Sai Baba the Master by E.Bharadwaja

[Guest guest]

Quite some time lapsed in that timeless moment and I was knocked back

into

normal awareness by what then felt to me like a rude knocking on my

shoulders. It was then that I realized that I was seated and that my

eyes

were shut, that my cheeks were wet with half-dried tears. The shrine

was

quite noisy and crowded. I saw my brother patting me gently and

asking,

“You are still seated here! Had your bath and breakfast? It’s almost

lunch

time. It’s better to finish our lunch.” His words were quite audible

but I

found it hard to catch the sense, as though I was abruptly awakened

from

deep sleep. It was quite disturbing even to endeavour to understand

the

words and still more to respond, the spirit being totally unwilling to

be

called out from the heart of peace. It was much easier to just obey

what

he said. It was nearly four hours since I stepped into the shrine

which

was getting crowded as the time for noon arti was nearing and the

devotees

were queing up for finishing abhishek! We walked down to the dining

hall

but to me it was as though the walk were just a vivid reverie. My mind

was

all set on sinking back into the state of peace and bliss from which

it

was roused and with which the connection was not yet completely

snapped.

It was quite a task to pay particular attention to things and persons.

 

This mood was persistent and had never quite left me during the brief

stay

of two days at Shirdi. Perhaps my brother had found out that something

unusual was happening to me. “You may go over here again later if you

want

to, but now we have to go back!” he said. And we were back.

 

The significant thing, as I see it now in retrospect, is that the

spiritual connection with that deeper level of being, continued for

months

after our return from Shirdi. My mind, when it now and then relapsed

into

normal awareness, quite instinctively identified that deeper level of

Being with Baba. Mostly I was in a continuous state of ineffable peace

and

quiet and the normal activities of the day were powerless to interrupt

it.

Days passed as a continuous moment of timelessness; it was as though

all

things around, including my body, were all parts of a whole which is

conscious and aware. Whenever the world around had plucked me into the

every day reality, my spirit, once again, at the earliest possible,

was

summoned back to its pristine state by the vivid appearance of the

marble

image at Shirdi before my mind’s eye. And then objects and creatures

all

around would seem to be crystallizations of a pervasive consciousness.

 

(To be contd....)