References

Every factual statement in the chapters on Ra, Bashar, Sathya Sai Baba and Patanjali can be checked against the sources below. They are listed by chapter, and most of them are freely available on the internet.

This is deliberate. A book that asks its reader to form an opinion from several sources has an obligation to show its own.

Ra: The Law of One#

The complete material, in the 106 transcribed sessions, is distributed free of charge by L/L Research, the organization founded by Don Elkins and Carla L. Rueckert.

• The Ra Contact: Teaching the Law of One, vols. 1 and 2. L/L Research. The complete, annotated edition of the 106 sessions, originally published between 1982 and 1998 as The Law of One, books I to V, and also known as The Ra Material.
• Complete sessions, with audio and transcript — llresearch.org/channeling/ra-contact
• Session 1, of January 15, 1981, in which Ra introduces itself and states the Law of One — lawofone.info/s/1
• Session 106, of March 15, 1984, the last one — lawofone.info/s/106
• Synopsis of the fundamental ideas: densities, the Choice, harvest and polarities — lawofone.info/synopsis.php
• Searchable index of the whole material, by subject and by term — lawofone.info
• History and origins of L/L Research: the forming of the meditation group in 1961, the arrival of Jim McCarty and the beginning of the contact — llresearch.org/history
• Biography of Carla L. Rueckert: her background, the beginning of her channeling in 1974, the years of the contact and her death in 2015 — llresearch.org/about/carla-rueckert

Bashar#

The Bashar material has no closed canonical edition: it spans more than forty years of public sessions. The sources below are those of the channel himself and of his organization.

• About Darryl Anka: the 1973 sightings, the 1983 contact and the beginning of the public work — bashar.org/darryl-anka
• Basic principles: the thirteen fundamentals, including excitement as the physical translation of the vibration of the core self — bashar.org/principles
• The Five Laws of Creation — bashar.org/fivelaws
• The Excitement Formula, in its three parts — bashar.org/formula
• ANKA, Darryl. Bashar: Blueprint for Change — A Message from Our Future**. New Solutions Publishing, 1990. A book compilation** of the early years of the material.

Sathya Sai Baba#

The discourses of Sathya Sai Baba are collected in the series Sri Sathya Sai Speaks, in more than forty volumes, published by the Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust and available in full at saispeaks.sathyasai.org. The passages quoted in this book come from the following discourses:

• Vol. 36 (2003), ch. 21 — discourse of December 25, 2003, at Prasanthi Nilayam, entitled You Are God Yourself. Contains "You are God yourself", "Develop firm faith that you are God" and the explanation of the Soham mantra — saispeaks.sathyasai.org/discourse/you-are-god-yourself
• Vol. 34 (2001), discourse 13 — of July 5, 2001, at Prasanthi Nilayam, entitled I And You Are One. Contains "The same Atma is present in you, Me, and everyone else" and the Sanskrit formulas Ekoham Bahusyam, Easwara Sarva Bhutanam, Isavasyam Idam Sarvam and Ekam Sath Viprah Bahudha Vadanthi — saispeaks.sathyasai.org/discourse/i-and-you-are-one
• Vol. 24 (1991), discourse 21 — of July 26, 1991, at Prasanthi Nilayam, entitled Discover the God within you. Contains "Man is not a petty being" and "You are the Atma" — saispeaks.sathyasai.org/discourse/discover-god-within-you
• Vol. 17 (1984) — discourse of July 13, 1984, The triple promise, with the opening salutation Embodiments of the Divine Atma — saispeaks.sathyasai.org/discourse/triple-promise
• Vol. 25 (1992) — discourse of October 4, 1992, See The One In The Many, with the same salutation — saispeaks.sathyasai.org/discourse/see-one-many
• Vol. 27 (1994) — discourse of June 5, 1994, Share your love, with the same salutation — saispeaks.sathyasai.org/discourse/share-your-love
• Life and legacy, with the date of the October 1940 declaration, the five human values and the present reach of the organization — sathyasai.org/sathya-sai/life-and-legacy

The explanation of the concept of Atma, in the same chapter, draws on classical texts of Indian thought, much older than Sai Baba and often quoted by him:

• Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2, verse 20 — the description of the Atma as unborn, eternal and unchanging, which is not slain when the body is slain.
• The four mahavakyas, the "great sayings" that the Vedanta tradition brings together to affirm the identity of Atma and Brahman: Prajnanam Brahma (Aitareya Upanishad); Aham Brahmasmi (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.4.10); Tat Tvam Asi (Chandogya Upanishad, 6.8.7); and Ayam Atma Brahma (Mandukya Upanishad).

Patanjali and Yoga#

• PATANJALI. Yoga Sutras**. The 196 aphorisms, in four chapters**: Samadhi Pada (51), Sadhana Pada (55), Vibhuti Pada (56) and Kaivalya Pada (34). The passages quoted in this book are aphorisms 1.1 to 1.4 (the definition of yoga as cessation and the Seer's abiding in its own nature), 1.12 to 1.14 (practice and non-attachment), 2.3 and 2.5 (the five kleshas and the definition of avidya), 2.29 to 2.32 (the eight limbs, the yamas and the niyamas) and the fourth chapter (kaivalya). There are many English editions; the renderings here are my own, made from the transliterated Sanskrit and by comparing English translations.
• On dating and authorship — the distinction between Patanjali the grammarian of the Mahabhashya, of the 2nd century BCE, and the author of the Yoga Sutras, placed between the 2nd century BCE and the 5th century CE. The dating to around the year 400 is the one proposed by the philologist Philipp A. Maas, based on comparison with contemporary Buddhist texts.
• On the Samkhya philosophy, from which Patanjali inherits the distinction between purusha and prakriti, which underpins the whole system.