it; and medicine, in principle, does not cure such diseases.
Once he came to visit us, and my wife and I advised him to mentally turn to Sathya Sai Baba and ask for healing. Volodya knew a little about Sathya Sai Baba but did not believe that some saint from distant India would be able to hear his prayer and heal a serious illness.
In order for Volodya to feel an inner connection with Sathya Sai Baba more clearly and be able to imagine as if he was really talking to him, I included a video recording of how Sathya Sai Baba communicated with students at his college. Volodya sat on the sofa and started watching the video. It was felt he did not take seriously the idea of mentally seeking help from an Indian saint.
It was already late in the evening, and I went to the kitchen and made tea. Literally, a few minutes passed and a suddenly frightened Volodya quickly left the room; it seemed he was temporarily speechless. Having recovered a little, he said that Sathya Sai Baba had just physically appeared in the room. Volodya was completely unprepared for such an unexpected visit, so he did not know how to react to it. Calming down, he told me how it happened.
Sathya Sai Baba appeared in the room straight out of thin air, approached the astonished young man, looked at him attentively, then turned around and walked toward the door. Stopping in front of the door, Sathya Sai Baba, as if thinking about something, turned around and once again carefully looked at Volodya, now dumbfounded by surprise. After that, Sathya Sai Baba simply disappeared.
From that day on, Volodya began to practice mantras daily. A few months later, the incurable disease simply disappeared.
Volodya's problem was not solved in one second. Yes, on the subtle plane, healing may occur instantly, but it took some time for positive changes to manifest on the physical plane. Also necessary for healing are the efforts of the person himself.
In the story with my friend, it was important that after Sathya Sai Baba materialized in front of him, the young man decided to start regular mantra practices. Thus, the blessing of Sathya Sai Baba met with the right effort of Volodya led to a good result.
33. Sathya Sai Baba blesses the Vedic tradition of the Slavs
In our present time, the original Vedic tradition of the Slavs is being actively revived in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. More and more people are beginning to be interested in the pre-Christian Vedic roots of Slavic culture; now, we often call this tradition – Rodnoverie. This word has the root "genus," which means the name of the supreme God of the Slavic pantheon, whose name is Lord Rod. The root “clan” also indicates that this is a “native” tradition followed by our “relatives,” “relatives” and ancestors of our “family.”
The pre-Christian tradition is also called paganism. The word paganism is now perceived by many as negative and abusive, but in fact there is nothing negative in this word. Pagan tradition means the original folk tradition. Being a pagan means following the traditions of your people and your ancestors.
Of course, one should also respect the thousand-year history of Christianity in Russia, which gave our people many great ascetics, reverends, elders, and healers. I think that in the modern world Rodnoverie and Christianity could develop in harmony and mutual respect.
Sathya Sai Baba often blessed people for the prayer practices of the national religion to which the person belonged. When Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians came, he blessed them for the practice of Christian prayer, as well as for the practice of free and spontaneous conversation with God in their native language. When Tatars, Daghestanis, Kazakhs came, he often blessed them for practices related to Islam, that is, the practice of regular prayer and the repetition of the Suras of the Koran.
God is one, therefore it does not matter in what language and in what tradition people offer their prayers. God hears not formal words, but the emotion of the heart.
Several times, in the ‘90s, Magi Rodnovers from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus came to Puttaparthi. These were people who, back then, were engaged in the revival and development of the original culture of the Slavic peoples. Sathya Sai Baba prophesied many times that in the next few decades in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus there will be a rapid revival of the original Vedic culture.
When Christianity came to Holy Russia, it often absorbed the best from the Vedic Slavic culture, but sometimes tried to destroy the treasures of Slavic antiquity. I think at a new stage in the development of human civilization, we will come to understand that our future lies in the spirit of unity and synthesis. All that is bright and divine that is in the original Slavic culture will be combined with the best manifestations of Christian teaching.
34. The student from Iran was a Muslim, but this did not prevent him from studying Vedic philosophy and Sanskrit
For many years I have been practicing Sanskrit mantras and Christian prayers at the same time. Some of the prayers I repeated were from church prayer books, and some I received from the elders. I felt the practice of Christian prayer has amazing energy power. In parallel with this, I have always liked Sanskrit mantras.
At some point, I began to think about how to properly combine the practice of Christian prayer with mantras. I was filled with doubts about whether it was even possible to combine two such different practices.
At that time, I was living in Puttaparthi, and I learned about another interesting Sanskrit hymn called Narayana Upanishad. I began to carefully read this sacred text; it made a great impression on me, both in content and in the beauty of its sound.
Among the many Vedic texts, Sathya Sai Baba singled out Narayana Upanishad in particular, so all the students at his university carefully studied it and even learned it by heart.
The Narayana Upanishad is a small scripture, profound in its
