Once upon a time, there was an ashram in the Himalayas where a great sage and his disciples lived. They all respected their Guru not only for his knowledge, but also for his love and kindness towards all.
Because of his kind nature, he often accepted disciples who were spiritually immature. This resulted in silly misunderstandings and quarrels among some of his disciples; breaking the peace and tranquility of the hermitage.
One day the Guru was very disturbed to see their immature behavior even after his repeated advice. It saddened his good heart to see his disciples turning into slaves of jealousy and anger. His compassion did not let him throw anyone out of his hermitage. Instead, he sincerely prayed to God to give him a solution. He fasted for many days, and spent the days by himself in meditation and prayer.
After some days of fasting and intense prayer, he had a vision of the Lord. In the vision, God asked him why he was sad. He explained everything and requested Him to come to the ashram and free their minds of jealousy, anger and desire for power. To his surprise the God immediately agreed and told him that He would come to the ashram on one condition: He come in disguise as one of the disciples, and nobody know who was God in disguise. The Guru announced to his disciples about his vision and Bhagavan's kind decision to come as one of his disciples.
The disciples were very happy when they heard about Bhagavan's plan to come and live with them I disguise. But they did not know who was Bhagavan and everybody was very gentle and considerate to each other, thinking that the other disciple might be Bhagavan Himself in disguise. When they lived like that for a few months, peace and tranquility filled their hearts as well as hermitage.
In their pure minds, they felt the Lord's blissful presence and they started treating each other, and thinking of each other, as none other than Bhagavan Himself in disguise! The whole ashram was reverberating w3ith blissful positive vibrations emanating from everyone! This great sageand his disciples told their experience to others and inspired them also to respect each other and to pranam to divinity in every one.
Since then, everybody started greeting each other saying 'namaste' with folded hands (namah + te) meaning "I bow to That (Divinity) inherent in you."
May the Lord help us also to see His Divinity in everybody! Namaste!
