Conference on World Religions 1994 07 NY Queens

Author(s): Council for The Conference on World Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 41

LOVE BEYOND THE FEAR OF DEATH
In the Name of God whose mercy and compassion are immeasurable. Without gender, beginning or end, form or formlessness, or any qualification or limitation of any kind or nature, He remains absolute, one, singular, omnipresent, all knowing and resonating infinite love such as brings indescribable bliss to those of pure heart. May all who read from here on come to experience this indescribable bliss that arises when the heart opens and permits the natural state of divine love to blossom.
His Holiness Sheik Bawa Muhaiyaddeen whose service with the body ended on December 8, 1986, demonstrated the reality that contained within the finite appearance of the human being is the infinite wonder of God's love, the expression of God's unqualified reality. That unconditional pure and perfect love is God's intention. For a human to realize God, his intentions must coincide with God's, he must understand the reality that "God lives within man and man lives within God." A man's intentions must express the purity of goodness which is God's intention. A person in this State is in unity with God and thus with all of God's creation. His intentions are coincidental with God's. Hatred is met with love. His behavior toward his fellow human beings demonstrates God's intentions.
It is January of 1975 and I am with Bawa at his ashram in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. There is a cement floor and a roof which is partially corrugated steel and partially tiled. There is one large room and Bawa's bed is in the middle. One side is open, bordered by a three foot high plaster wall on the other side of which is a courtyard with a deer, turkeys, cats, a goat and other animals who gather around when Bawa sings.
It is a typical evening and people of all classes, religions, levels of understanding and intentions are coming to the saint's bedside to pour out their hearts or to receive the outpouring of God's heart. One tall, thin very energetic man aggressively steps forward brandishing a curved blade machete. He is raging that he will slit Bawa's throat. His knife is but a foot from Bawa's exposed neck and his leg is brushing against me as I sit at the side of the bed.
Bawa sits calmly on the bed. He is wearing a sarong, no shirt and some prayer beads. It is very hot and the man with the knife is screaming and working himself into a frenzy. Apparently he has suffered some personal tragedy and is blaming everything on the sage. He is yelling in Tamil and I cannot quite understand the specifics of his complaint but his intensity is palpable and the reality of intent unmistakable.
I am strong, athletic and weigh about 180 lbs. An unexpected upper cut would easily down the assailant. The conscience says, "Sit still, there will be a lesson of truth."
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