WE ARE ONLY ONE OF YOU

 
The mandali has nothing to give, except to try and tell pilgrims about Baba in the stories we remember. We see tears roll down cheeks, and we know that most of you seem to be touched as your feelings surge on hearing His name and learning of His love. In turn, our own hearts are touched and so a beautiful rapport is established with the pilgrims.

However, it so happens that some pilgrims who come here, begin to look up to us with great admiration thinking we are special, first among them, and that is quite wrong. So we try to convince them that we are not above them. We are simply among them as Baba lovers and if that relationship is properly understood, then I am sure posterity will take the right road.

Quite often we try to be stern in the face of the pilgrims' expression of love for us. It is not that we don't love them or appreciate what they feel, but it is simply that we want to keep Baba's pleasure in mind by curbing all feelings of self-importance so that the pilgrims are not led astray in assessing us.

When people listen to the stories we have to tell of life with Baba, they take us to be saintly people who are more advanced than themselves, sometimes even thinking we are perfect and that we hide our perfection under a coat of normalcy. But it is not so and we truly wish all to know that we are the same as you. We love you because we love our Beloved and that delights us and gives us a real uplift in our hearts.

We are not hiding anything from you and neither do we try to pose as simpletons while possessed of spiritual status. No, our status is at the feet of our Lord and when one has His feet in one's grip, one has all of Him. There is no need then to proclaim some elevated spiritual stature for oneself, because one who has learned to love Baba, or wants to learn to love Him, is already high in spiritual status.

There is no greater status than being a lover of the Lord. No amount of spiritual experiences will ever make one advanced and though one might feel advanced on the spiritual path, that will not lead one to Him, for only love can achieve that. Moreover, however advanced on the path an individual may be, he will still have to end up loving Him and only then will he be accepted in the fold of Baba who is the Lord.

So it depends on our friends and colleagues in the love of the Lord to guide and train us so that we do not feel big or great. We should not feel ourselves to be different from all of you, and if perchance you begin to think otherwise about us, it will be our responsibility and our duty to make sure that you realize we are only one of you. In this way, posterity will be curbed from creating pedestals for those who have been linked to Baba and loved Him and tell their stories about Him.