Book Review of the week - Sai Baba. The Ultimate Experience

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Book Review of the week

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

 

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Sai Baba. The Ultimate Experience

by Phyllis Krystal

Red Wheel/Weiser; (July 1994)

256 pages - ISBN: 0877287945

 

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Back Cover

 

Phyllis Krystal, spiritual as well as worldly, provides not only a

rich commentary on her experiences on meeting Sai Baba, but also a

wonderfully helpful guidebook for handling the ins and outs of

traveling in India. A psychotherapist and author by profession,

Krystal seems to have done a remarkable job of balancing a deep

spiritual quest with the demands of Western living. More than a

series of stories about Sai Baba, this book illustrates one woman's

commitment to applying what she has learned to everyday life.

 

- NAPRA Trade Journal

 

A vivid account of Phyllis Krystal's encounters with Sai Baba over a

period of ten years. This is a teaching story that shares some of

the personal development and growth that Krystal experienced, plus

some of the very everyday things you wonder about when visiting

India for the first time. What do you wear? How do you make sure you

don't lose your sari? How do you handle the separation between men

and women or the living quarters at the ashram? When Sai Baba looks

through you, and see you, and knows your problems, how do you deal

with it? This is a very helpful book; it presents a warm view of Sai

Baba - the teacher, healer, diplomat and visionary who has been a

friend and comforter to thousands of people. Phyllis Krystal's

experience with this special avatar is important reading for anyone

who wants to go in India to meet with him. When you've read this

book, you feel like you've learned something, and you feel very

close to Sai Baba and what he represents in the world.

 

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http://beaskund.helloyou.ws/netnews/bookstore/ultimateexperience.html

 

«When he stepped through the gates and came into full view, I felt a

quickening all through me. A ripple of happiness welled up from deep

within and quickly expanded until I was enveloped in a warm glow of

happiness at being in his presence again. It was like coming home

and being reunited with my real Mother and Father, both contained in

that one small body. That thought reminded me of a previous

interview, when he had warned me not to come back to see "this

little body", but to find him in my heart. Yet here I was, thrilling

at the very first sight of his physical form approaching. Then I

also recalled that he had added that we would come back to be

regenerated. So that was what I was feeling! My battery was already

being recharged at the very first sight of him. That must be what is

meant by darshan. I had known the meaning of that term in theory,

but now I was experiencing it in my entire being, and on many

different levels of awareness. His power was so potent that the mere

sight of him could set in motion an inner reaction when I least

expected it. Perhaps the point I needed to see was that it was

precisely when I was least expecting it that I was open to receive

it. Whereas at other times, when my mind was clamoring with its

questions, expectations and desires, the way was blocked to

acceptance of his power and its action within me. At that point I

was reminded of one of his pet sayings: "I will give you what you

want in the hope that you will want what I have come to give you.»

 

- Chapter 10, 66

 

«I soon became aware that while I was in the immediate presence of

Baba, it was much easier to maintain contact with the Godself within

my own heart which he symbolizes in phyiscal form. Because of this

almost constant awareness, I found I could handle the heretofore

hidden aspects of myself as they surfaced from the unconscious into

the conscious level of my mind where they became recognizable.

Admittedly, I did not particularly care for some of those aspects

when they reared their heads, though I realized that I needed to see

them clearly before I could let go of them or transmute them. Many

other devotees have informed me that they too have obeserved this

activity in themselves and in others. All agree that it is most

disconcerting until it is understood that changes can be brought

about only after the problem has been clearly seen.

Some devotees experience similar cleansing episodes in their

physical bodies. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, they become very

ill, often accompanied by a very high temperature which burns out

the negativity as it emerges from the unconscious. Suffice it to say

that around Baba's energy there is no knowing what will take place

on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual planes.»

 

- Chapter 18, 155

 

Phyllis Krystal was born in England but lives and works as a

psychotherapist in California where she has developed her own

techniques of psychotherapy. For over thirty years, she has been

developing a counseling method using symbols and visualization

techniques that help people detach from external authority figures

and patterns in order to rely on their own Higher Consciousness as

guide and teacher.

 

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The book is available at:

 

Sathya Sai Book Center Of America

http://www.sathyasai.org/inform/tustin.htm

 

Sri Sathya Sai Book and Information Center, Toronto Canada

http://www.saibooks.org

 

Sathya Sai Book Centre, London UK

http://www.srisathyasaibooks.org.uk/

 

Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-

/0877287945/qid=1068645146//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i6_xgl14/103-2782224-

6188645?v=glance&s=books&n=507846