From childhood, Sathya Sai Baba began to work miracles. He materialized sweets for neighborhood children, cured diseases, and sometimes even levitated. At first, his parents could not understand what was happening to their little son. All relatives and neighbors thought some strange spirit had moved into him, and they even tried to treat the boy for this so-called illness. Gradually, however, it became clear to everyone around him that Sathya Sai Baba was not an ordinary boy, and they began to treat him like a child with unique abilities.

One of the first significant miracles he performed was saving his village. At that time, the entire area was in the grip of a serious epidemic. The people of Puttaparthi were very worried that one day trouble might come to their house. The boy Sathya Sai Baba blessed all the inhabitants so that the epidemic passed by, and indeed no one fell ill in Puttaparthi, although many people were ill in the surrounding villages. This miracle made a great impression on all the villagers.

As a teenager, Sathya Sai Baba announced to his parents that he was a divine teacher. He said he should leave his home and start preaching. Sathya Sai Baba founded the first ashram in the late forties in a small Krishna temple located in the very center of Puttaparthi. This is a very ancient temple, which has survived to this day. The antiquity of this temple can be determined because it is located far below the level of all other buildings on this street. In order to get to the territory of the temple you need to go down the stairs. The design of the columns and stone carvings also indicate the antiquity of the structure. The temple is very small. Even a person of average height cannot stand up fully and they would need to bend down a little.

This Krishna Temple during Sathya Sai Baba's childhood was abandoned. With his friends, Sathya Sai Baba completely restored the temple and settled in it. It was in the ancient temple of Krishna that he began to receive his first visitors, who soon flocked to him for spiritual advice and healing.

In the fifties, not far from the village, at a distance of about two to three kilometers, Sathya Sai Baba founded his main ashram, which is called Prasanthi Nilayam, which means in Sanskrit – the place of the highest peace. In those years, impassable bushes grew on this territory and villagers tried to bypass this jungle side. It was a dangerous place where cobras and scorpions lived.

The first devotees, who came to this deserted place, were very surprised when the very young Sathya Sai Baba told them this place will have a large temple (mandir), a canteen, a post office, a shop, and large houses where hundreds of thousands of people from different countries of the world will stay.

People shyly listened to Sathya Sai Baba as he spoke about the coming greatness of this wild place. They did not consider it possible to doubt the words of their teacher, but they did believe with some difficulty. However, over time, all the predictions of Sathya Sai Baba came true and became a reality. I was lucky to hear stories about the founding of the ashram from the lips of those people who were direct participants in these events.

8. Sathya Sai Baba forbade the cobras to crawl into the territory of the ashram, and they went to the neighboring mountain

One of the big problems that the first residents and visitors of the ashram came across was the large number of cobras that lived in the area. Once a large cobra crawled into the ashram, frightening everyone present with its large size and hissing. Immediately, Sathya Sai Baba left his room and went to the place where the cobra was. He addressed her as if he were talking to a man and asked that all cobras immediately leave this territory and not dare cross the line as he indicated it to them. After that, all the cobras left the territory of the ashram and still do not cross the indicated line, although they could still be found outside this line.

In subsequent years, a small path was laid along this line, which ran along the border of the ashram. Many times, I passed through it and saw how the cobras crawled only in the permitted area, but never crawled into the territory of the ashram.

Believe me, these are not very pleasant meetings. On hot Indian evenings, I often walked along this dimly lit path to get to my room. Sometimes a characteristic rustling in the bushes was heard. There were cases when cobras showed themselves, but, nevertheless, they never violated and still do not violate the boundaries assigned to them. Cobras live on the mountain and do not enter the territory of the ashram.

I first came to Puttaparthi in 1993. At that time, it was already a fairly large ashram, around which a university was built, one of the best in India, two modern hospitals, a huge stadium, a museum of all religions, and even an airport capable of receiving international class aircraft. In those days, a small town grew up around the ashram, and this place could no longer be called a small poor village.

