6
6
.
.
2
2
K
K
e
e
e
e
p
p
i
i
n
n
g
g
u
u
p
p
A
A
p
p
p
p
e
e
a
a
r
r
a
a
n
n
c
c
e
e
s
s
3
3
9
9
3
3
Interestingly, it is said of Aurobindo in regard to his successor, Mother Meera,
that: ‘Just before Sri Aurobindo died he poured all of the Force from his body into
her body’
63
, and Sathya Sai Baba too claims: ‘Before I shed the mortal coil, I will
distribute My spiritual assets fairly among My true devotees’
64
. Given that, as we
saw earlier, he claims that he will reincarnate himself as “Prema Sai” after the
demise of his current body, this claim can only lead to problems for his devotees
65
.
This was certainly so in the case of Meher Baba—who had promised that one day
he would break his self-imposed silence and manifest his avataric identity to the
world, but died without uttering a single word. This created divisions amongst his
followers, some of who thought that he had somehow cryptically broken this si-
lence and others who are waiting for a “resurrection” or “second-coming” type
event (to invoke Christian paradigms)
66
.
Finally, I would note that Sathya Sai Baba has occasionally (and inconsistently)
given predictions as to the precise year of his death—indicating, for example, that
this will be 2019
67
. Meher Baba too gave a specific prediction for the date of his
death
68
, but, while this proved no more accurate than his predictions as to the
manner of his death or of his breaking his silence, this fact did not seem to cause
so much difficulty for his followers. But then, they had Meher Baba’s continuing
physical presence to guide them, whereas, if Sathya Sai Baba should pass away
earlier than his prediction, the situation might be different. Indications at this
stage, however, are that the Sathya Sai Organisation would have little trouble cop-
ing with an early departure on Sathya Sai Baba’s part—already a rumor that he
has himself recently mentioned such a possibility has found seemingly easy and
cheerful acceptance amongst devotees to whom I have spoken. And the justifica-
tion that he (supposedly) gave for this fact was that he has nearly achieved the
“purpose” for which he came (the “universal” of the avatar concept, cf. pp.68,391
above)—one final use to which he may put his avatar persona
69
.
Everything that we have seen in this study, but perhaps especially in this sec-
tion, constitutes a vast fund of source material upon which Sathya Sai Baba has
63
http://www.pro-researcher.co.uk/encyclopaedia/english/the_mother [23-5-2007]
64
SSSA 405
65
Cf. Swallow (1982), pp.136-137.
66
Needleman (1970), p.88.
67
Sathya Sai Baba (29-9-1960) S1 31:198
68
‘By the end of April 1955, I shall drop this body’ (Purdom, 1964, p.271); he died in 1969.
69
(14-10-1999) cf. (6-3-2008) http://sathyasai.org/discour/2008/d080306.pdf [29-3-2008]
3
3
9
9
4
4
6
6
.
.
D
D
I
I
S
S
C
C
U
U
S
S
S
S
I
I
O
O
N
N
O
O
F
F
A
A
D
D
E
E
S
S
C
C
E
E
N
N
T
T
drawn, draws, and might further draw in “keeping up appearances” of avatar
status—even as his health (apparently) fails him—and it is thus likely that, so long
as he is alive, his movement will continue to flourish, despite much adverse public-
ity. And, after that, perhaps the other fact that I tagged as a “universal” of avatar
ideas will come into play: “avatars are repeated”. We have seen some of Sathya
Sai Baba’s predictions to this effect (p.334). Maybe this “universal” is of greater
import than I earlier construed it to be (p.68 above). But, of course, my task has
not primarily been philosophical, although I have dabbled in philosophy (espe-
cially in this and the previous section). I have not attempted to present any neat
analysis of the avatar traditions, although I have drawn upon and discussed several
of these. What I have done is to relate Sathya Sai Baba’s ideas to some of the par-
ticulars of the history of the avatar traditions, in an attempt to provide a back-
ground against which they might better be understood. In the next section, I will
ruminate some more upon what we have seen, and will attempt to draw what
conclusions I can from this.
6
6
.
.
3
3
C
C
o
o
n
n
c
c
l
l
u
u
s
s
i
i
o
o
n
n
s
s
3
3
9
9
5
5
6.3 Conclusions
Conclusions bind; they press on the mind.
The newborn baby is not confined to conclusions.
All conclusions enslave. Most men are slaves to the conclusions
into which they have fallen. …Dare to remain inconclusive.
1
Sathya Sai Baba, as we saw in the first chapter of this study, is certainly an influ-
ential, enigmatic, and controversial figure—accused of sexual abuse, fraud, and
complicity in murder. He has long predicted his current widespread popularity
and the concomitant expansion of his hometown, and seems to revel in contro-
versy. He rarely gives straight answers to any question, and the statement at top
here (if it indeed reflects his views)
2
perhaps gives another indication as to why
this might be. In what we have seen to be Sathya Sai Baba’s favoured non-
dualistic worldview, conclusions—as dualistic linguistic entities—must necessarily
“bind” (the opposite to this being the traditional ideal of “liberation”).
This is an important point. Sathya Sai Baba’s devotees and detractors tend to
take his statements at face value, but we have seen that—however overstated, fac-
tually inaccurate, or even ridiculous they may seem—they often point to an ideo-
logical lesson
3
, or serve a more indirect pedagogical purpose
4
. As I pointed out in
the first chapter, there is little that I can really conclude on the serious issue of the
allegations made against Sathya Sai Baba, and, in comparison to these, what I have
done in this study will seem trivial to some people. But we did see instances in
which Sathya Sai Baba’s divine persona, his identity as “God”, or “the avatar”, is
invoked in the context of the sexual abuse allegations; in which he himself invoked
his divine identity in the event of “murder” charges against him; and in which he
1
Attrib. Sathya Sai Baba (http://www.ramalacentre.com/newsletter03_02_03.htm [26-5-2007] NB
The reference to a ‘newborn baby’ here is presumably analogous to (or perhaps even influenced by)
the well known proclamation of Jesus: ‘unless you change and become like little children, you will
never enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 18:3, NIVSB).
2
NB The passage quoted here is presented at http://postpoems.com/cgi-bin/displaypoem.cgi?pid
=196126 [26-5-2007] as a psychic ‘revelation’ written down by one of his devotees and ‘approved
by Sai Baba for publication’, but I would note that one part of it—in which a devotee is made to tell
Sathya Sai Baba: ‘We rely on your Grace, we yearn for it’, eliciting the answer ‘I never asked you to
earn Me’—is typical of Sathya Sai Baba, in that the question answered is not the question asked,
and, what’s more, is a pun on the same (cf. pp.385,168 above). It has more of the ring of an actual
experience, than of a product of some person’s (sub)conscious fabrication (cf. p.77,n.18 above).
3
A good example of this is his portraying Jesus as predicting the Sai avatar (“the Lamb”, “Ba-ba”,
see p.339). Devotee’s tend to take this as evidence of Sathya Sai Baba’s divine status (e.g., Ruhela,
1996b, 71-73); his detractors ridicule it on the ground of its factual inaccuracies. But we saw that
Sathya Sai Baba himself uses it as an arthavāda—to point to the “truth” of “God incarnating in all”.
4
I.e., he puts the authority engendered by his avatar claims to the service of spiritual teaching.