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A Perfect Disciple.
The story of Dr. John S. Hislop
July 2nd is the holy festival of
Guru Purnima. A day when homage is paid to the Guru. A day on
which all of us across the world express gratitude to Bhagavan,
the Universal teacher, for guiding us on the path to lasting
peace. Yes, that is a good thing-to be grateful to one’s Guru.
But what does Bhagavan himself want? Praises , we know, mean
nothing to Him. What really matters to Him is how much we walk
along the path shown by Him. That He says is the greatest way to
pay Him a tribute. A Teacher is known by His students, a painter
by His art, and a sculptor by his sculptures. A Guru is known by
His disciples and an Avatar by his devotees. The perfect devotee
who surrenders to the Lord, the Guru, and practises His
teachings is the one in whom the Glory of the Lord is reflected
most. He becomes a cause, an instrument in bringing several
others into the orbit of the Transforming Love of God. He is the
one who pays real homage to His Guru. One such devotee of
Bhagwan was John S Hislop.
Dr.
John S Hislop was one of the fine instruments used by Bhagavan
Baba to spread His Message across the continents. Hislop to
Swami came via the Theosophy/Meditation route. It all started
when as a young man of eighteen he had gone to Taihiti in the
Pacific in search of adventure. There he met a priest who told
him about Theosophy. As soon as Hislop returned to Los Angeles,
he joined the Theosophical Society because he wanted to serve
humanity. Soon he became actively involved with the
establishment set up in Ojai, California, by Dr. Annie Besant, a
pillar of the Theosophy movement.
It was in Ojai
that Hislop came into contact with J.Krishnamurthi [from India]
who was being projected by Annie Besant as a ‘World Teacher’.
About this experience, Hislop says, “Krishnamurthi and Besant
were giant figures who filled the horizon, and it seemed to me
that they and only they had found the truth of life. I feel
eternally grateful to Dr. Besant and Krishnamurthi for their
great kindness and great patience with an undisciplined man. But
wisdom was not born in me as a follower of Krishnamurthi.”
In between,
Hislop went through higher education, finally receiving his
doctorate in the School of Education in the University of
California, Los Angeles Campus [UCLA]. Thereafter he taught for
a while and later switched to business, where he was quite
successful. He also got married to Victoria, who shared his
passion for philosophical enlightenment. Together, Hislop and
Victoria drifted from one Guru to
another, ending up in the fifties with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who
by then had hit the headlines in the West. Twenty five years of
search for that ‘something’ had passed but that ‘something’ was
still not in sight.
The year is
1958. Hislop comes to India to help Mahesh Yogi in setting up an
Academy for Meditation in the Himalayas. Being an American, he
is at first mistaken to be a CIA agent (!) but later allowed to
do his work. At this stage Hislop takes a break and goes to
Burma to learn Vipassana Meditation
practised by Buddhists. Hislop finds that the Buddhist style of
meditation is fascinating and wonderful but, in his words,
The Buddhist way
was a way of the intellect and the mind. And despite my great
appreciation and gratitude for having found the discipline, I
felt that my heart was dry; it was a Western heart with very
little love left in it. We [Hislop and his wife] had begun to
realise that the Vipassana discipline could be dangerous for a
life in the world and that to pursue it properly one should
become a monk…..
Around this
time, Burma had begun to look inwards, closing its borders to
foreigners. So, it did not seem possible to stay back in Burma
and become a monk. Yet, Hislop clung to
Vipassana, lacking an alternative. A few more years
passed, and then….
My wife and I
first heard of Baba in 1968 through a description of Him given
to a friend of mine by a lady who had visited India. She had
brought back some sacred ash [Vibhuti], a beautiful ring as a
gift to her from the miraculous nature of Baba, and she had many
fascinating stories to tell. One special remark struck fire. The
lady said that she felt a change in her character while with
Baba, and the change persisted even after she returned home.
This statement had a strong impact on my mind. Could there be a
man, was there a man living today whose being was so subtle, so
powerful, so mysterious, so Divine, that He could change a human
Heart?
If it were indeed
true that such a man lived in today’s world, then nothing else
in my life could equal the urgency of seeking Him out. I prayed
that through His Grace and kindness, He might touch my dry Heart
and make it alive and vibrant.
My wife and I
heard the story of Baba on a Monday, and the same week we were
aboard a plane to India. ….
Hislop
continues:
Upon meeting Baba,
I knew at once, without doubt, that for me, here was the true
source of Wisdom. …….It is difficult and probably impossible to
express in words the effect upon myself of that first meeting
with Baba. My entire being was profoundly affected and changed.
