The Master answers the disciple's question

There was once a spiritual Master who had quite a few disciples. People often used to give him money, property and so forth. The Master was very nice and honest, and he would give the money to one of his rich disciples to save it for him. When he had accumulated a large amount, the Master was planning to open up a hospital for the sick and elderly that would be free of charge.

One day somebody gave the Master a very large amount of money. The Master wanted to give the money to the rich disciple who was saving it for him, but the disciple was sick and he could not come to the Master’s house. The Master said, “Let me go to his house and give him the money. I want him to keep it.”

The Master asked one of his disciples to put the money inside a bag and then carry it while they went to the rich disciple’s house.

The disciple said, “Master, something has been bothering me for a long time.”

The Master asked, “What is it?”

The disciple said, “In the battle of Kurukshetra the Pandavas won. Many people think that it was because of Sri Krishna that Arjuna won. I don’t agree. I think that even without Sri Krishna Arjuna could have won. Please tell me who is right? Am I right or are my friends right?”

The Master said, “Today I am not in the mood to answer that question. It is a very serious and complicated question, a very good question, but some other day I will answer it. Now let us go to my disciple’s house.”

The Master and the disciple were walking and walking. After some time they came to a forest that they had to pass through to get to the other disciple’s home. By now it was getting dark. The Master said, “Who knows what will happen? Find a big stick in case we are attacked by animals or hooligans!”

The disciple found a very thick stick which he started carrying in case anything happened. O God, in fifteen minutes’ time they were attacked by a hooligan with a gun. He said to the disciple, “Where are you going? Just drop the bag at my feet.”

The disciple was trembling, but the Master was not afraid. The Master turned to the hooligan and said, “I am saving this money because I want to open up a hospital. Do you not think it is a good cause? Will you excuse us and not take our money?”

The hooligan laughed and laughed. He said, “You fool, you fool! How can a fool like you have so much money? Don’t waste my time. Just drop it at my feet and then go away. I will not kill you. You two are fools.”

The disciple was still trembling and trembling. The Master said, “All right, then put it at his feet. What can we do?”

Then the Master said to the hooligan, “Tomorrow I will not be able to show my face. My disciple will tell the world that I surrendered to you because I don’t have any spiritual power or occult power. True, I don’t have occult power, but still it will be a terrible disgrace for me. Please do me a favour. Just kill me with your gun. Then the world will think that I just happened to be killed because I came into this dangerous forest. It is better to be killed by you than to have to show a humiliated face to my disciples tomorrow.”

Again the hooligan laughed and laughed. “I have a gun, true,” he said, “but inside the gun there is no bullet.”

Then the Master shouted to the disciple, “Use your stick!” Both the Master and disciple beat the hooligan mercilessly. Then they continued on with the money to the rich disciple’s house.

The Master said, “Now you see! Who was needed more in the battlefield — Arjuna or Krishna? You were Arjuna; you had the stick. I was Krishna; I was the one who played the trick on the hooligan. Now look how we escaped!”

The disciple said, “O Master, now I see that Krishna was needed to give wisdom to Arjuna. It was you who asked me to find the stick, and it was you who afterwards played the trick on the hooligan. You warned me and then you played a trick. Now I know that Krishna played all kinds of tricks to save Arjuna in the battle.”