BE THE LOVE YOU ARE

[Guest guest]

BE THE LOVE YOU ARE

 

Questions And Answers With Arthur and Poppy Hillcoat

 

These questions followed the talks which Arthur and Poppy

delivered at a meeting of Sathya Sai devotees in Ebell Club, Los

Angeles, California on the 7th of Sep, 2003. Arthur and Poppy are

from New Brisbane, Australia. They have been serving Swami for many

years, since 1979. They have been to Israel, Russia and many other

countries, spreading the Love and the message of Bhagavan. Arthur

was a management consultant and served as chairman for the Sathya

Sai Council of Australia. Swami also nominated him as a regional

central coordinator. He was in charge of the Christmas program for

many years and has given many talks at Christmas time in front of

Swami.

 

Questions and Answers

 

Q: How do I get close to Sai physically, like you?

 

That's one question I can't answer; because only Sai knows and

only Sai knows why. But I will say this to you; don't separate

yourself from God by seeing Him away from you. Know that which is

the important aspect; the Formless God is within you already. Coming

to understand that will bring great peace and great love.

 

Know who you are. Maybe one day, because of the role that you are

playing, you might find yourself close to Sai, but I can't say that;

but I would wish it for you. But even greater, I would wish for you,

that you realize that that which you are searching for, is you're

very Self; and that is with you all the time - and that is the true

nature of the Avatar; it is not different.

 

Q: Shouldn't God intervene and stop the wars and the killing?

 

You see, while we focus only on this life, we can't understand the

big play. I'll give you an example in a small way. Once a man was

robbed outside a village somewhere in Puttaparthi. And the robbers

blinded him so he couldn't identify them. And in the interview room,

someone said: " Oh Swami! How terrible! The poor victim! Then Swami

looked at him - because He knows everything – and He said: " The poor

victim? The poor victim blinded many people in the past life! " We

must understand firstly, that the ledgers must be balanced. Every

thing that we have done before must be balanced whether it is plus

or minus. And it has to happen and all this must happen prior to the

Golden Age coming into being. It must be that.

 

So we need to understand that all this is only happening on the

sea of consciousness; that's all. At the truest level, when you know

the truth, when you see yourself for who you are; you will

understand that this is not happening; it is only this dream that we

talk about. When someone asked an old saint about this, he said this

is all happening in consciousness. " Why does consciousness do this? "

the man again asked, and the saint simply said: " Because, it is its

nature to do so within the scheme of this big play. "

 

That which is God, is total awareness, but totally unaware of

itself; and so that it may experience and know itself, it has bought

itself into movement. And all these forms, and the trees; even the

trees themselves are Formless God within; because nothing can exist

without that! The hardest thing is to get away from the programming

that we have had.

 

In my early life, I was told that I wasn't worthy of God

that I was a miserable sinner; and God was up here on a cloud

somewhere, with a big stick waiting to punish me if I did something

wrong. What a terrible thing to give to people! What a terrible

program to sell! But of course the ones who were teaching this

didn't know any different. They were only speaking on man's

interpretation; that's all.

 

But Swami tells us something different. Yes of course, when I say

this, please understand that even if we see it as a dream, please

have love and compassion for those in the dream! If ever one gets to

the point and says: " Well, it's only karma! " - Then we have just

lost a lot of ground. While we are born into this play, we must have

love and compassion for every role that's in the play and love

everybody; it's like that.

 

Q: Krishna said: " He is dear to Me who asks nothing of Me. " Should

we ask Swami for help with material things like job, wife, financial

needs etc.?

 

There was a man that I knew some years back. He rang me up and was

talking to me and telling me how bad it was in the world; as a

matter of fact, he had even got Swami's picture on the wall and he

was so down in despair.

 

He said: " I am sick of it! I have been trying to get a

job all this time and it's not happening! " It wasn't a time to tell

him that that's the way it was in his life until a job would come

up. And he said: " But you said everything will be alright in life;

and I'm not happy with this! " Well, I said: " I will come down and

talk to you. "

 

And I went down and I said: " Look! You have really done everything

you can; you can't do anymore now, can you? " And he said: " No! I

have done everything; I have put ads in the newspaper; I have been

to employment places, I cannot get an hour's work! " Well I said:

Don't you think its time that you handed it over to God? "

 

He said: " But I've got to get it to work! " I said: " I know! But

when you know when you have done everything else that you can, then

just hand it to God! Don't ask Him for anything; just say: `Lord, I

haven't got work. I have done all I can to get a job and it's not

happening. So I must leave it to you and I will accept whatever

comes. "

 

Eventually he said: " I don't do that! "

 

A week later, I got a phone call from him – just as stirred up as

ever you see! I said: " I thought that you were going to hand it over

to God? " He said: " I did! But He hasn't done anything yet! " I

said: " No Joe! You didn't hand it over to Him at all! You handed it

after Him but you held on to the corner - just in case! And you

haven't let go of it! "

 

So you see, what we need to do is to first put our problem in

front of the Lord. Now, He might say He might fix it up quickly; or

He might say: " This is not best for you at this time! " God knows

best in every aspect of our lives. And if we let that go and leave

it to Him, then you will be amazed what can happen in one's life.

But while we are blocking that flow, we'll be frustrated.

