Translating

     
One day Sai Baba ordered me from across a room (when he was surrounded by a group of Russians and Italians all speaking to him at once), to “Translate!”  In answer I said, “Swami, I don’t speak Russian.” Again looking deeply into my eyes he commanded, “Translate!”  I knew absolutely that he was fully aware that I didn’t speak either of those languages, and was a bit confused by his insistence.  Later a few people who witnessed the event approached me to tell me that Swami meant for me to put into practice his teachings, and/or to write about my experiences.  “Yes” I would say, knowing that the advice did not quite capture the entirety of what I felt was meant by the command.

One day after returning to the states and after much contemplation on the “translate” directive, I opened up the huge yellow volume of the Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary that belonged to my scholarly husband.  I was a bit surprised to find that the first definition was “to move a thing from one place to another”; but was quite astounded when my eyes fell on the second definition:  “to translate - by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him, because it was said that he was pleasing to God”. 

In the Vedas the idea is put forth that the spiritual aspirant must “die” before ‘she’ dies.  This is called the experience of the Jivanmukta, of the Gnani who realizes the true nature of the Self and abides there while continuing to inhabit the physical form.  This above all was my heart’s desire.  It felt to me that this was the best possible service a being could render to humanity.  Without the death of the ego, how could there be such a thing as selfless service? 

However, earlier on the day Sai insisted I translate,  he’d asked me what I wanted.  I closed my eyes and whispered, “I want what you came to give”.  This I believe is the truth of that experience; his promise of translation is what he came to give.  But before that death, the translation that will be is of the experience of day-to-day life filled with the mental activity that simultaneously creates and destroys the illusion of the world.