Laughter 273

It was known as Ananda Math – Joyful Monastery. Wise, laughing saints sprang from there and they laughed their way to Nirvana. But it all suddenly changed after the near-death experience of their abbot.

The abbot had died and was taken to the crematorium. At the same time an Englishman’s body was brought there. A double miracle happened. Both bodies came to life. But unknown to all, the two souls had interchanged their bodies. The Englishman’s soul found himself an abbot. He had been a famed sober, army accountant. He found the laughter in the monastery too much for him. He found he had to do something about this excessive laughter. He decreed a new law banning assemblage of more than four monks.

But classes were allowed. So one monk suggested that each write by turns a 1000 word, funny, religious story. Another monk by name JayaraJ Ananda (known as JJ in short) wanted the length of the story to be cut down by one thirds and asked his friend BollaBo (Bobo in short) to calculate one third of 1000. Bobo, whose math was poor, arrived at 273. That proved to be the ideal number. Soon there was laughter again in the monastery but now inside the classes instead of in the corridors. The exasperated abbot died again of apoplexy.

He was again taken to the crematorium. Again a miracle happened. The body of the monk turned Englishman arrived at the same time. This time the god of death got his act right. But the laughter in the monastery has dented a bit as the monks are busy tallying their newly introduced account books.

Swami Sampurnananda, 27 October 2003