Buch lesen: «Prema Sai Baba. The Mystery of God. Part One»
The Beginning of the Prema Sai Mission,
from Birth to Eleven Years
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, Father – Igor Grigoryevich (1930 – 2020) and Mother – Tamara Alekseevna (1934 – 2019).
Special thanks to Anupriya Wijayaweera for arranging the publication of this book. Thanks go to Alexander Bukreev for the cover design.
1. The wonderful work of God
This book is dedicated to Prema Sai Baba, the divine incarnation of the 21st century. Prema Sai Baba is the third incarnation of God on Earth, in our era. The first was Shirdi Sai Baba (1835-1918), the second was Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011).
At the outset, I must acknowledge the difficulty of writing this book at this very moment. It is now 2023. The previous incarnation of God, Sathya Sai Baba, left the physical body in 2011, that is, twelve years ago.
Prema Sai Baba was born on June 28, 2012. At the time of writing this book, Prema Sai Baba is eleven years old. I have been visiting his house for eight years and watching every day of his childhood growth and development. The first time I met the divine child was when he was three years old.
Across the years, I understood that sooner or later I would have to write a book about the divine boy, and so collected testimonies and materials that would, one day, become invaluable material. Subsequently, when the boy becomes an adult, a huge number of people will observe the events of his life and testify to these accounts. Now, as he is just a child, only a few can see his life and development.
I did not think I would start writing this book so soon. Until recently, it seemed that at least a few more years, or even decades, would surely pass before I would be ready to present materials, facts, testimonies and reflections on the events of Prema Sai Baba's childhood to readers.
I imagined the deeper meaning of the events I was witnessing would become clearer with time. As a rule, hindsight provides clarity, which is why I was certain I should wait and simply observe the development of events in the life and mission of Prema Sai Baba. Any historical event is always easier to comprehend and understand years later.
When significant events unfold before you, it is extremely difficult to coherently describe your thoughts and feelings while you’re amid the experience, since their deep meaning is not yet fully understood. There can be a fear of making a mistake if something is not accurate or if it’s incorrectly interpreted. The responsibility in writing such a book is too great when the account is about the story of God's childhood on Earth.
Who can fully understand the purpose and play of God? Even after many centuries, in fact, little will still be understood. Why wait? I cannot understand Sai Baba now, but neither will I be able to understand him in a thousand years. Who can boast of having fully understood the life and mission of Krishna, Buddha and Jesus Christ?
Directly after the 2023 Shivaratri festival, I realized I must start working on the book, immediately. The next day, I started writing.
The symbolism of Shivaratri is deep and mysterious; this is the great night of the god Shiva. Some interpret this holiday as the most favorable time for meditation, while others interpret it as a great time to work with positive intentions. The cosmic vibrations are especially strong on this wonderful night, and everyone directs the energy in accordance with their priorities.
At that time, the political situation in the world was extremely tense and even dangerous. The boy Prema Sai Baba seemed “out of this world”; he was thoughtful and his consciousness was as if to be somewhere very far away. I felt as if he was blessing the whole world in gaining wisdom and peace. After Shivaratri, I felt I had to start work, immediately.
2. Predictions that are difficult to interpret
For many years, Sathya Sai Baba has predicted that after his passing he will be reincarnated as the next divine incarnation on Earth and that his name will then be Prema Sai Baba. In the pages of this book, we will consider the predictions of Sathya Sai Baba; however, they are very contradictory and allow different interpretations regarding the time, place and circumstances of his next birth as Prema Sai Baba.
Sathya Sai Baba most often said he would be born in the next life in the state of Karnataka, in southern India. However, the exact place of his birth as Prema Sai Baba has been revealed to different people in different ways. Sometimes, he said he would incarnate in the area of the city of Mandya, while other times he pointed to the small town of Channapatna or to the vicinity of the city of Mysore.
In some predictions he spoke about the ancient village of Doddamallur, and sometimes he predicted he would be born in the village of Gunaparthi. Admittedly, among the possible places of his next birth, he even pointed to the city of Calcutta, which is located in a completely different part of India.
Speaking about the time of his birth, Sathya Sai Baba was also contradictory in his predictions. Sometimes, he pointed out he would be incarnated eight years after his departure, and other times he said he would be incarnated in just one year. The question also arises from which moment to count the eight years or the one year. Perhaps the time of his next incarnation should be determined from the date of his physical death on April 24, 2011. Some believe the starting point should be 2021 or 2022.
Sathya Sai Baba predicted he would live until the age of 96 (until 2022), but in fact he left the body at the age of 84 (in 2011). Some researchers suggest the time of his next birth should still be calculated from 2021 or 2022.
All the above calculations show that Prema Sai Baba could be born between 2012 and 2030.
3. One consciousness – many bodies
Already now in 2023 there are about ten candidates for being “called” Prema Sai Baba. Some candidates are around twenty years old, which means they were born before Sathya Sai Baba left the body. Some of these candidates were born in the early 2000s or even in the 1990s.
Sathya Sai Baba passed away in 2011, so this is strange speculation. Comparatively, there are also candidates who are now about ten years old, and there are also newborn babies. Information about some candidates is accessible on the Internet, and some we know about only through rumors.
Guaranteed, we believe there are six or seven candidates, and the rest is just speculation. Since some of the candidates are still infants at the time of writing, their groups of followers carefully guard them and try not to leak information about the circumstances of their birth.
Of course, over time, it may turn out the rumors about some of the baby candidates may turn out to be only fantasies. Such is the difficult situation at the moment in 2023.
Older candidates have already established their own ashrams in various parts of India. How can Prema Sai Baba incarnate before Sathya Sai Baba leaves his body? From a rational point of view, this is impossible.
However, the proponents of those candidates who were born ten or fifteen years before Sathya Sai Baba's departure quite logically argue that we cannot limit God. If the Absolute Consciousness of God decided to incarnate in a new body before the previous body died, what could prevent God from doing so? Does God have limits at all?
Speaking about various candidates, one should remember not only their age, but also their place of birth. Sathya Sai Baba pointed to various possible birthplaces of Prema Sai Baba, most notably the South Indian state of Karnataka. Different candidates were born not only in the state of Karnataka, but also in several other states: Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh.
There are rumors of candidates in the states of Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Once again, the supporters of these candidates argue that nothing is impossible for God, including drastically changing not only the date, but also the place of one's birth.
Obviously, God is not subject to anyone and nothing. He can change everything, including the time and place of his birth; however, the question then arises: are predictions needed at all, if in fact what happens is not what was predicted?
The multi-million community of Sai Baba devotees is split into several groups that support different candidates, and some reject all. The difficulty also lies in the fact that older candidates already work miracles, show clairvoyance, materialize rings and rosaries for visitors, and most importantly, show significant energy and spiritual strength.
Visitors who come to public events led by these candidates experience subtle spiritual states and divine mystical experiences. This indicates these young people do not just "proclaim" themselves, but show certain energy and spiritual powers, at least indirectly confirming their uniqueness.
Performing miracles does not prove outright that a given candidate is a divine incarnation, just as the absence of miracles cannot disprove the fact that one of these candidates could be a divine incarnation.
The presence or absence of miracles does not prove or disprove anything. However, the presence of miraculous powers and the feeling of a divine presence at least indicates the uniqueness of most of these young people who proclaim themselves as Prema Sai.
It is very difficult to make your choice. It is a responsible decision; and therefore, it is psychologically safer to reject all candidates. Those Sai followers who reject all pretenders prefer to maintain that the real Prema Sai Baba must be born in the future. Such an attitude can become a trap for those who will wait for the divine incarnation in the eternal future and miss the manifestation of God in the present.
The complexity of choice exists only for the human mind, which is entangled in the eternal game of God. The human mind tends to be logical and monosyllabic. The mind cannot understand predictions about the place and time of Prema Sai Baba's birth, for they are many-sided. The human mind also finds it difficult to sort through the leapfrog of numerous candidates.
