Roar
Like a Lion
A three-year-old is drawn beyond his fear
by Adi Da Samraj.
This
story appears on The
Vision Of Mulund website.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj has a great voice. It always resounds with
Love, whether it is soft as a whisper or booming loud with force. He sings beautifully
and He can imitate many different accents so perfectly that you just have to laugh.
One day at a gathering with devotees in
1983, Avatar Adi Da began to speak in a scary “Dracula” voice. Some devotees
laughed with delight and some playfully pretended to be scared. But three-year-old
Neem, who could sometimes be withdrawn or afraid, got scared for real. He shrank
back.
Avatar Adi Da noticed that Neem was having a hard time.
He turned to Neem, still speaking in His Dracula voice, and started coaxing him
beyond his fear, telling Neem how great and fun and wonderful it was to make scary
voices. Then Avatar Adi Da invited Neem to make some scary noises himself. But
Neem was too afraid. Avatar Adi Da started to roar like a lion, inviting young
Neem to roar with Him. Now, Avatar Adi Da’s roar sounded just as thunderous and
awesome as a lion in the jungle, so this was quite a test for Neem. But, at the
same time, Avatar Adi Da was Radiating His Love and Help to Neem—you could see
it on His face and feel it in the room. Neem bravely started to roar back. At
first, Neem’s “roars” sounded more like a squeaky kitten. But as he persisted,
his roars got bigger and better. After a few minutes, he felt strong enough to
really roar face-to-face with his Heart-Master.
After
this, whenever Neem would seem too shy or withdrawn or afraid of life, his parents
and friends would ask him to roar like a lion. All of Neem’s friends noticed how
hard this was for him at first, but they also noticed how Neem was getting stronger
and less afraid. He began to feel free to go right up to people, instead of being
timid and holding back his energy. Neem had received a Blessing and learned a
lesson that would help him for the rest of his life.