Please the Master in His own way

There was once a very great spiritual Master. He had about six hundred disciples. Out of the six hundred, he considered only four disciples to be his near and dear ones. They pleased him greatly, and he was happy to have them. The rest were of a lower calibre, and could not please him.

One day he asked these four disciples, who happened all to be women, to come and receive his blessings. When they came, he said to one of them, "You love me most dearly. I am most pleased with you. I am most pleased with your spiritual love, your divine love, your unreserved love."

To the second one he said, "You do the best type of meditation, the highest meditation, very often. That is why I am very pleased with you."

To the third woman he said, "You serve me all the time most sincerely and most devotedly. That is the reason I am particularly pleased with you."

Then he turned to the fourth woman and said, "You have surrendered your life to me unreservedly. That is why I am most pleased with you."

He continued, "I wish to give each one of you a boon. Since I am so pleased with you, tell me anything you want. I will give it to you."

The first disciple said, "Master, since you have said that I love you most deeply, may I ask you also to love me? Please grant me your divine love. I can make the fastest progress with your divine love."

The Master said, "Certainly, I offer you my divine love. I shall always love you most deeply with my divine love."

The second disciple said to the Master, "You say that I do the best type of meditation. Would it be possible for you, Master, to grant me the boon that I will always do the best type of meditation?"

The Master said, "Certainly, my child. I shall give you the inspiration and aspiration to do the best type of meditation always."

The third disciple said, "Master, you said that I serve you most sincerely. Will you grant me the boon that I may always serve you — not only these few years, but all my life? Will you grant me the boon to serve you forever?"

The Master said, "Certainly. I shall give you that boon."

The fourth disciple, whom the Master had chosen because of her utmost surrender, said to him, "Master, will my surrender always last? Please may my surrender always remain complete. This is the boon I wish to have from you."

The Master said, "Certainly. I will gladly give you that boon."

When he had granted all the boons, the Master showed a very sad face to the four disciples.

They were puzzled, and said, "Master, you granted each of us boon, and we have asked for our choice. Why are you sad?"

The Master said, "I have given you boons. I was pleased with you. The boons that you have asked for, I have given. But I am very sad that none of you tried or wanted to please me divinely, not to mention in my own way."

They said, "Master, please tell us, how is it that we have not pleased you?"

To the first one, the Master said, "Look here. I told you that you love me most deeply, and you want me also to love you most deeply with my divine love. But I wish to tell you that if you really wanted to please me, if you came into my life to please me, then you would have said, 'Master, I love you wholeheartedly, deeply. I am so happy to hear it. It is most kind of you to tell me so. But I don't want to ask for any kind of love from you. I only want to please you. If it pleases you to hate me, I don't mind.' If you had said that, then you would have really pleased me."

To the one who did the best meditation and who wanted to do the best meditation always, the Master said, "I am sorry. You wanted me to grant you the boon that you would always meditate the best. But why do you want that? If you had really wanted to please me, you would have said, 'Master, out of your infinite bounty you gave me the capacity to meditate well. Now, if you want somebody else to do the best meditation, it is up to you. Only by your grace was I able to do the best meditation. My prayer is to please you, and not to ask you to grant me the capacity to do the best meditation. The best or worst meditation, it is up to you to give me. I only want to please you. If you want somebody else to meditate well, then also I will be equally happy.'"

Then the Master said to the one who served him sincerely, and who wanted always to serve him, "You want only to serve me. That would give you joy. But why didn't you say, 'Master, out of your infinite bounty you have given me the opportunity to serve you. My prayer is to please you whether you want me to continue serving you or not. Please only give me the capacity to please you in your own way. You have given me the opportunity to serve you, and I am most grateful. Tomorrow, if you take away this opportunity, I shall not mind. Only give me the capacity to please you in your own way.' If you had asked for that kind of boon, then I would have been truly pleased with you."

To the fourth woman, the Master said, "You want to maintain the same kind of surrender to me. It is good. But if you had wanted to please me in my own way, you would have said, 'Master, with your grace I have been able to surrender to you completely. But now, if you want somebody else to surrender completely, the way I have surrendered, or if you want me, for a special reason, to have the experience of not surrendering to you — the suffering that one goes through when one does not surrender to one's Master — then I am ready for that experience. Please allow me to please you always in your own way.' If you had said this, then I would have been really happy."

All of them bowed down to the Master and said, “Master, we would like to please you in your own way from now on - only in your own way. We came into the world to please you in your own way. You have given us capacity, but if you want to take away our capacity, or if you want to give others the same capacity, please do it. Do anything you want to do with our lives. Only allow us, with your infinite compassion, to please you in your own way.”