The Week's Brilliant Tribute to Sai Baba ...

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talking about?" Devotees who received vibhuti from Sai Baba or made eye-contact

with him say the experience changed them for ever. The boy was unlike anybody

his age. He rambled into verse, prompting his family to believe he had demonic

powers. He sat villagers around him and launched into monologues. He produced

ash out of thin air. But planes? That was a far cry. More than half a century

later, his village, Puttaparthi, can land a Boeing-747. Presidents, Prime

Ministers, Governors, chief ministers, judges, scientists, academicians and

cricket and movie stars touch his feet. Foreigners thirsting for Indian

spirituality make a beeline for a glance of the man who, they believe, is an

avatar of God. Sathyanarayana Raju, the village preacher, became Sathya Sai

Baba. Sathyanarayana was born on November 23, 1926, to Pedda Venkama Raju and

Eshwaramma, who belonged to the Bhatta Raju caste. In recent

times, his devotees claim that he was born of immaculate conception. The boy

had an inclination for the spiritual. He dropped out of school in the eighth

standard. At 13, he declared that he was the reincarnation of Sai Baba of

Shirdi, a revered sage in Maharashtra, who died in 1918. He announced that he

had a mission in life; he did not belong to family. Known as Sai Baba, Baba or

Swami, he charmed people with his talk. He performed 'miracles' to support his

claims of divinity. With a wave of his hand, he could produce vibhuti (sacred

ash) and other presents for his admirers: acts that earned him as many critics

as devotees. All roads lead to Puttaparthi: Devotees from Indonesia A story

told by his followers in Puttaparthi goes like this: as a child, Baba would

pluck

any fruit that his friends wanted from a tamarind tree on a hill near the

Chitravathi river. Today, the hill is a pilgrim spot. Visitors write their wish

on a piece of paper and string it to a branch of the tree, now called the

Kalpavruksha. They believe Baba would make those wishes come true. Besides

the miracles—he is said to have brought two dead people back to life—Baba

preached love, peace, selflessness, service and other universal truisms like

"Help Ever, Hurt Never" and "Love All, Serve All". News of an orange-robed

god with a Jimi Hendrix hair-do spread to the west. Westerners—disillusioned by

an overdose of dollars, relationships and drugs—sought Prashanthi Nilayam

(Baba's ashram in Puttaparthi) to rediscover the basics. One of Sai Baba's

early followers, Dr John S. Hislop, wrote in his book My Baba and I (Sri Sathya

Sai Books and Publications Trust): "I prayed that through his grace and

kindness, he

might touch my dry heart and make it alive and vibrant again." Hislop, a teacher

in Mexico, became one of the closest inner-circle devotees of Sai Baba. Devotees

claim that Baba's mere presence changes one's personality. Those who received

vibhuti or made eye-contact with him say that they changed for ever. Hislop

narrates in his book that, in 1973, Baba 'materialised' a figure of Christ on a

wooden cross. Giving it to Hislop, Baba claimed that the wood was from the cross

on which Jesus was crucified. When another devotee asked Baba about the

crucifix, he said: "Yes, I made it for him [Hislop]. And when I went to look

for the wood, every particle of the cross had disintegrated and had returned to

the elements. I reached out to the elements and reconstituted sufficient

material for a small cross. Very seldom does Swami interfere with nature, but

occasionally, for a devotee, it will be done." It is said that Baba produced

such a crucifix for Sarah Ferguson, the

Duchess of York, as well. With Baba's meteoric rise in the 1970s, rationalists

called him a trickster and challenged him to produce larger presents. Late Dr H.

Narasimhaiah, former vice-chancellor of Bangalore University, opened a debate by

asking Baba to produce a melon instead of a ring. He constituted a fact-finding

committee to investigate Baba, and sought an interview with him. The late Dr

Abraham Kovoor, who was president of the International Rationalists

Association, was invited to Bangalore, where he produced ash with the wave of

his hand. "We went to schools and colleges and demonstrated all the miracles

that Sai Baba performed," recalled Dr A. Ramalingam, retired head of botany

department, Dharwad University, who was member of the association. "Devotees

claimed that ash was dropping from Sai Baba's photographs. We showed that when

mercuric chloride is applied on the aluminium frame of any portrait, ash-like

residue starts falling from it." From a handful in the 1960s, Sai Baba's

following today is anywhere between one crore and five crore.

================================================================ For more

detailed articles pls see :

http://www.the-week.com/25nov27/currentevents_article10.htm Ram

RAM RAM

Thank you & God bless.

Om Sri Sai Ram

Sarvathah paanipaadam Tat sarvatokshi siromukham Sarvathah sruthimalloke Sarvamavritya thishthathi