Signs, Strange And Significant

Sathya Sai Baba

Signs, Strange And Significant

In the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney, Australia, I have a number of friends, most of them followers of Sathya Sai Baba. I would not have called Peter a Sai devotee at the time of this episode, but he was certainly interested in Sai Baba and perhaps it was to encourage this interest that Rocky Bugmann, an active member of the Sai centre in the mid mountains, gave Peter a very attractive, good-sized photograph of Sathya Sai Baba. Without framing it, Peter stuck the photograph on the wall of his bedroom in a position that allowed him to see it easily while he was lying in bed. Incidentally, Peter is a bachelor of middle age and lives alone except for his four legged friend, a dog named Adam. Perhaps Adam acquired that name because of his hatred of snakes. Adam of the Garden of Eden had no reason to love the reptile, for it was because of a snake that he was thrown out of paradise into the wide and terrible world.

Although Peter has a large house, he usually allows Adam to spend the night on the floor of his bedroom. It may have been no more than one or two nights after he had hung the picture that the strange phenomena began. While Peter was lying comfortably in bed with the light on, gazing intently at the photo of Sathya Sai Baba, it suddenly became three dimensional, that is, it stood out an inch or so from the wall. At the same time, the image of Sathya Sai Baba changed to a man who appeared to be an historical character. Judging, Peter said, from his clothes, style of hair and beard, he belonged to history but Peter could not identify him. After a while the photograph went flat against the wall again and Sathya Sai Baba was there. For the next five or six nights, the photo of Sathya Sai Baba played the same strange tricks, the only difference being that it was not the same person who appeared in place of Sathya Sai Baba. Each night there was a different one, always appearing to be someone from an earlier period of history and never identifiable by Peter. Peter was quite fascinated but puzzled. It must be some sign to him from Sathya Sai Baba but he could not figure out what it was meant to tell him. And who could help him? The only other person in the room to see this pantomime was Adam the dog, and he seemed quite unaffected by the strange antics of the picture.

Then came the night when, instead of another human being appearing in the three dimensional photograph, in the place of Sathya Sai Baba came a large cobra. It was raised and its hood was spread as if about to strike its victim. Peter was horrified. This, he thought, is a symbol of evil and he immediately turned out the bedroom light but it was a long time before he could go to sleep. He, like many followers of the Christian faith, perhaps through the myth of the Garden of Eden, regards snakes as an animal cursed by God and therefore evil. At last he fell asleep. No dreams came to help him with his problem and as soon as he woke in the early hours before full daylight came, he got out of bed with the intention of removing the picture. But it was not on the wall anymore. Knowing that he had not stuck it to the wall very securely, he looked on the floor below where the photo had been hanging. It was not far away but ripped into many small pieces. This must have been the work of Adam the dog who was lying near the heap, as if to protect his master from any evil that may remain in the torn-up picture. Peter gathered the pieces and burned them.

It was not many days after this that Peter informed Rocky and myself about the episode, about what had happened to the photograph. Both of us assured him separately that to Sathya Sai Baba, who is an incarnation of Lord Siva and his consort Parvati or Shakti, snakes are certainly not evil, just the reverse really. Illustrations of Lord ..Siva often show him with a necklace of snakes around his neck. They are one of his symbols and he has, indeed, appeared as a cobra to a number of people at his ashrams, including myself. The one that appeared to me was a beautiful white cobra in the garden at Brindavan. It had behaved more like a friend than an enemy of man. Peter understood readily and happily. He was very pleased when Rocky gave him another photograph. But he had had his ration of signs and wonders and the second photograph behaved as photos are expected to.

I think that Peter would now call himself a Sai devotee. There are, of course, many different brands and types of devotees and they meander to the feet of our Lord by many strange but interesting routes.

* * *

The Sai signs that came to the married couple, Syd and Karen Paterson were also strange and certainly significant. The Patersons live near me in the Blue Mountains and I regard them as earnest devotees who are making good progress on the Sai path that leads back to God. Strangely, they too witnessed some Sai photograph leelas but, unlike Peter, it was after they were already Sai devotees. It was in this case a framed photograph hanging on the wall of their sitting room. One day when they were sitting discussing Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings while looking at the photograph on the wall, it began to play some strange antics. It would, for example, move along the wall to left or right and sometimes seemed to come away from the wall towards them. At other times bright lights would appear around the photo, bright pink or green or just white light. Of course, they told each other what they were seeing after it had happened but to test that it was just not a fault in eyesight, they decided to tell one another at the time of the happening. For example, Syd might say, “The colour has turned to silver,” or, “The photograph is moving along the wall to the right,” and Karen would confirm that she was seeing the same thing. Then Karen might say what was happening and Syd would agree that he was seeing the same thing. So they decided that what they saw was actually happening and believed it to be a sign of God’s presence in their lives.

Other signs also came to them separately. For example, Syd who is a painter by trade, one day – and all day – during his work saw the face of Sathya Sai Baba appear on whatever surface he was painting, perhaps a door or a wall or a cupboard. This gave him great joy and he had a wonderful day.

Another sign that he spoke to me about was that one day he suddenly experienced adwaitha or non-duality – everything was one. This brought him a great feeling of bliss, an uplift of consciousness. Unfortunately, he said, this did not last all day but just for a short period. Nevertheless he has remembered it always and knows that the truth of Being, lies beyond what we see with our eyes and is in truth, oneness of all life.

Later on, about the middle of the year 1990, Syd had his first dream of Sathya Sai Baba and it was to him a very important prophetic dream. It remained very vivid in his memory. He told me that it seemed to begin with him standing talking to a neighbour who had lived next door to him in a Sydney suburb. Suddenly they saw the form of Sai Baba on the opposite side of the street standing on the pavement. Sathya Sai Baba had a white robe on, said Syd, but I don’t know whether he was aware at the time that white is the colour of mourning in India. Whether or not he understood the significance of the colour white, Syd knew instinctively that the old overcoat that Sathya Sai Baba had swung across his shoulder, represented the body of his own father. Sathya Sai Baba gave them a smile and a wave and moved off down the street. Syd was so full of his strong feelings that he omitted to return the wave but the neighbour did so, remarking something about Sathya Sai Baba being the head of some weird cult in India. Syd did not answer but remembered thinking, “If only you knew the truth!” At the first intersection, Sathya Sai Baba turned as if to go along the cross street but instead he faced up towards Syd and his friend and gave another wave. This time, both men returned the wave and Sathya Sai Baba vanished.

It was a sad dream for Syd because he felt sure that Sathya Sai Baba was giving him a sign that his father, who was very sick in a nursing home hospital, would not last very long. Thinking about this, Syd prayed earnestly to Sathya Sai Baba to be granted four boons. The first was that the hospital would warn him of the approaching death in sufficient time for him to let his old mother know, so that she, who was living in the same nursing home would get there in time for his father’s passing. The second was that he, himself, would manage to be present in the bedroom of his father at the actual time of his passing. The third was that his father would have a peaceful end with no pain and the fourth was that Syd would be aware of the actual moment his father left his body. Perhaps this was asking a lot, he thought, but felt sure that somehow Sathya Sai Baba would grant his wishes.

It was not long after this that the call came from the hospital telling him that his father’s condition had deteriorated so rapidly they were sure he did not have long to live. So Syd had time not only to warn his mother but also his brother. That morning they were all sitting in Father’s ward. Brother had brought along his wife too, but Syd had not brought Karen because at this time they were just at the very beginning of their friendship and Karen did not know his parents. The patient did not seem to be aware of their presence. He was sleeping peacefully with no apparent pain and so the hours dragged by, with a nurse coming in about every half hour or so to check the patient’s condition, which seemed to indicate to Syd that the end was not far away.

After a few hours of watching, mainly in silence, Syd felt that his mother, who was unwell herself, was looking as if she needed a rest. So he advised her to go to her room and lie down for half an hour then he would call her. She went and the brother, who had some urgent business to attend to, left too with his wife. Syd was left alone with his thoughts. His good father, for whom he felt great love, was still alive, breathing quietly. Then, after about ten minutes, something strange happened. A shaft of what seemed like dark blue energy about a yard in length and perhaps six inches in width began to emanate from his father’s throat chakra at an angle of about forty five degrees to the body. Then it vanished and the sound of the breathing stopped. At a later time, Syd learned from someone who had had a great deal of experience with death and dying and the hereafter, that this was his father’s astral body leaving the physical. But Syd must have known this himself intuitively because of what happened later.

The next event happened almost immediately. Sathya Sai Baba came into the room, not the usual Sathya Sai Baba but one about half the size of his small self, a dwarf Sathya Sai Baba and he was dressed in green, which is not a colour he ever wears. Syd took this as a symbol that his father had had a peaceful passing because to Syd the green colour meant peace, like the peace one feels in a green meadow. To emphasise the point further, the diminutive Sathya Sai Baba floated onto the bed and sat cross-legged on the chest of the dead body. Having emphasised the point to Syd of his father’s peaceful passing, Sathya Sai Baba vanished. Soon after that two nurses came into the room. One of them went and stood behind Syd with her hands on his shoulders while the other went to the other side of the bed to examine his father’s body. The one behind asked gently, “Where is your mother?” Syd replied “She’s gone and so has my father.” “Oh, no,” she replied, “I think your father is still alive.” But the nurse on the other side confirmed that he had passed away. Syd sat for a while in quiet remembrance of his beloved father and mentally gave his thanks to Sathya Sai Baba for granting him the four boons he had requested and indeed for being present and blessing the transition of his father who had not even been a Sai Baba follower.

