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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 means divine father. Swami is a name of respect and affection.
I consider Sai Baba to be an individual personality as well as a divine being with the same divine aributes that are worshiped in the deities of all the world religions. When referring to Sai Baba I am sometimes referring to the particular person. Other times, I am referring to his divine nature that is without limitations. I use Sai Baba’s name when referring to his divine nature because it is through my relationship with this particular form that I have come to appreciate the universal nature of God: that aspect that transcends all differences and is the same for all people everywhere. In place of Sai Baba’s name you can use any name of God that you choose.
A problem arises when we worship the physical form of a divine figure and fail to appreciate the Universalism that he represents. Divisiveness occurs when we mistakenly believe that one divine being is beer or worse than another. This perception shows a failure to grasp the universal nature of the divine figure. Ultimately, through love we realize that “the divine form and I are one” and that With Love, Man Is God.
All reports of actual events are personal first hand experiences, first hand accounts told to me by reliable people, or well researched events that have been established as credible. I have changed some details in some of the stories to protect anonymity.
The version of the Bhagavad Gita from which I draw all of the quotes is translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood (New York: The New American Library Inc., 1944). I thank Vedanta Press for their permission to use this material.
Following are a few conventions used throughout the book.
• Although I consider Sai Baba to be divine, I refer to him with lowercase pronouns, such as he and him, because too many
capitalizations might distract some readers.
• Third-person pronoun references are masculine for the sole
reason of making the text more readable.
• Foreign words are italicized on first use and defined in the
glossary.