Howard Murphet

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Howard Murphet is well known to Sai Devotees world wide. In the mission of the

Sai Avatara, Howard was called forward, along with others (most notably, Jack

Hislop) and chronicled his experiences seeking the spiritual path, discovering

Sai Baba, deepening his store of wisdom (and finally, to his great joy, his

store of prema) and sharing those experiences in print. Howard has a most frank

manner of writing. His is the rare knack of involving his reader in his

narrative and his questions, and the answers to the many questions he raised

about Sathya Sai Baba. The result was a magnificent trilogy of Sai books, Sai

Baba-Man of Miracles, Sai Baba-Avatar, and Sai Baba-Invitation to Glory. In a

darkening era when the lights of humanity have been dimmed by planet-wide wars,

governments economies of welfare, the population explosion, and the gee-whiz

electronics in home, hearth and workplace that divide the haves from the

have-nots, Howard Murphet emerges as a

beacon shining in the darkness, guiding those in travail to the safe shores of

Sathya Sai Baba. Howard has been to war. He evaluated the cause of war

spiritually, before joining up. He knew there was a great spiritual goal of his

life, amid the twists and turns he has observed in his ninety plus years. He is

a modern Parsifal, a knight of the Round Table in search of the Holy Grail

which he called his "Star of Destiny" or his Star of the East". Howard

Murphet's quest was to discover that star and satisfy the restless yearning in

his soul.This modern Knight-Errant of the pen, since his days as a school

teacher in Tasmania, had always sought a deeper meaning in the affairs of

humanity, and sought to improve humanity at large via the humble offering of

his skill with eye, pen, learning, writings, and his finely honed

discrimination. This is the true vidyartha, the true cumulative wealth of an

education pursued beyond the classroom and which gives a great wealth to

humanity. His labours with the pen and his spiritual seeking are an embodiment

of that ancient prayer:

Asatoma sadgamaya

Tamasoma, jyotirgamaya

Mrithyorma, amritam gamaya

Amritam, gamaya

 

(From the Unreal, lead us to the real,

>From Darkness, lead us to light

>From Death lead us to immortality)

 

This time Howard Murphet was born in Tasmania, the 'apple isle' of Australia, in

1906. His family came from a strong Christian background, and he was blessed

with a mother of great faith, whom he names as his first guru. In his youth, he

had a miracle after falling into a deep pond, and later on, had a vision of

another world, perhaps Heaven: As I gazed upwards into the blue, absorbed in

the beauty of this dome-like roof of the world, suddenly a window appeared in

the roof. Beyond the window was a glorious scene that made me feel I was

looking into Heaven. There was a radiant light shining on white or

light-coloured buildings in the background. In the foreground were figures

moving about as if in a street scene. Their robes were of rich colours with red

and gold predominating. I could see some of their faces which to me looked wise,

benign and somehow noble. I remember too that there was a soft drift of heavenly

music coming through the window and reaching my ears as I lay on my back among

the silent oats. A wave of bliss flooded through me as time stood still. Then

as suddenly as it had come, the window disappeared, leaving nothing but the

clear blue of the sky. But I knew that the radiant, heavenly scene in the sky

had been real while it lasted....Was it really Heaven I had been looking into,

I wondered...

but I had not seen the golden throne of God, and the figures moving about did

not have wings, as angels should, according to my mother.

Howard Murphet spent his childhood attending the local one-teacher school until

the teacher married and left. Due to the required number of children in

attendance falling below the necessary levels, the school did not reopen. Young

Howard commenced working on his father's farm. When a new teacher arrived his

talent was quickly spotted and a regime of attending school one hour earlier

every day, to make up for lost ground was instituted for him. This was prepare

for the state examination. Howard, like all bush children of his day, he had to

get up even earlier again and milk the cows before going to school! He passed

the examination and commenced attending classes at boarding school in

Launceston. He was inclined, at one stage to enter the church and become a

minister. He changed his mind, and entered teacher training college and the

University of Tasmania, Hobart. He had great ideals about education in forming

childrens minds in such a way to build character and

integrity. He was to later become disillusioned: "It was a terrible

disillusionment to find myself caught up in the mechanics of a factory where

knowledge was fed in at one end, called the classroom, and came out at the

other, called the examination room. By the end of my first year as a teacher, I

had realised the futility of my altruistic dream, my dream of laying the

foundation stones for a new world in the classrooms of Tasmania. The idea was

laughable and, thank God, I still had my sense of humour. I would have resigned

then but I was bonded to teach for four years to pay for my training at the

Teachers' College and University."

