Chapter 36: Interested In Remaining Disinterested
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"My glory is boundless. I am the shoreless Ocean of Love, unmindful of filth or nectar. Anybody can come to me, but how much love one can receive depends on the receptacle he brings. If it is a cup, you can only take a cupful; if a pail, only a pailful. But once in a long while there comes the true hero, the giant in love who can gulp the Ocean itself!"
At 4:30 P.M. on the 16th, only the volunteers (such as Ramakrishnan) and those who had not yet seen Baba were permitted to visit Guruprasad. Pukar, Deshmukh and Bal Natu gathered outside by the gate, hoping that Baba would call them inside. Deshmukh said, "It is good we are sitting here outside the gate. Baba wants us to learn a lesson — to feel his presence in his physical absence."
Within minutes, Aloba brought the message that the three men were wanted inside.
When they entered, Baba chided, "Is your squatting outside in conformity with the circular issued about coming for darshan?"
Deshmukh pleaded their case, and the result was that Baba allowed them to visit Guruprasad every afternoon.
A few days later when some reference was made to the recent circular, Baba looked at the three men and gestured, "It is better that three are pleased instead of one," meaning, himself.
Bal Natu felt guilty for not literally obeying Baba's instructions and said, "Baba, permit me not to come from tomorrow."
Baba replied, "Why? If you commit a theft even once, you are a thief. If you steal ten different times, you are still the same thief. So continue to come."
To one educated man, Baba advised, "Read God Speaks . It will test your intelligence and also open the heart. It will provide food for the mind and for the heart, too."
Although these daily sessions in the evening were only meant for lovers and not the general public, one afternoon Baba permitted the mayor of Poona to come with his two predecessors. Baba explained to them about maya :
God alone exists as Existence Eternal, and all else is illusion — a creation of maya. And what is maya? Maya is the principle of ignorance. Maya makes you feel what, in fact, does not exist. In reality, neither man nor woman, neither the so-called animate beings nor the inanimate things exist. It is maya which causes the unreal to appear as real and existing.