A letter from Howard Murphet Dear Devotees, My good friends – or some of them – in the Sai movement have expressed the opinion that the present time is really the dividing of the ways, “the sifting of the chaff from the grain”, or what the Bible might call the dividing of the sheep from the goats. Whichever the way we see it, this is a difficult time for some people, especially for those followers of Sai Baba who are fairly new. Many of you will have read some of my books, so you know perhaps that I am probably the first from the Western world to come to Sathya Sai Baba. I came as a Western skeptic and stayed with Him, or near Him, for some six years, trying to solve the problem of His identity and why He is here in the world. I returned to the West, but I have been back many times, pulled by the strong magnet of what an Avatar is. I have studied His relationship to ordinary human beings in the world, and how His purpose is to lead those who are ready to their own inner Guru, or the God within. I did not immediately accept Him as an Avatar, but did so after He taught me, in a humble manner, what an Avatar is, and how we are all Avatars, descendants from God, without being aware of it. As I stayed on, I became more and more certain that He was indeed an Avatar. This is not based on the fact that He materialises things. I know that there are others in India who have the siddhis (occult powers) for materialisation. Some of them are masters on the right path, others on the left hand path of the black magicians. In most cases they have trained servants in the astral realm who carry things for them, as they desire. I mean material objects such as trinkets, food and so on. So you might say that the fact that Swami materialises things is really no proof that He is an Avatar of God. In His case, though, He goes further than that. He does what only a Being bearing the Christ consciousness, or the Divine consciousness on earth can do, and I have witnessed many of these phenomena. One instance is the conversion of one type of matter to another, which labels Him as a ‘Master of matter’. One such instance that I was witness to, was the conversion of a piece of granite rock into edible candy, while the rock never left my sight. I examined it before, and afterwards ate some of it. Only the Divine One can do such a thing as that. Another He did, when the necessity arose, was to convert a bucket of ordinary water, drawn from a well nearby, into a bucketful of petrol by stirring the water with His forefinger. It was then poured into the petrol-tank of the car, and the car continued on the journey, using the petrol that Swami had converted from water. These incidents, and other juggling of the atoms to change one type of matter to another, are things that convince me of His divine consciousness, which shows that He is the Master of matter – being able to create it, convert it, and destroy it. When He produces a Sivalingam from inside Himself – which I saw Him do as long ago as 1966 – if there is nobody present worthy of receiving the lingam, then He dematerialises it. This happens when there is no one who will faithfully do the regular pujas (rituals) that are required to keep the lingam auspicious. In other words, He then sends it back to the unmanifest. This might be called the destruction of matter. You must have read about all of this in my books, yet the greatest of His miracles is the Divine Love by which he brings about a deep change in the nature of people, His followers. I have described this inner change which might be called the ‘birth of the divine Child within us’, or the initiation into Divine Life. Many, many people, throughout the years, have been changed in this way, this deep-rooted inner change is really your first step on the homeward journey. Then there is the great compassion of Sai Baba, which requires miraculous action for its fulfilment. You have read in one of my books that some years ago – in fact in 1982 – when I was diagnosed as having an incurable disease, I prayed very earnestly to Sai Baba, my Guru. I was in a beautiful room in the Adelaide Hills, while Sai Baba (in the body) was of course at that time in India at His ashram. My prayer was so intense that after a sleep on a couch where the sun was shining through the windows, I woke up to see Swami’s head and arm as it circled over me, and I knew that He had come and that this was a healing gesture. I saw it in that brief time between sleep and being fully awake, which, as you may have heard, is a time when everybody has a short period of clairvoyance. When that short period passed, His hand and body disappeared from my vision, but He was still there in the room. I knew this by the unbelievably soul-moving sense of the luminous in the room. In fact the room was filled by it, and it penetrated the wall to where my wife was sitting in the breakfast room, and then when Swami left, the luminosity went too. This is what ancient Romans called “sense of the Presence of the Divine” (the luminous or lumina). Well, I knew then that I was cured of the disease, and tests afterwards proved that this was so. There are people I know who have had the clairvoyant vision of Swami’s subtle form, almost every day, and He has

