Turn Him Over to Me

The Cowans

“Why can’t we know God? If we must have Self‑realization, why don’t we?” wailed the Cowans—Walter and Elsie. “We followed one belief after another; each step gave some little wisdom, but no security, no actual knowing how to reach the Goal. We felt discouraged. We talked it over and made an important decision: Pray loud and sincerely for the Highest Living Master to come and take us to the Goal. We did so; the next day a friend came and gave us a book, the book on the Life of Sathya Sai Baba. We knew our prayers were answered.” Their wish was fulfilled.

The Cowans have been visiting Prasanthi Nilayam and Whitefield every year since then; their shrine at Tustin, California, is known to many as the Jasmine Shrine, since the fragrance of jasmine that pervades it is an indication of Bhagavan’s Presence. The Picture in that shrine was mysteriously placed there by Bhagavan, in answer to the prayer of Mrs. Cowan for that particular Picture, which she could not get in India. An eight-rayed star jewel appear­ed on that picture once, for all to see for many days, when the Cowans prayed for some sign that Baba was with them. Vibhuti showers from the pictures of Bhagavan at Tustin even as it does in the homes of count­less devotees in India and elsewhere. Hundreds have seen the shower and returned convinced that Baba is a Divine phenome­non, transcending the laws of science. The Cowans are happy in the lap of Baba’s love. Elsie Cowan writes, “He gives us strength and power. He is compassionate. In time of need, He wraps His grace around us like a very warm blanket, soft and love­ly, to soothe us into a state of bliss. With­out Him, there would be no one to turn to.”

The astounding news

In April 1972, when the Cowans return­ed from Brindavan to Tustin, Elsie Cowan told the Sai Group, “We have come back from India, my husband and I, brim full of the most astounding news that can happen to anyone. It is so fantastic that many of you may doubt it, because hardly any of us realize the great importance and the tremendous Power of this Great High God, who not only walks the Earth, but cares for all the planes from earth to eternity. Walter died at Madras; Sai Baba resurrected him.”

Dr. John Hislop, himself an ardent sa­dhaka [devotee] for many years, who like the Cowans travelled through many gurus to the Pre­sence of the Highest Living Master, was at Madras, Whitefield (Brindavan), and Pra­santhi Nilayam, throughout almost the entire Experience. So Elsie Cowan asked Dr. Hislop to tell the story to the American Sai group. He recorded his narrative on tape with the words, “Walter and you arrived in Madras on December 23, 1971, and came to the building where Sri Baba was holding a conference with some 3000 presidents of His Seva Samitis. Sri Baba at once came to you and gave Walter and you a warm and affectionate greeting. Walter was obviously not feeling well, and ushers provided chairs as soon as you arrived.

On the morning of the 25th of December, news spread quickly that an elderly American had a fatal attack of what was thought to be heart trouble and had passed away. My wife and I at once went to your hotel. You confirmed the news. You told us how the attack had felled Walter in the hotel room. You had prayed to Sri Sathya Sai Baba at this most trying moment of your life; but with great self-control and recollection of human mortality, you had ended your prayer with, `Let God’s Will be done’. Mr. and Mrs. Ratan Lal were staying almost next door; you remembered this, and when you called her she came immediately. With her help, you summoned a room boy, and Walter was lifted from the floor to the bed. It was soon evident to you that Walter had indeed passed away from the body. Someone called an ambulance to take Walter to the hospital, but it was your experience that Walter had died in your arms soon after having been lifted from the floor to the bed; and you were so exhausted that you could not accompany the then lifeless body into the ambulance. These events took place in the early morning hours.”

Baba visits the hospital

Sathya Sai Baba with Walter and Elsie Cowan

“At 7 A.M., you had recovered sufficient strength to go with Mrs. Ratan Lal to Sri Baba’s place of residence to tell Him the news and ask for advice and help. (Sri Baba, we learn, told the devotees around Him in Telugu that it would be a great pity if the old lady had to return to the States with the corpse of her husband, after their long longed–for visit to Him. Ed.) Sri Baba said He would visit the Hospital about 10 A.M. At 10 A.M. Mrs. Ratan Lal ac­companied you to the Hospital, but you were told that Sri Baba had already been there and had left just before you arrived. Upon entering the Hospital, you found Walter alive.”

“The attending physician of the Hospital is well known to Sri G. K. Damodara Rao, Retired District & Sessions’ Judge. He told the Judge that Walter was indeed dead when he examined him shortly after arrival. There was no sign of life. He said that he pronounced Walter as dead, that his ears and nose were stuffed with cotton, and that Walter was covered with a sheet and moved into an empty room. The doctor had then left the hospital on some professional duty and had missed seeing Sri Baba when Sri Baba was in hospital. When the doctor returned to the hospital, Walter was alive.”

