In the words of Vivekananda

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In the words of Vivekananda,

 

Higher and higher than all ordinary ones are another set of teachers, the Avatars of Ishwar, They are Teachers of all teachers the highest manifestations of God.

The concept of Incarnation is integral with Hindu religious thought and with Mahayan Buddhism. Even in Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth is believed to be the one and only manifestation of divine power, the Son of God, the Holy Ghost who trod the dust of Palestine and subsequently emerged as the supreme principle of divinity. One has only to study the Holy Bible to garner information about the power, splendour and glory of Jesus Christ. His teachings, based on love, faith, hope and charity and his commandments, specially the ones delivered to his disciples in his Sermon on the Mount speak volumes about his wisdom. The chief and unique power of an Avatar consists in his power to change the very spirit of the age and to bring about a wholesale transformation of the minds and hearts of men. All the Avatars have displayed this power in abundance. Since the light has come from above, it is just in its nature to illuminate the dark corners of the world as well as the dark recesses of the human heart.

 

Talking about the Avatars Annie Besant, the great theosophist thinker, has stated that the treasure trove of perennial philosophy and wisdom of sanatan dharma is buried in India; but in the modern age of science and easy communication, the entire wisdom has been properly disseminated and has even become the spiritual heritage of all mankind, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or nationality. No wonder that the Vedas, Upanishads, the shastras, purans and Bhagwad Gita, not to speak of the vast Sai literature are works within the reach of the entire humanity which aspires to explore the realm of spirit. The very fact that Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai is now not only a familiar name in the West and all over the continents of Australia, Europe. America, Africa, but millions worship him as their personal God. It may be noted that never before in the long history of Avatars, such a phenomenon had been witnessed. When Rama and Krishna started their great avataric mission, very few people realized the import of their work or cared to follow their teachings. It was only in the case of Lord Buddha that a substantial part of the world accepted him as a great teacher. But at the present moment of mass communication, global travel in the jet age and international channels of printing, time and space have ceased to matter and a large number of seekers pay their obeisance at the lotus feet of Sai Baba and experience his divinity at first hand and without any shadow of doubt.

 

It is in this sense that I have given the caption 'The Light that never was on land and sea' to this chapter. Many devotees living thousands of miles away from Baba have direct experience of miracles, visions, directions in dreams, accumulation of vibhuti on pictures in their worship room, and they are drawn to the Avatar as files of iron are drawn towards a very powerful magnet. Containing the translucent beams of light, Baba manifests that light wherever he pleases and the result is universal adoration of his power and mystery as omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent God. Indeed, he truly represents that light which never was on land and sea. In the age of Romantic revival, the poets longed to see this light, but the waves of industrialism and scientific materialism obscured their vision, and they thought if there was no God they would invent one and found in Nature a substitute for divinity, a light that never was on land or sea. The primacy of spirit over matter and the transcendence of consciousness over reality permeates the thought of the nineteenth century German philosophers and of the British poet and thinker, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. One notices a close proximity between these thoughts and the ancient perennial wisdom of the Indian scriptures.

 

When the Ray Supreme chooses to penetrate the universe, there is illumination and only illumination. It is not that a cosmic firework is witnessed. All that happens is that no area of human consciousness is left in the dark to languish in sempiternal gloom. A new and altogether welcome synthesis between subject and object is established and the distinction between being and becoming is obliterated. The light that engulfs the universe may either appear as both personal and impersonal. It may either take the form of a Krishna or Sai Baba. In its impersonal aspect, the light may be universal light, the naked majesty of the sun and the stars. In the eleventh chapter of Srimad Bhagwat Gita the vision of the divine in its total beauty, splendour and terror was bestowed to Arjuna. We are aware of the glimpse of the eternal and ultimate reality vouchsafed by the avatar to the intimate and fortunate ones who were held near and dear to the avatar. The child Krishna opened his mouth in order to show Yashoda, his foster mother that he had not eaten the mud. And Yashoda, on her part, saw both creation and dissolution going on in that flash of vision, universes rolling within the narrow confines of the avatar's mouth. Lord Krishna also showed his cosmic form at the time he admonished Prince Arjuna to cure him of his feeling of wavering and disaffection and his recoil from action in the battle­field. When we glance through the biography of Sai Baba of Shirdi we find that as a child, while playing with marble with a neighbour lad he won all the marble counters. The neighbour boy brought the lingam from the shrine of his mother and played with it and lost it to Babu, as Shirdi Babu was called. When the mother of the neighbour boy came to know of it, she rushed to the spot where the boys were playing and entreated Babu to return the marble lingam. Babu denied having taken the lingam. On being asked to open his mouth, he did so. The pious lady saw universes rolling in the mouth of Babu and lay prostrate at his feet. She had the advantage of the divine vision. In the biography of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, entitled Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram we read that Baba showed the images of all the avatars to his mother Ishwaramma and some close devotees. It is reported that the images were produced in reflections on water, and many of the onlookers could not withstand the impact of that sight and even fainted. It only proves the point that humankind cannot bear very much reality.

