(healings, levitation, materialization of fruit, sweets, pencils, pictures etc. and clairvoyance). At approximately age 14, Sathya Sai Baba made a claim that he was the reincarnation of the fakir, Sai Baba of Shirdi. To validate his claim it is alleged that jasmine flowers were dropped onto the ground and that they miraculously arranged themselves into the words "Sai Baba" in Telugu. At that time, he began his spiritual mission. The first volume of Sathya Sai Speaks covers discourses given during the years 1953 to 1960. In this volume can be read the many early claims of divinity made by Sathya Sai Baba, including those of omnipotence and omniscience. During the month of June 1963, Sathya Sai Baba suffered a stroke and 4 heart attacks. His left side was paralysed, and the sight in his left eye and speech were badly affected. After sprinkling water on his left hand and leg, he made a full recovery and delivered a Guru Poornima discourse. During the discourse he said, "Shiva said that they (Shiva and Shakti) would take human form and be born in the Bharadwaja lineage, thrice: Shiva alone as Shirdi Sai Baba, Shiva and Shakthi together at Puttaparthi as Sathya Sai Baba, and Shakthi alone as Prema Sai, later." In a 1976 interview he repeated his claim to be a full divine Avatar, saying "I have come armed with the fullness of the power of formless God to correct mankind, raise human consciousness and put people back on the right path of truth, righteousness, peace and love to divinity." Between 1988 and 2006, Sathya Sai Baba suffered three accidents, the second of which left him with a fractured hip and a broken femur. He later moved among devotees in his car or Porte Chair. It is claimed that he performed a number of miracles including: levitation (both indoors and outdoors), bilocation, physical disappearances, changing granite into sugar candy, changing water into another drink, changing water into gasoline, producing objects on demand, changing the color of his gown while wearing it, multiplying food, healing acute and chronic diseases, appearing in visions and dreams, making different fruits appear on any tree hanging from actual stems, controlling the weather, physically transforming into various deities and physically emitting brilliant light. Sathya Sai Baba gained followers in India from the 1930s. Outside of India, he became popular from the 1960s and 1970s. During the period from