EL DESPERTAR SAI: THE ART AND HEART OF HEALING

The Art and Heart of Healing

A conversation with Dr. Srikanth Sola

Part 01

Dr. Srikanth Sola is a consultant cardiologist at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences Whitefield Bangalore. Born in 1971 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India, Dr. Sola's family migrated to the USA when he was 5 years old and he grew up in a quiet part of the state of Kentucky. Today Dr. Sola is an internationally reputed cardiologist. He holds an array of professional credentials including MD, FACC and FAHA and he has acquired these qualifications from the finest of institutions in the US.

Dr. Sola completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University, his residency training and intern in medicine at Duke University Medical Centre and fellowship in cardiology at Emory University School of medicine Atlanta. He then served as a staff cardiologist at the world famous Cleveland clinic in the United States. Dr. Sola was named one of America's top cardiologists by the consumer research council of America in 2006 and 2007, Who's Who in Science and Engineering from 2005 to 2008 and Who's Who in America from 2004 to 2008.

Even as Dr. Sola was on top of his game, in 2008 Dr. Sola and his wife Shivani relocated to Bangalore India to serve Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Here are select excerpts from Dr.Srikanth Sola's conversation with Radio Sai's Karuna Munshi.

RS: Sai Ram Dr. Sola and a very warm welcome to Radio Sai.

Dr. Sola: Sai Ram thank you for having me.

RS: Dr. Sola your life and work stretch beyond the worlds of clinical cardiology. You delve into different worlds of consciousness and speak of the world of devas and devis and ascended masters with the same ease with which you speak of triglycerides and cholesterol control. And I understand this ability of yours to touch transcendence began very early in your life. How did it all start?

An Unusual Childhood

Dr. Sola: The earliest memories that I have was when I was around 5 or 6 years old and was able to see things that I thought were normal. Things like auras around other people, being able to understand what other people were thinking or feeling without them telling me, being able to see what would happen although it had not yet happened. And for me this was a natural something that everyone had, I thought at the age of 5. And when I would explain it to my family members or elders they would say 'Oh that's nice' as if it were just another imagination of a small child. And what happened is I sort of put that away for some time because I understood that somehow this wasn't natural or normal and so it wasn't until I was in college at Stanford University that these abilities started to come back again.

RS: So what did you see?

Dr. Sola: I could just understood what was happening, I could look at someone and say this is probably what they're feeling, this is what they're thinking and this is the experiences that they have had that have brought them to this particular time and place.

Over time I have understood that everyone has this, it's nothing unusual or special. It's an ability that all of us have. I remember once Swami said in a discourse, that "There are certain centres in the brain which when stimulated allow us to receive any form of knowledge." And He said this is how the Rishi's of ancient times received the Vedas, so probably the same thing is happening and probably that's what happened in my own particular case.

RS: If it's not unusual because basically all of us have it, why is it that not all of us experience that ability?

Dr. Sola: Because our focus is elsewhere, our focus is outside of ourselves.

RS: But consciously you didn't focus somewhere within you at that young age did you?

Dr. Sola: Probably what happened is I learned to focus within, I found so much silence and so much peace and joy within, that an inner focus developed at quiet an early age, quite naturally by itself.

RS: When you say you could see things, was it something like Manoj Shyamalan's movie The Sixth Sense, where the little boy could see other beings?

Dr. Sola: No it was really no big deal actually. It was just like how when we look around ourselves and see other people, see other activities it was like that only. It wasn't anything supernatural or extraordinary in any way but it just allowed me to understand what others were thinking and feeling quite easily.

RS: By the time you made it to Stanford University you were more adept at this?

Dr. Sola: Probably what had happened is during childhood and adolescence I turned it off because it was just too different from what others around me were experiencing so I just turned it off maybe consciously or unconsciously. And then one year that is during my second year in college during the summer holidays, I happened to take a summer job in the Lake Tahoe region of California in the United States. This is a beautiful area of the Sierra Nevada mountains. And I was working at a summer camp teaching art classes, I was a very good artist as a child and in my teenage years. And during my days off I would go hiking in the mountains that surrounded the place where I was staying. Just beautiful — no people, no nothing, except trails, mountains, woods and forest and it was there that I had experiences of profound peace and stillness. And I knew that there was something, I couldn't put my finger on it yet, I didn't know what it was but I just knew that something more was there than what a typical 18 or 19 year old young adult would have experienced. And it wasn't until later maybe in another year or so after that, that I heard about Swami.

