Pray Intensely

The following is the transcription of a talk by Leonardo Pablo Gutter, a psychologist by profession, who has served in the Sai Organization for over three decades. He started the Latin American movement of the Sathya Sai International Organization and previously served as the Chairman of Zone 2, Latin America. Mr. Gutter is a founding member of the Sri Sathya Sai Trust of Argentina. He is a Member of the Prasanthi Council, and Co-Chairman of the Intellectual Property Committee and Co-Chair of the Community Adoption Committee of the Sathya Sai International Organization.

I offer my humble pranams [salutations] at the Divine lotus feet of our beloved master and Lord. As my English pronunciation is a disaster, I hope to be able to speak with the language of the heart and pray that you will listen to me with your hearts, and thus have a good communication.

We are in the middle of this pandemic—the Covid crisis—we know when it started, we don’t know when it’s going to end. But we know that everything is God’s will and thus it gives us an opportunity to intensify our sadhana (spiritual practices). They [the authorities] asked us to wash our hands more often and more intensely, but we as spiritual aspirants should also wash our hearts and minds more intensely and often. This is how we should spend time during the quarantine in our homes instead of watching TV or reading the newspapers.

We have read Swami’s books and listened to His Divine discourses; through these and His life He taught us the practical way of living. We are very fortunate because we are alive when an avatar came to earth and incredibly fortunate because we are awakened onto the spiritual path.

I’ll give you some points that I think are very important for all of us, and then I will narrate my experiences. We know that there is a karmic law that says that when you commit a mistake, even unknowingly, you have to pay the consequences. But if you know that the action is wrong, and you still do it, the reaction will be much stronger.

1. The first step to practical spirituality that Swami taught is—don’t be angry, for anger is a sin against God.
2. The second step is to not be afraid because Swami is with us in our hearts. He always says, “I’m above you, below you, beside you, around you, and in your heart.” If Swami is with us, then why should we be afraid?
3. Third, Swami says always be smiling, spend your day smiling, and you will become a beacon of light to the world.
4. Fourth, acceptance is similar to the first point, we should gladly accept whatever happens to us. We have to understand that our lives are directed by Swami, so we have to accept whatever happens as His will.
5. Fifth, we should live with confidence and trust. There is an analogy: imagine that we are on the edge of a cliff and are falling. Quickly we pray to God and we cling to a rock, and then we pray more intensely and He throws us a rope. What must we do? We should hold the rope very tightly and have the confidence that Swami will save us, we have to live with faith and confidence in Swami.
6. Another important step is to change what we have to and do it right away. For example: When we had the first meeting of the Prasanthi Council, Swami invited us to His house. The five members of the Prasanthi Council were with Him and He very graciously served us coffee and biscuits. Then He spoke to us at length about the purpose of the organization and asked us to go to every corner of the world to spread His message. After the meeting we met again and we tried to summarize what Swami had told us; we made notes saying “we will try to…” Professor G. Venkataraman said, “don’t put that word ‘try’; we should never say “will try”. Once we realize that something is wrong we should change it forever.”
7. Follow ABC—always be away from bad company. Always keep good company. Be careful of what you see, what you hear, what you think, and lead a disciplined life.
8. Another important point is that we should stop criticizing from this very moment both in our mind and heart. We should not criticize any human being; doesn’t matter whether what he does is good or bad.
9. There are two qualities that are very important for the spiritual aspirant: forbearance and surrender. Forbearance is a very important quality where we tolerate and practice restraint no matter whatever happens to us. In spiritual aspects surrender means to adopt Swami’s qualities and His point of view. In other words, we put on His glasses and try to live in such a way that we make ourselves worthy of Him.

We are all scared that we will die of this Corona Virus Pandemic, but we as spiritual aspirants should not be afraid of death. We have to remember that we all will die one day, and that is a very important tool for us.

This brings me to the story that I was asked to share: I was working for many years as a psychologist. One day a lady came to me with her daughter who was 12 years old and said that she thought her daughter was psychotic, and she asked me to check her. I asked her mother to leave and I interviewed her daughter, whom I found to be quite normal. She said she could see spiritual beings as we see each other, she had extra sensory abilities. She remembered clearly who she was in her past life and how she had died. She also knew what was going to happen to her in this life.

