Tuesday, January 8, 2008

With Love, Man Is God--- Sathya Sai Baba

The book With Love Man Is God is written by Samuel H. Sandweiss, M. D., Birth Day Publishing Company, San Diego, California, USA, 2004.

"A Word To The Reader
Sai Baba is referred to as Sathya Sai Baba, Sai Baba, Sai, Baba, and Swami. The Sanskrit word Sathya means absolute truth, Sai means divine mother, and Baba mean divine father. Swami is a name of respect and affection."

As Doctor Sandweiss does, most devotees, including me, use these names interchangeably.


page 141, "Swami then asked, 'Do you think I am God?' . . . . . Swami continued, 'Yes, I am God, and so are you! There is no difference.' Swami went on to say, 'I did not come here for you to worship me. Worship God in any form or in the formless, as you choose, but worship Him fully.' . . ."

This is one of the things that I love about Sathya Sai Baba. He doesn't insist that his way is the only way. He doesn't insist that he is God and we are below him. He says we are equals. The difference, as he points out, is that he remembers that he is God and we have forgotten. He wants us to remember. He knows that there is more than one path to God. He says whether we are Christian, Buddhist, Muslem, Mormon or members of any other religion doesn't matter. They are all paths to God. Somewhere I read that Swami says all religions lead to God. He tells us to take whatever path is necessary for us to reach God.


page 24, "I soon learned that in response to his devotees' many questions, he (Sathya Sai Baba) directs us to look inside ourselves for answers. To the most pressing question, 'Who are you?' he answers, 'How can you know who I am when you don't even know who you are? When you know who you are, you will know everything.' When asked if he is God, he gives an extraordinary answer, 'Yes, and so are you; you are also divine! The difference is that I know it and you do not. Look inside and find your divine nature.' "

Most of us do not know who we are. For me, that is the most important searching of my life, to find out who am I. It is an ongoing journey for me. I catch glimpses. On my first trip to India, I had my first three day migraine. Nothing I did or my friends did would make it go away. In desparation, I sat up in the early morning hours and started a conversation in my head with Swami. What he told me was that the headache would go away when he was ready and not before. (Illnesses are usually part of the healing process that goes on for devotees when they first arrive at the ashram. It is a way of releasing karma.) At that point, I stopped struggling and went with the flow. At one point, I asked if the conversation and the voices were just part of my imagination or was the conversation really happening. I am a bit of a sceptic. The voice said, "It does not matter. All voices are mine." All voices are those of God because we are all God. Later, that day the migraine went away. I believe it happened because I stopped resisting the process.


page 32, "In the history of mankind, there have been those glorious moments when God has responded to the prayers of the good and has granted peace and safety to the forlorn. An Avatar appears who protects and saves, as voiced by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 5,000 years ago. 'Whenever disharmony overwhelms the world, the Lord will incarnate in human form to establish the modes of earning peace and to re-educate the human community in the paths of peace.' It has happened again."

My understanding of the word Avatar is that it means that God comes to earth in human form to remind us of who we are. Krishna, Rama and Sai Baba are all known as Avatars in India. My first experience of Krishna was during my first visit to India. We were at Kodaikanal, a mountain station south of Bangalore. Swami often goes there during the hottest days of the Indian summers. At the time, Swami did not have an ashram built in Kodaikanal. We sat outside of his residence for darshan twice a day. Usually you sit in line for one to three hours waiting for Swami to come out of his residence for darshan. I like to do two activities while I am waiting. I love to watch the women and children surrounding me. I have always been an avid people watcher.


The other activity is to meditate. During one of those meditations, this figure with a huge, swirling, black cape was suddenly surrounding me completely in his energy. I immediately decided that the dark energy must mean that doom and gloom were coming my way in the near future. I told Swami that with his help, I would handle whatever came my way. I didn't tell anyone about this disturbing meditation until a few days later.