"I just knew that He was what I had been looking for."

RS: And how did that news or that awareness arrive?

Dr. Sola: I was just flying back to India to visit my family members and it just happened that the person sitting to my right side was a Sai devotee and he was telling me that he was going to visit Puttaparthi to see Sathya Sai Baba. He was reading a book on Swami and he showed me the photograph of Swami. And I had seen Swami's photos before here and there in other peoples houses, but when I saw that picture of Swami I just knew that He was that what I had been looking for ever since I was a young child. He was that one, He represented that, it was as if somebody had said 'the sky is blue and the grass is green'. Well all of us would say 'yes off course' and so when I saw Swami's photograph that particular time I said 'yes off course'.

RS: So you're 'aha' moment was airborne.

Dr. Sola: Exactly, some 30,000 feet above the air.

RS: So when Swami came into your life you were just flying into India, did you come for a darshan then or was it much later?

Dr. Sola: It was on that same visit, we actually had a chance to go and take Swami's darshan. And that began the association with Swami that's now been going in to its 25 years or so. And what we've learnt from Swami eventually is that Swami is us and we are Swami, there is no difference. It used to be in the beginning that we would look up to Swami and say 'Swami is my God, Swami is my guru, Swami is my everything and that was it, there is nothing except Swami in terms of what we wanted to do. Whether it was studying that was done for Swami, whether it was taking care of patients as a medical student or eventually as a resident or then as a doctor that again was done for Swami. Now the understanding is that Swami and I are the same there is no difference.

See there are in this earth some 7.2 billion people or so, roughly. That essentially means that there are 7.2 billion aspects of your self. It's all the same and Swami is one such aspect. Swami is everything, but this form of Swami is one of those aspects. So the distinction of the separation between the Srikanth Sola form and name and Swami's name and form has gone. We don't talk about it much because it's not necessary, you just simply experience it. You don't have to go and proclaim it or ask about it you just know that. And so also through sadhana and through practice one realizes that eventually you and Swami are the same, there's no distinction.

A Desire to Live a Life of Service and Its Fulfillment

RS: So this flight when you first realized who Swami is, was in which year?

Dr. Sola: That must have been around 1990 or so. The year before that when I was 18 years of age I joined a group of young adults who were cycling across the United States from San Francisco all the way to Washington DC, some 5,000 kilometers. And we would do it for charity, we would bicycle about 100 kilometers per day and we were raising money for different charitable activities across the United States and across different developing countries. And a 100 kilometers of bicycle riding everyday gives you a lot of time to reflect and to think about what you want to do. And it was on one of those days that I was cycling, coming down a big mountain that I knew that what I was going to do with this life was to serve. Now this is before I had come to Swami's fold.

RS: I see!

Dr. Sola: I didn't know of Swami at this time.

RS: But you had found your purpose.

Dr. Sola: I knew that whatever I was going to do I was going to serve humanity and that was it.

RS: Strong conviction..

Dr. Sola: Yes

RS: And you're living it now.

Dr. Sola: I remember when I was telling my friends and colleagues that I was movin

g from the Cleveland Clinic, imagine the world famous Cleveland Clinic and coming to Puttaparthi. I remember telling the other Sai devotees, "See if you're not serving, your body is as good as a corpse" and I really believed that at that time. Now what happens is that service comes naturally, it's not something that you have to think about.

RS: It's not a contrived activity.

Dr. Sola: You don't have to plan it or anything it just comes automatically, you don't have anything else to do. It's like your heart is always beating, your always serving. It just happens automatically.

RS: But Dr. Sola, a lot of well-intentioned people say that the one thing they really want to do in life is serve but because of economic necessities they have to keep working. So basically in an ideal situation they should have enough financial security to quit their job and devote themselves full-time to service. What would you say to such people?

Dr. Sola: I can share my example. I was at the Cleveland Clinic, I was a young cardiologist. The boss, the head of cardiology at that time, is an internationally reputed cardiologist and all around me were physicians and cardiac surgeons who were at the top of their field. One day the chairman comes to me and says, "You know I have been watching you for some time and you are one of the superstars in our department and after some time I think you could probably become chairman one day." And he was grooming me to become that. Now one day I got an email, just one of those random emails that we get, forwarded to me by someone from our Sai centre. And it was about a position for an interventional cardiology fellowship position that is someone who is training to do angioplasties and other such procedures at Swami's hospital in Whitefield.

