Not Krishna, but you, Master

There was once a great Yogi who used to meditate 12 to 14 hours a day. In spite of the fact that he had achieved God-realisation he used to meditate for hours and hours. He felt this was necessary to keep the inner vessel always clean so that he could receive infinite inner wealth and offer it to the world at large. This Yogi was simplicity incarnate, purity incarnate, beauty incarnate, divinity incarnate. He was blessed with tremendous occult power and solid spiritual power.

One night, or rather, in the small hours of the morning around three o’clock, an old disciple of the Yogi knocked at his door. When the Yogi opened it, he saw his disciple crying bitterly. The disciple showed the Yogi a telegram. In the telegram he read that the disciple’s only son had a heart stroke and that it was only a matter of a few hours before he would die. This son lived in a city quite distant from the city where his father and the Yogi lived, so the father was beside himself with sorrow that he would not be able to see his son again. The disciple started begging the Yogi to cure his son. “Please, please," he cried, “don’t let my son die.”

“Repeat the name of Krishna. Just say ‘Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, over and over again,” said the Yogi.

The disciple said, “Master, Krishna, will not do anything for my son. It is you who will have to do that.”

The Master replied, “If you insult my Krishna, my Guru, then your son will immediately die. You have to repeat ‘Krishna, Krishna, Krishna’. Krishna is the only medicine.”

"Krishna is the only medicine, but I have no faith in Krishna. You have all faith in Krishna Master, But I have no faith in him.”

“How is it that you do not have faith in Krishna? Krishna is my own Guru.”

“I do not have it; what can I do?”

“If you don’t have it, then right now create it. Repeat Krishna’s name and your son will be cured.”

“No, Krishna will not hear my prayer. I have done millions of things wrong, absurd, undivine and I have never prayed to him or worshipped him. Why should he listen to me now? If I call on Krishna only at the time of danger or difficulty, why should he listen to my call?”

“Krishna knows all human weaknesses. At least you are ready to call on him at the time of your difficulties. There are many who do not call on God even when they are beset with difficulties. There are many who say, ‘If you are so kind, how is it that I am in difficulty?’ Already God has proved to them that He is cruel, so they say, ‘Why should I pray to Him? I won’t pray to Him.’ But I will not accept this attitude in my disciples. If you cannot call on Krishna, then please leave my house.”

“Master, I am ready to leave your house, but first please do me a great favour.”

“What is it?”

“You cure my son. Please repeat Krishna’s name on my behalf. I will stand in front of you with folded hands.”

“All right, I agree to your proposal. Now for 15 minutes you stand in front of me and feel that your son is my concern, your son is Krishna’s concern.”

He said, “Master, I can’t believe Krishna’s concern but if you say my son is your concern I believe you.”

“If you feel that he is not Krishna’s concern then I will not be able to cure him."

“All right, I shall feel that he is Krishna’s concern. I will listen to you.”

Then the Yogi began to repeat Krishna’s name. All of a sudden there was a knock at the door. The Yogi opened the door. The servant of his disciple came in and delivered a telegram to his master. The disciple said to the Yogi, “Look Master, it is all your grace, not Krishna’s grace. You have cured my son.”

The Yogi said, “It was neither Krishna nor me who cured your son. It was your faith in me that cured him. You do not have faith in Krishna, so Krishna did not want to cure your son. I do not have the power to cure your son. It is your faith in me that cured your son.”

Then the Yogi gave some sound advice to this disciple. He said, “Even if you can’t pray and meditate regularly, do it whenever you have difficulty. At least at that time you can pray and meditate. When you pray to God when you are in difficulty, extreme difficulty, in danger, in catastrophe, if you get God’s blessing then you will feel a sense of gratitude and inner remorse that you have been neglecting God, avoiding God, ignoring God for so long. If you pray only at the time of necessity, there is no harm. God will not misunderstand you. God will not think that you are an opportunist or an insincere fellow. He will think that you are wise to come to Him for help when you are in need. If you do not come to Him at the time of necessity then feel that you are a fool. You are offering your stupidity to God for a second time. When you don’t pray to God regularly that is your first stupidity, utter stupidity. And when you are in danger or difficulty if you do not think of Him, pray to Him, meditate on Him, then you have made the same mistake a second time. The first time you are ignorant, so God will forgive you. The second time you are arrogant and God will not forgive you so easily. God will forgive you if you offer your ignorance to Him, but if you do not offer your ignorance either at the beginning or in the middle or at the end, then God will not be able to help you or save your dear ones.

