I visited the Mahakali Caves, also called the Kondivita Caves in Andheri East. They are over two thousand years old. I imagined instead of car and auto, I could hear the steady ring of stone hammer on copper chisel, digging into basalt?
Tap. Tap. Tap. Steadfastly, surely, skillfully, precise blow on blow, hammers, chips, carves and curves, as cave after cave was hollowed out. Stones, splinters flew, but monks intense, determined, focused chisel away, and create from the very innards of rocky hill, prayer halls, chambers to rest, and rooms for meditation. Even as I gazed with awe at these caves, I wondered whether there was some lesson for us here?
That, those caves, fifteen of them, were shaped from a master plan. That someone, the head Buddhist monk perhaps, somebody with vision, looked at unshapely rock, and saw instead, accommodative abode, comfortable lodgings and place for prayer. That we likewise have same power, to look at our own rough-hewn talents and see potential to build, fashion our lives into edifices for others to see? Can we like that master planner of yore look at crude rock and see something beautiful inside, waiting to be set free?
I looked again and saw more: Determination by monks who had decided to devote lives to prayer, physically creating through painstaking hard work, this monument of time! Not for them, the mood swings of the creative, not for them the idle talk of a philosopher, but a steady, day by day, hour by hour, year into year of tapping, nudging, cracking into stubborn basalt. Can we follow in that same measure of skill and hard work and invest same devotion to our jobs and other pursuits?
Walk with me to those caves: Outside it’s well laid out lawns, repaired walls, ceilings, and clean, enchanting scenic beauty. And if perchance you hear slight footfall behind, turn round and find no one, it is him, who carved. There is a smile of delight on his ancient visage, as he glances at restored pieces of work. You hear steps again, and now see him with others; Buddhist monks all of them, they sweat from their hours of labour, but in that sweat have they experienced the divine.
We should learn from seeing the fruits of their labour; that planning, focus, and determination to complete a task, is what worship is all about. Go to those caves or any of our other ancient caves and come back changed, from the lessons that lie within..!