Now I had already finished my training, I was already practicing, so that wasn't so relevant for me but at the bottom was a single line and that line said 'Positions for consultant cardiologists and above are also available please send your CV to such and such email address'. So I thought 'wow'. I called up my wife Shivani, she was working and so she wasn't available at that time. I went and saw my patients, I was taking my rounds in the hospital and she called me back while I was seeing patients, I excused myself. And I said "You know there is a position for a cardiologist at Swami's hospital in Whitefield, what do you think?" And there was hardly a second pause, even less than that and she said "Sure off course lets go." And that was it. There was no 'well what do we do with our house, how do we manage with our moving, what are our families going to say' - none of that. The chance to serve Swami had come.

See it's like this, suppose that we are all monkeys at the time of Rama and Rama comes to the group of vanaras and He says, 'I'm going to go build a bridge and I need some of you guys to come help me, will you come?' And many of the monkeys jump up and go but then you say 'you know what I don't know if I'll be able to eat enough bananas if I'm going to go and build a bridge, what should I do? I think I'll stay back here'. So when the Poorna Avatar has come an opportunity to serve Him comes, would you wonder whether you be able to make enough? Actually what we have found is that although we were earning a big huge salary in the United States, although we had a big huge house and our fancy cars and all those things, although we were traveling in comfort, staying in the best of accommodations, I was speaking in international conferences all across the world; but the wealth that we have here in serving Swami or rather doing Swami's work is more than what we ever had before this. There is no comparison.

The Art and Heart of Healing

A conversation with Dr. Srikanth Sola

part 02

The Joy of Serving Far Outweighs the Pleasure from Luxuries

RS: You don't miss the luxury, the life of affluence that you left behind?

Dr. Sola: All that is fine but it's not the luxuries or the affluence that is attractive it becomes rather a distraction I think. Here when we're sitting and Swami is coming for darshan or now we're able to sit at the beautiful Maha Samadhi and just absorb Swami's love, such pure love radiates from His Maha Samadhi. Wow that is divine Grace.

When I'm able to serve a rickshaw wala or a cobbler, I remember once I took care of a fellow who mended shoes and he lived on the street. This fellow had a severe blockage in one of the arteries in his heart and he needed an angioplasty surgery. That surgery would have cost him some one and a half lakh rupees that's about $4000, which is way more than this person would have earned in his entire lifetime, where would he go? He can only go to Swami's hospital. We did that angioplasty for free and he walked out of Swami's hospital smiling.

RS: And the gratification is just incredible.

Dr. Sola: The gratification, the professional and the personal satisfaction of doing this type of work far exceeds anything that I would have had otherwise.

RS: Very well said, that's very true.

Dr. Sola: I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had in the United States. Working at the Cleveland clinic, working with the best of the best was a tremendous experience and it really sharpened my professional skills. Because if you're going to do work (for Swami's mission) you want to be able to do good work.

If you're going to do charitable work you want to be able to help others in a meaningful environment. You don't want to try to do seva with one hand tied behind your back because resources aren't there, facilities are not there etc. But in Swami's hospital you have all the resources, you have all the facilities, you have wonderful doctors, superb nurses, amazing managers that Swami has groomed from amongst His own students, who come on and join His hospital. And it's such a divine and delightful environment to work in.

RS: What you say is very profound and I can see, that it has got to do with the way you have embraced all life experiences with your mind, heart and body, much like the whirling Dervishes of the Sufi order who would stay centered even while moving. And you have enjoyed such clarity about what you were seeking, your calling and purpose in life. How are you able to be so centered while some others can so easily be distracted due to the outward nature of our sensory perception?

Dr. Sola: See I think all souls for sometime have to fall asleep especially at this particular time when the Poorna Avatar is here. Many of us fall asleep for some time and then we wake up but we need that period in which we are involved in maya (illusion) so that we can then empathize with those who we see are also involved in maya. It doesn't mean that we feel we are superior or better to them or that they are inferior or lesser to us.

RS: So you are suggesting you have done your time of being tangled with maya and you are on the next band wagon where you had clarity?

