can even help people to achieve their goals and plans.
Usually, sacred ashes are kept in small boxes on the home altar or carried in a pocket in a bag. I know many stories of people receiving healing through using sacred ash. If health problems arise, it is smeared like an ointment on that part of the body where there is disease. Sacred ash can be diluted with water and drunk, and there are many cases of people receiving solutions to their problems after regularly drinking a solution of sacred ash.
Ordinary ashes are prepared by burning various ingredients, but Sathya Sai Baba's ashes are especially famous because they are not man-made. Sathya Sai Baba materialized sacred ash during personal communication and gave it to people as a token of blessing; there are also cases today still when sacred ash materializes from his photographs. This amazing miracle is happening in the homes of devotees in different parts of the world, not only in India, but also in Europe, America, and Russia. When such a miracle happens, people go to the blessed home to see the miracle of divine revelation.
According to tradition, the hosts must necessarily distribute part of the sacred ashes to all who visit. Such a miracle blesses not only the family living in the house, but also their friends. People began to visit Anantappa's house in order to receive blessings and some sacred ash.
Anantappa had a problem with his daughter's husband. He was a rude and suspicious man who constantly suspected his wife of infidelity. It got to the point that he just locked her in a room. It was impossible to live in such conditions, so the unfortunate woman declared they should go to Sathya Sai Baba so that he could confirm her devotion to her husband, and if not, she promised to commit suicide right in the ashram.
Anantappa went to Sathya Sai Baba with his daughter and son-in-law. During a personal meeting, Sathya Sai Baba confirmed that the woman was honest with her husband, but the husband did not believe him and even began to speak rudely and disrespectfully to him. Sathya Sai Baba ordered him out of the room and promised Anantappa and his daughter that everything would be fine in the future.
Anantappa stayed at the ashram with his daughter and son-in-law for a few days. During that time, the conflict within the family grew as the son-in-law continued to swear and now accuse Sathya Sai Baba of being a cheat. Anantappa was annoyed, and so when they boarded the train home, Anantappa decided he and his daughter would ride in the same compartment, while the son-in-law would ride in one nearby.
Not long into the journey, Anantappa heard the loud, panicked cries of his son-in-law. Quickly, Anantappa ran into the compartment along with the conductor. They saw a frightened son-in-law lying on the floor, alive, but badly beaten. Who could’ve attacked his son-in-law in the closed compartment? When the son-in-law calmed down and came to his senses, he said that Sathya Sai Baba appeared out of thin air in his compartment and beat him hard on the cheeks and then scolded him for not respecting his wife and not trusting her fidelity. Of course, no one could doubt the words of the son-in-law because he was physically quite beaten. After this incident, the son-in-law immediately believed in the divine powers of Sathya Sai Baba and completely changed his attitude toward his wife.
If simple persuasion fails, the Avatar can use force to change the situation. Such incidents have happened many times in the history of mankind. In ancient times, divine teachers such as Rama Avatar and Krishna could quite physically bring down their wrath on the demons. Jesus also physically drove out the merchants from the temple in Jerusalem. An ordinary person's anger is a manifestation of weakness and ignorance. However, the justified anger of divine teachers, such as Sathya Sai Baba, is a manifestation of love and compassion, and it is a great blessing. Sathya Sai Baba is the embodiment of divine love and great compassion, therefore, any of his actions are based on wisdom and love.
It may seem to us that if Sathya Sai Baba helps only “good” people and punishes “evil” ones, then this is right and just. But who are the “good” and the “evil”? Who determines whether a person is "good" or "bad"? The True Self of each person is divine and in the True Self we are all in unity. It is easy to accept that the True Self of Saint Mother Teresa and Saint Seraphim of Sarov is divine but are you ready to accept that the True Self of Adolf Hitler and Leon Trotsky is also divine, although crushed by ignorance and selfishness.
The Avatar comes to this world not only to help spiritual seekers, but also to put demons on the spiritual path. By the way, the mission of the Avatar also includes blessing not only people, but also animals. For example, in the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba there was a small zoo in which deer and an elephant lived. Sathya Sai Baba regularly visited his zoo to bless the animals.
When Sathya Sai Baba left his house, a huge number of birds intuitively flocked to see him. When Sathya Sai Baba moved from one part of the ashram to another, the birds also flew after him. I observed this phenomenon many times. It was interesting to see how not only the people felt the presence of Sathya Sai Baba and tried to be as close to him as possible, but also the creatures.
42. Gratitude is completion
Everything in this world was created by God. If everything came from God, what can you offer him? The only thing you can offer to God is your love, that is the only thing he expects from you.
(Sathya Sai Baba – Sathya Sai Gita Chapter 1)
In one of his personal meetings, Sathya Sai Baba said that because of love, the True Self was divided into
