Category Archives: From The Heart

Interfaith Prayer Meeting – Bath Guildhall 5 February 2012

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Dear Friends

It gives me great pleasure to be able to share with you the write-up of the interfaith prayer meeting held in Bath on 5 February 2012.

REGION 7:     Mayor of Bath’s Annual Call To Prayer to all Faith groups

For the last ten years the Sai Baba organization, along with representatives from seven major faiths,  have been asked to make a short presentation at this annual event in the splendid Guildhall. This year the theme was ‘Bath’s Industrial Heritage’ which was challenging to say the least!

The Mayor opened the event and called upon the Mayor’s Chaplain to MC the proceedings. The Reverend welcomed the audience drawn from Bath and the surrounding region and expressed happy surprise that extra chairs had to be brought in, despite the snow, to seat the large number assembled.

The Christian Youth representatives from St Saviour’s led the way by summarizing their activities and core values. They welcomed all to visit their church and enjoy their most valued sense of community and love of Christ Jesus.

The Jewish tradition followed with a vibrantly sung prayer drawn from the Torah with a brief explanation.

This was followed by Ruhi, a 4th generation Bah’ai who gave a brief history of her faith and heartfelt reading and song.

Then came the Islamic faith group who led a question and answer dialogue, mentioning that there are between 1200-1500 Muslims in Bath and informing us of the local Islamic tradition of the city.

They were followed by Arun Bedi from Swindon who led the Sikh tradition’s contribution. He explained the potency of the 2 primary symbols of Sikhism and the power of Aum. He finished by chanting and translating a prayer.

Buddhism followed with another question and answer dialogue led by a monk from the Bristol Buddhist Centre, and then we enjoyed a beautifully sung Liberating prayer blessing in English.

We were then treated to a sweet rendition of the Gayatri mantra and a bhajan led by Satyen Gadher and his group of young Hindu children who, in their beautiful colourful dress, lit up the proceedings with deep heart and respect.

To close the proceedings and before we broke for tea and mingling came the Sai Baba group with our Sarvadharma.  Knowing the Mayor’s love of song, we wanted to get everyone singing and so kept our presentation to a minimum, focussing on the Universality of Swami’s message and the commonality of His teachings with those of other traditions. Without God, without Love and without Service there would be no Industrial Heritage in Bath, regardless of the faith and beliefs of those who created this magnificent city.

It was heartwarming to see many in the audience joining in with a couple of devotional songs with which we concluded the proceedings, accompanied by Kathryn Crosweller on the guitar :

Happy are they who in friendship willingly work together …who in peace united willingly work together.

And to finish, the rousing song  Let the Love we’re sharing spread its wings, fly across the earth and bring new joy to every soul who is alive…Samasta Loka Sukhino Bhavantu….

Afterwards, the Lib Dem MP of Bath, the Honourable Don Foster, who had been singing at the top of his voice, told Clare that he thought everyone in the UK should be encouraged to sing this song regularly…!

The event aims to bring together all the various faiths so that the promotion of common values and purpose can be shared and felt. To this end much was achieved this year. There was a definite feeling of tolerance, understanding, mutual co-operation and appreciation of each other’s spiritual paths.

It’s also a wonderful networking opportunity and most of us enjoyed interesting conversations with those from other faiths. A representative from the Islamic, Buddhist and Ba’hai groups have each accepted an invitation to come to our Sunday Study Circle to speak on a chosen theme of their particular tradition. This outstretched hand of welcome and friendship is as our Sai would hope and expect of us and we look forward to further extending this sense of sharing and openness to other groups.

Roland Pargeter, Bath Sai Group.

A New Angle On Astral Travelling – Part Two

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I have also held the opinion for quite some time that our out-of-body experiences contain messages of guidance for us in the same way that our dreams do.  This is what I meant at the beginning of this article when I said it was being written on the principle that EVERYTHING happens for a reason, right down to the minutest detail.  This is also supported by the fact that whenever I go on an astral journey I am always taken to a specific place; it is never random.  So, with all this in mind I want to deal with the symbolism of the castle-like building made out of red stone.

