One disciple kept asking the master, ‘Master, where is paradise?’
Finally one day, the master asked him, ‘Do you really want to know?’
The disciple sat up and said, ‘Yes!’
The master said, ‘Alright, my first disciple Ahmad is in paradise.’ After saying these words the master closed his eyes and went into meditation.
The disciple knew it would be a long time before the master opened his eyes. So, he went and asked some of the disciples if they knew where Ahmad lived. No one seemed to know.
Finally one disciple said, ‘I know how to guide you there, but I have never been there myself. It is in a deep valley beyond a range of ice covered mountains.’
The disciple wrote down the directions carefully and went back to the master. He told him, ‘Master, I wish to pay a visit to Ahmad!’
The master was absorbed deeply in some work. Without even looking up he said, ‘Go ahead.’
The disciple started on his journey. He walked for many days, passing through sun, rain, snow, and what not. He became exhausted, on the verge of death. It took him one hundred days to reach the valley. When he finally reached it he looked at the valley and thought, ‘This valley doesn’t look all that great. I have seen many more beautiful valleys. Why did the master call this paradise?’
He looked around and walked further and finally found Ahmad’s hut. Ahmad was very pleased to see him. He served him food and asked how the master and other disciples were doing.
All along, the disciple was thinking to himself, ‘Master called this place paradise? I can’t believe it.’
After a week-long stay he left and returned to his master. It took him another one hundred days to return home.
He went straight to the master and stated, ‘You said that the place is paradise. But what I saw was the most ordinary place ever!’
The master said, ‘Oh god! At the time of your enquiry, had you been more explicit about your intention, I would have told you the truth.’
The disciple asked, ‘What is the truth?’
The master replied, ‘Ahmad is not in paradise. Paradise is in him!’
When you live close to Existence, without any expectation, seeing what is as it is and finding the blessings in it, you will carry heaven in you! Heaven is not geographical, it is psychological. It is not physical, it is mental. If you decide, you can be in heaven right now.
Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa
