Brian Steel  March 2005

 Copyright ©  2005 Brian Steel 

In a recent short article following my first visit to India since 2000, I expressed my amazement at the discovery of the contents of the official SSO Chaitanya Jyoti Museum ("The Flame [or Spirit] of Consciousness"), inaugurated in Puttaparthi in 2000 to commemorate, for posterity, SSB's Life and Mission, and, above all, his alleged Avatarhood. The museum is described in detail in the official Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation's book of the same title, published in 2001 but equally unknown to me until last month.

On his website and in his recent book, End of the Dream (pp. 266-267), Robert Priddy reports that the idea of a grandiose monument to SSB's Divine Mission as a present for his 75th birthday was the brainchild of International Chairman of the SSO, Indulal Shah, who proposed that the necessary funds should be raised by overseas SSOs (at an estimated cost of $5 million). Priddy, who has a wide knowledge of SSO affairs and procedures, also comments that there was some initial understandable dissent against the proposal from Zone 4 SSO apparatchiks (Europe), who considered (not unreasonably) that a hospital would be more a more appropriate memorial. Nevertheless, the Museum project went ahead.

Another relevant comment already on record about a previous memorial comes to mind: Mick Brown's visceral reaction to his visit to the Eternal Heritage Museum in Puttaparthi (in his book The Spiritual Tourist). It obviously amazed him, but not in the way the builders intended. Brown saw the Museum "... as berserkly ostentatious as any of the ashram's principal buildings." (p. 92) Among its contents he finds "a drawing of Christ and Sai Baba together in identical postures of thoughtful repose. "Baba," read a caption, "says that between the ages of twelve and thirty Jesus went to India and learned meditation." (p. 93) He is quickly overwhelmed by it all: "I began to feel repelled by the tackiness of the displays; they reminded me of the museums dedicated to Country and Western stars that I had seen in Nashville; there the deification of show business celebrities seemed merely risible; to see the same gimcrack techniques applied to - whom? A deity? - seemed somehow even more tawdry." (p. 93) After his long observant stay in the ashram, Brown left Puttaparthi the next morning.

The Eternal Heritage Museum was obviously not considered impressive enough by some of the SSO leadership but many (especially overseas devotees and tourists) who visit the latest official monument to SSB's alleged Divinity are likely to be far more dismayed with its extravagance (and its claims) than Brown was with its predecessor.

In my short introductory article on the new Chaitanya Jyoti Museum, I commented with incredulity on several topics, among them, especially aimed at posterity, the major public OFFICIAL endorsement of SSB's controversial claims to be the Avatar of the Age. Visitors are confronted with a significant part of the evidence which the SSO presents as authentication of these claims in a prominent section of the museum dedicated to what are categorically labelled "Fulfilled Prophecies" of SSB's "Advent". "Fulfilled Prohecies". It struck me as an extraordinarily bold step by the SSSO to promote in such a tangible, public way as 'evidence' what for years I had (naively?) imagined were, unlike the specific Divine claims by SSB himself in his early years, merely UNofficial and totally unsupported excesses in SSB hagiography by over-zealous spokespersons and devotee writers who often blithely promote hearsay to the level of fact - a reprehensible (and propagandistic) habit on which I and others have commented critically in recent years.

Page 49 of the text of this specific section of the museum guide proudly presents one of the most incongruous, illogical and flimsy of the alleged "Fulfilled Prophecies" - happily accepted and propagated by devotees and writers for over 20 years: that, according to a 17th century Shi'ite cleric, the Prophet Muhammad had prophesied the Advent of SSB (a Hindu, and a non-Muslim) as Mahdi (or awaited Muslim Messiah). Just think about that incongruous concept for a minute.

