Some researchers believe Sathya Sai Baba first mentioned Prema Sai Baba on July 6, 1963, in his famous speech called, “Shiva-Shakti”. Then, Sathya Sai Baba was 37 years old.
This information is not entirely accurate, because the first time he spoke about Prema Sai Baba was much earlier, in 1944, when he was eighteen years old. We will talk about this in the following chapters, but now let's return to the lecture, which went down in history under the name "Shiva-Shakti".
It was in this famous lecture that Sathya Sai Baba told the audience about the mythological conversation between the god, Shiva, and the goddess, Shakti, in which the sage, Bharadwaja, took part. The mythological story says that in ancient times the sage, Bharadwaja, performed the great Vedic fire ritual of worshiping the gods, which is called Homa (Yagna).
After completing the ritual, the sage went to the sacred mountain, Kailash, where he met with the god, Shiva, and the goddess, Shakti. As a sign of blessing, God Shiva and Goddess Shakti said they would take human birth and incarnate among the descendants of the sage, Bharadwaja, three times. According to legend, Lord Shiva was born as Shirdi Sai Baba in the 19>th century.
God Shiva and Goddess Shakti then incarnated together in the village of Puttaparthi in the 20>th century as Sathya Sai Baba. Finally, Goddess Shakti incarnated as Prema Sai Baba in the village of Doddamallur in the 21>st century.
Where exactly Shirdi Sai Baba was born is unknown. Sathya Sai Baba was born in the village of Puttaparthi (Andhra Pradesh), where he founded his main ashram. In one of the predictions, Sathya Sai Baba talked about his future birth as Prema Sai Baba in the village of Gunaparthi (there are also predictions about the village of Doddamallur).
Some devotees tried to find out from Sathya Sai Baba the details of the location of the village of Gunaparthi, since no one could find a similar village on the map of India. Answering these questions, Sathya Sai Baba stated there was no such village, yet. However, after the birth of Prema Sai Baba, a village would be built in the state of Karnataka where Prema Sai Baba would live, and this village would be called Gunaparthi.
According to legend, in ancient times, the god, Shiva, said he would take on a human form, having been born three times in the family of the sage, Bharadwaja. According to this legend, God Shiva incarnated as Shirdi Sai Baba (1835-1918), God Shiva and Goddess Shakti together incarnated as Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011), and Goddess Shakti incarnated as Prema Sai Baba in 2012.
In considering this mythological story, I ask myself several questions. Does the Avatar belong to any religious tradition or ethnic culture? What if God is beyond religion and ethnicity? Should we interpret the three Sai Avatars solely from the point of view of Hinduism? Again, I don’t think so.
