... Along the Path
In the last Ramala Newsletter, published in September 2002, I included the
first chapter of the book that I have been writing, entitled 'Full Circle - The
Story of one Man's Journey from God to God'. That chapter was called 'First
Steps......' I now publish the second chapter, '...Along The Path ', for
which many of you have been asking. If you have not read the first chapter,
then, I would suggest that you do so now, by reading it in the September 2002
newsletter. I am just sorry that a year has sped by between the publication of
the chapters, which makes the continuity process a little difficult. Many
factors have conspired to delay the completion of this book, but I hope that it
will see the light of day in 2004. 2003 has proved to be a testing year for
many of us and, for me personally, has brought about many changes.
This chapter embraces a time span that begins in the spring of 1970 and ends in
the spring of 1993, the time of my first interview with Sri Sathya Sai Baba,
and so encompasses twenty-three years of spiritual growth and enquiry. I have
therefore tried to encapsulate in just a few pages almost a quarter of a
century of spiritual questing and growth. So many events have taken place in
my life that have been nothing short of miraculous, so many happenings have
impelled me to look beyond the established boundaries of religion and science,
that they would form an entire book in their own right. Perhaps I will write
it one day. Of one thing I am sure, namely, that an unseen hand has been
guiding and protecting me ever since I took my first step along the path to the
Godhead. There has been so much divine synchronicity in my life that I have
never for one moment doubted the existence of a Higher Force even if I did not
know Its name or Its form. So I have selected the events to be included in
this chapter solely on the basis of providing you, the reader, with sufficient
information to understand where I stood spiritually when I first came to hear
about Sai Baba and why I felt the need to reject him so strongly in the
beginning. I was a walking example, as Sai Baba says, of too much information
and not enough transformation!
...ALONG THE PATH
Within a very short time, a matter of months not yearshad done the
right thing - in fact we wondered why we had waited for so long to get married.
Our marriage was a living pro, we both knew that we of of the statement "Seek
you first the things of the spirit and all else will be added unto you". We
had come together for reasons of the spirit, not of the physical, and because
everything was correct on the spiritual level, then all the levels below it
automatically fell into place. Ann often uses the analogy of buttoning up a
shirt to describe this fact. If you do up the top button of a shirt correctly
then all the other buttons below it automatically fall into place, but if the
top button is done up wrongly then no matter what you do all the other buttons
are inevitably wrong. Now that is not to say that we did not have personality
conflicts, that we did not have tests to face, but that because our commitment
was there on the spiritual level, then, all of our marital problems were soon
resolved. Ann gave up her career and her well paid job in New York and
resigned herself to the unfamiliar role of being a wife and a mother. I became
the family breadwinner through my job as an airline pilot. We settled into the
familiar routine of married life which young couples follow all over the world,
but with one significant exception. We actively pursued a spiritual life.
Almost from the very first days of our marriage Ann and I used to
meditate together and to discuss a wide range of spiritual matters on a regular
basis. We attended lectures by well-known spiritual teachers and read a wide
variety of esoteric books. Ann had been to spiritual development classes with
Dorothy Smith in the USA and had become quite psychic. She was even beginning
to channel her own guide, Omar Khayyam, and to have visions. After the birth
of our first child, in the year following our marriage, Ann's mother came to
live with us for a few months, not just to help Ann with the new baby but also
to provide company and baby-sitting relief for her, whilst I was away from home
on airline duties, sometimes for trips of ten or more days. The three of us
used to meditate together whenever I was home. Now Ann's mother, who was born
and raised in the USA, not only was very psychic but was also a good
psychometrist as well, that is to say she could hold an object such as a watch
or a ring, and by attuning to it she would receive psychic impressions
regarding the owner of the object. She was particularly accurate with me and
made several startling predictions which all came true. Under her and Ann's
gentle guidance I had now become quite receptive to many so-called New Age
ideas, especially to the development and expression of psychic talents. Having
witnessed Dorothy Smith in operation and been the recipient of the benefits of
her channellings I was now a firm believer in the human ability to communicate
with other levels of life. As I sat in meditation I began to feel a heightened
sense of awareness and to have short out of the body experiences. I was
especially aware of a tingling feeling all over my face and Ann and her mother
could see that my face was being transfigured and that an oriental face was
appearing in place of mine. They were aware, having been to mediums and
experienced the phenomenon before on several occasions, of just what was
happening to me. They told me that a spirit being was overshadowing me, who
obviously wanted to talk through me, and that I should just relax and let the
process take place quite naturally. I resisted this idea most strongly and
blocked the process for many months. Eventually though, one day, when Ann's
mother could see the face of the being overshadowing me very clearly, she
quietly said "Hello, who are you?" and before my personality resistance could
stop anything I was aware of my voice saying "Good evening. I am Zen Tao, the
guide of this instrument, and I am happy to be in your midst." That was the
start of a process that was to go on for almost twenty years.
