ON
a sea-coast -a fairly large tract of land opening out on the vast
sea and the infinite sky -among rocks and cliffs there lived a
flock of sea-gulls, rather flocks of sea-gulls, - for they were
almost innumerable, in hundreds and perhaps in thousands -a whole
colony of them. Have you seen a sea-gull, at least in a picture
? This beautiful bird, spotlessly white end to end, and when in
flight with outspread wings and its delicate supple body, so pleasing,
so wonderful to look at! Do you know their routine, their daily
preoccupation? Of course, the first thing in the morning for them
to do was to fly out and look for food. Their food is naturally
fishes. So these birds used to fly a certain distance out to sea
and from above look down and spot the swimming fishes below and
dart down, catch them and fly up again; then they came back to
their places and shared their catch among themselves. Naturally
there was a good deal of scram- bling and fighting but that was
part of the life. And thereafter, most of the time, they passed
in dozing or sleeping, or at times flying out once again to sea
for a forage. And of course there was the item of mating and begetting
children. That was their life and they continued it day after
day, year after year. They were, I suppose, quite content with
the life they were leading.
Now,
it happened that one of these sea-gulls thought otherwise. Yes,
a thought entered into him. Why should not a thought enter into
the head of a bird? A new thought, a ...faith did enter into the
heart of a human child as reported in the Upanishads, so this
bird with his questioning thought found the ordinary bird-life
quite uninteresting. He wondered: why lay so much stress upon
food and sleep and quarrelling and increasing the population?
He found flying itself a beautiful adventure. Why fly just a few
miles, only! to come back, flop down and roost? Why not flyout,
out into the vast sea abroad and the limitless sky overhead?
Having wings, he thought, they were strong enough to fly him far
and high; he would try.
So from that time he separated himself from
his tribe and went out on his own for the joy of long journeys
and long flights. It was pure delight for him and he increased
the distance of his flight from day to day, from a hundred to
a thousand miles or more. And he found himself gradually incredibly
stronger in body, unbelievably happy within. Food or sleep or
rest did not trouble him any more. When he was thus practising
this new adventure, two or three of his comrades noticed it and
became interested. So these approached him and asked what the
matter was. He explained to them what he was about, he was not
happy with the old common life, he wanted a new, broader, more
vigorous life. The newcomers were allured by the project and they
wanted to join the new adventure. They were gladly accepted.
So these three or four friends joined together
and resolved to start a new life. These newcomers were first taught
the lessons of long flight -perhaps now they could fly some thousands
of miles at a stretch without rest. One day the pioneer bird -let
us give him a name "Shobhanaka", a la maniere de
Panchatantra, e.g., Damanaka, Karataka, Bhasuraka, etc., for
he was very fine to look at, -so Shobhanaka told his comrades:
Long flight is not sufficient, not only a horizontal flight but
a vertical flight should be also our asset. So they attempted
to fly up and up, up into the clouds and beyond as far as possible,
to the extent that earth's atmosphere and gravitation would allow.
They achieved this feat also and in doing so they pondered upon
another mystery.
Shobhanaka
said: long-distance flight whether horizontal or vertical is
not sufficient, we must increase our speed, the speed of flight.
And the way to increase the speed is to speed down from above
-dart headlong towards the earth. In this way in place of a
bare fifty or sixty miles per hour they calculated they could
attain the speed of sound. To break the sound barrier is indeed
an achievement for bodily speed. Now they wanted to go farther
on. Added to the flight they now learnt all kinds of acrobatic
movements of the body - exactly as expert pilots do with their
aeroplane, that is to say, with their gathering speed they went
through all the movements of vaulting, somersaulting, twirling,
twisting and so on. " They made their bodies a wonderful
mass of supple energy' and even radiant energy.
At
this point one day all on a sudden they saw at a distance a
bird of their kind but somewhat different, more beautiful, more
glorious. They approched him, or perhaps he approached them
and said: "I was observing you and I found what you were
doing is wonderful. Your achievement is really marvellous.
