The old sage and his guest

 

The old sage sat on his chair looking out at the grounds, noting the 3 cremation sites. There was a newer gas cremation building that was built by the community, it was the one that was busiest now days. His part in all this was to perform the last rites for all that were carried here, life was not easy. He never thought in his younger days that he would end up here, if he did then maybe working in the fields with his family wasn’t so bad. Even though the people who came to honour their loved ones one last time were respectful, there was a sense of emptiness in them he felt. It was like they were doing this only for the appearance of it and not for what it truly meant.

It was getting dark and he could hear the insects making their ritual night sounds, then came the sound of the neighbouring streets. It was quiet for the most part and he liked that, sitting outside his little home he had nothing more to do but wait for the next day. Another day and another set of funerals to watch over, then watch as the pyres burnt down to their ashes. There were attendants who watched over the gas cremations and would clean them the next day for families coming for the ashes just like the old pyres. He would attend to them or the head attendant, sometimes if there weren’t any ceremonies to perform he would go to the shops to buy the few things he needed.

No family meant few things to buy, those were usually food and maybe something new to read from a newspaper store. The people there knew him and treated him with much more respect than the people who came for the funerals. In the evenings he would sit on the chair set for himself and look over the grounds, there was another chair next to him that he kept. It sat there for a guest he had never looked at but spoke to many times, this night his legs were giving him some trouble and his left hand was also paining a little.

Thinking about the 3 ceremonies he performed that day the sage thought it could have been just that, he was old and he felt it.

“Its warm tonight old sage, I see you have a cup of tea for me.”

“Yes, my friend, just as like all the other days. How have you been?”

“The same, times may change but under all those new clothes nothing really changes. I see people talk about changing how they think to make themselves more enlightened and when you look closer they are still the scared little children hiding from who they really are, lost and blank pieces of paper flying openly in the wind.”

The sage smiled at this, he knew what his guest was saying was true. He was the same until he decided to just leave all material wants and take the path of peace. He thought of the vow of abstinence and the other of just meditating but chose neither and walked the path he felt was the one meant for him.

“You took the path that you understood better and it was correct and also not so correct, to be a sage you must accept when you are right and wrong the same because peace comes in understanding and accepting both reward and cost. I watched you when you came here to learn from the old sage to perform the last rites of all and saw that you chose to them with a stillness inside rather than an obligation. The old sage performed those with respect but held a desire for payment of karma. This place holds more than just the lost and unwanted, it holds something few know. I watch as people hide their grief and greed when they see the person they loved or hated consumed by the purifying fire. You see that too and I know that you care little for the people who hide behind the rites.”

“You know so well old friend, when you first came to join me on this vigil the only request you made was that I never look upon you. I respected that knowing that it was for my sake and not your hubris. You shared with me the truth of many whose bodies were given their final thanks. I have heard the truth that few can accept, I have understood why many will never receive the same thanks they give when it is their time. You gave me hope when I felt that this place only holds on to death, it holds nothing but gives peace. Those little ones who never knew what world awaited them, the old who never will understand that they leave with nothing. Memories are like leaves in the wind, when the wind changes the memories also change and many times fade to nothing.”

“So you listen when I talk and understood. I knew that you were meant for this place, though I will say this. You are the last, times have not changed but people believe less now. Death was respected in the past, and feared, but now people think that with knowledge they see death as just another step in their life. The pray to their own personal well being and not to those who looked after their ancestors, there are no gods but beliefs that protected people from turning into the very base of destruction.”

“The more they learn, the less they truly understand. I have seen that here, they think what I do is only for their money. I have seen the richest man and woman reduced to ashes just like the poorest, they all turn to ash in the end. After that their ashes return to the ground they tried so much to keep themselves away from. Here there are not kings or paupers, only the remains of a person.”

“Indeed, a pauper may receive more respect than a king or queen because they lived their lives sharing everything they had. A king will think that their remains will glow brighter than the sun but all are equal here in this kingdom.”

“You said I am the last, what do you mean by that?”

“I do not go to those I will finally take early, but when it comes to you, I saw something in you like I mentioned before that gives me peace. I have been here for longer than recorded by your ancestors. I have seen the rise and fall of kingdoms, I have seen what hubris of one can do to the lives of the many. Humility is hard to find in this age and when I do find it, I find myself standing alone with that person.”

“Humility you say, I say ignorance. I once met a man who spoke about humility and the act of non-attachment and all I could see in him was the ignorance of what he read in the old scriptures. The say you should give freely all that you have, what they never say is that you never had anything to begin with. This life is a simple journey of learning and understanding. I lived my life like that, I chose not to give attention to what I did not what and understand what mattered. In its own way I was also ignorant but I accepted that also, nothing in this life will travel with me when I finally leave this body. I will not remember who I was when I am reincarnated or finally released from the cycle of life. Peace is understanding that everything will happen and when something does not happen as wanted then we did something wrong. Prayer will not help, and neither will standing on one foot thinking that it will appease the fates. Walking forward and finding a new path that will give you a better direction.”

The sage heard a silent laugh form his guest, he smiled at this and sat back and looked up at the stars. They shone in the open sky and at times wondered which one was his loving mother.

“Looking for her up there is something a child would do, you know.”

“Yes, but at least I let my inner child still live. People kill that child inside in hopes that it will make them more mature.”

“Maturity, that is something I keep thinking about sometimes. People are so fickle, acting mature does not make you respectable and neither will it make the world bend to your will. I have seen great kings reduced to babbling fools when they realise their time is near.”

“We are born with no notion of what the world is, sure of nothing but happy to everything. I have seen babies run around this place with joy not knowing where they are, I have seen them look up at the fires in awe scared of what it does. They are only sad when they are stopped from exploring and experiencing their worlds. They are pure and then we teach them to hate and fear.”

“You teach them that but what few understand in that is by letting them explore their world through action and consequence the little ones find something more divine than your scriptures. Creation happens from learning from mistakes, you make mistakes like everything in existence but when you learn from that and find meaning in that. That act alone makes you just as divine.”

“I know that, I understood that when I first ready it in a scripture. When I stopped worrying about those and started learning from them I saw my life differently. This life as a sage became more meaningful to me, these rites I perform every day became my form of acceptance. I stopped thinking of the remains and who they were when alive, I just accepted that this was the final time they will receive the only true respect we all crave for.”

He felt the tug in his chest, the sage placed his left hand over the pain knowing that the next few breaths were his last. The sage kept smiling and the pain reduced, the darkness crept into his vision. Tears rolled down his face and he felt the cold peace set over his mind, he thought of his parents. He looked back at the journey he took and the few moments that he cherished with his loved ones, he understood why those memories never faded. Those memories gave a person peace when passing over, all we ever needed were memories of childlike joy and nothing more.