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max, and impregnate Parvati. They send Agni, the god of fire, as a bird, to interrupt
the couple and Siva’s seed is spilled. But Parvati, angered that she cannot bear Siva’s
child, puts the curse of barrenness on the universe of the gods… To bring Siva from
sexuality to asceticism the usual method is to interrupt the couple in their lovemak-
ing. But although this interruption is ‘cosmically necessary’, the unfortunate agent
commits a human sin and is cursed as a result.
Swallow (1982:145) plausibly concludes:
Sathya Sai Baba claims to be an incarnation come to save the world from evil. Bha-
radwāj, like Agni, can be seen as the envoy of the gods, who must disturb Siva’s
loveplay so that a savior is born.
And, crucially, she links the motif of spilled seed with that of sprinkling in Sathya
Sai Baba’s version via some of the ideas of the followers of Gorakhnāth, who:
Conceive of life as the natural downward flow of vital spirits, which are normally
consumed by the female element in the lower body. Ascetic discipline reverses the
direction of the natural flow. The vital spirits reach the forehead and are trans-
formed into soma, the nectar of immortality
34
, which then drips on to the body to
revitalize it, the action being seen as Sakti drinking the nectar.
There is certainly some validity in these observations, but a final parallel story
presented by Swallow (1982:144) complicates her overall argument in support of
Sathya Sai Baba’s identity as Śiva. She quotes Śiva Purāṇa 2, I, 6, 33-8 as follows:
Siva thought within himself like this—‘Another being shall be created by me. Let
him create everything, protect it and in the end let him dissolve it with my blessing.
Having entrusted everything to him, we two remaining in Kasi, shall roam as we
please keeping only the prerogative of conferring salvation. We can stay happily in
this forest being free from worries (of creation). With the consent of Siva the su-
preme lord spread the liquorine essence of nectar on his left side, on the tenth limb,
nectar which was the outcome of churning the ocean of his mind [i.e. amṛta—cf.
p.189 below]… Thereupon a person came into being … (Vishnu).
And here, the sprinkling motif produces not Śiva, or even Śiva-Śakti, but Viṣṇu!
Moreover, I should point out that Sathya Sai Baba’s own account (to which, as I
noted above, Swallow does not refer) itself involves yet another major deity—
Sathya Sai Baba prefaces what I cited of his story above by stating that:
Bharadhwaaja was a great sage, who studied the Vedhas for [a] full one hundred
years; but, finding that the Vedhas were anantha (endless) he did thapas [penance]
for prolonging life, and from Indhra he got two extensions of a century each. Even
then, the Vedhas could not be completed, so, he asked Indhra again for another
34
This is a traditional ambrosial intoxicant, analogous in many ways to amṛta. The curious may
wish to consult R. Gordon Wasson ‘The Soma of the Rig Veda: What Was It?’ in Journal of the
American Oriental Society, Vol. 91, No. 2. (Apr. - Jun., 1971), pp.169-187 [based upon his book—
Soma: divine mushroom of immortality (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968)].
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hundred years. Indhra showed him 3 huge mountain ranges and said, “What you
have learned in 3 centuries form only 3 handfulls [sic] from out of the 3 ranges,
which the Vedhas are. So, give up the attempt to exhaust the Vedhas. Do a Yaaga
(ritual sacrifice), instead, which I shall teach you: that will give you the fruit of
Vedhic study, full and complete.” Bharadhwaaja decided on performing the yaaga;
Indhra taught him how to do it; all preparations were completed. The sage wanted
that Shakthi must preside and bless the yaaga. So he went to Kailaasa but, the time
was not opportune for presenting his petition [(6-7-1963) S3 15:90].
Indra, the traditional king of the gods, is the major figure here—a figure who, as
we will see in Chapter 3 below, is strongly traditionally associated with Viṣṇu.
This last tale has parallels in Taittirīya-Brāhmaṇa 3:10.11ff., a traditional work
from the first millennium
BCE
, which gives the earliest detailed mythological ac-
count of Bharadvāja. In this story, as Thaneswar Sarmah (1991:13-15) translates:
Bharadvāja observed brahmacarya ‘a strict life ensuring celebacy [sic]’ while study-
ing the lores [Vedas] continuously for three spans of life, each span consisting of a
hundred years. As the third span of life came to a close and Bharadvāja lay ex-
hausted by his age, Indra approached him and addressed [him thus], “Bharadvāja, if
I would grant you a fourth span of life, what would you do thereby”? He replied, “I
would have [sic] continued to observe celibacy in the same way for securing Vedic
knowledge.” Thereupon, Indra drew his attention to the three hillocks… Then from
each of the hillocks Indra took (away) a handful of dust and presenting the same be-
fore Bharadvāja again spoke to him, “O Bharadvāja, (suppose) these three hillocks
are the three Vedas; they are endless! What you have so far studied is comparable
only to these handfuls of dust and the rest has remained unknown to you. …give up
this endless (pursuit of) your Vedic study. …Having said this, Indra told him of Agni
which is called Sāvitra. Bharadvāja then acquired from Indra full knowledge of the
Sāvitrāgni and became immortal; he attained the world of light and bliss, and
…merged with the sun-god.
‘Sāvitrāgni’ is presumably a type of fire sacrifice (dedicated to the Sun), and is as-
sociated here with ‘full knowledge’—thus recalling Bharadvāja’s sacrifice for the
purposes of learning the Vedas in Sathya Sai Baba’s version.
Additionally, a modern retelling of this story by Kaipu Lakshminarasimha Shas-
try, clarifies, and adds to, some of the other potentially parallel motifs here:
Even gods were surprised by the austere penance of the young Bharadwaja. He
feared neither rain nor storm. He gave up food and drink. As time passed, his body
began to wear out. Everybody began to fear his condition. But he did not stop his
penance. Finally, one day, as he could not even sit, he collapsed.
Lord Indra then appeared.
“Arise, Bharadwaja. Here I am!”
“God of Gods, at last you have appeared!”