Excerpts from
SAI BABA AVATAR
By
Howard Murphet
The Goal and the Way
For even the immortals when they put on
mortality
are but a little part of themselves,
a spark in the immensity of their own
fiery being.
A.E., THE AVATARS
'What is SAI BABA trying to do?’ a New York publisher
asked me,
expecting, I felt, a quick, brief answer.
A brief answer is difficult, but, if I can mentally stand back
and take a look at the situation —
at Baba and the world as I
see it today —
perhaps I can offer a few thoughts about Baba’s
mission to our troubled times.
Before I met him I had heard the Perennial Philosophy
brilliantly expounded by great spiritual teachers at many
ashrams throughout India.
Inspiring words they were, opening
windows on new worlds.
But words, though they weave a web of
noble theory and thought, always leave one searching for more.
When I encountered Baba, I found that he not only taught
the same eternal verities, in his own unique way,
but through
his life and actions, demonstrated the truth of the teachings.
The truth became a reality beyond words.
I am not referring only to the miracles, though these,
themselves, disclose
the reality of the Indian spiritual philosophy.
SAI BABA had been born with the Powers he reveals.
The
philosophy teaches that when a human being reaches his true
goal and becomes identified with the Godhead,
he need be
reborn no more.
Yet sometimes from the Godhead comes One
to live a life on earth to help Man extricate himself
from a
dangerous situation into which his ignorance and lower nature
have led him.
The Incarnation is voluntary, the only motive
being Divine Love for mankind.
And in the life of the great
volunteer, those powers over nature that are normal to him,
but miraculous to us, will be constantly apparent.
‘The miracle has the characteristic of conveying to us
something about God:
it is a form of His self-disclosure’,
writes philosopher Ninian Smart.
Was I then, I asked myself,
in the presence of a Divine One, an Avatar?
Part of the same philosophy, however, is that certain disciplines, austerities and mantric practices
can develop supernormal powers in an individual who is still at the level of selfish
human desires.
The powers will, in such cases, almost certainly
be used
for selfish or even criminal aims, and what is termed
‘black magic’ ensues.
But such powers are always limited,
and after a period of
misuse they usually weaken and vanish.
I have talked with
people who have been witnessing Baba’s powers since his youth,
and now, after half a century, his dominion over nature shows
no signs of vanishing.
His Powers are as copious and constant
as ever.
Apart from this, it did not take me long to discern
that the
supernormal powers were never used for selfish reasons.
Always
there was Love shining through the miracle —
the Love that
wants to bring joy, build faith, foster understanding of the great
Truths,
and bring more and more people into the fold of the
Divine Life.
From early morning until late at night,
every moment of
SAI BABA’s day gleams with an altruistic love of man.
He is
always offering joy, happiness, understanding, contentment —
to an individual, to a small group or to a crowd.
If not occupied
with these activities, he is supervising the construction of accommodation for his devotees,
or working on the educational
organization through which he plans to spiritualize
the new
generations in special colleges throughout India —
and now
taking root abroad.
His dedication and colossal energy are
themselves superhuman.
What is SAI BABA trying to do?
Spending time with him,
one realizes that all his efforts are aimed towards one goal:
to
raise human consciousness to a new level, lifting mankind above
the mire of ignorant selfishness,
setting up a vision and
understanding that will revolutionize the human life-style.
What is his main message and method in striving towards
this stupendous aim?
Well, each one of us is searching for
an identity.
We may find it, temporarily, as a musician, a
businessman, a writer, a famous actress, a good mother, or
in many other ways.
But whatever the identity, the self-image,
we are never completely satisfied with it — at least not for long.
The reason for human dissatisfaction about the worldly
self-image
is that we have not found our true identity.
All we
have found is a pleasing part to play in the cosmic drama we
call life.
The drama is a transient, passing show and the part we
play in it even more transient.
Baba’s main message is to remind us again and again
in all manner of ways
that our real identity is the Atman,
which, in plain English, means the immortal Spirit.
We are
part and parcel of God, images of God, sons of God — as eternaI
as God, Himself.
The temporary projection of ourselves into
the world of matter, our bodies and minds,
we have mistaken
for our real Selves.
Most of us live through our lives quite
unaware of our true identity.
The sleeping dream is a useful analogy to life.
In the dream
itself, everything seems quite real, and we are utterly identified
with the dream-image of ourselves.
