I want only one student, heart

There was a spiritual Master who had hundreds of followers and disciples. The Master often gave discourses at different places — churches, synagogues, temples, schools and universities. Wherever he was invited and wherever his disciples made all possible arrangements for him, he gave talks. This went on for about twenty years. He gave talks for children and for adults. He gave talks for university students and for housewives. Sometimes he gave talks before scholars and most advanced seekers.

Finally there came a time when the Master decided to discontinue his lectures. He told his disciples, “Enough. I have done this for many years. Now I shall not give any more talks any place. Only silence. I shall maintain silence.”

For about ten years the Master did not give talks; he maintained silence. He maintained silence in his ashram. He maintained silence everywhere. He had answered thousands of questions, but now he did not even meditate before the public. After ten years his disciples begged him to resume his previous practice, that is to say, to give talks, answer questions and hold public meditations. They all pleaded with him and finally he consented.

Immediately the disciples put advertisements in the newspapers and put up posters everywhere to announce that their Master was going to give talks once again and hold high meditations for the public. They made arrangements at many places. The Master went with some of his favourite disciples who were most devoted and dedicated and hundreds of people gathered together to listen to the Master and have their questions answered. But to everyone’s wide surprise, the Master would not talk at all. From the beginning to the end of the meeting, for two hours, he would remain in silence.

Some of the seekers in the audiences were annoyed. They said that it was written in the newspaper and in the posters that the Master would give a short talk and answer questions as well as meditating. How was it that he did not speak at all, they added. “He is a liar”, said many, and they got disgusted and left the meetings early. Others remained for the whole two hours with the hope that perhaps he would speak at the end, but the Master ended the meditations and closed the meeting without saying anything. Some of the people in the audiences felt inner joy. Some stayed only because they were afraid of what others would think of them if they left early. They thought that others would think that they were not spiritual and that they could not meditate at all; in order to prove themselves to the rest of the audience, these people stayed. Some left, some stayed with great reluctance, and very few stayed with utmost sincerity, devotion and inner cry.

It went on for three years or four years this way and from the public there were many who criticised the Master mercilessly and embarrassed the disciples, saying, “Your Master is a liar and how do you people justify it? You put an ad in the paper that your Master is going to give a talk, answer questions and hold meditation. But he only holds meditation and we don’t learn anything from it. Who can meditate for two or three hours? He is fooling us and he is fooling himself.”

Some of the close disciples were very disturbed. They felt miserable that their Master was being insulted and criticised. They pleaded with their Master again to give just a short talk and to answer a few questions at the end of the meditation. The Master finally agreed.

Now on that particular occasion, the Master did not actually forget, but he changed his mind. He went on meditating and this time instead of two hours, he conducted meditation for four hours. Even his close disciples were sad. They could not get angry with their Master, for it is a serious Karmic mistake to get angry with the Master. But they were afraid that someone from the audience would actually stand up and insult the Master. In their minds they prepared themselves to protect their Master in case some calamity took place.

When four hours had passed and there was no sign that the Master would either talk or close the meeting, one of the very close disciples stood up and said, “Master, please do not forget your promise.”

The Master immediately said, “My promise. Yes, I have made a promise to you people, so now it is my bounden duty to give a talk. Today my talk will be very short. I wish to say that I have given hundreds of talks, thousands of talks. But who heard my talks? Thousands of ears and thousands of eyes. Now I really want to have different students. My students were the ears and the eyes of the audience — thousands and thousands of ears and eyes. But I have failed to teach them anything. Now I want to have different type of students. My new students will be hearts.

“I have offered messages in thousands of places. These messages entered into one ear and passed out through the other. All in the briefest possible moment. And people saw me giving talks and answering questions. Just for a fleeting second their eyes glimpsed something in me and then it was totally lost. While I was telling about sublime Truth, Peace, Light and Bliss, the ears could not receive it because the ears were already full of rumour, doubt, jealousy, insecurity and impurity which had accumulated for many years. The ears were totally polluted. They did not receive my message. And the eyes did not receive my Truth, Light, Peace and Bliss because the eyes saw everything in their own way. If they see something beautiful, the human eyes immediately start comparing. They say, 'How is it that he is beautiful, his speech is beautiful, his questions and answers are beautiful? How is it that I cannot be the same?' And immediately jealousy enters. The human eye responds through jealousy. If the ear has heard something good about another, immediately jealousy enters. If somebody sees somebody else who is beautiful, he becomes jealous. If he hears something nice about somebody else, he becomes jealous.

“The ears and the eyes have played their role. I have given thousands of talks and they have proved to be undivine students. I could not teach them; they could not learn from me. Their progress has been most unsatisfactory. Now I want to have new students and I have got new students. These students are the hearts, where oneness will grow — oneness with Truth, oneness with Light, oneness with inner beauty, oneness with what God has and what God is. It is heart the student that has the capacity to identify itself with the Master’s wisdom, light and bliss. And when it identifies itself with the Master, it discovers its own reality — infinite Truth, Peace, Light and Bliss. The heart is the real listener; the heart is the real observer; the heart is the real student who becomes one with the Master, with the Master’s realisation, with the Master’s vision and with the Master’s eternal light. From now on the heart will be my only student.”