Once I realized after two or three meetings that she was not psychotic at all but was a very evolved human being, I stopped treating her like a patient. I met with her family and asked for their permission to meet at their house. I started going to their house every Sunday to share tea with them, and I would carry some biscuits and spend two or three hours with them. This continued for three years and I became like a family member.

One day the girl said, “Jesus appeared to me and told me that we should meet next Thursday at 8 p.m.” So the next Thursday I went to their house and a couple of minutes before 8 my skin was tingling. The girl said, “Jesus is here.” The girl transformed into another person—she performed the mass and blessed the food. Then she wrote a sentence in a strange language on a piece of paper. I took it to a translator of old languages, and he could not understand what was written in it, but then he had the idea of putting the paper in front of a mirror and he could understand. It was Hebrew or Aramaic language, I don´t remember very well now which of the two. The message from Jesus to all the people that were in that meeting and I feel it applies to all of us too, was, “You are not doing enough. When are you going to do enough, when will you wake up from the slumber of ages.”

What is our sadhana? A service once or twice a week? Reading spiritual books? Spirituality is a way of living where we eradicate all bad qualities from our heart and our mind; we must be good and be even better day by day till we are like Swami.

Let me tell you how I came to Swami. I was the vice president of a Raja Yoga organization and I heard about Swami—there were no Sai centers in Argentina at that time. There was a lady in the organization who went to India and met Swami. She started to share with us her experiences, and so I decided to travel to India to meet with the spiritual master. A couple of days before leaving for India I had a very special dream. I was with a few people and Swami came into the room and I folded my hands. As He was near me I had the most incredible experience: suddenly a wave of energy started rising from my feet to my head, and as it rose each cell of my body exploded with happiness—I was in bliss. The energy came in waves and by the third wave even though I was fully conscious I felt like a dead body. I realized that I was pure consciousness within a dead body. At that time, Swami stopped walking through the people and started to leave us, but when He went to the door He looked back at me, saw me on the floor, came back and picked me up, and gave me three kisses in my heart.

After that I woke up and knew that He would always care for and guide me. After that dream I went to India to see the spiritual master of the Raja Yoga organization, but after three days I felt I could not stay with him any longer. I felt in my heart that I had to go and meet Swami, I found out that Swami was on a tour of South India, so I went to Madras and waited for Swami. The day He came was sunny, and I was seated in the Sundaram ashram with 50,000 people. I was seated in the first row. No one knew when Swami was going to arrive, but suddenly my heart started to beat very intensely and then I saw Swami´s car entering the Sundaram ashram. My heart recognized Him even before my mind could. At the first darshan He came and stood in front of me, and I looked at Him and said, “Swami I want to see You.” What I meant was I want an interview. Telepathically I heard His voice over my head saying that you are seeing Me now.

I followed Him to Puttaparthi, and in those 30 days I received a lot of attention from Swami. He gave me vibhuti [holy ash], signed a photograph, took a letter every day—I thought that was normal till I realized my good fortune. One day in my room I decided to resign from the Raja Yoga organization as the vice president. I knew I had found the Poornavatar and I had to surrender to Him.

The next morning I went for darshan and Swami instead of doing the usual round came straight to me, stood in front of me, looked at me, and said, “Yes, this afternoon I will see you.”

In the afternoon for darshan I was seated very far away and felt sad thinking that Swami will not be able to find me, or He will not remember that He had told me He was going to call me for an interview. Swami came out for darshan, and from the verandah He looked in my direction and pointing to me shouted, “You!” I stood up and ran to Him, and Swami said the most beautiful word “go.” I asked Him if the Argentinian group could join and He said yes. After finishing darshanHe invited us to the interview room and spoke to all of us. He approached me and repeated all that I was thinking since the morning that He was not going to remember, was not going to find me, etc. Then He came near me and whispered into my ear—something that I will never forget—He said, “Swami will never disappoint His devotees.”

Swami will never disappoint us and it’s important that we don’t disappoint Him. We say ‘His life is His message’, but we should say, His message is the guiding point of our lives, then we will never disappoint Swami.

When I was leaving the ashram, I thought I will come back in September. I don’t know how I thought that as I had to save enough money to buy a ticket to India and my finances were low. But I was so confident that while saying goodbye to people I told them don’t miss me, I’ll be back in September.

