Celebration of His Life
by Albert Barelds

Talk given at Sai Baba Centre of Adelaide, 26 April 2011

Our beloved Swami, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is no more with us physically. He left his earthly body on Easter Sunday, 24 April 2011, at 7:40 a.m. due to cardio-respiratory failure.

Albert Barelds with Sathya Sai Baba

No amount of words can describe what He was, who He was or what He meant to His devotees. Nor can words describe how I feel about the loss of our Swami.

Janine and I were spending a few days in the Flinders Ranges over this Easter weekend, walking amidst the rocks and mountain ranges some 650 million years old. And I was observing ants running around on this massive gum tree. That tree was there universe, they didn't know anything else it seemed, just this massive old gum tree that was the beginning and end of their life.

I can identify so easily with any of these ants. My world, my outlook, my understanding, the place in the world, the relationship with others were, I thought, fulfilling. It was only after learning about our beloved Swami that I started to realise - I was not really aware of who I was!

Janine was 25 and I was 29 when we first heard the name Sathya Sai Baba, a long time ago. It was in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 1977. And now, whilst driving in the Flinders Ranges on Sunday evening, we received a message from our youngest daughter who is in Turkey for the Anzac Day, that she had just heard that Swami had left His physical body. It was Sunday evenning 8 pm and I switched on the radio and heard on the BBC news the confirmation of this incredible mind numbing news.

Nothing had changed, yet everything seemed to have changed. No more darshan, no more sweet smile, no more padnamaskar, no more letters to give to Swami, no more cryptic spiritual directions, no more waiting for darshan from our beloved, no more performances to watch together with Him in the Sai Kulwant Hall. No more crying out for His attention, no more hoping and dreaming that He would talk to me!

But still there are the dreams, His directions in those precious meditative silent moments; always the Love and Devotion, the gratitude to have been with Him so often, the many interviews, getting His complete 100% or more attention, His looks, His jokes, the laughs, to hold His Feet, His Hands. The immense gratitude to have been directed by Him, laughed at by Him, rewarded by Him, SEEN by Him, to be challenged by Him, to have experienced the Love of a 1,000 mothers many times!

To have been guided in worldly work and in the Sai Organisation, to have received direct spiritual instructions and to have him give us three beautiful daughters, Sathya, Surya and Salome, each with their own very special connection to our beloved Lord. And to have been taken care off in so many little ways, to have his guidance and healing when sick, to be directed to go home to take care of a very sick mother, to give us so many incredible opportunities to serve Him both in and outside the Sathya Sai Organisation. So many memories to enjoy, so much work to be done to live up to what He knows is our purpose, to overcome our humanness and realise our Divinity. As He has said, My Life is My Message - that is now as He has said recently much more often, 'Your Life is My message.'

Because what has not changed is our task, our responsibility to live this life to the fullest extent, to overcome our human tendencies so that our inner divine nature, our Sai within can shine fully.

He has left his physical body behind it seems. So many memories flood back. How fortunate are we to have heard of Him, have seen Him, heard Him, touched Him and be guided by Him. Millions of years have passed and so few times has God taken human form. So few people in previous incarnations were aware of God in Human form and although many more in this Sathya Sai incarnation, we are still relatively few who were called to be with Him and to be allowed to do His work.

Not that He needed us, not that He was not able to do the job of re-establishing Dharma and to remind us of who we really are. It has been his greatest gift, among the many He has bestowed on humanity, that He allowed us to do His work. And this is not finished. He gave us the Sathya Sai Organisation in order to provide us with a vehicle for the awakening of conscience and selfless love in the minds and hearts of all people. To Love all, serve all. To Help ever, hurt never. The Sathya Sai Organisation is based on these spiritual principles that He has provided.

Let me finish with some words from Dr Michael Goldstein in his letter to devotees what I received today:

No words that are written or spoken by anyone can completely assuage our grief or allay our apprehensions about the future. However, we can waste the remainder of our lives grieving for the loss of His Physical Presence which accomplishes nothing.

Or, we can accomplish everything, the fulfillment of our spiritual destiny that He ordained, by devoting our lives to Him and to His Divine Message of selfless love and service. Before, He lived in our spiritual hearts and also in the Presence and Identity that he assumed in the world as our Beloved Swami. Now He lives only in our spiritual hearts, as the Lord of Lords, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Now, we must turn inward to experience His Divine Presence and Love.

Sai Ram!

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