were enough for me to find out who they were and why they had come.
The Nuns said their Catholic monastery was located in the south of India in the state of Tamil Nadu. They said they have a school and an orphanage and the children they brought were students from their school. They came to Puttaparthi for a few days to talk to Sathya Sai Baba and receive his blessings.
Surprised, I said, “you are Christians, how do you feel about the fact that this is a Hindu ashram?”
They smiled and said, “Sathya Sai Baba is a great saint who is beyond dogmas and conventions, he blesses everyone. God is one, he just appears in different religions under different names.”
It was very pleasant to hear these simple and wonderful words from the lips of Catholic Nuns. It seemed the most ordinary case well showed the open atmosphere of Puttaparthi.
37. Once I met a priest from the Vatican in Puttaparthi, he told me that Sathya Sai Baba is the "Papa of the Pope"
Indian cuisine is famous for its original taste and spiciness, so it was not familiar to most foreigners. People who came to the ashram from America and Europe could hardly eat such spicy food. Therefore, a dining room with European cuisine was created in the ashram. There were few full-time employees in the ashram, most of the functions were performed by people who performed voluntary free service.
Prices for living in the ashram had always been affordable; accommodation, food and shopping were so cheap that many wondered, how is this possible? One of the reasons for such low prices was that a large number of people served in the ashram for free. Some worked in the garden or in the museum, and sometimes in the dining room.
I often worked in the canteen, serving food, or cutting vegetables in the kitchen. By doing this service, I felt I was helping the life of the ashram. People of various nationalities worked in the dining room: Italians and Greeks, Russians and French, Americans and Chinese, Japanese and Argentines. Very often, when we were cutting vegetables or sweeping in the kitchen, we sang traditional chants together dedicated to Krishna or Ganesha. The work environment was relaxed and fun.
While working in the canteen, I met an elderly Italian man, who, like me, worked daily in the canteen. Gradually, I found out he was an employee of the Vatican and belonged to the Franciscan order. I prefer not to give his name because that was his wish.
One day I asked my Italian friend why he comes to Sathya Sai Baba? He answered me with a rather funny phrase, which I could not even understand from the very beginning. He said that Sathya Sai Baba is "Papa of the Papa." At first, I did not understand what he meant. He laughed and repeated his thought once more. The idea was simple – if the head of the Catholics is the Pope, then the "Pope of the Pope," in this person's mind, was Sathya Sai Baba.
I asked him why he worked modestly in the dining room, despite the fact he held a high position in the Vatican, and that people with high social status lived in the ashram in special apartments with the opportunity to take better seats in the front row during the program. After listening to my question, he was silent for a while, and then reminded me of the epistles of the holy Apostle Paul, which says Christians are people who live in love and service.
All people are children of God, there are no masters or servants, but in the Lord, all are brothers and sisters. This man lived very modestly in the ashram, and almost no one suspected he held an important position in the Vatican. Such amazing meetings truly change lives and fill the soul with wisdom. Gradually, you begin to understand that all life is a single spiritual process and there is nothing unimportant.
Everything in life is essential, even the smallest actions, because the divine will is manifested in everything, and the divine presence is felt everywhere. Sathya Sai Baba often said: "The hands that help people are more sacred than the lips that say a prayer." Truly golden words.
38. My acquaintance with two priests
In the 1990s, I was twice lucky to meet Orthodox priests from Russia and Ukraine in Puttaparthi. The Vatican takes a more flexible position in relation to various Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese religious and philosophical trends. For example, I know several cases when in Catholic seminaries in Europe and America, Buddhist teachers from Tibet and Thailand taught meditation practices to seminarians.
Unfortunately, Orthodox churches, both Russian and Greek, are more closed. However, there is a big difference between the position of church leaders and what Christians themselves think and feel. Among Orthodox priests there are quite a lot of spiritually seeking and free-thinking people.
Twice in the ‘90s, I met Orthodox priests in Puttaparthi. It was interesting and symbolic that one of these priests was from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. When I saw this man, I immediately understood from his appearance that he was a Christian priest. Getting to know him better, I learned that he really was a priest from the Kiev Lavra.
I was pleased to meet this priest, because the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is the mother of all Russian Christian monasteries. It's great that a priest from the greatest Orthodox Lavra came to Sathya Sai Baba.
It is sad, but the leadership of the church, and the Lavra itself, are quite cautious and negative about contacts with other traditions. I cannot give his name because it might cause problems for him. This priest learned about Sathya Sai Baba from his friends and immediately wanted to come to Puttaparthi in order to see the famous Indian teacher who preaches universal values, love, and compassion for all living beings.
The priest wanted to see everything with his own eyes, and then draw conclusions about the truth of Sathya Sai Baba's teachings based on his own experience. Subsequently,
