LOVE SHINES THROUGH

By Ms. Lulu Plata

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Ms. Lulu Plata is a Sai Youth who recently attended the Youth Conference held in Prashanti Nilayam. She is an EHV teacher and has worked on many Educare courses for children aged 4-11 years. She lives in Mexico and is currently studying English at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).

Sai says:

"Love in thought is truth."
"Love in feeling is peace."
"Love in understanding is non-violence."
"Love in action is right action.”

When I first travelled to India I learnt what these words mean. It is as simple as saying: ‘God is love and love is God.’ When I was a teenager my parent’s divorced and I became depressed over this. In the midst of all this sadness and conflict, when I was 17, I happened to fall asleep crying. Then I dreamt I was being cuddled in someone’s arms, like a baby cradled by her mother. I was crying like a child and someone was caressing and stroking my head. I looked up and saw the most tender and sweet face. There was my beloved Baba telling me: “I’m here.” When I woke up I felt such peace that I asked my mother to send me to India. I wanted to see that loving Being again, I wanted to feel His love just as I had felt it in my dream. And so, a month later I left for Puttaparthi, overjoyed and full of expectations.

When I saw Bhagavan I first saw my father’s face in His, then my mother’s and when He walked closer I saw Him. I understood one thing: those with whom I fought, who I thought I hated, were Him. That day another devotee gave me Swami’s divine discourse on Easwaramma day. In that discourse, Swami said that we have to deserve our mother’s love to deserve God’s love. This made me attempt to heal the relationship I had with my parents.

Self Discovery

For the two months when I was alone in India, I found myself; I rediscovered who I really was and committed myself to be what Sai wanted me to be, and then deserve His love and my mother’s. I decided to stop eating meat and committed myself to return to Mexico, take up my study, help my mother in our Sai centre, and follow Bhagavan’s teachings. When I saw my family at the airport they told me: “You can’t go back to school, we don’t have money to pay your tuition”. However with my faith in God I was confident everything will be fine, and that Sai will take care.

I began giving human values and Bal vikas education to our Sai centre children and in a social centre. I was there to “teach” but in reality I was being taught. Sai Baba says, “Practice what you preach.” Every time we studied a new Human Value I unconsciously started to practise Sai’s teachings. One day one of the girls brought a white flower and hugged me. Before that I wouldn’t let people hug me due to my pain. It was Swami’s gift, He let me love and feel loved again.

Service on the Streets

A couple of months later we began to take food to people living on the street. On my first visit I was scared, as I thought they were dangerous. I felt uncomfortable as they had poor personal hygiene and took drugs. But as time went on I began to see them in another light. When we gave them the food, we asked them to bless it, and one of them said: “Lord, we thank you for the food you brought today, take it to our brothers and sisters living on the streets, in prisons, in psychiatric hospitals, bless the people who brought it and give them more. Amen.” His voice was trembling with emotion while he spoke this and I realised I had never seen anyone as thankful as they were. They were respectful to us, and they began to stop taking drugs.

When I saw their eyes shine again after tucking into the food we brought, I forgot about their lack of outer cleanliness. I was impressed to discover how Swami had let me see their divine qualities and we were able to serve them as His joyful instruments. One of the women once told us: “It’s good you bring food for our body, but sometimes we need food for the soul.” And so we decided to teach them this song:

“Amor, amor, amor, amor, amor. El mensaje es amor. Ama a tu prójimo como a ti mismo. Somos amor, somos amor.” (“Love, love, love, love, love, love. The message is love. Love your brother as you love thy self. We are love, we are love.”) When we started singing one of them started to move his hand just like Baba does during bhajans. We were startled at this and took it as a sign that He is always with us - He is receiving the food, and He is serving the food.

Baba blessed us showing us that we are all one family, especially those needing help - and not just those we live with. The more we served the more we could feel His infinite love.

Finding the Real Meaning of Life During those days a professor from Baba’s University came to Mexico and told us that once Bhagavan had taken away from a student his family, money and even his reputation and friends, with the only purpose of detaching him from the world. Baba left him with nothing, so that he could find everything: God. Then everything clicked inside me: Sai had taken exactly the same things away from me to allow me to find the most beautiful thing, the only thing that matters: His love. Meanwhile the problem with my schooling continued. When I let go and let Swami decide, my brother’s friends paid for the studies. Then I knew: my only father is Baba, and He had paid for our studies. That Thursday I went to our Sai centre to thank Him and saw a picture of Jesus, I remembered going to the Church one day and thinking: “If I had been born when God was alive I would have wanted to be a close follower”. Once more He was showing me His omnipresence; something I once thought impossible came true, not only had I been in God’s presence but I was working for Him.

Then I realized He gives us everything we ask for; He gives us His love. This is when I realized the huge responsibility we carry; we are here to carry His message, we are here to be His instruments, we are here to be whatever He asks us to be.

I thank Him for giving me another opportunity to straighten my life, my attitude, my heart. I am filled with gratitude, especially, to Him for being His daughter. This is how I understood that:

“Love and God are not distinct from each other. God is Love and Love is God.”

I offer myself at His lotus feet.  Sai Ram.

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