According to the SSSO guide book, the museum displays three paragraphs of Persian text and five paragraphs of English, plus a photocopy of Persian text on the cover of an old book. So I commissioned a professional translation of the Persian text and also of the untranslated lettering on the cover of the book. A few days later I received the expert's translation. It revealed that the cover announced the Persian book title to be Volume 13 of Boharol Anvar (Bihar al-Anwar in Arabic; Ocean of Light in English) by Allame Majlisi [the seventeenth century Shi'ite Imam and scholar]. The translation also revealed that the three paragraphs of Persian quoted by the SSSO bear absolutely NO resemblance to the English text quoted on their official museum exhibit. The SSSO itself therefore offers yet another concrete reason to dismiss this alleged prophecy as unfounded, as will be revealed below.

The so-called "Mehdi Moud Prophecy" is one of the most unconvincing claims rashly made on SSB's behalf as evidence of Divine prophecies of his Divinity. It has been repeated in countless books on SSB over the past 20 years. Writers and devotees desperately continue to cling to the claim in spite of the substantial logical and circumstantial evidence against it and in spite of a report by ashram-resident Swami Maheshwaranand that SSB specifically (and, if Maheshwaranand's word is to be accepted, wisely) forbade its publication many years ago. (Which raises the highly intriguing question: 'What notice does the SSO take of SSB?')

Since I have researched and written about this alleged prophecy for three years, and my recent information on the subject indicates that further background is of use to readers who have not read my earlier research, I append my 2002 article below. At the time I had NO knowledge of the extraordinarily provocative Chaitanya Jyoti Museum (2000) or of the SSSO guidebook published in 2001.

Page 49 of the glossy SSSO publication Chaitanya Jyoti offers the following version of the alleged prophecy by the Prophet Muhammad, enshrined for posterity in the Puttaparthi Museum of the same name.

"Some of the signs and marks by which this Great Teacher would be recognised:"

[In the left column, a photocopy of a heading in Persian script, beneath which is the caption:]

"Description of the person of MAHDI MO'UD of Islam."

Beneath this is a line of dots and three paragraphs of Persian script, each separated by ***.

Below that is a photocopy of the cover and spine of an old book, with Persian script on the cover.

In the centre column are five paragraphs in English, containing many characteristics which might be references to SSB. The paragraphs are not labelled as translations of the Persian text, but, in the juxtaposed context, what else could they be intended to be?

In the third column the reader/visitor is offered the vaguest of references to the quotation and book cover:

"Meaning the "Great Teacher that was Promised" in Arabic"
Volume 13 of the book "Ocean of Light"
- a collection of discourses by Prophet Mohammed) (as published in U.K. Magazine 'Two Worlds').
[No mention of the 17th Century Shi'ite scholar Majlisi; just an inadequate reference to a third-hand version of part of the story in a British New Age magazine by the (unnamed) devotee, Peggy Mason.]

In the bottom right hand corner of the third column, presumably referring to a Museum exhibit of an artist's impression, we find:
"An outline of Sathya Sai Avatar is shown on the TV screen matching the description given above."

Below I offer the recent professional translation of the Persian script (heading and 3 paragraphs) and of the book title. By comparing this with the SSSO Museum 'translation', readers will see that what is claimed in the Chaitanya Jyoti museum quotation is totally different from the expert translation and contains none of the vital identifying characteristics so tantalisingly listed on the official Chaitanya Jyoti exhibit. It may not be possible at this point of time, prima facie, to accuse the SSSO itself of deliberate falsification of the facts about the alleged 'Mehdi Moud' prophecy since there is a faint possibility that the quoted English text appears elsewhere in the SSSO-quoted Persian source, but the observant reader will note a radical and significant difference in the style of the two translations (that of the SSSO and of my expert translator), which makes this vague possibility even more remote. Furthermore, as can be seen in the Appendix to this note, my previous researches have not corroborated any of the (desperately?) devotee-promoted SSB-specific details of the prophecy as described in other Muslim references. The burden of the available evidence would therefore seem to indicate that it is reasonable to criticise the SSSO for accepting AT FACE VALUE, with NO corroboration (and for promoting in their official SSB museum), what pro-SSB writers and spokespersons have been irresponsibly trumpeting on this subject for 20 years.

