Shirdi Sai Baba

Pier Paolo Pasolini ha scritto un libro con questo titolo "Odore dell'India". Già… Ma che odore è? Chi l'ha conosciuto non lo scorda più. E' un misto d'incenso, smog, fiori, aria calda, di cocco, di polvere che entra dalle narici e investe l'anima. Lo ricordano per sempre il cervello e il cuore. E' la prima sensazione che s'avverte la mattina, spalancate le finestre del proprio appartamento nell'ashram di Sathya Sai Baba a Puttaparthi; un villaggio dell'Andra Pradesh nel sud dell'India.

I. सामाजिक चेतना क्या है?
मेरा लक्ष्य आधुनिक पश्चिमी सामाजिक विज्ञान को तीसरी शताब्दी के वैदिक विज्ञान के स्तर तक लाना है
सामाजिक चेतना वह है जो वह हमेशा मनोवैज्ञानिक शब्दों में रही है - मानदंड, भूमिकाएं, लगाव, सामाजिक पहचान सिद्धांत और इनग्रुप-आउटग्रुप सिंड्रोम, संचार, आदर्श, नैतिकता, समूह सीमाएं, सामूहिक व्यवहार, सामाजिक वास्तविकता, मानक व्यवहार। पहचान (जिसे अक्सर समूह संघ [अर्थात अमेरिकी], रूढ़िवादिता, सामाजिक पहचान, सांस्कृतिक प्रभाव, नकल, संबंधित होने की आवश्यकता, अपनेपन, और इसी तरह से आंका जाता है।
भौतिकवादी हठधर्मिता
अविश्वसनीय बात यह है कि सामाजिक मनोविज्ञान - मानो या न मानो - में सामाजिक चेतना की अवधारणा नहीं है। क्यों? क्योंकि फ़्लॉइड ऑलपोर्ट ने अपने भाई गॉर्डन ऑलपोर्ट की "मदद" से 1927 में मैकडॉगल के ग्रुप माइंड को ट्रैश कर दिया था - और इसके साथ सामाजिक चेतना को "केवल व्यक्ति के भीतर ही हम व्यवहार के तंत्र और चेतना को खोज सकते हैं जो बातचीत के लिए मौलिक हैं। लोगों के बीच ……… समूहों का कोई मनोविज्ञान नहीं है, जो व्यक्तियों का आवश्यक और पूर्ण मनोविज्ञान नहीं है।” इस भौतिकवादी हठधर्मिता को अक्सर इस विचार के रूप में व्यक्त किया जाता है कि "चेतना पूरी तरह से मस्तिष्क में न्यूरॉन्स की फायरिंग तक ही सीमित है।" किसी भी उद्देश्य को ध्यान में रखते हुए वैज्ञानिक इस बात से सहमत होंगे कि अंतिम विश्लेषण में मनुष्य एक "सामाजिक प्राणी" है - और इस तरह मनुष्य दूसरे और समाज के साथ घनिष्ठ रूप से जुड़े संबंधों के बारे में हैं - बेहतर या बदतर के लिए। जीवविज्ञानियों ने प्रदर्शित किया है कि प्राइमेट्स में नियोकोर्टेक्स का आकार प्रजातियों के समूह के आकार के साथ सहसंबद्ध है।
इसके अलावा, जब आप भारतीय वैदिक विज्ञान और हिंदू धर्म के साथ-साथ कन्फ्यूशीवाद जैसी सभ्यताओं को पश्चिमी समाज के बाहर देखते हैं, तो उन्होंने सामाजिक चेतना और सामाजिक संरचना की अच्छी तरह से विकसित अवधारणाएं तैयार कीं। हिंदू धर्म के वैदिक विज्ञान ने धर्म की अवधारणा का निर्माण किया, जो यह विचार है कि प्रत्येक मनुष्य का एक लौकिक भाग्य है, साथ ही एक सामाजिक भूमिका और कर्तव्य भी है। इसी तरह, "कन्फ्यूशीवाद को अक्सर धर्म के बजाय सामाजिक और नैतिक दर्शन की एक प्रणाली के रूप में वर्णित किया जाता है। वास्तव में, कन्फ्यूशीवाद पारंपरिक चीनी समाज के सामाजिक मूल्यों, संस्थानों और उत्कृष्ट आदर्शों को स्थापित करने के लिए एक प्राचीन धार्मिक नींव पर बनाया गया था। इसे ही समाजशास्त्री रॉबर्ट बेल्लाह ने "नागरिक धर्म" (कन्फ्यूशीवाद, एशिया सोसाइटी) कहा था। धार्मिक विश्वास। (पृष्ठ 781 हिगिंस और क्रुग्लांस्की द्वारा संपादित बुनियादी सिद्धांतों की सामाजिक मनोविज्ञान पुस्तिका)

B. V. Narasimhaswami (1874–1956) never met Shirdi Sai Baba face to face, for he arrived in Shirdi eighteen years after Sai Baba's death in 1918. However, the overwhelming sense of loving union he experienced in Shirdi convinced him that Sai Baba was still accessible from beyond the grave. For the remaining years of his life he worked relentlessly to spread Sai Baba's name throughout India. This article examines the tension between inclusion and exclusion in Narasimhaswami's interpretation of Sai Baba. Narasimhaswami believed that Sai Baba was a divinized guru with two interconnected missions: The spiritual uplift of individuals and the temporal uplift of India. I argue that while Narasimhaswami's vision for independent India was broadly inclusive, seeking to bring together Hindus and Muslims, his advocacy of Hindu philosophy and ritual as the means for understanding and approaching Sai Baba promoted a divinization of this guru that has impacted his appeal to Hindus and non-Hindus in vastly different measures.

