Safe in the Master's compassionate concern

There was a sincere seeker who was looking for a Guru. The poor man had worked very, very hard. He had spent years in search of a Guru but could find no Guru who really appealed to him. He had met many spiritual Masters, but he did not care for any of them. Now he was miserable, for he felt his days were passing in vain. In spite of his intense aspiration, he could not find a real Guru, a Guru of his own.

Finally one night he had a dream. In his dream he came to know who his Guru was. The following morning he set out for his Guru’s place, which was about sixteen miles away from his own house. Since the Guru lived in one village and he himself lived in another, he had no choice but to walk. He felt immensely happy and excited. It was early in the morning and everything was calm and quiet. He recognised that he did not actually know where the Guru’s place was. He knew the house, but he had a vague idea of the location of the Guru’s village. He thought he would be able to ask his way of the people he passed and reach his destination that way.

He walked for about six miles or so and then he was not sure of his route. All of a sudden he saw a young girl fetching water from a pond by the street. She had a pitcher along with her and she filled it to the brim. Then she started carrying the water pitcher down the road. As soon as he saw the woman the seeker became sad and angry.

He said to himself, “My journey will be all in vain! Here temptation has started. This stupid girl has ruined all my aspiration. It is a real curse! O God, now where is my Guru, where is my goal? She has ruined me. I have read Ramakrishna’s books, I have read the books of other spiritual Masters: ‘women will take us to hell.’ Here, I am going to my Guru’s place and she has to be right in front of me!”

So he cursed the woman. But she did not pay any attention to him. She was walking along the street, full of joy and pure love. The man thought that he had to follow that particular way because there was no other route nearby and there was nobody else, no man on the way to ask. So what could he do? He could either go home or continue to walk along the road until he came across a man. He decided to walk on, following the woman. Finally he thought to himself, “What is wrong with her? How is it that she is carrying such a big pitcher and walking along this road, all the time ahead of me, never behind me?”

Then after having covered about four miles, the man saw a little boy, naked, playing and singing a village song right in the street. The song went like this:

But the man could not make out the words, but he wondered what it was the child sang so soulfully! He kept on his way, walking towards the North, while the child was singing. “The goal, goal!”

While he was listening to the child’s song, all of a sudden he became aware that the beautiful girl had disappeared. Earlier he had cursed this girl for leading him. But now he was tempted and the girl was not to be found. Anyway, he was very happy that the girl had left him.

He walked for another five or six miles and again he began to wonder where he was, because he did not know the actual house. Tremendous doubt came into his mind. What could he do? Nobody was on the road. It was very strange; on other days there would have been some people, but today there were none. Still he said to himself, “All right, let me walk along, alone.”

After covering a few miles, he again saw the woman with the pitcher hanging around her waist. She was looking at him with compassion. He became very angry. He said, “Again you have come to tempt me! Just a few hours ago you were there and I was upset and angry and now again you have come.” He was very angry but the woman pointed out to him a particular house. He went into the house and there inside saw a spiritual Master. The woman disappeared. He touched his Master’s feet and was blessed by his Master.

A few hours later the Master said to him, “Now, come, let us go and see our fields. I have a vegetable garden with tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and so forth.” So the seeker, the new disciple, was delighted to see his Master’s property.

In the field the disciple saw a neighbour of the Master, who took away two eggplants without permission. The Master was furious. He said, “How dare you do this without asking?”

The neighbour said, “Oh, you are a spiritual man. I am taking only two eggplants. My wife has nothing to make for food, so I thought that if I took these eggplants she could make something nice for us.”

The Master said, “No, you can’t do that. You have taken them without my permission!” A terrible fight followed. The Master was about to threaten and strike the neighbour.

The new disciple wondered, “O God, what kind of Master is this?”

At last the Master said, “All right, take them. I don’t need them. You take the two eggplants.” The Master now said to the disciple, “Let us go home.”

Both the disciple and the Master went back and had their supper. Then the Master said to the disciple, “Let us meditate.” But the disciple could not meditate. He kept all the time remembering the Master’s anger and thinking, “Oh, the Master is so mean. Two eggplants he cannot give to his neighbour.” He was very upset and unhappy and thought, “I was mistaken. This man cannot be my Master. He is so cruel. He is so unkind. Tomorrow, early in the morning, before he gets up, I will leave his place without his knowledge.”

So in the small hours of the morning, while the Master was still fast asleep, the disciple decided to leave the Master’s place on tiptoe.

While he was outside the Master’s house about to run away, he again saw the beautiful woman. She begged him to carry a bag for her which contained — though he did not see at first — two eggplants. He felt compelled to carry it. And when he had it in his hands, the woman started shouting and screaming: “Thief, thief, thief, thief!”

The Master woke up and heard the shouting. When he came out of his house he saw that the seeker was leaving him and that there were two eggplants in his bag. The Master came out and said to the disciple, “You thief, did you take these two eggplants yesterday? You did not take them this morning. Perhaps you entered into my storage barn and took them.”

The disciple said, “I have stolen them? This girl insisted that I take them. I do not know what she has — charm or something else. I don’t know. She put them in my hand and I couldn’t seem to throw them away and then she called out ‘thief, thief, thief,’ and who is the thief? She is the thief. I am not the thief.”

He wanted to hit the girl in front of the Master. When he was about to strike her, the girl disappeared. “Master, please tell me who this awful girl is. Why does she make problems for me all the time? I did not tell you, but yesterday, it was she who was responsible for my misfortune. I started out full of eagerness, enthusiasm and joy for your place. Right when I started walking, I saw her fetching water. She tempted me. Her beauty disturbed me. She walked ahead of me for such a long way. And again I saw her near your place and again this morning. Master, save me from this girl.”