Here is a direct comparison of the two sets of information, paragraph by paragraph, with the SSSO (museum) version first (a), followed by the independent expert translation (b):

Heading:
(a)"Description of the person of MAHDI MO'UD of Islam."
(b) The promised Mahdi of Islam is someone like this:

(a)
"His hair will be profuse. His forehead would be large and concave. His nose will be small with a bump at the bridge. He will have a mole on His cheek. He will be clean shaven.
"His clothing will be like a flame. Colour of his face will be sometimes yellow like gold, sometimes very dark and sometimes shining like the moon."
(b)"As if I see the Qaem who is riding a horse outside Najaf. The middle of forehead of the horse is white down to its neck. Then he moves his horse and at that time people in every city see that the Qaem is in their city.... (His holiness Sadeq, PBUH)" [=Peace Be Unto Him]

(a)
"His body will be small, His legs will be those of a young girl. The teachings of all religions of the World will be in His heart from birth and so also all the science and knowledge of the World from the beginning of time.
"All things which you will ask God, He will give you. All the treasures are under His feet. Every eye that sees Him will be happy, not only humans, but disembodied souls too."
(b)
"Sahebol Amr (the governor) himself is hidden from people's eyes, but his memory does not go away from believers' mind. He is the 12^th Emam. God makes very problem easy for him. He discloses the treasures and mines of the Earth for him. And makes every distance close form him. And (God) destroys every cruel ruler by him. He is the child of servants' lady and his birth was unknown to every one. (Emam Mosa Kazem, PBUH)"

(a)
"He will live 95 years. In the last 20 years of His life He will be the 'King of the whole world'. About that time only two thirds of the people will believe Him - so as not to be deceived, you shall know that Master of the World will bring things out of His body, through His mouth."
(b)
"Our Qaem is the one who when appears is in old people's age but in young people's face. And has a strong body, so that if he can pull out the biggest tree on the Earth by his hands. And if he shouts on mountains, the huge and hard stones will break because of his strong voice. Moses cane and Solomon ring is with him. He is the 4^th of my children. God will hide him from eyes as long as he wants. He will reveal him and then will fill the Earth with justice. (This happens) After the Earth is full of cruelty and injustices. (His holiness Emam Reza, PBUH)"

As different as chalk and cheese. Surely there can be no better proof of Professor Janja Lalich's cautionary observation in a more general context bout NRMs: "Group lore transforms easily into self-perpetuating myths that serve the cult's image" [2002]. What is of special concern in this egregious example is that it is the guru's official organisation that is endorsing the myth (in a museum built to promote his story to posterity) and therefore conferring on it the official status of fact (or dogma).

Why does the SSO appear so unconcerned whether such assertions and documents will be checked, and perhaps challenged?

[Additional Note, November 2008:
On a visit to the Museum in October 2008, I discovered that the erroneous and misleading translation has been removed but that parts of the alleged prediction by Muhammad and other questionable predictions are still prominently on display. For further information, see A Visit to the Chaitanya Jyoti Museum]

Why, in a long 'catechism' about SSB published by the SSSBPT (QUIZ on the Divine Life and Message of Sri Sathya Sai Baba), labelled as "intended only for fact-finding reading", are some of these same alleged prophecies included (in detail)? And how can the compilers reconcile the juxtaposition of the Mehdi Moud prophecy with the one which follows it?

"Pope John XXII prophesied that a small barefoot man of dark skin, in the red robe, will eventually take over the Vatican." (Part V, No. IX) How many devotees can accept BOTH of these suggestions without question?

When valid counter-evidence appears, as for example many years ago in the case of the alleged resurrection miracles of devotees Radhakrishna and Walter Cowan, why does the SSO not amend its records (in these cases to "near-death experiences") and warn spokespersons, writers and devotees to be careful not to spread HEARSAY as accepted fact?

Similarly, what prevents the SSO from acknowledging the clear revelations contained in Love is My Form, Vol. 1 about the date of the Declaration of the Mission (1943) and other discrepancies in SSB's biography?