This is the first book that Shepherd has devoted solely to Shirdi Sai Baba. It is his most comprehensive treatment of the subject to date, with 340 pages of text, including an Appendix on ‘Narasimhaswami’s Life of Sai Baba’. Plus over 700 annotations, a bibliography, and a comprehensive 34-page index (the entry on Shirdi Sai Baba is four pages long). It is well illustrated with many old photographs (and paintings) of interest, both in the text and in plates. There are 81 chapters, ranging between one and fifteen pages in length, many of these comprising descriptions of devotees who came into contact with Shirdi Sai Baba. This material affords an insight into the character and behaviour of the enigmatic mystic.

India is a place of many religions. Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism,
Buddhism, and Jainism are followed in majority. Indians celebrate numerous festivals
such as Diwali, Holi, Id, Christmas etc. throughout the year. With immense faith in their
hearts people scale all geographical terrains to seek god’s blessings reach the places of
religious tourism, then be it the high mountains or valleys they reach the places with
great faith in their heart only with a wish that they seek blessings of the god. People do
not mind standing in long queues to just get a glimpse of the deity residing there. With
changing times these religious places have become a site for tourism, rather than a mere
pilgrimage. Worshipers want safe and comfortable journey. They want security of food,
shelter and health as an important part of their pilgrimage and thus to cater to their needs
and demands, business houses, individuals, agencies, and even the government have
started playing an important role in providing services to the pilgrims, creating a huge
industry for Religious tourism.
Religious tourism industry in India is yet to be explored to its full potential. This
sector shall give a sea of opportunities to new business startups and provide a large
number of employment in a country . Religious tourism shall not only be a blessing to
business concerns, but would help to develop the local market of the area. Religious
tourism would lead to revenue generation and rise in standard of living for the locals. It
shall also influx development of the infrastructure of the area, such as road and rail
connectivity, electricity, drinking water etc. Hence, the primary objective to present the
paper is to study the possibilities and potential in Religious tourism.
KEYWORDS: - Tourism, Religious Tourism, Business

Nova Religio, vol. 15, no. 2 (2011): 20-49. 
In one popular devotional poster the Indian god-man Shirdi Sai Baba (d. 1918) gazes out at the viewer, his right hand raised in blessing. Behind him are a Hindu temple, a Muslim mosque, a Sikh gurdwara, and a Christian church; above him is the slogan, “Be United, Be Virtuous.” In his lifetime, Shirdi Sai Baba acquired a handful of Hindu and Muslim devotees in western India. Over the past several decades, he has been transformed from a regional figure into a revered persona of pan-Indian significance. While much scholarship on religion in modern India has focused on Hindu nationalist groups, new religious movements seeking to challenge sectarianism have received
far less attention. Drawing upon primary devotional materials and ethnographic research, this article argues that one significant reason for the rapid growth of this movement is Shirdi Sai Baba’s composite vision of spiritual unity in diversity, construed by many devotees as a needed corrective to rigid sectarian ideologies.

When Hazrat Babajan died at Poona in Maharashtra, India, on 21 September 1931, thousands of Muslims and Hindus are reported to have attended her funeral, the procession being described as ‘a tremendous affair, never accorded to any dignitary or royalty in the annals of Poona.’ Her tomb endures as an object of veneration to this day. Yet this elderly Muslim woman, reputed to have been over a hundred at the time of her death, had never preached, let alone expounded any doctrine or system; nor had she claimed affiliation with any religious group. Collating the data from extant sources, and situating it within the socio-political context of nineteenth and early twentieth century Afghanistan and India, Shepherd elucidates the significance of this remarkable life.

Nearly a century after his death, the image of Sai Baba, the serene old man with the white beard from Shirdi village in Maharashtra, India, is instantly recognizable to most South Asians (and many Westerners) as a guru for all faiths―Hindus, Muslims, and others. During his lifetime Sai Baba accepted all followers who came to him, regardless of religious or caste background, and preached a path of spiritual enlightenment and mutual tolerance. These days, tens of thousands of Indians and foreigners make the pilgrimage to Shirdi each year, and Sai Baba temples have sprung up in unlikely places around the world, such as Munich, Seattle, and Austin.

Tracing his rise from small village guru to global phenomenon, religious studies scholar Karline McLain uses a wide range of sources to investigate the different ways that Sai Baba has been understood in South Asia and beyond and the reasons behind his skyrocketing popularity among Hindus in particular. Shining a spotlight on an incredibly forceful devotional movement that avoids fundamental politics and emphasizes unity, service, and peace, The Afterlife of Sai Baba is an entertaining―and enlightening―look at one of South Asia's most popular spiritual gurus.

Nearly a century after his death, the image of Sai Baba, the serene old man with the white beard from Shirdi village in Maharashtra, India, is instantly recognizable to most South Asians (and many Westerners) as a guru for all faiths―Hindus, Muslims, and others. During his lifetime Sai Baba accepted all followers who came to him, regardless of religious or caste background, and preached a path of spiritual enlightenment and mutual tolerance. These days, tens of thousands of Indians and foreigners make the pilgrimage to Shirdi each year, and Sai Baba temples have sprung up in unlikely places around the world, such as Munich, Seattle, and Austin. Tracing his rise from small village guru to global phenomenon, religious studies scholar Karline McLain uses a wide range of sources to investigate the different ways that Sai Baba has been understood in South Asia and beyond and the reasons behind his skyrocketing popularity among Hindus in particular. Shining a spotlight on an incredibly forceful devotional movement that avoids fundamental politics and emphasizes unity, service, and peace, The Afterlife of Sai Baba is an entertaining―and enlightening―look at one of South Asia's most popular spiritual gurus.