Karen, who is very studious and gentle, has had her own experiences of God’s hand in her life. While her husband Syd has felt the unity of all life, she has gone beyond the maya in a different way. For example, she says one day at work, when everything seemed to be going at a mad rate it was as if worldly affairs in her life, that is the maya, was going around at an ever increasing rate and seemed impossible to handle, her mind went beyond it all. She saw it as it was, an unreal, crazy illusion. She wanted to laugh at the crazy antics of people, including herself. It was unreal and she stepped back from it all into the quiet peace of reality. She found that on future occasions when the worldly merry-go-round seemed to be getting out of hand, just to focus on the memory of this occasion was helpful in trying to re-establish that peace.

Earlier in the same year that Syd’s father had died, Karen too, had witnessed the compassionate hand of Sathya Sai Baba at her own father’s death. “Neither of my parents were followers of Sai Baba and they only ever heard his name when I was at home with them and could not help talking about him sometimes.” Her father was sent to hospital through his emphysema and the work of some other mysterious, tropical virus. She felt somehow that this illness was terminal but the hospital staff was not very co-operative about informing her and the rest of the family of his state of health. So either Karen’s mother, sister, herself or another member of the family spent a lot of time in the ward to check on his recovery or otherwise. One day when she was in the ward alone with her father, he suddenly asked to her great surprise, “You know that fellow you went to see in India I’ve forgotten his name what was it?” Karen told him. “Yes, that’s right,” he said. “I had a dream of him the other night.” Karen felt great surprise and delight to hear that Sai Baba actually visited in a dream, her non-Sai father. She questioned him about the nature of the dream. “Oh,” said her father, “He just walked up to me and shook my hand.” The pleasure Karen felt had a tinge of sadness. She felt sure that this handshake meant that her father would leave his body very soon. Then she asked her father, “How did that make you feel, Dad, when he shook your hand? Was it a good feeling?” “Oh, my word!” her father said. There was such enthusiasm in the old man’s voice that Karen felt assured and humble, with a rush of gratitude to the Lord that he seemed to be taking care of her father at this time of his great need.

A few days after this pleasing but worrying conversation, Karen’s father did, in fact, pass away. Only her mother was present and she told Karen that it was an easy, peaceful passing. He just seemed to stop breathing, she said. Karen knew with an inner knowing that Sathya Sai Baba had been present unseen and had given her dear dad a peaceful and blessed passing. She was very grateful and somewhat surprised that Sathya Sai Baba would in this way, help one who had never taken the slightest interest in him.

To me, the fact that Sathya Sai Baba gave loving help and compassion to the two fathers is a sign that Syd and Karen have their feel firmly on and are making good progress along the spiritual path. The ancient sage Narada in his Bhakti Sutras states that anyone well advanced on the path of devotion will bring divine help to several generations of ancestors and descendants. So I feel that Sathya Sai Baba’s blessing to one generation ahead, that is to the two fathers, is a result of Syd and Karen’s own devotional work and progress. Sathya Sai Baba is interested in and brings blessings to the members of the Sai devotees’ families.

Narada’s Sutra 71: His ancestors rejoice, the gods dance in joy and the earth gets a Lord and Saviour. Such a devotee who is full of God-realisation gives salvation to seven generations of ancestors and descendants in the family. The gods rejoice to see a man of God-realisation as he is one with God. The Earth gets in him a saviour who can bless all mankind.

Reference:: “The Lights of Home” by Howard Murphet

Miracles Are Sathya Sai Baba’s Visiting Cards

Sathya Sai Baba

Miracles Are Sathya Sai Baba’s Visiting Cards

These Visiting Cards are miracles only from the limited human perspective. In fact, these are God’s gentle taps reminding man of the absolute existence of the Divine. Ms. Indira Devi chronicles some of these gentle taps silently serving reminders to man of the absolute need to establish in Greater Faith…as extracted from Sanathana Sarathi.

On the first day of June, I was in Bulgaria, having been invited to conduct a Yoga Teachers’ Course by the Minister for Culture, when she was in India. I told her about Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and gave her the book, “Sai Baba and Sai Yoga” and showed the film on the 50th Birthday Festival. All this prompted her to drive to Prasanthi Nilayam and she returned greatly impressed by Baba.

My visit to Sofia was a beautiful experience. The class of 150 enthusiastic yoga learners consisted of university professors, doctors, engineers, artists and others. I had also to hold classes in three hospitals where the doctors and nurses had to be taught special Asanas and breathing exercises for patients suffering from various illnesses. I had perforce to talk of Baba when questions were asked why I had named the course `Sai Yoga’ and I had to bring forth the japamala of 108 pearls which Baba had given for passing on to the very ill in order to heal them. Many instances of Baba’s Grace were related to me with tears of gratitude by those who learnt yoga from me. Professor B. was sent to me through Government channels in the hope that Yoga, Sai yoga to be more correct, might heal him. For some reason unknown to the doctors, he could walk only for a distance of about 50 meters. At that point, his legs could move no more, though they looked perfectly normal. During 40 years of teaching Yoga, I had never faced such an enigma. I gave him Vibhuti dissolved in water and applied a little on his legs, while he was holding the japamala and praying. The next day, he was normal and could walk miles with no difficulty.

At Athens, devotees were eager to see the films and hear about Him. Then I left for California, Mexico, San Salvador and Guatemala. Bhagawan’s message was received with stormy enthusiasm in all parts of Latin America, be it in Mexico, Guatemala, San Salvador or Lima in Peru. His name was on the lips of thousands and it has sunk deep into the hearts of those who have become His devotees. Faith was fertilised by many mysterious happenings in places where Bhagawan’s portraits were adored. In Guatemala, a yoga student had a dream that she was working on a statue of Bhagawan. When her mother came to wake her up early next day, she was surprised to find her fingers covered with clay! Another lady running a shoe store had just returned from Prasanthi Nilayam. She encountered a hold up by three gunmen. They asked for money and she asked Baba for help. Immediately, the fellow who drew out his gun, said, “I was misinformed” and wanted only shoes! Collecting the shoes, they made a fast exit. An armed robbery and all that the gunmen got was three pairs of cheap shoes!

In San Salvador, belief in Bhagawan’s omnipresence and omnipotence rose greatly after the miraculous escape of Herandez Quinonez. He with his wife was driving from their ranch back to San Salvador when several assailants stopped the car. At gunpoint, they forced the man to hand over his revolver and 2000 American dollars. While they were searching the trunk, the frightened couple started praying to Bhagawan for their safety. All of a sudden, the gunmen re-appeared in the window and gave back the revolver and the wad of dollars and disappeared into the darkness, leaving both of them dumbfounded.

One day at Lima (Peru) Elizabeta Maldonatio took me to the office of her husband, a medical doctor, to show me the room which they had converted into a shrine, since Bhagawan had cured her from an incurable disease when she went with him to Prasanthi Nilayam the previous year.

“What do you say of this miracle?” Elizabeta exclaimed, pointing at a large cross of yellow flower petals on the red carpet in front of the altar with Baba’s pictures. “I had placed fresh flowers on these two vases the previous evening and left. By morning, the petals had loosened by themselves and scattered into this sacred shape. Quite a few did not believe the story, the miraculous denudation of the flowers and the mystery of the design which was formed. So, with tears in my eyes, I prayed for a sign. Within minutes, while we sat in meditation, after switching off lights and with only candles flickering, a footprint appeared on the carpet of petals, on the Cross! Baba’s Foot!

You cannot imagine what was going on after that! Every one rushed forward to see it and touch it. People fell on their knees, crying and praying, embracing each other in joyful gratitude at this sign of Grace. “But when they were, all finally gone,” said Elizabeta, “the Cross looked very disbaratado (disrupted), because so many petals were missing since people took them home and I had no heart to stop them. Sad and heartbroken, I asked Baba to restore the Cross. Seven weeks later, while the original petals were still fresh and fragrant (!), He answered my prayer. The blank spaces caused by the over enthusiastic devotees were filled with fresh marigold petals from nowhere.” I prostrated before the altar with the Cross and the Footprint yellow marigold on red carpet!

Man’s acknowledgement to the gentle taps from The Greater Heaven!

Reference

Encounter In A Train

Sathya Sai Baba

Encounter In A Train

In how many ways and in how many forms does Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba come to us? We know not, we recognize Him not, and only after the event we realize that we missed the opportunity of our life…writes Chandrahas Shah narrating an unusual encounter he had, presenting valuable divine prescriptions to the humanity in general, as published in Feb, 1997 issue of Sanathana Sarathi. Read on…

It was Thursday, May 23 1996. After work I was returning home riding the train. I was reading intently the latest issue of Sanathana Sarathi (April, 1996). I was oblivious to the surroundings. Suddenly a gentleman, a passenger, from behind, asked: “Are you reading a Hindu religious book?” I replied: “No. It is a monthly and it does not deal with Hinduism, it deals with humanism.” He observed: “Such journals should be available in U.S.A.” I continued: “You can subscribe from here, you can get an address.” I was thinking glibly that he may get interested. Out of curiosity I asked: “What is your profession?” He answered: “I teach mathematics.” I asked: “Where?” And he politely mentioned: “I teach in Harvard, MIT, Brandeis. I teach when I have something to teach.” I was impressed. I was still dazed and I continued: “Mathematics would have a close relationship with philosophy.” He seemed to agree. At the next suburban station, he turned to me and said: “This is my stop.” I did not pay much attention and said “Thanks.”