Perhaps the number of candidates will grow. I do not dare to guess how many there will be in a few years. Is it possible the candidates will be not only boys, but also girls? Is it possible there will be candidates not only in India, but also in other countries? It's hard to say. Anything is possible.
I hold the feeling that God (Absolute Consciousness) may well manifest in not one, but many bodies. This means Prema Sai Baba may not be just one person but there could be as many as you like, and they could embody different aspects of Divinity.
For me, the question does not look like this: "One is true, and the rest are deceivers, crooks and crazy." I am open to the potential possibility of the parallel existence of a certain number of divine incarnations of different levels.
Regardless, it is becoming clearer to me that the full manifestation of Prema Sai Baba has taken place in one body. This means that one of the candidates is the full incarnation of the Absolute Consciousness of Sai.
Note, the presence of one full incarnation of Prema Sai does not negate the potential possibility of the parallel existence of a certain number of partial divine incarnations, manifesting various aspects in themselves. According to my feeling, some candidates may well turn out to be scammers or even mentally deranged people. The situation is not easy.
When we talk about the process of reincarnation of the human soul, it is logical to assume that after the death of the body, the soul continues its journey in the subtle space, and ultimately reincarnates in a new body. If we think about the reincarnation of God, then we come into contact with the impersonal ultimate reality. This means that in this case there are no restrictions, including the number of bodies in which the Absolute Consciousness can be embodied.
We can find all the answers only in the depths of our spiritual heart. Of course, I am not suggesting that logic should be completely excluded from our investigation. Logic can sometimes be helpful, although it should be remembered that logic has strong limitations, especially when we are trying to understand the mystery of God's birth on Earth.
The practice of deep meditation and the opening of the spiritual heart is what will help everyone to understand such a complex issue. Mystical experiences and insights are very subjective experiences; therefore, what one person feels and realizes may be completely inaccessible or unacceptable for another.
In the process of learning the truth about God, it is impossible to hide behind other people's backs or authoritative opinions. Even if millions of people claim that some candidate is the true Prema Sai Baba, this does not negate your personal responsibility for your own choice. Only one's own personal practice of meditation and contemplation can lead a person to enlightenment about the truth.
In the following chapters we will consider the unique predictions of Sathya Sai Baba himself about his future birth. I will provide facts and evidence that the boy born in the village of Doddamallur on June 28, 2012, is the true full incarnation of Prema Sai Baba.
4. Sathya Sai Baba blessed this book
Once Jaya Lakshmi Amma asked me to write an article, and possibly a whole book, with my memories and testimonies about Prema Sai Baba and his childhood. Thus began the preliminary work on this book. The first pages of the manuscript appeared already in 2018, although the main work began in 2023, immediately after the Shivaratri festival, as I have already described.
Jaya Lakshmi Amma's request was quite natural as I had lived next to the divine boy since he was three and a half years old. Watching his childhood, I witnessed many amazing events that needed to be carefully and accurately captured for future generations.
I started writing down my memories with inspiration. The first manuscript was an article, which was subsequently expanded and finalized by me into a book. After three days of hard work, the article was almost ready. Suddenly, the computer crashed, which strangely lasted only five minutes, after which the computer started working normally again.
I checked the contents of the computer's memory and realized that all the materials were saved, except for the article dedicated to Prema Sai Baba. I was frustrated but started working again.
The second time, I worked on the article for several days and again there was a problem with the computer. All materials were in order, except for this manuscript, which disappeared a second time. I realized that either God did not want me to write these memoirs, or I wrote something wrong.
The next day, in a mystical dream, I saw Sathya Sai Baba, who explained to me the essence of my mistake. In the first version of the manuscript, I called the divine boy Pritam, after the name given to him at birth by his parents.
In the dream I was able to realize that I should only use the name Prema Sai Baba and never use the name given to him at birth. After that, I was able to successfully complete the manuscript, which was first published as an article, and then expanded into a book.
The name reflects the essence of a person. The way we call it indicates our understanding of its essence. We should call him Prema Sai Baba because he is Prema Sai Baba, and it doesn't matter what name the boy was given at birth.
