“Who is a Master?” asked the disciple reverently to the Master.

“You,” said the Master.

“What do you mean?” asked the disciple, shocked by the master’s answer.

“You, in one form, are the disciple, and in another, the master, and in yet another, the teacher.”

“That means you and I are the same.”

“Yes,” replied the Master.

“Then, what is realization?” asked the disciple.

“God, you and I are I, and I alone am.”

There are no Masters in the world. There cannot be, since teaching others is a mere illusion. Yet, in the presence of a “Master,” our consciousness and awareness attain a height of brilliance, which we wrongly attribute to the “Master.”

An excellent example is that of Ekalavya. Who taught him archery? — no one. Yet he went on to be the greatest archer of his time, even greater than Arjuna, whom Dronacharya taught.

Dronacharya, the greatest teacher of his time in archery and warfare, didn’t accept Ekalavya as his disciple because he was a tribal. But Ekalavya adored Dronacharya and mentally accepted him as his guru. He built an idol of Dronacharya and practised archery in its presence. In the unmanifest presence of his Guru, Dronacharya, Ekalavya attained the height of brilliance.

The master in him taught the disciple in him.

The fact that there are no masters in the world leaves me with no choice, but to search “within.”. The focus then shifts inward. Dependence then ends. One follows Truth. The day we follow anyone else, we cease to follow the truth. Always follow the truth alone; then comes the first realization that “all my problems are self-inflicted.”

Then the teaching starts. “I am the Master when I teach the disciple.” The teaching phase ends in the discovery that the “choice given to me is not to do this or that, the choice is to “do” or to let it happen.

We express our utmost Gratitude and Salutations to all the
Teachers and Masters who bring this knowledge to our awareness.

Ultimately, our own antaraatmaa — the inner self — is the Real Self our Guru, our Master. Until we realize this, we will always be guided by great masters, both manifest and unmanifest, in our pursuit of self-realization.

May their Grace and Blessings always be upon us.