THE MASTER GURU AND THE DANCING GIRL

It appears that the attraction for women has always been a powerful malaise that has gripped mankind since ages!

Some of the stories that appear in the Hindu scriptures almost parallel some of the stories of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament there was the story of Salome the dancing Girl who was annoyed at being rejected by the Prophet John the Baptist and had him slain.

In the Hindu Scriptures there is the story of the Greatest Master Guru - a Maharishi - of all time, a great prophet and holy man, by the name of Vashishta.

It was said that when this Master Guru meditated, the Cosmos shook with the vibrations of his mantras. Even the gods were afraid of the meditative powers of the Powerful Guru, the Maharishi Vashishta. Whenever he meditated their thrones shook as if an earthquake had hit them.

In fact the gods were scared that the Maharishi would advance so much on the spiritual front that they would lose all their thrones in heaven and that the Maharishi might be made the Ruler of the Heavens by the Almighty Creator, pleased with his meditations.

There was only one way - and that was to break his meditations, to render his penances and austerities null and void, by placing a break on them. And so they tried everything, from earthquakes to thunderstorms and floods -- but nothing would break the Master Guru's meditations who sat through these calamities of nature, his legs crossed underneath him and his eyes closed, lost in a world of his own mantras - which were giving the gods goose pimples.

And then the gods came up with a brilliant idea. They called the most beautiful, and sensuous dancer in heaven, Menakshi, and pleaded with her to go down to the earth and to break the meditations of the Master Guru bent upon creating havoc in the Universe.

And so, it is written that the beautiful dancer Menakshi went down to earth, to the spot in the forest where the Maharishi Vashishta was meditating, and began a sensuous dance in front of him.

The sound of her bangles and anklets went into the ears of the Master Guru and the delightful fragrance of her perfume went into his nostrils.

The Master Guru opened his eyes but slightly to see what was going on, although he had a fairly good idea that it had to be a woman, and then his eyes opened wide, and then wider and wider until they popped open - as he saw Menakshi execute some of her most enticing dance numbers before him.

And the next instance - to hell with meditation - as the Master Guru used all his athletic, Yoga powers to leap up from his cross legged posture into a hop, skip and jump, and a pole vault, that brought him into fair embrace of the damsel. As a matter of fact he so lost control over himself that he was going around in circles chasing Menakshi, while becoming a part of the enticing dance himself.

The gods clapped with joy and dropped rose petals from heaven on the dancing couple. At last they had broken the unbroken meditation of the Master Guru and brought him down to earth.

Their thrones in heaven were safe. Never again would they feel threatened by the mystical vibes of the Master Guru, who had slid backwards one notch to become an Ordinary Guru from a Master Guru. Fallen a prey to the perennial temptation, woman.

Years later Mao Tse Tung the Chair of the Chinese Republic wrote in his Master Red Book that men in politics should beware of the enticement of the opposite sex which could make them go crazy.