VBT – Meditation 14.5
Take The Challenge
As your Aura starts expanding you become Existential and not Philosophical but Authentic towards yourself.
I have told you a Sufi story…
A woman was very much impressed by a Sufi mystic, and she was very worried about her only son. She was living for him; the father was dead. That boy was her life, and she wanted him to become something.
The boy was too attached to eating sweets and all kinds of junk. She tried hard; everybody, the teachers, the priests all tried, but the boy was absolutely indifferent to their advice; he continued to eat sweets.
He was the only son, so finally the mother would relax and would give him what he wanted; otherwise, he would remain hungry. But he would not eat anything that he did not want to eat; he would eat only things that he wanted to eat. And those were things which were not healthy, which were not nourishing, which could create problems later in his life.
The Sufi mystic had come wandering into the village, and the woman thought it was a good chance. That man has such a tremendous and powerful aura around him, perhaps he may be able to change this stupid boy’s mind. She took the boy…she had been taking him to anybody who could help; it had become almost a routine thing. The boy went there very reluctantly, very resistant; it had become almost a question of his own self-respect.
When the woman told the Sufi master about the situation, he said, “You will have to forgive me. Right now I cannot say a single word to this beautiful boy. I am old, I am seventy years old, but it will take at least two weeks for me to be able to say something to him.”
The woman could not believe him. Anybody, any idiot was ready to advise. And a great mystic followed by many many people, says to the boy, “You will have to forgive me; you came and I cannot advise you right now. You will have to give me two weeks at least.”
The boy for the first time dropped his reluctance, his resistance. For the first time he was respected, he was accepted as a dignified human being; he was not condemned out of hand. And the old man was really concerned, he wanted to give him some advice which would be of importance; he needed at least two weeks’ time. The mother was absolutely shocked, could not believe that this great mystic cannot advise a small boy right now on such a trivial matter. But what to do? They had to wait two weeks. After two weeks she came again. This time the boy came very joyously. In fact, he was very eager about how fast the days were moving, and he was counting because he wanted to see the mystic again. “He is a totally different man from all the other men you have taken me to.” The woman was surprised because the boy was always resistant, reluctant. He went against his will, was forced to go – and this time he is so eager! He cannot wait for two weeks; those two weeks look like two years.
Finally the day came, and in the early morning the boy took a shower, changed his clothes, and got ready. The mother said, “What is the hurry?”
He said, “I want to see the man. He is the only man that I have felt respects others.”
Otherwise, advising others is a kind of humiliation; it is saying: I know and you do not know. I am the guide and you are the guided. I am the teacher and you are the taught. It is enjoying a certain egotism at the cost of humiliating the other person.
They went, and the woman first asked, “Before I ask about the boy, I want to know why it took two weeks for you – is it such a great philosophical problem?”
The mystic said, “If it were a philosophical problem I would have answered immediately; it is an existential problem. I am seventy years old; he is just seven years old. I have lived ten times more than the boy, still I love to eat sweets. And as long as I myself eat sweets I cannot say anything. These two weeks I tried not to eat sweets and to see what happens. My advice will depend on my own experience, not just on the common opinion that sweets are bad. They may be bad, but if I cannot drop them at seventy years of age, to expect a small boy to drop them…. I cannot advise that.”
The boy was immensely impressed. A man at this age tortured himself for two weeks? And he said to the boy, “My son, it is very difficult. I managed to drop sweets, and I have managed now for the rest of my life – but to advise you I feel a little shaky. You are so young. To drop sweets if you love them will be arduous, and to impose this idea on you I will be almost being violent and violating your individual right. So all that I can say is, it is good and it is healthy, but it is very difficult. It is a challenge. You can choose whether you are ready to take the challenge. I have dropped them for the rest of my life; only now have I the authority to say to you that you can also drop. But it is certainly a difficult thing. Are you ready for a challenge, an adventure?”
The boy said, “I drop them right now, and for my whole life. If you can drop them, why can’t I drop them? And you are so old; I am so young. You are getting weaker; I am getting stronger. I can take the challenge; you don’t feel worried about it.”
The mother could not believe what was happening: it was a miracle. The boy is persuading the old man, “I will be able.”
The old man said, “My feeling is, you should also think about it for two weeks, try….”
The boy said, “No. I am dropping them right now in your presence, with your blessings.”
Tags: Take The Challenge
