Because today is the day of Guru Purnima, the day of honouring the spiritual masters, I wish to share an intimate anecdote with you, which reveals – in my eyes – the power of a true master. It is not about what words are spoken, but always about who speaks…
Once I was sitting quietly in a corner in the room of my Sufi master, Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, witnessing people come and go. Most of the people were pretty much speechless in his presence. I saw a million tears of beauty and love in that room….At one moment a woman sat down in front of the master and started speaking about her life, and about how unbearable it was. So much suffering. She was at her end, deeply depressed and confused. She begged the master to save her by some advice coming from pure truth. She said she was willing to do whatever the master would tell her to. Anything!A long silence was there. And then….The master spoke:“BE HAPPY!!!”His voice exploded in the room and wiped out every nonsense thoughts, every disturbing memory, the whole past. It was an indescribable storm of blissful rage, like of Shiva, destroying all illusions and unnecessary suffering.In the silence after, energetically the room looked like it had been cleared out by a blizzard: there were no more objects, it was completely empty, naked, blanked. I looked at the woman and I saw a pure child: clean and free, sane. And I never forget that visual I had of the master. He looked like a deity that, out of love, had torn himself apart, broken himself open to lay bare the bloody truth. He killed himself speaking out these words, and resurrected again, having undone old wounds. As violently as these wounds were once created, he uncreated them.With the words “Be happy” as the medicine, he cured her from inner conflict.And this confusion had come to an end for good in her. Because it was her very own happiness that he had awakened. So, when a master speaks, his words are just a vehicle for the transmission of pure truth. When we want to recognize a true master, we must tune in with his or her presence behind the words he or she speaks. There are endless examples of people who say the right words when it comes to enlightenment, self-realisation, and liberation. Many, many beautiful teachings that sound like the truth. But it is the very embodiment of a master, one who is absolutely free, that makes these words and teachings alive. And sometimes only two words uttered by such a being are enough to reveal the truth. (Foto: Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh)