Arthur Hillcoat

Arthur said to me a couple of years ago, "Not very long for the body now. And when it happens, I want you to come and talk." He said, "I want you to come and tell them about this beggar. Tell them what you saw." And he said this with such purity and simplicity, it made you weep.

And in the time since then, he's reminded me twice again of this, the last being just seven days before his passing, when I had come up to see him. And he said, "Do you remember?" I said, "Yes." And so in obedience to that loving command that he laid upon me, I'm here, to talk about the Arthur that I knew, that I know.

In our Indian philosophy, in the system of philosophy, we have the greatest honor that can ever be given to a human being, and he is called a Maharishi, the great sage. And that is always how I've referred to Arthur: the great sage, the Maharishi of Mount Tamborine.

While all of us are still struggling to understand the truth of who we are, Arthur finished what he had come to do in this earth. There was nothing left for him to do.

Throughout his life, Arthur went around meeting sages and saints with utter humility, and it didn't occur to him why they treated him as their equal. He was beloved of all of them, each and every one of them, right down to the last person that he met last year. And every one of them treated him as though he was on par with them, because that was the truth. And yet he knelt down humbly. And Swami looked at him and saw himself there. Yogi Ramsuratkumar looked and saw himself there. The Babaji of the Himalayas saw himself reflected in Arthur. That's the Maharishi that I've come to speak about, from my own personal experience.

I've heard Arthur speak many, many times when I was in Prasanthi, and I understood not one word of what he said then. The accent was too difficult for me to follow.

And in 2006, when he had come down to Melbourne for the national conference, it was the morning and he was speaking, and I was sitting right at the back of the hall. "Oh, it's Arthur Hillcoat. I wouldn't understand anything he says." And I truly can't remember anything that he said except for one thing. That one thing went in and never has been forgotten. He said, "All that you see is God."

He said that, and that moment I realized, I understood, that I was in the presence of a jñānī, of an enlightened master. No humble devotee, Arthur. No mere human being, Arthur. Arthur is on par with Ramana Maharshi, with Nisargadatta Maharaj, with Yogi Ramsuratkumar, with all of those giants. He is a full-blown jñānī, the master, an enlightened master. This is the Arthur that I saw.

Even as the talk was going, I couldn't listen to anything else, but I wanted to go and talk to him. I wanted to go close to him. And I didn't know how to do it, because I didn't know if he would know me. And there was the break, and I walked up during that break, and I stood there at a distance, and I didn't know what to say. I went and said Sairam to him, and I felt cheap to introduce myself in front of him. His silence was so overpowering, his love was so real, that to even utter a few words about myself would have been to have tarnished that moment. So I just looked at him, and I didn't know what to say. And he looked at me with compassion in his eyes, and he said, "Ah," and he put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, "I have been waiting for you."

And seeing that absolutely puzzled look on my face, he added, "You're speaking this evening, aren't you? I'm looking forward to listening to you." I was also speaking that evening, but I hadn't known that he would know me, because there was nothing distinctive about me then. I didn't even know that he knew me. Or did he? I'm still not sure whether he knew me by name or whether it was something else that spoke then.

And even in those few moments, I wanted to ask him that one question that I had in my heart. And there was everyone there at tea time, and I didn't know if I could have a few minutes alone with him. And the minute this thought crossed my mind, he put his arm again around my shoulder and gently led me away from the crowd. And we went out of that little place where tea was being served. There was a little garden, there's a bridge that went across at that university. It is frozen in my mind, in my heart. He took me across that bridge, very symbolically.

And there he gave his entire attention to me, and I asked him this question. I said, "Uncle Arthur, I've known everything that is to be known intellectually … but to go beyond, into that thoughtless state," in which Arthur always was. And I said, "What do I need to do more to get there?" And this compassionate sage looked into my eyes, and he said to me, "Do nothing." And he said, "Softly, softly, catchy monkey."

The Upaniṣads have many great statements in them. The Vedas have many great statements in them. Wise men down the ages have made wonderful scriptural statements of great importance. The Bible is full of them. The Quran is full of them. But to me, the greatest words that were ever uttered were this: "Softly, softly, catchy monkey." Because right then, an explosion of consciousness took place in his very presence. That is the great enlightened master that Arthur is.