“I saw Sri Baba at His place of residence, after He had returned from the Hospital,” continues Dr. Hislop. “He told me and others within hearing that Walter Cowan had died, and that the Hospital had stuffed his ears and nose and covered him with a sheet. Sri Baba said that he had brought Walter back to life. I did not enquire of Sri Baba as to the details of how he had brought Walter back to life or His reasons for doing so, nor to the best of my know­ledge did anyone else.”

Another crisis

“On December 26th, Sri Appa and I ac­companied Sri Baba to a meeting of the lady members of the Nagara Sai Samiti. Sri Appa and I were sitting on the platform just a few feet from Sri Baba and were able to closely observe Him. He gave a spiritual discourse, all without any break or any mo­ment of hesitation. From the meeting, we were to go to a devotee for lunch.”

“As soon as we got into the car, Sri Baba turned to us and said, `While I was talking in the meeting, Mrs. Cowan called me. I at once went to the Hospital and did what was necessary. Mr. Cowan’s health has taken a bad turn.’ When we arrived at the house of the devotee for lunch, Sri Baba turned to us and said, `Take this Vibhuti to the Hospital and give Mr. Cowan some in his mouth and rub the rest on his forehead and chest. If you walk to the corner over there, you will find Mrs. Hislop in a taxi. She will take you to the hospital.”

“The fact was my wife had been follow­ing Sri Baba in a taxi. However, she had taken great pains to stay out of sight, but her effort was of no avail for, as usual, Sri Baba knew everything!”

When we reached the hospital with the Vibhuti, Mrs. Cowan said, “Walter took a very bad turn just a little while ago. I thought he was dead; I was terrified; I at once called Baba in a loud tone of voice. When I called Baba, I felt His presence at once.”

The third time

“A week or so later, I was speaking with Baba at the Prasanthi Nilayam. Walter and you were still in the Hospital at Madras. Sri Baba said, `Today I received a telegram from Mrs. Cowan. Mr. Cowan was again in a seri­ous condition. I answered the telegram. Mr. Cowan will soon be out of the Hospital; he will come to Bangalore. It is My san­kalpa, My Will.’ Of course, you told me it was no physical telegram. The telegram was your `prayer’. Baba told me during the same conversation. ‘Cowan died three times. I had to bring him back three times.’”

The Cowans in Bangalore

“I and my wife saw Walter and you at the West End Hotel; Bangalore. Walter appeared to be extraordinarily well. Sri. Baba visited Mr. Cowan twice at the Hotel. During the second visit, He told you that Mr. Cowan was strong enough to make the 15-mile drive out to Whitefield each morn­ing, and that he was to return to the Hotel at noon each day.

Dr. Gnaneswaran was the physician who attended on Mr. Cowan at Bangalore. He had Walter’s medical history with its speci­fic laboratory tests showing severe diabetes lasting for many years and various other diseased conditions. After assuming res­ponsibility as Walter’s physician, he as a standard medical man rechecked the find­ings of Walter’s American doctors with his own laboratory tests. He could scarcely believe the results. … Not only were the diabetic symptoms completely absent, but the tests for the other diseased conditions were also negative!”

“He explained; `Only the Divine Baba, only God, could do this.’ The extraordi­nary fact seems to be this: When the total organism that was Walter died, the only entity that returned to life was Walter him­self. Walter’s various diseases died with him, and they were not reborn. Only Walter was reborn! A most marvelous and inscrutable event, is it not? Walter is alive again, free of disease, and filled with en­thusiasm to tell people about the Divine Presence of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. His mental state has also changed. You say and Walter agrees that he was one of the world’s champion worriers. Now Walter is calm and free of worry,” says Dr. Hislop.

The journey with Baba

Walter Cowan, too, has much to say about his death and subsequent events. He says in the tape that is now circulating in the USA, “While in the Connemara Hotel at Madras, two days after I arrived, I was taken very sick with pneumonia and was in bed. As I gasped for breath, suddenly all the body struggle was over and I died. I found my­self very calm, in a state of wonderful bliss, and the Lord, Sai Baba, was by my side. Even though my body was laid on the bed, dead, my mind kept working throughout the entire period, until Baba brought me back. There was no anxiety or fear, but a tremendous sense of well‑being, for I had lost all fear of death.”

“When Baba took me to a very large hall, there were hundreds of people milling around. It was the hall where the records of all my lives were kept. Baba and I stood before the Court of Justice. The one in charge knew Baba very well. And he asked for the records of all my lives. He was very nice and kind, and I had the feel­ing that whatever was decided would be the best for my soul.”

