Beethoven's sincerity speaks¹

Sincerity inspires, encourages, illumines and fulfils the world.

Ludwig van Beethoven, an immortal composer and musician of the highest order, once offered a magnificent piano performance. The audience gave him a standing ovation which lasted for a long, long time.

At the end of the programme, an elderly lady came up to Beethoven and said, “How I wish I could be a genius like you! How I wish I could have magic hands like yours!”

Beethoven immediately replied, “Madam, there is no genius involved; there is no magic involved. If you are prepared to practise eight hours a day for forty years, like me, then you can easily play like me. Just start practising many hours a day, and do it for many, many years. One day you shall most definitely play as well as I do, I assure you.”

Commentary:

Many other great musicians are admired by the world as true geniuses, and they may most assuredly think and feel that their musical capacities are far, far beyond the reach of ordinary and even extraordinary human beings. They may act as if they are divinity’s most precious gift to humanity. In Beethoven’s case, he was one of the greatest musical geniuses the world has ever seen. But he was not at all bloated with pride or arrogance. What wonderful encouragement he offered the elderly lady! Other musicians might not have been as sincere. Others might proudly have said, “Thank you! It is true that I am a genius, and this genius comes directly from God. Right from my birth, God created me as a supreme musician.”

We all need to receive the sincere encouragement that Beethoven offered. When this encouragement comes from the greatest human beings in any field, it has tremendous power. How hard these geniuses work for years and years, and often they go totally unrecognised for decades. There are so many extraordinary and pre-eminent scientists, musicians, artists and others who work extremely, extremely hard day in and day out for years and years.

In the days of Beethoven, and for centuries before, people who created or discovered something really great simply offered it to the world. Usually they did not receive any special recognition or extra money.

Nowadays, if a scientist, for example, discovers something most significant, the Nobel Committee is there to present the scientist with a million dollars. If not that, then a major university will offer the scientist a new laboratory and so on. Then the person becomes very rich. He offers his great discovery and also receives great compensation.

Yet in no way were the discoveries of the hoary past inferior to the modern-day discoveries. What did the brilliant scientists of some two or three hundred years ago receive? On the one hand, they did not or could not fill their pockets with very large amounts of money. On the other hand, they were inundated with appreciation, admiration and love. Because of their big hearts, they offered their discoveries and services for the betterment of mankind without charge. God Himself compensated these great scientists with His infinite Blessings, Love and Pride.

Each person must choose what he wants: money-power or heart-power. Do we desire the increase of our money-power, or do we aspire for the expansion of our heart-power? While the two sometimes go hand in hand, it is the inner aspiration of the individual which is of paramount importance.

Napoleon bows before Saint Francis

Napoleon the Great was once travelling through Italy with his mighty troops, including several of his generals. He was at the front of a very large and majestic procession, having already conquered many lands.

On the way to their next destination, Napoleon saw a statue of St. Francis of Assisi. Napoleon commanded the entire procession to come to an immediate halt. He then removed his headgear and bowed. The generals were shocked. They said to Napoleon, “Sir, you are the greatest man in the world. You never bow to anyone, nor do you show respect to any other human being on earth. The entire world knows you and reveres you as the most indomitable figure ever to walk on this earth. How is it that you have taken off your headgear now?”

Napoleon replied, “I need guns and cannons to conquer the world. Once I conquer one country, another country revolts, and then I must go there to quell their revolt and reconquer the country. My victories are in no way permanent.

“Look at St. Francis! He was such a great saint. He had no weaponry — not one gun, not one cannon. I have countless weapons, but he had only one weapon: love. With that love-weapon, St. Francis conquered the entire world. With all my guns, cannons, ammunition, armies and more, my victories are never, never lasting. But his victory is everlasting, and his sole weapon was love.”

The generals were deeply moved by Napoleon’s humility. The greatest and most powerful man on earth recognised his own limitations. Napoleon Bonaparte announced to all his troops that one simple saint was far, far more powerful than himself. In this way, Napoleon won the one-pointed love, admiration, devotion and loyalty of his troops.

Abraham Lincoln prays for God's victory

The great American President Abraham Lincoln had many saintly qualities. He did so many good and great things for America. This story took place when he was fighting alongside his army during the Civil War. There was a tremendous battle going on, and God alone knew which side was going to win.

Lincoln’s Commander-General asked him, “Do you know what is in God’s Plan? Do you feel that we are going to be victorious, or shall we go down in shameful defeat?”

Abraham Lincoln replied, “My problem is not the victory. My problem is to be certain that I am on God’s side. I am praying to God. I do not know if we shall win or lose this war. But my constant prayer is for God’s Victory. I pray that He will accept me and this nation to be on His side. I am not at all praying to God to take our side and defeat our enemies. No, never! I want God’s Victory, not my victory. This is my only prayer.”

The Commander-General and all his men were profoundly moved by Lincoln’s spiritual depth, which he maintained even during the thick of battle.

Dining his second inaugural address, soon before his victory, Lincoln once again affirmed his faith in God and his prayer for God’s Will to be done. Referring to the North and the South, Lincoln said, “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged….the Almighty has His own purposes.”

As it turned out, God’s Victory was definitely won in and through President Lincoln’s most courageous leadership. Alas, he was assassinated just a few days after that immortal victory.

The power of kindness²

The kindness aspect of life carries us far, very far, towards our destination. How kindness can change human nature for the best!

There was a school with quite a few students. Most of the students were excellent. There was only one unfortunate boy who was not at all a good student. At the same time, he had a very bad habit: he used to steal. Quite often this boy missed class in order to steal people’s money and other valuables.

Some of the boys lived in a dormitory and, from time to time, they found that their money was missing. This went on for a long time and the students became extremely frustrated. They had no idea who the actual thief was.

A brilliant idea flashed across the mind of one of the most intelligent students. On one particular day, this boy pretended to be sick and did not come to class. He was hiding in the dormitory. As fate would have it, the student who was in the habit of stealing came into the room to steal something, and he was caught red-handed. The good student immediately informed the school authorities. Word spread very quickly around the school that the thief had been caught. All the students came to know who the culprit was, and they started insulting him ruthlessly.

The teachers wanted to take the matter to the police. They said, “This boy should be punished! He should be put in jail!” The headmaster firmly told them, “No, I will not allow that. It will bring disgrace to my school. Plus, I really want to help this boy and also help the other students.”

The headmaster called all the students and teachers together, including the boy who had stolen the money. He said to the students, “You people must be frank with me. I would like each one of you who has lost money to tell me how much you have lost.”

One student said, “I have lost ten dollars.” Others said twenty, thirty, forty and so on. The whole amount came to $300. There and then, the headmaster took out $300 from his own wallet and returned the exact amount that had been stolen to each student who had lost money.

The boy who had stolen all this money was badly humiliated. Then the headmaster said to him, “You may return to your classroom. You should complete all your courses.”

The boy obeyed the headmaster and resumed his classes. But the other students continued to look down on this boy. They spoke about him behind his back and made fun of him to his face. When the headmaster heard what was going on, he was extremely sad. He told the students, “The way you are behaving is not good. We have to conquer people with our kindness. You are all my students. I will be the proudest person if you please try to develop kindness, compassion and forgiveness.”

The head of the school was truly an excellent human being. Unfortunately, neither the students nor the teachers listened to him. They simply could not look upon this particular student kindly or favourably. Immediately after being caught, the boy had stopped his stealing. He was determined to live a good life, but he was taunted again and again because of his past actions.

The headmaster repeatedly pleaded with his students and teachers, “I am begging you to please be kind to this boy. He has totally given up his stealing. All of us have weaknesses that we must conquer. Please try to find kindness, compassion and forgiveness inside your hearts.”

Slowly but surely, the headmaster’s pleading worked. People began treating the boy with sincere kindness and concern.

After four or five years, he completed his studies and went to work. He obtained an excellent job building houses. After he received his first paycheck, the first thing he did was to withdraw $300 in cash and go to his old school. The headmaster was still there.

With folded hands, the young man offered the money to the headmaster and said to him, “I am eternally grateful to you. You saved my life. Everyone else wanted to cast me into jail, but you did not allow them. I stole $300, which you yourself gave to the students from whom I had stolen the money. Now I am returning the $300 to you.”

The headmaster began shedding tears of joy and pride. He embraced the young man and said, “My son, my kindness has been most powerfully rewarded. I am so proud of you and so grateful to you. In the future, my boy, do not steal. Never steal.” The young man replied, “I have completely stopped stealing. Never again in my life will I steal. I have turned over a new leaf, and it is all due to your kindness. I assure you, if and when I have children, my children will not be affected by what I have done. They will not be like me. I will only instil sincerity, kindness, concern and compassion into my children’s hearts and lives, just as you have done to me.”

Again and again the young man offered his gratitude to the headmaster, saying, “You saved my life! You saved my life!” Then the young man bowed to the headmaster very deeply once again and took his leave.

The following day, the headmaster related this particular incident to all the students. Most of the students who knew about the stealing episode had already passed their examinations and graduated.

The headmaster said, “Many years ago, somebody was not doing the right thing in this school. He stole money from so many students during the day while they were having their lessons. When he was finally caught, someone showed kindness to this boy. Most people wanted to put him in jail, but someone did not allow that to happen. The boy immediately turned over a new leaf and became very, very good and nice. I am telling you all this because I do not want you to repeat the same story.

“You must not develop the habit of stealing. At the same time, you must not develop the habit of looking down upon others. We all have weaknesses. At what point weaknesses will dominate us, we have no idea. If we become kind and compassionate to others, there is every possibility that our compassion, kindness and forgiveness will work miracles in their lives and in our lives as well.”

The divine punishment

There was once a spiritual Master in India who had about ten disciples. The Master was extremely strict with all his disciples. Sometimes he used to actually strike them if they were not behaving well.

It happened that once the Master was very sick. Even so, he was scolding three disciples most powerfully because they were not pleasing him with their aspiration. The disciples could not control their anger, and they started beating the Master black and blue.

The poor Master was close to death. He said to those three disciples, “You have badly beaten me. I am dying now. But I am going to curse you. You will not believe what my curse is: from the inner world, I shall send you to a Master who is infinitely higher than me.”

In a few days’ time, the Master passed behind the curtain of Eternity.

About one year later, the Master was repeatedly coming to those three disciples in their dreams. He was inspiring, begging and commanding them to go to another spiritual Master. He told them, “You will not be able to strike this Master. He is infinitely higher than I am. Go to him! Your new Master will be near the Bay of Bengal, and he has many disciples.”

Their Master gave a full description of the new Master, but he did not mention the name. The three disciples searched for the new Master and found him near the Bay of Bengal. They joined his Ashram and began to aspire most sincerely. Eventually, they wrote a book about how they were responsible for their former Master’s death. Look at the nobility and vastness of their Master’s heart! His punishment was to send them to a higher Master.

Swami Vivekananda's desire for initiation

God plays such mysterious games with each individual. We have no idea at what point some unexpected event is going to happen in our lives.

Swami Vivekananda was a great, great spiritual figure. He was a towering giant in the inner worlds. Just one or two days prior to Sri Ramakrishna’s earth-departure — some even say a few hours — Naren (Swami Vivekananda) said to his Master, “You are leaving us. What have you given me? What can you do?” Sri Ramakrishna answered, “I am now giving you my all.” He concentrated on Naren and entered into trance. Afterwards, he told Naren, “Now I am a beggar. To you I have given everything. All my inner wealth I have given to you.”

Naren was Sri Ramakrishna’s dearest disciple. Sri Ramakrishna had brought Naren’s soul down to earth to do his work and the work of his consort, Sarada Devi. Sri Ramakrishna always showed Naren infinite affection and love. He often extolled Naren’s height to the other disciples.

On another occasion, after Swami Vivekananda had already conquered the heart of America and become world famous, all of a sudden a strong desire entered into him. At that time, Sri Ramakrishna had left the body, but Sarada Devi was still in the physical.

Swami Vivekananda said, “Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna) did not initiate me. I need initiation to make progress.” Can you imagine! With his Master’s compassion, blessings and grace, Swami Vivekananda had become one of the absolutely supreme spiritual figures. But now he sought initiation from another spiritual Master, Pavhari Baba, who lived in Ghazipur. Swami Vivekananda had disciples of his own by that time, but still he felt he needed initiation!

Swami Vivekananda went to Ghazipur. He visited Pavhari Baba in his home and begged initiation from him not once, but sixteen times! Each time he went to Pavhari Baba, Swami Vivekananda had a vision of his own Guru, Sri Ramakrishna, looking at him and offering a very sad face. Finally, Swami Vivekananda lost all his desire for initiation. He said, “I will not go again to Pavhari Baba or any other great Master. I will not torture my Master any more.”

Even when a person reaches a very, very high spiritual state, he must not think he is safe from making mistakes. Why things happen, we do not know; but we must always pray to our Lord Beloved Supreme for His Protection.

Sarada Devi consoles Swami Vivekananda

In 1898 Swami Vivekananda was in Kashmir with some of his disciples, including Sister Nivedita. There he had a most unusual and upsetting experience.

A disciple of a Muslim Fakir used to come and see Swami Vivekananda and listen to him speak. This disciple was greatly attracted to Swami Vivekananda. His own Master had a little occult power, but he was virtually unknown, whereas Swami Vivekananda was by that time so famous. One day the man asked to become Swami Vivekananda’s disciple, and Vivekananda accepted him.

When this mans Guru, the Fakir, found out what had happened, he became absolutely furious. He told his disciple, “Vivekananda has taken you away from me. Tell him I am giving him two weeks. If he keeps you as his disciple for more than two weeks, I will use my occult power and he will vomit blood. You are my disciple! He has no right to accept you.”

