FAQS on Sathya Sai Baba

GOD WALKS ON EARTH

Who is He?

In one aspect he is a benevolent guru, respected by many millions and, not shockingly, vilified by thousands others. His name is Satya Sai Baba, of Prashanti Nilayam, in Puttaparthi, Annantpur District of Andhra Pradesh, India. For over 60 years, he has been mentoring the world’s distraught and its believers. Now he is 85 years old, confined to a wheelchair much of the time. He is in the public but still glowing with the power that made Him beloved to over 60 million followers world-wide.

Why is He in a wheelchair?
A pelvis bone that has been broken and mended and a number of other ailments makes him use a wheelchair for mobility, at the behest of his devotees. He has been known to carry on with His ‘duties’ – discourses, managing the ashram, looking after the people – in spite of great pain.

Can’t He cure Himself?

He can. He has done this before. Will He again?

What is He?

An avatar. One that has no comparison in living memory. The closest correlation is of Krishna (5000 years ago) or Rama (25,000 years ago). He has all the compassion and grace of a living Christ, comparable to Jesus’ work as related in the Bible. Except He does say there was more to Jesus than is in the Bible, and that He is the one that Jesus said would come to save the human race.


What is an Avatar?

An avatar is a spark of the universal consciousness that takes shape as a human being for some vital work on Earth. Technically we all humans are a spark of that consciousness, but an Avatar makes a concerted effort to take a human form whereas normal humans are born within the karmic cycle of causality (cause and effect).

The Avatar is a formation of benevolence and compassion but that is only an aspect of His. His true aspects may not be wholly clear to us humans.

The mission of an avatar is only clear in hindsight for he operates at levels incomprehensible to the human mind at its present level of awareness.

When Rama came He undertook a massive war that disseminated a land, killed off soldiers in the hundreds of thousands, propagated His messages of dharma (right conduct) and set the standards for ruling a realm. His life is a role model that has been followed by generations, despite only one book being available of His avatar-hood. Even that book, the Ramayana, has undergone so many changes as to be a point of contention for non-believers, as well as among believers.

When Krishna came, he stole the hearts of his devotees, killed off ‘demons’ and evil doers and master-minded an internecine and global war that set the scene for a further decline of dharma because of the loss of so many elders and followers of Dharma in the war. The survivors of the war are part of our present-day humanity.

The present Kali Yuga is the result of that war, perpetuated by the continual decline of right conduct, growth of avarice, reckless use of resources and argumentative disposition.

Is there anything good He does?

He has set up free hospitals - including super speciality hospitals - free universities and schools and provided free water for millions as part of His example to His followers to serve humanity.

He raises the level of consciousness among human, by sheer force of will as well as teachings and examples. He enables humans to believe in themselves as sparks of the divine rather than a collection of atoms designed to live off the Earth.

For Him, the time on Earth is a crucible for purifying people. Forget heaven, forget hell. These are constructs of organised religions designed to inculcate fear of the unknown, and the possibility of super-sized earth happiness or misery.

This Avatar is here to wring out man from his conditioned behaviour, of preventing the falling back on set pieces to seek solutions, and to bring about a life of cooperative and sustainable living. More importantly, he is here to make man a god.

What can He do?

The biggest hurdle facing Him is organised religion and fanaticism - be it Christianity, Hinduism, Islam or any other religion with a set of followers who believe they only have the truth of the matter. But they are hurdles only from our point of view, not from His.

He has shown extraordinary capabilities; miracles, visitations, cures and safeguarding, including bringing people back from dead. What He does is beyond comprehension of people brought up in either a linear aspect of time or a three-dimensional aspect of space.

What He says is that He has the ability to change situations and circumstance but would rather change the thinking of people to ensure a consciousness level in keeping with our abilities. Our abilities, whether it is of the brain or the DNA, is only a tenth of what it could be. His mission is to raise that ability to more than it is presently.

As can be seen (if one is keeping tabs), worldwide organised religions are taking a battering from the people of the Earth. And it is as it should be. So is the economic models, the political establishments and the social structures. This is all His doing.


What is the purpose behind His mission?

What is in store for humanity can only be assumed. These are, as the writer said, the best of times and the worst of times.

