ASCENT
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SPIRITUAL ANTHOLOGY
Dedicated to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Who continues to be my Guiding Light
“You are a child of God, and it is your God-given role to help others to remember that they are also children of God”
[Divine decree received 2010]
‘Energy cannot be created or destroyed;
It can only be changed from one form to another.
Everything is energy and that is all there is to it.
Match the frequency of the reality you want,
And you cannot help but get that reality.
It can be no other way.
This is not philosophy;
This is physics’
[Albert Einstein]
Why these Writings?
On completion of the Labyrinth here at Jacaranda Haven in 2010, I walked it on my own for the first time and then stood – silent and empty- in the centre. A loud voice spoke telepathically to me:
“You are a child of God, and it is your God-given role to help others to remember that they are also children of God”
Sai Baba had gifted me a pen and vibhuti (sacred ash) whilst leaving Puttaparthi in 1999, renowned psychic Joan Moylan had told me in 1998 to write, and psychic Jennifer Starlight conveyed to me from Spirit in early 2022 that I was meant to write…but what ?
And then I realised that all I could write about to assist others on their paths was my own experiences, teachings and learnings in order to “…help others to remember that they are also children of God”. Hence these autobiographical writings…
Modules
This is but one ‘module’ in this collection of autobiographical writings that I choose to call ‘modules’. Each one stands alone, but some cross-reference others. A completed book is a static thing once finished: however, these modules are flexible in that I can add to them at any time should new experiences/information comes to hand, and the reader can pick & choose which particular modules attract them. The collection of modules thereby constitutes an’ anthology’.
The intent of writing these is to share experiences and teachings that I have been blessed with along the way of a human incarnation – the ascent of consciousness – such that the reader may also benefit to illumine their own path/ascent to the ultimate inevitable goal for all humans: that of ‘self-realisation’.
Belief vs Truth
As a precursor to reading any of these Modules, there is a need to clarify the difference between ‘Belief’ and ‘Truth’: one may ‘believe’ eg it is raining outside by the sound on the roof, but when you actually see the rain falling/walk out and get wet, you actually then ‘know’ it is so – ie it is ‘true’, and so ‘belief’ about that instantly ceases.
Many go through life accumulating fixed ‘beliefs’ about people/things, and, as Krishnamurti taught:”… the moment you arrive at a conclusion/form an opinion/a belief, you block the possibility of further enquiry and discovery”.
So, a hot air balloon called ‘Ascent’ awaits: I invite you to climb into its basket with me, throw overboard the ballast of all those accumulated ‘beliefs/opinions’ you have acquired to feel safe, and therefore allow this balloon to rise free and drift to destinations unknown.
Because, otherwise, some of what you read herein may sorely challenge your accumulated beliefs…
Everything recounted within the Anthology is absolutely true, unless I have qualified otherwise.
John Stephen Butterworth
SAI BABA
My all time favourite photo of Sathya Sai Baba
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba first called me into his mission in early 1994 in a uniquely Sai Baba fashion.
I was attending a ‘channelling’ evening at a house in the southern suburbs of Sydney that was packed to capacity. Afterwards, there were refreshments served in the small kitchen and as I took my leave slowly squeezing between socialising attendees, I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of a visually stunning ring on the upheld hand of a lady. As I gazed at it, absolutely riveted to the spot, a voice said over my shoulder that”… Sai Baba had apparently manifested it from beyond the Great Central Sun”. The wearer saw my interest and sweetly said:
“You can touch it if you wish”, which I wonderingly did…
I thanked her and went out into the hall, dropped to my knees and reached under the hall table to recover my shoes, jacket and shoulder bag – all buried under others’ shoes etc.
I then drove home some half hour or so to Northbridge where I was living upstairs above my mother’s house and went to bed.
The next morning, as I got ready for work, I emptied my wallet, keys etc from the bag… and found a business card there that I had never seen before that said:
‘VALERIE BARROW’, a phone number and a picture of an eagle.
I must have stood there utterly amazed as I had no idea how the card had got there. So I lifted the phone handset and rang the number:
“Good morning! Valerie speaking…” I awkwardly explained that I’d found her card in my bag. She momentarily paused, then said:
“Are you the man who touched my ring in the kitchen last night?” I replied that I had done so… and then she ‘explained’ with a light chuckle:
“Sai Baba obviously wants you to be more aware of Him, as He would have manifested my card into your bag”.
