"Dear friend, your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets."
-- al-Ghazzali, a Sufi mystic
In the last two sessions we talked first about becoming aware of the heart center and then offering to Baba its content of emotions, desires and impulses that clutter the heart. As we empty the strangers from our heart and give them to Baba, our heart begins to let in more of the light of Baba’s love, our own soul. The Sufis compare the heart to a mirror covered with dust; when it is polished clean, it reflects the sun. Baba’s face and form, which have been invisible for lifetimes, eventually begin to appear in the mirror of our heart. And ultimately, there is room for Baba to actually live our life, as it is said in the Bible, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
It’s not that the light of love really increases in us. In essence, we are the light itself, and our heart is becoming increasingly more receptive to it. The reward of feeling more love and light in our heart spurs us on to empty it of strangers with greater determination. The formless divine presence is everywhere, but with Baba, that divine presence has taken human form and enters our lives. That is, as Baba lovers, we are not just tuning into the formless divine presence; Baba has come to us as a divinely human presence to personally share in our lives. He embodies the divine presence which is everywhere.
This work of giving our interior to Baba needn’t take place only on the higher planes, but can happen right down here at the street level amidst our everyday situations. As the mirror of the heart is wiped clean, Baba’s form and personality begin to be reflected in our heart. We have the great good fortune to enjoy the intimate companionship of Baba as our heart moves toward the light of the Soul. In emptying the strangers from our heart to Baba, He gradually becomes inwardly more real to us. Baba is really there in person to receive everything we give to Him. On our ascent to the soul, we enjoy the intimate companionship of Baba with each step.
The more intimate our sharing from the heart with Baba, the more intimate He becomes with us. We have the opportunity to share with Him things in ourselves that we might be very reluctant to share with anyone else. And not only will He not disapprove of what we give Him; He is grateful and touched that we would be so vulnerable before Him. In focusing on His finite form and life, how is it that our heart expands beyond its usual bounds! It is because, as Baba has said, even though His form is illusory, it houses the Reality—"Truth and Truth’s body” as Francis Brabazon has written in the Australian Arti. Both Eruch and Darwin refer to Baba as impression-less Being, and any focus on Him dissolves whatever impressions we are experiencing at the moment. In absorbing more and more of the details of Baba’s life as Darwin suggests, He becomes more real as a personality and accompanies us throughout the day. The personalities of the Avatars are eternal even though their bodies last only for a time. The Christian saints in the Middle Ages, for example, enjoyed a present moment relationship with Jesus many centuries after He lived on earth.
For the longest time, we feel Baba’s presence in our lives, but we don’t see Him except perhaps on rare occasions. Eventually, Darwin says, the eye of the heart (not the mind’s eye), which has been closed for eons of time, begins to open, and Baba, who has always been right before us though invisible, suddenly comes into view. It is to share this experience with us that Baba has come: it is our destiny to eventually see Him face-to-face! However, as sublime as this experience is, Adi K. Irani, Baba’s early disciple and secretary, points to something beyond even this. One day in his office, he said to a friend of mine, “See that photograph on the wall. I can make Baba come out of the photograph and stand right before me,” and without pausing, he went on, “But I have work to do!” Working for Baba as he did his entire life and striving to please Him, according to Adi, is even greater than seeing Him face-to-face! That is something to ponder.
"Everyone sees the Unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more--more Unseen forms become manifest to him." Rumi
P.S. We are continuing on page 26
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