Akhanda Bhajan Even as a child Swami sang devotional songs about God, making them up for his friends and teaching them to classmates, who then took them home to teach their parents.  When he announced his true identity as avatar of Sai Baba, in 1940, he sang to those who had gathered about him `Manase bhajare, guru charanam- dusthara bhava sagara tharanam…’ Since the beginning of his work, Swami has made bhajan an important aspect of sadhana for his bhakthas.  In 1942 there were no large crowds around Swami as there are now, and every Thursday those present would join together for bhajans under his leadership. There is a story told about those days, and while I don’t know if it is true in every detail, I find it plausible, for the people are real, and they say the story goes like this. At that time when Swami was still a young boy, Sri Seshagiri Rao, his daughter Sunderamma and her mother-in-law and her six-year old daughter went to Puttaparthi to visit a relative named Karnam Subbamma. This lady had figured prominently in Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s early life since it was she who had first helped to organize bhajans when Swami first announced himself at the age of 14. The family was called in for interview and after materializing vibhuti for the ladies, and sweets for the gents, Swami asked what Sundaramma wanted. She was very shy, but Swami knew her heart, and said `Ah, so you yet want a son? Yes, a son is coming. Be happy.’ That prediction soon came to pass, and the family became frequent visitors to Parthi. On one of those trips to Puttaparthi, Sunderamma was alone in her room with her baby boy who had a slight tempearture. After the thermometer was inserted in his mouth, she sat for a moment looking at the child, and recalling what Swami had said at their first meeting. ~Yes a son is coming- be happy.~ In that reverie, she turned her face to the light from the window, and looked outside at the monkeys nearby. In that quiet time alone she was thinking about Swami’s recent announcement that he would protect the devotee as the eyelid protects the eye. Then suddenly she heard a sound of glass breaking and turned to the child in his bed.  The two-year old baby boy had bitten through the thermometer and the mother saw the shards being swallowed by the infant.  Prying open the tender mouth, she saw blood and screamed.  The family was frantic as they rushed in to help.  As if from next door Swami, without a word, came to them and massaged the baby’s stomach.  He looked at the mother and smiled. `Like the eyelid protects the eye,’ she thought.  As quickly as he had come, Swami left. Picking up her child, the mother was astonished to find the mercury and glass bits which she had seen in the mouth, now under the baby boy’s blanket in the bed! After this, Sunderamma began regular weekly bhajan meetings in her own native place, all with great dedication and without interruption for an entire year. Her father, Sehagiri Rao, thought they should celebrate the completion of the year of bhajan-singing in suitable style.  Each member of the family thought up a different way to celebrate the anniversary in befitting manner, but it was Seshagiri Rao’s idea that was adopted: uninterrupted bhajans for one whole day and one whole night. They would begin by lighting a Jyothi in Swami’s honour, and then sing nonstop for 24 hours. The decision having been taken, they got down to planning the performance at their house — which songs to sing, what prasadam to distribute, pooling of resources to obtain the ingredients of the prasadam.  (This was particularly difficult as, in those days, there was rationing of rice and a system had to be worked out for cash or kind to gain enough foodstuffs for the party). After making all the preliminary arrangements, father and daughter went to Puttaparthi to announce their intention to Sri Sathya Sai Baba.  He was very happy to hear of their plans and responded, “I have come only for the sake of my devotees.  Go ahead with the AKHANDA BHAJANS.  I myself will come, and be with you throughout the singing.” Sunderamma was startled at that, since up to that moment they had planned only a very simple celebration.  But, if Sri Sathya Sai Baba was himself going to attend, then she felt she ought to make more elaborate arrangements.  But Swami told her not to fear, he himself would see that all went well. He asked where she had planned the meeting, and then suggested instead she book a place in town for the `akhanda bhajan’, so that all those who wanted to attend could do so more conveniently.  He also advised her to ask other devotees to assist in helping her make the arrangements.  Sunderamma was in a quandary at this unexpected turn of events.  To cope with an occasion such as it was turning out to be was a gigantic task in those days when even transportation was very difficult. She did contact other devotees and together all arranged for the hall, but she herself felt it was her responsibility to prepare the food for the group.  She calculated that about a hundred regular devotees might turn up for bhajans and so had PRASADAM prepared for that number. Little did she know that the crowd would continue to grow as the hours passed. As the crowd passed two hundred persons, Sunderamma became anxious about how she would provide enough PRASADAM to go round. At that late date it was impossible to acquire more food, all her friends had already used what rations were available, and since rationing was so strictly enforced, she feared that nothing could be done. As the hour approached to begin the festivity, Swami entered the hall. In his presence, PUJA to Sri Shirdi Sai Baba’s and Sri Sathya Sai

