ON the wall of the clinic of my dentist in Petaling Jaya hangs the famous portrait of Sathya Sai Baba, the spiritual figure who was revered as India’s ‘living god’ until his death last Sunday.
When I asked my good dentist why she was a follower of Sai Baba, her quick and simple reply tells all about the Indian guru and how millions around the world revered him and lived by his teachings.
“Sai Baba was a man who taught all about faith, hope, charity and love among mankind. He not only taught others about his beliefs but had actually practised and lived by his proclamations,” my dentist of Indian descent proudly told me.
I must confess that I have always been fascinated by Sathya Sai Baba. I have read quite a bit about him in the past.
This was a charismatic man who was able to draw people towards him like a magnet. He was also known as a ‘miracle man’, able to perform extraordinary feats before an audience. His followers would readily kneel before him to obtain his blessing as if he was god.
But god he wasn’t and his ‘reign’ as a spiritualist was not without controversy.
Although Sai Baba had nearly six million followers around the world, including former prime ministers, top businessmen and the glitterati from the sports and movie fields, there were those who alleged that he was a fraud.
Just look at the number of videos on YouTube and you will know why. His detractors described him as a mere magician and illusionist who made a living from his bag of tricks and personal charm.
Whether the accusations against him were true or not is anybody’s guess. Sai Baba largely ignored such negatives about his life and work. So did his devotees.
But let’s be fair to the man or ‘god man’, as he was also known. Whether it’s inner peace or spiritual healing that one seeks, the most important thing is to believe that it’s possible. It will happen. There must be faith.
So when a man comes along and is able to help you believe that anything is possible, and that you are able to receive that important faith through him, it really doesn’t matter what others say about him.
This was what Sai Baba was able to do while others could not. This made him stood out among other men.
Perhaps the other more prominent person on the Indian subcontinent more well know than Sai Baba (minus the likes of Shah Rukh Khan and other Bollywood stars) was Mahatma Gandhi.
The founder of India’s independence preached non-violence in his quest to release his nation from British rule. Like Gandhi, Sai Baba also preached peace and like Gandhi too, he was a man of peace.
For India, Mahatma Gandhi was a godsend. To his devotees, Sai Baba was a ‘god man’. Whatever ill their detractors may speak of them, there was never any doubt among the Indian people that Gandhi and Sathya Sai Baba were two of their proudest sons. In death, they remain so too.
Unlike Gandhi however, Sathya Sai Baba believed that he would be reincarnated. I suppose any spiritual guru would believe so for that is the way to enable the faith to continue and live on.
Raj Chengappa, editor of the Tribune of India, wrote early this week that “when he was alive, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, whose mortal remains were buried at Puttaparthi on Wednesday morning, was clear that for him death was not the end”.
“Thirty years ago, in a rare interview to me on his 55th birthday on November 23, 1980, I had asked him about what would happen to him after he died. He replied: ‘Life and death are only for a body. I am not a body.’ Pointing to his handkerchief, he added: ‘It (my body) is like my handkerchief. It is mine. Yet I am separate from it. I will be reincarnated when I die.’”
In his article entitled ‘Sathya Sai Baba and life after death’, Chengappa recounted an occasion where he had a fi rst-hand experience about the guru’s magnetic pull among his devotees. He wrote that he was even a bit put off by such extreme faith.
“When I spoke to some of the devotees they said they were present because Sathya Sai Baba had helped them in one way or the other. He was known as India’s man of miracles not just for this ability but also for his penchant for producing rings from thin air or showering devotees with vibhuti (holy ash) that seemed to ooze from his palms. Many rationalists criticised him for such acts and said they could prove that a magician could equal such feats.
“There were times when I was put off though by the sycophancy and the ostentatious rituals of the devotees. I had written that Sathya Sai Baba ‘is treated like a king’. He sits on a silver-brocaded chair throne. His devotees always addressed him as Bhagwan.
I recalled my surprise when a well known scientist told me: ‘I believe he is God. I follow him. I serve him. I worship him, whatever I do is in the feeling that he is God.’”
Let me conclude this tribute to Sathya with his tales, mostly in parables, on some issues worth pondering upon.
On India: “We have politicians without principles. They are useless and dangerous. Politicians are interested in power and not in helping people. They are narrow-minded. On platforms all politicians are heroes but practically they are zeroes.”
On his miracles: “My biggest miracle is love. The rest is chotta. Just like in jalebis, burfi s, rasgullas and other sweets the common ingredient is sugar so also love is the common ingredient in our lives. Be the embodiment of love. That is the way to peace.”
On mental peace: “Mental peace is not outward. You cannot buy it anywhere. It is within you. See my handkerchief. You will say it is handkerchief but it is really cloth. The cloth is made from cotton and the cotton from threads.
Thoughts are threads, desires cotton and the mind is the product. If the former are interwoven properly the mind will not tear easily. It will be a whole and at peace.”
On himself: “My heart is free from trouble and worries. My hands are for society. I am part of the peace that people seek.”
As you have given so many, including my Petaling Jaya dentist, so much hope and peace, those left on earth will now pray that you, Sathya Sai Baba, will now fi nd the ultimate peace that you so truly deserve.
Comments can reach the writer via [email protected].