PARABLE OF THE
PIANO
“In one of the smaller
towns in North America there was a church which had a custom-built piano. It
was a much treasured piece and played only on very special occasions and that
too by acknowledged experts. On a particular Sunday, a stranger who was in his
late eighties approached the priest with the hesitant request that he be
allowed to operate the instrument for a while at the conclusion of service. The
priest explained to him gently, ‘I am sorry to disappoint you, Sir, but the fact
is that the piano is very precious to us. If it were to show any fault, there
is no artisan today who can repair it.’ The gentleman retired to the pews and
the service commenced.
“After prayers
and sermon the flock was dispersing and the priest was at the door to see them
off with a blessing for each. Just then mellifluous and soul-uplifting
piano-music filled the air. The bhaktas stood spellbound and the priest himself was
entranced. After an hour the strains of music tapered off; and only then it
occurred to them all to look in the direction of the dais. Imagine the pleasant
surprise of the padre when he saw at the piano none other than the elderly
stranger whose request to play he had earlier turned down. In contrition, the
priest approached the senior citizen to congratulate him respectfully for the
deep spiritual experience he had provided to them all. ‘I did not know you were
a Master-musician, Sir,’ he said. To which the stranger replied. ‘I am only a
piano-maker, Father, and I was residing in this town 50 years ago. I made this
particular piano specially as a gift to this church. I
took great care in selecting the wood, in tempering the metal and even in
preparing the varnish. I am familiar with every inch of this instrument and
know all the nuances of music it is capable of yielding.’
“What I have
related in detail is based on a parable by Swami Rama
Tirtha (1873 – 1906) to convey the profound message: ‘Surrender
to the Maker; and divine music will flow out of you in a natural sequence.’ The
Swami had himself done just that and hence the power of his word which we can
feel in our heart to this day.
“Now, who is
this mysterious Maker to whom you are enjoined on to offer yourself up? He is
not a person with ten heads and twenty arms, but the formless state of Omnipotence
from which this Universe comprising objects and appearances came into being and
in which the Universe would eventually subside at the close of its drama under
the entropic Laws of Thermodynamics.
“How is it
possible to surrender to a state not personified in any manner and how are we
to identify it in the first instance? Thayumanavar
comes to our aid in this investigation. He takes up the
animates – those beings that crawl or walk or fly. Are they not
compounded out of the five elements viz., energy-particles, air, fire, water
and earth (solid matter)? What has been assembled at a particular point of time
would resolve into its components at a later point of time. That brings things
back to the five elements which in turn have to subside in, and be absorbed in
their origin and source. That is the
“Now I am
speaking and you are all listening. We are functioning in the state of Becoming which is an evolution from Being. Laws of
functioning come into play only in the realm of Becoming. Remember the example
I gave you once before, about the road-traffic with all its tensions impinging
on you and involving you in its whirls only when you enter into it. In the
state of functioning you do an act and you cannot escape the consequence, whether
it is pleasurable or painful. You kick your front door because it won’t open
readily and you wince and squeal in pain as a sequel. Bhagavan
Ramana Maharishi was once seen
with a bandage around a finger. When enquired about it, he said in a
matter-of-fact way, ‘Oh, my hand touched the knife.’ The knife is an inanimate
object remaining where it is as per Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion. The hand
of sentient man strayed out and tampered with the knife and a bleeding cut is
what it got, not as a punishment, mind you, but only as a consequence in the
functioning state of the Universe. Has not R. G. Ingersoll
said, ‘Under Nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are only
consequences’?
“When
Consciousness is cribbed and cabined by attachment to material objects, it has
a tendency to slip into emotional moods, this leading to deeds producing pain
to others and self. Further it would not be aware of the value of the
life-energy, depletion of which would weaken both body and mind.
“Repeated and
continued suffering, extended to many generations even, impels the mind to
investigate the cause for misery. Clarity gained through this investigation
renders the mind to probe into its own origin and what does it find except that
it itself is only a phenomenon, a projection of the life-energy circulating
within the physical system. This finding represents the second level of
Consciousness or informed and experiential awareness of the Spirit that is
life.
“Virtue dawns
at this level since the mind, from now onwards, would like to conserve and not
squander its capital. Not causing pain is the surest means to guard against
misery, and is the lesson learnt here which has to be translated into practice.
There is unmistakable awareness of the inexorable niyati of Nature working as the
Action-and-Result Principle, as much in human life as in the wide space of the
Universe where the two balancing forces viz., Attraction and Repulsion hold the
stars and planets in their appropriate orbits. After observing the night-sky, Thayumanavar, wonders how he had missed this lesson till
then!
“A peaceful
mind proceeds to trace the origin of the life-energy. Going beyond universal
gravity, it has to locate the base and the grand cause of the panorama. This
very exercise broadens and elevates the mind which now encompasses the whole of
the Universe and extrapolates beyond. And what does it alight upon other than
the Permanent Principle, the Static Substratum – that which was the same
yesterday, which is the same today and which would be the same tomorrow.! That is Brahman,
Meiporul, Truth – call It by any name. There is nothing to compare It
with; and it is in this flash of elevated Consciousness that Jesus the Christ
exclaimed in wonderment, ‘Whereunto shall we liken the
“We started the
evening with the piano and have we come a long way from it? No, Sirs, the piano
is very much with us and it is waiting for the touch of the Master, its own
Maker so as to give forth its best in terms of music. Music is only harmonized sound;
and it is this divine music that Sant Thiagaraja had in mind (read ‘piano!’) when he sang, ‘other
than the knowledge of music and deep-rooted faith, there is no noble Path.’ "
— Sage TGN
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