August 19, 2026
Do we go to the master merely to hear what we want to hear, merely to get something out of him? If I go to the teacher, I must go symbolically holding a flower in my hand. "It is the flower of my heart that I offer at your feet." Having offered myself at his feet, I stand there not expecting a thing, knowing that expectation itself is the parent of all unhappiness,of all misery.
Therefore, those disciples and devotees who are sincere go to the holy man for darshan. This darshan is a strange thing, a peculiar thing. It means to see. Can you open your eyes and see? Do I go to this holy man with my own image, with a ready-made garment and ask him to fit into it? Then I am not having darshan. In order to have the holy man's darshan I must go there completely free, and only then I may be able to look at him.
Darshan means looking, but it is not looking like going to a museum and looking at the paintings and statues. That is easy, but to look at a man, something living, with all my being, I have to be so completely pure that what is, is seen, what is, is known. That is called darshan.