This is the transcription
of the talk delivered by Sri Hemant Kumar in the Divine
presence of Bhagawan Baba.
Invoking the
Blessings of Mother Divine, Sri Sai Saraswathi, upon all
gathered here. Loving and Humble Salutations, oh Mother
Divine, at Your Lotus Feet. Esteemed elders, dear brothers
and sisters, Sai Ram to all of you.
In a
clearing in a forest there stood a huge banyan tree. It had
a gigantic trunk and mighty knolled prop roots, and sturdy
branches. And on one such sturdy branch there was a lean
twig on which sat a tiny sparrow. A slight breeze set the
twig into a harmonic oscillation, and the sparrow chirped in
with rhythm. The breeze slowly turned into a wind and the
sparrow's seat shook violently. But the sparrow just
continued chirping with none to listen to its melody. The
wind turned fierce and roared; the sparrow only twittered.
And in the asymmetric battle that continued, the twig
snapped, unable to bear the onslaught. What happened to the
tiny sparrow?
The Bird With You, The Wing
With Me
It
was September 28, 1995 . I was in my eighth
standard. Bhagavan had given our entire class an
interview with Him. I was fortunate enough to be
sitting right at His feet and looked up and asked
Him (mentally): "What happened to the sparrow?" At
this point in time, Bhagavan was narrating the very
same incident. He looked into my eyes and gleefully
added, "It spread its wings and flew away." The
answered reached home.
Bhagavan then continued to explain, "Man lives in
this world and builds for himself a home, housing in
it all that he has acquired in life. And he sits in
this house and twitters to the tune of life. But
when the winds are not in favor and the world comes
crashing around him, he hops about lamenting his
plight." |
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The tiny
sparrow on that branch did not depend upon the twig, or on
the branch, or on the gigantic trunk of the mighty banyan
tree. It depended on its wings! So too in life, let us
depend not upon mere twigs of passion and fashion, of pain
and gain, of wealth and glory. Let us rather depend upon
wings of Faith. Faith in His Name, in His Love, in His
Glory, in His Benevolence, and in His Benediction!
Give
us, Lord, the ability that we develop these wings of Faith,
for when the tempest becomes more stormy than we can bear,
we can spread these wings of Faith and glide effortlessly to
our destinations.
Faith Is Verily Life
A mother
loves a child for she has Faith that it is her own. A child
loves his parents for he has Faith that they are his own. I
stand here to speak for I have the Faith that what I speak
is what I feel. And on a lighter note, many of us would have
unkempt hair if we did not have the Faith that the barber in
the salon would cut our hair and not our neck.
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Why go so far? You would not eat if
you knew the food you eat would not be digested. You
would not sleep if you had no Faith that you would
wake up. You would not dare breathe if you did not
have the Faith that the breath of air you've taken
would ever come out. Life is verily Faith. And in
this Life, man tends to move towards happiness. And
Bhagavan puts both of them so close together when He
says:
Where there is Faith, there is Love;
Where there is Love, there is Truth;
Where there is Truth, there is Peace;
Where there is Peace, there is Bliss;
And where there is Bliss, there is God!
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What better
inspiration is there to repose our Faith upon than Him
seated in our midst, the Supreme Godhead, the source of
Supreme Love.
Atita
pantanam tavacha mahima vangamanasaya ho
Prataya Vrityayam Chakitam abhidateyshritaneyapi
Oh
Lord! My mind and thoughts stand flabbergasted when
attempting to scale the heights of Your Benevolence and
Magnificence. Let us develop our Faith towards You.
Lord Narayana's Love For His
Devotee
It so
happened that once sage Narada upon his tour around the
world in spreading God's Glory happened to meet a devotee of
the Lord sitting under a huge banyan tree. Upon seeing the
great sage, the devotee prostrated before him and said, "Oh
great one, when will you be going to Vaikuntha to meet the
Lord?" Narada replied, "After my trip around the world
spreading the message of the Lord I will surely go to
Vaikuntha." The devotee then put forward his prayer. "I have
been meditating for so many years. Please ask the Lord when
He will give me His Darshan?"
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And
so the sage consented to put forward the prayer of
this devotee and proceeded to Vaikuntha. There Lord
Narayana asked him, "Narada, what is your news?"
Narada then put forward the prayer that the devotee
had made and Lord Narayana said, "Tell the devotee
that I will give him Darshan only after a number of
births, a number equal to the number of leaves on
the tree under which he is meditating.
Narada was dejected, but He was only a messenger and
so he went to the devotee and said, "You fool.
Couldn't you find any other tree to meditate under?
Of all the trees, you chose a banyan tree! The Lord
will surely come to give you Darshan but it will be
after a number of births, equal to the number of
leaves on the tree under which you are meditating."
And
that moment a strange thing happened. The devotee
went into a fit of ecstasy and the Lord appeared on
the scene. As Narada stood there, fuming and
fretting, the Lord and the devotee met. It was like
a calf running to meet its mother, or a river
surging to meet the ocean.
