My salutations to the lotus feet of the Samardha Sadguru Shri Shirdi Sai Baba.

My salutations to Pujya Sri Ammula Sambasiva Raoji, the author of the Life History of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba in Telugu.

Strange are the ways of Sai Baba in dragging his devotees not only to him but also to his trusted messengers who have dedicated themselves to the spread of Sai Tatwa or Sai Philosophy all over the length and breadth of our sacred motherland.

I have been a devotee of Sai Baba of Shirdi for three decades . While the late Sri B.V. Narasimha Swamiji of Madras was responsible for the spread of Sai philosophy in the South, through his great writings about Sai Baba and establishing All India Sai Samaj, I find Poojya Sri Ammula Sambasiva Raoji doing pioonering work for the spread of Sai Philosophy and Sai awakening in the people of Andhra Pradesh, mainly I say ‘mainly’ beacause of late, his activities are spreading not only to the neighbouring States of Andhra Pradesh, but also to distant places like Jaipur in Rajasthan, New Delhi and Kharagpur. Before proceeding to give an account of his activities connected with the propogation of Sai philosophy, I would like to tell the readers, briefly about my acquaintance with this great person, who is now ‘Guruji’ to thousands and thousands of Sai devotees.

After my retirement from Government service in the year 1991, I longed to do service to Sai Baba by associating myself with a person doing selfless service in spreading Sai’s message. At that time Pujya Sri Ammula Sambasiva Raoji was working as an Officer in the State Bank of India, Secunderabad. Knowing my desire, a friend of mine, Sri G Manohar Babu who was also working in the same bank, introduced me to Sri Sambasiva Raoji.

We were attracted to each other from the very moment of my introductions to him. I used to attend the noon Arathis to Sai Baba in the makeshift Sai Baba Mandir set up by Sri Sambasiva Raoji inside the bank premises. I thanked Baba for having sent me to this great and simple person. I used to accompany Sri Sambasiva Raoji (hereinafter referred to as Guruji) for the conduct of Sai Pujas and Sai vratams (observance of fast) in the houses of Sai devotees in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and sometimes in nearby districts, during holidays and sometimes after office hours. All the services rendered were absolutely free of cost. Till to this day, Guruji had performed more than one thousand Sai vratams .

Guruji had also undertaken the performance of a unique yagna called "Sri Sai Koti Nama Likitha Maha Yagna" in Sai Baba temple at several places in Andhra Pradesh and also at Shirdi, Jaipur (Rajasthan) and New Delhi. In each yagna two crores of "Sree Sai" names written by the Sai devotees in the books supplied to them free of cost, are being put in specially constructed stupas in the Sai temples. Till date, 35 such yagnas were conducted and the details are furnished elsewhere in this book. His speeches about Sai Baba and the way he expounds Baba’s philosophy in the Satsang in simple words is a rare experience for the listeners.

Guruji has since resigned his job as an officer in the State Bank of India, so that he can be in the service of Sai Baba all the twenty-four hours and work for the establishment of ‘Sai Yuga’ . No sacrifice is too great in the service of Sai Baba.

Guruji has established "Shree Shirdi Sai Baba Seva Ashram" which is a registered body. He is the Founder - President with headquarters at Hyderabad. Units of this parent body have been constituted at six different places in Andhra Pradesh till now. The important aims of these units are to spread the message of Shirdi Sai Baba among the general public in order to secure peace and harmony to mankind and to establish ashrams at different centres to facilitate Aadhyatmic Training Classes for different age groups.

Besides the above mentioned activities, Guruji has written several books in Telugu and Sai philosophy and the Life History of Shirdi Sai Baba. The circumstances under which this book was written and published were given in Guruji’s ( author’s) foreword. This Life History contains certain details which cannot be found in other similar publications.

The need to translate this Life History of Shirdi Sai Baba into other Indian languages was felt with the spread of Guruji’s activities to other States of India. Hence, he has taken a decision to have the English and Hindi translations of the Life History, to start with.

Guruji had been asking me to take up the translation into English since sometime, but I was hesitating and postponing as I doubted my capacity to undertake such a work, that too connected with Sai Baba, But, he finally told me in the last week of December, 1995, that I should commence the work from 1 January 1996, under any circumstances, and Sai Baba is there to give me necessary guidance.

Therefore with the blessings of Guruji and reposing full confidence in Sai Baba, I commenced the translation on 1 January 1996 as per the directions of Guruji and completed the work on 14 February 1996, the day on which Guruji left for Kharagpur.

While I was writing the English translation of Life History, Sai Baba showed his leela as follows. The manuscript of the work came to nearly 500 pages in long hand and I was searching for a person who could type the matter correctly. I contacted several typewriting coaching institutes,where such work was done. But they were not prepared to undertake this work and those who were prepared, demanded huge sums. Samardha Sadguru Sai Baba, came to my rescue in the form of Jagannadha Rao, a typist by profession, a Sai devotee, and a complete stranger to me, who volunteered to do the typing , after knowing that the original work in Telugu was writtten by Pujya Sri Ammula Sambasiva Rao. He told me that he had heard the name and activities of Guruji and expressed his gratefulness for being of some service to him. He did the typing work with great devotion and promptness.

I pray to Sai Baba to shower his blessings on Sri Jagannadha Rao. If the above incident is not Sai Leela, what else it is?

I express my deep sense of gratitude to Sai Maharaj and also to Guruji for having given me the opportunity to be of real service to them and also for getting myself enlightened about ‘Sai Avatar’ .

Thota Bhaskara Rao

Jai Sai Ram
Om Sree Sainathaya Namaha!