Desert Wisdom: Ask Spirit; Feel the Emotions; Use the Intellect; Then Act.

Copyright © 2012 Vasantha Lakshmi Sai

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Balboa Press rev. date: 08/07/2012

Contents

Preface

Sai Baba Enters

School Starts—A Course in Miracles

Prashanthi Niyalam—Baba’s Ashram

A Bit About Me

Back to Prashanthi

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Return to Prashanthi

Dreams

My Initiation and The Rainbow Serpent

Chakras and Energy Vortexes

The Lord Returns

Bringing Lucifer off the shelf

Trance States

Know Thyself Know God

Baba teaches me through worms

My journey continues in Bali

—The Way of Mastery

Love and Silence

South Africa, My Motherland,

and Ubuntu

The Grace of God and synchronicity

The Desert Wisdom Principle

Laws of the Universe

Greek Philosophers

Realisation of Self

The Vedanta

Our thoughts

Acquisition to Application

Prayer for Our Mother

Afterword

Epilogue

Bibliography

One God Many Forms

There is only one nation,

The nation of humanity

There is only one religion,

The religion of love

There is only one language,

The language of the heart

There is only one God

And He is Omnipresent (Sai Baba)

Preface

This is an autobiographical account of my spiritual odyssey with Sai Baba, the universal teacher. My relationship with Baba is purely spiritual. I have not met Sai Baba physically, though I was in His presence as one of the many thousands of devotees that attended His birthday celebrations in November 2008.

Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has made His advent into this world with a view to raising humanity as a whole to a higher consciousness based on the living faith that all human beings are inherently divine. He seeks not followers, nor for people to change their religious faiths but He does ask that we open to the truth of who we really are.

I am God, Sri Sathya Sai Baba says in answer to those who question Him about His identity and His miracles. You are God as well but the only difference between you and me is that I am aware of My Divinity but you are not.

My personal experience with Baba has been through inner messages, dreams, artwork, songs and books. It felt as if Baba said: Okay, enough floundering in the dark, it is time for some real learning! And then the games began!!!

At times the learning was so varied that I made no sense of what I was being guided to and through. The books ranged from A Course in Miracles, Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique, The Vedanta, the Upanishads, The Way of Mastery Course, The Gita, to books on positive thoughts, Lucifer, Sai Teachings, Tantra, Kundalini, biographies of Ghandi and Nelson Mandela, Chakras and many others. This occurred from 2008 to midway 2010. Finally I was given the message to ‘connect the dots.’ Desert Wisdom is my attempt to connect those dots.

Knowledge can only become personal wisdom when it is experimented with, tested, applied and practised. This I continue to do in my daily life.

Life is not a private affair. A story and its lessons are only made useful when shared. I have chosen to honour my teacher, My Beloved, Sai Baba, by sharing His wisdom; my learning.

Baba wrote this note to Charles Penn, a Sai devotee:

"After long searches here and there, in temples and in churches, in earth and in heavens, at last you come back. Completing the circle from where you started, to your own soul and find that He for whom you have been weeping and praying in churches and temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of all mysteries shrouded in the clouds in nearest of the near, is your own self, the reality of your life, body and soul. That is your own nature. Assert it, manifest it. It is truth and truth alone, that is one’s real friend, relative. Abide by truth; tread the path of righteousness and not a hair of your body will ever be injured. Meditation is nothing else but rising above desires. Renunciation is the power of battling against evil forces and holding the mind in check." With love and blessings Sri Sathya Sai Baba

I think we are like glasses of lemonade that argue that they are not water but lemon and sugar! Sai Baba says that we are 80% divine and 20% human. For transformation to occur we need to shift our focus from the 20% to the 80%.

Sai Baba Enters

S ai Baba has come to sit in for your reading, said Olgaa with a surprised smile. This is the first time this has happened in one of my sessions. Oh, now He wants me to offer you a glass of water.

My eyes flew open and I gasped audibly, for at that exact moment I was overcome by a thirst so great that it felt like I had been walking for miles across an arid desert and had just fallen onto my knees exhausted and dehydrated and very close to death.

My husband and I had gone to Olgaa Fienco for an angel channelling session. Richard, a programmer, was between job contracts and was seeking a new position. He called a former work colleague to confirm his role as a referee and during their brief telephone conversation, Olgaa’s name came up and by the end of that short exchange he had booked an appointment for us to see her. Olgaa, the partner of Richard’s work colleague, channelled angels and did intuitive readings. I had not met Olgaa or her partner before. I went along with my husband on a trickle of curiosity. For Richard to have booked a session of this type was out of character.

