A man was very much fascinated to attain miraculous powers. Wherever he went they said, ”First you have to learn meditation. Without meditation you cannot have miraculous powers.”
Finally, he found a very wise old man about whom he had heard, ”He is the greatest meditator alive, but you will have to serve him and not to be in a hurry. You just serve him; whenever the time is right he will give you the meditation and his blessing. You should not ask for it.”
The poor man served the man for one year and he was getting tired: ”This is too much. The second year has begun and the old man still says, ‘No sign.’” He was getting fed up and thinking of running from that temple. The day he was thinking to run, the old man said, ”Listen. I was waiting for the right time, but you cannot wait. The time is not right, but because of your hurry I will give you the method. It is very simple and very suited to you.”
The man said, ”My Lord, my God!” He touched his feet. He said, ”I was waiting for this day. I am a fool for having such bad thoughts about you. Just forgive me.”
He said, ”Don’t be worried about it. This is the method; you go home” – he had written on a small piece of paper just a small mantra and he gave him that. ”This is the mantra. You have to chant it for ten minutes. Just remember one thing: while chanting, don’t let any monkey come into your mind.”
The man said, ”You must be mad! Monkeys have never come into my mind. In my whole life not a single monkey has come into my mind – why should a monkey come into my mind?”
The old man said, ”I don’t know, but this is the condition that goes with this mantra.”
The man said, ”There is no problem.” But he was worried. As he was coming down the steps of the temple, he already started seeing monkeys. He would close his eyes – and there were the monkeys.
He said, ”My God! I have not even started!”
He went home. He took a good bath and sat. But as he closed his eyes, and before he could start the mantra, the monkeys started coming – not one! In a line.
The man said, ”What happened?” He tried hard, but by the morning he was utterly tired. He went to the master. He said, ”Take your mantra back. If this is the condition then I cannot fulfill it ever because of those monkeys. There is not one – you had said one – I don’t know how many there are. I have been counting – they go on coming! And I am going mad! I simply don’t want any miraculous power, and I don’t want any meditation. I simply want to go home. Just help me to get rid of the monkeys. I am giving your mantra back.
