"It is 5 P.M., the time Christ died on the cross, and what is now
happening is described in the Bible." She later brought a Bible
and we looked though until we found the pertinent paragraph, which
said that at the moment Christ gave up His life, a violent storm
arose with lightning and thunder, and winds rent the curtains of
the temple. We concluded that we had witnessed a wonder totally
beyond our power of imagination. Before our eyes had occurred
nothing less than a recapitulation of events related to
crucifixion...
 Dr.
John S Hislop was one of those fine instruments used by Bhagavan
Baba to spread His Message across the continents. Most of you
might have read his wonderful books like 'My Baba and I' and
'Conversations with Sai.' Swami gave Hislop innumerable
experiences so that the latter could get a feel for all aspects of
Baba's Divinity. Baba also granted Hislop any number of
Interviews, answered his questions in detail, came to his rescue
during illness, saved him from disaster, created unusual objects
for him and once even blessed him with a vision of Krishna. But
relevant to this Christmas issue of Heart to Heart is the famous
episode dealing with the creation by Baba of a crucifix for
Hislop. Interestingly, the crucifix was created on Mahasivarathri
Day in the year 1973, deep in the forest! This holy festival was
celebrated by Baba in the company of a small group almost in
privacy, and not before massive crowds as normally happens. Let us
hear Hislop recall the event:
The
crucifix was created by Baba on a most auspicious day,
Mahasivarathri. ……The evening before, we were told to be ready in
the early morning for a trip; and that when the cars were loaded
and ready we would know the destination. Swami had decided that
only a handful of people would be with Him….
Our
destination was the Bandipur Game Sanctuary in Bandipur Forest,
several hours away from the city of Mysore. We arrived at the
Forest rest house in the early afternoon. Later we took various
winding roads hoping to come upon one of the Forest's wild
elephant herds. ….. the elephants remained in their secret places
and not even one was seen. But the drive through the hills had
another and more important objective……
As
we crossed a bridge above a sandy, dry riverbed, Baba indicated
that this would be the place. … The cars halted at the side of the
road, and we started to climb down the bank to the sandy river
bottom. I was beside Baba. As we passed a bush, Swami broke off
two twigs, placed them together and asked me, "What is this,
Hislop?"
"Well Swami, it is a cross," I answered. Baba then closed His
fingers over the twigs and directed three somewhat slow breaths
into His fist, between thumb and forefinger. Then He opened His
hand to reveal a Christ figure on a Cross, and He gave it to me.
He said, "This shows Christ as he really was at the time he left
his body, not as artists have imagined him. His stomach is pulled
in and his ribs are all showing. He had no food for eight days."
I looked at the crucifix but found no words. Baba then continued:
"The wood in the cross is the same as the wood of the actual cross
on which Christ was crucified. To find some of that wood after
2000 years took a little time! The image is of Christ after he
died. It is a dead face."
I noticed something odd and asked, "Swami, what is that hole at
the top of the cross?" Baba replied that the cross had been
originally hung from a standard.
 A
short while after the materialisation of the cross, Sivarathri was
celebrated on the sandy river bed with devotees singing Bhajans
and Baba bringing out a Lingam to mark the holy day and the
significance of Creation - quite a change from the normal
circumstances under which Sivarathri is celebrated.
A couple of years
later, some American devotees asked Swami about the cross
materialised for Hislop. Baba replied:
Yes,
I made it for him. When I went to look for the wood, every
particle of the cross had disintegrated and returned to the
elements. I reached out to the elements and reconstituted
sufficient material for a small cross. Very seldom does Swami
interfere with Nature, but occasionally, for a devotee, it will be
done."
The story of the
cross does not quite end with its physical materialisation. Hislop
had a strange experience a few months later, when the cross was
being shown to a few friends. This is what he says:
Within a few weeks we were back in our home in Mexico and were
soon to witness an amazing series of events in relation to the
crucifix. ….. [One day] the time was about 5 P.M. On this
afternoon, the sky along the Mexican coast was clear and peaceful.
But suddenly without warning, there was a loud crash of thunder
and as our eyes turned towards the windows, lightning flashed from
a dark cloud where a moment before there had been only clear sky.
