Sri Sathya Sai Baba a life
by Bill Aitken
In his preface, Aitken writes,
What Sathya Sai Baba arouses in me is a feeling so maddeningly beautiful that I am convinced everyone in the world would wish to experience it. Unfortunately, Sathya Sai's healing abilities have been overlaid by the bad press that stalks all those who claim acquaintance with what is holy.
Point of View
Aitken tells us that writing about god-men and those who claim to be holy is
a controversial activity. Many gurus, wandering monks and spiritual teachers
have demonstrated siddhi powers, walked on water, materialised this and that
object, and exhausted their powers with their showmanship. Enormous wealth is
common to many holy men; devotees surrender tan, man and dhan
to the guru (body, mind, wealth).
Some godmen have large
followings and number Prime Ministers, politicians and film stars in their
retinue. Others flash their wealth with imported cars, their own planes and
imported jersey herds. Some have been arrested and jailed. This topic, in
modern day India, is fraught with difficulty, with claims, counter-claims,
certainty and doubts. How does one assess a guru or god-man? Upwards of 500 men
and women have made such claims in modern independent India. How is Aitken
going to treat this contentious subject?
A little further into the
preface, Bill Aitken tells his reader what point of view he is going to
take:
This study views the Sai Parampara from the standpoint of a sympathetic outsider—one who wants to convey the remarkable power of love at work but who, at the same time, is willing to answer the criticisms that any such large–scale movement attracts.
Aitken uses a term, Sai Parampara a phrase he uses to describe the 'Sai Tradition' which encompasses Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai (and Prema Sai, who is yet to come). This 'Parampara' breaks with orthodox tradition in both Islam and Hinduism by facilitating a direct contact with spirit and bypassing the need for priestly and ritual intervention.
The Sai Parampara emphasises the presence of the spirit in ordinary life and enthrones human love in the sacred space formerly reserved for a divine potentate ... Sai Parampara has removed the priestly middleman from the devotee's (relationship) with the divine.
The author goes on to observe, 'What surprises the visitor to Puttaparthi the most is not the absence of priests but the absence of a sanctum sanctorum where offerings are made ... Both Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai point to the human heart as the only true temple since this is where love resides."
A starting point ...
Aitken makes a telling observation with regard to enquiry into the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba. Perhaps deriving from Aitken's Indianness (he is a native of Mussorie), Aitken writes that the principal point of entry into the teachings of Sathya Sai is the doctrine of 'living darshan'. This comes from the constant exposure to love in divine darshan. However, Aitken spells out how the chain letters of both postal mails and the internet have confused seekers and enquirers:
Sadly, many people who could be helped by the reservoir of love generated at a Puttaparthi darshan decline the opportunity due to intellectual reservations. These arise from an attendant irritant to the Sai phenomena—the devotional excesses of some followers who make ridiculous claims and see miracles where none exist. For instance, the neurotic transmitting of chain letters by some devotees which urge the receiver to keep up the communication link for fear of something untoward happening has annoyed the public and cheapened the name of the movement. The story of the Sai Parampara thus has to be prised out of the extreme views of the opposite camps—those who worship blindly and swallow the most absurd assumptions, and those doubters and cynics who assume only delusion, profiteering and superstition to be at work.
Aitken's introduction to the Sai Parampara was through Arthur Osborne and his book, The Incredible Sai Baba. Aitken respects the needs of his readers and provides a rare introduction to Indian spiritual traditions vis-a-vis the Sai Parampara by fully exploring the Deccan setting of these incarnations. History of the islamic influences, the histories and ancient backgrounds of each region, and language differences are all explored. He has done his research into the life of Shirdi Sai, referring to Hedmapant's Sri Sai Satcharita, Narasimhaswami's Life of Sai Baba, and examines the claims for the Hindu origins of Shirdi Sai over the Islamic claims (Sai Baba of Shirdi was a muslim fakir), which are somewhat on the increase in scholarly circles in this day and age.
Being ever pragmatic (and perhaps exposing his own experience as a native of India) the author points out a certain sanitisation of both Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai by other authors:
The lives of both Shirdi and Sathya Sai have been sought to be sankritised by the pens of well-meaning authors who imagine that they are doing society a favour by editing out facts like the fondness the surrounding populations of both Shirdi and Puttaparthi have for meat and country liquor. The point these fastidious pens miss is that true religion has little to do what what a man eats or drinks. In sanitising the guru they have overlooked the spiritual hardiness of the (devotees) who, in spite of their worldly appetites, can recognise the real spirit when they see it.
Aitken goes on to point out what divinity in ordinary is, as experienced in the daily darshan rounds at Puttaparthi:
Over the last sixty years, the observer has been able to witness the unfolding of the extraordinary ordinariness of life's spiritual dimension operating in the daily routine of Sathya Sai. Before your eyes you can experience divinity exploring its own wonders and relive the invigorating impact great souls like the Buddha, Christ and Shirdi Sai have hand on their followers. Here you feel you are in touch with love's reality as you experience the exhilaration of being in the presence of a person who radiates the bliss of the spirit.
Sanitising Sai Baba,
and the Darshan Rounds
An amount of sanitisation and haiography occurs around the lives of the great, and perhaps more so, the spiritual greats of humanity. Aitken in his own fashion asserts Baba's biographer, Kasturi "hinduised" Sathya Sai, accented the fantastic and unusual events surrounding the birth of Sathya Sai, and points to Kasturi sweeping away the embarrassment of poverty to ensure the acceptance of the divinity of Sathya Sai. Shirdi Sai's biographers come in for similar criticism. This is most likely due Aitken writing for a readership of what would seem to be principally North Indian readers.
