The Legacy of Sathya Sai Baba

D. Ararchige

Recent demise of Sathya Sai Baba caused a plethora of emotions among people who knew him;
some were very derisive of while the others were very sympathetic towards Sai Baba. Perhaps, it is
still too early to look at the legacy left by Baba. However, it is very appropriate to discuss Baba’s
legacy in these pages as he provided a central theme for the present authour’s book, the lure of
noma. There are many facets to what Baba meant to various people. For some he was a God-
incarnate; for others he was a cheat who faked miracles and implicated in homosexual encounters
and deaths at Prashanthi Nilayam – his Ashram; some saw him as a philanthropist.; others were
concerned about the so-called empire worth billions of dollars. My effort here is neither to defend
Baba nor to condemn him on the alleged misdeeds. Even though I will discuss some of these, the
thesis I build here is a personal one which simply try to explain what Baba’s life and legacy means to
me.

Furthermore, I don’t try to hide the fact that I followed Baba for a few decades at a distance. I have
visited his Ashram several times though never had any close encounters with him. Apart from his
Vibuthi production which I saw from a distance, I have never seen any of his ‘miracles’. I do not have
knowledge to denounce him as a cheat pretending to be God or support the thesis of him being the
God-incarnate. However, over the years, I have read about him and his teachings and observed the
functioning of Sai Baba’s organizational structure. If I would be deemed to be partial towards him by
the readers of this article, I can fully understand their concerns. However, the ideas that I would try
to explore are not dependent on being a follower or non-follower; they are logical questions that I
would ask myself from the standpoint of a person who wants to believe in the belief and the
enormous importance of unity of faiths to the modern world. My conviction in writing this article is to
show the importance of a unifying force regardless of personality cult.

Sathya Sai Baba – the godman

Many people have written about Baba and I do not wish to repeat his life story here. Instead, I am
devoting this section to discuss many allegations against Baba and show the readers that there is
more than one angle to look at them.

No one can deny the fact that he was a human being. But Baba claimed him to be God-incarnate
who is aware of being God and the rest of humanity though being God themselves are not aware of
it. He said “God is Love; God is in you; God is with you; God is around you; God is above you; God is
below you; you are God; realize it1.”His God is somewhat similar to God defined by Spinoza.
Proposition 15 of the part 1 of Spinoza’s masterpiece, Ethics states ‘Whatever is, is in God, and
nothing can be or be conceived without God2’. Naturally, Baba’s view is far more aligned to
Vedanthic tradition where God as Brahman is also the Creator. Kathopanishad says “Brahman is one.
It is the Ruler, the internal Atman of all living beings3”. This is the idea expressed in Bagavad Gita as

1
Sai Baba Interview 1978 (Part 1), You Tube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x44mpk_V2U
2
p519,Classics of Western Philosophy edited by M. Cahn, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, Indianapolis /
Cambridge (1990),
3
p56, Essence of Principal Upanishads, Swami Sivananda,The Divine Life Society, Himalayas, India, 1980

Copyright: www.thelureofnoma.com May 2011 Page 1

there is “nothing else besides” Krishna. This view embodies the idea of non-dualistic universe which
was created by God who ought to be morally neutral4. It is also said that Baba was a keen promoter
of the idea of a non-dualistic universe5 with respect to atma and God.

By adopting the above stance Baba had somehow made an extremely smart choice. If Baba claimed
himself to be the son of God, then that implies a female consort. If God is the only true existence,
there cannot be a female consort. Thus, the son or daughter of God is against the very premise of
the existence of a supreme God. The only possibility then is the son or the daughter being a part of
God or in essence, God himself. If Baba called himself a messenger, can there be a messenger
without being part of God in the light of Advita philosophy? This argument brings about the question
why people believe Sai Baba, if he is God incarnate as claimed, should only do ‘good’ while God as
the Supreme Being can only be morally neutral. According to Bagavd Gita, Krishna was the main
driver behind the war in Kurukshetra. Krishna as the incarnate of Vishnu had an affair with a
married woman and was said to have had enjoyed 16100 women in all6. The point I make here is
that divinity, Baba’s as claimed or someone else’s should not be confused with goodness.

