Preface: I personally don't believe Sathya Sai Baba or any mythological / historical person is/was God. In this article, I've used the term "God" to refer those religious / mythological / historical figures.
Follow or not, believe or not, agree or not, Sathya Sai Baba remains one of the most influential and successful persons (???) ever born on this planet.
People who have some opinion on Sathya Sai Baba can be broadly categorized as:
Follow or not, believe or not, agree or not, Sathya Sai Baba remains one of the most influential and successful persons (???) ever born on this planet.
People who have some opinion on Sathya Sai Baba can be broadly categorized as:
- Those who believe in God and believe that Sathya Sai Baba is a God.
- Those who believe in God but don't believe that Sathya Sai Baba is a God.
- Those who don't believe in God and hence don't believe that Sathya Sai Baba is a God.
Those who believe in him quote innumerable anecdotes, fables and stories to prove his divinity. Those against him and rationalists show equal number of scientific reasonings, youtube links of his tricks, research studies to refute all his Godly powers. This tussle between believers and rationalists, faith and common sense, proof of divinity and trickery will never end in an agreement. The debate is here to stay.
But I'm amused at those second category of people who generally believe in the existence of God but deny that Sathya Sai Baba is a God.
If one believes in avatars like Rama, Krishna, Sai Baba or believes in messengers of God like Jesus, Mohammed whats stopping them from believing in Sathya Sai Baba ?
All the above mentioned great figures lived on this planet at some point in the history. People who revere them today do that because their fathers and forefathers asked them to do so. Forefathers got the legacy of belief from their ancestors and so on. Generations passed in that faith, belief and hence nobody asks the question as to why belief in somebody.
Rama is treated as God because one Valmiki wrote great things about him in Ramayana, the epic which influenced generations of mankind to be good. Krishna is treated as a God because Veda Vyas wrote great things about him in Mahabharata, the epic and Bhagavad Gita the holy scripture for Hindus.
Shirdi Sai Baba is treated as kaliyuga daivam because his followers and devotees have passed on the faith to next generations through books, stories about his miracles, his love and passion towards humankind.
Jesus is revered as an incarnation of the God the son, the messenger and healer, Mohammed is treated as a messenger of God; This is because of the transfer of faith from person to person and generation to generation. As per historical and religious studies, all these revered souls who are today regarded with utmost belief and respect have done great favor to the humankind by upholding righteousness, preaching good, justice, love.
But no devout Hindu or Muslim or Christian or any follower of a religion has ever seen or questioned or suspected the existence or miracles of God. Everybody follows a faith just because they were raised in such atmosphere or belief and faith. So if they can believe in the God recommended by others, why can't they believe in Sathya Sai Baba and his miracles blindly ?
Ain't believing in God, but suspecting Sathya Sai Baba tantamout to hypocrisy and double standards ?
If nobody has an iota of doubt about Lord Rama's turning a rock into an woman or Lord Krishna's demonstrating vishwaroopam, Shirdi Sai Baba's lighting lamps with water, Jesus' resurrection after crucification, Mohammed's revelations - Why is Sathya Sai Baba alone put under scanner to prove his divinity ? When he proclaims that he is an avatar or Shirdi Sai Baba, why can't they just accept it like they have been doing with other Gods without getting into logic, sense, rationality, reasoning ? Why this partiality towards Gods, huh :)
Coming back to my first sentence, Sathya Sai Baba is great for reasons known to many.
When he proclaimed he was a God, people instantly believed him, flocked to obtain his darshan and never gave a damn about any kind of disbelief as if they were waiting for his arrival. Now his follower base ranges from 6 million to 100 million. Who else can pull this off so successfully notwithstanding any hullabaloo from atheists, rationalists who bang their heads with proofs in their hands ?
His miracles are amateur and bland compared to those of PC Sorcors, David Copperfields; his oratory skills are below average, his teachings are not remarkably new or different from those of other saints or gurus, his knowledge in philosophy or religion was never demonstrated; he was a philanthropist but no other philanthropist is ever called "God" due to their social work. Yet, he has the confidence to declare that he is beyond all investigation, reason, comprehension, scrutiny or senses. Whoa !!! Who else can show-off such confidence.
I think twice to claim I'm good at what I'm good at but this man (???) could claim so much and nobody had a gut to take him off his pedestal from last 8 decades. Amazing and astonishing.
His trust worth officially some 
4,00,00,00,00,000 (yes that's 40 thousand crore) is exempted from all taxes, records, transparency; his VIP devotee list would be longer than this blog-post itself; heads of nations, most powerful industrialists, richest and most successful people form a beeline to get his blessings. Astonishing
4,00,00,00,00,000 (yes that's 40 thousand crore) is exempted from all taxes, records, transparency; his VIP devotee list would be longer than this blog-post itself; heads of nations, most powerful industrialists, richest and most successful people form a beeline to get his blessings. Astonishing
Despite building a wealthy empire, he was good enough as a philanthropist to share a part to people who believed in him. Though he didn't preach anything distinguishably new, he never incited his followers for his personal interests. May he RIP.