A violent wind rushed through the house, causing windows and doors
to open and shut with such force that the glass was in danger of
shattering. The curtains were flying in all directions. We were
much startled by this turn of events, but my wife at once said,
"It is 5 P.M., the time Christ died on the cross, and what is now
happening is described in the Bible." She later brought a Bible
and we looked though until we found the pertinent paragraph, which
said that at the moment Christ gave up His life, a violent storm
arose with lightning and thunder, and winds rent the curtains of
the temple. We concluded that we had witnessed a wonder totally
beyond our power of imagination. Before our eyes had occurred
nothing less than a recapitulation of events related to
crucifixion. The following day, newspapers in San Diego carried a
brief story commenting on the sudden and mysterious storm that had
arisen without warning on the Mexican coast, near Ensenada. ….A
year or so later, I sent a description of the event to Dr. Eruch
B. Fanibanda for his book, Vision of the Divine. He showed
the memo to Baba. After reading the memo, Baba said that the event
had occurred as described and that the significance attributed to
it was correct.
Blessed was Hislop
to have had this wonderful experience and blessed is everyone of
us to have heard about it.
Hislop constantly
chanted Baba's Name, right till the very end. As he gave up the
mortal coil, friends at his bedside kept chanting the sacred OM,
even as the soul journeyed to its eternal resting-place, the
Divine Lotus Feet. Some time later, Swami asked an American
devotee on the veranda, "Where is Hislop?" The devotee looked up,
as if to signify that Hislop was in heaven. Baba then said, "He
has come to Me. Good man; always thinking of and working for
Swami." There cannot be a better eulogy.
 Excerpts from the book "My Baba
& I" by Dr. John S. Hislop
The crucifix was created by Baba on a most auspicious day,
Mahasivaratri. Baba had reached a decision to halt the yearly public
viewing of the birth of the lingam as it flashes from his mouth and
comes to rest in his hands, cushioned by a silk handkerchief. Although
that public portion of the holy festival of Mahasivaratri was now
terminated; nevertheless the lingam would be created by Baba each year
again and again, for it is a principal sign by which we may know the
Avatar. In respect to the oval, egg-shaped lingam which Baba produces
from within his body on Mahasivaratri night, he says, "It is not
possible for you to understand the divine purpose and gauge its
potential or to know the significance of its manifestation. In order
to bear witness to the fact that Divinity is among you, it becomes
necessary for me to express this attitude of mine. Otherwise the
atmosphere of hatred, greed, envy, cruelty, violence, and irreverence
will overwhelm the good, the humble, and the pious. The lingam is a
symbol of the beginningless and endless, of the infinite it is the
most fitting symbol of the Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent
Lord. Everything starts from it and everything is subsumed in it."
We may also know the Avatar by the sixteen signs that accompany him:
creation, preservation, dissolution, knowledge of incarnations,
special Grace and the power to bestow it; each of these in the past,
present, and future, thus totaling fifteen, with the sixteenth being
Paramatma, the Divine, resident in the heart of each being. To these
sixteen signs of the divine incarnation of the Avatar, Baba adds
another sign, which he terms the most significant of all - divine
love, universal and impersonal, yet personal. The lingam has been seen
by the writer a number of times. On the occasion of one Mahasivarathi
night, I was sitting quite close to Baba. When the moment came, I saw
a flash of gold come from his mouth and saw the lingam caught in the
silk handkerchief held by his hands. It was of gold. How an object
that size came up Sri Baba's throat cannot be explained. At another
Mahasivaratri, the lingam was translucent, and there was a clearly
visible flame in the center of the lingam.
The evening before the Mahasivaratri Day of 1973, we were told to
be ready in the early morning for a trip; and that when the cars were
loaded and ready we would know the destination. Swami had decided that
only a handful of people would be with him when the lingam became
manifest.
Our destination was the Bandipur Game Sanctuary in Bandipur Forest,
several hours away in Mysore State. We arrived at the Forest resthouse
in the early afternoon. The next morning we returned to our cars, and,
guided by the Forest people, took various winding roads hoping to come
upon one of the Forest's wild elephant herds. As we moved through the
trees and the open areas, in our minds we were hoping for a replay of
the dramatic and fascinating encounter between Baba and a wild
elephant herd which had taken place some years before when Swami and
some devotees had made a holiday expedition to the Game Sanctuary.
This time, however, the elephants remained in their secret places and
not even one was seen. But the drive through the hills had another and
more important objective. Swami intended to find a correct site where
we could gather at dusk for the sacred event of the lingam birth. It
was on this great and most mysterious occasion, unknown and beyond
imagination to the world at large, that the crucifix came into being.
As we crossed a bridge above a sandy, dry riverbed, Baba indicated
that this would be the place. He said we would all return here just at
dusk, and this we did. The cars halted at the side of the road, and we
started to climb down the bank to the sandy river bottom. I was beside
Baba. As we passed a bush, Swami broke off two twigs, placed them
together and asked me, "What is this, Hislop?"
