Chapter Nine

There are many references, in Sathya Sai Baba's statements, relating to His "previous body" as Sai Baba of Shirdi, which are vouched for by those who were devoted to the saintly Shirdi Baba, and who are now convinced Sathya Sai is a reincarnation.

The Raja of Chincholi was an ardent devotee of Shirdi Baba, and had spent some months each year at Shirdi, as well as other holy places. When he died, his wife, the Rani, was surprised to hear of the Lord's incarnation as Sathya Sai Baba, at Puttaparthi, and she made it a point to visit there, to meet the then fifteen year old Baba. During her stay she persuaded Sathya Sai to accompany her back to Chincholi and Hyderabad. Baba mentioned a number of changes that had taken place at her home since His "previous body", as He frequently referred to it; that a tree had been uprooted, a well that had been filled in, a newly built line of shops, etc. During His stay in the Rani's home He asked about a small stone statuette which had been given to the Raja, but, alas, the Rani was unaware of its existance. Sathya Sai found it for her! He also said that there must also be a picture of Shirdi Baba, and that too was discovered.

Some years later the Rani came across a drinking vessel, used by Sadhus*, which had a distinctive shape and artistic design. She had been rummaging in a hugh store room in her home for suitable items for display throughout the house. She instructed the servants to clean and polish it, and upon examination, she found that to fill the vessel, the water had to be poured through a slit in the handle, and the spout had been shaped into a cow's head. It was displayed in the drawing room of the Rani's Hyderabad home. The following day they found a cobra coiled around the vessel and the Rani decided to ask Sathya Sai about this unusual drinking vessel, on her next trip to Puttaparthi. When she entered the ashram, Baba sent word to ask her to come up "with my drinking vessel!" No sooner had He had it in His hands, He showed to devotees nearby, the letters SAA followed by a pair of short vertical lines, BAA with two more lines. SAA indicating Sai, and BAA for Baba!

To this day the connections between Shirdi Sai, and Sathya Sai, are portraited in two life-size oil paintings displayed in the Prayer Hall at Prasanthi Nilayam. Both figures are shown standing with both hands crossed over the other; Shirdi holding His right hand with His left hand, and Sathya holding His left hand with His right. The artist had difficulty in portraying the details of Shirdi Sai"s clothing, whereupon Baba waved His hand and produced two small pictures ready for the artist to work from, with all the correct clothing details.

Some years ago a devotee from Delhi, stated in a letter to the biographer,
N. Kasturi, that he had the greatest of difficulty in accepting Sathya Sai Baba as an incarnation of his beloved Shirdi Baba, until the following event occurred.

One evening while the devotee was cycling home along a deserted road between Old Delhi and New Delhi, he was deeply in thought contemplating his financial situation. Although devoted to Shirdi Baba, he was drawn to Sathya Sai, and had just returned from Puttaparthi, still with the doubt heavy on his mind. "Finished the work for the day?" a voice suddenly asked from behind. Turning, he saw a burly individual, pedalling quickly to catch up. He wore a broad smile and had a pleasant manner. Our Delhi devotee earned his livelihood by teaching music to children and occasionally playing the violin at concerts. He assumed the stranger had seen him at concerts or in some friend's home, and replied, "Yes, I am going home now," in the Tamil dialect, corresponding to the dialect the stranger spoke in his question. The burly stranger pleaded, "Then can you come along with me to that old temple, yonder? I will not keep you long." Leaning their bicycles against the shaded temple wall, they sat facing each other as the stranger sought from our Delhi friend, the source of his problems.

The stranger asked how our Delhi friend could doubt that Sathya Sai was not also Shirdi Sai. "See!" he said, extending the palms of his hands, and there could be seen, as if painted in full colour, the portrait of Shirdi Sai on one palm, and on the other, the shining face of Sathya Sai!

"I could never forget those twin faces, lighting up the palms of that reverend old man," our Delhi friend said. It was the answer that cleared all doubts and gave him a new lease of life, as he meditated on the twin images of his beloved Sai. As he watched, the stranger cycled away swiftly, and to his consternation, saw the stranger suddenly melt into thin air!

On another occasion a lady in Madras, placed her child in front of Shirdi Sai's picture, as the child was seriously ill. Years later, she went to see Sathya Sai with her son, now a tall muscular young man. As soon as Sai saw her He said, "You had placed this boy under My care, fifteen years ago, isn't that so?"

Thus, Baba gives the positive proof of His identity, we need. Baba speaks the same consoling words, the same words of courage and enlightenment, to all who doubt or question. The same Baba, then and now.The same mission, the same message.

The same spirit, the same power, is embodied in Sathya Sai, that had been in Shirdi Baba, at the turn of this century, and in Krishna almost 6,000 years ago, and in Rama 15,000 years ago.

As Sai Baba said, "Rama, Krishna and Baba appear in different dress, but it is the same entity, believe Me...I am new and ever ancient. I come always for restoration of Dharma, for tending the virtuous and ensuring them conditions congenial to progress, and for educating the 'blind', who miss the way and wander into the wilderness."

