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5
In stating his identity thus, Sathya Sai Baba was perhaps simply being polite, or
perhaps ironic—for, in the face of opposition from his family (who had earlier at-
tempted to have him exorcised to put an end to his unusual behaviour) he went on
to introduce “himself” by the name of one of the deities worshipped by his uncles.
Padmanaban (2000:114), however, notes of Sathya Sai Baba that: ‘Throughout the
afternoon he kept repeating to himself, “Bharadwaja Gothra, Apasthamba Suthra”,
so, obviously, the intended audience for this statement was not so much the other
people present as Sathya Sai Baba himself. I would suggest that he was in the
throes of an identity crisis—a profound questioning of his basic identity, which,
combined with some powerful devotional and/or ecstatic experiences (see Section
4.5), led him to identify himself with Sai Baba of Shirdi.
Swallow (1982:129) concludes in this regard that this claim of Sathya Sai Baba’s
is equivalent to one in which ‘the traditional renouncer rejects the world and
breaks his ties with family, caste and village’. And Padmanaban (2000:160,n66)
notes that, later, this indeed did explicitly take place—by way of ‘a ritual, accord-
ing to Vedic scriptures, wherein the consent of the mother for her son to accept
sanyasi-hood is given through preparation of a last meal from her hands’. Padma-
naban (2000:152) also writes that ‘from then on they were to refer to their dear
Sathya as ‘Swami’ (the revered one)’, such a change of name being prescribed for
traditional renouncers. Moreover, Padmanaban (2000:173) reports that after this
time, Sathya Sai Baba would:
occasionally complain of a ‘house-holder atmosphere’ in the places where He stayed
and suddenly disappear…. They would find Him… on some rock overlooking the
valley, or in some cavelike hollow or crevice, or on the sands of the river.
Padmanaban (2000:432) further notes a ‘story that a certain monk had visited
Baba—and after he had left, Baba started donning a robe’; one of his devotees
suggested that ‘Baba should look distinctive in a crowd. Therefore, she stitched an
orange robe for Him. From then on, Baba started wearing orange and red robes’,
orange, by far his predominantly favoured colour, being the colour most com-
monly worn by traditional renouncers.
But there the similarities with traditional modes of renunciation end. Padma-
naban (2000:155) writes that Sathya Sai Baba’s mother pleaded with him not to go
to live ‘in the Himalayas, not in caves and hills, far away from us. Give me your
word that you will remain at Puttaparthi. Let your devotees come there. We will
welcome them, gladly, and treat them kindly’. Sathya Sai Baba’s main ashram to
1
1
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6
6
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A
this day is in the town of his birth, and (while they were alive) he maintained close
ties with his family, especially his mother
26
. There is certainly a change of identity
occurring here, but it is not that of the traditional renouncer—who leaves behind,
via traditional funeral rites, all sense of individuality and personhood. Here,
rather, we see Sathya Sai Baba emerging into a different, but still personal iden-
tity—adopting, as it were, the first incarnation of his divine persona.
The path from here to his fuller identity as “the avatar” is less (but still) convo-
luted. Swallow (1982:152) concludes—based largely upon similarities between an
important event in Sathya Sai Baba’s life and certain traditional myths—that,
through his identification with Shirdi Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba has ‘made the
choice of Siva for his primary identification’. This, given the associations between
Sathya Sai Baba and Kṛṣṇa that I have already noted, is somewhat problematic.
Indeed, Swallow herself notes of Sathya Sai Baba that: ‘His own background is
more strongly Vaishnavite than Saivite’ and that: ‘He also claims to be the other
gods of the Hindu pantheon’. Swallow’s alignment of Sathya Sai Baba with Śiva is
also problematic in that it is based upon a less than representative sample of his
proclamations of his identity—she does not refer at all to his collected speeches,
and she does not consider any of several episodes in Sathya Sai Baba’s life in which
(as we have already seen) he portrays himself in terms of traditional Vaiṣṇava ava-
tar mythology. Furthermore, we may note that the names given to his residences
outside of Prashanthi Nilayam—Dharmaksethra
27
in Mumbai and Brindavan
28
near
Whitefield—testify to the importance of his affinity with Kṛṣṇa, and Bassuk
(1987b:91) notes in regard to Sathya Sai Baba’s “materializations”:
The type of object that Satya Sai Baba materializes is significant since many of them,
such as the Gita, amrita, and statues of Vishnu and Krishna, are aspects of the
Vaishnava tradition.
Whilst Sathya Sai Baba does also materialize Śaiva icons (e.g. the liṅgams de-
scribed earlier), this other side of his persona ought to be given its due place
29
.
There are also some specific problems with Swallow’s argument, although she
goes to great lengths to prove it. Firstly (1982:134), she seeks to dilute White’s as-
sociation of Sai Baba of Shirdi with Kabīr (cited earlier)—on the grounds that:
26
See, especially, Kasturi, Easwaramma: The Chosen Mother (Prasanthi Nilayam, SSSBPT, 1989)
27
Cf. Bhagavad-Gītā 1:1
28
NB This name has mislead Bassuk (1987b:89) into writing that ‘his summer residence is in north-
ern India at Vrindavana, where Krishna is thought to have resided.
29
For more evidence of this, see p.44 above.