 "Well, Swami, it is a cross," I answered. Baba then closed his
fingers over the twigs and directed three somewhat slow breaths into
his fist, between thumb and forefinger. Then he opened his hand to
reveal a Christ figure crucified on a cross, and he gave it to me.
He said, "This shows Christ as he really was at the time he left
his body, not as artists have imagined him or as historians have told
about him. His stomach is pulled in and his ribs are all showing. He
had no food for eight days."
I looked at the crucifix, but found no words. Then Baba continued,
"The cross is wood from the actual cross on which Christ was crucified.
To find some of the wood after 2,000 years took a little time! The
image is of Christ after he died. It is a dead face."
I noticed something odd and asked, "Swami, what is that hole at the
top of the cross?" Baba replied that the cross had been originally
hung from a standard.
We continued down to the river bed, and Baba seated us in a
rectangle, with himself at the head. It could be seen that Swami's
body was already in labor, and the group at once started singing
bhajans (sacred songs of devotion and praise to Divinity). This
continued without interruption until the lingam came out from Baba's
throat and was caught by him in a silk handkerchief. After the lingam
had been admired by everyone, Swami put it aside. He then raised a
small heap of sand in front of his knees, and with his finger sketched
an outline on it. Then in a moment or two, he dug his hand into the
sand and brought forth a silver flask filled with amrith. Then he
moved his hand and created a small silver cup. Everyone, from his hand,
was then given a portion of the amrith, nectar of the Gods. How
delicate and delicious was the taste! It is unique. There is no other
taste to compare to it.
Within a few weeks we were back at our home in Mexico and were soon
to witness an amazing series of events in relation to the crucifix.
The cross is so small that the details on the figure of Christ escape
the eye. A friend, Walter, came down to our home and took some color
photographs of the crucifix. The over-all length of the Christ figure
is only one inch, and Walter was to make some enlargements to bring
out the detail. When he mailed us a sample of the prints, my wife and
I were astounded. I wrote to him and said that if the pictures were
seen around the world, they would create an art sensation. I am sure
it is the greatest sculpture of Christ every made. In my estimation,
it is the most extraordinary object Sri Sathya Sai has ever created
for the joy of his devotees.
A few weeks later, Walter and his wife returned with color
enlargements of the cross. These, along with the actual cross, were
spread out on the dining room table, next to large french windows
overlooking the sea. The time was about 5 p.m. The details revealed by
the photographic enlargements were so extraordinary that all persons
present were concentrating on this amazing vision of Christ, and on
the mystery and wonder of Sri Bhagavan. On this afternoon, the sky
along the Mexican coast was clear and peaceful but suddenly, without
any warning, there was a loud crash of thunder and as our eyes turned
to the windows, lightning flashed from a dark cloud where a moment
before there had been only clear sky. A violent wind rushed through
the house, causing windows and doors to open and shut with such force
that glass was in danger of shattering. The curtains were flying in
all directions. We were much startled by this turn of events, but my
wife at once, said, "It is 5 p.m., the time Christ died on the cross,
and what is now happening is described in the Bible." She later
brought a Bible and we looked until we found the pertinent paragraph,
which said that at the moment Christ gave up His life, a violent storm
arose with lightning and thunder, and winds rent the curtains of the
temple. We concluded that we had witnessed a wonder totally beyond our
power of imagination. Before our eyes had occurred nothing less than a
recapitulation of events related to the crucifixion. The following day
newspapers in San Diego carried a brief story commenting on the sudden
and mysterious storm that had arisen without warning on the Mexican
coast, near Ensenada. We and our friends concluded that this
recapitulation of an event which had taken place some 2,000 years ago
upon the crucifixion of Christ, implied a great Power connected in
some way with that small cross and Christ figure materialized by Baba.
A Year or so later I sent a description of the event to Dr. Eruch B.
Fanibunda for his book, Vision of the Divine. He showed the memo to
Baba. After reading the memo, Baba said the event had occurred as
described and that the significance attributed to it was correct.
It might be thought that the story of the cross was now complete,
but there is still a sequel. In 1975, I made an unannounced trip to
India to consult with Baba about arrangements for a visit to America
that we hoped he would undertake. Swami had not been informed of my
visit and was away on tour when I arrived. On that day he was having
lunch with a few senior devotees and he said, "Hislop arrived in
Bangalore just now and is waiting."
One of the men at the table (who later told me of the scene)
remarked, "You made a crucifix for him."
Baba replied, "Yes, I made it for him. And when I went to look for
the wood, every particle of the cross had disintegrated and had
returned to the elements. I reached out to the elements and
reconstituted sufficient material for a small cross. Very seldom does
Swami interfere with Nature, but occasionally, for a devotee, it will
be done."
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