The difficulties one may have in accepting the identities of both Babas was explained by Sathya Sai Baba at the All-India Sai Samaj, at Madras in January 1959, "The Avatars of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna are so different in the various incidents of their earthly careers; they also emphasised different aspects of ethical behaviour and philosophical belief; they differed in methods of teaching and uplifting; it is all a difference in emphasis rather than in basic things. It is difficult to get convinced that Sri Rama is Sri Krishna, but few have any doubts on that score. So, too, those who can delve deep into My mysteries can understand that the Power has now assumed, another human form."

Sai Baba is imbued with great energy to enable Him to fulfill His Glorious Mission. He once stated that He is Saura Shakti, which is an ancient description for the Primeval Energy, otherwise known as Cosmic Energy or Cosmic Christ. So, although the Lord Maitreya is referred to as the Planetary Christ, Sathya Sai Baba is seen as the Overlord, or God of all. There are those who await the Messiah, the Christ, the Lord Maitreya, and claim His appearance is imminent. Why concern ourselves, I say, now that the Father is here and has been for the last 70 years!

At a Christmas Day discourse in 1972, Sathya Sai Baba announced to the large congregation, that Jesus said, "He who sent Me, will come again," and that Jesus was referring to Baba. He said Jesus actually said, "His name will be Truth (Sathya). He will wear a red robe. He will be short, with a crown of hair." Baba admitted to being the One who sent Jesus and to being the Cosmic Christ.

When Dr. Hislop, the author of many books on Sai Baba, asked "Are you God?" Baba replied, "Let us just say, I am the switch."

Sai Baba never ceases to remind us that everything is God. So also are we Divine. Indeed man is a much greater being than he cares to believe. With a great destiny and a far greater and more important role, which is now opening-up for mankind. It is as if man is the "chosen one", above all other beings in the universe, chosen for a very special universal role, in which man will surpass anything his "space cousins" have achieved up to now. We must not see ourselves in terms of duality; seeing God as separate from us. Mankind and God are One. We should see ourselves, instead, as the Totality. We are presently locked into a state of illusion. "This life is illusion," Sai Baba says, and this includes the universe overall. It is as if we are existing within a dreamlike state that we have created for ourselves. But, as we move away from this third dimension to the next, and then to the next again, we are moving away from that illusion, towards the True reality, - our own Divinity.

Sathya Sai Baba brings us back to the fundamental reality, when He says; "What is man's journey? Where is he going? Why is he continuously reborn? In order to seek the right path and knowledge of Truth. What road should one seek? You should return whence you have come. That is seeking. You have come from the Divine Essence, from God, and you must return to Him.
Do not expect to find happiness in the other world; that world too is impermanent. Once you have exhausted your merits, you will again be cast out of it. Even in politics, candidates are elected for a term that expires after five years. Each year that passes shortens the right he earned through the election. In the same way, the duration of your 'paradise' will depend upon your merits. When these are used up, you will have to return to the earth."

Science/Technology is not the way forward towards that greater goal. It's a trap, a web of our own making, and we are both the spider and the fly! Referring to science, and scientific investigation, Baba has said, "Science does not even know the truth of chemistry and physics. Each ten years or so, the old truths are discarded or modified because of research results...Science is just hit and miss."
"How can science, which is bound to a physical and materialist outlook, investigate transcendental phenomena beyond its scope, reach or comprehension?"

Man's position in creation is, according to Sathya Sai Baba, even higher than particular Biblical passages suggest. While the Psalm 8 says that man was created "little less than a god," Sai Baba's discourses states that man has the status of a god, but is totally ignorant of the great wealth lying within, and He continues, he is likened to a beggar sleeping on a safe full of diamonds! All he has to do is wake up and discover those riches and begin to use them, for his benefit and the benefit of mankind.

"Man is Divine; he has the Lord dwelling in his heart, yet he is bound, miserable, limited, weak, agitated. Why? He is ignorant of his reality. He imagines himself weak, limited, bound and he is so shaped by the mind, which is the source of that imag-ination." Further, He said, "Man is unaware of his glory. He is the Divine poured into a human mould, just as everything else alive or inert is, but it is the privilege of man alone to be able to become aware of this precious truth!"

Saint Paul declared as much, when he stated, "Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God. The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, 'Abba, Father!' The Spirit Himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God. And if we are children, we are heirs as well: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, sharing His sufferings so as to share His glory."

I suppose if you were to repeat "I am a sinner," often enough, you condition yourself to believing it, particularly when those who have the responsibility of guiding your spiritual destiny, convince you that it is so, and that it is scandalous to think otherwise. They would argue, to suggest otherwise, that that is the origin of Original Sin; man boastfully claiming to be God. Whereas, the opposite could be the truth, by insulting Him who made us, and causing Him great displeasure by insisting that we are sinful, foolish and good-for-nothing! Have we forgotten the parable of the Prodigal Son? By choosing to call yourself a sinful wretch, this makes you forget and cloak-over your Divine origin, that keeps you in a state of suffering. Know the truth of your reality, and be happy!

Sai Baba never ceases to remind us, in His discourses, how blessed we are to be born into human form. "To be born as a man is a very sacred thing. That is, among all the animals that are born, to be born as a man is something very difficult and very sacred. Even devas (angels, gods) at one time want to have a human birth. One must make the determination to use all the organs in the body for sacred purposes."
And finally, "Man is essentially Divine."