Earlier that day I had seen a news bulletin announcing that Glasgow Rangers Football Club had gone into administration for millions of pounds of unpaid tax bills.  For those around the world reading this who may not be familiar with British football, Glasgow Rangers are bastions of The Scottish League with a history of over 50 league championships behind them, they have also been victorious on countless occasions in domestic cup competitions.  Over the years a number of Scottish teams have gone to the wall through financial difficulties, but you would never have thought in a million years, that the institution that is Glasgow Rangers, with its glittering history, would have followed suit.  Although the club hasn’t folded, the situation it finds itself in is unprecedented in its history.  Rangers ground is called Ibrox Park and during the bulletin, footage of the exterior of this grand old building was shown.  It just happens to be made of red brick.

My red stone building was symbolic of Ibrox Park and the “fortress” that was Glasgow Rangers FC (the fortress representing the grip that Rangers have had on Sottish football over the years).  The whole point of showing me this scene was as a reminder that everything on the Earth plane has its day and will eventually perish.  A castle is representative of strength and security, but not even the “fortress” that was Rangers FC could continue without going through revolutionary changes.   It’s also a reminder of the futility of putting our faith in “things of the world” because they are only temporary.

As for the muppet-like characters, now that is a strange one, although I do have my theories.  I know that on the astral planes we can “think” ourselves instantly into different forms; and I have first-hand experience of this.  Also, as stated earlier in this article, I honestly believe that all of our thoughts, feelings and actions within the Earth dimension have a knock-on effect that creates for us our own personal little astral world which is representative of where we are on our spiritual pathway.  Now, if the place I was taken to is somewhere that has been created by my consciousness, all I can say is that there sure must be a lot worse places out there in creation.  In all honesty, that place wasn’t half-bad at all.  The musicians really seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the muppet-like characters to me, symbolise child-like enthusiasm.  They also represent the little bit of chaos that continues to rear its head in my life from time to time.  There is also another, much simpler theory that I have, which is that they could just have been souls who looked that way.  Or, they “thought” themselves into those forms knowing it would make me smile and give me something to think about.  I also believe that the purpose of me being exposed to high frequency music was so that I could reap its healing benefits; the healing being received on a level beyond my current comprehension.

A New Angle On Astral Travelling

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I awoke this morning at about 06.40 a.m., and on going back to sleep, I had a dream (which was the usual strange affair) which led to an out-of-body experience.  The thing about this astral journey though, is that it has made me look at things from a different angle.  Now before I go any further I just want to say that this article isn’t meant to be set in stone, it’s just my personal theory that I concluded because of the strangeness of the experience.

I’m not even going to bother trying to relate the dream because it was one of those typical dreams where nothing makes sense and you find yourself in some kind of ridiculous scenario.  But as the dream was tapering off, and just before I was aware of being out of my body, I can remember running in near darkness.  I was alone, and at regular intervals I encountered dogs.  Running towards dogs in almost total darkness didn’t seem very clever but I then became aware that, as I met the dogs head on, I could run in the air above them, thus avoiding any confrontation.  All of a sudden I was travelling at terrific speed in total darkness and I was wide awake; aware also that I was being carried.

As we slowed down and entered into daylight I could see to my left a magnificent old-looking building.  It was in the design of a castle, but it was like one of the many old buildings we have in the UK that have been made to resemble castles but have never actually been castles.  There is one in Cirencester, about 10 miles from where I live, that is an annexe of Cirencester College.  This one was made out of red stone and I noticed that it was “outside”, meaning that my companion and I had entered a building and as we were slowing down I could see this magnificent castle-like structure through the huge glass panelled windows.

The area we entered was quite busy and it looked like a cross between a hall and a large reception area.  There was what looked like the kind of reception desk you would get in a hotel, but it was large and open planned.  All around this reception-type area was the most beautiful ornamental glass.  It was the colour of highly polished rose quartz, but translucent.  I say “the colour of rose quartz”, but in reality the colour was not what you would see on the Earth plane.  There were pieces of glass of all shapes and sizes, and all were incredibly beautiful.  Next to the reception there was an area where a band was playing; they were definitely playing but I could hear no music.  The strange thing was that some of the band members looked like they could have been characters from the muppet show on TV.  They were definitely not animals, they just looked strange and reminded me of the muppets.  As we came down to land a soul crossed our path, a tall male soul with fair hair, and he just looked at us quite blankly and carried on walking.  We landed right across the other side of the hall to where we had entered and seemed to have the spot to ourselves.  As my companion put me down I turned to see that it was a male soul who (in earthly terms) looked as though he was in his 40’s, he had grey hair and was of medium build and height.  Even though I did not recognise him, I’ve done this enough times now to know that there will be some connection between us, that I will not be aware of because I only have my earthbound memory whilst in this physical body.  I thanked him and said “good to see you”.  He said to me “what do you want to do”.

