Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba 
His Message: Love All – Serve All, Help Ever, Harm Never.
“I have come to light the lamp of Love in your hearts, to see that it shines day by day with added luster. . I have not come on behalf of any exclusive religion. I have not come on a mission of publicity for a sect or creed or cause, nor have I come to collect followers for a doctrine. I have no plan to attract disciples or devotees into my fold or any fold. I have come to tell you of this unitary faith, this spiritual principle, this path of Love, this virtue of Love, this duty of Love, this obligation of Love. ” 4 July 1968, Baba
My Journey with Sai Baba
My Journey with Him whom I believed to be an Avatar began in the late 1980’s. I had found a wonderful creative visualization teacher, Jo Bucannan whose talent I was quite in ore of. She knew so much more about spirituality, psychic abilities and had a member of her family that produced apports – the paranormal transference of an article from one place or time to another. So, when there I was all eyes and ears.
One night the group started talking about the miracles of Sai Baba. It was the first time I had heard His name mentioned. The next week they mentioned Him again so I timidly asked who was He. The group told me that you could write a letter to Him and your request would be granted and gave me an address.
I went home and thought long and hard and finally wrote my letter. In it I asked Him if He could open my heart. The letter was posted and I waited. It had been mentioned that a sign from Him was a perpendicular rainbow.
One morning, nearly 9 months later almost to the day I had sent my request, I saw from my balcony window a rainbow which didn’t seem to curve but went straight up. The sight of it made me remember my letter and suddenly I felt this weight lift from my heart and it felt like it was going to burst – and I cried with joy. Thank you Swami. Now I really wanted to go to India to see Him but it was not meant to be. I had to wait nearly three years before I was ‘allowed’ to go. It was said that the time had to be right.
During that three years, quite a few of my friends went to His Ashram in India, he even manifested a beautiful ring with a green stone set in gold for one lady. I longed to go but every time I asked my heart if it was time, I always got a ‘no’ for an answer until one day, during a session with a client, she told me of a group going from Brisbane. I was given the lady’s name and phone number.
Having been brought up as a Christian and been a Sunday School teacher, I can only liken it to being able to see Christ in the flesh.
Sai Baba used to say that coming to His Ashram was like being put into a gigantic washing machine and sometimes He said we had to be put on the heavy duty cycle to be washed clean. This cleansing was a release and nearly all of us got sick, but He said from the moment we leave our home until we return we were protected and that proved to be the case in a number of circumstances.
Having been to His Ashram before he died, numerous times, there are many funny stories I could share but perhaps the most hilarious was on my first visit while I was a novice at living in a third world country.
It had been a long trip from Sydney, Australia to Madras and what seemed to be an even longer trip to the His mountain Ashram at Kodicanal. We arrived late at night and were shown into a large room with two large double bed and were told that four of us would sleep there. It was nearly midnight and I felt that I had been awake over 30 hours so paired up with a lady named Irene (who became a very dear friend and still is) and hopped into bed.
Now you would think that being so sleep deprived snoring wouldn’t have worried me but it did. The other three snored and one of them kept shouting out in her sleep as though she was doing karate. I tried everything, even wound tissues and stuck them in my ears as I didn’t have earplugs. Then I had an idea. I would ask for another room.
So, after midnight I padded out in my slippers to the desk where a sleeping Indian young man was slouched over the desk. I think I frightened him nearly to death as I appeared out of the dark, in my night attire and I had forgotten I had tissues sticking out of my ears. Now in India we were told that it was not polite to show your shape and so we all had shawls but of course I had not put one on.
So it was with some extreme embarrassment caused by my dress and also the tissues that this poor lad tried to explain to me in broken English that all the bedrooms were full. When I got back to the bedroom, I noticed my reflection in the mirror and burst out laughing, fell into bed and snoring or no snoring went straight to sleep.
From Kodi we went to Whitefield Ashram. It was the last day of our visit and our group had not been given an interview, so we had not been able to get close to Swami. He was at the other end of the hall, I closed my eyes and prayed and asked Him if I could lay my ego at His feet. I had meant theoretically but when I opened my eyes, He was standing right in front of me. I couldn’t imagine how He had got from one end of the hall to where I was sitting in the time it took me to say my prayer but He had.
I knew of the ceremony of Padnamska where the disciple was allowed to touch His feet. I cried with joy as I lay my hands on His feet. I felt so Blessed. This Blessing really helped me later during the year as challenges in my life presented themselves and I knew they were all ego-based but the Blessing was that I had given my ego to Him and so I could give Him my challenges as well. It was such a comfort and a help.
I have to mention His help here. Another time my daughter and myself went to His Ashram, Prashanti Nilyam. On arriving, after a long flight, I showed my daughter a blood running down my leg from my calf to my heel internally which looked serious. She called an ambulance (three Indian men carrying a makeshift stretcher). It was hilarious. The first thing one of the men asked if we had any vibhuti (grey ash blessed by Sai Baba)and dipped his finger in and put it in my mouth. Now we had been warned not to put anything in our mouth unless our hands had been washed, so that made me nervous but seeing my apprehension, the man said, “It has been blessed, so you will get well now”. I wasn’t so sure.
So with many stops, putting the stretcher down on the ground, (I was pretty heavy) they managed to get me out of my room, out of the Ashram and into a ‘taxi’ and then to the hospital. I only saw the night nurse who said “Oh, you have had vibhuti, you will be fine in the morning. Sai Baba fix. And sure enough there was no sign of it by morning.
I have many stories and examples of His care. Sai Baba is omnipresent. Although His form is no longer with us – I still hear Him in my heart everyday.
Śri Sathya Sai Baba (born as Sathyanarayana Raju (23 November 1926 – 24 April 2011 was an Indian Guru, spiritual figure, mystic choreographer, philanthropist and educator. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi who was considered an avatar, spiritual saint and miracle worker, whose teachings were an eclectic blend of Hindu and Muslim beliefs, and who died in 1918.
The materializations of vibhuti (holy ash) and other small objects such as rings, necklaces, and watches by Sathya Sai Baba along with reports of miraculous healings, bilocation and alleged omnipotence were a source of both fame and controversy; devotees considered them signs of divinity, while skeptics viewed them as simple conjuring tricks.
Photos of Sathya Sai Baba are displayed in millions of homes and on car dashboards. Lockets bearing his photo are worn by many as a symbol of good fortune and are often kept in wallets for spiritual protection.
Sai Baba had ashrams in 126 countries and also ran a network of hospitals, clinics and schools that were often free.… Wikipedia