Immediately, Baba became the centre of my life, and has remained
so. In His presence at that first meeting, the world fell away
from me, my entire consciousness was drawn inward and, at a most
subtle level of awareness, Baba appeared in my Heart as Love.
Love was unmistakable and that Baba was this Love was equally
unmistakable. It seemed to me that only God Himself
could enter my Heart as Love and, since then, this feeling of
Divine Presence has never changed. ……I found to my great
surprise that although I had always used an intellectual
approach to spiritual life, the devotional path became very
natural to me as soon as I encountered Baba.
Swami gave
Hislop innumerable experiences so that the latter could get a
feel for all aspects of Divinity. Baba also granted Hislop any
number of Interviews, answered his questions in detail, came to
his rescue during illness, saved him from disaster, created
unusual objects for him and once even blessed him with a vision
of Krishna. A sample now of a few these, in Hislop’s own words.
We start with the famous episode dealing with the creation by
Baba of a crucifix for Hislop. Interestingly, the crucifix was
created on Mahasivarathri Day in the year 1973, deep in the
forest! This holy festival was celebrated by Baba in the company
of a small group almost in privacy, and not before massive
crowds as normally happens. Let us hear Hislop recall the event:
The
crucifix was created by Baba on a most auspicious day,
Mahasivarathri. ……The evening before, we were told to be ready
in the early morning for a trip; and that when the cars were
loaded and ready we would know the destination. Swami had
decided that only a handful of people would be with Him….
Our destination
was the Bandipur Game Sanctuary in Bandipur Forest, several
hours away from the city of Mysore. We arrived at the Forest
rest-house in the early afternoon. Later we took various winding
roads hoping to come upon one of the Forest’s wild elephant
herds. ….. the elephants remained in their secret places and not
even one was seen. But the drive through the hills had another
and more important objective……
As we crossed a
bridge above a sandy, dry riverbed, Baba indicated that this
would be the place. … The cars halted at the side of the road,
and we started to climb down the bank to the sandy river bottom.
I was beside Baba. As we passed a bush, Swami broke off two
twigs, placed them together and asked me, “What is this,
Hislop?”
“Well Swami, it is
a cross,” I answered. Baba then closed His fingers over the
twigs and directed three somewhat slow breaths into His fist,
between thumb and forefinger. Then He opened His hand to reveal
a Christ figure on a Cross, and He gave it to me.
He said, “This
shows Christ as he really was at the time he left his body, not
as artists have imagined him. His stomach is pulled in and his
ribs are all showing. He had no food for eight days.”
I looked at the
crucifix but found no words. Baba then continued: “The cross is
made of wood from the actual cross on which Christ was
crucified. To find some of the wood after 2000 years took a
little time! The image is of Christ after he died. It is a dead
face.”
I noticed something odd and asked, “Swami, what is that hole at
the top of the cross?” Baba replied that the cross had been
originally hung from a standard.
A little while
after the materialisation of the cross, Sivarathri was
celebrated on the sandy river bed with devotees singing
Bhajan and Baba bringing out a
Lingam to mark the holy day and the
significance of Creation - quite a change from the normal
circumstances under which Sivarathri is celebrated.
A couple of
years later, some American devotees asked Swami about the cross
materialised for Hislop. Baba replied:
Yes, I made it for him. When I went to
look for the wood, every particle of the cross had disintegrated
and returned to the elements. I reached out to the elements and
reconstituted sufficient material for a small
cross. Very seldom does Swami interfere with Nature, but
occasionally, for a devotee, it will be done.”
The story of the cross does not quite end with its physical
materialisation. Hislop had a strange experience a few months
later, when the cross was being shown to a few friends. This is
what he says:
Within a few weeks
we were back in our home in Mexico and were soon to witness an
amazing series of events in relation to the crucifix. ….. [One
day] the time was about 5 P.M. On this afternoon, the sky along
the Mexican coast was clear and peaceful. But suddenly without
warning, there was a loud crash of thunder and as our eyes
turned towards the windows, lightning flashed from a dark cloud
where a moment before there had been only clear sky. A violent
wind rushed through the house, causing windows and doors to open
and shut with such force that the glass was in danger of
shattering. The curtains were flying in all directions. We were
much startled by this turn of events, but my wife at once said,
“It is 5 P.M., the time Christ died on the cross, and what is
now happening is described in the Bible.” She later brought a
Bible and we looked though until we found the pertinent
paragraph, which said that at the moment Christ gave up His
life, a violent storm arose with lightning and thunder, and
winds rent the curtains of the temple. We concluded that we had
witnessed a wonder totally beyond our power of imagination.
