Sathya Sai Baba: the Counterfeit Avatar

by Robert E. Wilkinson

With the recent death of India’s most controversial ‘godman’, Sathya Sai Baba, it was not at all surprising to see Tina Sadhwani’s articles on the Chakra News (http://www.chakranews.com), eulogizing her guru in the most superlative tones. [1] The passing of someone that one believes to be the physical incarnation of God is an understandable blow to an individual who has become identified with the worship of such a vital and charismatic being. Barely a week had passed before Ms. Sadhwani began to publish the lines of a complex mythology and dogma that would encourage the faithful to turn their unquestioned devotion to Sai Baba into a religion. This kind of embellishment often happens following the death or departure of one’s spiritual teacher, but Ms. Sadhwani’s excessive and idealized account of Sai Baba’s importance and her liberal use and distortion of Sri Aurobindo’s words to support her contention that her guru was one of Vishnu’s final Avatars demands to be answered in the most specific and unequivocal terms, for it is one thing to mythologize one’s guru out of all proportion from an abundance of devotion but quite another to deceive the public on matters of indisputable knowledge in the hope of converting them to a common belief. 

Given the critical importance of Vishnu’s appearance in our present Aquarian age, there can be absolutely no mistakes about his identity, his position in the Line of Ten Avatars, and his evolutionary mission. Tina Sadhwani’s unsupported claims that Sai Baba is an Avatar simply do not rise to that level of knowledge and cheapen the meaning and purpose of the Dasavatars and their inextricable link with the Sanatana Dharma and its renewal. In order to fully understand who and what the Avatar is, we must return to the font of Indian myth and spirituality and, like scientists, explore the irreducible principles that give rise to such a preeminent legend.

Indian Myth and Legend of the Avatar:

India is the only nation in the world that can lay claim to a recurring history, eternally relevant and faithful to her ethos and cosmic culture, and the Vedic tradition of the Avatar is one of the most important symbols of her periodic renewal. Her Gods, Goddesses and creatures of the Vedic pantheon contain a profound knowledge of the dynamics of creation, beyond even the comprehension of modern science. Her principle deities, Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver and Shiva, the Destroyer, are the very embodiments of the cosmogonic forces behind the operations of the universe and their myths tell us how reality came to be. Vishnu is the preservation aspect of the trinity and represents that all-pervading power which maintains the universe and the cosmic order. He is the personification of goodness and mercy and periodically intervenes in terrestrial evolution by descending to earth in a human incarnation known as the Avatar.

When and Why Vishnu takes human birth is a matter of supreme cosmic importance involving vast cycles of time and profound archetypal influences. His periodic appearance not only punctuates the stages of our collective becoming, but radically alters the course of human events. In the 4^th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna explains to his student Arjuna some of the external circumstances surrounding his periodic appearance:

‘…Knoweth thou this, O Prince, that whenever the world declineth in virtue and righteousness; and vice and injustice mount the throne - then cometh I, the Lord, and revisit my world in visible form, and mingleth as a man with men, and by my influence and teachings do I destroy the evil and injustice, and re-establish virtue and righteousness. Many times have I thus appeared; many times hereafter shall I come again.’ Lord Krishna to Arjuna, Bhagavad Gita, Part IV, Spiritual Knowledge

In her articles, Ms. Sadhwani has quoted this familiar passage to support her contention that Sai Baba was an Avatar but can she make that distinction simply on the basis of a predicted return during a time of social disequilibrium? If the term ‘Avatar’ is ever to become anything more than a meaningless honorific given indiscriminately to anyone’s guru, as Ms. Sadhwani has done with Sai Baba, it must be defined by an infallible and integral knowledge that allows us to identify Vishnu’s incarnations beyond any shadow of a doubt. In chapter 11 of the Gita, Lord Krishna reveals his ‘Supreme Countenance’ to the trembling Arjuna giving him a glimpse into the nature of that higher knowledge and the means by which it might be attained:

'The greater Form that thou hast seen is only for the rare highest souls. The gods themselves ever desire to look upon it. Nor can I be seen as thou hast seen Me by Veda, or austerities or gifts or sacrifices; it can be seen, known, entered into only by that bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things.' Lord Krishna to Arjuna, Bhagavad Gita , Part XI, 52-54, The Universal Manifestation
 

In this passage it is made abundantly clear that a vision of Krishna’s ‘greater form’ is only for the rare highest souls, Initiates who have entered into that most coveted knowledge through a process of identity or ‘Gnosis’. Only those with eyes to see, said Sri Aurobindo, ‘can bow down and confess the Avatar’. Initiatic knowledge cannot be attained through logic, reasoning, diligent study, or scriptural interpretation, it is based on Self knowledge gained through the revelation of a lived spiritual experience. Its most fundamental feature is a consciousness of Unity, forged in the fires of a life-long tapasya, that allows us to rise above the separative consciousness of our present mental species and see from a poise that casts no shadows. Part and parcel of this Self-knowledge is the nature of one’s relation to the Cosmic Harmonies and the innermost mysteries of Time. This is the highest truth, the truest perception, the Vision of visions reserved only for those rare highest souls, because it is Time itself which reveals the cosmic credentials and true identity of Vishnu’s Evolutionary Avatars.

The Scheme of Avatarhood:

In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, ‘I appear millennium after millennium’, but exactly when in these millennial cycles does he take birth? The matter is made clear in the Rig Veda 1.154 with Vishnu Trivikrama’s three steps to measure the universe. According to the Veda, his first step is like a Lion (Leo); the second step is a Bull (Taurus); and his third and highest step is the Friend (Aquarius). For those with eyes to see, Vishnu’s strides take him through the Fixed signs of the Cosmological Ages. Being the Preservation ‘Guna’ of the Trimurty, these are Vishnu’s own zodiacal signs and represent the exact points/ages in the cosmic cycle when he descends to Earth as the Avatar. What is truly remarkable is that Vishnu’s steps are given in a backward moving order which parallels the Earth’s backward movement through the signs in a phenomenon known as the Precession of the Equinoxes. This is a clear indication that the Vedic Rishis had a far more advanced understanding of cosmology than was previously believed. By measuring the Earth’s movement through the 25,920 year Precessional cycle, we discover that Vishnu intervenes in terrestrial evolution every 6,480 years by descending to earth in the form of the Avatar. He incarnates on the earth in the signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and our current Age of Aquarius and comes at a time when the earth is under the influence of dark and evil forces.

