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The death of Satya Sai Baba, April
24th 2011, has created a big turmoil, not only amongst his
followers but also amongst those who had more mundane things to
look after, like law and order, visit of VVIP’s to Puthaparthi
etc. Bhajans (devotional songs) to mourn his death are being held
all over in the country and abroad. A large number of those
belonging to the list of ‘Who is who’ of the political, business
world, and all those who matter in the country are already there
to death of the God. In addition ‘who will inherit his vast
empire’, created singlehandedly out of no where, the way he used
to ‘create’ Vibhuti, gold chains etc. from the thin air is another
issue haunting those concerned.
Undoubtedly Bhagwan (God) Sai must have been the God man with a
very large following and probably largest wealth amongst the
leading Godmen. The latter can not be confirmed, as large part of
the wealth controlled by those presented as divine beings, is not
known for various reasons. Not only that one does not know if any
body can dare to think that Lok Pal type auditing of the wealth of
these renunciators of Worldly goods should also be thought of.
Such Godmen do demonstrate that you get more when you know how to
‘renounce’ the World, and of course part of the earnings are put
as a part of social service, which is made prominently visible
part of activities of these men of God.
Bhagwan’s life is mired with multiple controversies and there are
many a dilemmas in understanding him. He was expert in the tricks
of Vibhuti production from air and also production of gold chains
as well. Earlier he was also ‘producing’ HMT watches, but that was
stopped soon enough as the watches carry the date of manufacture
on them. Many a rationalists confronted him by and replicated his
tricks and even took out yatras to demonstrate that there is
nothing divine about such tricks. They are but clever maneuvers of
hand and even magician of repute P.C. Sarkar also challenged the
divine nature of these acts. Interestingly he was challenged to
produce things like pumpkin, which he refused to do for obvious
reasons.
Notwithstanding that his followers were undeterred and the number
of his followers cutting across different spheres of life kept
swelling. He had proclaimed that he is reincarnation of Sai Baba
of Shirdi. As an aside, the transformation of Shirdi Sai to
present level of opulent divinity is a phenomenon in itself as
Shirdi Sai had lived a Spartan life under the tree with no
material wealth to his credit and currently his idol sits on a
Golden throne.
This self proclaimed reincarnation of Shirdi Sai not only must be
sitting over one of the wealthiest empires but also went on to
proclaim to be a God himself and also prophesied that he will
leave this physical body at the age of 96 years. Unfortunately the
physical body could not be saved beyond the age of 85 years.
Bhagwan who has saved so many lives through divine powers was to
be put on ventilators for survival for quite some time and he
could not be made to live his prophesy.
The remarkable thing about Bhagwan Sai is that he survived many
controversies associated with his life. He was charged with
Pedophilia, sexual abuse by various sources but such mundane
things could not shake the firm faith of ever expanding tribe of
followers at home and abroad. Tom Brooke’s book (Avatar of the
Night: Hidden Side of Sai Baba) described his own experience.
Similarly sexual abuse of young male devotees on the pretext of
yogic technique of ‘Kundalini raising’ also came to light. There
was also a case of murder in his living quarters to which Bhagwan
himself was a witness, but it was not investigated beyond a point
as worldly laws probably don’t reach in the realm of spiritual
world. The ties of Bhagwan with the one’s at the topmost echelons
every tine ensured that the matters are not pursued, be it the
expose’ of his tricks or the cases of murder in his living
quarters, all were ignored and soon forgotten from public memory.
To be fair to him, Bhagwan Sai is not the first one to proclaim
himself as God. There have been the likes of Rajneesh, who for
example began his Godly career from Acharya Rajneesh, promoted to
Bhagwan Rajneesh and then attained the status of Osho.
After the death of Bhagwan all those who matter in the echelons of
power are making a beeline to visit his mortal remains. One does
not know whether these visits by the state functionaries are
official or personal, one does not know whether such distinctions
are any longer valid in our country, where the Constitution does
permit us to practice and preach our faith at personal level but
not at political level. State visits to such events in official
capacity should be a strict no no. Our Constitution does direct us
to promote rational thought; but that again remains ignored as all
the rationalists like Abraham Kovoor or Premanand were totally by
passed by the mainstream power centers and the issues raised by
them remained unanswered and unattended to. There are a couple of
films questioning Bhagwan’s claims and also accusing him of sexual
abuse, ‘Guru Busters’ and ‘Secret Swami’ are couple of such films.
Some one interestingly remarked that there are two types of
politicians who visit the Bhagwan. First are those who are corrupt
and want to hide their sin, and second are those who are sincere
and work with the first lot.
That apart, the impact of such
Baba’s, has been a major accompaniment of the politics in the name
of religion. This is an era, where the waves of faith are trying
to drown the boat of reason, with due support from the incompetent
boatman, in the form of state power. The tempest of faith is
becoming so overwhelmingly powerful that even raising the
questions against these God man is becoming difficult, else how
does one explain that a person calls himself God, does tricks
which magicians can replicate with ease and is able to collect
huge wealth, part of which is showcased as the charity work. One
also knows that to expose the prevalent blind faith is swimming
against the tide.
One also concedes that these are also the times when the
existential anxiety of a section of population forces them to
resort to some support system. In the decades of 1970s it was LSD,
now it is the ever proliferating posse of God men. Sai’s
prediction about his future reincarnations will be a matter of
great interest and curiosity, how the God will resurface and how
his followers will recognize and worship his new reincarnation
will unfold over a period of time. Meanwhile one hopes that some
semblance of reason is brought forth while dealing with the
innumerable Godmen, flourishing all around like mushrooms.
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