saying of Sathya Sai Baba’s, which I was fortunate to hear several times from his lips: “Yes, I am God, but you are also Gods, the difference is that I remember that I am God, and you have forgotten.”

Everyone is God. The difference is only in the degree to which we realize our true divine nature. These wise words of Sathya Sai Baba most exhaustively explain how he perceived himself and all people.

God is the totality of all individual souls — we are all one in God. Each person carries a great potential for divine creativity. This truth Sathya Sai Baba perfectly embodied in his life.

How can one understand that Sathya Sai Baba is a divine incarnation? Can we be sure that he is God born on Earth? What are the criteria by which it is possible to recognize an Avatar?

First of all, one can only come to personal and independent realization that this is even possible. Experiences gained within one’s life can then only prompt reflection to stimulate and help you understand your own spiritual practice. Realization of the truth can only happen within your spiritual heart. In order for awareness to occur, it is necessary to independently go through the path of reflection and contemplation, possible doubts and, ultimately, deep awareness.

By the time I first met Sathya Sai Baba, I was already aware of various yoga traditions and spiritual teachers. I was seriously practicing meditation and studying Vedic philosophy. Back in Moscow, when I saw the video recording of Sathya Sai Baba and learned the stories of his amazing life, I instantly felt his colossal energy power.

Several of my friends told me he was the Avatar of our age. It was difficult for me to understand what this meant, but it was clear Sathya Sai Baba was a supreme being, incomprehensible to my mind.

At that time, to me, the god, Shiva, was the personification of all spiritual realizations and transcendental wisdom. When I first saw videos of Sathya Sai Baba and heard stories about his life, I intuitively felt he was the incarnation of Lord Shiva.

Sathya Sai Baba, during our personal communication, told me: “Now you are sitting in my room, but the time will come when this room will be inside your spiritual heart, and you will tell other people about our communication.”

Sathya Sai Baba is a world teacher who is outside of any tradition, school or trend. In his teaching, he unites all world religions and philosophical systems. He founded an ashram in southern India, which was and remains a unique spiritual space of unity and love. This is a place where people of different worldviews can come. All visitors feel completely comfortable, just like they would at home.

It is difficult even to imagine any other ashram in which openness and universality would be manifested to such a clear degree. In the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba, the unity of all mankind, the brotherhood and sisterhood of all people is especially felt.

9. Ring of John Hislop and other evidence

John Hislop, the famous American Sathya Sai Baba devotee, described in his book My Baba and I the story of the materialization of a unique ring. Sathya Sai Baba materialized for Hislop a golden ring with a stone relief within which was the profile of Prema Sai Baba. This happened in the 1970s, more than 30 years before Sathya Sai Baba passed away.

Over time, the image of Prema Sai on this ring began to change. In the first few months, the small relief on the ring was not very developed and the image conveyed only the approximate facial features of a handsome young man.

Sathya Sai Baba explained that Prema Sai Baba's form was just being formed, so he could not show his face more accurately. This was the first time that Prema Sai Baba's appearance was revealed. Before the materialization of this unique ring, Sathya Sai Baba only mentioned that in the next life he would incarnate as Prema Sai Baba but did not show his future form to the world.

Hislop began to learn about the strange changes in the ring from friends who noticed that the image of Prema Sai Baba within the relief began to appear more clearly as time passed. Wherever he went, whoever he met, people asked him to show him the ring. People who had seen the ring before began to notice the image gradually changing.

A year after the manifestation of the ring, the nose became more clearly visible on the relief. This is a small detail, but it showed the process of formation of the appearance of Prema Sai Baba and the miraculousness of the living artefact.

In one of the video materials, Hislop admitted that he noticed significant changes only in 1980. Before that, he honestly said that at first, he did not notice any changes. His friends told him: "You don't notice these changes because you see this ring every day."

One day, when Hislop was in a meeting with the devotees and was showing the ring to everyone present, he decided to take a closer look at the ring himself. He was amazed because he realized it was completely different to the original one Sathya Sai Baba materialized for him, years earlier.

Now the nose was completely visible, although in the early years of the existence of the ring it was almost invisible. In addition, part of the eye and cheek became more defined.

Prema Sai Baba was destined to appear on Earth one year after the physical departure of Sathya Sai Baba. Decades earlier, John Hislop received the golden ring set with a brown stone, which miraculously revealed the extraordinary profile of Prema Sai Baba.

The nose was barely visible on the relief, and you could also make out the outline of the eye. A noble head with shoulder-length hair, mustache and beard began emerging from a