Just chill!

By Vithal C Nadkarni

Among the many delightful tales of desire and delusion from the Sufi tradition, there is one about Mullah Nasruddin encountering a consignment of exotic red fruit. “These look delicious; gimme a pound,” he tells the merchant who tries to talk the Mullah out of the idea. But Nasruddin just isn’t willing to listen. Finally, he walks away in triumph with his parcel.

Alittle later, the Mullah takes abite from one of the red drupes and his mouth seems to go on fire, his face turns cherry red, tears stream down his cheeks. It’s the fiery red chilli from India! So that’s why the vendor seemed so reluctant! But now the Mullah too goes on like one demented: slowly and methodically, he chomps through chilli after chilli, chewing deliberately, at the same time wailing uncontrollably. Soon, a crowd gathers around. “Excuse me, what are you doing?” asks a bystander. “Since I believed these fruits to be delicious, I thought one wouldn’t be enough, so I bought a whole bunch,” Mullah replies between snacks and sobs.

“But why are you eating them? They’re chilli peppers, hot ones at that.” “What I’m eating now aren’t really chilli peppers,” says Nasruddin burping, “it’s my money!”

In another version, the Mullah says he’s looking for a sweet one! Teaching stories about Nasruddin always has two aspects, writes Mark Epstein in Open to Desire: the first, also taught by Buddhism and Freudian theory, says, “Desire never learns. It never wakes up; even when eliciting nothing but suffering.” Stoic acceptance of both the perils and promises of longing is the deeper message.