When the scheme of Avatarhood is observed from these millennial heights it becomes apparent that Vishnu’s incarnations mark out meaningful points of progression in the Earth’s consciousness, a ‘parable of the evolution’, to quote Sri Aurobindo. But how does this evolutionary design correspond to the Line of Ten Avatars and what determines the order of their appearance? In order to fully appreciate this evolutionary parable, one must first understand the nature of the ‘INVOLUTION’ and, most importantly, exactly what is involved in the first place.

Involution, the Supreme Mystery:

We are told by a seer of impeccable credentials that the greatest mystery of creation, the means by which the Unmanifest enters into the Manifestation of itself is through a process of contraction and compression to a Seed, that precious bija, that miraculous Hiranyaretas known in the Veda as Agni. All of the attributes that we can conceive of in the Transcendent Divine are drawn, by its own power of manifestation, into the Seed of Itself. Because of this and from the beginning, writes Sri Aurobindo, ‘the whole development [of the universe] is predetermined in its self-knowledge and at every moment in its self-working - it is and moves to what it must be by its own original Truth, and will be at the end that which was contained and intended in its seed.’ This involutionary principle which all things must obey from literally the first instant of creation is none other than TIME as it evolves in our material universe from the seed of itself.

The process of human birth follows this very same principle with all life evolving from an original seed or embryo. The gestation of the human being occurs over a period of nine (9) months culminating with the birth of that which was originally involved. We find this same pattern of correspondences described in the Vishnu Purana in the form of the ‘Nine Creations’. And if we look at the Line of Ten Avatars within this context, we can easily see that the evolution of consciousness follows the same pattern. As Sri Aurobindo tells us, ‘Evolution is an inverse action of the involution…what was original and primal in the involution is in the evolution the last and supreme emergence’. 

The Vedic Yoga:

The nature of Evolution in Time is an indispensable knowledge for those who would plumb the deepest mysteries of the Veda. Its secret wisdom, obtained through practice of an ancient yoga, reveals that the initiatic journey of the Rishis is not a journey through Space as many believe, but a journey in Time through the Year and its Twelve Months, the central figure of the Veda around which the Sacrifice is conducted, and it too follows the pattern of a nine month labor with a victorious birth in the tenth, as Sri Aurobindo explains:

‘...In other words, it is when the nine-months’ sacrifice is prolonged through the tenth, it is when the Navagwas become the ten Dashagwas by the seven-headed thought of Ayasya, the tenth Rishi, that the Sun is found… but what is meant by the figure of the months? For it now becomes clear that it is a figure, a parable; the year is symbolic, the months are symbolic. It is in the revolution of the year that the recovery of the lost Sun and the lost cows is effected, for we have the explicit statement in X.62-2… “by the truth, in the revolution of the year, they broke Vala”…’

‘The expression in the hymns, daso maso ataran, indicates that there was some difficulty in getting through the full period of ten months. It is during this period apparently that the sons of darkness had the power to assail the sacrifice; for it is indicated that it is only by the confirming of the thought which conquers Swar, the solar world, that the Rishis are able to get through the ten months…’

‘I hold for you in the waters the thought that wins possession of heaven by which the Navagwas [nine] passed through the ten months…’ (V.45-11) 

‘This victory is won in twelve periods of the upward journey, represented by the revolution of the twelve months of the sacrificial year, the periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth, until the tenth month secures the victory…’ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, 1915. 

The Vedic sacrifice, as Sri Aurobindo reveals it, follows the same line as the Avataric parable because each of Vishnu’s incarnations represents an unveiling of a particular involutionary stage; ‘their periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth’. Since the journey of the Individual and the appearance of the Line of Ten are both interrelated expressions of the same transcendent Being, it is through the lived yogic experience that one is initiated into the mysteries of the Avatars and by Usha, the Dawn Goddess.

Once possessed of this higher knowledge of Time and Divine Alchemy, the identity of the Avatars is no longer a matter of speculation and guesswork. Just as a competent scientist knows the position of each element in the Periodic Table based on its atomic properties, electrons and protons, and can even predict the discovery and proper position of new elements, the seer has realized a greater face of truth which of itself sets each piece in its rightful place. With this realization we are able to identify the time of the Avatars appearance, his position in the Line of Ten and the details of his evolutionary mission. Moreover, it becomes abundantly clear who is and who is not an Avatar.

The Cosmic Order of the Avatars:

If we apply this knowledge to the most renown of Vishnu’s emanations, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, it is clear that they are the 7^th and 8^th Avatars of Vedic tradition. Lord Rama was born in the 7^th Manifestation some twelve thousand years ago in the Age of Leo. He was what is called a ‘Solar’ manifestation and details of his epic, the Ramayana, reveal him to be the IDEAL or Sattvic man. Lord Rama’s purpose was to fix for the future the possibility of an order proper to the sattvic civilized human being who governs his life by reason, the finer emotions, morality, and higher Mental ideas. The story of the Ramayana Epic revolves around Rama’s love and devotion to his wife Sita, an unmistakable theme of the 7^th zodiacal sign, Libra. The plot of the epic involves the abduction of Sita by the demon king Ravana. In his pursuit to rescue Sita, Rama assembles an army of allies who attack Ravana’s army, slay the demon king and reunite Sita with her loving husband, thus restoring balance and order to the world.

Lord Krishna, the 8^th Avatar was the Overmental Superman. He was born in the 8^th Manifestation around 3,100 BCE in the Age of Taurus. He was a ‘Lunar’ manifestation as the meaning of his name ‘the dark one’ implies. The most important document of Sri Krishna’s teaching is the Bhagavad Gita, revealed during the battle of Kurukshetra. The discourse between Krishna and his student Arjuna centers around War, Duty and Death, an essential knowledge for the ‘Kshatriya’ or Divine Warrior. As all initiates know, the subjects of War and Death are the preeminent themes of the 8^th zodiacal sign Scorpio, a sign ruled by Mars, the God of war.