When Swami Vivekananda heard this powerful message, he told the seeker, “Fine! If you want to remain my disciple, I shall definitely keep you. You may stay with me. His threat will have no effect on me.”

The disciple did stay. Alas, after two weeks had elapsed, Swami Vivekananda became extremely ill. He started vomiting blood and he had severe stomach problems. His case was very serious. When that particular disciple saw what had happened, he hurried back to his original Master.

Meanwhile, Swami Vivekananda was so sad, depressed and furious. He came back to Bengal. He was still sulking and angry. In front of Sarada Devi, he said, “Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna) used to say that I was his dearest, his dearest! Then how is it that I have to suffer from this kind of humiliation? How could he allow this to happen? What was Thakur doing? Could he not see how much I suffered at the hands of that Master and his disciple? He did not help me at all. What use are all my realisations if I could not save myself from the Fakir’s occult powers?” Swami Vivekananda was extremely angry with Sri Ramakrishna and with himself.

Sarada Devi had such wisdom. She was absolutely the Mother of compassion. She said to Swami Vivekananda, “My son, this disciple had a spiritual father. If you had a disciple who went to somebody else, somebody who was greater than you, would you not feel sad? Again, when you go to other Masters and want to become their disciple, it breaks your spiritual father’s heart. Sri Ramakrishna is in the soul’s world, true. But if somebody has come into your life to be your spiritual father, you should remain faithful to him. Regardless of the height of the other Master, do not break the bond that God has created. God created one person as the Master and one as the disciple. This disciple belongs to his original Master. Similarly, those who are your disciples are meant to stay with you. If they go to some other Master, will it not make you sad?”

The spiritual Mother continued, “If the Master who used his occult power had had higher wisdom, if he had had oneness with Gods Will, then he would have said, ‘Who cares if this disciple of mine goes to another Master? If he gets realisation with the help of another Master, then let him go. My only aim is to help people reach the Goal.’ If that Master had had higher wisdom, he would not have used his occult power to make your life miserable. He would have allowed his disciple to stay with you. He might have felt sad, but to use occult power to punish another Master is most painful and most objectionable. Finally, my son, I wish to remind you that Thakur believed in the synthesis of all religions, so do not feel sad that this disciple has gone back to his own Master.”

In this way, Sarada Devi was able to console Swami Vivekananda. What she said is so profound. A Master should not try to take a disciple away from another Master. But if the disciple wants to change, it is up to the previous Master to accept his decision. If the first Master has higher knowledge, and if he feels that somebody else will be able to help the disciple more, then he should allow that disciple to go to the new Master.

In my own case, if any of my disciples join other Masters, I never try to bring them back from those Masters. If they feel that a new Master is going to help them realise God, then let them stay with that Master. There are many roads to God. As long as a seeker feels sure that the new road will help him, then let him go.

Tips for the Master

Five disciples of a Master who was no longer in the physical once came to me in New York. Let us call this Master Guru Sukha. This Guru had a very, very good soul and he had many disciples.

One by one, these five disciples each had dreams of their Master during their sleep. He told them, “Please go to Sri Chinmoy, please go to Sri Chinmoy.” He also said very nice things about me to them in their dreams.

One of Guru Sukha’s disciples came to me. Then, in two months’ time, another one came, and then another and another. All of them had the same story: “Master keeps coming to me in my dreams and begging me to become your disciple.”

Alas, none of these disciples stayed on my path. They thought that I was too high for them!

One of these disciples was a hairdresser. She used to speak so highly of me to all her customers. She would have tears of devotion in her eyes as she spoke about me. Her customers would be so moved that they would often give the lady small tips for her Master, and she would gladly take their donations. After some time, she left the path.

Four or five years later, quite unexpectedly, this lady came to my house. I was on my porch. She came with a very large bag containing coins, and also one and five-dollar bills. She offered me this bag.

I asked her, “What happened?”

“I am not ready to be your disciple,” she answered, “but I cry and cry when I talk about you to my customers. I think of you all the time. When I talk to my customers and tell them about you, they are so moved. They give me money for you, so I have brought you the money they wanted to give you.”

I said, “Why do you not come back to our path?”

“Oh, no, your path is too high for me! I cannot,” answered the lady.

Guru Sukha was a very good and genuine Master. Some Masters want their disciples to stay on their path, even when the disciples want to be with another Master. Again, Masters like Guru Sukha send their own disciples to another Master when they feel that a certain Master can help their disciples to continue to make progress. This has happened many, many times. Truth to tell, there are many ways to arrive at the Goal.

Only God can cure her

About one hundred years ago, there lived in India a very good and kind spiritual Master. Let us call him Guru Raghunath. At that time, he was eight-five or ninety years old and he was extremely ill. His dearest disciple was a woman. One day she came to care for her Master, but she got angry with him for some silly reason. She struck him with a very large wooden spoon. Guru Raghunath fell down from his bed and died.

There were three or four other disciples present in the room and they witnessed everything. They were very upset with this lady, but they did not report her to the authorities.

The story never ends! Many years later, another Master — let us call him Guru Achal — was in northern India to give a talk. Before it started, one man stood up and came near him. The man was screaming, “Where is your cross? Where is your cross?”

The man wanted Guru Achal to show his cross. Otherwise, he felt that Guru Achal was not authorised to speak.

Another man stood up and said, “Jesus Christ himself was a Jew!”

Yet another party came to the Master’s rescue and screamed at the first man, “You show Jesus Christ your cross!”

Finally, everyone calmed down and the Master was able to give his talk. After everything was over, a lady came up to the Master and said, “Guru Achal, Guru! Please do me a favour.” He asked her, “What kind of favour would you like?”

She replied, “Please tell me the truth. I am Guru Raghunath’s disciple. People say that I struck my Master and killed him. Is it true?”

This was the question the lady was asking Guru Achal! He was so shocked. He said to her, “Am I the one to answer this question for you? You do not know whether you killed your Master?”

“Oh, no, you have to tell me!”

He replied, “I do not know whether you struck your Master or not. You are the one to answer this question.”

Then the lady put her hands on her throat and started massaging it. She said, “Please save me!”

“What has happened?” he asked.

“I have got a growth in my throat. You can cure me!”

“I do not have that kind of power,” Guru Achal told the lady. “There are other Masters who have that power, but I do not.” She continued, “No, no. I know you can cure me. Can you not at least touch my throat?”

“O God! I cannot touch your throat. I am very sorry,” said Guru Achal. “But I can do one thing.”

“What?” she asked.

The Master answered, “I can pray to God to cure you.” The lady was very happy that he would pray to God on her behalf.

Actually, instead of praying to God to cure her, the Master prayed to God, “Let Thy Will be done.”

One spiritual Master saves another

There was a very, very high spiritual Master. Let us call him Master Balakrishna. One day he was meditating most powerfully in a forest. Alas, the forest was extremely dry and it caught fire. Master Balakrishna was about to be burnt to ashes.

Another spiritual Master — let us call him Lalit — became aware of Balakrishna’s plight. Lalit had conquered fire, and therefore it could not burn him. He assumed another form so that Balakrishna would not be able to recognise who he was. He went to Balakrishna and grabbed him in his arms like a child. Then he carried him away from the fire. In this way, Lalit saved Balakrishna’s life.

Many years later, Balakrishna went to see Lalit because Lalit was such a great spiritual Master. When Lalit saw Balakrishna, he said, “Do you remember the incident when you were meditating in a forest and then the forest caught fire?”

“Then what happened?” enquired Balakrishna.

“Somebody came and…”

“Yes!” exclaimed Balakrishna. “Somebody came out of the blue. He grabbed me and took me out of the forest to safety. That person saved my life!”

Lalit asked, “Who was that person?” Then he assumed the same form that he had taken when he saved Balakrishna. “You see,” he said, “I am the one who saved you.”

Balakrishna knew that someone had come and saved him from the fire, but he had no idea who it was. There was no resemblance at all between Lalit’s ordinary form and the form he had taken when he entered into the forest to save Balakrishna.

After this, Balakrishna and Lalit became very close to each other. Lalit always wanted Balakrishna to go much higher than his own present spiritual height. He would tell Balakrishna, “You can still go much higher, much higher! Why are you not going as high as you can?”

At that time, Balakrishna had many disciples. To them Lalit also criticised Balakrishna. “You have such a bad Master!” he would say. “He is not going nearly as high as he is able to go.” The disciples used to get furious. They would say, “You have no right to speak ill of our Master. How dare you criticise him!” The time came when Lalit decided to take his earth-departure. He said to Balakrishna, “When I leave the body, I would like you to take care of my Ashram and all my disciples.” Balakrishna was stunned. “No, I can never do that,” he said. “You always say such bad things about me. You constantly criticise me. How can I take care of your disciples?”

Master Lalit said, “No, no! My disciples are no match for you. You are much, much more developed than they are, only I want you to go yet higher. That is why I have criticised you in front of your disciples.”

Master Balakrishna answered, “I do not want to take your position. I will not do that.”

“All right, all right,” said Lalit. “All I am asking you to do, then, is to pray and meditate more sincerely.”

By that time, Balakrishna had acquired much occult power and he had had many, many high, higher and highest spiritual experiences. He also had many disciples of his own. He had three or four Masters who helped him greatly. For a few years he would have one Master, and then somebody else would be his Master. But he never accepted a single spiritual Master.

Sri Aurobindo transcends his Guru's achievement

During the time that he was in Baroda, Sri Aurobindo looked for someone who could help him in his sadhana. His brother Barin had come to know of a Guru called Vishnu Bhaskar Lele, and this Guru was invited to come to Baroda and initiate Sri Aurobindo.

Sri Aurobindo met with Lele in 1908. Lele had great sincerity, and he agreed to instruct Sri Aurobindo. It had taken him many years to make his mind calm and quiet. Sri Aurobindo remained with Lele in a small room for three days. During that time, he succeeded in achieving what it had taken Lele years to accomplish. Much later, Sri Aurobindo wrote that his mind became “full of an eternal silence.”

Who announced this great achievement? Lele himself. He was so proud of his disciple. He told Sri Aurobindo, “I took seven years to make my mind calm, and you took only three days!” The Master was just like a father in his pride for his disciple. When the son transcends his father’s achievements, the father becomes the proudest person!

Lele's advice to Sri Aurobindo

A few weeks after he met Lele, Sri Aurobindo was supposed to give a very important speech in Bombay. Many people would be present, and the event was very significant. Unfortunately, Sri Aurobindo was not getting any inspiration for the speech; no ideas were coming into his mind. Because of his spiritual practice under Leles guidance, his mind had become calm and silent. Quite naturally, Sri Aurobindo was extremely worried.

Lele encouraged Sri Aurobindo to go ahead and give the speech. Lele told him that everything would be fine. Then Lele advised Sri Aurobindo, “Just be on the stage and bow to Lord Narayan. As soon as you bow, you will see that you will be able to get your entire speech.”

Sri Aurobindo believed Lele, and he did exactly as his Master advised. Then he gave a most wonderful and soul-stirring speech. After that time, Sri Aurobindo followed the same advice for all the speeches that he offered. His most famous and historic speech was delivered at Uttarpara on 30 May 1909, just after his acquittal in the Alipore Bomb Case. Ten thousand people were in the audience. In that immortal speech, Sri Aurobindo described in detail all his spiritual experiences during the time he spent in Alipore Jail.

Many years later, Sri Aurobindo said, “I got three things from Lele: the silent Brahman consciousness with its infinite wideness — an experience which was concrete; the power to speak and write without using the mind; and the habit of putting myself under the guidance of a Power higher than the mind.”

Sri Aurobindo and Lele part ways

As ill luck would have it, Sri Aurobindo and Master Lele did not continue on good terms. Lele saw that Sri Aurobindo was moving very fast in his spiritual progress. Once he gave Sri Aurobindo some advice on a certain aspect of higher spirituality, and Sri Aurobindo did not accept his advice at all.

Lele said to Sri Aurobindo, “If you do not accept my advice, then I am telling you, you will be caught by the devil.”

“Fine! I am ready to be caught by the devil,” answered Sri Aurobindo. “But I do not want to listen to you any more.” By this time, Sri Aurobindo had gone much, much higher than his Master. He no longer needed a human Guru.

Lele had four very close disciples. After Sri Aurobindo and Lele developed this unfortunate feeling for each other, Leles disciples left him and began to follow Sri Aurobindo. Later they all came to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. All four of Lele’s disciples were accepted by Sri Aurobindo. They became his closer than the closest attendants, and they offered him twenty-four-hour-a-day service. Many years later, one of these pillars of the Ashram came to New York and I honoured him. His name was Champaklal. At every moment of the day, he offered his service to Sri Aurobindo.

When it comes to stories of the Masters and their disciples, there is no hard and fast rule about what a spiritual Master will do when another Master’s disciple wishes to join his path. In Sri Aurobindo’s case, he accepted Leles disciples.

The dearest disciple of Sri Chaitanya

Sri Chaitanya’s dearest disciple was Nityananda. Nityananda renounced the world and wanted only to follow the spiritual life. He had decided always to wear the simple cloth of a renunciate and to lead a very pure life. He made a vow never to get married.

Sri Chaitanya said to his disciple, “My son, your withdrawal from the world is not right for your spirituality. I want you to get married.”

Nityananda exclaimed, “Me, Master? You wish me to marry?”

“Yes, my son,” replied Sri Chaitanya.

This was beyond Nityananda’s wildest imagination. He had completely renounced the world and was leading a pure and simple life of prayer and meditation. He felt that this was precisely what his Master wanted him to do.

