The Avatar and the Architect

One day, I was quietly sitting in my office at the Royal College of Art, trying to get on with my business. My secretary said that there was a man who wanted to come in to see me, whose name was Isaac Tigret. It was a name that l hadn’t heard of. This very penetratingly-blue-eyed man with little pigtail and black clothes was ushered into the room, and I thought this wasn’t the usual kind of person to visit me at the Royal College of Art. He then said who he was and that he had formed a thing called the Hard Rock Café. I had no idea what a Hard Rock Café was, which shows how utterly square I am! However, my research fellow, who was sitting behind him, was waving his hands and trying to catch my attention to let me know that I should be very respectful to this man.

Trip to India

He asked me if I would come to India to meet a holy man. As comparative religion has always been my inner and often outer hobby, I replied that if all the expenses were paid and if my wife and I could both come, then it would be a deal. To which he replied that that would be fine. I was shuttled into the most amazing situation of my life. Suddenly I found myself on an airplane with two other companions of Isaac’s and we landed at Bangalore. We stayed in a hotel for one night. The next day, we were ushered into the ashram. It was a rather hectic taxi drive. Having got there, we had just one night’s sleep and the following morning we were told that there was a very special ceremony in the large hall at Prasanthi Nilayam.

Orange Man, Blue Man…in a Sea of White

I was completely unprepared and hadn’t really been told much about what was going to happen. My wife and I were ushered into this hall containing more than 2000 thousand people. I hadn’t even been warned about what I should wear—I was wearing all blue. I looked around, there was just a sea of white on the male side and a sea of beautiful color on the female side. Soon I was confronted by this quite small man, with a remarkable hairstyle, wearing bright orange and I was introduced to him. Being a good Englishman, I stayed upright, saying, “How do you do?” But suddenly I felt something wrong, as one orange man and one blue man stood in a sea of white! However, Baba just came over and said, “Is this the architect?” To which I replied, “Yes, I hope so.”

Intellect Shatters

Later on, that morning, we were asked to go in for an interview. During the interview, I had to face something that is quite a traumatic experience, in one sense, for a Westerner. I had to have the whole of my intellectual structure—as to what is possible and impossible in the physical world—just shattered before my eyes. This is quite a strain when you reach my age, to put it mildly. He just said, “Come over and sit here,” which I did. He said to me, “What do you want?” This is not the way that one normally spoken to in England! So, I thought and said, “I would like to know if you would like me to be your architect.” He replied, “No, no, no. What do you want?” I didn’t score on that first answer, so I said to Him, “I would like to serve you.” That seemed to end the questioning. I did much thinking about this second answer, because it has been my conviction over the years that architecture has been driven into two camps, Egotecture and Architecture. Architecture serves the people and the functions that the architect is asked to build for. Egotecture tends to just build monuments for either the money or the architect’s personal ego, which is very sad and explains why we have had such a crisis with architecture in this country.

Master(r)ing Magic

Having asked me what I wanted, He talked to some other people, then turned to me and started waving His hand. I wondered what He was doing. He closed His hand and opened it—in it was a ring. He held it up to me and asked me what it was? I had my glasses around my neck and therefore couldn’t see it! I replied, I think that is a portrait of You, Swami.” He said, “Ah, no, no. What’s the use of an architect who can’t even see?” I knew by then that I had utterly failed in my mission! Then, just having made this remarkable point that He could produce such an object out of space, He showed it to the people in the room, held it again, blew on it three times, and the large motif in gold came off and the Christian cross appeared. I smiled and said, “I know at least what that is, Swami.” Then He looked at me again with a twinkle in His eye. I must say that the remarkable thing about Sathya Sai Baba is His sense of humor and the sparkle of love and life that comes from Him. He blew on the ring three times again. The cross came off and the [Islam] moon and star appeared on this ring. When He came to put it on my finger, it fitted perfectly, and the Om sign appeared. Of course, I was quite fascinated because these are the three religions that I have most studied. So, this ring that I wear has been through three or four transformations, which totally breaks the normal law of physics. Having been brought up on the laws of physics, I suddenly realized that one of the things He was doing was not just making a ring, but He was demonstrating to me that one must not take the laws of physics as dogma. It made me realize that when someone is at the highest status of spirituality, the changing of the physical world is something that is under His command. Quite an awe-inspiring experience. Since then, He has given me many other things too. I think that the more things He gives you, the more you need working on. They say that it’s not necessarily a privilege.

