Look
Inside To Find Everything
I would
like to tell you a beautiful story here about a young boy who went to a master
and wanted to become his disciple. The master said, "Come to me with
something you can give me." The boy said, "Anything you want?"
The master said, "Yes. Find me the worst thing in this world that you can
find." The boy thought, "It is a stupid thing. How can it be
difficult to find the worst thing? To find the best thing, yes. But to find the
worst thing?" But he went from one bad thing to another bad thing to
another bad thing to another bad thing, and the search was endless. at no time
could
he say,
"Yes this is the worst thing." And he was despairing of ever bringing
this worst thing to his master. Excuse me for what is going to follow. He was
sitting in the toilet one day andthen suddenly he decided, "This is the
worst thing in the world because all human beings think it is the worst thing
in the world." So he put out his hand to take some of the waste when a
voice came from that and said, "Stop! What are you going to do with
me?" The young boy said, "Well my master said, Bring the worst thing
in the world. I have found it today." Then the voice said, "Reflect a
moment. Yesterday evening I was apple pie. I was ice cream. I was dosa. And you
touched
me and I have become this. Now you may decide yourself, what is the worst thing
in the world." Then, you know, the young boy had this inner awakening and
he went back empty- handed to his master, prostrated himself before him and
said, " Please accept me as your disciple." The Master said,
"Where is the worst thing in the world?" He answered, "I am here
Master. I am the worst thing in the world."
Now
this is the sort of humility that comes when we look inside ourselves. And then
it is possible to have compassion for others who are sinners as we call them,
who make mistakes, who suffer because of a guilt complex. And the master is
able to tell them, "Do not worry about it, because there is no human being
who has been free of these things. There has never been no a human being who
has ever been free of these things. But do not despair. There is a way of
changing yourself."
So
you see,
this was the way my Master taught me, not merely to have compassion for others,
friendship for others, love for others but, much more important, to have
compassion for myself, to have sympathy for myself, and slowly to change myself
in such a way that I could love myself.
