SUPPOSING IT IS SOMEONE ELSE WHO IS THE ONLY ONE

 
Have you ever enjoyed being scared? I bet every one has, at one time or another. Scaring myself was a game I enjoyed....

My most favorite scare concerned Baba personally. How old was I? Perhaps nine. Old enough to catch what I heard others say about reality and illusion: "Only Baba is Real. Nothing else exists."

I liked that. I couldn't take it any other way. It had to be only Baba.

So then I would scare myself by imagining otherwise. I would think, "Supposing, just supposing, it isn't Baba who is the Only One. Supposing it is someone else who is the Only One, like for instance my horrible history teacher! Or the mad old man in the lane who stares at you forever without blinking! Or, oh horrors, the Goanese woman who is always scolding her children!"

On and on, I'd work myself up, imagining this one or that one as the Only One who existed — until I couldn't take it any more. "Waaagh!" I'd drop out of the game, feeling so very relieved and happy that Baba was the Only One. I'd skip around the well yelling, "Baba alone is Real!"