Who Amongst Us?

This particular story tells of a mysterious stranger who showed up at the door of a rundown monastery operated by several old monks who had become “spiritually parched.”

The monks noticed that the mysterious stranger had a glow about him. So they were eager to get to know him and learn of his wisdom and the source of that glow. The next morning, they joined the stranger at breakfast. The stranger announced that he had a dream in which one of the monks in this monastery was revealed to be the Messiah.

The monks were astonished. They asked him which one of them is the Messiah. The stranger replied that he could not reveal the answer.

That day, the mysterious man just as mysteriously disappeared from the monastery. The monks were stunned. Left to themselves again, they now wondered who amongst them is the Messiah.

During the months that followed, they began opening their eyes and hearts to one another for the first time. They treated one another with greater respect and love, knowing any one of them could be the Messiah.

Then, over a period of time, something miraculous began to happen. For the first time in many years, joy and appreciation began to fill the halls of the monastery. A feeling of eager anticipation enlivened the monks’ prayers, meals, and conversations. As a result, people who visited the monastery felt uplifted, and the number of visitors increased…

My commentary:

So, the mysterious stranger taught the monks a valuable lesson. The monks didn’t even know they were being taught it, but their hearts were transformed anyway. And that transformation affected the whole monastery and everyone who visited.

In a yogic version of the story, the stranger would tell the monks that everyone of them is the messiah. Rather than being a matter of believing it so, it would be a matter of knowing it so. He would stay to teach them how to know – how to know their own Divinity, their Self.

“Yoga makes you able to find the Divine within, your essence effulging forth like a blossoming flower. You bring it with you into everything outside of you.”

~ Swami Nirmalananda, from this month’s teaching article, Choosing Your State.