Howard left Tasmania for Melbourne where he had a brief sojourn in suburban

newspapers. He had come to realise that there was an important knack to

writing, finding the unusual, the unexpected facet of something amusing,

something that revealed a quirk of human nature. The great depression had

begun, and when the newspaper decided he and his stories were superfluous, so

Howard joined thousands of other jobless men roaming the country. They were

called 'bagmen'. Part of the financial mobility of men on the swag was begging,

but in the vernacular slang, it was called the "bite". Howard explained:

"Generally the 'bagmen' seemed to think that the community owed them their food

and were not averse to begging. But they never used the word 'beg'. It was

always 'bite'. Perhaps they thought that this word made the act seem less

demeaning. Though some great spiritual masters, such as Gautama the Buddha and

Shirdi Sai Baba, carried their begging bowls as a religious ritual to give

their fellow men the spiritual merit of giving, I myself had not reached this

status with its accompanying humility to beg for food, even if it was called

'bite'. I always carried a small amount of money to buy the food I needed,

though I was ashamed to let my fellow 'bagmen' know this. Once this led me into

a trap. I had gone with a fellow traveller known as Bill the Bagman into the

shopping area of a small town to 'bite' some food for breakfast and the rest of

the day. He had un- concernedly gone into several shops and in each case came

out laden with supplies. Announcing that we had all that

we needed except butter. Bill said to me pointedly, "It's your turn now to

'bite' the butter." We were standing in front of a very modern-looking shop

that would today be called a mini-supermarket. I went in and bought half a

pound of butter. When I came out. Bill looked at me with approval and some

admiration. 'That was a very good bite," he said, "in a shop like this." I was

ashamed to tell him that I had actually bought it. After that I always did my

shopping alone, instead of in the company of an experienced 'beggar' or

'biter'."

After gaining employment in Sydney and studying the art of copywriting, Howard

decided he would better serve his cause overseas and sailed to the United

Kingdom. He arrived in London on the eve of World War II. He had a deep

conviction that the war was a just war and was determined to be involved. He

joined the British Red Cross, under whose auspices he travelled to France. Soon

after he was to enlist in the Horse Guards and trained as an officer. Attempting

to catch his regiment and take up the theatre of war, he arrived in Jerusalem

and spent three months waiting assignment. He took time to visit the Holy Land

and various sacred places such as Nazareth, Bethany, the Garden of Gethsemane

and the Mount of Olives. Thereafter he was assigned to the Eighth Army as an

Escort Officer for War Correspondents. He served with the Eighth Army from El

Alamein to Tunis, took part in the invasion of Sicily and Italy and later, with

the British Second Army, the D-Day invasion of

Normandy. Under instructions from the War Office ws to visit a Concentration

Camp and make independent verifications of the horrors being reported. He also

interviewed some inmates of the one concentration camp. His final task before

being stood down from active service was the charge of the British Press

Section at the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials. After spending further time in

post-war Germany (he felt a curious affinity to the German peoples), Howard

returned to Australia. There, he began to attend Yoga classes and study Yoga.

He had a bliss experience, and went out of his body whilst attending bhajans.

"I think it was during the chant 'Oh God Beautiful', which appealed to me

greatly, that I was flooded with bliss. So much so, my consciousness

disappeared. Nothing existed anywhere but the unutterable bliss of being. I

came out of it, back to consciousness, as my body fell sideways, almost hitting

the floor. This out-of-time experience of the Ananda that is part of our inner

nature, taught me a number of things. A practical one was the reason for having

a firm seat, preferably cross-legged on the floor, for meditation practice. The

aim of meditation is to reach that state of samadhi of which I had tasted a

little. With its coming, awareness of the world vanishes and, unless firmly

seated in a stable position, the meditator is liable to fall to the floor, as I

almost did. More importantly, however, the experience was a reaffirmation of the

Reality I sought. Brief tastes of it, such as this, whet the appetite for the

bottomless chalice of ambrosia, and to find it the

pilgrim moves onward, ever onward."