Following this progression of Time and Archetype we would naturally expect the 9^th Avatar of Vedic tradition to appear in the 9^th Manifestation in the Age of Aquarius. He would be a Solar manifestation and the overarching theme of his life and mission would correspond to the 9^th sign Sagittarius, which represents a body of higher knowledge. Since we are told by a member of Sri Aurobindo’s own line that Vishnu’s 9^th Avatar would immediately return as the 10^th, in keeping with the Rig Veda injunction, we must view their appearance in the context of the culmination of the Vedic journey. What makes these final incarnations so absolutely unique is that they represent the last and supreme emergence of that original involutionary principle, Time. While Ram and Krishna prepared the soil for the conquest of Time, it is not until the concluding members of the Line that we see the complete apotheosis of Time as the ultimate feature of an integral Gnosis. We must expect therefore that their teachings would represent a radical reversal of an old transcendental spirituality whose strategy involved a complete denial of Time and Matter in order to reach the opposite pole, Spirit. Moreover we would expect Vishnu’s final Avatars to open an entirely new path for humanity, one that can at long last resolve the ancient paradoxes and unite the poles of Spirit and Matter through the instrumentality of Gnostic Time.

Our expectations of the 9^th Avatar are overwhelmingly realized in the person of Sri Aurobindo. He was born in the 9^th Manifestation and ushered in the Aquarian Age. He was the epitome of the Solar manifestation, born under the sign Leo which is ruled by the Sun. Considered to be one of India’s greatest sages, not simply of this age but of all ages, Sri Aurobindo fulfilled his Sagittarian mission by producing hundreds of volumes of an all-embracing and profound philosophy that has been described as a contribution to human thought the equivalent of which has not been attained by any other known thinker. Any serious student of Sri Aurobindo’s life and yoga will immediately recognize that his work represents a radical departure from all previous spiritual paths. It challenges thousands of years of traditional wisdom that believes a transcendence of the physical world to be the highest possible attainment. In an epochal reversal of direction, Sri Aurobindo and his line have presented humanity with a New Way, an entirely new direction that foresees the possibility of A MATERIAL UNION WITH THE DIVINE, one that takes us into the core of this world of matter and the innermost mysteries of time. The principal feature that unites these two realms within a single Integral Vision is a New System of Measure, a non-speculative formula that reveals the utter perfection of a Supramental Consciousness as it deploys itself on the Earth.

The coming of the Avatar, the sole purpose of his birth, is to renew the eternal truths and restore the Cosmic Order. That ‘Order’ is unmistakable in the lives and missions of the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th Avatars whose epic adventures reveal a seamless progression in consciousness from the Mental, to the Overmental, and finally to the Supramental Creation. With each of Vishnu’s ‘steps’ dawns a wider and wider truth revealing that the ‘spiritual evolution’ follows the same principles of the ‘biological evolution’, a progressive unfolding in time revealing new and more complete aspects of the Divine consciousness. Because of this orderly clockwork, each Avatar was bound by the constraints of the Time Spirit and could only complete his mission within the context of a stage in a larger evolutionary plan. As Sri Aurobindo explained, ‘…the whole development [of the universe] is predetermined in its self-knowledge and at every moment in its self-working’.

Rectification of the Ages:

Knowledge of this progressive unveiling of consciousness is invaluable when applied to the differentiation of historical spiritual teachings loosely defined as the ‘Perennial Philosophy’. It allows us to sort through what has been lumped together under the heading of ‘Enlightenment’ and put these disparate realizations in their proper category and order. This also permits us to follow the vector of the evolution and locate the dimensions of being under the greatest pressure for change. The great majority of Hindus, for example, believe that the Buddha was the 9^th Avatar. But we know that he was not and could not have been one of Vishnu’s sequential incarnations because he was born around 560 to 550 BCE near the beginning of the Age of Pisces. In the early centuries of that age the evolving consciousness of the race was founded on three rather than four pillars of being; the Physical and Emotional in the service of the Mental. The highest, (Spiritual) was completely lacking or dormant. At this ‘station’ of development, the great sages of the Piscean era including the Buddha were limited in their higher perceptions by the vibrational limitations inherent in the Mental consciousness. Despite their sincere aspirations, their discoveries could never admit of anything higher than a dissolution of the nexus of consciousness which held them in the world. Buddha called his experience of dissolution ‘Nirvana’ - a state of pure Being, equanimity and peace; an emptiness without form that grants liberation from this so-called ‘illusory world of becoming’. Lao Tze, the Chinese sage who lived around the same time, expressed his realization in much the same vein calling it, ‘The Nothing that is All’, and we find this same transcendental language later on in the teachings of Shankara, founder of the Advaita Vedanta school, who described ‘Moksha’ as a realization where one does not feel oneself any longer to be an individual with a name or form, but an infinite, eternal, space-less consciousness. From the limited evolutionary perspective of these renowned sages, life has no meaning or purpose. It is an illusion – ‘Maya’ that can only be remedied through a strategy of escapism based on a denial of oneself, the soul and the world. According to these teachers, Salvation, if it exists at all, may only be found in the transcendence of the world in some after-death ‘Heaven’, Advaitan ‘Moksha’ or ‘Nirvanic’ Void. When Sri Aurobindo was asked to comment on the efficacy of these paths of dissolution he replied, ‘…A great extinction is not God’s last word…[Nirvana] is not as many believe the ending of the path with nothing beyond to explore, it is the end of the lower path and the beginning of the higher evolution’. Kalki, said Sri Aurobindo, will come to correct the error of the Buddha.

As we move forward in time some 2,000 years we come to the Age of Aquarius, Vishnu’s ‘highest step’ and the appointed time for the appearance of the 9^th Avatar. With the continuing evolution of our species new and greater spiritual heights have opened to our view, The Mental has given way to what Sri Aurobindo and his line have called the ‘Supra-mental’. But our global society is still dominated by the nihilistic religions formulated in the Age of Pisces and because of the burdens of these past beliefs, our modern world teeters on a razor’s edge between madness and catastrophe. Each passing day bears witness to a world arrested by the atavistic beliefs of religions long past, with many still locked in some form of convert or kill mentality. It is clearly time for Vishnu to mount the throne and restore the eternal truths that will re-establish the dharmic path of virtue and righteousness. But, says Krishna, ‘…as the years have passed, the noble teachings have declined and their light has grown dim’. Who is it that can SEE the bringers of the light and how do we recognize them?