And so, my journey with Swami (Sai Baba) began – triggered by His leela of manifesting her card to me, and by linking me to Valerie who had been a devotee for decades… and who thereafter became a close friend of myself and Rosemary.
Valerie then ‘took me under her wing’ as my mentor, as I commenced my journey on Sai’s mission, and Rosemary and I became lifelong friends of she and her beloved husband John.
Valerie continued to guide me on that journey, another extraordinary phenomenon occurred. It was early February 1994, as I was driving through a shopping village one day, I saw some advertising in a shop window about Valentine’s Day, plus heard an advert on the car radio about its imminence and instantly heard telepathically something about a mysterious surprise… and then promptly forgot all about it.
Hearing that rain was forecast for the coming Saturday, I commented to my mother that it looked like I wouldn’t be able to do my weekly washing as I usually did on Saturdays.
However, Saturday morning dawned fine so I started to strip my bedding.
I pulled off the top sheet from my double bed, turned around …and froze.
There at the foot of the bed on the bottom sheet (on the side that I didn’t sleep on: I was a single man at the time just starting a relationship with Rosemary, who I‘m still with 30 years later) was a tiny pink love heart – about the size of the tip of a finger!!
And then it hit me: today was Valentine’s Day and I’d been told telepathically weeks before about a “…mysterious surprise”. I then realised it was another leela from Sai Baba sending His love to me… and now as I write about it some 30 years later, I sense that He was also blessing my relationship with Rosemary! Thank you Swami!
Concerned that this tiny gift might easily get lost, I chose to glue it to the upturned palm of Swami in the well-known photo ‘Why Fear when I am Here’ which Rosemary has on her bedside table to this day.
I thereafter started to learn more and more about Sai Baba via books and others’ personal experiences (as the Internet was not highly developed at that stage). I swiftly learned that He is an Avatar (ie divinity descended into human form) who has come at this time to aid humanity with ascent in consciousness with the dawning of the Sathya Yuga on 27.7.2014 (following the end of the Kali Yuga in 2017). He teaches universal love emphasising the 5 human values of Peace, Love, Truth, Non-violence and Right Action, and exhorts humans to live by what He calls the 5 Watch principles: watching our Words, Actions, Thoughts, Conduct and Heart. I discovered that He had initiated humanitarian programs including water supply to villages and nutrition.A Super Speciality Hospital was being/had been built at Puttaparthi which provided free treatment to all comers. A university and colleges had been built which educated from a spiritual standpoint whilst teaching necessary skills and so forth. He encourages Hindus to be better Hindus, Christians to be better Christians, Muslims to be better Muslims – that is, He is not creating a new religion but rather encouraging all humanity to come together as the one family: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. I was, and continue to be, deeply impressed by all that was being, and continues to be, revealed to me about His mission.
On one occasion, as part of her mentoring me, Valerie invited me to join her visiting a friend Sue Lytton-Hitchins who lived on a property nearby in the NSW Southern highlands for a gathering of Sai Baba devotees.
One man, Sundar Shiva (who ‘coincidentally’ was to come back into our lives shortly after) recounted his first encounter with Swami:
He said that as a young man he was living a free-wheeling life womanising and partying with friends.
One day, he said that he found himself at one such friend’s house where Sai Baba was visiting. Swami took his friend into a separate room and Sundar sat in the corner quietly chuckling to himself as Swami severely reprimanded the friend for his womanising lifestyle. Baba then dismissed the friend and when Sundar went to leave with him, Baba stood in front of him and shut the door.
“Drop your trousers!” He commanded Sundar, who undoubtedly froze on the spot.
Once again, the command was given, and Sundar wonderingly obeyed.
Sundar recounted that Swami then stood to one side of him, and very carefully placed the forefinger of one hand on his perineum and that of the other, on the base of his spine.
He said that instantly a bolt of blazing energy shot up his spine and exploded in his head revealing momentarily all the glory of Brahmic splendour/Heaven.
Swami then stood back and told him to pull his trousers back up. Swami then said something along the lines of:
“That is what that (sexual) energy is ultimately for, so stop wasting it in your current lifestyle but rather forthwith lead a sacred devotional life”.
He commanded Sundar to also concentrate on his studies and be discerning to meet his future wife. After the wedding, Sundar and bride were to go to Puttaparthi (location of His main ashram ‘Prasthanti Nilyam’) so that Swami can then bless them.
