Sathya Sai Baba began his role as a spiritual/universal teacher at a very young age through folk songs, theater, exposition from scriptures and personal example the virtues of living a purposeful life. His family, classmates, teachers and others in the village were astounded by the extraordinary simplicity and clarity of His message. For more than five decades, Sathya Sai Baba communicated His message of love, universality and spirituality to a diverse audience from different faiths, countries, culture and traditions. The uniqueness of His style was that He explained age old concepts with new insights and examples that addressed the needs of the modern society. He repeatedly emphasized that He had come to reconstruct the ancient highway to spirituality and not to found a new religion or cult. His writings and discourses have been carefully documented.

The official record of thousands of public discourses made by  Bhagavan Baba from 1953 through 2009 are contained in 42 volumes of Sathya Sai Speaks. The public discourses were given in various cities of India and where-ever available an audio recording has been included.  Vahinis (in English and other languages) are a collection of essays that were penned by Bhagawan Baba and published in the monthly magazine, Sanathana Sarathi (The Eternal Charioteer) under the auspices of Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust (Ltd).  During summer, Bhagawan Baba would conduct a month long course for students and youth on Indian culture and spirituality. He would also give a discourse at the end of each day. These discourses have been compiled under the series “Summer Showers.” Finally, “Letters” are a collection of correspondence between Bhagawan Baba with His students, followers or officers in the Organization.