"How Beautiful are the Feet ..."

Birch and Pine Whisper His Name - A Tribute to Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Chapter 54

MESSIAH

As I sat on the sands outside the temple at Prasanthi Nilayam on the Sunday morning before Christmas, 1980, a small tune came into my head. The lilting refrain played itself over and over again, as if asking to be recognized. I could not place it, except that it came from Handel’s Messiah.

Over the years I had come to appreciate the magnificent oratorio more and more. It became a family tradition to head for Massey Hall each December to hear Handel’s Messiah performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Choir, which usually contained several other family members.

Those of us in the audience contributed actively as well. When we all stood up for the Hallelujah chorus, my  Aunt Anne always sang along, making up in gusto what she lacked in smoothness.

In time, my singing teachers would hopefully give me solos from Messiah to practise - lovely tunes like “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace”, “Rejoice greatly” and “I know that my redeemer liveth.” Years later would I see a new meaning in that aria:

I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand upon the latter day upon the earth,  And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.   Job 19:25

By Christmas season, 1980 I was convinced that the Redeemer was indeed among us, as Sathya Sai Baba. When we went to India that year, my well-worn score of Messiah traveled with us. As our taxi bowled along the road to the “Abode of Supreme Peace”, I thought of the tenor aria that begins Messiah and speaks of a voice crying in the wilderness: Make straight in the desert a highway to our God.

Recently had it occurred to me that most sections of Messiah about Jesus are in the past tense, like the texts about His birth and the crucifixion. Other parts of the work are more prophetic in tone. It seemed to me that they could very well be about the Lord Sai Baba. The more I studied the text, the more meaningful it became, matching my own experience.

While I waited for Swami’s darshan my tattered score lay in my lap, along with a letter asking Him to confirm my growing belief that much of Messiah was about His advent and His mission. I also asked Him to bless a performance of the oratorio in His presence, envisioning choir, soloists and orchestra under the direction of a world-famous conductor.

The idea seemed fantastic, but not unrealizeable. I pictured people from all over the world practising their parts, then gathering in Prasanthi Nilayam to put the finishing touches to the whole. All in the same spirit of love, service and devotion that inspired one Charles Jennens with the libretto and Handel with the music.

Jennens himself could not understand why he was impelled to begin selecting texts from the New and Old Testaments. Their message was, in essence: Prepare for the coming of the Lord in all His glory, for the sacrifice of Jesus was not in vain.

My mind was time-travelling, back to London in the late summer of 1741. “The Great Mr. Handel” had just received a commission from the  Governor of Ireland to write and direct a new oratorio for a charitable benefit concert. The arrival of an excited Jennens with a new-old text was perfectly timed.

An atmosphere of wonder surrounded the entire creation of Messiah. Handel was so caught up in the work that he completed it in 23 days, hardly stopping to eat or sleep.

Legend says that a servant, tiptoeing into his room one evening to take away an untouched supper tray, found the composer in a state of ecstasy. A glorious vision seemed to be hovering before his inner gaze. He is quoted as saying that when he wrote the “Hallelujah” chorus: “I did think I saw all heaven before me, and the Great God Himself.”

Following Messiah’s premiere for charity in Dublin came a royal command performance before King George II in London. The first full-throated chords of the “Hallelujah!” chorus brought the King to his feet. When the King rose, the audience also stood up, setting a tradition that is generally observed to this day.

Having composed this oratorio for charity, Handel continued to use it in the service of society throughout the rest of his life, giving benefit performances for charities dear to his generous heart. In his will he left a copy of the musical score and several sets of the words to the London Foundling Hospital.

Coming back to the twentieth century and the sands of Prasanthi Nilayam, I found the persistent little tune still chirping away in my head, asking to be identified. Still unable to do so, I decided that morning darshan was not the place to play “Guess the Theme”.

Sternly banishing the motif as if it were a mosquito of the mind, I resolved to calm my spirits by looking up an inspiring text for the day. Usually I do this with one of Baba’s recent books. Today all I had with me was Messiah. Full of sacred writings, it should do very well. My musical score opened at random to none other than my little theme, to the words: He is the King of Glory! He is the King of Glory!

At that precise moment Sai Baba Himself strolled into view on the other side of the courtyard, moving majestically in rhythm to the theme, his red robe gilded by the morning sun. Throughout that unique and splendid darshan, I could “hear” with incredible clarity the ethereal chorus that leads up to my “little” theme:

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates,” sing the higher voices of the choir, like herald angels. “And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in!”

“Who is this King of Glory?” inquire the lower voices, those of the men.

“The Lord of Hosts, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle,” comes the reply from on high. Then all the voices, high and low, unite as if heaven and earth had joined voices, to exult: “He is the King of Glory.”

The music playing to my mind came to its last chords not long before Baba reached my side of the courtyard.

As He arrived at my place in the line, I held out my score of Messiah full of the hopes of generations, and the visions of prophets since Isaiah. On top of text and music lay my letter asking to have the work performed in His presence one day.

Baba placed His hand firmly on both letter and Messiah score, and gave His blessing.

(Here is a choir singing that chorus much as I imagined it that day at darshan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kzgVzg8nVk )

NB: 

An earlier version of this chapter appeared in the December, 1982, issue of “Sanathana Sarathi”.