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Sri Sathya Sai Baba Articles |
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Seeking indwelling Divinity by Phyllis Krystal - Sanathana Sarathi, May 2001
I HAVE HAD MANY EXPERIENCES of
the way Bhagavan Baba will teach us, if we are willing to allow
Him to do so. But if we are not open to His divine hints, He
will not force them upon us; instead, He will allow us to follow
the dictates of our ego until we are ready to ask Him for guidance.
That requires us to be humble and admit our own fallibility, which
for most of us is a very hard lesson indeed. It often takes many
failures to force us finally to surrender our own ideas and our
own strong desires, to trust Him to give us what He knows we need
for our spiritual growth and then be willing to accept whatever
that may be, whether we like it or not.
"Find Me in your Heart"
One of His most
often repeated exhortations is that we detach from His physical
form and turn within ourselves to seek guidance from the inner
Baba, the resident within each of us. But for many of His most
ardent devotees that is very difficult. He is so very
tantalizingly attractive in every way that we do not want to
replace that delightful contact with a more nebulous one.
From the very first
time my late husband and I visited Him in January 1973, He made
this message of detachment very clear to me. During that first
visit, Baba was staying at Whitefield near Bangalore, instead of
His Ashram at Puttaparthi. At our farewell interview, I asked Him
if He wished us to return and if so, when, since we did not yet
know the protocol. I shall always remember His answer to that
question. He stared intently into my eyes and pointing His finger
at me, said, "First you must understand that you do need to come
back to see this little body," with which He pointed to His own
chest. After a significant pause as He watched my
reaction, He continued "… find Me in your own heart!" Then, with a big smile
He reassured me by saying, "But you will come back to be
re-energised."
That early
interaction set the stage for me on the following visits. I
realized that in that brief communication, He showed me the
eventual goal for each and all of His devotees. However it is not
at all easy to follow this advice. He is so full of love and so
powerfully wise and all-knowing that it is far too easy to become
attached to His form and to crave constant attention and guidance
from Him and to seek answers to all our questions personally.
Even though common sense dictates that it is impossible for Him to
give detailed advice to each of the many thousands of those who
continue to journey to see Him and receive His Darshan, we all
remain anxious to have Him personally reassure us on all the
countless aspects of our lives, whether they be connected to
health, marriage, children, occupation, financial situation or a
host of other seemingly important and urgent matters in our
estimation.
Process of Detachment from
Form
In some cases, when
He sees fit, He does seem to take us by the hand, like a loving
parent with a child while it still needs helpful support as it
makes its first, unsteady steps. But eventually, as with a human
parent, He starts to wean us from that support so that we can
become strong and stand firmly and confidently on our own two feet.
He is actually acting in a very merciful way in thus setting us
free, even from relying on His form rather than on our inner
guide. He knows only too well that, like our human parents, He
will not always be available in person. So, He prepares us to
seek direction from within. This weaning process is by no means
simple or easy to carry out and we often balk at the very idea, or
doubt that we can receive authentic guidance from the invisible
Baba who is our Real Self within every one of us. We fear that
our ego may be getting in the way of this contact. This weaning
process, as with babies, is a gradual one. But there comes a time
when we arrive at a place where we are forces into the unknown and
trust that we will be guided from within, otherwise we will
flounder in indecision and defeat.
As I look back over
the years since I first came to know Baba, I can observe His
direction in my life' even when it was not apparent to me at that
time. At first, He very patiently and painstakingly offered me
much needed help and direction. Then one day without any previous
warning, He looked intently at me and with great seriousness of
tone of voice and facial expression, said, "You do not need to
see Me, Mrs. Krystal." That was the beginning of the weaning
process. Baba has given us all His teachings which are
sufficiently clear and simple for even a child to understand and
follow. He now expects us not only to listen to or read what He
says, but be willing to put His teaching into practice in our
every day lives, in all our various activities when we are faced
with the necessity of making a decision.
Channels of Divine
Communication
I was present when
He gave clear and helpful advice in answer to a question that had
formed in my mind. This incident occurred during a meeting of
some of the members of the US Council that took place in the
Ashram in His presence. One of the subjects under discussion was
the question of how to handle one of the officers who had a very
strong will with which to control others. The question that
occupied my mind was, "How can we be sure in determining what is
Baba's direction instead of our own ego or someone else's will?" With Baba's uncanny ability to read our thoughts, even when we
have not voiced them, He turned to me, saying, "You have a
question, Mrs. Krystal?" I replied that I was not an officer of
the organization (at that time), but as the wife of one, I was
not expected to speak. Drawing Himself up to appear very large
and imposing, Baba said, "Swami gives you permission to speak;
what is your question?" So, I asked the question.
His answer was
helpful for every one. He advised us to take one of His
photographs to a quiet place and from the heart ask Him to provide
an answer. He assured us that within twenty minutes an answer
would be on its way to us. However, it may not become clear until
sometime later, as it needs to reach us by various channels and at
the correct time. This advice is now becoming even more valuable,
as more and more people flock from all around the world to visit
Him. He Himself has warned us that one day, He will appear to us
as a little orange dot seen from a distance.
The channels through
which we may receive His answer to our requests are numerous. I
liked the process of watching for signs and hints from different
sources. If we fervently ask for His help and let go our will and
all our preoccupations for or against an outcome, we will receive
indications. At first we may be nervous and doubt the signs, but
with regular practice it will appear like a treasure hunt or an
adventure, where we will never know when a sign will appear or
what form it will take. Patience is the chief requirement as the
signs frequently become clear at the very last minute before a
decision has to be made. They come in a dream, in a book we are
currently reading, or spoken by a friend or an acquaintance or in
some other apparently coincidental way.
But with all this
methods to help us to benefit from our inner Baba's guidance,
regular practice is essential for success, just as it is for any
other undertaking. Fortunately, as soon as we are willing to ask
for help from the Baba within, it is forthcoming. It is our
responsibility, first to ask for it and then to watch for it to be
given to us. Then we need to accept it and let it help solve our
problems.
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