 

You will appreciate the truth of the statement that the only difference between a full Avatar and the omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent God without form is that the Avatar has a name and a form. These, while making him more readily available to mankind, do not limit the amplitude of his divinity. Seeing him in the form of a man, the human mind is inclined to question these three fundamental facets of Almighty God. I have often heard him say that there is only one God and He is omnipresent. Can this small man in red be omnipresent? Can he be everywhere at once? The mind questions. Yes, he is everywhere in spirit, the Holy Spirit. Many of his close devotees perceive him around them all the time, often as Light. But, then, when he deems it necessary, that Light will suddenly take subtle form of Sai Baba. This I know personally from experience.

 

Furthermore, Howard Murphet affirms the supreme continence of his affirmation visthe divine principle manifested in Sai Baba as Light. He records :

 

Now, after many wonderful years of benign influence of my shining star Sai Baba, I have no doubt whatever about his omnipresence, his omniscience and its relation to his omnipotence ... I have no doubt that he will call to himself, at the right time all those who are ready to take a step forward into the Divine Light and become his helpers. Thus, in ways that we cannot yet foresee, he will carry out his divine mission for the enlightenment of the whole world, creating a new epoch for mankind. Yet, after the partial insights into the mission of the Avatar I find that God remains a great mystery.

Answering to a question by John Hislop about pointed concentration on the form of God, Sri Sathya Sai Baba says:

 

The best sadhana is that every act through the day be done as worship of God. God is like the electric power. Heart is the light bulb. The wiring is the discipline. The switch is the intelligence. Just turn the switch and there is light.

John Hislop describes how Sri Sathya Sai Baba answers to his question in respect of the divinity and universal omnipresence of Swami.

 

H. Swami, here just now we actually witnessed a part of this amazing story. How can this all be? Swami holds the entire universe in His Hand. He bears the responsibility for the inconceivably immense entire universe. And how can he at the same time give this detailed attention to the lives of individual devotees?

Sai : It is as you say. Swami holds the universe in His hand. But devotees learn of the glory and majesty through Swami's attention to each one, personally. That Swami holds the universe, yet at the same time fully cares for the lives of his devotees even to the smallest detail is the measure of His glory that the devotee can understand.

That Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai is the translucent, all-pervasive Light that never was on land or sea in recent times after the dawn of kaliytiga nearly five thousand centuries ago cannot be called in question. We have not only the concrete and irrefutable evidence of astrology, Sai Baba's birth chart at the time of his nativity, the opinion of experts in reading the aura surrounding the faces of eminent human personalities, but also the personal testament of devotees.