A Perfect Disciple.The story of Dr. John S. Hislop July 2nd is the holy festival of Guru Purnima. A day when homage is paid to the Guru. A day on which all of us across the world express gratitude to Bhagavan, the Universal teacher, for guiding us on the path to lasting peace. Yes, that is a good thing-to be grateful to one’s Guru. But what does Bhagavan himself want? Praises , we know, mean nothing to Him. What really matters to Him is how much we walk along the path shown by Him. That He says is the greatest way to pay Him a tribute. A Teacher is known by His students, a painter by His art, and a sculptor by his sculptures. A Guru is known by His disciples and an Avatar by his devotees. The perfect devotee who surrenders to the Lord, the Guru, and practises His teachings is the one in whom the Glory of the Lord is reflected most. He becomes a cause, an instrument in bringing several others into the orbit of the Transforming Love of God. He is the one who pays real homage to His Guru. One such devotee of Bhagwan was John S Hislop. Dr. John S Hislop was one of the fine instruments used by Bhagavan Baba to spread His Message across the continents. Hislop to Swami came via the Theosophy/Meditation route. It all started when as a young man of eighteen he had gone to Taihiti in the Pacific in search of adventure. There he met a priest who told him about Theosophy. As soon as Hislop returned to Los Angeles, he joined the Theosophical Society because he wanted to serve humanity. Soon he became actively involved with the establishment set up in Ojai, California, by Dr. Annie Besant, a pillar of the Theosophy movement. It was in Ojai that Hislop came into contact with J.Krishnamurthi [from India] who was being projected by Annie Besant as a ‘World Teacher’. About this experience, Hislop says, “Krishnamurthi and Besant were giant figures who filled the horizon, and it seemed to me that they and only they had found the truth of life. I feel eternally grateful to Dr. Besant and Krishnamurthi for their great kindness and great patience with an undisciplined man. But wisdom was not born in me as a follower of Krishnamurthi.” In between, Hislop went through higher education, finally receiving his doctorate in the School of Education in the University of California, Los Angeles Campus [UCLA]. Thereafter he taught for a while and later switched to business, where he was quite successful. He also got married to Victoria, who shared his passion for philosophical enlightenment. Together, Hislop and Victoria drifted from one Guru to another, ending up in the fifties with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who by then had hit the headlines in the West. Twenty five years of search for that ‘something’ had passed but that ‘something’ was still not in sight. The year is 1958. Hislop comes to India to help Mahesh Yogi in setting up an Academy for Meditation in the Himalayas. Being an American, he is at first mistaken to be a CIA agent (!) but later allowed to do his work. At this stage Hislop takes a break and goes to Burma to learn Vipassana Meditation practised by Buddhists. Hislop finds that the Buddhist style of meditation is fascinating and wonderful but, in his words, The Buddhist way was a way of the intellect and the mind. And despite my great appreciation and gratitude for having found the discipline, I felt that my heart was dry; it was a Western heart with very little love left in it. We [Hislop and his wife] had begun to realise that the Vipassana discipline could be dangerous for a life in the world and that to pursue it properly one should become a monk….. Around this time, Burma had begun to look inwards, closing its borders to foreigners. So, it did not seem possible to stay back in Burma and become a monk. Yet, Hislop clung to Vipassana, lacking an alternative. A few more years passed, and then…. My wife and I first heard of Baba in 1968 through a description of Him given to a friend of mine by a lady who had visited India. She had brought back some sacred ash [Vibhuti], a beautiful ring as a gift to her from the miraculous nature of Baba, and she had many fascinating stories to tell. One special remark struck fire. The lady said that she felt a change in her character while with Baba, and the change persisted even after she returned home. This statement had a strong impact on my mind. Could there be a man, was there a man living today whose being was so subtle, so powerful, so mysterious, so Divine, that He could change a human Heart? If it were indeed true that such a man lived in today’s world, then nothing else in my life could equal the urgency of seeking Him out. I prayed that through His Grace and kindness, He might touch my dry Heart and make it alive and vibrant.My wife and I heard the story of Baba on a Monday, and the same week we were aboard a plane to India. …. Upon meeting Baba, I knew at once, without doubt, that for me, here was the true source of Wisdom. …….It is difficult and probably impossible to express in words the effect upon myself of that first meeting with Baba. My entire being was profoundly affected and changed. Immediately, Baba became the centre of my life, and has remained so. In His presence at that first meeting, the world fell away from me, my entire consciousness was drawn inward and, at a most subtle level of awareness, Baba appeared in my Heart as Love. Love was unmistakable and that Baba was this Love was equally unmistakable. Swami gave Hislop innumerable experiences so that the latter could get a feel for

