Show occult powers and lose disciples

There was a spiritual Master who was a sincere, genuine Master. He had just started his ashram, and he had only forty disciples. Unfortunately, most of his disciples were not sincere enough or serious enough. Only a few were truly sincere, very dedicated. Others were merely curious. They wanted to see their Master's occult powers.

The Master often spoke of occult power and spiritual power, but most of his disciples thought that he was only telling tales. They didn't really believe that he actually had such powers.

A young lady joined the ashram. She had very little faith in the Master, but much curiosity. One day, at the end of the meeting, she fell at the feet of the Master and said, "Master, Master, help me!"

The Master said, "What is wrong?"

"My father has committed suicide," she said. "About ten days ago he died. I have just been to see his body."

"Why did he commit suicide?" the Master asked her.

"I do not know," she answered. "I live here in Florida, and my parents live in California. My mother called me when it happened, and I went to see her. I have just come back. Can you help my father's soul?" she asked the Master most pitifully.

The Master promised her that he would do something for her father's soul.

The following day the Master phoned the lady. He said, "Please come to my place. I have a message for you." She hurried eagerly to the Master's place to learn what the message was, for she was all curiosity.

The previous night the Master had actually entered into the souls' world and done some things for the soul of her father. He had blessed the soul, and had had a long conversation with it.

When the daughter arrived at the Master's ashram, he said, "Do you want proof that I met your father's soul?"

She said, "No, Master," but it was all false faith. Inside, she was burning with desire to hear the proof.

The Master said, "The fourth of September is your birthday. Your father told me."

She gave a smile and said, "Yes, Master, but… " “But” meant that she had a friend who also went to the Master's ashram, and she thought that perhaps he had learned through this friend that the fourth of September was her birthday.

The Master knew her thoughts and said, "All right. One more thing I will tell you. Then, perhaps, you will believe that I really had a conversation with your father. Do you know that your father was a thief?"

"My father! Impossible!"

"Yes. Your father lost his right thumb once while he was climbing out of a house after committing a theft. When the maids of the house heard a noise, they got up and tried to catch your father. He escaped through a window, but his thumb was crushed in the window. He lost his whole thumb."

"Oh Master, please don't tell anybody that about my father," the daughter cried. "Only my mother and I know it. Please don't tell anybody."

The Master blessed the disciple and said, "Your father is blessed in the souls' world, and you are blessed on earth. Now I wish to tell you that with your curiosity sometimes you people torture spiritual Masters. But if they want to put an end to your curiosity, they can do it. Curiosity is useless. What is useful is sincere, genuine dedication and devotion. From now on I expect you to be a good, sincere disciple."

The disciple bowed down and said, "Yes, Master. From now on I will be extremely dedicated and devoted to you."

That was the last time that disciple came to the Master's ashram. After a few months, she told some other disciples that she was not coming to his ashram any more because nobody could hide anything from him. She knew that she did many wrong things, many foolish immoral, and undivine things, and she was convinced that the Master recognised her undivine nature. Her life was an open book, and she did not want to be exposed in that way. This was her reason for leaving the ashram.

So you see, if the Master feeds a disciple's curiosity about occultism, then the Master loses the disciple. Again, if he says that he has no occult power, the curious disciple will think, "What is the use of staying with someone who does not have any occult power? He is as useless as I am. Let me leave him."

If the Master shows just a little of his power, the curiosity-mongers fear that they will be exposed, and they leave the Master. Occult power is not at all necessary to realise God. For God-realisation only one thing is indispensable, and that indispensable quality is aspiration.