STOP TRYING AND START REMEMBERING

 
Nana Kher was one of Baba's early disciples who later came to live at Meherabad. Unlike Mansari, he lived at lower Meherabad, but would come up the hill every day to sit outside the Samadhi and give pilgrims Prasad as they left. Like Bal, he hadn't lived with Baba on a continuous basis but used to come for Baba's darshan and would spend time with Baba at Guruprasad during the summer months.

Many pilgrims will remember Nana's warm embrace when they first arrived at the Samadhi and his smiling "Welcome home" greeting. Once Nana got to know you, he would ask, "Do you remember Baba throughout the day?"

Most would say something along the lines of, "I try."

Nana would then lovingly tell you, "Do not try. Trying is not enough. You must remember Him. Baba said, 'Remember Me', He did not say, 'Try to remember Me'."

This seemed illogical to me and I argued with Nana, about it. He told me to bring him the Discourses and show him any place where Baba said, "Try to remember Me." So for the next few days, I flipped through the Discourses but I could not find the relevant quote. Finally I found a quote in Mastery of Consciousness written by Allan Cohen in which Baba used the Word "try."

Nana just laughed when I showed this to him and insisted that I had to show him the same quote in Baba's Discourses or he would not change his stand that Baba always said, "Remember Me," and never "Try to remember Me."

I protested that I didn't have time to go through the entire Discourses.

Nana didn't say anything for a moment or two and then he turned to me and said, "Have you heard of mountaineers making an attempt to scale a peak? What great preparations, what great efforts and what great hardships and trials they face while trying to reach the very summit. They risk their lives and some even lose their lives while trying to reach the peak. But think of the glory one experiences when one finally succeeds in reaching the top. How exhilarating it must feel.

"Then what about the ultimate glory of God-realization? How much more is expected of us to scale that peak? Shouldn't we risk everything and give our best effort for that ultimate glory? No sacrifice is too big to reach the ultimate goal."

Nana concluded, "Effort invites grace, so stop trying and start remembering Him."