Before our eyes had occurred nothing less than a recapitulation
of events related to crucifixion. The following day, newspapers
in San Diego carried a brief story commenting on the sudden and
mysterious storm that had arisen without warning on the Mexican
coast, near Ensenada. ….A year or so alter, I sent a description
of the event to Dr. Eruch B. Fanibanda for his book,
Vision of the Divine. He showed the memo to Baba. After
reading the memo, Baba said that the event had occurred as
described and that the significance attributed to it was
correct.
Bhagavan Baba
has saved innumerable devotees from danger and imminent
disaster, when they appealed to Him. Swami saved Hislop also,
but Hislop’s experience was one with a big difference.
One evening in
1973, we left Brindavan at about 8 P.M. to return to Bangalore.
There were five of us in the taxi, plus the driver. The
Bangalore road is only two lanes. Some miles from Brindavan, we
overtook a bus. Although the driver of our taxi saw some lights
ahead, he estimated that there was plenty of time to pass the
bus. He could not have been more mistaken – the lights ahead
were that of a car moving at a very high speed towards us. ……
In this particular
area, the layout of the road was also deadly. The road was under
repair, and there was a high bank of dirt and rocks covering the
side of the road. Thus, there was no possibility of the oncoming
car being
able to swerve off the road. We, too, could not take evasive
action, for the bus was on our left and the road-repair material
on the right, and by this time the oncoming car was directly in
front of us. A foolish driver in that car and an equally foolish
driver in our taxi! …. The lights of the oncoming car now struck
directly into the windscreen of our taxi. The cars could not
have been more than a second or so apart. We were stunned. Not
one of us remembered Baba or called out to Him. We felt we were
as good as dead, and we instinctively tensed for the crash. But
at that very moment something happened that was without any
rational explanation. At one moment the two cars were upon each
other, about to be smashed in a fatal head-on collision. The
very next moment, the oncoming car was behind us, and we were
continuing to pass the bus with a clear road ahead. Looking
back, we could see the red tail-lamp of the other car.
There was no crash. ….
The next day we
drove out to Brindavan as usual at 8 A.M. so as to be waiting
near the veranda for Baba to appear for morning Darshan. As soon
as He came into the room, I touched the Lotus feet and said, “We
want to thank Baba for saving our lives last night.”
Baba smiled and
said, “Yes, that was a close one. You were so shocked that not
even one of you called out for Swami! But Swami saved you
anyway.” Then He turned to a group of men and in Telugu told
them the entire story of the incident.
I then said,
“Swami, You must have altered time and space in order to save
us.” Baba just smiled and did not answer.
From time to
time, Swami has orchestrated situations wherein devotees have
been blessed to see Him in some of the other forms He is
worshipped in. Hislop was among the lucky few to get a glimpse
of Baba as Sri Krishna. That story follows, in Hislop’s own
words:
A number of years
ago I was in Baba’s car. He was in the rear seat with two other
persons. I was in the front seat with the driver. We were on our
way to Puttaparthi. Driving in the car with Baba is a
fascinating experience ………
At some point in
the journey, perhaps about half-way, Baba was talking and I
turned to look. My breathing stopped and was transfixed. I could
not credit my eyes. ….
What transfixed my
movement and stopped my breathing now, was His face …..The Baba
I knew was not there! Instead, there was a face of the most
extra-ordinary beauty – quite different in shape and cast from
the features of our beloved Sai. The charm was so great, so
poignant, that my heart seemed to twist, almost as though it
were in pain. Never in my life, not in photos, nor in paintings
by great artists have I seen a face of such exquisite beauty. It
was beyond imagination and concept, totally beyond experience.
And His colour was
blue. Not just blue, not the blue with which artists paint Sri
Krishna, but a deep blue like the velvet blue that can sometimes
be seen in a dark sky, like a blue that I have, at times, seen
from the deck of a ship thousands of miles from the shores of
the Pacific Ocean. I do not know how else to describe it.
I could not take
my eyes from Baba’s face. …. The two men sitting with Baba were
beginning to look at me with somewhat puzzled expressions….
After a few miles,
Sri Vittal Rao (on Baba’s left) asked me, “Hislop, why were you
staring at Swami like that?”
Instead of
answering, I directed a question to Baba, “Swami, what was that
blue colour?”
He replied, “Oh! That? Whenever there is something of
unfathomable depth, it appears deep blue.”
That was the end
of the conversation about the incident. Naturally, the thought
had come to mind that maybe this was Lord Krishna, but neither
then, nor at any time in connection with this experience, did I
ever mention Krishna to Baba.
There the matter
rested until November, 1975. ….
One
day, shortly before Birthday, Swami called a family for
Interview. Hislop also was called. Swami spent some time talking
to the family ad then turned to Hislop. Over now to Hislop for
that part of the story:
After a while,
Baba said to me, “Hislop, tell them about your experiences.”
