Always there for the devotee

[Guest guest]

Always there for the devotee

By Scharada Bail

 

To those who face life with rationality and

scepticism, Sai Baba is only one in a pantheon of

godmen. And then a crisis sets this sceptic on a

Sathya Sai journey. " I was facing difficult times with

the grandchildren, " says Dr Premalatha (name changed).

" I would arrive tired from work, then beat them at the

slightest pretext, usually incited by some complaint

from my sisterinlaw earlier in the day. " Beating them

made her feel miserable. One such night, Baba appeared

in her dream. " Who is she to you? " Baba is said to

have asked her. " Baba showed me how wrong it was to

make the children the target of my frustration, and

who was actually contributing to this feeling of

helplessness, " she says.

 

Baba has been under attack, too. The BBC did it in The

Secret Swami, a film telecast last year that showed a

video clipping of Baba regurgitating a lingam. What

was more difficult for any viewer was the story of a

boy who had been sexually abused at the ashram. To the

devotees, however, this murky side of Baba is to be

taken in one's spiritual stride. " Seeing Baba is an

experience difficult to describe, " says Nirupama, 19,

whose grandparents, both doctors, have lived and

worked in Puttaparthi for many years. Says Nithya

Raman, 20: " He is there for me at all times. What you

receive depends on how strong your faith is. " Members

of a rock band, Nithya and Nirupama don't hide their

belief in Baba.

 

Rationalists have called him trickster and closet gay,

but none of the labels has stuck. What stays in memory

are his words that express the indefinable in a

language all can understand.

 

Scharada Bail is writer, Internet consultant and Tarot

practitioner based in Chennai.