IN THE GARDER OF LOVE

 

A REMINISCENCE OF MICHAEL RAYSSON

 

We came before him hungry for his glances. The air would become permeated with love at his approach till it overflowed like wine. And then he sat before us explaining the mystery of life and death, and the tale of love began to play in our hearts. His eyes were a magic bridge where the timeless peered out on time. All sickness and cares were soon forgotten (or else when they rose pitifully and poignantly before us, the heart wished nothing but that pristine purity that shone in all glory before us). In that enchantment the world would fall away and there was only the Beloved there.

 

Sometimes people would be leaving soon, and he would say, would they not like to stretch the hours out so the time of leaving would be put off and those happy hours prolonged? And indeed the hours would stretch out. Alas, that time did come!

 

Would that something could be said of those eyes that danced before us or the beauty that ravished our hearts.

 

Once he spoke on the value of sitting before the master. The words were so overladen with intoxication and love that though we caught only a drop our hearts were drowned with that madness of love. And when he spoke of his love for his master we saw the tears flow from his eyes. Mother Taiji sang a love-song of the masters and he asked someone to translate but she did not dare to speak.

 

Once he told the story of Gunga, the wrestler. He was the greatest wrestler. He was the greatest wrestler. People thought that he had just grown that way naturally. He was a simpleton and as a boy his father would turn him out into the cold night with no clothes. He would send him to the river to bathe and in order to keep warm he would exercise all night long. In this way he grew strong and became a great wrestler. The master was also at the river where he would spend the whole night in meditation. There he saw Gunga and so learned his story. “A strong man revels in his strength and a weak man wonder how he got it.”

 

He told us that there were two ways – one very difficult and time-consuming, one very simple, very easy. The first is, “God helps those who help themselves,” the second is “God helps those who do not help themselves” – the way of self-surrender to him.

 

He once said that the greatness of his master was that he would meet with everyone on his own level. And we saw the master with so many people – he was always like that.

 

The more closely we looked, the more perfect he became, the more we saw everything was in his hands, the less we became. These things are true of course, near or far, even across the seas.

 

At initiations hundreds of people would come to the master. He would sit before them and explain the ancient science as Masters have done from time immemorial. Then time and place would dim and he would attach each one to the holy Naam.

 

It happened while we were there that one man from a rival faction came to an initiation in order to defame the master. But when he was given a sitting he rose above body consciousness so much that he had to be revived. Still he began to defame the master. So he was given a second sitting and finally he had to admit he had seen the inner light in abundance. The master said, “He is in the jaws of a very strong Lion. He cannot get away.”

 

Day by day he came before us in all his greatness. In spite of our lowness we were awe-struck and love-smitten. And he would say he was only a student. And one of us exclaimed, “Master! How can you be only a student?” He is the great mystery.

 

Among those who came from afar there was at that time one baby. The Master would shower her with love-parshad, all she could hold and more. And she would be happy, so happy. “A king with all his kingdoms was never so happy,” said the Master. One time as he came out to us for evening Darshan she ran out to him and grabbed his hand and he let her lead him back toward his place. Then at last he turned her around and they returned. With the loveliest of smiles he said, “sometimes the father becomes the child and the child becomes the father.” The day she was leaving he gave here a dress. And when they put that dress on her she danced in ecstasy for hours just calling out his name.

 

One said, “He is like a hole through which the whole universe is flowing.” Another said, “He is so much! He is so much! How can we begin to take it in!” and another said, “ he is the ocean and we stand on the shore and try to catch little droplets.” And he said to us that when he was a disciple someone asked him how great his master was and he simply said, “ I don’t now how great the Master is – but HE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR ME.”

 

So in the worldly sense that time came to an end and we too had to leave. He stabbed our hearts with the knife of love and we felt the pain.