A Discourse for  Devotees, by Michael Goldstein M.D. My dear Brothers and sisters: Sai Ram to you all. I am happy to be with you and very grateful to Swami for this opportunity to speak to you. We are in a good place today, and in fact, we are here together on this planet Earth, living our human lives given to us by God, for the purpose of loving and raising one another to the experience of pure love. Spiritual realisation is the constant realisation of divine consciousness. That is the reason why we are here together today and why we live these human lives which God has given us. As devotees of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, as sincere spiritual aspirants, as people with common sense, we recognise the importance of time, the time spent in this good place and the time which we spend embodied in these human lives, given by God. This time is limited. Hence we focus on the most important: “The nature of God and man, our spiritual purpose and our plan, and time, time, time. Now is the time to amplify our perspective and contemplate the human passage from birth to realisation, from the entrance into this world and its obstacles, to the transcendence which goes beyond the illusions of maya! Now is the time to move towards becoming aware of our innate divinity. Today I am speaking to you about these themes, but I must ask myself, “Am I prepared, and am I worthy?” What do ‘prepared’ and ‘worthy’ mean? Recently, our beloved Swami gave me a profound and poignant lesson on the significance of being prepared and being worthy, a lesson which is applicable to all of us, in every moment and in everything we do. I was in Prasanthi immersed in a conflict which was the result of my own attachments. I had serious differences of opinion with my brothers of the organisation. Unresolved differences of opinion breed conflicts. Conflicts breed bitterness and deception. Bitterness and deception breed anger. Anger is the antithesis of spirituality. This particular day, Swami had planed to give a discourse. He came out to give Darshan; he walked among the multitudes and exuded his Divine Love. We were all seated there, waiting to hear His discourse. Generally, His discourses are a preceded by one or two orators pre-selected by Swami. That day, I did not have the privilege of being pre-selected. Swami came to me and to my great surprise he asked, “Goldstein, are you going to speak?” I answered, “Swami did not give me instructions to speak today, but if it is Your will, then I will do so.” Swami then asked, “Are you prepared?”  I replied, “If it is Your will, then, Swami, I am prepared.” He moved away and continued to give Darshan. A little later He returned and once again he asked, “Are you prepared?” I repeated to Him, “If it is Your will, then I am prepared.” He entered his room for some moments, and came out again walking among the devotees. Before sitting in His chair for the Divine Discourse, for a third time He came up to me and asked. “Are you prepared?” This time full of eagerness, anticipating the happiness to have been selected by Swami to speak in His Divine Presence, I said, “Yes Swami, I am prepared!” Swami then leaned close to me and said softly, “To be prepared… Is a state of the inner self.” Instantly I knew the significance of His words!!! “PREPARED AND WORTHY ARE ONE” I had thought I was prepared to speak, but I was experiencing inner unrest. Your words must reflect what you think, feel and do. Then you will be prepared and you will be worthy. I was feeling uneasiness and conflict with respect to matters of the Sai Organisation and so was not prepared to speak of peace and love. My interior world was not in peace nor in harmony. “To be prepared is a state of the inner self” and obviously I was not prepared, and I must tell you that I did not speak that day. For us, Sai devotees, to be prepared and to be worthy are one and the same. With a simple word or phrase, Swami teaches us many lessons at many levels. That is the nature of Divinity. One of the reasons for telling you this story in particular is that I know that many of you have bad feelings about our Sathya Sai Organisation. Now I beseech you to search deeply within yourselves and ask your conscience, which is your master, if these sentiments are noble, spiritual, free of all egoism and worthy. As always, we want a spiritual experience! So let us look as the result of those meetings and programmes offered by the Organisation, the true spiritual experience and not only mundane achievements.  Now I must repeat my mantra for today, the nature of God and man, our purpose and plan, and time, time, time. And God? When the Lord allows himself to manifest himself among Man, it is to ennoble him and allow him to understand the Divine Essence and the purpose of human life. The Lord, to make Himself known, allows Himself to manifest Himself to Man in many ways. God has created nature for us, that we may find our own divinity. It is like playing ‘hide and seek’. Being the omnipresent Lord, He hides everywhere. Candidly we look for Him outside of ourselves, as we mature spiritually we look within, in our own hearts. There we find our true self, our divine self, our self…. free of all egoism. The knowledge of God is immanent in all the experiences of life. In so many ways the Lord allows himself to be recognised by man. Unquestionably, the greatest of all is when he takes the form of man, embodies as Avatar, as God-man and walks amid us. The Bhagavad Gita teaches us that this occurs

