Dear folks of Baba,
In this next chapter, Darwin says that Baba “is more interested in our progress than we are.” That is, He’s not waiting for us to make our way to Him on our time but rather than on His time, which is completely different. He is, you might say, courting us to draw closer to Him and is working tirelessly with each of us, even though we may only be aware of an infinitely small fraction of His efforts. As Darwin says, it’s not that He works with us “a little bit every now and then.” He is eternally working with each one, though such intimate and personal care is greatly unfathomable to us. In one of Kitty Davy’s favorite Rumi poems, he ends with the line: “I never knew that God, too, desires us.” In her life before meeting Baba, she felt in her devotion to Jesus that she was trying to attract His attention by her dedication and service. In her experience, Jesus was more of a passive presence. But when Baba entered her life and would come to Europe to visit His Western followers during the 1930s, they found that Baba, from His side, was truly dynamic in making the most loving and personal efforts to attract them! This was entirely unexpected.
Darwin would insist that we not let our weaknesses, failings and disobediences create a feeling of unworthiness in our relationship with Baba. This is a mistake many Baba lovers make, especially in the beginning, and in doing so we forfeit our intimacy with Him which is the very means of overcoming our weaknesses. The intimate focus on Baba turns our attention away from our personal “melodrama” and toward a feeling of belonging to Baba with its accompanying joy and love. Darwin says, “His disposition toward us is that of unbroken sweet, loving care all the time.” For many of us, as a part of our relationship with Baba, focus on His form and personality is paramount and indispensable. Once in Mandali Hall back in the 1980s, Eruch posed the question, “What does it mean to hold on to Baba’s damaan?” Holding on to His damaan (the hem sewn in clothing) is a metaphor for a young child in a crowd of people holding on to his mother’s sari so as not to get lost. Eruch invited us to share what we felt holding on to Baba’s damaan meant. The discussion went on for nearly an hour, and in the end, we asked Eruch what it meant to him. And he said, “His form.” That was a relief to us; it wasn’t something esoteric, but something within our capacity.
Ramakrishna, the Perfect Master from the mid-1800s, was once asked, “What is the highest form of love?” He gave this answer: It was the love that the gopis had for Krishna. As most of you know, Krishna grew up as a cowherd in the village of Brindaban, even though he was of a royal family and destined to be king. The villagers, the gopis, loved and adored him, and he enchanted them with his divine personality. At age sixteen, he left Brindaban as was destined. He was forced to fight and kill his evil uncle, and he then became king. One day, as king, he sent one of his ministers to Brindaban to see the gopis and bring them a message. As I remember it, his minister came down the hillside to the village on horseback, and all the gopis ran excitedly to see him. They called out, “Where is Krishna? Where is Krishna? Why haven’t you brought our Krishna?” The minister replied, “But Krishna is the Lord of Creation. He is everywhere.” “Don’t tell us that! We don’t want the Lord of Creation. Bring us Krishna!” Ramakrishna said this is the highest expression of love—to demand the form of the Avatar and be attached to it! Darwin used to say, “His form is the doorway to the Infinite. He is both the Way and the Goal.”
To this end, Darwin says, “Our thought has to be used in the process. It sounds like an impossible thing, but my experience is that we can be aware of Him the more we think of Him; we can learn to feel His presence. When I was at my job, I had to try to keep my heart going: keep my feelings, my heart center, awake and active, feeling Baba’s presence, even though my mind had to be occupied elsewhere.”
In my experience, there are some followers of Baba who are more drawn to His impersonal aspect, His divinity, rather than to His humanity, His personality. Both approaches are equally valid. How do you relate to Him? Do you feel that Baba has been actively drawing (courting) you in your life with Him?
“When you are with everyone but Me,
you are with no one.
And when you are with no one but Me,
you are with everyone.”
- Rumi
In His love, Jeff
PS. We are continuing on page 22
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