(Historical Note: The projected other 6 volumes of LIMF were eventually cancelled by Sai Towers with no explanation. Ironically, the first volume of LIMF was published at the same time as the official inauguration of this exotic and expensive Chaitanya Jyoti Museum.)

Why did the literal translations of SSB's Telugu Discourses disappear from the Internet in 2002? Does the SSO have a problem with the content of such documents? If they consider SSB to be the Avatar of the Age, why should there be any problem?

To be continued.

For further background, my 2002 article follows.

Brian Steel   October 2002

The frequently repeated allegations by SSB writers of a very detailed prediction by the Prophet Muhammad of the coming of SSB is accepted by many devotees as totally authentic. Periodic controversy over this extraordinary story (complicated by a lack of sources in English) has surfaced both in SSB devotee circles and beyond, but the arguments have been inconclusive. While sceptical about the concept and many of the details of the story, for a long time I was unable to assemble enough conclusive counter-evidence. Now at last, I believe, I may be in a position to settle the matter, showing that writers who propagate this myth are doing SSB a disservice, and that critics (like Dale Beyerstein - Chapter 8) who deny the existence of an ancient work called Bihar al-Anwar are also in error.

First of all, there seem to be two different chronological phases of the dissemination of this story.

The first phase refers to the 1980s, when these astonishing revelations began to seep into SSB literature. In one of its many early versions, the story begins, exotically:

"At a bookstall in Teheran was recently discovered a huge volume. It was the 14^th edition of the Discourses of Mahommed [sic] in 25 volumes, called "The Ocean of Light". It is said that these discourses were collected together some 700 years after the Prophet's death. "Volume 13 of "the Ocean of Light" is called Mehedi Moud in Arabic, which means 'The Great Teacher that was promised.'" (Sathya Sai Newsletter U.S.A., Fall 1983, pp. 34-36)

Perhaps the fullest early (1983) version is that by R. Lowenberg, in The Heart of Sai (pp. 120-124). Lowenberg says that in the ashram he met an Iranian lady known as "Irani Ma", who told him she had written a book about SSB in Farsi which she was hoping to get translated into English for publication. One of the stories on the book described her finding of the old book in the market and reading the Prophecies of Muhammad about the coming of the "Great Teacher". As she read the prophecies, "I found in this book everything I had seen at Brindavan, in Sai Baba." She went on to tell Lowenberg some of the 300 identifying signs which coincide with characteristics of SSB.

Muhammad is alleged to have said things like the following, which "Irani Ma", Lowenberg, and other writers take as conclusive proof that the Prophet was referring to none other than SSB: "Christians and other people of other religions will see Him, but Mussalmans will be so bad that they will not find him. The people of those religions will collect under a great tree, and they will have a spot on their foreheads." Of the physical signs she mentions: "His hair will be profuse. His forehead will be large and concave. ... His body will be small in size, but His stomach will be large. His legs will be like those of a young girl ... He will give everyone gifts that are light in weight. ... He will wear two robes. ... He will live 95 or 96 years on earth. ... Mussalmans will only recognise Him nine years before His passing from the world. ... So as not to be deceived, you should know that the Master of the World will bring things out of His body, through His mouth." (Lowenberg, pp. 122-3)

Another version (S. Kant, p. 17) claims that although it was an Iranian writer who discovered the volume, the information first surfaced in an esoteric magazine in England called Two Worlds (date unknown). That article was written by an English journalist named Peggy Mason, who in her old age became a staunch SSB devotee, writer and unofficial publicist.

This story of the coming Messiah (or Mahdi, for the Muslims), with variations and embellishments (and identifying characteristics ranging from 27 in number to the 300 mentioned above) has since been repeated by many SSB writers.

(Incidentally, "Irani Ma" is mentioned as the discoverer of the old book in a Persian Market in another full version of this fable included by Swami Maheshwaranand in Volume 1 of his slim but fanciful account of the Himalayan Nara Narayana Gufa ashram. Maheshwaranand states specifically that "Irani Ma, one of the old devotees of Bhagawan, wanted to publish what Prophet Mohammed had prophesied ... Baba, however did not give permission for its publication." (p. 61) How wise of SSB.

