Sathya Sai Baba. Supernatural Experiences and Divine Transformation. Book Two

The world around us reveals great diversity, but at the base of this diversity lies a deep unity. One divine spirit dwells in all people. Unity and diversity are one of the greatest mysteries of the universe.

Everyone has their own purpose in life, but it is important not only to understand it, but also to realize it. Realizing your purpose in life is real success. A person who lives in harmony with the aspiration of his soul is truly happy and satisfied. A person is realized not only in deep meditative practices, but in the actions he performs physically.

The realization of one's divine potential occurs through activities in society, it can be scientific research, artistic creativity, social activities. We are all united in spirit, but in this manifested world we have incarnated as a huge number of unique individuals with our own talents and characteristics. The sun has many rays and people are like the rays of a single sun.

It is written in the Avadhuta Gita:

“For the True Self, there is no birth and death, there is no bondage, there is no liberation from bondage. Truly, each person is inherently an eternal reality and is inherently perfect. The Self is absolutely pure, I have no body, my mind is a stream of thoughts that have nothing to do with me, Self is beyond the illusion, Self calmly observe the illusion of this world. In the True Self, there is no distinction between desire and its absence, activity and inactivity. Although I am acting, there is no activity for me.”

Some mistakenly assume that the philosophy of the True Self supposedly must lead to the denial of family relationships, financial success, the implementation of social projects. Sometimes people read the books of Sathya Sai Baba or the ancient Vedic texts such as the Avadhuta Gita and make the erroneous conclusion that the contemplation of the True Self should supposedly be accompanied by complete apathy and denial of the physical and material world around them.

The question is: how do you perceive yourself and the surrounding space? Are you attached to the results of your actions? In fact, the philosophy of the True Self, on the contrary, helps to reveal dormant potentials and talents. Approaching the deep essence of his soul, a person becomes a wise creator of life.

You are incarnated with a special spiritual mission, but each person around you is also unique, and incarnated also with a special spiritual mission. No one is better or worse than you – everyone plays a role in the performance of life – all people are different, and each person is completely unique. Each person is God receiving the experience of human existence.

You live in harmony with the entire universe, complementing everything that happens around you. Realizing your purpose in life, you feel the whole world complements and helps you to realize the work you do. The unity of spirit and matter is the unity of Divine Consciousness and Cosmic Energy. Both of these aspects are inside each person, and their play and interaction give rise to the whole diversity of the universe.

36. Immaculate Conception of Sathya Sai Baba

Sometimes you have to see something to believe it. This story is about a religious man whose doubts kept him from believing the greatest miracle of all until his questions were answered by the voice of a woman.

Sathya Sai Baba once said that in ancient times the Divine Consciousness incarnated on Earth as Krishna. According to tradition, Krishna was born from a virgin birth, he entered like a flash of light into the womb of his mother. Sathya Sai Baba declared that just as Krishna incarnated on earth in ancient times, he, Sathya Sai Baba, incarnated in this world in our era.

Among those present was one of the renowned experts in the Vedic scriptures named Rama Sharma. Sathya Sai Baba's words aroused many doubts in him. He decided not to voice his doubts aloud, but all this seemed very strange and even implausible. Krishna was a divine incarnation. Rama Sharma questioned the validity of Sathya Sai Baba’s claim, asking: is Sathya Sai Baba as great and significant as Krishna?

As time passed, Rama Sharma continued to think over the strange words of Sathya Sai Baba. His doubts not only did not decrease with time but, actually, became more and more intense. He constantly pondered whether it was true that Sathya Sai Baba was the divine incarnation of our era.

Rama Sharma knew that one of the few signs of a divine incarnation is a virgin birth, just as Krishna, Buddha and Jesus were conceived. If he could find out whether Sathya Sai Baba was born in this way, then he could answer with confidence the difficult question about the authenticity of Sathya Sai Baba's divine origin.

One day, Sathya Sai Baba was sitting surrounded by a group of devotees and visitors. Rama Sharma was also present, and it was during this meeting, that he felt it a good moment to clarify the difficult issue. Gaining courage, he asked Sathya Sai Baba bluntly whether his conception was virgin or ordinary.