I went back to Argentina; in the middle of June a person came to my office and presented a proposal to do a live show for children in Ecuador with the characters I was representing. As part of the deal, he agreed to pay for my round-trip ticket and stay in Ecuador. I agreed and went with him for one month. The day before my ticket back to Argentina was expiring, I felt deep in my heart that no one knew about Swami in Ecuador and that I had to stay back and try to spread His message. I went to the airline office and asked them if instead of the next day I could fly on their next flight that was four days later. They would not agree.

Finally I said, “I want to stay, please tell me a way around.” She said that the only way out was to convert it to an open ticket for one year and then stay as long as I wanted. So for $100 I changed the ticket. I realized that I had no idea how to speak about His manifestation and His message. At that time there were no Sai centers in Ecuador, and no one knew about Swami. Suddenly I remembered a brother from the Raja Yoga organization in Argentina who was living in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. I got his phone number and called him, and I explained to him what I wanted to do. He asked me to come to Quito; I finished my tour with the live show in Guayaquil, another city of Ecuador, bought a ticket and went to Quito. A couple of days later, a meeting was organized and I spoke about Swami for more than one hour. After my speech, a priest who was in charge of that organization where the talk was came up to me and asked me to write an article about Sai Baba that he would publish in his magazine along with Swami’s photo.

I gave the talk on Friday, my flight back to Buenos Aires was next Tuesday, and on Saturday a friend invited me to a classical music concert where I met his friend who invited me for lunch the next day. He was a very rich man, a former ambassador of Ecuador to Israel, and he was not interested in spirituality at all. At lunch he asked me why I was in Ecuador and I started to speak about Swami. I spoke for about 10 minutes and suddenly he stopped me and said, “Would you come with me to India, I will buy your tickets also.” Before I knew it, the ticket was bought, and we were in Whitefield on September 2^nd.

Later I discovered that he had a malignant tumor and there was no cure for it. When he heard me speak about Swami’s healing powers, he decided to take his chance to visit Swami. We rented a place and it had very few facilities and he complained but went for darshan daily. On Sunday they sing bhajans all day long; after morning darshan people leave, and only those who want to remain stay. He decided to stay, but I left. When I came back in the afternoon for darshan, I sat beside him and he was crying and sobbing. I asked him to calm down and he told me, “Swami was just here in front of me and He asked me to open my mouth. He put His hand inside my mouth, took out something and said, ‘Your cancer is cancelled.’ No one saw Swami, but he felt His presence.

A couple of days later we went back to Ecuador and he went to a clinic that said the cancer was not there. He penned down the story and what he had seen in the ashram in the form of a pamphlet, published 10,000 copies, and distributed them all over Ecuador at no cost. I wanted to be in the ashram in September and I wanted to spread Swami’s avatarhood in Ecuador, and both my wishes were fulfilled.

In Brazil there is a spiritual movement called Spiritism—they believe in the ancestors and spirits they invoke. The priest of the church was concerned about the growth of the Sai movement and decided to send two people to India to see if Sai had spiritual powers, clairvoyance, etc. They wanted to prove that Swami was a fraud. When [one of] the gentlemen came back, at the first lecture that he gave to about 5,000 people he said that he went to India to the ashram and the whole place is surrounded by angels. All the negativity of the people stays outside. When Swami speaks it’s like pink rain of energy falling on everybody.

On my fourth trip to Swami, as I was walking to my room after dinner, suddenly a thought came to my mind—if Swami was really the Poornavatar, if He was really Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu all in one. I went to my room, I felt very bad that I couldn’t speak about Him being the Poornavatar if I was not a 100% sure. I felt that Swami would solve this doubt, and my mind wondered what proof I could ask from Him. So, an idea came to my mind. I thought that I would ask Swami to materialize a watch for me as proof that He was the Poornavatar of this age. I asked Him for a watch for two reasons, first I had never seen Him materialize a watch, but the most important reason was that I had a very nice watch that was never on time, sometimes it was slow and sometime fast, but as I like it I never took the decision to buy a new one.

