I really did not attend primary school much, because the river was so
attractive and its call was irresistible. So I was always at the river--not alone
of course, but with many other students. Then there was the forest beyond
the river. And there was so much real geography to explore--who bothered
about the dirty map that they had in the school? I was not concerned where
Constantinople was, I was exploring on my own: the jungle, the river--there
were so many other things to do.
For example, as my grandmother had slowly taught me to read, I started
reading books. I don't think anybody before or after me had ever been so
involved in the library of that town. Now they show everybody the place
where I used to sit, and the place where I used to read and write notes. But
in fact they should show people that this was the place from where they
wanted to throw me out. They threatened me again and again.
But once I started reading, a new dimension opened. I swallowed the whole
library, and I started reading the books that I love most to my grandmother
at night. You will not believe it, but the first book I read to her was The Book
of Mirdad. That began a long series.
Of course once in a while, she used to ask, in the middle of a book, the
meaning of a certain sentence, or passage, or a whole chapter--just the gist
of it. I would say to her, "Nani, I have been reading it to you, and you have
not heard it?"
She said, "You know, when you read I become so interested in your voice
that I completely forget what you are reading. To me, you are my Mirdad.
Unless you explain it to me, Mirdad will remain absolutely unknown as far
as I am concerned."
So I had to explain to her, but that was a great discipline to me. To explain,
to help the other person who is willing to go a little deeper than he could go
on his own, to hold him by the hand, slowly slowly, that became my whole
life. I have not chosen it. .
I am an unplanned man, that is why I stay still wild. Sometimes I wonder
what I am doing here, teaching people to be enlightened. And once they
become enlightened, I immediately start teaching them how to become
unenlightened again. What am I doing? glimps26
I have loved many books, thousands of books, but none like Turgenev's
Fathers and Sons. I used to force my poor father to read it. He is dead,
otherwise I would have asked him to forgive me. Why did I force him to
read the book? That was the only way for him to understand the gap
between himself and me. But he was really a wonderful man, he used to
read the book again and again, just because I said. It wasn't once he read
it, but many times. And not only did he read the book, but at least between
him and me the gap was bridged. We were no longer father and son.
That ugly relationship of father and son, mother and daughter, and so on..
at least with me my father dropped it, we became friends. It is difficult to be
friends with your own father, or your own son; the whole credit goes to him,
not to me. Books13
Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection: for his whole life, Leo Tolstoy was concerned,
immensely concerned with Jesus, hence the title, Resurrection. And Leo
Tolstoy has really created a tremendous work of art. It has been a bible to
me. I can still see myself, when I was young, continuously carrying
Tolstoy's Resurrection with me. Even my father became worried. "It is okay
to read a book," he said to me one day, "but why do you go on carrying this
book the whole day? You have read it."
I said, "Yes, I have read it, not only once but many times. But I am going to
carry it with me." My whole village knew about it, that I was continuously
carrying a certain book called Resurrection. They all thought I was mad and
a madman can do anything. But why was I carrying Resurrection the whole
day?--and not only during the day, but during the night too. The book was
with me by my bed. I loved it. .the way Leo Tolstoy reflects the whole
message of Jesus. He succeeds far more than any of the apostles, except
Thomas.. books13
I don't like Gorky. He is a communist, and I hate communists. When I hate I
simply hate, but the book The Mother, even though written by Maxim
Gorky, I love it. I have loved it my whole life. I had so many copies of that
book that my father used to say,
"Are you mad? One copy of a book is enough, and you go on ordering
more! Again and again I see a postal package and it is nothing but another
copy of The Mother by Maxim Gorky. Are you mad or something?"
I said to him, "Yes, as far as Gorky's The Mother is concerned, I am mad,
utterly mad."
When I see my own mother I remember Gork
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