I complied and,
after mentioning some incidents, I told them the same story
[about seeing a deep blue face]. … The man was deeply impressed
and words broke from his lips, “Oh! That had to be Lord
Krishna!”
Baba smiled and
said, “Yes, that was Krishna; not the Krishna
pictured by artists and imagined by writers. I showed Hislop the
REAL KRISHNA.”
Hislop was
clearly a specially chosen one for he had many wonderful
experiences like few have been blessed to have. Here is Hislop’s
description of one of them that helped him to eventually see
Swami everywhere.
After I had been
going to Prasanti Nilayam for about three years, coming back to
America, as I got off the plane, I felt that Swami’s head and
shoulders were superimposed on mine. I felt that way. I was
aware of the hair. So I said, “Well, welcome to America, Swami!”
That feeling lasted for three years. Every place I would go,
there would be Swami standing in the room. When I would talk to
people at the Centre, Swami would be standing behind
every person in that room! Behind every person would be
Swami’s head. When I look at the wall there would be a row of
Swamis standing along the wall. That vision finally came to an
end, and I told Swami, “Swami, that phenomenon has come to an
end now.” Swami said, “Hislop, don’t you know that all phenomena
come to an end?” He added, “You have had that vision of Swami
without any effort on your part whatsoever. Now you have to
deliberately see Swami wherever you look!” So I do that.
Here is another
of those unique Hislop-experiences:
One time, Swami
went to Madras and arrived unexpectedly at the house of His
hostess. You know, when the Avatar come to visit your house, I
am sure you would want to have something with which to greet Him
– some flowers or a tray of food or something to the welcome the
Lord to your house. That was the case with this hostess too.
Swami came to the
door and knocked. The hostess answered, saw Swami standing
there, and exclaimed, Oh Swami, Swami, I am so happy to see You.
But Swami, You didn’t tell me that you were coming, and I don’t
have anything to welcome you with. I don’t have flowers or
fruit. I don’t have anything.” The poor lady was quite
distraught. So Swami said, “Don’t worry, don’t worry.” Then He
turned around and beckoned at the car.
Out of the car
came two angels with wings, carrying a big silver tray, loaded
with fruit and flowers and everything the hostess would need to
welcome Swami. The angels brought this tray up to the house and
gave it to the hostess. Then Swami turned to the angels and
waved them back to the car. They floated back to the car, folded
their wings, got into the car, and disappeared!
Later on, as the
years went by, Swami acquired another vehicle. He had a bus, and
He would take the students for excursions in the bus. One time.
He took them on an excursion to Madras.
First, He went to
the house of the hostess, where He would be staying; the
students would be staying someplace else. When the hostess came
to the door and saw the busload of students, she went back
inside her house and brought out the silver tray. It was still
there, and she told the students the story of the angels with
wings …..
After many
years of wandering and unfulfilled yearning, Swami finally drew
Hislop to Himself, granting him the blessing of Divine
proximity. Hislop, for his part, took full advantage of the
opportunity given, not for himself but for the sake of humanity.
He became a roving ambassador, and through his talks as well his
books [widely known justifiably], Hislop did yeoman service in
spreading Sai’s Message far and wide. Even when afflicted by
cancer, he did not hesitate to travel and speak about the Lord
he had discovered. He says:
In this modern
society, a dry and joyless life is the general experience.
Witness the frantic search for distraction and pleasure the
world over. An almost universal prayer springs up from adult
persons caught up in today’s culture: O Lord, may there be a new
season of Spring in my heart. May the river of Love flow deep
and strong again in my heart!”
Here, to me, is
one of the most wonderful miracles of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai
Baba. The fettered heart, turning to Baba, can break free from
all bondage. Seeing Him, being sure that He will never abandon,
is a most wonderful feeling. With joy, the heart responds to
this trust. With each day, love for Baba grows stronger and
stronger. He is the Divine Mother and the Divine Father to His
devotee. One may love Him without reserve, without guard,
without fear …….
Hislop
constantly chanted Baba’s Name, right till the very end. As he
gave up the mortal coil, friends gathered around him kept
chanting the sacred OM, even as the soul journeyed to its
eternal resting-place, the Divine Lotus Feet. Some time later,
Swami asked an American devotee on the veranda, “Where is
Hislop?” The devotee looked up, as if to signify that Hislop was
in heaven. Baba then said, “He has come to Me. Good man; always
thinking of and working for Swami.” There cannot be a better
eulogy.
Source:
Radio Sai
E-Magazine, 1st July 2004
http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_02/13July01/02_Cover_Story/cover_story.htm
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