The Joyless cafe
I spent Christmas partly thinking about the long journey from Oxford to a resort in Greece. Over 15 hours of traveling gives many possibilities of things to go wrong. But,…
The lazy seeker with one good quality
During our Christmas vacation, Sri Chinmoy would encourage his students to perform plays. These plays would be based on Sri Chinmoy’s own stories – and would usually have some kind of uplifting message or spiritual lesson. These stories might be adapted in numerous ways – often with a humorous slant.
I think Sri Chinmoy encouraged us to write and perform plays for a variety of reasons. One of the many reasons was simply to do something different and put yourself in a situation outside your comfort zone. I don’t naturally veer towards the stage and am usually content to sit at the back and watch. But, whilst out cycling, I got an idea for a play. It was based on two things:
- A talk Sri Chinmoy gave just before the New Year (an old audio recording) about the importance of concentrating on the good qualities of other people.
- A play about Socrates visiting a palm reader. (see: Sincerity, simplicity and purity) Because we were in Greece, many groups had adapted this particular play about Socrates visiting a palm reader and how his followers become mad when the palmist saw undivine qualities in their teacher. The joke was that in this case, people were mad the palm readers couldn’t see the undivine qualities of their friend.
Bob, the lazy person, was played by Nirbhasa, who is one of the wonders of the modern age – tirelessly enthusiastic and busy. It was a minor joke to have him play the lazy one. He did a good transformation at the end. I played Tom.