Well, he did not get down! He accompanied me to the terminus (Alewife). We got down together and walked several steps together. We continued the conversation. He finally mentioned, “Please open the page you were reading in the train.” I opened it and he pointed to Swami’s declaration: (p.97)

“Sathya and Dharma are the two rails on which the locomotive of the nation runs; when Sathya is given up, chaos prevails; when Dharma (righteousness) is discarded, might becomes right.”

“Unfortunately India today is affected by consequences of seven grievous sins.”

1. Business without morality
2. Politics without principle
3. Education without character
4. Worship without sacrifice
5. Acquisition of wealth without hard work
6. Human existence without regard for ancient Scriptures
7. Devotion without austerity

Immediately he said rather forcefully: “Let me add”, and he added in Swami’s inimitable style:

1. Money is less important than honour;
2. Honour is less important than life;
3. Life is less important than thought;
4. Thought is less important than freedom!

“Let me add” I said: “You mean not freedom, you mean liberation.” He said: “No. freedom.” And he turned back, walked a few paces, and disappeared. I could not believe it.

Such a thing has not happened in years. I could not sleep the whole night, yet in the morning I was still fresh. The message in the four lines composed impromptu was important for me. I could read a special meaning into them during the night.

All professionals care more for honour than for monetary rewards but they neglect life, theirs and of those around them. They may tend to be oblivious to the humanness or human element while engaged in their profession. Besides, in their pursuit of perfection they tend to regard others less knowledgeable as less worthy. They then become unmindful of the purpose of life on this planet, viz., to realize the Self that is beyond senses, the mind and the intellect. Their narrow pursuit often results in pride and frustration. Ego rides over them. The word freedom is pertinent. Swami has emphasized it in His discourses to students. Students claim they are free or they deserve freedom. Swami reminds them, “You are not free, you are bonded slaves to your senses. Till that bondage is got rid of, you are not free.” Good thoughts are valuable for the individual and they make a precious contribution to the welfare of society. But such good thoughts can be bondage if viewed and pursued rigidly.

Read together, the two messages of Swami seem to be closely linked. The message quoted in Sanathana Sarathi is aimed at the entire humanity. Swami’s main mission is spiritual regeneration of humanity and the quote provides a prescription. The individual has to follow these injunctions to help His mission. This quote is general and applies to all sections of the community; businessmen, politicians, scholars and common men. The base of the society is the individual. His renewed emphasis on students and young ones whom He repeatedly chastises for yielding to the pressures of the world, instead of being steadfast to the values of life, adds meaning to the aphorism. (In Sanathana Sarathi of May 1996 Swami’s address to students on March 31, 1996, is reproduced. The address reemphasizes the need for students to stand up against the temptations of the world including jobs with high salary and dowry that brings wealth in exchange for what Swami calls ‘sale’ of the groom.)

Argentinean Journalist Claudio Dominguez Experiences With Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba

Argentinean Journalist Claudio Dominguez Experiences With Sathya Sai Baba

In my early childhood I participated in a quiz show and won the first prize by answering questions on Greek mythology. That event opened many doors for me, and I began to work in television. By the time I was 20 I had travelled all over the world and interviewed personalities such as the Pope, President Carter, Jane Fonda, and Woody Allen. Still, I found that my life was rather empty. I was sad. I had everything, but something was missing. That something was spirituality.

Starvation and social injustice in Latin America and Africa overwhelmed me. I was not an active person and I was just letting life pass me by. When I reached the deepest point of depression I thought I would rather die. But I decided to live. I had a wonderful wife and two sons who gave me the motivation to live. I decided to get involved in life and show people things that were helpful so that they could become better persons. You have to be a good person, for good thoughts bring good things and bad thoughts bring bad things. Things (in this day and age) are happening very fast, and while there are terrible things happening, there are also wonderful things happening. This is not just the end of a century but the end of a millennium. Today we are able to speak freely of things which just a few years ago we would not have dared to say in public. Swami says, “If you don’t believe in God, believe in yourself.” Your life has a reason so don’t waste it.

Twenty five years old, I decided to seek spiritual phenomenon. The good thing about Swami is that when you look to Him, He comes and shows you the path. When analysed, all religious books speak of the same path and the same truth – be a good person and do good. I read many books and found this.

On television I first showed a controversial documentary on healing. I wanted to shake people out of their shell and awaken a few to start thinking about the more wonderful and mysterious things that are part of this world. Of course there would be a few critics, but then the good goes with the bad.

At 17, when I first visited India, somebody gave me a book on Sathya Sai Baba as the spiritual teacher. The spirituality I felt in India I have never felt anywhere in the world. But it took me 17 years to go back to India and visit Sai Baba. The first thought I had when I saw the picture on the book was, why is He so ugly? Then I said to myself that He must be a very good and wonderful person because millions believe in His message. When I read His book, the first message that stuck in my mind was, there is only one religion, the religion of love. He says that whether you are a Catholic, a Muslim or anything else, be the best man, person and human being in that religion. The night I read that passage I was so moved that I prayed for Him, saying, “God Bless you.” At the same time I asked Jesus for forgiveness because I believed Baba’s message and wanted to meet Him. I remember reading that Swami said, “When the time is perfect and you desire it, you will come and visit Me.” After a while I forgot about Him until I met Leonardo, the coordinator of Sai Centres in Spanish-speaking countries. When I asked Leo if I could interview Sai Baba, he said that Swami had rejected “60 Minutes”, so why would He give me permission to film Him? I replied that we were a highly underdeveloped country and we needed help and guidance. Leo explained to me that no private network had been allowed to film Baba without restrictions. Anyway, he said that he would make inquires. Three days later, he called and asked me if I would like to go to Prashanti and said that I was allowed to film in Prashanti. They had allowed Argentina and Japan to film, Swami.

“EVERY DAY A MIRACLE”
So we went to India. Everyday was a miracle. I needed to test Him and He provided me with many more opportunities than I had even requested of Him in my mind. I can only be grateful to Him. The moment you step into His city it is different-the air, the atmosphere, the smell, the singing of the birds. The people in the city look into your eyes. I thought, This is definitely a City of Love.

The simplicity of the temple contrasts with the overpowering wealth of the Vatican. I love the simplicity. At my first darshan, just seeing Him float majestically through the people, and the love the people had in their eyes, was magical. I thought that if a human being could bring about such feelings in thousands, millions, of people present here and around the world, then He must be a holy person. The moment I set my eyes on Him, I started to cry. I could not understand my feelings because I did not love Him so much. I thought that it must be the aura and the energy. I closed my eyes and thought, if it is true that you read people’s minds, please come to me and say something nice to me so that I can believe in you. I opened my eyes and said to myself I was being stupid-out of so many people who love Him, who believe in Him, why should He come to me. When He came very near, I closed my eyes and said, now or never, say something to me. I opened my eyes and saw Him come directly towards me but without looking at me. He talked to the Argentinean sitting next to me and totally ignored me. Then he spoke with the person on my other side and I thought, Good. Now He will talk to me for it is my turn. Bit He just turned and started to walk away. I thought to myself, this is a lesson for me in humility, and I said, God bless you for you are certainly something for these people. Just as I finished thinking this, He turned abruptly and looking at me said, “Those are nice thoughts.” I looked at Him and He came towards me and laughed and said, “Of course you are going to learn things here. Open your heart, open your heart.” I was dazed and wondered if I had imagined it all. To make a long story short, every day I had a test for Him and He gave me how I could do this. Could I not believe in the energy of a holy being just by being there? But I had to do it; it is my nature.

We were allowed to film in Prashanti without any restrictions except that we could not film the verandah where the VIPs and the people who have been with Him all these years sit. The reason given was that their ego and vanity would be fanned. We spoke with Dr. Goldstein, Phyllis Krystal, artists and people from different countries. One day, Baba made us stop. I asked, “Have we done something wrong?” and Baba answered, “Eat something, keep your energy up!” and He gave us bread. Other times He gave us prasad (blessed food) and wonderful gifts. His presence and love were magical. The messages I was receiving from Him in my mind were so real. For example, Be the master of your life, open your heart and close your mind and personality and let life flow trough you.

My sister-in-law had given me a letter for Baba, but my ego did not permit me to be in the darshan line with a letter. I was thinking, if He knows everything, why does He need a letter? Nevertheless, I decided to bring the letter so as not to deprive her of the opportunity of being blessed. And just in case it was good to write to Him, I quickly added to the letter. Well, when Baba came close to where I was, I quickly hid the letter behind my back, ashamed to have it with me. But Baba stood quietly and then said, “Give it to me”, and I had no choice but to hand it to Him.

Of the three weeks that I spent there, the first week was heavenly for He granted me whatever I wished for. The second week was hell because I fell very sick and thought I was dying. But the last day, when we were to take our leave of Him, was paradise. When I fell sick, I started discovering things about myself – who I was and why I was here. I was alone in the room and delirious with fever when I saw Swami come into the room. He looked at me very deeply and calmly, and went away. That night I dreamt of Him. He was outside the temple and He was beckoning me to come to Him. I ran to Him and asked Him if I could hold and hug and kiss Him. He said, “Yes.” Then I asked Him a very personal question, and He gave a precise answer. When I woke up it took me a while to realise that it was a dream, for it was so real.

The only thing missing for the moment was an interview with Baba. I wanted to be a journalist for my country, and to ask Him if He was really God. I was silly and vain. We had just two days left before we were to leave and we still did not have our interview. So when I was sitting in the darshan line, I closed my eyes and said, Please, please, can’t you understand I really need an interview. When I opened my eyes, He was there and very seriously He said, “You will have to be patient.” He gives a lesson at every step. I thought to myself, what difference will it make, having an interview?

