SARIPUTRA: O Lord Buddha, I am sure that you are the greatest of all spiritual Masters. Nobody before you attained to your height, and nobody after you will be able to equal you. You are unparalleled. You will always remain unparalleled. Nobody has come near your realisation, and nobody will ever come near your realisation.
BUDDHA: Sariputra, how do you know that nobody before me has ever attained to what I have attained? And how do you know that nobody will surpass me in the future? How can you make this kind of utterance? Do you know anything of the past? Do you know anything of the future?
SARIPUTRA: O Lord, I do not know anything about the past or the future, but I know everything about you.
BUDDHA: Sariputra, you are a fool. You know very little about me. A spiritual Master of my calibre cannot be known totally by anybody on earth. You see my outer history, my outer life. But my inner life you do not see, you cannot see. In my outer life I do perhaps ten things a day. In my inner life I am doing millions of things daily. The inner life of a spiritual Master will always remain a mystery. The outer life of the Master may be observed, but it will not always be understood. Very often it will be misunderstood. So, Sariputra, about my outer life you know practically nothing, and about my inner life you know nothing at all.
SARIPUTRA: I know nothing, true. But I know who you are. You are my liberation and you are my All.
BUDDHA: Sariputra, do not think of the past. Do not think of the future. Think only of the present. The past we have left behind. The future has not yet arrived. To think of things that we have left behind is useless, and to think of things that have not yet happened is equally useless. Forget about the past. Forget about the future. Think only of the present. It is today that you have to aspire. It is today that you have to realise. It is today that you have to manifest. It is today that you have to conquer all your desires. It is today that you have to bring to the fore all your aspiration. It is today that you have to become what you inwardly are, the Light. It is today that you have to give to the world at large what you are, the Light.From:Sri Chinmoy,Mother, give me the Light of Knowledge, Sky Publishers, New York, 1973
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