Curth Orefjard's Meditation

From The Heart of Sai by R Lowenberg 57 Main Rd. Whitefield 560066
India

Curth Orefjard of Sweden first heard of Sai Baba about 18 months ago
from the time of writing, namely May 1980, when he was given the book
Sai Baba Man of Miracles by Howard Murphet to read.

One year later he decided to come to India
with his wife Sisko to see Sai Baba.

Ten years earlier in Nepal he was given a statuette of Lord Shiva by
a man who was completely unknown to him. This man stopped him and said
"Excuse me, but this is for you." He would take no payment for it,
nor did Curth have any idea why the man should pick him out as the
recipient of the gift. He had a small gold box made and had the
statuette mounted inside same. This box was attached to a gold chain
and Curth wore this around his neck.

On Curth's first day in Puttaparthi, Swami called him in for an
interview. Pointing to Curth's golden box, Swami said "Give me that"
and Curth promptly handed it to him. Baba blew on the container,
and instantly it changed into a beautiful locket with Baba's picutre
on one side and Shirdi Sai's on the other. The locket was mounted in
gold.

Swami told Curth to go back to Sweden, liquidate his business there
and to return as soon as possible, because "I have been waiting for
you a long time, but you were not ready to come to me until 2 years
ago."

I heard this part of the story from Richard LeVan who had been in
Puttaparthi at the end of December 1979 when Curth arrived there.
In March 1980 I met Curth at Brindavan, and invited him and his
wife Sisko to our hom.e He then unfolded something of his past
life and what Baba had done for him.

Curth (Orefjard) said that at the age of 4 years he had had an out of
body experience and from then on psychic powers slowly started to
develop. His grandmother was deeply religious. She prayed for him and
tuaght him yogic breathing. She possessed the ability to go into the
depths of silence and there to contact Cosmic power or God, which she
to a certain extent was able to impart to Curth. She was a self taught
yogi and a highly developed person. He used to sit quietly beside her
and think about God, and she would talk to him of spiritual matters.
In this way he developed a deep love for God.

At the age of 19 he had a serious illness and spent many months in a
body cast in a hospital. During that time he began to realize that
he could 'go within' and he learned to meditate. He made use of his
deepmeditation, thereby relieving his pain and discomfort.

In his mother's eyes he was a dreamer who spoke more about God rather
than engaging himself in the process of making a living. As he now
had
a family his mother was not at all happy that he would be able to
support them, and was afraid that her daughter-in-law would have to
take care of him. She expressed herself in these terms to Curth, who
was stung to the quick by these remarks, and he made up his mind
to become a successful business man. He used the power of the mind
to achieve this and in five years he was a successful and rich
business man. He went on using his mental power, thereby
improving and developing his business activities, gaining more
and more wealth. Now of course his mother and famiy were very proud
of his success. But he says that those years cost him dearly.
He lost whatever health he had and suffered two severe heart attacks*
and other illnesses of the type which often are the result of
the stressful life of a modern business man. More especially is this
so when he used his whole will power to do things
that are entirely against his innermost conviction, which
Curth had to do.

* (reposter's note: Monday morning as people go to work they
hate is the hour of 168 in the week of the most heart attacks.)

The Rose Meditation

Baba has it seems a unique method of meditationfor each of His over 100 million devotees. Here is one)http://www.saibaba.wsRose MeditationBy Mata BettyBreathing steadily... With mouth closed, inhale deeply.Hold the breath for a few seconds......Open the mouth and let the breath out slowly in little puffs.Repeat four or five times.Breathing steadily.......As you breathe in, mentally say,"Be still and know I am Light, Light, Light."Exhale, mentally saying:"I am Light, I am God."With every breath, you are more relaxed.Mentally say, three times: "I now go within."Breathing steadily.......Relax your body and mind.Mentally say, three times:"I am the Light of Love. I am Love, Love, Love."Breathing steadily......Breathe in the light of Love.Now bring the light of Love from your heart, andRelease the light of Love to a point between the eyes.Keeping the attention on the point between the eyes,Visualise a heart inside a roseAnd the light of Love beaming forth from the heart inside you.Merge this vision inside and around you, and mentally say:I am Love, Love, Love.I am Peace, Peace, Peace.Nothing can disturb me.I am Existence.I am Consciousness.I am the light of Love.Grief and anxiety can never affect me.Fear can never enter me.I am ever content.I am one with all creation.I am one with all beings.Breathing steadily......Soak and absorb the light of Love into your consciousness.Mentally say,"This light within me is a milky white oceanOf Purity, Love, Truth and Wisdom."Let the ocean of light stream forth, out and around you,Knowing this ocean of Love can never, ever, run dry.Visualise the World as a round globe, and send the beautiful light ofloveOut to heal the World, like rivulets of icing on a cake.Send the light of Love out to heal family.Send the goodwill to all mankind.Know that love for all starts within you- from the heartWhich is sitting in a beautiful rose.Surrounded by the brilliant light of Love.Visualise yourself inside the light inside your heart.Now visualise yourself as pure light, vibrating energy, andMentally say,All my thoughts, words and deeds today, I send from my heart of love.I am Love, Love, LoveI am God, God, God.I am Peace, Peace, Peace.Body and soul, I am Peace, Peace, Peace.Body and soul, I am Love, Love, Love.Feel the love energy pouring forth,Radiating from you, surrounding you, and mentally say:I am the Light and Love of my soul.This beautiful Light of Love will always be within me,Embracing me, radiating from me.As you work throughout the day, take your mind backTo the inner peace and tranquility of your silent sitting.Remember what you experienced so that you will knowThe Love within you,The Light within you,The God within you,More and more.Before you move, bow your headTo the Light, to the LoveTo the God within you.Sit quietly and know that through your comtemplation,You can uplift humanity today,And You can transfrom your consciousnessTo reflect the Love and Grace of God,Sincerely, in unconditional, limitless, Divine Love.After you have finished, just be still. When you finallyfeel like moving, move slowly and gently.ENDSource: Book The Universal Heart, by Mata Betty, page 38.Sri Sathya Sai Baba posing with Mata BettyMata BettyNew Zealand Sai devotee, before even going over to India for thefirst time, Mata Betty and her late husband were graced with avision of Sai Baba appearing physically in their New Zealand home,speaking to them and answering their questions. Mata Betty has beento India dozens of times and has had scores of interviews with SaiBaba. Once in an interview room, Sai Baba called her "My New ZealandMinister". Mata Betty is a name given by Sai Baba to her. Herpassport name is Mdm E. Poyzer. Wheel-chaired for a long time, untilSai Baba said "Walk" and there she had her first walk. Mata Bettyhas written many books about Swami and his teachings, two of whichpublished by the Prasanthi Nilayam Trust.Books by Mata Betty:- The Universal Heart- Sathya Sai Baba and Universal Revelations- Sathya Sai and the Universal Reality of Mankind- Man's Journey to Love and Peace

Sai Baba's Light Meditation

Humanity is Divine. One can purify himself into perfect Divinity, by the process of Dhyana(meditation), taken up with eagerness and followed with faith, by various individuals. As regards the technique of Dhyana, different teachers and guides have different methods. But I shall give you now the most universal and the most effective. Set aside a few minutes, every day, in the beginning for this; later, you are sure toextend the period, when you experience the thrill of peace. Let it be the hours before dawn. This is preferable because the body is refreshed by sleep and the peregrinations of day-time have yet to impinge on the sensesand distract physical and mentalenergy.Have a lamp, with a bright littleflame,steadyand straight, or a candle before you.Theflame does never diminish in lustre,howevermany lamps may be lit thereform. Sotheflame is the most appropriate symboloftheeternal Absolute. Sit in the padmasanaor anycomfortable asana, in front of theflame. Lookon the flame, steadily and closing youreyes.Try to feel it inside you, betweenyoureyebrows. From there, let it descenddownintothe lotus of your heart, in the centerof thechest. Imagine that the petals of thelotus budopen out, one by one, bathing everythoughtand feeling and emotion and impulse intheLight and removing darkness.There is no space now for darkness totakerefuge; it has to flee before theflame.Imagine that the Light becomes wider,bigger,brighter. It pervades the limbs.(Babaistelling this to John Hislop, who hasnow lefthis body.) Hislop asks: Is there aparticularpathway along which the flame, thejyoti,should be moved into the body?Sai: The light is first moved into the heartwhich is conceived as a lotus, the petals ofwhich will open. The jyoti is then moved toother body parts. There is no particularsequence. But important is the final bodystation, which is the head. There the lightbecomes a crown enshrining and covering thehead. The light is then moved outside, fromthe particular to the universal. Move the lightinto relatives, friends, enemies, trees,animals, birds until the entire world and all itsforms are seen to have the same light as theircentre as has been found to be within oneself.The idea of moving the light into the universalphase, the idea of universality is that the samedivine light is present in everyone andeverywhere. To impress this universality onthe mind, we do the spreading of the lightoutside ones own body. One shouldunderstand that what comes about inmeditation as one moves deeply into it, is notthe thinking of the light, but the forgetting ofthe body and thereby the direct experiencethat the body is not oneself. This is the stage ofcontemplation when the body is totallyforgotten. It cannot be forced. It comes aboutbyitself and is the stage that naturally followscorrect concentration. Vivekananda told thatinmeditation he was unable to find his body;where was his body? He could not find it.Seeing the light and moving the light here and there is to give work to the mind, to keep themind occupied in the right direction so that the mind will not be thinking of this and thatand thus interfering with the process of becoming more and more quiet. Spreadingthe light into its universal phase, sending thelight into every other body, when one is so concentrated in that he is no longer conscious ofhis body, is the stage of contemplation. As contemplation deepens, the stage of meditation comes about of its own volition. It cannot be forced. If the meditator remains conscious of himself and that he is engaged inmeditation, then he is not meditating but is still in the preliminary stage, at the beginningof concentration.