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Who is Sai Baba?
The following
talk was given by David Jevons in February 1996 to a Positive
Living Group who used to meet in a church in Bournemouth, Dorset,
in England. Very few of the audience had heard about Sai Baba and
only a handful were familiar with his teachings. David always
used to approach these meetings with great tact and reservation.
The story that he had to tell was just so amazing that many in the
audience found it hard to accept the facts that he was relating.
They might accept something that he had said, but then David would
say something else about Sai Baba, for example, that he was in the
midst of a triple incarnation, which completely blew their minds
and they wound up by rejecting everything that he said. David
found this to be particularly true when talking to people who held
firm beliefs in one religion or another. The whole topic was just
too threatening for them unless he spoke in the vaguest of terms.
This talk reflects not just David’s own path to recognising the
divine nature of Sai Baba but also the path that all spiritual
seekers have to walk, because it asks the question that we all
have to ask, and to answer, if we are serious about advancing our
spiritual evolution. Sai Baba says “You are as close to God as
you are to your self.” So when we ask “Who is Sai Baba?” we
are really asking “Who am I?” for in as much as we ask questions
about ourselves we are asking questions about God. Sai Baba
constantly reminds us that we are no different from God. Why do
we find this so hard to believe?
WHO IS SAI BABA?
I will begin by
reminding you that what I am about to share with you are my own
experiences, are the understandings that I have developed over the
past fifteen or so years through my own relationship with Sri
Sathya Sai Baba. My purpose in disseminating this information is
not to proselytise or to publicise Sai Baba. That is the last
thing that I want to do. That is the last thing that Sai Baba
would want me to do! We are all walking different paths towards
the Godhead and if you are happy with your chosen path, then my
earnest desire is that this information will serve to help you to
walk that path more efficaciously. If, however, you are in the
state that I was in fifteen years ago and are dissatisfied with
your understanding of the nature of God and the reality of life on
this plane of Earth, if you believe that a greater truth exists
than is generally recognised today, then I invite you to
investigate with me the phenomenon that is Sai Baba. My wife and
I have journeyed out to India many times to visit Sai Baba and we
have been privileged to have had several personal interviews with
him. We have also spoken to many of his close devotees and have
obtained valuable insights from them about his life and his
teachings. It is from this viewpoint alone that we feel qualified
to talk about Sai Baba.
There are books
written about Sai Baba in practically every major language of our
world. Sai Baba isn’t just an Indian phenomenon. He is a
universal phenomenon. From Russia to Argentina, from Australia to
Alaska, there are Sai Baba centres all over the world. When I
attended the celebrations at his ashram in Puttaparthi, India a
few years ago, held to mark his 70th birthday, in the
carnival-like procession which wound past the dais on which he was
sitting on the morning of his birthday there were the flags of
over 130 countries flying, held by devotees from Sai Baba centres
in those countries. It was a graphic demonstration to all those
who were privileged to be there of the fact that he now has
thousands of followers in countries all over the world and that
this number is growing as each year passes and more and more
people get to hear about him.
The very fact that I am talking to
you about Sai Baba is also significant because, until recently, it
was not permitted for any of his devotees either to advertise or
to give public talks about him or in any way to publicise his
divine mission. So you could only get to hear about Sai Baba
either by visiting a Sai Baba Centre or else by talking to someone
who had had some personal experience of him. In my case it was
the latter path, but I have to tell you that it has taken me
almost fifteen years from first hearing about Sai Baba to being
able to understand even a little of his divine mission. Why have
devotees been forbidden from publicising Sai Baba? Swami says
that it has been done so as to restrict the numbers coming to
visit him, so that those souls who over many past lives have been
trying to draw close to the Godhead may have the first opportunity
in this lifetime to have access to him before the massive crowds
start to arrive, when he will literally only be a small orange
speck in a vast sea of people. So we are now at the beginning of
a period of time when there will be a growing world-wide interest
in Sai Baba and his mission.
