Fun With Sai
Splendor
The contrasts can be mind-bending. Some years ago, when Baba visited the Himalayas with a party of chosen disciples, they all behaved like excited boys in the unfamiliar snow. Baba threw snowballs at them and enjoyed the improvised toboggans on which they careered down the slopes. Yet, on another day, He blessed a venerable sage in his cave retreat by granting him a sight of His cosmic form, which left the old man in a state of unimaginable ecstasy.
On a different occasion, a great sage had stayed for a long time at Prasanthi Nilayam. Afterwards he wrote, “At the last moment of leave-taking, His transformation into Krishna in dazzling splendor, blinding my sight, is a face never to be forgotten in my life.”
Sai Humour, p. 7
Consumed
This is a little story which Professor Kasturi told a couple from England in 1980. Many years ago Kasturi was with Baba at Benaras 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
Long Wait
A young man from the United States received an unexpected lesson in patience, not to say humility. Apparently, he was under the impression that having made the journey to Puttaparthi, he would or should be accorded an interview right away. He was oblivious of the fact that many people have waited months, even years, or have never had an interview at all. When, after three weeks, he was blessed with an interview, he told Baba he had had to wait for three weeks. Smilingly, the Avatar [descent of God on earth] replied, “But I have had to wait several thousand years for you!”
Sai Humor, p. 4