Channelling, being a medium, call it what you may, came quite naturally
to me. It was not something that I sought. It sought me. In one sense I was
a reluctant medium, because I was never really completely happy with the
channelling process, if only because I was always very conscious of the fact
that I was still totally responsible for everything that came through me. If I
misled anyone, then, the karma for that was all mine. I firmly believe that
there is no greater God than Truth. I have always been a seeker of Truth and
for me personally the greatest evil that any one can do is to mislead someone
in the name of Truth, is to advocate spiritual teachings that are untrue.
During the period of my mediumship I channelled hundreds of teachings on a wide
variety of spiritual subjects and gave personal counselling sessions to the
many individuals who all came to me searching for answers to the problems in
their lives. At all times I was very aware of my responsibilities towards them
and of the karma that would be created if I acted inappropriately. I was very
conscious of the fact that what I said could influence their lives in so many
ways. To this end I have never charged a fee for any lecture or channelling
that I have given, believing it to be a gift from God. As a matter of
interest, the beings on the higher planes of life that spoke through me
insisted on this course of action right from the very beginning. I was also
very conscious of the fact that the source of the channellings was not God per
se. The beings that spoke through me simply identified themselves as spiritual
Masters belonging to the White Brotherhood and said that they taught only from
the perspective of having walked a little further along the Path of Life than
most of the souls on the Earth.
The channelling process for me was quite automatic. It was not
something that I had to learn. It was just like turning on a tap and the
wisdom flowed. The Masters who gave the teachings said that I had been
preparing for this incarnation for many lives and that I had been a channel in
many past lives. Be that as it may, within a few weeks of the channelling
process starting I was receiving the lectures that were to form the basis for
the first book of teachings that I published - The Revelation of Ramala - in
1978. The book was published anonymously, as indeed were all of the Ramala
books, firstly, because I recognised that the teachings were not mine, they
only came through me, they were not of me and, secondly, because I, the
channel, was not important in this process. I was just the funnel for the
teachings. What was important was the teachings, which had to stand or fall on
their own merits. Right from the very beginning, though, it was apparent that
the Ramala teachings struck a chord in many people. I used to channel the
teachings whilst sitting in meditation. I was what was called a mental medium
as opposed to a trance medium and was conscious throughout the whole process.
I was never in trance, as had been the case with Dorothy Smith. The
overshadowing being would just use my voice box to give a talk. This talk
would be recorded on a tape recorder, to be transcribed later and then
published in a booklet form. The demand for them grew in leaps and bounds and
Ann and I were soon forced to produce a small monthly newssheet. Eventually
the demand outgrew this time-consuming form of communication and so we decided
to publish the teachings in a book form, which would be both self-financing and
self-distributing. Up to that time we had financed everything ourselves and
had made no charge for the newssheets that we printed. We chose the name
Ramala because it was the common part of the spiritual names that had been
given to us on our wedding day by Master Light and so the Ramala Society came
into being. It was to be, or so the Ramala Teachers said, A School on Earth
teaching the Truth of the Heavens. The Ramala teachings covered almost every
facet of human existence ranging from esoteric subjects like the spiritual
significance of the Earth and its place in the cosmos, down through the purpose
and the meaning of birth and death, reincarnation and the Law of Karma to right
living, correct eating and drinking, marriage and divorce and the raising of
children. Advice was given on almost every aspect of human existence and after
a lecture had been given Ann and those present at the channelling would indulge
in a lively question and answer session on a variety of subjects.
In 1975, following guidance from the Ramala teachers, we moved to
Glastonbury, Somerset, in England, the ancient Isle of Avalon, of King Arthur
fame. We bought the old manor house there, which we converted into a
guesthouse and operated as a spiritual retreat centre. It was to be our home
for the next twenty-two years. The Ramala Society became The Ramala Centre and
our real work began. The Ramala Centre was run by a small community of mostly
young people, who helped us with the day-to-day business of running the Centre
and caring for the many guests that streamed through the house. We used to
have around 2000 paying guests a year, staying with us on a Bed and Breakfast
basis, and twice that number of day visitors. They all came to enjoy the
spiritual energy of the Centre, to read and listen to the Ramala teachings, to
join in our regular meditations and channellings, to borrow books from our
library and to watch videos on a variety of spiritual topics. They also came
to visit the sacred sites of Glastonbury. Ann used to give guided tours around
the area, which included the Tor, Chalice Well and the Abbey, which,
incidentally, was the site of the first above ground Christian church in the
world. We built a beautiful pine sanctuary, the Sanctuary of the Holy Grail,
and we embarked on a programme of courses and workshops as well as travelling
all over the country and abroad to share the Ramala point of consciousness. We
were busy people. I had a full time job as an airline pilot. Ann was raising
a family of three active children. We both were running a bed and breakfast
business and, if that was not enough, we felt duty bound to talk to almost
every guest who came through our front door. We became a focus of pilgrimage
for many people. We never advertised. People came to us solely on personal
recommendation or through reading one of our books. We worked long gruelling
days and Ann, of necessity, carried most of the burden of running the house
because I was always departing on my airline duties. It was a good job that we
were young, healthy and energetic people. Nevertheless, although we gave a
great deal of ourselves, the people who came to stay with us gave just as much
of themselves in return. A wonderful exchange of energy took place.