I was lucky that I traveled to Puttaparthi for twenty years, and so I was able to watch this small one-story town around the ashram grow into a beautiful oasis with a huge number of multi-story buildings. Every year more and more people came to see and communicate with Sathya Sai Baba, so the population of Puttaparthi grew rapidly.

Puttaparthi became a beautiful oriental city, before our eyes, with many good hotels, restaurants of Indian and European cuisine, and with this more and more new Kashmiri and Tibetan jewelry shops opened, as well as shops with the best Indian silk.

9. What is Darshan?

The lifestyle in the ashram was surprisingly mild and very comfortable. People were settled in simple but comfortable rooms, with those who wished to settle in more comfortable conditions in hotels outside the ashram. I was always pleasantly surprised by the fact that everyone was settled, and no one concerned themselves with asking what tradition a person belonged to, or what religion he professed.

When a person came to Sathya Sai Baba, he was always welcome, and doors were always hospitably opened before him. In other Indian ashrams, there are quite strict rules for living. In almost all ashrams in India, only those who belong to the tradition are settled.

Usually, Sathya Sai Baba recommended for people to live in his ashram for no more than two months a year, and then they could return to their homeland. He recommended people to come to him every year, but for a rather limited time. This was due to the fact that his energy was so powerful, and so it was more beneficial for most people to be in close proximity to him for no more than a month or two. Of course, there were people he allowed to stay for a few months or even a few years.

The daily program was constant and never changed, except for the days of big religious festivals such as Shivaratri or Christmas. Everyday Sathya Sai Baba went out to his audience, which was called Darshan.

The word Darshan comes from the Sanskrit word darsh, meaning, to see. This is a unique phenomenon of the Vedic tradition, the analogues of which, however, can be found in different cultures. Seeing a divine teacher is a unique experience that results in great divine mercy and grace. People came from different parts of India, as well as from many countries of the world, in order to directly meet Sathya Sai Baba and feel the boundless energy of love.

To see a great teacher directly is a life-changing blessing. It is quite difficult to talk about Darshan. In order to understand it, you need to experience it on your own. When I returned from India to Russia, my friends asked me, “why did you go to India?” I tried to talk about Darshan, but it was very difficult to explain, almost impossible. I felt that my words were powerless.

Friends told me, “we have videos and photographs of Sathya Sai Baba and therefore we can see him without leaving home. What is the difference?”

This difference can only be felt if a person has experienced this amazing sensation in his own experience. When you are in close physical proximity to Sathya Sai Baba, you get the opportunity to touch the vibrations and energies of the highest level – this is the essence of Darshan.

Sathya Sai Baba went out to the people twice a day – in the morning and in the evening. Every day, tens of thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people gathered to see him. The morning program ran from about 9 am to 11 am, and the evening program from 4 pm to 6 pm. The place where Sai Baba went out to the visitors is called the Mandir, which means temple in Sanskrit.

Those wishing to see Sathya Sai Baba usually arrived two or three hours before the start of the program and stood in line. Everyone wanted to sit closer to the path along which Sai Baba passed. The Mandir was divided into two equal parts – women sat on one half, and men sat on the other. In Indian tradition, such a division is considered natural and is not perceived in any way as a restriction on the rights of women. It is believed that feminine and masculine energies should not be mixed in the temple premises and people perceive this as something completely natural.

10. Letters addressed to God

Even when Sathya Sai Baba was very young, a tradition arose to give him letters and notes. This is a very interesting tradition, in my opinion, worthy of being told in more detail. Sometimes there was an opportunity to talk to him personally and ask questions, but a sufficiently large number of people did not have such an opportunity, since there were always a lot of visitors around Sathya Sai Baba. People wrote notes and tried to pass them directly into his hands the moment he passed by.

I think the tradition of giving letters to Sathya Sai Baba had a deep meaning. What did people write about? These letters thanked him for healing and support. Sometimes the letters contained very specific requests for help – people wrote about their problems and asked for blessings. The letters asked spiritual questions, they asked for healing, for solving family troubles, or problems related to work and business. Even though I sometimes had the opportunity to communicate personally with Sathya Sai Baba, I also wrote letters to him. Sathya Sai Baba took my letters, and solutions to my problems and answers to my questions always came.