Sai Baba called his ‘miracles’ his visiting cards7. There are so many websites discussing these
‘miracles’8. For some these are out-right sleight of hand trickery9. According to Priddy, many
devotees have seen him faking the ‘materializations’. Another savant who claimed to have proof for
Baba’s faked miracles is Basava Premanand , a disciple of the well known rationalist, Abraham T.
Kovoor10. Though the rationalists such as Premanand, other intellectuals and ex-Baba devotees are
considered by themselves and their followers as the people on the side of the truth who look down
on largely illiterate Indian population as gullible, the point they missed when claiming Baba’s
miracles fake, especially faking the materialization of Vibuthi, is the validity of the experimental
methodology used. Showing a possible mechanism of making Vibuthi is not same as showing what
Baba did was trickery. Employing such simulation is useful in engineering where you have ‘full’
theoretical grasp of the situation but it is not true in disproving paranormal claims which might be
due to a glimmer of psychological condition. I would rather be called a man of lesser intellect,
perhaps, by admitting that I would wait for someone to definitively prove, using the available
footage or other means, that Baba consistently tricked us. Until such time, only serious attempt at
an investigation, despite all the criticism aimed at it, was done by Haraldsson who concluded
“[W]hat we can squarely state is that in spite of a long lasting effort, we found no direct evidence of
fraud11.” All other claims of debunking are based on assumptions, allegations, low quality video
footage and rather poor simulation models. We should remember that the proof of burden is on us
as we are the doubters. Apart from the intellectuals who are trying to catch a trickster, there might
have been other hundreds of smart devotees who have witnessed Baba’s “miracles”. Did he manage

4
p15-16, The lure of NOMA, D. Arachige, Ocean Publishing, Australia, 2009
5
Issac Tigrett – Dallas 2009 (Eng), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTFuGRXsS8E
6
p146, Ibid.
7
p144, The lure of NOMA, D. Arachige, Ocean Publishing, Australia, 2009
8
Gallery of Miraclse,http://www.saibabamiracles.com/index.html
9
Sai Baba miracles, Robert C. Priddy, http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/sai-baba-miracles/
10
Basava Premanand, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basava_Premanand
11
p222, Miracles are my visiting cards, E. Haraldsson, Ph.D. , Sai Tower Publishing, 1983.

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to fool all of them over about seventy years? It is also important to consider that many of the ex-
devotees wrote glowing references about Sai Baba’s powers before falling out with him12.

According to some devotees, some of the gifts perceived as ‘materializations’ he offered his
devotees might not have been true materializations13 but tricks to test their faith. This is not a
reasonable enough explanation. If someone tells me Baba lost his ‘special powers’ over the years
and to continue the ‘myth’, he was forced by his associates to fake materializations, it would be
more logical to accept.

There had been killings that took place at the ashram in Putta Parthy and there are many looming
allegations about Baba molesting boys and men. The stories about cover ups by Indian Government
and Organizations run by Sathya Sai Baba have filled the internet for a long time. Instead of alleging
the sexual molestation by Baba it would have been very fair by the community at large for them to
take the matters to the courts. Among the people who accused Baba are many Indians a few of
whom we mentioned in the previous paragraphs. The claim that the Indian Judicial system and
Government are biased towards Sai Baba and thus, the victims never could take the matters to the
Indian Courts is not only a lame excuse but also a blatant misrepresentation of World’s largest
democracy, its people and processes. It is not a secret Basvas Premnand took Baba to the courts on
violating Gold Control Act14. A petition prepared by ex Sai Devotees is only a futile exercise which
can be seen as mere propaganda as it doesn’t take the matters to the judiciary. India is not full of
Baba devotees. Apart from the rationalists, many purist Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Christians
do not see eye to eye with Baba for his views about unity of religions. It was in India a Hindu shot
dead Mahatma Gandhi, who himself was a Hindu, for fighting for religious tolerance. It is not
winning the case against Baba which would have mattered but bringing the solid evidence to a court
might have done a big service to the people with faith who are Baba devotees as well as people who
are spiritual in general. If Baba devotees start claiming that the ex-Devotees could not take their
case to the Courts due to a Baba’s miracle, what would be the rational argument against it? It is not
very different to accepting Baba was God and couldn’t do any harm. Now Baba is no more and the
case for such an action is purely for monetary gain and cheap propaganda.

