“Master, please throw some light on something for me.”
“Tell me, my child, what is it? I shall definitely throw light on it, whatever it may be.”
“Master, you have been requested by the disciples of so many other spiritual Masters to meet and speak with their Masters. How is it that you always refuse? Not even once have you listened to their requests. Why is that?”
“My child, the reason is very simple. My disciples and the disciples of other Masters are apt to create tremendous confusion for each other. How? Through their rivalry. You will say that your Master is by far the best, and those who follow a different path will have every right to say the same thing about their Master. I have seen inwardly that for one spiritual Master to meet with another does not serve any purpose.”
“But Master, there are some spiritual Masters who have written to you personally. They are so anxious to meet you and you have not even answered their letters.”
“Yes that is true. Outwardly I have not answered their letters. But I have answered their letters inwardly. If the Masters were truly spiritual people, I contacted them inwardly the moment I read their letters.”
“But you answer the letters of your disciples, who ask you most unimportant things, absolutely silly things, if I may say so. How is it that you ignore these Masters, who are far superior to your disciples in spiritual height, and who want to discuss very serious things with you from a higher plane of consciousness?”
“I am a spiritual father and I have quite a few spiritual children. It is my first and foremost duty to help the members of my own family. You have to know that there is an important difference between a friend and a member of one’s own family.”
“Master, it is true that you have to pay attention to the members of your family most of the time. But one does pay attention to one’s friends, too, from time to time.”
“True, on the physical plane one has to pay attention to one’s friends as well. Even if a person pays attention to the members of his family twenty-four hours a day, he thinks of his friends at least once in a while. But on the spiritual plane it is not like that. On the spiritual plane, real Masters can easily communicate with each other inwardly. I don’t have to answer the questions of other Masters outwardly. I don’t have to speak to them on the outer plane in order to say what I have to say because I can do it inwardly.”
“Master, I shall be grateful if you can make this more clear to me.”
“My son, I shall make clear to you why I do not want to see other spiritual Masters and also why I ask my disciples not to go to other Masters. Do you think that I am really mean? Do you think that I have a smaller heart than ordinary people who are willing to accept the whole world? I have a heart of light and wisdom. I feel that everyone is right in his own way. If I say what I consider to be right, you can easily disagree with me. You won’t do that because you are my disciple and you have implicit faith in me, but somebody else will eagerly deny what I say. He will say what he feels is right.
“We should stick to our own convictions. Those who have accepted my path are mine, totally mine, and should stay with me. The disciples of other Masters belong to those Masters. I tell my disciples, ‘This is the truth that I have realised. There is only one truth, but I have realised the truth in this particular way. If you want to realise the truth this way, then you can stay with me. Similarly, the other Masters can say the same about the way they have realised the truth.
“We are speaking about the way, not the Goal. The Goal is the same for everyone. I can show you the way I have realised the truth, and you will learn from me. But if I show my way to other Masters or to the disciples of other Masters, they will be totally confused. These disciples will say either that I am totally wrong or that their Masters are wrong. Now why should I create problems? Our path and other paths are equally right. I accept people who have faith in me, who feel that I am the person to take them to the Goal, and other Masters take their disciples to the same Goal with their own way of understanding and realising the truth.
“Now I shall tell you something more. Suppose there are three persons climbing up a tree. They are all on different branches, and they are all giving sermons from different heights. Each one speaks according to the height of the branch he has reached. There will be people who will understand the person speaking from the lowest branch far better than the one speaking from the higher branches. Again, there will be some people who will be able to understand the one who is speaking from the highest branch. Each speaker is right in his own way, and everyone understands his Master’s message according to his own standard.
“But one who is meant for the Master on the lowest branch may immediately deny what the Master on the highest branch is saying, and shout that it is all wrong. According to his own capacity of understanding, he has grasped the truth spoken by the Master on the lowest branch.
“Again, the Master on the middle branch will speak in his own way, according to his own realisation, and many people will be able to understand him. But when these people hear the Master who is on the topmost branch, they will not understand a word. They will say, ‘Our Master didn’t give us this kind of philosophy at all. What this Master is telling us is all wrong.’ Just as the disciples of the first Master find it impossible to understand what the second Master says, so also do the disciples of the second Master find great difficulty in understanding and realising the philosophy of the third Master, who is on the topmost branch.
“The disciples of the Master who is on the topmost branch do not find it so difficult to understand the Masters who speak from the lower branches, because they have climbed past those branches and reached a superior height. It is not necessary for them to go back to the lower branches in order to know what is being said there. If I have my Master’s degree, I do not go back to the primary school or the kindergarten in order to understand what is being taught there. If you have achieved the highest standard, you will not go back to the lowest standard. If people of the highest and the lowest categories mix together, or if people of different paths mix together, then there will be nothing but chaos and confusion.
“Each Master is right according to his own knowledge, and for his disciples he is perfect. But if he mixes with other Masters and exchanges ideas with them, the disciples of the different Masters will not understand, and even the Masters themselves will not understand each other’s spiritual language because of the difference in their depth and the difference in their height. So I always say that whether I am superior or inferior to another Master is up to God to judge. But if you play your part, if you are devoted and faithful to me, I shall take you to the destined Goal; and if other disciples are faithful and devoted to their Masters, then their Masters will take them to the destined Goal.
“Two Masters can be of the same height, of the same standard — that is to say, they have entered into the same room. But one has entered through the left door, and the other through the right door. If the one that has entered through the left door is asked about the location of an object inside the room, from his point of view it will be in a particular corner, perhaps the front right corner. For the other Master, that object will be located in the left back corner. Although the object is in the same place, the two Masters observe it from different viewpoints. Naturally each will claim that he is right. Let us take the object as the Goal. Even after they have reached the same Goal, these two persons may easily dispute the location of the Goal.
“So you can see for how many reasons it is not advisable for spiritual Masters to exchange their philosophies and lofty realisations. Each one is right in his own way. Let each one be satisfied with what he has and what he is. Let each one become what he wants to become. This is my philosophy. I am sorry if you don’t understand my philosophy, but I can assure you that there is someone both on earth and in Heaven who understands my philosophy perfectly, and He is my eternal Friend, God.”
