Sri Sathya Sai Precious Closeness Om Sri Sai Ram This is the transcription of the talk delivered by Sri B Arvind in the divine presence of Bhagawan Baba on the 29th of July 2005. Offering my Humble Pranaams at Bhagavan’s Lotus Feet. Beloved Bhagavan, esteemed elders, dear brothers and sisters. The Message of the Messiah Once upon a time there was a Messiah who had come to Earth. After spending a long period on Earth, he decided that he would quit. So he went on top of the mountain and told everyone present, “Listen, today I am going to quit. I am no longer a Messiah.” Hearing this, the people were shocked. They said, “You can’t quit! If you leave us, how will we communicate with God? How can we keep in touch with Him? So you can’t do this!” He said, “Listen, you’re a fisherman; when you get tired, you don’t go fishing. You are a manager; when you get tired, you don’t go to work. I am a Messiah, and I don’t want to do it anymore so I am quitting.” The people could not convince him. And so, they said, “Before you quit, please give us one message from God. A message following which our lives will be fulfilled – the greatest and the most wonderful lesson that God has to give us.” The world always looks for compactness, shortcuts. They asked this from the Messiah. They said, “Before leaving, do this much for us.” He said, “So you want to know what God wants you to do?” They all chorused, “Yes!” “Okay, I will tell you. But are you ready to follow it?”They said, “Yes! We are ready to follow it, even if it means giving up our lives, even if it means giving up our wives, our children, our husbands, our relations, everyone. We are ready!”He said: “Think again. Are you ready?” They said, “Yes, even if it means going through the fires of hell. Even if it means getting crucified upside down. We are ready to undergo any torture, any amount of sadness for God.”The Messiah smiled and said, “Listen…God wants you all to be happy!”And there was a stunned silence. Brothers and sisters, we are all ready to suffer for God. We are all ready to undergo pain for God. But are we ready to be cheerful for God? To be happy for God every moment of our lives? What is it that we want in our lives? We want to be happy every moment. And what is it that God wants from us? He wants us to be happy every moment. Then where is the problem? Why are we not happy every moment of our lives? This has been answered in various ways, in various scriptures, by various religions. And I feel that being in the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, this is the greatest gift we receive: the gift of this higher learning; learning how to be always happy. We are unhappy because of what people term Maya – ignorance; and we have the Jagad Guru, the Lord of Lords amongst us to help us overcome this. Talking about ignorance, or Maya, I am reminded of an interesting anecdote. Once upon a time there was a fisherman who used to go to the beach and throw out his fishing net. He would catch his fish and return. In the ocean there were so many fish but there was one particular fish that was never caught in the net. All of its friends and relatives used to get caught but not this fish. So one day, all the other fish went to this fish and asked, “How is it that you never get caught in the net?” The fish explained, “When the fisherman comes, he throws his net. At that time I swim close to his feet so I don’t get caught in the net.” As You Think, So It Is I used to wonder how should I establish my rapport with my Master, my Guru, my Friend, my Everything? And then what I did was this: (I am being very honest and frank in laying before everybody what I did and how wonderfully it worked.) Though I could not see my Bhagavan with me always, I imagined that my Bhagavan is with me whether I eat my food, whether I sleep, whether I talk, whether I am in the classroom. I imagined that Bhagavan is with me and I would talk to Him. Anything I found uninteresting I would tell him, “Swami, this is not interesting for me.” Anything I found interesting, I would also tell Him. All A Hallucination? But then one day a small problem came up. I told Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, see this is the problem; it is not getting solved.” And I wrote it down in a letter to Him and I came to the Mandir. And I was so sure that when Bhagavan came, He would take the letter from me. So I was sitting there, and as Bhagavan passed by I held out the letter. He merely passed by without even looking at me. At that moment I felt crushed. I felt that all that I was doing was nothing but hallucination! Is it really true that Bhagavan is with me or am I meraely imagining Him? Are these all my hallucinations? I was shaken. I said, “Then whom do I tell this?” It was something which I didn’t want to tell anybody and I said, “I cannot even tell it to Bhagavan. Is it that I am alone in this world? Do I really have nobody?” And the next week was torture because I felt so lonely. I felt helpless. And then that night I had another dream. In that dream it looked like the whole world was out to strangle me. And when I was running, Bhagavan came out and said, “Come with me.” Even in the dream I was still very angry with Bhagavan so I