Supply and Demand

Hi Ignorant Ones,

I hope you have imbibed the essence of the Lesson One from the last post.

In this lesson, I will reveal to you a secret which my Guru had forbidden me from doing so before his death. I have been waiting for his demise so that I can proclaim this truth from the housetop. Here it is:

SUPPLY AND DEMAND



On a Monsoon evening, my Master asked me : What is the force that governs the world?

I thought for a moment and shot back, like a student trying to outsmart others with the speed in answering 'God'. Master said: Think again. That set me thinking. After a while, I said softly 'Truth'. Master laughed heartily and told me: Make a last try! I tried my level best to find an answer. My brains were on fire! Finally, I thought I had the answer in my grasp. Without hesitation and fear, I blurted out,"Master, it is Love that rules this world".
My Master became very serious and sad. I felt he was about to breakdown. Losing no time, I fell at his lotus feet, and begged: "Swamy, If I have hurt you unknowingly, forgive me. Don't waste your invaluable tears on this incorrigible dunce."
"It is none of your fault. " the Guru said. "If a sishya is at this level after learning for so many years at my feet, obviously I am at fault," the Guru, whose loftiness in wisdom has no parallel, said with an air of resignation.
To tell the truth, I was intrigued, rather than ashamed.
With great reverence, I found the courage to ask him, "My lord, if not God, truth and love, what is it that governs the globe?"
After an hour of pregnant silence, he bade me sit down. Then all of a sudden, he turned, bent down and took me by the shoulders and said in a shrieking voice, "Don't you know, you stinking idiot, It is Supply and Demand."
I was stunned, as though stung by a king cobra. Though that was the only time I saw my Master in such a violent rage, that didn't matter to me. But what he said was such a heavy blow to me. The human being whom I considered to be on par with the gods, one whom I loved more dearly than my wife is just a materialistic usurer!
Infuriated beyond sanity, I asked him as though there was no tomorrow, "You were deceiving all this time. Don't you take me for a fool. I know that supply and demand is an economic principle."
My Guru, of the lotus feet, smiled the benevolent smile I was used to. I felt as though the cool radiance that emanated from him was putting me at ease.
"My dearest disciple, what I told you is the holiest truth. It is Supply and Demand that decides the way the world is moving. Stock markets are just a tiny part of it."
"I don't understand anything, Master. Please enlighten me," saying this, I knelt at his feet.
Radiating love, he raised me by the shoulders, put his arm around me, and spake thus:
"Son, do you know how our mother Earth rotates in her orbit? Just because of the forces of attraction of the sun, moon and the planets. When the supply of that attraction ends, the earth is thrown out of its orbit, though the demand is still there.
"To come to a more down-to- earth example, suppose you are hungry. That is, there is demand in your body for food. But you haven't the money, so that there is no supply. What happens?
"Your health worsens. If you don't get supply in time, your journey in this material ocean will come to an end."
"I got more confused. "Master, the simplicity of your answer makes me bewildered," I said frankly.
"That is the way our intellects are programmed. We never understand the easiest of things, but comprehend the most difficult ideas. Okay, I will tell you an incident from my own life, which may be helpful in clearing the cobwebs in your brain.
" As you know, in my 'purvasrama', I was in love with a rich girl. That did not mean, she shared the feeling for me as well. Anyway, I was in need of love, and by the way, a little cash to pursue my studies.
"She never seemed to understand that I was pining for her.
"One fine evening, while she was waiting at the bus stop, I mustered enough courage with a little help from a pint of arrack( that was before A.K.Antony's brutal prohibition!), approached her, took her hand and before she can think what is happening, told her in a rather squeaky, tremulous voice : Dearest, I am in love with you. I cannot live without you!
" Gathering her wits, she pushed me off, before giving me a thunderous slap and said: How dare you touch me? I will tell my father. I felt all the arrack I downed evaporate instantly. My first instinct was to flee. As the proverb in Malayalam goes, the needy has no sense of propriety!
" Okay dear. I just misunderstood, I thought you had a soft corner me. Let bygones be bygones.
Let's be friends and... lend me a 100 bucks.
" She gave me a look that could have pulverised an elephant on the spot. But I was made of sterner stuff. Without saying anything, she opened her purse and threw me down a 100 rupee note. I just bent down, picked it up and said good bye to her."
I was floored. What is my Master driving at? " Guru, where is the 'supply and demad problem in this?"
"Still you don't understand, you son of an idiot born to a dunce? If my demand for love and money was met, could I have become your Master?," he asked with obvious pain. "From then on, I started to hate all women, learned astrology, broke innumerable marriages, made pots of money and invested all that into stocks. You know what, the girl who spurned me then is my first devotee Mata Pranayanandamayi, and she is my spiritual consort.
"Now ask me, why she came to me after all that had happened? When I was in need, she had the supply, but refused to part with it. Later when I became great, she was bankrupt and was in need. Then she thought about me, her old suitor. What can I do in the face of suffering humanity and sighing women! I just took her in. That is, her demand for supply was met.
"You see, how efficiently she runs the Ashram! I don't have to worry what will happen after
I am gone.
" See the difference between the results! If the demand was met in the first instance itself, the world itself would have been different!" My Guru said in a very low voice.
Finally, I grasped the whole truth.
That night, I broke in to the strong room of the ashram, took all I can in a gunny bag and left for Delhi, where I soon found my publishing house.

PS:
That is all I had learned from my Guru. Hope you enjoyed it.
Wait for more posts on more ordinary, humdrum lives.