(Nov. 1952) Baba then remarked about God’s leela, play or sense of humor:
God’s leela is divine fun! It is the expression of the divine sense of humor on the part of His Great Ones, and, as such, volumes can be written about God’s sense of humor.
The ordinary sense of humor is present in every individual, more or less, and it does not undergo any change merely on account of any spiritual advancement or because of the divine enlightenment of the individual. Not only the sense of humor, but the ordinary individual nature as a whole of a person remains unchanged, no matter how far one is advanced or one is enlightened.
The scope and range of God’s sense of humor through Avatars, Prophets, Perfect Masters and saints, however, differ according to the scope and range of their respective duties in accordance with the prevailing time and circumstances. But the form of the expression of, and the extent of the response to the sense of humor, both ordinary and divine, depends upon the original nature of God’s Great Ones.
Whether I am Avatar or Satan, one thing is certain, and that is I have a great sense of humor. It is my sense of humor that makes me rejoice to see Anna 104 and happy to listen to the irrelevant talk of Babadas. The more he talks the more I like him. It would be no exaggeration to say that Babadas is infinitely irrelevant. When Babadas referred earlier to Kalidas, the great poet, and to Surdas, the great devotee, there was absolutely no connection between the two, the topic in question and Babadas himself, except the common factor of the word das (slave) at the end of all three names.
Anna 104’s type of personality is more than enough to exhaust the patience of saints and sages and forbearance of rishis and munis, and all here are practically anti-Anna. I know that most of you here would heave a sigh of relief the moment Anna were to be out of the picture. You also know that I cannot help humoring both him and Babadas and that, at times, I go far out of my way in order to keep them near me.
The one point on which none of us here can differ about this precious pair is that, according to their respective abilities and capacities, both of them have rendered great and more or less unique service to me, and I also know that both love me sincerely.
Baba then mentioned different incidents in the lives of the past Avatars, which illustrated their unique sense of humor:
It is said that once Rasool-e-Khuda, the Messenger of God, felt indisposed, and someone suggested that it was due to an evil eye and that he should sleep on a pillow with an open knife underneath it. He did so, and thereafter declared himself to be all right. Call it ordinary or call it divine; it was Prophet Muhammad’s sense of humor.
It is a fact that during the childhood of his grandsons, Hassan and Hussain, the Prophet predicted the Moharrum [martyrdom] “Karbala” to his daughter Fatima, the mother of the martyrs. Now, if the Prophet who, in fact, turned the then savages of Arabia into the torchbearers of faith, love and truth for the world did not even try to avoid the greatest tragedy in Islam, or to stop the most horrible end for his own and only two grandsons, that was only because of God’s divine sense of humor in Muhammad.
Likewise, the strife between the Kauravas and the Pandavas (1) and the consequent bloodshed was not only due to the divine sense of humor in Krishna, but its height was reached when Krishna himself died through an arrow that accidentally struck one of his legs from the bow of an ordinary hunter who never had any intention of harming the Rangila [colorful, playful] Avatar in any way.
The kindhearted Jesus knew very well that his nearest disciple would betray him and thus lead to his crucifixion. But, because of the divine sense of humor, Jesus Christ could not help getting himself crucified, although the world rightly continues to look upon him as the Savior of humanity.
The funniest divine sense of humor was on the part of Buddha when he died of simple dysentery, though his “medicine” for the spiritual bimaries (illnesses) of mankind holds the field to this day.
In short, except for a change in the circumstances, the atmosphere and the surroundings, the same old, old story goes on repeating again and again, which by itself proves the divine sense of humor or the leela of God. The manifestation of the divine sport or leela, however, depends upon the Great Ones of God who achieve Oneness with God. And thus, in spite of raising themselves above the law of duality, they still retain the divine sense of humor to uphold the universal law of ignorance through which Knowledge Divine is achieved for all eternity.
Those who were with me at the spot at the time of my car accident in America can alone well describe my own sense of humor as to how thoroughly battered, bruised and literally helpless and hopeless I was when lying with broken bones in a pool of my own blood together with my dearest ones. Yet I maintained my silence and my consciousness throughout the crisis and the long period of convalescence.
(1) Kauravas were of the Kuru clan; namely, Dhrtarastra, Janamejava and Duryodhana. The Pandavas were the sons of Pandu; namely, Yudhisthira, Bhima, Nakula, Sahadeva and Arjuna. These two clans fought each other during Krishna’s advent.
Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 11, pp. 3934 – 3936.