All those present were extremely surprised by such a strange question. In silence, they waited for Sathya Sai Baba’s answer. This story took place in the ‘60s, when Easwaramma, Sathya Sai Baba's mother, was still alive. At this particular meeting, she was sitting next to her son. Sathya Sai Baba addressed her in a mysterious voice and asked her to share about the incident which happened to her next to the well, nine months before his birth.

According to eyewitnesses, Easwaramma did not want to tell this story but Sathya Sai Baba insisted and so she agreed.

She explained how on that day, as usual, she went to the nearest well for water. Suddenly, a luminous blue ball appeared in the sky out of nowhere, which swiftly flew up to the frightened woman and entered her stomach. Immediately, she experienced an exalted spiritual state, after which she lost consciousness. An hour later, she woke up and rushed home where she told her mother-in-law what had happened. The excited mother-in-law strictly forbade Easwaramma to tell her relatives and neighbors about the event, so as not to cause speculation and ridicule. Many years later, Easwaramma first spoke about this amazing incident at the request of Sathya Sai Baba himself.

After Easwaramma told all the details of this story, Sathya Sai Baba turned to the astonished Rama Sharma and asked him if his doubts that he, Sathya Sai Baba – born of a virgin birth – had been dispelled.

Immediately after the birth of Sathya Sai Baba, many relatives and immediate neighbors clearly felt he was not an ordinary baby. In his presence, people experienced unusual spiritual states of bliss and joy, and for this reason visitors came especially to Easwaramma's house in order to glance at her newborn son.

37. Sathya Sai Baba in the Himalayas

In the early ‘60s, Sathya Sai Baba made one of his pilgrimages to the Himalayas. The most ancient and sacred city located in the upper Himalayas is Badrinath. It is hot there in summer and a lot of snow falls in winter with severe frosts making life in the mountains extremely difficult. The road leading to lowland India is closed for the entire winter season. Few people are able to live in Badrinath all year round and most pilgrims and tourists go for the summer and leave in the winter.

Badrinath is a small town nestled among snowy peaks surrounded by a few ashrams and hermitages in the gorges. In the center of the town there is an ancient temple of Lord Vishnu. Pilgrims from all over India come here to receive the blessings of the Divine. In previous eras, getting to the Badrinath area was difficult, with yogis and hermits being protected from the bustle of big cities and military conflicts.

The city of Badrinath got its name from the fact that the ancient temple of Badrinath is located there. This temple is so ancient that it is difficult to say who founded it and when. It is only known that a long time ago it was a temple of Shiva. There was a period when the temple was abandoned. In the eighth century the temple was restored by the great mystic and philosopher Shankara, who materialized the main statue of the Deity. Nearby is a sacred lake. According to legend, Shankara materialized the statue right under the water and then took it to the shore. It was Shankara who restored the temple and installed a miraculous statue there.

Some of the most significant teachers have the power to create from the world of their imagination objects that do not previously exist in the world. There were cases when Sathya Sai Baba materialized statues underground. Usually it happened like this: Sathya Sai Baba blessed a piece of land and then ordered the men to dig in the indicated place.

To the astonishment of those assembled, stone or metal statues of various Deities were dug up. Some of the statues that Sathya Sai Baba materialized in such an unusual way were small in size and some were quite large. I saw a huge statue of Ganesha that Sathya Sai Baba materialized near Bangalore in southern India.

The very fact that Sathya Sai Baba visited the Himalayas several times in his life is very curious. About five thousand years before the birth of Christ, the sage Vasistha lived in the Himalayas. His ashram was located in a cave on the banks of the sacred Ganges. Legends about this cave ashram have remained since ancient times, but no one knew where it was located.

During a trip to the Himalayas, Sathya Sai Baba pointed out the exact location of this sacred cave and gave his blessing for a small ashram to be built at the entrance to the sacred cave. Thus, the cave of the sage Vasistha was rediscovered. I have visited this beautiful place many times and have been in awe of the magnificent mountains, fast icy waters of the Ganges, fresh air, and amazing atmosphere. Anyone who comes to this fabulous place feels the beauty and power of the Himalayas.