Will I become a better person or will I just become more egoistic? 1 love him so much already and it is just my ego to show off to people that I want an interview. All these thoughts made me cry, for I realize my shortcomings. So in my mind I said to Him, Don’t let me film the interview but just let me be with you and touch you like in my dream. Even if you don’t give me the interview, I love You so much and I am very grateful to You and I will always remember You. But still, if you can, please give me an interview. Just after this thought a boy came running to me and said “Swami says that what you just thought is wonderful.” After a while, Dr. Goldstein came and said, “Come on, the interview with Baba is now!” I was deeply moved.

We went inside (the interview room) with a group of Greeks. This, to me, was a sign of Swami’s humour, because it was Greek mythology that had first given me the opportunity of being given an interview with the Greeks! He first spoke to them and then asked us Argentineans to come forward. He took my hand and I don’t know what happened to me. I just jumped over Him and started kissing till somebody said, “Don’t kiss Swami so much”. The first part of my dream had come true. Throughout the interview He held my hand and asked me questions and gave me precise answers. He materialised a ring and gave it to me. He took us into the inner room and sang to us and mentioned some personal things which have come true in the past year or so. He told me to be prudent about what I show (on TV) for there are two kinds of people in the world: some will love what I show and will open their hearts to it but others will not find it easy to understand the idea of universal love. He said that I should go ahead and that He would be with me throughout. I asked if it would be too difficult for me, as I was a little scared. But He said “No, no. It will be easy, and I will be by your side.” I asked Him for permission to write the book. I also asked Him if I could return soon. And He said I would be returning very soon for His birthday. I had wanted to ask Him if the dream was true but felt a little shy, so He asked me to ask Him about the dream. He assured me that the dream was true and described it. Then He pointed to the space around-the world-and said, “This is a dream.” I asked Him why do we experience this illusion and how can we penetrate that veil and see the truth, and He said, “You have to deserve it.”

I came for His birthday in a very unexpected way. When I returned to Argentina I was very sad because I missed being with Swami. A week before Swami’s birthday, I was cordially invited to go to Puttaparthi to attend the Birthday celebrations if I wanted to. During this visit, I had a dream that I was dialing Mother Teresa’s number and that she herself answered the call. She also said that she was waiting for me. I woke up feeling sad that this was just a dream but I went to the phone and called the number at 6:30 A.M. and surprise of surprises Mother Teresa herself answered and gave me an appointment! So He enabled me to interview Mother Teresa, whom I had been trying to interview for the past several years. I was able to live with her, interview her and film her charitable acts for a week.

Claudio Dominguez With Mother Teresa

(During this visit), I was also allowed to sit in the Verandah. When Swami came for darshan He looked at me in a funny way and I closed my eyes and said, Please tell me if what happened in my last visit was an illusion or reality. When I spend my eyes, He was standing in front of me. He assured me by nodding, and then he walked away.

In my country, 80 percent of the people now know who Sai Baba is. Many of them really like and even love Him. We have a show called A Better World in which we share Swami’s message. I have also showed footage comparing the exact words of Jesus and Swami, to show how they are alike and how their message is the same. The reactions have been wonderful-exactly the way He had predicted them. For every negative reaction, I have had a thousand positive ones.

Claudio Maria Dominguez, Argentina
(Excerpts from a talk given in New York in March 1997 – Articles published in Sanathana Sarathi, June 1997, pag. 161-164)

When the magnet does not attract the needle, the fault lies in the dirt that covers up the needle. When the Lord does not approach the devotee the fault lies in the heart of the devotee; it is not pure enough. -SATHYA SAI BABA

The greatest obstacle on the path of Saranagathi is egoism, ahamkara and mamakara. It is something that has been inheriting to your personality since ages, sending its tentacles deeper and deeper with experience of every succeeding life. It can be removed only by the twin detergents of Viveka and Vairagya. -SATHYA SAI BABA

Home Is Where The Heart Is – A Journey To Sathya Sai Baba

Nearest & Dearest

Home Is Where The Heart Is – A Journey To Sathya Sai Baba

Indian philosophers talk of the Monkey way and the Way of the Cat in spiritual progress. In the case of the former, the young monkey holds on to the mother and is carried by her from tree to tree and if it loosens its grip, the kid may fall down; but in the case of the latter, the mother cat takes the young one by its teeth and carries it to wherever it is supposed to be taken. In the case of Jag dish Prasad who has joined our editorial team, the Lord seems to have used the latter method and transformed his heart with his mind becoming aware of it only much later!

Was it Tweedledee or was it Tweedledum who told Alice, “Begin at the Beginning”? When did it all begin? Listening to a religious lecture in the late 50s in the company of my mother? Or was it during the month’s stay at Whitefield in the late 80s when I helped out cleaning the grounds at Brindavanam? Sitting for Darshan, mornings and evenings, gazing at Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and crying for no reason at all and then pretending dirt had got into my eyes; then being dragged for Nagar Sankirtan, attending the Thursday bhajans and the all night bhajan during Shivaratri. Don’t ask me why I let myself be Shanghied? I don’t know. I think I did it to please my wife. She had been named by Baba when her mother placed her as a baby in Baba’s arms. My in-laws are staunch devotees of Baba and it goes back to the late 50s. I, of course, was under the impression I was not. I fought back like only a mean, “ornery” journalist would. But the seed had been sown by Baba without my being aware of it. I was, as it were, being chased by the hounds of heaven there was no escape and I did not know it. I thought I had escaped Baba’s divine clutches, when I made myself back to the muck-raking world of hard political journalism, covering communal riots, and in between bouts of ‘stories’, listening to bhajans, chorals, blues and Bach.

Ramana Maharishi

Then one day something snapped. My wife and I decided to take a holiday and see South India. The first stop was Tiruvanamalai and the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi. We went as tourists and we stayed for a week in the ashram’s guest house. And spent our days going on giripradakshina ( going around the sacred hill of Arunachala), sitting for the daily recitation of Tamil scriptures and works of Ramana and a host of other things. The week ended and we were back in Bangalore, when my wife expressed a wish to go to Shirdi. I refused, put my foot down and all that. But the end of the month saw us at the Kopergaon railway station flagging an autorickshaw to Shirdi!

You see the pattern here. I was as obstinate as a mule and here I was standing in line for the kakad (morning) arathi at the shrine of Shirdi Sai Baba and what is more, trying to sing along!

Shirdi Sai Baba

I put it down to some sort of mental aberration. But Swami obviously had other ideas. A week in Shirdi and I had still not figured it out.

Back in Bangalore I joined another national weekly magazine. Some evenings were spent at the Ramana Maharishi Meditation Hall in the city (Believe me, I was just resting my feet ! ?) One evening I was going through some old battered volumes of Summer Showers in Brindavan, and that only because I had no P D James or Kate Millet by my side. If you don’t believe me, that is your problem. The very next morning we decided to go to Tiruvanamalai. This one’s for Ripley’s Believe it or Not. I quit my job. My wife quit hers. Baba, the Compassionate, works his miracles in ways that are unfathomable.

We planned to stay in the ashram for a week. A few days later I was looking for a house to stay. And we stayed for nearly two years. Days were spent in attending the morning prayers at 6 am, going up the hill to Skandashram and on giripradakshina on every alternate day. Somewhere along the way, we gave away our TV, most of the books and most of the furniture and if I may add most of our clothes. It’s funny really that when you gave away most of the things that you feel you cannot do without, you find that you really can do without them. You don’t miss. Reading becomes limited to spiritual books like the Gita, the Dakshinamurti Stotra, Atmabodha Deepika and even older and equally tattered copies of Sanathana Sarathi as well as various volumes of Summer Showers. The web was drawing tighter near and we were blissfully unaware of it.

At the end of two years we decided to return to ‘civilisation’ and I still foolishly thought I would get back to mainstream journalism. But it was not to be. I found myself editing books on Bhagawan, writing articles on people who have experienced His Grace and being slowly but surely enmeshed and enveloped in his Divine love.

Today there are, a few rudiments of what can be passed of as furniture at home. I prefer to sit on the floor, its more comfortable. Hardly any books except spiritual ones, no framed Kangra Valley miniatures or Sabavala lithos on the walls except several photographs of Bhagawan, Ramana Maharishi, Shirdi Sai and Jesus Christ.

I have not seen any manifestations. I have not seen any miracles. Except one. The miracle that Bhagawan worked in my life, changing it forever. And would I ever go back to old life? To be honest, no. I have discovered my Saviour. In His Compassionate grace he took me first to Ramana Maharishi, then to Shirdi Sai and finally gathered me back in his protective arms.

To that corner of His Heart. As somebody once said, Home is where the Heart is.

— Jagadish Prasad

Reference

Researches on Sri Sathya Sai Baba Avatar By Prof. Satya Pal Ruhela

In Search of Sai Divine
A Comprehensive Research Review of Writings and Researches on Sri Sathya Sai Baba Avatar
By Prof. Satya Pal Ruhela
New Delhi, Umang Paperback, a division of MD Publications, 1996
190 pages; ISBN: 817533021X

Back Cover
Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the most venerated and the greatest of all the contemporary divine personalities in the world. He is an Incarnation of God – a combined Incarnation of Shiva and Shakti, Sarvadevataswaroopam (All Gods and Goddesses rolled into One), and is believed to be the Kalki Avatar. In his previous life incarnation, he incarnated as Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi (1838-1918). His teachings, miracles are known worldwide.