But there is something more yet to ,
do. I have come to teach you what you have still to do for your
true fulfilment. Till now you were moving on the same plane,
all your progress has been made in one dimension. I will explain:
You have learnt 'moving' flight. You have to learn now unmoving
or still flight. This is a contradiction in terms ? In the new
dimension you have to reconcile or unify the contradictions.
Listen carefully, I give you the mystery of still flying. It
is getting, as I said, into another dimension 0( space, or another
kind of space - it is better I give you a practical demonstration."
"Come," he said addressing Shobhanaka, "stand
here on your legs straight, firm and unmoving -by my side. Normally
when you fly, first you have the will to fly, then that will
you put forth into your body, into your muscles and nerves spreading
it out as it were into your wings, making your wings mobile.
Now what you have to do is an opposite movement.
Instead of sending your will and energy outward, as if throwing
it out, you gather the will and energy within yourself, that
is, concentrate within you your will and energy instead of spilling
them out. The whole thing depends upon this concentration, this
gathering up of your energy and will on one point within you
and then just look, that is to say, with your thought or consciousness,
at the point where you want to go. It is like a strung bow with
its arrow pointing at the target. And then let yourself go as
it were. Indeed if your concentration is perfect you will leap
straight into your target without, as it would seem, passing
through the intermediary stages -telescoping, as it were, all
the intervening steps into one single step -a long jump at a
lightning speed. Now try to do what I told you. Feel what I
am doing." ,
Miraculous it was. Shobhanaka saw the Elder-one
who had been by his side but now there afar on another cliff.
At the next moment the expert flyer was back at his place as
before by the side of his pupil. The pupil exclaimed in admiration:
"It is an impossibility, but since you have done it I will
try to do it." "Yes," the Elder-one said, "I
too did not succeed in one day or in one attempt. It takes some
time, even a long time. But persistence, perseverance and faith
undiscouraged will bring you the victory ."
"Here I give you the ultimate, the supreme
secret," the Elder continued, "the inner core of the
teaching. This body, this substance made of solid matter that
seems so rigid, compact, hard, is really not so; you must have
realised it by this time. You cannot even say that this body-material
is an encasement for the storage and play of energy which is
the true reality behind: it is not so. The body, the physical
structure is only an idea, it is a perception: you perceive
that there is your body, it does not exist outside your perception,
your perception is an immaterial thing. The whole body so neatly
outlined, so concretely static is only combination of ideas
and percepts, a projection of your mind :
from tip to tip your outspread wings consist only of your thoughts
as if strung together. If that is so, you can naturally manipulate
thought by thought, in other words your body; that is, what
appears as your body is at your mercy, which means, at the mercy
of your thought. You can move the body as you like, for you
can move naturally thought by thought. So what is needed is
the withdrawal of the mind into its thought-stuff and to control
it, make use of it from that centre. I have shown you how one
can be this inner motive-thought and not obsessed by its apparent
so-called material formulation. It is difficult to understand
but by practice as I have shown you, you will understand."
A few days passed, thereupon Shobhanaka was
practising the new technique and was on the way towards success.
The Elder-one came another day and said to the group of the
three or four aspirant-birds, "My mission is ended, I have
taught you what was intended to be taught and you are a fair
way towards success. A last word you must remember, your achievements
are not for yourselves alone but you must go back and try to
instill these new virtues into your comrades left behind, they
too must share the joy and the glory of this new life. I have
to go; for there are tasks still to be done by me and other
and higher dimensions of real living. But help will always come
to you; whether I come or another one comes, you will always
be companioned by happy helpers." So saying this Elder-bird
flew up and up and gradually turned into a blazing point and
disappeared among the stars.
Now these transmuted sea-gulls met and consulted
together. They were required to go back in the midst of their
old comrades, but how could they? Naturally they could not go
back to the old mode of life. Besides, they would not be accepted
by their old community. They were ostracised and they were now
an outcaste group. If they ventured into the society of their
old comrades they were likely to be violently dealt with or
perhaps even killed. However, there was no option left, they
were ordained and it was now their duty to go back and try to
get in touch with their old friends and influence them, guide
them into the new mode of life to whatever extent it was possible.