I believe that you can approach the
phenomenon that is Sai Baba on three different levels. You can
choose whichever level you feel is appropriate for you. The
choice is not a question of right or wrong, of greater or lesser
soul consciousness. It is more a question of the nature of your
esoteric or exoteric philosophical doctrine at the time. I will
warn you in advance, though, that you may find it hard to accept
some of the things that I am going to mention. I say this
advisedly because, fifteen years ago, I was in the very same
position that many of you will be in. Some of the stories of what
Sai Baba has done are beyond human understanding, if only because
he operates beyond time and space, because he is not bound by our
scientific rules. You will hear stories about some people’s
experiences with this amazing man, which will stretch your
credulity. All that I can ask of you is that you just stay open,
that you do not feel the need either to accept or to reject what I
say, that you just let my message reside in your consciousness,
and see how it germinates in the weeks and months to come. For
some people the response is very quick. I gave a talk about Sai
Baba recently and a month later a person who had attended that
talk phoned to say that he was just about to leave for India to go
to see Sai Baba as a direct result of my talk! For other people,
who are attached to a formless, nameless God, the very concept of
a manifest God is quite abhorrent. So, all that I can do is to
ask you to walk the middle path and to allow your conscience not
your conditioning to decide the truth of what I am about to share
with you.
One of the levels on which you can
relate to Sai Baba is that of seeing him as a great spiritual
teacher. There are, of course, many spiritual teachers in the
world today, especially in India, each with their bands of
disciples and devoted followers, who all extol the virtues of
their particular guru. Often they tend to repeat the stories of
the miraculous healings, of the psychic manifestations, of the
incomprehensible powers and attributes of their gurus, rather than
simply talking about their spiritual teachings, about the message
that they are trying to give to Humanity. This was exactly what
happened to me fifteen years ago. I heard only the stories about
Sai Baba’s miracles, about his divine powers, about how he could
manifest anything with a wave of his hand, and this simply put me
off him because I believed, wrongly as it turned out, that this
was just window dressing, designed to attract the spiritually
gullible. Some years were to pass by before I actually allowed
myself to read some of Sai Baba’s teachings and to become aware of
his spiritual message. I should perhaps point out here that I
have been a follower of the Western Esoteric Tradition for almost
thirty years. Nevertheless, much to my amazement, I found that
Sai Baba’s teachings were almost identical to my own
understandings and slowly I began to embrace the Eastern as well
as the Western Esoteric Tradition and grew to realise that they
are really one and the same thing. As Sai Baba talked about the
Vedas and The Bhagavad Gita and the all pervading Law of Karma, as
he reiterated the steps that Humanity must take in order to
transform itself and to restore morality and right action in
society, and so save itself from self-destruction, I knew that I
was hearing Infinite Truth. I knew that I had to go to India and
to find out more about Sai Baba.
In 1989 I had stopped the
channelling process that had been a part of my life for almost
twenty years. I had stopped channelling because I realised that
it was causing separation between me and my God. I was relying on
an intermediary for the source of wisdom rather than on the
Creator of All Life Himself. The channelling process had become a
prop on which I was leaning for spiritual support, in just the
same way that a Christian relies on his or her priest to explain
the mysteries of life. Of course, at some stage in our lives, as
we walk the path towards spiritual wakefulness, we all need the
help of intermediaries, but as we discover that we are no
different from God, that a part of God dwells within us, that we
have a direct link to God, then, we realise that we no longer need
an intermediary. I saw this very clearly and just stopped the
channelling process. For me it was like being born again. It was
like starting a new life. I found the whole experience of
questing for God very exciting, if only because I had no ideas as
to what I would find. Almost inevitably my quest took me out to
see Sai Baba, because I identified so strongly with his
teachings. I have to admit, though, that in the very beginning my
quest did not run smoothly. I had to overcome a lot of prejudices
and preferences. My first three visits to Sai Baba’s ashram were
really ice breakers! He completely ignored me, which was probably
the best thing that he could have done, because I was still
questioning both him and his mission on every level of my being.
In an interview on a subsequent visit Sai Baba told me that I
think too much! I operate from my head rather than from my
heart. I spent the whole time that I was in his ashram reading,
listening and watching, in fact just concentrating on being, on
tuning in to the energy that was present there. Gradually, as the
seeds that he had sown within me began to grow and flourish, my
western resistance broke down and something deep inside me began
to respond to his presence.
Perhaps the best way to tell you
about the essence of Sai Baba’s teachings is to reproduce a
pamphlet that has been produced by the Sri Sathya Sai Organisation
of the UK and which lists, amongst other things, the objectives of
the Organisation and the methods to be adopted to attain them. I
will begin by saying that Sai Baba himself has clearly stated, on
many occasions, that he has not come to start a new religion. He
does not want people to follow him, to worship him, to create a
new cult around him. No, he wants them to follow the God that is
in them, to pursue the spiritual path or religion which they have
chosen, but to pursue it more conscientiously, more devotedly.
