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4 SPIRIT AND THE MIND
and in a sweetly humble manner blew up his flimsy air mattress and made himself comfortable on the floor.
Two psychiatrists had joined me on this trip. But Baba hadn’t paid much attention to us until Plum’s arrival. Then he invited Plum, myself and Hagen in for an interview.
Sai Baba sat on a footstool in front of us while I sat on the floor to his left, the professor directly in front of him and the film-maker in back and to the left of the professor. About ten others were in the room but farther back and sitting against the walls.
Dr. S. Bhagavantam, a well-known Indian physicist, past chief scientific advisor to the government of India and now Sai Baba’s main interpreter, came to the doorway. Baba said, “No need for you here. Sandweiss will translate.” That was startling news to me. Even though stunned I had to chuckle, as I hardly know English let alone Telugu or Danish. Luckily Baba chose to speak in English and let me elaborate on some points—pausing when he knew I might be able to add something—and in a sweet and loving way giving me something to do so I could feel as if 1 were really helping.
Baba looked gently at Professor Plum. What a sight—this old professor, now at the end of his career, sitting humbly before the Master.
Everybody was quiet with proper respect, and then Baba began to speak to Plum: “What is science? What is a scientist?” Professor Plum hesitated and Baba continued with the following discourse and exchange:
“Science is a way of looking at the outer world through the mind. The mind’s nature is duality; it divides reality into different names and forms—it dissects, compares, contrasts, separates, categorizes—tries to define and bind reality in terms of words and concepts.
“All of this cosmos—the entire material universe, as vast an expanse as it seems—is just a flake of froth, a bubble, on the ocean of reality. And the mind, which views it through its senses and tries to grasp and comprehend it—this mind is even bigger than the cosmos; it can eventually encompass and understand it. But even this vast mind is like a little wavelet on the ocean of reality. You are the ocean. You’re not the flake of froth and you’re not the wavelet— you are beyond separation. You are everything—you are the ocean.