the great Khan and the man from the plains

The great Khan, in his village above the clouds, high up in the mountains, unknown to the people in the plains, was content with his life and usually did not like to talk to the people 'down below', as he would refer to them. But, whenever it was required that he would have to visit his friends and family down in the plains, he would make the journey, with trepidation and fear of having to indulge in conversation with 'idiots and fools of the plains'. He would gather his hill people and bring them together in one of the caravan serai on the highways, and everyone would pull up their hookahs and get them charged and sit down in comfort. 

The talk and discussion would be usually about the hills, about their villages above the clouds, and their numerous wives, children, horses, donkeys and dogs and weapons, not necessarily in that order. The hill people who had moved down to the plains found it difficult to maintain and manage a house with many wives and children. Rarely could they afford to keep horses. So, they would have a number of questions to seek advice from the great Khan, and he would indulge in banter with them and give advice that at times sounded sensible, and at other times would be downright ridiculous. 

The people in the plains, especially, the police inspector from the nearby police station, hated these hookah gupshups of the great Khan, because normally after such a gathering, the Khans of the high hills would come out shooting their guns or looking for a fight with defenceless locals. A new police inspector, who hailed from a Punjabi Zamindars family, thought of himself to be superior to these illiterate Khans of the high hills and barged in to the hookah gupshup gathering. He sat for awhile in a corner to listen to the discussion and found the great Khan indulging in speaking with ridicule and ill-meaning of the people from the plains. 

Not willing to accept such language in front of his constables, some of them from the hills, the Punjabi inspector rushed in, closer to the gathering of the Pathans, and spoke loudly and arrogantly to the great Khan - thus, "Oye Khan, stop your nonsense talk, and speak some sense. What you say of the people from the plains is just old mans stories and not true. These idiots from the hills may listen to you without argument, but I would not. They respect you and obey you, but they do not. They only fear you. I will not respect you or obey you. I do not care for your stories. Let me see how you can make me obey you."

The great Khan was tired, and did not wish to indulge in an argument with this 'buffoon from the plains further down south', as he called them. But, he could not send him away without accepting his challenge. So, very politely, keeping his hookah aside, he replied, "O Inspector Saheb, my apologies. I am an old man. I cannot hear so very clearly. Pray, forgive me and come over and sit alongside with me, so that we can talk better."

The Punjabi Zamindar's son was very triumphant that he had cowed down the foolish old Pathan from the hills, and pushed through the group of hill people and came up to the great Khan and looked for a place to sit. He was quite fat and bulky, and wondered as to how he could squeeze into the spaces between the Pathans. The great Khan asked for one of the Pathans on his right to make space and said, "Saheb, you can sit here, to my right, and make yourself comfortable." And, the Police Inspector struggled to push in between the great Khan and his father-in-law who sat next to him on the right. It was a great effort and he managed to get breathless and sat there, with much difficulty. Just as he had settled in, and reached for a hookah, the father-in-law of the great Khan started coughing ceaselessly. 

Apologetically, the great Khan asked his young son, Polo Khan, to make space on his left, and said, "O Inspector Saheb, forgive my foolish old father-in-law. He is unwell. He suffers from a very bad throat. Please come over here to my left side, and settle in with my young son." And thus, the fat and bulky police inspector, struggled once again to lift himself up, and became terribly breathless once again, and moved to the left of the great Khan and was quite down with fatigue by the time he could sit himself down on the cushions. He kept panting and gulping for air, and looked around for a hookah. 

And then, the great Khan said, "Oye bewkoof (= idiot), do you see what you are doing now? You are obeying me without question and without argument. This is the power of the old men from the villages in the hills above the clouds. Now sit there, quietly, and listen to us without any argument."

the great Khan learns about meditation

The great Khan was usually worried about meeting with his wife's brother and tried to avoid any possibilities. The wife's brother seemed to think of himself as someone blessed with the ability to always give the correct advice and therefore would always impose upon others with unending advice. 

Once, in the village of the great Khan, high up in the secret mountains, at the place where three great nations met, away from the Karakoram highway, the old man sat, smoking his chillum, happy and peaceful with the rest of the world, because he could not see any part of the rest of the world or anybody, from where he sat. He would sit at his favourite place, below his favourite Chinar tree, and look out at the high snowy mountains of the Kongur mountains, and he would be happy. 

And, sure enough, like all uninvited brothers-in-law, the great Khan's silly brother-in-law came around the high mountain track, riding his moth-bitten dysfunctional old donkey, and started talking, "O great Khan, my mother and father send you their regards, and our family sends you and my sister their best wishes. I see you, O great Khan, you are like an elder brother to me, and I am worried about you."

The great Khan looked at his brother-in-law with all the distaste he could muster, and smoking on his chillum, quietly, irritated, but without showing his anger, replied, "Oye brother of my wife, illiterate fool from the plains, son of demons, why are you worried about me? Was it not enough that you got me married to your family? Why do you punish that poor animal and climb these beautiful mountains that are not mean for those from the plains, and you come here to disturb my peaceful day?"

The silly brother-in-law had suffered enough remarks from the great Khan over many many years, and he knew that these words were probably the most polite that he could expect, and true to his long suffering nature, smiled, and answered, "O great Khan, you are too kind to me and to my donkey and to my parents. But, you are not taking care of yourself. There are new ways to understand life nowadays, and there are new ways that are taught to respect who you are and why you are born and why your life is important. You sit here, away from people, distant and remote, in these high mountains, without seeing anybody, and doing nothing. That is not the correct way to live one's life, O great Khan, as the people who come from the plains and as the people who come from across the seas tell us."

The great Khan was having a difficult time to convince himself that this remote place was a good location to be able to kill this silly brother-in-law and his donkey and throw him down the high mountain, and nobody would know and nobody would be the wiser. But, since he was the great Khan, and he was known to be peaceful and wise, and a true mentor to the rest of the world, he stayed his peace, and replied, "O illiterate fool from the plains, speak plainly before I go and send your sister back to your house, and then you will know the true meaning of fear and terror, for she will not return from your house, and your wife will for sure poison your food, speak, and let me know what is it that you would have me do?"

The brother-in-law shuddered, for he knew the manner of trauma that his wife would inflict on him and his parents if she was riled up, and therefore, he hastened in his reply, and spoke in short sentences, "O great Khan, this new thing is called meditation. These people from the plains and the new teachers from across the seas, they come to our places, and they have set up these remote cottages, and many people come there from the cities, and they teach them meditation. It is meant to be a great new way of life, and a great new way of changing your way of thinking and changing your attitude. You will truly benefit from all the teaching, and you will become a different man, O great Khan." 

The brother-in-law continued, "They say, that you are to go to a remote place, high up in the mountains, away from everyone, sit under a shady tree, select a good location so you can see the mountains all around, and the valleys and the clouds and the trees and sit, in this beautiful location. You sit there, and do nothing. Keep doing nothing, for many days. This is meditation, they say, and if you do this, O great Khan, you will become a better man."

It is truly said, and I would not tell anyone else this, for it is a secret that is rarely told to another, that the silly brother-in-law was never met by anyone else after that day, and his donkey was found later by some children wandering about, aimlessly, in the nearby villages. 

It is thereafter always said, that the great Khan would go about with a very peaceful smile on his face, happy, content and truly delighted with everything in his life, and when he was asked, he would say that he had discovered a new way of life, and he called it - "meditation".