A Rama Rao Story

Have you seen the page of Rama Rao stories at trustmeher.com? It includes facsimiles of correspondence from Baba. Here’s a sample of one of Rama Rao's stories (which I have paraphrased slightly for smoother reading):

Ramarao and Rangarao went to meet a government minister at Bilaspur to tell him about Meher Baba. The minister was surrounded by a crowd of his followers and paid no attention to them. Rangarao, being hot-tempered, was furious to find an inattentive listener, and they left the room quoting these words to the entire group: "It is like throwing pearls before swine."

On exactly the same day, at the same time, a cable was sent from Baba to Rangarao: "Don't differentiate between Swine and Swan. Spread my message to one and all, big and small. —Meher Baba." That is how omniscient Baba was.

Perhaps in referring to a swan, Baba alluded to the concept of the hamsa (translated as swan or sometimes goose), which in Hindu mythology represents the ability to discern truth from illusion. From a mixture of milk and water, the swan is said to extract the milk, leaving the water behind. A liberated spirit, the hamsa flies beyond the Himalayan peaks (i.e., into a state of divine intoxication) but then returns to ordinary life. Paramahamsa, or “great swan,” is a title of honor for the highest type of renunciate, who breaks all ties with ordinary life, abandoning all possessions and signs of social status.

Regardless of status, all are welcome to approach Avatar Meher Baba with love and to receive His love. In a message given on 20 July 1952, Meher Baba said:

I am equally approachable to one and all, big and small,

To saints who rise and sinners who fall,

Through all the various paths that give the divine call.

I am approachable alike to saint whom I adore

And to sinner whom I am for,

And equally through Sufism, Vedantism, Christianity,

Or Zoroastrianism and Buddhism and other isms

Of any kind and also directly through no medium of “isms” at all.