SAI SPIRITUAL SHOWERS

The moving waters of a river has the moon in its depths; the still water of a lake has also the moon in its womb; the sky has the moon, up above. The moon in the flowing flooded river is broken and fragmented; it flows fast and frantically forward; it is never full circle, calm. The moon in the placid lake is unmoved, undistracted, full. But, these two are but reflections of the real moon in the sky. - Sri Sathya Sai

In Mid Air: The simple minded person can easily develop devotion but the intellectual is often filled with dry cynicism. Bhagawan suspends time and breaks scientific natural laws to create a miracle. The intellectual then has to confront it with a question. And the only answer is, God. Read on an insightful article by Richard Bock published in the August 1980 issue of Sanathana Sarathi.

By the time we got to the Ashram, I was feeling fine. I couldn't believe that I'd ever been sick. I had my interview with Baba and He materialised some Vibhuti for me, opened my shirt and put it on my chest. I hadn't told Him any thing but the next thing He said was that my heart was not damaged. (I had the attack in September and I was in India in November) "Good heart, don't worry. Why fear when I am here?" Then He materialised a ring and said, "Wear this, I will always be with you." It had a likeness of Baba in it. That gave me a connection with Him and it started to change my life. It was so natural that I didn't even have time to be shocked about it. I had heard that He did this. In fact it was one of the things that kind of concerned me. Before going to the Ashram, I told Indra Devi that "Everything but the miracles, I can accept." Those miracles bothered me because I had read in Ramakrishna Paramahamsa that you have to be aware of the Siddhi powers; they will lead you astray. So, I was afraid that showing off this power was somehow egotistical and not on the highest level of expression. Therefore I had doubts as to His motives in doing it. But when I got closer and began to experience it, I realised that it was so natural to Him, and the reason behind it so sound, that I realised He was coming from a different space. He was not becoming something; He was that already. And so there was nothing that could spoil Him.

Baba is here to try to evolve people out of the insanity they have created for themselves, into the Light. Anybody that comes into His orbit that's willing to meet Him half way, He is going to do everything He can, to help, because that is His mission, that is why He is here. With a westerner it usually takes something to blow his mind to get out of the material world that he is trapped in, and out of his idea that everything can be figured out scientifically. So Baba creates something out of time, breaking what looks like scientific natural laws and creates a so called miracle. That is very hard for some one steeped in the intellectual world to handle. They have to confront it and question it. And the only answer is, God. And most of the time, people who are intellectual cannot get to God, because it doesn't work for them.

It is the simple-minded person, the person who has faith and love that can embrace God without having to understand God. But it is the intellectual who has to understand God before he can embrace Him. And the understanding of God is impossible! There are millions of people out there trying to figure it out and going bonkers, because they can't. And, an act of suspension of time is going to stop people and make them pause and think.

The thing that blew my mind was not the creation of the ring. It was what happened when Indra Devi asked Him if she could have some more of the healing ash, the Vibhuti, because she had given all of her first supply out to people. He said, "Yes" and, as I am watching, moves His hands in a circle and then holds both hands up as if to receive something. Then this urn about 4 inches high appears in mid air and plops into His hands. I see this and I say, "That is not sleight of hand, that is not up His sleeve, that is something else!" And then He takes the top off and, on a piece of paper, spills out all of the ash. Then He pours again and another full quantity of ash pours out so that in total He poured out about double the amount the urn could possibly hold. Next, He puts half of it back in the urn and distributes some of the remainder to people nearby. What's left He puts in a little handkerchief bag that He gives to Indra. He touches it and says, "Now this will be an inexhaustible supply, so you won't run out." Well! She has had it for 10 years now and it is still flowing. And she has given it to thousands of people. So that was a miracle for me, much more so than the ring. Because I had been flirting with the concept of God and had studied religion; but I had had no experience of God. After that experience with Baba, whether or not God exists, is no longer a question in my mind.