Because of the nature of their religious beliefs, it is difficult for Muslims to acknowledge that SSB is a Form of God.

Muslims believe that a Messiah-type figure (Imam Mahdi, or the Mahdi) will appear (or re-appear) at a difficult period of history to restore the faith and ensure the final victory of Islam. Varying versions of the description of the expected Mahdi occur in several Muslim sources. One of these is Bihar al-Anwar ("Ocean of Light" - a metaphor for God), a voluminous work by a seventeenth century Iranian scholar, Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi (1628-1699), which contains, among much else, the basic Shi'ite version of the Mahdi story. It should be added that although (majority) Sunni Muslims and (minority) Shi'ite Muslims have come to agree in principle on a Prophecy of the coming of the Mahdi, only the Shi'ites believe that he will be the returning Twelfth Imam of ancient days, who has remained in invisible concealment, but watching over their fortunes.

In Majlisi's (Shi'ite) work and other Shi'ite sources there are references to Hadiths (Traditions, or Sayings) which give a variety of predicted physical and other information about the Mahdi and the circumstances of his appearance. Most of the essential characteristics of the Mahdi suggested in such Muslim writings simply do not correspond with those suggested or repeated by over-enthusiastic writers of SSB books.

Professor Mostafa Vaziri, referring to Bihar (pp. 1066-1239) writes: "Muhammad Majlisi's account of the return of the Imam Mahdi consists of several traditions that contain discrepancies in reporting the names, places, and circumstances of the Imam's reappearance." He goes on to mention that the Mahdi will arise in Mecca. He will proclaim his descent from the prophet via his alleged father [The Eleventh Imam]. He will be accompanied by 313 men [from a historic battle] and will be flanked by the angels Gabriel and Michael. "His intentions will be to create a government in which all other religions fade away, their disciples convert to Islam, and nonbelievers become believers." (Vaziri, p. 171)

In Shi'ite sources quoted on the website <www.irshad.org/idara> which gives many sources of different information on the Mahdi, we find the following two sets of details:

1. From documentary source: "Bukhari, kitabul-Anbiya, Chapter Nuzul Isa bin Maryam":

"According to these reliable, authentic, and universally accepted narrations, Mahdi will:
1. Be from among the family of Prophet, among the descendants of Fatima;
2. Have a broad forehead and pointed noise;
3. Appear in one night;
4. Appear just before the day of judgment;
5. Have same name as hazrat Muhammad;
6. Escape from Madina to Makkah where people will pledge allegiance to him;
7. Receive pledge and help of Iraqi people;
8. Fight in battles;
9. Rule over the Arabs for seven years according to Sunnah;
10. Spread justice and equity on earth;
11. Eradicate tyranny and oppression;
12. Lead a prayer in Mekkah which Jesus will follow in;
13. NOT be the same individual as the Promised Messiah (Jesus).

2.. From documentary source: "Ibn Tawus, Kitab al-malahim wa al-fitan", p. 64:

"According to these hadith, Mahdi will:

1. Be from the Family of the Prophet and descend from Hussain, son of Fatima;
2. Appear at the end of time;
3. Appear when earth is filled with injustice and tyranny and believers are severely oppressed;
4. Appear when a severe earthquake will occur and green grass will grow (presumably in Arabia);
5. Fill the earth with justice and equity;
6. Spread brotherhood, equity, and devotion among Muslims;
7. Rule over the Muslim community, according to Hadith, for seven or nine years;
8. Live and act with the qualities of the holy Prophet.

The second more interesting phase begins in about 1990 with the belated description by a Muslim SSB devotee and academic, Dr Zeba Bashiruddin, of her 15 year intensive search for the link between SSB and Islam, and her own mystical devotion to SSB.

