Searching Questions And Fulfilling Answers

A child is like a sapling. In the

beginning, as he establishes a

foothold in this world of adults

he spreads his branches out

wide in all directions. He

questions about and everything.

‘Why this?’

‘How does that work?’, ‘What is

over there?’. He does so hoping

to reach the sky which of course,

is the answer to everything.

In his innocence he doesn’t

realise that the sky is still well

beyond his reach. If his questions

are not answered with love and

patience, we make break his

tiny, fragile branches, and his

eagerness to learn about life and

understand ‘Why?’.

With a broken spirit the

child grows up to be a man with

little eagerness in life. He has no

branches, thus disabling him

from reaching out to others, and

most important, he has no shade

to protect the next generation of

saplings from the scorching sun

which is the bad in our society.

Swamishri always has time for

children. Not just to play with

them, but also to guide them

and teach them. His answers

reflect patience and concern.

He takes them seriously

because he takes thefuture

seriously. And so, through his

answers we can see him -

‘Sowing the seeds of our future...’

Seven year old Nilkanth Parekh asked the following questions whilst Swamishri was walking on the terrace of the Bombay temple...

Nilkanth : Swami Bapa! Can I ask you a question?

Swamishri : Of course! You are very clever.

No, Swami! I want to be mad! Because Gunatitanand Swami says in his talks that only those who are mad worship God! My question is - which is bigger, the sun or the moon?

Swamishri : How should I know?

Why shouldn’t you know? You know everything!”

Swamishri : God is the biggest. Even bigger than the sun and the moon. We should follow His agna and do bhajan.

But aren’t the sun and moon forms of God?

Swamishri : No. They are His servants. They are great but only because they obey His agna. Shriji Maharaj is greater than all the devas. By His agna they give us light. The sun is greater than the moon, but God is greater than both. So what should we learn from this?
‘O Ishwar bhajiye tane...’
If we worship God we become great too. Shriji Maharaj is the uplifter of all. If we realise this, He’ll make us great too! If someone does a good deed we bow at their feet. Similarly we bow before the devas because they do good deeds. Because they served God they became great and that’s why we give them a place in our temples and honour them. If we can please God as they have done, we too will become great.

Swami Bapa! You mentioned that if we do this we become great. But you also said that God is the greatest of all. So if I become great that means that I become God! But I am not God. In fact I’m smaller than you and these sadhus.

Swamishri : That’s it! Well done! You should always remain small. Look, because you are small everyone looks after you. We can never become God so we might as well be His servant.

(17 May 1986, Bombay)