 |
That Fateful Day (Page 4 of 4)
Why was it necessary that it happen in America , and what was its spiritual significance to the world? Regarding America perhaps a clue lies in the statement Baba made 20 years before: “America forms the best foundation for the spiritual upheaval I will bring about in the near future. America has tremendous energy, but most if this energy is misdirected. I intend to divert it into spiritual and creative channels.”
As for the spiritual significance of the Avatar suffering and shedding blood for His creation, Baba said in the message of June 13, “It brings to fruition the first part of the circular that until July 10th ( in the Complicated Free Life ), weakness would dominate strength and bindings would dominate freedom; but from July 10th, in my Full Free Life strength would dominate weakness and freedom would dominate bindings and then from 15 November in my Fiery Free Life, both strength and weakness, freedom and bindings would be consumed in the fire of Divine love.” It would be folly to think we could understand Baba’s whys and wherefores in connection with the accident in Oklahoma. Baba would often tell us not to try to understand Him, just try to love Him.
 |
| Documents of the accident from the archives of the Highway Patrol.
|
Its doubtful that Dr. Ted Burleson had much understanding of who Baba was, but he seems to have fallen in love with Him, nonetheless writing in 1953: “I was not prepared for all of the compliments and courtesy and the good manners of everyone in the party, but especially Baba. He made me feel like I was the greatest doctor on earth. Sarosh Irani also embarrassed me with his compliments. My wife told me that if I were around them much longer I would get the ‘big head’.
“The most attractive quality of Baba’s personality that first day was the way he would look at me with those big brown eyes, as if he were reading my mind. Later I determined that the most astounding quality was that something which made it possible for him to receive such profound devotion and loyalty from so many free and educated people. That quality cannot be forced. Such devotion can only be possible because he deserved it or earned it.”
Many years before the accident at Harmon-on-Hudson in New York, Baba had given Elizabeth Patterson a small pink wildflower and instructed her to remember the date. It was not until years after Baba dropped His body that she found it pressed into her Bible where she’d written “May 24, 1932,”exactly 20 years before the accident. Elizabeth said “Through the experience of sharing Baba’s suffering to a degree, I feel my life, instead of being nearly cut off, was extended for a purpose; the gift of the little flower was grace from the Master to be treasured in the heart.”
The gift of the flower, like the accident itself, was but one tangible thread of the Beloved’s compassion…one thread in the vast invisible tapestry that sustains the Universe.
This article first appeared in Broken Down Furniture Newsletter.
|
|
