Revolutionary Changes – In Gita Verse 11.6 O best of the Bhāratas, see here the different manifestations of Ādityas, Vasus, Rudras, Aśvinī-kumāras and all the other demigods. Behold the many wonderful things which no one has ever seen or heard of before.
When Krishna says that – Behold the many wonderful things which no one has ever seen or heard of before – why to Arjuna and not anyone else.
I will share a story about Jesus:
A rich man called some laborers in the morning to work in his garden. Some laborers came, but there was still more work for the job to be completed. So he called for more laborers for the afternoon. Some laborers came at noon, but still it seemed that the work would not be completed. There was more work and he had to finish it that same evening, so he sent for more men. So more laborers came when the sun was about to set.
Then it was evening and he gave everyone the payment for their work. He gave one amount to those who had come in the morning, he gave the same amount to those who came in the afternoon, and he gave the same amount to those who had just arrived; they had hardly started working, they had done almost nothing. The morning laborers were angry. They said, “This is unjust! We worked the whole day and still we get the same payment as these people who have only just arrived. They also get the same, this is an injustice.” Naturally they had worked the whole day and they expected more than the others.
The rich man said, “Is what I have given you not enough for your work? I have given you what I had promised.”
They said, “That is okay. We have got the amount that we have worked for. But these people have done nothing. We have no complaint for ourselves, what we have is enough. But these people have done nothing.”
He said, “Don’t bother about them. The money is mine. If I distribute it freely, then there should be no reason for you to be upset. I am not giving it to them because of their work. I am giving it to them because I have too much. I have this right.”
Jesus has said that when a devotee and a wise person stand in front of God, then the wise man will always feel, “We have been working since the morning, we have worked hard the whole day, and we have both received the same wages. And these devotees have not worked at all, they went on singing and swaying and dancing, and yet they have received the same.” Jesus has said: “God will say to them, ‘Haven’t you received value for what you have done? Don’t bother about them. I am giving to them out of my abundance. I cannot help it.’”
There are two types of people who have known the ultimate: there are people of great intelligence, and there are the devotees. The wise say, “We have known because of our worthiness.” The devotees say, “We have known by his grace.” It is the heart of a devotee that creates the concept of grace. The mind of a wise man talks about effort. The wise are calculating, the devotee does not keep any account. The devotee says, “I am not worthy, and yet you go on showering your grace.”
Become devotee: The word ‘initiation’ is very significant and profound.
There are three initiations: first, when a student becomes a disciple; second, when a disciple becomes a devotee; and third, when the devotee disappears in the master.
To understand the whole process, all three steps have to be understood.
Everyone begins as a student, as an inquirer into what this life is all about, with a curiosity to know the mysteries that surround us. But the desire is for knowledge; hence, superficial. Because the desire is for knowledge, it is of the mind. And mind is the periphery of our being, the most superficial part of our individuality.
The master slowly makes the student aware that if you are really a man, then just to be curious is childish. Maturity demands that you should go on a quest, that you should not ask only for knowledge, you should ask for ways and means and methods so that you can know – not knowledge that has come from generation to generation. No one knows whether somebody invented it, whether it is fiction, whether somebody realized it or not, how much is lost in transferring it, how much is added, how much is edited out. Knowing means “I want a personal experience.”
A genuine seeker has no questions, but a tremendous thirst.
This is the first initiation – when the master changes the student’s focus from knowledge towards knowing, from memory towards intelligence.
This is the first initiation: the student dies, and the disciple is born.
The second initiation is when the disciple also disappears, into a devotee.
A disciple is still interested in gaining methods, disciplines, and ways to know himself. The master has to be used; hence, he is grateful. But he is the end, and the master is the means; he is using the master for his own ends.
As he comes closer to the master, the master takes him into the second initiation. And the second initiation is that unless you drop this obsession with yourself you will never know yourself.
It appears contradictory; it is not. Your very obsession is preventing you; it is egoistic.
You drop the ego, surrender the ego; you forget yourself, and in the very moment you forget yourself you will find yourself.
From knowledge to knowing, the student was never interested in himself. He was interested in things, objects, and the whole world. The first initiation brought him into a new world of interest about himself.
The second initiation takes away the ego.
The second initiation teaches him love. Because knowing oneself is a byproduct – if you can love, you will know yourself without any difficulty.
The master is not a teacher. He loves; it would be better to say he is, love. He respects it; it would be better to say he is – respectfulness.
Naturally he creates a gravitational field of love, respect, and gratitude.
In this gravitational field, the second initiation happens.
The disciple is no longer interested in knowing about himself. His only interest is in how to be dissolved into the master, how to be in harmony with the master. And the day the harmony comes to its peak, the disciple disappears; the devotee is born.
The devotee is miles away from the student. The whole journey has taken such revolutionary changes. The devotee is on the verge… the life of the devotee is not long.
The longest life is that of the student. In the middle is the disciple. And the life span of the devotee is very small.
It is something like a dewdrop on a lotus petal in the early morning sun, slipping slowly, slowly towards the sun into the ocean. The dewdrop is just that small fragment of time that it takes to slip from the lotus leaf into the ocean.
The devotee’s life is not long, it is very short – because once you have tasted the harmony, you cannot wait to taste oneness. It is impossible to wait. The dewdrop runs fast, drops into the ocean, becomes one with the ocean.
This is the third initiation, and only after the third initiation is there communion – because there is union, there is no more separation, there is at-oneness.
The path of a mystic begins as a student, ends as a master… begins as a dewdrop, ends as an ocean.
Once we become devotees Krishna will also reveal the many wonderful things to us. But it all depends on us.
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