A mason's dharma

 

He is a middle-aged man, stocky, solid, graying with wisdom of experience and hard work. His nicely curling moustache on his weather-worn face seems to justifiably boast a life well-lived with honesty, hard work, integrity and discipline. Equipped with this impression on me, Fauji mistri visits me.

When you are born in a so-called lower caste, it’s like beginning with a huge deficit, disadvantages piling up over the generations to hold your head low, grounded, non-assertive, humble, cringing. It’s like being born under the water. Right from the first instant you are aware that you have to at least come gasping onto the surface to survive and then struggle to reach the shore and then begin your journey from where most of the humans take their first steps after getting born in better caste hierarchy. You start with a big minus and even to reach zero takes the major part of one’s life, and if you achieve that, it would make you feel successful. All around you people are born with multiple of pluses, a launchpad for them to shoot out into the sky. You are meantime laboring on the ground, merely spading the dirt, while they go and grab the stars.

Fauji mistri started as a mason. He worked very hard, honestly raising his family. Then migrant Bihari bricklayers started to arrive, looking for better options among the endless private and public construction going on. Individually they don’t feel safe in working on the construction sites because many people would chuck out the wages of a migrant worker. So they tie-up with a local contractor who gets them work and ensures payment, keeping a commissioned amount for himself. So Fauji turned a contractor as well. All this while he has been working himself as well.

He visits me and appears to be seeking some solace. He looks disappointed, hurt, stressed and downcast. I don’t ask him the reasons for his feeling so low. They are bound to be the same old stories of hurt, complaints, anger, cheatings. I’m not interested in the repetition of these stories. All of us know them too well. I feel he seems to have lost faith in his mason dharma of hard work. There must have been reasons. But one’s faith ought to be restored.

‘It’s a reverse world. What appears solid is a shadow. Those whom you feel are prosperous are maybe unlucky because the majority of them are earning money through unjustified means. And following a fake path can never take one to truth. So maybe they are unlucky and have been penalized for their past sins to be born among circumstances where there is a lot of unjustified prosperity. And those who look struggling maybe are the lucky ones, blessed by God to be given a path that requires them to an honest, hard-worked life, every penny earned through blood and sweat. As Jesus said those who seem standing last here will be standing first there. Since you dig a well daily to see through the day, you have to believe that you are very dear to God. He has put you on a path that will see your soul marching nearer and nearer to truth. You will realize and feel it at the end of this journey. You don’t need pilgrimages, rituals, fasting, meditations, charity to pursue your will to be dearer to God. You already are. You worship Him with each brick that you lay with your hardworking soul. You already follow all the rituals in spreading cement to make solid walls. You light up incense in erecting roof over people’s heads. You have your own dharma of sweat and blood, your temple, your own priest, your own scripture. You don’t need any guru to be guided to a nobler path. You already are all that it requires to be a human being dear to God. Just remember your dharma with each brick that you lay to erect a wall. Don’t forget it. And it will always maintain a smile on your face,’ I told him.

Fauji mistri smiled and looked vastly comforted. Well, at least that much you can do. You can help people in retaining their faith.