Sri Chaitanya said, “If you renounce the world, then others will feel that marriage and spirituality cannot go hand in hand. You have to get married, Nityananda. I want this for your own spiritual progress. I want you to accept the world. After all, you are my dearest disciple. Most of my disciples want to go through marriage. In their case, it is their own decision if they want to get married and have children. But in your case, you have to prove that even if you get married, you can still maintain your spirituality. I assure you, you will not drop even an inch in your spiritual height, Nityananda. Please get married.”

Nityananda listened to his Master.

Again, Sri Chaitanya did not advise many of his other disciples to get married. They were much weaker spiritually. Only those who were very strong spiritually would he allow to marry.

Brahmananda loses his little bondage

Sri Ramakrishna’s dearest disciple, next to Swami Vivekananda, was Brahmananda. He reached higher heights than Vivekananda did. In every way, he was dearer than the dearest to Sri Ramakrishna.

Brahmanandas childhood name was Rakhal. His father arranged for him to get married at a young age. His father was a Brahmin, and it was a matter of extreme importance to him that his son be married. He literally forced Rakhal to get married.

After Rakhal was married, most of his spiritual brothers said, “Alas, our brother has fallen! He has fallen so badly!”

Sri Ramakrishna immediately scolded them. He said, “I do not want to hear any of this talk! You know how fond I am of my dearest Rakhal.”

Then Rakhal and his wife had a baby boy. Once again, the disciples mercilessly criticised Rakhal. They said, “He is completely gone from the spiritual life. He has totally fallen.”

Again Sri Ramakrishna admonished his disciples. “You must not criticise Rakhal. Do not criticise him!”

One day Rakhal’s son died. He and his wife were so sad to have lost their dearest son.

When the disciples heard about it, they were sincerely sympathising with their beloved brother. “What a terrible thing has happened to Rakhal! Our brother and friend has lost his only son,” they said.

The disciples came running to Sri Ramakrishna screaming, “Master, Master, Rakhal’s son has just died!”

To everyone’s surprise, Sri Ramakrishna started singing and dancing. He was extremely happy. Then Sri Ramakrishna said, “Rakhal had a little bondage. Now Mother Kali has taken away that bondage. I am so happy! I am very, very happy.”

The Master's ways are inscrutable

Who can understand a spiritual Master’s ways? With the ordinary human mind, we can never, never know the Master’s ways. They are inscrutable.

Sri Ramakrishna was a great Master of the highest heights. He would tell one person, “Go and eat meat. Nothing will happen.” To another person he would say, “All restlessness will enter into you if you eat meat. You must never eat meat!” If the first person ate meat, his consciousness would not be disturbed in the slightest. If the second person ate meat, the restlessness of the animals would enter into him instantly and take him into the abysmal abyss of his consciousness.

After he realised God, Swami Vivekananda used to eat meat and fish. His brother-disciples and other critics used to say, “O my God, he is eating meat! He has definitely fallen.”

Swami Vivekananda would answer, “When I was poverty-stricken, you did not give me even one rupee. Such kind-hearted people you were! Now I am in a position to eat meat and you are criticising me mercilessly. Is eating meat taking away my spirituality? Am I descending? You are such well-wishers! Where was your sympathy when I was without money for weeks on end?”

Sri Aurobindo used to eat chicken quite regularly for a year, even when he was in his high, higher, highest consciousness. Nothing affected him. And while he was writing his magnum opus, The Life Divine, his servant used to come to him with a very large Burmese cigar. Sri Aurobindo would smoke to get inspiration. This is all written in official books on Sri Aurobindo’s life.

Sri Ramakrishna used to smoke a hookah frequently before he entered into his highest meditation. In most cases, if people smoke, they cannot raise their consciousness even an iota. Even if someone is smoking next to another person who does not smoke, it is all finished for the non-smoker! That person will not be able to go higher at all.

In our spiritual life, we all have to know how much capacity we have.

Giving joy to the Master

Sri Aurobindo wrote a story in Bengali called Kshamar Adarsha, “The Ideal of Forgiveness.” There he described how the Vedic sage Vashishtha forgave King Vishwamitra, even though Vishwamitra had killed one hundred of his disciples.

When I was thirteen years old, I rendered this story into two hundred lines of rhyming Bengali verse. Timidly and devotedly, I submitted this poem to the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Out of her infinite compassion for me, the Mother gave it to Sri Aurobindo. In a few days’ time, at four-thirty in the afternoon, I was on my way to the volleyball ground. One of Sri Aurobindo’s dearest attendants, Mulshankar, stopped me and said, “Chinmoy, Nirod is reading out to Sri Aurobindo your long poem and Sri Aurobindo is smiling.”

When I heard this, I was in the seventh heaven of delight! A few hours later, Nirod-da sent for me and returned the poem. He told me that Sri Aurobindo had remarked, “It is a fine piece of poetry. He has capacity. Tell him to continue.”

Last August I was inspired to set this poem to music and today Kailash’s group has sung the song most soulfully and most powerfully. Once upon a time, a thirteen-year-old boy pleased his Master. He is now seventy-one years old, and his disciples have pleased him very, very much. In all sincerity, from my own inner vision, I am telling you that the joy my disciples have given me today with their singing is infinitely more than the joy I gave Sri Aurobindo with my poem. Their singing of the song was most excellent!

Just before Kailash’s group began, I was cycling in our meeting room. Right from the beginning, whom was I seeing? I was seeing Sri Aurobindo in the room. Then I also saw the Mother and Nolini-da. They were watching and watching from the corner on the far side of this room. They were very happy.

Only when I started walking, they became so sad. They were deeply, deeply sad at the pain I was experiencing in my legs. That sadness I cannot express in words.

Hriday's respect for his teacher

My eldest brother, Hriday, went to high school, college and university. He studied the Vedas, the Upanishads and many more of our sacred scriptures. Hriday was a most brilliant student and scholar.

It so happened that my brother’s primary school teacher was also my primary school teacher, even after a gap of so many years. This teacher’s name was Shivashankar. He was strictness incarnate. If a student did not do his lessons or if he misbehaved in any way, Shivashankar had a long cane — an absolutely sesquipedalian cane — with which he would strike the naughty pupil. Not only that, but the student would have to kneel down and pull his ears. He would have to keep that difficult pose as long as our teacher wanted. The student’s knees, back and everything else would be hurting very much. That kind of strict teacher was Shivashankar!

After twelve years of being at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, my brother returned home for a year. He went to see Shivashankar and pay his respects. When he saw Shivashankar, my brother fell flat at the feet of his first teacher.

The old man said to my brother, “What are you doing? You are now such a great man! You are a spiritual seeker and you have been in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. How can you do this?”

Hriday answered, “No, no! You are the one who first opened my eyes to knowledge. You are the one in my life who deserves this.”

Right in front of us, with utmost sincerity, Hriday prostrated himself and took blessings from Shivashankar. The old man was shedding tears and tears of joy.

This kind of respect some wonderful teachers receive from their former students.

"Steal my heart!"

Many, many years ago, when I was in Jamaica, West Indies, I went to a church and gave a talk on spirituality. There were about eight hundred people in the audience. They were very impressed with my talk. Then they asked me many, many questions on prayer, meditation and various aspects of the spiritual life. Somehow I managed to satisfy them.

The minister of the church was a lady. She became a disciple and stayed in our Jamaica Centre for many years.

At the end of the programme, one of my Jamaican disciples said, “We are all extremely grateful to Sri Chinmoy for offering us his talk and for answering so many questions today. We hope his answers have been of service to you in your own spiritual quest.”

Then the disciple explained that our spiritual path includes people from all faiths and greatly encourages seekers in whatever religion they belong to. The disciple asked if anyone in the audience would like to follow our path and become my disciple. Can you imagine! All eight hundred members of the audience wanted to become my disciples.

They stood in a long queue. Since I knew that our path was not meant for everyone in the church, I said, “Each person may kindly pass by me slowly, in a meditative consciousness. I shall meditate on each person.”

After meditating briefly on each person, I saw that seventy or eighty were definitely meant to be my disciples. One by one, each of those whom I accepted in our Centre came and stood on one side. To the rest of the people, I offered my soul’s loving goodwill. I knew that they would do better on another spiritual path.

Afterwards, all the new disciples came to the house of the Centre leader, to whom I had given the name Durga. I agreed to see each person separately.

One very thin policeman came into the room and sat in front of me. I cut a joke with him. I said, “I am so happy you have come. If I happen to steal something, then you will be the first person to arrest me!”

He answered, “No. I have come here for you to steal my heart!”

I was deeply touched. That policeman was so nice.

Right after the policeman left, his wife entered the room. She wanted me to solve all her family problems. Alas, she had quite a few things to say to me against her husband!

Never give up!

There was one disciple in Jamaica, West Indies, to whom I gave a spiritual name that means ‘beautiful’ in Bengali. Her soul was most beautiful.

The husband of this girl had problems with his eyes, so he was not allowed to drive at all. One day she came to me and said, “Guru! Guru! Please help me. I have been learning how to drive, since my husband can see almost nothing. Now I have to take a driving test to get my driver’s licence. I am so nervous! Please help me.”

I told her, “I shall definitely pray for you to do well.”

The following day, she came to see me with a very dejected face. She said, “Guru, I did horribly on my test. I was so nervous that I wanted to finish the test as quickly as possible. As a result, I did not even slow down at the first few cross streets to see if a car was coming. I just went through. After only two minutes, the examiner failed me.”

“I am so sorry for you,” I said. “Kindly offer this experience to the Supreme and move forward. Just practise for one or two days more and then try again, good girl.”

The poor girl took the driver’s test for the second time. Once again, she came to me with a very sad face. “I am such a bad driver, Guru! I failed again. This time I made a right turn instead of a left turn, and I was going the wrong way down a oneway street. Needless to say, the examiner failed me immediately. I do not know if I will ever pass.”

With utmost love and concern, I consoled her and said, “Please do not worry. Try again. You will definitely succeed.” Like this, she tried and failed six times. Still the authorities were allowing her to take the test again and again because she had to drive her husband. I felt miserable for my unfortunate disciple. I told her, “This time I am very serious. I am concentrating on you most powerfully. You please try once more to pass the examination.”

She went for her test for the seventh time and this time she passed. I was so happy for her.

In my own case, twice I failed my driving test. The first time, the examiner stopped the test at the first road! When I took the test the third time, my examiner was so kind. He was encouraging me in every way throughout the test. At the end he said, “I have never seen a driver as careful and as good as you are!” I always say, “Never give up! Never give up!”

Parvati becomes a fisherman's daughter³

I am inspired to tell a story that has to do with Mount Kailash, because Kailash is now massaging me. As you know, Mount Kailash is our most sacred mountain.

Lord Shiva can be pleased sooner than the soonest. You can worship him with only one simple leaf, tulasi, which in India is everywhere available. If you sprinkle just a little water on top of the leaf and then place it at the feet of Lord Shiva, he will give you everything. Sometimes, by giving human beings boons, he creates such problems for himself!

Lord Shiva’s consort is Parvati, and their dwelling-place is on top of Mount Kailash. Every day Lord Shiva used to explain difficult, difficult points from the Vedas to Parvati. Many things in our sacred books are very difficult to understand, so he used to carefully explain them to her. This went on for years.

It happened that one day Parvati found Lord Shiva’s explanation boring and she lost her concentration. When Lord Shiva saw that she had lost her concentration, with his third eye — which is his destruction-aspect — he cursed her. He said, “You are not paying any attention to me, so I am cursing you. You have to take human incarnation as a fisherwoman!”

A curse is a curse, so Parvati had to come down to earth. She took the form of a four-year-old girl and she appeared at the foot of a tree. The little child was very beautiful.

The chief fisherman of that area found the helpless child and brought her to his cottage. He adopted her and began to lavish all his affection, love, sweetness and fondness on her. He himself did not have any children. The funniest thing is that the fisherman also gave her the name Parvati. Her original name on Mount Kailash was Parvati, and when she played the role of the daughter, it was the same.

In the meantime, Lord Shiva was so miserable. He was crying pitifully, “What have I done? What have I done? Why did I express my anger? Now look at me! Without her I cannot exist even for a moment.”

Lord Shiva’s main attendant is a white bull called Nandi. Although he is a bull, Nandi can talk. He felt miserable that Lord Shiva was suffering, so he said, “Why do you not bring Parvati back here? You have so much occult power. You have only to use your third eye and bring her back.”

Lord Shiva replied, “No, I cannot do that. I am seeing very clearly that she is going to marry a fisherman. Now she is still growing up. Alas, I do not know when she will be able to come back to me.”

Nandi said, “I cannot see you suffering. It is unbearable! I shall solve your problem.”

Lord Shiva was so surprised. “You will solve my problem?” It was like a slave saying that he will solve the master’s problem. Then Lord Shiva continued, “All right, please solve my problem.”

What Nandi did was to take the form of a whale. He entered into the water where the fishermen of that village used to fish. Every day, in their tiny boats, they would go out and catch fish. Then they would sell their fish at the market. This huge whale started torturing the fishermen, and also it was consuming the small fish that they used to catch. The fishermen were so helpless. They were not catching any fish, and their boats were quite often capsized by the whale. They all became so sad and miserable.

The fishermen came to the chief of their community, Parvati’s adoptive father, and told him of their present misfortune. He said, “I am also helpless. Now what can we do with this whale?”

Then a brilliant idea flashed through his brain. He said, “Whoever can kill the whale, I will give my daughter to him in marriage. This is my promise. And my daughter is extremely beautiful.”

So many fishermen tried in vain to kill the whale. Alas, instead of killing it, many were devoured by the whale. They all lost! By now, people were afraid of the whale. Those fishermen who still remained did not dare to go near it, and they did not want to make any more attempts to kill it. Now they were even more miserable than before. They could not catch any fish to earn their livelihood, and they knew that they were not going to get this beautiful girl in marriage.

