[continued from previous message]   
      
   His physical presence emanated a special bliss which was experienced even by   
   those who did not conform to His ideology. It was universal. Some days when,   
   due to the pressure of work, His disciples could not complete the target He   
   had set for them, He    
   used to feign anger and would not take food. Everyone used to worry over this   
   and there would be a great commotion around His quarters.   
      
   To my astonishment, I found that a similar anxiety and commotion took place in   
   the prison when Baba was there. The same tension spread among the guards,   
   wardens and other inmates when Baba refused to take the glass of buttermilk   
   which He used to drink    
   twice a day during His long fast in the jail.   
      
   He was so special that people used to feel a strong and irresistible   
   attraction for Him. Among His disciples there used to be a competition to rush   
   to Him and be with Him.   
      
   Ac. Amitananda Avt. once said to Baba, "The General Secretary is so lucky."   
      
   "Why?" asked Baba.   
      
   "Because he can always go to Your room."   
      
   Baba laughed and said, "Then My slippers are even more lucky! No, unnais se   
   biis nahi hoga. [Nineteen won't be made into twenty.] Whosoever works for   
   humanity, wherever they may be, Grace will go to them accordingly. Even one   
   paisa more than that, one    
   cannot get."   
      
   Good people, even children, liked Him because here they found a person who   
   only loved. We have heard about God who punishes wrong doing and rewards good   
   deeds. Everyone hopes for rewards and fears punishment. Yet in Baba we found a   
   person who would    
   forgive a thousand times. Not only that, He would take on the bad sam'skáras   
   of His disciples and thereby free us from nature's reaction. His punishments   
   were always blessings in disguise. Many of those disciples who had the   
   opportunity to receive    
   punishment from Him realized that upon receiving a scratch, they had escaped   
   reactions of formidable consequence.   
      
   His devotees used to get much pleasure from giving Him small gifts from their   
   homelands. A few of these gifts were quite costly, most were very humble, but   
   He gave equal importance to all. Once in a small gathering of devotees He   
   said, "The physical    
   value of different gifts may differ, but psychically they have the same value   
   for Me." He said this to reassure His economically poor devotees who   
   occasionally worried that their offerings were somehow of less importance.   
      
   One example will illustrate this truth. In March 1990 a boy from Bihar   
   travelled to Calcutta to visit Baba. After purchasing his train ticket he had   
   only 25 paisa left (less than one US cent). So he used that coin to purchase a   
   guava for Baba. When he    
   saw the items brought by other devotees from all over the world, he felt   
   ashamed and left without offering it.   
      
   Meanwhile, in another room Baba was taking His lunch. Doctors had prohibited   
   Him from eating guava because of His diabetes, but suddenly Baba demanded to   
   eat a guava. His Personal Assistant searched the kitchen, but found none. Baba   
   then instructed him    
   to go outside and ask if any of the devotees had a guava. He did so, and the   
   boy from Bihar offered his guava. It was brought to Baba and He ate it with   
   great relish. From this incident I realized that Baba gave more value to the   
   intensity of devotion    
   with which an offering is made than its physical or psychic value.   
      
   Baba proved logically in His RU lecture of 1967, "Pragati and Paincavedana",   
   that there can be no progress in the physical and mental spheres. At best,   
   physical progress means the demise of an old structure and the creation a new   
   one, as for example in    
   the construction of a motor car. In the mental realm, progress means fighting   
   against all dogmas. "The best is yet to come," should be the attitude, He   
   would say. In the spiritual realm, progress means to cultivate Radhabhava[18]   
   for the Supreme.   
      
   It is interesting to note that where the spiritual concepts of the   
   Vaisnavites, Sufis, and Ananda Margiis coincide is in the point of Radhabhava.   
   According to Ananda Marga the fundamental starting point of spirituality is   
   this longing for the Great,    
   longing to be united with the Great in wedlock. The feeling at first is, "I   
   love You because it gives me bliss" and the final feeling is, "I want to love   
   You because now I know this gives You bliss. I want to be Yours." In this   
   state one is even ready to    
   sacrifice his or her life, if it will make Him happy. The unit self is   
   absolutely negated here.   
      
   An ideal love, I believe, is that between two lovers whose likes or sam'skáras   
   (reactive momenta in potential form) are almost the same. Both of them would   
   be accomplished in every possible sense. They would also be physically   
   charming to each other.    
   Then, their mutual love will touch some very deep strings inside. Baba's love   
   to every individual disciple touched much deeper strings than this ideal love   
   of lovers. A few such husbands and wives (who are very much spiritually   
   developed) confessed to me    
   that Baba's love was much deeper than their attraction for each other.   
      
   There are many kinds of love: for example, the love between father and son,   
   mother and son, between friends, brother and sister, master and servant,   
   husband and wife. All these are love with different dimensions and limits.   
   According to Paramahamsa    
   Ramakrishna the love between an ideal husband and wife who are mentally   
   married contains all the forms of love, and hence it is superior to the   
   others. This ideal love is similar to what is known, in Tantric terminology,   
   as madhurbháva.   
      
   Higher than this is the devotional stage of mahábhava. I knew a little about   
   this from the life of Paramahamsa Ramakrishna, who was a Brahmavid, a knower   
   of Brahma. (Brahmavid Brahmaeva bhavati: "One who realizes Brahma becomes   
   Brahma".) From my earliest    
   days in Ananda Marga, I was curious to know more about this bháva.   
      
   In Jamalpur around January 1966, I met a boy called Vinod. (Today he is an   
   engineer in the Indian Railways.) He was behaving like an intoxicated person,   
   singing and dancing all the time. He would run up to Baba, touch His chin and   
   then run away singing, "   
   You are really Krs'n'a of Vrindavan!" During evening walk, I asked Baba, Is he   
   in mahabhava?"   
      
   Baba said emphatically, "No!"; but then He added, "I reserve my tongue." The   
   talk shifted to a different subject and I forgot about it.   
      
   The next day Baba came early in the morning, asked for a blackboard and gave a   
   lecture which lasted for one hour. "Yesterday," He began, looking at me, "your   
   question was about mahabhava, but today you should understand what is bhava."   
   He then explained    
   bhava in great detail, and He said a little on mahabhava.   
      
   It took me twenty years of meditation to comprehend the meaning of mahábháva.   
   Later I would like to write a book on this sweetest and highest of spiritual   
   attainments. By understanding mahábháva, one can realize more deeply the   
   wondrous mystery of    
   beloved Baba. I have not ventured to write on it so far because this aspect of   
   spirituality can be misinterpreted by quacks. Unless one has a very deep   
   interest in spirituality, it cannot be comprehended. I want to cry and shout   
   about it at the top of my    
   lungs: "Here is the quintessence of spirituality, and in it lies final   
   emancipation!" But so far I have always felt some unseen power holding me back   
   from explaining this devotional sentiment in a straightforward way in black   
   and white.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)