The Master Said

DADA J. P. VASWANI

Moving along the pathways of life, strewn, as they are, with temptations and allurements, I often falter and, at times, fall. I succumb to the momentary pleasure of desire: I become a willing victim to trisna: I turn away from the Light: I do not pay heed to the still, small voice within me: I slide into sin. Then, after a while, cometh awakening. I repent: I cry: I shed tears of remorse: I chastise myself for having become a beast. And so it goes on. The cycle of fall and rise, of sin and repentance seems endless as the cycle of seasons. O, who will save me and grant me the liberation I seek? Who but the Gurudev?

The Guru came: the Beloved appeared to me in a dream and said: “Do not be despondent! Nor lose but look up! courage! Behold the flowers in yon garden,—the rose and the lily, the violet and the tulip, the daisy and the chrysanthemum. Do they not look up? Do you likewise!”

And I said: “Master! lonely is my heart and sad beyond words, for I have grievously sinned against the Light.”

And the Gurudev looked at me: his eyes were aglow with the light of compassion. And in his voice was the melody of the distant flute. And he said: “In the darkest depths of sin doth still shine the Fair Face of the Sinless One. He does not leave you, even though you run away from Him. And however low you may have fallen, He continues to hold you by the very roots of your being, pointing to your wayward heart the steep path that leads through the valley of sin to the summit of sinlessness. He is with you, or else you would not be conscious of having strayed away from the path. He is with you, or else you would not behold your imperfection in all its nakedness.”

And I said: “Master! There is something in your words which breathes hope and strength into my drooping heart. Now tell me what I may do to be freed from sin. Deprived of true understanding am I in the face of temptation. And my mind wanders, and my senses stray. And my will grows weak. And exhausted, I drop down like one dead. Tell me, Master! what I may do to be freed from sin.”

And the Compassionate One said: “If you would be freed from sin, seek the company of the sinless ones. Temptation is hard to overcome, but if you surrender your ego and seek refuge at the feet of a holy one, he will lift you out of the mud and mire of sin into the beauty and freshness of the Life Divine. He will teach you the way of true repentance.”

“For repentance,” the Master continued, “is not a matter of words. How often do we not commit wrongs and, in a variety of ways, wound the hearts of our fellow-men, and then say to them, ‘We are sorry’, and feel we have done our duty. These three words, ‘We are sorry’, come so easy to our lips. They do not reach out of our hearts. So it is that these words of regret hardly die upon our lips, when we find ourselves committing again the same wrong. Repentance is not a matter of words. To repent is to turn away — from everything that stands between me and my God, from all sordid, selfish desires, all worldly pleasures, all sensual joys, all hunger for fame, all thirst for dominion. To repent is never again to yield to the temptation of sin.”

And I said: “Master! your words keep me spell-bound. I fain would hear more.”

And the Master said: “Repentance, true repentance cometh not until man hath turned his back on the passing shows of life and awakened to the reality of the life Divine. This awakening starts with fear of God. Out of it cometh repentance: the truly repentant soul weeps and weeps and weeps again, weeps in aspiration. This leads to renunciation which, in its turn, gives rise to poverty of the spirit. Then desires die and all faults are extirpated and the mirror of the heart is cleansed of all stains of sin and reflects the beauteous Face of the Beloved.”

“True repentance, as the sufis teach,” the Master continued, “is three-fold. It is (1) repentance from sin; (2) repentance from neglecting God; and (3) repentance due to the consciousness that I have not yet turned away from all excepting God. So, true repentance does not lie in remembering but in forgetting them. The truly penitents do not remember their sins, for their hearts are occupied with the love of God and the continual remembrance of Him. And on their lips rises the prayer: “O, Lord, be merciful to all creatures and, for their sake, be merciful to me!” 

One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.

She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, “Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?” Her mother replied, “Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hair turns white.”

The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, “Momma, how come all of grandma’s hair are white?”

***

Q: Why did the baby strawberry cry?

A: Because his mom was in a jam! ***

Knock, knock

Who’s there?

Annie

Annie who?

Annie thing you can do, Mum can do better. ***

Daughter: Mum, what’s it like to have the greatest daughter in the world?

Mum: I don’t know dear, you’d have to ask Grandma. ***

A kid is going for his first day of school and he looks worried. His dad asks him, “What’s wrong?”

Nervous, the kid asks, “How long do I have to go to school for?”

“Until you’re 18”, says the father.

The kid nods, and thinks about this quietly. When they get to the front gate of the school, the kid says, “Dad, you will remember to come and get me when I’m 18, won’t you?”