The Divine Photographer

Visitor: (carrying a professional camera) Can I take your picture now?

Sai: (in English): How many are here? Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten… twelve.

Visitor: Twelve disciples.

Sai: This is my camera. (Swami opens His hand and there are 12 small pictures of Himself. Many exclamations from the group.) Keep them in your purse. See, twelve! Full address also! Address here in India. No camera, no film, no flash. A visiting card. Puttaparthi is the address. (Sai opens a silver box and starts preparing betel leaves.)

Visitor: What is that?

Sai: (in English): That is the nut. This is the leaf. See, the leaves, and this is the betel. This is not a bad habit. If it were a bad habit, Swami would not chew betel nut. The leaves and their juice purify the blood. The nut is good for digestion, and is used for this purpose even for little puppies. Calcium is also added as chunam. These three substances, when mixed together, make the red color. This is Indian. (This was said in a joking voice, accompanied by much merriment from the foreign visitors.)

Visitor: The pictures that people take of Swami and then produce for sale are not good pictures. They do not do justice to Swami. Swami is perfect and everything around Him should be perfect.

Sai: Some may like one thing and others may not like that thing. The liking and disliking is not in the object, but in our minds. If a person judges from appearance, then it indicates a lack of depth. First one should know Swami, and then make a judgment.

Visitor: But Swami is beautiful and the pictures make Him ugly.

Sai: Love is the beauty.

Translator: Swami says that because we love Him we see the beauty. So whoever wants to will come to Him. You need not get upset because of pictures.

Sai: Johnson, do you know, Johnson the English writer and scholar had an ugly wife, but he loved her very much. She did not look young and beautiful. Friends thought she looked old and made up. But Johnson thought her beautiful. Love is blind.

Visitor: Master, yesterday you said this is ego and that is God. Does being here help?

Sai: Oh, yes. When you make friendship with God, then all the three gunas [attributes of one’s nature] go away from you—like ego, anger, and jealousy. Scientifically also, the blood goes to the top and then circulates back; it goes faster. This is a most important point in life.

Source: Converstaions with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba