We Have Met Millions of Times
Excerpt from The Truth Is
Edited by Prashanti de Jager, page 113
Devotee: The Buddha was my first Guru and my heart connections with him is so strong it feels that I must have known him. I recognize you also, as if I have known you before.
You must have known Buddha before, we have known everybody many times before. It is not the first time. You can note down the 1st of April 1994, about 11:30 a.m. Again, in the same time will will meet again as we have met on this particular day millions of times, but most do not remember. Very few remember this and realize that it will keep on going unless you decide to finish this process of coming again and again.
Even Buddha saw millions of his lives appearring somewhere as someone, but he knew it and he was told that when he was the Prince of the Sakya Kingdom and his name was Amitabh Gautam, then that would be his final life.
All of us here have been together in many incarnations; therefore, we are here. The purpose of us meeting here is not to appear again, as Buddha himself has done. What he did was so simple. He just sat under a Bodhi tree, not speaking, and all was over. He did it and we also can do it.
A story is appearing in my mind and I will take a short time to tell you. It is a story of the Ramanaya which occurred about 7,000 years ago. This is a story of the Lord’s incarnation as Rama.
There was a battle going on between the Sages and the Asuras or demons. The demons kidnapped Rama’s wife and, in short, Rama killed the demon and brought back his wife.
Now they must sit on the throne and the coronation must take place and so Rama, the king, sent a message to his Guru to come and do the necessary pujas so he could sit on the throne with the blessings of his Master.
He sent his brother Lakshman on the fastest horse and told him to deliver Rama’s ring to his Guru and to ask him to come to perform the ceremony. So Lakshman went to the forest ashram of Rama’s Guru and said to the Guru, “I am Lakshman, the brother of Rama. We have come back safely from the south and next week is the ceremony of coronation which Rama requests you, with his ring, to perform.”
Now, the ring of the king is so precious that it can have no equal in the country. It had special diamonds which could be found nowhere else. Lakshman offered the ring to the Guru and the Guru said, “I am busy cooking some rice; go into my thatch hut and put the ring in the earthen pot.”
Getting off his horse, Lakshman went and put the ring into the pot, but a sound that was unexpected came when he dropped the ring. He was quite curious as to what the pot could contain and felt it was not right to put the ring of the king into a simple earthen pot.
He turned the pot upside down and many rings appeared all similar ro the one he put in. “How could it be?” he thought. There are so many rings I can’t count them much less find the one I just put into the pot.”
He went out and asked, “Please tell me, who has put these rings into the pot?”
Sternly and seriously, the Guru said, “Lakshman, you have done it. You have done it!”
“How is it possible? I am coming for the first time!” he exclaimed,
“No, many times you have come and you asked me each time to come to the ceremony while sitting on your horse’s back, and each time I have told you to put the ring in the pot. And it will continue to happen like this again and again, unless you get down from the horse and remove your pride. Then stay with me and I will teach you something and you will not appear again,” answered the Guru.
So we keep appearing unless we remove the pride and stop identifying as any name or form, and when you have no name or form you will realize that you have never come at any time before, not even this time. This is the beauty of this teaching,