Once a Mystic was going to the river to take his bath. A young man standing on the river bank asked him, ”Can you tell me how to find God?”
Mystic looked at the young man with very sharp eyes, and he looked for a long time, and the young man started feeling frightened. And then Mystic said, ”You come along with me to the river. First, take a bath, and if I get an opportunity I will answer it while we are taking the bath, or if not then later on.”
The young man was confused: ”What does he mean? I have asked a simple question – how to find God? – and he is talking about Bathing in the river, if he gets the opportunity he will answer. Why can’t he answer right now?”
But knowing that the ways of the mystics are mysterious, strange, and the man looked very magnetic, and the way he had looked into his eyes, he felt like going with him. He was a little afraid, scared, but still, the attraction was so much that he followed. He said, ”Let us take the risk – what can he do?”
They both went into the river, and when the young man dived into the river Mystic caught hold of him under the water and wouldn’t allow him to come out of the water; he forced his head deeper and deeper.
The young man was dying his whole energy became available to him, which had never before been available. Suddenly there was a great strength; it was difficult to even for Mystic to keep him down. And the young man threw Mystic as if Mystic were just a toy.
He came out, was very angry, obviously, and he said, ”Are you mad or something? I had asked a religious question and you were going to kill me! Are you a murderer? And people think that you are a great Mystic!”
Mystic said, ”We can discuss these things later on. Right now, lest you forget, let me ask the question: what happened when I went on forcing you down and down into the water?”
He said, ”What happened?”
Mystic asked, ”Were there many thoughts in your head?” He said, ”Many thoughts? There was only one thought – how to get out!” ”Was it a thought or was it a feeling?” Mystic asked.
And he said, ”It was a feeling, you are right, it was not a thought. I was not verbalizing it; it was not in my head, it was in my heart. It was just a feeling – now I am verbalizing it.” ”And how long did it stay?”
And the young man said, ”You are again right. A moment came when that too disappeared: there was no thought, no feeling. But something was happening, I don’t know what, from where. I was not doing it, it was happening – a great uprush of energy from some unknown source. Now I can look backward, I can formulate it, but at that very moment, I was conscious, ABSOLUTELY conscious.
I have never been so conscious because I have never been in such danger before. I was alert, absolutely alert, but still, there was no thought, no feeling, not, even a desire to save myself. In fact, there was no me. I had disappeared, but something was happening beyond me, something transcendental.”
Mystic said, ”Now you know the answer – this is the way to find God. When you are not, the transcendental descends in you. Now you can go. Never ask anybody again, you know the key: let God become such a problem, such a quest as if your life is at stake.”
