Prophet Cycle

People who have been in touch with God are honored with the title "best of the humankind". Their life stories, as much as available, are presented as examples to the attention of the new generations. If you look at those stories, you see some commonalities, which are also visible in the lives of other historical leaders. Loss of or being away from the father, longing for solitude in early life and looking after animals, not sufficing with what's readily available to the eye and an eagerness to discover a bigger picture are among these properties. The commonalities also extend to their social lives and to what befalls them after the beginning of their leadership or mission. Standing with the poor against the oppressing status quo is an indispensable one among those common social aspects. In this blog, in order to highlight one of the things that make a prophet, I would like to share a fictitious story.

Nicolas was an ordinary man among his people. He had a small and happy family with a son, a daughter and a dog. His wife, Bonnie, was a homemaker, and was an excellent cook. As Nicolas earned the daily food of the family, Bonnie made sure that their humble house would serve to them no less than a palace would for a royal family. The children attended their schools and helped their parents for the house chores. In the remaining time, they played with their friends, and climbed the trees or the mountains, or had fun at the seaside. But above all, cave exploration was an adventure they enjoyed regularly without telling their parents.

In fact, Gwen and Dan would hide their cave explorations from their friends, too. It was their secret hidden from everybody in the town, because the caves were considered holy, and were not to be entered by anyone other than the recluse erudite who would show up exclusively for the special days of the year. Every time they went to a cave, it was actually a meeting with the erudite. Together, the three explored the depths of the earth, and listened to the voice of the nature as it told the mysteries of existence and what this meant for the humans.

The erudite was once a sincere friend of Gwen and Dan's father, Nicolas. After he started calling people to good manners and truthfulness, things changed. Things changed, because Nicolas was a good friend of another man, too: the chief of the town, who was at the same time a significant business partner. "So what?" you may ask. Well, as it usually happens, the chief had some not-so-correct affairs, and they were known to Nicolas, but he would keep them secret. In return, the chief and Nicolas would conduct businesses, which provided a stable income and a descent life to their families.

The good manners were actually good, but not the ones proclaimed by the erudite. According to the prevailing custom, they meant that the poor or the socially less reputable people should serve and respect the rich and the elite of the town. The good manners meant that if the rich people committed an injustice, it was to be "understood and forgiven", but if a poor person committed a similar act, this was to be punished "for the sake of the integrity of the society". And the erudite had a problem with those "good manners". He spoke for the less fortunate, he raised his voice against the oppression of the poor by the rich. He emphasized the evilness of lying and the virtue of honesty. As would anyone would do, he first shared his opinions with his close friend Nicolas.

Nicolas saw the big picture described by his friend. Whenever they got together, he listened to him, and said "you are right, my friend; you truly are." For these words, the erudite thought that his friend was supporting him. Having close relationship with the chief of the town, Nicolas could help the erudite invite the chief to the right path. Upon hearing this idea, Nicolas suddenly became distanced and sensitive to anything about this "right path". Although he continued his friendship, he only passively shared the good things of the life and dreamed of the good of the future. The only things he would criticize would be the limitations of the reality.

Speaking of reality, Nicolas knew very well what it meant. Reality was that the society was corrupt. If he sided with the erudite openly, he would be outcast, and he would not be able to fare the good life of his anymore. He would lose his social contacts, his business would collapse. This was the truth. If there was another truth, it was that his and his family's survival demanded conformity to the interests of the rich, not opposing with them. Nicolas knew these truths, because he once had listened to the chief speak about the call of the erudite, and that was not a nice talk. The real truth was, in fact, the erudite had to shut his mouth to avoid a violent response, as required by the "good manners" of the town.

As the situation was aggravating, Nicolas wanted to warn his friend. After all, they were friends. During a visit, He told, "Look! Yes, the society is corrupt, but there are facts. You cannot ignore everything. Sure, the chief has immoral businesses. Yes, he is a liar sometimes. But the system is corrupt. What can you do just by yourself? What can I do other than being a good man at home and being the man wanted by the system outside? The best we can do is earn our living and let go of anything else."

To these, the erudite replied calmly, but resentfully: "You want me to shut down my heart? You want me to override my reason and fair judgment? I am inviting you to the path of the prophets, and you are inviting me to abandon the prophets."

After this talk, the corrupt system of the town did not tolerate the utterance of the real good manners for too long. Soon, the system asked people to stay away from the erudite, and people obeyed the system. Why wouldn't they? Anyone seen with him would have to suffer the same fate, too. So, although their hearts screamed of pain in doing so, the people of the town shunned the enemy of the system.

In the beginning, the erudite did not care about this situation much, but with time, compulsory solitude weighed heavy on him, and he cried to the faces of those who were once his acquaintances: "you are blaming the system for all this, but who or what is the system? The system is you. You are the instruments of evil. You are taking parts in this evil."

Upon hearing these words, people defended themselves, Nicolas included: "you are causing conflict in our town. You actually are hiding your real intention to become the leader. You are a hypocrite."

Heartbroken in the deepest sense, the erudite left the town to live in the rocky area overseeing the houses. With him gone, things settled down in the system. Everything went back to normal. That is the rich and the influential people oppressed the poor and the lay public, and the oppressed normalized the situation as a blessing, since they had their daily food taken care of, thanks to the auspices of the rulers.

Nevertheless, as months passed, the inhabitants of the town realized that they needed someone to conduct their affairs in religious celebrations. So, a group of envoys was sent to see the erudite. Upon consulting with the erudite, they agreed that he would descend to the town on the days of the celebrations, and otherwise would not interfere with what was going on. To the public, it was announced that the erudite had actually become ecstatic with his spiritual experiences, and so could be forgiven for what happened. So, he was going to take part in the celebrations much like a maestro, but still was to be avoided.

Thanks to these few brief visits, the youngsters of the town came to learn about the past; of course the version favored and promoted by the rulers of the town. Gwen and Dan were two individuals who were eager to explore the mysterious. So, they wanted to find and meet this outcast erudite. That's how their visits to the caves began. And it didn't take too long for them to learn the close friendship between their father and the mysterious man, along with the real version of the past. In one sense, it was relieving to discover that they were actually continuing a friendship that was already out there. In the other sense, however, they feared getting caught by their father or by someone else...