DEAREST OF THE DEAR

By Bharat Kumar S S
- A Former Student of Swami's Institute.

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Excerpts from a talk given by Bharat Kumar in the Divine Presence of Bhagawan Baba on 23rd Oct 2004, Vijayadasami Day.

On behalf of the billions of people throbbing with life on this Planet Earth, I offer the blossoms of my devotion at the Lotus Feet of Mother Sai. At the Lotus Feet of this Searcher of Hearts, who is eternally engaged in the Divine sport of hide and seek with His beloved children.

Amma (Mother) Sai, Respected Elders, Sisters and Dear Brothers:

What God Wants From Us

The Master of the Universe, at whose glance The Suns, Moons, Stars, and Planets quiver, runs behind man and asks:

“Can you give me your affection? Can you love Me, your Creator more than what I have created for you?”

And man says, “I am busy right now. I have things to do… work pending… just hold on.”

And God says “Yes, I’ll wait.”

The saints and seers of yore have churned the ether with the ladle of their devotion and have brought forth the spirit of that Divine Mother in this Beautiful Form.

Now, when a child refuses to partake it’s food, the mother very lovingly takes the child into her embrace, shows to the child with a pointed finger, the full moon which is floating in the star studded sky, and then, when this child is fully engrossed in it’s appreciations for this queen of night skies, the mother very lovingly feeds the child even without it’s knowledge.

Similarly, when man refuses to imbibe the teaching of the Lord, that in God alone one can find everlasting joy, then He takes us into His embrace, shows us His moon-like miracles - which are no doubt enchanting - but in the very course of these miracles, He feeds us with the morsel of truth that God alone is the Nearest of the Near, the Dearest of the Dear, He alone is the one who is Closer than the Closest.

Closer Than Our Mother

I would like to share with you a very prized possession from the museum of my recollections, one of the channels of Bhagavan’s Love, of which we students are recipients of. These are at the dear hostel where the entire atmosphere is permeated with brotherly love. Whenever there is a rainfall there is a brother coming up from the dispensary department with a homeopathy pill saying:

“Brother, it has rained. Tomorrow you may catch a cold, you may catch fever, please take this.”

So one day, in that hostel, due to some reason, there was a 2-hour delay in my lunch. In spite of being in that kind of an atmosphere, I was missing that love saturated motherly enquiry as to ‘why you didn’t have your food?’ (“Bhojan Cheyi leydemi? Bhojan cheshnava?”). I was missing that motherly element and with these thoughts, I had a very absent minded lunch session.

Then after a bath, I came to Mandir. Swami came, graced the cushion simhasana (Throne), there was a nice Darshan, and as He was going back, He turned towards me and said: “Yemi ra, bhojan cheshnava? (Did you have your lunch?”) That is the Divine Mother! He whispered a thundering truth into my ears that He is the Nearest of the Near, the Dearest of the Dear.

"I Have Heard This Before..."

Once, in a private audience with Bhagavan, my mother expressed a desire to sing a song in His presence and Swami very graciously consented. So she sang:

“Ee janmaki idi chalura…Sai Karunamaya Sagara”. Now, when the song was over, my mother said to Swami:

“Swami, this is the first time I am singing a song in your presence. Thank you.” And then very casually Swami said: “Ledey (No), this is not the first time! Inta mundikuda Vinnanu..Idey patta ne kalalo ochi vinnanu, kada? (No way, this same song I have heard earlier also…I came in your dream and heard this, isn’t it?”)

Mother was nodding her head, so after the interview session I asked my mother to throw some light on this incident and she said she’s a decently accomplished classical singer, and once, she had the opportunity to sing the glory of Swami in one cassette; the recording of which was elsewhere. So after the recording was over, she traveled by train to her native place. She recollected that it was a tedious train journey, but there was something pleasant about it.

It was that at night when she was asleep, this very Swami had come to her in her dream and she had sung the same song and she herself had forgotten about it. “I am closer than the closest, closer than even your thoughts,” Swami says.

Now, having known this, what can we pray for to the Lord? Swami says that making a prayer to Me is like making a telephone call. I either receive the telephone right away and then grant it: “Yes, yes”.

Or, my dutiful answering machine comes up saying “Wait”. So there is either a yes or there is a wait. There is no: “No”. So having been assured of that kind of an affirmative response, for any legitimate prayer, what can we aspire to pray for?

Tears Of Divine Grace

I always used to wonder as to how Shabari (from the epic Indian Ramayana) cultivated that kind of devotion wherein her once tasted berries were sublimated to a level of a fitful offering to Lord Rama? What inspired the great singer Saint Tyagaraja to compose those 32,000 splendid kirtanas (devotional compositions) on the Lord of Seven Hills (Lord Tirupathi)? How could the Gopis of Vraj develop that kind of devotion wherein Krishna was their end all and be all of life? Now just as the waters of the ocean rise and fall just because of the gravitational pull of the moon, similarly, these feelings of devotion can search in our hearts only because of the grace of the Lord.

I remember one afternoon I was sitting in the bhajan hall, when my eyes fell on a devotee whose sight was very lovingly fixed on Bhagavan’s Beautiful Form. He was feasting with boundless fondness on that Beauty Incarnate. And then tears of devotion were rolling down his cheeks. I marveled at this display of devotion and wondered if I could ever experience or display that kind of devotion towards the Lord.

That night, I wrote a letter to Bhagavan asking Him to bless me with a similar experience. The next day, I had the opportunity of sitting in the most coveted first row. Swami came. He didn’t take my letter, but then at the stroke of 5, when the bhajans commenced, a very strange feeling was welling up in my heart, which was very new to my being.

Tears of devotion were surging in my heart, in my eyes, and then they were flowing down not for a couple minutes or so, but continuously for the next half an hour. I was not at all in control for was it I who had initiated it? Just a wholehearted prayer and He filled a holed heart with devotion!

Swami, bless us all that we would desire You than anything else. We would seek Thee all the time and keep chanting Your name while involved in the battlefield of life.

Jai Sai Ram.

- Heart2Heart Team

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