Sathya sai international organisation

Communicating with Swami

Madhusudan Naidu alone can communicate with Swami?

Madhusudan Naidu claims that Sukshma Baba only speaks to him because he only does Swami's work:

A student asked Swami (Madhusudan Naidu), "Why only Madhu?"

Swami (Madhusudan Naidu) replied, "You all doing your work always and Swami’s work only sometimes. But Madhu is doing Swami’s work always and only sometimes doing his work."

Madhusudan Naidu, Kuala Lumpur, March 2015, p.3,
Madhusudan Naidu then tells his supporters that he will tell them what to do and that they must follow what he tells them:

You have a good commander in Me, but you also have to be good soldiers. As a Master, I will tell you what to do. But as a devotee, you must follow it properly.

Madhusudan Naidu, Japan, 15 March 2015, p.7
While Madhusudan Naidu also tells his followers to listen to their conscience, he continues to claim he is an intermediary between Sathya Sai Baba and His devotees, giving instructions and discourses and granting interviews, thus making himself the primary means for his followers to communicate with Sathya Sai Baba.

How to see Swami?

Madhusudan Naidu claims that it is very difficult for other people to reach the state where they can see Sukshma Baba:

It is very difficult for people to understand and experience this. Only those who have great love for Swami and great humility have the opportunity to experience these things.

Sri Sathya Sai Uvacha, Vol. 1, p.19

Question: Will you please let me see your Subtle Body? When can I see you?

Answer: To see Me with the physical eyes is not possible. You will have to see Me, with the eyes of within. I am seen now through the eyes of wisdom. But to open that eye, you have to put efforts. It is no more primary school, when you have to just draw over my drawings. Those days are over. You have to put effort. What is the effort? Every trace of selfishness has to be removed. There is nothing like 50% selfless. Either you are selfless or you are not selfless.

Madhusudan Naidu, Japan, March 15, 2015, p.7
Sathya Sai Baba equates 100% selflessness with Self-realisation:

You can realise the Self only when you give up selfishness… Whatever may happen to you, never become selfish. When you conduct yourself in this manner, you will realise your divinity.

SSS 42.19: April 29, 2009, http://www.sathyasai.org/discour/2009/d090429.pdf
Thus, according to Madhusudan Naidu, we must first become Self-realised in order to see Sukshma Baba. However, Sathya Sai Baba said that anyone who thinks of Him and has unflinching faith in Him will easily be able to see and talk to Him:

Time is God and God is Time. Hence, whenever you find time, think of Swami. I will certainly appear before you. Not only that, I will even talk to you. I am receiving several letters saying that Swami has appeared before them and talked to them. You can also do such sadhana. Develop such unflinching faith in Swami. You will surely succeed in your sadhana.

You just contemplate in your mind for a period of eleven seconds on Truth and you will be able to have God’s darshan.

…Those who are engaged in sadhana and wish to have the darshan, sparshan and sambhashan (vision, touch and conversation) with God, must follow My advice in this regard. You are sure to have His darshan and can even talk to Him.

SSS 40.13: July 28, 2007, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume40/sss40-13.pdf
One of Swami's students, Anil Kumar (not Prof. Anil Kumar, Swami's former translator), was able to have Swami's Darshan internally by practising Swami's teachings. Swami once told this student in an interview, "Picture your God and pour out your feelings. They will reach Him."
Anil took this to heart and it became his spiritual practice. Aravind Balasubramanya narrates Anil's experience:

One of the days, Swami goes out for a drive to supervise a construction site during the bhajans. Anil Kumar sang the bhajans with visualisation which had now become his regular practice. He pictures Swami standing in front of Him and gently swaying to the tune of the bhajan…

Slowly, tears of joy begin to form and trickle down his cheek. He is lost in the beauty of darshan and he realises the meaning of what Swami had said a few days before. Though Swami is not in the mandir, he is not missing Him. And the beautiful experience continues.

One bhajan later, he suddenly feels a hush all around. And his beautiful meditation seems to get disturbed. It is almost as if someone by his side is tapping gently to call him. Leaving aside the beautiful image of the swaying Swami, he opens his eyes to determine the source of the disturbance.

