How Arthur Osborne got directed by Ramana Maharshi in dream to write the book, The Incredible Sai Baba (on Shirdi Sai); Free pdf link for the book

South India's relationship to the English and British in general, is quite fascinating. Yes, it was British imperialism that materially exploited South India, like it exploited all of India. But there were quite a few good English and other British folks who really liked India and did good work in India.

Arthur Osborne, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Osborne_(writer), and family is one such English family who have made great contributions to spiritual literature in English in India, mostly about Ramana Maharshi as the family were his devotees, but also about Shirdi Sai Baba.

The Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/Sri.Ramana.Maharshi.Teachings%20/photos/a.517844091601806/2813656515353874/  has a large extract from Ramana Periya Puranam about Arthur Osborne. The extract seems to have been authored by Shri V. Ganesan, grand nephew of Ramana Maharshi, https://www.aham.com/usa/sharing/v_ganesan.html.

Some points covered in the extract are:

1. Arthur Osborne came to Ramana Maharshi/Bhagavan in 1945 (and so was with living form of Ramana Maharshi/Bhagavan for only 5 years as Ramana gave up his body in 1950).  [Note that Ramana Maharshi is also referred to as Bhagavan Ramana.]

2. Osborne played a major role in spreading Ramana Maharshi's spiritual message of Atma Vichara - Self Enquiry - all over the world through his writings in English.

3. After Ramana Maharshi gave up his body, he instructed Osborne through dreams.

4. The article states, "He (Arthur Osborne) had the rare combination of intellectual clarity, intuition and poetical ability to express what he had already experienced. It was as though the direct teaching of Bhagavan was broken and simplified in the prism of this chosen direct disciple's true understanding and handed down to all those who have a lesser capacity to grasp it. Arthur Osborne's devotion to Bhagavan was complete and he gave to Bhagavan his whole life together with his many and varied talents. All these he gave without any reserve and without any thought of himself."

5. Osborne was born in London in 1906, and studied in Oxford where he did brilliantly winning ten gold medals. From his mother, Osborne inherited great interest in gardening and poetry.

6. From childhood, Osborne sought the deeper and higher purpose of life, and the meaning of life.

7. He was inspired by Jesus Christ's words, "He who seeks shall find."

8. He came under influence of French philosopher Rene Guenon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Gu%C3%A9non, and his teaching of "Being is one".

9. He got married to a lady who had similar quest for the truth.

10. He got a job in the University of Bangkok in Thailand and took his family of wife and three children there.

11. A member of Rene Guenon group sent him a photo of Ramana Maharshi and two of his books. Both Osborne and his wife were captivated by the photograph of Ramana Maharshi and wanted to go to India to meet him.

12. His wife and children were taken by the above mentioned member of Rene Guenon group to Ramana Maharshi/Bhagavan but Osborne had to go back to Bangkok (they had come to India for a few weeks) for this job.

13. The Second World War broke out and the Japanese arrested Osborne (in Bangkok) and imprisoned him for three and a half years. Osborne's only solace in prison was Ramana Maharshi's picture and 2 books.

14. Osborne's wife and children continued to have Ramana Maharshi's darshan and seem to have been based in India while Osborne was in prison in Thailand.

15. In prison, Osborne was once taken to be shot (executed). When he was taken in front of the firing squad, he closed his eyes and Ramana Maharshi's/Bhagavan's picture came to his mind then. For some unknown reason, the Japanese released him and sent him to a concentration camp.

16. Osborne's wife and children were praying for Osborne's release. [One of his children, Adam Osborne, was a computer pioneer and became famous for "the Osborne 1, the first commercially successful portable computer", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Osborne. He died in 2003 in Kodaikanal at age 64 (he returned to India in 1992 as his health began declining - brain disorder leading to minor strokes - and was cared for by his sister). Guardian obituary of him: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/mar/27/guardianobituaries.jackschofield.]

17. After the second world war got over, Osborne was released. When Osborne came to Arunachala (Tiruvannamalai) after release, he was mentally debilitated as he had been tortured in the concentration camp (intellectuals were tortured to brainwash them).

18. He could recognize only his wife. The article states:

She (his wife) came crying to Bhagavan (Ramana). Bhagavan told her, “Please bring Osborne here morning and evening and make him sit where I can see him.” This happened till he became completely alright and even afterwards. Osborne told me, “Bhagavan saw to it that I sat where he could see me. One day, when two or three people came and sat between me and Bhagavan, he even asked those people to sit elsewhere so that he could see me, which was very, very unusual for him.”

However, Bhagavan did not reveal himself to Osborne on the very first day. Some days later, on a festive occasion, Bhagavan concentrated his attention on Osborne and the change came with all its immensity. This is how Osborne describes it: “Bhagavan sat up facing me and his luminous eyes pierced into me, penetrating intimately with an intensity which I cannot describe. Then arose from within, a quietness, a depth of peace and an indescribable lightness and happiness.” This is what is written in the book. What Arthur Osborne himself told me was, “Two search lights came into my body and then divinized every cell in it and that was the first initiation and the first realization”.
---end extract ---

19. The British government offered all British prisoners of war in India to be accommodated in Britain with all comforts. Messages about this were sent to Arthur Osborne and family in Arunachala (Tiruvannamalai). But they turned that down. [After Ramana gave up the body in 1950, it seems that part of the family relocated to Britain, including Adam Osborne who, as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Osborne, joined a Catholic boarding school in Warwickshire, England at age of 11, which would mean in or around 1950 as Adam Osborne was born in 1939. He had studied till 6th class (standard) in a Convent school in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India.]

