Man of Miracles by Howard Murphet CONTENTS Author's Note Introduction 1 The Search 2 Satya Sai Baba 3 Abode of Peace and Many Wonders 4 0 World Invisible 5 Birth and Childhood 6 The Two Sais 7 Echoes from the Early Years 8 With Baba in the Hills 9 Return to Brindavanam 1 10 A Place Apart 11 Drift of Pinions 12 More Wonder Cures 13 The Question of Saving from Death 14 Eternal Here and Now 15 The Same, but Different 16 A Word from the West 17 Devotees 18 Reality and Significance of the Miraculous 19 Some Sai Teachings 20 Avatar First published in Great Britain 1971 by Frederick Muller Ltd., Fleet Street, London, E. C.4 Copyright @ 1971 Howard Murphet 2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Frederick Muller Limited. Paperback Edition by Macmillan India Limited 1972, 1974, 1975, 1980 1981 by S G Wasani for Macmillan India Limited and Printed by T K Sengupta at Macmillan India Press, Madras 600 002 PUBLISHER'S NOTE TO THE SECOND INDIAN EDITION Many readers of the first edition, coming to India from different parts of the world, or from within India itself, have tried to contact Miss Leela Mudaliar at Queen Mary College, Madras, in order to find the address of the Sai Baba Guindy Temple, the story of which is given in these pages. As she has now moved to another college, as Professor of Botany, we think it would be useful to give here the address of the temple. It is 31D Mount Road, Guindy, Madras 32. Many more readers have been writing to the publishers or the author for the address of Sri Sathya Sai Baba in India. So for the help of those who may desire this information, his two main ashram addresses are given below: 1. Prasanthi Nilayam, Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh. 2. 'Brindavan', Kadugodi, Near Whitefield, Bangalore, Karnataka State. AUTHOR'S NOTE This book is intended for three classes of readers; one, the many for whom the mysterious, marvellous and miraculous of life hold interest and appeal; two, the searchers after spiritual light who have not yet found what they seek. Many in both of these classes, especially the former, will not even have heard of Satya Sai Baba of India, let alone seen his miracles and felt his great influence. They will be more than inclined to doubt. Therefore I have tried to present the facts as objectively as possible, keeping the devotional content to a minimum. Other books, from time to time, have dealt in such a way with the subject of miraculous phenomena. But I know of none describing so many and varied events connected with a miracle-saint, still living, and attested to by such an array of witnesses whose real names are given. These witnesses are, in the main, well-known in their professions and/or communities and can be contacted by any doubters who would like confirmation of the fantastic incredible experiences described. Because the devotional element is minimal the third class of readers for whom the book is intended, the Sai devotees, will perhaps feel that the presentation is too cold for them. But I beg them to remember that pure devotional literature is of interest only to devotees, and here I am primarily concerned with a much wider field. But I sincerely hope that even the most ardent and experienced Sai devotee, to whom the extraordinary has become the commonplace, will find in these pages something to interest him - perhaps some new evidence, aspect or interpretation of the great Sai power. For it is a fathomless ocean and no man can know more than a fraction of it. In this volume, the fruit of long but highly-rewarding research, investigation and experience, I would like to share with you the inspiring fraction that I 3 came to know. And now I want to express some appreciation and gratitude. First and foremost to Sri Satya Sai Baba himself for all that he has so graciously shown and revealed to me personally. Words completely fail, me here. So I will pass on swiftly to express my gratitude to those people who so courteously supplied me with the facts about their precious and marvellous experiences, and who also permitted me to use their names in testimony to a truth that is stranger than fiction. Finally, further sincere thanks are due to my good friend, Mr, Alf Tidemand- Johannessen, who provided some very timely secretarial assistance in connection with the book, and to my wife who helped so much in typing and checking the manuscript. H.M. Introduction Man of Miracles by Howard Murphet INTRODUCTION ... and you find it difficult to believe in miracles? I, on the contrary, find it easy. They are to be expected. The starry world in time and space, the pageant of life, the processes of growth and reproduction, the instincts of animals, the inventiveness of nature they are all utterly unbelievable, miracles piled upon miracles ... PROFESSOR W. MACNEILE DIXON, GIFFORD LECTURES, 1935-37 Most of us meet with the miraculous and magical in the tales of early childhood, and in those plastic years, before the "shades of the prison house" have begun to close around us, miracles are part of the accepted order. There is no incredibility, for example, in the magic power of Aladdin's lamp, or in Jack's beanstalk to the land of the giants, or in Christ walking over the storm-tossed water. Such stories are not, of course, confined to the folklore and religious scriptures of the western world. The written chronicles of Man in all areas unroll a record of miracles that stretches from Lord Krishna, some 5,000 years ago, down to the present day. The Age of Miracles has always been with us. We read of its rosy morning on the far horizons of ancient Egypt, Chaldea, India and Palestine. And in the old Alexandria of the early Christian Era there were theurgists who at public ceremonies made statues "walk, talk and prophesy". In Europe during the Middle Ages the church unfortunately claimed a monopoly of the miraculous, and those who worked outside it had to work in secrecy. Such secular theurgical workers, belonging to the Rosicrucian and other brotherhoods 4 of occult practice, did exist. However, and despite ecclesiastical power and jealousy, some great personalities - adepts like Paracelsus and the Comte de St. Germain -caught the attention of the public, stirring its cupidity, its fears and its suspicions. But what actually do we regard as a miracle? If in those Middle Ages a single individual had appeared who could do any one of the many things we take for granted today - televise, travel through space above the earth, or to the moon, communicate in a few seconds with someone in another continent, convert matter into nuclear energy, or break matter down to its component atoms and use them like bricks to build an entirely different form of matter - what would have happened to such a dangerous heretic? What would they have done to one who thus flouted the laws of God, undermined the status of the theologians, and took unto himself the powers of angels? Would his life have been worth more than a bundle of faggots for burning? But these "miracles" around us today have come about gradually through the laborious efforts of science. We know some of the laws behind them. Or even if we don't know the laws ourselves we believe that our modem priests, the technologists of science, do. And so we accept such phenomena comfortably and admiringly as the products of scientific progress. We don't think of them as miracles. Yet in a sense they are, just as the whole universe in space and time and the wondrous inventions of the mind are miracles. But provided we can say "It works according to such and such an equation," or "Our scientists have discovered the laws, and our technologists operate according to them," we feel that we are on safe ground. It is scientific; there is nothing magical about it. So the definition of a miracle seems to be that it is a phenomenon concerning which we neither understand the causative laws ourselves, nor believe them to be understood by that large body of scientific workers in whom we put our trust and faith. Christian miracles such as those at Lourdes are, according to the theologians, "the suspension of the effect of a law of nature by God as its author". But such an idea does not satisfy the occultist. According to him there is no suspension of law; there may appear to be, but actually the miraculous phenomenon is brought about by a deeper law, not yet discovered and enunciated by exoteric science. When the greater law is known our mental concept of the lesser one will be modified. Madame H.P. Blavatsky stated the occult viewpoint thus, "A miracle is not a violation of the laws of nature, as is believed by ignorant people. Magic is but a science, a profound knowledge of the occult forces in nature and of the laws governing the visible or the invisible worlds." Such occult laws are known to esoteric science, but those who possess such knowledge have always been few in number and not generally known to the public. So public opinion usually discounts their existence, and the existence of any esoteric body of knowledge.