 

Most of these evidences have been discussed at some length in the author's earlier volume, Sai Baba: The Rose-Fire of Heaven. However, a brief resume may be given here for the sake of coherence and continuity. The first evidence is that of the ancient Jyotish Shastra enumerating the principles of astrology. The position of the ascendant in the lagna, the nakshatras and other major planets or constellations at the nativity time of the subject is supposed to be very crucial and significant in determining the life and character of the subject. The study of the birth chart of Sri Sathya Sai Baba reveals the nature and quality of his divine descent. Born in Akshaya Kartik when as many as four powerful planets were staying in conjunction in the ascendant. The combination of Sun, Saturn, Venus and Mercury indicated beyond any shadow of doubt the advent of a Maha Purush, a great being or an avatar was born as the very quintessence of Light and Love in order to herald a golden era for humanity. The advent of the Sai Avatar had been prophesied thousands of years ago in the Upanishads as also in Bhrigu Samhita, Nadi documents scribbled on palm leaves by ancient sages and seers and in Satcharitragrantham, the repository of ancient wisdom. These priceless records describe the divine attributes of Sai Baba whose principal task is dharma paripalan, paropkar and bhakta samrakshan. He has laghima, anima and mahimas, the power to shower grace and splendour. He is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. It is also predicted that his powers would increase tenfold at the time of pralaya, calamity and dissolution. He will show himself at many places as column of light and perform many divine manifestations like keeping an airplane airborne without petrol. Finally, it is mentioned that he will unfurl a dharma dhwaza after the completion of his avataric mission at Whitefield, Bangalore. It is difficult for us to disbelieve all these predictions. From the recorded evidence of so many miraculous manifestations of the omnipresence and omniscience of Baba and his Christ-like power of resurrecting the dead, multiplying the quantity of food etc., one is inclined to believe in the divine advent of Sai Baba.

 

However, the greatest achievement of Sai Baba is to turn people Godward and plant in the human hearts the seed of faith and impregnate those hearts with the elixir of pure, selfless love and thus bring about the transformation of hearts.

 

Another strong evidence of Baba's divinity comes from an entirely different source, Frank Varoneshky, a professor at the University of Arizona, U.S.A., who has earned the distinction of being an undisputed expert in the study of the halo or aura that surrounds the faces of individuals. He has the privilege of studying the aura on the faces of eminent individuals in all walks of life. According to him, the attendant aura speaks volumes about the character and personality of the subject. Whereas the aura round the faces of ordinary mortals is, more or less, non­descript, null and void, the aura encircling the face of a superhuman person or an avatar is expansive and its lustre extends up to the sky which is limitless. Professor Varoneshky was bewildered and enthralled to see the aura round the face of Sai Baba. According to him, it was a white and pink aura of the colour of love. This aura became golden like sun and turned into blue colour, which is the colour of love when the Majans were being sung. Professor Varoneshky suggests that this aura signified the boundless energy of love and he has no hesitation in saying that aura wise Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai was God, the diamond like brilliance of his eyes expressing the unfathomable depth of his love.

 

The personal experiences of many a devotee richly substantiate this aspect of Sai Baba, the dramatic operative principle of his divinity manifested as a Ray from the Supreme. The present author himself experienced the surge of waves and waves of unearthly light emanating from the eyes of Sri Sathya Sai Baba on that fateful day of summer, 1973 as he stood face to face with Baba in an attic room by the side of the interview room. It was not only ecstasy, but also sublimity that filled the vessel of his being. The author still recapitulates that moment of epiphany, akin to the intersection time when one is very near illumination and experiences the process of being burnt out.

 

An American devotee Jack Scher records his intimate experience of his first encounter with Sai Baba in images of poetry. He says:

 

One personal leela was my discovery that during bhajans I could close my eyes and suddenly the whole scene I had been watching turned into beautiful shades of intense rose, pink, mauve and orange. At first I thought it was an after image but the scene kept changing. The audience would fade and I'd see huge palaces with gigantic walls and turrets. When Baba came outside, I could close my eyes and the whole scene would turn into a soft and yet vivid pink. He lit the sky with his presence. We are aware that in some of the materializations, specially photographs and cards, there is the imprint of three words : T.P.S. -Howard Murphet records in one of his books, Sai Baba: Avatara. Baba answered his query and explained the fact that T.P.S. was his trade mark. It meant Tara Parthi Sai. We can conjecture that it also might mean Tara Patri Sai and Tara Prema Sai. The direct apocalyptic experience of Pauline Kirby is strange and unique as she visualizes the descent of a star on the Good Friday day of 1977 that transformed her life and left an indelible imprint on her mind. That is how she describes the descending of the Holy Spirit from the Sky as Sri Sathya Sai Baba:

