The Monk who sold his Monastery!

And then he drifted us away not with words but indeed with his eyes. Our extra time within the monastery was over. The monk was in complete disarray from what had just happened. Jai (name changed to protect identity) had just perturbed a peaceful monk's mind and we all stood there in disbelief.

Out of the many distinct tales from Leh, this one too remains etched apart from the memories of the wondrous scenic marvels. It was around 4-5 pm and car had reached Diskit monastery (Between Nubra and Leh). Every part of everyone's body was rumbling because of the road travel of many days and especially because of the tethered Nubra road ( those who have been to Nubra would understand the feelings better).

Climbing up the stairs to the monastery we were wondering if we should preserve some energy to reach LEH or continue moving up to have a little prayer before we move on with the trip. We decided to pray eventually. Sometimes one spends too much time trying to preserve energy within the LEH trip and we were too on that mode. As we reached the top of the monastery,the monk was standing right outside the monastery. He said it was just about time to close the doors for the day, but he could wait till we were done. Moving around the monastery we could see all Buddhist scriptures and images mounted on walls. Scriptures would be in Pali I suppose and there were offerings made on the frontmost desk by people who would have visited the place. Jai always had a celestial fascination towards knowing more about different religions. He had a knack of finding similarities between his own religion and others.

We somehow knew his fascination would ignite again at this place. After a few minutes of quite moving around within the room, his could not resist and he headed towards the monk to ask in detail about the objects within the room. The monk calmly and without any sense of hurry responded to the questions. Out of six of us, three had finished up and left the room. I and my friend stayed there to witness Jai's mysterious questionnaire stint. The auditor within him had just sparkled its wings and the bird was flying ferociously towards the monk.

The questions had changed from simple to compound, as they now involved minute details of the religion. The equanimous monk had still not given up as the questions could not be ignored at that moment. We stood there and watched the volcanic eruption of inquisitiveness spread across the room with a big grin of anticipation. Now had begun the archery of questions which would bring about treachery to the monks composed mind. The questions were now pertaining to the whereabouts of the scriptures and the meaning of minute symbols. The monk was still trying to stay up to the questions but the intensity had begun to multiply. We had reached the door, but still Jai had not finished up his ammo of questions and they continued to move with disarrayed velocity towards the monk. The monk had now started becoming uncomfortable and was unable to even understand the questions of intricate religious comparisons and chronological distinctiveness. Jai had failed to gauge the monk's discomfort and he continued to ask questions and after questions and eventually the monk stepped back and we too gestured him to move out. But he was in his own world of religious audit trail.

Eventually, the monk drifted us out of the room with his eyes and mentioning that it was about time to lock the doors. As we walked down the stairs, Jai mentioned what a wonderful evening it was but he was still having a million questions in the mind. We stood there spellbound at the understanding that he still had more questions for the monk! If all his questions were adhered to that day, it would have definitely been the case of - "The Monk who sold his Monastery" which we were fortunate enough did not happen.