Sai openly spoke of his past incarnation as Shirdi Sai Baba, a great teacher, miracle worker and sage who lived in India at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is assumed that Shirdi Sai Baba was born in the ‘30s of the 19th century and left this world in 1918. At the end of his life, Shirdi Sai Baba predicted that in eight years he would be reincarnated again.
The Sai boy was born in 1926, that is exactly eight years later. His miraculous wisdom and supernatural abilities amazed all the locals and visitors, and soon the first devotees and visitors began to flock to him. In the beginning, people came from neighboring villages to look at the miracle worker boy, and everyone marveled at his knowledge and insight.
Of course, many were surprised that the boy could accurately tell of his previous birth. Rumor about him spread far beyond the native village, and people came from afar. The fact that the little Sai was the incarnation of the great Shirdi Sai Baba arose interest, surprise, skepticism, and curiosity among all who came to communicate with him.
The ‘40s went by and one day a photographer came to the boy Sai and tried to take a picture of him. Sai stood next to a large stone. The photographer asked the holy youth to move away from the stone so he could take a more beautiful composition, but Sai refused and asked to take the picture exactly where he was standing. Once the photo was printed, an image of Shirdi Sai Baba, his past incarnation, appeared in the picture in the place of the stone.
13. The free thinker is free
Only the mind is responsible for your ups and downs. Only the mind is responsible for your limitations and liberations. This mind is responsible for the fact that man has forgotten his true divine reality, it is the mind that has brought man to hell.
(Sathya Sai Baba – "Summer Showers in Brindavan", 1990)
Only your thoughts are responsible for all suffering, and this is good news! It means your thoughts only are also responsible for happiness and joy. Although you cannot influence the world around you, you are in complete control of your thoughts, which means that your happiness is also in your own hands. The cause of tension and suffering is often found somewhere between sensing a separateness of existence and relaxing into that source of happiness where you feel unity, contentment, and peace.
When you seek happiness for yourself, you always lose it, but when you give happiness to others, you always find it. Peace and harmony are the complete acceptance of what is happening in the here and now. All states, such as suffering, happiness, and peace take place in your inner world. How you feel at this point in your life depends entirely on your conscious decisions about what thoughts and emotions you allow to dominate your mind.
The mind creates artificial authorities and mental garbage that leads to delusions. A person can be very authoritative in one community, and completely unauthoritative in another. Of course, this does not mean that you need to become a nihilist and fight everyone just for the sake of showing your supposed love of freedom. Any person’s opinion should be thoughtfully and respectfully treated; however, do remember you have a right to your own independent position, regardless of the strength of outside influences.
A person deprived of the freedom of thought is doomed to become a cog in the system, dependent on the opinions of others and invariably becoming the victim of manipulation. A restless mind gives rise to false thoughts that make life hell. Your thoughts only create the hell in which you then have to live. A free-thinking person is free. Only a free person can contemplate and meditate on the truth.
The mind is an ordinary tool. There is nothing wrong with the mind because it is the mind that allows you to make the right decisions in many simple everyday situations. When you need to shop for clothes in the right size or find the right way, sign documents correctly, you use your mind perfectly.
The problem begins where the mind ceases to be a mere instrument but desires to become the master. The mind tends to take you back in time, making you worry endlessly about what can no longer be changed. The mind creates many fantasies like a nightmare. So it is, then, that the mind stops doing its simple technical functions and tries to be a master, and this creates problems.
The real task of the mind is to be the perfect tool for solving technical problems, such as making the right purchase or making the right financial calculations. A well-functioning mind can help you understand business documentation, understand a new computer program, and more. But don't let the mind try to impose answers to questions about the meaning of life on you. The mind cannot understand this, as it was created for something else.
Memory is the greatest function of the mind. If you had no memory, how could you learn a foreign language, drive a car, or use a computer? However, when the memory is stained with negative emotional moods, resentment, and claims, you instantly fall into the abyss that is created by the mind.
Every moment, the universe is re-created. Instead of regretting the past, bless the past and move on. Your past is perfect, and you have nothing to regret, you are born again every moment. You never have to prove anything to anyone – this is the restless mind – you do not need to take part in the games of the mind, as you are originally perfect and free.
You are what you think you are. This is one of the most important concepts on the spiritual path. If your self-esteem is more significant for you than what the world around you can dictate, then you will be able not only to understand your purpose in life, but to realize your talents.
There are numerous false self-identifications, such as: you are a body or a nationality, a gender, or a name. You use many things in your life, including a body, a name, a degree, and real estate, but you are above and beyond of all this. When one identifies with the mind, false identification occurs. You are not the mind, but you are using the mind. It sounds simple, but what about the actual implementation of this truth in everyday life?
There is no need to fight with the mind – it is a beautiful and perfect instrument, unless you become the master and then it rules you. The mind is really a great tool. It can count and analyze, and it needs to be loved like everything else given by God. The mind is also a gift of God, so it needs to be taken care of, educated, trained, and taught. My advice is to leave all doubts and internal conflicts behind and live in the present. Be simpler. The mind only creates enormous difficulties.
14. Sathya Sai Baba helps before a person knows about the danger
This story I was told by Mr. Subba Rao. It shows how Sathya Sai Baba sometimes knew of people’s troubles before they even did. Sathya Sai Baba did not get ill very often, but when he did, his illnesses had a deep meaning associated with complex energy processes. Once, he had a very high temperature and everyone in the ashram got scared and urgently called the doctors. I was always surprised and even amused when Sathya Sai Baba's assistants called doctors for him. It was strange to watch how these excited assistants invited doctors to treat the one who treated everyone else. On this particular occasion, he listened to the advice of his doctors but refused to take their medicine. A few minutes after the doctors left, his temperature returned to normal.
In the evening of that same day, Sathya Sai Baba had a meeting with a group of devotees. This meeting was organized as a small open-air dinner. A beautiful starry sky shone overhead, and the atmosphere was relaxed. Everyone was happily talking with Sathya Sai Baba when suddenly he turned to one of those present and in a serious voice said, “tomorrow I will warn my mother to be more careful with fire.”