We were blessed on this trip to have an older Indian friend with us on this trip. Ma, as she asked all of us to call her, had been a devotee of Krishna before she became a Sai devotee. As she shared her experiences with Krishna, she mentioned his black energy. That is when I told her about my meditation experience. She told me that I was also a Krishna devotee and that he was back in my life. After a sigh of relief (no doom and gloom), I was happy to be open to more experiences with Krishna. The next day, Swami even gave his approval. He was talking to a lady who had a black eye. She had been stung by a bee. Swami asks her, "Bee Black?" What I heard him say was "Be black." He was telling me, through his conversation with another woman that it was ok and not to be afraid to be open to the Krishna energy. Swami often has conversations like this one where he is talking to all who hear his words. We each get what we need out of the overheard conversations. This is part of his magic. He truly speaks to all of us if we would only listen.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Patricia,

When I was interviewing Erin Pavlina last year I got a message from one of my guides that reminds me of your experience with the black energy.

I was meditating and at some point it was dark and I felt uncomfortable; almost fearful. I was left there for some time to feel it fully and completely and had at this point judged this darkness as a negative thing.

Then the guide said to me, "Light and dark are two paths to the same place...learn to love them both equally. Embrace the darkness and love it, enjoy it as truly as you enjoy the light...do this and you will overcome fear...no dark place can hold any power in the light of love...a person who truly loves all is the source of their own light."

As she spoke the darkness exploded in the most dazzling light I've ever seen and then I realized just how much of my fear is generated by my own judgement :)

Much love,

PK

Patricia Singleton said...

Paula, thank for sharing this. I have learned the same thing since working with the blackness of the Krishna energy. When I looked fully into the blackness, it truly seemed to be a Light intensity that almost hurts my eyes.

Anonymous said...

Great article, Patricia.

I always think of darkness just as the absence of Light. In many ways, it allows us to experience our Light more fully, because we shine so brightly in the darkness ...

In the end, there's only Divine Source.

Blessings,
Andrea

Marj aka Thriver said...

I also agree that we are all divine. Coming to this knowledge has been very helpful to me on my healing journey.

It has also helped me respect and love my child and break the cycle of abuse.

WE ARE ALL DIVINE! Talk about good news! :)

Patricia Singleton said...

Marj, yes, that is the greatest news that we can receive.

Patricia Singleton said...

Andrea, thanks. Glad you liked it.

Pat said...

Patricia - thank you again for your great post. You give me much to think about. I'm also glad you shared about the dark energy as I've always felt that was negative. God always has it covered in every way. I stumbled you again and your post also inspired me to write about it on my own.

Patricia Singleton said...

Pat, I loved your article and where you took what I wrote to a new dimension. Wonderful.

Anonymous said...

This is a world of mysticism which I have difficulty understanding. Great experience I presume.

Patricia Singleton said...

Alfa, thanks for visiting. Yes, I have some great experiences with Sai Baba and India. If you are interested in reading more check out the articles posted under the Category of India.

Anonymous said...

Sure I'll do, I'm interested to know how people converge towards the mightiful Sai Baba.

Patricia Singleton said...

Alfa, becoming a Sai Baba devotee wasn't anything that I ever thought would happen to me and I certainly didn't plan it. Just like most important stuff in my life, I studied and studied some more. I read books, talked to people and then the opportunity came to actually travel to India to meet Sai Baba. I read and do a lot of inward searching for my answers. It isn't a path that everyone would take. It has become my path. I don't try to convince others to travel the same path. We each have to make our own decisions as to what path we take to God. Your path is just as valid as mine or anyone else's.

Anonymous said...

Great Post Patricia

I have heard of Sai Baba before but I have not studied any information about his teachings whatsoever. But after reading this article I must do just that.

When Sai Baba said I am God and So are you, that resonates with everything that I talk about in my Blog.

God is not separate from us looking down upon earth demanding that we worship him, for he is us and we are him, and our true being is just a part of him along with everyone else.

Got to go study about Sai Baba, thanks for the tip.

P.S. I also am fascinated with Krishna.

Patricia Singleton said...