Dr. Sola: And now we are free. We have nothing to do, there is no task for us to accomplish, there is no experience for us to receive, we are the self. We realize sometime ago and when I say 'we' I mean my wife Shivani and I that we are not the body, we are not the mind, we are not the ego or personality. Thank goodness we are not our memories or any of our experiences that we had before although many of them were wonderful. The reality is that we are that, we are that God self, you are that God self, you are Sai, you are Brahma, you are Vishnu, you are Maheshwara the entire creation is there in the palm of your own hand. Yugas and maha yugas go by as if in a blink of an eye, there is no birth, there is no death. We keep it to ourselves because it's not necessary to go and proclaim this. Those who are ready for it will come when the time is right. I simply experience that and be that.

So although earlier we talked about serving Swami and doing Swami's work the reality is that no one is doing anything, who is serving whom, it's all the same. So in that sense then when it comes to say, serving Swami's patients that patient is me.

RS: Extension of yourself.

Dr. Sola: It's just another aspect. If your foot is hurting for example you rub where it's hurting and you try to make it better. So also when a fellow human being is suffering because of health or whatever it maybe, you understand that, the person is another aspect of yourself. And naturally without thinking about it or planning anything you would simply go and extend solace or comfort in whatever way you can to that person.

The loving Lord Begins to Guide from Within

RS: If I may backtrack, once you came to know of Swami in second year of college, how did His presence in your life influence your decisions such as your career choice or your marriage or your relocation to India. How did Swami give you guidance directly or was it internal?

Dr. Sola: See once we came to Swami's fold that is physically in 2008 then we were very fortunate to have close interactions with Swami but before that I was always away from Swami I was in the United States and Swami was here. And although I would be able to come occasionally for darshans it was infrequent as you might imagine and so I was forced to learn to connect with the Swami within. That is to tune in, to go into a great state of silence and then receive the answers for whatever questions I had in that state and that is what happened. So whether it was choosing subjects at college or what branch of medicine to specialize in or where to live, where to work, which job to apply for etc, etc... everything was done by tuning in to the inner Sai and acting on that. It was never necessary to go and proclaim this to anybody it was really only required simply to listen and to act.

Take the example of the students who would be around Swami and serving Him. You would see how attentive they were, never would you find them looking this way or that way. They're always focused fully on what Swami was doing, waiting for the slightest hint or slightest instruction that He might give, so that immediately they can go and do it.

They would never go and proclaim 'Swami told me to do this'. They would simply do it quietly and quickly to the best of their ability. So in the same way by watching their example, I learnt to do the same thing but I had to do it internally, I had to do that inside. And really the truth is that Swami is there for each and every one of us waiting to speak to us, waiting to guide us but because we're so focused outside we fail to hear His voice.

RS: Talking of hearing His voice, when does one know that one is listening to Swami's voice and not to one's ego or wishful thinking?

Dr. Sola: Yeah it's a very good question, how do you know? Because many a times what will happen is if we hear something, especially if its not something we want to do then we'll say, 'oh that's just my mind or my imagination' right. What I tell people is that suppose Swami comes to you during darshan and He starts speaking to you. How would you feel? Would you feel sad? Would you feel scared? Would you feel frightened? No, most people would feel joyful, they would feel peaceful they would feel that radiant bliss that one gets from being in Swami's physical presence. So also when the inner Sai is speaking to you, you would feel the same way. The inner Sai will tell you the same things that the outer Sai will tell you, right but what Swami would tell you on the outside physically, would not be any different from what He would tell you from within; it will be the same thing. So what does Swami say? He says to love everyone, serve everyone, help ever hurt never, inner directions can be very general or they can be very specific based on what you need but it will be the same as what one would hear and feel from the outer Sai.

A Medical Practice Enlightened by Spiritual Insight

RS: How has your practice as a cardiologist been influenced by your spiritual exploration and experiences?

Dr. Sola: See medicine is a great opportunity to share love, every interaction that we have in life is an opportunity to give love, whether it's to our spouse or our children or our parents or anyone, its just opportunities to give love. So for me I see practicing medicine as a way to share this love, to give love. Whether it's taking care of a patient in the outpatient department of the hospital or teaching the other residents and the technologists how to do better echocardiograms, or how we can diagnose the patient's disease better... whatever it maybe it's an opportunity to share this love that's all; everything comes back to this love.