His declared Avataric mission is the establishment of Dharma (Righteousness), lightening the lamp of love in every heart, interpreting the spiritual heritage of man that has been distorted and dilated in the intervening ages, and to achieve the supreme task of uniting as one family the entire mankind and usher in the ‘Golden Age’ for the humanity.

More than 400 books and thousands of articles and papers and many researches have been published in many world languages on Sri Sathya Sai Baba and his Avataric mission on this Planet during the last 25 years.

This book is a comprehensive and uptodate review of all the significant writings and research contributions of Sai Devotee-writers, and Scholar of Religion, Philosophers, Sociologists, Psychologists and Psychiatrists, Educationists, Management Scientists, Physical Scientists and Medical Scientists who have come closer to Baba and studied his unique divine personality as Avatar, his teachings, his miracles, his charisma, his global activities and his enchanting and soothing utopia for the distressed mankind.

Prof. Satya Pal Ruhela was Professor of Education (Sociology) at the Advanced Institute of Education studies, Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University), New Delhi. He is pioneering Sociologist of Education in India and an internationally known social scientist and educationist. He is an ardent Sai devotee, and has contributed several enlightening books and researches in the fields of Sociology, Social Anthropology, Education, Futurology and Sai phenomena. His writings, published in USA, Germany, Japan, UNESCO, France and India

Contents
Prayer to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
‘Forgive Me My Transgression Lord Sai’ (Poem)
Preface
A Commitment to Humanity

Section I
Sri Sathya Sai Baba: A Brief Introduction
1. A Brief Introduction of Baba
2. Sri Sathya Sai Baba on Himself: Identity and Role
3. Sai Mythologies: Prophecies About the Advent of Sri Sathya Sai Avatar

Section II
What Researches Say on Sri Sathya Sai Baba
4. Contributions of Devotees and Scholars of Religion
5. Contributions of Philosophers
6. Contributions of Sociologists
7. Contributions of Psychologists and Psychiatrists
8. Contributions of Educationists
9. Contributions of Management Scientists
10. Contributions of Physical Scientists
11. Contributions of Medical Scientists
12. Conclusion

The book is available at:
- Saujanya Books http://www.saujanyabooks.com/
- Vedams Books https://www.vedamsbooks.com/
- Sathya Sai Book Centre, Toronto, Canada http://www.saibooks.org/
- Sri Sathya Sai Books, UK http://www.srisathyasaibooks.org.uk/

Sri Sathya Sai Hrudhya Nivasi – Vision At Thrayambaka

Sri Sathya Sai Hrudhya Nivasi (Indweller of Hearts)
VISION AT THRAYAMBAKA
There are some devotees who had experienced His Grace, much before they had come into the fold of Sai. They came to know of this, much later on being revealed by Swami Himself, or through by some other methods. One of the Ashtothara Archana mantras of Bhagavan Baba mentions as “Kaalaatheethaya Namaha”. It means that “I worship the one who is beyond the ‘Kala’ i.e. time”.

He is bound by time and space; He is eternal and omnipresent. Without our being even aware of it, for reasons best known to Him only, He extends His Grace to you. He is so loving and merciful and His divine loves binds you for ever with the Divinity.

I too, had such an experience, which is unforgettable. This happened even before I came to know of the Advent of Sai, the second coming. Till then, I knew Sai of Shirdi only. It was the beginning of the year 1965, when I visited Shirdi with my wife for the first time. I felt truly blessed and experienced peace after worshipping at the Samadhi.

From there we proceeded to a nearby pilgrim center, Nashik which is on the banks of river Godavari. The other side of the bank is called “PANCHAVADI”. Our scriptures say that Lord Sri Rama stayed here with His consort Sita and brother Lakshmana during their sojourn to the forest. Sri Rama had paid oblations to His departed father King Dasaratha at the banks of Godavari at Panchavadi.

It was from this place that Ravana had taken away mother Sita. It is a great pilgrim center. We had holy bath in Godavari river and visited various places of interest near there. We were staying at Shankara Mutt. Somebody from the Mutt informed that this Holy Godavari River is originating from a placed called “Thrayambaka” which was about 25 kilo meters away from Nashik, and suggested that we should visit this Holy place also.

He explained that Adi Shankara Himself had installed a powerful Jyothir Linga in a temple there, and the Deity is called Lord Thrayambakeswara. It means that it embodiment of all the three amsaas of divinity viz., Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, in a single piece of Lingam. We accepted his suggestion and visited the place.

We reached Thrayambakam at the fag end of the day and the sun was about to set. It was a small village and there was not much crowd, only about a dozen or so pilgrims inside the temple. We entered the sanctum of the temple and was looking inside the place where the deity is installed. I could find the base of the lingam but no lingam was in the usual shape there. We could only see a cavity. Water was continuously oozing out of the cavity and the pundits were cleaning very often with cloth. It was amazing that no lingam was found, even though it was claimed that Adi Shankara had installed it. While I was thus standing there in utter confusion of mind, an elderly man called me from behind. He looked very pious with tuft in his head and wearing a neat white Dhothi like a pundit; but looked very serene.

He talked to us in Tamil, which is our language. Initially he enquired wherefrom we had come etc. Later on, he took interest in us and explained about the importance of the Holy place in detail. When I enquired where is the Holy Lingam, he told us that there is not one but three small lingams placed in the sides of the cavity of the base, which is not visible from outside. The three lingams represent Brahma, Vishnu, and Lord Shiva, exactly as was explained to us at Panchavadi Shankara Mutt.

In those primitive old days, Adi Shankara had traveled all the way from a remote village in Kerala to this place where Holy River Godavari originates and installed this Jyothi lingam. I wondered how this was possible without any means of transport. Moreover, He has installed 8 such lingams in various parts of India within his short span of 32 years. We heard all these from this pious man and in the end, we prostrated before him. He blessed us that by next year we should come again with a newborn child. He then moved away.

Within a few minutes, we searched for him and went up to the nearest bus stop and he could not be seen. We wished to have his contact address in Bombay so that we could meet him again when we return. But he had just vanished.

Here, I wish to mention one other factor. Since I could not get accommodation in Bombay, I had left my wife at our village in Kerala and she was forced to stay there for over three years. Ultimately by Grace of God we got a temporary accommodation and settled our family in a Bombay Suburb named ‘Goregoan’. However, for the next three years we did not have the pleasure of having a child. Due to some medical grounds the doctors had said she might not conceive again. This is the situation when we visited, Shiridi, Nashik and Thrayambakam.

Shortly after our return to Bombay my wife conceived and we got a baby boy. The boy was born at her native place in Kerala, which had earlier been described in detail. Soon after her arrival with the child, we went to our Gurui, Dhyani Maharaj Sri Madhusudhan Dasji who was in the residence of His disciple Dr. Pathak at Prarthana Samaj. He took the child in his hands and fondled him. While giving back the child, he mentioned that we had got the child due to the Grace of Sai whom we had started worshipping recently.

“You need not worry about the boy since Sai will Himself look after the child, protect him, guide him and help him in all his endeavor in his life”.

Then we knew that the pious man whom we met at the sanctum of Thrayambakam must be Sai Himself, whom we did not know during those days.

I had already enjoyed the bliss of Darshan of Bhagavan Baba for the first time, had an extraordinary experience. Yet, I asked a foolish question to our Guruji. “Guruji, excuse me, but who is this Sai Baba? Is he a magician, a saint, or what else? He is reportedly showing lot f miracles and are they all genuine?” Guruji admonished me and cautioned me not to utter such words. “Sai is Poorna Avatar and you should worship Him for all the rest of your life. In fact, it is He who had sent you to me!” I apologized for my bad thoughts and enquiry and prayed to Bhagavan Baba also, to forgive me.

From that day onwards, all these years, it is only Sai and Sai only in my life and every breath of mine also vibrates with the name of Sai. I try to be very very alert not to forget Him not even for a moment. He on His part continued to look after me, guide me and hold me close to Him ever after!

Reference

Sathya Sai Baba & Hilda Charlton

Sathya Sai Baba & Hilda Charlton
(From a talk given by Hilda on March 18, 1982)

Sathya Sai Baba was born on November 23, 1926, in the small South Indian village of Puttaparti. On the day of his birth, musical instruments in the family home played melodies and rhythms on their own, untouched by any hands, and a large cobra, a sacred sign of divinity, was found under the baby’s bed. These and other mysterious events surrounded Sai Baba’s birth and led witnesses to suspect that this was no ordinary child.

As a young boy, little Sathya would lead his playmates in devotional songs before school and would fascinate them by materializing candy and gifts from an empty bag. Even as a child, he was constantly encouraging those with whom he came in contact to live righteous and God-centered lives according to the ideals expressed in the scriptures that are his country’s ancient heritage. His boyhood years were filled with miraculous occurrences which reminded all who saw them that the material world was not ultimate, that it was dependent upon a higher spiritual reality.

At the age of thirteen, Sathya left his books and announced to his family that he was the reincarnation of a holy man named Sai Baba of Shirdi. “Yes,” he said, “I am not your son.” He told his parents that he no longer belonged to them, that his devotees were calling, and that it was time for him to go. “My work,” he said, “is waiting.” When he was twenty, he wrote to his older brother, “I have a task to foster all mankind to ensure for all lives full of bliss. I will not give up my mission or my determination. I know I will carry them out.” Now that gives you a little idea who he was.