The emblem of the Sai Baba World Organisation is the Sarva Dharma
which includes the symbols of the six major religions of the world
and, indeed, when you visit his ashram you will find people from
all the major world religions there, be they Muslim, Hindu,
Christian, Jew, Buddhist or Zoroastrian. Furthermore, the sacred
days of all of the major world religions, not just of Hinduism,
are observed in the ashram. One of Sai Baba’s favourite sayings
is that there is only one race, the Race of Humanity. Cultures
and creeds may differ but race is one. His mission is simply to
bring about the spiritual regeneration of Humanity by
demonstrating and teaching the principles of Truth, Love, Peace,
Right Conduct and Non-violence. He says “I know who I am; I
have come to help you realise who you are.”
The principle objectives of The Sai
Organisation are:
1.
To help the individual -:
a) to be aware of the Divinity which
is inherent in him and to conduct himself accordingly.
b) to translate into practice in
daily life divine love and perfection and, therefore,
c) to fill one’s life with joy,
harmony, beauty, grace, human excellence and lasting happiness.
2. To ensure that all human
relations are governed by the principles of Truth, Right Conduct,
Love, Peace and Non-violence.
3. To make devotees of any religion
more sincere and dedicated in the practice of their respective
religion by understanding properly the true spirit of that
religion.
These objectives are to be obtained
in the following manner-:
1.
By observing the four principles laid down by Sai Baba, namely -
a) There is only ONE religion, the
religion of love.
b) There is only ONE caste, the
caste of humanity.
c) There is only ONE language, the
language of love.
d) There is only ONE God and that
God is omnipresent.
2.
By constant remembrance of God and looking upon all beings as only
a manifestation of Divinity in different forms and shapes.
3.
By underlining the essential unity of all religions and securing
proper understanding of all religions as being based on Love.
4.
By looking upon all work as service dedicated to the Divine.
5.
By bringing to bear upon all of life’s problems attitudes flowing
from Divine Love, such as understanding, compassion, tolerance,
helpfulness etc.
6. By basing all actions on love of
Divinity, fear of sin and steadfast observance of morality in
society.
7. By engaging in spiritual,
educational and service activities, both at the individual and the
community level, in an organised and systematic manner, without
expecting any material reward or appreciation, but solely as a
means of winning God’s Love and Grace.
I don’t think that many people, no
matter what is the nature of their spiritual beliefs, would find
conflict with a single one of those principles and objectives.
This is what I find to be so wonderful about Sai Baba’s
teachings. They are totally universal. Above all, though, Sai
Baba is constantly reminding us of our divine birthright. He is
forever saying “I am God and you are God, the only difference
is that I know it.” He reminds us that we have
forgotten who we really are. He warns us that we should not
identify with our physical body and its associated egocentric
personality, which are to be compared to passing clouds, since
they are only with us for a short lifespan and then disappear for
ever. We should identify with our divine spirit or atma, the
aspect of the Godhead that dwells within us and which is with us
for eternity. As such, when we do this, we will discover that we,
like him, are capable of manifesting all the powers of the
Godhead. The reason why we, and the world as a whole, are
suffering is because we have forgotten our divine birthright.
Many people are choosing to behave like animals rather than like
human beings and one of the main purposes of Sai Baba’s mission is
to demonstrate for us the reality of correct human relationship,
is to help us to recognise and to respect the divine aspect that
is present in every single human being.
For me, personally, one of Sai
Baba’s most significant teachings is that God is omnipresent, that
is to say that God is within us, around us and above us at all
times. He says that human beings can be likened to fish swimming
in water, where the water can be considered as God. Using this
analogy we can see that God is all around us as well as being
inside us and that without God we cannot live, move and have our
being. Without God we can achieve nothing. We cannot do anything
without God knowing of it. It has always amazed me how so many
people today can adopt the attitude that communing with and
worshipping God is something that they can only do in a church or
temple and that when they leave that church or temple they have
somehow separated themselves from God and so are free to behave in
any way that they choose, sometimes in a very ungodly way, because
God does not know what they are doing. Sai Baba says that this is
not so. God is omnipresent and, therefore, life around you is
simply God resounding, reacting and reflecting upon you at all
times, without exception.