Very rarely, we may become
aware in the dream that we are dreaming, and have what the
psychic researchers call a lucid dream.
When this happens we
can control with our wills the subsequent course of the dream.
Life can be likened to a long dream in which we mistake
the mortal image of ourselves for our true Selves.
And in a
similar way, if we become aware that it is only a ‘dream’,
and
move consciously into our true Selves beyond the dream,
we become masters of that life-dream, instead of being its victims.
Thus, we attain liberation and freedom from its bondage.
The great truth about man’s immortal identity has been
taught before, of course,
and every person can, through yogic
paths, test and confirm it for himself,
as did the ancient rishis,
as do the modern yogis, seers and mystics.
World scriptures
show that it was taught by Krishna, the Buddha, and Jesus.
But it was not emphasized so much as now.
In this age of sophistication, it has been taught by spiritual
leaders,
like Ramakrishna, Aurobindo, and Ramana Maharshi,
to the disciples who gathered around them.
And now, when
communications have reached the electronic stage,
it is being
taught and emphasized by Satya Sai Baba to the multitudes.
Explanations, elucidations, living illustrations help us
take a few steps towards the elusive goal of Self-identification,
but so thick is the veil of maya (illusion) around us
that the
sharp tools of yoga are essential for a breakthrough.
All
Teachers, ancient or modern, even if they never use the word,
yoga,
use some of its tools.
Every great Master sharpens the
tools for his own use, adapts them, and applies them in a unique
way.
“Sai Yoga” is not quite the same as any yoga that has been
ever taught.
Yet in the main it can be called the Guru Marga
(Path),
lying within the framework of the immemorial Bhakti
or Devotional principles.
This Yoga asks for a one-pointed
focus on the Guru or spiritual Preceptor, especially in the early
stages.
Diffusion of interest during the initial steps leads to
confusion,
while concentration and devotion towards the chosen
Leader, enables that Leader
to lift the pupil above the fog of
mortal illusion.
Such exclusive direction of the disciple’s attention and
devotion towards the one chosen Sadguru
is surely what Lord
Jesus meant when he said to his disciples:
‘No man cometh
unto the Father (the Divine Principle) but by me’ (the Guru),
and what Lord Krishna signified in many of his statements,
including:
‘Those who worship and meditate on me with unswerving devotion
I straightway deliver from the ocean of death-bound existence.’
When properly understood, as a principle of
effective Bhakti yoga, the doctrine is not narrow.
It is like a man
focusing his camera lens precisely on one object
to the exclusion
of others for better results.
Baba says, by way of analogy,
that a fire on the end of an
incense stick, for instance,
will not set even dry wood alight,
whereas a forest fire will quickly consume even green or wet
wood.
Faith and understanding in the initial stages are like the
glow on the end of the stick;
they must be sheltered and protected.
But when faith and spiritual understanding have reached the
strength of a forest fire,
they will absorb for their own purpose
and progress
the green wood of any diverse and seemingly
contradictory teachings that are piled onto them.
‘A devotee’s heart must expand and his mind broaden’,
Baba says;
‘to have a narrow vision will prevent him spreading
the Truth to the world.’
He says also that Bhakti is the easiest
and swiftest road to the goal in this Kali Age,
and in this yoga,
each person should focus on the Divine Form his heart chooses,
for there is only one supreme God, though His names and forms
are many.
The Sai Path includes also the yoga of work done as
worship,
the yoga of wisdom through knowledge and discrimination,
the yoga of self-enquiry, mind-control and meditation.
These yogas are for preparing the soil and nurturing the plant.
The real growth comes through the Divine Love and Grace that
‘droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the earth
beneath’.
Wherever the devotee may be, SAI BABA is there
pouring his Grace into the spiritual buds that self-preparation and
devotion have opened.
‘Only keep quiet and I will do the rest’,
he has often said.
Beyond the general principles that can be taught openly to
many
there is the individual, one-to-one relationship.
This
belongs and operates in the world beyond space and time,
where the guru-disciple relationship really belongs.
It is, of
course, a help to experience SAI BABA’s physical presence,
but
even so, many have found that a photograph, a packet of
vibhuti, or just a word spoken by someone,
is sufficient to
trigger off the devotion and the Sai Yoga process.
Indeed, some people have found it difficult to live physically close to Baba for long periods.
The proximity will burn
out the impurities that all of us have, and the ‘burning’ is painful.
