Which Jesus?, Part 3 - The Three Sai Babas and New Age

Sri Sai Baba Of Shirdi:
“(This is a translation of a Telugu article that appeared a long time back in the Telugu daily ‘Eenadu’.) It is seventyfive years since the Mahasamadhi of a Great Soul worshipped by millions as an incarnation of Lord Sri Datta - Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi…Sai is not a religious teacher…He urged everyone to search and find the Divinity within themselves…
Shirdi is a small village in Kopergaon district of Maharashtra, about 8 km from the river Godavari. The very soil of this village has become sanctified by the contact with Sai's Feet for 80 years…
In the eyes of Sai all the differences of religious, caste, language and community fade away. All bow to Him alike and in their heart of hearts appeal to Him: ‘You are my Mother, My Father, My Beloved, My Knowledge, You are all that I have, O Sai!’…
Sai Baba was born to the fortunate couple Jamuna and Nanda Lal, in the village of Patri on the 28th of September in 1835…Sai, meaning a ‘Great Soul.’” 1

“The Divine in Human Form…Shirdi Sai Baba was an incarnation of God Shiva but most regarded him as a very great saint. Only a few of his closest devotees knew him to be an incarnation. It is difficult to grasp the implications of the Divine in human form. If we accept the Advaitha philosophy that there is One only without a second; nothing but God throughout the manifested universe and beyond, then logically we are in God, God is in us, we ARE God…
Really the form of the Avatar is like a focal point wherein this colossal Divine force can contact the human in the tiny knot of energy that is our Earth…
But the Avatar is in no way limited by the constriction of bodily confinement because He is one with the source of all…
The Avatar appears to be human and we are misled into thinking of him in these terms but the Avatar himself warns us against this error. Sathya Sai Baba once responded to a devotee who asked when he should return for another visit: ‘First understand that you do not need to come back to see this little body,’ he said pointing to himself. Then he added – ‘Find me in your heart.’ In his previous embodiment as Shirdi Sai Baba (1835 - 1918) he made a similar statement to his devotees: ‘Though, I am here bodily, still I know what you do; beyond the seven seas. Go wherever you will, over the wide world, I am with you. My abode is in your heart and I am within you. Always worship Me, Who is seated in your heart, as well as in the hearts of all beings.’ Shirdi Sai Baba…
Sathya Sai Baba, who is Shirdi Sai Baba come again, echoes this thought in many of his statements: ‘Wherever you walk, I am there. Whomsoever you contact, I am in that person. I am in each. From each, I will respond. You can see Me in one place and miss Me in another. You cannot escape Me or do anything in secret…
In my present Avatar, I have come armed with the fullness of the power of formless God to correct mankind, raise human consciousness and put people back on the right path of truth, righteousness, peace and love to divinity.” 2

“Baba’s Sayings: ‘If one meditates on Me, repeats My name, sings My deeds, and is thus transformed into Me, his karma is destroyed. I will stay by his side always. I draw my devotee to Me at the time of his death, though he may die a thousand miles away. If one sees me only, always listens to talk related to Me, and constantly repeats ‘Sai, Sai,’ with heart overflowing with devotion, he will reach God. He need not fear or worry for his body and soul. If you make Me the sole object of your thoughts and aims, you will attain paramartha, the Supreme Goal. Look to me with undivided attention; so also I will look to you. The four sadhanas and the six branches of learning are of no use.’ Baba on Himself: ‘Brahman is my father, Maya is my Mother. As they have united I have got this body. I am Parvadigar (God). I live at Shirdi and everywhere. All things are Mine. I gave everything to everyone. All this universe is in Me. All that you see taken together is Myself. He who thinks that Baba is only at Shirdi has totally failed to see Me.’ Other Sayings of Sai Baba: ‘Those who are fortunate and whose demerits have vanished take to my worship.’” 3

