It reminds me of Junnaid. He used to say to his disciples, the first lesson to every new disciple, was: “Remember this anecdote of my life…. I remained with my master for twelve years. For three years he did not look at me. I would sit by his side, people would come and go – and he had hundreds of disciples, with their problems – but he did not look at me. The question of being introduced and the question of asking anything was simply impossible. He behaved as if I were not there, he completely ignored me.

“After three years, for the first time he looked at me. And just his look…as if the first rains had come and I was drenched in a new energy, as if I had been dead up to now. Suddenly, his look made me alive.”

New doors, new dimensions opened. And for three years again, there was not any other gesture. But Junnaid was perfectly happy and satisfied and contented. If nothing more happens, this much is too much. After three more years passed, the master touched the head of Junnaid. And Junnaid used to say, “I felt such a serenity, such a deep silence descending over me. I became completely hollow, just filled by the grace of the master.”

And this went on happening. Three years again, but he was perfectly satisfied. After three years the master hugged him. And the moment the master hugged him – and not even a word had passed in all these nine years – he dissolved into the master, he became one with him. Now there was nothing more that he could imagine.

Three more years passed, and the master kissed his third eye. Suddenly, a tremendous lightning, cleansing all his being of all that was ugly, of all that was rubbish; making him completely pure, twenty-four carat gold. And after these twelve years, the master spoke to him for the first time, saying, “Now you can go.”

Strange. He has not said a single word to him and now he says, “Now you can go. What I have done to you, try to spread it.”

This is transmission: the master is ready to pour down all that is splendorous, but the question is whether the disciple is ready to receive it. Buddha used to say, “There may be a great rain falling – you can put your pot upside down. What can the rains do? – your pot will remain empty. Your pot has to be in a position to receive the rains.”

These thirty years, Joshu stayed with Nansen. It has to be understood that it was a totally different kind of calculation about time. People were not interested in time but were interested in the timeless.

I have not come across a single incident in the whole history of consciousness and its evolution where a man was tired because “so many years have passed and nothing has happened.” Nobody has ever complained about that. It shows a very unhurried way of life. It shows an understanding that whether we know or not, we are part of eternity. If it is not happening today, it will happen tomorrow; if it is not happening tomorrow, perhaps next life. But immense possibilities are there, so don’t be in a hurry. In a hurry you may miss many things which were worth being enjoyed, being tasted. Go slow.

Time went so slow that almost nobody was interested in time. The whole effort was to know the timeless.