The Counterfeit Avatar:

As the Age of Pisces came to a close some of India’s most impeccable souls took birth to usher in the new age. Two of her brightest spiritual lights and forerunners of Sri Aurobindo’s own mission were Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and his student, Swami Vivekananda. Together with the likes of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Paramahamsa Yogananda they inspired a vibrant renewal of Indian spirituality that literally circled the globe. It was a period of palpable light and energy that renewed the Age and paved the way for Vishnu’s final Avatars. But where there is extraordinary Light, there are also extraordinary Shadows and those who would usurp these emerging energies for their own dark designs. The Veda calls them, ‘…sons of darkness who have the power to assail the sacrifice’. And for Victory to be assured, these pretenders must be brought out of the shadows and into the light where they may be exposed for who and what they really are. This brings us full circle and back to the matter of Sathya Sai Baba, the supreme poser and usurper of the light. After predicting that he would live for 96 years as his present avatar, Sai Baba died in April, 2011 at 81 years of age. This was the last of a mind boggling web of lies spun by Sai Baba to convince his followers that he was the living embodiment of Vishnu and the Avatar of the Age. In order to discover the truth or falsity of his unsupported claims, let us examine his life and teachings in the light of gnosis.

Unlike the iconic spiritual teachers listed above, Sai Baba presented himself as a gaudy caricature of an Indian godman. From the age of 13 he began to make the most outlandish claims about his incomparable divinity as well as his past and future lives. By his own account, he is the God Avatar of an entire Aeon, the embodiment of Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, and Shakti all in the same body, and there has never been another like him. Being a consummate showman, Sai Baba never missed an opportunity for self-aggrandizement. He took great delight at playing an Avatar, appropriating their sacred symbols such as Kalki’s White Horse and Shesha, the Aeonic serpent which he had made into a bed. But his most outrageous stunt by far was deceitfully insinuating himself into one of the most important events in Indian spiritual history. On 24 November, 1926, after a lifetime of yoga, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother sent word to their sadhaks asking them to assemble in the upper verandah of the Library House in their Ashram in Pondicherry to hear about something of supreme importance that had happened in the history of the Earth and Universe. On what was later to become known as ‘Victory Day’ or the day of Siddhi, Sri Aurobindo announced that Krishna, the Overmental Godhead had descended into the physical, meaning Sri Aurobindo himself. As the Mother explained, ‘…Krishna consented to descend into Sri Aurobindo’s body – to be FIXED there. Then I saw him – I saw him with my own eyes (inner eyes, of course), join himself to Sri Aurobindo’.

With the integration of the Overmental consciousness begun by the 8^th Avatar Krishna, Sri Aurobindo could now retire to his rooms and begin the establishment of the Supramental Consciousness-Force. This event marked the true beginning of his mission, the platform from where he could carry the evolution to greater heights. Sri Aurobindo’s Siddhi Day coincides with the close of the Age of Pisces and the beginning of the Aquarian Age that year. It was a victory for the whole world, because without it transpiring right on time, the Avatar could not have begun his transformative mission to bring down the Supermind. Upon learning of this momentous event many years later, Sai Baba changed the date of his birth from 4 October, 1929 to 23 November, 1926 and claimed that Sri Aurobindo was obviously referring to Baba who was supposedly born on the previous day (Nov. 23), and that he (Sri Aurobindo) had taken voluntary retirement after handing the reins over to the new God incarnate. [2] While his followers continue to insist that November, 23, 1926 was Baba’s true birthday, a horoscope cast for 4 October, 1929, the birth date on Baba’s original school records, removes all doubt by indicating his passing in 2011 when Pluto, the planet of death, moved by progression into a conjunction with his natal Sun.

The Danger of Miracles:

According to The Hindu, one of India’s leading newspapers, Baba’s early reputation was built on a series of miracles. He is reputed to have had the ability to produce vibhuthi (holy ash) or rings or miniature Shivalings out of thin air. An occasional wrist-watch was also ‘manifested’ for his more generous worshipers, each curiously bearing a factory-imprinted serial number. Baba never tired of telling his followers: ‘My power is immeasurable; my truth is inexplicable, unfathomable. All of the conceivable powers of the universe are resident in this palm’. But whether he had an actual siddhi or produced these so-called miracles through sleight of hand as the watches suggest is a moot question. Every genuine realized being since Patanjali, (c. 250 BCE - founder of the Yoga system of philosophy), has warned against the ostentatious demonstration of miracles as a dangerous distraction to both the performer and his followers. Sri Ramana Maharshi said that ‘powers’ such as these were ‘below the plane of Self-realisation’ and warned that they were more likely to inflate the ego than eliminate it. And Swami Vivekananda ruthlessly looked down upon so-called miracles as the greatest stumbling block in the way of truth. When the disciples of a genuine realized being told him of a man who had performed a so-called miracle and showed him the bowl he had produced, he took it, crushed it under his feet and told them never to build their faith on miracles again, but to look for truth in everlasting principles. From these examples, we can see that there is universal agreement among genuine enlightened beings that there is a plane of consciousness, a dangerous zone of transition between the ordinary consciousness and the realization of true yogic knowledge. Sri Aurobindo called this the ‘Intermediate Zone’ and describes in detail the pitfalls that can befall the unsuspecting traveler:

‘…Overwhelmed by the first rush and sense of power of a supernormal condition, they get dazzled with a little light which seems to them a tremendous illumination or a touch of force which they mistake for the full Divine Force…[one] feels himself freed from the normal limits…filled and enlarged and exalted; what comes associates itself with his aspirations, ambitions, notions of spiritual fulfilment and yogic siddhi; he is carried away by the splendour and the rush, and thinks that he has realised more than he has truly done, something final or at least something sovereignly true…one may take up one's abode in this intermediate zone, care to go no farther and build there some half-truth which one takes for the whole truth or become the instrument of the powers of these transitional planes’. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga

Anyone who has followed the career of Sai Baba cannot escape the conclusion that he is wholly a creature of the Intermediate Zone and has become an instrument of vital beings whose sole purpose is to usurp the higher truths of the Supramental age through a process of distortion, misrepresentation, and lies. It is additionally known by experienced occultists that one of the costs of maintaining one’s power on that vital plane is a huge increase in one’s sexual appetites. The heated controversy surrounding Sai Baba’s alleged pedophilia has been taken up elsewhere but it bears pointing out that when the United Nations, the British Parliament and the U.S. State Department all issue warnings of inappropriate sexual behavior involving youths and children by a prominent local religious leader at an ashram located in Andhra Pradesh, these charges are undoubtedly true. [3] But owing to a timid Indian media, cowed by Baba’s wealth, power and influence, the facts of these appalling events, including the 1993 murder of four young boys in his bedroom, were either suppressed or explained away as if they never happened. The children, who had come to confront Baba on the matter of their sexual abuse, were summarily executed by a hail of bullets from the Puttaparthi police. Immediately following this tragic event, the entire murder investigation was closed down by a confidential government order with no charges registered and no official report. One can only wonder how a man like this has managed to convince tens of millions of people that he was Vishnu’s highest manifestation, the God Avatar of an entire Age.

