If a person, in a spiritual state, once finds some pleasure in prayer or in any other way, then he wants to hold on to that pleasure. Or he wants to keep getting that pleasure, that pleasure again and again. But what is the reason that he cannot stay in that pleasure for a long time? Or does he stop praying? Or does he go towards evil? Again, this is a generalization. You want me to give my verdict on a particular event in general terms. This is not possible. Every particular event is different from others. And generalization cannot be made. But if you forget the individual idiosyncrasies and talk just in generality, again I should like to draw your attention to the general phenomena of nature, that always things are variable and changing. Even in the physical being that we have, you like sugar, for instance. You have sweet tooth like Imran has, haven’t you? Yes, you told me this morning, didn’t you?
But if they go on eating sugar, the intensity of pleasure would go on decreasing until a break-even time would lead, where they would say, all right, I can have it and not have it, you know. And then when they overdo it, like sometimes Imran does, then you feel loathsome, you know, about the sugar, and sometimes you feel nauseated and even vomit. So, these things happen because, not that sugar is bad, because the capabilities to absorb sugar differ from person to person. Some, the threshold of everybody is different. So, after a while, you stop eating sugar for a while, and then again it comes back. So, this is true with every pleasure. Pleasure has a mounting demand when you are missing it for a while, and it is highly intensified to begin with.
But the moment you indulge in it, it begins to lose interest in you, until you think that you never desired it. And that is also a time of Tauba for many sinners. They think it is Tauba, and they think they are re-indulging in the sin, while it is not Tauba. It is like the Tauba of a man who has eaten too much sugar and does not want to eat it anymore. So, that state of affair where one criminal finds himself after a crime has satiated his requirement, that is mistaken as Tauba. It is not Tauba. It is like the Tauba of a poet, as Ghalib says, राती जमजम पे मै और सुभो दम धोये धब्दे जामे एहराम के that all night we kept drinking by the side of Abhi Zamzam, you know, the fountain of Zamzam.
And in the morning, we washed the spots and stains caused by the wine. That is a sort of Tauba. And again, a poetic Tauba is described that जामे मै तौबा शिकन, तौबा मेरी जाम शिकन, सामने धेर हैं तूटे हुए पे मानो, that जामे मै तौबा शिकन, a cup of wine breaks my Tauba, knows how to break it. And my Tauba knows how to break the cups of wine. So before me there is a heap of broken cups of wine. This is all a misnomer for Tauba. It is a natural phenomenon. Once you are satiated with something, you lose desire. And at that instant when you commit Tauba, it is not reliable Tauba at all. It is the next morning or next night that would decide whether you actually committed your Tauba or not, exercised your Tauba or not. So that sort of Tauba is also described in a joke. But wouldn’t you like to hear that joke about Tauba? Of someone who had bought too many, I have already told perhaps, bought too many watermelons. Haven’t I? No, I have told. No? Half of people say yes and half of people say no.
So that reminds me of another situation, very interesting, which is applicable to this. Once somebody gathered around him, quite a mob, quite a crowd, and asked them, have I told you before what I am going to tell you? Or do you know it or not? So everybody said no. He said when you don’t know anything, why should I tell you? So next day again, he got the crowd around him and repeated the same question. Everybody said yes, we know. He said there is no use of telling you. So the third day again, he called them. He said now this evening I am going to tell you something. Everybody, you know, curiosity has made them around. The whole town got around. So they had decided, they were very clever people. They decided, half of them said no and half of them said yes.
He said all right now, it’s very easy. Those who know this, they should tell those who do not know. So you have led me into this situation. Half of you know and half of you do not know. So who would tell? Imran, would you tell? Come on. Imran has heard this and he is going to repeat it. Or who is a better narrator of jokes than you, Imran? Khaled. Khaled? OK, Khaled, come on. Khaled? Come on, take it. Pardon? Pardon? You remember, don’t you? You raised your hand when I said, yes, come on. Don’t tell the Pathan part of it because you are a Pathan. You are a Pathan yourself, aren’t you? Well, I won’t say the Punjabi part of it. There was no Punjabi part at all. There was in mine. You must have heard a wrong joke then. Come on, dear. One day it was very, very hot weather and a man went out to buy some… Who was out? A man.
Yes. He went out to buy some watermelons because they have a lot of water in them. And as he was walking… It’s not like that. Someone who was on a journey was feeling very hungry and thirsty so he decided to buy watermelons because they would serve both the purposes. But he overestimated the extent of his hunger and thirst so instead of buying ten seals, for instance, he bought a full mound. That is 40 kilos. And went out of the town, travelling towards the next town and in a cool shady place he decided to sit and eat. So after now, now you can start from there.
So after he reached the shade of the tree he said, well, why should I… I’m feeling thirsty now. So he ate some of the watermelons. As many as he could. But then there was still a lot left. So he said, well, I’ll leave them all here. So he left them all there and carried on walking. And after another few… No, no, no. He threw some filth over them. He called them bad names and said they were just a load, useless burden and they tired me out unnecessarily. I required only a few. So on the rest he threw some filth to help with you and he departed. And you know the watermelon is a watery thing and in a hot summer day because of perspiration one feels thirsty very quickly.
And also it doesn’t fill the belly really. For a while one feels it is filled but immediately it gets emptied. So after walking a couple of miles he thought, look here, I made a mistake. I do require them. So he turned back and tried to find out which one were clean and which one had the filth on. So he picked about half of them and said they are clean and ate them. And then left the place again.
So after a couple of miles again he felt extremely thirsty and hungry. He said, look here, I am a very stupid man. Instead of eating the clean ones I ate the dirty ones. And the clean ones are still waiting for me there. So he returned and ate the clean ones as well. That was the joke about this. Now I hope you will remember it correctly next time. Right?