So they flew back to their old domain and
as soon as they were in sight of their former friends, all these
almost in a body rushed"out and raised a hue and cry, sounded
an alarm as it were: "the enemies are come !" Bu(
these new beings, a new type of sea-gulls, were not daunted;
they approached bravely and calmly without fear, without any
intention of opposing or giving battle. They passed by over
their ancient habitat sailing in a beautiful formation with
their beautiful white, all-white bodies aglow with a new radiance,
pulsating with a new charm. All who rushed out to engage in
a fight and combat, full of anger and fury, halted, stood agape
in confusion and wonder.
Thus, the battle was won, marvellously, peacefully.
The older race, specially the younger generation, could remark
and appreciate the gait and the manner of flight in these new-
comers. They now found out that the old mode of life was not
interesting enough, there was no special joy in flying to procure
only food-stuff, in merely catching fishes and gobbling them
up: doing that eternally, repeating over and over again the
same dull routine. Instead, there was the joy in flying simply
for the sake of flying, in flying far, far into the distant
horizon, far into the infinite spaces overhead, into the unfamiliar
and the unknown. Thus slowly the old community began to change
its mode of life adding a new meaning to their movements -a
new limb and direction to their body and existence.
This healthy influence became more effective
since they witnessed a strange and curious event happening in
their presence.
A demonstration was being given by Shobhanaka
of the art of flying, of all the difficult and artistic modes
of flying. He was showing the speed with which one is capable
of flying, literally lightning speed. A large crow of spectators
had gathered around an arena-like opening and was intently
observing all the wonderful and almost impossible acrobatics
and calisthenics. They suddenly saw the bird from one far corner
of the sky speeding across to the other end and, as I said,
beating lightning's speed, but suddenly one stray bird happened
to be there up directly in the way of the speeding bird. So
in order to avoid dashing against the intruder, Shobhanaka swerved
around but hurled himself straight upon... Oh! what horror!
a cry of pity and pain rose up from the crowd -in swerving away
from the bird on his path Shobhanaka in his incredible speed
dashed and crashed against a cliff that was blocking the sides.
Every one thought, that was the end of the poor flying expert,
he must have been reduced to mere pulp now. But no, what a miracle!
Hale and hearty he was there flying up slowly and at ease, then
gracefully descending upon the earth as if nothing had happened.
Well, his body did not seem to be made of flesh and bone but
of some ethereal substance, so supple, so elastic, so resilient
that nothing offered any resistance to it. It could pass through
like a beam of the invisible light.
The upshot was that the old community gradually
changed its habits slowly but inevitably; they took to adventure
and far-flights over the unknown waves into the infinite blue.
Many became experts and given to this new life they formed gradually
a community by themselves and found for themselves another habitat
nearby. Those old experts, Shobhanaka's group, the masters,
were with them as teachers and guides. And thus new guides and
new teachers arose and community after community leading this
new life, a life in which the old and unclean habits were eliminated
and there was a life of exquisite beauty and harmony among all.
Here ends my story. It is the story, rather
a vision and aspiration in a beautiful symbol, of a pilot, a
real pilot who was flying real aeroplanes. When he flew with
his hard, rigid mechanical wings, he imagined or aspired to
fly with other wings, golden wings, into other regions free
from the earth's gravitational control, golden regions of another
kind of consciousness, suprahuman consciousness.
The symbol used here is very appropriate and
meaningful. The sea-gull has normally a very beautiful appearance:
its snow-white body, outspread wings all spotless white and
its gracefulness in flight are indeed a delightful spectacle
for the eyes to contemplate. Even so, man also, even this earthly
creature has within him a beautiful being snow-white in its
purity and exceedingly graceful in gait and movement; that being
has to be brought out and displayed even as the sea- gull transformed
itself- transformed its very nature and substance into a vibrating
mass of light with its diamond sheen, its material body itself
a packet of intense and yet controlled radiating energy .
A
re-creation of the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull by
Richard Bach. published byTurnstone Press Ltd., London, 1972.
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