Subsequently, after some years, Sundar was married and the couple travelled unannounced to Puttaparthi, where they found 2 white-coated boys waiting at the entry to greet them (as Swami simply knew full well that they were coming). They were taken to where they could rest, bathe, eat and were then taken to Swami who was waiting to greet them and bless their union.
[Sundar thereafter was very active in the Sai community in the Sydney area at least and arrived unannounced one evening to start leading our newly-formed bhajan devotional group in the late 1990’s as a natural part of his devotional service.]
Swami Calls Me to India
In 1999, Swami appeared in my sleep one night in a full colour ‘lucid’ dream state. There was a crowd of white-clad people who had parted to allow Him to start mounting a wide flight of stairs. He stopped on the first step, turned around and pointed directly at me, commanding:
“Call Me in Puttaparthi!”
On waking, I told Rosemary and we immediately started to plan a trip to India so that I could obey this command.
In June, we flew to Singapore to meet up with another couple, then on to Bangalore and spent the first 2 weeks or so in daily attendance at His ashram at Brindavan in the village of Kadugodi near Bangalore/sometimes called‘ Whitefield‘.
Each morning, we would line up for the sevadals (service volunteers) to direct us where to sit in orderly rows – men on one side and women on the other (see photo below). My male friend and I were seated on the edge of a row one morning when Swami walked right in front of us: that brief sight of His feet before me remains etched in my memory to this day. As He passed, a man diagonally opposite called excitedly to me:
“Go, go (ie for an interview with Swami)” He told you to go!!”
Neither I nor my friend were aware that had happened but decided to take the man at his word as it is a great privilege to have an interview.
So we rose and were directed by the sevadals to stand apart off to one side. As Swami left the gathering, He walked slowly past us at some distance – looking at us… and exited without any indication to follow. Rosemary and her friend Anne had also come out when they saw us earlier (as interviews were mostly conducted for groups and we were a group of 4 from Australia all wearing bright yellow scarfs for distinctive identification) and started to follow Swami who then turned and held up His hand to stop them.
What was it all about? I have no idea to this day whether it was Swami testing me and/or was it a Swami leela that this man opposite was convinced that Swami had called me/us for an interview…
One day, the couple we were with said they wanted to do a long day trip to Mysore, as he was interested in buying and shipping some furniture. We agreed to join them, hired a taxi and off we went. Some distance from Mysore, our driver pulled up just before a bridge crossing of a river and we got out. He explained that the building before us was an orphanage and that Swami had put in charge of it a man who had repeatedly stolen shoes from outside the mandirs during darshan.
We made donations of pencils etc for the children who were not there at that moment, and went into a hall-like long room where we were invited by the caretaker to sit down at front before large photos of Sai Baba from which astonishingly had cascaded vast amounts of vibhuti (sacred ash). Whilst Rosemary and I were familiar with this phenomenon, what came next was equally amazing.
The 4 of us were sitting on the floor in an arc around these photos and other sacred ornaments. The ‘caretaker’ picked up what looked like a silver metal milk urn and walked behind us placing into our outstretched hands small metal & enamel badges (for want of a better word) depicting either Sai Baba or Shirdi Sai Baba (Sai Baba’s former incarnation) which he lifted out of the urn which seemed to be full of honey…
As we looked at the item in our hands, each one oozed the same honey-like substance.
As it created a small pool in each hand, he scooped it up in a silver spoon and placed it on our by-then outstretched tongues…it tasted divinely sweet, and we blissed out:
“ This is amrit (nectar of the Gods)” he explained quietly.
It was indeed a divine blessing that we all felt profoundly privileged to have …
As we then waked down to the river bank beneath the overhead bridge, we found a small garden fountain also emitting amrit into its surrounding bowl…
Suddenly, with only days to spare on our airline bookings, we heard that He was going to Puttaparthi, and when we went out into the normally bustling crowded village that morning, it was quite extraordinary as it was virtually deserted: the word had gone around like wildfire that Swami was off to Puttaparthi and all vendors etc were going to follow Him there.
We hired a taxi to take us. We discovered on the way that ‘coincidentally’ we were following just a short time behind His car, then when He stopped to bless a new temple, we went on ahead carefully avoiding driving over beautiful mandalas of brilliantly coloured flowers that villagers had created on the roadway to greet their Lord. As we entered Puttaparthi, His devoted elephant, Sai Gita, was waiting by the roadside to greet Him- sweeping the road from side to side with a large palm frond. As Swami’s car drove down the main street in Puttaparthi, devotees smashed coconuts on the road before that car.
