Sathya Sai Baba also told John Hislop that when Jesus Christ traveled through Iran and India, the locals sometimes mistook him for an ordinary vagabond, but some recognized him as a great spiritual teacher. Think about the amazing details.
Sathya Sai Baba said that during the journey, Jesus Christ did not have money, so he sometimes traveled on carts with trade caravans that helped him move from city to city. He had no money for food and he ate what the locals offered him. Again, what amazing details!
Only the Avatar could tell, in such detail, about the life of Jesus Christ and the circumstances of his journey. One gets the impression that Sathya Sai Baba, having overcome space and time, spoke about the travels of Jesus Christ, as if he himself was personally present during the journey of Jesus Christ to India.
In his lectures, Sathya Sai Baba said that the full spiritual awakening of Jesus Christ took place in India. Fully realizing his divinity, Jesus Christ returned to Palestine in order to begin to preach the spiritual path to his students and followers.
Sathya Sai Baba said that for five years Jesus Christ practiced meditation in the Himalayas, in Kashmir, where he met many high spiritual teachers. In Kashmir, Jesus Christ studied the depths of Vedic and Buddhist philosophy.
The founders of the Biblical tradition were the greatest mystics and prophets, such as Abraham and Moses. It would be a mistake to believe that they were the first to realize the unity of God and the first to formulate the doctrine of a single God – Monotheism.
Long before the emergence of the Biblical tradition, the oneness of God was the essential foundation of Vedic religious philosophy. A large number of gods and goddesses in the Vedic tradition do not contradict the doctrine of the unity of God. All the gods and goddesses in the Vedas symbolize various aspects and qualities of the Divine Consciousness and Cosmic Energy.
Throughout his life, Sathya Sai Baba repeatedly testified that Jesus Christ lived in India for many years, where he studied philosophy and meditation. The question arises, why is it so important for us to know that Jesus Christ spent many years in India? How important is it to know?
For me, this information is extremely important and invaluable because it points to the Vedic philosophical roots and Buddhist moral foundations of Christianity.
55. Jesus Christ – born with a special Mission
Knowing about Jesus Christ’s life in India reveals there is a profound unity which exists across all religions and spiritual traditions. The seeming contradictions between the Vedic and Biblical traditions disappear as soon as we know that Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher of mankind, belonged equally to both the Biblical and Vedic traditions. In fact, they preach the same eternal truths about the one God who dwells in the hearts of all people.
The fact that Jesus Christ studied in India and went through a long path of practice and meditation does not negate the fact that he was a unique divine personality from the moment of birth.
In my opinion, this new and important information reveals more deeply the essence of the spiritual message of Jesus Christ and builds upon our understanding of his spiritual path. We begin to gradually realize Jesus Christ was not born as an enlightened teacher, but rather went through a long spiritual journey before becoming a great spiritual teacher.
In different eras and in different countries, great teachers were embodied and each of them went through the path of meditation and prayer before gaining awareness of the truth. The Buddha went through the same path of deep investigation of the essence of his being before becoming a world teacher.
Unfortunately, in our time there are quite a lot of Christians who do not want to accept that Jesus Christ lived and practiced in India for many years. They deny the Vedic and Buddhist foundations of the teachings of Jesus Christ, not realizing that in fact the essence of his teachings was the ancient Vedic wisdom.
We are now discovering the knowledge of the true life of Jesus Christ. Of course, for many centuries, some Christian saints walked along the spiritual path without having complete knowledge about the life of Jesus Christ in India. The question arises whether this undermines the spiritual significance and authority of the Christian saints of the past, who knew nothing about the life of Jesus Christ in India?
For example, Francis of Assisi and Sergius of Radonezh did not have this understanding about the life of Jesus Christ in the Himalayas, but this did not prevent them from gaining high levels of divine self-realization.
Also, very painful questions arise regarding the authority of church communities, which for centuries based their teaching on the Old Testament foundations of Christian teaching completely unaware of the Vedic roots of Christianity.
In my opinion, new discoveries cannot cross out the bright achievements made in previous eras. We come into contact with new information about Jesus Christ and get a unique opportunity to understand him more deeply. This data only enriches the centuries-old Christian tradition.
Sathya Sai Baba deeply respected all world religions and traditions. He spoke of the high spiritual realization of Moses, Zarathustra, and Mohammed. In the numerous lectures of Sathya Sai Baba we find statements about the truth of Islam and Judaism, as well as all other world religions.
56. Wish fulfillment tree
Sometimes Sathya Sai Baba, addressing the people sitting right in front of him, sadly said: you are now sitting under the "heavenly tree of wish fulfillment," which is called in Sanskrit, "Kalpa Vriksha," and you have enough imagination to ask for only a cup of coffee, maximum – two.
These strange images show that most people have not realized the unique opportunity that comes with meeting the Avatar.
Sathya Sai Baba repeatedly said that people do not understand what chances and opportunities they have while being in such close proximity to him. Sathya Sai Baba, addressing the visitors who came to him, sadly stated that the majority had enough imagination to ask him, figuratively, for a kilogram of chocolate, and the most daring had the ingenuity to ask for only two kilograms of chocolate. For the most part, people did not realize the full scale and boundlessness of Sathya Sai Baba's possibilities and, therefore, asked for momentary trifles.
Society dictates certain and very naive standards to us. To be successful allegedly means to be rich, but it would be nice to be healthy, as well. Quite often it was with such standards and ideas about life that people came to Sathya Sai Baba.
Yes, having good financial opportunities is very important, but this is not a guarantee of happiness. How many rich people suffer from depression and hidden fears?
True success is the realization of one's purpose in life. There are many unsatisfied, suffering people in the world, but also a large number of truly happy people, and this has nothing to do with their social status and financial capabilities.
True happiness is a state of harmony and the absence of internal conflict. “Knock and it will be opened to you – ask and you will receive,” the Gospel says. Are your desires proper and good? In addition to good desires, there are also questionable ones that lead to negative results.
When we talk about negative desires, we mean situations when, under the influence of resentment or conflict, people begin to wish harm and suffering on others.
Sometimes, not realizing the consequences, people demand from God the fulfillment of their destructive desires. There were cases when visitors quite seriously asked Sathya Sai Baba to endow them with various supernatural abilities, clairvoyance, and the ability to materialize objects.
There are quite a lot of mystics in the world who can materialize objects and who have clairvoyant skills, but this is not the main thing. The task of the Avatar is not to endow someone with superpowers. His true mission is to spiritually transform a person.