In fact once, way back in 1968, Swami took the hands of two elderly American devotees in His hands and He said "And I want to share with you something you must never forget." He said, "In the end, in the final analysis when the body turns to dust and everything is gone, what will matter is not how big a house you had or what type of car you drove or how much money you had in your bank account. The only thing that will matter is how much love you have shared with all of creation." And then Swami paused and said the next part. He said, "How much love you have shared with all of creation in every single moment of your life." So when Swami says 'Love all' He doesn't mean love your family and your friends and maybe that person at work that you like and not necessarily the person at work that you don't like. When Swami says 'Love all' He means love all of creation, not once in a while when it's convenient for you but all the time.

RS: How do you get there though?

Dr. Sola: Practice. How do you practice? How do you walk from Puttaparthi to Bangalore? If you were going to put one foot in front of the other you would get there. So you have to practice. In fact these same two souls, asked Swami, "Swami for how long should we be doing our sadhana?" And Swami said "For as long as you are breathing you must practice your sadhana." Now what do most of us do? We do our sadhana maybe for a few moments in the morning after we get up and then perhaps for a second or two during the middle of the day and then by the time we get home we're so tired and then we do a little bit of sadhana. Then we may go to the Sai smithi or do bhajans on the weekend, we try to get charged but before we know it, because of the stress of the activities of the weekday we again get discharged. And so this is how we go about because we're not practicing continuously.

RS: How does one practice continuously when you're doing many different things through the course of a day?

Dr. Sola: That's a great question. Suppose I'm in the operating theatre assisting the cardiac surgeons, that task becomes by meditation. I will fully step into the task and be so immersed in that task that there's no past and there is no future, there is simply that present moment which is taking care of that patient to the best of my ability - 100% focus. Then once I finish that task I step out and then immediately step back into the God self, immediately step back into the awareness that everything is God. So the task itself becomes a meditation, becomes a way of worshiping, Swami say "Work is worship."

RS: Dr. Sola when you meet a patient who or what are you looking at?

Dr. Sola: When I meet a patient I first see each person as Swami. In fact many a times when I'll greet a patient I'll ask them their name, I'll introduce myself, I'll welcome them to Swami's hospital but I'll often refer to them as Swami, saying for instance, 'Swami please have a seat make yourself comfortable' because to me they are Swami himself. There it's God talking to God. It is one on one reflection, reaction, resound. So what I will look at is not only what is their illness if they have one but what is the cause of their illness.

Back in 2009 Swami called the physicians and staff at His Super Specialty Hospital and General Hospital in Whitefield for a series of four interviews. And I remember He told us, "It's not enough for doctors to simply take care of patients." He said "Doctors must look into the cause of their illnesses and understand those and treat those as well." So when I take care of a patient the first thing I do is welcome them, ask them their name, I introduce myself and I tell them 'welcome to Swami's hospital in Whitefield'. But when I speak to them I'm speaking as if I'm discussing their condition with Swami, that is I address them as Swami 'Swami please have a seat, would you like to do this? Swami these are your options this is what you can do regarding your particular condition'.

That love that comes in that interaction, Swami's love pouring through this physical body towards them is many times simply transforming. I learnt early on even when I was in United States that if I simply spoke to a patient about routine things, let's say 'you need to exercise, you should have a better diet, you should stop smoking or give up any bad habits' etc, etc., it was okay but more often than not people would go back to their same old ways very quickly. But when I spoke to them from that state of Swami's love it was no longer Dr. Srikanth Sola speaking to them, it was Swami speaking and then my role was really just to allow Swami's love to come through. Then the transformation took place; then people would say 'Doctor you are right, I'm going to give all these things up from here on today'. That's when the transformation happens and it's not because of anything we're doing other than possibly allowing that love from Swami to come completely unobstructed and unhindered that's all. So that's where the focus is when we take care of our patients.

The Subtle Relation Between Physical Health and One's Thoughts

RS: You speak of finding the root cause of the illness, what role do emotions play in causing this illness?

Dr. Sola: Everything is reflection, reaction and resound. That means that if you want love in your life you have to think loving thoughts, feel loving emotions, do loving actions. If you want prosperity in your life you have to do the same. If you want a friend you have to be a friend, if you want peace you have to be peaceful. But the opposite also happens when we think discordant thoughts, when we think disharmonious thoughts. When we think negative thoughts where does it go? It goes out into the universe and it is immediately reflected back to us. It goes into our bodies, it goes into our mind and it affects everything that we do.