 

After spending a very lovely evening in attunement ... with God and Nature, I retired to my room. It just so happened that this particular room had a skylight so I could look up and gaze at the star-lit sky ... I looked up at the skylight; and suddenly a star started coming down from the heavens. It streaked across the sky getting brighter and brighter and continued right on through the window, entering directly into my room. It was awesome. I was utterly stunned and amazed ... Almost instantaneously my room shone with a very strong light. Everything seemed so clear and beautiful. It was totally overpowering. I was in a complete state of awe and wonderment. I remember saying, 'Is this happening to me? Is this a dream? Am I asleep but I was totally awake and my mind was perfectly clear. Yes, it was really happening ... The star then began to flash various streams of light, and all these flashed before my eyes, I heard a very loving voice giving me clear directions about my life. The messages were very simple, and there was no doubt in my mind that this was guidance from above ... The voice also told me to become a vegetarian, become celibate, and begin to worship God. Later when I came to Sai Baba, I realized that these were his exact teachings ... The star stayed with me for quite some time. The flashes of light and the voice all happened in a very synchronized pattern, like an orchestra playing a symphony around the cosmic dance of life ... yes, I realized there is really a God, and he is directing every move of my life ... Sometime during the star's presence, I remember feeling very afraid, and immediately the image of climbing up and downstairs came into my mind. To me, go down meant to descend into darkness and the unknown, while to go up meant to follow the light and to know what the real Truth is. I now realize how similar this insight was to Asatoma prayer of Sai devotees: Lead me from the unreal to the real; lead me from darkness to light; lead me from death to immortality. Even then, Baba was imparting one of his essential teachings. Soon I started reading about Sathya Sai Baba and the very first book, Vision of the Divine, disclosed Swami's trademark, T.P.S. It means Tara (Star), Puttaparthi in the form of Sathya. Then I realized it was he who had come as that wonderful star; it was he who had descended into my world on Good Friday night; it was he who hadcompletely changed my life.

Thus, it is clear from the vivid and authentic experience of Pauline Kirby that she, like William Wordsworth, had the intimations of immortality on the night of Good Friday, which transformed her life and brought her into the orbit of Sri Sathya Sai Baba and nearly made her an apostle of Christ. She may not be Paul, but her name has the implicit suggestion of its derivation from the name of the great apostle. The star symbol is extremely relevant in this context. It encloses within it the power, majesty and brilliance of that perpetual star which God is.

 

It may also be noted that the account of Pauline Kirby, describing the descent of the Holy Spirit, is essentially poetic. Verily it is through poetic perception and imagination that such a tenuous experience as the vision of the divine can be grasped and communicated. In this connection, one is tempted to quote the poem of Professor V.K. Gokak a noted Karmad and Indian English poet in which he envisions Sai Baba as 'a lawn of blue light'.

 

Baba is a lawn of blue light

With a May flower on top of his hair

And a golden lily on his cranium.

He is the healer of a world in pain,

The blue-throated God

That drinks the poison of its suffering

To make it happy and whole.

This blue-throated God is also the Sun-crystal as described in V.K. Gokak's another beautiful poem:

 

He sits in the sun in the meridian hour of exceeding glory. And the sun is mellow to his eyes and limbs,

The scion of the sun becomes a sun crystal.

He receives the quintessential ray and concentrates it

on the world that it may be purged of its dross.

And in the moment of Apocalypse, that sun-crystal

Melts into the sun.

One can say, in conclusion, that Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the perpetual star that becomes multifoliate rose so as to make humanity aware of his divine reality. He appears as light or the single flame that burns continually to take the entire humanity, upward to the path of illumination making us aware of the God who resides within us. Baba's divine power is the power of spirit ,and his light is the sempiternal light that shines everywhere. In the words of Professor Gokak, Baba's power is something that descends from the thousand petalled lotus, the elemental exercise of a will that is omniscient and omnipresent. It is the will that sees and acts simultaneously. What it wills fills and fulfils itself in space and time. But it bides its time, unwarped by slushy sentiments, unbiased by impatient hurry. And when it strikes, it is for all to see, like a column of light that unites the earth and sky.

