A Philosophy major from Lady Sri Ram College, N. Delhi, known as Arti Gupta at the time, Mira Sai also pursued studies in Child Developmental Psycho-Pathology at Stanford University, CA and World Religion studies in Ojai, CA, where she was ordained as a spiritual minister. She has also studied and practiced as a highly successful Financial Advisor, well-known as Arti Gupta – A Name People Trust, designing financial portfolios for corporations and individuals, including the formation of Wills and Trusts, and receiving numerous awards every year. She also practices as a Realtor in N. California, specializing in interior design, construction and refurbishing properties. At present, Mira Sai is the Founder/CEO of a 501(c) (3) Non-profit Public Charitable Organization, The Sai Foundation in California and Co-Founder of Holistic Living, Inc. USA, a company specializing in Hospice programs and Medical Tourism.
She became the CEO of her own large scale wholesale clothing business, with her showroom on Broadway, New York City, USA, at the young age of 23 years, when a holiday to New York in 1973 proved quite significant, becoming as it did, a permanent move to America.
Having moved to California in 1982, she served on the Board of Trustees of the Fremont Temple in California and also served as Vice-President of the Nargis Dutt Cancer Foundation of the Northern CA Chapter, with Shri. Sunil Dutt M.P., organizing fundraisers in the U.S. and sending medical equipment for cancer patients to hospitals in India. A substantial donor, she was very often seen at California political fundraisers for Jerry Brown, Diane Feinstein, Pete Wilson and the like. Highly regarded, she was invited as Guest of Honor at public Indian functions and Indian Associations which were invariably always covered by media.
Enjoying a high-end lifestyle, Mira Sai’s life took a 360 degree turn, with a ‘near death’ experience in a fatal car accident, while driving her Mercedes Benz convertible in 1994. She experienced going to the ‘Other Side’, and then mysteriously returning back – alive!
With this profound near-death experience opening her up to the Higher Awareness of the purpose of life and the Truth of her reality, it was inevitable for her normal, ambitious, worldly life to take a new turn and enter into a dramatic phase of spiritual orientation, with a far deeper and higher purpose. This was not about going into the forest – but living in the world – with head in the forest… In essence, it was about being in the world – not of it – but for it….
Having gained the ultimate experience of oneness with the Supreme Consciousness when she was on the ‘Other Side’, the realization of the impermanence of the drama of the ‘life’ movie and the permanence of the screen it is played upon, became experientially clear. Detachment from the world and worldly activities set in, and with her inner guidance prompting her, she walked away without looking back, from her name, fame, wealth and properties to Sai Baba’s ashram in Puttaparthi. For five years, she focused and delved deeper into her higher self, while living a simple life in the ashram…at which time, she was also blessed with the rare occurrence of a name change, from Arti Gupta to ‘Mira Sai’ – given in an interview by Sai Baba.
Upon her return to California, her non-profit organization, The Sai Foundation opened a multi-faith Sai temple-sanctuary in San Jose, CA for five years till 2011, which fed more than 30,000 people over a five year period and distributed blankets and clothes for the homeless in winter. For the hundreds of people who visited, it offered meditation, stress relief yoga, counseling, her own invention of a Sai Yoga program, devotional and spiritual talks, professionally organized spiritual functions, prayers, regular devotional singing and many more activities of like nature.
Mira Sai has also had singularly rare experiences in the course of her numerous journeys to highly sacred places in the Himalayas. Climbing perilously steep mountains in snow and heat, bathing and meditating in almost a dozen holy rivers, in freezing temperatures, and meditating in powerful caves in the Himalayas, as also at Mt. Shasta in the US, and in Buddhist monasteries in Thailand are only some of the remarkable spiritual engagements she has been involved in over the years.
At present, she is in the process of building a world-class professional recording studio in Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram in Puttaparthi, India, to provide a platform for musicians/artistes for creative expression of their talents in devotional music and other classical genres. Furthermore, the installation by her of an Industrial Drinking Water RO plant in Puttaparthi, is quenching the thirst of more than 2500 people every day.
She has personally narrated and produced two professional Audio books of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Vidya Vahini’ and ‘Geetha Vahini’ and a devotional songs CD called Sai Ananda. She enjoys painting and is an author too, having recently published her first book, “Enstasy – Standing Inside Oneself” and a beautifully rendered Music CD Album with poem narration.
The last 40 odd years, with the grace of her spiritual master, Sai Baba, have seen Mira Sai negotiate with aplomb a multi-faceted journey… From being a CEO at the age of 23 and tackling different facets of the corporate business world of America to being drawn into the mighty spiritual world; being a millionaire and then leaving it all without a murmur; becoming an ascetic and then re-entering the world again for good works; traveling extensively, and being at ease with both a prince or a pauper… All these are only some of the momentous life experiences gathered by Mira Sai, and which have shaped her unique personality. A philanthropist, non-judgmental, compassionate and a loving soul, Mira Sai has garnered a wealth of experience in many varied areas. The trials and tribulations, highs and lows, gains and losses, that came her way, have been tackled with equanimity and courage. Fame, fortune, wealth, all courted her, but it was the one life-changing experience of ‘the accident’, that put it all into clear perspective for her… bringing as it did, Realization of the non-permanence of it all… and the Truth of her own reality and the reality of all Existence… “You Are the Power, You Are the Truth, You Are the Love, You Are… ALL that you Seek!”