It is never too late to pray to God. When you start, that is the right moment for you. When you start walking along the right path that is the right moment for you. But the sooner you start, the sooner you will reach the goal.

The golden Flute

A sea of peace and joy and light
Beyond my reach I know.
In me the storm-tossed weeping night
Finds room to rage and flow.

I cry aloud, but all in vain —
I helpless, the earth unkind!
What soul of might can share my pain?
Death-dart alone I find.

A raft am I on the sea of Time,
My oars are washed away.
How can I hope to reach the Clime
Of God’s eternal Day?

But hark!
I hear thy golden Flute,
Its notes bring the Summit down.
Now safe am I, O absolute!
Gone death!
gone night’s stark frown!

Struggle's gloom

With a blank sorrow heavy I am now grown;
Like things eternal changeless stands my woe.
In vain I try to overcome my foe.
O Lord of Love!
Make me more dead than stone.

Thy Grace of silent smile I never feel,
The forger of Evil stamps my nights and days.
His call my sleepless body ever obeys.
My heart I annihilate and try to heal.

The dumb earth-waste now burns a hell to my soul.
I fail to fight with its stupendous doom,
My breath is a slave of that unending gloom.
For Light I pine, but find a tenebrous goal.

Smoke-clouds cover my Face of Spirit’s fire;
Naked I move in night’s ignorance deep and dire.

Dream

The sky with sun and moon and stars
Leans down today to clasp my soul.
Their boundless love and peace sublime
Lead me to Freedom, snow-capped goal.

I hear the Hymn that bars decay
And makes my bosom ever green
With faith and ardent inmost call,
I have become the Freedom-Sheen.

My bird of dawn is on the wing,
Its wonder-goal within its ken.
The sombre death now weeps in awe
Alone in his secret eyeless den.

Pride, humiliation and illumination

There was a young boy who was very spiritual. He used to pray and meditate most soulfully every day. He had a Guru who was of a very high order. His Guru had quite a few disciples.

This young boy used to go to his Guru’s ashram and at the same time he was going to college. It happened that the Prince of that particular Kingdom studied at the same college. He and the boy became very close friends.

One day the Prince said to his friend, “How is it that I have everything — material wealth, comfort, joy, pleasure, anything that one can imagine or desire — and even then I am not happy? But I see that you are always happy. You come from a poor family, but you are very happy all the time. What makes you so happy? What keeps you happy all the time?”

His friend, said, “There is someone who gives me constant happiness in my life.”

“Who is that? Can I meet this person?”

“Yes, I can take you to his ashram. He is my spiritual Master. But you are a Prince. You expect respect from everyone. Even though you are my friend I show you tremendous respect. Even the professors show you respect because you are the Prince. But my spiritual Master may not show you any respect. He is above all that. If you think you will not be offended, then you are most welcome to come and visit my spiritual Master.”

“All right. Tell me where he lives. Tomorrow I shall go there. But shall I bring him anything?"

“It depends on what kind of attitude you want to have. If you want to go to him with aspiration, with an inner cry for everlasting peace and bliss, then you should take some fruits and flowers with you to offer to him. This is what a seeker does when he goes to a spiritual Master. The Master distributes these things to others. We call it prasad, sanctified food. But if you go only out of curiosity, you don’t have to bring anything. You are most welcome to see my Master, but I have no idea what he will do and how he will receive you."

The following morning this particular student and his brother and sister disciples were meditating most sincerely and devotedly in front of their Master when the Prince came in. The Prince brought fruits and flowers with him, but at the same time he wanted to prove that he was not an ordinary person, he was the Prince, so a sword was hanging from his side. Unfortunately, nobody paid, any attention to him. They were all absorbed in their spiritual Master, including the Prince’s friend. Even his most intimate friend was not looking at him or even noticing him. He was looking at his Master, deeply absorbed in him, like his sister and brother disciples.

For about half an hour the Prince stood near the door, but neither the Master nor the disciples paid any attention to him. At last he became furious. “Do you know that I am the Prince?” he shouted, “Do you know my power? I am going to kill everybody here. One by one I shall kill you all!” But when he tried to draw his sword he could not remove it from his sheath. He tried with all his force to unsheathe his sword, but it simply would not come out.

