A Human Tribute from a Grateful Devotee
The 23rd day of November is regarded as the birthday of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. It is only natural that a large number of devotees desire to celebrate the same with silent adoration and visible pleasure. For Him, I venture to suggest that an event of this nature is likely to be trivial in the eternity of time and the vastness of creation.
The first occasion when I had the privilege of close contact with Bhagavan was during the early hours of a night on the sands of the river Chitravati. The moon was shining with all her splendor and Baba drew me into conversing about what scientists generally think of divinity and scriptures. In a long-drawnout and tiring narration that was mostly by way of self-defense, I mentioned that a distinguished scientist when asked to express his feelings on an important occasion contented himself by quoting the following verse from Gita [Song of the Lord]:
Divi surya sahasrasya bhaved yugapaduththithaa
Yadi bhaassadrse saasyaath bhaaasthasya mahaathamanah
[If hundreds of thousands of suns rose up at once into the sky, they might resemble the effulgence of the Supreme person in that universal form.]
Many senior and older men of science believe in God and His ways as far beyond the comprehension of ordinary mortals and their mundane methods. It is only the half educated that are generally devoid of respect for the large number of things we see in this wide world that science cannot explain and so on. He listened intently, took a handful of sand from the riverbed, produced a printed text of the Gita from within the sand and put it into my hands. He did and said other things on that occasion that I need not recount now. It is enough to say that I was stunned and enthralled beyond all description. I reminded myself that what had happened was something that no science can explain. Was He simply furnishing a practical demonstration in support of my tiring theory?
Many incidents happened thereafter. I had the privilege of participating in devotional festivities and unique occasions, with Baba as the presiding deity. I saw Him whenever He permitted me to do so. He did several things in my presence with the result that after a few years, I concluded that I must not even attempt to explain or unravel what I had seen with my eyes, for I think it is not possible to do so with the help of the usually understood methodology of logic or of science. Neither the language we use nor the techniques we know and adopt are adequate for this purpose. I do not know what conclusion Baba has come to in regard to my mental thinking. I am afraid I cannot and should not attempt to assess this either.
I have often repeated to myself the following injunctions that are contained in the text that He gave me on that moonlit night.
“The deeper one’s learning is, greater should be his humility. After all, man knows mighty little and may some day learn enough about his own ignorance that he will be compelled to kneel down and pray.”
The Lord’s injunction is this, “Perform your actions without egoism, with no attachment for the fruits thereof, in a spirit of dedication to the Lord.”
I only pray that He may give me the strength of mind, so as to enable me to do my duty in the above manner and with greater humility, as. I grow older and older.
~S. Bhagavantham
Source: Sananthana Sarathi, Dec. 1965
