May Thy Will Prevail
Many of us who have approached Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba are distressed; some are seekers of enjoyment; a few are seekers of knowledge, and a microscopic few are men of wisdom. Men approach Him, the supreme giver, with diverse motives. But though they do not know it, they have been irresistibly impelled to do so as a result of the sankalpa [divine will] of Sri Bhagavan, and also as a result of their own good poorva karma [past deeds]. Bhagavan has often stated that no one can approach Him, except it be as a result of His sankalpa. Ahalya Devi had to remain petrified for ages, only to be redeemed finally, in due time, by the immortal touch of Sri Ramachandra’s feet. Two prerequisites are necessary: the grosser art of Ahalya’s karma had to come to its predestined end and, simultaneously, Sri Rama’s sankalpa to redeem her had to be revealed to the world at large.
We go to Sri Bhagavan to get from Him what we feel `we need.’ But He draws us to His feet, to give us not what we feel we need, but what He knows `we lack.’ Let us never be under the supposition that when we bow down to His feet, we are bound to get all that we are praying for. Only He knows, better than all of us, what is good for us, and what we really and truly need.
When we approach Sri Bhagavan, let us pray to Him in our heart of hearts, “May Thy will prevail.” He knows what is ultimately best for us, and will give us what we deserve according to our stage of development. Bhagavan has often told us, “Gold cannot be fashioned into an ornament of exquisite beauty without undergoing the process of purification through fire, and without receiving, innumerable and agonizing blows at the hands of the skilled master craftsman. What is to be the final shape of the jewel is not known to the jewel, but only to the craftsman, in whose mind it has already taken shape. If the lump of gold has to be fashioned into a creation of beauty, it cannot refuse to undergo the concomitant tribulations of going through fire and being beaten into shape.”
~K. P. Mukunda Prabhu
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, July 1971
