Mastiram believes that some people are born with the knack of driving and some are not and it is the latter, who could not even learn the art of riding a bicycle. Mastiram feels that those who missed bicycle rides, miss many things in life. Nevertheless, Mastiram finds him lucky to have born with the natural talent of riding the bicycle or a motorbike or a car. It comes very naturally to him and every ride or drive brings him a lot of pleasure.
Fortunately, for Mastiram, whenever he travelled with his family, thanks to his flair for driving, he never had an issue on where to sit, as he has always been in the driving seat! In fact, Mastiram learnt a lot from driving, particularly when he was learning to drive his car. He claims even now that he is one of the rare persons who learnt driving in his own brand new car.
It was while he was learning his driving, he got a life time realisation. Once Mastiram was on the middle of a road not so busy, but a good number of vehicles were moving. Suddenly a speed breaker appeared. He slowed down but forgot to press the clutch. The car came to a complete halt with the engine switching off instantly. Now came the big challenge before Mastiram, to start the car and start moving! Couple of vehicles were already behind his car to mount pressure on Mastiram. Added to the pressure, the great guys on the Indian Roads, an auto rickshaw wala also joined the queue. Pressure was just mounting on Mastiram. He ignited the car quickly but after moving into first gear, he was equally quick in releasing the clutch and the car was not moving at all even after multiple attempts. The restless auto rickshaw wala, known for their wisdom, came next to Mastiram’s car and started shouting. The auto driver said, “without knowing the driving why are you brining the car to roads”. Masti Ram despite moments of tense, wondered where else a person would learn driving, if not on a road!. The situation became very tensed for Mastiram. The abuse of the auto driver on the one hand and honking of the vehicles behind him on the other hand – a big challenge before Mastiram. Then came a flash in to Mastiram's mind. "Will I give heed to what the auto driver says or will I start reacting to honking of the vehicles behind or should I focus on how to get out of the mess?" Rightly, Mastiram chose the last option and concentrated fully on the task in hand forgetting the whole world. With in a fraction of second, the car moved smoothly, to the surprise of everyone around, including Mastiram. Masti Ram just recollected this incident late in the evening before going to bed and realised that he in fact had adopted a wonderful and most appropriate approach and attitude to come out of the mess. Then came the same flash once again to Masti Ram, "why cannot the same approach and attitude be adopted in every situation in life?" Mastiram recalled yet another conversation earlier with his friend, who said, "I am doing certain things in a particular way. Otherwise, some people will mistake me’. After this incident, Mastiram felt like calling up his friend and telling him "if someone mistakes you, it is their problem and not yours."
Mastiram by now has become an expert driver. He always believed that the ability to move the car on roads alone is driving. A good driving according to Mastiram involves observing the surroundings and responding to the situations while moving the vehicle. What Mastiram felt important while driving is that the driver not only sees that he/she has enough road space to move but also should ensure that the vehicle coming in the opposite direction too had enough road space to cross. Else, the result is obvious that the opposite vehicle is only going to hit . This has given a realisation to Mastiram that one will ultimately suffer, if he/she is very selfish on roads while driving. But he wondered whether everyone would adopt the same level of selflessness which they show on roads while driving, in every situation in life!
Yet another realisation for Mastiram in the capacity of a driver was something spiritual. This was related to ‘total surrender’ to God. Mastiram heard some one saying about ‘total surrender’ to God. Mastiram makes a simple question. "What do we do when we sit in a car driven by another person, a driver?" Generally we instruct the driver to take us to a destination and ensure that he knows the way. That's all. Then, we should simply leave it to him to do the rest. What we do exactly in this process, wondered Mastiram. It's a total surrender to the driver. Mastiram believes that in the same way we should leave things to God who is in the driving seat of the vehicle (of life) in which we are travellers!
