Living with Baba

Baba is truly a mysterious personality - at once a unique spiritual master, a giant intellectual, an outstanding philosopher, a social thinker, humanist, economist, grammarian, philologist, historian, agriculturist, doctor, scientist, song-writer, literary artist, and great organizer, just to name a few of His incomparable qualities. Above all He is a loving, affectionate father to His children. It is difficult, if not impossible, to find so many outstanding qualities in one person. He made many matchless contributions to sustain human society and to advance human progress. His theory of microvita, for example, belongs to the distant future, brought forward about 400 years in time for humanity's benefit. His unique theory of mind and of evolution is yet another example of His greatness. His vast contributions to spirituality alone make Him stand apart from the rest of the spiritual masters. He is truly the renaissance man of human history, not just of the 20th century. Yet, His great humility and deep concern for human welfare weaves through His entire personality.

I had previously studied palmistry and wondered if there were any marks on His palms that could indicate His greatness.

One day, sometime in 1983, I was massaging Him in His Lake Gardens residence. The rule is that one should continue to massage Him until he slept. After a while, Baba started to snore, which indicated that He was soundly sleeping. Thinking that He was asleep, I carefully turned His right palm over to see its lines, while still massaging the palm. I was looking for some indication of His greatness in His palm lines. I was busily tracing the palm lines, when I suddenly noticed that one of His eyes was half-open, looking at me, while a faint smile played on His lips. I felt so embarrassed that He had discovered my indiscretion that I immediately started to massage His palm even more fervently.

He then said, with that faint smile still dancing on His lips. "You can't find anything in My palms. I am only an ordinary man." He then mentioned that two hours after He was born, another person, who eventually became a renowned avidya tantrik, was also born.

I realized that Baba deliberately disguised His greatness, flatly rejecting the superstar status that would have naturally come upon Him like an avalanche, had He revealed even a tiny drop of His extraordinary nature. I realized that the positive and negative influences of the stars and other celestial bodies influence our biology and psychology and are usually indicated in the palms. However, in Baba's case, a palmist would not be able to find any clue of His greatness.