Sai Baba—As Divine Mother and Father
This is a transcription of the talk at the Silent Retreat in NY in October, 93
We sing many bhajans which refer to Swami as Mother and Father. Clearly, He represents different things to us at different times in our lives. This weekend I have been experiencing Him as Divine Parent. I think this experience has its beginnings in my trip to India this past summer. On our fourth day at Brindavan, Swami came to me during Darshan and before He asked me that infamous question “Where are you from?” He looked at me with the most beautiful look one of love, recognition and joy. It wasn’t until that evening that I realized that the look I got from our Lord was exactly the look my own mother gives me when she hasn’t seen me in a while! I’ve been thinking about the significance of this, and I would like to share with you some random thoughts on Baba’s parental presence in our lives.
At birth, the child is helpless. The mother and father bathe, dress, protect and feed it, aware always of its needs. So, Swami tells us, “If the bhakta (devotee) has dedicated his all, body, mind and existence to the Lord, He will Himself look after everything, for He will always be with him. Under such conditions there is no need for prayer.”
The infant does not ask for care; he has unswerving faith in the love and responsibility of the parent. So, too, Swami says, this unswerving faith in Him is all we need to be carried and cared for always: “If complete faith is placed on the Lord at all times, why should I-Ie deny you His Grace? Why should He desist from helping you?”
Often we hear the nostalgic cry of adults, “Oh! To be a child again… what a life…no worries…all innocence…” What is beautiful about our Lord is that we can indeed keep that innocence alive, for He is always there, watching over us, helping us to grow. He tells us: “Like a child endeavoring to walk, you might toddle a few steps, falter and fall, but like the child, you must lift yourself up with a smile and start again.” Through our experiences with Him, we come to know that Baba watches over us always, encouraging us when we fall like the sweetest of mothers.
As a parent models behavior for a child, so must we remember Swami is modeling constantly for us through every action of His life, so that as the days go by, we will grow in His image. Before his death eight years ago, my grandfather had a mantra of sorts. He continually said to my mother and in tum to me, “Always do the right thing.” In Swami, the Divine Father, we get this advice over and over. When He talks about Right Action, He tells us: “Avoid in your behavior, your actions, and your speech all trace of the desires to pain others, to insult others or cause loss or misery to others…Practice this type of living, desist from injury to yourself and your own good, and walk always in the path of truth.”
Jesus said, “I and My Father are One,” and Swami says, “Your life is My message.” Clearly, the parents’ role is to establish themselves and their good values in the child so that the child becomes independent. As an adult, the child ends up embodying the teachings (and perhaps the lives of the parents. Swami asks us to be as parents to our minds in the same way: “Treat your Chitta (mind) as at little boy. Bring up that boy, training it to become wiser and wiser.”
“Caress it into good ways, make it aware that all objects that are seen are just products of one’s own illusion, remove its fears and foibles, and focus its attention steadily on the good only. Never deal forcibly with the Chitta; it will yield easily to tenderness and patient training. Correct its waywardness by means of an attitude of renunciation. Destroy its Ajnana by means of the instruction in the knowledge of the Atma. Strengthen the interest it is already endowed with, towards the realization of Brahman, let it give up the attraction towards the evanescent and the false, the mirages created by fancy and fantasy, turn its face inward away from the external world by these three methods.”
This is quite a task! And until we are independent enough, Swami is here if we have faith in Him as our Father. With great tenderness and patient training, He teaches us to become wiser, caresses us into good ways, and removes our fears and foibles.
I will close with a reflection on one more cliché: “children should be seen and not heard.” Although this statement has always struck me as unnatural, perhaps, if we look at it from a different perspective, it can guide us. As Sai children, our thoughts, words and deeds (which Swami says should be one) should be seen by others. Others should not hear us merely talk but see us live out the message of our Beloved Mother and Father, Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
Jai Sai Ram!
~Suzanne H. Heyd, Danbury CT
