Introduction
I first met Baba Prakashananda walking along a garden path some fifty miles outside Bombay. He was dressed in the ochre-colored cotton robe of a monk and his presence, luminosity, and effortless, graceful simplicity shocked my hard cynical Western ego into silence. I knew myself to be in the presence of a Great Man.
I had heard that Baba Prakashananda was a Siddha - a perfected being - and somehow imagined he must be a sort of Superman who was powerful and self-sufficient and had transcended the pain, confusion, limitations and ups and downs of the mundane existence with which I was so familiar. During the ten years that followed, what was gradually revealed was something different. The self-sufficiency, transcendence, wisdom, and power were all there but Babaji was, in a sense, not the "owner" of these qualities. His interest lay elsewhere. In Love. It manifested visibly in his work with the children who lived in his ashram at Sapta Shringh and in the kindness, respect and consideration he extended to all those he met, irrespective of their status in life.
Being around him in the close proximity of discipleship was never easy and Babaji was merciless in working on the selfishness which lay at the core of my pain. By the force of his spiritual realization he was able to kindle a kind of "holy fire” within me which was often excruciatingly painful as the darkness within was exposed again and again. The miracle that was born out of the ashes. however, was worth everything. What arose was a sense of God Itself, the Unknowable Essence and Source of Life. Gradually the Truth dawned. I had always somewhere known, but scarcely dared believe, that One Essence pervaded and animated everyone and everything. Under Babaji's protective eye, I started to partake in this new understanding and his unconditional love allowed me to slowly let go of the protective walls of suspicion, fear, and mistrust I had erected against the world. At last I sensed and even shared in the Source of Babaji's outrageous love for the motley humanity which surrounded him.
We were all One in God, in Love.
Titus Foster
