I’m sure He has some bad retribution Himself, the Master. (Yes.) Every time He gives Milarepa a hard time, He took some karma from Him. (Ah. Yes.) Every time He beat Him up, He probably has some physical problem. Sure. The karma has to go somewhere. (Yes.) (And unfortunately, it goes to the Master.) Yeah, yeah. Of course, where else?
Where are we now? Ah, Milarepa.
So the wife always feels sorry for Him. She feels He’s such a diligent guy and very sincere and very humble, works so hard already, and looks like her husband did not want to give Him anything. So she feels sorry, whenever He’s beaten up, she always gives Him balms. Oil ointments and all that. (Oh, OK.) And sometimes, Master doesn’t let Him eat, she sneaks some food for Him. Mother’s heart, you know, soft. But she doesn’t know Milarepa deserves all that, (Yes.) and He needs all that to purify Himself, (Right.) in order to receive a better instruction later. (Yes, Master.)
The Master doesn’t even care about all these houses and huts and… Why should He do that? (Yes, that’s right.) He doesn’t need the house, what for? He already has it. He has everything before Milarepa came. (Right.) And Milarepa comes, only makes more burden for Him. He has to instruct Him to build the house and then has to tell Him to tear it off, and has to beat Him up and all that. (Yes.) No Master would want to do that, it’s just that He feels sorry for Him, He has to. So that’s His compassionate heart to go out of his way to clean this person’s karma. (Ah, yes.)
I’m sure He has some bad retribution Himself, the Master. (Yes.) Every time He gives Milarepa a hard time, He took some karma from Him. (Ah. Yes.) Every time He beat Him up, He probably has some physical problem. Sure. The karma has to go somewhere. (Yes.) (And unfortunately, it goes to the Master.) Yeah, yeah. Of course, where else? (Yes.)
If you side with a criminal, the law will also take you in, like you are an accomplice. And then they would check you out. (Right.) They would even arrest you because you’re connected with a criminal. They would put you in jail also. (True.) Even if you want to bail some criminal, they would check you out. (Yes.) “Why did you bail that person?” And all that. (Yes, Master.)
In some serious cases, you have to take the place for that criminal. Like sometimes the son did some criminal deeds, but the father took it all by himself. He said it’s him who did that. (Oh, right.) And the son is free. But the father went to jail. It happened. (Yes.) There are some stories like that. (Yes, Master.) Or vice versa.
So, if you’re a relative or connected with some criminal, then you would be affected. (Yes.) The authority would also keep eyes on you, or keep coming to your house, maybe search your house, or maybe take you to jail, accordingly. (Yes, Master.) Because they will not believe that you don’t know anything about the crime of the son, or your friend or relative, whatever. (Yes.) Especially when you speak out for him, defend for him. (Yes.) And they ask you more.
So now, we go back to Milarepa. (Yes.) He went to the disciple of the Master, Marpa. And that disciple, because the mother wrote the letter to that disciple. She faked the letter. (Oh.) She said, “Master already permits. (Ah, yes.) He comes from our house. (Yes. Right.) So, Master gives permission; you give Him initiation.” So, the good disciple of Marpa dares not not obey. This is the wife of the Master. (Right. Yes, of course!) Almost like a Master herself. (Yes, Master.)
Even in India also, I saw many Masters sometimes, the Master was not home, and the wife sat there to give darshan. To some Indian people or some disciples who came from afar (Yes.) and they will not stay. So, she sat there and let them just look at her. That’s it. Because they believe the wife is just almost as good as the Master, because they’re together day in, day out. (Yes, Master.) Something like that. So, this is a common practice. If Master was not there, the wife just sat there. (Ah, yes.)
Of course, they have been trained, like even Kabir trained His wife, and she’s also very highly spiritual. Therefore, whatever He told her to do, she’d do it. No questions asked. (Right. Yes.)
Like I told you already, a guest comes and says, “Why do you have a wife?” Things like that. “A wife is troublesome.” Well, he talks from his own experience and many men’s experience. (Yes.) So, Kabir says, “She’s not my wife anymore, she’s my disciple. We don’t have any relationship like a wife and husband anymore, not physical.” (Yes. Right.) “And she does everything I tell her. That’s why she still can be here.” (Yes.)
So, the guest, the so-called maybe new truth seeker, couldn’t believe it said, “Can you prove it to me?” So, Kabir said, “Certainly.” And He called the wife to come to Him. The wife came, sat at His feet and said, “Yes, Master.” And He told her to go out and get some pebbles and cook them in the pot for Him. (Yes.) So, she went out, took a lot of pebbles, put them in the pot and was cooking, just like that. (Yes.)
