Fun With Sai

Consumed

I will recount a delightful little story which Professor Kasturi
told me and my late husband when he did us the honor of spending a couple of hours with us in our Bangalore hotel in 1980. Many years ago he was with Baba at Benares and was consumed by the desire to receive a mantra [sacred verbal formula] from Swami. Having mentioned this to Baba, he bathed himself in the sacred waters of the Ganges and fasted all morning in order to receive it. But the morning hours passed. Noon came. But no mantra! He confessed that by this time he shed tears of disappointment. Then, horror of horrors, lunchtime came, and he was seated right next to Swami.
“Kasturi, why aren’t you eating?” asked Baba, assuming innocence.

“The mantra…” began the miserable Kasturi, swallowing a sob.

“What is the purpose of a mantra?” Swami asked.

“To get closer to the Lord,” Kasturi replied. Baba looked down at Kasturi’s arm and then at his own. They were almost touching.

“Well,” He smiled in His divinely down‑to–earth way, “How much closer do you want to get?”

Sai Humor, p. 8