Podcast details
Success comes in continuity on your path
A spiritual discourse on the importance of continuity and faith on the path.
"One man went to get Self-realization from one master, and he stayed ten years with him, but didn't get Self-realization."
"If you would have worked now, fifty-five years you were running here and there—in fifty-five years you would be already enlightened, a spiritual Mahātmā."
The speaker narrates a parable about a seeker who, after failing to achieve realization with several masters over many years, becomes angry and disillusioned. He returns to his first master, who gives him the task of digging a well but instructs him to change locations each day, ensuring failure. The master uses this to illustrate that the seeker's lack of continuity—jumping from master to master—wasted his time and destroyed his trust, whereas steadfast practice in one tradition would have brought success. The talk concludes with teachings on having one focus, using the metaphor of watering a tree at its roots.
Recording location: Australia, Sydney, World Peace Tour 2005
How successful you can be only if you are continuing your path.
One man went to get Self-realization from one master, and he stayed ten years with him, but didn't get Self-realization. He said, "My God, I will go to another master; this master is not so good." He went to another master, he stayed five years with him, didn't get anything—not even Mūlādhāra was purified. "This is not a master."
He went to the third master and he stayed there fifteen years, and he could not even meditate. "This is terrible. This is not a master. I should search for a real master." So he went to another master, and there he stayed a few years more, and nothing happened.
What happened now, the result of this, is that he became a very, very negative person, angry at all masters. "This is nothing, this is only a lie, and this is not, and there is no God, there is no reality, there is no realization, finished. But I will go to every master and tell them, don't do this all, this is stupid."
So systematically he wanted to go from one master to another master. He went to the first master and said, "Master, what you taught me was stupid, nothing. There is no Self-realization. There is no liberation. Everything is nothing. I wasted my time. You told me that you could give me the right way, the right answer, but you didn't give it to me."
The master said, "Now is the time to give you the right answer." "I will get the right answer, yes. But I have no time. My time is wasted." The master said, "Only one week. In one week you will come on the right way and then you can get realization." "When so many years I wasted, one week—let's have it."
The master said, "One week, but you have to do whatever I ask you to do." He said, "Okay, I will do anything you want. But only one week. On the ninth day, if you ask me to do something, I will not do anything." The master said, "Okay. Well, agree?" "Agree." "Sleep peacefully."
Next day morning, at breakfast time, the master told him, "We don't have water here in our āshram. Can you help to dig a water well?" He said, "Yes, sir, I will do it. Where should I dig?" He said, "Just here in the garden." So the whole day he was working, working very hard, and he dug about two meters. He slept like anything. You see, don't take sleeping tablets. When you can't sleep, then work physically hard. Oh, you will sleep like anything. That's it.
Next morning at breakfast, the master came. "Good morning." The disciples stood up and said, "Praṇām Gurudev, how are you?" He said, "Fine." They had breakfast. The master said, "The corner where you are digging for the water well, there is no water. Dig on the other corner." So he began to dig on the other corner. The whole day he was working very hard. He dug about two and a half meters there. In the evening he slept deeply.
The next day, again they met at breakfast. After breakfast the master said, "You see, where you are digging, there is a rock that will come and you will not be able to break the rock. So dig on that corner, the other side." So he began to dig there. Every day the master comes and tells him, "There I was meditating, there is salty water, there is a rock, there is no water, it is too deep."
On the eighth day, when the master came for breakfast, the disciples stood up and he said, "Stop, don't tell me anymore to dig the well." The master said, "Why?" "Yes, I waste my time. I destroyed the whole garden and there is no water at all. Why didn't you meditate first on where I should dig? Then I could have got the water now for breakfast, a glass of nice fresh water. Why? In one week, if I would have dug continuously for water, I would have reached the water."
So the master said, "That is the answer to your questions. So many years you wasted running here and there, and this master and that master and this master, and now the result is this: you are nowhere. You destroyed the garden of your trust and there is no water of any result of success, and in your heart you developed again the doubts and the time is wasted. If you would have worked now, fifty-five years you were running here and there—in fifty-five years you would be already enlightened, a spiritual Mahātmā."
He said, "Then what should I do, Master, now? Can you advise me what should I do? I will do everything. I accept it was my mistake, not a mistake of the master's. What should I do?" So the master said, "Go and do Yoga in Daily Life."
So continuity, one thing, not jumping here and there. "Ek sāje sab sāje, sab sāje sab jāye." "Ek sāje sab sāje." If you take one, then you can master everything. And when you try to have everything, then you will lose everything. "Ek sāje sab sāje, sab sāje sab jāye." "Dāl, pattī, peḍ, phūl, sab," all—all the tree, the branches, the leaves, the branches, everything—they are depending on the root. When you have the roots in your hands, then you don't need to go to the leaves there. Everything is in the root. If you want to give water to the tree, give it to the roots. If you take cotton and put the water on every leaf, you can't finish the whole day and the tree will not get water. Put it in the roots. Everything will get it.
Have one God, one Gurudev, one belief, and all the goddesses will be happy with you. One in all, all in one.
Recording location: Australia, Sydney, World Peace Tour 2005
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