We should consider both the positive and negative experiences of our predecessors. It seems to me the legal structure emerging around Prema Sai Baba should demonstrate a high culture of communication, respect for alternative opinions, and be the embodiment of the spirit of selfless service and unity.
The emerging tradition of Prema Sai Baba faces several difficult questions. How to interact with ashrams in Shirdi, Puttaparthi and Muddenahali? How to interact with parallel existing international Sathya Sai organizations? How to interact with other Prema Sai candidates and their organizations? In my opinion, the basis for our relations and communication should be mutual respect and the principle of tolerance.
37. Sathya Sai 96th Anniversary Celebration
In 2021, on November 23, an important event was celebrated — the 96th birthday of Sathya Sai Baba. According to Indian tradition, a newborn child is considered to be one year old. From the Western point of view, when a child is born, he is at the zero point, and in a year, he will be one year old. Therefore, according to Indian tradition, the 96th anniversary of Sathya Sai Baba falls in 2021, but according to Western standards it falls in 2022.
This date is very important for all Sai devotees, because all of his life Sathya Sai Baba predicted he would live exactly up to the age of 96 years.
As we know, he left his body twelve years before this date. Many devotees are trying to understand the significance of his early departure. Sathya Sai Baba himself explained why he needed to end his life earlier. He completed his mission and had to quickly reincarnate in his next form as Prema Sai Baba in order to start a new phase of his divine plan to transform humanity.
There is evidence that Sathya Sai Baba, a few years before his premature departure, told his close devotees he would leave the body earlier than planned. It is completely impossible for an ordinary person to "plan" their death, but for an Avatar it is completely natural.
Many devotees have been looking forward to this day, November 23, 2021, Sathya Sai Baba's 96th birthday. Some were preparing for some unknown grandiose events. In the year of 2021, a group of devotees arose who began to spread the idea that supposedly Sathya Sai Baba would physically resurrect on that day and continue his mission on Earth in an old body.
On that day, amazing events did happen in Puttaparthi, but they were not what many expected. There was a big flood in Puttaparthi. Fortunately, no one died, but half of the city was heavily flooded. That is why the full-scale holiday did not work out. It seemed that nature itself canceled the celebration in Puttaparthi (the main ashram of Sathya Sai Baba).
There was also no big holiday at the Madhusudan ashram; for unknown reasons, the administrators did not settle followers in the ashram. Thus, the main place of the festival moved to the city of Bangalore. In the holy presence of Prema Sai Baba, the main celebrations of the 96th birthday of Sathya Sai Baba took place.
38. Nalin, the incarnation of Swami Vivekananda
Contradictory information is given on Internet sites and in books about the predictions of Sathya Sai Baba and about his next incarnation as Prema Sai Baba. Let's look at one famous story that is directly related to the predictions about the coming of Prema Sai Baba.
In 1987, a young man from Sri Lanka, his name was Nalin, came to the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba. During a personal interview, Sathya Sai Baba told the young man that in his past life he was the great saint, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902).
For modern India, Swami Vivekananda is the most influential historical figure, both in terms of spiritual tradition and in terms of the political development of modern India. He was a great preacher of Vedic philosophy, one of the founders of modern comparative religion, and one of the ideologists of the Indian independence movement.
As soon as Sathya Sai Baba declared that the young man from Sri Lanka was the reincarnation of the great Swami Vivekananda, this instantly made a splash in the minds of all the inhabitants of the ashram. There is evidence that Nalin came to Puttaparthi several more times, but he was forced to do this in secret, as crowds of people dreamed of meeting him to receive spiritual instructions.
According to one hypothesis, Sathya Sai Baba was supposed to leave the body in 2021 at the age of 96, and Nalin was supposed to head the international organization of Sathya Sai Baba. Some thought he would become the interim leader of the tradition in Sai's physical absence. There are even those who tried to call him Sathya Sai Baba's assistant. It is difficult to imagine anyone becoming the leader of the Sai tradition, for every devotee has his own inner relationship with God.
According to the same assumption, Prema Sai Baba may be born in 2022 or 2023. Nalin will allegedly prepare the boy Prema Sai Baba for a worldwide mission. The inconsistency of this version is already clear, since Sathya Sai Baba left the body in 2011, and not in 2021. It is already clear that Nalin did not become the spiritual leader of the international Sai tradition.
By the will of fate, I did not meet with Nalin in Puttaparthi, therefore I cannot confirm the authenticity of the version itself that Sathya Sai Baba generally spoke such revelations about Nalin's past life.
I am telling the story of Nalin to show the wide variety of opinions and assumptions that began to form during the lifetime of Sathya Sai Baba. This is probably quite natural, since for many it was essential to understand what the transition from the era of Sathya Sai Baba to the new era of Prema Sai Baba would look like.
39. Amrita House, home of the nectar of immortality
Let's look at another version of how the transition to the era of Prema Sai Baba will take place. According to some devotees, Prema Sai Baba is supposed to be born in 2030 (8 years after 2022) near Mysore. The village in which he is supposed to be born is located on the banks of the sacred river, Kaveri. This village is located near the so-called Amrita House (the house of the nectar of immortality).
Amrita House is a small orphanage located on the banks of the Kaveri River, which flows through southern India. The founder of this orphanage and his entire family are devotees of Sathya Sai Baba. They built a large hall with an altar, on which images of Shirdi Sai Baba and Sathya Sai Baba were installed. During major festivals, traditional Vedic worship rituals are held in this hall.
In the 1980s, Sathya Sai Baba blessed this orphanage and presented the headmaster's family with a pair of materialized medallions. At the same time, in the ‘80s, in some photographs of Sathya Sai Baba in this orphanage, sacred ash began to materialize, and on Amrit medallions, the nectar of immortality. That is why the people called this place Amrita House, the house of the nectar of immortality.
Unfortunately, the leaders of the orphanage quickly began to use this miracle in order to get more donations from visitors. Already in the mid-90s, Sathya Sai Baba declared he had taken his blessings from this place, and nothing would materialize there anymore. In a strange way, the materialization of sacred ash and nectar continued; alas, the reason is simple, falsifications began.
Instead of genuine materialized nectar, the administrators of the orphanage began distributing diluted honey. It is not my task to condemn this family, but this situation should be a lesson to all who receive special blessings from God. If at some point you begin to misuse the gift, then God may turn his back on you.
The history of Amrita House is also connected with Prema Sai Baba. When the divine boy was six years old, we drove with him in a car past Amrita House, I suggested we stop and visit this holy place. Naturally, it seemed to me this would be a historic visit by Prema Sai Baba to the orphanage that was founded with the blessing of Sathya Sai Baba.