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The painter was happy with Sai Baba’s personal acceptance of the picture. He began to talk about the picture mentioning his use of gold paint. Sai Baba told him that gold wasn’t important, but the feeling in his heart was. This gi was what Sai Baba acknowledged and accepted. Then, inspecting the picture, Sai Baba told the painter that the hair wasn’t painted properly. It had been painted as a solid piece, when each strand should have been painted separately so that you could see the individual details. The painter said that this would be extremely hard, and that in general, hair was treated this way in most pictures. Sai Baba said that might be, but that it wasn’t quite correct. The painter le the room feeling somewhat downhearted.
The next day at darshan, Swami again brought the artist into the temple. This time, Swami showed him a marvelously transformed picture. Each individual hair had been given personal aention, heightening the effect of energy and balance. Added earth tones of beige and tan enhanced the depth and richness.
The painter was amazed by this miraculous metamorphosis. The glass still covered the picture, and the back of the frame hadn’t been touched. “Swami, how could you have done this? It would be very hard to paint the hair like this, and you didn’t even open the frame or take the glass off to do the work.” Swami looked at him lovingly and said, “Oh, this is nothing. I control all the paint brushes in the world. I can even change the course of stars in the sky.”
Overwhelmed, the artist said, “Oh, Swami, how marvelous, how wonderful,” and with a smile, “Perhaps we can go into business together.” He was overcome with such reverence that he fell at Swami’s feet, and holding to them cried, “Oh, Swami, I love you so much. I want you to only be my private Swami.”
Gently, Swami replied, “But I am your private Swami, just for you. I am everybody’s private Swami. I come to each and everyone personally, according to their need, and in a form that is most pleasing.”
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