AM I NOT YOUR FATHER?

 
A Baba lover once took his widowed mother for Beloved Meher Baba's darshan with the hope that it would act as a healing balm on her deeply wounded heart. When they sat in front of Baba in the darshan hall at Guruprasad, Poona, Baba looked at them with great understanding and compassion. Baba's eyes rested on the son and He asked, 'Where are you all staying?'

'At Ganeshkhind, Baba.'

'Why are you living so far from here? Could you not stay in a hotel near this place?'

'Baba,' the son hesitatingly replied, 'it's firstly because my cousin resides at Ganeshkhind'.

'Is that all?' Baba asked. As a Baba lover the son knew that he will have to explain fully as Baba will not leave it at that! So he replied, 'Baba it is also because my mother doesn't want to eat food cooked at a hotel.'

'Why does she not want to eat food cooked at a hotel?' Baba asked.

'Baba, because she has become a widow and as per our custom a widow takes food prepared by herself or by some relative who should be a brahmin.'

Baba's eyes peered into the son's eye on his statement. After a moment's pause He said to the son, 'Am I not your Father?'

With eyes full of tears, the son replied, 'Yes, Baba, you are — you are indeed my Father!'

'Well, how can your mother be a widow then?' Baba pointed His finger at mother.

'You are right, Baba, she can't be a widow,' the son replied.

Baba's face suddenly assumed brightness and austerity. With calm but divine seriousness He further gestured with His hand making a circle in the air.

He said, 'I am the husband and father of the entire Universe. Know that for sure.'

The son bowed down his head in assent. Baba continued, 'There is no need for your mother to shun food prepared at hotels and feel that she is a widow.'

The son told his mother what Baba conveyed. He told her not to feel like a widow bereft of a husband because she had Baba's grace — the symbol of help and the protection. His mother perhaps did not quite understand all that was meant. But after leaving Guruprasad Hall, the son noticed a change coming over his mother slowly but steadily. She began to come out of her mental gloom. Baba had started healing her wounded mind, her tortured heart in His imperceptible manner from that moment on.

The mother and the son stayed for a fortnight. On the last day of departure, the mother and the son took an auto and started for Guruprasad to have a parting darshan of Beloved Baba. While on their way to Guruprasad the mother with a sigh of longing said to her son, 'I want to have a ride in Baba's car!'

The son said, 'What are you dreaming of, mamma? This is a child-like expectation on your part. Who can travel by Baba's car? It is meant for His use and for the use by His mandali. So give up this childish idea!' She kept quiet, thinking that Baba's car was meant for Baba — The God-man.

When they arrived at Guruprasad and came to the porch, one of the Mandali came out and informed them that Baba had left for a house visit a few minutes back. 'But He has left His car for your mother and yourself to go to Poona Railway Station. So please go in it to the Railway Station, otherwise you people will be missing the train.'

The mother looked proud as her wish was fulfilled and said to the son, 'You talked as if you were not my child but my father. But see how Baba, the (Antaryami) Omniscient One, has fulfilled my desire to travel by His car. So remain a child that you are, O.K.?'

How fortunate were the mother and the son who were indeed beloved and taken care of by the One who knew the slightest wish and thought that sparkled in any mind in the world!

Why not? After all He is having a Universal Mind'.