Line up! March on!
“I am ever with you. Don’t worry. Do you know how hard it was to save you from that train disaster? Your son, too, was there, caught underneath the bridge in the flood. And then that heart attack you had! That was yet another job! On the second day, your condition was indeed very critical. The doctors were certain of that.”
These were the words with which Baba greeted this insignificant schoolteacher on the 26th day of June, 1970 at Brindavan, when I first met Him face to face. A thrilling sensation of trepidation and consolation overcame me.
My memory flashed back to that horrid night of the 23rd of December 1964. I had fallen into the surging waters of a roaring river through the open side of my railway coach and was being pressed down by the weight of the debris that descended on me. Shrieks and pathetic cries of agony were heard from all sides. Many floated desperately along. I called out the name of my Lord, Sai Ram.
In a moment my feet touched a flat rock, and I could keep my head over the water. I called out into the darkness the name of my son. O, how merciful is Baba! I heard my son’s voice, not far from me, answering, “I am safe, father. How are you?”
And close by me, on the same rock of refuge, stood the doctor with whom I was holding a long conversation when the gap in the line that yawned on the bridge pulled us all down into the catastrophe! Baba had not only saved him, but He made him come up to me so that he could administer first aid to both father and son. Baba was referring to this incident, which took place six years previously, when He said I had assigned him a `job’!
It was in 1969, five years later, that I was struck by a severe heart attack. The self‑same doctor who treated me during the train disaster looked after me then, as the Providential Instrument of Sai Mata.
And now I stood before my Lord to receive from Him the mantle of faith and the assurance that He would guard me for the rest of my life. I had struck gold. I knew that Baba was radiant, loving, wise, and full of power and mercy.
He is the Avatar of the Age. Baba has come to resuscitate all sinking hearts, not merely the physical sinking, but the morally (and) spiritually sinking. We all have narrow constricted hearts; we all have fallen into the flood of doubt and distress. He pulls us out of the mire; He gives us something to stand upon and keep our heads above the surging fears. He toughens us for the battle of life. He has come to cure the twin ills of complacency and lassitude, which hamper the efforts of the sadhaka in every field.
Love is the only agency adopted by Him to transform us. Grace is the vehicle of this Love. The gift of Grace from Him is but His prompting to develop the divine qualities latent in us. It is but a means to that end. It is often the first lesson we get to become aware of Him as our reality.
Selfishness, the exaggerated notion of ‘I’ and `Mine’, is, according to this Teacher the root cause of the anxiety and fear, of hatred and envy, that afflict human society everywhere at the present time. Eradication of this evil weed, which is ruining the field (kshetra) of the heart of man is possible only by the sadhana He lays down.
Baba’s teachings are sweet and simple. They takes us step by step, gently but steadily, from the gross animal level to the sublime Divine level. The method that can guide us nearest to Him is the Practice of the Constant Presence of Sai. Sai as we have all experienced is the unfailing Companion on the Pilgrim Path. He is the antaryami, the Inner Motivator, the Inspirer, the Guide, the ever‑vigilant Witness.
Do we ever make a start on this sadhana? Once we are lined up under the influence of some miraculous experience, material or spiritual, that sheds His Love on us, our duty is to march on.
He says to all who have decided to march on, “If you take one step toward Me, I take ten toward you.”
Meanwhile, let us recapitulate the preliminary disciplines one must impose on oneself. Start every day with Love, fill the day with Love, fulfill the day with Love. Dedicate the activities of each day as offerings to Baba, for, “Work is worship.” Let us be ashamed of that weakness¾worry. For when we worry, we are doubting Him or denying Him. Let us do good turns to those He places in our path; but let others not know that we did them. For it is all His, and there is nothing specifically ours. Let us not be drawn into anything wrong, anything that Baba would not approve. Let us not harm or injure anyone by harshness of speech or hurting comment. Let our words be few and soft and sweet. Let us be content with what Baba is pleased to give us and act well the role He has assigned. Let this be our resolve until the curtain falls.
~Prof. G. B. Pillay
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Nov. 1974
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