Nothing but ridicule for a saint

Once there was a spiritual Master who had about two hundred disciples. Among them was a lady with seven children. The older children did not care for spirituality at all and this made the mother extremely sad. Her husband was spiritual, but his spirituality was stupidity. Every day he was more than ready to change Masters: today this Master, tomorrow that Master; today this swami, tomorrow that swami; today this Guru, tomorrow another Guru. His spirituality was useless. But the wife had a little faith in her Master. When there was a calamity or a crisis in the family, she would immediately phone the Master for help.

Now it happened that for almost a year this lady had not written to the Master or spoken with him on the phone. Then one afternoon the Master got a phone call from this disciple. She was crying and lamenting loudly.

"What is wrong?" asked the Master.

"Today we are going to lose everything! Today my husband is being sued by an eminent family."

Her husband was a doctor. It seemed that some other doctors had accused him of prescribing the wrong medicine and causing a patient to die. Now the relatives of the dead man were suing her husband.

"If my husband loses the case today, then he will have to pay one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars or accept life-long imprisonment! Master, we do not have one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars! You have to save my husband and my family.”

The Master said, "All right."

The case was to be tried around one o'clock. The Master concentrated and did something occultly. By God's Grace the lady's husband won the case. His lawyer could not believe his ears. He told his client that what he had said in his defence was extremely weak and inadequate. He had thought that the judge would laugh at his presentation. He never, never expected that this doctor would win the case. He was simply astonished.

The doctor came home full of greatest delight and said to his wife, "It is not in vain that we two meditate. Today some special divine force has definitely been operating. Just because you and I both meditate a divine force has intervened."

The wife told her husband that the Master had helped. For a few fleeting seconds the doctor believed her. Then he said, "It is impossible! He is far, far away and the case was tried here. It is simply impossible! But since we have won the case, we can offer our gratitude to your Master. However, we can just as well offer gratitude to anybody, to God or even to a street beggar. If we had lost we would have known whom to curse, but now we can appreciate anybody.”

After some time the Master paid a short visit to this lady. Her eldest son, who was anything but divine, was also present. To him spirituality was a nuisance. He never, never cared for spiritual life. Romantic life was his normal life; vital life was his normal life. But the Master, out of his infinite bounty, blessed this boy and offered him a tiny pin. The mother was really surprised that the eldest son did not make fun of this pin or ridicule the Master. He could easily have done so, but did not. The mother thought that after the Master had left, her son would throw the pin away; but he did not. He kept the pin inside his wallet.

A few months later this boy was walking across a meadow with one of his friends during a thunder-shower. There was only a few metres distance between them. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck and killed his friend. The lady's son was miraculously saved. Quite amazed, he phoned his mother and gave her the message that the pin worked.

Now the Master had known that this boy's life was being threatened by attack. He had seen the shadow of death on the boy's face. So the Master offered the pin to provide the boy with God's protection. The boy's life was saved. But if you ask the boy now about this Master, his comment will be one not of gratitude but of sheer ridicule.

In the spiritual life there are people who mock their spiritual Master in spite of getting unconditional compassion and concern. The Master does everything for them unconditionally, but they take it all for granted. They feel that it is their Master's bounden duty to be of service to them at every moment. They don't even listen to the Master. For months the Master practically touches their feet. Why? Only to please them, only to make them happy. But the disciples cannot show the Master a happy face; it is impossible for them.

The Master does not want one dollar from them. The Master does not want help of any kind. He needs no help; his God can take care of him. When the Master comes to his disciples with folded hands, begging them to be happy, the disciples don't even have the willingness or the capacity to do so. In addition, they feel it is the Master's duty to give all of them his constant attention. The Master does give them all his boundless Love and Concern, but they don't receive it. They know and expect only human attachment; so when they receive the Master's unconditional Concern, to them it is a currency from some other world which they cannot value.