One day Nandi returned to Lord Shiva with a message. He said, “The chief fisherman is saying that whoever can kill the whale — by which he means me — will be able to have his beautiful daughter in marriage. This is his promise. Can you not take the form of a fisherman and appear there as the strongest and most powerful man? You can kill the whale, and then you will be able to bring back your most beautiful wife.”

“Oh, that is a splendid idea!” said Lord Shiva. “I am going.”

Lord Shiva took the form of a young man, most powerful and handsome in every way. Then he appeared before the fishermen of that village. They had never seen such a strong and handsome man. They were so happy to welcome him in their midst. The chief of the fishermen said, “I am so happy! Who are you?” Lord Shiva replied, “I do not want to say who I am. Just tell me, will you keep your promise if I kill the whale?”

The chief fisherman said, “Definitely! If you kill the whale, then I shall definitely keep my promise. You will have my daughter.”

Lord Shiva entered into the water and killed this whale, and in this way Nandi was killed by his own master. Then Shiva and Parvati were married on earth and came back again to Mount Kailash. Nandi also came back and again became Lord Shiva’s closest attendant.

After that, Lord Shiva said that he would never teach his wife the Vedas any more. He did not want to lose Parvati a second time!

The asura is burnt to ashes

This second story about Lord Shiva is one which all of you know, but I will just decorate it a little in my own village way.

Most of our Indian Cosmic Gods and Goddesses are wise in giving boons. They see if the person really deserves it before they give a boon. But in the case of Lord Shiva, he does not care. If he is pleased with someone, he does not want to know if the person deserves the boon or not.

There was once a very powerful asura called Bhasmasur. He enjoyed life to the fullest in his own way for years and years. He was destroying people here and there, but he was not getting any inner happiness. Finally he came to realise that there is no real happiness in mere enjoyment. Then he started meditating and meditating and meditating. He meditated for centuries.

Every day Bhasmasur would cut off a portion of his body. To please Lord Shiva, little by little he was sacrificing his own body. Formerly he was a huge asura, but gradually he became like a skeleton.

At last Lord Shiva appeared before Bhasmasur and asked, “What do you want?”

The asura replied, “I have prayed and meditated. I have pleased you. Now I want to have something in return, a power which nobody else on earth has. Please tell me that you will not give this boon to anybody else.”

Lord Shiva said, “All right, I will give you a boon which I will not grant to anybody else. You will be the only one to have that miracle-power.”

The asura said, “I want to have this boon: the moment I touch the head of any human being, that person will turn into ashes.” Lord Shiva said, “You have pleased me immensely with your prayer and meditation. It is such an easy thing for me to give you that kind of boon. I can give it to you now, easily! Also, I promise that I will not give this particular boon to anybody else.”

Right there and then, Lord Shiva gave Bhasmasur the boon he desired. The asura was so happy, so thrilled, that he was the only one to be the possessor of this particular boon. Whomever he touched, that person would turn into ashes. The asura immediately wanted to apply the boon to Lord Shiva himself!

Lord Shiva cried, “O my God! What have I done, what have I done, what have I done?” Then Lord Shiva ran and ran and ran, faster than the fastest. He had faster speed than this asura. Finally, Lord Shiva arrived at Lord Vishnu’s palace. Lord Vishnu is one of the Hindu Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. Brahma creates, Vishnu preserves, Shiva transforms.

“Save me, save me!” Shiva said to Vishnu.

Vishnu asked, “What is wrong?”

Shiva explained, “I gave one asura a boon: the moment he touches anybody, that person will be burnt to ashes. Now he wants to test the boon on my head!”

Vishnu said, “Do not worry. I have a very big palace. You hide somewhere. I will take care of him.”

Lord Shiva was hiding in Lord Vishnu’s palace when Bhasmasur arrived, panting and panting. The asura said to Vishnu, “What has happened, what has happened? Shiva gave me a boon and then, when I wanted to experiment to see if the boon really worked, he just started running, and I could not keep pace with him. Now what am I going to do?”

Lord Vishnu showed the asura a sympathetic face. He said, “Do not worry. You are now here. You can stay at my palace and I will treat you very nicely. Shiva? He is a number-one liar, first of all! You know, he always drinks and drinks, and he does not even know what he is saying! How did you come to believe him in the first place? Nobody believes what Shiva says, nobody, so you are a fool! You should not have believed him. He is always dealing with snakes, and he eats all kinds of things. He does not even know what day of the week it is. He is always enjoying his own life. You should not have trusted him. I tell you, he does not have that kind of power. I know, because he is a friend of mine.

“Anyway, even if he had given you that boon — a power that nobody else has — why do you have to take the trouble of going and searching for him? You just try it on your own head. I tell you, nothing will happen. No, nothing will happen because Shiva does not have that kind of power. Shiva just brags.” “That is true,” said Bhasmasur.

Then Lord Vishnu continued, “I assure you, nothing will happen to you, nothing will happen. Since nothing will happen, you can put your hand on your own head. Then I will help you to catch Shiva because he is such a liar. You can trust me!”

The asura trusted Lord Vishnu and he placed his hand on his own head. Immediately, he died and turned into ashes then and there. Then Vishnu sent for Shiva, who was hiding in his palace. When Shiva came, he could not believe what had happened. Vishnu had solved his dilemma.

These three Cosmic Gods — Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva — offer each other mutual help. When Vishnu is in trouble, Shiva will come to help. When Brahma is in trouble, the other two come to his assistance. They are friends, but not human friends. Human friends will not have the capacity to glorify each other. Always one friend will be at the top; he will be the best of the three. But when it comes to the Cosmic Gods, they try to humble themselves. They say, “No, that one is greater than me, the other one is greater.” Each one tries to glorify the others.

This story all of you know. I am only embellishing it.

Many, many times in New York while I am doing a bench press — let us say, 1,000 pounds, while I am lying down, at around four-thirty or five o’clock in the morning, upstairs in my second room — I will see Lord Shiva seated on my bed. With such joy, such love, such compassion-power, he is watching me, watching me, watching me.

Lord Vishnu's great devotee⁴

There was a very, very famous king who was kindness incarnate, compassion incarnate and self-giving incarnate.

Usually it is impossible for any one person to please everyone but, in his case, all his subjects were extremely pleased with him, extremely grateful to him and extremely proud of him. The king’s name was Ambarish.

The king was a very great and very sincere devotee of Lord Vishnu. Once he decided to fast and pray and meditate for three days without rest in order to receive blessings from Lord Vishnu. It was a special religious rite that he wanted to perform.

For three days Ambarish fasted and prayed and meditated. Then he was so elated and so grateful that he had been able to fulfil his desire that he decided to fulfil the desires of all his subjects.

“Since it will be difficult for me to bring all my subjects to my palace, let me start with the priests,” said Ambarish. “We have so many priests. Since they are spiritual people, I want to please them first.”

The king invited all the priests to an elaborate banquet. After the banquet, he was planning to give boons to each guest. Ambarish himself did not want to take even a morsel of food or a single drop of water. Nothing at all! He was not fasting unto death; there was no threat involved. Ambarish was trying to win Lord Vishnu’s special blessings by performing this penance.

The priests were all ready to begin eating. All of a sudden the great sage Durvasha appeared. Durvasha was known for his very quick temper. In a second, he could destroy anyone. This kind of occult power he had, and he misused it millions of times.

Everyone was shocked to see Durvasha. King Ambarish greeted him very respectfully. “O great sage,” he said, “we are honoured by your presence. You are our guest of honour. Please allow me to serve you first.”

“No, Ambarish,” replied Durvasha, “I am going to bathe in a nearby river. After I have washed myself completely, I shall come to eat.”

Durvasha went to the river. Half an hour passed, then an hour, two hours, three hours. He was enjoying himself. Even after four hours, there was no sign of his return. For the special kind of worship that King Ambarish was performing, one has to resume eating at a certain hour, after having completed the fast. One of the priests said to Ambarish, “O King, if you do not eat during this special hour, you will commit a sin, according to our Shastras.”

“What am I going to do?” asked the king. “If I do not wait for Durvasha and offer him food first, he will curse me. And if I do not eat during this most auspicious hour, I shall be committing a sin.”

The priests held a consultation, and then they advised the king, “You are such a good, kind-hearted king. We do not want you to suffer. This anger-flooded sage should suffer! Drink just a drop of water. Then you will be able to say to Durvasha that you have not eaten, but at the same time you will be able to please God because you have taken something.”

Ambarish put a little drop of water in the palm of his hand and was about to drink it when, lo and behold, Durvasha appeared. He was furious. “What kind of audacity is this?” he shouted. “I am such a great sage. How dare you drink without giving me food first? I curse you!”

From his matted hair, Durvasha removed a few strands and turned them into a chakra, a disc. He released the disc, and it flew very fast towards Ambarish to kill him. Ambarish prayed to Lord Vishnu, “O Lord Vishnu, what have I done? I did not want to drink, but my priests said I should. They said that otherwise I would be committing a sin because I would not fulfil my vow. Now I have to face Durvasha’s wrath.”

Lord Vishnu immediately sent his Sudarshan chakra to intervene. This chakra came down from Above and broke Durvasha’s chakra into pieces. But that was not enough. Vishnu’s all-conquering Sudarshan chakra started chasing Durvasha here, there and everywhere. Durvasha ran for his life. He even ran into the river, thinking that the disc would not follow him there, but no matter where he went, Vishnu’s Sudarshan chased him. At any moment, he was about to lose his life.

Finally, the sage went to Brahma, the Creator, and pleaded, “O Brahma, please, please, save me, save me! Vishnu’s chakra is about to kill me.”

“You fool!” Brahma replied. “How will I dare to challenge Vishnu’s chakra? I am not going to do anything.”

Then Durvasha went to Lord Shiva. Shiva is so fond of Vishnu. Shiva became furious with Durvasha. “Just run away from here!” he said. “Otherwise, I will destroy you! You will not have to wait for Vishnu’s chakra. I am going to destroy you here and now! What an unthinkable thing you have done to Vishnu’s devotee! Our devotees are dearer than our lives themselves.” Shiva scolded and insulted Durvasha mercilessly.

In our Indian philosophy, if a Master has a very sincere and excellent devotee, he is ready to sacrifice his own life for the devotee.

Then the helpless, hopeless and useless Durvasha went to Lord Vishnu for forgiveness. “Am I going to forgive you?” said Vishnu. “Ambarish is dearer than the dearest to me. He is dearer than my life itself. I am not going to help you. How could you do such an unthinkable thing to such a good king? Go and beg Ambarish for forgiveness!”

Poor Durvasha had to go to Ambarish and beg for forgiveness. “Please, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me! Save me!” he wept.

Ambarish said to Durvasha, “I have no power. I can only pray to my Lord Vishnu. He is the one who is about to kill you.” Ambarish prayed to Vishnu, “My Lord, please, please, forgive him.”

Vishnu said, “Only because of you, I am forgiving him. Because you are so dear to me, I will always listen to your request, but not to his request.”

Then Vishnu forgave Durvasha and Vishnu’s chakra stopped chasing him. Durvasha asked Ambarish, “How is it possible? Brahma did not dare to challenge Vishnu’s chakra. Shiva did not dare. On the contrary, they both insulted me and scolded me brutally. And Vishnu himself did not forgive me. But your forgiveness immediately produced results.”

“O Durvasha, you know that it is not my power,” replied Ambarish. “It is my Lord Vishnu’s Compassion-Power. I prayed to him only to become a better king. That is why I observed that particular religious rite of fasting for three days. It was nothing. Anybody could do it — just three days of fasting. I did not drink, I did not eat anything. But my Lord Vishnu’s Compassion is infinite. His Love for me is infinite. It is his Love for me that wanted to punish you. It is his Compassion for me.”

In India, there are millions of mythological stories about this kind of injustice and retribution. If someone does something wrong to a sincere devotee, then from Above not only these three main Cosmic Gods — Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva — but others also punish the culprit. Whenever their super-excellent devotees are in trouble, the Cosmic Gods immediately take their side.

This is an authentic story of how Lord Vishnu wanted to glorify Ambarish because, as a king, Ambarish was kindness incarnate, compassion incarnate and self-giving incarnate.

Not to judge, but only to love⁵

Once a prominent spiritual Master was invited by the mayor of a certain town to offer a talk. The spiritual Master had never been to that town before. He very happily accepted the invitation and decided to travel there alone. Though he had many, many disciples throughout the land, he had none in this town.

The mayor made all the arrangements for the Masters visit. He reserved a large hall where the Master could offer his talk, and he had notices put up everywhere inviting all those interested to attend. Everyone was extremely happy and proud that such a famous spiritual Master was coming to their town.

One spiritual seeker named Jyotish asked his friend, “Have you heard the news? A very great Master is coming to town. He will meditate and give a talk. Who knows, he may even show us some of his occult power!”

His friend Madhu replied, “Fantastic! I did not know of this. We cannot miss it.”

Like this, the Master’s forthcoming visit became the talk of the town. Everyone was most eagerly looking forward to the renowned Master’s arrival. Finally, the day of the talk arrived. People from the town, and even many people from the surrounding villages, had come to listen to the Master and meditate with him.

Madhu excitedly telephoned his friend early in the morning. “Jyotish, we must arrive at least four hours early in order to get a good seat!”

“Yes, of course,” Jyotish replied.

The friends agreed to leave at eleven o’clock to walk to the town hall where the Master would be speaking. It was the largest meeting hall in the entire town. The talk was to begin at four o’clock in the afternoon. The mayor himself would not be attending, but he had done an excellent job of letting all his townspeople know about the Master’s coming.