“The Way of Worshipping Baba: An integral form of Baba's worship, with nine important components, is described in Sri Bharadvaja's book: ‘Sai Baba the Master’. The same is given here with slight modifications.
1. Regular worship of a life-like picture of Baba.
2. A loving study of Baba's life and actions.
3. Constant mental repetition of Baba's name…the name can be made to evoke in our mind the spiritual powers that His miracles demonstrate: His omniscience, His omnipotence, His dispassion, His whole-hearted meditation on His Guru, His vigilance over the welfare of His devotees, His transcendence over death etc.
4. Mentally to offer first to Baba anything we eat or drink.
5. Beginning and ending the day with the thought of Baba.
6. Partaking of Baba's Udi everyday. Udi is the holy ash from the fire originally lit by Baba, and still burning in Shirdi. This Udi is believed to have great curative power and is partaken by those with long-standing ailments.
7. Worship of Baba for an hour every week…As we worship His picture, we remember strongly Baba's oneness with His picture and feel His immediate presence.
8. Sharing thoughts of Baba with other devotees.
9. Serving the poor and the needy.” 4

Sathya Sai Baba:
“Where is Sathya Sai Baba? Sathya Sai Baba has said to many people that, "Prashanthi Nilayam is not my home; my home is in your heart." Sai Baba is the God within us, the inner soul of all of us. He is omnipresent, everywhere, at the same time.” 5

“I have come to light the lamp of love in your hearts…to tell you of this universal, unitary faith…Believe that all hearts are motivated by the one and only God; that all faiths glorify the one and only God; that all names in all languages and all forms man can conceive denote the one and only God…Let the different faiths exist, let them flourish, and let the glory of God be sung in all the languages and a variety of tunes. That should be the ideal. Respect the differences between the faiths and recognize them as valid as long as they do not extinguish the flame of unity.” 6

“What is the meaning of Sai Baba? Sai comes from two words: Sa and Ai. Sa means Divine; Ai means Mother and Baba means father. Thus Sai Baba means Divine Mother Father! Who is Sai Baba and where can I see him?
He is God incarnated on God. Nobody can prove that but you have to find it out through your intuition and experiences of what is God and what is not God. Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttarparthi, is where one can find Him.” 7

Prema Sai Baba:
“Prema, that announced third incarnation or avatar or Sai Baba. He will be born in the Indian state of Karnataka after the passing of Sathya Sai Baba at the age of 96. Swami said: ‘Prema Sai, the third avatar, will promote the evangel (gospel) that not only does God reside in everybody, but every-body is God. That is the final wisdom that will allow every man and woman to go to God.’ (San2, 237)” 8

Western Yogi Christopher Hills:
“Christ had trained as a great Siddha yogi with the powers of consciousness of a true initiate.” 9

Shirley Maclaine:
“I am God!” 10

“[Christ] became an adept yogi and mastered complete control over his body and the physical world around him…tried to teach people that they could do the same thing if they got more in touch with their spiritual selves and their own potential power.” 11

“The Council of Nicea altered the Bible…Jesus studied in India… and became an adept Yogi.” 12

“The ancient Hindu vedas claimed that the spoken words I am…set up a vibrational frequency in the body and mind which align the individual with his or her higher self and thus with the God-source. The word God in any language carries the highest vibrational frequency of any word in that language…You can use I am God or I am that I am as Christ often did.” 13

“Understand your divinity and partnership with God….Each indi- vidual is a co-creator with God.” 14

“The identification with the godhead required a place in which people could congregate to collectively experience the regeneration of their connection to the gods. That place became the theater…The audience and the performers could then share in the divinity of each other.” 15

“the basis of the knowledge the extraterrestrials were bringing was both a scientific and a spiritual knowledge of the God-force…The basic lesson the extraterrestrials were bringing was that each human being was a god, never separated from the God-force.” 16

“The concept of an afterlife took on abstract reality when it became codified by the formal religions. Dogma and ritual created both good and bad afterlives - Paradise or Hell - using mankind’s urgent need to believe in something beyond this world as a mechanism through which to amass and exploit power.” 17

