Master, I wish to possess your will; you possess my ring

A certain king was a devotee of Bhaskarananda and he used to visit his Master quite often. One day Bhaskarananda took him to a pond and casually asked the king to give him his diamond ring. Bhaskarananda looked at it and appreciated it deeply. Then he threw it into the pond.

The king was not disturbed at all. He thought, “Perhaps I was too attached to it; therefore, the Master has thrown it into the water. Or perhaps the Master is just playing a game and will bring it back to me. He has that kind of spiritual power, I am sure. Anyway, whatever his reason, it is for my good that he has done it.”

Bhaskarananda and the king had a long conversation about spirituality, and the Master told many spiritual secrets to the king. Then the Master said, “Don’t you want to have your ring back?”

The king said, “It is all up to you. If you want to, you can give it back. Otherwise, you can let the ring remain on the bottom of the pond.”

Bhaskarananda said, “All right, I want to give it back to you. Now, just touch the water with your hand.”

The Master had thrown the ring from the spot where they were standing, but the king decided to go to the other side of the pond in order to see if the ring would come back to that side. As he touched the water with his hand, sixteen rings of the same type appeared. The king could not tell which one was his.

“Since you are not attached to your ring,” said Bhaskarananda, “I am giving it back.” Then the Master threw fifteen of the rings back into the pond and gave the king the one that was his.

Commentary: Possession is not happiness. Surrendered oneness with the Master is the only true happiness. With our human will we possess, create and build the world of our imaginary liking. With our divine will we develop the capacity to have a free access to God’s ever-transcending Vision and ever-manifesting Reality. The Master is at once the embodiment of God’s Vision-Height and God’s Reality-Depth.