Moreover, as Arjuna found with Krishna,
the intimacy of
living, day by day, close to an Avatar
tends to obscure the Divine
beneath the human aspects.
‘When you are away somewhere
with him, and he pops into your room one morning to borrow
your razor,
it’s hard to remember that he is God’,
one
physically-close devotee put it.
Yet there must be the human side.
To dive into the pool
of physical matter to save us from drowning there,
the Avatar
needs must take a body.
His body has to function according to
the rules and requirements of physiology.
It needs food, for
instance, though, as Dr. S. Bhagavantam discovered, with the
physicist’s penchant for measuring,
Baba does not consume
enough calories to keep an ordinary man alive, let alone provide the energy for an Avatar’s life-style.
Still, Baba does eat.
From observation and enquiry, however, I am of the
opinion
that he does not sleep as we know sleep.
He may go for
a time into some altered state of consciousness to replenish his
energies,
but sleep does not overpower him as it overpowers us.
The different states of consciousness required for his work on
various planes, and for his rest,
seem to be under the control
of his will.
Those who follow the path of Sai Yoga are not encouraged
to take the ochre robe.
On the contrary, Baba encourages them
to get married, he often finds them marriage partners,
attends
and blesses their weddings, and finds the right names for their
children.
Reading minds and hearts as he does, Swami knows, I
think,
that few people are ready for the life of celibacy.
Rather
than dissipate their energies fighting the desires of the flesh,
with all the psychological problems entailed,
it is better to
regulate the desires through marriage, better to live the life of a
householder, the normal life of normal man.
Baba teaches that if there is devotion to God,
life in the
world can, itself, be used as an implement of Sai Yoga.
The key
to this lies in observing our motives.
If the motive for our actions
is for the good of mankind, for the glory of God,
if we can
remain detached from the results of our actions,
if we can leave
all to God’s will,
then the actions themselves become a yoga,
helping us towards liberation.
To the extent that our motives
are self-centered, seeking gain or renown for ourselves,
to that
extent the actions bind us karmically to the earth.
Baba does not expect his devotees to reach this high ideal
of pure, altruistic motivation immediately.
But by striving
towards it, by remembering, as he often says, that ‘work is worship’,
they will be turning their daily lives into a course in yoga.
Will SAI BABA succeed in doing the great things he has come
to do?
Will he succeed in spiritualizing enough individuals
to lead mankind in a new direction?
Can he awaken enough
people from the mortal dream of selfhood to their true identity
—
enough to spearhead a great change for the world?
Ten good men could have saved the city of Sodom;
how
many will it take to save a world from destruction?
It is of the nature of Avatars to succeed in their mission.
The Buddha turned Asia away from dark superstition, and
raised its consciousness to higher levels.
Jesus Christ brought
a light that finally changed Western barbarism to the civilization of Christendom.
Those two grand Avataric songs are still
heard in the world, though growing somewhat faint with time.
But today the world may be a tougher proposition.
The
forces of ignorance, fear, hatred, violence are organized on
a greater scale than they were
when the Roman Empire was
riding down the slippery trail to its doom, when a wave of
barbarism engulfed the West,
and a boy born in a manger at
Bethlehem raised a timely torch of Truth.
So, can a boy born
in a humble home in remote Puttaparthi turn back the greater
tidal wave of darkness,
and launch the kingdom of Divine
Light on earth that Jesus prophesied and promised?
To the power of Divine Love, nothing is impossible.
One
of India’s greatest scholars and statesman Dr. R.R. Diwakar
wrote at the time of SAI BABA’s 50th birthday.
‘Once he (Baba)
was but a village urchin, untaught, untutored, uncared for,
he grew up in that little-known village, and grew from strength
to strength, miracle to miracle,
and today when we assemble
from the four quarters of the globe to celebrate his 50th year,
what do we find?’
After outlining the wonders of the modem
township of Prasanti Nilayam,
‘with great houses for
thousands’, that had grown up in the wilds, next door to
Puttaparti,
Dr. Diwakar writes of the mighty crowd, and of the
variety of nationalities, vocations and religions represented:
‘Philosophers and politicians, legislators and educationalists,
scientists and technologists, the ignorant as well as the learned,
the rich as well as the poor, all have assembled in spite of
inconveniences ...
in the name of Baba for the glorification of
Sathya - the Truth of Life...
