Q & A with Bhagavan Archive

Sai: (At the start of an interview with a group of Western­ers) Follow the master, the inside Atma, the super-conscious. Life is a challenge, fight to the end. Life is a song, sing it.

A Second Visitor: Swami, I have been away from business and I want to talk with Swami, but if I stay another month then there will be only one final talk with Swami. I

A Visitor: I see evil on all sides and am puzzled. Sai: Here is this banana. The skin is useless to us, so it is regarded as bad. But if there were no skin,

Bhakta: At least to keep up appearances in the world one has to sometime say, ‘this is mine.’ What is one to do then? Swami: Of course, you may have to say so. But

The boys were pleading with Swami to come to the hostel. Swami: (To the elders in the Portico) Good boys, good voice! Very good music. It sounds like a Qawwali, does it not? (To

Q. You were talking of strict regimen; men, too, should follow this, is it not? A. Of course! They, too, are flesh, blood, bone, and marrow; they, too, are afflicted with illness. Each and

Sai: Mr. ‘X’ is a great scholar with various degrees and a lifetime of sadhana in the Himalayas and elsewhere. Hislop:  I suppose degrees are O.K., but the only scholarship of interest to this

Bhakta: Swami, can we ask you freely about any topic concerning the spiritual path, which we do not know? Swami: Certainly. What is the objection? Why this doubt? What am I here for? Is

Hislop: What does Swami say about the three states of consciousness? Sai: There is waking, sleeping, and dreaming, and deep sleep. In deep sleep there is no mind. All are changing states. The past

Q.   Can one realize the atma [soul] and merge, as You say, in the Pranava [cosmic sound—Om] with this material body composed of the five elements? Can the atma be isolated from the

Bhakta: Swami, I have a few doubts concerning the subject of dhyana that You are now writing about, can I ask You? Swami: Of course, you can ask and have your dou­bts removed. It

In the car en route to Anantapur, an American who was teaching at the Sathya Sai College at Brindavan said: Swami, I feel guilty about leaving my classes. Sai: Duty in the world carries