A Conversation with Sri Sathya Sai Baba Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba giving darshan in Prashanti Nilayam in the years ’70 The following conversation between a devotee and Sai Baba took place in Prasanthi Nilayam many years ago and was first published in an early issue of the Sanathana Sarathi, the official ashram magazine. Devotee: Swami! The world is very cruel to me. Sai Baba: That is its nature. The purpose of the world is frustration; it has to engender need. When the need is strong enough, the individual seeks fulfilment. Devotee: And fails! Sai Baba: Only when he seeks fulfilment without! Within him, he can get it. The within is accessible always; it is ever responsible. There is pain only so long as attachment for outer forms remains. Ultimate relief from pain can come only with the loss of ego, the neutralisation of that which reacts to something as pain and something else as pleasure, whose memory, whose conditioning, helps to recognise the dualities of joy and grief. Devotee: But the world, Swami? Sai Baba: The world is pain. Expect nothing from the world but that. I willed the totality of your conditioned existence to be pain, in order to draw you to me. Devotee: Which I can, at best, only hope to attain. Sai Baba: God asks for neither hope nor despair. They are subject to relativity. Universal Being is beyond both hope and despair, both certainty and doubt. It knows no lingering in its conclusions. It is ever flowing, in all directions, and in none of them. Devotee: What then shall be my direction? Sai Baba: Take what works today for today. What works tomorrow for tomorrow. One day at a time, each day for itself, each moment for itself, without a past, without memory, without conclusions. Devotee: Conclusions? Sai Baba: Yes. Conclusions bind; they press on the mind. The newborn baby is not confined to conclusions. All conclusions enslave. Most men are slaves to the conclusions into which they have fallen. Devotee: Does that mean I have to give up my practice of concentration? Sai Baba: The question that bothers you is one of fixity. You tried to fix your thought and attention on a word and later on a form, but you discovered that nothing lasts, that everything has to change. But I tell you; awareness can remain, even when form subsides, even when the word melts away. Devotee: I find it difficult to hold my attention on form or word. Sai Baba: Because when you try to meditate, the very trial invites the success-failure conflict onto the scene. You say to yourself, it is good to meditate on this and not that, or to meditate on that is wrong or foolish. Practise choicelessness; no objective, no intention. Be yourself. Choose no particular form, for all are equally His. Choose no particular word or sound, for all are His. Devotee: I am often tossed between contradictory beliefs. Sai Baba: Contradictions are inevitable. It is the very nature of this world and of the mind. But you can choose, either to be buffeted endlessly by the apparent contradictions or to remain in the calm centre of the cyclone. This is the problem of all problems, the problem of peripheral or central being. Devotee: The circumference or the centre, the rim or the hub of the wheel? Sai Baba: Yes. The hub is calm, steady, unmoved. But the mind will be drawn along the spokes, the objective desires, to revolve over mud and stone, sand and thorns. It will not believe that it can get bliss from the centre, rather than from the circumference, without undergoing a rough journey over turbulent terrain. Devotee: Ultimately, it means the conquest of the mind? Sai Baba: Learn to let all the conflicts spawned by the mind play themselves out, and cancel each other out. Be the witness to the holocaust. The ultimate solution to the conflict is not decision or even choice, but passive being. Dare to remain inconclusive. See the endless quandaries of the mind as a divine leela, God’s sport, as the natural function of the bundle of desires called mind. Do not believe in mind; do not rally to its assertions and appetites. Watch the mind from a distance; do not get involved in its tumblings and turnings. Then everything becomes insignificant. When everything recedes into meaninglessness, you are in the hub, in equanimity. Devotee: Swami, you are the hub, the spokes and the rim. Sai Baba: Do not be concerned with who I am! Concern yourself with who you are and how you can be ever aware of that truth. Do not be a willing captive of the endless stratagems of the mind. Abstain from all that draws you into its web. I will lead you, if you rely on me. The alternatives of the world will not bring you happiness, for the mind, which revels in alternatives, is but a will-of-the-wisp, flitting before your vision. I do not judge you for what is never yours, really. Your imperfection is no obstacle for me. Devotee: I confess that I have not always observed the rules of conduct of the Sathya Sai Organisation. Sai Baba: Your mind keeps asking for rules. But when you get the rules, you find you cannot keep them. Rules engender rigidity, they force. They do not bloom out of love or spread love. There is always a way of doing a thing without the strain of a rule. See how unperturbed I am with your restlessness! I live thus, so that I may afford a lesson for you to learn. Devotee: I am restless, Swami, because I yearn for rest and do not get it. Sai Baba: It is your reaction to restlessness that is bad, not the restlessness itself. Restlessness is only the rise and fall of a wave on the ocean that you are. Nothing matters, so long as the depths are secure. Success is not important: failure does

