7
7
0
0
1
1
.
.
I
I
N
N
T
T
R
R
O
O
D
D
U
U
C
C
T
T
I
I
O
O
N
N
T
T
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A
A
N
N
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C
A
A
R
R
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N
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A
T
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N
N
traditional views—for, as we will see, “grace” is a major theme of many of the
avatar traditions, and Bhāgavata-Purāṇa 10:69.40, for example, has Kṛṣṇa say: ‘I
am the promulgator of Dharma. It is I who practice it and grant my approbation
to it. I have descended on this world for teaching it by my example’
38
. In all of
this, Sathya Sai Baba is following the lead of traditional epic and purāṇic works (to
the like of which Matchett referred in formulating her above-cited list), and these,
I will consider in detail in Chapters 3, 4, and 6 below.
At other times, however, Sathya Sai Baba presents what I will call a “spiritual-
ized” take on such ideas. Thus, for example, in one instance he construes the
“protection of the good and punishment of the wicked” implied in the first of the
above purposes to be merely an exercise in verbal chastisement or encourage-
ment—in the service of the more philosophical ideal of “Truth”:
this Incarnation has come to uphold the True and suppress the False. I behave like
you, moving, singing, laughing, journeying, but watch out for the blow I inflict [all]
of a sudden, to chastise and to warn. I shall scorch the wrong-doer for his wrong
and soothe the virtuous for his righteousness [(18-8-1968) S8 28:157].
In another instance, rather than the more traditional view that the good are to be
protected by the avatar from their demonic enemies, he proclaims that they are to
be protected from ‘ashaanti (grief) caused by want of knowledge of the relative
unimportance of worldly things’
39
, having their ‘faith and courage’ (rather than
their material wellbeing) protected by the avatar
40
. Or he suggests that it is not
good people as such who are the proper objects of his protection, but the spiritual
qualities within them
41
, and not bad people (or demons, asuras) who ought to be
destroyed, but ‘bad thoughts’
42
. And such ideas are typical of some of the medie-
val philosophical interpretations of the avatars—such as I will especially discuss in
Chapter 4 below. To give a brief example here, Angelika Malinar (2001:94) writes
that the famous philosopher ‘Śaṅkara [treated in many works as an avatar, see
p.141], is never directly involved in the violence which goes along with the ava-
tāra function… [he] defeats his opponents only through his superior knowledge’.
Furthermore, Sathya Sai Baba (citing Bhagavad-Gītā 4:8, the most famous tradi-
tional proclamation of the principles under discussion here
43
) says that it is not just
38
Tagare (1978), Part IV, p.1693
39
(10-7-1959) http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume01/sss01-21.pdf [14-6-2007]
40
Sathya Sai Baba (14-1-1962) S2 29:153
41
GV 59
42
(28-9-1987) http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume20/sss20-23.pdf [14-6-2007]
43
See p.281 below.
1
1
.
.
3
3
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p
p
l
l
a
a
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i
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good “people” who are to be protected, but all good creatures:
“Parithraanaaya Saadhoonaam” in the Geetha does not mean the “protection of
saadhus or ascetics;” it means the “protection of all who have saadhu virtues;”
‘saadhu’ means ‘good.’ Good virtues might be found even in animals and insects and
worms. He will guard and guide even such [(14-1-1962) S2 29:153-154].
And here, there may be local influences upon his thinking. Konduri Sarojini Devi
(1990:33), writing of Religion in Vijayanagara empire (this empire being the most
powerful medieval political entity that subsumed the area that is now Sathya Sai
Baba’s locale, see Fig.23, and Section 4.6 below), describes an influential 16
th
cen-
tury Telugu work (composed in Śrī Kāḷahastī, Fig.23) as a ‘panegyric of Śiva em-
phasizing the ease with which the grace of the Lord could be obtained even by
animals, reptiles and insects through devotion’
44
. Such potential local influences
are also obviously worthy of some consideration.
Finally, we find that Sathya Sai Baba is keen to completely exonerate previous
avatars from their perhaps morally questionable function of destruction (whether
literal or allegorical), saying that: ‘Krishna is said to have destroyed many wicked
persons. But this is not quite correct. It is their own wickedness which destroyed
these evil persons’
45
. This, I will refer to as “ethicization” of tradition (in which
the focus is upon moral, rather than philosophical spiritual lessons), and it is
something that especially achieves prominence in modern avatar ideas—these, I
will discuss in Chapter 5. Not that Sathya Sai Baba is necessarily drawing upon
the interpretations of others here—as we will see in the next section, he is some-
times genuinely innovative—but such interpretations at the very least provide par-
allel cases against which Sathya Sai Baba’s ideas might be better understood. This,
then, will be the cornerstone of my approach to “explaining” Sathya Sai Baba.
44
NB On this work, see Hank Heifetz and Velcheru Narayana Rao (1987).
45
(28-8-1994) http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume27/sss27-23.pdf [3-5-2007]