As we stood interacting I noticed a long corridor going off from the opposite corner, diagonally, from where we came in.  For some reason, that remains a mystery, I answered him in a half-hearted manner; it was as if a part of me knew it wasn’t to be.

So, instead of saying to him “I want to explore, show me around, what’s down the corridor” etc. I didn’t even get my half-hearted reply out of my mouth, and I was back in my body in bed.  When I came back down to Earth and started to analyse the experience I was totally baffled; what with muppet characters and being half-hearted about wanting to explore.  So, after a great deal of thought I have come up with the following theory, which works on the principle that literally EVERYTHING happens for a reason.

Firstly, and I have encountered this before but never given it much thought, why could I hear no music even though the band were clearly playing very enthusiastically?  My feelings are that because this was the astral planes, where the vibration is higher than the vibration on the Earth plane, the frequency of the music coming from the instruments must have been beyond my hearing range.  I may have been in astral form but I was still technically earthbound, and therefore I would not have been attuned to hear it.

I have felt for some time now that every astral journey I have has a specific purpose.  I also know that we exist on many levels simultaneously.  Now, we know that our thoughts create our lives, and we also know that beyond the realm of matter our thoughts materialize as our reality instantaneously.  So my theory is that even though we may be in a physical body within the Earth dimension, our thoughts and actions can have an instantaneous knock-on effect within our astral existence.  It’s obvious that we DO exist at an astral level simultaneously because our astral form is encased within our physical form.  The previous day I had been in a neighbour’s house trying to help her with a computer problem, and in the house there had been a number of glass ornaments, some of which were a similar colour to rose quartz.  One piece in particular had been quite beautiful.  I feel that my fascination with this glass created a “thought impression” that materialized within the astral world of “semi-matter”.  I honestly feel that we are not only creating our lives here, but we are also creating a kind of “personal astral world” all of our own at the same time.

I also feel that when my companion said to me “what do you want to do”, it wasn’t because he was going to show me around, it was because he DID show me around.  I really do believe that even though I came back to my body, an aspect of me remained in that place and most certainly did get the tour.  I know this all sounds crazy, but we have to remember that not only is earthly life illusory, but also astral life is illusory, because the astral planes are simply a stepping stone back to source.

I am going to finish for now because I don’t want this article to get too complicated.  But I haven’t finished.  There is the significance of the red stone building and the muppet characters to decipher yet.  God bless and stay tuned.

Nothing

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Bear all and do nothing

Hear all and say nothing

Give all and take nothing

Serve all and be nothing.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

The above quote from Sri Sathya Sai Baba is highly symbolic and goes way beyond the surface.  In this article I would like to humbly offer my own translation of Swami’s wonderful words.

“Bear all and do nothing” simply means to accept everything as it is, in the knowledge that all is in Divine and perfect order at any given time; “all” being God’s will.  When we detach from the ego we are able to do this, embracing both pleasure and pain with equal equanimity.

“Hear all and say nothing” All is God and God is All.  Therefore maintain silence and hear the voice of God, the inner voice of Love; for silence is the language of the spiritual seeker, and it is only in the silence that we can hear the voice of God.

“Give all and take nothing” Give of yourself to others wanting nothing in return.  There is nothing we can take anyway, because there is nothing in this earthly life that we can own, except our love which was given to us by God before time began.

“Serve all and be nothing”  This is very, very powerful indeed.  Following on from the last statement, the easiest way to serve God is to serve our fellow humans, because God dwells within the hearts of all.  Baba tells us that the easiest and most effective way to enlightenment is Karma Yoga, which quite simply means to serve others, completely without thoughts of self, wanting nothing in return.  When we give our love selflessly we are taking a step closer to God, and when we do that, God takes manifold steps towards us, filling us with Divine love in the process.  This ultimately will lead to Self-realization.

The symbolism doesn’t quite end there.  The word “nothing” itself has an extremely deeper meaning here than would appear on the surface.  We were all once “nothing” until we became ideas within the super-conscious mind of God.  We then became particles of “nothing” until God willed us into form.  So life is a journey from the formless, into form and then back to the formless; or “nothing”.

We can conclude by saying that this seemingly simple quote from our beloved Sai is actually a mini-instruction manual on how to achieve Self-realization and Oneness with the Divine.  If we bear all, hear all, give all and serve all, we will achieve “nothing”.  Nothing being the uncreated state of pure bliss.  Sai Ram.

