Beloved Zorba the Buddha,
When he first met Sekito, Ho Koji asked, “Who is he that is independent of all things?”
Before he could finish his question, Sekito covered Koji’s mouth with his hand. At this, Koji underwent an experience and expressed himself in the following verse:
“Daily, nothing particular,
Only nodding to myself.
Nothing to choose, nothing to discard.
No coming, no going,
No person in purple.
Blue mountains without a speck of dust.
I exercise occult and subtle power,
Carrying water, shouldering firewood.”
Later, when he came to visit Ma Tzu, Koji again asked, “Who is he that is independent of all things?”
Ma Tzu said, “When you have drunk all the water in the Yangtze River, I will tell you.” At this, Koji underwent another great experience and composed a second verse:
“The ten directions converging,
Each learning to do nothing,
This is the hall of Buddha’s training;
Mind is empty, all is finished.”
Friends,
One absolutely innocent man has been hanged yesterday morning. The High Court had no evidence against him – not even circumstantial evidence, not even any technical loophole – but he was sentenced to death because he was the uncle of one of the terrorists who murdered Srimati Indira Gandhi. His only crime was to be the uncle of the man. One simply cannot believe that to be an uncle to a terrorist is enough to hang him.
The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal to reconsider, without giving any evidence or any reasoning why they have rejected the appeal. The president has rejected the mercy appeal without giving any reason why he is rejecting it.
The attorney who was working hard to save this innocent man is my attorney also. I know him intimately; he has been fighting for me in many courts, in many cases. I know his honesty, integrity. His name is Ram Jethmalani. He tried hard in every possible way, saying that there is no evidence; you cannot murder an innocent man. But power is blind, and when blind power becomes revengeful then it is absolutely destructive.
I am not concerned that one man has been hanged. My concern is, as a citizen of this country, that hanging an innocent man is hanging justice itself, is hanging democracy, freedom of individuality, freedom of expression – even freedom to be innocent! And these politicians go on talking about justice and democracy, and under these beautiful names everything corrupt and inhuman goes on, beautifully. Not a single intellectual, or a single freedom lover, nor a single man who would like equal justice for all, has raised any protest.
Ram Jethmalani, as a final effort, approached the World Court. The World Court said, “Put us in contact with the president.” The secretary of the president said, “It is too late” – it was only eight-thirty in the evening – “and we cannot disturb the president at this late hour, and in the morning the man will be hanged.” When the man was hanged, Rajiv Gandhi was playing on the grounds as if nothing was happening.