‘If Baba’s capacity to weave the complex web of human
hearts and minds from various countries and creeds,
castes and
communities, lineages and languages
into a single Sathya Sai
spiritual family,
is not to be termed a marvel and a living
miracle,
one would like to know what a marvel and a miracle is
like.’
Jesus had only three years to strike the chord of a new age.
SAI BABA has three lifetimes.
He began his work quietly at the
village of Shirdi in the latter half of last century.
In 1918, when
his fame was beginning to spread throughout India, he left his
body,
and returned to Incarnation eight years later at Puttaparti.
Now his mission is gaining great momentum, but he does
not expect to accomplish all his aims in this lifetime.
After
eventually leaving this present body, he says, he will return —
again through the process of ordinary human birth —
and
continue his work under the name of Prema Sai.
Three successive births of an Avatar in a little over a century
and a half!
Are we then in the womb of a new age coming to
birth?
Considering all the conditions of today, it seems most
likely.
It seems to me that SAI BABA, with the helpers around
him, in and out of the body,
is composing a mighty Avataric
symphony that will go echoing down the centuries ahead,
changing the direction of history, raising humanity to wider
mental horizons,
beyond the blind, brutish struggle for survival
that exists today.
If struggle there must be among men, to learn
the lessons of earth’s school-house,
it will be pitched on a higher
level, where greater love and brotherhood provide the keynote.
Finally, I want to say that in these pages I have talked of
only a few of the things I have experienced and heard,
and that
they, themselves, form but a tiny fraction of the marvels that
take place around SAI BABA from day to day.
I said once that trying to speak about Baba is like trying to
put the ocean into a jam jar.
I still feel that way; and I have some
idea of how St. John must have felt when he wrote, at the end of
his Gospel:
‘Now there are many other things that Jesus did.
If they were all written down one by one,
I suppose that the
whole world could not hold the books that would be written.’
"Your Reality is the Atma, a wave of the
Parmatama.
The one object of this human
existence is to visualise that Reality,
that Atma, that relationship between
the wave and the sea.
All other activities
are trivial; you share them with birds and
beasts.
But this is the unique privilege of
Man.
He has clambered through all the
levels of animality, all the steps on the
ladder of evolution
in order to inherit
this high destiny.
If all the years between
birth and death are frittered away
in
seeking food and shelter, comfort and
pleasure, as animals do,
man is condemning
himself to a further life-sentence."
- SRI SATHYA SAI BABA
Quotations
Where there is a desire for mental tranquility, I hurry to grant tranquility.
Where there is dispiritedness, I hasten to raise the drooping heart.
Where there is no mental trust, I rush to restore trust.
I am ever on the move to fulfill the mission for which I have come.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
The only proof of His existence is union with Him.
The world disappears in Him.
He is the peaceful, the good, and the one without a second.
- FROM THE MANDOOKYA UPANISHAD
But happily there is the Highest Common Factor of all religions, the Perennial Philosophy
which has always and everywhere been the metaphysical system of the prophets, saints and sages.
- ALDOUS HUXLEY
When all is One, there is no room for sorrow,
Nor for this gaudy myth of you-and-me.
These that we call yestreen-today-tomorrow
Merge in the moment of Eternity.
- OMAR KHAYYAM
Far, far away is He, and yet He is very near,
resting in the inmost chamber of the Heart.
- MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
The sugar-cane should welcome the cutting,
the hacking and the crushing,
the boiling
and the straining to which it is subjected:
without these ordeals the cane would
dry up and make no tongue sweet.
So,
too, man must welcome trouble, for that
alone brings sweetness to the spirit within.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
Some of you feel neglected by me when
disappointment or trouble come upon you.
But such obstacles alone can toughen
your character and make your faith firm.
When you hang a picture on the wall,
you shake the nail and find out whether it
is firm enough to bear the weight of the
picture.
So, too, in order to prevent the
picture of God (His image in your mind
and heart) from falling and being
shattered to bits,
the nail (i.e., God’s name)
driven into the wall of the heart
has to be shaken to ascertain whether it is firm and steady.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
Become aware of your reality and you will
lose the sense of identification with the
body.
That will make you disease-free
and you will have perfect ‘ease’.
Be ever in the consciousness that you are
but a shadow of God, His Image.
Then
no harm can hamper you.
‘God walks
along the Royal Road of Truth.
