LET THE CLOUD DISPERSE

LET THE CLOUD DISPERSE

 

Baba said, "There are many ways leading there; there is one way from here also. The way is difficult" in Sri Sai Satcharitra Ch. II.

 

It was wet, wintry day in Calcutta. I was there away from my college, in my room, which I loved more than words may tell. For there I sat near the house of my Guru. The shades of evening were falling fast; and with love – how pure, how rich – in my heart, I met my Guru, touching his feet with tears in my eyes. That blessed evening, I had a little talk with him.

 

"Dada" I said to him, "what is the greatest hindrance to holy life, the greatest obstacle to the life of the Spirit?"

 

He smiled and said, "My child! Two kinds of life there be:

 

1. The life of the Spirit;
2. The life of the flesh.
3.  

The life of the flesh is full of pleasure, of bodily sensations, of excitement and enjoyment; it is a life dear to the lower self. Eat, drink and be merry – is the motto of this life; Think not of the morrow; the morrow will take care of itself.

 

"The life of the Spirit is the life of aspiration, of battle with appetite and desire. And, often, he who battled thus sheds tears. Sometimes – perhaps often – he falls, but he rises again. It is a life of tremendous difficulties. But at every step, hope springs in the heart within. It is life of search and struggle; it is a life of sanga, of fellowship with the pure, the holy, the divine! It is a life in which the cry of the heart ever rises upward: "Though Thou slay me yet will I follow Thee! Though Thou cut me into twain, yet will I trust in Thee!"

 

"This is the true life: it gives us pain but makes us men. It is a life which is full of difficulties, but it makes us heroic. And when the period of conflict is over, it makes us beautiful, and we shine as the radiant sun: we shine as far-off stars.

 

"In the life of the flesh, we have pleasure, but darkness surrounds us. In the life of the Spirit, we struggle and often we fall: but we rise, again and again. And, at last, we touch the divine, and our faces are radiant and, one day, become calm and wear the beauty, the freshness, the radiance, the charm of the dawn of the saint of God."

 

Then my Guru looked at me and smiled and said, "This is the life which you must aspire to, my child! The path is often thorny, and as you will bleed, but in your heart within bloom flowers of beauty, and your face will shine as the lily or the lotus in the lake!"

 

And with tear-touched eyes, I said to him: "Tell me why we do not live this beautiful life? What is it which is a hindrance on the path? Why is it that though we have a longing for a life of the Spirit, we live the life of the flesh?"

 

My Guru looked at me again and said: "My child! One thing only stands in the way. The sun shines but is darkened by a cloud: let the cloud disperse and the sun will shine again in all beauty, in the fullness of splendour. This one cloud which hinders, obstructs, stands in the way, this one cloud which darkness life and keeps us apart from Him of Whom we are a part – this one cloud, this little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, is "I" and "mine".

 

 

 

(Written by Sri. T.L. Vaswani in Mira Jan-Feb 2004)