The Unceasing Prayer of Shabri's Devotion

I watched the episode where Shabri meets Ram yesterday. I was watching what happened. This lady, very young lady, her Guru said he is very happy with her so she can attain Mukti and leave this world. She said, 'I don't want to go because I want to meet Ram. That is what I want more than even Mukti, for Ram to come to meet me.' So he said, 'Okay, now you stay next to that lake sort of place, you make a corner for yourself, and there one day He'll come.' So this lady, for decades after decades, every day she puts flowers on the path, she collects the ber every day. And maybe 50, 60, 70 years later He comes. But when she collects the ber, she's scared that some of the ber may not be sweet, so she selects every day after tasting the sweetest one.

So then, after He comes, she's overjoyed of course, and then offers Him the ber to eat. And Lakshman gets upset. He says, 'Are you going to give a guest who's come to your house the jhootha ber?' which means that you've already eaten a bit of it and you're going to offer that to a revered guest who's come to your house. And Shabri in her devotion didn't realize that this could be considered something bad. She said, 'I just didn't want him... I wanted him to have the sweetest ones.' Ram says that like a mother tastes everything she gives to the child before she feeds him or her, just like that, this mother has tasted it for me, and in that there is so much love I feel of the mother, and she must feed me these ber.

So what a beautiful story of devotion. How many decades she waited. She was a young lady who became so old, but every day with full love she would set her goodies beautifully, set her path full of flowers for Him to come. Such a beautiful story, so joyful. But also I was lamenting at my lack of faith looking at that story. Could I have waited that long with undying faith, with the undying love that God will come? What happens to us within a week if you're praying and nothing happens? There is no sweetness in the prayer, we start becoming upset saying, 'Why nothing is happening?' And here is one who spent her whole life. And when she started, there was no worldly Ram that he knew that he will come, he was not born also.

That kind of fire, that kind of faith is needed. I'm not saying that He will only come after 70 years, but the question to ask ourselves is that: is there a better life to live, even if it took 70 years, even if it took 70 lifetimes? Is there a better option of a different life to live than to remain in love and in devotion to God and service to God in this way, collecting the ber every day for Him to eat? So because we are in this instant gratification, fast food world, we made spirituality also like that. Do you feel that He will come? God will come or no? It still seems unreal to you? That is the question. What does your heart tell you? If you go with what your heart tells you, then you will learn to live in faith. The mind will say, 'Oh, what about me? I'm getting so old, I can't walk so much, this is so frustrating.'

So don't complain. Don't get irritated if you hear the word 'sweet' and you say, 'No, but I'm still so dry, it's all arid.' How many lifetimes have you spent? When is our right to complain? Don't waste your time in complaining and in entitlement. He knows. He knows what is best. He knows. The mother knows when to feed the child. So don't take on intelligence which you don't have.