Page 213 - Microsoft Word - SPIRIT AND THE MIND.doc
P. 213

The Meeting 189
arrangements were made many lifetimes ago by the Lord himself. And so we sat, perhaps by chance, perhaps not; I, right in front of Baba’s feet, Dr. Gokak behind me—and who was this to Baba’s right but my friend from San Pedro, the oil tanker captain, John Svensson.
How interesting. I had met John on the grounds a few days before and had an unusual experience with him. I’m sorry to say, because it shows my lack of spiritual maturity, that at the time of our discussion 1 had felt John was a bit naive in his spiritual outlook. He was a man in his 70’s who had lived a full and active life and was as sweet as he could be. But for some reason, I had this distorted feeling that I was more sophisticated in spiritual matters than he. John, with an innocent twinkle in his eye, had asked me, “How will you answer Baba if he asks you what you want?” I said that I wasn’t sure, trying to brush the question aside, not wanting to get into a discussion with John.
But he continued, “Oh, I would ask him for self-realization.” John was a Scandinavian and said the word “realization” with a certain intonation that only a Scandinavian would use. I smiled at the pronunciation and with a sense of superiority wondered if John understood what he was asking for. Little did I know that Baba was about to teach me a deep and profound lesson about my judgments and ego.
So here we were, the psychiatrists, Dr. Gokak and John. The drama was shaping up just fine. All eyes were on Baba, and just as John Svensson had foretold, Baba turned to him and asked, “Sir, what do you want?”
John looked up with those innocent eyes, and as he had said he would, answered, “Self-realization,” with that same Scandinavian intonation and vibration.
Baba looked at him with great love and said, “And what is self- realization?”
“Your goose is cooked now, John,” I thought. John began to sputter and stammer so Baba continued. “Man is divine. But he is not aware of his own divinity. He mistakenly thinks that he is this little body. But he is not this body, and he is not the mind.” He stopped a moment and looked at the psychiatrists. “There are some psychiatrists here. They study man’s mind, unaware that this is really not who man is. Man is something infinite, immutable and eternal—beyond time, space and beyond his body. Psychiatrists make a mistake in thinking that man is his


































































































   211   212   213   214   215