Part 5

Everybody heard about famous Indian elephants, there are a lot of them on the vast territory of India. Indians train those animals to become helpers for them; especially they use them when a strong physical force is required. Therefore apart from feral elephants which live in herds there are some trained ones. As a rule they use them to clear forests. In India there is not enough land for farming which is why from time to time there is a need to clear the forest for plantations. Once the Teacher with his student visited one of those clearings. Huge tree trunks were already cleansed from brunches. Indians like ants thoroughly gathered the branches at one spot so they could be taken away. The huge trunks of the trees could not be moved without machinery but the machinery could not get into a place like that, so the elephants were irreplaceable. With ease they were lifting up huge tree trunks and piling them up in one spot. Elephants are quite obedient and normally do not create any problems, therefore two people are enough to watch over five-six elephants.

The work on the clearing was fully in progress. One of the elephants lifted a steam of a tree with his trunk, balanced his load and then slowly walked towards the road. On the same path there were other two elephants walking with their load, the others were returning back after they left their load alongside the road. It was a lot of work to do. There was no need to watch over them as they worked progressively and rhythmically. So the Hindu people were not watching them they had plenty of their own work to do. It was around noon time so it was quite hot. Elephants and people were rather tiered but continued working. At the edge of the clearing two people appeared – the Teacher and his student. The workers did not notice them and also did not notice that one of the elephants, who were returning back from the road to get another stalk, walked directly towards the clearing where the Teacher stood. In the same manner all elephants one by one approached the Teacher. Workers finally had noticed the disappearance of the elephants. They were astonished to see the elephants leaving their work. They rushed to the elephants yelling at them. By that time the elephants were all gathered around the Teacher reaching their trunks out to him. The yes of the Teacher were shining with kindness. He was stroking the elephant’s trunks which were reaching out to him and smiling. Alid Faski Natva saw that the elephant’s eyes which were hazy before were becoming brighter and brighter. The workers who arrived to the scene by then, watched motionlessly. Alid Faski Natva saw in their eyes not only amazement but also confusion. They looked at the Teacher like little kids that did not know what to do. The Great Teacher slightly slapped the elephant that approached him last, made a hardly noticeable gesture with his hand and elephants peacefully turned around as if receiving a command and went back. The workers were still standing and looking at the Teacher as if waiting for a sign from him. The Teacher just looked at them and they quietly without saying a word turned around and followed the elephants. When one of the workers turned around to look at the amazing people at the clearing there was no one there. The Teacher and his student suddenly disappeared in the same way they appeared. At least that was what the workers thought whilst they have noticed that the elephants started moving faster with their load as if the day has just begun.

The Teacher and his student were easily getting around without worrying about food or transport. Wherever the High Teacher would appear they were received with great respect and were offered food and shelter. Without having any money they were using crowded public transport and no one ever asked them to pay the fee – just no one could see them.

Once they visited a quite advanced yoga school at the north-west of India. Here Alid Faski Natva saw how a yogi demonstrated his abilities to a group of European scientists. He sat in a big aquarium filled up with water. Wires were attached to his head and body, equipment was standing all around it. Yogi spent more than an hour in water. Alid Faski Natva watched how the perspiring from stress scientists were pacing around the aquarium looking at their watches. Than after discussing it they decided to ask him to get out of water, they just could not cope with it any longer. The Yogi got out of water, blew his nose and asked why they told him to get out so early. The only thing the scientists could do is to shrug their shoulders.

Whenever the Teacher and his student would come to a school, they would know that student does not speak any Hindu and in order not to bother the Teacher they would invite an interpreter. It was a sign of great respect.

No one of the scientists and correspondents which were present there had any idea that a Great Teacher was amongst them. The Teacher obviously did not think there was a need to talk about himself, and in that case the ones who knew him could not introduce anyone to him.

In this school in the presence of scientists and media yet another experiment was conducted: A red-hot iron bar five-six meters long was positioned on props and a yogi walked along it bare feet as if it was a gymnastic bar. When they asked him to do it again he refused saying that they should have told him beforehand so he could prepare himself. There ware a lot of correspondents there. Alid Faski Natva watched how one of them thinking that the iron bar was painted in red color threw a shoe into it; when the shoe hit the bar is scorched and deformed. The untrusting correspondent had to walk away in one shoe.

The inner tranquility which had become his constant state had allowed him to react calmly to the abundance of impressions: natural resources of a human being are unlimited; the question is what he directs them towards.