In November 1990, Dr Bashiruddin published a short but authoritative article in the official SSO magazine, Sanathana Sarathi (pp. 298-300): 'The Truth of a Prophecy'. Its content was spellbinding for devotees. The author prefaces her revelations by confessing to a long but victorious struggle against anxiety and doubt about her feelings for SSB over more than ten years of intensive study and introspection:

"When over a decade ago doubts assailed the mind, this author was led to the Fountain of Truth and the injunction reverberated clearly: "You do not know your own religion, how can you know ME?" With these words Baba guided me to an intense study of Sufism, the holy Quran and Islam. Therefore, what is conveyed through these words is undoubtedly His gift. It has come, like all other lessons in spirituality, in the form of a book. Later it has been checked and verified through inquiry from centres of Islamic Studies."

Then she gives the results of her studies:

" Muslims all over the world believe in the advent of a great leader and guide. They all know him as MEHDI (Master). The Prophet, Hazrat Mohammad, has indicated that Hazrat Mehdi will appear for the welfare of muslims in the last decades of the 14th century Hijri (this century has just ended.) It will be a time of trouble and materialism. The Quranic values and their practice will be ignored, and men's hearts will turn to the worship of the world and its glamour, 'the other Gods' of the Koranic language. The prophecy goes on to postulate that Hazrat Mehdi will restore the Truth and 'Islam' will be the religion of the entire world." [bold type added]

"THE PROPHECY:

"The signs regarding the time and the person of Mehdi, more than 150 in number, were related by the holy Prophet to Hazrat Ali, the fourth Khalif and a repository of Sufi secrets. These signs became a guarded treasure of Imams, descendants of Hazrat Ali and formed a part of the Shi'a tradition of the Prophetic sayings. In the 17th. century A.D. the well known scholar, Md.Baqir bin Md. Taqi-Al Majlisi-Al Isfahani (1627-1698) collected them in his voluminous book, Bihar- ul- Anwar, written in Arabic. The two Persian translations that contained the Prophetic sayings about Hazrat Mehdi are Khas-ul-Anwar and Bihar-ul-ANWAR (part Dwazdhum).

"A few of these selected sayings of the Prophet of Islam are listed here. It is left to the reader to recognise who the great Master is as seen by the holy Prophet in a vision, and described by him fourteen hundred years ago." [Bold type added. Note that, as a Muslim, Bashiruddin appears understandably reluctant to make a more definite statement.]

"The Master, commonly known as Hazrat Mehdi, will be seen by those who will search for him. (page 240) (All subsequent references in this article are to the Persian translation of Bihar-ul-Anwar.) ..."

"THE INSIGNIA OF HAZRAT MEHDI:

"Other signs as stated in Mohammad Baqir's work are:

Many Mohammedans will not know about his advent for a long time. That holy Spirit will wear two garments, one inner and the other outer (p.239). The robe, orange in colour, will be of such a shape that the contours of his back will be seen clearly (p.292, 777). His dress orange in colour, will spread Light among the people (p. 245).

"His hair, thick and dark, will reach His shoulders (25). His eyebrows are joined in the centre (242). His other features are: Broad and clear forehead (263). Straight nose with a dip in the beginning; a mole on the cheek, reminding of Hazrat Mosa, bright as a star; teeth with partings in the two front ones (243); Black eyes (777). Average height, compared with the Jewish height (239). The colour of the face is described variously as shining like a gold-bronze coin; so bright that it is impossible to recognize the real colour (263-293).The general impression: full of compassion, dignified, exalted (239).

"ATTRIBUTES AND QUALITIES:

The physical details given by Bashiruddin in this official magazine for devotees (Sanathana Sarathi) are interesting but not conclusive, and they differ greatly from the previous (and subsequent) exaggerations by other SSB writers. The other background details which she presents refer, exclusively (like the ones quoted from other Muslim sources earlier), to a Muslim setting for Imam Mahdi. However, from 1990 on, spurred on perhaps by news of this article, SSB writers have regurgitated either the exaggerations of the crude and imaginative Phase 1 "Mehdi Moud" story or selected pieces of the Bashiruddin material, sometimes including a reference to the Bihar al-Anwar book.

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