20. Osborne had to earn some money to support his family and so took up a job as an editor in a reputed daily newspaper in Chennai. He took an oil portait of Bhagavan to Bhagavan Ramana which the latter blessed saying, "Osborne is taking swami with him." Osborne got inspiration from this oil portrait of Bhagavan while at work in Chennai.

21. Osborne would come to Tiruvannamalai on holidays and other free days.

22. An extract from the article:
Bhagavan continued to bless Osborne to be deeply and steadily rooted within the Heart. The purpose of the outer guru is to awaken the inner guru. The fateful day when Bhagavan passed away, Osborne was there. It did not fill him with sorrow. Instead, it only made him plunge within. He felt Bhagavan's grace more abundantly and his support more powerfully. Some days after Bhagavan dropped the body, Bhagavan appeared to him in his dream. In the dream, Osborne was in the Old Hall and Bhagavan asked him to come near the couch. Osborne went and knelt before Bhagavan and Bhagavan put his hands on Osborne's head in blessing. When Bhagavan put his hand on his head, he had a feeling that Bhagavan was asking him to write about his direct teaching. He then wrote seven articles. They were brought out later as a book titled Ramana Arunachala. Every one of us, every seeker should read this book. That was the beginning. Soon, a cascade of books started coming from Osborne: Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self Knowledge, The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, The Teachings of the Maharshi in His Own Words, The Incredible Sai Baba, Rhythm of History, Buddhism and Christianity in the Light of Hinduism, Gautama the Buddha, The Question of Progress and a few more.
--- end extract ---
[Ravi: Hmm. It is very interesting for me to note that the many books that Arthur Osborne wrote on Ramana Maharshi as well as the book on Shirdi Sai Baba, were written ***after*** Ramana Maharshi gave up his body, and that Osborne would get dreams of Ramana Maharshi, and in at least one dream he felt that Ramana Maharshi was asking him to write about his teachings. Also of interest, is that initial writings of Osborne on Ramana's teachings were articles, which later got made into a book.]

23. Osborne moved to Calcutta in 1952 taking up a job there. The article states:
Osborne had his second awakening in Calcutta. This is how he described it: “I was alone in my Calcutta room when I woke up and sat up in bed and I just was my Self, the beginningless immutable Self, and I thought that nothing has changed. There was no excitement, no joy or ecstasy. In the wholeness of simple being, there was the thought that it was impossible ever to be bored. The mind seemed like a dark screen that had shut over consciousness and was now rolled up and pushed away. It is the mind that craves activity and feels bored when it does not get it. The Self is untouched by activity and abides in its pristine state of simple happiness. I do not know how long the experience lasted, and in any case, while it lasted it was timeless and therefore eternal. Imperceptibly, the mind closed over again but less opaque, for a radiant happiness continued.

The afterglow continued for several weeks only gradually fading out.”
--- end extract ---

24. The article states:
When he (Osborne) was in Calcutta, his friends were all talking about the Sai Baba of Shirdi. He had read one or two articles about him. Some of his friends wanted him to write an article on Sai Baba, but he was reluctant to do so. That night, Bhagavan appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to write on Shirdi Sai Baba.

When in the dream Osborne confessed that he did not know much about him, Bhagavan instructed him to go to the shrine and that Sai Baba would himself tell him what to write. Bhagavan specifically said, “Sai Baba should be known to the western world so you have to write.” This was the inspiration for him to go to Shirdi and write the book, The Incredible Sai Baba.
--- end extract ---
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Ravi: I think I read Osborne's Incredible Sai Baba (about Shirdi Sai Baba) in the 1990s. I was hugely impressed by it. It was written in a different Western matter-of-fact style from Shirdi Sai Satcharita, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Satcharitra, which is the famous & official book on Shirdi Baba by Govind Dabholkar, and is deeply devotional to Shirdi Sai Baba. I really lapped up Osborne's book on Shirdi Sai Baba then. Here's a free pdf version of the book: https://muddypractice.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/the-incredible-sai-baba-arthur-osborne.pdf. I have downloaded it and plan to read it again, a few pages at a time.

Point 24 in the above extracts of aforementioned Facebook post/article give us the background to Arthur Osborne writing about Shirdi Sai Baba (who he had never seen). The foreword which seems to be by Swami Ramdas of Anand Ashram, Kerala in 1957 states:

It is perfectly true, as the author [Arthur Osborne] remarks, that Sri Sai Baba [Shirdi Sai Baba], although well known all over India, is not known outside India, especially in the Western countries. The author wishes to introduce him to the Western world. With this laudable object in view he has written this book which contains Sri Sai Baba's brief life, teachings and anecdotes. Although Sri Sai Baba's life, as depicted in the book based on authentic reports of his devotees, is strange and eccentric, no one who has come in contact with him and his devotees can deny the fact that he was, and Ramdas can say he is, a saint of the highest spiritual eminence."

--- end extract from foreword ---

Ravi: For me, Shirdi Sai Baba and Sathya Sai Baba are two of the three Sai Avatars and so much more than saints. But it's OK that Osborne (and Ramdas) did not view Shirdi Sai Baba as an Avatar, while writing the book. It gives the book a more matter-of-fact and genuine chronicle character.

I bow in reverence and gratitude to Englishman Arthur Osborne and his family for the great service he has done through the books on spirituality (on Ramana Maharshi and Shirdi Sai Baba) he has written.
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In my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2694701814079712, associated with this blog post, through a comment one person thanked me for sharing "this beautiful and inspiring story" and wrote that I had made her Christmas.

I responded (slightly edited): Sairam! I am so glad to have been of some small spiritual service to you. I wish you a holy and happy Christmas.
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[I thank  Facebook user Sri Ramana Maharshi Teachings. श्री रमण महर्षि के उपदेश and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their article/post on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]