Punishment from the Master

There was a spiritual Master who lived in an obscure Indian village. He had only a very few disciples — only fifteen or sixteen — but he had realised God. His realisation had come from Mother Kali. He was all sincerity, all purity, all divinity.

Unfortunately, the Master's disciples in the village were very, very greedy. They wanted to have his occult power. He had shown them his occult power quite a few times. At night, when they turned off the village lantern, he would bless them and they would look at the wall and see Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, or some other gods and goddesses. He had shown them all the cosmic gods and goddesses. This made them very happy.

His disciples thought that if they could show these cosmic gods to others, they would be able to make lots of money. Their Master did not care for money. He grew a simple garden with vegetables in it. By working like a farmer, he managed to live on earth.

Most of his disciples were householders, but some stayed in his small ashram. Those that stayed often bothered him by asking for occult powers. Quite reluctantly he would show them the gods and goddesses. But doubts plagued their minds. They said to the Master, "If the visions that we are seeing are real, then by this time we should have realised God. How is it that we have not realised God?" They asked the Master, "Are you realised? Are you realised, as you say?"

The Master told them, "To see a figure of God does not mean that you have realised God. You can see an illumined being at night, an angel or some spiritual Master, but that does not mean that you have realised the highest."

These greedy disciples begged their Master to give them his occult powers, but they didn't tell him that they wanted only to go out and show off to the villagers to make money. The Master, however, saw through them. He said, "I can't give you my occult powers. I meditated for years and years, not for occult power, but to realise God. While realising God, I got this kind of power. Occult power came to me automatically; I didn't cry for it. Meditate. If God is pleased with you, if He wants, He will give you this kind of power. I can't give it to you. You are not fit to receive it. You are not yet ready."

Finally, three of the disciples got furious. They insisted that the Master give them occult power, saying, "You have to give it to us."

The Master said quietly, "I cannot."

That night, when the Master was sleeping, the three disciples, brilliant disciples, went into his room and hit him mercilessly with wooden sandals. They beat his head and badly bruised his limbs. The poor Master was shouting and crying, but nobody else was there to help him.

For three days the Master was bedridden, and his three brilliant disciples would not give him even a glass of water. They kept saying, "This is the time for you to give us your occult power."

The Master finally said, "I am more than ready to give you all my occult power. Take it. Now I am dying. Please give me a glass of water."

But the three disciples said, "No, you have to give us your occult power first."

"How can I give it to you?" asked the Master. "Try to meditate a little, then let me see if I can transmit my occult power to you."

At this, one of the three disciples burst into tears. "Master, what have we done to you? You have been so kind, so compassionate to us all the time. What have we done? We have beaten you terribly, and now you are dying."

When he started crying, the other two also began weeping bitterly. "We have beaten our Master. Forgive us, forgive us, forgive us, Master. Either forgive us, or punish us."

The Master said, "I have forgiven you." But the disciples didn't believe him. So the Master said, "What do you want?"

"We want punishment," they said. "If we get punishment from you, then God will forgive us and we will be able to go to Heaven."

The Master said, "All right. I shall punish you." The disciples were very happy to hear it.

The Master was dying, but with his last breaths he gave them their punishment: "Soon I will leave this body," he said. "My punishment is extremely severe." The disciples were very happy to hear that their punishment would be severe, for they felt that the law of Karma was working on them in the form of the Master's punishment, and they thought that now they would be able to get salvation.

"Soon I shall leave this body," said the Master. "From Heaven I shall work on you three. I shall compel you inwardly to go to a spiritual Master who is infinitely superior to me. I could not give you realisation. I was only a tiny snake, according to you, so you struck me, and you have killed my physical body. My punishment will be to send you to a cobra. You will not be able to strike this great spiritual Master physically. You will be compelled to get realisation from him.

"You wanted my punishment. I want your punishment to be God-realisation. By beating me you became happy. Now you want to be punished. If I punish you, naturally I will be happy. So my punishment will be to give you realisation and liberation in your next incarnation with the help of a very, very powerful spiritual Master who is infinitely superior to me.

"By beating me black and blue, by killing me with your blows, you became happy. By giving you realisation and liberation, I will become happy."

This is how a true spiritual Master punished his three dear disciples.