Everything that happens to you each
day is, in reality, simply God communicating with you. My wife
and I call this experience ‘universal feedback’, which means,
quite simply, that the universe is reflecting back to us the
appropriateness of our thoughts, words and deeds. This is yet
another manifestation of the great cosmic Law of Karma, which can
best be understood by using the analogy of Nature, that is to say
that as you sow, so you shall reap. Good actions or good seeds
can only grow into good fruits, whereas bad actions or bad seeds
can only grow into bad fruits. If you understand this fact you
will understand the nature of suffering and will realise that the
individual, not God, is the cause of all human suffering. So
no-one suffers by chance, by an act of fate. There is no such
thing as an accidental death. Sai Baba says that everything that
happens to us on the face of this Earth is a direct result of our
own actions, either in this or in past lives. So never look at a
tragedy from the viewpoint of just one moment in time. It is
rather like trying to understand a film from looking at just a few
frames in the middle of the film. We have no way of knowing what
frames have gone before and what frames are coming afterwards. We
cannot hope to understand the film from that limited viewpoint.
It is the same with life. We need to be aware of the continuity
of all our lives - past, present and future - before we will be in
a position to judge the appropriateness of our karma.
We have all lived hundreds of
lives. We keep on coming back to the Earth in this eternal cycle
of birth and death and this leads me directly to another of Sai
Baba’s teachings, which is that we have it within our power to end
this cycle and to remove the need to take birth again on the plane
of Earth. Sai Baba has come on the Earth at this time
specifically to remind us that many human souls are nearing the
end of their time in this school of life called Earth and that it
is within their power to merge with the Source of All Life from
which they separated aeons of time ago. Amongst all evolved souls
there are usually to be found feelings of weariness with physical
life and by weariness I don’t mean that they don’t enjoy life but
that they are tired of having to go through the trauma of birth
and death in order to live in a world where so much suffering
exists, where people deny the reality of God, where people are
interested only in the advancement and the aggrandisement of the
self, regardless of the cost to people around them. So there is a
strong desire to return home to the Source, which is God, and to
break free from the cycle of rebirth. Sai Baba says that his very
presence on the Earth at this time will provide the impetus for
many souls to make that final jump in consciousness, to balance
their karma and to achieve their soul’s deep yearning, to merge
with the Source of All Life. If we follow his living example, if
we live righteous lives, if we love all and serve all, if we draw
close to the living God within us, then, we can become one with
that God.
Sai Baba, in both his public talks
and his private interviews, is constantly reminding his audience
that in spite of all the miraculous powers that he manifests we
are no different from him. All of these powers are latent within
us too. We are God. We are no different from God. He says “I
am I, and you are you, but we are one.” So we should not just
look at our physical bodies and the inherent and very obvious
differences in them, because we are not our bodies. We were never
born and so we will never die. We are immortal beings, aspects of
the One God, and all that we are doing when we incarnate upon the
Earth and take on a human form is to put on a coat which we will
discard when we return to the plane of our true existence. So we
should never get attached to our coat, to our physical body and
its associated senses and feelings, because it is going to wear
out and die. We should always be in control of our body, we
should always be its master not its servant. Sai Baba often uses
the analogy of a chariot and horses. The chariot is our body, the
horses are our senses, and it is obvious that the driver in the
chariot should be firmly in control otherwise the horses could run
away and could damage or even destroy the chariot.
The greatest gift that Sai Baba has
given me, however, is to make me aware of my own divinity. My
Christian upbringing taught me that God was in Heaven and Man was
on Earth and that there was this great divide between the two, a
divide that could only be bridged by God sending His son down to
Earth to make contact with and to redeem Mankind. I was never
very happy either with this understanding or with the doctrine of
original sin and could never understand why, if God created us, He
wasn’t more involved with His creations on the Earth! Sai Baba
teaches that God does not reside in a heaven, or in a church or
temple, for that matter. God is everywhere, in all of Creation,
at all times. There is only one God and that God is omnipresent,
omniscient and omnipotent. Sai Baba demonstrates this fact
himself. I will talk about his ‘miracles’ in a minute, but it is
apparent that he can present himself in whatever form he likes, in
as many places as he likes, and all at the same time. He can
appear in the form of any human being. He can appear in the form
of two, three or even four human beings at the same time. He is a
living demonstration of the fact that God dwells in everything,
that all is one. There is only one Race - the Race of Humanity -
and that Race is divine. Inside every human being is the
perfection of the divine. We are truly no different from God and
the more we align ourselves with the force of God that dwells
within us, the more we become God.