If he is indeed God, he is eternal beyond description for having spread the message of love to millions of his devotees and healing them all out of their distresses. If he was a fake, he is even greater for scripting and creating an aura for himself which brutally fooled millions of common, rich, powerful people for 8 decades.
Either ways, he lived a life Kingsize..err...Godsize !
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Trivia (silly stuff which you can skip) :D
- I wrote my EAMCET exam in Sathya Sai school in DD Colony, Hyderabad. Invigilators used to say "Sai Ram" before they speak anything and everybody thought my friend Sai Ram was cheating in the exam. But he got disqualified despite the name and exam center :-S
- I always feel AR Rahman looks so much like Sathya Sai Baba minus saffron robes and that hairdo :D
14 comments:
I'd like to ask the difference among all Gods u've mentioned there. But what makes them so unique? such that Every one exist in this earth But Jesus alone resurrected from death (Easter).
Indians ( Infact Human Beings ) Will Not change Anna .. They Will forget Good Things ( 99 % ) Done By a Person & Start Commenting on the Unnecesary
( 1 % ) .. Don't Know What they Gain by this ..
Those Who Comment are Fit for Nothing ..!!
Chandu..
To me God is a divine force which is within one's self, in each and every creation not just one individual. I give a form to the emotion called divinity in me and to me it is convenient to have the ones drilled down through ages by our ancestors rather than a person who is in front of me, who to my half knowledge is not entirely genuine, so while believing in God, I totally disagree Satya Narayana Raju alias Satya Sai baba is a God.
There is way too much of mystery and vagueness surrounding him, why is GOD not transparent, why the massive coverups each time. There is a sense of uneasiness in me when I try focusing on him, neither am I motivated by his speeches, to be honest I get repulsed at times with so much of his megalomania yet I am in awe of this human being who did so much, who has not even completed his 9th Standard having a grip on who is who of elite in the world, rulers at his feet.
If we are taught to look at God in every individual, I see the same God in him that I see in you but I dont agree he is the reincarnation of the God. So I fall in the category you do not understand :).
If Sachin is God of Cricket, ARR God of music, then I dont mind calling him God of needy for what he did.
To me he falls in the category of Hitler, Gandhi and Satya Narayana Raju.. people who had tremendous influence on people who followed them.
@ Jeya: Gods are as unique as those who captured them in scriptures and fables.
@ Santhosh: Commenting on positive and negative attributes are two sides of the same coin. People under public scrutiny are bound to realize that :)
@ Sree: I understand the category you fall in because I myself fall in the same category :) pls read http://being-chandu.blogspot.com/2010/08/oh-my-god.html
I tried to relate this context to the kind of belief people have in other religious and mythological figures which is equally ambiguous and unscientific.
I dont resort to cheap commenting on him neither do I propagate..but I guess we just belong to different faiths, he and me, I mean :).
Serving hands are better than praying lips and I prefer to look at the serving hands :).
okay, in this context is the comment :).
Sharath
Nice write up.
You forgot another category,
--- who believe in God, don't believe sathya sai baba is God, but do believe that he is spiritually elevated than many
Shireen
While we all are looking at GOD as an element in which is historically, mythologically or religiously acclaimed figures, These all figures had also claimed in their lifetimes that they were GOD.
Rama proved with his miracles whether it was converting a woman out of stone (ahilya) or creating a bridge of stones which floated with his name on it. This was later documented and over the years since times immemorial has been taught though generations that is why we believe. otherwise several 100 thousand men and women have taken birth on this earth who have never been mentioned. GOD is not the one who is written about. GOD or spark of divine is one who knows he is the ONE.
Jesus claimed he was son of GOD,
Mohammed that he was messenger,
Krishna that he was vishnu's avtaar,
Buddha claimed to receive the enlightenment,
Sachin claims through his bat,
It is the confidence and awareness which makes u divine not the scriptures and stories and poems....
@ Shireen: Thanks and You're right :) As mentioned in the preface, I tried to confine the definition of God to those religious figures and didn't delve much into the spiritual aspect :)
@ Sathya Sai Youth: Today you can say you have "confidence", "awareness" and that religious figures "proved" only because you were told by somebody else through some media (scriptures, stories, poems and many more)
When people can worship and believe a brick with some kumkum applied on it then what is the perplexity in worshipping Satya Sai. Plain belief nothing else!!!!
Nice write up.
I observe this psychology.
Quite often people who believe in God or pass on judgements such as "Thy who comment on Mr. God shall become useless"... well, it used to be something like "Thy shall starve at deathbed". But, the judgements take alignment with the current day social psychology. Such judgements does have some impact on one's thought process. I just feel that Sai Baba's believers are blindly faithful to express such judgements and that has had an exponential effect in shaking thought process of people. More number of people were drawn to him because of that.
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Jai Sai Baba...
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