DAL AND RICE STARTED A LONGING FOR LOVE

 
"When I went to his house, Vishnu said to his mother, Kakubai, 'See. This is Merwan Seth. Every day, He gives me a lot of sweets.'

"'Vishnu likes You very much,' Kakubai said. 'Every day he tells me about You.'

"'Does Vishnu go to school?' I asked.

"'Yes,' said Vishnu's mother, 'he does. But every day he goes to the cinema.'

"'Don't worry about Vishnu,' I reassured her. 'I will take care of him.' Then I asked, 'What are you cooking?'

"'Rice and dal.'

"'I like dal and rice very much,' I said. 'Will you give Me a little?'

"'Yes. It is ready.'

"So she brought some rice and dal for Me. I ate it and remarked, 'It is very delicious. If I come here every day at 11:00 a.m., will you give Me rice and dal?'

"'Yes,' Kakubai replied. 'I'll be only too happy to serve You.'

"So the next day I went at 10:00 a.m. instead of 11:00 a.m. 'Bring me the dal and rice,' I asked her.

"'Merwan Seth, it is still cooking,' Vishnu's mother protested.

"'Whenever I come, it should be ready,' I said.

"'Tomorrow I will keep it ready by 10:00 a.m.' she promised.

"'So the next day I went at 9:00 a.m. Every day it would happen that the dal and rice would not be ready when I came. I went as early as 7:00 a.m. so the poor lady thought that she would have it ready by 6:00 a.m., and she would do so. I went for a few days, then stopped going.

"All of a sudden, I would go to Vishnu's home, and I would ask, 'Where is My dal and rice?'

"Vishnu's mother would feel surprised. 'If You would tell me that You would come, I would keep it ready. You did not come for so many days. Then today, You came.'

"'I am hungry,' I said. 'That's why I came. Therefore, see that you feed Me when I am hungry.'

"So the poor lady would keep dal and rice ready. Sometimes I would not come for six months. Then, all of a sudden I would go. So Kakubai would prepare dal and rice and keep it ready every day in the expectation that I would come. If I did not come, she would eat the dal and rice in the evening, thinking it was My Prasad. She continued doing this. Every day she would expect Me to visit her house. She came very close to Me.

"When Vishnu came to Meherabad to live, his mother also came and would stay there. Every day she would keep dal and rice ready for Me. She did that her whole life, even though there were months together when I would not eat it. Still, she continued to prepare it for Me. Until her death, Kakubai always kept dal and rice ready for Me. Through that dal and rice, she remembered Me every day.

"Only in 1925 did I stay at Meherabad for long periods. After 1927, I started visiting different places in India. But Vishnu's mother would cook dal and rice every day. In her heart she would tell Me, 'Baba, your dal and rice are ready. Now you come and eat.'

"So dal and rice started a longing for love in her heart. It was not ritual or ceremony. It was her longing. When love is there, love creates longing. If you do anything, and love is not there, then that thing that you do becomes ritual and ceremony.

"I want longing through love. That is sheer worship. Only the heart can do this. When you practice ritual and ceremonies, it is the voice of the mind. But when longing is within you, it is the voice of the heart. I hear only the voice of the heart. I don't hear the language of the tongue, comprised of mantras and chanting. I don't hear the language of the mind comprised of meditation and concentration. I hear only the voice of the heart, which is pure love."