Love and Laughter
Baba means Father. Our beloved Baba is, as the Vedas extol, the Fatherliest of Fathers, the Motherliest of Mothers, and the Childliest of Children. When we celebrate the golden birthday of our golden Baba, it occurs in our minds that Baba is born every day, in the hearts of those He loves and who love Him.
The Rig Veda (10-123-1) says of the Lord, “This is the Loving One, driving the issues of the many-colored; the Spring of Light, in the chariot of splendor; Him, at the meeting of the waters and the sun, the sages with their hymns caress as a CHILD.”
Blithe of spirit, light of mind, lithe limbs—He has the eternal Child in Him. This Child has for its play, the entire world. Every human being is Its toy. The Divine Mother is referred to in the Hindu Scriptures as a Child, Bala. She revels in Play, as Leela-vinodini. But the play is not whimsical or capricious. Bound in dharma (law), yet reveling in leela—that is the enigma of Bala as well as Baba. Baba is so simple, and open, like space, that you do not feel anything enigmatic in this Babe.
Baba says about Himself, “Baba never rests. He is never tired. …Endless work, in all the world! Easy, no weight, always happy! That is the miracle. Other so-called miracles are not miracles!” Yes. “Easy, no weight, always happy”! That makes and marks Baba the Babe. Baba explains, “Baba has taken this body, without any tendencies, completely free, no desires, no attachment.” This marks the eternal play-boy. “Strain-less, spontaneous life”, that is the characteristic. Baba advises: “Let go. Don’t cling. Be still. Establish yourselves in the homelessness of the mind. Be the witness of everything. Abandon all your plans, even the `best’ ones. Abandon all the theories you cherish; the doctrines you hold dear; the systems of knowledge that have accumulated.” We too must become children like Him.
For Baba, it is all fun and frolic, even the most breath-taking wonders. See Him heaping soft sand on the seashore near Dwaraka! It reaches the height of a cubit. He flattens the top and levels the sand. He draws with evident glee a three slanted line, with His finger. People look on with amazement and curiosity. He enjoys their amazement. He adds a small triangle over the circle, on top of the slants. Another short line across the circle, and He chuckles, `It is ready’.
While the gathering is perched on the verge of suspense, the `Child’ digs its hands deep into the heap, and draws forth a bright golden idol of Lord Krishna, about 15 inches high! The three-slanted line has become the tribhangi body of Govinda; the circle on top, His Head; the triangle, the peacock-feather crest; the line across the circle, the flute! Sai’s golden Will has manifested itself as the golden idol. But the dazzling magnificence has been completely scattered by the disarming coolness of His child-like felicity.
Take another instance. Tagore sang of the baby who wanted to catch the moon with its hands and Dada scolding it, “You are the silliest child I have known. If the moon came nearer, you would see how big it is.” But, when Baba the babe has it in His palm, it is not so big at all! Recently while conversing with some students of the Whitefield Sathya Sai College on a night, Baba said, “Ask for anything you want of me.” One boy made hold to ask, “Baba please bring the moon down here.” “Oh, yes” said the wonderworker, whose wondrous love shears his wonders of their eerie weight. And right in his palm was a splendorous globular object pouring out of soft cool moonlight. “Look up at the moon in the sky”, Baba said. The `original’ moon up above had by then lost its luster and appeared a plate of paper; Baba folded his fingers and closed the `moon’ in his palm and then asked the boys to once again see the moon above. Now it had regained its splendor. On Baba opening His palm again, the sky-moon lost its radiance but the same moonlight emanated from the object in His palm. Baba repeated the `same’ again and again. What ought to have been an astounding miracle was alchemized to a baby’s prank. It was all a matter of love and laughter.
Sacred relaxation is as much religion and spirituality, as intense concentration—and this is what Baba conveys through His childlike way of performing wonders.
Babe, not only in what He does! He is just Babe at times. During Bhajans when he is seated on the throne, what a variety of bhavas [expressions] He manifests. One moment He glows in all Majesty. Next moment He is the mellow mother. Then the mother too melts in an ocean of serenity, and he looks the picture of peace. And next he is Child. With immaculate innocence, the Child goes on feeling the small bouquet placed in the arm of the chair. Then It twirls it with obvious relish.
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought, Thou! whose exterior semblance doth belie Thy Soul’s immensity—
Thou, little Child, yet glorious in the might
Of heaven-born freedom on thy Being’s height
The mischievous, Baba-babe plucks petals from the flower bunch. A smile lites Its face. Its light lightens our wearied hearts too. It is:
That blessed mood
In which the burthen of the mystery
Is lightened.
Not only the mystery of our life’s turmoil, but the supreme mystery of Baba too! Behind and beyond the mystery He is the loving, loveable Baby. “Delight and liberty, the simple creed of childhood, whether busy or at rest”—The delight of brahmananda, the liberty of moksha so silkily breathed into us, without any philosophy, ritual, exercise.
Krishna lived to be a centenarian and yet we adore Him only as a Balagopala. Sai Krishna, whether 50 or 500, will be the eternal Baba to us, blessing us with the highest bliss by his very Baby-ness. The Philosopher-Prince of the Bhagavad-Gita himself becomes a Gita (song) when He is child; paandityam nirvidya Baalyena tishthaset (Casting off knowledge, he stands out as a child). Let us sing hallelujah to Baba in the words of “the Crescent Moon.”
They clamor and fight, they doubt and despair, they know no end to their wranglings.
Let Your life come amongst them like a flame of light, Child, unflickering and pure, and delight them into silence.
They are cruel in their greed and their envy; their words are like hidden knives thirsting for blood.
Go and stand amidst their scowling hearts, Child, and let your gentle eyes fall upon them like the forgiving peace of the evening, over the strife of the day.
Let them see your face, Child, and thus know the meaning of all things; let them love you and thus love each other.
~Ra. Ganapathi
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, April 1976
Life is a long process of struggle, striving and achievement. God has created man so that he might use all his talents to the utmost and express his special personality or Purusha. The purpose of man is not mere consumption of food, ending up as a burden upon the earth or as an animal that is a slave to the senses. God has no need of a horde of loungers and idlers; He grants grace only on the active, the adventurous, and the assiduous marchers. Intelligence and the capacity to discriminate between the good and the evil should not be laid waste or left uncultivated. Using them for one’s own good and the good of society is the best way of showing gratitude to God for all that He has endowed man with.
—Baba