 

Professor Gokak describes some of the external, breath-taking and almost unbelievable phenomena that go by the name of miracles, signs and wonders: It is the cascade of vibuthi or holy ash, endless, exhaustless. It is the crystallization of lingam after lingam, spheroids of alabaster or jade from the silk soft leaves in the abdomen. It is the ceaseless oozing of honey from the heart of granite itself. It is the descent of a succession of golden images of gods and goddesses‑from nowhere. it is the transformation of stray particles of sand on a sea shore into the divine image of Sri Krishna, the reconstitution of water into petrol. It is the profuse in pouring of vibuthi and the massing in of kumkum behind the glass framed on the photograph, the foot­prints in holy ashes leading to the worship room in a house or out of it. It is flower moving marvelously from the top of a photograph to its base, or whole garlands aflutter ... It is the rain that suddenly stops raining or the electric bulb that blazes with light when the whole area is plunged in darkness. It is the shaft of light that hits you in the eye from a photograph.

 

That Sri Sathya Sai Baba is divinity incarnate, the logos, the word or the supreme Brahman is no longer debated or doubted. As time passes, the absolute certainty and authenticity of his incarnation or avatarhood is becoming as clear as daylight. Even those who consider Sri Sathya Sai Baba merely as a holy man and saint par excellence are veering round to the view that he may be representing the absolute and ultimate reality, the still centre which is the source and spring of all light and knowledge. Howard Murphet in his book, Where the Road Ends, makes a mention of the prophecy of Sri Aurobindo about the victory day:

 

The noble work of Sri Aurobindo did, however, have its Victory day. This day still celebrated in his ashram was on the 24th November, 1926. His followers believed that Sri Aurobindo had been working for years to bring about what he called Krishna consciousness on earth. On that day he announced that his goal had been achieved. Krishna consciousness had come on earth and so this was his Victory day. On the day before this announcement, that is, on the 23rd November, 1926, Avatar Sai Baba was born. A large number of his followers including myself see him as Avatar Krishna born again.

 

Dr. Samuel Sandweiss, a renowned American psychiatrist, was drawn towards Sri Sathya Sai Baba and delved deep into the reality of the avatar and he was able to apprehend the ultimate reality of Baba. He records :

 

Good news about the presence of Sai Baba among us will spread quickly throughout the world, I am sure even though as he says, it will take a while for us to comprehend his full significance or the meaning of his message. It has been my good fortune to draw close to him at a time when it is still possible to become friendly with him on a personal level and see the clear signs of his greatness in a close and intimate way. Yet I feel that soon Baba will become but an orange speck on the horizon, surrounded by millions of eager faces. And like the people in his village who were once blessed to know the sweetness of his being from daily personal contact with him, I too will one day be saddened by having to view him only from a distance. But it is enough to know that Sai Baba exists at all. I feel deeply fortunate to be able to play a part, in some small measure, through this book in an evolutionary phenomenon moving inexorably towards realization: world consciousness awakening to its own glorious potential, and to the presence of a being who may indeed be ushering in a golden age.

The experience of Swami Abhedananda, a close devotee of Sri Raman Mharshi, who achieved a high level of spiritual development through sadhana and longed to see the divine in human form, is very revealing. One morning at 4 A.M. he had a vision of both. Raman Mharshi and Sai Baba. The figure of Sai Baba underwent a metamorphosis and it seemed to Swami Abbedananda that Sri Krishna was standing before him in his tangible concrete presence. Even John Hislop in his wonderful book, My Baba and I, has related his experience of a drive with Baba on his car ... when he was amazed and wonder struck to see the attractive shades of deep blue on the face of Baba. He could not help asking Baba: 'what did that colour actually meant Baba was quick to respond: 'It was the colour and complexion of Krishna.' It may be interesting to sort out the revealing experiences of devotees, specially their initial and final perceptions of and insights into the nature of the Avatar. The most common thing is that the hearts and souls of persons ready to receive spiritual initiation are instantly lit up by the light of Baba's divine presence.

