Human emotion triumphs

There was once a married couple who lived in the ashram of a spiritual Master. The husband was extremely fat and the wife was extremely thin. The husband used to take a shower once a month and the wife used to take a shower twice a day. The husband was an authority on each and every subject in God’s creation and the wife was humility incarnate. Strangely enough, the wife had higher university degrees than the husband, but the husband used to tell the wife that it was beneath his dignity to get any higher degrees. He said that he had no use for university degrees, and that was why he gave up his university studies. The modesty and humility of the wife always kept the husband at the top of the ego-mountain.

Eventually there came a time when the husband could not remain faithful to his wife. It was a terrible shock to the wife when she discovered this. She felt absolutely miserable. Her husband would not come home at night for weeks together. He wouldn’t go to work, he wouldn’t do anything except exploit his wife’s compassion. And the wife felt sad and miserable. This went on for months and months. Finally, the wife asked to have an interview with the Master. After the interview, the wife decided that definitely she would get a divorce.

The wife made all the legal arrangements very bravely, but when she finally went to court and saw her husband, her heart melted. She cried and cried. On her own she ran and embraced her husband and asked him for his forgiveness.

Of course, the husband freely forgave his wife, although he was the real culprit. But he forgave her under certain conditions. He said, “I will come back to you, but you have to become more kind to me.”

The wife said, “Have I not been kind to you? I am so affectionate to you!”

The husband said, “I will explain it to you at home.” When they got home, the husband said, “What I meant was that you have to become more beautiful. If you are more beautiful, then my mind will not roam to other women. if you become more beautiful, then all my vital problems will be solved.”

The wife said, “How can I become more beautiful?”

The husband said, “You have to become inwardly beautiful and outwardly beautiful.”

“I am praying and meditating and doing everything to become inwardly beautiful,” said the wife. “When my inner beauty comes forward, then you will see more beauty in me outwardly as well.”

“No,” said the husband. “Your outer beauty will come only when you give up the spiritual life altogether. You must not follow any spiritual discipline.”

“Why, why?” asked the wife.

“What is beauty?” the husband asked in a most philosophical tone of voice. Then he answered the question himself. “Beauty in your case is your duty. What is your duty? Always to listen to your husband. Always to please your husband. The husband is God. There cannot be any other God in your life. I am the only God for you. If you take me as your only Lord, then I will stay with you.”

The wife accepted these conditions and got back her husband. They both gave up spiritual life altogether. Now, this couple had a daughter who was five years old. The child was very spiritual, and the Master had given much importance to her. Often he had told the parents that the child was making very good progress. The daughter was very miserable that she could not see the spiritual Master any more. She asked her parents many times why they were not going to their spiritual Master any more and why she was not allowed to see him.

The husband fabricated a story that the Master was very bad and had been thrown out of the country. And the wife fabricated another story. She told her daughter that the Master was so bad that he had asked her to leave her husband. She told their daughter that the Master had asked her to leave the father because the Master wanted to have all her admiration, love and adoration for himself alone. She said that the Master was jealous of her father.

The daughter was very convinced that it was all true. But one day her soul came to the Master very sad. The Master fed the soul spiritually and then said, “Why are you sad?”

“I am sad because my parents are saying you are so bad, so bad. But something tells me that you are not bad.”

The Master said, “I will remain always bad for those who need each other only and who do not need the Supreme in me. All those who are satisfied with one another, and want to be satisfied only with themselves will say I am really bad. But those who feel that without me they are incomplete — no matter how many friends they have or how close they are to husband or wife, brother or sister, mother or father — will always say and feel that I am a nice person. I will be considered a nice person only when I am needed to complete the peace, joy and harmony of the family.”

Then the child’s soul received a blessing from the Master and returned to its abode. And the soul made a promise to the Master that when the child became mature the soul would try its utmost to bring the child back to the Master’s Light.