A certain king went to a murshid with a desire to learn from him. He said, "Will you accept me as one of your disciples? I would so much like to be counted among your humble servants instead of staying any longer on my throne." The murshid agreed to take him on probation, saying, "Yes, and your first task will be to take the garbage of the house and throw it in a certain place outside the town." Now every one of the disciples knew that he was a king who had willingly resigned his kingdom. He was not exiled, he did not have to run away from the throne, he had left it willingly. They felt sympathy for him to be tried in this way, and they all said to the murshid in the course of time, "Pray do not expect this task of him anymore, he has been doing it for such a long time." But the answer was, "He is not yet ready for initiation." To one pupil who argued about the matter he said, "Well, you can test him in any way which you think good."

So as he was taking the basket one day, one of the young men came up beside him and by pushing him, upset the contents onto the floor. So this king looked at him and then said to him, "Had I still been a king as I was, I would have done to you as a king would, but now of course I am not that, so I must not show my temper." With that he gathered all the refuse together and put it back in the basket and took it all away. This was reported to the murshid, but he said, "Did I not tell you he is not ready yet?"

However, one of the pupils went to the teacher again and asked him to be kind to him and give him another task. But he answered, "Try him again." So he had to go through the same experience. This time the king said not a word, he only looked at the offender for a moment, and again gathered the refuse together, put it back in the basket and went on his way. However, when this report too was brought to the murshid, he again said, "Not ready, not ready!"

Then the same thing was done the third time. This time the king was not only silent, but took up the garbage without even looking at the person who upset it. And now, when the Murshid heard about that, he answered, "Now he is right, the time has now come."

Sometimes the methods for crushing the spirit seems crude to us, and yet this has been the essence of religion through all the ages. Jesus Christ said, "Blessed are the meek, blessed are the gentle, blessed are the poor in spirit." What I have just told you shows what is meant by being poor in spirit. A person who is rich in spirit, high-spirited, would say to anyone even looking at him when not invited, "How dare you look at me this way, you are not even allowed to look thus in my presence; how dare you do this to me?" Such an one is rich in spirit. The others are poor in spirit.

So teachers have adopted different ways of crushing the ego. But it was not for their own gratification that teachers made their disciples show humility, as it were to make up for themselves having had to undergo the same process before they became teachers. No, such actions do not add to their own honor or greatness. The giving of such orders is nothing to them. If they are great, they are great without such training being demanded, without the deference implied. Whether a thousand people honor them or not, it does not mean anything to them. It is no satisfaction to them to have people bow before them, prostrate themselves before the teacher. In that case, why expect it of their pupils? It is for the pupil's sake. To blunt the sharpness of that piercing and stinging ego which disturbs every individual so that it shall not hurt anyone anymore, that becomes a great achievement.

In our everyday life we can see that it is this sharpness of ego, of "I," of "me," that hurts all the time, whether it be in someone closely related or not; whether it be son, or daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, or just a friend. If anything about them hurts us, it is just this ego. If one person hurts another, it is only because of that person's ego. If ever we experience suffering in this world it is through that ego. Sometimes it is the ego of the other person, but sometimes it is our own ego also. One may compare it with a thorn which is always pricking: it hurts whoever touches it. The more egoistic person is, the more it hurts. So the teachers of mysticism know they must humiliate this ego, and to do this adopt various methods.