Everything is a mystery¹⁰

Everything is a mystery in life. It may happen that, in order to expedite the inner, spiritual evolution of an individual, the Guru can appear to be very, very unkind on the outer plane. Perhaps the Guru wants renunciation from that person, because this world has played its role in his life. Now it is time for the seeker to go higher. We do not know when that time is going to come. If God wants to expedite an individual’s journey, if He wants to give faster progress to that person, outwardly the Master can seem to be very unkind. The human way is to find fault with the Master. We say, “Why did he not show compassion or consolation?” But we do not know what is happening in the inner world.

Look at Sri Krishna in the story about the widow and the cow. She had only the cow. Arjuna asked Sri Krishna to grant the old lady a boon, and Sri Krishna said the cow should die! Outwardly, how cruel Sri Krishna was! How could he wish for the cow to die? It was only with the cow that the old lady sustained her life. But Sri Krishna knew that she would pray to him much more if she did not have the cow. By pleasing her, by giving her an outer boon, Sri Krishna would not be able to expedite the old widow’s inner progress.

We have no idea at what point the Master will take this kind of action. We cannot understand, because we do not know the future. The so-called outer callousness can be inner compassion. We do not see the future, we do not know the future; but the spiritual Masters do know. They do everything for our good. Unfortunately, in our human life we always want affection and compassion in a human way. But these so-called boons can create real bondage. They may not help us in any way.

The spiritual Masters can definitely appear to be unkind, from the human point of view, on the human level. On the higher level, they are doing the right thing.