DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

THE WAYS OF THE MASTERS 53streets, but he did it.Ghousali Shah was asked by one of his Masters, who livedin a hut by the side of the river Ganges, to get a vessel full of wateronly from mid-stream, for drinking. It was about midnight and theriver Ganges was in heavy flood because of the monsoon. The disciplehesitated at first but finally gathered courage to attempt theimpossible, believing in the omniscience of the Master. No soonerhad he stepped into the angry waters of the Ganges than hewitnessed a wonderful transformation of the scene. Instead of thesurging waves and the floods, the river had turned into a thinstream and the vessel to be filled almost touched the river bed. Thedisciple nearly crossed the river to the opposite bank in search ofthe mid-stream. While thus occupied, the Master appeared on thescene and asked him the reason for his delay. When Ghousaliexplained that the mid-current could not be located, the Masterallowed him to fill the vessel by handfuls and himself helped in theprocess. The Master then left the disciple on some pretext, askinghim to follow immediately after filling the vessel. When GhousaliShah returned to the hut with the vessel full of water, he was bewilderedto learn from other disciples that the Master had neverleft the hut for a minute during his absence, but was talking tothem all the while about him.These stories show how the Master may use his occultpowers on rare occasions to break down the ego of his disciples orhelp them further on the Path. As a rule the Masters are very spar-Masters usuallyprefer ordinary tooccult methodsmundane ways. While doing so they noting in the use of their divine powers, and theynever use them unless it is absolutelynecessary for spiritual purposes. Ordinarilythey secure their purposes through normal