The
shadow holding to Him by the Feet,
falls on hollow and hill, fire and water,
dirt and dust.
But, holding to the Feet
as the shadow, you will be unaffected
by the ups and downs of life.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
I am new and ever ancient.
I come always
for the restoration of Dharma (righteousness),
for tending the virtuous and ensuring them
conditions congenial for progress,
and for educating the ‘blind’ who miss
the way and wander into the. wilderness.
Some doubters might ask, ‘Can Paramatma
assume human form?’
Well, man can
derive joy only through the human form;
he can receive instruction, inspiration, and
illumination only through human language
and human communication.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
If your heart is united with God,
you wiIl be set free from karma
even in this life.
- BHAGAVAD GITA
You might say that the karma of previous
births has to be consumed in this life,
and that no amount of Grace can save you
from that.
Evidently, someone has taught
you to believe so.
But I assure you, you
need not suffer from karma like that.
When a severe pain torments you, the
doctor gives you a morphine injection,
and
you do not feel the pain, though it is
there in the body.
Grace is like the
morphine; the pain is not felt though you
go through it....
Or the Lord can save a
man completely from consequences, as was
done by me for the bhakta
whose paralytic
stroke and heart attacks I took over
in that Gurupoornima week.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
Narada, who moves always by and with
the Lord,
feels that God is beyond his
understanding.
Balarama, who incarnated
as lord Krishna’s own brother could not
fathom His Personality.
How then can
you grasp my Mystery?
If you have faith, the Lord who is the
core of your being will manifest Himself.
He is within your grasp. Be aware of
Him who is the eternal Witness: He sees
and knows all.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
The world is imprisoned in its own activity
except when actions are performed as
worship of God.
- BHAGAVAD GITA
What you need to cross the sea of life is
the bark of bhakti, of assurance of Grace,
of surrender to His will.
Throw off all
burdens, become light, and you can trip
across with one step on one crest and
another on the next.
God will take you through.
I ask only that you turn to me when your
mind drags you into grief or pride or envy.
Bring me the depths of your mind, no
matter how grotesque, how cruelly
ravaged by doubts or disappointments.
I
know how to treat them. I will not reject
you. I am your mother....
- SATHYA SAI BABA
Even a mind that knows the path
can be dragged from the path;
The senses are so unruly.
- BHAGAVAD GITA
Sadhana (spiritual or yogic exercise) will
disclose to you your true identity as one
with God.
But be careful; sadhana can
foster pride and envy as a by-product
of progress.
You calculate how long you
have done sadhana, and you are tempted
to look down on another whose record is
less.
You are proud that you have
written the name of God ten million
times, perhaps;
you talk about it, whenever
you get the chance, so that others may
admire your faith and fortitude.
But it
is not the millions that count;
it is the
purity of mind that results from genuine
concentration on the Name.
You must make
sure that your sadhana does not become
like drawing water from a well with a cane
basket.
You will get no water this way, no
matter how many times you pull the
basket up.
Your vices are the holes in
the basket. Keep the heart pure, keep it whole.
All religions exhort man to cleanse the
heart of malice, greed, hate and anger.
All religions holdout the gift of Grace as the
prize for success in this cleansing process.
Ideas of superiority and inferiority arise
only in a heart corrupted by egoism.
If someone argues that he is higher, or
that his religion is holier,
it is proof that he
has missed the very core of his faith.
Sadhana will reveal the unity in the
fundamental teachings of all religions.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
Yearn, yearn hard for success in achieving
the real purpose of life, and success will
be yours.
Remember you are all certain
to win; that is why you have been called,
and you have responded to the call, to come to me.
The Lord is the Sun and when His Rays
fall upon your heart, unimpeded by the
clouds of egoism,
the lotus bud of the
heart blooms and the petals unfold.
Remember, only the buds that are ready
will bloom; the rest have to wait patiently.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
When one sees Eternity in things that pass
away and infinity in finite things,
then
one has pure knowledge.
- BHAGAVAD GITA
The lotus on the lake is far, far away
from the sun;
but distance is no bar for
the dawn of love;
the lotus blooms as soon
as the sun peeps over the horizon.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
The countless Gods are only my million faces.
- BHAGAVAD GITA
I am the servant of every one.
You can, call
me any Name, I will respond, for all Names
are mine.
Or, rather, I have no particular Name at all.
