The Wish-Fulfilling Room

Once there was guru, a spiritual teacher, who was conducting a retreat at his ashram. One of the students, an eager young woman, experienced a dramatic spiritual breakthrough in her growth and development, and soon found an opportunity to share her experience with her guru. The exchange went something like this:

Woman: Oh, Guruji, I feel so happy, so completely blessed and fulfilled. There’s nothing in the world that I desire, that I could wish for.

Guru: So, you believe that you are completely fulfilled, and there’s nothing in the world that you desire, that could make you any happier than you are at this moment?

Woman: Yes, Guruji, that is what I am saying.

Guru: Suppose I were to offer you a room, and in that room was a special chair. And all you had to do was to sit in that chair and wish for something, anything at all, and instantly, the thing you were wishing for would materialize and be yours. Would such a wish-fulfilling room be of any interest to you?

Woman: Well, of course, Guruji. Who wouldn’t want a wish-fulfilling room like that? I certainly would.

Guru: So, what you are really telling me is that at this moment you feel completely fulfilled and without any desires, because you already possess everything in your world that you have desired... you have no desires left to fulfill. But you also know that tomorrow’s world will bring more new things and more new experiences. And when you find out about them, you might well desire some of them, which is why the wish-fulfilling room is of interest to you. What you are experiencing is not real fulfillment, but only a faint shadow of real fulfillment.