Pope John XXIII

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Sai Baba Guru of Gurus

 

Sai Baba and the story of how Sai Baba appears in dreams. How the money from the sale of the Hard Rock cafe was used to build a hospital in India. Copy right Craig Hamilton-Parker

 

As I ate my hot fudge sundae at the famous Hard Rock Cafe in London I noticed that amongst the rock memorabilia of the Beatles, Hendrix and Rolling Stones stood a life size photograph of a rather odd looking figure. But this fuzzy headed character dressed in bright orange/red is no rock star. He is Sri Sathya Sai Baba the guru of the blue chip multinational restaurant group and responsible for their corporate slogan 'Love All. Serve All.' Isaac Tigrett, the restaurant chain's founder, believes that Sai Baba saved his life when his Porsche careered at 90 mph over a 300 ft drop. "Sai Baba appeared beside me in the car and put his arm around me.

 

The car was totally destroyed but I got out without a bruise." When Tigrett sold his share of the company for £16 million he gave all his money to Sai Baba's cause. The proceeds of the sale helped build a free hospital in India.

 

On his deathbed Pope John XXIII is said to have had a vision of a man that would usher in a new Golden Age such as mankind has never known. He described him as a small, barefooted man with brown skin who will wear a distinctive red robe. Similarly, the great 16th century seer Nostradamus and American prophet Edgar Cayce predicted that a holy man from the east would challenge the major religions of the world as a prelude to a Golden Age.

 

Ten years ago few people would have heard of the remote tiny village of Puttaparthi set in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Now the attention of millions is focused on this stone and thatched village because of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

 

Sai Baba

 

Born on 23rd November 1926 Sri Sathya Sai Baba demonstrated remarkable materialisation phenomena from an early age. At the age of thirteen, after a two month period of illness and unconsciousness, he announced to the startled villagers that he was an avatar- a teacher sent directly from God. This, he said, was his second incarnation, the previous being as Sai Baba of Shirdi a Muslim fakir who had died in 1918, and there would be a third to come as Prema Baba. Over these three lives he intends to bring the religions of the world together as one brotherhood with universal love as their foundation stone.

 

Most people actively engaged in psychic work or study have heard of Sai Baba. He's not what you'd expect a great man to look like. He is a small, baby faced man with a distinctive mop of black fuzzy hair similar to the style popularised by guitarist Jimmi Hendrix. And just like the deathbed vision of Pope John XX111 he is barefooted and wears a orange/red robe. Yet many world leaders rank amongst his followers including the one time president and prime minister of India S D Sharma and P V Narasimha Rao as well as the ex-prime ministers of Italy and Norway. The Duchess of York (Fergie) has been to see him and rumour has it that Prince Charles requested an audience but was refused. In India Sai Baba is headline news and his influence is rapidly spreading to the West.

 

 

 

Never before has anyone displayed such remarkable PK powers. The reports coming out of India are mind boggling. Sai Baba has raised the dead, multiplied food as Christ did at the Last Supper, materialises jewellery out of the air and turned water into petrol when his car ran out of fuel. There are tales of him materialising sweets directly into people's mouths, appearing in two places at once and making a photograph of the face of Christ appear on film. Most of his manifestations have been demonstrated in front of highly respected professional people and are particularly well documented by Dr John Hislop and Howard Murphet.

 

There are of course sceptics who argue that Sai Baba's miracles are nothing but cleaver conjuring tricks. The fact that he has levitated in front of hundreds of people or can materialise jewellery from thin air can be explained by simple trickery and sleight of hand. But when you read the thousands of testimonials or meet intelligent people whose lives have been completely transformed after an encounter with Sai Baba you soon realise that to trick people on this scale would be impossible. For example Sai Baba will often ask people "What do you want" and many people will ask him to materialise very obscure things: fruits out of season, a perpetual motion watch, a map of the world in the future, some wood from the original cross and specific medicines. To keep all this up the sleeves of his robe would be an impossibility.

 

Sai Stories

 

Amongst the 'Sai Stories' told by devotees are some very strange stories. For example: Knowing that every Rolex watch has its exclusive serial number, an Australian visitor asked the swami to materialise one for him. Sai Baba obliged with a wave of his hand. On his return the serial number enabled the Australian to identify where the watch had been purchased. He asked the proprietor if he remembered who bought it. The owner remembered the occasion well. He could hardly forget the unusual orange clad Indian gentleman with strange fuzzy hair.

 

The shop owner was a meticulous man who kept accurate sales records that gave not only the day of purchase but the time as well. Together they checked the records. It corresponded exactly with the time and day that Sai Baba had materialised the Rolex. Sai Baba had been in two places at the same time!

 

Another intriguing story, although accounts differ, concerns an Australian who visited Sai Baba in the hope that he could cure his wife of terminal cancer. Sai Baba spoke to him saying "You shouldn't be here. Your wife needs you. She will be well." He then tapped the Australian three times on the forehead. The man vanished in front of a crowd of people and reappeared besides his wife's hospital bed in Australia. Baffled by what happened he checked his passport. It was stamped correctly with that day's date yet only moments ago he was in India. His wife recovered.

 

The Impossible

 

All over the world there are people who have had similar impossible experiences many of whom I've met or have written to me at my columns. Sai Baba's most frequent materialisation is of a healing ash called vibhuti. Hindus consider this to be very holy and on a par with the holy sacrament of Christianity. In the Daily Telegraph of March 6th 1992 a reporter witnessed vibhuti ash forming on photos of Sai Baba and objects in the room at the home of Mr G Patel in Wealdstone, Harrow London. In honour of Sai Baba's 70th Birthday, Mr Patel carved a life-size wooden statue of his guru. As soon as the task was complete vibhuti ash began to form on the statue's hands, gown and feet. Mr Patel took a photograph of this but when the film was developed it was not the statue in the picture but a photograph of the real Sri Sathya Sai Baba!

 

Remarkable as these stories about Sai Baba are, they are unlikely to convince traditional scientists until he is tested by researchers under laboratory conditions. Sai Baba considers that this is unnecessary. "Miracles are my visiting cards" he says and on another occasion "My greatest miracle is Love" His spiritual teachings and the character transformation it triggers are far more important than the tantalising PK phenomena he displays: "For what purpose were you born? Man has been sent into the world to realise the truth that he is not man, but God. The wave dances with the wind, basks in the sun, frisks in the rain, imagining it is playing on the breast of the sea; it does not know that it is the sea itself. Until it realises the truth, it will be tossed up and down; when it knows it, it can lie calm and collected, at peace with itself."

 

If we embrace the spiritual principle of unconditional love says Sai Baba, we too can become a godlike being and will manifest the same incredible PK phenomena. This, he suggests, is the next evolutionary step of mankind.