The Blue Ball

Like most gorgeous sunny days, it was warm and beautiful, and things around looked magnificent. Even clouds in the sky seemed to be all smiles.

In the distant horizon, one could see a man, a tad weary, walking along a path through the middle of a vast corn field. Michael seemed to have walked kilometers and days in search of something quite significant. One could see there was emptiness in his soul for his eyes looked sad. You could tell that their journey so far must have been long. It was obvious from the way he carried himself in dusty clothes and worn out shoes.

Not having met anyone for several days in this quest, Michael wondered if he was ever going to run into any human company at all. Almost immediately, he wondered if he was imagining a lad walking towards him from a good distance away. The boy was actually real and had a happy gait as he approached Michael; he must have been eight or nine summers old with cornflower blue eyes. His hair shone like gold, bleached by the sun. His feet were bare and he was in a white, clean shirt, quite unusual for a boy his age.

The boy had clearly started his day well because he had a song on his lips and smiled between lines, and he skipped and jumped along the path. He hastened to greet Michael as if it was normal to meet people on paths through the middle of a corn field. “Where to are you off, Sir?” he asked joyfully.

 “Hello, young lad! I’m in search of….” Michael hummed and hawed.  A bit curious and impatient at Michael’s incomplete answer, the boy asked, “Just what are you looking for, Sir, at this time of the day and in a place such as this?” The man wiped the sweat off his brows, and said, “Oh son, how would you know, there are some answers I need of things that have lingered in my mind for years now. Who am I? Why am I here? What is the reason for my existence? What is this thing we call life?”

The boy was visibly amused by now. “So, Sir, do you know where you could find the answers to all of this?” “Oh well, since the answers have eluded me in the place I live in, I think the horizon will make me a wiser man. I am heading toward the horizon as it were.” The boy wasn’t convinced.

“Beyond the horizon, did you say, Sir?”

“Of course, yes, boy.”

“Oh, I believe you may have to go back to the place from where you started, Sir!”

The man wondered at his strangely confident solution. “Why would you ask me to go back?” “Sir, I may look like a puny thing, but I am a big boy and go to school. My teacher has taught me that the world is round. I believe her totally.”

The wise boy continued, “If the world is round, the only possibility then is that you will end up going back to the starting point in search of the horizon. What do you think, Sir? That’s not the only point. In search of the horizon, you’ll eventually go back home and you just might find your answers, but you’ll be a silver-haired man, weak and no zeal for life. You might not have the strength to realize the reason of your existence after the longest journey of your life!”

“Go home, Sir, but not before you take this blue crystal ball with you. Remember the world is round and this will act as a good reminder.”

Michael was moved like never before. He was struck by the boy’s rare wisdom. Wiping his tears, he closed his eyes and in his mind he went back to his home, family, friends, and all the good things, the happy settings, everything, he had left behind to look for a few answers! When he opened his eyes to thank the boy, there was no one standing in front of him. Was it a reverie then?

When he looked at his palm, he found himself holding the blue crystal ball.  At least he knew for sure that the kind lad wasn’t an apparition. He looked long and hard into the distance one last time till he knew it was time for him to turn back and return home. And once he did, and ruminated on what the boy had said he stared into the spherical blue gift.  And lo and behold, answers started flowing into his mind. He experienced immense peace and was filled with bliss as he looked at the world through the eyes of wisdom borne out of pure innocence.

Who was the little boy?  And what does the blue ball signify?

Explaining the meaning of the word ‘religion’, Bhagavan Baba has said, “‘Religion’ is derived from the combination of two words ‘re’ and ‘ligare’. ‘Re’ means ‘again’ and ‘ligare’ refers to ‘reconnecting’. So religion basically means returning to where we have come from.

The blue ball symbolises this circular journey back to the source and it amply demonstrates that life is governed by circular circuits of actions, reactions and their annihilation till we reconnect with the Pure Source from which we have originated.

Every time we forget this truth and feel lost in a maze of paths, along comes the golden-hued Lord, like the child within each of us, symbolizing our innocence.  The child within is all smiles, simple, clear in thinking and trusts higher wisdom implicitly.  Smiling all the way, the child fills our souls with comfort and solace even as He opens our eyes.

The answers to all our problems and worries therefore do not lie elsewhere or in a distant horizon. They are present in that ‘blue ball’ in the form of the religion of Love, for it is Love that makes the world go around.

It is Love that connects us to our real Origin and fills our beings with joy, peace and answers all our questions.

Illustration: Mrs. Mrs. Lyn Kriegler-Elliott, New Zealand

Dear Reader, did this article inspire you in any way? Do you have a similar story to share? Please tell us your reflections about this article by writing to h2h@radiosai.org mentioning your name and country. Thank you for your time.

- Heart2Heart Team