I went to sleep and in the middle of the night I had a dream with Swami. He appeared in my dream and told me all about my watch, that I liked it, but I wanted to change it but did not change it, so He told me that He was going to solve my problem. He said, your watch has disappeared. The dream was so intense that I woke up, and the first thing I did was to try to get hold of my watch that was near my mattress. So I stretched my hand to reach for it, but the watch was not there. I stood up and switched on the lights, but the watch was nowhere in the room. The doors were locked from inside so no one could have come in and taken it. I felt that as I had challenged Swami He was punishing me, and instead of giving me a watch He took away mine.

Next morning I went for darshan. Swami called the Argentina group for an interview. There in the middle of the interview He created a watch and it looked as though He was giving it to me, but it was for the student who was just behind me—He has an incredible sense of humor.

I remained in the ashram for 20 days more and on the last morning darshan Swami came up to me and instead of asking me when I was going to leave, He asked at what time are you leaving. I said ‘after darshan’, Swami. He said, ‘first go in for the interview’. In interview room He asked me the time. But before I was able to answer Him, He moved up the sleeve of my shirt and said, “I know, I know your watch has disappeared. He spoke exactly the same words He had used in the dream, the same expression on His face, proving that it was He who had taken the watch from my room that night. Then He asked me, “How is your mad monkey mind?” I replied, “It’s very bad, Swami.” He said it’s not so bad and He materialized a watch and put it on my hand. He said, “I will give it a special power, whenever you have a bad thought your watch will stop.” He continued speaking and after a while when I looked at my watch it had stopped. I screamed ‘Swami, it has stopped!’ and He said, I know, because you had these thoughts, and He quickly narrated the bad thoughts that I had had.

In Argentina some years later, even though Swami gave me full protection, some robbers took the watch. On my next trip to India I told Swami what had happened. He said, “I know, I know.” I asked Him if He could give back the watch to me. He said, “First do your duty then I will give it to you.” Since that moment I wondered what was my duty?

I needed a watch, and I did not know when and how I was going to perform my duty according to Swami´s standards, so I decided to buy a new watch. I bought a Rolex during one of my trips for work to USA.

Some years later, I was visiting a client and when I was walking back to the car a young boy grabbed my arm from behind and took my Rolex and ran away. I ran behind him trying to get back my watch, but another boy was waiting for him on a motorcycle and they both escaped. So I went to the car and went home.

Next morning, I went to the prayer room to meditate before going to work. After I had finished my meditation but just before chanting the Shanti mantra, the whole scene of the robbery of my watch came to my mind. A prayer came from my heart asking Swami to give back the Rolex that was stolen the day before. I said to Him, You are omnipotent, You can give back the watch if you want! Then I realized how foolish my request was. I realized that I was asking Him to give me back the watch because it was a Rolex, and I felt ashamed. So I asked Him for forgiveness after I realized that I only have to ask Him for the most important things. I started chanting the Shanti mantra and just after the last Shanti, I heard the lady who was working in my house calling out for me saying, “Sir, sir, your watch, your watch!” She showed my Rolex watch that was stolen the day before in the city.

It was in the pot that I used to water the plants in my house. Swami, who is the master of time, materialized it just when I asked Him for it and a thought came to my mind that He was watering my faith in Him. When I put it back in my wrist, I felt the same vibration that I felt when Swami had materialized it for me the first time.

Our duty is twofold: our first duty is to realize our true self, and the second is to help as many people as possible to advance in their spiritual awakening. We should work with sincerity, intensity, and purity. The scripture says awake, awake, awake, and don’t stop till you reach the goal.

I bought a ticket to go to India, but three days before leaving I had an accident and the bone in my nose broke into two pieces. After X-ray they found that I had a double fracture, but the doctor said I did not need surgery as the bones were aligned, so they gave me painkillers. It was very painful; but I thought since I have to suffer I might as well suffer in India. I took the flight, but it seems that my karma was not over because the air conditioning in the flight gave me a cold—imagine blowing your nose when you have a fractured nose.

However, I reached the ashram; Swami came out for darshan and came up to me and looked at me and called me for an interview. In the room I sat very quietly near His chair and suddenly I saw Him looking at me from the corner of His eye. He smiled and suddenly He got hold of my nose and then He started to shake my head with such intensity for 15 or 20 seconds. Then He released my nose and continued to speak to everybody as if nothing had happened. Later I realized that my nose was completely healed and my cold was gone.