A wave of tremendous spiritual excitement had spread throughout the town. All the people were thrilled in anticipation of being in the presence of a great spiritual figure. The men were wearing their cleanest white dhotis and kurtas, and the women were wearing pure white saris.

Hours before the Master’s talk, people were streaming down the main road of the town in large numbers. Just near the mayor’s mansion, and a few blocks from the town hall, all those who were passing by saw an old, unkempt man sleeping on the side of the road. His grey hair was long and dishevelled. His beard was completely uncared for. His clothes were simpler than the simplest. Nobody had ever seen this old man before.

Because people were going to attend a spiritual function and were in a good consciousness, most of them took compassion on the old man. Some kind-hearted people gave him bananas and other food.

“Here, take this, old man,” one nice mother said. She was going to hear the Master with her four young children. She put a small bowl of rice right in front of the old man. Then she and her children went on their way.

A few people were far less kind, and some of them even cursed the man. “Horrible! Horrible! Are you even a human being? Get out of here!” they cried at the poor, dishevelled man. “How dare you be here, dressed like that on such a sacred day as today! Go! Go away!”

But the old man seemed only to sleep and sleep.

Finally, the time came for the Master’s talk. When the Master entered the hall, there was a stunned gasp from the audience. “What! This is the Master? This is the Master? There must be some mistake!” they exclaimed. They were all shocked, for the Master was none other than the same old beggar they had all passed by while he was lying down on the road and sleeping.

The Master simply bowed his head and meditated in complete silence for several minutes. Then he spoke slowly and with tremendous intensity. “I am extremely grateful to all of you for coming here today to attend my talk. I have not come here to judge you. I have come here only to love you.”

Then the Master continued, “All of you who passed by me this afternoon judged me. You said to yourselves, ‘This man is so poor! He is so dirty! What is this old man doing sleeping on the road like this on such an important day? How dare he?’ Some of you were extremely kind to me and even offered me your food. Others were less kind. They made fun of me or showed their anger. I wish to tell you that the spiritual life is not to judge, but only to love. If you can all follow this one divine teaching, then you will make tremendous progress in your spiritual lives. You will see immediately what a difference this will make in your own inner life of aspiration and in your outer life of dedication.”

Without saying another word, the Master blessed each and every person in the hall in silence. Then he bowed his head once more and slowly walked out of the hall.

When the Master returned home, his spiritual children were extremely eager to hear how his trip had gone. The Master simply smiled and said, “I gave a talk. It went very well. I said that I have not come into the world to judge anyone. I have come into the world only to love everyone and everything.”

All the disciples were deeply moved. They bowed to the Master and silently filed out of the room.

The obedient student⁶

A Teacher, or Guru, was teaching religious as well as regular studies in ancient India. In India, even a school teacher is called a Guru. In the morning, about fifteen or twenty young boys used to go to their Teacher’s school to study and play, and in the late afternoon they used to come back home.

One day the Teacher asked a particular boy to do something. What was it? While the students were playing, the Teacher summoned the young boy and said to him, “Throw my child into the well.” The Teacher’s child was only five or six years old, but the student did not hesitate, even for a fleeting moment. He grabbed the child and threw him into the nearby well. The other students noticed it and came running. Two or three entered into the well and brought the child back out, and other students thrashed the particular student who had thrown the child into the well. The student did not say a word. Meanwhile, the Teacher was watching the whole situation. He also did not say anything.

A few months later, while the students were playing, the Teacher summoned the same boy and said to him, “Set fire to my house.” Again, the boy did not hesitate for a second. He immediately set fire to his Guru’s own house. The Guru’s wife was inside, and she was shouting and screaming. Then, as before, the rest of the students struck him mercilessly, saying, “How did you dare to set fire to our Guru’s house?” Again, the boy did not say a word. He did not say that his Guru had asked him to do this, and the Teacher also was silent, not saying anything. The other students could not fathom it: how could the Teacher be so indifferent?

As the days ran into weeks, the weeks into months, and the months into years, there came a time when the students grew up and entered into their own way of life. By this time, the Teacher had become very, very old, so he invited all his various students, past and present, to come and see him. They all came, and the Teacher started blessingfully giving them some material objects, such as plots of land and other things. Whatever he had, he wanted to give away to his students. They were all very happy. Then they noticed that for some reason, that particular student did not receive anything, perhaps because the Guru felt that he had not been a good student. The others were wondering why the Guru had not given him anything.

At long last, the Teacher said to the boy, “I have nothing to give you on the material plane that will equal your obedience. I have never seen, and I will never see, anybody who is so devoted to his Teacher. I have never seen anybody as obedient as you are, and whatever I give on the material plane will not be equal to your obedience.”

Then the Teacher said, “I am giving you a boon. The boon is this: in a few years, the Lord Himself will come to you as your student. Lord Krishna will come and be your student. This is the greatest gift that I can give you. I am the happiest person to tell you that the Lord Himself will come and study with you.” The name of this particular student was Sandip Muni. He became the Guru of Sri Krishna. He had this kind of obedience to fulfil his Teachers requests.

Anandamayee Ma hides her beauty⁷

This incident took place when Anandamayee Ma was newly married. She was about sixteen or so. Her husband, Bholanath, was much older than she was. One day her husband brought a friend of his home. Bholanath wanted to show off what a beautiful wife he had.

At that time, Anandamayee Ma’s name was Nirmala Sundari. She was extremely beautiful, both inwardly and outwardly. On that day, when Bholanath arrived home with his friend, Bholanath saw to his great surprise that his wife had put a towel over her head and covered her face.

Bholanath said to her, “What are you doing? What are you doing? You do not want to see my friend?”

But Nirmala did not listen to him. She kept the towel on her head. Then Bholanath became furious. He asked her, “Who do you think you are?”

Nirmala took off the towel and said, “I am Brahman all-pervading.”

The husband was furious and the friend was amused.

The Guru and the disciple in one form

Anandamayee Ma did not have any Guru. At first she thought that it was necessary to have a Guru. Then she felt that it was not necessary. She prayed and meditated. Finally, in a deep meditation, she felt that her highest Self was the Guru and her lower self was the disciple. This moment she played the role of a disciple; next moment she played the role of her Master. This is how she initiated herself.

Possessed by God

Anandamayee Ma did not listen to her husband. She passed her time in prayer and meditation. She was all the time self-absorbed. Her husband could not tolerate her behaviour. He used to beat her quite hard until she was black and blue. This went on for years.

Then one day she told him, “Wait for another two years. Then you will not be able to beat me any more.”

What happened? Within two years she gathered many devotees and her husband became frightened. He could not continue to treat his wife in such a rough manner. He touched her feet and begged her for forgiveness. Then he became her first real disciple.

The villagers were all shocked. How could a husband become his wife’s disciple? But Bholanath said, “I see her divinity. Previously I thought that she was possessed by demons. Now I see that she is possessed by God.”

Anandamayee Ma ceases to feed herself

One evening, in 1924, Anandamayee Ma said, “I am not going to eat food with my own hand any longer.”

From that day on, she was always fed by her disciples. They had to put food into her mouth. This went on until she left the body in 1982.

Each one is right

Once a disciple of Anandamayee Ma asked her, “Please tell me who you are. I want to know.”

She replied, “It is up to you. Whatever you think of me, I am that. If you think I am this, you are right. If another person thinks I am something else, he is right. As you think of me, so I am.”

Anandamayee Ma solves the religious disputes

India’s greatest religious festival is the Kumbha Mela. It takes place every twelve years. Millions of people attend, including many religious leaders and all kinds of devotees.

Sometimes the religious leaders go there to enjoy debating, and sometimes even quarrelling and fighting. Anandamayee Ma was also present on a number of occasions. Some leaders felt that they should go to her for wisdom. They used to come to her and she used to advise them. It happened for quite a few years that leaders of religious groups used to come to her for her wisdom-light. In this way, she was the one to prevent them from quarrelling and fighting.

The western world comes to know of Anandamayee Ma

It was Paramahansa Yogananda who brought Anandamayee Ma’s light to America. He wrote the Autobiography of a Yogi and in his autobiography he devoted a chapter to “The Bengali ‘Joy-Permeated Mother’.”

It was because Paramahansa Yogananda wrote about his meeting with Anandamayee Ma that the Western world came to know about her.

The real Guru

Anandamayee Ma's opinion was that each person is his own guru because each person listens to himself. He listens to his mind or his heart, so he is his own guru. Whatever comes to his mind, he does. Whatever he feels, he does. Therefore, each individual is his own guru.

But again, she felt that there is only one real Guru, one highest Guru, and that is the Self.

Anandamayee Ma's simple advice

Anandamayee Ma used to advise her disciples to laugh and laugh and laugh. She said, “If you laugh, then you minimise your sufferings and also you unburden the sadness and sorrows of other human beings.”

This is why she encouraged her disciples to laugh to their heart’s content.

The subject of mother's bath

In the evening of her life, sometimes for days Anandamayee Ma did not take a bath. Once one disciple said to another, “Mother does not take a bath at all.”

The other disciple said, “Why does she have to take a bath? She has such a beautiful and pleasing fragrance in her body. She does not have to take a bath. She is not like us.”

The Mother overheard their conversation and the following day she bathed thirty times! The disciples were horrified, and they never brought up the subject again. Then, as usual, Anandamayee Ma stopped taking baths on a regular basis.

Lord Ganesha's birth⁸

Lord Shiva was all the time meditating and meditating. On earth, he had so many admirers and devotees. Everybody spoke so highly of Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva had quite a few guards — Nandi, Bhringi and others. He also had many assistants. His consort, Parvati, had a few friends who were very dear to her. These friends became very, very jealous of Lord Shiva.

Parvati's friends used to tell her, “We feel so sorry for you that you do not have any bodyguards.”

Then Parvati protested, “I do not need bodyguards, I do not need them!”

“But you do need them!” they insisted. “Why should everybody only appreciate Shiva?”

Parvati answered, “When people appreciate Shiva, I feel they are appreciating me as well.”

Her friends said, “No, no, no! Your name is not Shiva; your name is Parvati. These guards never mention Shiva and Parvati. For them, it is all Shiva, Shiva. Please allow us to do something about this matter. We would like to have some bodyguards, some assistants, for you.”

Once more Parvati said, “No, I do not need assistants, I do not need them. When people appreciate Shiva, admire him and adore him, I feel that they adore me and love me also. So I do not need assistants.”

But her friends were not convinced. They said, “There shall come a time when you will also need bodyguards and helpers and so forth. One day you will realise this.”

Alas, it happened that one day Parvati was taking a shower and inadvertently Shiva came into the room. Parvati was very embarrassed. She said, “Why did you come here? I am taking a shower.”

Shiva began to say, “I came here — ”

Before he could complete the sentence, Parvati started shouting and screaming at him. Shiva said he would never embarrass her again. He was very upset. Then he went far away.

Parvati was now alone. One day she was taking a shower and from her body, while she was using her soap, some dust and dirt dropped. This dust and dirt became a little four or five-year-old boy. That was her son. She gave that little boy all kinds of occult power and spiritual power. The little boy became very, very powerful.

When he was six or seven years old, his father had still not returned. Another six years went by and Lord Shiva wanted to come back home. Parvati had told her son that, without her permission, nobody would be allowed to enter her home. The little boy was all the time guarding, guarding, guarding his mother. When Lord Shiva came, the little boy did not know who he was, and so he did not allow his father to enter.

Lord Shiva said, “It is beneath my dignity to fight this little boy!” He sent Nandi and Bhringi, his guards, to fight with the child. Alas, the little boy defeated them badly! Then more Cosmic Gods arrived to help Shiva, but they met with the same fate. Finally, Brahma and Vishnu came. They also lost to the little boy. They could not believe how powerful the little boy was. One by one, they all lost to him. Then they begged Shiva himself to come and fight.

Lord Shiva came, and for a long time he fought with the little boy. At last, Shiva became furious. He said, “I cannot go on like this. Now the only thing I can do is cut off his head. I will kill him. It will not be right for me to win by foul means, but what can I do? I have to kill him.” Then Shiva cut off the little boy’s head and threw it away.

When Parvati came to know that her son had been killed, she was deeply upset and grief-stricken. She was crying and lamenting so pitifully and, at the same time, she was so angry that she wanted to kill all the Cosmic Gods. She kept repeating, “My son, my son!” She was so fond of her little child.

Vishnu, as usual, became the mediator. Vishnu went to Parvati and tried to console her. Alas, there was no consolation. She said, “No, I do not want your philosophy! My son has to get back his life.”

Then Vishnu went to Shiva and begged him, “Please, please, use your occult power. With occult power, bring his life back.”

Shiva used his occult power and brought life back to the body of the little boy, but the head was still somewhere else. Now Parvati said, “What shall I do with a living body without a head? He must have a head. Then only he will be perfect. Otherwise, without a head, how will people recognise him?”

Parvati was still furious with her husband. Then Shiva said, “All right. Tomorrow morning the Cosmic Gods will go out. The first person or living being they see, I will tell them to cut off his head and bring it to me, and I will put it on this little boy.”

When the Cosmic Gods went out the next morning, the first thing they saw was an elephant, not a human being! And the elephant had only one tusk. Shiva had told them, “You have to bring the head of the first living being.” The first living being happened to be an elephant, so they cut off the elephant’s head and brought it back to Shiva. Then Shiva put it on the body of the little boy.

Parvati was very, very happy. She did not care whether it was a human head or the head of an elephant. She was happy that her son had been restored to her. Then Shiva said, “I really admire this little boy. I take him as my own son.” And he lifted the little boy up on his shoulders and started showing him all affection and love.

