Living with Baba

Baba spent four days in Caracas, Venezuela, in September 1979. We reached Caracas very early in the morning after flying in from the island of Jamaica. Dadas and Margiis received us at the airport. The native language of the country is Spanish. Hence, Baba's darshan speeches were translated from English to Spanish. We faced great difficulty in communicating with the Margiis, as very few understood English, and almost everybody spoke in Spanish.

A DMC program was arranged, where Baba would give a discourse. I spent the whole afternoon of the DMC day preparing the Margiis for the spiritual function. I taught them how to do Guru puja, and how to ask permission from Baba to do Guru puja to Him. To ask the Lord's permission to perform Guru puja before Him is the most important part of the DMC. According to the system, the Bhukti Pradhan (BP) should request Baba's permission to perform Guru puja immediately after His Varabhaya mudra. Even if there is a slight delay in this request, Baba will leave the dais, and the function will not be declared a DMC.

Everything went according to plan. I sat near the BP so that I could alert him about his duty regarding Guru puja. Immediately after Baba's mudra, I tried to alert the BP to request Baba for His permission to do Guru puja, but to my dismay, he did not seem to understand what I was trying to tell him. He only spoke Spanish. To add to the difficulty, the local dada, who was the main coordinator, sat some distance away. Just after Baba's mudra, the local dada went into deep bhava, and as a result, forgot his duty to inform the BP to ask Baba for permission to do Guru puja. I tried my best to bring the dada back to a normal state, but he did not respond. In desperation, I personally went and requested Baba for permission to do Guru puja. However, as this was not consistent with the established norm, Baba just left the dais.

After the program, He took His food as usual. Subsequently, I went to His room to submit the report.  Baba was frucious that the norm of the DMC had been breached. I tried to explain that I had done my best. He, however, maintained that He would consider it to be entirely my fault and that the function would not be considered a DMC. It would be a DMS (Dharma Maha Sammelan). I became very sad and could not take any food that night. I was very angry with the local dada for wantorily failing in his duty. I told him that to do His duty is the real devotion. The previous night, I had reminded him many times that at any cost he should sit next to the BP and me. But, during DMC, he sat in a different place beyond our easy reach. Dada realized his fault but the main problem was still unresolved: how to please the Lord now?

The following day, Baba informed us that He would give general darshan. At the time of the general darshan, both the local dada and the BP sat close to me. I waited for just the right moment to approach Him for Guru puja. To my utter surprise, just after His darshan discourse ended, Baba said, "If you like, you can do Guru puja." Immediately I led everyone in singing Guru puja to the Lord. Then Baba said sweetly, "Now I consider it as DMC."

We were all overjoyed. Baba took upon Himself the burden of resolving a serious problem created entirely by our negligence. It is indeed very difficult to understand His Cosmic liila.