Another level on which you can
relate to Sai Baba is through recognising him as the avatar of the
Age in which we live. In Indian theology an avatar is regarded as
a direct incarnation of the Divine, who comes on Earth to close
one Age, or Yuga, and to inaugurate another. In Judaic or
Christian theology this great being is known as the Messiah.
Almost every religion in the world today embraces the concept of
the return of a divine messenger who comes with the express
purpose of raising human consciousness, of teaching Humanity how
to discriminate between right and wrong, between truth and
falsehood. Indian theology teaches that the purpose of the avatar
taking human form is threefold, namely, to protect and
re-establish dharma, which translates roughly as right action or
right conduct, to protect the devotees that have kept faith with
the Lord and to punish the evil-doers. The avatar, whilst not
removing Humanity’s karma, prevents it from destroying itself, for
example, in some great nuclear holocaust. There have been a
succession of avatars, many unknown to us today. Indian theology
teaches that there are both full and partial avatars or, as they
are sometimes called, major and minor avatars. Minor avatars are
beings like Jesus, the Buddha and Mohammed. Major avatars are
beings like Rama, Krishna and, some people feel, Sai Baba. One of
the distinguishing features between a major and a minor avatar is
that major avatars are born with all of their miraculous powers
latent within them, whereas minor avatars acquire their powers
whilst in physical incarnation by following certain spiritual
disciplines. It is therefore interesting to note that Sai Baba at
the age of six was already exhibiting his miraculous powers and by
the age of twelve was a fully realised soul, whereas Jesus only
exhibited his powers during his ministry, after he had visited
India as a young man and had studied at various esoteric schools
there.
In comparing Jesus with Sai Baba it
is also interesting to note that Jesus went through three
recognisable stages of awakening his own divinity. He began his
ministry by saying that he was a messenger of God, then evolved to
saying that he was the son of God and only at the very end of his
ministry did he proclaim that he and his Father were one. He
clearly demonstrated that in the beginning he was living in a
state of duality, of being separate from God. During his
ministry, when he was overshadowed by the Christ Energy, he grew
into the understanding that there is no duality, that all is one.
Sai Baba, on the other hand, incarnated with all of his powers.
As a child he could manifest whatever he chose. He would pick
different types of fruits off one particular tree no matter what
the season. He could materialise any physical object that he
desired with just a wave of his hand. He understood things that
had never been taught to him in school. He knew all the Vedas and
the sacred writings of India although he had never studied them.
He could hold learned discussions with priests and pundits even
though he had only attended his local school. He apparently has a
full knowledge of everything.
At the age of 14 he revealed who he
was and why he had come. He explained that he was in the middle
of a triple incarnation, the first being to reveal Divinity, the
second being to awaken Divinity and the third being to propagate
Divinity. His first incarnation had been as Shirdi Sai Baba, when
he lived from 1835 until 1918. His second incarnation, the
present one, as Sathya Sai Baba, is from 1926 until 2022. His
third incarnation, as Prema Sai Baba, will be from 2030. Although
the three physical bodies will be different, the indwelling
Divinity is One and the same. He has defined the purpose of his
incarnation as being to reveal Man to himself, to restore to him
his birthright of divine bliss, to teach him the truth about
love. Sai Baba states that the avatar always comes when Humanity
is on the brink of destruction, when fear stalks the streets
everywhere, when evil appears to flourish, when righteousness is
mocked. In the eternal cycle of human evolution we are now
experiencing the lowest point of the cycle, the time when Humanity
is the most separated from the Godhead. It is precisely because
of this that we can draw hope, because the avatar always comes in
the time of the greatest need and, as Sai Baba says “This
divine body has not come in vain. It will succeed in averting the
crisis that has come upon Humanity. It is not in the nature of an
avatar to fail!”
Another level on which you can
relate to Sai Baba, and I accept that for some people this level
will be very difficult to comprehend, I know that it is for me, is
through the understanding that he is an actual incarnation of the
Godhead, of the Source of All Life, on the Earth. In doing this,
though, one must not be confused by his name and his form. God is
not the name and the form. God only takes name and form because
Humanity would find it difficult to develop faith in the nameless
and the formless. Understanding the Divine in human form is but a
preparation for understanding the nameless and the formless God.