People brought their letters every morning and every evening. When Sathya Sai Baba walked between the rows, the opportunity arose to pass the letters directly into his hands. Since Sathya Sai Baba was a clairvoyant, he read the information contained in the letters without even physically reading them. He never physically read the letters, and one look from him was enough to know everything that was written in them. Some letters he took, and some not. Sometimes a person would hold a bundle of letters, but Sathya Sai Baba would not take all of them, but only one. If he took a letter, then the problem or issue that was stated in the letter received his blessing and was eventually resolved.

Some carried their letter for many days and even for many weeks, but Sathya Sai Baba passed by and did not take their letters. People understood this to mean this question would remain unanswered. It is difficult to say why he did not take some letters, perhaps because the requests made in them were not correct or they were meaningless. Be that as it may, whether he took the letter or not it always gave food for thought.

11. Only Sathya Sai Baba determined who needed more to talk to him personally and provided such an opportunity

In addition to general meetings, there was the possibility of direct communication with Sathya Sai Baba in his room. These individual meetings were called interviews. I was fortunate to attend such meetings many times. Sometimes, Sathya Sai Baba invited me as part of a group, and sometimes alone. Sathya Sai Baba used to invite several people for interviews. Every year more and more people came to the ashram, and so the chance to get an individual meeting became less frequent.

In the ‘90s, groups who came for a month or two often had the unique opportunity to interact directly with Sathya Sai Baba. If he believed that a person really needed to talk to him, he would invite him or her to his room for an individual conversation, each time it was solely the decision of Sathya Sai Baba himself. It was impossible to "sign up" for an interview, only Sathya Sai Baba determined who he should talk to personally.

During the morning and evening programs, people sat on the floor of the large temple on rugs, while Sathya Sai Baba walked between the rows. Sometimes, he stopped and could talk to one of those present, and if he considered it necessary, he invited him to his room for a personal conversation. The invited people got up and walked to the entrance to his room.

Sathya Sai Baba invited groups of ten to twenty people and talked with people for about an hour, sometimes up to an hour and a half. Visitors from different countries came to him: Russians and Americans, Chinese and Japanese, Germans and French, Israelis and Iranians, Argentines and Mexicans.

He invited people from different countries for personal talks, and devotees who came from all over the world gathered in his room. The room for personal meetings was relatively small, and all the invitees sat on the floor. There was a beautiful chair in the corner where Sathya Sai Baba sat.

12. I was a beginner interpreter of Sathya Sai Baba, and I was very worried, but soon I witnessed two interesting cases, after which I realized there was nothing to worry about, and so I relaxed

When a group of Hindus came to Sathya Sai Baba, he spoke with them in any one of the Indian languages, such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Bengali. If the group consisted of foreigners, then the conversation was held in English. Most of the Russian-speaking people did not know English, so during personal meetings Sathya Sai Baba communicated through translators. I was fortunate enough to interpret many times at such meetings. The main advantage for an interpreter was the opportunity to have frequent personal contact with Sathya Sai Baba.

I often remember two interesting stories that happened in the early ‘90s, which were very instructive for me as a translator. At that time, I was just starting to translate for Sathya Sai Baba, and I was very excited during my first translation experiences, because I felt it was a tremendous responsibility. However, I soon witnessed two interesting cases, after which I realized there was nothing to worry about.

A woman from New York came to the ashram, who was an emigrant from Russia. At that time, she had lived in America for many years and knew English perfectly. One of the Russian groups invited this woman as an interpreter thinking she would be the most ideal translator. What could be better than a Russian woman who had lived in America for many years and who spoke both English and Russian, perfectly.

However, when she came to the interview, she was able to translate only a few phrases. It seemed that an eclipse had occurred in her mind, and she stopped understanding English, altogether. In her embarrassment, she fell silent, and the interview, in fact, was derailed.

Sathya Sai Baba continued to speak in English, but the interpreter could no longer translate anything. She stopped understanding English exactly at the time of the interview, and immediately after the meeting, her knowledge of the language returned to her. The translator apologized, saying she was very uncomfortable for letting people down.

