This Insignificant Woman
Old Man from Chennai became my friend the morning he found me at five-thirty at Meherabad and asked if he could help. I was cleaning plastic and glass plaques at the home of Avatar Meher Baba. My hands held buckets of water and cloths. I thought he was mistaken and looking to help with the tomb shrine. But, no, it was Prema he wanted.
An hour later I had experienced “soul recognition,” meaning an aspect of me identified a connection with him without knowing any life information.
Over seven years, he has come twice a year and in a few moments of speaking, given me a larger view of my life’s direction that I integrate into my karma.*
Before one visit, he called and asked for a rose. I liked to serve him and began a search where our land is in bloom with flowers. Yet we have few rose shrubs. I couldn’t find a single one, until remembering friends’ roses, I found a flower—small, palest, with open petals, on a scraggly shrub. Grateful, I plucked it.
As Old Man and I were walking away from darshan* at Samadhi,* he leaned toward me with amusement saying, “This insignificant man has asked an insignificant woman to find a rose for God, and the best we’ve done is that insignificant little rose we’ve just placed on the marble shrine.” Then, we both laughed knowing the true meaning of the rose.
My realization is, “It is not the size of what we offer in life (small or large) or how we serve (closely or expansively); it is whether or not our offering and our service come from our hearts.”
*karma Action and its consequential reaction as lessons from lifetime to lifetime
*darshan Being in the presence of a holy person or holy place
*Samadhi The tomb shrine of Avatar Meher Baba