posted October 01, 2003 08:48 PM         

After my Reiki attunements, I went through a huge thing where I was getting rid of so much negativity , and awakening in a comletely new way. I felt that I had to go to Puttaparthi and see Sai Baba for myself. We had gone a few times before, but I had never really gotton any special vibe or anything from the place, or even the man.

Oh, but before I go into the trip, I just wanted to say, we lived in the middle east for a long time, and while my dad was posted in Kuwait, we had a friend in the Sai Organisation over there who was one of Baba's close devotees. His wife had stomach cancer. She had a huge-ass 12 lb tumor in her belly and the doctors gave her less than months to live. Baba cured her. When they opened her up to remove the tumor (they said the op. was no use, but did it at her husband's insistence), it just 'popped out like a watermelon' to quote what he said. After the massacare in the '90's, baba advised that they leave, and so they came to Kuwait. I have never met nicer people!

At one of the 'bhajans' (prayer sessions), there was a picture of Baba, and- I kid you not!- as everyone around us was singing, my brother, I and this friend ACTUALLY SAW THE EYES OF THE BABA PICTURE IN FRONT OF US MOVE!!! Seriously!!! I swear, the picture actually smiled wider and looked around the room for like, a full half hour! Nobody saw this except for the 3 of us. In fact, everyone was getting mad at my brother and me for 'disrupting' the proceedings (they couldn't say anything to our aforementioned friend, as he was a grown up) and they didn;t understand why we were so antsy. After the fact, we all compared experiences and found that all of our accounts tied in exactly with one another!!! Us two kids were so excited, but our friend just smiled it off.

One of my mum's friends has numerous pictures of Baba in her house that constantly exude quantities of grey ash called 'vibhuti'. Baba is said to produce this ash himself. I myself have seen the pictures, seen the vibhuti, and so can personally attest to the truth of this phenomenon.

Anyway, to get back to the Puttaparthi thing. So I basically forced my mum to book us two tickets to India to go visit Baba's ashram mear Bangalore. We got there, and it was so visible that it was somewhere where people just went through incredible transformations. I myself cried every single night I was there for reasons that I'm not even aware of. I dreamt of him one night while I was there. He gave me a 'padnamaskar'(?) which is like, the ultimate blessing or something. But I still left feeling like something was missing. Perhaps something that I have to get for myself that no guru or teacher can deliver to me. When we were leaving, the guy who was in charge for lodging kept asking why I was crying. What was it I wanted from baba, he asked. I told him I didn;t know. He said, you know, even if you didn;t get a 'padnamaskar' it's ok. He might come to you in a dream later and talk to you. My mother told him that he already had. And he gave me this confused look and said. "what more do you want?"
Oh, what could I have said when I didn;t myself know what I wanted at that point?
We also met a lady over there who lives in Sri Lanka. She got a 'linga' from baba (a symbol of Shiva) and has used it in numerous prayers. It has cured so many people. She blesses water with it, and this water has healing properties. She also has a ring that Baba materialised for her. It is gold, with a little picture of Shirdi Sai Baba engraved on its face.
All in all, it was a trip that taught me something, although I still came away from in unsatisfied.

I have since had a few more dreams of Baba, but to date, he has always brushed me off in them saying he has no time to talk to me, or that now is not the time for us to talk.

After the trip, a lot of rumors came to light in which various people accused him of things ranging from simply being a fake, to actually sexually abusing children. I was very affected by these and for the longest time, didn't know what to think of him anymore.
But then I reminded myself, I actually SAW some of these things happen with my own eyes, and there is no way they could have been faked- I mean, come on, how are you going to get the eyes of a picture to appear to move so that just two kids and one adult see it happen? Even if it is argued that our friend was responsible for this, what's the point of convincing two kids that something happened? Why didn't the other people see it? If EVERYONE was in on it including my mum, then) what would be the point? Really!
Also, how was our friend's wife cured, then? And I hardly think that the vibhuti on those pictures was faked. What would be the point?

But yeah, to make a long story short (and this is a pretty long post, I know ) I think that Sai Baba (satya, shirdi, they're the same!) is really onto something. If people today can look back on the followers of Jesus and think it's ok, then I don;t see why a lot of those people have a problem with sai baba. And if one is a skeptic, that's just dandy too. Me though, I like to keep an open mind. And that allows me to consider every possibility. And my opinion on this is that Sai Baba speaks the Truth.

posted October 02, 2003 03:48 AM         

Thank you for sharing that, alchemiest.

posted October 04, 2004 02:51 PM         

I am not saying that you need to have my faith, but that there are powerful spirits outthere and we should be judicious. Don't expect supernatural things, because, faith without sight is much more blessed that faith with sight. Service to God is helping the poor and the needy. And you do this because you love them.

Even I heard recently about BBC producing a documentary exposing Satya Sai baba's paedophilic nature. That was very convincing.

If you ask me about Shirdi Sai baba, I think he was really someone divine. He really cared for the poor.

And also the bible quotes Jesus as saying he will send you a comforter towards the end of times. People who can not utter the holy name of Christ and still do good works may not be from him. This is the yardstick that I use before deciding to be involved in group activities of so-called "cults".

I am not saying that Jesus cares about his glory. He only cares about all of us gloriying the eternal god who is one.

posted October 12, 2004 11:24 PM         

And not take it blindly but meditate on it. Contemplate it.

Thats what I attempt to do. So you may find me sometimes visiting these people, but if I see people worshipping a human. I always tell my self, Even Jesus humbled himself and actually washed the feets of his disciples. When I meet such gurus, I may bow down and greet Namaste and smile.
Every human being is an image of God. No matter how they are, They are ultimately our brothers and sisters and need our love in everyway.

posted October 15, 2004 10:45 PM         

Haven't you one?