The Parting of the Souls
Relationships are indeed a weird and confusing aspect of human life. Man always places a great deal of personal trust into relationships that matter the most to him. In a way man clings onto those relationships that he feels define him as a person; he places a great deal of impetus on ensuring that those relationships endure beyond the divides of time, place and needs. However we often find that in this world, nothing is permanent and everything is subject to change. Relationships too are no exception to that rule. With time our relationships change; some blossom into new forms while others wither away as the need that suffices their existence no longer remains there. There are many such relationships that truly define a person and mould him into the man that he becomes. Today I am going to speak about the most important relationship of all; the relationship between a master and his apprentice.
In the spiritual sense of the term, a relationship can be considered as nothing but a need- based association. This association might come owing to some unfulfilled karmic bonds between the said people or from some long lost desire to unite. Usually the need or the karma which is to be fulfilled is two-pronged and is enforced from both sides; however the divine relationship between a master and his apprentice is somewhat of a exception.
The master is a giver of all things and the apprentice is there but to receive. In any spiritual journey, the seeker on his own accord has some unfulfilled karmic bonds with his master; moreover he has some desires that he seeks to fulfill; they may be aspirations that relate to his worldly life or things that would yield him a great deal of happiness and bliss; however the ultimate goal is that with the satiation of these desires, the seeker would go a step forward in his spiritual journey and reach towards self-realization. Ultimately this is what the master seeks to achieve; to bring the seeker to a point where he becomes independent and can thus proceed on the path that is ordained to him on his own accord. Of course the master always remains with the apprentice in spirit, but that is an entirely different story.
Any seeker’s spiritual journey is always marked with a phase wherein he fosters a deep and enriching relationship with his master; there comes a stage in every seeker’s life, when his entire day is consumed with thoughts of naught but his master; his nights are filled with spiritual dreams that enlighten him beyond count. Also during these times the master remains in close physical contact with the apprentice enriching him with his own divine energy and bringing forth the light of illumination and self-realization.
Any realized master, once he acquires a disciple knows the entire scope of the journey through which he needs to take the apprentice. He knows where he has to pick him up and he knows where he has to drop him off. There comes the parting of the ways; where the master having given the seeker, all that is due to him silently departs from his life, only hoping and praying in his heart that his apprentice would find the greener pastures a much endearing and enriching place to dwell. At times it might also be the case, that the master willfully sends the seeker into the worldly illusion of maya for he knows that to truly liberate himself, the seeker would first have to liberate himself from the allures of the worldly illusions.
Such is the travesty, that at this parting of the souls, the seeker receives all that he has desperately desired for long, while in that process losing the one relationship that enriched him and embellished him the most. In that one moment the seeker gains the world; and in that moment itself he is parted from his master for the master has already given him his world; he has already colonized his dreams; being the divine gardener he is, he silently gifts the apprentice the fruits that have been reaped from the sowing of his own desires; and in one divine gesture departs from his life…
Irony… A’int it! Well such is Life…
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Tags: apprentice, master
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March 24, 2011 3:32 am
4 Comments
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By Meghana, March 24, 2011 @ 4:07 am
Hey Ajinkya,
Really great writing.
What I beleive, in any relationship, there is always a master and a student.
Basically souls come together “that unfulfilled need” is something they subconciously want to learn something from other,
Meghana Pande
By admin, March 24, 2011 @ 3:19 pm
That is a nice thought.. 😉
By manjusha, March 25, 2011 @ 4:29 pm
very nice thoughts.
By admin, March 26, 2011 @ 12:17 am
Thank you..:)