Glimpses of Baba

(From “The Movement,” California)

(I was in the United States in September‑October 1974, visiting Sathya Sai Centers. The California newspaper named “The Movement” devoted to an exposition of the spiritual life interviewed me in Tustin, California, regarding Baba. As the interviewer asked very interesting questions, I was made spontaneously to comment on aspects of Baba’s personality on which I do not always dwell. ~ Prof. Vinayak Krishna Gokak)

Movement Newspaper: I have the feel­ing, Dr. Gokak, that being with you is like being with Baba, in a vicarious way of course.

Dr. Gokak: Well, He asked me to go to America, and He said, “I’ll take care of you in every way.” My prayer to Him is that I should be worthy of Him; whatever I say or do should not be unworthy of a man re­presenting Baba. He said, “I’ll help you in every little way.” So far I have nothing to regret.

MN: Does Baba ever speak through you? Do you sometimes hear His voice?

DG: In dreams, yes.

MN: How about during the day when you’re involved in doing something, or contemplating doing something?

DG: I don’t hear Him, but suddenly there is guidance. There is no doubt about that! As long as I’m going right. I am guided. The moment I go wrong, I know that I am going wrong, and I correct my­self. That moment of knowledge, self­-knowledge, is where He steps in. I can’t say that I hear this, but it is there in the system.

MN: Like an alarm clock.

DG: It has been like that all these days. I very clearly see what He is doing for me.

MN: Is this your first trip to the United States?

DG: No, I was here 15 years ago on an academic assignment. I was the head of a delegation to report on reforms in examinations of higher education in univer­sities.

MN: Have you been surprised by any­thing that you’ve seen here this time?

DG: This time I am in a different kind of company. For the greater part of each day, I have been with Sai devotees. Wherever I’ve gone there has been so much love. I have been spoiled! I have been so well looked after. There has been so much love showered on me that I cannot tell India from America.

Looking at the young people, because on my last trip I spoke with many of them, I find a very significant change. At that time, they were asking questions about India, about what happens there, exotic questions; but now they ask me about time, about eternity, and things like that. They are greatly interested. This is a very signifi­cant change.

MN: I’ve heard you say that living so close to Baba you sometimes can get “burn­ed.” To what does this refer?

DG: It means that He is all perfection. In that Light around Him, no iota of un­truth can survive. No insincerity can have any place around him. No double stan­dards. But we are imperfect; therefore, we are human. In our dealings with Him we will sometimes try to impose this imper­fection on Him without our knowledge. He is very sorry for us because He knows that we are going to get “burned.” He can’t help it; He, Himself, can’t help us when we are getting burned because this is a very natural thing. But if one understands what is happening that it is the impurity within one that is being burned, then one can stand it all right. Plus, there is Baba’s grace. While this is happening, His love still flows to the person. This is what saves and heals him. This is what I referred to. You are on top of a volcano; this is perfection.

The moment you go slightly wrong in what you do, you are blown up. This is a critical moment in one’s life; he may or may not survive it.

In a fit of ego, one may go away. He is hurt; he is deeply hurt. If he goes, he goes, it’s his loss. There is no compro­mise. As Baba has said, “The nearer and dearer you are, the greater are your chances of getting burnt.” In becom­ing worthy of Him, you have to burn a great deal. This is what happens to every­one around Him.

MN: The “burning” then is purifi­cation?

DG: Yes, it is all the same.

MN: What is an Avatar?

DG: An Avatar is one who is a physi­cal projection of a ray from the Transcen­dental Plane, that aspect of God that is above the universe; the third aspect. From that aspect there is a ray that is not sub­ject to the cosmic laws. The human being who is a God‑man, an Avatar, is a descendant from the Transcendental Plane. He is Spirit in all It’s glory, transcending cosmic laws. The God‑Man represents man in the highest awareness.

MN: It must be strange at times rela­ting to Baba, being so close to Him, and knowing Him. How do you relate to Him, as a close friend or as a vehicle for God to come through this shell called Sai Baba? How do you relate to that situation?

