Lessons from my Encounter with a Master: Common Traits That Define True Wisdom.

During my stay in India, I had the opportunity to visit Sri Ma Anandamayi's Ashram. At the entrance of this place, always sitting on a white chair, was an elderly man whose age I estimate to be around 80. His name was Swami Vijayananda. Around him, always sitting on the floor, was a very small group of people. Seeing him for the first time, I felt something very special. Along with a friend, we joined the crowd and decided to accompany them. He always carried a bag of candy with him to give to the children who entered the Ashram. From the first time until my last day before traveling to New Delhi, I would visit him every afternoon. It was the first time I saw a master without pomp, who taught through silence and who spoke with his gaze and his heart. I never saw him boast or speak down to people, and when he did speak, it was always with a sense of humor.

Pope Francis has passed away, and as with Swami Vijayananda, I felt something special about him. Not only because he was Argentine and culturally close to me, but because of his simplicity and because he tried to reach out to everyone without exception.

These two spiritual masters have a lot in common. They were both human beings who didn't seek to appear perfect, who sought to live with humility, sincerity, and a sense of humor. A person can convey their honesty with their mere presence, their energy, and their actions. But personally, the greatest lesson they both taught me is that you have to find the true teacher within yourself, the one who learns to live, day by day, in love, with compassion, and hope. The sense of humor they both displayed represents, for me, the strength and the desire we must not lose in the face of difficulties. Maintaining humor is maintaining the spark of life, that creative force that drives you to continue living, to continue searching for your path, the one that will rediscover your true essence as a human being.