While at Shamayim, a moment in time came when things in place allowing me to recollect a story I had written in 1983 about four great Masters and their journey in finding moon. It is a long story covered in 100 pages, I am sharing  few pages from them.

I still find it very apt for majority of so called spiritual seekers.

Four seekers of truth were there Everything of Everything, Something of Everything, Something of Something,  and Nothing of Something. They were good friends and used to spend most of the time together among themselves.  They all believed that they were Masters in the art they worked upon.

One day they decided that they should learn the art of reaching out to moon. So the three friends Something of Everything, Something of Something,  and Nothing of Something turned to Everything of Everything

Everything of Everything thought ‘How can I say I donot know the way?’,

He looked around and around but when He could not gain any answer, he said ‘Lets go out and find the way”

So they all travelled and asked many people way to moon but no answer came out to them. At last they found a Meditating Sadhu sitting under the tree.

Everything of Everything went to the Sadhu and bowed down to the Sadhu and asked the way to moon. Others also followed what Everything of Everything did and asked the question.

Sadhu said “The way is there and there are steps……”

Even before the Sadhu could complete the sentence, Everything of Everything got up and ran to one side, others too followed suit. After covering a safe distance, Everything of Everything stopped and turned around and said “ I know the way, the way has steps, we will see it have confidence”

Nothing of Something said “what would be the steps like, will the top step be climbed first to reach the moon or should we begin from the first step itself.”

Something of Everything said “Simple we will climb the last step and we will know the truth”

Nothing of Something said “Should we all climb or one by one we should climb”

Everything of Everything said “We should all climb so that we will know if the sadhu is telling the truth of not. Let’s not waste time, search for the stairs”

So all of them started searching for the stairs, The time moved and it became night, Everything of Everything said “hurry moon has come out we need to get to stairs”

Something of Everything, Something of Something,  and Nothing of Something all became panic-stricken and started searching for the stairs. There they found the stair to the moon. They reached the place where the steps were, it was a ladder kept near the wall. They saw a man was also nearby

Everything of Everything said “See the last step is touching the moon. We have reached and we have a guard for the stairs”

Something of Everything said “ I bow to thee Everything of Everything, Ohh such a beautiful sight, if it wasn’t for you we would never see such a place”

Something of Something said “True, how so true. But why is the guard sleeping?”

Nothing of Something said “True, Everything of Everything you truly know Everything. I believe the guard knows we are destined to here so the Moon has asked him to sleep”

Everything of Everything said “Nothing of Something, you are truly evolved soul, see how quickly you learned when Everything is there, one need not worry”

Something of Everything felt so excited that He dancing and singing, this gave the motivation to rest of the group too and they too joined in for the song and dance. The person sleeping got up hearing such beautiful song and he too joined in the excitement, without realizing what had happened.

The time for the reality came and they all fell behind Everything of Everything to climb the stairs of the ladder.

Everything of Everything, held the ladder, it was bit shaky and also looked old. Everything of Everything was about to climb when the person said “ why are you climbing?”

Everything of Everything silently looked at the person and the glare was enough for the person to withdraw.

Everything of Everything climbed two steps, followed by Something of Everything, as more and more people climbed the ladder, the ladder started making noise for the nails from steps were unable to hold the weight of so many people.

The person also shouted “Sir, the ladder will break, you will fall down….”

Everything of Everything on the top of the ladder and was about to hold on to moon, he turned around to answer the person when the ladder broke and everybody fell down.

Everything of Everything landed on Something of Everything and He landed on Something of Something and Something of Something landed on Nothing of Something. It took then a little time to balance themselves from the fall and then everybody said “The Sadhu showed a wrong way, He never knew the way, He is bogus, He is cheat. We would be hanging in air, if it was not for this intelligent person who broke the ladder to save us. He forewarned us.”

Everybody  bowed down to the person and asked the way to the moon. The poor person got the shock of His life, He said “I am just a painter, and I had kept this old ladder near the wall. Once the outside work is complete I would be working on the inside which shall include the stairs…..” Even before the person could complete the sentence Everything of Everything ran inside the house, followed by others.

They opened the  doors and they found the room to be empty and dusty, but there the stairs were there, shining and clear in the bright moonlight coming through. It looked beautiful and Everything of Everything went near the stairs and held on the railings of the stairs as the body was still paining from the fall. The railings were strong, with all fear in heart, he stepped, it was strong too.

“See I told you Sadhu was not wrong, but He was not sure of the way, the painter knew it,  He must be the painter appointed by Moon for repairing and making the place look better, look how dirty it has become over the years.” Everything of Everything said

Something of Everything “So true Everything of Everything, see how intelligent the painter is, He is so humble. He showed the way, He saved us from hanging in air, so beautiful, so beautiful.”

Something of Something said “True, how so true. How so true. But shouldn’t the painter be painting inside first?”

Nothing of Something said “True, Everything of Everything you truly know Everything. I believe the painter said a beautiful thing, ‘He is painting outside first, and then He will work on inside’ The outside is body and inside is mind. Wow He is enlightened one. ”

All of them looked at Nothing of Something and then Everything of Everything said “Nothing of Something, you are truly evolved soul, see how quickly you learned when Everything is there, one need not worry”

Something of Everything again felt excited and He started dancing and singing,  but this time since the pain of fall was there visible in the songs as well as dance, even though others too joined in the dance but they too found the excitement dampened by the pain.

 Once the excitement subsided they again fell in line and slowly everyone climbed the stairs, fear was there of the stairs again breaking down and they also looked around for support and there the painter was there watching them climb the stairs.

As they climbed they found the light of moon become brighter and brighter and then found themselves under the open sky and there was the moon, but to their dismay it was far-far off, and there lying on one corner was a wooden ladder.

Everything of Everything called everyone to pick up the ladder but they found no place to give support the ladder, so Something of Everything suggested that let Everything of Everything reach to moon first and then one by one everybody else shall reach moon.

This offer was good for Everything of Everything, So rest of the three people held on the ladder and it rose high in air. Everything of Everything climbed the first step and turned around to find the painter standing and watching them.

With the confidence of the painter being there Everything of Everything climbed the steps one by one, as He went high the weight made the ladder tilt, Everything of Everything was about to reach the final step when painter again shouted “Sir, the ladder will fall …..”

Before completion of the sentence itself the ladder fell and Everything of Everything fell over the roof but his fall was broken by banana trees, rest of the people too got severely wounded by the slipping ladder.

The painter seeing the conditions came to help and Nothing of Something started abusing and beating the painter up, ‘I knew you were a curse from beginning, first you broke our ladder to moon down and then made plan to bring us here and make us all fall and stopped us from reaching Moon and pushed Everything of Everything to fall from the ladder to the hell below.’

Listening to such words, Something of Everything and Something of Something too joined in the abuse and beating of the painter. The painter was literally beaten for causing such a damage and wounding Everything of Everything.

They severely beat the painter and then started looking for Everything of Everything. There below on the ground, Everything of Everything was lying on multiple banana trees, wounded.

… Contd

~ Maitreya Rudrabhayananda