Sairam, everyone,
A one-time follower of Swami's has been elected President of El Salvador.
Francisco Flores is a former President of El Salvador's National Assembly. He has a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He graduated with a master's degree in philosophy from the World University of America, Ojai, started by well-known Sai-devotee, the late Benito F. Reyes.
He was, and still may be, a Sai devotee. Flores is playing down any connection with Swami at the present time, stressing his Catholicism instead. We must remember that El Salvador is only barely out of a long period of rampant violence and bloodshed and Flores, if he is to have a voice that is listened to, may not want to appear too far outside the mainstream of his society.
The newspaper articles appearing about the Flores election have this to say on the new President's connection with Swami.
El Salvador's newly elected president is ... the philosophical follower of an Indian guru who teaches non-violence....He spent the war years between 1983 and 1990 teaching philosophy and managing an irrigation project for a community of 300 families next door to the cattle ranch and stud farm he had inherited from his grandfather. He said he paid for the project himself while his wife, a school teacher, ran an elementary school for the families.
He said he had been gone from El Salvador between 1977 and 1983, when he went to college in the United States and ended up moving to India to study oriental philosophy after being "fascinated" by a professor's lecture at Harvard.
In 1981, he went to the World University of America in Ojai, Calif., a small unaccredited school moulded on the teachings of an Indian guru, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, with followers in more than 130 countries. (Toronto Globe and Mail, 10 March 1999, A12.)
CNN News Online calls him "a former parliament speaker and onetime student of an Indian guru." (7 March 1999.) ARENA Party spokesman Walter Araujo said the choice of Flores was a result of "a permanent evolution" within the party and his campaign style responded to "the desire of Salvadorans ... to not have confrontation. There is a need to seek solutions for the country." (CNN News Online, 6 March 1999.) ARENA has been until now the party of the land-owner class.
CNN continues:
Flores is something else altogether. In the early 1980s, he reportedly spent several years studying mystical philosophies, sometimes visiting gurus in India....He has a master's degree from World University in Ojai, Californai, whose name and curriculum were inspired by the Indian guru Sai Baba, according to its Internet site. (CNN New Online, 6 March 1999.)
The World University of America's website has this to say about the school:
In 1974, Drs. Benito F. Reyes and Dominga L. Reyes founded World University in Ojai, with the name of the school provided by the holy man and world teacher Sathya Sai Baba of India. The Sathya Sai Education in Human Values program provided an important model for the school's global and spiritually oriented curriculum.
Dr. V.K. Gokak, who was very close to Swami (he died some years ago), made a very interesting comment that is germaine to Flores' election. Dr. Gokak said:
The "Hour of God" is the hour of the unexpected; there will be different patterns in things. We may find that all elections that take place will place good men into positions of power. It is the good men that will begin to lead the industries. It will be the good men that will serve the people. Then there will be a great change in the very atmosphere. This will be one of the signs of the coming of the Golden Age. [1]
No one knows exactly what Dr. Gokak meant by "the Hour of God." It may occur on Swami's Birthday, 23 Nov. 2000 and be a spectacular revelation of Swami's "full" power. But Flores' election may be the first of many elections of Swami's followers, as more and more eyes, political and otherwise, turn to Him.
Joy and peace,
Nirmal
[1] Gokak, V.K. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba (An Interpretation). New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1975, 54.