One day both the Master Maharaj and his disciple Ramdas were meditating separately in an open field. A young man came and bowed down before each one, and offered some money to Ramdas. Ramdas immediately protested and asked the young man to take the money away and place it at his Master’s feet instead. In spite of being repeatedly requested to do so, the young man did not comply with Ramdas’ request.

When the young man left, Ramdas went to his Master and offered him the money, only to be rebuked ruthlessly by the Master for accepting the money. Ramdas said that he had repeatedly asked the man not to give him the money, but to give it to his Master instead. But Devadas Maharaj’s anger still remained at the transcendental height. He said, “I am sure he saw greed in you; therefore, he gave the money to you and not to me.”

Ramdas felt sad. Then his Master said, “Don’t feel sad. Now I am telling you the truth. Like me, you have also become a tiger in the spiritual life; therefore, the young man felt that if he gave it to you, it was as good as offering it to me. The time has come for you to have disciples of your own and to move to a different place.”

Ramdas fell at the Master’s feet and said, “My eternal place is here and nowhere else.”

Commentary:

Indeed, it is at times difficult, if not almost impossible, to know what the Master wants. If the disciple has a pure heart and if he has a sincere attitude, then he is bound to please the Master. Because of his purity’s striking luminosity and his sincerity’s spontaneous oneness, there is every possibility that he will do the right thing. Again, if the disciple does not do the right thing, but his mind is still searching and his heart is crying, then the Master does not blame the disciple for his mistakes, for he knows perfectly well that these so-called mistakes are the pathfinders of true truth.

Two tigers?the Master the tiger and the disciple the tiger?cannot live together. The Master thinks not in human terms?that if they stay together then each will not get full importance from the rest of the world; therefore, it is advisable to stay separately so that both can get due attention. If this is what the human mind thinks is the reason, then it is a deplorable mistake. When the Master says that the disciple has come up to his standard and asks the disciple to stay separately in the world, what the Master wants from the disciple is very simple: he wants the disciple to spread light as the Master is spreading light. If both of them do the same thing for the same people at the same time, then it is totally redundant. But if they share their achievements with the rest of the world, staying away from each other geographically and physically, then only the larger world will receive light from both God-realised souls. What the Master wants is not possession but the expansion of the God-reality in him and in his disciple. God’s creation is very vast. The more we can manifest God with the help of illumined, liberated and realised souls, the better; and the sooner God’s infinite Manifestation can take place here, there, everywhere.

Sri Chinmoy