Whilst it is perfectly feasible that a religious person is able to display certain spiritual characteristics, and would also undertake some kind of spiritual practice, one who is spiritually awake has no need for a fear-based belief system. Hence, for the one who has awakened, no religion is necessary.
It seems quite appropriate to be writing this article on this particular day; November 23, the 86th anniversary of Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s descent into flesh. Devotees all over the world will be celebrating today but I’m going to tell you about an incident that occurred on Saturday 19 November in Cheltenham, when The Sai Organisation UK Region 7 held a regional birthday celebration in honour of our beloved Sai. I must say that when I first heard it was to be held in Cheltenham this year I was a bit dubious to say the least. I have never liked Cheltenham; it is a smallish town but very, very busy. Traffic is quite often gridlocked and the town centre road network is not exactly driver friendly, especially if you don’t know where you are going. Yes, I still have memories of being lost in Cheltenham on a number of occasions and driving around aimlessly getting more and more frustrated. But I wasn’t going to let a little thing like that stop me from paying my respects to Swami.
I set off nice and early to take into account that I was, in all likelihood, going to get lost. Surprise, surprise I reached my destination without any hitch and I arrived at The Cheltenham Hindu Community Centre in plenty of time. There is always food laid on at these events and it never fails to amaze me just how sumptuous it is. All of Cheltenham Sai Group worked tremendously hard in organizing the event, but the ladies who prepared the food must take a special pat on the back. As ever, it was basic vegetarian fayre, but unbelievably good. The chick pea curry was mouth-watering and the Indian sweets were out of this world. Lunch was actually the first thing on the agenda before the celebrations started at 2:00 p.m.
The event kicked off with a wonderful little play by the kids from Swindon Sathya Sai Education Group, and there followed a lovely video “Love In Action” that highlighted Swami’s fresh drinking water, hospital and educational projects (unfortunately, the video had to be cut short due to time restrictions). As the devotional singing and the event in general was drawing to a close an elderly lady in a wheelchair had a cardiac arrest. Fortunately, there was a couple of GP’s present and also a couple of nurses. But I found what followed so surreal.
The lady was very quickly lifted from her wheelchair and placed on the floor, where she immediately received CPM from a male nurse. He moved so fast it was quite unbelievable. Whilst the doctors and nurses attended to the lady someone called for an ambulance. A makeshift screen was then formed by a number of other ladies using sheets; this gave a degree of privacy to the patient and helped to maintain her dignity. Almost simultaneously most of the people not involved started to chant the Gayatri mantra. I always feel so completely and utterly helpless in these situations but joined in the chanting. It must have taken the paramedics at least 15 minutes to arrive, and it must have been very strange for them as they entered the hall with so many people chanting whilst a patient was receiving life saving first aid on the floor.
I remember thinking to myself as the drama began to unfold “what a way to go”. It seemed that Swami had decided to take her, bathed in his Omnipresence, in an environment that she loved amongst other devotees, having just finished celebrating her Lords glory; I was convinced she was gone. However, after a short time had lapsed we received a signal that the lady was going to be alright, and all those engaged in the chanting instinctively brought it to a close. The paramedics took the lady to hospital and one of the attending GP’s made an announcement.
The female GP told us that the lady had indeed suffered a cardiac arrest. She also informed us that the lady had stopped breathing and that she had turned black. So we can conclude that the elderly lady had indeed “died”. My friend Satyan from Bath, knowing that I didn’t particularly like driving in Cheltenham, called me later that night to make sure I’d arrived home in one piece. He’d had a lift from the male nurse who’d performed the CPM. During the drive back the man told Satyan that the lady would not have survived had they waited for the paramedics, so it just goes to show that it was not the lady’s time to go and Baba, from his cosmic residence, had somehow engineered the whole event as if it was nothing more than a scene from a play. I have been to many of these functions now and never experienced anything like it before, so the drive home was very strange indeed; with everything swimming around in my head. Now, five days later, I am still trying to get my head around the events of last Saturday; events that I found very surreal indeed.
Surreal for me maybe, but it was just another day at the office for the birthday boy!
It’s an amazing thing, perspective; it’s all to do with how we perceive things as individuals. One man’s success is another man’s failure and what may seem fantastic to one person may be run-of-the-mill to another. I would like to share with you a personal experience that I believe illustrates this very aptly.