After
the union, the Lord came to Narada and said, "Narada
why do you look so upset?" Then Narada said, "Lord,
you may not have any value for your words but I have
some value for mine. You said one thing and did
something so contrary to it. Please explain." |
Then Vishnu
went on to explain: "It is the Faith the devotee had. He had
Faith ? complete Faith. I had given my assurance. It does
not matter how long it will take, but I had given my word,
and that Faith gave him all the joy that I am going to give
him Darshan, and so I had to
break My Word and appear in front of him."
What is the
path to God? There is no path to God! Who is the source of
our Faith? It's a jump, for it's an abyss! In this quest for
God, it is a question of 100% Faith or no Faith at all! Even
99.999% won't do! In this domain of God there is no question
of "if" and "but." Every "if" and "but" is "cut"! It's a
question of 100% Faith or no Faith at all.
But the
plight of man is so miserable that he is ready to believe in
anything and everything except his own inner voice. Every
time we get into a bus we place our life in the hands of the
driver, a mortal like us. But when the Jagad Guru comes and
says, "My child, give me your heart and I will ferry you
across the ocean of life," you are not interested.
When
the calendar says tomorrow is Thursday, you'll stake your
life on that. But when He who has put the sun, the moon and
the stars in their places and comes to you and whispers in
your ear, "My child, follow My words," you seem
disinterested. Is that our Faith? Is that our belief in His
word?
The Flood Of Love
Bhagavan
narrated this experience which happened thirty years ago. A
devotee from East Godavari had come to Bhagavan and prayed
to Him to come for a house warming ceremony ? the
Graha Pravesham.
Swami
consented to his prayer and fixed a date when He
would be there. He even said, "I will be there on
that day at 9:00 a.m." Given this Divine assurance,
the devotee made all preparations for Bhagavan to
visit his home in East Godavari. As usual, the
yearly rains came and played havoc with the lives of
the people. And that year too a cyclone hit East
Godavari. As the Godavari River began to swell, so
too did the hearts of the devotees with prayer. But
God had given them His word and assured them that He
will be there. And they had belief in that.
Swami
says: "There may be people who suffer because they
do not have Faith, but there is no one who will be
let down if he has Faith." Based on this assurance,
they made ready to receive Bhagavan in East
Godavari.
With all this going on, unmindful of
what transpired between God and His devotees, Nature
continued to pour down relentlessly on East
Godavari. The only connection East Godavari had with
the rest of the world was the old bridge at
Rajahumdry. For obvious reasons, the district
officials closed the bridge and no transportation
was now possible across the river.
But Bhagavan had said He would go.
And so, on the due date, He set forth with a few
dignitaries to East Godavari. When they approached
the river it was in full spate. The district
officials tried to dissuade the party from
attempting to cross the bridge. |
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They insisted
that Swami had to give a declaration that He is taking the
journey at His own risk. Consider the irony of the situation
where God had to assure them of what He does.
"Nothing Will Happen To Anyone Who Is With Me!"
Bhagavan
wrote there: "Nothing will happen to anyone who is
with Me!" Who can give this assurance except the
Lord of the Universe? And so, a small boat was arranged to
ferry Bhagavan across to the other side. And it was in such
a position that it had to go under the bridge to reach the
far shore.
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The
devotees gathered on either side of the river to see
what would happen. By now the water level had risen
so high that when the boat reached the bridge it was
lashing the roof and there was absolutely no space
for the boat to pass beneath it. The people waited
eagerly and anxiously wondering what would happen.
Bhagavan instructed the people in the
boat, "Close your eyes. Do not watch what will
happen." Then, in a fraction of a second, the boat
suddenly disappeared and appeared on the other side!
Imagine the roar of the devotees on both sides
drowning out the roar of the river. The joy that
surged through their hearts was greater even than
the flood arising from the Godavari River. And as
promised, Bhagavan reached the home at exactly 9:00
a.m. During a public meeting He said,
"When I came as Rama, the
ocean gave way; it had to give! When I came as
Krishna , Yamuna gave way! When I came as Sai, what
is Godavari?" |
This Lord of
Puttaparthi will never give you up ? He will never forsake
you. This ocean of mercy will take you by His hand and guide
you across. You will never be abandoned. Bhagavan speaks of
Faith as a fire. Small fires are easily put out by the
slightest wind; so are small Faiths by the slightest winds
of doubt. Our Faith should be like that of a forest fire. Oh
Lord, let this Faith that You instill in us light the lamps
of Love in our hearts so that it dispels darkness, ignorance
and slothfulness.
Lead
kindly Light amidst the encircling gloom.
Lead Thou me on; the night is dark and I am far from home.
The distant scene, I do not ask to see. One step enough for
me.
Lead Thou me on!
Sai Ram!
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