Page 323 - WLMIG_6132004.indd

isolation. The love and power of God that he felt enabled him to become sober. He learned about the importance of values when taking a personal moral inventory (one of the steps in AA) and recognized the conflict and disunity in his own thoughts, words, and deeds. Although he believed in high values, his past actions had undermined them. Disunity interfered with feelings of integrity and peacefulness. He saw that sharing his feelings with a trusted person could help him trust more in himself. With the courage to face himself and follow his conscience, he gained respect and love for himself, for others, and for God. Bill was on his spiritual path.
As a psychiatrist, I had not seen someone with a more severe case of alcoholism undergo such a dramatic change. From being demoralized and physically, psychologically, and spiritually dissipated, he was literally brought back to life, and within a short while, he even stopped his compulsive smoking of four packs of cigarees a day. When I asked him how he did it, he said, “It’s not me; it’s Him.” Pointing skyward, he knew that he was not the doer. It was God.
Devotion and God’s Protection
Bill knew of my interest in Sai Baba and began asking about him. He started going to Sai meetings and reading Sai literature. A real turning point happened a few years ago, when he was 72 years old. His closest friends were his two cats, Squeaky and Sheba. Squeaky became ill, had a swollen face, discharge from his eyes and mouth, and shortness of breath, and was very weak. The veterinarian kept the cat under close observation while using intravenous fluids and strong antibiotics. It seemed that Squeaky’s kidneys were affected and his heart was failing. Bill’s closest friend was dying, and Bill was very sad. Then he told me about a visit from Swami.
While siing in his living room, almost immobilized by the sadness of the anticipated loss, Bill felt an unusual presence. He looked up, and there was Swami in physical form. Sai Baba
323