LOVE OF THIS CALIBRE

 
There lived in Bombay a family, father, mother, two daughters and a son, who loved Meher Baba very much. One day the wife had a heart attack, and the distraught husband went to Baba and told Him of her illness. Baba comforted him telling him not to worry about it, but rather spend his time being concerned with his own salvation. The wife did fully recover, but later the husband died! This, the wife in her love for Baba accepted, knowing that the ebb and flow of happiness in her life was in accordance with His Will.

Time passed. She educated the children despite very considerable financial difficulties. She even managed to send the son, who was brilliant in his studies and whom she particularly loved, to England for further studies. Their intense love for Baba did sustain them, yet the mother's hopes for the future centred in this son, appearing as he did, to be on the threshold of a promising new phase in life.

Then one day, in London, the son had a severe heart attack. Adi, Meher Baba's younger brother, went to see him in hospital and naturally sought to console and comfort him. But the son replied that he was not worried at all, that he felt Beloved Baba's Presence, and simply asked that Adi convey his love to Baba. Within half an hour he died with his Beloved's Name on his lips.

Adi informed Baba who was at the time in Bombay. Baba called Eruch and said, the mother is not physically strong and in addition she has heart trouble. How will she cope with the news if we just send her the cable? Go to her and inform her very tactfully of his death.

On reaching her home, Eruch talked with her on different topics related to Baba, and in a natural way asked about her family's love for Baba. Yes, replied the mother, they all love Baba very much, she knows that they would not waver in their love, and in the event of her death she is sure they would not cry but would be simply resigned to His Will.

This gave Eruch an opportunity to ask if she herself too was resigned to His Will. 'Suppose one of your daughters dies, will you cry?'

'No,' she replied.

'Suppose all your children die, will you be distressed?'

'Never,' she said.

So Eruch felt she was now ready to hear the news: 'Meher Baba has sent me to tell you that your son has died of a heart attack. But his love for his Beloved was such that he died with Baba's Name on his lips. Remember, anyone who dies saying His Name, comes to Him.'

There was pin-drop silence, and after a few minutes, Eruch asked her if she had any message for Baba. She said: 'Please tell Baba that since my son has died with His Name on his lips and therefore has merged in Him, how can I grieve and be miserable?'

So Eruch replied: 'If Baba asks you Himself how you feel, you will be able to say this?'

'Yes,' said the mother, 'it is the truth that I am not miserable.'

A few days later Baba did call her, and she did say to her Beloved Lord that she felt no grief over her son's death. But Baba further tested her by saying that if this was so, she should come to a movie with Him that day (He had promised to take the mandali to see The Ten Commandments).

The mother said, 'I consider myself most blessed to go with you. I had told my children to go to the movies on my death and not to weep.' She went, saw the film, and then returned home without shedding a single tear.

A little later Baba called His women mandali and said that it was not good for her health that she had absorbed the sorrow of her son's death but not shed a single tear. Baba continued that she should be made to weep and so He instructed them to go to her house, talk about the death and cry themselves to lead her to cry. But, Baba said, if she still did not cry, she was to be asked to try and cry! The women did as He had instructed but to no avail. The mother even tried to cry but could not do so.

Hearing this, Baba then called her again to Him. He said to her with such Love and Compassion that only He can project: 'Your love for Me is truly blessed. Love of this calibre makes Me weep.'

Hearing this and seeing tears forming in His eyes, the mother could no longer control herself. Her tears flowed down her cheeks, and one could feel that those tears transformed and washed away so much of the cherished desires and shattered hopes centred around the son she loved so strongly.

How truly is our Beloved the Comforter of the afflicted!