Humanity is poised at the brink of something extraordinary – be it a raise in the conscious level, a catastrophe of unimagined proportions or a golden age. Satya Sai Baba is here to ensure it is a golden age that dawns and not a catastrophe. That is not to say that there will not be calamity or destruction. There will be minor adjustments to the planet, says Baba. How we take to that is what he wants to bring about.

Who are His people?

Everyone is His people. He is everyone. One of the sustained teachings of Satya Sai Baba is the oneness of everything, living and inanimate. And that everything we can sense is a construct of the mind. The background consciousness or the latent ‘divinity’ is what He wants everyone to experience. And those who work towards it, he aids. Those who strive against it, he also aids but in a way that enlightens them of the drawbacks of being enamoured by the senses and the mind. In our terms this could be seen as cruel and vindictive but is done with utmost compassion.

What powers does He have?

The greatest weapon at His disposal is the karmic cycle of cause and effect that rules humanity. As the master of karma, he can dissolve it, telescope it, nullify it, dampen its effect, etc. Karma is generally accepted as the payment, or the fruit of the action, of receiving the benefit or consequences of an action. As everything is interrelated, bound to each other and to everything else, action that benefits the whole is beneficial and action that diminishes the benefit to the whole is unwanted.

This is the sublime lesson that Satya Sai Baba teaches. Of the Onenness of the universe, the Oneness of divinity.

He can accelerate the karmic cycle, of individuals, of clans, of nations, of planets, to achieve what He wants. And He does. He is also the controller of the universe in the sense of a traffic controller – Automatiku Lightsuku Adi Pedda Vadu.

The greatest tool he has at His disposal is the life-affirming grace he can bestow.

His grace is for everyone – but only those who work towards the good of humanity can tap into it. Or anyone with confidence in one’s self.

Technically that would mean that even the atheist has a chance to experience this grace, if he has developed his confidence to a high level. Confidence here does not equate to arrogance, hubris or pride of achievement or skill.

What does He want from you?

Ah! From each He wants the best the person is designed for. The word designed tells all. Each person has a purpose, defined and subtle. The purpose of life is make that purpose apparent, to live up to the full capacity.

Everything and every one is working towards an alignment of purpose, of reaching a ‘decision’ to be One.

What about evil people?

There are no evil people, no sinners. Just people not aligned to the great work that is the play of the universe.

There are only evil deeds: some agreed to as being evil by all of humanity and some which are considered ‘evil’ because they fall out of the explanation we have of good as per culture, creed or conditioning.

Sai Baba teaches universal values, values that agreed on by all of the major religions and ethical societies. These human values, once practiced, shift our perception away from what is bad to what is good. Practice of the good automatically and invariably forces us to move away from doing anything evil.

He also demarcates universal ‘bad’ behaviour and how to stay away from them. These ‘bad’ attributes are anger, lust, greed, attachment and ego, or pride. Practice of humility through service to all and the continued chanting of a divine name(naamsmarana) culminating in the merging of a name with a form (japa dhyan) are the only prescribed doctrines of Satya Sai Baba.

What is naamsmarana?

To steady the mind, it has to be unhinged from the assault of the senses on it and allowed to operate in alignment with the intellect.. There are number of ways to do this – meditation, japa, yoga, etc. Sai Baba would much rather have everyone fill up the mind with the glory of the divine, gradually pushing out anything that disrupts the continued expression of one’s devotion to the divine.

Naamsmarna is the continual chanting of a chosen name of God, over and over again while trying to picture or visualise the form that goes with that name. The end result of this japa dhyan (where the name instantly evokes the form, and the form reminds you of the name repeatedly) is Samadhi (equanimity). It is important to align the name with the form and not to change either the name or the form as it disrupts the mind.

Chanting is not only the vocalisation of the name but the integration of the name within yourself so that it becomes a part of your mind (thinking) through which everything else is perceived. Any thought that rises then is weighed in against the base of the thought on the Divine.

Is Sai Baba God?

Yes. In the sense that everything thing else in creation is God. All we perceive through our senses must be made from something – that something is the material of God, that consciousness

No. God is beyond the comprehension of the human mind/brain. This entity is the basis of creation, the sustenance from which creation emerges and sustained.