As he opens his eyes, he is in for a blissful surprise. The mental image of Swami, instead of disappearing, gets reinforced as Swami is there, right in front of him! And He is swaying gently, EXACTLY as he is picturing Him. Swami’s face is glowing in joy and a gentle smile is dancing on His lips. As Anil Kumar gazes longingly at the form that is the object of his adoration and love, Swami walks up to him. He smiles at him and says, "Inside Swami—outside Swami are ONE."

Visualising and Materialising the Lord, http://aravindb1982.hubpages.com/hub/Visualizing-and-materializing-the-Lord

How to hear Swami?

Those who support Madhusudan Naidu tell us that only he and a select few hear 'Sukshma Baba' and that Madhusudan is special because of his ability to communicate with Swami. However Sri Sathya Sai Baba told us that all anyone needs to do to hear His voice is to listen to our conscience, the voice of God within:

I advise you to 'Follow the Master.' By 'Master' I mean the Conscience within you, the Voice of God.

SSS 14.13: November 22, 1978, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume14/sss14-13.pdf

The body is the temple of God; in every body, God is installed, whether the owner of the body recognises it or not. It is God that inspires you to good acts, that warns you against the bad. Listen to that Voice. Obey that Voice and you will not come to any harm.

SSS 2.3: February 27, 1961, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume02/sss02-03.pdf

You must strive to eradicate the evil tendencies in you. When your conscience tells you that something is wrong, you should refrain from doing it. You betray your true humanness when you fail to act up to the dictates of your conscience.

SSS 27.9: March 11, 1994, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume27/sss27-09.pdf

How do you determine what is bad? By consulting your conscience. Whenever you act against the dictates of your conscience, bad results follow. The conscience is the form of the Divine within everyone. Whatever you do, the conscience tells you whether it is right or wrong. However, to ascertain the directive of the conscience you have to wait for some time. You should not be in a hurry. When you want to say something, you must consider for a moment whether it would be proper or not and then speak. When you want to listen to something, you must examine whether it is good or bad to listen and then decide what is proper.

SSS 29.4: January 18, 1996, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume29/sss29-04.pdf

A Visitor: How can I tell what is right thought?

Sai: … Pray for the answer, then make inquiry in an impersonal way, and in half an hour you will have the answer. If you know what is right, don't ask. Do it. That is confidence, God power. Put aside all relationships. Is the work right, regardless of who is involved?

CWBSSSB, p.66 or http://media.radiosai.org/journals/Vol_04/01JAN06/conversation.htm

Sai: Discrimination is to look to conscience.

Hislop: In choosing a path to follow, one should not decide amongst ideas by the use of logic?

Sai: No. Not by ideas. By conscience, by Self-confidence, do not follow another. Follow yourself. To follow another is to be a slave. Who are you? "I am not body, not mind, not even Atma." For, "I am Atma" is two: "I" and "Atma." Neti, neti, neti (not this, not this, not this) that is the way of the Vedas. Swami is in your heart. Think of Him there.

CWBSSSB, p.198 or http://media.radiosai.org/journals/Vol_05/01AUG07/02-conversations.htm

The body is like a water bubble; the mind is like a mad monkey; so do not follow the body; do not follow the mind; follow the conscience. This is the principle of Atma.

SSS 31.28: September 4, 1998, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume31/sss31-28.pdf

God is Jyothirmayudu (Embodiment of Light). So, He has nothing to do with your good or bad. He is just a witness. He is present in everybody as conscience. That is why I keep telling, Follow the Master, Face the devil, Fight to the end, Finish the game. Who is your Master? Here, Conscience is your Master. So, follow your Conscience till the end of your life.

SSS 31.28: September 4, 1998, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume31/sss31-28.pdf
Dr John Hislop, whom Swami said had more experience with Him than any other Westerner, narrated Swami's simple and easy technique to hear our conscience:

Hislop: How can we distinguish our conscience from our monkey mind? Practice. You see. So far we don't consult our conscience. What we should do, is to sit quietly—now Swami gives an example—He says that if you have a question that you don't really know the answer to and you read Swami's teachings and still don't know the answer then you can ask Him directly in this way. Sit quietly for about 20 minutes and think only of Swami as being in the heart—as being your reality. Think of Him. See His form. See His face. Remember His sayings. Every time the mind starts to wander away, bring it back immediately to thinking about Swami in one way or another. Then after 20 minutes of that full concentration on Swami, ask the question. And within a short time your mind will be clear and you will know what the answer to the question is.

Jack Hislop, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/sathya-sai-babas-advaita-teachings-by.html