When he was three and four years old, I saw him as half child, half God. For me, he was a boy with great energy and spiritual potential. When he was five years old, I suddenly stopped seeing him as a child and a human being.
At some point I realized pure Absolute Divinity played the role of a naughty and cheerful boy. He blessed us to understand that he is Prema Sai Baba. He came to this world to give enlightenment to all mankind, to unite all people and to bless one and all.
This book is my research on Prema Sai Baba, the third Sai Avatar. My mystical connection with him is not accidental. I was fortunate enough to be Sathya Sai Baba's interpreter for several years. I first came to Puttaparthi in 1993, then I came to the ashram regularly and lived there for several months a year. I used to visit the ashram regularly until Sathya Sai Baba left his body in 2011.
I served as an interpreter during personal meetings of Sathya Sai Baba with Russian-speaking devotees from different countries. Many times, I had the honor to communicate with Sathya Sai Baba in person.
During audiences and personal meetings, he spoke in English, which I translated into Russian. It was a unique experience where I witnessed numerous miracles, as well as spiritual instructions that Sathya Sai Baba gave to his devotees and visitors.
In this book, I will not write about all the amazing details of my personal interaction with Sathya Sai Baba. I published three books of my memoirs, which were subsequently translated into English. The most complete material with my memories of Sathya Sai Baba is published in the sixth part of my main autobiographical book, which is called Creativity of Eternal Life.
In the book you are reading now, I will talk about my experience with the unique boy who is the next incarnation of Sathya Sai Baba. In the pages of this book, I describe the events that took place between 2015 and 2023, when Prema Sai Baba was between two and eleven years old, although I physically met him when he was three years old.
The events and miracles that I narrate are my personal experience. I was a direct witness and participant in most of these events. Naturally, some of the stories were recorded from the words of other devotees. All materials were given to me in detail and repeatedly checked for their authenticity.
On the pages of this book, I will bring to your attention not only materials about the events of the life of the divine boy, but also my reflections on some philosophical issues, in the context of the tradition of the three Sai Avatars. We will be reflecting on difficult and controversial topics related to the discussion on the further development of Sai Baba's mission.
All thoughts given in the pages of this book are just my worldview and are not objective. Each reader is entitled to their own conclusions and opinions on any of the issues discussed. Take my thoughts not as statements, but as an invitation for philosophical discussion.
5. Three Sai Avatars
Some researchers believe Sathya Sai Baba first mentioned Prema Sai Baba on July 6, 1963, in his famous speech called, “Shiva-Shakti”. Then, Sathya Sai Baba was 37 years old.
This information is not entirely accurate, because the first time he spoke about Prema Sai Baba was much earlier, in 1944, when he was eighteen years old. We will talk about this in the following chapters, but now let's return to the lecture, which went down in history under the name "Shiva-Shakti".
It was in this famous lecture that Sathya Sai Baba told the audience about the mythological conversation between the god, Shiva, and the goddess, Shakti, in which the sage, Bharadwaja, took part. The mythological story says that in ancient times the sage, Bharadwaja, performed the great Vedic fire ritual of worshiping the gods, which is called Homa (Yagna).
After completing the ritual, the sage went to the sacred mountain, Kailash, where he met with the god, Shiva, and the goddess, Shakti. As a sign of blessing, God Shiva and Goddess Shakti said they would take human birth and incarnate among the descendants of the sage, Bharadwaja, three times. According to legend, Lord Shiva was born as Shirdi Sai Baba in the 19th century.
God Shiva and Goddess Shakti then incarnated together in the village of Puttaparthi in the 20th century as Sathya Sai Baba. Finally, Goddess Shakti incarnated as Prema Sai Baba in the village of Doddamallur in the 21st century.
Where exactly Shirdi Sai Baba was born is unknown. Sathya Sai Baba was born in the village of Puttaparthi (Andhra Pradesh), where he founded his main ashram. In one of the predictions, Sathya Sai Baba talked about his future birth as Prema Sai Baba in the village of Gunaparthi (there are also predictions about the village of Doddamallur).
