Was quite amused by this news item early in the morning.Since when did one Sai become a reincarnation of another? I always thought that a Sai was an incarnation, not a reincarnation. What's the difference? To summarize a post made last FEB:
An incarnation has only the Paramatma inside, while a reincarnated person has the Paramatma (as the Conscience) as well as the Jeevatma.So it makes eminent sense when Swami says:
Don't try to figure out who I am, find out who you are!Ramana Maharshi did precisely that.
To the question, "Why did Swami identify Himself only with Shirdi Sai Baba and not with other previous avatars?", Swami gives a clear response: (page 9 in Volume 5 of Satyam Shivam Sundaram)
I gave them the name of the Avatar that had just preceded Mine. It only meant that He who came as Shirdi Sai Baba has now come again as Satya Sai Baba. Moreover, there are three Sais; after this avatar, there will be another, Prema Sai."Btw, there's an interesting reference to Sai in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna: [page 513 (Top)]
According to the Sakti cult the siddha is called a koul, and according to the Vedanta, a paramahamsa. The Bauls call him a sai. They say, 'No one is greater than a sai.' The sai is a man of supreme perfection. He doesn't see any differentiation in the world. He wears a necklace, one half made of cow bones and the other of the sacred tulsi-plant. He calls the Ultimate Truth 'Alekh', the 'Incomprehensible One'. The Vedas call it 'Brahman'. About the jivas the Bauls say, 'They come from Alekh and they go unto Alekh.' That is to say, the individual soul has come from the Unmanifest and goes back to the Unmanifest. The Bauls will ask you, 'Do you know about the wind?' The 'wind' means the great current that one feels in the subtle nerves, Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna, when the Kundalini is awakened. They will ask you further, 'In which station are you dwelling?' According to them there are six 'stations', corresponding to the six psychic centres of Yoga. If they say that a man dwells in the 'fifth station', it means that his mind has climbed to the fifth centre, known as the Visuddha chakra. (To M.) At that time he sees the Formless.
