The Master

When one Guru was dying, one of his disciple asked him "Guruji, who was your
master?"He said, "I had thousands of masters. If I just relate their names
it will take months, years and it is too late. But three masters I will
certainly tell you about.

One was a thief. Once I got lost in the desert, and when I reached a village
it was very late, everything was closed. But at last I found one man who was
trying to make a hole in t he wall of a house. I asked him where I could
stay and he said 'At this time of night it will be difficult, but you can
say with me - if you can stay with a thief'.And the man was so beautiful. I
stayed for one month! And each night he would say to me, 'Now I am going to
my work. You rest, you pray.' When he came back I would ask 'Could you get
anything?' He would say, 'Not tonight. But tomorrow I will try again, God
willing.' He was never in a state of hopelessness, he was always happy.
When I was meditating and meditating for years on end and nothing was
happening, many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so
hopeless,that I thought to stop all this nonsense. And suddenly I would
remember the thief who would say every night, 'God willing, tomorrow it is
going to happen.'

And my second master was a dog. I was going to the river, thirsty and a dog
came. He was also thirsty. He looked into the river, he saw another dog
there -- his own image -- and became afraid. He would bard and run away, but
his thirst was so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear,
he just jumped into the water, and the image disappeared. And I knew that a
message had come to me from God: one has to jump in spite of all fears.

And the third master was a small child. I entered a town and a child was
carrying a lit candle. He was going to the mosque to put the candle there.
Just joking,' I asked the boy, 'Have you lit the candle yourself?' He said,'Yes
sir.' And I asked, 'There was a moment when the candle was unlit, then there
was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which
the light came?' And the boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, 'Now
you have seen the light going. Where has it gone? You will tell me!'

My ego was shattered, my whole knowledge was shattered. And that moment I
felt my own stupidity. Since then I dropped all my knowledge ability.

It is true that I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a
disciple -- I accepted the whole existence as my master. My Disciple hood was
a greater involvement than yours is. I trusted the clouds, the trees. I
trusted existence as such. I had no master because I had millions of masters
I learned from every possible source. To be a disciple is a must on the
path. What does it mean to be a disciple? It means to be able to learn. To
be available to learn to be vulnerable to existence. With a master you start
learning to learn.

The master is a swimming pool where you can learn how to swim. Once you have
learned, all the oceans are yours."