Journey to earth

“Hello, how are you?” asked Nehru, surprised to see Gandhi on earth.

“I am doing fine. I am sure you can’t be still alive, so what are you doing here?” asked Gandhi, equally astonished at his encounter with Nehru.

“Oh! I was in heaven, and they gave me an opportunity to visit earth, as a reward for my good conduct. I was hoping to see you in heaven ever since I checked in there; what happened?” enquired Nehru with a genuine concern, knowing that Gandhi deserved to be there.

“I was in hell all the while and I am going to get in to heaven after this trip to earth. For two pins, you never cared a button about karma concept and never listened to me when I implored you to read Gita. So let me tell you this, every human being does bad and good karma; based on his deeds, he would be directed to spend time in hell and/or heaven. Initially, he would spend his time in hell if he did relatively little bad karma and later he get to spend his life in heaven. On the other hand if he did lot of bad karma, the opposite would be the case. Now you know where you stand” smiled Gandhi with a grin on his face.

“Do you mean to say you did more good in your life than I?” questioned Nehru, bit disappointed over Gandhi’s sarcastic remarks.

“No, don’t take me amiss, I don’t mean to traduce you. It was just that I confessed my bad karma in my book ‘My experiments with Truth’. That nullified all the bad karma I did.”

Nehru for a fraction of second regretted that he did not know this eternal dharma, had he known about this he would have written everything in his autobiography. But in a jiffy he realized it’s much better that he did not write everything about him or it would have taken lid off so many things.

“Anyway, I am happy about you Gandhiji for all right things you did in your life, but you were born before your time, if you are alive now and have the courage to speak nothing but truth, you would have won yourself a crore rupees and a direct ticket to Heaven.”

“What…………… why do you think so?” asked Gandhi with a puzzled look on his face.

“Do you know about this television show, called ‘Sach ka saamna’, which is a Indian version of American TV show ‘the moment of truth’. The foibles and forte of this show are being debated on this earth as well as in heaven. In this show, host asks 21 questions that are interwoven to your personal life, whose answers would have to be either simple Yes or No. If you give right answers (basically speak truth), you would go home with a crore rupees. Polygraph machine or Lie detector, as the name suggests, examines whether a person is speaking truth or not. Even in Indralok, Gods are so tech savvy these days that everything is computerized and mechanized over there. And I tell you, Brahma is so happy these days, he gets to spend most of his time with Saraswathi” said Nehru with a glee in his eyes.
“So what is your point” asked Gandhi, still not very clear what Nehru was trying to imply.

“Ah! Same thing that I have said earlier, you would have made lots of money in your life time and also had a ticket to heaven. I envy those people who appear on the show, earn money and a have secure place in heaven. But Gandhiji………… it beats me, if you had written everything right about yourself in your book, why did you end up in hell in the first place. You confessed all of your bad karma, right?” asked Nehru.

“Nehruji, you are up the creek in this regard, do you really think 200 odd pages book is sufficient to write about all good and bad things you had done in your life. And above that we did not have lie detector to test our so called ‘true confessions’. In the similar way, 21 question and answers are not just enough to talk about person's life. Essentially, what I am trying to say is to minimize your bad karma so that you will have to spend less time in hell” said Gandhi.

Gandhi and Nehru reached and settled comfortably in Sabarmati ashram with much ease with their super natural powers. After a 'austere' meal they called it a night and retired to bed.

(To be continued)