Living with Baba

In the 1980's there was a particular dada who was the editor of our daily newspaper called 'Natun Prithivi', which was published in Calcutta. In accordance with the prescribed system, the daily edition of the newspaper should reach His residence before breakfast. Dada was just the editor of the paper, and thus, it was not his responsibility to get the funds to publish it. It was his responsibility, however, to see that the paper was published on schedule each day. This indirectly meant that obtaining funds to run the paper was also his problem.

The financial problems of publishing the paper were a heavy burden on the editor, which caused much mental clash. He was at his wits end as to what to do. One day, he decided to come to Baba's Lake Garden residence to complain regarding the tremendous financial difficulties he faced in publishing the paper.

It was my duty to read the newspapers to Baba daily. PA Dada was responsible for arranging the different newspapers in a systematic way, so that the first paper read to Baba was the paper on the top of the pile. Our own newspaper, 'Natun Prithivi' was always placed on top of the pile. A Bengali daily, followed by a few English dailies and the Hindi daily newspapers would be placed one below the other in order of priority. When PA Dada saw that the editor of our newspaper had come to see Baba, he gave him the privilege of reading the newspapers to Baba. The editor, however, was not in the best of moods, as he was mentally disturbed over the tremendous financial pressures he faced. He thought, "If I get a chance to see Baba I will surely tell Him about the severe financial troubles surrounding the 'Natun Prithivi' newspaper, and how difficult it was to print it every day." After a while, PA Dada requested him to go into His room. Dada was pleased at that opportunity.

He entered Baba's room and did sastaunga pranama. Baba then asked him how he was. He replied that he was all right. After the routine exchange of words, he read the newspapers to Baba according to the prescribed system. Baba listened to everything in detail in the case of our daily newspaper. For the other papers, however, He listened to the headlines only. Baba never listened to news on sports and movies.

As he was reading the news, Baba asked him if there was any important news for that day. He replied, "No, Baba."

Baba then asked whether he knew what 'mustik yoga' was. He explained that a practitioner of this form of yoga was able to amass such power that people shake in fear in his presence. Baba then told him, "Today we are suffering a lot in carrying out our normal work. This is because society is controlled and guided by bad people. Have you seen how people kill the goats for their meat? They slit the throat in such a way that the blood comes out slowly. Due to this, the goat suffers tremendously, and finally dies." Baba then said to him that He could give him this special power if he desired it, but then added that it was really unnecessary for those who served Parama Purusa. He said, "The day will surely come when those bad people, those immoral people will be as terrified as that dying goat when they see you. We are to work very hard to establish our ideology."

Dada instantly understood what Baba meant and why He spoke to him alone. He realized that financial problems were part of the pauseless struggle that moralists had to encounter in trying to establish dharma. In the future, the situation would be reversed, with the immoralists trembling in fear at the very sight of the moralists.