A yogi's justice, an Avatar's Justice and God's Justice¹

There was a spiritual Master who had a few hundred disciples. It was quite difficult for him to know who his really good disciples were. But it was quite easy for him to know who his really bad disciples were. Among his really bad disciples there was one who was notorious in his vital life, in his emotional life and in his life of insincerity. In these three phases of life he topped the list of the Master's undivine disciples.

One day one of the other disciples lodged a serious complaint against this particular disciple, whose name was Megh. The Master became furious and ordered Megh to come to him immediately. When Megh came to the Master, the Master said, "Look here, I am fed up with your undivine vital and emotional life! Why don't you do me the biggest favour and go back to your animal life? If you go back to your animal life, nobody will have anything to say. If an animal behaves like an animal, nobody blames it. But after becoming a human being if you act like an animal, naturally we have every right to blame you, and we do blame you."

Megh was trembling with fear.

Then the Master said to him, "Since I am your spiritual Master, let me see what I can do for you. I have a brilliant plan."

Megh touched the Master's feet. "O Master, forgive me, forgive me! I shall never do anything else to displease you."

The Master said, "Just hear my plan. I shall see what I can do for you. Some of my disciples take me as a Yogi, while others take me as an Avatar. Since I am your spiritual teacher, you must have thought of me as either a Yogi or an Avatar. If you feel that I am a Yogi, then I tell you, you have to leave me for six years. I shall not see you for six years. If you feel that I am an Avatar, then for three years you shall have to leave me. I won't look at you for three years. You can never come to my ashram during that time, and you can't speak to any disciples of mine.

"You will leave me either for six years or for three years. During that time you can't come near any disciple of mine, you can't come near me, and you can't speak to any of us.”

Megh said, "Master, I do not take you either as a Yogi or as an Avatar. I take you as God, my real God."

The Master said, "No, no, no. I don't want to be your real God."

Megh said, "You may not think of yourself as God, but I know and feel that you are my real God. And I feel that the difference that lies between a Yogi and an Avatar is nothing in comparison to the difference between an Avatar and God. If I had taken you as a Yogi, I would have had to stay away from you for six years. If I had taken you as an Avatar, I would have had to stay away from you for only three years. But since I have always taken you as God, then I think I will not be punished even for a day, because the difference between an Avatar and God is so vast. But since you have to punish me, you can punish me for only one day. For one day I will not come to you, and I will not speak to you or to any of your disciples.”

The Master discovered that he had lost the case. He put his finger on his forehead where his third eye was located and meditated for a minute. Then he said, "All right. You are prepared to be away from me for one day. I won't see you, and you won't see me. You won't see my disciples or mix with them either."

"Yes, yes, Master. But I have a prayer, just one prayer. For one day I will not see you and I will not talk to you. But my prayer is that you will see me, and you will talk to me.”

The Master said, "If I see you and talk to you, naturally you will see me and hear me.”

But Megh said, "If even a human being speaks to me while I am asleep, I won't hear and I won't see the person. You are God, you know, so if you come to my place spiritually and occultly while I am sleeping, you can talk to me and I won't hear it. You will see me, but I won't see you. As a matter of fact, this is what is happening all the time. God sees me and talks to me, but I don't see or hear Him, so I am in ignorance.”

The Master said, "Now be frank with me. I am asking you, do you really see me as God?"

"Yes, I see you as the real God."

"Well, since you have felt that I am the real God, then I have to act like the real God. That is to say, I shall speak to you in silence; I shall see you when you are asleep. You are in ignorance. You don't have your third eye open, so you will not know when I am talking to you or when I am seeing you. As a matter of fact, I can see you and talk to you twenty-four hours a day, and you will not be aware of it. But I don't want to be in front of you in an earthly way any more. I don't want you to catch me any more. Now leave me at this moment. From now on I will see you and speak to you inwardly."

At this Megh started crying, "O Master, no, no, no, no, no! It cannot be! Why?"

"No, I am really serious," said the Master. "You have taken me as God, and I will act like God. In silence I shall see you and speak to you. You will not be able to catch me outwardly any more."

Megh said, "Master, may I change, may I change my opinion? Now I really feel that you are not God. A real God would have much more compassion than you — infinitely more compassion than you have. Even an Avatar would have much more compassion than you have. So I wish to say you are a Yogi."

The Master said, "I am a Yogi?"

"Yes. I feel that since you have only that much compassion for me, you cannot be more than a Yogi."

The Master said, "All right. I am prepared to be a Yogi. Now you have to stay away from me for six years. For six years I will not speak to you, and you will not speak to me or mix with my disciples. Either you have to do that, or you must leave me totally, forever.”

Megh said, "Master, I am prepared to remain away from you for six years, but not forever. I shall be satisfied with my firm conviction that you are a Yogi, not an Avatar, and never, never God."

The Master blessed Megh and said, "You are absolutely right. When you come back again after six years, I shall accept you in my ashram.”

With a sad and happy face Megh left the Master: sad because he had to be away from his Master for six years, and happy because he would be able to come back to his Master.

As soon as Megh left the Master's ashram, the Master said, "What a relief! What a relief! O God, at last You have been really kind to me. For six years I shall be able to live without that rascal, my worst disciple. He is the particular creation of Yours that has been a real source of sorrow to me and to all my disciples."

From:Sri Chinmoy,A yogi's justice, an Avatar's Justice and God's Justice, Agni Press, 1974
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