A CHALLENGE AND AN OPEN INVITATION

 
During this meeting [Rajahmundry, 1954], while explaining various points from the board, Baba's hand gestures were very suggestive, and His facial expressions indicated a depth that one could feel but which shall ever remain beyond words to describe. As a simple yet profound conclusion to this long conversation, Baba with a divine glow about Him, added:

"Love me wholeheartedly; that is the real thing. Love Me; love Me; love Me; and you will find Me".

When Baba's workers and lovers in Andhra heard His candid declaration of being God in human form and His loving counsel, "Love Me," some of them gazed at Him with wonderment, and some in intense silence. For some the subliminal reaction was, "Yes, we wish to love Baba, but how?" Baba Himself had answered this question once by smilingly gesturing, "That is the lover's look out. I tell you all: I am the Eternal Beloved; love Me."

Perhaps a part of an answer to this question lies in the words of an enlightened mystic who wrote, "The fools of God do not think, they act." Baba does not want to impose a particular method on anyone. It's a sort of a challenge and an open invitation to live with Him, experimenting with His presence. In a way, it is like trying to find a track in uncharted space, it can be anywhere or nowhere.

A line of a ghazal that Baba liked, when freely translated, means, "Love is not a game for the feeble-hearted." But Baba's compassionate appeal, "Love Me", also implies that if one honestly wishes to love Him, He will definitely help. So those who dare to love Him, will be taken care of by Him. When the pain of longing for Beloved God builds within the heart, one's path to Him begins to gracefully unfold. One then marvels at how, with Baba's grace, any way can become the way to Him.