REAPING THE HARVEST OF SAI'S LOVE IN AFRICA, A GENERATION LATER.

[Guest guest]

Reaping the Harvest of Sai’s Love in Africa, a Generation Later

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Principal Daniel Otieno of the Sathya Sai School, Uthiru, Nairobi, Kenya

 

 

Mr. Daniel Otieno is also from the African nation of Kenya. Born years after Sai’s sacred sojourn to Africa, he was brought up in the Christian tradition. Growing up, he tried exploring Christianity through the Catholic, Anglican, Pentecostal and Born Again churches. Finally, when he was in university, he was visiting a friend who owned an electrical store. While the latter was attending to a customer, the waiting Otieno glanced at a picture of Sai Baba on the wall and read His quotations under it and was simply blown away by the power of its wisdom.

“I looked at the photo and the quotations written on that. I was instantly impressed by the wisdom. I thought he was some kind of philosopher, or a highly educated person… My friend told me it is Sri Sathya Sai Baba. He is more than a philosopher. He gave me a book called Education in Human Values by Loraine Burrows from the Institute of Sathya Sai Education, Thailand.

"One Saturday morning, I woke up and started reading it. I did not put it down until I was through…that weekend I asked for another one. What did he give me? Man of Miracles by Howard Murphet. I read it within a day and I wanted to meet this Sai Baba immediately… After a period of time, I finished my university [with a degree in Education]. That’s when my friend told me that there was a conference in Puttaparthi for teachers!”

Arriving in Puttaparthi, in May 1988, while Daniel was smitten by Sai’s wisdom, he still harboured some scepticism about the possibility of divinity incarnating in human form. The inner dilemma and doubting continued, as he thought it was preposterous to believe that “a human being like you could be a God? Because being a Christian, the concept of Avatar is very alien. Apart from Jesus Christ, we do not know any other reincarnations of God. So it was very usual for me, who has been brought up as Christian to have this scepticism.” Little did he know that this was all going to change within a week! He explained “We went for the first darshan. The moment I saw Swami, an intense feeling of warmth came through my heart and I just felt this deep feeling of love… it was heavenly.” Once the instrumental darshan music came on and the beautiful form of Sai gently glided by, Daniel Otieno was not the same person. “I imagined myself in heaven. This was something that was beyond the usual,” he accepted. ……………………………………………………………………………………..

 

The inner dilemma and doubting continued, as he thought it was preposterous to believe that “a human being like you could be a God? Because being a Christian, the concept of Avatar is very alien. Apart from Jesus Christ, we do not know any other reincarnations of God. So it was very usual for me, who has been brought up as Christian to have this scepticism.”

Little did he know that this was all going to change within a week! He explained “We went for the first darshan. The moment I saw Swami, an intense feeling of warmth came through my heart and I just felt this deep feeling of love… it was heavenly.”

 

 

…………………………………………………………………………………….. Ram ChuganiKobe, Japan