Aitken's text is useful however, as he has done his own research, and as a sympathetic observer, he shares his own penetrating insights. For example, as told, Aitken is writing for a North Indian audience. Other godmen, Sivananda and Muktananda, were more well known in the North. Baba had been invited to travel to the North after the All India Divine Life Conference, Venkatagiri in 1957. Aitken unravels the point of view of entrenched caste-ridden and prejudiced/splintered country with warring religious factions - how can they accept a teenage sat guru? Thus, Aitken shows how the various early authors around Sathya Sai Baba had to create an accolade of respectability for Sathya Sai Baba throughout India.
For example, Aitken tells that a visit to Puttaparthi can also be an unsettling experience for an intellectual seeker, expecting to see just another holy man. In fact, what they often fail to see is something infinitely grander. Aitken writes, only the soul prepared for the full vision is vouchsafed the grace of finding love in this slight frame of Sathya Sai Baba. And when you have love, who needs religion or anything else? Aitken goes on to write that Sathya Sai has no equal that he is aware of, in the entire history of religion when it comes to combining simple living with a phenomenal and sustained radiation of a spiritual aura which in turn, is translated into an array of good works.
Aitken has done some homework and mentions the six aspects of an poorna avatar. He also mentions one seventh aspect, that of a 'scientific avatar'. This is attributed to Puttaparthi devotees, because Sai Baba cautions people to examine and experience for themselves instead of accepting any teacher or message blindly. This is yet another instance of effusive devotees going too far claiming everything is a miracle, everything has a divine meaning, and now positing new attributes to divine incarnations. Despite these aberrations, Aitken gets it right:
For a seeker, the Puttaparthi experience veers from outward single-minded focus on one person to the inner struggle to establish the truth of that undying presence within. The battle against the mind's doubting is fought a hundred times daily and lost-only to be won back briefly at darshan. But slowly the ocean of love reclaims the sandy shore of the devotee's doubts.
Answering the Critics
This is the first book which attends the criticisms which recently surrounded Sathya Sai Baba, in print and on the Internet. Aitken mentions Shirdi Sai Baba likening his critics to thirsty men who come to a tap with their pots held upside down and then complain that there is no water.
The rationalists and their strategies come in for some examination. The work of Abraham Kavoor in exposing magicians and frauds posing as miracle workers and godmen is lauded. However, Kavoor's conclusions that there is no such thing as a miracle is debunked. From rational critics, Aitken moves to irrational critics, the over-enthusiastic disciple who turns apostate. A pattern in Puttaparthi malcontents is outlined. "First the guru builds them up, gives them a front row seat to make them feel they are part of the ashram inner circle, and generally showers attention in their direction. Then, assured of their love, the guru starts the work of demolishing their unreal self."
Aitken sympathises with those who throw in the towel since he nearly did so himself, upon receiving the guru's brush-off. Ultimately, Aitken writes, "we have to find the teaching in our self and understand that the guru is only an outer representative of that which is undying within".
Tal Brooke's Lord of the Air is a somewhat customary tale of an inexperienced traveller's tale with claims of 'revealing' to the world what charlatans exist behind a guru's robes. How can they hope to perceive a genuine teacher? Aitken observes that David Bailey and Brooke used the Internet to try and discredit Sai Baba. Bailey and others alleged improper conduct, but did not produce any other content other than hearsay, writes Aitken. Bailey's case self-destructed, writes Aitken, when he recognised his inability to discredit Sai Baba's reputation by salacious innuendo, and launched into a general tirade, farcical in the wildness of its allegations, against the ashram and its workings.
Aitken points out the futility of trying to discredit Sai Baba's 30 million followers as pure simpletons. He recalls a story of a Catholic monk witnessing arathi (waving of the sacred flame before an idol of a deity) for the first time, and coming to the conclusion that he was verily in Hell. Aitken, native of India, has most likely witnessed this time after time with foreigners visiting India. His conclusion is "Such overkill reveals the familiar scenario of an unbalanced believer who, unsure of his moorings, takes on a guru to bail him out of his confusion. Religious hatred is a sign of misguided energies and this may explain why followers who turn apostate invariably express their frustration through sexual innuendo." It is interesting that Aitken's observations about being bailed out by a guru, and misguided energies are verified in Sam Sandweiss's new book, Man with Love is God.
A word of love
This is not an "I discovered Sai Baba" book. This is a thought provoking book which has received rave reviews. Penguin Books India have done an excellent job in editing and presentation of this book. The Sai Parampara expresses the truly Indian instinct of welcoming plurality (as opposed to the orthodox Hindu attitude of tolerating it). Its universal message is not based on textual cliches regarding the oneness of things. Instead, it derives from the experiencing of multiple identities as witnessed in the contrasting figures of Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai. A welcome book, with an excellent historical background and overview of the secular and religions traditions of both North and South India.
Knowledgeable and well versed devotees may not appreciate the offerings of this book in a first, fast reading. It repays re-reading, and careful attention to the fact that Aitken's reader is North-Indian. For all the failures in fact checking and apparent dumbing down of Sathya Sai Baba to human formulae so common to the phenomenon of godmen in India, Aitken gets it right:
There is only one last word, and that is love. Love not as a doctrinal extra, but a necessary tool that can alone effect any transformation. Not even the finest philosophy can work without love. Only love delivers us beyond all life's questions. This is the one grace worth having and that is why, rich and poor alike, overcoming the difficulties, repair to Puttaparthi.