Swami (Sathya Sai Baba) made Jesus, Rama and Krishna real for me
A Sai devotee told me that Swami, i.e. Sathya Sai Baba, made Jesus real for him. He had read parts of the New Testament earlier but it was not with faith that Jesus was a real person. It was after he came to Swami that Jesus (of the New Testament) became real for him.
I think it is similar for me. In my youth I had doubted the reality of divine powers attributed to Rama and Krishna. Reading about Swami and becoming part of the Sathya Sai fraternity gave me some degree of faith in the reality of not only Jesus, but also Rama and Krishna. Later, as a teacher in his university at PrashantiNilayam, I had direct experiences of Swami's divine/paranormal powers, which has convinced me that Jesus, Rama and Krishna were real figures with divine/paranormal powers. So Swami has made Jesus, Rama and Krishna real for me.
I am now reading leading historian of ancient India, Romila Thapar's book, "The Past Before Us. Historical Traditions of Early North India", http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674725232. I just finished reading the chapter on Mahabharata. The next chapter is on Ramayana. What is striking for me about the Mahabharata chapter is that divine powers of Krishna are not considered to be real, even if she considers some part(s) of Mahabharata like the Kurukshetra war to be a historical event. As a historian, I guess, she cannot go by belief like me. What a great difference faith makes in readings of epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. The same is the case for the vital book for Christians, The New Testament.
I think it is similar for me. In my youth I had doubted the reality of divine powers attributed to Rama and Krishna. Reading about Swami and becoming part of the Sathya Sai fraternity gave me some degree of faith in the reality of not only Jesus, but also Rama and Krishna. Later, as a teacher in his university at PrashantiNilayam, I had direct experiences of Swami's divine/paranormal powers, which has convinced me that Jesus, Rama and Krishna were real figures with divine/paranormal powers. So Swami has made Jesus, Rama and Krishna real for me.
I am now reading leading historian of ancient India, Romila Thapar's book, "The Past Before Us. Historical Traditions of Early North India", http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674725232. I just finished reading the chapter on Mahabharata. The next chapter is on Ramayana. What is striking for me about the Mahabharata chapter is that divine powers of Krishna are not considered to be real, even if she considers some part(s) of Mahabharata like the Kurukshetra war to be a historical event. As a historian, I guess, she cannot go by belief like me. What a great difference faith makes in readings of epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. The same is the case for the vital book for Christians, The New Testament.
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