At first, the whole group was offended, but then everyone realized that a miracle had happened. Sathya Sai Baba showed that it doesn't matter if you know English or not, if he wanted to turn off a person's knowledge of the language, he could easily do it.

Literally, two weeks later, another Russian-speaking group was interviewed. In this group, no one knew English, and only one woman from St. Petersburg knew just a few simple phrases. She was very worried, because she understood that her knowledge was not enough for a full translation. When she entered Sathya Sai Baba's room, something happened in her mind and during the meeting, which lasted about an hour, she suddenly acquired knowledge of English.

During this meeting, people asked Sathya Sai Baba a lot of rather difficult questions, and she translated everything perfectly. When this woman left the room, she caught herself and realized that a miracle had happened, for she practically did not know English. All the other members of the group were also very surprised, because they knew very well that this woman did not speak English. Subsequently, she never learned English, but at the time of the interview she knew it perfectly.

This is how Sathya Sai Baba showed he can influence a person's consciousness. These two cases were very instructive for me. It became clear to many of those present at the ashram that Sathya Sai Baba could turn on the abilities of any person, or, on the contrary, temporarily limit the possibilities of someone else.

13. Sathya Sai Baba was fluent in all the languages of the world

Sathya Sai Baba had the ability to freely understand and speak all the languages of the world. A similar ability is described in the New Testament, when the Apostles, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, spoke freely in all languages. This is not about the fact that a person is a genius of linguistics and can learn many foreign languages. In this case, we are talking about the supernatural ability to understand and speak absolutely all languages.

India has dozens of major languages and many dialects, each with its own unique script. Sathya Sai Baba's native language was Telugu, a very beautiful and melodic language. At school, Sathya Sai Baba studied his native Telugu and Hindi, as well as a basic level of English, however, throughout his life he repeatedly demonstrated the ability to speak perfectly in any language with perfect grammar and pronunciation.

When people from different parts of India came to Sathya Sai Baba, he spoke to everyone in his native dialect, but when he quoted the sacred Indian scriptures, he spoke fluently in ancient Sanskrit. Almost always Sathya Sai Baba spoke to foreign guests in English, but sometimes he could show his ability to speak in the native language of each visitor.

I had the opportunity of personal contact with Sathya Sai Baba from 1993 to 1999. I am often asked how many interviews I was lucky enough to receive in those years. At first, I wrote down the dates when personal meetings took place, and after their number exceeded one hundred, I stopped counting.

Sometimes, Sathya Sai Baba invited me to meetings as an interpreter to translate the conversation from English into Russian, and sometimes he invited me to meetings in order to communicate with me personally. Even when I went as an interpreter, I always had the opportunity to talk to him about my personal topics. As a translator, I always sat next to him, so it was often possible to take a moment to discuss my questions, but not at the expense of the group for which I was translating.

During the first interviews, I was very worried as I felt my role was such a great responsibility. I wondered if I would be able to understand exactly what Sathya Sai Baba was saying, and whether or not I would be able to accurately translate his words; after all, I was not a professional translator.

When I made a mistake and inaccurately translated a phrase, Sathya Sai Baba corrected me and did it in two ways. Sometimes he told me with a smile that I had not translated correctly and repeated the phrase in English again. Thus, showing me and everyone present that he understood how I translated into Russian.

Sometimes Sathya Sai Baba corrected me in a different way, saying a phrase in pure Russian! This was heard by all those present. Of course, it caused great surprise and delight. He spoke phrases in Russian with perfect grammar and pronunciation and could point out my mistake, exactly.

Why did Sathya Sai Baba use translators? I think that the number of miracles around Sathya Sai Baba was so great that even without the miracle of knowing all languages, they were quite enough. Communicating with him was a unique experience and if Sathya Sai Baba spoke to everyone in his own language, then people would focus too much on his ability to speak in all languages, and not on the essence of his wise words. In order not to distract the human mind from the essence of his spiritual instructions, he preferred to speak in English.