Question 1

Maneesha has asked:

OUR BELOVED MASTER,

DOES THE TIME THAT YOU ARE AWAY FROM US HAVE A SIGNIFICANCE OF ITS OWN IN YOUR WORK WITH US?

Maneesha, everything that is happening here has its own significance. You have to learn my presence and you have to learn my absence, and you have to come to a point where presence or absence don't matter. You are not going to be tied to my presence.

That's why Gautam Buddha said to his disciples, "If I come in your meditations, immediately cut off my head. Don't cling to me, otherwise I will become a barrier."

And the love between a disciple and a master is the most intimate, is the ultimate. You have to learn my absence; you have to rejoice my absence the same way as you rejoice my presence, because I cannot remain here forever. And don't postpone it, because any day...

My work is absolutely complete as far as I am concerned. If I am still carrying on, it is just out of my love for you. But you have to learn my absence, because the days of my presence will be shorter. Every day the days of my presence will become shorter; my days of absence will be longer.