Ishwara is the set up!

December 11, 2009

Thank you, dear sister, for this timely and wonderfully insightful message. It hits home for me all the harder because I've been recognizing over the past 2 days how Baba put me through an intensive test I ended up failing miserably. I've just returned from Prashnati Nilayam after a 3 day stay there. I had heard before how Prashanti is a testing ground, and how Baba stirs up the deep cauldron of your unconscious mind and shows you demons that you never knew you were harbouring and how everything that happens in the ashram is a lesson...and this time He did it to me!

I had my first darshan of the trip the previous evening when He gave a double-handed Abhayahasta to my section of the crowd and completely satiated our thirsting hearts with His Love. The next day He didn't come for morning darshan, whetting our apetite to get a good evening darshan. In the evening, He came around 5 pm, and fortunately, my 2 yr old son was asleep in my lap. For 30 mins I had great darshan, and then my son woke up. And then started the test. He was hungry and cranky coming out of the out-of-usual nap, but I managed to make him see Baba and watch the dance drama that was going on for a few mins, but soon he started whining and wanting to get out of the hall asap. I took him out and fed him some dry fruits and water and hoped some fresh air and walking would get him back to a more reasonable frame of mind...but I was wrong. He refused to go back in the hall, and when I carried him in anyway and sank down in a space I found, he burst

into loud crying that had ppl around me going "shhhh!" Greatly mortified, I immediately jumped up and ran out of the hall with him. Outside, he refused to walk or sit on my lap, but demanded that I carry him and walk around. He's a big sturdy kid and not easy to carry for a long time and I was rapidly losing my patience. The darshan I had waited 2 years for was slipping out of my hands and the obstacle in my path was this exasperating 2 yr old acting up at the worst time he could have chosen. I didn't even have the key to our ashram room (my mom had it and she was happily sitting in the darshan hall in the Divine presence) so I ended up carrying him and walking up and down for 1.5 hrs while everyone else were blissfully having darshan. I hadn't had much sleep the previous night and my internal state was the opposite of peace and aceptance at that moment. I was impatient, angry, tired, and was quite mean to my poor kid - I tried everything from

scolding, threatening and shaking him to get him to co-operate, but bless him, he just wouldn't. Now and then I even realized fully how I was losing it and acting like a basket case just metres away from Baba, right outside the darshan hall!! but next moment I'd be yelling at my son again. And Baba really put me through the wringer. That day He gave darshan for 2 hrs 10 minutes!!! After what seemed an eternity, my mom and cousin leisurely strolled out of the darshan hall and discovered the wreck I had become LOL

Anyway, Baba really held up a mirror to my mind and behaviour that day, and I'm grateful to Him for it and hope I can evolve beyond it soon. The lesson there was exactly what you said - He was the setup - toddler tantrums and all. There is almost nothing in this world I want more than Baba's darshan, and it was really hard to have it snatched away from me midway...but then He was setup all the time - I realize that now. I can only hope I pass the next time He tests me on this. Thanks again for the beautiful message.

Jai Sai Ram,

Mangala

Meera <keep_smilingg_26saibabanews Sent: Wed, December 9, 2009 12:36:15 PM[saibabanews] Ishwara is the set up!Sairam brothers and sisters.... Each one of us has found ourselves in a difficult situation many times in life. The situation or the set up is what creates problems for almost everyone. It could be family, workplace, or society or any other network we are in. When the people around us behave in a manner which we cannot accept or deal with, there arises the so called `problems' in life. We feel we would have been happier, healthier if we were in a different family, different office, or in the midst of different people. We pray

to God to pull us out of the mess, or to make changes in the set up. That's why we constantly require others to change, change their behaviour, change their perspective, which we conclude is not right, just because it does not suit us. We overlook their individuality, their need of their own space, and their freedom to be what they are. We ask God to change the set up, as we think He is outside this set up, watching the fun from up above. Swami Dayananda Saraswati says `Ishwara is the set up'. Ishwara or God is not someone who has to change the people around us, change the situation, or take us away from the mess we are in. He is the very Set up! He is the very parent, spouse, or boss that makes one's life miserable. He is the home, office or society we want to escape from. God is not an outsider who will come running to alter things for us, when we feel we don't deserve to be in the problem we are in. He is the time and space, He is the minute

and hour, and He is the very problem we face! Such a beautiful theory!To do justice to Swami, is to do full justice to the situation He has placed us in. Everything is His gift, His Prasad. You cannot possibly hate or dislike something given by Swami as a gift. You cannot dislike the person who brings a message from Swami, however bad the news may be, because 1) He is sent by our beloved Swami, and 2) He is just a messenger who has nothing to do with the message he carries. People around us are like the postman. They have been sent by God to us to deliver His message. Some bring us good feelings like love, and happiness, like the postman sometimes brings good letters; others bring us feelings like hatred and hurt and sadness, like the postman brings bad letters. How can we blame the postman? How can we blame the friend, spouse, parent, child, boss, teacher or colleague for just carrying the unkind message from our kind Lord? He

Himself is the creator, He Himself is the creation! He is the Giver, He is the Gift! He is the problem, He is the ONLY Solution!In Sai SevaMeera