I’m going to read a tiny bit of a letter that I received from Baba when I first started these classes. I’m just going to read a line or two. It says:

“Hilda, my blessings. I know all about the classes in jnana [knowledge] and pranayama [breathing] which you are holding in New York. Convey my blessings to all who are attending and to all devotees there. Sadhakas [spiritual aspirants] must also cultivate love and the spirit of selfless service. Success in jnana and pranayama is to be measured not only by the betterment of physical and mental health, but more by the depth of equanimity gained and the extent of sympathy that wells up from the heart. My blessings are with all those who are making such spiritual effort. I bless them that they may have steadfast faith. With blessings, Baba.”

Years ago I went seeking those who could take the cork out of me and let me merge with the Ocean of Truth. I left San Francisco on a freighter to see the holy ones of India. As Nityananda, the great saint and my teacher, said, “The mind must come to a certain point of dedication, of mindlessness, before the Masters will appear.” I went to India as a dancer and gave concerts throughout the country. I left here with a one-way ticket, with eighty dollars in cash, and with a million dollars worth of faith. I traveled all over India, and I’ve been going ever since on that eighty dollars. Right? And on the million dollars of faith.

In India I had gone to Shirdi Sai Baba’s shrine, and wonderful things had happened there. Shirdi Sai Baba had said before he passed that he would incarnate again in South India eight years later. When Sathya Sai Baba was a boy, he said that he was that incarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba.

Well, I was about to leave India on my way home after all those many, many years, almost 20 years there, and I heard somebody say, “There’s a Sathya Sai Baba who does miracles down in South India.” So I went to the stationmaster in this little town and I took that old train. Back then I used to get down to the station very early and go third class and sleep in the luggage racks. I was thinner then. The luggage racks are very narrow. I wouldn’t make it now, I’m telling you. I said to that stationmaster, “I want a ticket back in three days because I am going home to my America.” And he said, “I can’t give you a return ticket. You haven’t seen the Master yet.” The Master was Sai Baba — the stationmaster knew where I was going. I said, “You give me that ticket.” I got a little on the tough side. But he shook his head and said, “You haven’t asked for permission yet from the Master.”

I didn’t come home in three days. I stayed a long, long time over with Baba. He was very, very kind to me.

With Baba, miracles are innumerable. My first one was when I arrived. The ashram lights go out at 9:30 p.m., and my bus got there at 11:30 p.m. Somebody said, “Come, I’ll take your luggage. You sleep on the hospital veranda.” So I went up there. In the morning, I had a companion in bed with me — a mangy dog. And they could be mangy there, too, I’m telling you, thin as rails. It was cuddled up with me so sweetly. And then, it was about four o’clock in the morning, still dark, and a vibration came swooshing from what I learned later was Baba’s house. He must have been sending a wonderful vibe to the hospital, and I was in the way and I got it. I thought it was electricity going through me, and I said, “Wow! I’ve hit the jackpot here!” It was really good. And that was the start of my divine love affair with Sai Baba.

I got dressed, and I went down and stood outside. That was in 1965, you see. It’s all different now. If you go over there now, you won’t find this. You may find something better, but you won’t find what I found. You understand? Because I’m one person and you’re another. You may find something much superior to what I found. But my experience is what I would like to share with you.

That day the door opened and out came this person. He wore an orange silk robe and his hair was in a perfect Afro. When I heard he was coming to America, I thought, my God, what are people going to think about that hairdo? And about that time, that hairdo became very popular over here. It prepared the way for him to come! Unfortunately, he didn’t come. I guess our hearts weren’t calling him enough.

So anyway, he was looking at me and gesturing, and the people said, “Go in. Go in. He’s called you.” And I went in. He looked at me and he called me over to a corner. We were so close — our noses were a few inches apart. And I thought, “Gee, I didn’t think I’d get this close to this Master.” He said — his English wasn’t as good then as it is now — he said, “What you want?” And I said, “God!” I tell you, from out of my inner self came this word, ppppssssshhh. I didn’t have time to think that I’d like a ring or a necklace or a mala. This darn thing came out of me: “God!” He looked at me and he said, “You come back at four o’clock.” He turned his hand in a nice circle and he went wwwoooossshhh and he said, “Put out your hand.” I did, and he put in it some sweet raisin halvah. I looked at it, and he said, “Eat. That is heat.” He said as he turned to everybody, “She has a yogic heat from doing so much yoga.” I’m telling you I had yogic heat, all right. It used to burst out of my pores. I used to go home, open the fridge door, put my feet in the fridge and read a book. If that was yogic heat, I had it. So he said as he turned to the people. “She has yogic heat. This is sweet. You eat.” And so I ate it, and I cooled off very nicely. I didn’t have to use my fridge for my feet after that.

I went back at four o’clock and he started my training. He started a wonderful relationship that lasted until I came back here. It was a very wonderful thing.

Whenever he went somewhere, he would call me and say, “Hilda, what are your plans?” And, of course, I had none. I hadn’t had any plans for twenty years. I’d just been roaming. I said, “No plans,” and he said, “You come. Be ready at seven o’clock in the morning.” So I’d be ready at seven. By ten o’clock we would leave. He’d say, “I know about ladies and getting ready. We tell them to get ready early.”

I had the privilege that wherever he went, he took me into the home where he stayed. One day I was staying in a room that had little windows looking onto an altar on an indoor patio. And I was sitting there thinking, “Who is this guy? He’s like a star in the sky.” And he walked in. He didn’t even look at me. He just looked at the wall and he said, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.” Then he walked out. Ah, he used to play these games with me. He would let me know that he knew what I was thinking all the time.

Other memories come back. Even now I can’t boil water without burning the pot. But back then somebody came up to me and said, “Should we cook something for Baba?” I had visualized Baba’s dining room as having an enormous dining table with shining bright silver and glassware, with all the VIPs sitting around it. And when the time finally came to go up with the food that we cooked, I poked my head in the door with about five Indian ladies, and I looked at this place where my Baba humbly ate. In this little, tiny room, he had a table that we wouldn’t even cut vegetables on in a village and a little old wooden chair to go with it. He looked at me and he said, “What are you doing here?” And I said, “I cooked something, Baba.” He said, “You cooked something?” He said to his sister, “What did she cook?” And she said, “Chapati.” He said, “I’ll have some of it.” You can imagine, can’t you? I danced down those stairs. I leapt two feet all over the ashram, yelling, “He ate it, he ate it, he ate it, he ate it.” Those were the early days that were crazy and fun.

A big thing in those days was black market pens. I heard him talking to someone else, and I heard him say, “Parker pen.” I got on the next train to go into Bangalore, and I went all over looking for a black market pen. I finally found one, but I could find only a silver one. So I came back. At that time I was living in the house where he was, and I stood in the room in front of him with this thing in back of me, very innocent. He said, “What do you have in back of you?” And I said, “A pen.” He said, “Let’s see.” I opened my hand and he said, “Silver. I’ve got a gold one.” So I didn’t care. I learned over there, “Praise and blame, all the same.” You didn’t pay any attention to anything Baba said. You just made a shield on yourself and you didn’t react. So I took the pen and put it down in the next room, where I was sleeping. In about five minutes, he came in. He didn’t look at me. He walked right past where we were all sitting, and he went into my room. He picked the pen up — he didn’t look at me — and he walked out, hiding this thing in his hand. You know, he was flamboyant. That’s the only word I can say for him.

Wherever he went, he took us on wonderful trips. In India everyone is so interested in your life that they would come up and say, “What is your name?” But I wanted to know about their lives, so I would say, “What is your name?” I’d put it back on them, you understand? And then they’d say, “Where are you from?” I’d say, “Where are you from?” In this way I got to hear miracle after miracle that nobody has read in books. You cannot imagine the miracles. Everybody had something wonderful to tell about what was happening to them.

I remember that he took me and about three others to this town where I met a young man who told me his story. The man said he had broken his leg on a motorcycle, and it had not mended correctly. His sisters were yakking at him to go to Baba’s and get it fixed. The doctors were yakking at him to go and have it rebroken and set with a cast. One day when he was shining his shoes with that old-fashioned polish that we don’t have here now, cake polish, he got so mad with the pain that he said, “I don’t know what to do!” He threw the polish and it hit the ceiling, and from it came down streams and streams of holy ash. It went on until it flooded the floor. The neighbors came in to take the holy ash. Finally he got on his motorcycle and went up to Baba. Baba said, “Well, did you finish shining your shoes?” His leg had been healed, you see.

Once I went with Baba to a very wealthy home, and he said, “There’s going to be a wedding.” He gave me a sari to wear. I was going to wear it here tonight, and then I decided to wear a brighter one instead. So I went to the wedding, and I saw this lady of about sixty-five or seventy come out, and then her husband, who must have been twenty years older than she. They had to carry him out in a wheelchair. The bride and groom! Baba’s going to marry these two? He’s going to marry that old lady to that old man? I was going on and on, and finally they explained to me that it was one of those weddings when you marry again on the fiftieth golden anniversary. The word of what I thought got to Baba, and I thought he would just explode with laughter. I gave him a lot of good times in my craziness.

At Whitefield, we had fun, but when we would get to Prasanthi Nilayam, his ashram, he used to bring us down and we would get serious. He became like the Krishna, the King. But one day I was sitting on the floor where we had to sit at bhajans, and when I got up, my leg was asleep, and I fell into the aisle. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen Baba laugh there. I thought he would explode with laughter. But at other times, too, he was just a lot of fun and had a lot of wonderful wisdom. One day he picked up a little piece of paper from the floor. I saw him concentrate, put it in his mouth, and the little piece of scrap paper turned into sesame candy.