Gurus and Pretenders:

Spiritual personalities are complex and difficult to understand. Their claims of divinity, knowledge and power come from such a subjective level of experience that they confound all objective proofs. Only those at the same or a higher level of development can know the total pattern of their behavior. But according to Sai Baba, he is utterly unique and there has never been another like him, so how can we evaluate the validity of his claims? For most devotees this is an impossible dilemma and they are forced to fall back upon unquestioned belief which results in the loss of identity, personal power, and ultimately, responsible consciousness. Given the powers of conviction that arise from the unconscious projection of one’s own divinity onto an external god figure and the peer pressure of other members of the cult, the unwitting devotee finds himself overpowered by a commitment en masse that overrules all common sense. The result is blind obedience and a complete identification with the myth of the group. We can see an example of this devotional fervor in Ms. Sadhwani’s recent articles that glorifies Sai Baba out of all proportion without a shred of evidence to support her dogmatic claims.

For persons of vision however there is a tried and true method of evaluating the competence and spiritual bona fides of someone claiming to be God. The evidence lies in the quality of their teachings and the profundity of their knowledge. But to find the unvarnished truth, the architecture of their philosophy must be examined with the precision of an engineer, dismantling layer after layer until the core of their realization stands revealed. Only then can it be understood within the context of an integral spectrum of knowledge. When we apply this test to the written works of Sai Baba, we can see that his teachings are broken down into two subcategories; fully half of his message falls in the category of meaningless self promotion, with the balance being an eclectic mix of Advaita Philosophy and a patchwork metaphysic reminiscent of the age of Pisces. There is nothing new, nothing original and absolutely nothing that might justify the title of Vishnu’s Avatar.

Time and the Supermind:

In an earlier part of this article the Line of Ten Avatars was discussed in relation to the evolution of consciousness on earth. Sri Aurobindo had told us that the Evolution was simply an inverse action of the Involution. Since Time was the original element and factor in the involution, it would be, in the evolution, the last and supreme emergence. Indeed, the 10^th and last of Vishnu’s Avatars is known as Kalki, a name that derives from the Sanskrit root word ‘Kal’ which means Time. There can be absolutely no question that an identifying hallmark of the Supramental Avatars would be a new revelation of Time. We see nothing of this newness in the teachings of Sai Baba. His discussions of Time hearken back to the realizers of the Piscean era who saw it as an illusion and an impediment to spiritual liberation. But for Sri Aurobindo, Time was an obsession which he pursued until his passing in 1950. He was seeking the consolidation of a formula which might reconcile the Timeless Infinite and the Time Spirit deploying itself and organizing all things in time. He carried us to the portals of this discovery in his epic text, The Synthesis of Yoga and closed the book with a chapter entitled, ‘Toward the Supramental Time Vision’. What Sri Aurobindo ultimately revealed was that the last and supreme emergence of the Time spirit, its final unveiling, was the basis of a Supramental Gnosis.

‘The nature of Supermind is that all of its knowledge is a knowledge by identity and oneness. The Spirit is one everywhere and always. It knows all things as itself and in itself and therefore knows them intimately, completely, in their reality as well as their appearance. By concentrating on anything whatsoever, we are able to know that thing and make it deliver up its concealed secrets. This is the faculty of Essential Cognition, it always cognizes the essence, the truth. There is not even a trace of false knowledge.’ Sri Aurobindo

To the eye of Gnosis, the whole creation in its act of becoming reverberates with meaning and purpose and it is Time that makes this vision intelligible. Contrast this with the nihilistic teachings of Sai Baba:

‘…the world is maya (illusion), The cycles of birth and death are all fanciful weavings, illusory agitations and unreal appearances…. The ultimate refuge for man, the goal he ought to seek, the thing that I have come to give you is liberation itself…man will at last endeavor to know the secret of permanent joy and peace, that is to say, of moksha, liberation from the cycle of birth and death’. Teachings of Sathya Sai Baba

According to Sai Baba, there is no meaning and purpose in the world. The highest goal of human life is spiritual liberation, known by such names as moksha, nirvana, and mukti. These phrases which characterize Baba’s entire realization have been lifted word for word out of the age of Pisces some 2,000 years ago. And because of his ignorance of Time and the cosmic harmonies, his teachings on the Veda are irredeemably flawed. While he extols the Veda as the highest possible knowledge and a direct path to God, he cannot tell you the first thing about how to follow that path.

‘…Mother Veda has been kind to her children - the human race. To sanctify its cravings and to uplift the race, she has posited the concept of Time - and its components, the years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. Even gods were declared to be bound by Time. The individual or Jiva is caught in the wheel of Time and Space and rotates with it, unaware of any means of escape. But, really he is beyond the reach of Time and Space. The Veda is bent upon the task of making him know this Truth, and liberating him from this narrowness.’ Sathya Sai Baba, Eternal Truths
 

The Vedic Calendar:

Another indication of Baba’s immature realizations about time and the Veda may be seen in the ashrams and temples that bear his name and the errors in their ritual Calendar. According to the Rishis, the Vedic truth-consciousness is grounded in an experiential awareness of the sacrificial year and its twelve months:

‘Certain eternal worlds are these which have come into being, their doors are shut to you (or opened) by the months and the years. Without effort one world moves in the other, and it is these that Brihaspati has made manifest to knowledge’ Rig Veda (II.24.5)

The sages carefully prescribed ritual celebrations that were designed to bring about an experiential awareness of the cosmic truths through a process of repeating and reliving precise points in the sacrificial year. The most important of these points in the ritual calendar, the heart of the Vedic mysteries, is the ‘Makar Sankranti’, a time when the gods and goddesses can touch our world and revitalize our very souls. The true cosmological point of the Makar Sankranti begins with the change of the Sun’s direction from the Lower Hemisphere (Daksinayana) to the Upper Hemisphere (Uttarayana) and its movement into the 10^th sign Capricorn and house of the 10^th month victory. The Makar Sankranti is also the Winter Solstice, the perihelion of the Earth’s annual orbit of the Sun and the shortest day of the year. It is an astronomical fact, known by every school child, that the Winter Solstice falls on December 21, yet most celebrants, including Sai Baba and his followers, observe the Makar Sankranti on January 14^th some 23 days after the fact. If Sai Baba is the fullest manifestation of the Time-Spirit and has come to reset the cosmic clock, why did he adhere to a discredited Nirayana calendar system which has literally dissolved the sacred and eternal truths of the Veda into the mists of Sidereal time? He may boast that he is the very incarnation prophesied to restore the Sanatana Dharma, but he has, in fact, led his millions of followers on a path of Adharma.