In the ‘60s, Sathya Sai Baba visited the Himalayas several times and his route was always the same. He would come to the holy city of Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, and then he would travel with a small group of devotees up the Himalayas to Badrinath.

He spent only a week in the Himalayas and then returned back to the south of India to his ashram. The great and mysterious question is: why did Sathya Sai Baba make repeated pilgrimages to the Himalayas? This amazing region of the world is famous for the fact that great Yogis and Mahatmas have lived here since time immemorial.

38. Human and Divine

Man, constantly contemplating God, acquires unity with God.

(Sathya Sai Baba – “Stream of Divine Love”, 1993)

All the great teachers of mankind proclaimed the path of direct communication between man and God. Krishna, Buddha, Abraham, Christ, Mohammed, and Sai Baba spoke about this. At a higher level of development, a person who thinks about God, worships God, and meditates on God begins to realize his original oneness with God.

The great truth about the essence of human existence was proclaimed by Jesus, when he said: "I and my Father in heaven are one." God is the Heavenly Father of every person, and every person is a Child of God.

Self and God are originally one. This fundamental truth is proclaimed by the Vedas. In an ancient text called the Narayana Upanishad, it is said that one who knows Vishnu becomes Vishnu. Vishnu is the symbol of Absolute Consciousness. We are all one in Consciousness, and we are all Consciousness from the very beginning – we just temporarily forget about our true infinite nature.

The spiritual path is gradual and long and there is no need to wait for the result the next day. One of the greatest obstacles on the spiritual path is expecting results too quickly. Nowadays, many people want solutions to their problems instantly. There are a huge number of announcements and advertisements heralding seminars that promise to solve all your problems instantaneously.

I remember how, while walking around the outskirts of Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, I repeatedly saw advertisements for classes that claimed to help you heal from all diseases in “just three days” and to help you attain enlightenment in “just 30 days.” It sounds ridiculous, but such offers exist in large numbers, and they’re in demand. There is no such suffering or problem that you cannot be freed from as everything can be prayed for, but healing does take time.

You can talk about the unity of your "I" and God as much as you like, but only meditation practices give an actual mystical experience of higher reality. Meditation techniques help to gradually awaken latent spiritual and intellectual possibilities. You are what you think about most of the time. Man, constantly thinking about God, discovers unity with God.

The spiritual path consists of many paradoxes. In fact, it is not possible to gain unity with God because we are all originally united in God. What is actually happening is an epiphany of what is happening and always has been. "I AM God" is not an achievement, but a discovery.

39. Sathya Sai Baba visited America in a subtle body

Here is another story told to me by Subba Rao. This one is about an American, John Sinclair, who was a man of unique destiny. He was a successful businessman with a huge fortune. However, his success in business did not bring him happiness in life; in fact, the more successful his businesses became, the more he felt depressed and meaningless in his existence. One day he began to pray intensely. His prayer seemed like a spontaneous and free conversation with God.

He began to talk to God and share about his problems, internal conflicts, and spiritual doubts. He did not know who God was or what he looked like, but he clearly felt his presence. There was a clear feeling that some unknown cosmic force was attentively and silently listening to the cry for help from the depths of his heart.

John Sinclair communicated with the "unknown God" for several evenings. A week later, he felt his life changing in a strange way, as if some invisible hand was protecting and guiding him at every step. One night he heard strange footsteps in the living room of his house. Without turning on the light, he cautiously walked through the darkness to see who was walking there. He could feel the presence of someone in the living room, but no one was visible. The strangest thing was that Sinclair had no feelings of fear. On the contrary, he experienced a surge of joy and bliss.

For most, the feeling that some invisible person is walking around in your house would most likely give rise to horror and panic, but Sinclair felt the complete opposite. The next night the strange experience was repeated. Sinclair tried to visit several spiritual centers to discover who exactly could’ve visited him.

