Swami Chaitanya Keerti
June 15, 2004
Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Inner Voice
We often say we are seeking truth or searching God and we want our life to be peaceful, content and blissful. We make efforts to attain all this but our efforts don’t produce any results. We become more frustrated than before. This is all because our efforts are lukewarm and our quest has no real determination and strength.
Osho once told the story of a Sufi saint, Farid. A man once asked him the way to attain God. Farid looked into his eyes and saw thirst. He was on his way to the river so he asked the man to accompany him and promised to show him the way to attain God after they’d bathed.
They arrived at the river and as soon as the man plunged, Farid grabbed the man’s head and pushed it down into the water with great force. The man began to struggle to free himself from Farid’s grip.
He was much weaker than the saint but his latent strength gradually began to stir and soon it became impossible for the saint to hold him down. The man pushed himself to the limit and was eventually able to get out of the river.. He was shocked. Farid was laughing loudly.
After the man calmed down, the saint asked him, “When you were under the water what desires did you have in your mind?” He replied, “Desires! There weren’t desires, there was just one desire — to get a breath of air.” The saint said, “This is the secret of attaining God. This is determination. And your determination awakened all your latent powers.”
In a real moment of intense determination, great strength is generated — and a man can pass from the world into truth; by determination one can awaken from the dream to the truth.