One man’s mind prefers Krishna;
another’s
mind likes Siva;
another prefers the
Formless Allah.
I never call on people to
worship me, giving up the Forms they
already revere.
I have come to establish
Dharma, and so I do not demand or require
your homage.
Give it to your Lord or Guru,
whoever He is.
I am the Witness, come
to set right the vision.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
I am determined to correct you only after
informing you of my credentials.
That
is why I am now and then announcing
my Nature by means of miracles,
that is,
acts which are beyond human capacity
and human understanding.
Not that I am
anxious to show off my Powers.
The object
is to draw you closer to me, to cement
your hearts to me.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
He comes to the thought of those who know
Him beyond thought,
not to those who
imagine He can be attained by thought.
He is unknown to the learned and known
to the simple.
- KENA UPANISHAD
Welcome all faiths and religions as kith
and kin;
all faiths are but attempts to
train men along the Path;
all aspire to win
the same Illumination through the cleansing
of the mind by means of good works.
The seeds of all religions are in the
Sanathana Dharma (Eternal Truths)
of the Vedanta.
That Dharma examines all
possible approaches to the Divine,
and
arranges them in the order in which they
can be utilised by the aspirant,
according to
his level of equipment and attainment.
The Vedic Dharma is the great grandfather,
Buddhism is the son, Christianity is the
grandson, and Islam is the great grandson.
If there is any misunderstanding between
them, it is but a family affair.
The
ancestral property, of which all are
co-sharers, is the same.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
In any way that men love me, in that same
way they find my love:
for many are the
paths of men, but they all in the end
come to me.
- BHAGAVAD GITA
When man taps the energy of the Divine
in Himself,
he can easily master Nature,
which is only the vesture of the Divine.
Through Truth you can experience Love;
through love you can visualise Truth.
Love
God and you see God in every creature.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
Man is the Divine poured into the human
mould,
just as everything else, alive or
inert, is;
but it is the privilege of man,
alone, to be able to become aware of this
precious truth.
This is the message of the
Upanishads to man.
The same message
is echoed by the scriptures, and the
declarations of countless saints.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
It is good to be born in a church, but it is
not good to die in it.
Grow and rescue
yourselves from the limits and regulations,
the doctrines, that fence in your freedom
of thought,
the ceremonials and rites
that restrict and direct.
Reach the point
where churches do not matter,
where all
roads end,
from where all roads run.
Pardon the other man’s faults,
but deal
harshly with your own.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
Man is burdened with the delusion
that the
true is the false, that the temporary is
eternal.
Long identification has trained
him so.
He has to be re-educated into the
right vision.
The truest thing, the fact
that persists unchanged is the ‘I’ itself.
All else is unreal, but appearing as real.
You may ask, how is this so?
I grow
old; I change; I am healthy; I fall ill.
But in and through all the growth and
decay the ‘I’ persists.
‘I slept well’, you
say.
But during sleep you were not aware
of the body, the senses, the mind or
the external world.
Yet the ‘I’ persisted
through the dream world, through deep sleep.
- SATHYA SAI BABA
Sai Baba Avatar is Mr Murphet’s second book on SAI BABA, the
well-known God-man
who has raised a great deal of
interest the world over.
The author’s earlier book,
SAI BABA, Man of Miracles, dealt mainly with SAI BABA’s
background —
his birth, childhood, and early life —
and
the response to it was staggering.
SAI BABA Avatar carries on from where SAI BABA, Man of
Miracles left off.
This book concerns itself with the
personal experiences of many who have benefited from
the spiritual strength of SAI BABA.
Mr. Murphet has also
provided his own comments on various aspects of Sai
Baba’s life and work.
Mr. Murphet seeks to explain the
profound subject of SAI BABA, his Path and the spiritual
truths that He manifests.
Howard Murphet was born in 1906 in Tasmania and
educated at the University of Hobart.
During the
Second World War he served with the Eighth Army at
El Alamein and Tunis,
took part in the invasion of Sicily
and Italy
and, later, with the British Second Army, in
the invasion of Normandy.
He was also in charge of
the British Press Section at the Nuremburg Trials.
After
a period as a Public Relations Officer in the chemical
industry,
he visited India in 1964 to study Yoga and
Eastern Philosophy.
His first stay in India (1964-70)
deepened his consciousness of the Avatar-like qualities
of SAI BABA
and led to his return to India in 1974.