In October 2009 when I went to the ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam (Abode of the Highest Peace), of Sri Sathya Sai Baba for the first time, I met an Australian man named Dave. ”Aussie Dave” as I called him, was just one of many wonderful characters that I encountered during my two-week stay. I first spoke to Dave after darshan one evening. I can’t remember the circumstances, but I do remember having seen him around the ashram and in darshan before then. He was a big man, but when you spoke to him you realised he had a heart of gold. After our encounter in the darshan hall I bumped into him a couple more times before he went back to Australia. There was one particular conversation I had with him that I found both interesting and surprising. I should point out here that whenever devotees of Baba cross paths it is always, without exception, because Baba has engineered it; and there is always a reason.
I was in awe of many of the people I spoke to during my stay, and Dave was no exception, because Baba had only come into my life in 2001 and this was the first time I’d received the call. Dave had been a devotee for many years and had experiences with Swami that I could only ever dream about. He showed me a ring he was wearing that Baba had materialised for him; he also said that this was his eighth visit to Prasanthi (sometimes he brought his wife but on this occasion he’d travelled alone) and not only had he been granted interviews with Baba as part of a group, but he’d also had a personal interview as well. I was green with envy, but not in a bad way; I was very happy for him that Swami had showered him with so much grace, but at the same time I was thinking ”I wish I’d had those experiences too”. He also told me what I thought was quite an amusing story.
On the occasion in question he’d travelled to Prasanthi alone and was lucky enough to have been summoned with some other devotees for a group interview. He told how Baba had been speaking to him and suddenly left and went into an adjoining room. Dave said that Swami seemed to take an age before he came back and there had also been crashing sounds coming from the other room; as if filing cabinets were being opened and closed. He went on to say that Baba suddenly appeared again, threw one of his robes at him and said ”here, give that to your wife”!
Anyway, I digress, back to perspective and the point of this article. There I was in awe of this man’s experiences with my wonderful Swami, he’d visited the ashram eight times, had group and personal interviews, had a ring that Swami materialised for him and he also had one of Baba’s coveted robes back home in Australia. It all made my experiences seem so trivial. After all, apart from the astral experience I had with Baba in December 2006, my encounters with my loving Guru consisted mainly of visitations during dream state. But, when I shared with Dave my humble exploits with the ”God Man” I was dumbfounded to hear him say ”I’ve never experienced anything like that”. He was genuinely amazed when I shared my experiences with him.
I’ve always heard devotees say that Baba knows us all inside out and he only ever gives us exactly what we need for our long-term spiritual growth and well-being. He also only connects with us in ways that we can best relate to him; and I would agree with that 100%. I often think of that conversation I had with Aussie Dave and still try to get my head around why, a man who’d had such incredible first hand experiences with The Avatar of the age, would be so amazed at mine, which seemed so trivial compared to his. Having said that, I remain the only person I know who has had an astral experience with Baba.
I know there was a special lesson for me contained within that conversation. I know also that I am ever so grateful for the experiences that I’ve had with Sri Sathya Sai Baba, even if they don’t seem as spectacular as some other people’s.
But I suppose it’s all just a matter of perspective!
I would like to share with you three more amusing littles stories from the Sai Humour series of articles.
In the interview room once Sai Baba asked a devotee ”how do you spell wife”? Before the man could answer Baba said ”W.I.F.E, Worry Invited For Ever”. Then seeing the look of disappointment on the face of the man’s wife he corrected himself and very sweetly said ”Wisdom Invited For Ever”.
A young man with long hair was amongst a number of devotees who had been called for a group interview one day. After teasing the man for looking like a woman Baba told him to get a haircut. The man said ”will you cut the first lock Swami”. Shaking his head in mock horror Baba said ”I am Baba not barber”!
The American Dr John Hislop was blessed with having spent a lot of time with Swami before he left this Earth in 1996. One day Hislop was invited along with Baba and other devotees to the house of a very well meaning devotee for lunch. On seeing that there was not going to be enough food to go round Baba said to Hislop ”go to the car and bring the food”. Hislop, knowing that there was no food in the car went anyway, expecting Baba to have performed one of his miracles. But even he did not expect the sight that greeted him. He was astounded to see two angels, complete with wings, standing by the car holding trays of food. He took the trays and went back in the house with his mouth wide open in amazement. On seeing the look on his face Baba said ”shut your mouth Hislop, they are always there, it’s just that you do not see them”!