Hell-Fire And Damnation

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I’ve been meaning to write an article on this subject for some time now. The reason being that the ancient scriptures of all the world’s major religions were written in the language and style of the era, and as such, have been misinterpreted by religious leaders and followers for centuries.  It’s because of this misinterpretation that many people who would otherwise have been interested in finding out more about the religion of their birth, or religion in general, have been put off and avoid anything to do with religion at all costs.  This is exactly what happened to me (but I’m actually glad of that because if religion hadn’t repelled me I would never have discovered my spiritual pathway).  But for the record, I was born “Church of England”, and therefore, having had no experience of any other religions when I was younger, I will be writing this article from the perspective of a “reluctant” Christian.

We didn’t go to church in our family, unless someone got married, although my mother expressed religious beliefs on occasion.  But I say “reluctant” Christian because, whether I liked it or not, I was a Christian by birth.  I was born in a predominantly Christian country, and that was the religion that was taught in school.  In many ways I was lucky to have had a father who wild horses would not have been able to drag into church at any cost, so I was not made to attend Sunday school or anything similar.  The only downside with having a completely non-religious father was that I didn’t have any spiritual guidance at all.  But I wouldn’t change anything because I found my pathway in the end, and I have no doubts whatsoever, that every minute detail fell into place in accordance with the Divine plan.  So, by now you must be wondering where this article is going?  Well, it’s like this, I felt that it would be a good thing to share some of the things that put me off religion, because I’m sure many feel the same way, and also to endeavour to give clarity to some of the misinterpretations.

What I really didn’t like was the use of words such as “sinners”, “repent”, “renounce” (sins), “righteousness”, and having to “burn in Hell” if I didn’t behave myself.  I also took exception (even today but in a nice calm way) to the Christian God who is “angry”, “jealous” and “vengeful” and who will have the audacity to judge me come “judgement day”, even though he seems to be quite immature and spoilt himself, and in no position to judge others.  Because apparently, not loving him in the way he demands to be loved, is the reason he gets angry, vengeful and jealous.  Love with conditions!  How pathetic and egoistic is that?

I feel that the word “sin” has been brutalised over the millennia and is now only a shadow of its former self.  A more accurate word to use would be “imperfection”.  You see, we all have imperfections; this is the reason we incarnate into flesh, in order to work on unresolved issues and karma from previous births, and ultimately get to the point where we don’t have to incarnate any more.  It stands to reason that we are bound to have imperfections, otherwise what would be the point of human birth?  So in the ancient scriptures the word “sin” referred to any action that was not in line with our soul pathway and purpose.  Those religious fundamentalists who say we are all born sinners, actually mean that we are born with certain unresolved issues that we need to work on and ultimately overcome.  They have simply not understood their own scriptures properly.

Next I’d like to deal with the word “repent”.  This is actually an easy one.  Originally, repenting meant “to follow an inner pathway that would lead to Self-realization; thus giving up the delusion that the bliss we all crave could be found outside of ourselves.”  If we didn’t repent (look to the God within, instead of following the cravings of our desires in the “world”), and if we didn’t stop sinning (engaging in acts not in line with our soul purpose), then we would remain chained to the cycle of birth and death.  Jesus said “the kingdom of Heaven is within you”, and he wasn’t joking.  So, in a nutshell, when we repent we seek the Heaven within, and give up the sin, which keeps us tied us to the “Hell” of continued human birth.  The true meaning of “Hell” is to be the constant slave of the mind that plays its tricks and causes us to stress and worry over nothing.  This state is only consistent with life on Earth, therefore by realizing the “Self” within, we free ourselves from the constant treadmill of birth and death.

To “renounce” sin is simply to cease from engaging in actions not conducive to our spiritual pathway, and “righteousness” simply means to engage in “right activity”; positive activity that is in line with our soul purpose, for example, being of selfless service to others.  I much prefer the Sanskrit word “dharma”, which means “right action”.  I believe that the confusion arises because the ancient scriptures are very symbolic in meaning and go much deeper than the surface, and over the course of time, religious leaders and followers have tended to take words such as “sin” and “repent” at surface value; hence we end up with hell-fire and damnation.

