ALL OR NOTHING


  The great and peaceful ones live regenerating the world like the coming of the spring; having crossed the ocean of embodied existence themselves, they freely aid all others who seek to cross it. The very essence and inherent will of Mahatmas is to remove the suffering of others, just as the ambrosia-rayed moon of itself cools the earth heated by the intense rays of the sun.

Shankaracharya

  After Buddha had been ten years in retirement, certain sages sent their disciples to him, asking him, "What dost thou claim to be, Gotama?"

  Buddha answered them, "I claim to be nothing."

  Ten years afterwards they sent again to him, asking the same question, and again Buddha answered: "I claim to be nothing."

  Then after yet another ten years had passed, they sent a third time, asking, "What dost thou claim to be, Gotama?"

  And Buddha replied, "I claim to be the utterance of the most high God."

  Then they said to him: "How is this, that hitherto thou hast proclaimed thyself to be nothing, and now thou declarest thyself to be the very utterance of God?"

  Buddha answered: "Either I am nothing, or I am the very utterance of God, for between these two all is silence."

A BUDDHIST TALE

That verily is the Light (jyoti) of all lights, declared to be beyond darkness itself. It is wisdom, the object of wisdom, and that which is to be gained by wisdom, seated in the hearts of all.

SHRI KRISHNA
Bhagavad Gita XIII.17