“The records were brought into the hall… arm‑loads of scrolls. They seemed to be in different languages. As they were read­—Baba interpreted them. In the beginning they told me of countries that have not exis­ted for thousands of years and I could not recall them. When they reached King David, the reading of my lives became more exciting. I could hardly believe how great I apparently was in each life that followed. As they continued reading my lives, it seem­ed what really counted was my motives and character, as I stood for outstanding peace, spirituality, and political activity. I do not remember all the names. but I am included in almost all the history books of the world from the beginning of time. As I incarnated in the different countries, I carried out my mission, which was peace and spirituality.”

The return

“In about two hours they finished reading the scrolls, and the Lord Sai Baba said, I had not completed the work that I was born to do, and He asked the Judge that I be turned over to Him to complete my mission of spreading the Truth. And He requested that my soul be returned to my body, under Baba’s Grace. The Judge said, “So be it.” The case was dismissed; I left, with Baba, to return to my body. I hesi­tated to leave this wonderful bliss, but I knew it was best to complete my mission so that I could merge with my Lord, Sai Baba.”

Walter Cowan says that he talked all of it over with Baba later. And, he says, “Baba said it was not my imagination, it was a true experience.” Dr. Hislop, too, asked Sri Baba if Walter had this actual experience. He writes, “Sri Baba replied, `The experience was a real experience, not an illusion. It was an experience occurring within Mr. Cowan’s own mind, and I was myself there, directing and clarifying the thoughts.’”

More light on the accountant

Dr. Hislop wanted a little more elabora­tion. He asked Baba, “if every person had a similar experience at death; Sri Baba, he says, replied, “It is not necessarily so. Some had a similar experience, and some had not.”

Dr. Hislop, in the tape referred to above, spoke also of the Hall of Judgement and its significance. He said, “Now, there is some­thing most interesting here. At the time Walter recounted his experience to my wife and myself, that day neither of you¾that is, neither Walter nor you¾had seen Volume VII of “Sathya Sai Speaks”; nor had we seen Volume VII. Yet, in Volume VII, Sri Baba made a statement about the mind, that exactly corroborates Walter’s quite independent and uniquely personal experience.

A portion of a talk given in Telugu at Prasanthi Nilayam in February 1971: “The mind plays many tricks with you, the chief of which is to foster the ego, and hide the Prompter and the Power with­in. You must have heard of an Accountant in the Court of the King of Death, Chitra­gupta, by name. He maintains a Register of the Good and the Bad done by each liv­ing being, and on death he brings the Books to Court and strikes the balance bet­ween debit and credit. Yama, the King, then metes out the punishment that can expiate and educate. This Chitragupta has his Office in the mind of man, all the time, awake, alert. The word [Chitragupta] means “Secret Picture”; what he does is to picture all the secret promptings that blossom into activity; he notes the warning signals as well as occa­sions when these signals were ignored or want­only disregarded. You must see that the warn­ing of the Divine against the merely human or even the bestial inclinations are heeded.”

The Vedic Ceremony

A few days after Mr. Cowan had fully recovered from his unique adventure, Baba called the Cowans to His Presence at Brin­davan, Whitefield. A few American devotees like Indra Devi, Dick Bock, and the Hislops were there; also, some Indian devotees like Dr. S. Bhagavantam, D.Sc. Baba blessed the reborn Mr. Cowan and his wife at what Dr. Hislop refers to as “a very beautiful and very significant Vedic Ceremony.”

He explained the meaning and purpose of the rites celebrated when persons reached the ages of 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100. He blessed the septuagenarian Mr. Cowan and his wife. Vedic hymns were recited; bhajans were sung by the American group and the students of the College at Brindavan. Baba created wedding rings and jewels for the happy couple and filled their hands with other gifts He created. He asked the Cowans to relate the story of the death and resurrection; he referred to the `call’ of distress that Mrs. Cowan raised the next day from the hospital, and the `telegram’ He sent the day when there was a relapse. He declared that when devotees whom He chose were threatened with fatal accidents or `untimely’ death, He rescued them so that they may continue to be instruments for His Task. He also said that He gave His Presence during the dying moments and showered consola­tion, courage, and comfort to devotees who had won His compassion. “They pass in peace into Me,” He said.

Truly, Bhagavan is the Highest Living Master, the Incarnation of the Lord. “Why can’t we know God?” the Cowans asked, in their anguish. They knew God. God has revealed Himself to them in all His Glory.

                                                                                                —Editor

Postscript

On May 8th, Walter Cowan wrote to the Editor [of Sanathana Sarathi], “We are delighted that you are printing the story of Sri Sathya Sai Baba bringing me back to life. Everyone seems very interested to hear this story, and it gives them encouragement to hear that there really is no death but just the loss of the physical body. It rids people of the fear of death. I am really feeling fine. Would you believe this? I have gained about 30 pounds since ‘coming back’!”

—Editor
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, June 1973