Of course another huge problem is that people tend to follow religion as a matter of blind faith; having a series of beliefs, held mainly through fear, and never realising these beliefs as truth by their own life experiences.  When people live their lives in accordance with their fears, instead of following the loving light that guides them from within, it can ultimately only lead to misery.  I believe a simple way of knowing if a particular religion or way of living is right for you is to give it the heart test.  If it conjures up a lovely feeling inside of you then it is right for you.  If makes you fear or feel uncomfortable then it isn’t.

Sai Humour 7

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It seems like a while since I’ve written an article on Sai humour, so here I am with part seven of this most intriguing of subjects.  On this occasion I’m going to share two gems concerning the American devotee, Dr John Hislop and a personal experience that happened no more than a few hours before writing this post.  Dr John Hislop was one of Swami’s closest devotees for many years until he departed this Earth in August 1995.

In 1973 Hislop accompanied Baba and some students on a trip to Bandipur forest where they spent Shivarathri.  It was during this trip Baba performed one of his most famous miracles ever, materializing a crucifix for Hislop.  When Baba performed this miracle the crucifix took a second or two to materialize instead of the usual nano second.  This prompted Swami to issue a tongue-in-cheek apology for it taking so long, adding that the reason for the delay was because the crucifix was made from some of the actual wood from the cross on which Jesus was crucified 2000 years ago.  The scientist in Hislop prompted him to get it checked out on returning to the US.  He gave it to a friend who was an expert in this particular field, and he confirmed that the wood was indeed around 2000 years old.  Six months later Hislop returned to India and he could not hide his embarrassment when Baba, with a cheeky grin on his face, said to him “so, you didn’t believe the wood was 2000 years old until you got it tested”.

On another occasion Baba materialized a ring for Hislop with an enamel picture of himself on it.  After some time the enamel developed some cracks, and not wanting to wear a broken image of Swami on his finger, he tied a piece of string through the ring and wore it around his neck.  When Baba asked him why he was wearing the ring around his neck Hislop replied “it’s my talisman Swami, as long as it’s on my body it reminds me to think of you whenever I’m in need of your care and protection”.  Some time passed and Hislop had a miraculous escape from death.  He was travelling in a taxi from Whitefield to Bangalore when a car was approaching at speed in the opposite direction.  The road was not wide enough for manouvering and Hislop, in terror, closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable impact.  After a few seconds he opened them again and was shocked to find that he was still travelling in the taxi with a clear road ahead.  He could not figure out how the driver had managed to avoid a collision, and he was still in a state of shock when he arrived at his hotel.  When Baba saw him the next morning, with a hint of sarcasm and a twinkle in his eye, he said “when you were in such a grave situation yesterday you didn’t think of me did you”.  But Baba’s love is boundless and he gave Hislop another ring.

This next example is so funny to me, because Baba used his humour to convey a message to me via someone else’s dream.  I find it so funny because it is very personal and very, very apt.  Somone who is very dear to me told me this morning that Baba had come to her in a dream and that she had been face to face with him.  Now Swami always said that when we dream of him it is not a dream but a visitation.  I explained this to my dear friend who has only come to know of Sri Sathya Sai Baba in the last few months.  She said that in the dream Baba asked her “do you know me?”.  She replied, “Yes, I know you through Richard Holmes”, to which Baba replied, “ahhh the foreigner”.

At first I just thought to myself that it was typical Baba and that it was one of his amusing quips.  But, I should have known better.  Swami never does or says anything just for the sake of it, and nothing that he ever does can be described as “typical”.  A couple of hours later the penny dropped, the light bulb in my head came on and I knew exactly what he meant when he referred to me as “the foreigner”.  It was extremely appropriate to my circumstances and his way of letting me know that he was aware of everything.  To me it was just wonderful to know that he blessed a very dear soul with his presence and at the same time delivered a personal message to me.  Oooooh that’s why I love him so!

A Wonderful Paradox

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One of the great things about the universe is that it has been created as a paradox.  Everywhere we look there are examples of this and I’m going to share with you such an example here; a truly wonderful example.

The philosophy of Stoicism has come in for a lot of criticism over the centuries because it is viewed (wrongly) as the philosophy of doom and gloom merchants; people who are constantly agonising over pain and death etc.  But if you look at Stoicism it is exactly the opposite.  It was apparent to me very quickly that the principles of Stoicism are the exact same principles that form the basis of all the worlds major religions.  That there is an individual in-dwelling spirit within the human physical body which is a part of the One Universal Spirit, that all of nature is interconnected with that self-same Universal Spirit and that each of us as individuals are responsible for our own lives; and that it’s not our circumstances that determine whether we are happy or not, it’s the way we deal with them.