 

Sri Sathya Sai Baba is a cosmic visitor; an avatar of Light and Love and his glory and splendour cannot be diminished by censure or criticism by cynics, ignorant and hollow men without faith. Baba simply brushes aside or ignores such criticism by saying that he feels sorry for those persons who hardly know either him or themselves. In his famous interview granted to Mr. R.K. Karanjia of Blitz Magazine he has answered all his queries and convinced Mr. Karanjia of his divinity. Mr, R.K. Karanjia, a progressive thinker and committed Marxist, has beautifully summed up his overall impression of Sri Sathya Sai Baba and his misson. He has pit it record and has become an ardent devotee of Baba:

 

What finally is the sum of Sathya Sai Baba's mission? God realization through self-realization, he answered. In his series of interviews Baba has shown the Godward path to the realization of sat‑chit‑ananda, that is, experience, knowledge and bliss absolute. According to Baba, this highest state of consciousness or enlightenment is possible for every man and woman to achieve once he or she is liberated from the ego­bondage of body and mind to realize the true self that is jivatma. Jivatma is the abode of the indwelling God in man. It is the embodied essence of parmatma, the Cosmic Spirit. The Avatar's mission, according to Baba, is to help mankind dissolve the barrier of the ego and the mind with it so that the embodied jivatma can merge and fuse with the universal Parmatma, the mighty ocean of nectar divine as he describes it, to raise mankind to a race of good men and good women. Baba seeks to resolve the universal problem of man's alienation from man, God and nature with the Sai philosophy of pure spiritual love. Sathya Sai Baba provides the desired formula for escape from the terror of existence. Only evolution to a higher plane of consciousness can save man from this terror, this darkness and cold, this frozen spiritual misery.

 

Mr. Janardan Thakur, another important journalist and feature writer of Sunday, has also published his interview with Baba. He had gone there in a critical and sceptical frame of mind, harbouring doubts about not only Baba's power but also his gown, his hair. Baba was generous and compassionate enough to allow him to examine the gown and the hair and he reports that there could not be a wig; it was a head full of hairs. Similarly, when reputed para psychologists and a bunch of psychiatrists visited Prashanthi Nilayam Baba accepted them with grace and removed all their doubts. This author also remembers the time when Baba passed along the line of the teaching staff and mumbled sadly, 'You all are doubting Thomases.' Baba has said on many occasions, 'If you say yes, I also say yes, yes, yes. If you say 'no', I also say no, no, no.' what is of crucial importance is the attitude of total affirmation, faith and unswerving belief in the existence of God. Since the individual atma is basically an ansha or part of the paramatma according to Vedanta, the eternal Absolute having created the universe at its own pleasure, the One having become many, there is hardly any separation. 'Thou art that' is the basic and central truth. That is what Sri Sathya Sai Baba means when he says that God realization is self-realization.

 

Verily, Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the unique and incomparable source of Light, a regal and imperial Lighthouse, the blazing fire in the midst of a black pall to point the way to the pilgrims assailed by fancy lights and enchantments. To change the metaphor, he may also be described as that sempiternal erosionless rock in the bosom of the sea, the ocean of sansar. In the dark and stormy weather it is merely a sea-mark, helping the mariner to cruise safely on to his destination; but in calm and tranquil weather, it is what it always was, the symbol of permanence. Waves wash over it, the sunlight caresses it and the sea wind blows over it, but it is always firm and erosion less. In this world of constant flux Sai Baba is the only unchanging Absolute who sheds his light on each and every fragment of the phenomenal world, the Light that never was on land or sea. He is at the spring and the source, the root and the foliage of every sentient thing, especially mankind, for it is man who has the privilege of evolving to higher and still higher states of consciousness.