The Master said, “Why did you leave me? Why did you want to leave me early in the morning?”

The disciple answered, “What kind of Master are you? You are quarrelling and insulting that man about two eggplants. Look how mean you are.”

The Master said, “No, it is not my meanness. If that man had asked me, my permission, I would have given him not only two but as many as he wanted. But, without his asking my permission, why should I allow him to take my food? Forgiveness is always there; you saw I forgave him for taking those two eggplants. But if he does not get permission, today he will take two, tomorrow twenty; the day after he will take everything away.”

He continued, “Like me you also grow fruits in your garden. I know your neighbours take away your things and your wife gets angry about it. But you tell your wife, ‘Oh, don’t worry, it is not a serious matter. After all, we are all God’s children, it is all God’s property. Who cares?’ And you suffer financially afterwards. You are expected to sell fruits and then to be able to maintain your livelihood. But you grow food and your neighbours steal away so much of it and your wife suffers financially. You are making a serious mistake. They will remain lazy and they will become thieves.

“So it was just to show you that you are doing the wrong thing that I did all this. It was not my neighbour; it was I. I can take all forms; I took that form. I was with you and that neighbour was nobody other than I. I was quarrelling and fighting with myself only to show you that it was something wrong. Nobody should take another’s possessions without his knowledge, approval and permission. That is why I did it. It was one of my beings; I assumed another form.”

The disciple said, “All right then, I can believe you. Now that you have convinced me, I will stay with you. I will stop giving things to people who don’t deserve them.”

The Master said, “Certainly, if you allow people to take away your things, you are allowing them in that way to commit theft. So it is your mistake.”

So the seeker said, “All right, Master, I am going to be your disciple, forgive me. But what about the stupid woman? She bothered me, tempted me. You know I am so pure, so spiritual and what has she done to me?”

With a broad smile the Master said, “That beautiful woman was also myself.”

The disciple said, “What? Why did you do that?”

The Master said, “Look here, the first time you saw her, you were totally lost. You thought that it would be a wild goose chase. You lost the way, there was nobody there. I took the form of the beautiful woman because I knew that you still had vital love within you which you haven’t yet fully conquered. And when I took that form, although you were cursing that woman for tempting you, you had passion for her. She did not have this passion, but you felt lustful toward her. You were cursing her. That is what men do when they see a woman. Inwardly they desire her; outwardly they curse her. They say, ‘She has ruined me.’ Who has ruined whom? I wanted you to come to my place, but how? I thought that this was the only way since there was nobody there. It was the beauty of the woman who brought you to the child. You covered the distance because you appreciated and admired her beauty. If it had been somebody else, say another man, you would have doubted him, you would have said, ‘No, perhaps it is the wrong way.’ But you followed this woman. Her beauty compelled you to go on. Her love was absolutely pure and divine. Her concern for you was supremely genuine.”

“Oh, Master, then why did she leave me when I saw the little boy?”

“That little boy was also myself. It was I in another of my forms. You were cursing the girl and at the same time you were following her. She said, ‘Now let me use some other means.’ So I got the idea of assuming another form, of a child. He was so innocent, so pure. He was singing so soulfully. You were tempted by this beautiful girl. But you had no physical attraction for that boy. That boy had a greater advantage. He was so innocent, he was like nature, absolutely pure.”

The disciple asked, “But why was the boy singing?” The song seemed so meaningless to me: ‘To the North is the Goal, to the South is Breath, to the East is Destruction and to the West is Frustration.’ What does it mean?”

The Master replied, “You don’t know? I was singing through the boy. To the North is the Goal. You see, you followed my instructions unconsciously. To the North was my house. And to the South was breath. Breath is your home. You did not go back towards the South. When you go back home, that is your breath and if you had followed the road that was leading towards the East, it would have meant destruction, because there were two dacoits there. Whoever came along towards the East from the place where the boy was, was destined to be attacked by these two dacoits. When they find nothing to steal on the traveler, they simply kill him. So you would have been killed by the dacoits. First they would have searched you and if you had not had enough money, they would have got much pleasure in killing you. And if you had followed the road to the West, there would have been frustration, because there was no goal there. So that was the song.”

“O Master, my Master, My Savior.”

“Then unconsciously you followed the child’s message. You walked towards the North and you reached your destination.”

Then the disciple said, “Why did that stupid woman again come and bother me?”

The Master said, “The stupid woman was again I who assumed that form with compassion. After walking a few miles, you got lost again. You were confused, you were hesitating, so I took that form and full of compassion, I was showing you my own home.”

The disciple said, “But was it necessary to do all this?”

The Master said, “Yes, it was necessary because, if purity is not fully established when you run towards your Master, towards your goal, then you should run with impurity. There is no harm if you cannot walk along the path with absolute purity, especially in the beginning. Walk towards the goal even with impurity. Then, you see, if you have childlike innocence, you will get joy. With impurity you started. You were having impure thoughts and so forth. With an innocent feeling and spontaneous inner joy you can go further. When you go still further you will be inundated with divine compassion. On your way to my place, first I showed divine love through the girl. Then I showed you innocent joy through the child. Then I showed you compassion through the girl again.”

The seeker touched his Master’s feet, saying, “Master, now I have understood. You have helped me, you are truly my Master, I take you as my real Master. You are my only Savior.”