In this episode Khalil Gibran tells us of the tale of
 the rendezvous between The Madman and the Scarecrow.
Hi this is Nideesh Vasu and I read writings and poetry
from the great saints and sages from across time
to help us introspect where we are
 at in our lives at the moment,
and to help us evolve and become better students,
better children, better parents,
better friends, better lovers, and better humans.
Welcome to a Stereo Tales presentation
You are listening to Sages and the Madman
with Nideesh Vasu.
Thank you for listening in to my podcast.
Today we’ll take a look at a fable from
Khalil Gibran’s ‘The Madman’ called ‘The Scarecrow’.
Once I said to a scarecrow,
“You must be tired of standing in this lonely field.”
And he said,
“The joy of scaring is a deep and lasting one,
and I never tire of it.”
Said I, after a minute of thought,
“It is true; for I too have known that joy.”
Said he, “Only those who are stuffed with straw can know it.”
Then I left him, not knowing whether
he had complimented or belittled me.
A year passed, during which the scarecrow turned philosopher.
And when I passed by him again
I saw two crows building a nest under his hat.
This fable really boggled me the first time I read it.
It took me many readings and hours spent thinking about it
before I could make some sense of it.
Gibran really gets under the layers of human ego with this one.
In this fable, Gibran talks about a scarecrow,
 the Madman, the Mystic meets in a lonely field.
Here the scarecrow refers to a shallow man,
 with a base function – to scare.
He likes this power and control over
 the birds and his fiefdom, the lonely field.
The Madman used to be this way as well.
He too, enjoyed and pride himself
asserting his power, scaring people.
The scarecrow who identifies with his straw,
compliments the Madman that
 he must be full of straw himself to enjoy such power.
This confuses the Madman –
should he take this as a compliment or is he being belittled.
The Madman has moved on from
 enjoying such shallow delights.
Loneliness is a great environment for spiritual growth.
In a year, the scarecrow has become a philosopher.
He realizes this is all merely straw, nothing.
He grows and he evolves. He becomes wise.
With this realization, he makes himself useful
and is able to convert his nothingness to help others.
He makes friends of those whom he used to oppress.
His joy of scaring has transformed in to
 the peace of compassion.
I could almost be certain that this is what it means,
but I’ve learnt that metaphysical studies,
like an onion, to get deeper,
we’ve got to keep peeling the layers.
I’m really looking forward to hearing
 your take on the scarecrow.
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