Accept Yourself First, Master's Acceptance Follows

He who cannot be himself with himself is worse than a slave. To what? To the serfdom that material things like position and power and entrapments of culture and sofas and audio equipments put him into. He was the slave of all these things. Therefore it is not for nothing that Babuji says, "Be simple and in tune with Nature." What for? Because eventually when you return again to the simplicity you must be at home there, as you were, before you acquired all these paraphernalia of existence.

There is a beautiful story I often remember in this connection, of the Prime Minister of a famous middle eastern Badshah. He was such a great man. He came up from a very humble beginning, but became the Prime Minister and the Emperor was so pleased with him, he gave him a palace exactly like his, next door to himself. And this man was virtually a king in his own right. He had ruled for 20 years, he made enemies who were jealous - enemies are not because of fights, you see, they are mostly out of jealousy - it is true even today - so they went on putting something into the Badshah's ears; this fellow is doing this, this fellow is doing that, you know he keeps his room locked, what is there inside that he is afraid to show us. So after 20 years of this sort of 'kaan kaatna' as you say in Hindi (ear-biting), one day the emperor decided to see for himself. He became a trifle suspicious. There is no smoke without fire you know, this wonderfully stupid western proverb, which we use even to divorce our wife sometimes, when some people talked about her. The great Ramachandra of Ayodhya did it too, based on a dhobi's [washerman] estimate of his wife - I don't know what sort of a king he was to pack away his wife on what his dhobi said - anyway that is by the way.

So, this emperor decided to look for himself; he demanded the keys. He went around opening all the rooms and everything was in order. But then he came upon a small door in a corner, for which there was no key. He said, 'ahah, this is where this fellow has hidden everything.' So he ordered the P.M. arrested, brought to his presence and he said, "I am arresting you, I am going to behead you. Where is the key of this room?" He said, "Majesty, you will find nothing in it that is yours." He said, "Then why is it so securely locked, and why you did not give the key to me, when I demanded it?" He said, "Everything else in this palace is yours, what is there is mine. You have no right to it." He said, "Search his person." They searched his person and found a tiny key. He opened the door. It was empty, except for a shepherd's crook, and a shepherd's cloak hanging on the nail of the wall. The emperor was flabbergasted. He expected some enormous treasures to be heaped up like today's raids we read. There was nothing except this. So he said, "What is this stupidity? What is that cloak and stick that you were hanging upon the nail and protecting, at the cost of your life?" He said, "Majesty, I was a shepherd boy; and that is the stick and the cloak I had in my childhood. I come here and meditate every day to remind myself that this is what I really am. Thank you for again bringing it to my notice." He took his cloak and stick and walked away.

So we should be prepared to accept ourselves as what we are, for what we are, as the foundation for the future we have to build on ourselves, within ourselves. You see, this is a divine process in which I am the stock, I am the raw material, I am the person who has to work on this raw material and I am that which I have to become too! It is all rolled into one. I am three-in-one you see! What I am, what I have to be and the person who has to make what I am into what I have to be, it is all me! …You are yourself whom you have to make yourself into. What is sadhana about? I have to work upon myself. I have to sit, I have to meditate. I have to do the cleaning. No doubt with His help, under His guidance, with His powers. But for one who does not do his sadhana, what happens? Of course, we can always take refuge under the statement that if God wills, it will be done. Yes, but then we have to wait for the Divine Will to look for us, search for us in this entire universe and take pity on us and raise us. Or wait till Mahapralaya [final dissolution] when everything shall return to Him!

So we have to have an honest approach, you see. And in the beginning, at least in my case, I am telling you from personal experience, I could not have accepted Master, had I not accepted myself. Because, acceptance of myself gave me this possibility of accepting Him. If I can accept myself as I was in those days, why could I not accept another person as he or she is? You see therefore, 'charity begins at home' is a very great statement. And most of us, this is again a psychological truth, we are only projecting our hatred on others, our self-hatred on others in hating them, because we cannot hate ourselves. So this enormous psychological barrier we transcend, we remove, we destroy in one stroke when we say, "He is my Master." His appearances are superficial, the form can change, isn't it? He can choose to have another form if He wishes. It is like a stage drama where one man plays Polonius today, plays Othello the next day and plays something else the day after tomorrow. The man inside is ever the same.

One who cannot accept oneself, how do we expect the Master to accept him? Here lies the greatest generosity of Divinity that it says, "Forget what you are, remember me! That is the only trick that I have to teach you. In remembering me, you forget yourself; in remembering me, you see all that I am and forget all that you are; in remembering me you know what you have to become and forget what you have become; in remembering me you see the glory of the universe, the ultimacy or the supremacy of the Being itself, which you can become, because I am here to show you that you can become THIS. If you remember yourself you are miserable, you are a sinner, you are foolish and you are cursed in your belief and you can only commit suicide. But beware, if you commit suicide you are going deeper and deeper into some hole where even I may not be able to penetrate to pull you up again."

So, this acceptance of the Master really means acceptance of ourselves. Then comes, you know, this possibility, if somebody criticises you, you can say, "So what? My dear friend, I have all that and more. You can never know me as my Master has known me. Do you know all the sins I have committed? You are only seeing the superficial things I am doing in this life. Do you know all my lives of the past which my Master is able to see? And if He can accept me, why not you?" You can ask this question boldly, you see of our peers, of our compatriots, of society itself. And if they say, "Well, your Master is a damned fool. Let Him accept you," you say, "God bless you! Don't forget that someday you might need this generosity of the Master yourself too. Then if you need, come to me." See we become bold, not because we are inherently bold, because the Master gives us that boldness.

So we have to accept the Master, not because the Master wants to be accepted by us but because we need Him. We need Him as we have never needed anything before, as we shall never need anything hereafter too. Having Him, the entire problem of existence is solved. Now that problem of existence is a single problem. If you try to cut it to pieces and say, "Yes, but what about my material life? It has remained unaltered. What about my education? I am still remaining foolish." The Master says, "I took you as a totality, you see, it is for me to decide what you shall become. I know what I have to make of you. You don't know. If you knew it, you would have done it long back." This is the greatest avamanam [disrespect] that we can offer to Master. A potter makes pots, isn't it? A painter makes a painting, whether very well or rather unwell, it doesn't matter. It is his job. It is that for which nature has created him. A Master must make others like himself. Where is the question, you see? A mother creates children, not monsters. We become monsters subsequently. A school is for education, but if you are after a drug, a bit of smoking outside and a bit of flirtation, what can the school do if you came out a bigger fool than when you went into it? It is not the school's fault, it is not the professor's fault, it is your fault. If you are there and allow them to do what they should do to you, surely you will come out as a product that was destined to come out of it.

So let us learn for once to get up. As it is said again and again, "Arise, awake." Awake to what? Arise from what? Arise from the stupor, into which we have fallen, that we are good, that we are right. Awaken from this sense of delusion, that I am already perfect, I am a lover, capable of loving my Master in such a way that even my Master cannot love me like that. Remove these illusions from your mind and heart. That's what that famous Vedic statement says, "Uttistata jaagrata praapya varaan nibodhata." What does it mean? So long as you think you are perfect, you are a lover and capable of love, that you are holy, that you are following the rules and the law, that you are meditating, forget development. If you want to develop and reach the goal, know yourself for what you are. It will be painful, you see. It is going to be an anguished soul that is going to look at itself and say "Chhee! Is this what you are after so many years of abhyas? Heaven help you!" No, Master help you. But to help, you have to surrender.

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