I’m telling you about my relationship to him. It would not be your relationship. Your relationship might be much better. I’m sure he wouldn’t laugh at you. He just had a good time with me.

I have things here for you to see that Baba gave me. He was always calling me in and giving me wonderful things. One day he said he was going to give me a picture. So every time I’d go in for an interview, just for fun I’d say, “Where is my picture?” and he’d say, “I will give you a picture.” And the next time I’d say, “Where is my picture?” and he’d say, “I will give you one hundred pictures.” The next time I went in, he waved his hand — and there were the hundred pictures. I still have them. I haven’t given them away, so don’t you think you’re going to get any!

One day he twirled his hand and said, “Look, Hilda, there’s my picture, and there’s my address, too!” — almost as if he didn’t know what was going to happen. But of course, he did. His way of controlling his mind is what I’m trying to teach you here. Do you understand? The power of self-control, the power of the mind, the power of concentration. Perhaps we’re not going to be able to make pictures. At one time I thought I was because he said to me, “I’ll give you three siddhis.” You know what siddhis are — miracles. I thought, Wow! Three siddhis! That’s all I heard, because I had to have an interpreter at that time. Whatever he said to me, I’d get so wwwooohhh. I’d get wobbly, and he’d hit me on the head, and I’d say, “Oh, that’s worse, Baba. That’s worse.” When I’d get out of his presence, I’d start thinking about what he’d said and I couldn’t remember a darn thing — although I did remember something about the three siddhis he was going to give me. I cornered the interpreter. I said, “What did he mean?” She said, “Three siddhis.” I said, “What were they?” and she said, “Well, I don’t remember.” As the days went by, I had made statues, I had made holy ash, I had made rings, I had made just about everything you can imagine in my imagination. I said, “Wow, I’m going back to America, and I can make all these things.” I thought I had really hit it this time. Wow. So one day I finally cornered Baba. You know, even living in his house, you couldn’t get at him all the time. He would see you out of the corner of his eye and sswwoosshh, like that, he would leave. But I cornered him and I said, “Baba, what were those three siddhis that you’re going to give me?” He said, “Prema siddhi,” which is love, “Shanti siddhi,” which is peace, and “Anandam siddhi,” which is bliss. I looked at him and I said, “Those aren’t siddhis, Baba.” I’ve never seen Baba so strict in my life. He pulled up another inch, which made him then five foot three, and he said, “If you want lesser things, go to a lesser teacher.” I went away and thought about it, and I thought, “My God, he’s giving me God. God is bliss.” And that’s how I can give you bliss, kids. I can hit you on the head, and you have bliss. Somebody said to me the other day, “You hit me on the forehead, and something happened, Hilda.” You understand? Baba was giving me bliss, he was giving me peace, and he was giving me love. I went to him and I said, “Excuse me, Baba, that was my fault.” He said, “Not your fault. My fault. Swami’s fault.” How sweet and humble — such humility, such wonder he is, such love he shows for everybody.

Sometimes Baba would ask, “What do you want?” And people would say, “Liberation.” Liberation from what? From A-B-C? From an uncontrolled tongue or what? It’s a slow process. Some yogis go twenty years into the Himalayas, and only then do their teachers send them out. Twenty years goes past fast. We’ve only got seventeen years until 1999. You’ve got time to finish your yogi jobs. But you have to go at it, kids. Right?

One day he said, “How are you for money?” I said “Oh, oh….” When I got with him, I mean, I couldn’t even talk. I said, “Oh, I’ve just got the abundance of the universe.” He looked at me. He knew I didn’t. He just clapped once, and out came a bunch of rupees. “Take them,” he said. “Hide them under your sari. Jealousy out there. Jealousy.” He meant that as I went out, not to go, “Ooooh, look what Baba gave form to.” I’d have ten thousand jealous of me out there, all waiting to go in and see Baba. He said, “Take it to the American Express and get it changed into money of your country and never spend it.” I never spent it. They changed it into twenty dollars and I always kept it.

I also use a ring that he made for me when I was leaving, just took out of the air. He said, “This is for healing, Hilda, for healing.” And he said, “You will look in, and you will see sometimes Baba, sometimes you will see the infinite, and sometimes the finite.” And it has been so.

I have time to read just a little bit of something that I like here of Baba’s, because his miracles are one thing, but to me his message is another. His message is what I fell in love with — his message is what I rose in love with. Listen to this now.

“Why does man rail when he arrives in the world, whimper through life and groan out into the beyond, lamenting that his sojourn here was a waste of years? Why? Man does so because he is unaware of his glory, of his high destiny.” That’s the only reason. Week after week here, don’t I tell you who you are? That’s all I can do. All I can do each week is tell you who you are, until one day you say, “Wow, that’s who I am!”

Baba says, “Man is the divine poured into a human mold.” Take these words into yourself right now. Come on. You say “I.” Say “I am the divine poured into a human mold.”

Baba says, “Everything else, alive or inert, is also divine, but it is the privilege of man alone to be able to become aware of this precious truth.”

We’re the only ones that can understand it, do you understand? Isn’t that wonderful? So why aren’t we living better? This message is echoed by the scriptures and in the declarations of countless saints, yet man and woman turn a deaf ear to it, perhaps due to misfortunes created by misdeeds in past lives.

Baba says: “Man can derive ananda” — that’s bliss — “through the contemplation of his divinity or the divine as represented by all that he sees, hears, tastes, touches or smells outside himself. Brahman is immanent in all.” Well, then, what are we worrying about? “The Divine pours into your mold. What an inexhaustible source of ananda lies inside or outside you. Only you have to develop the mind” — that’s it! — “Only you have to develop the mind that will respond to the call, that will recognize the truth.”

Do you think that this week you could honestly keep your mind firm on who you are, day and night? Simply repeat it, saying who you are. If you have pains, say it is a lie. Say “I am in the image and likeness of God, and if God had pain, the whole world would screech. And I cannot have pain, because I am in that image and likeness.” Say it over and over and over and over and over.

Once I took on so much pain from someone that I couldn’t walk. It was so excruciating; there wasn’t a place in me that wasn’t excruciatingly painful. All at once I said, “Hey, God, I’ve had enough of this! I’m sick of this — this pain is finished!” And it got finished. What I get sick of is taking on pain from people who aren’t going to change. I’ll take anything on from you kids if you’re going to change afterwards. I’ll go along with anything. But if you get back your health and you don’t change one iota — if your mouth is still nasty, your mind is still cheap, and you’re still petty — then why don’t you just have your own pain?

It’s time you kept your mind on the truth of the matter. I would have so many people coming up next week to talk of miracles if you would keep your mind on God every moment. Say “I am made in His image and likeness.” If you want to say “Her,” you can. “I am made in the Mother’s image and likeness. I cannot have sickness, I cannot have trouble. It’s impossible, impossible, impossible. It’s a lie, it’s not true, it’s not true.” You go on all day like that, and something will break. Start doing it. I believe you could clean the water if you thought about it enough, if Baba can wave his hand and make something manifest. I swear by God Almighty that I’ve seen Baba do that over and over and over again. I’ve seen him blow like this — wwhhooohh — and the whole thing changes. It’s almost as it was in the beginning, when God went like this — wwhhooohh — and our world and we were all created. It’s a wonderful feeling to see someone do that. It opens your mind to a glory you haven’t touched yet. Open your minds and your hearts and see the things we haven’t seen yet! There are glories in the air we haven’t touched, and I’m determined to touch them. If Baba can touch them, I can touch them. If Moses can part that sea, then I too can part my troubles if I keep my mind right. Do you understand this?

Baba continues: “Misery is alien to man’s and woman’s makeup. Recognize the immanence of the Divine. One has to dedicate all acts to the Divine.” Everything we do is to the Divine. “What is an act when you analyze it deeply enough? It is the manipulation” — now listen to this — “the manipulation of the Divine by the Divine.” Isn’t that great? It is the manipulation of the Divine by the Divine. If you think positive and something happens, then who is the positive in your mind? God. And who is the thing that is manifested? God. If you pray, you take down from God’s storehouse and give back to God.

Baba says: “Dedication is to be carried out in many various ways. Take the food that we consume and offer it to God.” How many people forget to offer their food to God and change the vibratory rate of it from a stinking old nothing that’s been cooked in a hurry into something divine? Any act done for the glorification of God is thereby rendered pure and potent. It is incapable of harming the doer, the beneficiary or society, for it is saturated with love, which is God. God is the director of this puppet show, the manipulator of the strings. Go behind the scene and see Him. It is now hiding Him. You have only to peek behind a flower or peer behind a cloud to see Him pulling the strings to show us the beauty, to show us the darkness of heavy moisture. So also you have only to peek behind your thoughts, to peer behind your feelings. You will find there the Inner Motivator behind everything.

“You tell me, ‘Swami, I have been practicing intense meditation for fifty years, but I have yet to gain concentration.’ This is the shameful confession. Jnana, or meditation, is the seventh of a series of the steps leading to the eighth, samadhi, or conquest of the mind. Unless you have secured a strong foothold on the five previous steps, you will fall back from jnana.”

You want to know what the five previous steps are? We’ve been doing them in this class, and I say you’re a wonderful, wonderful class. I’m very proud of you. The first step is the control of the senses. The second is the control of the emotions and impulses. The third is the mastery of balance and equipoise. The fourth is the regulation of breathing and movements of the vital airs. The fifth is the prevention of outer influences. If you don’t practice the first steps to make the foundation, you can go off and meditate and when you come out, you’ll slide down and it will be hard to hold it, however many years you have tried to stick to it.

