Rating *****

282 pages
published by Leela Press
ISBN 0962983519

«Why on earth would a priest, who has been taught so many well-packaged and inviolable truths, need to be a seeker? Are there any existential questions which a priest has not answered? and - you might ask - what does a man of the church, who should already have perfected his education and knowledge, still need to investigate?... Well, then, yes!

In nature, everything undergoes change, and our reason is part of nature. The fundamental truth might not change, but the human approach to these truths does, and this amounts to admitting that it is necessary to review and correct the way sacred truths have been formulated in the past. The level of consciousness of a people gradually expands, and a formulation which seemed right centuries ago today appears honestly outdated. It is not the underlying truth which goes out of date, but the way in which it is expressed. The clothes change, but not the body dressed in them.»

- Don Mario Mazzoleni, page 2

«One of the quotations, which has made Sathya Sai Baba's mission famous throughout the world is the following:

There is only one religion: the religion of love.
There is only one language: the language of the heart.
There is only one caste: the caste of humanity.
There is only one God, and He is omnipresent.

Some detractors think that this slogan implies a desire to unite all religions into one, making just one religion... Sai Baba has absolutely no intention of founding a new religion. He himself has said that there are plenty of religions already, indeed too many. The sacred task He has assumed is to lead all religions back to the one Truth which is God and Love. Any religion that fights or dismisses other religions in order to defend itself is not a true religion, because it is against Love, which is to be against God!»

- Don Mario Mazzoleni, pages 177, 178

This era - the era of Sathya, the era of Truth - is, in my opinion, a unique moment, which will change the historical and religious order of nations. Certainly the most extraordinary characteristic of this study, in an age in which there is so much talk about sects and religious factions, is that in all the things I have discovered in these years, I have found nothing which would prompt an aversion to our religion, nothing which would obstruct our faith. On the contrary! Everything I have meditated on has brought me that much closer to the mysteries I had been celebrating, often without knowing them thoroughly.»

- Don Mario Mazzoleni, Introduction

Synopsis: The Search Begins; From the Paranormal to the Supernatural; In Search of Saints and Masters; The First Steps Toward the Avatar; Another Religion or a Single Faith? Sai Baba and Jesus; The Work of Sai Baba; Man is God; The First and Final Reality; Religion: Devotion to the One God; Schools and Education; Doubt and Inquiry; Anguish and Ecstasy; Epilogue; Afterword; Bibliography.

Don Mario Mazzoleni has a degree in Moral Theology from the Higher Institute of Theological Sciences of the Alphonsian Academy in Rome. In the 1970's he was associated with the Vatican Radio and the newspaper L'Avvenire. He was particularly concerned with the relationship of the mass media to spiritual instruction.

Last Updated Sunday, January 3, 1999