At darshan the next morning, Swami walked slowly amongst the thousands of seated devotees for a seeming eternity with me constantly praying and silently beseeching that ”… I am here: I have come as You commanded”. Even when He came within eye contact distance, He appeared to totally ignore my gaze and silent prayers and then slowly exited the mandir.
Surrender
Devastated at seemingly no response from Swami, I surrendered, and that was what was needed to happen at that juncture: we checked out of our hotel and got back into our taxi for the trip back to Bangalore as we had plane flights booked through to Sydney for I had to return to work.
Heading slowly up the main street, weaving amongst the multitude of many thousands of devotees, our taxi suddenly stopped and 2 white-coated men jumped in the front seat next to our driver Narayana. I started to protest when he turned to us in the back seat and said that these were Swami’s bodyguards who had traveled with Him yesterday (as a VIP) and now needed to get back to Bangalore. I instantly ceased my protest and welcomed them who I noticed were smiling broadly as though they knew something else was afoot.
Off we went again, when suddenly the one in the middle half-turned and handed both Rosemary and I a packet of vibhuti each and for me, a gold and blue coloured ballpoint pen – saying that they had just left Swami who had asked them to pass these gifts from Him to us.
Instantly, Swami spoke telepathically to me saying: “The vibhuti will help your eyes”. To explain: I have had pigmentary glaucoma being managed by optometrists and specialists for decades, and as I looked out the car window with tears of gratitude pouring down my face, I felt His immense love. Rosemary also was probably crying in gratitude because she had been praying to Swami for vibhuti.
And I knew deep down in retrospect, what transpired was all because of my SURRENDERING…
As for the leela of the gifted gold and blue coloured pen, I was wearing right then in the taxi a gold and blue coloured shirt (as this had been a favourite colour combination for me for many years – probably from Ancient Egyptian lives): Swami has such fun doing things in a playful way but always with a message: “What do you use a pen for? “ “ You write with it” …and I am embarrassed to admit, it has taken me 23 years to wake up to what He was telling me to do with the gift of that pen in June 1999.
WRITE !!! Which I am currently doing – constantly requesting His ongoing guidance – with this Anthology …after all these years!!
Swami dies… or does He?
On 24 April 2011, we received a phone call from a friend that Swami had died.
We were stunned, as many were, as Swami had reportedly said that He would live until 96 years old. Having been born in 1926, He was hence 85 years old. As the news spread around the world, reportedly tens and possibly 100’s of thousands of devotees reportedly descended on Puttaparthi to collectively mourn His passing…
But had He actually ‘died’? At that time, virtually everyone assumed that He had…
?Mysterious?
To more fully explain, I now need to take you back to 1987…
1987 and beyond
In 1987, I was a single man aged 42 running my own landscape architectural practice and also playing the bass on music jobs around Sydney. After a Saturday/Friday night job, often midnight or so, I would be hungry and would seek out a café where I could park my car in view whilst I had a snack and hot chocolate. One such café was in Cremorne (Sydney) where at that late hour, I could usually get a parking spot right outside. I became a regular there and came to be on nodding acquaintance with the lady proprietor and her daughter.
The lady proprietor and I developed a closer friendship that blossomed into a full relationship. Her name was Beverley and we were in this relationship for some time before she stepped back saying that it wasn’t right for her at that time – having just come out of a horrendous marriage breakup. Unfortunately, I couldn’t offer her anything material, as I was living and working out of my mother’s house – and so, to my regret, we went our separate ways… in 1987.
The years then rolled by with Swami calling me into His mission in early 1994, the founding of The Southern Cross Academy of Light in 1996, my starting a 20 years job in project management at North Sydney Council in 1997, Rosemary & I marrying in 1998, my mother passing in 2003, Rosemary and I buying the land here at Jacaranda Haven in 2005, building the house late 2007/08, then finally moving here fulltime in 2017…
Rosemary and I had absolutely no idea what might have happened with the Sai Baba organisation activities after Swami’s passing in 2011. Extraordinarily, no-one had said anything via the Academy… but Swami wasn’t having this!