Swami once said "That the major cause of all illness is a diseased mind." In fact once one of my Ph.D students here in Parthi was explaining to Swami about his thesis project. I'm his co-guide for this particular project which is funded by the department of biotechnology. And we were looking at why so many Indians develop heart disease at such a young age, much earlier than people abroad, say people in Europe or North America. And so my Ph.D student was explaining this to Swami and Swami just very casually remarked "Ha what is there? The habits that one has, the food that one eats, the environment that we are in and the thoughts that we think - these are what causes heart disease." He said it so casually as if there is nothing more to it. But all of these things combine through reflection, reaction and resound to either give us good health, robust and vibrant health or to give us disease aches and pains, imbalances in our body and so forth.

So let's say I had a patient who has a heart attack and is recovering from that heart attack. I not only say 'well you have a blockage in this particular artery you need to take these medications, you should exercise, you should adjust your diet' etc, etc. I go into the reason why they have it. Have they lost the joy in life? Everything is symbolic. The blood in our body symbolizes joy, our knees symbolize flexibility, our feet takes us in a particular direction. Every part of body symbolizes a different aspect of how we relate with creation.

So the heart doesn't attack us, but it's because we've lost that flow in life. Now physically yes there is a blockage because of too much cholesterol, high blood pressure, sugar is not controlled because of diabetes etc. etc., but everything is reflection, reaction, resound so whatever we sent out will come back to us. And it's very simple just to ask the patient 'your anger is not controlled very well is it?' And usually the patient will just nod but the spouse of the patient will say 'yes doctor exactly that's exactly correct, tell him to control his anger' and so and so forth. You can identify this sadness, the depression, the resentment, the sense of loss, the lack of love and especially the lack of self love. I remember once Swami was asking us, "Are you all happy?" He had told the group when we had gone for the group interview and we all said "Yes Swami." And Swami said "Very good always be happy."

On another occasion He said to Shivani and I, "You know why you two always have so much grace?" Off course we didn't say anything, He continued, "Because you are always happy, no matter what happens you are always happy and that allows divine grace to flow to you."

So when we loose this happiness, this joy in our life, what is going to happen? Reflection, reaction and resound. It reflects back to us in different ways sometimes as an illness, sometimes as a particular experience that may be unpleasant. So when we understand this basic teaching of Swami if you understand it properly you will never have a negative thought in your life because you know that whatever you send out through your thoughts, emotions, words and deeds will be reflected back to you in one way or the other. And this is what I share with my patients in a very simplified manner but it allows them to understand that yes, not only do they have to change their diet and they have to exercise more but they also have to modify their thoughts and emotions.

RS: So Dr. Sola because you take medical science or health care to the next dimension by bringing in the spiritual quotient into it, how do your peers in the medical fraternity react to your approach?

Dr. Sola: See when it comes to medicine as a physician working in Swami's hospital we want to bring excellence into whatever we're doing. I have the opportunity to speak at many hospitals and many conferences across the country and it always comes back to the same topic of excellence in whatever it is that we do. I'm a non-invasive cardiologist which means I focus on cardiac imagining, taking care of patients medically and so forth. And so my training, my teaching, my lecturing at various conferences is about helping other physicians to bring out the best in themselves so that they can improve what they're doing.

The Art and Heart of Healing

A conversation with Dr. Srikanth Sola

part 03

Swami's Hospitals are a Guiding Light for Medical Practice Itself

At Swami's hospital we provide fantastic care, everything that we do is inline with the international guidelines for how cardiology care should be provided and we have amazing experience because we see so many types of diseases, all flavours and all conditions. And the physicians, the nurses, the paramedical staff who work there are all very very dedicated and also very loving and joyful which makes it all the better to work there.

When we're in this type of environment though we are able to take care of so many numbers of patients per year, lets say so many hundreds of thousands of patients but when we go out and we share our thoughts, our knowledge, our expertise with others across the country or across the world we are then extending Swami's message, we are extending Swami's work. When they start to provide better care for their patients then indirectly we are influencing the quality of care that those patients receive. This is how Swami's work will spread medically. That is yes we will provide excellent care for all of His patients who come to His hospital but when we share our knowledge and expertise we will allow that to spread to other hospitals.

And I think that just by interacting with us, His physicians, these outside physicians who are not from Swami's hospital start to realize that actually you can provide very good care free of cost with love and compassion. And for many of these physicians this is the first time this thought has ever come to them.

RS: Because most people can't even imagine what Swami has done by providing excellent medical care and that too free of cost.

