The Authentic Voice
Sathya Sai Baba has often said that He had tried hard to postpone announcing that He was an Avatar, until at last the call became irresistible in his 14th year. Even during His childhood, His divine powers broke through and astounded all who experienced them. He could see into the future and the past. He could read people’s minds. And He could create anything out of nothing. Above all, words of profound wisdom—the authentic voice itself—fell from those lips when He cared to advise or admonish anyone.
Nothing more clearly illustrates this aspect of the Avatar than the advice He gave to renunciates at two different times—one while He was 15 and the other 16 years later. Strangely enough, the advice He gave them both was identical. These two instances reveal that only an Avatar can penetrate so deeply into personality, admonish with such love and compassion, and grant boons with such assurance and authority.
In the summer of 1951, the town of Bukkapatnam, which is adjacent to Puttaparthi, was all agog with celebrations in connection with the visit of a renunciate called Digambara-swami. He had lost the use of his legs, and the more devoted among his followers were carrying him about in kind of cradle. But he had a great reputation for scholarship and spirituality. His Bukkapatnam admirers were eager to pit him against our young Baba at Puttaparthi and watch the reaction of the sweet little divine child and the hefty hero who would not talk.
So, one evening they carried him into Puttaparthi village and seated him in the house where Baba was. Baba gave Digambaraswami a teaching and a towel! “If you have cut off all relationships with society and social decencies—and I do not say it is wrong—then your place is in some forest or mountain cave,” said Baba to the naked ascetic. “On the other hand, if you crave the comforts of social life, do not make this show of non-attachment.” The ‘teenaged boy’ continued, “I know your problem. You are afraid you won’t get food regularly if you retire from the company of men. Isn’t that so? [And mark these words.] Well, I assure you that I shall give you food regularly wherever you are—in the Himalayas or in Dandakaranya [a forest]!” That was the authentic voice. Only an Avatar could have declared so.
Sixteen years later, Baba had occasion to meet another renunciate. He was a profound scholar in Eastern and Western philosophy and a noted practitioner of raja-yoga [path of union between devotion and action]. At more than seventy years old, this renunciate was engaged in establishing and fostering centers of a certain religious organization. After his interview with Baba, he spoke about it at a meeting in Puttaparthi.
At the time, the renunciate said, “It was wonderful! Baba told me about a rare and elevating yogic experience I had had years before He [Baba] was ‘born’! He rebuked me mildly for running about with the delusion that I was doing great good for the world by my activities. He said that if only I continued my yogic practices from the stage that early experience had elevated me to, I would, from whatever retreat I was in, do more good for the world than by my present efforts. This was advice no one so far had blessed me with, and it struck me as most correct and timely for my spiritual development. Then, turning to me while I was leaving His presence, He said, ‘Wherever you are, do not worry. I shall look after you and give you sustenance.’” These were the selfsame words He had spoken 16 years before! That was the authentic voice.
Who but an Avatar could give such an assurance and honor it as Sathya Sai Baba does?
~N. Kasturi
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, July 1958