And the way He went about it all was, as always, delightfully Swami…
So what started happening for me was as following: after I retired in 2017, every Friday, Rosemary and I would drive across to Forster on the coast east of us at Dyers Crossing for supermarket shopping etc. To do so, one has to drive along a Failford Road, which just happens to have a side road called ‘Beverley’s Road’. Each time, we passed the signboard saying ‘Beverley’s Road’, I firstly felt a great familiarity with the name, then started to understand that there was only ever one ’Beverley’ that I had ever known and felt I was being pressured to re-connect with her (not realising that Swami was orchestrating all this!). But how would Rosemary as my wife feel about that ? Re-connecting with a past lady friend, and me a married man? I certainly didn’t feel there was any romantic impulse to all this …I was in confusion what to do when a local girlfriend of ours announced she was going to Perth in Western Australia – having just come out of a very messy separation. She needed good quality spiritual company and then I remembered that Beverley was (probably) currently in that region (as B. had been in Sydney briefly a few years before on tour with a lady friend promoting Braco gazing at a meeting of The Southern Cross Academy of Light that Rosemary and I had been also attending).
I tentatively contacted Beverley – asking if our friend could connect with her and any meditation groups, as she needed good company and support after the emotional turmoil she had been experiencing – and B. graciously agreed. Contact details were exchanged …and possibly I thought that to be the end of that…but Swami had a bigger plan in hand.
Because He wanted us to know what had actually happened after He ‘died’…
Somehow or other, B. started to reveal what had happened from then onwards which was an extraordinary story that up-to-then Rosemary and I remarkably knew nothing about.
I say ‘remarkable’ because ,despite the constant flow of information that always had come through the Academy – there had been, silence on this topic.
Madhusudan Naidu
In brief, it turned out later that Swami had been ‘training’ an outstanding young man, Madhusudan Naidu (M), for many years prior to His ‘death’ on 24 April 2011 to, as it were, take over the reins thereafter. Not that M. knew that was what Swami was doing…He wrote an extraordinary autobiographical account of this in a book called ‘The Story Divine’ Part 1 : ‘Living with God’ (published by Sri Sathya Sai Premamrutha Prakashna) which must rank as one of the most exceptional ever about a spiritual journey and one which I cannot recommend highly enough.
He was an outstanding student, artist and totally committed devotee to Sai Baba.
Sai Baba developed M’s spiritual awareness and psychic senses to a very high level including opening his ajna chakra (third eye). When, M. heard that Swami had ‘died’, and saw that the body was going to lie in state, for the thousands of mourning devotees, he was devastated along with even vaster numbers of devotees world-wide.
I now quote from p.199:
‘As I was crying to myself:” I have been deceived. I have been duped. Swami said He would come back. He didn’t come back. He just fooled me.”
I suddenly felt a tap on the head . It was so strong I was jolted out of my crying… I looked up, to my utter shock, Swami was standing there dressed in a yellow silk robe, with a crown of thick raven black curly hair, eyes sparkling like the sunshine on the dew drops, lips pink and tender like the soft moist rose petals and skin glowing with a strange light almost like an aura.
He looked at me compassionately and said:”…Why are you crying?”
I cried: “Swami, see there. They are taking Your body. They are going to put it in the pit in no time, and You will never come back!”
He said:” Where should I come back from? I have never gone anywhere. I am right here with you. Why are you crying? That is not Me, it’s only a …drama”. then goes on to describe how the following day, Swami calls him to where the body is placed in the mandir and tells M. not to be angry/upset – promising,
“ I promise you today that till your last breath, I will be with you. Whenever you remember Me, I will come and speak to you.”
His words soaked in love, flooded my dried eyes. ”I love you Swami, I love you very much” is all I could utter.
Swami then goes on to explain that He re-entered His body on 26 April and travelled around the world appearing to devotees and reassuring them that He would continue to be with them. He then gave up the 5 Life Forces which culminated in the release of a tremendous amount of energy which “…He wanted us to absorb so that we get the necessary strength to do His work in the future”.(p203). The physical body was then laid to rest in the mandir on 27 April 2011.
Subsequently, as detailed in the book, Swami progressively refined M’s consciousness to finer and finer levels with various spiritual practices and teachings including a spiritual odyssey to Mount Kailash in the Himalayas with companions: during this journey, Swami would etherically come to them as a group early each evening(ie in His light body) for teaching and Q & A. He also revealed to Madhusudan on this trip that He was Lord of the Universe.
Then came the time for M. to appear publicly conveying Swami’s teachings to those present: on DVD’s kindly gifted to us by Beverley of a divine tour of Australia in early 2019,there would be a large ornate chair on centre stage – seemingly empty, which Swami would ethereally occupy, and M. would stand to one side conveying verbally to those present what Swami was telling him clairaudiently .Swami had also by this stage obviously transmitted certain divine powers to M. as eg Madhusudan can be clearly seen on DVD manifesting a ring for a lady, and again, in front of all present, for a musician/devotional singer at another gathering.