The Prince became more furious than ever when he found himself so badly embarrassed. Bursting with rage he looked at the Master. The Master showed him a compassionate smile.

Then the Master began speaking to the Prince. When the Master spoke to him, all the disciples turned their gaze on the Prince. The Master said, “You thought that we were all fools because we didn’t pay any attention to you and you are the Prince. But these are my spiritual children. They came here to see me, not you. You have also come here to see me. You did not come here to kill us, but your pride came forward and you wanted to kill us. We are all innocent people. We are interested in praying and meditating. You also came here with a sincere motive, but you should have been more sincere. You should have come here with the idea that you would participate. When we go to a restaurant we eat. When we go to a school we attend classes. In an ashram we pray and meditate. If you had been sincere enough you would have joined us in our prayer and meditation. But you wanted to show that you are the Prince and when you saw that nobody was paying any attention to you, your undivine ego came forward and you became so angry that you wanted to kill us all. Luckily my occult power prevented you from doing so, for the Karma you would have reaped would have been unspeakable.

“Prince, I see with my occult vision that in sixteen days you will have a fatal attack of cholera. You will never be King, oh Prince. Your younger brother will get the throne.”

The Prince and his friend and all the other disciples were terribly shocked. The Prince finally said, “If you are a spiritual man, how can you curse me like this?”

“I have not cursed you,” said the Master. “It is your own soul that has cursed you because you were going to take our lives away. We were meditating on God, on Peace, Light and Bliss and you wanted to kill us for not paying attention to you. Now your soul is disgusted and wants to leave the body.”

The Prince was terrified at the prospect of his imminent death and begged the Master to save him.

“There is one way that you can be saved,” said the Master.

“If any one of my disciples comes and touches you on the day that you are going to die of cholera, that disciple will die and you will revive. You will be all right, but I shall lose one of my disciples. Now if there is anyone among my disciples who is willing to sacrifice his life please stand up.”

Immediately all the disciples stood up. "We are all ready,” said one of the disciples. "You make the selection.”

The Master said to the Prince, "Look, you wanted to take their lives, but they are ready to offer their lives for you. This is the difference between spiritual people and ordinary people. These are my spiritual children. Each one, without an exception, is ready to give his life for you.”

The Prince said, "Now everybody is ready to give his life for me, but when the fatal hour strikes I don’t know where they will be.”

"Prince,” said the Master, “in sixteen days the fatal hour will strike and I assure you, among my disciples nobody will disappoint me. I have that much faith in my disciples.”

On the sixteenth day the Prince was attacked by cholera as the Master had predicted. The King and Queen became practically insane with grief. All the doctors had failed and it was only a matter of a few hours before the Prince would die. All the disciples who had been at the Master’s ashram sixteen days before went to the palace, ready to offer their lives. The King listened to their story and was deeply moved that so many people were ready to give their lives for his son.

The King said, “We have to make a selection. I shall give half of my kingdom to the family of the person who sacrifices his life to save my son — that is, if the Master’s prophesy comes true.”

The Master said, “Of course my prophesy will come true. Now make the selection. There are many people here.”

The friend who had invited the Prince to come to the Master’s ashram said, “Your Majesty, please choose me. All this is my fault, so it is I who deserve to die. I will be so grateful to you if you grant me that opportunity. Let the Prince, my intimate friend, remain on earth. I am just an insignificant creature. Who will cry for me? But if he dies the entire Kingdom will mourn his loss.”

When it was all decided that the friend would give his life, and he was about to touch the Prince, the Master said, "Now it is all decided. Your son will not die, but my dear disciple will die. Now I want to say that there is one way to save both your son and my spiritual son.”

Everybody was delighted. "Tell me how,” said the King, “I will gladly do it.”

“You have to wash the feet of all my spiritual children,” said the Master. “If you are willing to wash the feet of all my disciples who are here, then your son will be saved and my spiritual son will be saved.”

“I have to wash the feet of all these people? I am the King. I am their Lord. How can I touch their feet? I can touch only the feet of the one person whom we selected to give his life. But it is impossible for me to touch the feet of all your children.”

Then the Master said, “It is beneath your dignity to touch the feet of my spiritual children, but all of them are most willing to give their very lives for your son. This is the difference between spiritual people and ordinary people. Ask any one of my disciples here and without the least possible hesitation he will sacrifice his life for your useless son. This is the difference between you and them. If you knew the meaning of love you would gladly wash the feet of every man in your Kingdom in order to save your son. And if you knew the meaning of gratitude you would do the same to save the life of someone who had offered his own life to save your son.”

