|
Main Index
|
| |
| |
|
| |
the ear and rocked it comfortingly: "It will be all right, dear, we will make it somehow.... "
The doctor interrupted her: "Madam, you are wasting your breath. The child is deaf."
That's the situation man is in. You are blind, you are deaf, you have no heart... but to see it hurts. It is painful to realize it, to recognize it. So we go on finding explanations to avoid the truth about ourselves.
The disciple is not ready -- that's why he cannot see the Master. But he goes on saying there is no Master.
I was a student in a university, and it was Buddha's enlightenment day -- it was celebrated in the university. And the vice chancellor said, with great passion and with great emotion, "If I had been in Buddha's time, I would have renounced the world, sat at his feet, followed him like a shadow."
And I knew the man! I could not conceive of him ever following a Buddha. I had to stand up. And I said, "You please take your words back, because I know you perfectly well: you are the last man who would have followed Buddha. And do you think Buddhas are not available now? Did you ever go to Ramana Maharshi?"
He had to say, "No."
I said, "But he was alive. Just a few years ago he was alive. He was your contemporary."
This incident happened somewhere near 1955, and Ramana died in '51, just four years before. And the vice chancellor was an old man of seventy. I said, "He was your contemporary. Arunachel is not very far away. In Buddha's time it may have taken you years to journey to Buddha -- it was only one hour's flight. Did you go there? Have you been to J. Krishnamurti ever? He is still alive. And you are talking with such emotion and passion. Whom are you trying to be fool?"
But he was a good man. He understood the point. Tears cam to his eyes; he took his words back. Later on he called me and he said, "Listen, if you have to say something to me you can come in private."
"Why private? You made the statement in public: I had to refute it in public. And never make such a statement again, because I will still be here for two, three years. Think it over. You were in Buddha's time too," I told him.
He
|
|
|
|
| |