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“If I had to leave all of this why did you bring me to this position in the first place?”
“It’s a test. A person who has wealth but willingly forsakes is better than a person who never had wealth. In this journey you have to start from nothing, work hard till you become ‘something’ and then you must again willingly become nothing. It may appear that this cyclic journey has no benefit but it has benefit beyond your wildest imagination Ryan. It gives you the necessary experience for you to enter the next cycle, the spiritual one, which has challenges of its own but before that you have to take this last step. Victory is close, Ryan, take this last step.”
“And what if I refuse?”
“Then you can keep on enjoying your money and I’ll search for another student who would not be as weak as you are.” He said in a grave tone.
“Damn it!” Ryan punched the desk.
“I can understand how you feel; I have passed through all this before. I know how attractive and tempting this money is. I know that you feel well when you travel in the best car, and when your guards salute you, and when you see the zeros in your bank accounts, and when you see sleep on the most comfortable bed but believe me, all this is meaningless. Just think, what does sleeping in a cosy bed give you or how do the best Italian food recipes help you. They provide you with nothing but a sensation. But remember, my boy, you must be the one to control the sensation and sensations should not control you.” The old man said sympathetically.
“Think it over and make your decision. If you are to proceed to the next level you must do it with complete willingness otherwise it would do you no good. Think about it, I’ll be back.” The old man stood up and walked out of the room.
Ryan sat silently at his chair for quite sometime, then he picked up the receiver of the intercom, “Julie, cancel all my appointments.”
***
When it was near evening, Ryan came out of the building. The driver came towards him but he stopped him.
“I don’t need a car,” he said briefly and walked out of the gate as all the guards watched in amazement.
Slowly he walked to a nearby lake and sat at a bench. It was getting dark and there was a strange calmness at that place. The sky was becoming violet while it was reddish at the horizon on the west. A cool breeze was blowing. It seemed to Ryan as if the breeze was blowing away the pieces of dust that had covered the surface of his heart. He could feel his heart and mind coming out of the bonds of all the money and wealth. He bent down and picked up a handful of soil. It was a strange sensation; like you could feel the very nature of yourself; like you could feel your very identity. The old man was right. What was this money, this comfort? Nothing but a stimulus. The comfortable suit he was wearing was nothing but a stimulus received by his skin. The taste of the food was nothing but a stimulus; all the music he heard or all the perfumes he smelt were just a stimulus. Why should he run after them? He was a traveller and his destiny was still far away. Slowly, he took out his wallet from the pocket and threw it with full force into the lake. The wallet entered it with a splash.
“I am glad you made the right decision.”
He looked up. His father was offering his hand; he took it. Together, they walked away. The sun was setting in the west; it was an end; it was a beginning of a new cycle, a new test.
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Awais Aftab
Writing has been a passion, a love ever since I learned to write. For me, writing is a means of expression of 'secret tears and secret pleasures'. True writing comes from the heart and often it is the one to find you, not you the one to find it. Writing gives me power, the strength to carry on, the will to live and to live in a better way. It helps me find deeper meaning in the world around me and to understand myself much better. I can't survive without writing. For me, my writings are the whispers of life, in which the glory and sorrow of life echoes. For me, these are the glittering tears, whose every flash encompasses a thousand aspects of life. I believe that, 'I write; therefore I am.' However, true ease in writing comes from art, and I still have to learn a lot about that.
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