The branches or how to find the Sadguru

Today another interesting Story about the search of the Sadguru, which was told by Sri Swami Vishwananda in May 2008:

Once there was a man. He was always searching for his Sadguru. So he went everywhere, but yet his heart was not satisfied. He met many masters, but yet his heart was not satisfied. It is also one quality of the devotee, that his heart shall feel when meeting the Sadguru. So he went around, but without success. And one day he in the near of a Saint and he asked him “Listen dear Sir, I am in the search of my Sadguru. Could you please guide me?” The Saint closed his eyes, meditated for a little while and said to the man “Listen my son, up on this mountain that you see there are many holy men staying. Tomorrow is a very good day. Invite all of them at your place. Invite them for lunch. With love and dedication serve them food and give them respect, everything. And as they are eating ask them a question. Take a twig from any tree. Take two twigs, two pieces of branch and say to them “Tell me dear Sir, which branch does this tree belong to?" .“Name the tree”. So he did as the Saint told him, invited the Saints and served them food with lots of love and respect. Then he showed them the pieces of the twig of the tree and asked all of them “Dear Sir, tell me which plant, which fruit tree, does this twig belong to ?”. They all looked at it and said “It’s a mango twig, a mango branch”. The Saint said to the man “You do that, but contradict them. When they say it’s a mango, say no it’s a peepul.” So then the Saint also said to him. “If you do that and if they get angry, they are not a Sadguru, but the one, who will stay calm and will say “Maybe, it is possible, that it is a peepul twig" will be a Sadguru. So he did. Eventually as he was asking which twig does this plant belong to, the other gurus got very frustrated and furious and said “Why you don’t see that it is a mango twig and you all tell us all the time that it is a peepul twig. We tell you it is a mango branch”. They all got very angry. Among them, there was one man, very simple, who stayed calm. He was eating his food and looked at him. When the man asked him “What about you dear Sir, reverent Sir?”. He said “Well, it can be possible that it is a peepul twig” very calmly and very serenely with a smile he said this.

You see: the quality of calmness is very important. How can a master guide, if he is not calm? And this is the greatness of a Sadguru. No matter what happens, he will always stay calm.

Like I said in Gurupurnima:The best way is to ask the Sadguru or the Guru directly. So when you see this quality of calmness, when you have found your Sadguru surrender and stop asking questions. The mind, like I always say, is always full of doubt. If you don’t give Sadguru the chance to hold your hand and guide you out of it, you will move away from this. You will lose a chance.

So let the Sadguru hold your hand and guide you. So the feeling that you have, the joy, when the Sadguru is in front of you- the same is reflected. The Sadguru will never show the feeling, but YOU will feel it. He knows that, but he wants YOU to know it. The Sadguru has already found God, has already realised the Divine and he wants you to realise. That’s why you look for him. Try to feel always with your heart and try to listen to your inner self. Cause when your inner self reveals something, the mind will always say "Oh no, no, no, no it’s not like that. It has to be like this. "The mind will always try to divert you from this path, from the reality. That’s why you have to show the mind, that you are the master and not that the mind is the master of you.