WHY FEAR WHEN MOTHER IS NEAR

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WHY FEAR WHEN MOTHER IS NEAR

Baba said, "This Masjidmayi (its presiding Deity) is very merciful, she is the

mother of the simple devotees, whom she will save in calamities. Once a person

sits on her lap, all his troubles are over. He, who rests in her shade, gets

Bliss" in Sri Sai Satcharitra, chapter XXII.

Yes – if we confess the truth to ourselves we will not deny that we feel lonely.

We lack the security of protection. We are like the child who, taken to the

fair, lost its mother in the crowd. With this difference that the child rent

the air with its cries for the mother, "Ma! Ma!", but we have forgotten even to

cry for our Divine Mother. We are like the orphans who was never tired of

complaining that there was no one to care for him in this big, boisterous

world. It is this sense of loneliness that leads to a feeling of frustration,

and so many of us do not find it worth while to live in the world.

Life has become a burden to untold millions. So many feel lonely: and loneliness

sits as a heavy burden on the heart, sapping its strength, eating into its

vitals. Heart diseases are on the increase. Hypertension is become a common

ailment. Nervous breakdowns takes a heavy toll. A heart specialist said to me

only last evening: "Not a day passes but I am called to the bed-side of a dying

heart patient. It was not so a few years ago."

We feel lonely: we feel lost: we feel abandoned: we feel forsaken and forlorn.

Again and again, we lose the sense of security which belongs to us a children

of God: we fall into the abyss of fear.

I can never forget the sweet serene face of a child I saw sixty years ago. I was

on board the S.S. Versova, travelling from Mumbai to Karachi. Suddenly, a

terrible storm arose. Thick clouds appeared in the skies, covering face of the

sun, and the day become dark as night. Huge waves lashed against the steamer

which tossed as a paper-boat. All the passengers were filled with terror. It

looks as though we were doomed to a watery grave. In the midst of this

sorrowful scene sat a little child – barely six years old – calm, serene,

undisturbed by the shrieking storm and the rolling wave.

I was, then, about ten years of age: and I marvelled at this child’s unruffled

serenity in the face of death. I said to him: "The steamer is about to sink:

are you not afraid?"

With a cherubic smile he answered: "What have I to fear when my mother is near?"

I can never forget those words. When in the depths of despair and sorrow I have

repeated the words to myself, repeated them again and again, I have felt

relieved: "What have I to fear when my Mother is near?"

Our Mother – the Mother Divine – is so near to each one of us. Closer is She

than breathing and nearer than hands and feet. Alas! We have turned our faces

away from Her. In our shouts and shows, our engagements and occupations, our

business and commerce, we have forgotten Her. We have lost the child-like

spirit. To be child-like is to renounce criticism, is to rejoice in life, is to

share all we have with all men, is to love and laugh. We think we have grown up

and no longer need the Mother’s loving care. We need to become children again,

friendly and loving towards all – not critical, never fearful.

(J.P. Vaswani in Mira, April 2004)

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