Scene 1

(The cottage of an advanced seeker. A thief is rummaging around. Enter the seeker. The thief begins to run away.)

SEEKER: A thief!

(As the thief runs away, he drops a watch and a mango. The seeker picks them up and begins to chase the thief.)

SEEKER: Oh thief! Oh thief!

(The thief stops and turns around.)

THIEF: You fool, why do you bother me? I have returned your things. I am not taking away your watch or your mango. I have dropped them. Why are you chasing me? You cannot say that I have stolen anything. I am going now. Don’t bother me.

SEEKER: I want you to take this mango. I want you to take this watch.

THIEF: Why?

SEEKER: You must need them more than I do. That’s why you were taking them away. You need this watch and this mango, but I need something else. I need amrita, the divine nectar. I want to drink amrita, and not eat mangoes. By drinking amrita I will become immortal. I do not need this watch; I need eternal time. I want to live in eternal time. The things that I need most I shall pray for. But you need this most delicious mango to eat, and you need this watch so that you will know at what time you should go out to steal and when you are supposed to come back. You need them more than I do, and I am glad that I am in a position to fulfil your needs.

THIEF: And who is going to fulfil your needs? I am grateful to you for fulfilling my needs. I need a mango, true, and I need this watch. But I certainly can’t fulfil your needs.

SEEKER: My friend, since I have fulfilled your needs, there will be someone on earth to fulfil my needs, too. The time has come for your desires to be fulfilled, and God has chosen me to fulfil them. A time will also come when my needs will be fulfilled. My aspiration will bear fruit at God’s choice Hour. At that time, He will send someone into my life whose very touch will give me my realisation, my liberation. I am waiting for that person to come into my life.

THIEF: You are great indeed, and now I will also become good. Because of your inspiration, I will lead a better life. Will you bless me? (The seeker blesses him.) From now on I shall be a good man. I shall eat this mango, and I shall sow the seed in my garden. One day the seed will germinate. It will grow into a plant, and then it will become a tree. And at the foot of that tree I shall sit and meditate. You have given me a watch, but I shall not use it to tell me when to go out stealing and when to come back. I will use it only to see the hour at which I must meditate. Early every morning I will get up and meditate at a certain time. When I have the mango tree, I will meditate at the foot of the tree. But until then I shall meditate in my room, and your watch will make me punctual.

SEEKER: Those are both excellent ideas. Use this watch to see that you get up early every morning to meditate. After five or six years, you will be able to sit at the foot of the mango tree and meditate. You will see, as the mango tree bears thousands of mangoes, your aspiration also will bear fruit. You will have Peace, Light and Bliss in boundless measure.