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So-Hum 157
magnificence of creation, and my love for God as I experience Him through Sai Baba. The so-hum mantra was showing me how to function happily and effectively here on earth while my soul soared joyfully in the heavens. As I set out on my trip, I knew it would guide and protect me, and if held to faithfully, would draw me closer to Krishna’s flute.
The following story by Baba shows the relationship of this meditation to Krishna’s flute, Murali—the power of this vehicle to lead us to the love of the Lord, and the nature of this all- encompassing love when fully developed in us. Again, Radha is the principal character.
Radha, the great devotee of Lord Krishna, fell ill and was dying from pangs of separation and sorrow after Krishna left. Although Krishna sent word by way of a messenger, the gopis (milk maids, Lord Krishna’s closest devotees) would not listen to mere words, they wanted him in person. They said, “Will it be possible to get rid of all the darkness in the world by simply bringing a message about some brilliant light? Will the poverty of a poor man disappear merely by his listening to the might of wealth? Will a hungry man’s hunger be relieved only by hearing a description of the food? Will the disease of a sick man be cured if you describe the greatness of various medicines to him?”
Uddhava, the messenger , found that, out of suffering, the physical strength of the gopis was gradually sinking because they were not eating or paying attention to their bodies. Radha, in fact, was so weakened she was preparing to die—to merge her life with Krishna.
At a lonely place, with the sacred intention of imprinting Krishna’s picture in her mind, she said, “All these days I had the form of Krishna in the lake of my mind. I have been protecting it with tears of love. In the course of time this lake began to dry up. Then 1 kept the form in my eyes and nurtured it with my tears. Even these tears are now becoming scarce. In what other manner can I protect the lotus of Krishna? The time is fleeting away and I may soon have to leave this body. The jyothi (light) of my life has to merge in the divine.
As she was thus thinking of Krishna with great intensity of feeling, Krishna came. She had only one last wish: she wanted to


































































































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