Then I am told that on the occasion of Guru Purnima in July 2019 at Muddenahalli India, Sai Baba totally merged with M (yet I have not managed so far to view this auspicious event). He came to be named ‘Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai’: it was quite evident that Swami had merged His energy with Him. At subsequent Mahashivararti celebrations, He would manifest a golden lingam from His mouth ( ie a solid gold egg form) when the focussed chanting and praying energies of thousands present reached their peak (and likewise by devotees around the world who stayed up all night doing so). Just as Sai Baba had done so for so many years.
He has then gone on to spearhead an international organisation re-named (in 2024) ‘The Sri Madhusudan Sai Global Humanitarian Mission’ which focusses on totally free nutrition, healthcare and education in at least 33 countries with hospitals, colleges and a university under the banner : ’Vasudhaivá Kutumbakam’ ie One World, One Family and continuing to teach all that Sai Baba had including living by the 5 human values and 5 Watch principles. He travels seemingly continually speaking at conferences and meeting with world leaders, and giving satsangs. In May 2023, I travelled to the Heart of Love Centre near Murwillumbah NSW to attend one such event at which First Nations peoples performed ceremony before Him: it was a wonderful coming together. More information about Him and the organisation can be readily found on the Internet.
So, Rosemary and I were totally unaware of all this happening before Beverley so kindly brought us up to date…which brings me back to Beverley.
Beverley/Viveka
Part of the material that B. sent us was an autobiographical book in draft form(still unpublished?) called : ‘Into the Looking Glass ‘ which described her life from the beginning up to ‘mid-life’ and the extraordinary events that had occurred to her on her spiritual path to that point. She had travelled extensively including at least 15 trips to Sai Baba in India. She had undergone serious health challenges including a brain tumour and cancer, and had also experienced miracles. She had moved for some years to live in Barraba in NW NSW where there was an active Sai Baba group. Whilst there, she was walking along the banks of a river one day with others when, around a bend, the bank was covered in white rose petals! And another time, she had a beautiful ring manifested for her when with a very spiritual boy in Melbourne. When on a trip into northern India, a wise man living in the jungle meditated overnight and told her the next day that her real name was ‘Viveka’(meaning ‘discernment‘ or ‘discrimination): she subsequently gave Sai Baba a letter in darshan one day asking if this was indeed so. He accepted her letter – which was usually taken as confirmation of its truth. (More about this shortly).
Whilst at Barraba, she also had a session one day with a medium in the nearby town of Tamworth which influenced the course of her life thereafter. The medium described a ceremony with a mat with a geometric arrangement of crystals based on the 6 pointed Star of David to be laid out and a specific sacred ceremony to be then carried out to connect with and assist earth energies: V. thereafter travelled the world doing this ceremony at specified power points including Stonehenge, Tintagel, and Macchu Picchu, and I assume still does it daily.
An interesting ‘çoincidence’ is that the medium was the same lady (when she was in Sydney) who Spirit directed me to ask if she would kindly take my suitcase of my ‘Sacred Sound’ paraphernalia (Tibetan bowls, bells etc) to Hong Kong in 1995 for my workshop there after touring England.
And so she did: for which I presented her (over dinner in Hong Kong in 1995) with a crushed grape coloured cloak, floppy hat and slippers that I had bought for her at Lincoln Cathedral UK shop. This same lady engaged me in the early 2000’s to stage a ‘Sacred Sound’ segment at a workshop weekend she held in Tamworth.
So, back to V/Beverley who I had heard nothing of V. since 1987 …until one night in 2010, in sleep in Sydney, she was suddenly there in a lucid ‘vision’ dressed in a simple white dress standing facing me with hands clasped before her. As I watched, she started to shrink in size as though receding backwards down a tunnel… When I woke, the vision was still vividly with me and a knowingness that she had actually died – and so it was as though she was farewelling me/letting me know she was passing…
I then checked the funeral notices in Sydney newspapers for a couple of weeks before realising that I actually had no idea where she had been in the world.
So at that point, I just had to let go… until she contacted me a few years later to say that she and a lady friend were about to embark on a tour of Eastern Australia – promoting Braco and his gazing…and that could they do so at an Academy meeting? Hence, very much alive!