In one of the spiritual centers of New York, Sinclair met a man who suggested that, most likely, it was Sathya Sai Baba, a great spiritual teacher from India. Gradually, Sinclair felt a deep spiritual connection with Sathya Sai Baba and wanted to meet him personally. For a long time, this did not happen due to employment and affairs that constantly prevented Sinclair from going to India. After some time, he finally managed to go and meet with Sathya Sai Baba. During their personal communication, Sathya Sai Baba told Sinclair how he visited his house several times at night. With this confirmation, Sinclair was happy. Sathya Sai Baba told Sinclair how he protected him from many dangers and sent blessings. Sinclair felt and understood this was true because he experienced all of this in his own experience.

After that, Sathya Sai Baba said he had a request to ask of Sinclair. Sinclair was very grateful to Sathya Sai Baba for his help and blessings, so he was ready to donate any amount of money, but Sathya Sai Baba did not mean money. Looking closely at Sinclair, Sathya Sai Baba asked Sinclair to always be happy. These words of Sathya Sai Baba shocked the American and instantly he felt the deepest love and sincerity coming from Sathya Sai Baba.

In the early ‘90s, Sinclair once said he was raised in the Christian tradition and since childhood had worried about being born two thousand years after Jesus lived. He always dreamed of meeting a divine teacher and when he saw Sathya Sai Baba, he realized his dream had come true.

40. "I Am I"

The physical heart is on the left side and the spiritual heart is on the right side.

(Sathya Sai Baba – “Lectures at Kodaikanal”, 1996)

Of all the quotes I have chosen from Sathya Sai Baba's books, this one is perhaps the most important and practically necessary for meditation. The True Self is the original source from which everything arises.

In this book, we discuss in several chapters the most important topic of the Spiritual Heart, which is located on the right side of the body. It may seem strange to repeat the same thing several times, but Sathya Sai Baba, during his long life, regularly spoke in lectures, as well as during personal meetings, that the Spiritual Heart is on the right side. Therefore, correct meditation should be directed precisely at this mysterious point.

In Kriya Yoga Meditation tradition, we use affirmation to help us concentrate on truth about our Supreme Self.

"I Am" in everything and everything is in Me.

The Self is outside of time and space, Self is the source of time and space, "I Am" at every moment of time and at every point in space.

"I Am" is here and now, "I Am" is always in the beginningless past, and "I Am" is always in the eternal future.

Self is embodied in the temple of the physical body.

"I was" before the appearance of the physical body and "I Am" after the disappearance of the physical body.

"I Am" in wakefulness, in dreams and in deep sleep, in dying, in reincarnation and in eternity.

"I Am” unborn and immortal, primordial and eternal.

The Absolute Self corresponds to the Spiritual Heart, which is located on the right side of the body. In Sanskrit, the Spiritual Heart is called Hrideyam. Over and over, we ruminate on this most important point in the body. It is in the Spiritual Heart that the actual mystical experience of "I Am I" takes place.

In the great Vedic formula of "I Am I" there is a double "I" to indicate the simultaneous existence of the absolute and individual reality of "I". At every moment of time, "I" am both the Absolute "I" and the individual "I". At every moment of time, "I" am simultaneously God and man.

41. Sathya Sai Baba may use force to help the devotees

In the south of India lives a man named, Anantappa. He has been a follower of Sathya Sai Baba for many years. Anantappa's devotion and love for Sathya Sai Baba is surprisingly deep and sincere. Every day, he practices mantras, prayers, and meditations, and constantly feels the invisible presence of his Sathya Sai Baba.

One day Sathya Sai Baba gave Anantappa his photograph. Anantappa placed the photo on the home altar, and after a while, sacred ash began to materialize from it. Sacred ash in Sanskrit is called "Vibhuti", it is a symbol of the eternity of the spirit and a reminder of the impermanence of all material things.

The word "Vibhuti" also means "revelation", because "Vibhuti" is not just ashes, but something special that carries a philosophical message. Sacred ash has the power to heal people from disease and protect them from negative energy influences. It can even help people to achieve their goals and plans.

