The Unseen Guru

He prepared to take the dive. I was the National Diving championship. He waved to the unseen Guru somewhere in the distance, fa below. That was his mantra.

It was about 10 years ago, when he was just nine years of age. He had come for his two-month holiday from the hostel where he was studying. His father had a transferrable job, so he had been sent to an elite school in Nanital for his studies.

He had seen the tall ladder at the construction site, climbed to the top of it, unseen. That was when he saw the pond in the distance, and the boy who was standing at its shore, wet, only in his underwear, They waved to each other.

Ram got down from the ladder, and ran towards the pond to meet the boy, and perhaps to share the fun he seemed to be having. The boy's name was Maruti.

Hey, do you know swimming?

Yes, and I can teach you.

c from Maruti. One day, Maruti climbed to a very high branch of ta tree overlooking the pond, and jumped into the water.

How do you do it?

It's simple - try it.

No, I am scared!

Just climb up, and wave to me. You can do it.

Ram did it, and never looked back. Every time he would stand on the branch, wave to Maruti, and jump.

On returning to school, he continued his swimming and diving practice, and excelled in it.

The next vacation, when he came back, he learned that his father had quit his job as a machinist, and had takenup a job elsewhere.

Ram never saw Maruti again, but what Maruti had taught him from his first jump remained his mantra.

He reached thehighest levels, but before every dive, he would invoke this mantra, not voluntarily, but as an act which came to him as naturally as breathing, what his Guru had taught him.

Again today, he stood at the highest diving board, invoking the mantra, waving at the unseen Guru.

And then he took the dive, in search of glory...