Shiva said to his son, “Brahma, Vishnu and I, we three Cosmic Gods, are always worshipped first. But now I am changing the order. From now on, my son will be worshipped first. His name will be Ganesha. He has to be worshipped first, and only then the devotees will worship us.”

This made Parvati extremely happy, and Shiva was also very, very happy. Shiva said, “He is my dearest, fondest child.” Everybody was supremely happy. This is how the story ends.

Since that time, Lord Ganesha has been worshipped before any other Cosmic God or Goddess.

How the Gods became immortal

Now I will tell a story that has no mother and no father!

Hundreds of people have told this story. The story itself is authentic, but each writer has taken tremendous liberty. I also told this story many years ago. Today I am telling it again and embellishing it in my own way.

We all know that the gods are immortal. But there was a time when the gods were not immortal. They were mortal, like us. There were constant fights between the gods and the asuras, or demons. And quite often the asuras used to defeat the gods. The Preceptor of the asuras is Sukracharya, and the Guru of the Cosmic Gods is Brihaspati. They are cousins. From the astrological point of view, Brihaspati is my Guru. I was born on a Thursday, and Thursday in Bengali is Brihaspatibar, Brihaspati’s day.

Sukracharya somehow learnt the art of immortality, so he could revive his followers. When they died, he would utter a particular mantra and bring them back to life. Unfortunately, Brihaspati did not know this mantra, so his followers, the gods, used to suffer tremendously.

The gods were very, very sad. The trinity — Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva — went to Brihaspati for advice. They asked him how they could also acquire immortality. Brihaspati informed them that he had not learnt the art. He, too, was extremely sad. Brihaspati’s son, Kach, happened to overhear their conversation. He said, “I have a brilliant idea! I shall learn the mantra from Sukracharya.”

Some of them laughed when they heard this. Others were worried because they felt that if Sukracharya saw Kach, he would know why Kach had come and he would kill Brihaspati’s son. But Kach did not listen to them.

Kach went to Sukracharya and begged to become his disciple. Sukracharya replied, “I am ready to accept you, but will you be able to pray and meditate as long as it takes to please me?”

Kach said, “I am ready to take ten thousand years if it is needed.”

Then Sukracharya said, “If you can please me within ten thousand years, then whatever boon you want, I shall grant you.”

Kach was so happy that Sukracharya had accepted him as his disciple. He began praying and meditating most intensely. He also took Sukracharya’s cows to graze. He used to do everything to please Sukracharya sooner than the soonest. It went on like this for years.

Meanwhile, the asuras were very, very unhappy. They knew that Kach had come to their Preceptor to learn the art of immortality, and so they became very angry and also jealous of Kach. In so many ways, they tried to punish him and torture him. It went on and on and on.

In the meantime, another problem arose for poor Kach. Sukracharya had a daughter named Devyani, who was a few years older than Kach. She became very, very fond of Kach, but Kach was not so interested in her because he had only one purpose in mind: to learn from her father the art of immortality. Devyani fell seriously in love with Kach. He was very kind to her, but he was not in love with her.

One day, when Kach took the cows to the field, the asuras attacked him and killed him. They left his dead body lying in the field where dogs and jackals could soon devour it.

Every day, when Kach returned from the field, he used to chat with Sukracharya, and Sukracharya became extremely fond of his nephew. On the day that Kach was killed, when he did not come home from the field, Devyani became very worried. She said to her father, “How is it that all the cattle have come home and Kach is not here?”

She began crying and crying. She said, “Father, I love him so much. I cannot live without him.”

Sukracharya replied, “I, too, love him.”

The daughter pleaded, “Then give him back his life. Please revive him!”

Sukracharya used his third eye to see what had happened. Suddenly he exclaimed, “O my God! Now his body is being devoured by dogs and jackals!”

Then Sukracharya used his tremendous occult power. He brought back the pieces of the dead body from the dogs and jackals, and he gave life to Kach once more. Then he was so happy, and Devyani was also very, very happy.

But the jealousy of the asuras never left them. They wanted to punish Kach once and for all. This second time they killed him and, piece by piece, they threw him into the ocean. Now evening had set in, but Kach did not come back from the field. The calves came back without him, and Devyani started worrying and worrying. Where could Kach be? Her father again used his occult vision and found that Kach’s body was scattered in the waters. Once more he used his occult power, and he was able to bring Kach back from the ocean. Devyani was full of joy, and Sukracharya was also happy to see Kach again.

But, alas, these asuras would be satisfied only if Kach was truly dead, so this time they had a most brilliant idea. They knew that Sukracharya enjoyed drinking wine. They decided to kill Kach and grind his bones into powder. Then they poured the powder from Kach’s bones into Sukracharya’s drink. The rest of Kach’s body they threw away.

When Sukracharya drank his wine as usual, he did not notice anything different. There was nothing, no reaction. But Devyani was again disturbed, because Kach had not returned. She started worrying and crying, so her father concentrated. O God, he saw that Kach was inside his own body! He said to his daughter, “Now, here is a serious problem. If I use my mantra, then Kach will come out from me, from my stomach, and I will die. If not, he will remain inside my body. He will be dead. What do you want me to do?”

Devyani answered, “Father, I love you and Kach equally. Without you, I cannot live; without him, also, I cannot live.”

Sukracharya said, “What can I do?” He thought for a moment and then he said, “Oh, I know what I should do! All of you move away — do not remain here. I will secretly teach my mantra to Kach, and then Kach will come out. When Kach comes out of my body, he will use the same mantra to revive me!”

It was a wonderful plan. Sukracharya taught Kach his mantra, and Kach came out of Sukracharya’s body. Then Kach used the same mantra, and Sukracharya was restored to life. It was a happier than the happiest moment for everybody, save and except the asuras. They were so miserable because Kach had learnt the mantra.

Now the time had come for Kach to leave. He had learnt the mantra; he knew how to revive dead bodies. Kach said to Sukracharya, “Uncle, you told me that if I could please you, you would fulfil my prayer. This was my prayer: I wanted to learn how to give life back to people who had been killed.”

Sukracharya said, “All right, you have pleased me immensely and now you have learnt the mantra. You can go back to your father.”

When Kach was all ready to leave Sukracharya’s abode, Devyani came to him very distraught. “No, I will not allow you to go,” she said. “You have to marry me!”

Kach was horrified. “My God! I took you as my sister, and you are older than me. How can a brother marry a sister?”

“No, no, you have to marry me!” she said.

Kach refused to listen to her. “I cannot, I cannot, I cannot,” he said. “You fell in love with me, but my affection is for you as an elder sister, an elder sister. I always cared for you and loved you, but as an elder sister.”

“No, I loved you and I wanted to be your wife,” Devyani insisted.

But Kach would not be swayed. Just as he was about to depart, Devyani said to him, “I curse you! You will never be satisfied with any woman. I curse you! You will never be happy if you get married.”

Kach smiled and said, “I am a seeker. I will never get married, so I do not have to be miserable. But you have cursed me, so I am now cursing you. My curse is that no man should ever trust a woman!”

Kach went back to his father, and the Cosmic Gods were so happy that now they would also be immortal, like the asuras. This is how the story ends.

These stories are very instructive and inspiring. So many people have used their fertile imaginations to tell the story of Kach and Devyani.

The eye sacrifice⁹

Long, long ago, the asuras quite often used to defeat the gods. The asuras were the demons and the suras were the devas — the minor gods and the Cosmic Gods. The Guru of the asuras, Sukracharya, knew the art of reviving people when they die.

This meant that when the asuras were killed, they would again come back to life. But the devas, the Cosmic Gods, did not have that art. Eventually they got it in a very clever way and then they, too, became immortal.

Now the story starts. Once the asuras, the demons, were very, very ruthless in defeating the gods. In Heaven, they tortured the gods mercilessly, even the Cosmic Gods. The gods were no match for the demons.

The gods prayed and prayed to Lord Vishnu to save them. Lord Vishnu said, “I am sorry. I do not have the power to defeat the demons, so you have come to the wrong person. But I am ready to go to Lord Shiva. You can accompany me. Let us all go.”

Then the gods said, “Oh, no. You go alone. You two are such great friends.”

Vishnu went to Shiva to ask for his help. These Cosmic Gods are so kind to each other. On one occasion, they will say that Shiva is the supreme God; then they will say Vishnu is supreme; and then they will say Brahma is supreme. This time, Vishnu wanted to show Shiva’s supremacy. He wanted to prove that he was no match for Shiva, that Shiva had all spiritual power and occult power, and that Shiva’s third eye could destroy everything.

When Vishnu went to see Shiva, he saw that Shiva was in trance — high, higher, highest trance. Vishnu did not want to disturb Shiva’s trance, so he waited. He waited and waited for hundreds of years. Like this it went on.

Shiva was still not pleased. Then Vishnu decided that every day he would worship Shiva with one thousand lotuses — beautiful, fully bloomed blue lotuses. Every day he would do this to please Lord Shiva. For one thousand years, Vishnu prayed to Shiva for hours and hours. While praying, he would keep one thousand lotuses in front of him. One by one, he would lift them up and dedicate them to Shiva. Although Shiva did not respond, Vishnu went on and on, praying and praying and praying.

Then one day Shiva wanted to play a trick on Vishnu. Before Vishnu started praying, he used to collect the beautiful blue lotuses. He would put them at a particular sacred place, and then he would sit in front of the flowers and start worshipping Shiva. Alas, on this particular day, before Vishnu sat down to worship Shiva, Shiva secretly came in his subtle form and stole one flower, so the number did not remain one thousand — it became 999. Vishnu did not see this. Vishnu only saw many, many flowers. He started offering them to Shiva one by one. Each time he offered a lotus, he was praising Shiva, saying how great, how good, how kind Shiva was.

Alas, alas, at the very end of his offering, Vishnu found that there were only 999 lotuses. He was very, very sad because one lotus was missing. Vishnu began searching and searching for that lotus. Finally, he decided it was a hopeless case, so he plucked out his left eye. His eye also looked like a beautiful lotus. Vishnu put his eye in front of him, and with that eye he worshipped Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva immediately came and stood in front of Vishnu. He could not believe that Vishnu would do this kind of thing. Lord Shiva was so pleased with him. Then Shiva said, “I will give you my Sudarshan chakra, this round disc.”

We all know that this is now Vishnu’s chakra, but in the beginning it was Shiva’s chakra. The Sudarshan chakra will just go round and round and cut the throat of whomever it wants to kill.

Lord Vishnu most devotedly took the Sudarshan chakra from Lord Shiva. Then Lord Vishnu gave that Sudarshan chakra to all the gods to fight against the demons, and this is how the demons were killed. Then the gods gave the chakra back to Lord Vishnu. Vishnu said, “Now we know how to kill the undivine forces.” Then he asked Shiva if he would like to take back the Sudarshan chakra.

Shiva said, “Once I give something, I do not take it back. It is yours. You can use it from now on, throughout Eternity.”

Lord Vishnu continued to use that chakra. When Sri Krishna came to earth, he was an Avatar of Lord Vishnu. He used that chakra and nobody, nobody could stand against it. That is how he received it. Shiva gave it to Vishnu, and Vishnu gave it to Sri Krishna.

This kind of sacrifice Vishnu could make. He offered one of his own eyes to Shiva, and Shiva was very, very pleased.

A similar story I am sure you know about Gorakshanath. His Guru, Matsyendranath, wanted him to bring a most delicious meal from a particular lady. That lady had given a feast on the previous day, and Matsyendranath wanted to have the same kind of most delicious food, but on this day there was no feast.

To please his Guru, Gorakshanath went to that particular rich lady. The rich lady told him, “The feast was yesterday. Today it is all over. I cannot prepare another one.”

Gorakshanath begged and begged and begged. Then the lady started scolding him, “You are worse than a dog! Even a dog will leave a person after some time when it does not get food. You are worse than a dog!”

Gorakshanath said, “I am ready to be worse than a dog. I am not going to leave your place until you give me most delicious food for my Master.”

The lady said, “All right, let me see your love and devotion for your Guru. If you are ready to give me one of your eyes, if you are ready to offer it to me, I will go to the market and buy all the ingredients. Then I will make a most delicious meal for you to bring to your Guru.”

Immediately Gorakshanath took out one of his eyes and gave it to her. The lady could not believe it. She went at once to the market and bought the ingredients, and then again she cooked a most delicious meal.

When Gorakshanath came back to his Guru with the meal, his Guru was shocked to see that his dearest disciple had only one eye. He asked, “Why have you done this?”

Gorakshanath explained, “The lady was not willing to prepare a delicious meal again today. She wanted one of my eyes, and I gave it gladly.”

Matsyendranath said, “All right, can you give the other eye gladly to me?”

Gorakshanath said, “Of course!” Then the second eye also he removed and gave to his Master. The Master was so pleased. He ate the food to his heart’s content, and then, using his occult power, he gave back both the eyes to his dearest disciple, Gorakshanath.

These are similar stories about Gorakshanath and Vishnu. Shiva examined Vishnu to see how much love and admiration he had for Shiva, and Shiva was very, very pleased with Vishnu. Matsyendranath was also very, very pleased with his dearest disciple.

When we make a sacrifice, we feel that it is all over. No! God, in His very peculiar Way, gives us back much more in return, and He also increases our inner strength, our surrender-power.

King Shibi's compassion¹⁰

I told this story many years ago, but now that age has descended upon me, I am telling it with new wisdom.

There was once a very great king. This king was kindness, compassion and self-giving incarnate. Not only his own subjects, but the subjects of other kings as well, appreciated him immensely. Nobody could come near him in virtue. He had a galaxy of virtues.

Now, Lord Indra sometimes allowed himself to be tortured by jealousy. He was the King of the Cosmic Gods, so it was too much for him that a mere human being could be so mightily appreciated, admired and adored by the whole world. He decided to examine King Shibi.

