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Sri Sathya Sai Baba and
Sri Ramana Maharshi
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Sri Ramana
Maharshi |
Sri Sathya Sai Baba |
The following excertps are
taken from:
http://www.saibaba-aclearview.com/contents2.html -
[Copyright 2001. Dated August 2001.
This material may be downloaded, reproduced and distributed
freely, as long as the source is
clearly attributed.] By R. D. Awle
I’ve noticed that many seekers on
the jnana path tend to misunderstand Sai Baba, and look down on
Him because of His miracles, believing they mean He is merely an
un-Self-Realized 'showman' capturing immature hearts with yogic
tricks. I would like to give a brief answer. If the
testimony of Anandamoyi Ma and the other Saints quoted above can
be trusted, Sai Baba is a full incarnation of God, the likes of
which the world hasn’t seen for thousands of years. Jesus
and Sri Krishna also worked miracles frequently, didn’t they?
Does anyone imagine that means they weren’t Self-Realized?
Simply put, working miracles is one of the fundamental aspects of
the Avatar's job. When God takes birth on Earth, He always
comes with a huge mission to accomplish; Baba’s mission seems to
be to lift the Earth from an age of materialism and nuclear
madness into one of divine understanding and peace - and to do
this, He must establish faith in God in the hearts of millions of
non-believers. Miracles are simply the most efficient way to
accomplish this. (It is surely as true in today’s world as
in the days of Jesus: unless we see signs and wonders, we will not
believe!) If someone miraculously materialized a necklace
before your eyes, lovingly put it around your neck, and then told
you the innermost secret of your heart - would it ever again be
possible for you to doubt the existence of a higher Reality?
Wouldn’t those small miracles have gone a long way to proving
God’s love for you? [...]
In addition
to His role as Incarnation of God, the Avatar is also a
Self-Realized Master; in fact, this is the Avatar’s primary
qualification. He
is the Paramatman, the infinite expanse of pure Awareness
in which the whole realm of time and space floats like a tiny
bubble - and the Avatar will always
be fully aware of His identity as the Paramatman; otherwise
He could not be called an Avatar! I humbly submit that Sathya Sai Baba,
miracles and all, is a perfect Jnani, and fully capable of
leading a seeker on the jnana path (or any other path, for
that matter) all the way to Self-Realization.
Baba and Ramana Maharshi
And speaking of Jnanis, at the
moment of the death of Ramana Maharshi (one of the greatest
Self-Realized Masters of the last century), and extraordinary
event occurred in Baba's ashram, giving us a clue both to Baba's
identity and His relationship with Ramana. A Sai devotee named
Varadu reported what happened:
"...the night when Ramana
Maharshi passed away in Tiruvannamalai [14th April, 1950], I was
with Swamiji [Sai Baba]. Krishna [another young devotee] and
myself were both there. That evening, around 9:00, we continued
whatever it was we were doing (I think we were doing a puja) when
suddenly Swamiji looked up at us. There was a peculiar way of
looking He has which means that He wants to go to His room. The
moment Krishna and I went through the door into the room and
closed it, Swami fell down. I was ready for
it. Krishna and I both held hands, and Swami was lying across
them. Then [He] rose up into the air, from our arms. He was as
stiff as a board. He started murmuring - something about 'Maharshi
has reached my lotus feet.' And then
the sole of His right foot split open, and nearly two kilograms of
beautiful, well-scented vibhuti poured out from the sole of His
foot. I collected the vibhuti while [He] was still
levitating in the air.
Then [He] came down
and returned to [His] senses and asked what [He] had said. I said,
"Swamiji, this is what You said: 'Ramana Maharshi has passed away.'
And this is what came out of Your feet." He said: "Put it into
packets and give it out as prasadam."
A day or two
after this incident, we learned from the newspapers that [Ramana]
Maharshi had died. It had been at the time that Swami said
Maharshi had reached [His] feet."1
So, at the time of his death, Ramana Maharshi merged in Baba's feet! Is it not
therefore clear that Sai Baba is a full embodiment of the Divine
Self, the supreme Atmic Reality that Ramana had realized at
the age of 17?
1 Miracles
are My Visiting Cards, Erlandur Haraldsson, Sai Towers,
Prashanti Nilayam, 1987, pp. 167-168.
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