Spiritual understanding often remains hidden when looking only at scattered fragments, revealing itself only when patience and synthesis unite life’s separate elements into a meaningful whole.
“After years of searching, the seeker was told to go to a cave in which he would find a well. ‘Ask the well what is truth’, he was advised, ‘and the well will reveal it to you.’
Having found the well, the seeker asked that most fundamental question. And from the depths came the answer, ‘Go to the village crossroad: there you shall find what you are seeking.’
Full of hope and anticipation, the man ran to the crossroad to find only three rather uninteresting shops. One shop was selling pieces of metal, another sold wood, and thin wires were for sale in the third. Nothing and no one there seemed to have much to do with the revelation of truth.
Disappointed, the seeker returned to the well to demand an explanation, but he was told only, ‘You will understand in the future.’ When the man protested, all he got in return were the echoes of his own shouts. Indignant for having been made a fool of — or so he thought at the time — the seeker continued his wanderings in search of truth.
As years went by, the memory of his experience at the well gradually faded until one night, while he was walking in the moonlight, the sound of sitar music caught his attention. It was wonderful music and it was played with great mastery and inspiration.
Profoundly moved, the truth seeker felt drawn towards the player. He looked at the fingers dancing over the strings. He became aware of the sitar itself. And then suddenly he exploded in a cry of joyous recognition: the sitar was made out of wires and pieces of metal and wood just like those he had once seen in the three stores and had thought it to be without any particular significance.
At last he understood the message of the well: We have already been given everything we need: our task is to assemble and use it in the appropriate way.
Nothing is meaningful so long as we perceive only separate fragments. But as soon as the fragments come together into a synthesis, a new entity emerges, whose nature we could not have foreseen by considering the fragments alone.
Source: http://www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/
This story has another title, ‘Life is all the ingredients.’
Roger Darlington is a British author, trade union official, and public policy specialist who writes short stories, film reviews, and commentary on workplace dynamics, communication, and technology.
The sitar is a classical Indian plucked string instrument prominent in Hindustani music, renowned for its shimmering timbre, resonance and delicate tonal expressiveness. Built with a long, hollow mahogany or teak neck, a rounded gourd resonator (tumbā), and movable arched frets, it features a dual layer of playing strings and sympathetic strings (tarabh) that vibrate in harmony. Historically perfected and popularised in the 20th century by virtuosos such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar enables artists to execute intricate microtonal bends (meend) and complex rhythmic improvisations (rāga), making it an enduring symbol of South Asian artistic tradition.
Image: An India Post commemorative postage stamp issued in 2014 to honour sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.