 

Howard Murphet in the last chapter of his book, Where the Road Ends, speaks of life's journey as a pilgrimage and a search and goes on to highlight the nature of the quest. Finding the right kind of analogy of the medieval quest romances, he believes that the final destination of the questing hero is the place of everlasting happiness and eternal, absolute bliss.

 

As T.S. Eliot says in the last movement of Little Gidding,

 

We shall never cease from exploration

And the end of our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Howard Murphet quotes from The Secret of the Golden Flower:

 

Wandering in Heaven one eats the spirit of energy of the Receptive and the still deeper secret within the secret the land that is nowhere that is the true home.

The place is none other than the Grail castle, the destination of Sir Percival, Sir Galhad and other valiant knights. When the seeker comes finally to the chapel perilous, he has to encounter the grail girl who asks him questions. It is only when he has the gift of grace that he is able to give the right answers and has glimpses of the Holy Grail. The Grail king is none other than God himself who lives in the inner chambers of the heart of the questor, the inner spirit, and the true self. Mr. Murphet significantly says: 'My own Grail castle was my star in the East, Sai Baba.'

 

Similar has been the experience of many close devotees of Sri Sathya Sai Baba who have bathed in the white radiance of the divine Light and have had glimpses of the Grail, the innermost meaning and purpose of life. When Sai Baba unequivocally declares.

 

.. the fact that the worship of the Lord in any form, in any name is the worship of Sai or that it is he who grants the boons irrespective of the God to whom you make your prayer, supplication.

What is meant is that the power that operates in and through Sai form is identical to the power to which you pray.

 

This is clearly an unmistakable and authentic manifestation of Satchidananda who has a human form, feet and hands and is engaged in purposeful activity of listening to the prayers of the world in pain and misery and is entirely capable of liberating all souls in the universe. That is why God is described as uttam Purush, the source of Light, Love and Bliss.

 

It is the universal omniscience, omnipresence, power, glory and splendour of the highest magnitude that give credence to the belief that Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the manifestation of the divine principle and is the crowned knot of fire and the beacon light by which we know of the glory of God Almighty. As Mr. S.P. Ruhela says :

 

Sai Baba has served, inspired and instructed unnumbered thousands of devotees, sceptics, critics and curiosity seekers through the years with profound spiritual powers. One of these is his widely reported capacity to heal the diseases and infirmities of people by blessing them ... Another important area of his power is the ability to respond immediately to prayers or cries for help from devotees often hundreds or thousands of miles away by appearing at the site and taking action by materializing gifts of vibhuti or other things in their houses by causing message to appear for them, and so on. This divine television and teleprinter has surprised and baffled physical scientists in India and abroad who have seen their laws of Physics fall before Baba's miracles.

And furthermore, he describes the universal charisma of the Avatar by testifying to his acceptance as a symbol of divinity by the world at large. He says:

 

Devoted Christians have testified that they find in Sai Baba glimpses of their Christ. The Hindus find in him the living images of Shiva, Shakti, Krishna, Rama, or their family deities. The Muslims call him Allah and people of other religions find in him their own conception of God. He is secular, casteless, classless, country less, religion less, fearless and full of the love of a thousand mothers.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba has declared :

 

My power is immeasurable. My truth is inexplicable. I am announcing this about me as the need has arisen ... Let me tell you that emphatic declarations of the truth of avatars were made so clearly and so unmistakably only by Krishna.

Finally, to write about the principle of divinity emergent in a full Avatar like Sai Baba, is a difficult and precarious business because one cannot enclose the sun in a little room and say with certainty he is this and that. So it would be fair to close this chapter by quoting the words of Howard Murphet :

 

If we were asked to list the attributes in our concept of God, the spiritual parent, most of us would name these: compassionate concern for our welfare, the knowledge of what that welfare truly is, the stern strength to make us take the nasty medicine when necessary, the power to help and guide us along the narrow way to our spiritual home, the forgiveness and mercy of the father who welcomes with joy the prodigal, the power to bring essential innovations to the human drama which he himself has created, and a love that is equal towards all his human children. These are the salient qualities in man's mental image of God. And these qualities­ all of them those who have eyes to see have seen in Sai Baba.