik who thrive on differences and divisions, based on imagined non-issues of cultural purity. How shallow seems the inane concept of cultural purity when compared to the genuine connection of compassion and mutual respect, among people from any background? Only that is the real evolution in culture. The rest is hogwash created by bigots, preying on the insecurities of non-discerning people. Let no one smother the natural impulse of a human being to connect with another human being, irrespective of boundaries.
Rumi’s field is out there for us to visit anytime, provided we realize that we are all human before we are anything else.