“All right,” said the King, “I am ready to wash your disciples’ feet.”

The King’s servants brought water and the King washed the feet of all the Master’s disciples, one by one. Then he said, “Are you satisfied now? I have touched the feet of all your disciples.”

“I am satisfied, but you have to know that you did all this only to save your son. If your son’s life had not been at stake, you would not have done this to save another person's life."

“What do you want of me? My son is dying and I have already accepted so much humiliation. I have touched the feet of all your disciples. But if you feel that there is something greater than this I am ready to do it.”

“If you were really spiritual,” said the Master, “you would have said, ‘The time has come for my son to depart. This boy who wants to offer his life also has parents. The suffering, the loss that I would undergo in losing my son, parents of other children would also have to endure. I cannot be so cruel. The time has come for my son. My son has done something wrong and if it is time for his soul to leave the body then I am ready to accept my loss.’ If you had had that kind of attitude, then I would say that you are not only a King in the outer world, but you are also an Emperor in the spiritual Life."

Meditations

1.

God loves man because man is helpless.
Man loves God because God is selfless.

2.

God thinks of man because He knows how to think lovingly.
Man thinks of God because he does not know how to think properly.

3.

Anger has an enemy: Peace.
Peace has no enemy.
Peace has a special friend: Joy.
Anger has only one friend: Destruction.

4.

Man has a body. It dies.
Man has a soul. It forever lives.

5.

Man’s soul is his body’s necessity.
Man’s body is his soul’s opportunity.

The message of divine freedom

There was a spiritual Master. He was very kind, very affectionate to his disciples. He used to use his occult power very often to help his students and his disciples. He used occult power and spiritual power in every possible way and he took on himself illness from the disciples who were close to him. He knew that if he accepted the cosmic punishment which they deserved according to the cosmic law, then his disciples would remain safe. So hundreds and thousands of times he took on his own body the punishment that was deserved by his disciples.

Once the Master was descending on the staircase and he fell down and he broke his knee. He was taken to the hospital immediately. There the Master was unable to move. The doctors did what they could, but the pain was excruciating. The spiritual Master was given chloroform and he had to go through some surgery.

Many disciples came to the hospital to see the Master but the doctors did not allow them in. Only one or two selected disciples were allowed to go into his room, as well as the doctors and nurses. The Master remained in a coma for quite a long time, just for a few seconds it happened that there was nobody in the Master’s room, not even a nurse. When a nurse went in again, she discovered that the Master had disappeared. Now the Master was in a coma and had a broken knee. How could he disappear? The doctors searched for him; the disciples searched for him, but the Master was nowhere to be found.

“Where has he gone?” they all asked one another. “We don’t know where he went,” was the invariable answer.

But the Master had used his occult power to return to his own house and when the disciples who had been at the hospital finally returned to their Master’s house, they were astonished to find him in his own bed giving sermons to some of his disciples. Three of the disciples who had been to the hospital to see the Master asked him, “How could you do it? And why have you done it? Since you have such capacity, why did you allow yourself to break your knee in the first place? Why did you allow us to take you to the hospital? And why did you disappear in this occult way?”

The Master said, “First I make an experiment with my spiritual oneness; then I make an experiment of my human oneness; then again I make myself one with my spiritual reality.”

The disciples could not understand this. They asked the Master to be explicit.

The Master said, “I allowed my knee to be fractured because I had to save seven close disciples; two or three would have been in the other world and the rest would have committed most serious blunders and immediately would have fallen to my seventh class disciples or I would have had to ask them to leave my Centre at once. In order to save them, protect them, in order to fight against their ignorance I had to break my knee.

“I had to take all their karma so my knee was fractured. The natural course in that case is to go to a doctor. With my spiritual oneness I saved them, I took their punishment on myself. And with my oneness with medical science, with human knowledge, I was taken to the doctor. The doctors helped me according to their own capacity. I take spiritual help from within to help my disciples and I take human help, medical help from without to save myself.

“When I know that I have suffered enough and the law of Karma is over, then I use my spiritual power, spiritual reality, spiritual capacity, spiritual light again. We start with spiritual oneness, then go on to human oneness, then we go back to the oneness where nothing is affected, where it is all light and Delight and the message of divine freedom.”