DG: He’s the friend I love, the God I fear, and Krishna at whose enigmatic hands I love to be slain, making myself immortal. This is how I relate to Him. I am prepared for everything. For my doing, for my undoing, for all that. And I am also prepared for the human relationship. In the morning, when I am in the next room and the Avatar walks in and says, “Do you have a shaving brush?” I give Him mine because He has forgotten His own. I relate to Him in this way also. He is so intensely human. He can be so Divine.

MN: Does this seem like a paradox to you?

DG: No. Even when I am aware of all that He stands for, when I am near Him and He jokes with me I forget all that He is and I begin to talk as a friend. It is only when I get away from Him and come to America, for example, and see what is happening to Him in all these homes, all these photographs everywhere, that I say, “Is this Baba with whom I’m staying?” I begin to experience a sense of awe.

Once I said to him, “When will you show me Your cosmic form?” He said, “Wait, wait, I will show you.” He said, “Why do you think I have taken you so close to Me? For that reason, I have taken you close.” Actually I don’t know what else He is going to show but what I have seen already (laughter). When I am near Him, I still forget that He is Baba. I think of Him as very great and all that and near to me. I can take liberties and joke now and then when He smiles, not otherwise (laughter). But then I forget the rest of it. When I go to other places and see Vibhuti (sacred ash) showering in photographs and images appearing from nowhere and people going into ecstasy repeating His name, then I say, “Yes, this is the Cosmic Form.”

MN: What do you think of astrology, palmistry, psychic readings, and other such things?

DG: I’m an amateur palmist. One morning I was sitting in my room looking at a particular point in my own palm that refused to grow. Baba happened to come in at that moment. He asked me what I was doing. I couldn’t explain, I was rather shy. But He knew and He asked me, “Do you know palmistry?” I said, “Several years ago I read some books on palmistry.” He said, “Come on, read My palm!”

When He held out His hand, it was not for me to say, “No.” So, I spent some time looking at His palm. In fact, I was quite interested as it was the palm of an Avatar. I only know Western palmistry. There is Indian palmistry in which signs of discs and conchs reveal if a person is an Avatar. Unfortunately, I had not studied this, so I was unable to apply these tests to His palm. I used all I knew from Western palmistry and said, “This palm reveals no traces of Avatarhood.” Then he said, “Good, proceed. After all, how can the physical body bear on it traces of the Avatar; it doesn’t.” So, I was quite satisfied that I was a good palmist. But He proba­bly said this to satisfy me. Then I procee­ded to look for the signs of the supreme power that He exercises among us. Being an amateur, I was unable to locate many of the signs. But I did find some of them. He saw that I was fumbling, and seeing another young man near, He said, “Look at his palm. Tell me whether he is going to marry or not.”

I tried all my palmistry cleverness and spent some time regarding his palm. I thought he was going to marry, but I didn’t want to be dogmatic in the presence of Baba. He might change anything. If I said, “Yes, he is going to marry!” then He might see to it that he would never marry at all and falsify this prediction. So I said, “There are tendencies toward marriage on this palm, and if Baba wills, he may marry.” As it turned out, he married after two or three years, making my prediction right. But he went into this marriage with full permission from Swami.

Palmistry and astrology can anticipate certain possibilities in human life. Some­things, of course, depends on the science of astrology and palmistry, but much more depends upon the astrologist and palmist. One must have something of a psychic attunement with the object whose fortune he is going to read. If this is there then everything comes out correct.

There is an English story about an astro­loger who told a subject that he was going to kill someone at eight o’clock the next evening. The whole day this person kept himself indoors. The time was 7:30, 7:45, 7:50; he kept himself indoors. He didn’t want to take any chances. If he stay­ed in his room, who could he kill except himself? He knew he was not going to commit suicide. At 7:50 he came out of his room. He left for an evening walk, greatly relieved that he had falsified this prophecy. As he was walking along, he met this astrologer and he said, “Such a false prophecy came from you! You don’t know your own job!!!” And he hit him in the face. The man fell dead on the spot! So, the astrologer was killed, and the prophecy came true.

There are these possibilities both in pal­mistry and astrology, but Baba has also told us that the moment a man has realized his soul, he ceases to be a creature of circumstance. He ceases to be swayed by his own destiny. What rules him is not the stars, but his own soul. He consciously shapes his own life as he chooses. At this point, astrology and palmistry lose their meaning.

Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Jan. 1975

(To be continued)