Not occult power but self-realisation

A spiritual Master who had tremendous occult powers was very reluctant to use these powers. Some of his dear disciples believed that he had occult powers although they did not have first-hand experience of them. Others thought that he had no occult powers, that he was just bragging. There were others yet who thought that it was of no importance whether he had occult powers or not. These last thought, “Our Master loves us. He has tremendous concern for us. He has boundless compassion for us. He has light, peace and bliss. That is more than enough. We don’t have to see his occult powers.”

One day, God asked this particular teacher to show some of his occult powers. For years and years he had not shown any occult power in public, but he had used it in silence many, many times secretly in the inner world. It was not the disciples’ fault that they doubted his powers. They simply had no awareness of the Master’s occult power.

He invited all of his disciples — there were about five hundred of them — to assemble in front of him and said to them, “Today I am going to use my occult power and I shall tell you a few things. But you can’t blame me afterwards if you are embarrassed by what I say and if you are exposed.”

When they thought that they might be embarrassed or ashamed, all of them left except four disciples, three men and one woman. They thought they were strong enough to accept any embarrassment.

The Master pointed to one of the three men who had stayed and said, “Come in front of me.” The other disciples who had left the Master’s presence were watching from a distance, about fifty yards away. They did not want to come closer, but they were very curious and wanted to enjoy others’ embarrassment.

The Master said to the first disciple, “In your immediate past incarnation you were the worst possible thief. Not even one night passed when you did not commit a theft. Now I will show you your face.” The Master showed him his appearance in the past incarnation: dirty, filthy, absolutely thievish consciousness. And the disciple saw the difference between his present consciousness, his present appearance and his past appearance.

He was horrified that he had looked that way. He thought, “How can I be spiritual now if I was such a thief then?” He was embarrassed and in his embarrassment he got very angry at the Master. He said, “You have exposed me.” He was so angry that he ran away from the Master’s place.

Then the Master pointed out the second one. “In your past incarnation you were a real drug addict. You took all kinds of drugs, most powerful drugs. You were an addict. You were unkempt and untidy.” In this incarnation the man was very good-looking and prided himself on being very well-groomed. Smartly dressed, he was polished and sociable. He was a pride of society. The Master showed him his past incarnation, his distorted consciousness, his drug addiction. He even showed him how he used to take drugs.

This man, too, was embarrassed and horrified and he grew very angry. “Oh, Master, what have you done? Five hundred people have heard that I was like this.” So he rushed away from the Master, very angry and disturbed.

Now the third one came and the Master said, “In your past incarnation you were a drunkard, a drunkard of absolutely the worst type.” The Master showed him the friends with whom he used to drink and his own drunkard’s consciousness.

The man became sad. “Oh, I was like this? And now I am so spiritual. How can I be a good, spiritual man if in my past incarnation I was a drunkard? It is impossible.” He, too, became angry at the Master. He was on the point of insulting the Master because he had been exposed in front of five hundred people who were only fifty yards away, unwilling to be exposed themselves.

Now, the fourth one was the woman. When she came up to the Master, he said, “Now, what is that ring? Where does it come from? Where has the Muslim gone? He is not in France anymore?”

“What, Master! What? What? You know that I am unmarried.”

“Yes, I know that. It is absolutely true. You are 35 years old and unmarried. But who gave you this ring in France? Where has that Muslim gone? He has his own wife. Why did he give you this ring?”

She became terribly upset and angry and she was ready to strike him. Angrily she exclaimed, “This is your occult power?”

The Master said, “I wanted to show you my occult power. Five hundred people are loitering there. They are observing and enjoying everything. You have showed off your virginity, your chastity. Now, why don’t you go and get married and cast out his present wife? You have been a thorn in his wife’s side. Why, why? What is the reason?”

She became furious and insulted him and said, “All right, I shall teach you a lesson.” She rushed away, embarrassed and ashamed because of this exposure of her emotional life.

Later the four met together and decided, “Now, tonight we have to punish this rascal Master.” And they worked out a plan. One of the four was very close to the Master and he had the key to the Master’s room. That night, around 1:00, when they thought the Master would be fast asleep, they planned that they would go to the Master’s room.

When they stole in very carefully, the man who had been a thief looked into the closet, where he knew the Master kept money. He saw the Master lying still, snoring, so he stole away $500 from the Master’s safe. The Master lay still, snoring.

Then, the man who had been a drug addict, brought out several kinds of powerful drugs and placed them all on the Master’s bed, arranging them just as if somebody had used them. Still the Master lay still and snored. The bed was littered with drugs.

Now, the one who had been a drunkard, brought three or four bottles of wine. He opened two bottles and spilled the wine very quietly on the Master’s bed, wetting it. The other bottles he put unopened on the bed.

The woman who was embarrassed about the ring, had gone to the goldsmith that day. She happened to know the Master’s finger size. She had had a ring made heart-shaped and very beautiful to fit the Master; and she had her own name inscribed inside. Carefully she put it on the Master’s finger as he slept.

Then they all left, one by one. The former thief had stolen money; the man who had been a drug addict had left all kinds of drugs on the bed; the one who was a drunkard in his previous life had spilled wine on the bed. And the Master lay motionless, snoring. The woman slipped the ring on his finger and the Master still snored. Actually, the Master was merely pretending that he was fast asleep.

The four stole away, but did not want to stop here. They said, “He has to be exposed.” They had been exposed by the Master in front of five hundred people. When morning came they said, “Now, let us let him feel ridicule.”