Several years after participating in Yoga classes, Howard met Iris, his wife to

be and companion in travels and spiritual seeking. Together they studied and

travelled to Europe. Howard was to visit his beloved Germany again, and

England. After visiting and attending a spiritual practice called Subud for a

time, they sailed East to attend the School of Wisdom at theTheosophical

Society's Adyar Institute, on the river Adyar, Madras, in 1964. Howard and Iris

settled in at Adyar and took up the School of Wisdom. Thereafter, they travelled

North to visit some of the many ashrams in the Himalayas, first stopping at

Dharmasala and calling on the Dalai Llama. Moving on to other ahsrams, they

visited the Sivanandanagar Ashram, the newly-constructed ashram of Maharishi

Mahesh Yogi, the ashrama of Charan Singh, and the Radha Soami colonies founded

by Sahibi Maharaj. Shortly after returning to Adyar and Madras, Howard and Iris

met Sathya Sai Baba for the first time.

Later, Howard was to travel to Puttaparthi alone and attend the Shivarathri

celebrations. Howard describes his arrival at Prasanthi Nilayam: Listening to

the sweet sacred music that floated trom the prayer hall, I could see that what

Kasturi called the prayer hall was in the largest building, in the centre of the

ashram. It was a white, two-storey building with a veranda and balcony in front.

Near me was a line of single-storey terraces, out of which Kasturi had come. On

the side over which the sun was now dipping, were more low buildings, and on

the opposite side from where I sat were two large open sheds. Something inward

must have happened to me as I sat there in the glorious peace coloured by the

sunset and filled with sacred music. All I know is that there, sitting on my

valise, I decided that Sai Baba was too great for just one chapter in the book

I was proposing to write. The whole book must be about him. The haunting

strains of Arati were sounding, though I did not know its name then, when

Kasturi reappeared. My first words were, "I have decided to write a book on Sai

Baba." I saw doubt written all

over his face but he said politely, "Well, that will be nice if it happens."

Perhaps his lack of faith in my statement came from the fact that others had

made similar statements and promptly forgot about them. Kasturi's next words

were "Swami has told me to put you in the Guest House".