I’ve been thinking lately how unbelievably lucky I am. Having said that, I’m sure it’s true to say that I’ve earned my luck over many lifetimes, but I can’t help thinking how unbelievably lucky I am that the Divine looks after me in the way that he/she does. Indeed, I am living proof that the phrase ”somebody up there must have been looking down on me” is very apt. In the earlier stages of this life I got myself into some sticky situations because of my naivety and desperation to ”belong” and later as a soldier stationed in Germany my choice of haunts left something to be desired; but miraculously I always seemed to avoid trouble. More recently my ignorance of certain matters has left me in extremely vulnerable situations, but again, I remain unscathed.
At the age of 14 I’d got in with the wrong crowd. I’d had very difficult relationships with my parents (for different reasons) and got sucked into friendships simply out of a desire to be accepted and to belong. I didn’t understand back then that to simply be me was the only identity I would ever need and went from living one lie to the other. These friends came and went because they were not true friends, but by the time I was 16 I was hanging out in the West End of London a few nights a week, specifically the soho area. I had been introduced to the area by one of these friends who was a couple of years older than me and much more worldly-wise. I took to hanging out in seedy clubs, sometimes not heading back to North London until after 07.00 a.m. or even later. These clubs were frequented by prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, thieves and muggers, but somehow I never encountered any serious trouble. Whenever trouble was brewing something always happened that kept me out of danger.
By the time I joined the army and got stationed in Dortmund in the then West Germany my only true friend was alcohol. I became like a split personality; on one hand I kept people entertained with my impressions and wit; but that was just a front for my other self, who was quite depressed and withdrawn. I didn’t like the army because of the hypocrisy and I didn’t like the squaddie mentality of wanting to beat people up after a few drinks; I was a happy drunk (when I wasn’t being depressed). I was attracted, for some reason, to the seedy side of Dortmund which was ”under the bridge”. It was a standing joke amongst the lads; and sometimes before descending on ”Der Stadt” we would say to each other ”whatever happens tonight I’m not going under the bridge”. The bridge in question was a railway bridge in Dortmund City Centre. All the nice respectable places were before the bridge, but once you went under the bridge it was a real den of iniquity. The standing joke was that even as we were saying it we knew that after a skin-full of beer we would always end up there. Quite often I would go down town on my own and go to the pubs under the bridge. Looking back it was a very dangerous thing to do; British squaddies, after all, were not the most popular species in Dortmund City Centre. I would go to some real holes on my own, but not once did I ever encounter any trouble. I could relate several more stories from my teenage and army years as examples of being looked after but it would make this post too long, however, in more recent years there are other examples of how I have constantly been protected and I’d like to finish by sharing two of them with you. Both of these examples involve cars.
What I know about cars can be written on the back of a postage stamp; to me cars are for driving and nothing else. Sometimes I check my oil and water, but mainly I just drive my cars and hope for the best. I bought a second-hand Toyota in 1999, it was a 1992 model with a genuine 28,000 miles on the clock. I kept the car for nine years and never had one mechanical fault with it. I only cleaned it a handful of times during that period as well because a car, to me, is simply a means of getting from A to B. So, during the time I had the Toyota I only had to deal with natural wear and tear, such as buying new tyres occasionally, new wiper blades, a new battery (once) and just general servicing; renew spark plugs etc.