Sai Baba’s complete lack of understanding of the Vedic yoga and its deepest cosmological mysteries bears testimony to one of Sri Aurobindo’s most revealing statements about the limitations of the Piscean realization : ‘...for some two thousand years at least no Indian has really understood the Veda.’ His statement confirms what has been written here about the unveiling of the Veda’s highest truths being an event that can only begin with Vishnu’s Aquarian Avatars and their Supramental realization.

In Conclusion:

From the preponderance of the evidence presented here, even the most skeptical reader must agree that there is simply no possibility of Sathya Sai Baba being one of Vishnu’s Evolutionary Avatars. Despite Ms. Sadhwani’s specious claims, he bears none of the identifying qualities unique to the Line of Ten. On the contrary, he bears all of the qualities of a poser, usurper, and denier of the light. Sai Baba lied about his birth, lied about his death and almost everything in between. While the real Avatar was in the thick of an evolutionary yoga designed to bring down the Supramental light, Baba was busy building a cult following of millions of people through which he amassed a fortune of billions of dollars. His extraordinary success was the result of decades of shameless self promotion to easily impressed, superstitious and disillusioned people desperate for an experience of cheap grace. Now that he is dead, his millions of followers have to come to terms with an uncomfortable truth: if Sai Baba was not who he said he was, or perhaps even worse, did not know who he truly was; who is this person that they have projected their hopes, dreams and indeed their own divinity upon? To their own terror many will soon discover that they have been led down a centerless Piscean path leaving them vulnerable to the play-out of an old and dying world. There will be no ‘Prema Sai’, or third incarnation of the ‘Sai avataric lineage’ prophesied to uplift mankind in the dawning of a new golden age. In the light of Gnosis this prediction is a complete and utter fantasy designed to distort and obscure the New Supramental Creation that has already descended. In his 824 page Epic poem, Savitri, which is to the Aquarian Avatars what the Ramayana and Mahabharata were to the 7^th and 8^th, Sri Aurobindo describes something of this extraordinary event.

‘In Matter shall be lit the spirit's glow,

In body and body kindled the sacred birth;

Night shall awake to the anthem of the stars,

The days become a happy pilgrim march,

Our will a force of the Eternal's power,

And thought the rays of a spiritual sun.

A few shall see what none yet understands;

God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep;

For man shall not know the coming till its hour

And belief shall be not till the work is done.’

Savitri -- A Legend and a Symbol, Page: 55
 

Indeed God has grown up while ‘wise men’ like Sai Baba talked and slept. And those of us who SEE are bound by a sacred trust to maintain the purity of Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s truth by exposing the forces of deception, distortion, and misdirection who would usurp the descending light and drag the world back into a medieval darkness.

It is doubtful that the true believers of Sai Baba will be open to any criticism of him no matter how well intentioned or carefully documented. Like the Indian newspapers who published glowing obituaries, they prefer instead to focus their attention on Sai Baba’s philanthropic works and his simple spiritual homilies. Indeed, how could a man like this be anything other than what he claims? It never occurs to them that behind the miracles and powers taken on their face as divinity, there is a dark vital force in revolt against the truth, although they have been given ample and frequent confirmation. But having chosen belief over real knowledge, like all cults, they have become enchanted by their own projection and can see only what will support and enhance the illusion. Baba’s well documented lies, perversions and distortions are brushed aside, dismissed as unacceptable distractions to the always just out of reach promise of Liberation. Had they chosen knowledge over mere belief, they would recognize the obvious contradictions in Baba’s teachings. For how can someone who claims time and again to have come to bring us the final goal of life, the ultimate refuge; liberation into a permanent joy and peace beyond the snares of time, space and form, also claim that he is here to restore the Sanatana Dharma. The two statements are mutually exclusive. Sanatana Dharma literally means ‘Eternal Law, Truth and Order which holds everything together’, a definition that begs the question; law, truth and order of What? It is obviously not a formless truth beyond the portals of time and space. Sanatana Dharma deals with the truths of this world and can only be restored as an expression of Time, Form and Measure. As Sri Aurobindo reminds us in his commentaries on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, ‘…it is time alone that makes the ordering of the universe in space possible’. These eternal laws and principles are encoded in India’s ancient DNA and form the ‘Core’ or Soul of her being. Any talk of a glorious Indian Renaissance must begin with the recovery and renewal of her Dharma and Soul. But how is this ever to occur through Sai Baba’s nihilistic strategies of Liberation and ‘moksha’? This is the supreme lie, the greatest falsehood, and the root of all of India’s problems for the last 2,000 years of her history. A true renaissance cannot arise from a center-less Piscean void. To the eye of gnosis Sai Baba’s teachings are full of these half-truths and errors willfully designed to pervert and distort the very foundations of the Dharma. And yet we see Baba’s followers mindlessly parroting his baseless claims that he came to accelerate the long overdue restoration of the Sanatana Dharma. But if the world is Maya or illusion as Baba claims, what is the point?