There are questions being asked about Baba’s date of birth. Some believe that they have evidence to
show Baba was younger and the date of birth was made up to coincide with Sri Aurobindo’s and
Shridi Sai’s declarations about the advent of Sathya Sai Baba15. The explanation given by one
publisher of a Baba’s biography sounds reasonable as Baba’s parents might have used a more recent
date as his date of birth for schooling to increase his chances of finding employment after school16.
Sometime ago, forging birth certificates for similar purposes was known to be relatively wide spread
exercise in the country - Sri Lanka where I grew up. Thus, the explanation by the publisher is not
improbable. Similarly, people argue that Baba passed away at 85, ten years before he said he would
take leave from his body. Some devotees try to twist Baba’s age by using lunar calendar. As they

12
Exposing Critics’s Smear-Campaigns Against Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba,
http://www.saisathyasai.com/baba/Ex-Baba.com/ex-devotees-critics-skeptics.html. This site is highly
recommended given its rather balanced presentation of information for and against Sai Baba
13
False Materializations?,R.D. Awle, http://www.saibaba.ws/miracles/materializations.htm
14
Sathya Sai Baba,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sathya_Sai_Baba
15
Chapter 5, Omniscience and Truth, Brain Steel, 2002 http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Omnitruth.htm
16
Exposing Critics’s Smear-Campaigns Against Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba,
http://www.saisathyasai.com/baba/Ex-Baba.com/ex-devotees-critics-skeptics.html.

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believe, Baba’s date of birth might have been manipulated. Do these discrepancies really matter in
the context of bigger picture? Historically, Jesus Christ was not born on the 25th of December.
Similarly, Lord Buddha left this world at least forty years before he was expected to17. These are
pedantic scholarly issues which are not relevant to what I consider as Baba’s legacy. It is only futile
to engage in these explanations as one popular quote states “Never explain. Your friends don’t need
it; your enemies will not believe it”.

Sai Baba – The Activist

One aspect of his life Baba was trying to show the world after the above allegations started to go
around was his community activities18. According to his biographers, Baba has been an activist since
his youthful days. He declared himself Shirdi Baba Avatar and left his school and home to stay with
his followers19. Since then he lived for his followers deciding to spend his life as a ‘Baba’. He spent
money from the donors20 on water projects, hospitals, and educational institutions. He was also far-
sighted enough to tie all the donations into several trust structures holding billions of dollars so that
whatever work he started can be carried out into the future even after his demise. His hospitals
should still provide free medical care; his university and educational institutions should still provide
free education. Water should still be supplied where it is needed. It may need billions of dollars for
the long-run maintenance of these activities.

Sai Baba – the teacher

I believe that the most important Sai Baba is Sai Baba, the teacher or Guru. He brought together
people of all faiths from all over the world. Sai Baba never asked people to leave the religions that
they believe in, to come into his fold. Following Shiridi Sai’s example, he embraced both Hindus and
Muslims who constitute major demography of the Indian sub-continent. As the front page of online
edition of The Hindu acknowledged, “When the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid controversy was at
its peak in the 1990s, Sai Baba refused to buckle under pressure from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP) to issue a public statement favouring the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya. VHP
president Ashok Singhal made at least two trips to Puttaparthi in this endeavour but failed to extract
any assurance from Sai Baba. He chose to remain neutral.21”

Sai Baba born as a Hindu seemed to have shown equal respect to all religions as he drew his
followers from so many backgrounds. Some of them are from Jewish, Buddhist or Catholic
backgrounds; some are devotees of Guru Nanak or Zoroaster. Some were super rich while others
were dirt poor; some were rulers while others were the down-trodden. The devotees came from all
walks of life and many countries spread across the Globe. Sai Baba also acknowledged the equality

17
Lord Buddha was supposed to live a ‘Kalpa’ which is usually interpreted as 120 years.
18
Rao, Manu (26 December 2000), Sai Baba lashes out at detractors
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/534425761.cms
19
p60, Sai Baba – Man Of Miracles, Howard Murphet, 1971, The McMillan Company of India Ltd
20
I had been participating in some activities at Sai Centres in Melbourne over a long period. I never ever felt
compelled to contribute. However, I donated very small amounts and dry food whenever I could. The
merchandise such as books which are at sale are available for the interested devotees.
21
A Secular Spiritual Leader, Online edition of India's National Newspaper – The Hindu of 25th Apr 2011,
http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/25/stories/2011042559932100.htm

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of men and women; he saw oneness of God across such boundaries. “The atma is not different in
man or woman. The atma is eternally conscious, pure and self-effulgent. The atma is
neither masculine nor feminine, nor yet neutral.22”

Many sources of information covering a vast cross section of Sai Baba followers can be found on the
internet23. He in essence was against seeing God in the image of ‘man’. He endeavoured to bring
together many facets of God in people’s minds to the ultimate God as God should be. For him, there
was neither Hindu God nor Muslim God; neither Christian God nor Jewish God. He saw God or all
religions as emanating from human need for the enhancement of spiritual qualities to stir the innate
goodness of human beings. He wanted humanity to transcend the externalities such as caste, creed
and race and the internal qualities such as anger, hatred and apathy to human suffering. Thus he
made us look above the divisions and war towards the unity and peace.