Ashtar Command:
“The Ashtar Command is the airborne division of the Great Brother/Sisterhood of Light, under the administrative direction of Commander Ashtar and the spiritual guidance of Lord Sananda, know to Earth as Jesus, or the Christ, our Commander-in-Chief. Composed of millions of starships and personnel from many civilizations, we are here to assist Earth and humanity through the current cycle of planetary cleansing and polar realignment…We are the Hosts of Heaven who serve the Most Radiant One (the Christ) in his mission of love. We work in coordination with the legions of Michael, Uriel, Jophiel, Gabriel…
A major focus at this time is the activation of the collective Messiah, the 144,000 ascended masters (referred to as Eagles within the Command) who form the Legion of Special Volunteers. These are the star-seeded emissaries from the Office of the Christ…Our mission administers the sacred ordinances of the Lord God Most High and functions through the Elohim, the Councils of Orion, the Great Central Sun hierachy and Order of Melchizedek…
We acknowledge that God, the Source, is one omnipresent, eternal life force, universally recognized by many names and forms. We affirm that there is one "only begotten Son of God," as pure unconditional love extended throughout creation. The Lord God of the highest positive realms of spirit created and extended only love. This Son of God exists as a state of divine consciousness or Chrishood exemplified by divine embodiments such as Jesus, Sanada, Maitreya, Krishna and others. These and all true teachers or avatars represent a multidimensional collective of love-wisdom, focalized and extended through the Office of the Christ.
This office, as well as other divine thrones of celestial administration, is anchored by a trinity. Currently the Office of the Christ is held by Lord Jesus, Lord Moses and Lord Elijah. The current planetary christ is Lord Maitreya. These Christed energies are held as well by Lord Kuthumi and others as our cycle progress into the future and the new hierarchy of masters take their places.) Lord Sathva Sai Baba, currently residing in South India, manifests cosmic Christhood and also Father-Mother Godhood as an extremely rare full avatar, known as the Kalkhi Avatar or tenth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The Christ also manifests as the individualized soul within mankind with the potential of expressing perfect sonship, or Christhood.
The collective Messiah consists of those 144,000 ascended masters who accompany the Christ or appointed Messiah on a mission of love. These constitute the true church or body of Christ. This body of divine sonship is not limited to 144,000, but requires that minimum number to leaven and give rise to the loaf of humanity (the ascension) or shift into a new paradigm. The door of grace is open to any who would step forth and choose conscious sonship. (The term son, father and mankind refer not to gender but to the directive spiritual function, punusha, or spirit. Prakrithi, or material creation, refers to the receptive spiritual function know by the terms daughter, mother, goddess, Shakti etc. through which spirit is birthed into form as the son-daughter of God, soul or Christ principal. As there seems to be much controversy regarding these issues, we have wished to bring some light and clarity. We of the Ashtar Command simply refer to the Christ as the Most Radiant One or the Beloved.)” 18

1. 1. http://dirac.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu/~srini/sai/shirdisai.html
2. 2. http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Av/SatyaS2/SatyaS2.htm
3. 3. http://dirac.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu/~srini/sai/sayings_sai.html
4. 4. http://dirac.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu/~srini/sai/worship.html
5. 5. http://www.sathyasai.org/whereis.htm
6. 6. http://www.sathyasai.org/intro/message.htm
7. 7. http://www.post1.com/home/gurusim/1qna.htm
8. 8. http://www.premasaibaba.org/.html
9. 9. Christopher Hills, The Christ Book: What Did He Really Say? (Boulder Creek, CA.: University of the Trees Press, 1980), p. 48
10. 10. Television movie: Out on a Limb
11. 11. Shirley MacLaine, Out on a Limb (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1983), p. 236
12. 12. Shirley MacLaine, Out on a Limb (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1983), p. 181
13. 13. Shirley MacLaine, Dancing in the Light, p. 118- 119
14. 14. Shirley MacLaine, Out on a Limb (Toronto: Bantam Books, 1983), p. 198
15. 15. Shirley MacLaine, Dance While You Can (Toronto: Bantam Books,), p. 288- 290
16. 16. Shirley MacLaine, It's All in the Playing (Toronto: Bantam Books 1987), p. 68- 69
17. 17. Shirley MacLaine, It's All in the Playing (Toronto: Bantam Books 1987), p. 334
18. 18. Written by Ashtar-Athena, The Ashtar-Command, Our Mission, Purpose and Directive