When you have a true spiritual Master, the easiest and most effective way to illumination is to value his earthly existence. If you say, “No, he is my Master, but somebody else is greater. I can pray to Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha, Sri Ramakrishna; they are greater,” you are making a mistake. Your grandfather may have been the greatest doctor on earth, but if he is not alive today, will you expect him to cure your stomach ache? He can’t cure you, but a doctor who is now on earth can cure you.
Those who are on earth with me should always feel that I am more than enough for them. If my disciples have to think of the Christ, Lord Buddha, Sri Krishna, they should think of them inside me. I come from the same room that they came from and to which they have now returned. All the real Masters come from this room. Now the whole world adores them, but when they were here on earth, they were attacked and misunderstood. All spiritual Masters have gone through these experiences. Some of my disciples have attacked me bitterly in the inner world. Occultly I know why. It was because they felt I had not given them enough attention. If I can’t give you the things that you want from me, then I become your enemy. But if I do give, then I become God’s enemy because God knows that if I give you those things it will only slow down your progress. You want many things. Because I am not fulfilling your myriad desires, you become angry. But I am clever. Better to be your enemy than God’s enemy. So I am ready to be your enemy.
When you say, “Guru is somebody one inch higher than we,” I am pleased. But when you have the idea that I am millions of miles ahead of you, that there is a yawning gulf between us, then you will think, “Oh, he can do this because he is totally different. For me there is no use even in trying.” If you feel that I am at a height all by myself and that I have nothing to do with you, then you will not try to come where I am. But if you can take me as your eternal friend, then there is no difficulty, no yawning gulf. If you take my height as your own height, if you take me as your eternal friend, then no matter which plane you are on, we are together. If you are there, I am there; if you are here, I am here.
You don’t disappoint a friend. If someone is a real friend, when you make an appointment with him you are bound to fulfil it. Before you entered into the spiritual life, you were living in the emotional life, the worldly life. You made appointments and your love was there, so you kept your appointments. Now, why don’t you have that same love for God? Your appointment with God is early in the morning, during your morning meditation. If your earthly friend came at that time, you would open the door. The Supreme, your eternal friend, is knocking at your door. If you really take Him as your friend, then at any hour you will open the door. So please feel that the Supreme in me is your eternal friend.
We feel that we need God more than God needs us since we are not realised. This is wrong. God needs us equally, if not more. Why? He knows our potentialities, our possibilities, infinitely better than we do. We feel we can go only this far, but He knows we can go millions of miles. Our ignorance doesn’t permit us to know what we actually are. We think of ourselves as useless, hopeless, helpless, but in God’s Eyes we are really His divine instruments. He wants to use us in infinite ways. This is His Dream that He wants to transform into Reality. God wants us to be not only infinite but also eternal and immortal. He knows we have that capacity because He gave us the capacity. Now He wants us to utilise our capacity. Always say, “I need God in order to realise my highest and God needs me so that He can manifest Himself in and through me.” This is God’s own supreme philosophy. Always feel, “Because of my ignorance I don’t know how to realise Him or fulfil Him: but God, because of His knowledge, knows the infinite ways He will be able to utilise me for His manifestation.”
Some disciples feel that since the Master says that he does things for them in the inner world, they can at least have some faith in him. They may not feel what he does, they may not realise it, but they believe it because the Master says so. Then they try to do something for the Master in return, but it is not coming from the bottom of their hearts. These disciples are somewhat insincere and doubting.
But the really sincere, dedicated and devoted disciples not only believe but also feel that what their Master does every day for them in the inner world is something most significant. And they do feel progress in their inner life as well as in their outer life. They can see what they were before they entered into the spiritual life and what they are now after accepting the Master’s path. They see the vast difference between their past life and their present life. When they see this, they get enormous joy and they spontaneously try to dedicate their inner life as well as their outer life to the Master.
The Master deals with these sincerely devoted and dedicated disciples with his soulful concern. With the doubting and insincere disciples, he uses his compassion-light. It is his compassion that overflows to the insincere disciples. But to the sincere and devoted disciples, he offers his true concern, soulful concern.
No matter how insincere, how stupid, how foolish or how unlit a disciple may be, the Master holds a very high opinion of him. He sees in each disciple the living divinity of the Supreme. He sees, he knows, he feels that one day each disciple will be the perfect image of God and will realise God fully. Right now he insists on sincerity, dedication and surrender precisely because he wants his disciples to run fast, faster, fastest in the spiritual domain. Since the goal is very far, the Master, with his infinite love, concern, compassion and blessings wants each disciple to run the fastest.
The Master knows how to deal with each individual. He will tell one disciple to do something and he will tell another disciple not to do that very thing. Why? Is the Master partial? No! it is just that he knows what is best for each individual aspirant. He has a free access to the Will of the Supreme and he conveys His messages to the aspirant. When the Master gives advice, he is expressing the Will of the Supreme. It is up to the disciple to accept or reject it. If he rejects it, the Master will never be displeased. A real Master is far above the disciple’s acceptance or rejection. But if the Master wants to, he can tell the disciple, “You are delaying your own progress. But God is inside you and He will continue to march. Slowly and steadily He will one day bring you to the Goal.” More than that the Master has no need to say.
There is something called God’s Hour. When that Hour strikes, one can run very fast. When the Divine within us says that the Hour has struck and that we should run very fast, we can easily run the fastest if we take each of the Master’s suggestions as an opportunity. We have to have total faith in the Master’s advice and then dive into the sea of spirituality. We have to dedicate our entire life to God, to the Supreme in the Master and in ourselves. Human opportunity comes to us very rarely. But divine opportunity knocks at our door every second. Each second can reveal to us the eternal and infinite Truth.
Sometimes a spiritual Master changes his advice. Then the disciple gets a chance to doubt the Master. He says, “How is it that yesterday he told me to do one thing and today he is telling me to do something else? That means he was not sure of what he said.” Unfortunately, here the aspirant is making a mistake. The Master is dealing both with the aspirant and with the Supreme. The Supreme is omniscient; He knows everything. He is omnipotent; He can do everything. He is the eternal Player playing the cosmic Game, and has every right to change the course of His Game. The Master is in tune with this cosmic Play of the Supreme. Yesterday the Supreme said to the Master, “Tell this disciple to do this.” Today the Supreme says, “No, I want to change the course of the Game. Tell him to do that.” So what will the Master do? Will he remain faithful to his previous views just because the disciple will say, “How is it that you are constantly changing your opinion?” Or will he be loyal and faithful to his inner Pilot, the Supreme? If the Master is sincere, immediately he will tell the disciple, “The Supreme has changed His mind. Now please don’t do this: do something else.” The spiritual Master will always remain faithful and totally devoted to the Supreme no matter what the disciple thinks of him. The disciple may think that the spiritual Master is making a mistake, but the Master knows that he is doing the right thing.From:Sri Chinmoy,Two divine instruments: Master and disciple, Agni Press, 1976
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