Most of Baba’s devotees are likely to ignore the issues of knowledge made here, dismissing them as meaningless philosophical rhetoric overshadowed by personal feelings, visions and illuminations gained through their guru’s presence. But with Baba’s recent death the object of their worship and center of their spiritual universe is no more. What they will soon come to realize is that they have followed Baba’s path of Liberation at the forfeit of their own souls. Without the physical presence of the guru to sustain the projection of their own divinity, belief will give way to doubt and their faith and confidence will begin to crumble. In her articles Ms. Sadhwani tries to rally the faithful saying that, ‘…every Sai devotee bears a greater responsibility now in joining forces for upholding and carrying forward this majestic vision and world-transforming mission’. She attempts to focus their attention on the future, on the promise of Prema Sai and a new world order, but this too is a ruse, a diversion put forward to redirect their original projection toward a mental religious ideology without any real knowledge to sustain it. The predictable result is an existential crisis brought about by an untenable conflict between belief and reality. The millions of Sai devotees who formed the ranks of a global spiritual cult will gradually succumb to doubt and disillusionment and without the financial support of the faithful and their ability to proselytize new converts, the organization will collapse. Devotees need only watch what happens in the months and years ahead. Without its iconic leader, Sai Baba’s empire will slowly implode. This has already begun with a bitter battle for control of his money and his myth. And soon, Baba’s $5.5 billion dollar foundation will likely be confronted by the same tardy justice that rocked the Roman Catholic church costing them over $3 billion in sexual abuse claims. And in the end, all of those open to the light will learn who and what Sai Baba truly was; a cautionary tale proving to us that we should not seek miracles or visions or lights or etheric forms, we should instead pursue a solid path - the Vedic way of Knowledge and Realization. We must BECOME light and SEE IN UNDERSTANDING.

June 5th, 2011

---

EndNotes: [Additions of notes 1-3 were made on 16 June 2011]
[1]  In the spirit of full disclosure it should be  noted that Ms. Sadhwani has lodged a strong objection to the following statement:

‘…This kind of embellishment often happens following the death or departure of one’s spiritual teacher, but Ms. Sadhwani’s excessive and idealized account of Sai Baba’s importance and her liberal use and distortion of Sri Aurobindo’s words to support her contention that her guru was one of Vishnu’s final Avatars 1.’ 

Her objection is as follows:

‘…Now nowhere in my articles have I claimed that Sai Baba was the final avatar of Vishnu. Neither
have I mentioned the Vishnu Puran's dasavatars that Wilkinson keeps referring to. I have provided my own conceptualization of the Avatar that has nothing to do with the Purans and on the contrary I have even linked Sai Baba as the Shiva-Shakti avatar.’  Tina Sadhwani

Despite Ms. Sadhwani’s claims to the contrary, she uses the term ‘Avatar’ repeatedly in her articles, a concept which is unique to Hinduism and defined as ‘a manifestation of the deity Vishnu, in human, superhuman or animal form’.  Vishnu is that All-Pervading essence that supports, sustains, and governs the Universe and originates and develops all elements within. He is also called 'Preserver of the universe' and is always discussed in conjunction with the Cosmic Order and ‘Line of Ten Avatars’ as I have done in my article. Since there is wide agreement that there have been Eight (8) Avatars, any reference to present incarnations of Vishnu involves the completion of the line through his final Avatars.  

Ms. Sadhwani’s claims that she is using her ‘own conceptualization of the Avatar’ is simply not true. This is clearly evident in her citations of the Bhagavad Gita where she quotes the passage where Krishna gives a discourse to Arjuna describing his periodic return and purpose as being to rejuvenate the Dharma. As any good Hindu knows, this is a function exclusive to Vishnu as described above. She goes on in her article to present other attributes of the Avatar as contained in the language of Hinduism:

‘…It has been said that at every turning point and every great epoch of the earth’s existence there has often been one extraordinary being standing at the leading edge of light, unravelling the consciousness in which the transcendent descends into the physical, in which the cosmic pulse of the universe converges to a point, to a singularity that is at once human with its manifested boundaries, as well as suprahuman, displaying its infinite capabilities. Both heaven and earth have collaborated in the sacred alchemy of such a creation and in the divine birth of such an extraordinary being. In the language of the Hindus, such a sacred being is referred to as the Avatar. He is the direct, super-conscious descendent of the same force that shapes the universe and renders it its harmonies and balance.  He symbolizes the unity of all existence and the pinnacle of the divine intelligence that is diffused in all things.

To many around the world who have experienced him, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, is the living embodiment of such a force and spiritual descent, that unifies all the planes of existence, from the cosmic to the planetary and finally to the individual, guiding humankind to the next stage of evolution, signifying the ultimate transformation and alchemy of Spirit and opening us to the possibilities of a higher dynamism, a higher principle by which we may actualize our own greatest potentials.’  Tina Sadhwani - Sathya Sai Baba, the Divine Alchemist, Chakra News April 19th, 2011 

For Ms. Sadhwani to say that has been misinterpreted is pure nonsense. She defines ‘Avatar’ using the exact terms that describe the essence of the Godhead Vishnu. She then attributes these divine qualities to Sai Baba for the purpose of bearing up his own ridiculous claims that he is Vishnu’s avatar, that he was Rama and Krishna, and that he is Kalki. If she has mentioned 'avatar' it has nothing to do with Shiva or Shakti, it means the Vishnu Line of Ten. Sai Baba himself made this perfectly clear by having a photo shoot of himself as Kalki, white horse, sword and all. And then, if this wasn’t enough, he fashioned his bed as if he were Vishnu laying on Shesha. All this simply bears up the point made in the article that Ms. Sadhwani is misleading the public in important factual matters for the furtherance of her own personal agenda. For me to state that Ms. Sadhwani has ‘distorted Sri Aurobindo’s words to support her contention that her guru was one of Vishnu’s final Avatars’ is unequivocal and factually correct.  RW

[2]  A detailed account of how Sai Baba attempted to usurp the epochal events of Sri Aurobindo’s Siddhi Day on 24/11/1926 by changing the date of his birth from 4 October, 1929 to 23 November, 1926 and then claiming that Sri Aurobindo  had taken voluntary retirement after handing over the reins to Baba.  http://allchoice-barin.blogspot.com/2008/07/day-of-victory.html

[3]  Documentation and relevant links concerning the Sex Abuse claims against Sai Baba as noted by UNESCO, the UK and the US State Department.  http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/14/

A number of important documents are listed (and/or scanned) here which bear relevance to the exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and the crimes of which he stands accused by alleging victims and others, including:

UNITED KINGDOM PARLIAMENT EARLY DAY MOTION on Sathya Sai Baba and the sexual abuse of children.
 
