The Master's unconditional promise

One afternoon a very great spiritual Master invited his disciples to his home to celebrate the birthday of one of their spiritual sisters. It happened that the brother of this young woman also came. He and his sister had both accepted the Master at the same time, but after about two years the boy had decided to leave the Master. Now, several years later, he was interested in another path, and he was about to move to a distant city because of it.

When the Master saw this wayward son of his in the gathering, he gave him a broad smile full of love and compassion and said, "Keshava, I am very happy, very happy to see you." Then he was inspired to say a few significant things.

"My child, you may call it my pride, but I tell you, whoever has accepted me, the Supreme in me, as his spiritual Master, will always have the Supreme in me as his spiritual Master. The spiritual Master in me is the Supreme, not my body, not my mind, not my physical existence. After reaching the highest in me, which is the highest in you, you will never be satisfied with another path. One can take a short sabbatical leave. Even for a long time one can take leave. You have now enjoyed a very long leave. But I know who I am; I know who you are; I know who others are. So I wish to tell you, my dearest child, no matter where you go, your soul, which is the real in you, is eternally bound to the real in me. No matter which path you follow or are going to follow, it will always remain my duty, my bounden duty, to take you to your destined Goal. That was the promise I made to your soul, and that was the longing of your soul. I wish to say that any promise was one hundred percent sincere, and your longing was also one hundred percent sincere."

"So, good boy, you may go wherever you want. If you want to stay elsewhere, you may. But for your spiritual life, my child, no matter where you go or what you do, no matter whose earthly guidance or spiritual guidance you take, I tell you, it is this rascal or this representative of the Supreme who will feed the eternal hunger in you. Nobody, nobody on earth or in Heaven can be of any real help to you in your life of aspiration and realisation except the Supreme in me, which is my highest part and your highest part. And wherever you are, if you are in any real inner difficulty, you can invoke me and call upon me as your very own. So, Keshava, my sermon is over."

The Master saw that Keshava's heart was receiving his soulful and affectionate message. But after the party was over, one of the disciples went up to the Master and said that Keshava told him that he thought these words were meant for the others, and not for him. The Master smiled and said, "Such a clever mind my Keshava has! The monkey in me has pinched him very nicely, but he is too proud to confess the fact that he has felt it."

September 22, 1974