Some devotees tried to find out from Sathya Sai Baba the details of the location of the village of Gunaparthi, since no one could find a similar village on the map of India. Answering these questions, Sathya Sai Baba stated there was no such village, yet. However, after the birth of Prema Sai Baba, a village would be built in the state of Karnataka where Prema Sai Baba would live, and this village would be called Gunaparthi.
According to legend, in ancient times, the god, Shiva, said he would take on a human form, having been born three times in the family of the sage, Bharadwaja. According to this legend, God Shiva incarnated as Shirdi Sai Baba (1835-1918), God Shiva and Goddess Shakti together incarnated as Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011), and Goddess Shakti incarnated as Prema Sai Baba in 2012.
In considering this mythological story, I ask myself several questions. Does the Avatar belong to any religious tradition or ethnic culture? What if God is beyond religion and ethnicity? Should we interpret the three Sai Avatars solely from the point of view of Hinduism? Again, I don’t think so.
Each person can perceive the three Sai Avatars from the point of view of any religious tradition; for example, from the point of view of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. People associate Krishna with Hinduism, considering him a Hindu. Obviously, the physical body of Krishna was Indian, but the reality of his consciousness was beyond the illusion of the manifested universe, beyond religion and ethnicity.
Jesus Christ is associated with the Biblical tradition and Jewish nationality. However, the consciousness of Jesus Christ was beyond the manifested illusion, although the body completely belonged to the Semitic ethnic group.
Let's get back to the legend of the three incarnations of Sai. According to the story, Sathya Sai Baba was the incarnation of the god Shiva and the goddess Shakti.
In this life, I am a Christian. Among my friends there are Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists … all of them are also devotees and followers of Sai Baba. Can we think about the meaning and mission of the three Sai Avatars not in the terminology of Hinduism, but in the terminology of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism? Yes, because the three Sai Avatars are a universal phenomenon that does not belong to any religion. God is beyond religion being the source of all religions.
If you intuitively feel the three Sai Avatars are indeed incarnations of God Shiva and Goddess Shakti, great. However, if it is closer and more comfortable for you to interpret the three Sai Avatars from any other point of view, in the context of any other religious tradition, then that is your right.
In most religions, there are predictions that in the future God, or a messenger from God, will incarnate on Earth with a special mission of spiritual transformation of mankind. Christians are waiting for another birth of Jesus Christ, Buddhists are waiting for the birth of Buddha Maitreya, and Jews are waiting for the coming of the Messiah.
Hindus say that in the future Kalki Avatar should be incarnated, who will become the tenth incarnation of the god, Vishnu. In some areas of Islam there are predictions about the birth of a divine prophet in the future; he is called Imam Mahdi.
Divine masters, who are expected in various religions, should, in accordance with the prophecies, bring the good news and spiritually transform all of humanity. The question arises, will it be one Avatar, which different religions call by different names, or should we expect many Avatars?
The Second Coming of Christ, Buddhist Maitreya, Jewish Messiah, Islamic Imam Mahdi and Hindu Kalki. Will it be the same divine incarnation under different names, or are they many different incarnations? It’s a difficult question; at the moment, I don't know how to answer it.
Alas, each religious tradition is trying to preach its exclusivity, including the peculiarity of "its own" divine savior of mankind. It is difficult for Christians to imagine that the savior of the future can incarnate outside the Christian religion. It is impossible for Hindus to assume that the Avatar of the future may not be a Hindu. The same thing happens in the minds of Jews, Muslims and Buddhists.
Some believe the three Sai Avatars are divine incarnations prophesied in the prophecies of all religions. Many devotees claim it is the three Sai Avatars that are the Hindu divine incarnation of Kalki Avatar, who absorbed the second coming of Jesus Christ, the Buddhist Maitreya, the Islamic Imam Mahdi, and the Jewish Messiah.
The above point of view is not accepted by everyone. Admittedly, for the majority, the various divine incarnations predicted within different religions are still different teachers of humanity who should come to Earth under various circumstances. I am not ready to comment on such points of view because this is a matter of a personal system of beliefs and sensations.