Brahma and Indra were very dear friends, so Indra went to Brahma to seek Brahma’s opinion and advice. Brahma immediately gave Indra advice. Then both of them took the form of birds, and they came down to earth. Indra played the role of a beautiful dove, and Brahma took the form of a hawk.

Indra the dove flew down and fell on King Shibi’s lap. The bird was crying for protection; it was utterly helpless. Why? Because the hawk was chasing it. The hawk wanted to kill and eat the dove.

The dove was begging and begging Shibi for protection. Shibi said, “Do not worry! You are now in my hands. Nobody will be able to kill you. I will protect you, I will protect you.”

The dove was so happy. It said to the king, “I heard that you are the greatest self-giver. Here is the proof.”

Once more Shibi said, “I will protect you.”

Then the hawk came and said, “Yes, it is your duty, O King. It is your duty to protect the ones who are suffering, to protect the needy. But where is your justice? This dove belongs to me. I found the dove, and it is my prey. I am so hungry! I am so hungry! Will you not think of me? Do you not have any concern for me? I must eat, I must eat! Will you not pay any attention to my hunger? This is not my greed; it is my genuine hunger. I chased the bird and now it is mine.” The hawk argued that it had every right to seize the dove.

At first, King Shibi was so surprised that these two birds had the capacity to talk like human beings in a language he could understand. Then he said to the hawk, “Can we substitute the meat of some other creature? Will you agree?” This was nothing other than King Shibi’s self-giving nobility.

The hawk answered, “I will only agree if you substitute the meat of a human being — specially your meat!”

All those who were present became furious. They wanted to kill the hawk. What kind of audacity it had to ask for the flesh of their beloved king!

It did not take a moment for King Shibi to say, “I am ready. If you want my flesh as compensation, I will give you whatever you require from my own body.”

Then the hawk said, “It has to be the same amount. On the scales it has to balance. Whatever the dove weighs, you have to offer the same amount of flesh from your body.”

“Oh, that is nothing!” said Shibi. Then he started chopping off flesh from his own body and putting it on the scales. Shibi’s wife and his entire family and the members of the court were all crying so pitifully. They were cursing and cursing the hawk, but they were helpless to prevent what was taking place. On one side of the scales was the dove, and on the other side was Shibi’s flesh. He continued cutting off his flesh until the two sides became equal in weight.

Then, all of a sudden, the dove and the hawk disappeared and Indra and Brahma took their own forms. Indra blessed Shibi and said to him, “I am really pleased with you. You have such nobility, such courage, such compassion and such generosity. And you keep your promise.” In the twinkling of an eye, Indra gave Shibi back his perfect body. Shibi regained his full health, his robust health.

Mother Kali drinks blood¹¹

As you know, a constant battle was always going on between the suras and the asuras. The suras are the divine forces and the asuras are the undivine forces. Most of the time, I tell you, the undivine forces would win. From time to time in those days, the divine forces would win. Nowadays the story is changed. Now we feel that the divine forces win more often than the undivine forces. We believe in the victory of the divine forces.

This mythological story took place thousands of years ago. There were two asura brothers named Sumbha and Nisumbha who were undivine to the extreme! The devas, the divine beings, were all absolutely miserable because they were losing to these two asuras. They were being humiliated by them at every moment, so the devas begged the Cosmic Goddess to save them. The name of the Cosmic Goddess always changes. In this instance, they addressed her as the Goddess Ambika.

Ambika decided to spring a trick upon the two asuras. Instead of showing her destruction-prowess and defeating them in battle, she took the form of an extremely beautiful woman. Then she said to Sumbha and Nisumbha, “Come! Come and fight with me!”

They laughed and laughed and laughed. “Your beauty will fight with us? We shall drag you to our king, and our king will do the needful!”

Once more Ambika challenged them, “First fight with me. Then take me to your king.”

The two asuras and their generals, Chanda and Munda, began fighting the beautiful woman. To their surprise, they were finding it very difficult to defeat her. By this time, Ambika had given up her beauty-form completely and had taken the form of the Goddess Kali. Each time she was able to get a large quantity of blood from one of the asuras, she would put it in a bowl and drink it. All the asuras became very frightened. Then quite a few asuras left the scene because they saw the fate of their companions. Each time Kali’s bowl was full to the brim with the blood of the asuras, she would start drinking. It was too much for the asuras, and eventually they all left.

After a few days, the two brothers, Sumbha and Nisumbha, returned. This time they brought with them their most powerful armies. Then again, the Goddess changed her form. Once more she became the most, most beautiful woman, so Sumbha said to Nisumbha, “Brother, it is not worthwhile for both of us to fight against one woman. Since you like rest, please rest. I shall go and defeat her badly, and then we shall take her to the king.”

Nisumbha shouted, “You rogue! I know what you are thinking. She is so beautiful that you want to get her for yourself. I will not allow you!”

Then the two brothers fought and fought and fought. They did not want to go together to defeat her, but neither one would allow the other to go alone.

Finally, a comrade of theirs arrived, a very powerful asura named Raktabija. He came to put an end to their fight. He said, “How can you fight over this? Both of you are equal. All right, I will make the decision. I will decide who will go and fight with her.”

But the two brothers did not want to listen to him. Finally, Raktabija became disgusted. He said, “Then go on, fight, fight, fight, fight! Both of you fight! I tell you, she will again take a very horrible form and then she will defeat you.”

But the two brothers were not listening. They had gone together with their armies to fight the beautiful woman. Once more she took the form of Kali and started killing the asuras. The fight went on for a long time. Kali was killing and killing so many of the asuras. Even Raktabija joined in the battle. He said to Kali, “These two brothers are useless! They cannot fight with you. I challenge you!”

Raktabija fought very bravely, but Kali killed him and poured all his blood into her bowl. She did not drink the whole amount at once, but started drinking it drop by drop.

Finally these two brothers said to Kali, “It is unfair! Your way of fighting is unfair!”

Why did they object? Because some other Goddesses came to help Kali, including Brahma’s consort, Saraswati, who is in the music-world; Vishnu’s wife, Lakshmi; and Indra’s wife, Sachi. Although they were not fighting, they were all standing near Kali and supporting her with their inner power. Lakshmi is all beauty and she is the mother of wealth. Saraswati only plays on her vina and gives wisdom, music, art and so forth. Sachi also did not fight. If any of them had had to fight with these asuras, they would have been killed. They came only to show their support for Kali.

But still the brothers objected. They said to Kali, “One of us shall fight with you alone!”

Kali said, “No, together you two brothers will fight with me, and these Goddesses will all come inside me, because they are part of me.” Immediately the wives of the other Cosmic Gods entered into Kali. Now she was alone on the battlefield.

This time she was very, very furious. She said, “I cannot tolerate you people any more!” She killed Sumbha and Nisumbha, as well as their armies. Then she went to their king and killed him. The whole kingdom of the asuras she destroyed. She said, “I want peace, peace. My followers, my devotees, will not suffer any more from your undivine actions.”

Such was Mother Kali's power!

Parvati's extraordinary boon¹²

Lord Sri Krishna had eight wives, officially. On the Pandavas’ side, Bhima was of the same age as Sri Krishna, so he used to make fun of Sri Krishna. In front of Arjuna and his other brothers, Bhima used to tell Sri Krishna, “Eight! We cannot manage with one wife. How do you manage with eight wives?”

Krishna used to laugh at Bhima’s comments.

This story is not about Sri Krishna’s wives; it is about his children. By Rukmini, his first wife, Krishna had a son whom he named Pradyumna. Pradyumna was most handsome, most powerful and most courageous. In every way, he was a most exemplary son. Everybody loved him and adored him.

Now, Sri Krishna’s second wife was Satyabhama. When she saw that everybody was showering Pradyumna with love and affection, she became jealous and insecure. She said to Sri Krishna, “I need a son like him! I must have a son like Rukmini’s son.”

Poor Sri Krishna said, “What can I do?” He started praying for Satyabhama to have a son, but his prayer was not working. Nothing was happening, so Sri Krishna went to a spiritual Master to seek his blessings and advice. The spiritual Master said, “Oh, no. I cannot do these things. You have to go to Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva can help you.”

Sri Krishna began praying and praying and praying to Lord Shiva. Usually Lord Shiva does not take a long time to answer prayers but, in this case, he was taking a very long time. Finally, after many years, Lord Shiva appeared before Sri Krishna with Parvati. Lord Shiva asked Sri Krishna, “Why do you have to pray to me? Of all people, you have to pray?”

Sri Krishna replied, “Yes, I have to pray to you. My Guru has told me that I shall have to pray to you; then you will grant me the boon.”

“What boon do you want?” asked Lord Shiva.

Sri Krishna answered, “My wife, Satyabhama, wants to have a child exactly like Pradyumna, who is my first child by Rukmini. Now what can I do, what can I do? Satyabhama is getting upset.”

“You had to pray for so many years?” asked Lord Shiva. Then he continued, “All right, now I will grant you the boon. A son of the same capacity in every way I will grant you.”

Then Parvati spoke. “Oh, no, that is not enough!” she said. “I am giving the boon that you will have ten thousand, one hundred and eight children.” Can you imagine! Parvatis boon was ten thousand, one hundred and eight children!

Lord Shiva was so shocked. “What? What? What kind of boon is this?”

Sri Krishna said, “No, I will be able to manage.”

Then Lord Shiva started criticising Sri Krishna. “You cannot manage anything! You cannot take care of yourself properly, but you will be able to manage so many children?” Lord Shiva turned to Parvati and said, “How will his family take proper care of so many children? Will they accept him with ten thousand, one hundred and eight children?”

Parvati assured Lord Shiva, “No, I am telling you, everything will be perfect. Balarama, Krishna’s brother, will be the main one to look after all these children. Balarama loves Sri Krishna so much. He will not mind. He will be so fond of Sri Krishna’s ten thousand, one hundred and eight children.”

This was Parvati’s boon. I read it in a book. Then I read it again to see if the figure was correct! Lord Shiva gave one boon: that Sri Krishna would have a son exactly like Pradyumna in every way. But Parvati was not satisfied. She said, “No, you will be able to handle ten thousand, one hundred and eight children.” Parvati did not mean that Satyabhama would be the mother of all of them.

Parvati knew that Balarama’s love for his brother was such that he would accept anything Sri Krishna did. Sometimes, in the beginning, he became upset, but then he accepted it. Balarama was so kind-hearted!

Never stand against God's Will

There was once a very, very good king, a superlative king. He was kind-hearted, compassionate and wise. In every way he was so good, unimaginably good. All his subjects took him as their father. They were so fond of him.

One day the queen was massaging the king’s head with coconut water. While she was massaging him, there were tears in her eyes, and these tears were dripping on the king’s face and on his whole body.

The king became so concerned. He said, “Why are you crying? Why are you shedding tears? Have I done anything wrong? Is there anything that I will not do for you? Tell me! If anybody has insulted you, I shall punish them. Although I am a very kind-hearted person, I will not forgive anybody who has misbehaved towards you. Please tell me what is wrong. You are dearer than the dearest to me.”

The queen replied, “No, no — nobody has insulted me. I am crying because just now I found one white hair on your head.” She showed it to her husband and said, “I am crying because you are getting old. One day soon you will die. Then how can I live without you? Who will take care of me?”

The king tried his best to console the queen. He said, “Is there anybody who will not become old? Life is like that. Everybody will eventually be old. I am getting old, you will become old; everybody will become old.”

But the queen was still crying and crying. “Oh, you are getting old, you are getting old!” she said. “You will die soon!” Finally, the king said, “You are right.” He ruled only for a few more years. Then he placed his son on the throne and went with his wife to the forest. He said, “I cannot deal with the problems of my kingdom any more. Now I am really old. Let me spend the rest of my days in prayer and meditation” In this way the king entered into the spiritual life.

The king’s subjects loved him so much that they accompanied him to the forest, and then they would not go home. All of them stopped eating, and then they started praying to the sun god. They prayed and prayed for a long time. The sun god was pleased with their prayers, and he appeared before them. “All right,” he said, “what do you want?”

They answered, “We want our king back so that he can rule us for ten thousand years!”

The sun god granted the boon, and then the sun god and the subjects went to the king to inform him. The king said, “I do not want that, I do not want that, no!”

But the sun god forced the king to come back to the kingdom and rule for ten thousand years. The poor king said, “O my God, O my God! What am I going to do?”

As the years went by, the king saw that people who were younger than he were all dying in front of him. One by one, his subjects were all leaving the earth plane. The king cried, “What kind of boon is this?”

Then he started praying and praying to the sun god. His prayer was, “Please, please, please give my subjects also ten thousand years! Since I am supposed to live for ten thousand years, let my subjects be with me.”

After many years, the sun god was pleased with the king’s prayer and granted the boon he desired, so everyone in the kingdom was living for ten thousand years.

Now it happened that, after a few years, some people became extremely miserable. They were saying, “We are living for ten thousand years here on earth, but there is no joy. This world is boring, boring! We do not want to be here for so many years.” They were murmuring that they were not pleased with their boon.

It seemed that nobody was satisfied, so the king prayed and prayed to the sun god once more. This time he prayed, “Please give us some wisdom regarding your boon.”

The sun god replied, “Never stand against God’s Will! If God wants you to die today, you die. If He wants somebody else to die tomorrow, then that person also has to surrender. It is all God’s Will. When God wants you to die, you should take it happily. Otherwise, you will go against His Will.”

First the people were thinking, “We are immortal!” But afterwards, they discovered that their life was boring. What were they going to do on earth for ten thousand years? Were they happy living on earth for so long? God fulfilled their desire, true; but when God fulfils our desires, it does not mean that we are going to be happy. On the contrary, we will feel miserable.

