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GUNNING FOR REALITY

I live in Australia and suddenly had a desire to buy a rifle. To get a firearm license in Australia is Herculean task. The challenge becomes manifold for a person like me who has not even seen a gun in real life, forget about having held it. Nevertheless, I sought blessings from Yogi ji, and sat for the test.

The question paper seemed like a battlefield, and I of course was unarmed — terms like rim fire, magazine, bolt action, hammer, sear etc. were alien to me. I had to call the invigilator many times to understand what was being asked. It was a multiple choice question format consisting of two parts, first part pertained to how one should conduct themselves as a gun owner and part two was technical questions about shooting and arms. I attempted all the questions the invigilator was going from person to person evaluating their papers. I was second last and had to wait for the entire hall to be empty. Finally, he started correcting my paper, he was the same person who I had been asking all the silly questions. He looked at my paper and looked at me in disbelief. I froze in fear thinking I had done the worst paper ever and flunked. But to his shock and my surprise, I had answered all the 30 questions correctly. I have never scored a 100 per cent in my life, not even in the papers I studied for. This was beyond belief…and yet it happened. I knew I had nothing to do with it…

Three months later the firearm license arrived and we went to a sports shop to get a gun. Looking at all the arms, I was dumbfounded. I would look at the salesman for help and he was busy trying to sell the more profitable ones. I then asked Yogi ji, he told me he had no idea about these Australian guns. When I insisted, he pointed at a gun which the salesman had not pitched to me. When I told the salesman to give me that, he made me count ten reasons why I should not be buying that and buying another gun. From experience, I knew better than that, and went with Yogi jis advice. I came home and researched on the gun I had bought. No prize for guessing, it was listed as one of the best guns ever made, a Japanese make, and most sought after, by gun collectors.

The realisation dawned on me how a Guru chooses the best for you, if you listen to him/her, there can be only one result — excelling in whatever you set out to do — irrespective of your individual capacity. But then most times we choose to assess and evaluate with our limited buddhi and walk the other way.


TIW Bureau: