Children of Immortality
An exploration of the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba on Loss and Death
by Jenny Monson and Margaret Hennekeler
Grief is part of the human estate, and the mind-body complex often has a tumultuous, perhaps disorienting experience as it moves through grief and loss.
This small book of 42 pages is compiled by two women who have lost adult sons in different circumstances, nonetheless, losses which induced profound grief. Dr Ron Farmer, director of the Toogoolwa School, writes a foreword which plunges the reader into the sea of human grief along with the attendant questions and reflections which inevitably accompany this universal human experience.
This is a simple book. The authors, Jenny Monson and Dr Margaret van Hennekeler give but a brief introduction and overiew of the book and its purpose, then immediately plunge the reader into an array of selections from Sathya Sai Baba:
- What is grief?
- How should we view grief?
- What is the purpose of grief
- Grief as grace
- Suffering as part of the spiritual journey
- Attachment
- Birth/death/destiny
- Life after the death of the body
- The three stages on the spiritual path
- Impermanence of relationships
- Power of the mind
- Ego
- Equanimity
- How do we move out of pain and heal from loss?
- Prayer of Surrender
- Detachment
Apart from the selections in the chapters, all the words in these chapters are selections from Sathya Sai Baba.
A simple book with simple, short selections. In order to understand better the different teachings on grief and sorrow, the authors have set some quotes into the context of Sathya Sai's explanation on the three stages on the spiritual path. this framework aids towards better understanding of some apparent contradictions in the teachings given. The three stages on the spiritual path comprise of:
- Duality - body consciousness; the world of opposites, God and I are separate, I am the devotee of God
- Modified non-duality - God is in me
- Non-duality; Unity, Bliss, You and I are One
A simple book, a tool with a purpose. Not a narrative, not encounter with the Sai of darshan in Prashanthi Niliayam, but rather, encounter with all it means to be human, with sorrows and sufferings, joy and happines, in the human journey from I to He to We; the inner divinity. The authros have largely stayed out of this selection, except to introduce, to connect the chapters with a sentence or two, and to conclude briefly. The conclusion is like so:
It is our belief that loss is a gift which aids us on our spiritual path. Through opening to and grieving our losses, trusting that all is good, moving beyond body consicousness into the experience of our reality of being One with All, we can experience who we really are. We all take human birth for this reason alone.
As two mothers, we are still on this journey of moving beyond body consicousness to a state of constant integrated awareness - being able to function in the world and at the same time in constant awareness of our true nature, divinity itself ... ...
... ...
it is our prayer that these timeless teachings will support, compfort and guide others who are healing from loss.
The authors have donated this book to the Ashram Bookshop, and it is on sale. The authors have also graciously made available a free version of this book for your personal reading, in PDF format.
Download Children of Immortality, An exploration of the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba on Loss and Death. (PDF, 668 KB).