After I’d had the car roughly eight years, someone remarked one day about the good condition that it was apparently in. I explained how long I’d had it and that I’d had no problems with it. Then they said to me ”what about the cam belt”. I didn’t know what the cam belt was and kind of just gave an indifferent reply. Some time later I was having a similar conversation with a friend and she asked the same question about the cam belt, to which I gave a similar reply. When she explained to me that the cam belt is very important and that if it snaps you might as well kiss your car goodbye, I thought that maybe I should look into it. To cut a long story short, the car suddenly started to develop wear and tear problems that were quite major and in the space of a couple on months I had a lot of work done on it that cost a small fortune. But the mechanic who carried out the repairs said he had never seen anything like it. He was a nonreligious/spiritual person but even he said ”someone up there must have been looking down on you”. Apparently you should change your cam belt about every 60,ooo miles. When I eventually got it changed (it was the original belt from new) it had done over 166,000 miles. The mechanic said it was a miracle it didn’t snap. Also the radiator was completely rotten and the brake pads (also the original from new) were apparently right down to the metal. Yet that car started first time every time, even throughout cold winters. The brakes always worked perfectly, I never topped up the water once in the nine years I had it and it always ran like a dream. Eventually, because it had started to cost me so much money I gave it away to the mechanic who had given me such good service over the previous couple of years.
The same mechanic sold me my next car, that I’m still driving; although I haven’t had the same good fortune with this one. Well, having said that it would depend on your perspective. It’s not relevant to mention various problems I had with the new car, but an incident in June 2009 is very relevant. At the time I was working part-time on a site that housed adults with learning disabilities. I drove onto the site and down to the unit where I was supposed to be working. Because of the number of cars already taking up spaces I had to park up on a grass verge until staff on the earlier shift had gone home. I went inside the unit and a few minutes later a colleague came in and asked if he could have a word with me. He was quite embarrassed to have to tell me that he had reversed into my car with a works vehicle and put a dent in the front off-side wheel arch. I could see that he felt awful about this, so I just said to him ”don’t worry it’s only a car”. He promised me faithfully he would get it fixed no matter what and we just left it at that.
However, when I went to move the car into a proper parking space I was puzzled as to why it wouldn’t move. Another colleague who was standing nearby was looking on and I could see he was trying to tell me something. I got out of the car to find that both of my front wheels were pointing inwards, and my colleague informed me that it looked as though the front tracking rod had snapped. This meant the car was undrivable. It was also very strange because the colleague who reversed into my car was only travelling at about 5 MPH. It soon became apparent to me why my car had been rendered unroadworthy in such strange circumstances. My other colleague pointed out that if the tracking rod snapped at such low impact it must have been ready to go at any time. The realisation then hit me that if it had snapped whilst I was on the motorway or even a major A road, then I would not be in a position to tell the tale.
It’s only since Sri Sathya Sai Baba came into my life in 2001 that I have really noticed that I am most definitely protected by the hand of grace. I honestly don’t know why the good Lord protects me in this way; I can only assume that there are plans for me that do not involve me leaving this earthly life just yet.
Yes, its great being looked after and I’m so grateful for it. The Divine certainly does have strange ways of protecting his children; but guess what? I’m not complaining.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba was born Sathya Narayana Raju on November 23 1926 and started performing miracles from the age of three. His playmates in the village nicknamed him ”Guru” because he held them spellbound with his materializations and stories containing profound spiritual teachings. As a young schoolboy he would materialise pens, pencils, books and sweets for his schoolmates, who were invariably very poor and whose parents could not afford to buy them. Of course, as well as winning many friends and admirers, the fact that little Sathya was obviously very special stirred up feelings of envy, suspicion and even hatred in the hearts of those who were jealous of his popularity; there was even two attempts on his life when he was young. But that will be the subject of another article on another day.
One who succumbed to his own jealousy, and paid the price with his dignity, was none other than one of the teachers at young Raju’s primary school. This particular teacher was very suspicious of the boy and always assumed that he was up to no good with his so-called materializations. He had been watching Sathya, and on seeing him giving out pencils and books etc. on this particular day, assumed that he had stolen them. As a punishment he made the boy stand up on a bench in class. At the end of the lesson, the sight that beheld the teacher who came to take the next lesson must have been truly something to behold.
On entering the classroom the relief teacher was amazed to see that his colleague was still sitting in his chair with a very embarrassed look on his face, and that young Sathya was standing up on the bench. However, this particular teacher was one that recognised the boy’s Divinity and he loved Sathya dearly; to the extent that he knew exactly what had happened. As he approached, his red-faced colleague explained that he was stuck in the chair and could not move. Trying to suppress his amusement, the relief teacher explained to his colleague that he had better ask Sathya to step down from the bench. He did this immediately and found that he was straight away able to stand up from the chair. Needless to say he never accused the boy of stealing again.
