THE HIDDEN LIGHT (BY YOGI SATYARKA)

[Guest guest]

He: Child, fix your mind here (touching my heart), sit quietly for one

hour daily in any lonely place that gives you peace. Day by day, you

will be steadfast in meditation. Then you will see that the world is

only a theatre on which the opposite forces play their natural roll with their

exits and entrances to the ring-in and ring-out of Time. Then you will never be

affected by the good and the bad sight, just as the duck is not affected by the

billow and the hollow depths of these waters. Be within here and see everything

like a play. See even the events of your life like a drama and be a peaceful

witness doing what you can, unattached.

 

I: thank you, Mahatma; this is good advice for me. I shall be that. But who are

you, speaking to me so kindly? Whence are you?

He: child, I am one who wears this carnal cloak and wanders here and

there mad after God. I wear this cloak for the past forty years. I

come from the North and go to Rameswar. Like you I stay only in solitary groves

and am glad I have found you today.

 

A mysterious devotion caught hold of me. I saw his face intently; his

face was charming like the crimson sun that rises up. But travel and

neglect had told upon his body. He was middle sized; he wore a cloth a

shirt and a shawl. His body was bits lean but well formed. I saw in him, the

first man that cared a pin for the opinion of others and for the eccentricities

of the passing world. I had an attraction for such men; I had seen many saints

and ascetics before but none like him. He had not the least trace of the

spiritual egoism and pontific arrogance that often characterise gurudoms. I

asked how I should call him. " do not know myself late in my life when I

happened to be wandering with

Bhairagis. God is my father. His grace my mother, to feel His

omnipresence is my study and to live in Him is my life. " Quoth He.

 

I: Sir, where food and sleep and home and friends I do not care. My

thoughts of these petty things are dead. Food will seek him who makes

Divine-communication his only food. He who fees birds also the birds of

Divine-Love.

 

I: " Revered sir, I have found my Guru in thee; please give me the joy of serving

thee. Let thy gracious presence sanctity me for a few days. I shall have the

fortune of bringing food for Thee.

He: How can you bring food? Parents will take you to task.

I: I shall manage; lease be here!!

With these words the saint went into the grove and sat like a statue I

ran to the town two miles off. I used to carry tiffin to the school. I

told my mother ' I shall take my morning meal too along with the tiffin since I

have to go to school early'. I packed the food carefully took enough of pickles.

I plucked a few mangoes from the garden on the way and then ran up to the spot

for getting school and the teacher. It was eleven, I saw the saint floating in

the tank even like a duck. I left the food safe on the bank and took a plunge

into the water. He laughed at me. " come bucha, I shall teach you how to float. "

Since I had been practicing pranayam, I was able to hold breath according to his

directions; He taught me and I too had the joy of floating upon water. From that

day this was one my Sadhanas. I used to meditate floating upon water.

 

We came assure and I washed all his cloths and dried them. He wore my

cloth until that time. Then we partook of the food. " It is excellent "

remarked he and blessed me heartily.

 

After that, he enquired all about me and I told him how hungry I was for

knowledge and God-hood.Etc., etc.,

 

He gave me sound advice: " my boy, give proper attention to education

without which you cannot make a man. Along with it meditates as I have

told you, before the morning and the evening Sun. The Sun is the

greatest and brightest evidence of God. The heaven is the temple and the Sun His

image. Keep this Sun as an image for meditation. Then, day by day you will

realise the Sun in the heaven of your Heart and brain.

Cultivate the brain by sound education and the heart by meditation upon the

All-Love. Love and Light are the heart and soul of real man.

Cultivate both. Do not waste even a single minute. Be busy in and out in sublime

endeavours and God will lead you on and on; fear not.

 

Thus he spoke on and patted me on my back and gave me leave. I followed his

advice scrupulously and it led me on and on. I asked him to come to the

choulatry in the town and stay there for a week. " Go go " . He said. Next morning

I came to the grove. The birds were chirping " Quit Quit! " I did not find him. I

saw his footprints and worshipped them and came home, a changed man. I never met

such a kind spontaneous teacher any where in my life. A study of the life of Sai

Baba often reminds me of that Hidden Light. I do not know as yet who he was. But

I am glad to know, thanks to Sri Sai Chitanya, a similar saint that said to his

devotees " Fear not: I am With you! "

 

Source Sai Sudha Aug 1944