Dr. Sola: Even though I'm there every single day, sometimes I even wonder how is it possible? Swami makes it possible!

RS: There have been studies that have sought to evaluate the relationship between emotions and prayers and human health. What are your thoughts on this issue?

Dr. Sola: I think that they're very good, because in any new practice that we bring to medicine - it should be investigated with the absolute and most rigorous scientific methodology. I commonly give talks on how to conduct research studies and how to design a research trial using the current state of art, methodology and research. So whether it comes to cardiology, cardiac surgery or holistic health the same rigour is required for any of this type of work.

However the difficulty with the issue that we have with holistic health care is that it's difficult to do a study in which just one intervention is required because when we think of holistic health we're talking about everything. We're talking about diet, lifestyle and especially emotions, feelings and thoughts and those are very difficult to quantify. How do you quantify love for example, we don't have a scale or a machine in which we can measure that, we can't study that. Yes, there probably is a huge impact of love, of peace, of joy on our health but right now at least we don't have a way of measuring. Hopefully we may but is it necessary to put numbers and labels on all these things? No. But is it required to understand that our thoughts and feelings and emotions impact our health? Absolutely.

The Bliss of Serving in His Presence

RS: When you first migrated back to India to relocate in Whitefield in the year 2008 I understand you had multiple occasions when you were able to interact with Bhagawan in His physical form. What are your fondest memories of those days?

Dr. Sola: Sure those were golden days and golden memories. Earlier I shared how the whole move back to India to Swami's hospital in Whitefield started with just a simple email Just a one line on an email and how that changed everything - obviously it was all divine play. Now before this actually happened some of the hospital staff from Swami's hospital in Whitefield had gone to meet Swami and said "Swami we need another cardiologist, we would like to hire another cardiologist because the workload is increasing." And Swami just looked up as if He was thinking, it's all play acting because Swami knows everything but He said "Another cardiology doctor from America is already coming." And so they thought "Oh okay." They didn't understand what that meant but they knew that if Swami says okay, so it is. A few weeks later they got my Curriculum Vitae in the email, then they took my CV to Swami and showed the photographs. Swami went through all the pages of the CV, looked through everything as they said "Swami this doctor is very good, he comes from the Cleveland Clinic, it's a world famous hospital, he's won all these awards" and so on. And Swami said "Haan I know, who do you think called him to come here?"

And so in those early days it was great fun being here, being in darshan, watching Swami, interacting with him. And the joke from the other staff around me was that 'oh you've come, Swami will definitely interact with you'. And that was often the case and it was just Swami's way of showing His love of recharging us by giving us the attention, or letting us know rather that He was there for us. Interestingly at the same time when we're back in Whitefield, when we're silent, whenever I'm alone and there's nothing to be done I just go back into the state of the self, the God self which is everything. You can call it the Paramatma, the Parabrahman. And for us that's all that is but then when we come to Puttaparthi we would see Swami's form and my goodness the maya that is around Swami's form is just impenetrable.

You cannot get past it. And we would think that 'Swami back in Bangalore so easy to stay in the self. Then we come here that we get lost in separation, not in a negative way.

RS: Not at all. Only because the form was so beautiful.

Dr. Sola: It's so beautiful! And its so fun, Swami just looks this way and smile and then you think 'ahaaaa' and everything that your feeling just washes away in that bliss

RS: And your on such a high.

Dr. Sola: Exactly, exactly it's so wonderful. One of the things that we would like to do is, I would pray and say 'Swami let me enter your consciousness'. And Swami would come out and I would just go into that nothingness, indescribable state of just being-ness. There is no form, there is no name, there is no darshan, there is no anything. And being in the presence of the Avatar, or being whether it's a physical presence or the inner presence allows you to experience that. And all you have to do is just ask and He'll give.

RS: Hmm it's that simple is it?

Dr. Sola: That simple, all you have to do is ask. It helps if you practice.

But as Swami says as long as you're breathing you have to practice your sadhana.

RS: And stay focused on the goal. Wonderful! In the broader area of your work Dr. Sola outside of strict clinical cardiology how do you assess the health of the human race at the present moment?

Dr. Sola: I remember once back in 2007 Swami was in Kodaikanal, this was shared with me by some of His students. And Swami just casually remarked "Sathya yuga begins in 2012." He said it as casually as if he would say it rains during monsoon season and so we know that we're at the end of one age and at the beginning of the next. This is why we have the triple incarnation of the Shirdi Sai, Sathya Sai, Prema Sai.