Usually, sacred ashes are kept in small boxes on the home altar or carried in a pocket in a bag. I know many stories of people receiving healing through using sacred ash. If health problems arise, it is smeared like an ointment on that part of the body where there is disease. Sacred ash can be diluted with water and drunk, and there are many cases of people receiving solutions to their problems after regularly drinking a solution of sacred ash.

Ordinary ashes are prepared by burning various ingredients, but Sathya Sai Baba's ashes are especially famous because they are not man-made. Sathya Sai Baba materialized sacred ash during personal communication and gave it to people as a token of blessing; there are also cases today still when sacred ash materializes from his photographs. This amazing miracle is happening in the homes of devotees in different parts of the world, not only in India, but also in Europe, America, and Russia. When such a miracle happens, people go to the blessed home to see the miracle of divine revelation.

According to tradition, the hosts must necessarily distribute part of the sacred ashes to all who visit. Such a miracle blesses not only the family living in the house, but also their friends. People began to visit Anantappa's house in order to receive blessings and some sacred ash.

Anantappa had a problem with his daughter's husband. He was a rude and suspicious man who constantly suspected his wife of infidelity. It got to the point that he just locked her in a room. It was impossible to live in such conditions, so the unfortunate woman declared they should go to Sathya Sai Baba so that he could confirm her devotion to her husband, and if not, she promised to commit suicide right in the ashram.

Anantappa went to Sathya Sai Baba with his daughter and son-in-law. During a personal meeting, Sathya Sai Baba confirmed that the woman was honest with her husband, but the husband did not believe him and even began to speak rudely and disrespectfully to him. Sathya Sai Baba ordered him out of the room and promised Anantappa and his daughter that everything would be fine in the future.

Anantappa stayed at the ashram with his daughter and son-in-law for a few days. During that time, the conflict within the family grew as the son-in-law continued to swear and now accuse Sathya Sai Baba of being a cheat. Anantappa was annoyed, and so when they boarded the train home, Anantappa decided he and his daughter would ride in the same compartment, while the son-in-law would ride in one nearby.

Not long into the journey, Anantappa heard the loud, panicked cries of his son-in-law. Quickly, Anantappa ran into the compartment along with the conductor. They saw a frightened son-in-law lying on the floor, alive, but badly beaten. Who could’ve attacked his son-in-law in the closed compartment? When the son-in-law calmed down and came to his senses, he said that Sathya Sai Baba appeared out of thin air in his compartment and beat him hard on the cheeks and then scolded him for not respecting his wife and not trusting her fidelity. Of course, no one could doubt the words of the son-in-law because he was physically quite beaten. After this incident, the son-in-law immediately believed in the divine powers of Sathya Sai Baba and completely changed his attitude toward his wife.

If simple persuasion fails, the Avatar can use force to change the situation. Such incidents have happened many times in the history of mankind. In ancient times, divine teachers such as Rama Avatar and Krishna could quite physically bring down their wrath on the demons. Jesus also physically drove out the merchants from the temple in Jerusalem. An ordinary person's anger is a manifestation of weakness and ignorance. However, the justified anger of divine teachers, such as Sathya Sai Baba, is a manifestation of love and compassion, and it is a great blessing. Sathya Sai Baba is the embodiment of divine love and great compassion, therefore, any of his actions are based on wisdom and love.

It may seem to us that if Sathya Sai Baba helps only “good” people and punishes “evil” ones, then this is right and just. But who are the “good” and the “evil”? Who determines whether a person is "good" or "bad"? The True Self of each person is divine and in the True Self we are all in unity. It is easy to accept that the True Self of Saint Mother Teresa and Saint Seraphim of Sarov is divine but are you ready to accept that the True Self of Adolf Hitler and Leon Trotsky is also divine, although crushed by ignorance and selfishness.

The Avatar comes to this world not only to help spiritual seekers, but also to put demons on the spiritual path. By the way, the mission of the Avatar also includes blessing not only people, but also animals. For example, in the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba there was a small zoo in which deer and an elephant lived. Sathya Sai Baba regularly visited his zoo to bless the animals.