When he was about to leave for home after having completed his long-term training, the disciple asked the Master: “Master, I have a doubt…”
The Master was all ears. Then the disciple continued: “My doubt is this: When will I become a Master?”
The Master stood silent before the innocent question of the disciple. He sensed the fervor in the eyes of the young man.
The Master handed over an empty pot into the hands of the disciples and asked him to bring some water to drink. The disciple ran to the river nearby, fetched a pot-full of water, and brought it to the Master.
Taking the pot from the young man and having a look at the water, the Master poured out all the water from the pot. Handing over the empty pot, he again asked the man to bring some water to drink. The disciple went to the river a second time and brought a pot-full of water. The Master looked into the water, but poured the water out again and asked him to bring water.
This time, the disciple knew. He went back to the river bank. Then he knew that the river was somewhat murky. So, he waited with patience till dusk. Now, the river turned crystal clear. Without hastening, the disciple slowly fetched a pot of water and returned to the Master.
The Master said, while taking a sip from the pot: “Be calm. You will be transformed into a Master in the fullness of time.”
We are living in a busy time. Speed is the hallmark of this time. Fast vehicles, fast technology, fast manufacturing, fast decisions… everything is so fast in our times.
We do not have patience to wait for anything or anyone. We are so restless when a railway gate is slow to open, a bus is late, a traffic signal is late, and a pizza is late to arrive at our table in a hotel; and why to say more, we cannot wait the buffering time of a WhatsApp video! We are hastening around with fast food, fast tracks and 5G internet speed.
This hastening nature has crept even into spirituality. We want instant reply to our prayers. We are ready to make any offering to gain our desires at the earliest. Most often, we look at God as an ATM. We want to get his blessing as quickly as we withdraw money from an ATM counter. Such is our concept of God today!
There is a story by Malayalam Writer C .V Balakrishnan titled ‘God’s pathway’. A man is travelling with a bundle of rejection and insult on his back. Arriving at a decision to commit suicide, he reaches a deserted place after prolonged wanderings. There, he finds a boy, weeping near a burning funeral pyre. He stared at the boy. He was a hollow-eyed boy with shabby clothes and bulged belly.
The man approached the boy. The moment he saw the man, the boy asked him: “Why are you late?” Surprised, the man asked him: “Who do you think I am?” The boy said: “I know you. My mother has told me that you would come. Haven’t you seen what I have suffered? From the moment I set my mother to fire, I had been waiting for you…?
With increasing curiosity, the man asked him: “Who do you think I am so that you may speak thus to me…?”
“Who else than God? My mother has said that God will come when I am alone and orphaned. Thanks for coming, although you are a little late!”
Tears rolled down the man’s cheeks. He hugged the boy with a welcome gesture and took him along. The author ends the story with these last lines:
“God will come in different forms to a man standing with hope against all odds!”
In fact, a candle flame of hope is being lighted behind every wait. The waiting becomes unbearable only wh-en this flame is extinct. The best thing one can do in these dark times, is to keep a candle of hope lit.
The end scene of an old Malayalam movie, which I have watched many years ago is thus: A woman was waiting for her lover in a railway station. He does not arrive at the expected time. Nevertheless, she keeps on waiting in that railway station for years, train after train… During these years, she becomes old and grey-haired.
Finally, a train arrives and a young man alights from it. He sees her and wants to convey the news that her lover is no more. But, he does not dare to blow off her candle of hope. Her hope stays alive… The eyes of the audience are moistened.
The Will of God about us is that we have to be the caretakers of others’ hope.
Nowjin Vithayathil
