Whatever Jesus might have taught the crowds, his call to his own close disciples was always to practice dying - dying to one's life, dying to personal human relationships, dying to the whole world, dying to anything that did not pertain directly to the will of God. This was his baptism of spirit and fire. Not only for the crowds, but even for most of his disciples, his teaching was hard to bear. As has been said earlier, one needs to be prepared not only to understand the truth but also in order to withstand it.

~ Ravi Ravindra