A Chatolic Priest Meets Sai Baba Many of my friends were alarmed when they learned of my intention to write a book about Sai Baba. They were aware of my convictions about this being who is human only in body. With brotherly concern, they variously advised, begged or beseeched me to publish it under pseudonym, imagining the unhappy consequences I might encounter from the ecclesiastical hierarchy. I asked myself that I should have no fear in saying what my own eyes have seen. Why should I be afraid to make known what this poor heart of mine experiences before an extraordinary presence? Should I feel guilty for what I have discovered during these years, and be afraid to announce it? Certainly not! On the contrary, I feel quite fortunate. Necessitas enim mihi incumbit: it is not possible to resist the impulse of Truth, and woe to me if I should remain silent! I write this book dedicating it above all to the Church preciously because I could not let pass, without pointing out to Her who is my Mother, a piece of news which can no longer remain unknown, hidden by indifference, fear, or by general confusion. This work is an undertaking which has made use of me, I would say, only as hired manual labour: I consider its contents the work of Another. It has been written above all for my bishop, Pope; and then for all my fellow bretheren, for my superiors, and for all those who throughout the centuries try to work in the services of, and in the search for, Truth. Contrary to what those friends of mine fear, I hope – and my heart is certain of it – that these reflections will sound like a call and a warning for a greater spiritual re-awakening. This era – the era of Sathya, the era of truth – is, in my opinion, a unique moment, which will change the historical and religious order of nations. Certainly the most extraordinary characteristics of this study, in an age in which there is so much talk about sects and religious factions, is that in all the things I have discovered these years, I have found nothing which would prompt an aversion to our religion, nothing which would obstruct our faith. On the contrary! Everything I have meditated on has brought me that much closer to the mysteries I had been celebrating, often without knowing them thoroughly. And it is precisely to Sathya Sai Baba that I owe the renewal of my life as a priest! In short, my hope is this: that the same thing might happen for many of my fellow bretheren, whom I have found tired, strained and disappointed. I am grateful to all those who have offered me precious suggestions, in particular to Professor Pierantonio Di Coste, who encouraged and supported the drafting of this book. I place this book at the feet of Him who inspired it – the only begotten son of yesterday, of today, and of always, the immutable Truth – in the hope that this fruit which He alone has the right to gather will be pleasing to Him and that He will accept it as an offering for His greater glory. November 23, 1990 Don Mario Mazzoleni The author would now like to narrate some of the incidents from the book : Don Mario writes in his book: “It happened a few months after my return to the area Bergamo. It was 1980. An acquaintance told me that a great Guru by the name of Sai Baba was coming to Italy. With the hunger I had for masters, that seemed like a golden opportunity. Sai Baba : Who was that? The name meant nothing to me, but I managed right away to get my hands on a little book which was supposed to be the brief biography of this personage. It was a book written by an American, a certain Shulman, who was recounting his personal experiences of being close to Sai Baba in India. I read it lazily at first, then ever more avidly. The things I was reading were so unheard of that it made me think that perhaps the writer had just dreamed up this wild fantasy just to reawaken the appetite in the reader who were tired of being astonished. Not long after, I discovered that there was another book in the market by another author, Howard Murphet, that dealt with the same subject. It was called ‘Sai Baba, Man of Miracles’. I bought it and read it with the same voracity as before – except that this time, I could no longer doubt the authenticity of this individual, for it was highly unlike that two authors, one Australian and the other an American, could be coming up with the same lies or inventions. In addition, all of the phenomena and explanations they discussed were amply supported by the studies I have been pursuing. I read many more books and was looking for a sign from Him or a call from Him. The moment my eyes rested on His words, I felt an instant thrill which transported me mysteriously into a divine atmosphere. “I am yours, whether you like it or not; you are Mine, even if you hate Me. I am in you, you are in Me. There is no distance and no distinction. You have come home. This is your house. My house is your heart. Why fear, when I am here? Put all your faith in me. I shall guide and guard you.” Forgetting that I was sick, I rushed to a travel agency to book a flight to India. Final destination; Puttaparthi, the place where even now Sai Baba spends most of the year. If what I had understood was true, I could not afford to reach the end of my life without having seen at least in the flesh. ‘Him who called Himself’ the mother and father of the whole human