That is why avatars incarnate on the Earth, to provide the name
and the form that is so essential for the true seeker, so that
they can love, worship, follow and listen to God and through that
devotion progress to the nameless and the formless God. In the
early days I found this particular concept very difficult to
accept because of my strong esoteric conditioning. In fact, even
after fifteen years of investigating him, I still do not know who
Sai Baba really is! I find it very difficult to accept that he,
or anyone else for that matter, is God incarnate, if only because
I have always believed in a nameless and a formless God. Even
today, I am still investigating, I am still trying to discover the
reality of who Sai Baba is and what is his divine mission.
Through a study and an observation
of his life, through releasing long-held and preconceived
viewpoints as to the nature of the incarnation of the Divine, I am
now coming to the point when I can at least begin to accept that
Sai Baba is probably more than just a great spiritual teacher. I
have witnessed his miracles, his manifestations and his healings,
I have felt his divine power and I know the effect that he has had
not only on me but on those close to me. I am aware of the
transformation that he has wrought in my being. This, surely, is
the only way that one can make a valid assessment of Sai Baba, by
asking “How has Sai Baba transformed me? Has he influenced my
life for the better?” Let me share a little personal story with
you here. Five years ago I mentally asked Sai Baba to soften my
heart, to make me more compassionate towards my fellow human
beings, because there was a streak in me that often made me quite
indifferent to other people’s sufferings. On a subsequent visit
to India, as I was sitting in his ashram at Kodaikanal, Sai Baba
walked past me and, with a beautiful smile, lightly touched my
fingers which were extended towards him in a greeting of
‘Namaste’. I immediately experienced a feeling of supreme bliss
and burst into tears! But something inside me had been touched,
my heart centre had been opened, and from that day onwards I felt
much more open and compassionate towards my fellow human beings.
So in just this one aspect alone I know that Sai Baba has had a
very positive effect upon me and has transformed a very fixed part
of my nature for the better.
The divine powers that Sai Baba
manifests are literally quite mind-blowing! They cannot be proved
or tested by science because they are beyond scientific
understanding at this time. However it would seem that Sai Baba
is both omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. He appears to
know everything that is going on everywhere in the whole world
and, presumably, in all the other worlds as well. Let me give you
two examples of this fact. A pregnant lady was admitted to a
hospital in India in the first stages of labour. Unfortunately
there was only one midwife on duty that night and she was busy
attending other births. The lady’s labour suddenly accelerated
and she felt the baby coming and cried out for help, but the
midwife did not come. Desperately she prayed to God for help and
to her relief another midwife came into the room who safely
delivered her of her baby, washed it, wrapped it in clothes and
laid it beside her. Sometime later the original midwife came back
into her room and was amazed to see the baby lying there and asked
who had done this. The lady told her about the other midwife who
had helped her. The first midwife then informed her that there
was no other midwife on duty that night, that she was the only
one, and asked as to who had done this! The lady then described
how the midwife looked, how he was dressed in a red gown and had a
mass of fuzzy hair. Yes, you have guessed correctly. She
described Sai Baba and later identified him from a photograph.
I will now give you another amazing
example of Sai Baba’s divine powers and I know that these facts
are accurate, if only because I heard the gentleman concerned, an
American called Isaac Tigrett, relate them himself. Isaac was
the founder and owner of The Hard Rock Café chain which has cafés
all around the world. When he sold the chain he donated half of
the sale price, around $59 million, to Sai Baba for the building
of his Super Speciality Hospital in Puttaparthi in 1991. You can
go and see this magnificent hospital, the second largest in Asia,
when you go to the ashram. Isaac obviously has a very close
relationship with Sai Baba but the events that I am about to
describe took place in the early days of that relationship.
During this fifteen year period he visited Sai Baba many times
before he was granted his first interview. Anyway Isaac described
two occasions in which Sai Baba physically manifested before him
in the USA in order to save his life. On the first occasion, when
he lost control of his car whilst driving by himself, he went
over a cliff top and as his car was plunging down to certain
destruction, Sai Baba appeared in the seat along side him and put
his arm around him in a protective gesture. When the car impacted
at the bottom it was a total write off but Isaac emerged without a
scratch! Again, after a drug overdose one night, when Isaac was
choking on his own tongue and faced imminent death, Sai Baba
manifested in his room and rolled him over and cleared his air
passage, thus saving his life again. One can only marvel at the
powers of such a being, which defy all known scientific laws
today.