One of the early Stoicist philosophers was the Greek Epictetus who was born into slavery.  He was moved to Rome by his master but later moved back to Greece after being granted his freedom.  Marcus Aurelius, one of only five Roman Emperors ever to have been considered “good”, also became a great philosopher who based his work on the teachings of Epictetus.  What a truly wonderful paradox, that Marcus Aurelius, a rich and powerful Roman Emperor who became a world-renowned and revered philosopher, was influenced by, and based his philosophy on, the work of Epictetus; a man who was born into slavery.  You really couldn’t make it up, and this inspiring and heart warming story truly and aptly illustrates the wonder of paradox.

Elephants Are Human Too

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It is probably the greatest love story in the history of the planet; The Avatar, Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Sai Gheeta the elephant.  Years ago a tiny elephant was crying out in the bush, all alone and afraid.  Some miles away in the village of Puttaparthi a “young” Avatar in the shape of Baba heard the infant’s cry and went to its rescue.  The elephant was so small that Baba was able to pick it up and put it in the back of a Land Rover; and so was born, the greatest love story ever.  Swami called the elephant “Sai Gheeta” and the two were together until May 2007 when Sai Gheeta departed this earth.  The elephant absolutely loved Baba beyond words and would get very agitated if ever he had to go away.  On one occasion Sai Gheeta kicked up such a fuss when he sensed Baba was leaving the ashram that Baba actually abandoned his engagement.

I remember watching a video that aptly demonstrated the pure and unconditional love that existed between Avatar and elephant.  Baba, in pristine orange robe, was petting Sai Gheeta who had a lot of saliva coming from his mouth.  Swami’s upper robe became drenched with elephant saliva but he simply carried on petting his loving devotee and didn’t even bat an eyelid.

After Sai Gheeta left his body Swami acquired another elephant, a female this time, who we were told was called “San Gheeta”.  During my first visit to Puttaparthi it did not even occur to me to find out where the elephant was kept and go and pay my respects; in fact, during my first visit in October 2009 I did not even realise that Sai Gheeta was no longer in his body.  However, during my second visit in February 2010 my then girlfriend, Ciara, mentioned Baba’s elephant and said we should find out where it’s kept and go and have a look.  We established that the elephant compound was up the road from the ashram, past The Hill View Stadium and on the other side of the road; approximately three-quarters of a mile away.  So, towards the end of our stay we decided to pay the elephant a visit.  We did a recce and found the compound and also found out the time when San Gheeta would be let out for her daily exercise.

The time came to go and visit the elephant compound, but as we set out we had no idea that Baba was to shower us in his blessings and grace beyond our wildest dreams.  The designated time for San Gheeta to appear was 4.00 p.m., but, as anyone who has visited India will be able to tell you, this is 4.00 p.m. Indian time.  What this means basically is that it could be anytime.  But we arrived outside the compound gate and waited patiently.  A seva dal arrived soon after and he confirmed that 4.00 p.m. was indeed the time for San Gheeta’s exercise.  As you can imagine 4.00 p.m. came and went and there was no sign of San Gheeta.  We looked through the wrought iron gate for any sign of activity, but there did not seem to be anything going on.  I should also point out that you are not normally allowed inside the compound.

All of a sudden, out of the blue, a seva dal came and unlocked the gate and ushered us inside (along with another man with a small child).  We couldn’t believe our luck!  As we entered the compound the Samadhi (tomb or resting place) of Sai Gheeta was on the right.  We were ushered a bit further on and then around to the left was San Gheeta with her mahout (keeper).  At first we did not like what we saw.  The elephant had chains around her feet and appeared to be in distress.  But we came to the conclusion that she was quite boisterous and would need to be restrained at times; she would also have been excited knowing that it was time for her exercise.  She was obviously very young, but absolutely huge.  The mahout unfastened the chains and guided her out of her little compound within the compound.

