Mystic Mantra: The mystic's dilemma

The enlightened mystics appear in this world with a certain message for the seekers of the truth. After attaining their self-realisation, they feel a certain passion in their heart to share it with all the people groping in the dark. The better word for this passion is compassion, or one can say that this is something that this whole existence wants them to do. While doing this job assigned by God or existence to them, they realise that not everybody is interested in listening to them. Most of the people have other important things to do, listening to the mystics is not their priority. But even then they feel compelled to continue doing what they are supposed to do, just like a man of eyes feels compelled to show the path to a blind man.

There is a very interesting Sufi story. Bayazid was a famous mystic and a master. Once he was passing through a certain isolated area where a huge cemetery existed. There he came upon a heap of skulls. He had no fear of death or the spirits of people who were buried there. He took one skull in his hands. He had always assumed that all skulls are almost the same, but they were not the same. He was surprised to notice that there were some skulls whose ears were joined together; there was a passage. There were a few other skulls whose ears were not joined together; there existed a barrier between the two. There were a few more skulls and their ears were not joined together but they were joined to the heart with some kind of a passage running to the heart.

Seeing all these strange skulls, Bayazid prayed to Allah and asked Him, “Please help me understand the mystery. What is the hidden meaning of all this?” Allah heard his prayer and responded, “In the world, there exist three types of people: one, who hear through one ear; it never reaches anywhere. As a matter of fact, they don’t hear at all, only the sound vibrates and disappears. There is another type, who do hear, but only momentarily — they hear through one ear, and it disappears through the other ear. The message gets lost. There are a few other evolved souls, who hear through both the ears and the message enters their heart.”

Allah said further, “Bayazid, you have been chosen by me to guide other seekers of truth. So I wanted you to learn something important so that your work becomes easier. I brought you to this heap of skulls just to remind you that when you are conveying my message to people, remember to talk only to those people who are capable of taking the message to their hearts. Don’t waste your time and energy on those who are not capable of listening and allowing the message to reach their heart. Treat your life as precious, because you have a precious message to deliver.”

Osho says: The story may be true or not; that is irrelevant. I looked into thousands of people, and I found that only a very few are there who will take the seed to the heart, who will become soil to it, who will absorb it. And others are just curiosity-mongers, just entertaining themselves.

Maybe the entertainment is religious, but it is meaningless. Sincerity is a must on the path of self-realisation.