And the same with the consort of Krishna. When He said He has a headache, (Ah, yes.) He’s testing all the other disciples, because they are jealous with His so-called wife, (Ah, yes.) His consort. They said, “What’s the difference between her and us? Why do You treat her specially? (Yes, yes.) Why are You with her and not with any of us? (Yes.) And we can only come and go, but she stays with You all the time.” So they’re jealous. (Yes.) And Krishna said, “No she’s very obedient. I cannot have all of you because you might fight, you might argue, you have your ego and all that, and it’s very troublesome for me to have you around. And she is different. She is like one with me. Whatever I ask her to do, she’ll do it.” (Yes.)
So, the people don’t believe it, but on other days, He pretended to have a headache, (Yes.) so He… “Oh, headache!” and screaming and rolling on the floor and all that. And then, all the female disciples asked Him what can they do for Him to stop the headache. (Yes.) “Can it be possible?” He said, “Yes, yes, possible. If you just step on my head, then it will be OK immediately.” Nobody dared. (No.) “Oh, Master, how dare we do that? (Yes.) We don’t even dare to sit on the same level with You. How dare we step on Your head?” (Yes, that’s right.) Nobody did.
And then so He called Radha in, because Radha is His consort. So He told her, “I have a headache. You step on my head now, so to cure my headache.” She did immediately. So He said to all of the girls, “You see that? You don’t obey my instruction. You don’t do what I request. She always does, no questions asked.” (Yes. Right.) So, right there, it settled the score for everybody to feel satisfied now. They feel the difference between them and her. (Yes, understand then.) That’s good. Just like Kabir’s wife. They lived together like friends, (Yes.) apart from being disciples.
I saw other Masters in India. Before they became Masters, they married and had children and all that. After He was appointed Master by His father or by His Master, then the wife always sat at the feet. You know, like, the Master sits on the chair, she sits at the feet of the new Master. She never sits the same with Him. (Right.) I saw that with my own eyes. (Yes, Master.)
So this is the thing. It’s not like the Master cares who sits where. It’s just their tradition (Yes.) to show respect. Even the Master’s mother, I saw it also, sits at the feet of the Master, not sit the same with Him, (Yes.) not sit at the same level. (Yes, Master.)
So now, Milarepa went all the way to the disciple, like a chief disciple of Marpa, His Master. His Master’s representative, chief one, good one, and nearby, not far, like walking distance. And the disciple saw the letter of the Mother. They call the Master’s wife “Mother.” (Oh, OK.) Mostly like that, “Holy Mother.” (Yes.) And then he saw that, so he said, “OK, OK. I’ll give you initiation,” though he felt it was funny. “How come the Master didn’t give there? And why send Him here to have initiation?” (Yes.) But he could not question the Mother. If he wants to question, he has to walk another day and come back, or send somebody on horseback and then wait for that person to come back. (Yes. Long time.) Nowadays, we are more convenient.
And then he gave Milarepa initiation, alright, but He didn’t get anything. (Oh, yes.) He didn’t get any connection, any experience, so the disciple was feeling very perplexed. He said, “Could it be that our Master did not give the permission?” (Oh. Yes.) So, He has to confess, said, “No, we did it with the Mother only. Master did not know.” And He told His pitiful story, singing His terrible song. “Every day I work, and He beats me up. He doesn’t let me eat,” all that stuff. Let them feel sorry for Him, but useless, useless.
To feel sorry for Him is just human emotion. (Right. Yes.) To be good to somebody or bad to somebody, that’s just human behavior and emotion and mental dictation. It has nothing to do with spiritual power and practice. So, Milarepa had to walk back home, feeling so bad, so bad, so disappointed, so disappointed, so miserable. Had to go home, endure all that treatment again. (Yes.)
Until one day, the Master is ready to give Him. Until one day His karma, His terrible, heavy, killing karma is done, (Yes.) carried also at least half by the Master. (Yes.) Not by being beaten up that His karma will be cleaned, but that helps, (Yes.) because the Master did it. If anybody else did it, it’s not the same power. (Yes, no effect.) It’s not the same cleansing power.
Because only the Master with the great Power, endowed by God, can cleanse people’s karma. Because karma of humans especially, is very, very huge. Even the Son of God had to sacrifice His life in such a gruesome way to cleanse their sins.
So now you know. (Yes, Master.) If the Master doesn’t permit, then it won’t happen. Or it happens not true, not real. (Yes, Master. Yes.) It’s the maya who cheats. (Yes.)
