It may sound strange, but I easily got over the departure of Sathya Sai Baba in 2011. At some stage, I stopped perceiving him as a divine personality and felt him as a universal consciousness. He gave me the great opportunity of frequent communication with him. He repeatedly manifested himself in my mystical dreams and meditative experiences. At some point, the presence or absence of his body was no longer so important to me. I feel his living presence, first of all, in my heart.
Sathya Sai Baba is the omnipresent consciousness. Now his tomb is in Puttaparthi, the village where he was born and lived all his life. He left his relics as a great gift and this is one of the keys to communicating with him.
Previously, we concentrated on his physical body, but now Sathya Sai Baba as the Absolute Consciousness is present everywhere. His relics are the place of greatest power. Those who were close to him and knew him well and those who did not find him during his lifetime come here.
A few months before Sathya Sai Baba left his body, I had a mystical dream. In this dream, I entered a spacious hall, the sun shone through the large windows, and many beautiful photographs of Sathya Sai Baba hung on the white walls. His books, translated into all languages of the world, were placed on tables and bookshelves. I walked around the hall with curiosity, carefully examining the photographs and books. Suddenly, Sathya Sai Baba appeared. He came up to me and pointing to his photographs and books, said that now he is present only in photographs and books.
When I woke up, I tried to understand the meaning of this dream. It became clear to me Sathya Sai Baba would soon leave his body. There was a state of harmony in my soul. My mind said I should grieve, but my soul was filled with peace.
The life and death of the Avatar is a divine game. Only ignorant people mourn the passing of the Avatar. His consciousness is beyond birth and death; beyond being and not being; beyond time and space.
One of the greatest spiritual teachers of our time, Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji, immediately after Sathya Sai Baba left his body, said that «the birth, life and death of an Avatar is part of the divine game.»
I remember the difficult and tragic days when we learned that Sathya Sai Baba left the body. At that time, quite a lot of my friends and acquaintances plunged into a difficult emotional state. It seemed that with the departure of Sathya Sai Baba, life lost its meaning – it was an irreparable loss.
At that time, I often repeated to my friends the words of Ganapati Sachchidanand Swamiji, that «the birth, life and death of the Avatar is part of his divine plan.» I remember how these simple and wise words helped many to understand the meaning of what is happening and to realize that the Avatar does not go away, but is eternally present.