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On our way home from this trip, Donald and I were in the Centaur Hotel in Bombay awaiting a flight. We went to the registration desk to ask about the timing of the flight. There, I saw a young man who had a nametag of “Mr. Atma.” I was surprised by the name (which means “our divine reality” in Sanskrit), and even more so when I saw the ring on his finger, a ring very similar to the one that Swami had given Donald. I pointed out this similarity to my brother, and then I asked the man where he had goen his ring. He replied, “My father gave it to me.”
We looked at one another in astonishment. Donald was the first to speak. “Sam, could it be that Sai Baba first teaches by telling and then by giving an example?” This incident served as a reminder that there must be a healthy balance between our activities in the outer and inner worlds, between our worldly and spiritual lives.
Being Involved in the World with Love
A turning point for me happened on a trip to Swami in 1984. I discovered that detaching from the outer impermanent world did not mean retreating from being helpful in it. Too many of us think that the spiritual path of detachment means to renounce and move away from involvement in society. Swami tells us that the outer world is a brilliant expression of God’s creation and we must take part in it through right action (dharma) in society. Coming to this insight was not easy for me.
During this trip, I thought that I would practice detachment from the outer world and from desire by constantly focusing on my breath day and night for as long and as steadily as I could. I would keep aention focused on breathing Swami in and breathing myself out into him. I reasoned that if I released all desire into him in this way, I would be free of it, and thus reach enlightenment.
I took this trip alone and planned to stay solitary as much as possible save for aending darshan twice daily. I was finishing
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