WHAT AN IMPOSSIBLE EXPECTATION!

 
One day while bathing in a cool shower, I began to feel more and more refreshed. By the time I finished my bath, relaxed in mind and heart, it seemed as if my attachments to the past and my ambitions for the future had been washed away, and that time stood still.

Absorbed in this exhilarating feeling, I reached my room to find You sitting there, smiling gently. What a surprise! I could not contain my delight and said, "Were You waiting here for me?"

"What else" You sweetly replied.

"I did not at all expect You today."

"And that's why you find Me here. Expectations keep Me away."

"But how could You instantly appear the moment that expectations are totally absent?"

"Because I am everywhere, at all times."

To keep the conversation going I asked, "And in everything, too?"

"Yes. I am not only in everything, but I am everything. But that is too subtle, too profound a theme for Me to touch on today."

"Please don't go into it any day! I am interested only in You and Your company. If one is fortunate enough to befriend an emperor, what need is there for such a one to know his entourage? You are my one and only Emperor."

"How can I describe My state of oneness to you? I am the Emperor and My entourage, too. I am the pin-prick of anything in existence. I am that ever-living radiant Center around which every part of life revolves."

"How can I reach You, the radiant Center within me?"

"There are ways and ways. I help each one, directly and indirectly, to find their path to Me. As for you, just remember Me wholeheartedly without any expectation, and you will get closer to the Center."

"I must confess that this 'wholehearted' business will be an enormous hurdle for me in my journey to You."

"Don't be disheartened! I will help you to have the right approach: instead of depending on any techniques, go on offering your actions to Me. My presence in you can be likened to a fountain. Your trust in My participation in whatever you do will gradually open the central valve of the fountain, holding My presence...."

"And I will become drenched the showers of Your life-giving water?"

Your eyes flashed. "Of course."

As You rose to go, I could not resist asking, "Will You visit me again tomorrow?"

"Don't anticipate; don't expect," You answered. "Don't you know that I live neither in yesterdays nor tomorrows? I am in the NOW!"

My mind was reeling, yet I continued to press You. "In spite of being formless, out of love You assume a human form. Similarly, in spite of being timeless, will You not step into time to visit me tomorrow?"

You smiled at me, but I couldn't tell whether You were smiling away my request or approving it.

Having met You once, and not to anticipate Your next visit: what an impossible expectation!