Living with Baba

Author: bnkinfo

Baba’s Words

As this book is dedicated to all sadhakas and devotees, it is only fitting that it ends with His words. His words, His actions, His whole life have been a perennial source of inspiration for me in my spiritual journey. I have been extremely fortunate and blessed to have had the opportunity to be so close to Him, both physically and mentally, and to take shelter in Him. Though He is no longer with us physically, He has left behind a rich legacy of spiritual treasures for the benefit of all sadhakas for all time to come. Even a single gem from His spiritual treasure chest has the capacity of bestowing liberation on spiritual seekers. It is for the seeker to select the gem that best suits him. I hope that other seekers will benefit from His grace as much as I have benefited. "All entities must advance along the path of progress. This evolution will lead to the expansion of the psychic arena and, ultimately, liberation. This struggle for liberation is the struggle against those...

Doing Our Duty

Sureshji, a lawyer from Aurangabad District in Bihar, is a great devotee of Baba. During the Emergency period, when Baba was imprisoned under false charges, he had the occasion of visiting Baba frequently in prison to discuss legal matters. Sureshji then looked after the legal affairs of Ananda Marga. At that time, no one was allowed to see Baba except for His lawyer. Ananda Marga was banned at that time by the Indian government and declared an illegal organization. It was an extremely difficult time for all of us. All our humanitarian work was suddenly stopped. Nothing could be done. The government hunted down our monks and nuns to imprison them. Our future was bleak and hopeless. Like the rest of us, Sureshji also felt the utter hopelessness of the situation. One day during his routine visit to Baba's cell, he asked Baba, "Baba, what will happen to us? I have no hope for the organization. Please guide me. What can we do?" Baba responded by telling him a story. Just...

A Garland and a Blessing

Sadhana, which is our intense, conscious effort to unite with the Supreme Consciousness, is not easy to sustain. There are many obstacles strewn along the thorny path - some big, others bigger. Many try to do sadhana, few can sustain it, and even fewer succeed at it. While sadhana is both an individual and collective effort, the grace of the Guru is paramount in succeeding at sadhana. His grace is dispensed freely through His blessings. The Guru's blessings take many forms - some are general in nature targeted at our success at sadhana, and some are specific, catering to special needs and circumstances. Sometime in 1989, I received news of my new posting in South America. I was then a Central worker. I was thrilled at the opportunity of working in a new environment, but somewhat saddened that I would have to be physically away from Baba. I really could not imagine being separated from Him, as my whole life revolves around Him. How painful a separation it would be! It was...

Nagpur DMC

Baba's drama is always unimaginable, and often funny. He is unpredictable: one moment in a formidable mood scolding and punishing everybody, the next moment smiling sweetly, as if nothing had happened. There were also times when He wore a sullen mood, refusing to talk to anybody, much like a child, and the next moment He would be happily talking with everybody, without a trace of His earlier mood. In the 1979 DMC held in Nagpur, Baba was in a dark and angry mood and refused to take any food the whole day. He severely reprimanded all the workers for their unsatisfactory work. The fiery scolding lasted throughout the day. We could hardly do any work then because nobody was able to come close to Baba. At about ten o'clock at night, a dada emerged from Baba's room and told us, "We have seen so many dramas the whole day. The doctor had instructed me that Baba must take food at the proper time, and that He will also have to take His medicine." Dada was in an...

Breaking the Barriers

Close physical proximity to the Guru is not easy, but absolutely necessary. He is very demanding. The standards He sets are impossible to attain. He knows our limitations and strengths. He knows how far each individual can be stretched. He knows the limits of our endurance, the breaking point. He takes us to that limit and forces us to cross the border of our limitations. Each time we go over the limit, we transcend our limitations. We progressively become bigger personalities, better able to serve other people, more useful to the world. There are countless instances when Baba applied pressure on His workers, demanding perfection on their part; punishing them when they slacked or failed to reach established targets; and in every instance, the pressure was applied with unalloyed love. This is one such case. In 1980, Baba stayed for a few days in Patna. I remained with Him at Patna as acting GS. It was my duty to submit the daily organizational report to Him. One day, I was severely...

His Dream Heals Everything

The Guru does not need His physical body to help sadhakas or to get a job done. He even does not have to be alive for that matter. He can assist spiritual aspirants with or without a body, with or without His presence. For the Guru, life and death are the same because He transcends both mortal conditions. Dada Guna'tiita'nandaji worked in our hospital at Ananda Nagar. One day, he met with an accident, while riding his motorcycle from the hospital to the Rector Master's office. He injured one of his legs quite seriously. At first he thought it was a minor injury that could be cured by homeopathic treatment. Dada himself was an experienced homoeopath. But, after a few days, he noticed his injured leg swelling, and the pain becoming unbearable. He was forced to go to Ranchi, where the hospital had more advanced facilities and trained doctors. There were also several Margii doctors in the hospital. An X-ray of his injured leg was immediately taken. It showed that there were...

Abhiman

Baba is a doctor - a spiritual doctor. He often prescribes medicine which is bitter, through different forms of reproach or punishment, to heal us of our vanity, lethargy, laziness and indiscipline. But His harsh prescription is tinged with divine love and affection. Once, Baba punished me very severely. I felt really bad after the punishment. I thought to myself that He was always punishing me. He seems to hardly love me at all. Well, then I will not talk to Him. Thinking these thoughts, I resolved not to talk to Him again. After a moment, I realized that there was no way I could carry out my decision, as I had to report to Him thrice daily. There was simply no way of avoiding Baba. I was in a fix. I became more agitated thinking about the situation. There was simply no solution to this problem. It happened that at that time, Baba gave a particular Prabhat Samgiit. It was called 'Tumi amar dhyaner dhyeya tumi amar pranera priya.' I did not hear this song at the time Baba...

Unilateral Relationship

Baba once clarified to me the inner meaning of sadhana and spiritual life. He said that there is no difference between Ista, Adarsha and Mission. The path of spirituality is very difficult, but it is also very, very simple if one has strong faith, belief, love and surrender to Him and His Mission. These qualities are unilateral, not bilateral. If one wants to realize Him, he has to undergo many tests, tortures, sufferings and humiliation. Realizing Him means uniting with Him. This is the purpose of spirituality. It is the path of synthesis, not analysis.