Customer Reviews

A Catholic Priest Meets Sai Baba

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Myself a former seminarian and devoted Catholic, I identified deeply with the honest and compelling search for truth that Don Mazzolini shares in the first part of his book. When truth-seeking and his deep love for the Church begin to conflict, Don Mazzolini makes a poignant and powerful argument, carefully based in scripture, for openness of mind and heart to God's truth, wherever it should be found. This part of the book should be prayerfully read and studied by Christians of all denominations. The remainder of the book is a clear and loving description of Sai Baba, his teachings, and the effects of his work and message. If Sathya Sai Baba is an incarnation of God for our times, He has a clear message to embed in our heart and minds, and Mazzolini carries that message to the reader powerfully, personally and directly. It was with great sadness that I read of the proceedings which cast Don Mazzolini from the Church he loves so dearly, simply because he could not deny his conscience, which the Church herself says time and again we must follow, above all teachings and dogma she might offer to us. It almost tempted me to send my own letter of resignation to the Pope, yet Sai Baba himself would say, "No. Stay with and practice the religion of your birth and find there the universal truth of God." This book will broaden the mind and faith of those who read it with devotion.

The universality of Baba is seen in books by American screenwriters, Russian yoga teachers, Italian priests, Brooklyn nuns, San Diego psychiatrist, African Christian. The ocean of Baba can be entered through any one of these books. The translation is by a professor of Romance Languages at Notre Dame. Baba is the first person in history, to my knowledge, to have 30 million (or more) followers (AP said 20 million 15 years ago) who believe him to be an avatar.

Before I read this book I have many questions about the relationship within the teachings and life of Jesus Christ and Sai Baba's. Here, Mario Mazzoleni a catholic priest, tells his personal story with Sai Baba and why he sees in Him the same God that he met as a christian. In simply words, this open-minded priest also tells you the great teachings of Sai Baba. Another MUST-READ for any Sai devotee or anyone wanting to introduce in spirituality. Please, feel free to write me with comments and questions about this book or Sai Baba's teachings.

This book is a journey of the inner conscience. Don Mario Mazzoleni's quest for the Divine is revealed in a thoroughly sincere account of his discovery of Baba, his life and his teachings. It's a journey from faith to faith, albeit colored by a different path and a different context, yet in the end revealing the 'sameness' in the teachings of both Jesus and Baba. The attitudes of the Church and the painful consequences of ex-communication just for believing in the presence of a Divine Being becomes irrelevant when the reader gets absorbed in the author's quest for God. In sum, Don Mario's quest is everyman's quest for the Divine.

This book is a journey of the inner conscience. Don Mario Mazzoleni's sincere quest for the Divine is revealed in a thoroughly sincere account of his discovery of Baba, his life and his teachings. It's a journey from faith to faith, albeit colored by a different path and a different context, yet in the end revealing the 'sameness' in the teachings of both Jesus and Baba. The attitudes of the Church and the painful consequences of ex-communication just for believing in the presence of a Divine Being becomes irrelevant when the reader gets absorbed in the author's quest for God. In sum, Don Mario's quest is everyman's quest for the Divine.

I found this book to be thought provoking, inspiring and a vindication of my personal experience concerning the reality of Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba. For any true Christian it is a 'must read' if only to instil thoughts of awareness relating to Baba's omnipresence, omnipotence and omnifelicity. The author's personal experience s and apparent love for Sai Baba is an uplifting experience for all to read. Highly recommended

I read this book just across of Brindavanam ashram of Sai baba in Whitefield, south India on October - November 2003. I am convinced to the genuine heart of the writer of this book. I too was directly witnessing Sai Baba phenomenon on transforming the hearts of thousands of people in Prasanthi Nilayam ashram in Puttaparty around that time. This book is also a good source to understand Christianity and it is development through time and it's relation with other religions especially the Vedas. Also clearly informed about what's some Vatican high rank persons behavior when discussing spiritual matters. What's laking in this book ( as mentioned as well by the author ) is a special section or chapter on the study of prophecies by sages, holly persons, as well as scriptures of worlds religions which available on at other sources which according to my humble opinion will even support to prove the authenticity of this Avatar of the Age, Sai Baba.

Don Mario Mazzoleni before his death was affiliated with Vatican Radio. In this book
his love of God, his purity, compassion, intellect and courage
shine. May this book be reprinted.

The following is one passage from the book:

Fr. Mario Mazzoleni on his decision to become vegetarian (after 3 years as a strict vegetarian, Fr. Mario Mazzoleni speaks of a desire for meat whose trioxypurine is physically addictive. " I would be a hypocrite if I led the reader to believe that I was strong enough to be perfectly faithful to my Lenten resolution. ..I
hadn't yet completely resolved my desire for meat - and so the repressed desire
was floating to the surface. It is a fact that the minute I would sit down to meditate, the most succulent meals would pass in front of my mind, full of fragrant roasted chickens and various sausages. What to do? If I was going to ruin all my meditations for a
roast chicken, it would be better to eliminate the problem by facing it head on. And so after 3 years of strict vegetarianism, I decided to get rid of the desire once and for all by satiating myself with a meat dinner. After all, I told myself to quiet my sense of guilt, "It isn't a crime to eat meat, and I can't say that because I'm vegetarian I'm better than many people who are carnivorous." It was almost a traumatic experience. I remembered an analogous experience of Gandhi's that he recounted in his autobiography. Convinced by a friend that India could be liberated only by the grit
of someone who ate meat, he hid himself on a river bank to consume some barbecued baby goat meat, and the next night he could feel bleating in his chest. Instead of enjoying the coveted snack in peace, the minute this little faithbreaker set his teeth into the cruel repast* (* a reference to Dante's Inferno.. in which
meat is described as a cruel repast in XXXIII.1) he was himself bitten by remorse and anxiety. I kept seeing the animal alive in front of me, and this inhibited the desire that was so enticing when it was simply mental. I immediately noticed some other effects, physical as well as psychic. My intestines held that food much longer than they kept vegetables,and my sense of smell, made sensitive by several years of vegetarianism,
was able to detect the odor of the cooked animal on my skin. It was a disagreeable sensation. As for my psyche, I noticed that my mind, which during my 3 year "Lent" was no longer seriously agitated by unwanted thoughts, suffered a set back from that carne-vale (meat festival); polluting throughts started to enter again in triumph. It
was a lesson. As always it is experience more than words that has the
greater power of persuasion. The decision to adopt a vegetarian diet
was motivated also by a religious actor. I knew that I was going to a sacred place.
quoted from Don Mario Mazzoleni's book, published by Leela Press of Faber, Virginia USA

One cannot help but be moved by this personal account of an Italian priest's evolution into a devotee of the India guru, Sathya Baba. Not surprisingly, Mazzoleni's growing loyalty to Sai Baba resulted in his excommunication from the Catholic Church. His dilemmas are authentic; his soul searching is intense.

Watching him embrace Eastern thought is inspiring and fascinating.

One can only wonder what this sincere cleric's response has been to the current torrent of print and media articles classifying Sai Baba as a corrupt pedophile and trickster.