Thirsty?

Once again, I found memories of talks by Maharaji, Prem Rawat, creeping into my meditation and I kept being drawn back to one he told about thirst. Maharaji talks a lot about thirst and about how our human instinct is to thirst for peace (something we all have different names for).


He relates a story which is much like a Sufi story - where we believe there is foolishness but there is not. When I first heard it, I had to sit with this story for some time before it revealed its essence to me.

A man was trapped in the desert and his water had run out. He could just manage to walk and was heading towards what he hoped were signs of a village but was afraid it was a hopeless mirage. And from the shimmering sand he saw a man riding towards him; he sat and waited his arrival and immediately asked the rider for water. The rider explained that he was on a long journey and could not spare any water. Then he quickly reassured the man that he soon would find water as there was an oasis in the next village, less than an hour away. He then turned and rode off but after a few steps he stopped and turned and told the man that he could give the man a tie.

The man refused the offer and slowly made his way to the village. As he came closer he noticed that the large well in the village was surrounded by a fence. He made his way to the gate and asked the person inside to be admitted as he was in desperate need of water. To be told that he wouldn't be allowed in ... because he wasn't wearing a tie.