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214 SPIRIT AND THE MIND
and moved softly with a smile through the audience, tapping someone playfully on the shoulder here, stopping to give encouragement or a serious word there, materializing some vibuthi for a lucky one, until we all felt deep intimate contact with him. Slowly he returned to the podium and moved gently to the microphone—and sang in the sweetest and most angelic way. He was so lovely. Pure honey.
Then he got down to business. Starting slowly, his talk, translated into English by an interpreter, gained in power and pitch until he came to his major points—and he made these points with such strength and authority, like a king, a ruler, a Lord. He said: “lt is so easy for the poor to stay poor, to eat with the poor and play with the poor and continue to take on the suffering and problems of the poor. And it’s so easy for the rich to be with the rich and eat with the rich and play with the rich and forget about the poor. It is very uncommon and very difficult for the rich to live with the poor, to eat with the poor, to take on the problems and suffering of the poor. But this is what I’m telling you to do. Go to the poor, live with the poor; be with the poor, the helpless, the suffering, and serve them.”
I was just overwhelmed with the power and authority of this declaration. What a tremendous message to bring to us and to say it with such authority. My brother was on this trip and I said to him, “Donald, did you hear that? Did you hear what he said we should do?” I was terribly moved because I took it to heart. And my brother said, “Yeah, yeah, every religious leader talks like that.”
Later, after returning to Brindavan from Bombay, I was standing with Baba. He must have known that I was impressed with his talk and was soul-searching as to whether I had the power to carry out his instructions. With a gentle smile he looked my way and said, “How did you like my talk?” I said, “Swamì, you were so great.” With a broad smile he replied, “Yes, 1 was strong, wasn’t I?”
Are we strong enough to do what we know is right? And if we surrender our material wealth, position and comforts toward these ideals, will the Lord himself come to protect, teach and help? By this time I had so much confirmation that Sai Baba actually comes directly and concretely into our lives if we turn our lives toward him, that I was ready to try a small sacrifice. What I actually wanted to do was to pick up and move to India, much to my wife’s alarm. But every time I asked Baba’s permission he directed me back to the U.S.


































































































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