On another occasion, I was on a trip to seven Latin American countries to attend Sai meetings, public meetings, and select office bearers for the organization of different countries’ coordinating committees. My ticket was for the seven countries and then for a business trip to the United States. My first destination was Bogota, the capital of Colombia. I took the plane from Argentina and had a stopover in Miami for 11 hours. It is a long time; but I meditated, had breakfast, visited a store or two, and decided to check-in at 2 p.m. for the 4 p.m. flight. When I reached the counter, I realized that the travel bag from my bag—that had my passport, money, credit cards, and the ticket—was missing. I did not know what to do, I went crazy and ran to the lost and found first and then to the places I had visited. I was exhausted, so I said to Swami, “What am I going to do?” I remembered how Swami says, “Always ask with intensity.” Swami gives us the secret of how to pray to Him, we have to do it with intensity, till He agrees to give us what we want or till we give up and accept what He gives us.

I needed privacy to ask Him with intensity, and I thought that the most private place would be a bathroom. So I went to the first bathroom I found in the Miami airport, I went inside, closed the door, sat on the toilet, and asked Swami with full intensity of my heart and pleaded with Him for 45 minutes non-stop. I was exhausted, I had no energy and I was ready to accept my destiny of going back to the embassy to ask for a temporary passport to be able to return to Argentina. I came out of the bathroom and as I closed the door there was a lady looking straight into my eyes, and in her hands was “the plastic folder”. She said, “Sir is this yours?” I said, “Yes, yes.” I looked inside the bag to check if everything was there—as per my monkey mind’s suggestion—and of course everything was inside. When I looked up after hardly five seconds, the lady had vanished. There was no way anybody could have run so fast. This is how Swami taught me how to ask Him with intensity.

The most incredible experience I had with Swami was after He had left His physical body. When Swami left His physical body, I was in Mexico on a Sai Youth Conference, so I couldn’t go to India. I thought of going to India for Guru Poornima in time for the opening of the Maha Samadhi. Before I left Argentina, I had a Swami dream; I saw that the floor was cemented and on top of it was a stone on which His body lying and was covered with cement. I was standing near His body and crying profusely, and I could feel a lot of pain in my heart. I touched His body. It arose, and He put one arm on my shoulder. Then He pulled my face near his mouth and He whispered in my ear (I could feel the warmth of His breath) and I woke up.

In India during the visit I was selected to speak on behalf of the overseas countries when the Maha Samadhi was unveiled on Guru Poornima day. In my speech I recounted the words Swami had whispered in my ears: “Swami said that He had not gone anywhere, He was everywhere and at all times.”

I will share a story about a doctor in El Salvador whom I met when I went there for meetings and to select the office bearers. One day I was with a group of devotees and one of them was a well-known doctor who shared the following experience: After his medical studies in America he was doing his residency in the United States and was selected to work in a hospital in a remote place. One day when he was going on a trip his jeep broke down in the middle of the jungle. As it was getting dark, he decided to leave the jeep and start walking, but soon it was completely dark and he could hardly see anything.

Suddenly he heard a lot of noise, and some drunk people holding machetes and screaming approached him. He was completely scared and thought they were going to kill him. He asked God with intensity for His help, and just then a vehicle appeared and the driver asked him to jump in. Without him saying a word the driver took him to the house where he was scheduled to stay. When doctor got off the Jeep, he asked the driver if he could give him some money. He refused the money, and when the doctor asked him his name the person said, ‘call me your midnight friend’ and he left. Many years later, the doctor was in a bookstore and saw a book with a photograph of the driver on the cover. That driver was none other than Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Of course, the doctor became a Sai devotee.

Swami knows everything because, as He says, He is in our hearts, we are Him, and we and He are one. He is everywhere at all times, so brothers and sisters I hope you will experience Him more and more each day. He has shown us the way to wake up and live His message in every aspect of our life. We should meditate, go to Sai Centers, do service, and be spiritual in every moment of our lives. Don’t harm anyone, be helpful, and don’t be afraid. If we follow His teachings, we can be excellent recipients of His Divine love and He will shine through us.

I offer to you my gratitude to let me speak with you and share the Divine experiences that Swami granted me. I hope that all of you will feel the Divine presence in your lives each day more. I give you all my love in Sai.