Avatar Adi Da had a great voice. It always resounded with love, whether it is soft as a whisper or booming loud with force. He sang beautifully and He could imitate many different accents so perfectly that you just had to laugh. One day in 1983, Avatar Adi Da began to speak in a scary “Dracula” voice. Some devotees who were there laughed with delight and some others playfully pretended to be scared by the spooky voice. But a three--year--old boy named Neem was there, and he got scared for real. He shrank back.

 

Adi Da noticed that Neem was having a hard time. Neem was often withdrawn from other people and even from fun things in life—because Neem sometimes got afraid when he didn’t need to be. So Adi Da used the game He was playing with His voice to help Neem learn what to do when he felt afraid.

 

Avatar Adi Da 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 Adi Da invited Neem to make some scary noises himself. At first, Neem was still too afraid. Still trying to help Neem, next Adi Da started to roar like a lion and He invited young Neem to roar with Him.

 

Now, Avatar Adi Da's roar sounded thunderous and awesome, like a lion in the wild, so this was quite a test for Neem. But, at the same time that He was roaring and asking Neem to roar too, Adi Da was radiating His love and help to Neem—you could see it on His face and feel it in the room. Neem could feel it too and so he 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 Adi Da.