He asked followers to see God living inside them and convinced them to treat humanity as they
would treat God. In his words, “Serve Humanity, Serve God”. He asked his devotees to “love all and
serve all24”. What profound message beside that there can be! It is his love of humanity which he
tried to instil in his followers should be taken as his key message. At various times, there had been
many others who tried to get the same message across but weren’t successful as Baba. The simple
reason is, perhaps relevant to both Shirdi and Sathya Sai Babas; “They used parables to make their
message clear and ‘miracles’ to make it forceful25.” I am ready to pardon Sai Baba even if he used
‘trickery’, so convincingly, to convey a message that helps uniting the divided humanity. The
challenge to the people who try to discredit Sai Baba as a cheat is to achieve at least a significant
fraction of what he achieved through trickery, immorality and other misdeeds of which he is
accused.

Sai Baba & NOMA

NOMA (Nonoverlapping Magisteria) is the conceptual framework proposed by Stephen Jay Gould
which allows religion and science to co-exist. Sai Baba was never against science even though he
always thought spirituality is far more important than science. He once said “Science is below
senses; Spirituality is above senses”. From a point of view of a spiritual person, this is not
remarkable. What are remarkable are his building schools, universities and speciality hospitals where
science is taught and practised. Baba acknowledged the inquiry as the beginning of both science and
spirituality and welcomed science for its service to humanity26.

Sai Baba’s Legacy

The following quote from The Hindu again, this time from an editorial, succinctly encompass the
essence of what Sai Baba’s legacy should be;

22
Sri Sathya Sai Baba Teachings, http://www.saibaba.ws/teachings/answerfromthedivineguru.htm
23
Ted Henry & Jodi Cleary’s Videos,Vimeo , http://vimeo.com/souljourns/videos/
24
This is what influence Issac Tigrett to use this as motto for his Hard Rock Cafe chain. See Ted Henry & Jodi
Cleary’s Videos,Vimeo , http://vimeo.com/souljourns/videos/
25
p149, The lure of NOMA, D. Arachige, Ocean Publishing, Australia, 2009
26
Sri Sathya Sai Baba Teachings, http://www.saibaba.ws/teachings/answerfromthedivineguru.htm

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“In a country that has never been short of self-proclaimed godmen peddling spiritual succour with
commercial motive, Sri Sathya Sai Baba,......, stands out as a rare phenomenon — a spiritual leader
whose mass following transcended linguistic, national, and religious boundaries, who channelised
the fervour and quest of millions of devotees into giving and sharing, who steered clear of divisive
political and communal activities all his life27.”

These few sentences summarises the essence of Sai Baba’s life. It is not his materializations, other
miracles or splashing of the money from his trust funds to the uplift of poverty-stricken communities
of Southern India which should survive as his legacy. His legacy is definitely not of the humbug of a
godman, full of alleged tricks, highly publicised sex scandals or the clouds hanging over his head over
the murders at the ashram, into which his detractors, the ex-devotees and the widely publicised BBC
documentary “Secret Swami” try to portray him. As humans it is always very easy to find faults with
the other people, especially when they are well-known and hold different opinions to us. But it is
also our duty as a progressive people to see whether he or she had a view which is worthy of
consideration.

It is not surprising that an Indian IT engineer wrote in his blog;

‘Nowadays we need godman who are secular rather than those creating religious fights. He was
being forced by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to issue a public statement favouring the construction
of a Ram temple at Ayodhya. He chose to remain neutral28.’

This is a very big endorsement of what Baba stood for by an ordinary Indian; this is the message
Baba strived to convey to his followers through his teachings. He brought all other religions under
his umbrella so that his ‘non-denominational’ spirituality is treated by some as secular. At the end,
after his departure, it seems his message is to be permeating to the populace. Thus, there is a big
chance that Sathya Sai Baba’s legacy will survive. As some believe Sai Baba movement embodies the
flavour of future religion which accepts the diversity of religious views29.

27
Sai Baba, His Life & Legacy, Opinion – Editorials ,Online edition of India's National Newspaper – The Hindu of
26th Apr 2011, http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/26/stories/2011042653851000.htm
28
Varun’s Blog, https://varunl.wordpress.com/tag/ram-temple-at-ayodhya/
29
p150-153, The lure of NOMA, D. Arachige, Ocean Publishing, Australia, 2009

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