Master-Disciple Relationship Is The Most Tenacious...It is a Trap !

                               Lao Tzu Statue ( Mount Qingyuan)

                      ("Laozi 002" by Thanato - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

“When the Master governs, the people
are hardly aware that he exists.
Next best is a leader who is loved.
Next, one who is feared.
The worst is one who is despised.”

 -Tao Teh Ching, Lao Tzu, Chapter 17, (Translation: S. Mitchel)   

  

  The beauty of Taoist wisdom is its pragmatism and penetrating clarity. Come to think of it, this amazing revelation of Lao Tzu about rulers and leaders is equally true and valid about spiritual teachers as well.

 The greatest spiritual teachers are only known to exist, one rarely chances upon them; the next rung are known and praised; the lesser ones are feared and finally, the inferior ones or conmen are despised or loathed.  

                                            

   Think of your closest friend who has acquired some secret medical knowledge & remedies! Looking at your physical condition, he gathers that you might fall sick! He gently, without a hint, persuades you to replenish your vitality by supplying nutrition, through appropriate food & drink, gradually & eventually restoring you back to pink of health. He does a cure with finesse and flourish while you remain blissfully unaware of either your sickness or its tacit cure!

This singular compassion and service, offered informally, in a friendly and sporting way, will ensure that you will not discover that he is your real doctor or that he has cured your unknown disease!

Akin to these kind of ‘secret doctors’ are real sages like Ramana or Ramakrishna. The real ones do not announce their learning and lead obscure lives ! They live as one amongst us without a hint about their greatness but secretly, silently and relentlessly work for the benefit of the people! 

It requires real guts and gumption to debunk recognition, reputation and a place in the sun! Only the real sage is endowed with such courage!

           Contrast the matchless services of the unsung doctor in the 'guise and garb' of your friend who cures your disease with the marketplace physician who craves for reputation! This second class doctor has a cure but can help only after you have fallen sick! He enjoys name and fame and boasts of a reputable clinic. They are akin to the gurus with a foundation or ashram.  Alas, their energies are divided between services to humanity and the upkeep of the organisation , a token of self-aggrandisement!

            

Coming now to the the last category: the lowest and most inferior classes of physicians! They are like the charlatans and quacks peddling bogus drugs that induce more diseases!  They declare that you are sick when healthy and coerce you to enrol in their clinics. They dare you not to visit or consult others! Our spiritual bazaar is rich with many such examples.     

   

The real sage or a true master (or a Sadguru) needs no ashram or foundation or forum or properties or books or followers. He has no agenda, no axe to grind, no investment to make! No show off,  no pomp and power play for him! He regards them as obstacles in his noble & silent, nameless & faceless services to humanity.

UG declared, “I have no message for mankind”! Unlike gurus hankering after followers, he roared, “Don’t follow me, I am lost myself !” If he discovered a lot of foot wear outside his door signalling too many visitors, he would shout, " I don't like the stench of an ashram!"To those who craved for his advice, he said, “Get lost and stay lost!”

To the Prime Ministers, Governors or leaders who wanted to meet him, he reiterated that he had no message of any kind but gently added that they were welcome to visit him minus their daunting 'Z plus' security arrangements. He always chose middle class residential places as his portals so common folk could visit him freely and openly. He abhorred the idea of high-security VIP movements that disturbed normal life in the vicinity of his place that inconvenienced ordinary people. 

Once genial Rajiv Gandhi, ex-PM agreed to let off his guard and meet UG as per his terms but was restrained by his security men who feared for his life.

Anyone, regardless of his or her station in life could meet and interact with UG. His doors were always open to sincere and honest seekers. The serious and the curious made a beeline to his portals. 

Our friend Raghavendra once remarked, “With UG, the doors were always open, anyone could walk in and walk out! Just think of other gurus and ashrams, once you are inside, the doors are closed shut…you are trapped inside!”

Having associated with spiritual guides and teachers for some decades, I couldn’t agree more with UG, who had once remarked at my predicament, “Among all relationships, the guru-shishya (master-disciple) relationship is the most tenacious ! It is a trap! Not everybody is lucky to escape the trap!”