This then occurred, and when I briefly came face-to-face with her that evening, I swiftly told her of the near -death experience she had obviously undergone – but of which, she knew nothing. When, in 2019, she sent us the copy of her (progress) autobiography, I was able to work out that the night she had ’died’ in my sleep vision, she had been extremely ill in an American hospital in Cusco, Peru with both altitude sickness and infection – and so had a ‘near death experience’ of which, up to my telling her, she had been totally unaware.
So from that re-connection after 2017 onwards for several years, she was in regular contact – especially with messages from Sai Baba in His light body that she’d received from eg Connie Shaw – warning humanity of imminent cataclysm that would take the lives of millions across the globe, including those that were not utilising their human incarnation with sacred intent… and then COVID appeared, confirming (at least part of) the prediction.
Sai Baba Visits Rosemary and I
In 2020, I was sitting in our living room here at Jacaranda Haven after lunch one day reading to Rosemary a specific part of Madhusudan Naidu’s book ‘The Story Divine: Part One-Living with God’’ about the first time that M. saw Sai Baba: when He walked into the mandir at Sai Baba’s ashram ‘Brindavan’ (Whitefield/near Bangalore).
I simultaneously held up to her the open book showing a coloured photo of devotees sitting in that very mandir awaiting Swami for darshan (this same photo can be seen within this module).
I continued to read out loud how M. described, as he first saw Sai Baba, the joy that he felt and that waves of perfume swept across the mandir…
AND INSTANTLY THE VERY SAME OCCURRED HERE IN OUR LIVING ROOM!!
And we knew that Swami was here etherically!!
As we both blissed out immersed in His loving energy and rose-jasmine like perfume, He spoke telepathically to me:
“ VIVEKA AND YOU WERE BROTHER AND SISTER IN A FORMER INCARNATION AND AGREED AT THAT TIME TO ALWAYS LOOK OUT FOR EACH OTHER”
And then He was gone…
We stayed blissed out, unmoving for quite some time, before I probably rang Viveka to share what had just occurred.
As well as explaining our relationship over the years in this life and before, she was also pleased to have direct confirmation from Swami that her true name is ‘Viveka’ (as when He first ever called on her, maybe in the early 1990’s, she reported that He commanded: ”Kneel before Me Beverley”).
Corellas and Eagles
Rosemary feeds lots of the locally native birds on the deck near our kitchen door – Butcher Birds, King Parrots, Rainbow Lorikeets, White-Headed Pigeons, Satin Bower Birds etc etc.
One morning, in maybe 2021, I suddenly saw a pair of white Corellas, sitting Buddha-like, on a tree branch just watching me/us, and not moving. They later moved a little which allowed me to see their heads and whether they had crests or not… and then it all became very interesting…
When I consulted our Australian Birds coloured reference book, I discovered that they were (seemingly impossibly so) Corellas that only occur in SW Western Australia!!
I contacted V. at home in SW Western Australia to tell her about this phenomenon: she asked me approximately at what time had they appeared, and I told her.
She then replied by text that at that very time, she had sat down to rest during her morning walk with her dog and focussed on me/us at home in eastern Australia!
The Corella pair continued to visit for a long time, but eventually ceased to ‘appear’ any more… very interesting!
On the subject of birds and V., she recounts in her draft autobiography that she and 8 others went on a spiritual journey through northern India and were accompanied constantly on the return trip by 9 eagles… on reaching Bangalore, they went their separate ways, with V. and 2 others booking into a hotel. She says that when she pulled aside a curtain screening the balcony, there were 3 eagles sitting on the railing!
Another interesting ‘coincidence’ occurred when V. was on a cruise ship in Scandinavia and ‘bumped into’ Valerie Barrow and her husband John who then had V. as a marriage celebrant officiate at/witness their re-confirmation of their marriage vows from decades before! My two Sai Baba mentors ‘coincidentally’ coming together around the other side of the globe…
A Swami Leela
For quite some years now (2024), I have quietly chanted sacred songs/bhajans/invocations including the Gayatri Mantra, Hari Om, Manasa Bhajare, variations on Hari Krishna, Asotoma etc whilst working inside/outside here at Jacaranda Haven. This has included my annual hand -planting on my knees of approximately 2,500 Elephant Garlic cloves…
Two or three years ago, I entered our garlic (as 3 of the largest bulbs) in the local Agricultural & Horticultural Annual Show (as I have done 3 times now) and registered the entry naturally under my birth certificate name of ‘John Butterworth’…
When I went back to check after judging, I found that it had won 1st Prize (did so 3 shows in a row!) and so was directed to the clerk’s office to collect my prize. I handed my prize confirmation slip over the counter to the clerk, who ran her eyes down the list of entrants, and then turned the ledger around, sliding it under the security grille, so that I could sign and simultaneously reading out the name:
“Krishna Butterworth” …
I stood there dumbfounded, reading that it indeed said :”Krishna Butterworth”, signed, took my small cash prize, and stepped away as there was a line of others waiting behind. [If I’d had the presence of mind, I would have photographed it !].