But omnipresence and omniscience go
much deeper than that. It would seem that Sai Baba knows your
every thought, word and deed and, indeed, the thoughts, words and
deeds of the whole of Humanity. He appears to know the whole
destiny of Humanity, both past, present and future. He appears to
know everything that has been and will ever be. He is one with
the total consciousness of Humanity. So although he didn’t
incarnate as the Buddha, as Jesus or as Mohammed, he is them
because they merged with the greater consciousness of which he is
a part. That is why he knows everything about their lives down to
the minutest detail. Let me tell you another little story to
demonstrate this fact. A man was given a ring by Sai Baba during
an interview but, some time later, when he was crossing a river on
a ferry boat, the ring fell off his finger into the water and was
lost. He was very upset at the loss of the ring, if only because
Sai Baba had given it to him. The very next time that he visited
the ashram, Sai Baba said to him “You have lost your ring” and
then with a wave of his hand he manifested the very ring that the
man had lost and gave it back to him. The man was amazed and said
“Swami, how can you do that?” to which Sai Baba replied “I am the
river, I am the river.” So what you have to realise is that when
you become one with the Source of all life you become a part of
everything. That is the birthright which one day we will inherit.
Apart from his physical
manifestations Sai Baba is renowned for his healings. It is
reported that he has raised several people from the dead and that
he has cured people who were terminally ill and had been deemed to
be incurable by their doctors. I, personally, have seen people go
into his interview room in a wheelchair and come out of it
walking, if a little unsteadily! He has cured people of cancer
with a wave of his hand and the simple statement “Cancer
cancelled.” Some people have been cured of an illness simply by
being in his presence at darshan, others by taking the vibhuti or
sacred ash that he has manifested for them. Now this doesn’t mean
that he cures every person that comes to him asking to be healed,
no matter how much they believe in him. All illness is karmic
settlement and healing can only take place when the karma is
discharged, when the lesson is learned and God’s grace is
invoked. Just being in Sai Baba’s presence, receiving his
energies in darshan, can be a healing process on many levels of
being. He can also effect healing through a third party. For
example, he has given Ann and I a lingam to be used for healing.
Sai Baba manifested this lingam for us during an interview. The
lingam can be likened to an egg-shaped stone. He told us to pour
water over the lingam, invoking God’s blessing on it, and then to
give the water to sick people to drink. We have had some
wonderful healings with this water!
I will end, as I began, by reminding
you that you have to experience Sai Baba for yourself. My
experience will not be your experience. If these words have
inspired you to go and visit him then please make that sacred
pilgrimage, but remember that you cannot go and see him unless he
permits it, indeed, you cannot even dream about Sai Baba unless he
permits it! On one level, of course, you don’t have to make the
long journey to India because Sai Baba is omnipresent. He is with
you right now, as you read these words, and is noting your
response, to see if you are ready to begin the journey back to the
Source of All Life. But for those of you who are prepared to make
the journey, perhaps in response to some deep inner soul yearning,
I can tell you that what you will gain by receiving his darshan,
by feeling his unconditional love, by placing your being in his
divine energy, will be beyond human value. Sai Baba often uses
the analogy of the ocean and the rain drop. When you are in the
ocean, before birth, you are part of the ocean, you have no
identity, you are the ocean itself, but then the cosmic wind stirs
the waves and you become separated from the ocean as spray, you
become absorbed into the clouds and form into a raindrop. For a
brief moment in time you think that you are separate from the
ocean, that you have a separate identity and purpose, but then the
rain falls and you return to the ocean. That is the nature of
human life. We are temporarily separated from the Source of our
being but we will all return one day to the Source from which we
came. Sai Baba says that there are four important questions that
we all should consider - Who am I? Where did I come from? How
long will I be here? Whither am I going? Sai Baba has helped me
to both ask and, in part, to answer those questions. He has made
me aware not just of my own divinity, but of the divinity of all
life. He has taught me that there is only one God and that that
God is omnipresent. He has shown me the reality of God in a
physical form on the Earth today. Above all, he has made me aware
of my divine birthright, the opportunity to attain liberation and
to merge with the Godhead, never to return to this plane of Earth
again and to get caught in the cycle of karmic bondage again. I
commend Sai Baba to you. Go, see and experience the transforming
power of his unconditional love which, of course, is the power of
God.
Source: Ramala Centre Newsletter,
http://www.ramalacentre.com/sai_baba01a.htm
Visit Ramala Centre Website:
http://www.ramalacentre.com
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