And so when we go from one level of consciousness to another naturally there will be changes and it is this change in consciousness that we're all seeing now which Swami has very quietly been doing all along and that's what we're seeing. The problems that we see in society are simply reflection of whatever it is already there within us. Remember earlier I said that everything is reflection, reaction and resound. So if you take for example the pollution that we have in environment now, it is simply a reflection of the inner pollution that we are experiencing within ourselves. If you look at our political leaders for example the consciousness of those leaders is simply a reflection of the consciousness of the people whom they are governing.

RS: So if you're saying that lot of people think there's rampant corruption in public life in India does that reflect the collective corruption of our consciousness?

Dr. Sola: Everything is reflection.

RS: But there are many honest and hard working people also in this country, after all it is the land of sages and seers.

Dr. Sola: Yes but in order to experience unity one needs to experience duality as well, in order to appreciate unity rather one needs to have that experience. For example here we are sitting in a very comfortable room, its such a beautiful environment but if it happens to be very, very hot outside we won't really appreciate it right. So in order for us to have a better appreciation of non-duality we need to have that experience of duality as well. And it doesn't get any better than right now in the peak of the kali yuga, (the age of darkness) where everything is as bad as it's ever going to get. And that's why so many of us have chosen to take birth at this time, we want to be here when the Poorna Avatar is here and we want to experience the maximum duality that we can so that we can appreciate the unity that is. And it will come; it will come in the right time and the right place.

Much Easier Now to Connect to the Swami Within

RS: We all hope so as well. In light of Bhagawan's Maha Samadhi about 11 months ago, how do you relate to Him now?

Dr. Sola: For me I feel that I'm probably closer to the inner Swami than ever before. It has never been so easy to tune into Swami's will for me, again this is not a public thing I never go out and say 'this is what Swami said for me and you need to follow it' nothing like that. This is simply the inner guidance that is required for whatever activities, are present before me. So it's easier now to connect with Swami I feel than ever before. I think many devotees would agree with that as well. See when you are with Swami His form is so beautiful one smile, one glance and you are simply lost in that love. Just touching His feet you feel thrilled and thrilled and thrilled and thrilled!

RS: To the core.

Dr. Sola: Yes, I remember in those days how wonderful it was, Swami would simply just come and sit right in front of me you know hardly a foot away. And I would take padanamaskar after padanamaskar, then I would say 'no, no I shouldn't be so greedy'. And then I would just sit back and just enjoy being in the Divine Presence, it's so blissful, so wonderful, so beautiful; but having said that we have to learn to recognize Swami within us as us. There's no separation of anything from anything, the moment we see two, maya is in operation.

And what happens when we have such a beautiful form like Swami's is that we begin to get attached to it. We don't want to be anywhere else, we don't want to see anything else we only think Swami, we only feel Swami, we want to be with that form as much as possible. Even if we are with Him one time or a thousand times, it is such a blissful state that we always want to be with him. Yet what happens is because of that attachment we impede our own spiritual progress. And so although the Guru, the Master is required for our spiritual growth, in the end that attachment to the Guru or the Master becomes an obstacle to our growth. And so the Guru has to leave, it always has to be that way. If it weren't then Rama, Krishna, Budhha, Jesus everybody else would still be here and we would still be learning from them. And so Swami also has to leave so that this part of our growth can be completed and the next stage can begin. And now that Swami is physically no longer here, now we're learning to see Swami as being everywhere not just in Prasanthi Nilayam but in everything, as everything.

Once I told the boys, "See for so long you're used to seeing Swami coming in His orange robe. Once in a while He might come out in a white robe or perhaps even a crimson robe or on Krishna Janmashtmi a yellow robe and how beautiful He looked but now Swami has dawned His universal robe." And I tell them the same eagerness, the same enthusiasm that you used to wait for Swami's darshan you should now be waiting and looking for Swami within yourself. And when you develop that same determination you will find Him there and you realize that that Sai is what you really are. Your not the body, your not your name, your not your form, your not your ego, your not your personality you are that God self which is everything and there is nothing else.

RS: Very inspiring words, appreciate your coming down to Puttaparthi for this conversation. Thank you and Sai Ram.

Dr. Sola: Thank you and Sai Ram

TOMADO DE:

http://media.radiosai.org/journals/vol_10/01MAY12/04_Dr.Sola_03.htm

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