I remember another incident, when we had gone to Adelaide for a retreat. And Arthur spoke. And when he spoke, he came towards the end, and he said that we must all realize who we are. And he paused, and he said, "And I know who you are." And as many of us who have attended his talks know, that when he comes to that particular spot, he goes into a rapture. He looked at all of us, and he said, "You are love." And his whole body trembled, and he went into this absolute silence.

And that silence infected every single person that was sitting there. No one could speak after that. Arthur couldn't speak after that. No one could speak after that. When that session came to a close, I saw every single person that had gathered there walk away in silence, walk away singly into the distance in silence. Nobody wanted to come back for the next session. That was how profound that silence was.

Arthur spoke and said the same things over and over and over again. I think when Arthur started speaking, most of us knew what he was going to say next: the exact words even, the exact jokes, the exact pauses. If you've heard him long enough, you would know everything. And recently, when a young girl had gone up to see him, he said to her, "Oh, they think Arthur says the same thing again and again. But, love, if only they got it the first time."

But he didn't give up. He never gave up. And he kept telling us the same truth again and again, that there are no others. He kept saying again and again, "Be the love that you are." He kept saying again and again, "Only God exists."

Every time we saw Arthur and we had to go away, or when he had to go away, he would say, "There's no place as far away." And today, of all those days, we really need to understand the truth of that statement. There is really no place as far away, Arthur. You're in our hearts always.

And he would say too, "Know that even when these bodies are gone, our love will remain." What a true statement, because that love is what has brought us here.

We all thought him to be an ordinary human being, a friendly human being, a loving human being, a perfect devotee. But to me, he'll always be a master, a Maharishi.

That evening, when I was to give my talk, he came and held me by my hand and made me sit beside him at the conference. And when they announced my name and I got up, he held my hand, and he said, "Don't worry, I will be with you." And even as I walked up the steps to the stage, I was wondering, what manner of a man could this be, that tells me, "Don't worry, I will be with you"?

Those are words I've heard Swami say. Those are words I've heard Swami say: "Do not worry, I'll be with you." And I heard Arthur say that, and I said, "Is this Swami speaking through Arthur?" And that's really, truly what I believed then. I really, truly and truly believed that then, that Swami spoke through Arthur that day and said, "I will be with you."

But in the years to come, I realized, no, it wasn't Swami speaking through Arthur, because there wasn't any difference between Swami and Arthur. There had to be a difference if Swami had to speak through Arthur. Yes, Swami had said that to Arthur. Swami said, "I will speak with you, I will speak through you." But I think somewhere down the line, both of them forgot that difference. I think that's how, with all good intentions, they started. Swami said, "I will speak through you, Arthur." And somewhere down the line, both of them dissolved the difference that existed between the two of them. At some point in time, they became as one. And that is why the love that emanated from Arthur was the exact same love that always was received by us from Swami. There wasn't any difference. There wasn't any change.

And I've gone around telling people everywhere, even in India, that do not think that India's got the monopoly on enlightened sages anymore. We have one in Australia, in our own backyard. Forgive me for calling Queensland backyard, but it was more in this general sense of speaking. But we have a homegrown jñānī, I said to them. We have an enlightened master living up in the mountain of Tamborine.

One can't do justice to Arthur by just speaking about him. Arthur is far too precious to be encased in mere words. And even when he spoke, it was the silence behind those words that we really were meant to listen to. Not his words, not his words. It was the silence that resonated, resounded behind those words. Even as he was speaking, he did not budge an inch from that silence, from the love that he truly was, the love that he knew we truly were. And so Arthur was never speaking to us. Arthur was speaking to himself. In fact, Arthur wasn't speaking at all, if you can understand that. Arthur simply was.

Like any great master, Arthur could take even the most mundane of things and make a beautiful lesson out of it. And he used to narrate this little story, of how he had gone to a party, and someone walked up and said, "Arthur, that beard on your face, what a wonderful addition it is to you." And a few moments later, another lady walked up and said, "Arthur, when are you getting rid of that hideous thing on your face?" And Arthur said, "This beard can teach you a great spiritual truth. It is neither good nor bad. It simply is."

And so today, Arthur's passing, Arthur's merging into that infinite: neither good nor bad. It simply is. For us to accept, for us to embrace, for us to find our beloved Maharishi in us, within us, to become one with him, because to become one with him is to become one with Sai. They are not different. We are not different either. He's realized it. It is time for us to wake up and realize that too. And that would be the best memoriam, the best tribute. Not words, but that realization is the best tribute to Uncle Arthur.

Much love, as he would say. Sairam.