“Design it as you Like”

I then spent six days with Him, trying to discover what kind of hospital was needed. It was very disarming. I was with Him three times a day, six days in a row, with a group of doctors. He was questioning repeatedly and then making decisions. I was observing Him during this time. Then one day, He just patted me on the head and said, “You just design it as you like.” What a responsibility! However, I realized when I returned to London that you place yourself in the right relationship with a very exceptional being, with the idea that both of you are serving and if you are serving with the right feeling, you just become a vehicle. I also realized that during the days I spent with Him, I absorbed. He then said, “we will go and have a look at this field.” I had the privilege of sitting next to Him in car, driving out 6 kilometers from the ashram to this flat field. The very remarkable thing was that the next day when I went with Isaac Tigret to perform a little ceremony in the middle of this field, I told Isaac what I learnt from some Tibetan people. This was to look for some spiritual sign at the site. Of course, the Tibetans looked for eagles, particularly flying eagles. When we went to this site, there were eight eagles! This was really quite awe-inspiring. They were gently walking around and weren’t even afraid of us.

 Six Months to Super Hospital

Afterwards, Sai Baba astounded me by informing me that we had to have this huge hospital with all these beds, four specialties, and the first operation in a year’s time. I nearly fell off my seat because it takes seven years in this country for the initiation to the building of a hospital. The first three of those years is spent debating with doctors, trying to find out from them exactly what they want. I realized then that we had three months to design what turns out to be the second largest hospital in the whole of Asia. We came back to England. I got a group of     architects together and we worked 17 hours a day for three months. We produced all the drawings and shifted them in large portfolios to the construction company in India. They set to work. From the absolutely flat site of an old orchard, where there is not even a village; they began constructions. To be quite honest, word ‘miracle’ is often used about Sai Baba, but even after seeing miracles with my own eyes, I felt that building a hospital of this size in six months seemed totally impossible. Three were so many people on the site, which was very much     they built the Pyramids in Egypt. I couldn’t even see how they were being organized. There were families, from the smallest children to the mothers and fathers, sorting pebbles and sand. Evan two days before the opening there was a vast amount of work still to be done. In fact, they tactfully said to me, “Please don’t go and photograph until the final day because we want it to be perfect.”

The Supreme Will

On the day of the opening, the Prime Minister of India came. They had been working all day and all night and it was ready for opening in exactly a year. That is quite astounding, and one of the lessons for me was that we were all instruments in this design. It is only with amount of help and will that comes from a higher source that these things are possible. The record this hospital has in itself quite miraculous. There have been 1000 open-heart operations   over the last year, and only two people have died. One of them went to another hospital for medication, but only one has died because of a secondary infection. This is a totally incredible medical record. The design of the hospital is based on many studies I’ve done over several years. This is to embody the symbolism, proportion and forms that have come through all the different sacred traditions. I was able to put into this hospital what I learnt over the whole of my life. A dream I had during those first six days at the Ashram was that the wards should come around from the front of the hospital like two arms—protecting and loving. Baba said, “Very good, very good.” So, I knew that l was on the right track. That is the reason the wards are placed the way they are. The big central dome symbolizes the heart turned to God. There are nine of these domes in the hospital because I was told that nine is the number of Baba.

Medicine for the Millennium

I would just like to finish with two experiences with Baba that had deep significance for me. One day in the room at Whitefield we began talking with all the top doctors from Delhi. Baba took us into a large room. There were two cuckoo clocks; which I have to say struck me as rather curious. So, I turned to Sai Baba and said, “Swami like cuckoo clocks?” He looked at me quite severely, shook His sleeve down, and said, “I don’t need time I am time.” Of course, I shrunk to a small size and took a very good lesson. The other experience is more serious. We do live in extraordinary times. I know that in the Indian tradition this is called the Kali Yuga. This is the age of amazing possibilities for spiritual enlightenment. It is a dark age from one point of view; however, for those who find the spirit, there is immense opportunity in it. One day, I was sitting in His temple after one of the darshans. My wife had been very kindly praying that Baba would speak to me because He had so far in that particular visit not spoken to me. Sure enough, He came up the center line, looked down at me, and said, “1000-year project.” That really went through me because He made me realize that the hospital, we were building would save many lives right here and now and l had been privileged enough to be participating in a 1000-year project.

~Dr. Keith Critchlow, Director,
Prince of Wales Institute Of Architecture, London, U.K.
(Adapted from Sai Reflections, UK)