A few days later, I took a deep breath and stepped through Olgaa’s front door. After the initial introductions, appropriate small talk and the offering of refreshments which we politely declined, Olgaa ushered us into her lounge where she did her channelling. The first thing that met my eyes was a photograph of Sai Baba on her mantelpiece. Next to Baba were images of Jesus and other angels.

I knew then somewhere deep within that I was meant to be there. I had prayed to Sai Baba for years and my most fervent prayer to Him was to help me improve the communication between my husband and me. I prayed to be a good mother to my two sons and a caring daughter to my mother. But somehow it felt that the more I prayed, the greater were the challenges. Many bad tempered conversations with Him followed. Frankly, I felt that as God and the universal teacher He was failing hopelessly. To say that the relationship between my partner and me was strained would be an euphemism. Furthermore, most of the conversations with my mother, who lived with me, ended up in fits of fury and rants and rages. I felt like a ship lost at sea with its hull being bashed against a powerful iceberg that would not budge.

After I had the drink of water that Olgaa brought to me, we settled into the session once again. My mind was reeling, I was in awe and my scepticism of the authenticity of angel channellers was receding. This time Olgaa was a channel for Sai Baba and Baba had one message for me.

It was: Read those books.

What books are these? I asked.

Baba then showed Olgaa three books and told her that I had them already. He even showed her where they were in my house! Olgaa described them to me and this was how I was led to, A Course in Miracles, a book on Positive Thoughts and a book on Sai Teachings.

I asked Baba for some guidance for my husband and me and according to Olgaa, He held a yellow birthday cake in His hand, smiled mischievously and then left.

At the end of the session, Olgaa gave me a recording of all that she channelled.

The hunger of the mind can be appeased by

the acquisition of knowledge.

Sai Baba

School Starts—A Course in Miracles

I began my nightly reading of passages from A Course in Miracles. Now, anyone who has read and studied this book would understand that this was no bedtime reading. I had many impolite conversations with Baba as to why He, an Indian Guru, would see fit to direct me, a Hindu girl to a Christian book, most of which seemed to be too difficult for me to understand anyway.

Listening to the Holy Spirit, the voice of God within is the central teaching in A Course in Miracles. Helen Schucman the scribe of the course says, Its only purpose is to provide a way in which some people will be able to find their own Internal Teacher.

I, however, missed this entire message in my initial reading. The pages were very thin, the writing was very small and the concepts were very difficult for me to assimilate.

My lifestyle was similar to that of many working mothers. It revolved around the children, house and family. Work fitted in there somewhere amidst preparing school lunches, dropping kids at school, dashing off to work, returning home to cook dinner, doing the laundry and seeing to school notices. When I eventually fell exhausted into my bed late at night, I would drag out my copy of ACIM and read a few pages at a time.

Most of the time, I felt so sad and lonely. My marriage had reached a point where I had no idea what to do anymore. I had gone for counselling alone. I tried correcting patterns in my behaviour that I identified as being self-defeating. I prayed and cried and prayed some more. All the while I could hear my mother’s words ringing in my ears: A Hindu bride must be the rock in her marriage . . .

I read and re-read books on love languages and relationship rescues. I tried practising the suggested techniques. Nothing worked. I was in a relationship that had gone awry. A relationship laced with pain, confusion and emptiness. I had lost touch with my own personal power, my own dignity, my standards and my self-esteem. I had lost touch with my core consciousness. I could no longer find nor hear this God-given core in me. I had rationalised away many hopes and dreams and was trying to settle for so many things I did not want.

November 10, 2008, about six months into my study of ACIM, was my twenty-fourth wedding anniversary. It is a strange phenomenon that on significant days like Christmas, Diwali, birthdays and anniversaries it is very difficult to be in denial. The truth of your situation threatens to surface and drown you with despair. I, however, had consciously decided that I would get through this day by not acknowledging it. My husband had not been talking to me for a few months and I, who had experienced this silent treatment repeatedly for many years reasoned that this would pass and all I had to do was breathe deeply and be the rock. For many years I would silently sing the words of the song Smile to help me through these tough patches. ‘Smile when your heart is breaking, Smile when your world is shaking, Smile whenever you’re feeling blue . . .’

However, my best laid plans were not to be that year. My sister, who I had spoken to earlier that day and with whom I shared my intentions of allowing this day to go quietly by, decided to surprise me with an anniversary cake. To say that I was furious would hardly begin to describe the explosive