I am prompted today to recall a truly funny prank that Sri Sathya Sai Baba pulled on some of his students some years ago at his mountain ashram in Kodai Kanal. Swami enjoyed the cooler climate at Kodai and would normally visit late March/early April time.
It is well known that Baba would often use humour in demonstrating spiritual lessons, and on this particular occasion, he had decided that his students at Kodai had been slacking and needed a wake up call. I am not exactly sure why, but I believe that Baba felt that the students were concentrating too much on his physical form and not on his teachings. If any reader has heard this story before and has more accurate detail then I would ask you to leave a comment so that I can update the post.
The students were very, very excited, as always, at the prospect of Baba’s visit. But they were left completely and utterly baffled by Swami’s attitude and manner towards them on his arrival as March was nearing its end. Instead of greeting them in his usual way with loving smiles and words he completely ignored them; there was not so much as even a glance. The students couldn’t understand this and were extremely upset; they simply couldn’t understand why their Swami, whom they loved so much, would neither speak to them nor look at them.
The students became more and more distraught as the days went by and their beloved Swami continued to ignore them. When he passed them on campus he simply looked towards the ground and walked by without a word, a glance or a smile. It got to the point where the students started to argue amongst themselves as they sought an explanation of Baba’s apparently strange behaviour. Fingers were pointed and accusations flew around as emotions became more and more fraught. I believe that this went on for around ten days until finally, as March bade its farewell and April descended, the students could take no more and decided to confront Baba. This was unheard of but they were so desperately distraught that they waited until Swami was walking in the grounds and confronted him. As they did so Baba, still keeping his head down, raised his eyes in their direction, and with a cheeky grin on his face said ”April fool” and walked off.
In the last few days certain events have prompted me to muse on an experience I had when I had not long found my spiritual pathway. Since the 1980’s when spirituality first peered over the horizon I’d been stumbling around in blind alleys and dark corridors getting absolutely no where. Finally in 2001 I found my right pathway with a surge of awakening. However, my enthusiasm far outstripped my knowledge and discipline and I stumbled a few times along the way. One incident from this period sticks in my mind because it remains very relevant in today’s life.
I suppose I should rewind just a touch in order to paint a clearer picture. Without going into too many details I had a reading with a medium in 1987 that completely blew me away. The reasons for this I suppose were several, but the fact that it was my first venture into ”the paranormal” had a lot to do with the effect it had on me. I went to see an elderly man called Tom Dowding in Wood Green, North London and the first thing he did was give me a picture he’d drawn of a spirit guide; simultaneously greeting me with ”I’ve been waiting for you”. The introduction alone was enough to blow me away. Anyway, the picture was of a Native American who Tom said was my guide. I was so amazed that I went to see him again a few weeks later when he told me about another guide I had; an Egyptian. At that time I did not understand that spirit (even the individualised soul), in truth, is without name and form, and I, like many others after me, believed that the spirit world was full of souls running around dressed as Red Indians, Egyptians, Monks and Nuns etc etc etc. I didn’t realise that the guides only take on these forms to satisfy human logic; i.e. we have a habit of wanting everything in its own box with its own label; everything has to have a name and every ”i” has to be dotted and every ”t” has to be crossed. Such is the way of human logic.
As the years went by I knew the guides were there but I didn’t have any communication with them, apart from the occasional signs and signals they gave me to let me know they were around. It was only when I started to open up to my own spirituality that I began to experience them more closely. I could see them on the inner plains and they would communicate with me telepathically when I was in meditation. I awoke so quickly that for a few months it was like being on a roller coaster, and I didn’t realise it at the time, but I was quite indisciplined. When I actually started to sit in a spiritual development group in 2001 my clairvoyance exploded like a Roman Candle, and I was absolutely over the moon to be able to see and hear my guides, especially ”The Chief”. It was such a novelty that we would have banter, which I thought was very clever indeed.