The former thief, who had taken money from the Master, asked his other friends to give him some more money. They gave him $5,000. Early in the morning he threw the $5,000 in bills on the Master’s bed. Then they said to each other, “We will phone the other disciples and say that the Master had a heart attack, that his heart failed and that one of us had the key to the Master’s room. We’ll say that when the Master was in terrible agony, he phoned one of us up and said, ‘Come! Help me! I am suffering.’ But when we came, the Master died of heart failure.”

They phoned all the other disciples early in the morning all of them came. Because the four disciples had said that the Master was dead, the other disciples did not come near his bed. From a distance they looked at him. The Master was still fast asleep. This time he was not snoring because he knew the trick they were playing. He was in a very deep sleep and the disciples, seeing his relaxed, composed body, thought he was dead. They all began shedding bitter tears because their dear Master had passed away out of their reach.

When the Master saw that many, many people had gathered together, he jumped up suddenly from the bed. Some became frightened because they had been sure the Master was dead. Some were thrilled that resurrection had taken place and some wanted to scold and insult the people who had deceived them. But the Master said, “I am so glad to see all of you. Now, what is the matter?”

But nobody had the heart to say that they had heard that the Master had died. So the Master said, "Now, there are so many of you. I want to bless only four people. Yesterday, you know, I embarrassed those people and today I feel that they should get some sympathy, some concern from me. I will give them my blessing.”

The four who had done wrong were trembling. They thought, "Oh, the Master is inviting us, but what is he going to say? God knows.” Perhaps the Master would expose them again, seeing the things they had done. So they hesitated and did not want to come.

The Master said, "Come, come, come.”

Then they said to themselves, “Now we are caught. Whether we go or not, he will tell that we have done all this.” First they were afraid. Then they thought that the Master did not know what had happened because he had said that he wanted to bless them because he had embarrassed them the previous day. They thought that perhaps it was true. The Master had been snoring, maybe he didn’t know about all their tricks. Since the Master was insisting with such smiling compassion and concern, they came one by one.

The former thief came. The Master blessed him with sincerity and great power. Then came the one-time drug addict, then came the ex-drunkard, then came the woman who had the problem with the ring.

Then the Master said to them, “Now, I have forgiven all you people. All, all, all, all of you I have forgiven.”

They thought that if he had forgiven them that meant that he knew all the tricks they had played the night before. The Master first said, “I have forgiven you.” Then he turned to the one-time thief, “Look, if I get $5,000 now, I will become really rich. But this money is not mine. Kindly take it away. It is your money.”

Then to the ex-drug addict who had put all kinds of drugs in his room he said, “Look here, how can I have your things? Is it possible for me? I never take anybody else’s drugs, whether they are good or bad. So now you see, these are your possessions. Kindly take back your own possessions.”

Then to the former drunkard he said, “Everybody knows that I don’t drink. It is you who brought everything. I am sorry that you spent money and opened two bottles of wine. My bed is now all wet. Only two bottles are still intact, full. These two bottles you can return, or you yourself can drink them. They are yours.”

He turned to the woman and taking off the ring, said to her, “That means we loved each other. You really loved me. I know that. Yesterday, unfortunately, I could not prove to you that I really loved you. Had I loved you truly, then I would not have done this kind of thing. I would not have said what I did.” She was terribly ashamed and embarrassed and could hardly look at him. He added, “Now, please take back your ring. It does not fit, first of all. And in the second place, I’m sure you know that I don’t want to fall in love with you.”

Once again they were embarrassed. “What can we do now?” they wondered. They had shown themselves for what they were. Previously the Master had only showed them what they had once been and others had enjoyed their exposure. This time it was even more embarrassing because they themselves had tried to play shabby tricks on the Master and had been caught.

What could they do? Hundreds of people were around them. How could they show anger when they themselves had done what they had done?

The Master again blessed them. One by the one the Master blessed all four. Then he said, “Look here. I told you I have forgiven you. It is absolutely true. You wanted to know about my occult power. I always say that with occult power the tendency is curiosity. Most of you are curious, curious, simply curious. This curiosity has to come to an end. I want you people to be really sincere in the spiritual life, to aspire and to inspire others. And you don’t aspire, you don’t inspire others. You only want to know what you were, what others were and what you are going to be. What you are going to be, you will definitely become through your aspiration. You don’t need occult power to know what you are going to be tomorrow. Aspire. As soon as tomorrow comes, you will see what you are. But, if you know what you are going to be tomorrow, what will happen? You will relax. ‘Oh, tomorrow I am going to be very rich,’ or something. ‘Let me sleep.’ Then, if you sleep, you delay the process. And if you know that tomorrow something painful or frightening is going to happen in your life, you will be horrified. Before the actual event takes place, you will be half dead. When you don’t know something, it is only bliss, because you are aspiring. Your aspiration will give you the thing that is best for you tomorrow. Tomorrow means the future. But you don’t want that. You only want to be a curiosity-monger. For a long time you have been bothering me. Some of you, most of you do not. I want to show even the sincere ones who have faith in me that by having faith in my occult power they don’t gain any spiritual experience, they don’t make any progress. And you people who doubt my occult power, I embarrassed you because this will be of great help to humanity and mankind. There are millions of people on earth who are like you. You represent them and I am most grateful that through you I have been able to give them the proper experience, to show them that they should not try with occult powers to know anything about their past. It only creates more problems. It does not help you at all in your aspiring life.”

All the four touched the Master’s feet and the Master said, “From now on you will be my true disciples. Not occultism, only aspiration, spirituality, realisation, will be the Ultimate Goal.”