Sai Baba is a coalescing of the all-pervading consciousness that is known by the wise by different names, brought together by the need of mankind for a guide to move them towards humanity. He is the focal point of the agonised calls for deliverance from ages of mistreatment and mismanagement. He himself says this is the main reason He takes a shape and moves among people as one of them.

The other ‘important’ aspects of world regeneration, sustaining dharma, and bringing on a new age is incidental to the answering of calls by the sadhus to take avatar on Earth

Sai Baba is the mirror unto humanity itself – reflecting what each of us is. By making us vividly aware of our shortfalls, Sai Baba is carrying out the education programme of the ages. Once we get to know our shortfalls, we can then look at Him as the example of living our lives. My Life is My Message, says Sai Baba and he asks us to follow His example in everyday life.

What is His mission?

To clear the pathway to divinity. Modern man is encumbered by his short-sight approach to living. The conditionings of individuality, family ties, group attachments, regionalism, nationalism and pride of ownership splits humanity apart. Sai Baba is here to destroy these conditionings, these tethers to ‘me’ and ‘mine’.

What is attachment?

This is the feeling of belonging that a person cultivates in his interactions with the world. Called Moha, these are the feelings we vest into an object, a relationship or an idea we subscribe to. It is a very personal feeling, making us what we are in the social circles, in the world and in our minds.

Sai Baba asks us to practice a certain level of detachment when dealing with the world. Seek not the ownership of anything, seek not the subscribing of ourselves to a creed at the expense of unity, seek not even moksha (liberation) – leave this precious gift to His Grace.

Attachment tethers the soul through the mind to mundane things. Once relieved of these tethers, the soul shines forth, illuminating the intellect which then controls the mind and the senses.

It is attachment which causes our separateness from the One, of individualising us through an ‘ego’ that needs to be sustained with gratification. The ego is the warp and weft of thoughts that are generated in our minds. Sustained over many lives, it is also our karma that determines our purpose and station in life once we are ‘born’.

What is life?

Life is a jail term; a sentence to be carried out to learn a lesson. We are sentenced to ‘life’ to learn the lesson of Truth, Right Conduct, Peace and Love, leading to non-violence of thought, word and deed.

Life is not mere living – it is an exploration of ideas, an expanding of the mind, of looking for the thread that links us all, of identifying the string that keeps the garland intact. Of going beyond the obvious and the apparent to the subtle and true.

Life is not about living well only. It is about dying well too. Everyone has to die. How one dies is more important than how one lives, although how one lives plays a major part in the way one dies.

First step is accepting the fact you are going to die. To accept that death is the only friend one has in this ‘life’. Once this decision is made, life falls into its place. Everything then becomes one massive move towards understanding why we die. Once that is understood, knowing why we are born is also known.

What is detachment?

It is being dispassionate, unaffected by the ebb and flow of life. It does not mean giving up on life but accepting life for what it is, an ebb and flow of events demanding our reaction. Choosing not to reaction is being detached. What is, is to be. Making an input into what is will not change the consequences. How you handle a reaction to a situation determines you level of detachment.

Detachment is based on isolating the mind from the continual bombarding from the sense organs. To train the mind to seek an identity based not on the reactions to sense stimuli but on something more grounded, the intellect. And then to go beyond the intellect, harnessing the consciousness that pervades everything.

Detachment is not disinterest or apathy. It is applying the correct interest in a given situation. To be involved, yet not to an extent that sees one getting wrapped up in a situation, emotionally and physically.

It is like the involvement of a good judge; impartial, objective and yet empathetic. You feel for them, yet are divorced enough not to become them. Detachment is a grinding out of the spontaneous reaction from your involvement with others. It is a thought-out approach based on compassion (of all the things!) for everyone – that means not taking sides!

It means not belonging to any group, creed or thought which would isolate you from any one else. It is NOT saying ‘yes’ to everything that comes your way but seeing that thing for what it is and acting, or not acting, accordingly. It is being a witness of events, unruffled by its consequences. Yet being able to plunge in with no holds barred to help, aid or change a situation so that it serves someone else better. If you plunge in only so that the situation can be changed to help you, it is an act based on pure selfishness.

Detachment is dispassion. Detachment is not apathy. Detachment is equanimity. It is Samadhi.