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Memories, Experiences and Philosophy
Author's Preface
Divine teacher who helps at all levels of human existence
Before you is a book about the life and philosophy of the great Indian mystic and miracle worker Sathya Sai Baba. He was a spiritual mentor, philosopher, public figure and the most significant miracle worker of our time. Sai Baba preached the unity of all religions, taught meditation practices, and his blessings healed and changed people's lives.
For me, Sathya Sai Baba is a divine teacher who helped at all levels of human existence, from the highest spiritual realizations to the most everyday problems related to health, family life, and creativity. All issues that were important to people were also important to him.
For several years I watched how Sathya Sai Baba gave spiritual instructions and changed people's lives
I had the good fortune to communicate with Sathya Sai Baba a lot between 1993 and 1999. I have translated from English into Russian during Sai Baba's personal meetings with numerous Russian speaking groups.
For several years, I have watched Sathya Sai Baba communicate with followers and visitors, give spiritual instructions, answer questions, heal from serious illnesses and, with the help of his blessings, transform people's lives.
After Sathya Sai Baba left the body in 2011, my many friends asked me to write about the amazing events I had witnessed. Thus was born my books.
In the first book, I reminisce about how Sathya Sai Baba was during direct communication, as well as the history of his miracles, to which I was a direct witness. The book was warmly received by readers. It was important for me to receive good and useful advice.
Thank you all for your support and guidance, your warm responses have inspired me to keep going. It is nice to know that the book has been accepted not only by those who have known Sathya Sai Baba personally for many years, but also by those who are just now beginning to learn about him.
Sathya Sai Baba proclaimed the divinity of every person, this is the essence of his teachings. I tried to reflect on his spiritual heritage. The seeming simplicity and clarity of Sathya Sai Baba's words are sometimes deceptive. The last thing I would like to do is impose my understanding of Sathya Sai Baba's teachings.
Everything expressed in this book is just my understanding of his philosophy and mission. With this book, I invite each of you to think and reflect with me about the eternal questions of the spiritual path and human existence.
The book contains numerous stories from the legendary life of Sathya Sai Baba. I think that his life is not so much an object for worship, but an example for each of us from which we can learn a lot. Talking to him, I was able to understand that the last thing Sathya Sai Baba wanted was to create a "cult" of himself.
He sought to direct each person to investigate the nature of the eternal soul. First of all, Sai Baba proclaimed the divinity of every person, this was the essence of his teaching.
The stories given in this book are taken from various sources, some of these stories I have witnessed, some of the stories were shared with me by the first devotees of Sathya Sai Baba with whom I was fortunate enough to communicate.
I express my deep gratitude to senior Sathya Sai Baba devotees such as Subba Rao, Maheshwarananda, Padananda, Dr. Rao, Yogi Harri and Venkateshwar Shastri for the many stories I heard about the life and miracles of Sathya Sai Baba from these great devotees.
Realizing your mission in life is the most important task for every person.
Sathya Sai Baba possessed perfect insight, with the help of clairvoyance, he scanned the inner world of each person, deeply understanding his needs. He preached a harmonious life in which each person must fulfill his divine destiny.
I would like you to consider this book not as a fascinating story about Sathya Sai Baba and his miracles, reading amazing stories about his incomprehensible life and contemplating his mission, you can see practical guides in spiritual practice and daily life.
Being the messenger of a blessed life, he poured out Divine Grace on everyone who
Everything we do in life is steps on the spiritual path.
Many years of association with Sathya Sai Baba completely transformed my life. His blessings touched every aspect of my destiny. Now I write books, conduct master classes and seminars on the practices of Kriya Yoga and mantras, and also talk about the life and teachings of Sathya Sai Baba in lectures. It may seem that I have always been such a "wise man".
Like any other person, I went through a life path full of doubts, internal conflicts, difficulties and problems. I am in the process of spiritual exploration, contemplation, and meditation. I'm on the road, just like everyone else. Probably, I have already managed to realize something, but something else remains to be understood and implemented in the future. We are all on the path of divine evolution.
In this book, I invite you to take part in the remembrance of the greatest Divine Incarnation, which I and many of you had the good fortune to witness. I invite you to reflect on the deepest meaning of his teaching.
As a professional artist, I am grateful to Sathya Sai Baba for helping me realize that not only meditation and prayer make up the spiritual path of a person. Everything we do in life is the steps of the spiritual path, every person we meet in life is a teacher, every life situation, every success and every trial makes us more experienced and wiser.
This book will be of interest both to those who know Sathya Sai Baba well and to readers who are just beginning to get acquainted with his life and teachings. The book shows Sathya Sai Baba as a universal teacher who combines the wisdom of all world religions and guides people on the path of harmonious development of divine self-knowledge and a happy human life.
Gratitude
I express my deepest gratitude to all my friends and relatives who took an active part in the work on this book. Thank you all for your kind and helpful advice, valuable information, technical, and financial support.
Special thanks to my wife Svetlana Dubyanskaya, as well as to my parents Igor Grigoryevich and Tamara Alekseevna.
Special thanks to Anupriya Wijayaweera for arranging the publication of this book. Thanks go to Alexander Bukreev for the cover design.
1. Who thinks and acts?
There are many types of knowledge, but there is only one greatest knowledge – this is self-knowledge, the knowledge of one's eternal True Self, this is the knowledge of the unchanging ultimate reality. Your True Self was never born and will never die.
(Sai Baba – Sathya Sai Gita Chapter 1)
The main thing for which we are born into this world is to realize the greatest secret of the True "I". This secret is what most of Sathya Sai Baba's instructions were devoted to. "I" exist – is a statement that sounds perfectly clear to every person. The obvious thing is that "I Am", even if it is not always clear what "I" is. Self-existence is so obvious that it does not need proof and discussion, as it is an experience inherent in absolutely everyone. However, the simplicity and evidence that "I" exist does not make the question of what "I" is simple.
There are many types of knowledge, all of which are very important for the development of human culture. Sathya Sai Baba never denied physics, mathematics, jurisprudence, economics, or the many other sciences important for development of human society. However, there is a knowledge that is most important, and that is knowledge about the essence of one’s soul.
Who constantly strives to be free from problems and suffering, as well as to find eternal happiness? Who wants to be successful? Who wants to receive genuine answers to the most important questions of the universe and dispel their doubts?