 

So, if you are going to ask Swami, ask Him once. And then

say: " Lord, let thy Will be done. I will accept Your Will. " It's

hard to say to someone - like the chap I was talking about – he was

so frustrated in trying to pay off the house, and the money is down!

It takes a lot of courage to say: " Lord! I'll leave it in Your

hands. " That is what we need to do. Ask God once for something; but

don't nag after that.

 

Q: Swami says: " All is reflection, reaction, resound. Isn't there a

way to reflect only love and not see anything else - not see

disease, or evil, etc?

 

It's a very good question! As we look within and come to

understand more and more, we understand firstly that everything is a

planned consciousness. But these bodies have been born into this

play. And therefore, we can't help but see the disease or that which

is called evil; however, but not to dwell on it. See it for what it

is as all a part of the Divine play; and it all relates to karma but

as I said before, don't get to the point where you say it's all

karma; so that we don't have to be compassionate! But understand

that disease - all these things exist – within this play and that

they are going to be there.

 

But the more you become loving of others and of all things, it is

beautiful. So you see God in everything. God is within everything.

Nothing exists that is not God or within God.

 

So what we try to do is not focus on the disease; not focus on

what we see as evil in the world; see the Divine play for what it

is; know that yes, one has to go through these things - into each

life a little rain will fall - and sometimes we think it is the

thunderstorm. But if we understand that it is there we accept that,

we don't get upset by it. If we focus on disease, if we focus on

evil all the time, that's the way our world will be!

 

But the beauty of it is, when we change and see every being as it

is; and that every being is playing out their role in the world, and

it's perfect. There is nothing that comes to us in life that is not

perfection - especially for us to learn and to grow and to be God

like and to be able to love all people everywhere - even those we

might call evil roles because they have to be played out also. As I

said; see the behavior as not good, but love the person.

 

And don't forget Krishna here as we mentioned a moment ago,

Krishna asked a couple of people: " What is it you want to do? Do you

want to have five easy lives before enlightenment or do you want two

very savage lives - two years only - for enlightenment? They said

they would take the two savage lives and go through much suffering

and everything just to be with God. Try not to see things as evil;

try to see things within this great picture that's projected on the

screen of consciousness by consciousness itself; and love everybody.

 

Q: When you say to stay away from the behavior which is bad, and

love the person, do you mean that we have to be friends with the

person but ignore this behaviour?

 

No. Swami made it very plain - don't mix with bad people; you stay

away from them! You might love the tiger too. I love wild life you

know. I really love those elephants - they are beautiful! But you

know I wouldn't run up to another member of the family – another

lion and put my arms around them! Because it's in their life to bite

and chew. You stay away from the behaviour but understand and love

the person who they are; the indweller is God itself but the

behaviour is bad; and don't mix with the cobras either!

 

Swami has never mentioned to me anything about dreams. Sometimes

we can get something through dreams; sometimes it seems they are

garbled - we don't understand what it means. Sometimes when Swami

comes in a dream, you might not still understand what it was. And

for those you might simply call it they got Darshan!

 

But there can be some dreams that give you an insight into

your life, you know! Years ago, I had a dream. I was floating down

the water way in the Himalayas in a flat bottomed boat. And in the

bottom, in the water I could see bodies of soldiers and sailors. And

what I said at that time to myself was: " Gee, I better be careful

here. I don't want to get mixed up in all this! " And the moment I

said that, I was in a cabin in the mountains. And there was an

oriental speaking with me mind to mind.

 

So I went out for some time, and it was time to leave. I got up

and I turned around and I said: " How do I get out of here? " And he

said: " After all you have been told, you don't know what to do? " So

from that I took a little courage and I walked to the side of the

cave and opened the door. There I stood out in the middle of a big

city with people everywhere. I just took that little tune to me: Not

to get caught up in conflict of any type. Soldiers and so forth

represent conflict. And once I realized that, I decided I mustn't

get caught up in all of this; then I was up in the mountains.

 

But you see, for me it was that my role in life was to be

carried out. I did have thoughts of sitting on a mountain top and

gazing up my navel - so to speak, you know. But I realized that the

role I had to play was within society - with people. So some things

can give you a point. But don't look for a dream every night; you

got to make decisions sometimes too.

 

Q: How many years have you been with Sai personally?

 

If you simply mean just when you visit there; then at the

beginning it was once a year for a couple of months; now it's twice

a year – about three months of the year. But the time that I have

been with Him in total has been since I first went there in '79. But

you must understand that that's one way of being with Sai; the other

way is realizing Him within yourself.

 

Q: What is the biggest obstacle in practicing love for all?

 

So easy to feel love for your son or daughter, the same deep love

to feel for others. Of course this is the trouble in the world; that

is limited to that little family unit. I can show love for these but

sometimes you are frightened to show love for anyone else in case it

is misinterpreted and so you approach it steadily. When you are with

Sai devotees you can be loving and kind fairly easily. But let it

expand slowly; that will expand as you start to understand more and

more.

 

Let me say this just to finish. Make the effort to be what you

are, the effort is only to understand that. The only thing to

realize is that you are already realized! But programming in the

world has got in the way of that and we have to see through those

programs. Understand that you are Divine Love. Don't miss this

opportunity to be the Love you are. I love you!

Jai Sai Ram.

- Heart2Heart Team

(Sharing With Sai Love)

Ram.Chugani

ramchand chugani <rgcjp