Charles, check out my list of books that I have read on Sai Baba at http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2007/09/books-about-sathya-sai-baba-holy-man.html . Any of these books would be a good place to start.

I have been reading your blog since Deb Estep introduced you on her blog. I really resonate with your words as well. I printed out several of your articles that I haven't had time to read yet since I have had family visiting this week.

I am also interested in finding out more about Krisna since I have had meditation experiences with his energy and I have been told that I had a past life as a devotee of his after her saved my life. I was a very sick little girl and he is supposed to have healed me. Hope you are having a glorious weekend.

Anonymous said...

This post is incredibly uplifting. Duality is such a distraction for so many people. As you imply, to separate from this impulse enables people to see strength in perceived opposition. Self-discovery leads us back to a light beaming from our core selves. Comments submitted by your readers are very insightful.

Patricia Singleton said...

Liara, thank you. To me, the best part of being a blogger is the comments that I get to my articles. The comments add such a richness to the articles. Hearing someone else's response to my words can be so enlightening for me.

Liara Covert said...

Patricia, its fascinating how human beings learn from others about themselves. People learn the art ofmirrored energy. The universe works in mysterious and not-so-mysterious ways. Everyone is on a path of reawakening to what has always been and still is.

Patricia Singleton said...

Liara, I love the way you go back and read an article several times and then leave more comments on what you got the second time. I do the rereading myself with my favorite blogs and books.

If more people would see others as simply mirrors of their own selves, we would learn so much more from each other. I have been so blessed by learning to look at others in this way.

outsane said...

Hello, I am very confused,

I have read a great deal of Sai Baba's discourses and interviews as i feel a strong connection with him, although something troubles me a great deal.
In this interview, Swami says "Worship god in any form or as the formless, as you choose...."
But in my book of discourses of the bhagavad gita 2/8/84 to 18/8/84 by Swami, he says "it is impossible to leave the form and go directly to the formless" which i don't agree is right for everyone a causes me a great deal of confusion.

I agree with you and the comment by swami on this page, but find it hard to agree with the fact that swami says in other discourses that everyone MUST worship god with form before worshipping the formless.

What do you think about this, can someone shed some light on this?

Patricia Singleton said...

Outsane, I think for most of us worshiping the formlessness of God is beyond us.

On my second trip to see Sai Baba, I was sent home with the message that it was okay to worship Jesus if I was more comfortable than worshiping Sai Baba. I even had a picture of Jesus mysteriously materialize right next to me on a stack of other products in a bookstore. I swear the picture was not there just the minute before. I looked and the picture was the only one of its kind in the store. I bought it. It is now framed and sits on my fireplace mantle beside my pictures of Sai Baba, Mother Mary and others.

My understanding of form and formless is this. Forms of God are the body of Sai Baba, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Rama, Mohamed, etc. Worship of the formlessness of God means that you need a body to contain the energy that is God. I sometimes use Universe to represent God in my mind. That is as close as my small mind can get to imagining formlessness and even the Universe has form. To me formless is beyond my imagination.

I am not very good at explaining formlessness. I don't know anyone who is.

outsane said...

Thanks for replying to my comment,

I guess i found it hard because some years ago i had the experience of God within, and realise that in fact everyone is God and so find it very unnatural to worship god in a form like Jesus, Krishna, etc.

I guess, like you say, the whole of creation is the form of God and we need some sort of manifestation to experience him/her.
Really sorry to intellectualize so much, but i rarely get the opportunity to talk to someone else who is into sai baba.

Best wishes for you,

Patricia Singleton said...

Outsane, you are very welcome. Like you, I believe that we have God within us. Sai Baba even says we are all God. He says the only difference between him and us is that he remembers he is God whereas most of us have forgotten that.

In meditation about 10 years ago, I had an experience where I found myself fully expanding, breathing as one with the Universe, being one with the Universe.

I really don't have the words to fully describe the beauty and wonder of the experience. A friend who was sitting near me say that she felt wave after wave of heat coming off of my body at the time that I was experiencing this.
Namaste