My chosen children⁵

There was a spiritual Master who had a few hundred disciples. Among them there were quite a few black disciples. The Master was exceedingly fortunate in that his black disciples and his white disciples were on very good terms. Both black and white found a safe and perfect home in their Master's heart.

But one day a white disciple came to the Master and said, "Master, I am extremely sorry to have to ask you this. Believe me, Master, I have tremendous love for my black brothers, but there is one thing I do not understand. Why do you call them your chosen children? In which way are they superior to us? I tell you, Master, it is not jealousy that is making me miserable; it is just my curiosity to know in what sense they are superior. If you tell me why they are superior, I shall be extremely grateful to you and, at the same time, infinitely more proud of my black brothers than I am now."

"Son," replied the Master, "since you are calling my black disciples your brothers, I am ready to illumine you. You say that it is not out of jealousy that you are asking me why I call my black disciples my chosen children. Well, I believe you; but if you are telling me a lie, if you have a clever motive behind your question, then God will have to forgive you.

"You know that I am your spiritual father. Inside me there are two lungs functioning perfectly. I also have two eyes that see well. Now, I consider my white disciples and my black disciples as two lungs or two eyes. When both lungs and both eyes function well, I feel I am healthy, sound, normal and perfect. But if one of my lungs or one of my eyes does not function well, I shall feel miserable.

"My black disciples and my white disciples are equally important, but I call the black disciples my chosen children — not because they have surpassed the whites, but because they have my special concern, for they are now doing something which they either have not tried to do or have not been given the chance to do before.

"Suppose there are two sons in a family. The older son is seven years old and the younger is one year old. The older son knows how to walk and how to run, but the younger one still crawls. At times he tries so hard to stand up and equal the capacities of his older brother. When the parents see the great and sincere effort the little one makes, their joy knows no bounds. The older one went through the same stage when he was a little baby, and the parents got the same joy from him when he made an attempt to stand up and walk. The parents always encourage their little one to stand up and walk, and when they see that he is standing they are extremely delighted. They feel that their little one has really accomplished something. When the older brother sees that the younger brother has learned how to walk, he does not become jealous. On the contrary, just because his brother is younger, he, like his parents, tries to help his brother and gets tremendous joy from his brother's accomplishment.

"The blacks have started their spiritual journey a little later than the whites. In a family we cannot say that just because the little one has started walking a few years later, he is inferior. I am fully justified in calling both my white disciples and my black disciples my true spiritual children. There is no competition in our spiritual family, only oneness. The manifestation of oneness is God-perfection in unity's multiplicity. Here there is no question of inferiority or superiority. In our family we need only the feeling of oneness. We have to know that every thing is a matter of time. God's destined Hour strikes for each and every individual at a specific time. When the little one, the newcomer in the family, accomplishes something, the parents say that he is going to be most brilliant, best in every way, and that he will surpass everyone. This encouragement of the parents is not insincere; it is their strong feeling and their lofty hope. Today's hope grows into tomorrow's reality. The parents cherished the same kind of hope for their older son when he was a little child, and this hope also became a reality.

"Again, I call my black disciples my chosen children because the Supreme in me has chosen them out of countless black people. Furthermore, the Supreme in me tells me that my black disciples will play the role of pioneers. They will bring their vast community to the Supreme in me — their spiritual father — and to the Supreme in themselves. They will act like older brothers in the family. At God's choice Hour they will lead and guide their younger brothers to the Supreme. That is why I call them my chosen children."

"Master, you said that if I had any clever motive for asking you this question, God would forgive me. Master, is there anybody who can deceive you? I was jealous, but I wanted to conquer my jealousy. Your compassion makes us feel at times that you do not want to see through our tricks; so we venture to ask you things which we would otherwise never dare to ask. Master, not only have you illumined my mind totally today, but also you have given me a new heart, a heart of vastness wherein I can sing the song of oneness. Black and white are inseparably united in their effort to realise the Highest in the heart of the Master and to manifest the Highest in the heart of every aspiring soul on earth."