I was quite disappointed one evening when my mentor informed me that it was time for my Native American guide to step back and allow a beautiful celestial being of greater awareness to take me under his wing. Of course I welcomed my new friend with open arms, but me and The Chief had developed such a bond of love that I couldn’t let him go. Within a few weeks my mentor informed me in a way that was very clear and concise that if I did not wish to move on along my pathway, then that was fine; God would not love me any more or any less and I had the freedom of choice. But if I was serious about my spiritual development then I needed to let The Chief go and give my new friend ”sole rights” to my development. I accepted this and allowed my Native American friend to step back in the knowledge that he would always be somewhere around but it was no longer in line with my soul purpose for us to have such a close relationship.
My new friend was amazing; so much so that I carried straight on with him where I left off with The Chief. There was some banter and we became very, very close very quickly. But one day in meditation my friend decided that I needed to be shown a way that was more in line with my soul purpose. All of a sudden one of my arms, I think it was my right arm, became quite painful. It was such a strange sensation that there are no words to describe it aptly. It was like I was holding a weight that was far too heavy to be held, but at the same time I was not able to put it down. When it started it was almost like having pins and needles in my forearm. I thought my friend was just having a bit of fun with me but the sensation got more and more intense and seemed to go on for ages. It became quite painful and I wondered what was happening. When the pain eased off my friend spoke to me saying ”we shouldn’t let our love become a burden”.
I realised then that he had given me this experience in order to simulate being weighed down; and I knew exactly what he meant. From that day on there was no more undisciplined banter and my deep, deep love for this amazing soul, and his for me, was expressed and felt in the silence of the heart. I realised too that just because a soul works as a spirit guide it doesn’t mean they are highly evolved. In the case of The Chief, he was a soul who was pretty much at the same level of evolution as me; it’s just that he was discarnate, and therefore had a clearer view of the bigger picture than me. My growth was his growth; so what he did to help me also helped him along his pathway and the image of a wise Native American was simply to give me, in my ignorance, something on which to focus. I still love The Chief dearly, and I know that he loves me, only these days we don’t allow our love to be a burden and hold us back. Now to the whole purpose of this post.
When we are encased in flesh it is difficult for us to identify with anything other than the body and the senses and mind that go hand in hand with it. We forget our true nature and allow our emotions to make our decisions for us. We become emotionally attached to the extent that our vision becomes clouded and we cannot see the wood for the trees. Sai Baba always used to say that we are all just passing clounds on this dreamland stage and should not base relationships on the physical form because it is only temporary.
Because of emotional attachment we become oblivious to the fact that the love we have for the special people in our lives goes much, much deeper than the physical. We wrongly believe that we are apart when miles are put between us and we also wrongly believe that we get separated by so-called death. The whole human race is interconnected by love, but also there are those special souls whom we have known and loved forever who will remain embedded within the very depths of our being for eternity. To you I say this ”we shouldn’t let our love become a burden”.
I am so very lucky. I know that death is nothing more than a figment of the imagination. I have been out of my body on many occasions and I have interacted with discarnate souls on the astral planes via telepathy. In my astral form I learned to pass through solid objects and I can also will myself back into my body when I become bored with the experience. Ah! I love that word ”experience”, for to experience is to know. But knowledge without experience is only theory or concept.
Yes, I am so very lucky, for I know from experience that this earthly life is nothing but a dream.
Looking at this photo reminded me of something. If you stand looking out to sea it could be that at some stage you will see a ship sailing off into the distance. “There she goes”. As the ship continues its journey it appears to get smaller and smaller until it eventually disappears over the horizon. Now imagine that on a far distant shore there stands someone just like yourself, looking out to sea. All of a sudden a ship appears on the horizon, ”here she comes”, and seems to be getting bigger and bigger as it nears the shore.
The ship getting smaller and then bigger again is, of course, an illusion. At no time during the course of the journey did the size of the ship change. It may be worth me mentioning to you that what I have just described to you is the cycle of birth and death. We use our vehilcle, or ship (physical body) to sail from one shore to the other across the ocean of life. As we leave one dimension with our loved ones seeing us off, ”there he goes”, seemingly diminishing in size, we enter and grow into another, with loved ones welcoming us, ”here he comes”.
At no time during the course of the journey did ”who we really are” grow or diminish in size ; we were always Divine Spirit in all its infinite glory.
The photograph above was very kindly provided by Author and Photographer Janet Beasley of JLB Creatives. Please follow the link below to access Janet’s blog. Janet is a featured author at loveahappyending.com
Author - Richard F Holmes 