The Message and the Response
Our American friends sing a beautiful hymn of praise on Bhagavan’s glory, which very aptly describes the message which He is constantly teaching us. It declares Baba as saying, “My life is My message.” Let each one of us respond with, “Lord! My life is my homage, my answer, my reply.”
I believe that the underlying principles of His life that He wants us to learn and follow are: discipline, tolerance, equality, and love. The lesson of discipline is illustrated by Bhagavan’s own daily routine. Although He is beyond rules and laws, He himself adopts a regulated life, to set an example for us.
Every morning at Prasanthi Nilayam [Bhagavan’s ashram in Puttaparthi], He grants darshan [sight of a holy man]. His routine has regularity and an ineffable charm, all its own. He meets the devoted seekers of grace, walking between them, showering His love and blessings. The sick, the infirm, and the old get preference while He selects people whom He consoles and cures. Bhagavan expects us to behave in a disciplined manner. If someone rushes forward and causes obstruction to others, He turns back, for discipline has thereby been disturbed.
How tolerant and forgiving is Baba! We are all liable to fall into error in our waywardness. We manage to forget or ignore His divine counsel and commands soon after we hear them. But does He, for this reason, withhold His blessings and love from any of us? No. He is as loving as the father and mother. He pardons us and urges us to repent and improve by means of steady sincere effort. He corrects us at every stage and encourages us to rise up and move on.
Tolerance is the basis of all religions; it is the prime requisite for social security and peace; it is the most fundamental duty as well as right. Equal protection is guaranteed by our constitution; but Bhagavan is the best teacher who impresses on us the need to foster tolerance. He insists on our forgetting the faults of others and our own petty pride in our trivial accomplishments. For Him all are His children, there is neither high nor low. He moves among the nearest and the farthest, the scholars and the illiterate, elders and children, rich and poor, with the gift of grace that is shared by all.
Bhagavan is the prema-avatar [embodiment of divine love]. He seeks prema, blesses prema, teaches us the highest form of prema, and establishes prema in the driest of hearts. His compassionate touch, His consoling look, His soothing word, so sweet and strengthening, these are all gifts of prema that one receives from Him as inspiration for leading one’s own life in the path of prema. Baba’s love is limitless and everflowing. The divine hymn sung by the Americans says, “there is no reason for love; there is no season for love.” Criminals and sinners, atheists and agnostics, all are won over into purity by the alchemy of Baba’s love.
The world is passing through a crisis when love, tolerance, discipline, and morality have given place to anger, jealousy, hatred, distrust, and violence! We are fortunate that the incarnation of the Lord, come to reestablish dharma (righteousness) in the hearts of man and the councils of the nations, is available to us for darshan, sparshan [touch], and sambhashan [conversation], and that we are within the horizon of His grace. Let us try to understand His glorious message and follow its directions, at least in part, so that we might approach Him a little nearer, and receive His grace a little more. For this opportunity, so rare in many ages of human history, let us offer reverence and grateful homage to our parents.
~Arun Kumar Dutt
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, March 1971