Baba says:

“Reduce the luggage you carry about when on the journey of life. Remember, all that is not you is luggage. You are not the body, so the body is an item of luggage. The mind, the senses, the intelligence, the imagination, the desires, the plans, the prejudices, the discontent, the distress are all items of luggage. Jettison them soon to make your travel lighter.”

Come back with me to Baba at Brindavan. I used to get up at 3:30 in the morning and go outside. I would look up and it would still be pitch-black, except for the stars so bright and the moon so bright. I’d walk down to this place, and I’d sit and meditate. I’d close my eyes at 3:30 and maybe at 8:30 I’d open them, and I would see the monkeys walking with their babies in their arms, picking the leaves and the figs and the fruit off the trees for their breakfast. I want you to close your eyes and feel with me, and then we’ll go into a meditation. I call this “Baba at Brindavan.”

Just feel it now. Get very quiet. Take in the essence of Baba now. You may see him in dreams after tonight. He may appear to you. He may just come for a second of darshan. I tell you this night, I tell you in all sincerity, that everyone who is here, he knows is here. He once told me, “I know everybody in the world, and those that are mine I call unto myself.” He knows you’re sitting here tonight. Don’t move your hands, your arms.

Just listen.

Reference

Also See: Sathya Sai Baba Miracles and Who Is Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba And Vemu Mukunda

Sathya Sai Baba And Vemu Mukunda
From Nuclear Physicist to Renowned Musician

A brilliant Indian student by the name of Vemu Mukunda had taken science courses at universities in India. Then he left his motherland to conduct post graduate research in Scotland. He took a job in England working in the field of nuclear science. Although outwardly he seemed to have successfully established himself in his chosen field, yet he was not happy. He had left his family, friends, and culture behind and now found himself living in an environment where the advancements in technology were considered the highest goal and his only social life consisted of attending endless rounds of cocktail parties. He felt his life was empty and without purpose and this feeling came to a crisis point when his brother and sister both died back in India. Furthermore the negative use of nuclear science to build weapons of mass destruction weighed on his conscience and made him question his choice of career. He began to sink into a state of chronic depression which was only briefly relieved by the release he felt when he made music on the Indian stringed Veena that he had played since childhood.

It was during that period of black despair that a series of strange incidents occurred to bring a new influence into his life. By coincidence, a mutual friend in London had a veena at home that was badly damaged and when he heard of Vemu’s skill with the instrument he invited him to his home to see if he might be able to repair the instrument. Vemu went to the home along with some friends and indeed found the instrument so badly damaged that he was completely unable to get any pleasant sounds out of it at all. However he agreed to take the instrument back to his home and see if he could repair it.

On the way home, the friends who had brought him wanted to stop at a house where they knew the residents were conducting Sathya Sai Baba bhajan sessions (sacred singing). Though Vemu had no special interest in doing so, since he was riding with them he went along with the plan.

When they arrived at the house and went in, he saw a picture of Sathya Sai Baba on the wall and immediately had the thought: “Oh, no not him”. His parents had been followers of Shirdi Sai Baba and they felt that Sathya Sai Baba, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba, was an imposter and so Vemu had also taken on this attitude. Shirdi Sai Baba left his body in 1918 and many of his original followers were unwilling to believe that he had taken on the Sathya Sai form eight years later (Sathya Sai was born in 1926) even though Shirdi Sai Baba had told his followers just before his death that he would take birth again eight years hence.

Vemu had no interest in the bhajans and so he sat behind the other singers and took no part in the singing. However during a lull in the bhajans the hostess put a veena in his hands and asked him to play something. In an abstracted mood he began to strum the instrument and presently a tune came into his head and he began to play. The others very much enjoyed his playing and when the song ended they asked him to play another song. He agreed, playing the first tune that came to mind. At the end of the second song, he suddenly realized that the two songs he had just played had been composed by two different Indian Saints but the titles of the songs had the same meaning in the respective languages of the composers: “No One is Equal to You”.

Now Vemu looked down at the veena he had been playing and realized that it was the badly damaged one he had been taking home to repair. But mysteriously, every note he had played on it had been completely harmonious. Now he tried to play it consciously and not a single harmonious note would come out of it. He began to feel as if something miraculous had occurred and he felt the hair on his head standing on end.

He thought to himself: “Sai Baba! What power. Is he a black magician?”

After this incident Vemu began to get invitations to play professionally. He accepted whenever it fit into his schedule and strangely, wherever he played he would run into someone who would talk about Sathya Sai Baba. At home his friends in London kept pressing him to attend Sai Baba bhajan sessions. He began to feel that he was being pursued by Sai Baba!

Vemu had been schooled on the principles of science and so his confidence was more on the field of matter than that of the spirit. He felt that the realm of spirit was only a way by which some people escaped from harsh reality. And yet some part of him wanted to proceed into the spiritual realm while the other part wanted nothing to do with it. His mental torment increased and he felt himself being torn in two different directions. He continued to resist the spiritual impulse and yet, the world of physics and materialism had lost its charm for him.

Finally in a state of complete desperation he sat down and addressed a letter to Sathya Sai Baba at his residence at Prasanthi Nilayam. Although he had heard that Sai Baba does not answer directly by writing back, it was said that he would provide the answer in some more direct form. He poured out his heart’s dilemma asking Sai Baba if he should continue in his chosen profession of nuclear engineering, quit and become a full time musician, or renounce the world and become a religious devotee (Sannyasi).

As he boarded a flight to Paris for a Veena concert, he wondered how and in what form he might receive a response to his letter but nothing unusual happened on the trip. On his return to London, he began to feel an inexplicable urge to visit the same home where he had played the damaged veena during the bhajan session. This was curious to him since he didn’t even want to go there the first time. He ignored the urge for a while but finally gave in. Approaching the house, he noticed the “Om Sai” written on the front of the house. The owner of the house, Mrs Sitabai, greeted him at the door and told him she was very glad he had come because she had something for him. They went to the shrine room and she handed him a photograph telling him an unknown visitor had attended the last bhajan session and had asked that the picture be given to Vemu as soon as possible. He looked at the photograph and saw that it was a picture of Sathya Sai Baba playing the veena!

He was immediately overcome with emotion and surrendered to Sai Baba by prostrating before the large photo of him on the wall. Tears of emotion ran down his cheeks. He knew now that he had his answer. He soon quit his job and became a full time musician. His reputation as a skilled veena musician spread and he began to get calls from all over Europe, including as far away as Russia. He felt that somehow his sudden success was due in part to the guiding hand of Sathya Sai Baba and he began to feel that he wanted to return to India and visit him. At about this time his mother and father were also asking him to return to India to see them and so he began to think seriously about making the trip home. But at the back of his mind was a fear that all the events were just coincidences and the result of his own imagination and that Sai Baba might refuse to see him. It would be a great disappointment to him if Sai Baba ignored him.

He decided to write to a friend and have him ask if he should come to visit Sai Baba. Soon afterwards he had a vivid dream in which Sai Baba came to him and rubbed his sacred ash (vibhutti) on his left shoulder beneath his shirt and said to him: “Come to India”. When he awoke the dream seemed very real but he still felt that it might have been created out of his wish to go to India to see the great teacher. After several days of struggle he made up his mind to go so he canceled all his performance reservations and took a plane to India.

When he arrived at Swami’s (i.e. Sai Baba’s) residence he took his place on the grounds at the end of a line of men. One of the devotees told him that he had arrived just in time for Darshan, in which Sai Baba circulates among his devotees giving sight of a holy person. Vemu sat quietly enjoying the feeling of peace that emanated from the place and waited patiently. Soon there was a stir at the other end of the lines and he caught sight of the orange colored robe of Sai Baba as he circulated slowly, gracefully among the devotees, stopping briefly to talk to some, to create vibhutti for some lucky ones, or to take letters from others. As Sai Baba got closer, Vemu felt his excitement and anxiety increase. As he saw the robe and delicate feet approach him he could not bear to look directly into his face, encircled with a halo of hair and so he cast his glance downward onto the ground. His heart was in his mouth and his body became rigid as he noticed the feet approach ever closer. Vemu had written a letter to give to Sai Baba but he had completely lost his wits and did not even think to hand it to him. He felt Baba take the letter from his hand and then he raised him up and he heard him say in a quiet voice: “Go inside and wait”.

Vemu went inside and when at last he faced Sai Baba alone in the interview room, Sai Baba created vibhutti for him and rubbed it on his left shoulder under his shirt just as he had done in the dream. Then Sai Baba began to discuss the obstacles in his life showing complete familiarity with his career struggle, his desire to play the veena, his depression, and other details of his daily life. As the talk ended, Baba circled his hand and produced out of air a five faced rudraksha bead in a gold setting at the end of a gold chain. He gave it to Vemu to wear constantly and told him that he would have great success both in his new career and in his spiritual progress. He then invited Vemu to play the veena at a musical concert to be held at the Sathya Sai College in Brindavan.

When the time of the concert came, Vemu brought along his eighty year old father who had been a close devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba. His father told the son he would just sit outside on the outer grounds and wait. But when Sai Baba learned the father was present he immediately called him inside and in Vemu’s words: “For a whole hour Swami talked to my father like a loving mother to her child. After that my father was a changed man.” Now the entire family, Vemu’s father, mother, brother and all the other members of the family are followers of Sathya Sai Baba.

(From a story that appeared in its original form in Sai Baba Avatar by Howard Murphet. Birth Day Publishing. San Diego, CA.)

Also see: Google Books On Sathya Sai Baba