Many of the leading lights of the New Age movement came and stayed
with us. Although we were too busy to go and hear them talk in London, at some
big conference or other, they somehow managed to come down to Glastonbury to
stay with us, if only because they wanted to experience the energy of this
ancient power centre which is held to be amongst the most powerful on the
Earth. We were exposed to almost every spiritual philosophy and esoteric
understanding that is practised in the world today. This gave us a wonderful
perspective on life, increased our powers of discrimination and exposed us to
the wonderful variety and colour of some of the many paths to the Godhead. At
the same time as all of this was going on we were continuing with the Ramala
teachings. Channellings were being held regularly each week, with hundreds of
thousands of words being transcribed and disseminated. Two more books were
produced - The Wisdom of Ramala in 1986 and The Vision of Ramala in 1991 - and
were reprinted over and over again. The Ramala teachings were translated and
published in five foreign languages. Ann and I were continually travelling,
giving talks and presentations, speaking at conferences both in England and
abroad. We ranged from Alaska, USA, to Amsterdam, Holland and from Sydney,
Australia to Antigua in the West Indies. As the work of the Ramala Centre
expanded, so it took up more and more of our time. We had to employ people to
run the Ramala office and shop, to answer the mail, to send out books and to
run the Centre when we were away.
I was always conscious of the fact that I was forever wearing two hats, that of
an airline captain flying a Boeing 747 all over the world and that of a mystic
and a spiritual teacher. My two worlds never met. It gradually became
apparent to me that I couldn't go on living this way. Ann had a vision one
night of me standing with one foot on a boat and the other on a dock with the
boat slowly drifting away and with me doing the splits trying to stay in both
places. I got the message but I wasn't prepared to give up either world!
Then, in 1984, the company that I worked for offered some of its senior pilots,
including me, early retirement with a golden handshake. The moment of truth
had come. I didn't want to give up the flying, which I enjoyed with a passion,
but on the other hand Ann quite rightly pointed out to me that if I didn't,
then, we would have to give up the Centre because she could no longer run it
single-handedly. The workload and the responsibility were becoming just too
great. I agonised over the decision. Retirement would mean a big reduction in
our income. Could we survive on this income and maintain our present lifestyle
and fund all our spiritual work as well? I asked the Ramala teachers for help,
but all that they would say was that it was for me to choose. They suggested
that I should ask myself why I was in incarnation on the Earth at this time and
how I could best serve Humanity. Then my mind went back to our wedding and to
the leap of faith that I had taken in agreeing to an arranged marriage, in
fact, to a spiritually arranged marriage. I did not need to remind myself how
blessed we had been, how everything had worked out so perfectly. I remembered
the saying 'Seek you first the things of the spirit and all else will be added
unto you'. I took the early retirement and decided to devote my life to
running the Ramala Centre and to disseminating the teachings that came through
me. I felt that when I died I would rather be remembered as a spiritual
teacher than as an airline pilot!
It took me several years to adapt to the change. Whereas, before retirement,
flying was the primary purpose of my life and the spiritual work was something
that I did in my spare time, now the spiritual work was my primary focus. I
had to refocus my vision on the new purpose of my life. After spending thirty
years of my life living out of a suitcase and having breakfast in a different
country practically every day of my working life, to remain fixed in one spot
did not sit easily with me. My poor wife did not have a happy time of it.
Although I had made the decision to leave flying, and although in my heart I
felt that it was the right thing to do, I still felt cheated out of the prime
of my flying career. I missed the lifestyle, I missed my pilot friends and I
missed the challenge of flying. However, as the workload of running the Ramala
Centre and honouring all of our many speaking engagements gradually increased,
so I had less and less time for introspection and for feeling sorry for myself.