U.S. DEPUTY OF STATE WARNING TO TRAVELLERS In 2001 The US State Department issued a warning to travellers in Andhra Pradesh - which officials confirmed related primarily to Sathya Sai Baba. This warning has never been revoked, though since 2007 it ceased to figure in the official document. http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/14/India%20-%20Consular%20Information%20Sheet.htm
 

UNESCO MEDIA ADVISORY WARNING AGAINST SATHYA SAI BABA This advisory was issued by UNESCO when it withdrew its intended participation in a Sathya Sai Education Conference due to serious allegations of sex abuse investigated thoroughly by UNESCO officials.

 Misc.

In a passage from a manuscript of one of the Mother’s students, Satprem, we find a record of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram's ‘bright period’ in 1926, when the Mother had made an Overmental creation and the gods were beginning to manifest. Satprem quotes the Mother as saying: ‘In 1926, I had begun a sort of Overmental creation, that is, I had brought the Overmind down into matter, here on earth (miracles and all kinds of things were beginning to happen). In the end, Sri Aurobindo told me it was an Overmental creation, not the Truth. These were his very words: 'Yes, it's an Overmental creation, but that's not the truth we're seeking; it's not the truth, the highest truth,' (The Supramental). I made no reply, not a word: in half an hour I had undone everything—I undid it all, really everything, cut the connection between the gods and the people here, demolished absolutely everything. Because you see, I knew it was so attractive for people (they were constantly seeing the most astonishing things) that the obvious temptation was to hang on to it and say, 'We'll improve on it'—which was impossible. So I sat down quietly for half an hour, and I undid it all. We had to start over again with something else. But I said nothing, I told no one about it except Sri Aurobindo. At the time I let no one know, because they would have been completely discouraged.’

*****

‘Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth, -truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result, instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half-truth, half-error. It is this that some of the ancient thinkers like Shankara, not perceiving the greater Truth-Force behind, stigmatised as Maya and thought to be the highest creative power of the Divine. All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives in only a half-knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance. Falsehood, on the other hand, is not this Avidya, but an extreme result of it. It is created by an Asuric power which intervenes in this creation and is not only separated from the Truth and therefore limited in knowledge and open to error, but in revolt against the Truth or in the habit of seizing the Truth only to pervert it. This Power, the dark Asuric Shakti or Rakshasic Maya, puts forward its own perverted consciousness as true knowledge and its willful distortions or reversals of the truth as the verity of things. It is the powers and personalities of this perverted and perverting consciousness that we call hostile beings, hostile forces. Whenever these perversions created by them out of the stuff of the ignorance are put forward as the truth of things, that is the Falsehood, in the yogic sense, mithyii, moha.’ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Book I, Section Six: The Divine and the Hostile Powers, December 2, 1946, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, India, 1946.

---

Bibliography and Suggested Reading: [The addition of 'Articles by Tina Sadhwani' was made on 16 June 2011]


India’s Most Sacred Texts:
The Rig Veda: The Vedic Experience, by Raimundro Pannikar. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1997.
The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition (Translated from the Original Sanskrit) by H.H. Wilson, Dec 31, 2010.
Bhagavad-Gita: The Song of God by Swami Prabhavananda, Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley Jul 2, 2002.
Ramayana Valmiki by Swami Venkatesananda and Valmiki, State University of New York Press; Concise edition, May 1988.
Mahabharata: The Greatest Spiritual Epic of All Time by Krishna Dharma, Torchlight Publishing, August 15, 1999. 
 
Selected Works by Sri Aurobindo:
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1940.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, 'Toward a Supramental Time Vision', Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1976.
Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, 'The Great Aranyaka', Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1971.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, India, 1972.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, December 2, 1946, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, India, 1946.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga: ‘The Process of Evolution’, Volume: 13, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo, The Supramental Manifestation and Other Writings, September 1909.
Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, 1995.
Sri Aurobindo , Savitri: A Legend & A Symbol - Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, India, 1951.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga: ‘The Yoga and Its Objects’, Volume: 13, Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo, The Supramental Manifestation and Other Writings, September 1972.
Sri Aurobindo, India’s Rebirth, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 2001.
Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo On Himself: The Present Darkness and the New World, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, India 1950.


Selected Works by Thea (Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet)
Thea (Norelli-Bachelet, Patrizia), The New Way – Volumes 1 & 2, Æon Books, New York, 1981.
Thea (Norelli-Bachelet, Patrizia), The New Way – Volume 3, Æon Books, 2005.
Thea (Norelli-Bachelet, Patrizia), The Gnostic Circle, Æon Books, 1975.
Thea (Norelli-Bachelet, Patrizia), The Hidden Manna: Being the Revelation called Apocalypse of John the Divine, Æon Books, New York, 1976.
Thea (Norelli-Bachelet, Patrizia), Time and Imperishability, Æon Books, April 1, 1997.
Thea, The Vishaal Newsletter, ‘The Capricorn Factor: India’s Lost Measure and its significance for the world’, October 1987, Volume. 2, Number 4.
Thea, ‘The Nine Nights of Durga: the Destiny of India across the century in a new Cosmological Paradigm’, 17 November, 1999.
Thea, ‘Secrets of the Earth: Questions and Answers on the Line of Ten Avatars of Vedic Tradition’, March 2009
Thea, ‘Cosmology in the Rigveda - The third premise’ published in 'The Hindu', 9 July, 2002.
Thea, ‘Sri Aurobindo and the Condition of Vedic Wisdom in India’ The Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom, 2 February, 2007.
Thea, ‘A Calendar that Unifies: Questions and answers on reforming the Hindu Calendar’ 6 March, 2009.
Thea, The Vishaal Newsletter, ‘Culture and Cosmos - 3: The Evolutionary Avatar in the Cosmic Harmony and in Contemporary Vedic Culture’, Volume 7, Number 6, February, 1993.
Thea, ‘An Interview with Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, India’s True History Is In Its Myths’, Published in Bhavan's Journal (English) Volume 54 Issue Number 1, 15 August, 2007. 
 
Selected works of Sathya Sai Baba:
A Compendium of the Teachings of Sathya Sai, Charlene Leslie-Chaden, Sri Sathya Sai Towers Pvt Ltd, March 7, 1997.
Online Selections of Sai Baba’s Writings - Sri Sathya Sai Baba Divine Teachings, http://www.saibaba.ws/teachings.htm

Articles by Tina Sadhwani:
Sathya Sai Baba, the Divine Alchemist, Chakra News, April 19th, 2011
The Sai-Evolution, A Dharmic Odyssey, Chakra News, May 3rd, 2011