God says to us, “You will always be miserable if you want to please yourself in your own way. But if you please Me in My own Way, then only you will be happy.”

The riddle¹³

There was once a king who had a most beautiful daughter. She was endowed with beauty, intelligence, self-giving and many other virtues. When she was of age, her father wanted her to get married. She told her father, “I am ready to marry, but first I shall have to ask the person only one question. Whoever can answer the question correctly, I shall without fail marry.”

Many, many prospective bridegrooms came to the court. They were from different walks of life, and they were all eager to marry such a beautiful, intelligent and pious girl. To each one, she posed the same question. Her question was: “Who is both blind and not blind at the same time?”

Some of the candidates were puzzled; others became angry or disgusted. A few of them even cursed her. All of them said, “Either one has to be blind or not blind. How can one person be both blind and not blind at the same time?”

Then they insulted and even cursed the king for allowing his daughter to make such an unreasonable request. “Your daughter has many good qualities,” they said, “but she is very haughty!” The poor king was so disappointed. Among all the young men who had come to the court with the hope of marrying his daughter, not one could pass the test.

At long last, after everyone else had gone home, an old man approached the king and his daughter. His hair was long, his beard was long, and he had a long moustache. Everything about him was old, very old.

As soon as the princess saw him, she became furious. “Am I going to marry you? You should be ashamed that you are thinking of marrying me! I will never, never marry you. You are such an old man. It is absurd!”

The old man said, “You had a question. If I answer the question, will you marry me?”

The princess said, “You will never be able to answer that question.”

He said, “No, I can. Let me try.”

"All right,” said the princess, “see if you can answer my question. Who is both blind and not blind at the same time?”

This old man happened to be a very great sage. He said to her, “You see, I am definitely blind. At this age, I still have lower vital problems. Otherwise, why would I want to marry you? You are beautiful, true, but I should have controlled my senses. So I am blind. I am blind because I have not yet conquered my vital forces. My weakness is nothing other than my blindness.”

Then he continued, “Now I want to prove that I am not blind. I see God inside every human being. There is not a single person in whom I do not see the living Presence of God. This is all due to my yoga, which I have practised for so many years. In your case, I see God inside you very vividly. Very clearly I see the Presence of God. That is why I love you. According to your understanding, I have weaknesses: I am old and so forth. But I want to tell you, I see God so vividly inside you. God is infinitely, infinitely more beautiful than you are, so I want to marry that infinitely more beautiful Person inside you.”

When the princess heard that, she immediately garlanded the old man and said, “You have answered my question.” As soon as she garlanded him, the old man became very young, of her age.

The king was so delighted. He said, “O my God, how can you become so young? Just a few moments ago, you arrived here as an old man!”

The sage said, “This is what yoga has done. Your daughter saw me as an old man, but I am so proud of her that, in spite of my appearance, she wanted to keep her promise and marry me. I knew that she would keep her promise. And now, you see, I am quite young.”

The sage and the princess got married, and they lived happily, happily, happily for many years.

The statue of termites¹⁴

There was a very, very great sage. His name was Rishi Bhrigu. This story is about Bhrigu’s son, Chyavana.

Now, before the story starts, let me brag. Thousands and thousands of years ago, Bhrigu cast the horoscope of all Indians, believe it or not! For all Indians who have taken birth and shall take birth, he cast the horoscope. My eldest brother, Hriday, happened to be a very good astrologer who could cast horoscopes. In India, there are two ways to cast horoscopes. One is Bhrigu’s way, and then there is another way. My brother had tremendous admiration and adoration for Bhrigu because Bhrigu was a very great sage, so he cast my horoscope according to Bhrigu’s system. There it is written that my horoscope is the same as the horoscope of two spiritual Masters of the highest order. With one spiritual Master, I had eighteen “rooms” in common; with the other spiritual Master, I had twelve or thirteen. My brother could not believe it.

My brother also found that it is written in my horoscope, “At the age of twelve, he will meet his Guru and his fate will entirely depend on his Guru.” There it stopped. Bhrigu did not go on. And I became permanent at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at the age of twelve! This was what appeared in Bhrigu’s system.

Bhrigu's wife’s name was Puloma, and they had a son named Chyavana. He also became a very great sage. He was the discoverer of Chyavana Prash, a kind of vitamin, which people still take today. If you take it, immediately you become stronger than the strongest!

At a very young age, Chyavana wanted to enter into the forest and pray and meditate. Because his parents were spiritual, they were so happy that at such a tender age their son wanted to devote himself to the spiritual life.

Chyavana went into the forest and found a very secret and sacred place to live. Nearby was a small pond where he used to bathe every day. He had told his parents not to bring him food because he wanted to depend only on the fruits that he found in the forest. Instead of being concerned or worried, his parents were very happy. They gave Chyavana full permission. They thought that if he went on praying and meditating with such intensity, he would definitely be able to realise God.

Chyavana meditated, self-absorbed, for years and years and years at that sacred place. His whole body became covered with termites, but he did not care. He was completely invisible inside the mound of termites. There were only two little holes, near his eyes, and from those two little holes, a little, little light was coming out.

Near the forest there was a small kingdom. One day the king of that kingdom went to the forest with his entourage to hunt and to enjoy a picnic. The king had a young daughter who was most beautiful, and she also accompanied her parents. Her name was Sukanya. They were all roaming, roaming in the forest and enjoying themselves.

When the young girl saw a kind of statue covered with termites, she experienced a certain curiosity. With malicious pleasure, she took a stick and poked it inside the two holes. Then more light was coming out, but at the same time she heard somebody inside full of agony, crying and crying. She immediately ran away when she heard the human voice.

Then, what happened? All of a sudden the king and the queen and all those who were with them became ill. They started suffering from various diseases. The restless girl saw that her parents and others were suffering, and she said to her parents, “Perhaps this is the result of my poking something into the eyes of somebody inside the termite mound.”

The parents came to the place where their daughter had found the termite mound. There they saw an old man covered with dust, holding his eyes. He said to them, “I came here as a young boy. I have been praying and meditating for years. Now I am an old man, and this is what your daughter has done! I am suffering so much. Still, I have not cursed her. I could have cursed her, and I could have killed her with my yogic power immediately. But I did not do that.”

Then the king and his wife begged for forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness. The sage said, “I will forgive you, but on one condition: your daughter has to marry me. Who will take care of me now? I am an old man. I cannot remain inside the termite mound any longer. Now I have realised God, but I am suffering so much.”

The king was ready to go on suffering rather than allow his daughter to marry this old man. But Sukanya said, “No, no, no! I will not allow you and my mother and our dear ones to suffer. I am ready to marry him, and I will give my life to serve him because I am the culprit. I did this, so I will marry him, and I shall be very, very devoted to him.”

The parents were helpless. Against their will, their beautiful daughter married this very old man. Then the old man and his wife went deeper into the forest to live. There they remained for a number of years. Sukanya kept her promise and she was extremely devoted to Chyavana.

One day, Sukanya was roaming around in the forest when she saw two young men. They were the physicians of the Cosmic Gods, named Ashwini Kumar. The Ashwini Kumar are two different persons, twins, but in Indian stories they are taken as one because they are so close.

These two physicians of the Cosmic Gods happened to be in the forest. They were so moved to see this young girl. They exclaimed, “You are so beautiful! Are you married?”

She said, “Yes, I am married.”

Then they asked, “Is your husband as beautiful as you are?”

Sukanya started to reply, “Why should my husband be…,” but before she could finish, they said, “Oh, you are married. We are sorry. Otherwise, we would have married you.”

Sukanya became furious. “I have been so faithful, so devoted to my husband!” she said. “I take care of him. If I have shown sincere devotion to my husband and if I have rendered him service for so many years, then definitely I have acquired some inner power. I will use my inner power and burn you two to ashes!”

At first the Ashwini Kumar were amused. Then, when they looked into her eyes, they got frightened. “O My God!” they said. “No, no, no! Please forgive us, forgive us. Can you take us to see your husband?”

Sukanya brought them to see Chyavana. When the Ashwini Kumar saw that he was so old, they were shocked. Inwardly, they thought, “How could such a beautiful young girl be married to such a shrivelled old man?”

Outwardly, they said, “We have the capacity to turn your husband into a handsome, young, strong man. Our medicine has that power.”

Sukanya said, “I do not want you to use your power. Even though my husband is old, I have such love for him, such devotion towards him. I do not want you to change anything. I will continue loving my husband as he is. I do not need him to be young and handsome.”

Then the sage spoke. He said, “I would like to see what happens if I am released from my old age and my youth is restored to me once more.”

Again Sukanya objected. “I love you so much! You do not have to be beautiful and strong.”

But her husband insisted. “Please allow me. I want to become beautiful and young and strong.”

The two physicians, Ashwini Kumar, said to the sage, “If we do this for you, will you do us a great favour?”

“Yes,” he answered, “I shall fulfil your desire if it is within my capacity.”

Hearing these words, Sukanya interrupted. “Your capacity? There is nothing that you cannot do! You can do anything. Let them make you young, since that is your wish, and you will easily fulfil their desire, whatever their desire is.”

Then the Ashwini Kumar explained their desire. These two physicians were not actually Cosmic Gods. The Cosmic Gods drink a special kind of nectar called soma rasa. For them it is like wine, but it is totally different from our earthly wine. You cannot describe it in words. Human beings cannot drink it, but spiritual Masters of the highest order can drink it. I myself was fortunate enough to drink this special kind of nectar in the inner world.

Since the Ashwini Kumar were not Cosmic Gods, they were not allowed to drink soma rasa, that very special nectar. They were excluded, so they were very miserable. Chyavana asked them how he could help them to drink it.

They replied, “You will perform a special sacrifice, a yajna. At the end, because you are such a great yogi, you will be able to produce that special nectar. Then the Cosmic Gods will come to drink it. And since you are the one who performed this yajna, this sacrifice, you will allow us to drink it.”

Chyavana immediately said, “Of course, of course I will allow you!”

Now the story takes another turn. Chyavana agreed to perform the special sacrifice, but he was not rich enough to execute it. For this particular sacrifice, a large amount of wealth was necessary. In the meantime, the physicians kept their promise and turned him into a most beautiful and powerful young man.

Many years had passed since the king and queen had seen their daughter. In their heart of hearts, they were still very sad that she had been compelled to marry such an old man. They said, “Perhaps, by this time, our son-in-law is dead. He was an old man when first we met him. Perhaps our daughter has also given up her life. Let us go into the forest and see if there is any trace of them.”

The king and queen and their entourage came to the forest. Soon they saw a young man meditating, with light radiating from his entire body. The king and queen were so miserable. Where had their beloved daughter gone? Perhaps she had also died at the same time as the old man. They decided to approach the young man and ask him.

Very respectfully, they went near him and said, “Many years ago, we left our daughter in the forest. We thought that we would find her here with her husband. He is a very, very old man.”

“I am that old man!” said Chyavana. “I am no longer old.”

“No, you cannot be the same one!” they cried. “We saw you with our own eyes. How old you were! Now how can you be so young, so strong and so virile?”

Chyavana assured them, “No, no, I am the same person.” Then the king and queen saw their daughter walking towards them. They were still stunned. “What has happened, what has happened? We cannot believe this is your husband.”

Sukanya smiled at them and said, “Yes, he is my husband.”

“How? How could you have married such an old man, and now — ?

“No, no, no, it is absolutely true.”

“Then who did it?”

Sukanya explained, “The Ashwini Kumar did it. Now they have asked us for a favour, so we need your help.”

Without even knowing what they were supposed to do, the king and queen said, “We shall help you. Now that you have such a young and handsome husband, we are so happy.” Sukanya told them how they could help her husband perform the special yajna to obtain the soma rasa. The king spent a very large amount of money and then Chyavana performed the sacrifice.

The time came when the soma rasa was produced. Then all the Cosmic Gods came to partake of it. Indra came first. The two brothers, the Ashwini Kumar, were watching.

Chyavana, the sage, said to them, “You drink.”

Indra became absolutely furious, because he knew those two brothers well. He knew they were not Cosmic Gods, so he wanted to kill them. How could they dare to drink the nectar that was meant for the Gods!

But Chyavana had tremendous occult power. From his forehead he brought out not a divine being, but a demon, and this demon was most, most powerful and most frightening. Chyavana gave it the name Mada. Mada immediately began chasing Indra. It was going to kill Indra, so Indra ran and ran for his life! Then Indra came back to the sage Chyavana and begged for forgiveness.

Chyavana said, “These two physicians, the Ashwini Kumar, I am now ranking as Cosmic Gods. From now on, they will be able to drink soma rasa like you.”

The Ashwini Kumar drank the nectar first, and then Indra was allowed to drink. All the other Cosmic Gods who had gathered saw the power of Chyavana. If they disagreed with him, then they, too, would be in serious trouble, so they all drank.

Then Chyavana granted to this demon, Mada, the boon that after the Cosmic Gods had finished drinking, he would also be able to drink the nectar. And this is what happened. Then the sacrifice was all over. The king and queen blessed their son-in-law and their daughter, and Chyavana and Sukanya returned to the forest. There they lived for many, many, many years.

Editor's preface to the first edition

Sri Chinmoy told illumining stories to his disciples with boundless enthusiasm and delight. Some were about great spiritual figures or notable world personalities; some were based on traditional tales, while others were purely imaginative; some were directly or indirectly about Sri Chinmoy s own life.

Over the years, Sri Chinmoy retold a number of stories on various occasions, each time with new embellishments. A few of the stories in this volume have appeared in previous books by the author, in different forms. They are presented here in new ways, reflecting the ever-new inspiration of their creator.