Daily Theosophy

Looking at such movies bored him beyond measure, but in order not to disappoint his friends he usually went with them anyway.

(109)

(back home)

The greatest joy these elderly people had given to Shano, and which he remembered throughout his life, was when they, very occasionally, would take him to a concert, mostly classical music from the late twentieth century. Shano felt happier in the concert hall than everywhere else in the city. He also felt more at ease with this type of people than with the average citizens.

One time he had the same experience as many years ago when that very special musician had come to the valley. Shano had also realized that that man had indeed been special. Most music was merely noise, sometimes of some real quality, but at other times as rough as the hearts of the worst people, even though is was classified as ‘classical’. It never equaled what he had heard on that happiest day of his child life. Except that one time in the city’s main music hall. Shano heard someone play a foreign string instrument – different from the one then at the village – and was caught by it in the same way, and he had again forgotten all around him. His friends had wanted to pass him a chocolate bar, but he had not even noticed their effort. And again he decided: “That is what I want to do also.” When he ‘awakened’ from his trance, he knew that the tone of that music was more divine that anything he had ever seen and heard and experienced in the city. The music seemed to be on an altogether different level – but to Shano’s amazement the friends who had come with him – except his ‘grandparents’ – had found it boring and old-fashioned and said it had lasted far too long.

He had long forgotten his young days at the little creeks seeping down from the hillside. He didn’t see any of these ethereal creatures anymore these days. But the music brought all this back to his memory, and in a way he remembered all these beings also. Now, paying attention, he noticed that in some places, such beings also existed in the city. But none of them were beautiful. He found some of them in especially filthy places, and they were dark grey and brown and ugly, making him sick when he looked at them, and often they looked aggressive. The worst of them he saw around places were alcohol was consumed, and around the people who had done so. He suddenly became aware that city was like a hell, and he saw a lot of ugliness of which he so far had but been faintly aware. At most places, even around plants growing in the city there were only few nice ones or none at all. At least in many spots it was like this. Some places were exceptional. There was a big park in the city, but even there most had fled, because of the minds of the people in the park. They didn’t seem to like people. However in some remote corners, were nobody was usually coming, and were you had to creep through a lot of vegetation, they still existed, and they seemed to be happy with Shano’s presence. Some of them had beautiful eyes, but no mind was ever shining through them. They looked like innocence embodied. Shano’s feelings had also changed. He was still as much interested in science as before, but a new dimension seemed to be added in his feelings. Though he read many books about technology, geography and nature, his mind now began to look at the subject matter from an awakening little bit of philosophy. He began to think that the world must consist of far more than cities and technology and scientific theories and valleys and even beautiful ethereal beings. There must be some world of free and bright mind, intelligent and penetrating, a mind that could perhaps not just know, but really understand everything. Much greater even than all the beautiful beings he had seen, though he would always feel sympathy and love for them. They had taught him a lot, not by giving lessons or talking – they had no minds after all – but by showing him the movements and connections in nature, and between feelings and thoughts and the environment, the soil, the water, the vegetation. He could understand that some people said that God had created all this beauty, and that this was the very proof of God’s existence. But he had seen that even his own thoughts and feelings influenced the living energies of nature. God must be much more: a gigantic mind greater than the stars and the galaxies, and smaller than atoms. And that God must have a soul and consciousness far greater than all he had seen outside and inside himself. And he wanted to merge with that “God” or whatever it was. Other people said that God didn’t really exist, and was only a product of human imagination, for better or worse. But one thing he knew for sure: beauty really existed (at least in human feelings), and ugliness, helpfulness and selfishness, and an intelligence greater than that of the all computer engineers together, existed also. And everything was connected by beings which served to bring energies from one place to another.

Evil human minds could make such beings to their slaves to serve them. Such people were called magicians. These people were the most pitiable of all. But there weren’t very many of them. In the books it was told that in times long past many more of such people existed, who purposely created fear in the world and enjoyed it. But despite ugliness and evil, he felt that an enormous quality of goodness and beauty also exited in the whole universe, and that he had tasted only the tiniest little bit of it. Though nobody saw that anything had changed in Shano (except his ‘grandparents’), it was the beginning of a new life for him.

After some more good and bad experiences, and despite many things he really liked in the city, he felt disappointed. He had changed, had become more self-confident, could take care of himself in everything, and, above all, had learned a tremendous lots from the books and websites. He was 16 know, and decided to go back to his valley. And so he did. One thing he took from the city: a mobile with a screen, so that he could sometimes talk with and see his ‘grandparents’. The years these elderly people still had to live, they always kept in contact with Shano. They were too old to walk the many days through valleys and over mountain passes needed to visit him. But they would have loved to.

When he returned in the village he went to his home, and his parents were sitting outside. His sisters weren’t there at that moment. He waved, but they didn’t seem to recognize him. He was wearing city cloths, but his parents, who had no means of technical communication, had long since kind of accepted that he was dead, and never knew that he went to the city. He waved again, then his mother looked and gave a loud cry: “No, Shano, that is not possible, who are you?” “Yes, it’s me …” and they hugged each other. He had long stories to tell. Sometimes mother’s face changed colors when he was telling about his experiences. She was disgusted and happy at the same time. She understood only half of what he was telling – she had never seen any of the things he was talking about with her own eyes, and he used many terms she had never heard of, and that even in a strange language. Father also listened. He didn’t say anything. He just looked. After a while he proposed that it was time to have a meal.

For over a year Shano stayed in the valley.