The perfect vision of the old Master

There was once a very great spiritual Master who was ninety years old and who had tremendous occult power. He was loved, admired and adored by all who knew him. One day he entered into a very deep meditation. Many of his disciples were also peacefully meditating. Suddenly, two disciples who had always been the best of friends started quarrelling and fighting right in front of the Master. He was not at all involved in their fighting, as he was totally absorbed in his sublime meditation.

The two fighting disciples were about thirty or forty metres away from the Master, and they were acting like the worst of enemies. The older disciple's wife had borrowed a pot from the other man's wife two weeks earlier, and she had delayed in returning it. The two husbands began screaming at each other.

"Who does your wife think she is!" shouted the younger disciple. "It has already been two weeks, and still my wife has not got her pot back. Your wife is a real crook!"

The other disciple was totally furious. He shrieked, "You have no right to call my wife a crook! Your wife has been insulting my wife and all of my children for years. She deserves to be whipped by my wife!"

"If you or your wife even comes close to my wife, I will hit you both so hard that your heads will fall off!" shouted the first disciple.

On and on the fight continued. Both the disciples started to use extremely foul language. They were getting angrier and angrier. Finally, the younger disciple grabbed a vase with a large flower arrangement inside and threw it at the older one. It landed very powerfully on his face which began to bleed profusely. The older disciple had to go to the hospital and get a few stitches on the side of his face.

Still the argument did not end. The younger disciple decided to sue his former friend and his friend's wife for stealing their pot.

After some time, the case went to trial before a highly respected judge. The two husbands and their wives all told their stories. The judge came to learn that the old spiritual Master had been nearby while the men were fighting. As the judge had no idea whom to believe, he summoned the Master to court.

The judge asked the Master, "What actually happened while these two men were fighting?"

The Master replied, "I do not want to be involved in any of this. I was meditating very deeply, and I did not pay any attention to what they were doing."

"Master, please tell me who provoked the fight. Or at least tell me who is the worse culprit," requested the judge.

The Master answered, "Do you really want to hear the whole story?"

The judge was eager and anxious to hear everything. He said, "Yes, please! I am desperately trying to find out what actually happened. Please tell me the entire story."

The spiritual Master started telling everything about the fight between his two disciples. "These are both my disciples," he began. "They have been such good friends for so many years. It pains me so much that they have begun fighting like cats and dogs. I had hoped that the silence and tranquillity of my meditation would enter into both of them. Unfortunately, it did not work.

"Although the older disciple's wife borrowed a pot from the younger disciple's wife, it was really the younger man's wife who instigated everything," continued the Master. "She has always been jealous of the other wife. Day after day she kept demanding that her husband insist on her pot being returned. What is more, she spoke very disparagingly about the other wife."

Then the Master proceeded to describe exactly what had happened during the disciples' fight. The judge found it hard to believe that the old man could know in so much detail what had taken place. He asked the Master, "How can you possibly know all these things? First of all, you are an old man. You are ninety years old! Then again, you were thirty or forty metres away. How can you see that far at your age? I doubt that very much. No, you have not seen anything. Only perhaps you have heard the two men fighting because they were screaming so loudly. Definitely you could not see!"

The Master answered, "I definitely saw everything that was happening. Please come with me for just a minute outside the courtroom, and I shall show you how good my vision is."

Everyone in the court, including the judge, walked outside to a small park just in front of the building where there were many trees. The Master pointed to a tree that was about a hundred metres away and said to the judge, "Kindly look at that tree. Do you see anything at the top of the tree? Do you see anything at the bottom of the tree?"

The judge replied, "How can anybody see that far away? The tree you are pointing to is very tall and quite far away. We can only make out the outline of the tree, but it is impossible to see the details you are asking for."

Then the judge asked everyone who was standing around him, "Can anyone see what is at the top of the tree, or even at the bottom of the tree?"

Nobody said a word. The judge said to the Master, "It is exactly as I told you! No one is able to see anything."

"My highly esteemed judge, I can see everything perfectly," replied the Master. "I assure you that I did not come via that route when I came to the court. I see a large bird's nest near the top of the tree. At the base of the tree, I clearly see a small blue ball."

Everyone, including the judge, went running over to the tree to see if the Master was correct. They were all astounded and cried out, "The Master is right! The Master is right!" They saw both the bird's nest near the top of the tree and the small blue ball at the base of the tree.

The judge exclaimed, "O Master, please forgive me! You are totally right and I was totally wrong. I am now certain that everything you said about your two disciples is one hundred per cent correct. Please, please tell us all one thing: how could you possibly see things that were not visible to anyone else?"

With utmost humility and compassion, the ninety-year old Master replied, "I forgive you, I forgive you. With your human eyes, you most definitely were not able to see what I saw. I can see this and much, much more, because I use my third eye."