The search had not ended. Howard had certainly found his Star of Destiny, his

Star of the East that he had sought all his life. It was the Crown Prince of

Venkatagiri who shared his belief with Howard that Sathya Sai Baba was a full

incarnation of God, an "avatar". Howard departed Puttaparthi, armed with books

gifted by Sathya Sai Baba, and was determined to answer the question, "was he

also an avatar, a descent of God to earth?" Howard, has written that he was

"probably the first from the Western world to come to Sathya Sai Baba as a

Western skeptic and stay with Him or near Him for some six years in India in

order to solve the problem of His true Identity and why He was here in the

world. After returning to the west I have been back many times, pulled by the

strong magnet of the Divine Love and fascination of One I decided was an Avatar

of God. He taught me what an Avatar is. His relationship to orqdinary human

beings in the world and how His Purpose was

to lead those who are ready, to their own inner Guru or the God within. I did

not immediately accept Him as an Avatar, but after He taught me in a humble

manner what an Avatar is and how we are all Avatars, descendants from God

without being aware of it. As I stayed on I became more and more certain that

He was indeed an Avatar. This is not based on the fact that He materialises

things." Howard has used the ancient vedantic method of learning in his

evaluation of Sathya Sai. This is critical today. This is Howard's gift to

devotees. Sai Baba himself says: Well. Making the questioner himself give out

the answers Is the Sanathana method of teaching. If those who question,

themselves give the answers, they would clearly understand the subject. The

lecturing style Is different. In olden days, all the Rishis enabled their

disciples to understand Vedanta only by this method. Those who read Howard's

books must follow in his footsteps and ask their own questions, or they

will create their own version Sathya Sai and be filled with doubt instead of

their own explored questions and answers. Someone else's questions and answers

do not lead to liberation. In this wise, Howard has been an exemplar who has

adequately illuminated the path for others to walk. The task of the devotee is

excavation of Truth. Howard describes greatest of the Sai miracles is the

Divine Love by which He brings about a deep change in the nature of people, his

followers. "I experienced this also in 1966 on the first occasion when I was

alone with Sai Baba. I have described this inner change which might be called

the birth of the Christ-child within one. We are born of course with the embryo

of the Divine Child within us but this initiation that Swami gives things about

the actual birth of the Christ within, then, it is that we begin to know the

meaning of true Love and the feeling of oneness with our brother man. This

comes about gradually through the years after what I

have called the birth of the Christ-child or the initiation into the Divine

Life. Many,many people throughout the years have been changed in this way, this

deep rooted inner change that is really your first footstep on the path of the

homeward journey. Then there is the great compassion of Sai Baba which requires

miraculous action for its fulfilment." In 1982 Howard was diagnosed as having an

incurable disease He prayed very earnestly for healing. He was in a beautiful

room in the Adelaide Hills "while Sai Baba in the body was of course at that

time in India at His ashram. My prayer was so intense that after a sleep on a

couch while the sun was shining through the windows I woke up to see Swami's

Hand and Arm as it circled over me and I knew hat He had come, that this was a

healing gesture. I saw it in that brief time between being asleep and fully

awake when as you might have heard, everybody has a short period of

clairvoyance. When that short period has passed His Hand and

Body disappeared from my vision but He was still there in the room and I knew

this by the unbelievably soul-moving sense of the luminous in the room, In fact

the room was filled by it and it penetrated the wall to where my wife was

sitting in the breakfast room and then when Swami left, the luminous went too.

This is what the ancient Romans called "sense of the Presence of the Divine"

(the luminous or lumina). Well, I knew that I was cured of the disease and all

tests afterwards proved that this was so." Howard writes, although blind:

"Before I came into Sai Baba's private interview, near the end of 1989, I had

accepted unhappily the prospect of a silent rest from the labours of writing,

which had been my life and joy for many years. As Swami knew, through retinal

haemorrhages into both eyes, I was quite unable to read or write. All I had was

minimal peripheral vision in one eye. But in a firm, commanding voice he said,

"You must write the book that's in there." He patted my

chest. "Go home and write it and bring it back to me in two years." My wife and

two friends who were present in the room looked startled at this royal command.

"May he have a co-author to help him?" asked my wife. "No," replied Swami. "He

must write his own book. I will give him all the help he needs." I knew that I

must somehow carry out this task set me by my divine Master. But how? For many

years my writing had been born of a happy partnership between me and an old

typewriter. The art of prose writing demanded that I work with words and

phrases on the written page, polishing towards perfection or as near to it as

attain- able. To reach a satisfactory standard in prose expression through

auditory means would be quite impossible for me. Yet I must make the attempt.

The Lord Sai's help is often given through the hands of others. I saw the first

signs of this when a dictaphone and other equipment necessary almost fell into

my lap. This was mainly through the help of some

occupational therapists at Concord Hospital, Sydney. So began a new, unfamiliar

road to creative writing. So Where the Road Ends was written by its blind

author. Howard's days are not over, he resides quietly in the Blue Mountains

area of New South Wales, Australia, some two hours drive from Sydney. Insofar

as Howard has

-discovered his light

-said why it is his light

-pointed others toward that light

-given those others a method by which too make their own evaluation and excavate

the truth for themselves

-He does all an invaluable service in thhe gloom of Kali Yuga, and the wakening

dawn of the Golden Age.Howard once told me his favourite poem was "Brahma"

BRAHMA

If the red slayer think he slays,

Or if the slain think he is slain,

They know not well the subtle ways

I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Far or forgot to me is near;

Shadow and sunlight are the same;

The vanished gods to me appear;

And one to me are shame and fame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;

When me they fly, I am the wings;

I am the doubter and the doubt,

And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

-

The strong gods pine for my abode,

And pine in vain the sacred Seven;

But thou, meek lover of the good!

Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1867

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