34. Sathya Sai Baba met a woman whom he knew in a previous life
Here is another story told to me by Yogi Hari. One day Sathya Sai Baba went on a long journey through the state of Kerala, in the southwest of India. He visited many cities and villages and finally came to the ancient city of Thiruvananthapuram. During this trip, as always, Sathya Sai Baba was accompanied by numerous devotees, and among them was a man named Bhagavantam. During this meeting, Sathya Sai Baba drew attention to an elderly woman.
Sathya Sai Baba turned to Bhagavantam and said he knew this woman well from childhood. At that time, Sathya Sai Baba was about 30 years old, and the woman was over 70, so Bhagavantam was extremely surprised at such strange words and decided to ask Sathya Sai Baba what they meant. He immediately said that he knew this woman well in a past life. In a previous incarnation, Sathya Sai Baba lived in the city of Shirdi, in western India. He was called Shirdi Sai Baba.
Bhagavantam approached the woman and asked if she had seen Shirdi Sai Baba as a child. The woman said that when she was a very small girl, her uncle took her with him to see Shirdi Sai Baba, and he gave her a medallion, which she wore around her neck all her life.
Thus, Bhagavantam was able to confirm the words of Sathya Sai Baba. Most often, people think in terms of the events of one life, but Sathya Sai Baba knew exactly everything that happened to everyone in previous incarnations.
35. People are like rays of a single sun
A person must do his job in society, constantly realizing the relationship between Spirit and Matter. There are many people around you, all people have different physical bodies, but in all bodies there is one divine Spirit.
(Sathya Sai Baba – “Lectures at Kodaikanal”, 1996)
The world around us reveals great diversity, but at the base of this diversity lies a deep unity. One divine spirit dwells in all people. Unity and diversity are one of the greatest mysteries of the universe.
Everyone has their own purpose in life, but it is important not only to understand it, but also to realize it. Realizing your purpose in life is real success. A person who lives in harmony with the aspiration of his soul is truly happy and satisfied. A person is realized not only in deep meditative practices, but in the actions he performs physically.
The realization of one's divine potential occurs through activities in society, it can be scientific research, artistic creativity, social activities. We are all united in spirit, but in this manifested world we have incarnated as a huge number of unique individuals with our own talents and characteristics. The sun has many rays and people are like the rays of a single sun.
It is written in the Avadhuta Gita:
“For the True Self, there is no birth and death, there is no bondage, there is no liberation from bondage. Truly, each person is inherently an eternal reality and is inherently perfect. The Self is absolutely pure, I have no body, my mind is a stream of thoughts that have nothing to do with me, Self is beyond the illusion, Self calmly observe the illusion of this world. In the True Self, there is no distinction between desire and its absence, activity and inactivity. Although I am acting, there is no activity for me.”
Some mistakenly assume that the philosophy of the True Self supposedly must lead to the denial of family relationships, financial success, the implementation of social projects. Sometimes people read the books of Sathya Sai Baba or the ancient Vedic texts such as the Avadhuta Gita and make the erroneous conclusion that the contemplation of the True Self should supposedly be accompanied by complete apathy and denial of the physical and material world around them.
The question is: how do you perceive yourself and the surrounding space? Are you attached to the results of your actions? In fact, the philosophy of the True Self, on the contrary, helps to reveal dormant potentials and talents. Approaching the deep essence of his soul, a person becomes a wise creator of life.
You are incarnated with a special spiritual mission, but each person around you is also unique, and incarnated also with a special spiritual mission. No one is better or worse than you – everyone plays a role in the performance of life – all people are different, and each person is completely unique. Each person is God receiving the experience of human existence.
You live in harmony with the entire universe, complementing everything that happens around you. Realizing your purpose in life, you feel the whole world complements and helps you to realize the work you do. The unity of spirit and matter is the unity of Divine Consciousness and Cosmic Energy. Both of these aspects are inside each person, and their play and interaction give rise to the whole diversity of the universe.
36. Immaculate Conception of Sathya Sai Baba
Sometimes you have to see something to believe it. This story is about a religious man whose doubts kept him from believing the greatest miracle of all until his questions were answered by the voice of a woman.
Sathya Sai Baba once said that in ancient times the Divine Consciousness incarnated on Earth as Krishna. According to tradition, Krishna was born from a virgin birth, he entered like a flash of light into the womb of his mother. Sathya Sai Baba declared that just as Krishna incarnated on earth in ancient times, he, Sathya Sai Baba, incarnated in this world in our era.
Among those present was one of the renowned experts in the Vedic scriptures named Rama Sharma. Sathya Sai Baba's words aroused many doubts in him. He decided not to voice his doubts aloud, but all this seemed very strange and even implausible. Krishna was a divine incarnation. Rama Sharma questioned the validity of Sathya Sai Baba’s claim, asking: is Sathya Sai Baba as great and significant as Krishna?
As time passed, Rama Sharma continued to think over the strange words of Sathya Sai Baba. His doubts not only did not decrease with time but, actually, became more and more intense. He constantly pondered whether it was true that Sathya Sai Baba was the divine incarnation of our era.
Rama Sharma knew that one of the few signs of a divine incarnation is a virgin birth, just as Krishna, Buddha and Jesus were conceived. If he could find out whether Sathya Sai Baba was born in this way, then he could answer with confidence the difficult question about the authenticity of Sathya Sai Baba's divine origin.
One day, Sathya Sai Baba was sitting surrounded by a group of devotees and visitors. Rama Sharma was also present, and it was during this meeting, that he felt it a good moment to clarify the difficult issue. Gaining courage, he asked Sathya Sai Baba bluntly whether his conception was virgin or ordinary.
All those present were extremely surprised by such a strange question. In silence, they waited for Sathya Sai Baba’s answer. This story took place in the ‘60s, when Easwaramma, Sathya Sai Baba's mother, was still alive. At this particular meeting, she was sitting next to her son. Sathya Sai Baba addressed her in a mysterious voice and asked her to share about the incident which happened to her next to the well, nine months before his birth.
According to eyewitnesses, Easwaramma did not want to tell this story but Sathya Sai Baba insisted and so she agreed.
She explained how on that day, as usual, she went to the nearest well for water. Suddenly, a luminous blue ball appeared in the sky out of nowhere, which swiftly flew up to the frightened woman and entered her stomach. Immediately, she experienced an exalted spiritual state, after which she lost consciousness. An hour later, she woke up and rushed home where she told her mother-in-law what had happened. The excited mother-in-law strictly forbade Easwaramma to tell her relatives and neighbors about the event, so as not to cause speculation and ridicule. Many years later, Easwaramma first spoke about this amazing incident at the request of Sathya Sai Baba himself.