A Gift of Grace

 

Every miracle of Baba is a gift of Grace.  It may be a pinch of sacred ash, a piece of candy, a picture created before us; it may be a shower of ash, or the emergence of Kumkum or fragrant sandal or nectarine honey, on a picture, an Om in ash on the floor, a continuous flow of scented oil or amrith from a linga or locket.

It may also be a series of paper slips on which counsel or warnings are written in the language you understand, that come from His hands in the portraits you worship.  It may be given to you while you are awake, asleep or dreaming - or come to you as a book or as a parcel through the post, in reply for an order that you may not have placed.

It may be a vision of Himself, subtle, substantial, momentary or more lasting, but always, it is a sign of His Love and Majesty.

The more you want, the more He gives; the more He gives, the more you grow; the nearer you approach Him, the closer do you approximate to Him.

"Come with empty hands," Baba says.  Throw away all the things that you hold in the grasp of your hand, cast away the toys with which you have been playing the game of gaining and losing, gathering and scattering.  Baba delights in giving.  He does not relish being adored or admired because our praise does not add anything to His Glory, and criticism cannot minus it either.  He delights in filling empty hands with lasting sweetness; empty hearts with lasting joy; empty lives with salutary substance; empty reeds with His melodious breath.

Each gift prepares us afresh to receive yet another, for nothing is given without significance - it is to facilitate us to go forward in our search for Truth.  He is not rendered less by giving; our capacity for receiving is boundless too.  So Manava (Man) negates and needs, hungers and receives and thus becomes ultimately Madhava, God, Himself.

(From the book "Sathyam Sivam Sundaram" - Pt.III)