Short story: The swami Swami who swam in his own way, without drowning in his own waters.

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Swami Greanda Valhadja was a wealthy man. He had thousands of followers, all who gave him stipends, hoping for a miracle to come about in their lives, as a result of their giving to the man. The guy had a funny habit in his teachings of negating the teachings of all other masters. For some reason, his followers loved this aspect of his teaching. He would say that things like purity, patience, and perseverance, the three p's, merely lead to pride, a fourth p. We should not try to practice, or appease, any of them, by our adding these "p's" into our mix. Trying to follow stuff brings us a sort of pride, as our ego is always behind the trying. Just then this Swami's own teacher walked past. The famous Maharishi, Bonash Gogi, himself. He went to the front of the room. He said to his former student. "Money has created impurity in your thinking." "You are wrong of course, because pureness does not come from trying to be pure, but from blocking all avenues of impurity in our lives, and when we siphon away impurity, pureness remains." "It is the same with all things." "Never try to do things from the point of view of the thing; let the thing be the view, and remove all obstacles to your seeing it, the view." "You, my friend, have mixed the bathwater up with the bath." "All you see is the dirty bathwater, after you have bathed within it, whereas the truth is, without our placing our impurities into the water, it remains pure, purify it again, by cleansing it with the filter of love, and all will be well, in your life." "Purity allows love to live fully as itself within you; perhaps nothing else does." The swami laughed. "I will quote this quote to you, and let my students make up their own minds about you then, my good man." '"Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable."' James A. Baldwin, an American writer, (1924 to 1987). I wonder who really had the last laugh here, then? Well, they both did, for it turned out that the two spiritual gurus, had conspired together, to play this little pantomime show out for their students, so as to get them to try to think more for themselves. They were both humble enough in their own ways to be able to carry this off. The students never caught on. Some stayed on with the Swami; some defected now to the camp of the Maharishi. But, at least, they had made a decision now for themselves. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The Swami went swimming with his Maharishi. Both enjoyed the dip.