Sathya Sai Baba. Supernatural Experiences and Divine Transformation. Book One
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A common feeling among new arrivals was that something unusual was beginning to happen, they could already feel their soul being filled with joy and peace. It was a truly unique experience reminisced by many. This divine vibration permeated through travelers, and people felt they were entering a special sacred place where thoughts calmed down and the whole space was filled with light.
The closer people came to the ashram, the more intense the feeling of joy and bliss became. Finally, when travelers arrived at Puttaparthi, itself, their sense of wonder reached its peak. The feeling seemed to be that this place is somewhere far away in heaven, so far it was hard to believe you were even on earth.
In India and elsewhere in the world, there are spiritual teachers who can work with hundreds and sometimes several thousands of students. As the energy power of Sathya Sai Baba is so enormous, he was able to help tens of millions of people, and in such a way that everyone felt a personal spiritual connection with him.
Sathya Sai Baba was able to change the most diverse situations and circumstances of people's lives with the help of his miraculous power. He transformed all levels of human existence. Being in close proximity with Sathya Sai Baba, people experienced subtle spiritual states. His blessings also manifested themselves quite physically: healing from serious illnesses, protection in dangerous situations, finding a happy family life, building successful business projects etc.
Sathya Sai Baba taught a person's spiritual quest must be in harmony with successful material circumstances. Very often people view the spiritual path only as a practice of prayer and meditation. In fact, everything that happens in life and everything we do are steps on the spiritual path. Good health, a happy family, taking care of one's parents and children, a successful career and business, scientific research and artistic creation are all integral parts of the spiritual evolution of man.
Unfortunately, some erroneously and artificially divide life into two separate means of existing: “spirituality” and “materiality.” Sathya Sai Baba perceived life in unity, therefore his blessings affected all levels and aspects of human existence, including, spiritual and intellectual development, as well as good health, family well-being, and financial abundance. This was also his uniqueness.
5. "My life is my message"
Sathya Sai Baba was born on November 23, 1926, in the south of India, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, in a small village called Puttaparthi. During his long life, he regularly visited various major cities in India, such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore, but he preferred to spend most of his time in his native village.
Sathya Sai Baba often repeated the phrase: "My life is my message." Of course, what Sathya Sai Baba said to visitors during personal communication, or in his lectures, is very important, but the most important aspect to me is his life, itself. It is important to understand how Sathya Sai Baba lived his life and what we can learn from him by studying his long and bright life path.
His very birth in a tiny remote Indian village is a great lesson that he gives to the whole world and to each of us. Sathya Sai Baba was born in very unfavorable conditions, but by the power of his divine energy he was able to transform everything around. Thanks to Sathya Sai Baba, Puttaparthi, a small, impoverished village eventually turned into a beautiful oriental oasis. Puttaparthi in the twenties, at the time of Sathya Sai Baba's birth, was a tiny village with a few small streets and a small population. In order to buy the most necessary things, such as a jug for water or a cauldron for cooking, local residents had to walk several kilometers to a neighboring village, which was located on the other side of the stormy and full-flowing Chitravati River. In the neighboring village there was a market on Sundays and the locals waded across the river to buy the most basic things. At that time there was not even a bridge across the river.
The nature of Puttaparthi is famous for its magnificence. The village is surrounded by mountains of extraordinary beauty. The highest mountain in the area is called Sai Kailash, which has three peaks. Dense vegetation is everywhere, and the Chitravati River flows through the picturesque valley where there are many small reservoirs and springs. It is a truly fertile land.
I think any person who comes to Puttaparthi immediately notices the stunning beauty of this place. Half of the villagers were Muslims, and the other half were Hindus. In the middle of the village was a tiny square, which has survived to this day. There were also several tiny old Hindu temples in the square. In the Islamic part of the village there was a small mosque, which has also been preserved.
I met devotees of Sai Baba who came to Puttaparthi in the fifties. They told me about how this place looked in those distant times. Almost everyone mentioned that it was extremely difficult to get from the nearest city to Puttaparthi, the wagons drove slowly along narrow and broken roads.
It does not matter where and how we begin our life path, but it is important who we are in essence.
6. Where Sathya Sai Baba is born and lives, everything begins to flourish and grow in prosperity.
Sathya Sai Baba incarnates where he sees fit. I thought a lot about this. Why did he decide to be born in Puttaparthi, in a place so unfavorable for fulfilling his great world spiritual mission? At first glance, it would be much more correct to be born in any large city, in a rich and influential family, but Sathya Sai Baba chose a different path. His parents were outwardly quite ordinary people, but appearances can sometimes be deceiving.
Sathya Sai Baba's mother, whose name was Easwaramma, dreamed of having a son and, in accordance with the tradition of her family, took a vow to perform the daily practice of the ancient Vedic ritual called Sathya Narayana Vrata, the ancient worship of the god Vishnu and the goddess Lakshmi. She performed a ritual every day in order to beg the Lord for a blessing on the birth of her son.
Subsequently, Sathya Sai Baba said that when he considered his incarnation on earth, he decided to be born in the family of Easwaramma, only for the reason that Easwaramma practiced Sathya Narayana Vrata with the deepest devotion. He saw the greatest spiritual power of this woman and her devotion with which she performed worship, and so decided to incarnate in her family.
People perform various spiritual practices, such as meditation and prayer, which no one may know about, even neighbors and relatives. Higher teachers, on the subtle plane, know about all the prayers that people perform in the depths of their hearts. What can be hidden from human eyes is revealed to the Lord, for the human heart is like an open book to God. The story of the incarnation of Sathya Sai Baba is one such example.
Sathya Sai Baba gives us the most important lesson in the history of his birth in Puttaparthi. This village was one of the poorest and most inaccessible places on earth. Any person born in such a place would be doomed to poverty and oblivion. People who are born and live in such conditions live their whole lives without any prospect of getting a good education and achieving social success. In Puttaparthi there was nothing but the most beautiful nature. The maximum that a person born in this area could count on, if he was lucky, was to get an elementary education and work all his life in rice fields or in petty trade.