I slowly began to appreciate not being tied to a demanding flying roster and I
enjoyed having both the time and the space to do what I wanted to do, when I
wanted to do it. I could offer a date to give a talk and know that I would be
able to keep it. I could choose to go and visit anywhere in the world without
having to worry about getting time off work or taking leave. There were many
advantages to being retired, only in my case, of course, I hadn't retired, I
had simply changed my job! Although we had heard about Sai Baba at this stage
of our lives we were not in the least attracted to him. Ann, in particular,
was drawing close to the Brahma Kumaris, the practitioners of Raja Yoga. We
visited their headquarters in Mount Abu in Rajasthan in India and were very
impressed by their leaders, who were all women, and by the purity of their
lifestyle. They maintain that God is an individual soul being and is quite
separate from Humanity. They believe that God never incarnates on the Earth
and speaks to Humanity through prophets and seers. At the time this philosophy
appealed strongly to both of us.
As the years passed by I gradually began to grow more and more uncomfortable
with the whole process of channelling. Whilst I believed in and trusted the
whole channelling process I recognised that the source of the teachings, albeit
more evolved than I, was still not God. The Master who gave the talks was
still an intermediary, offering only his version of Truth, and the longer I
relied on it, the longer it would take for me to establish my own direct link
with the Godhead within me. Thus it was that in 1989 the channelling process
stopped, almost twenty years after it had started. For me it was like being
born again. I was able to look at life from a fresh viewpoint, to try to
contact the Godhead within me and to develop a new source of guidance. By this
time I had been out to see Sai Baba twice and had been introduced to the
spiritual understanding that great beings known as Avatars incarnate on the
Earth from time to time. At his ashram devotees told me that Sai Baba was the
Father who had sent the Master Jesus down to Earth and that he himself had now
incarnated because the affairs of Man were in such a perilous state. Whilst I
found these facts hard to believe, because of all my esoteric conditioning, I
nevertheless determined that I would investigate Sai Baba fully, to see if he
was indeed a Godman, if he behaved like God. Of course I didn't know what or
who God was; to me He had always been a formless and a nameless being, but I
expected that at the very least Sai Baba should exhibit perfect human qualities
and should lead a perfect human life. The thought also occurred to me that if
Sai Baba was indeed an Avatar, then, there was no need to read any more books
on spiritual teachings other than his, to listen to any other gurus or teachers
other than him, to go searching anywhere else for answers because the Source
was here. We could get everything straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
So I began to investigate Sai Baba in thought, word and deed. The more I read
his teachings the more I found not only that, for the most part, they blended
perfectly into the Ramala teachings but also that they were in complete accord
with my own understandings of life. On successive visits to the ashram I found
his public lifestyle to be beyond reproach. He lived and demonstrated a life
of total service to all who came to him. I talked to devotees both in the
ashram and back in England and listened to the stories of their own experiences
with Sai Baba. I read about his miracles, his healings, his manifestations and
his divine qualities of omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. Gradually
my feelings of hostility and suspicion turned to feelings of openness and
trust. When I saw how lovingly and how wisely he handled the other members of
my family in successive interviews I sensed that I was truly in the presence of
a Godman. Whether he was an Avatar or not, I did not know, I still do not
know, if only because I do not know who or what an Avatar is. Nevertheless, I
felt that I had met a realised being, and that he exemplified how we should all
lead our lives. It was not until our fifth visit to Sai Baba, in 1993, that we
were privileged to be granted our first interview with him and our relationship
with him moved on to a more intimate level. Since that time Ann and I have
been graced with many more interviews and we have talked to devotees who have
been close to him for many years, yet still we are only just beginning to get a
sense of who he is and of what is his mission.
The talks in this book reflect my inner journey. They are based on my own
experiences and observations. What is true for me may not be true for you. I
offer them to you in the earnest hope that they will help you along your own
journey to God realisation, to the realisation of the God in you. Sai Baba has
taught me that there is only one God and that that God dwells within the heart
of every human being. I commend him to you as a great spiritual teacher. The
test of any teacher can surely only be, "How has he or she transformed me? Has
he or she helped me to become a better person, a happier, a peaceful and a more
compassionate human being?" To all these questions I can answer a resounding
"Yes". Sai Baba has changed my life in so many ways and in such a short time.
The impact of my relationship with him will be with me not just for the rest of
this life but forever.
Once you have been touched by divinity you will never be the same again. Once
you have experienced real love, unconditional love, divine love, you can
recognise and reject the false love born out of attachment and desire. The
only way to discover the reality of Sai Baba and the relevance of his teachings
for you is to take one step toward him. That is why he has come on the Earth
at this time. Let us not miss this great opportunity, which, according to Sai
Baba, will never happen again. Go, see and experience him. What have you to
lose by taking that first step? Nothing but your ego! What will you gain?
Perhaps an understanding of who you really are! I commend Sri Sathya Sai Baba
to you in the certain knowledge that if you take one step towards him he will
take a hundred steps towards you.
__._,_.___
