The Sixth Point

Baba’s darshan topic tonight was Shiva’s Seven Secrets of Success.

At its conclusion, I took Baba downstairs, saw Him into His room, and then entered Ramanandaji’s room, just next to Baba’s.

In a few moments I was joined by three or four other Dadas. One sister brought in a huge bowl of round milk-sweets, a small fraction of what had been prepared in honor of Baba’s last darshan in Timmem.

I sat alone, thinking of Baba, and eating slowly.

After eating two of these extremely tasty balls, I was lying on my side, looking at the bowl, contemplating whether or not to eat a third one. In that very moment, I saw the handle of the door turn and in walked Baba! He was dressed in the simple white undershirt and green lungi that He wears only in the privacy of His own room.

He walked over to me. I sat up, smiling.

With a sly grin on His face, He said to me, “And remember … the sixth point is a very difficult point to follow.”

Without giving me a chance to reply, He turned and left the room as suddenly as He had entered.

I lay on the floor, laughing—Shiva’s sixth secret of success was control over food.

Freedom’s limit

This morning, just before our departure from Timmem, Baba called a meeting of Dadas and Didis.

After beautifully reciting a few poems of India’s greatest poet, Rabindranath Tagore, He asked each of us to express something of how we were feeling at the moment.

One Dada mentioned how sad everyone felt having to leave Timmem. Baba replied by telling a story:

Baba

A great sage Kanva lived alone in a forest. He loved to help people.

He often went to the town to find sick and helpless people, bring them back to his hermitage to care for them until they recovered.

He was well known for this generosity.

One day a mother came to Kanva and left her baby girl, Shakuntala, under the saint’s benevolent care.

Kanva raised Shakuntala until she was old enough to be married.

At this time King Dushyanta arrived, and claimed Shakuntala as his queen.

As she was preparing to leave, Kanva found himself gripped with feelings of despair. He thought, ‘I am a renunciate and a yogi. I should be free from the emotions of affection.’

Baba asked:

Baba

Why was he having these feelings? Although he was a sage, he was living in the world, and thus bound by the relative factor.

All of you boys and girls are doing meditation to be free of bondages. Being here in the world, however, it is impossible to deny bondage.

Baba’s way of speaking was so gentle that everyone wept.

A deer devotee

Hannover, West Germany.

While driving today, an odd event occurred. I was in the car just behind Baba’s. As the road passed through a field of chest-high grass, I saw a deer suddenly emerge next to Baba’s car.

For about 200 meters it ran alongside of the car. To do this it had to run at a great speed, while at the same time jumping high in the air with each step in order to get through the tall grass.

At the end of that 200 meters, the car turned and the deer followed, continuing to run with Baba for another 150 or 200 meters. Then the car accelerated greatly, and the deer fell back, unable to keep up.

Baba’s nephew, Paltu, was in that car. Afterward I said to him,

“Did you notice that deer?”

“Of course.”

“And did Baba comment anything about it?”

“Not directly. But He was surely thinking about it. For several minutes He had been discussing German architecture, when, without warning, He began to talk about animals. I could not understand why He had changed the topic. And then He was talking specifically of deers. The speech on deers must have been going on for half-a-minute when that deer appeared. All of us in the car stared at it, except Baba, who went on speaking without turning His face in the animal’s direction. I wanted to ask Him about it, but He gave me no scope to speak.”

Will we ever know the cause of this unquestionably mystical event?

In the light of today’s experience and also Baba’s story about Kanva and Shakuntala I am reminded of an old mythological tale. A saint was alone in the forest performing austere spiritual practices.

He had detached himself from all worldly affairs, and was approaching his entry through the gates of liberation when he discovered an orphaned baby doe. Compassion compelled him to rescue and then care for the creature. As months turned into years, the doe grew into a deer, and without recognizing the change in his mind, the saint gradually developed a deep attachment for the animal. One day the deer accidentally jumped off a cliff, falling to its death. The saint’s heart was tom. A few days later his final moment also came and his last thought was of his beloved deer. Accordingly, he could not gain liberation, and instead was reborn as a deer, which passed most of its life in the company of yogis.

Perhaps the story is not so fictional after all.

Revolutionary change

Yesterday, after leaving the cars, we approached a road having no sidewalk.

I said to Baba, “In Germany, Baba, since the cars drive on the right side of the road, it is better we walk on the left, into the traffic, so we can see any danger before it comes.”

Like a child. Baba complied.

This morning a similar situation arose. Again I started to explain where we should walk.

Baba interrupted me, saying, “I am an excellent student. If I hear anything, even once. I remember it forever. I clearly remember each and every perception since the moment of my birth. So, thank you—no need to repeat yesterday’s lesson.”

This afternoon Baba was speaking about society. “As long as there is animality in man. there will be war. War is the blackest spot on human character. Fight is the essence of life, but war is something brutal…. You may expect some change in collective psychology from after the year 1980, and a revolutionary change by the year 2000.”