As I walked slowly back to the car, I realised that it was a delightful and loving leela from Swami – letting me know that our chanting and praying does not go unnoticed by other dimensions and is appreciated…
Sai Baba in daily life
I pray to Swami on rising and retiring, and kneel before His chair for the morning prayers. When pertinent, He may briefly comment to me telepathically. Rosemary likewise calls on him regularly and she reports that He guides her continually when she is doing counselling sessions. We also keep fresh flowers in both His vases in the living room.
A close friend of ours clairvoyantly sees Him present at our monthly gatherings here at which we always invoke Him, the ancestors, spirit guides, guardians and teachers to start.
A number of visitors to here over the years have suddenly linked with His energy and love. Rosemary’s daughter has periodic dreams in which Sai Baba is present.
Prema Sai Baba
In all, it is taught that there are to be 3 Avatars in this Sai ‘lineage: Sai Baba of Shirdi, Sathya Sai Baba and Prema Sai Baba.
In a remarkable ZOOM satsang in February 2023 (on YouTube), Isaac Tigrett (founder of The Hard Rock Café and House of Blues, philanthropist and close devotee of Sathya Sai Baba & Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai for many years) revealed (in answer to questioning) that Prema Sai (Prema means ‘love’) has been born in India and will start making public appearances in 10-12 years time. For the first few years, this will only occur within India, and thereafter He will travel the world.
He will sit in complete verbal silence before those attending and, to quote Isaac, will”…radiate Christos energy” to the expected vast crowds of attendees. If I may be so bold, my sense is that the consciousness of those present who have their hearts open will be ‘entrained’ by Prema Sai’s potent Christos energy ( refer separate module:‘Entrainment’ for further elaboration).
Mahashivarartri – yet another Swami leela
In the Hindu tradition, there is a point in each month that the energy of Lord Shiva is most powerful called ‘Shivarartri‘ and, once a year, this reaches a peak around the end of February/early March referred to as ‘Mahashivarartri’ (‘maha‘ meaning ‘great’).
On this occasion, historically vast numbers of devotees gather at Puttaparthi/Muddenahalli in India to chant/sing/pray together invoking the power of this spiritually auspicious time. (Check the Internet for more details).
In Sathya Sai Baba’s time, and then subsequently Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai’s, a gold lingam would suddenly eject from His mouth when the collective, focussed energies reached a climax. This astonishing phenomenon may well not have occurred 2024 and onwards as predicted by Sadguru Madhusudan on that occasion in 2023.
The lingam is said to be representative of the whole universe: generation, destruction and regeneration and said to be most spiritually auspicious to all witnessing it occur. Sometimes called the “Shiva lingam”, it is an abstract representation of Lord Shiva.
On the day of Mahashivarartri in February 2022, an Indian man came to our house in country NSW to buy some garlic that we grow commercially. I held out my hand and introduced myself (having been very much aware of Lord Shiva and this spiritually auspicious day) and he replied:
“How do you do? I am Shivalingam”
Needless to say, I was astounded at the ‘coincidence’ and we fell into a conversation about Sai Baba and Lord Shiva.
It was only after he left that I realised I had not obtained his contact details so that we might stay in touch…
A year passed, and Mahashivarartri 2023 was here with Rosemary and I at the local Krambach Markets selling our garlic etc, when out of the crowd appeared smiling the very same Shivalingam once again – right on cue!
‘Coincidence’ you might postulate? I sense not but rather another delightful Swami leela…
“You have to show by precept and by example that the path of self-realisation is the path to perfect joy. Hence,on you lies a great responsibility – the responsibility of demonstrating by your calmness,composure,humility,purity, virtue,courage and conviction under all circumstances, that the sadhana you practice has made you a better, happier and more useful person. Practice and demonstrate: do not simply assert in words and deny in deeds”.
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. (as quoted in The Sanatana Sai Sanjeevani -Healer’s Guide) (Added 29 March 2024)