Ciara had a camera with her and the seva dals said we could take as many photos as we liked, and we took full advantage of this (see pic below).  She was absolutely beautiful.  Her eyes were just like human eyes, only much bigger, and she was gurgling just like a baby.  But what was really amazing was that she was SMILING.  Yes, San Gheeta was smiling; and her smile looked so human.  She just stood there while we petted her; it was such a fantastic experience and we knew that it had been engineered by Swami.  It was soon time to take the elephant out for her exercise and we followed as the mahout guided her to the compound gate.  Once outside she was guided right, down along the main road through Puttaparthi.  It was quite amusing really because she was just plodding along, looking so happy with this grin on her beautiful face, but because she was so huge we had to almost jog to keep up.  There was a video facility on Ciara’s camera that allowed five minutes recording time, so I recorded a five-minute video of proceedings.  Outside the compound we were joined by a Russian lady with her child who tried to feed San Gheeta bananas as she thundered along the road.  We then turned left into The Hill View Stadium, which sadly, meant that our amazing experience with the most beautiful of creatures was over; it all seemed to happen so quickly.  In the photo below, San Gheeta can be seen exiting the Samadhi of Sai Gheeta.  We were told that she likes to go into the samadhi as if she is making a spiritual connection with her departed “brother”, and this is exactly what she did on her way out of the compound.

Ciara and I split up soon after returning to England so I no longer have access to that video.  But I often think about the time we spent in the company of San Gheeta, all because of the loving grace of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.  I will never forget her eyes, her gurgling sounds and her wonderful smile. Who says elephants aren’t human!

One Who Thinks Rationally

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Have you ever wondered why, that in spiritual texts and scriptures the word “man” is always used to describe the human race, with no mention of “woman”?  Also, have you ever wondered why there is a tendency to always describe something that could either be male or female in the masculine; as though one half of the human race is being completely ignored?

Well, I have often wondered why this is so, and simply put it down to the fact that in the old days there was some very archaic ideas as to the role of women in society, and therefore anything and everything that could be either male or female was described as being male as a matter of course.  Well, things certainly seem to have evolved in that way, for example, God is always deemed to be male, but believe it or not, that’s not how it was actually meant when the ancient scriptures were originally written.

In his book, The Yoga of Jesus, Paramahansa Yogananda gives a wonderful explanation of how the word “man” came to be used as a generalisation.  He explains that the use of “man” in more modern-day translations of spiritual scriptures came from the Sanskrit word manas, meaning “one who thinks rationally”, and I would like to offer my own humble interpretation of why this word would have been used.  The term “one who thinks rationally” applies to any human soul who has taken birth into flesh.  The reason being that “rational thinking” only applies here within the earthly dimension; the realm of the relative.  As humans we rationalize everything, we apply logic to everything; everything must be “hot or cold”, “sweet or sour”, “up or down”, “in or out”.  We always think in terms of “I am happy” or “I am sad”, “I am feeling pleasure” or “I am feeling pain”.  Everything has to have a label and everything belongs in its own box, therefore the term “one who thinks rationally” applies to any individualised being of spirit who has incarnated into the realm of rational thinking.  In our Divine form we are neither male nor female, yet we are both, so manus does not refer to male or female but rather to any individual soul.

Yogananda went on to say that it made things so complicated having to differentiate between male and female all the time, that in the end, the word “man” was adopted as a generalisation.  And that, my friends, is why, that in this modern age, where women are much more appreciated and have careers of their own and positions of power in society, spiritual texts and scriptures can appear to be so sexist and outdated.

A New Year’s Blessing

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I’ve never been a great lover of New Year’s Eve and tend to just hibernate until it’s all over.  This year was no different, but at 00:45 a.m., just 45 minutes into 2012 I decided to start the year with a meditation; and what a wonderful meditation it was.  I lit some candles and got comfortable; very quickly blocking out the sound of fireworks from outside.  It wasn’t long before I was enfolded in the most amazing celestial presence.  It was like being covered in candy floss but without the stickiness; the energy was so soft and gentle.  My celestial friend sat next to me and held my hand as I opened my heart and shared my hopes and fears for the coming months.

I have to say that this kind of thing is not uncommon, in fact it’s quite a regular occurrence, and I also have to say that sometimes I do forget just how lucky I really am.  I have experiences on a regular basis that many will only ever dream about, and these experiences are as natural to me as switching on a light or making a cup of tea.

As if I wasn’t blessed enough at the onset of 2012, later in the day I made the trip to Bath to attend New Year bhajans with my friends in the Bath Sai Baba Group.  We had a wonderful shared lunch followed by devotional singing; it really was a lovely afternoon.

Yes I am a very, very lucky man indeed and I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to God for all the blessings I have received over the years, all the blessings I continue to receive today and the many blessings I will receive in the future….. and to you dear reader I would like to wish you a 2012 of peace, health, happiness and golden opportunities.

May God be with you always.