Copyright © Brian Steel 2001

Chapter 7

The Development of the Sai Baba Mission

In the words of a very close associate of Sai Baba, Dr. V.K.Gokak:

"Bhagavan has said that his "avataric design" is one of three incarnations. As Shirdi Baba, he laid the foundations for his spiritual mission, bringing about Hindu-Muslim Unity.[?] That edifice is being raised now, in his role as Sathya Sai Baba. He will live for 96 years, fulfilling this role. As Prema Sai Baba, he will be born in Mandya District, Karnataka State. On the structure raised by Sathya Sai Baba, Prema Sai Baba will set the Kalasa or spire soaring to heaven." (Gokak, 1975:67)

Since the principal sources of our knowledge of the history of Sai Baba's Mission are Baba's printed Discourses and information from the Sai Baba Organisation, or from many spokespersons, official and unofficial, as well as from enthusiastic writer-devotees, it is possible that, as we have seen with other aspects concerning Sai Baba, the existing picture of his Mission may need a little amending or filling out here and there. The main impression given in Baba literature is of constant, unstoppable planned progress to save the world from total decline and disaster and to usher in a Golden Age of peace. In this first Part of the chapter, we shall point out some interesting aspects of the crucial middle stage of the development of Baba's Mission.

Let us turn back the calendar thirty five years, to the year 1966. Baba is now 40 and has been preaching in his remote birthplace village in South India for nearly 25 yrs. From the very beginning of his Mission (in 1940, or 1943) Baba's strong personality and gifts have attracted to him a number of wealthy devotees (many of them Indian aristocrats) who have supported the gradual growth and maintenance of his ashram and his travels. For example, Sakamma, the widow of the Puttaparthi accountant, 1941-1944; Thirumal Rao, a wealthy Bangalore builder, 1944-1950; Sakamma (1945) and members of the Mysore Royal family (1945); the Rani of Chincholi and the Rani of Cutch (1944); the Maharaja and Maharani of Santur (1948); the Raja of Venkatagiri (1949); the Maharaja and Maharani of Navanagar (1965-1966).

Baba has steadfastly refused the entreaties of his devotees to abandon his village in Andhra Pradesh. and relocate to a city - and on reflection, perhaps he really had little choice in view of the geographical constraints imposed by his native language, Telugu, spoken by perhaps 30 million Indians at that time. However (we are still in 1966), he has travelled widely during the previous twenty years in his native state of A.P. He has also made incursions (with his interpreters and close associates) into parts of neighbouring States and is making an important annual visit to the major southern city of Madras. In 1965 and 1966 he has made his first visits to Bombay. In addition, there have been forays in 1957 to Rishikesh and sacred Hindu Himalayan shrines and in 1961 and 1966 to the distant capital, Delhi. His claims to be an Avatar, his powerful personality, charm and charisma, and his special gifts have attracted many devotees to him. He is admired for his inspiring spiritual teachings and for his frequent alleged miracles and other demonstrations of divine powers. (The first public materialisation of a Shiva Lingam took place during Mahasivaratri 1962.)

So far, Baba's main concern and initiatives have been to preach a healthy morality and a return to traditional Hindu values and standards. He has met and participated in debates with other Indian gurus and holymen. In 1957, thanks to the influence of his patron and devotee, the Raja of Vankatagiri who was also the patron of Swami Sivananda's well-known All India Divine Life Society, Baba was handed the wonderful opportunity of presiding over and addressing the Society's annual conference at the Palace of Venkatagiri. This was an important upward step for Sai Baba in the Indian spiritual hierarchy.

At the conference, Baba also made contact with and impressed, so Kasturi tells us (K1A, 116-119) the emissaries of Swami Sivananda (Swami Sachidananda, the Organising secretary of the Society, and Swami Sadananda). These two influential Swamis were to be Baba's guests in Puttaparthi and Kodaikanal for several weeks. As a result of their doubtless favourable reports to Sivananda, Baba was able to make a visit and a stay of 6 days to Swami Sivananda's ashram in the holy Ganges city of Rishikesh in North India in July 1957 (K1A, 128 - Kasturi further claims obliquely that Baba healed Swami Sivananda - although I have found no reference to Sai Baba or his visit in Sivananda's writings).

In the following years, Baba initiated further practical steps towards fostering the revival of Hindu institutions and values of which he spoke so often. Among his initiatives came the inauguration, in 1963, of:

a special school for producing Vedic scholars, and

an Assembly of Vedic Pundits (Vidwan Maha Sabha).

For the past 12 years (up to 1966), since the recruitment of the ex-University teacher and intellectual Professor N. Kasturi, who was to become a close and trusted associate for many years, Baba has been giving Discourses on his teachings which have been transcribed and published in Hindi, English, and one of two other Indian languages. In fact, much ground work has been done, seeds have been patiently sown, strong impressions and important contacts have been made and consolidated, and in 1961 the first volume of a fascinating biography by Professor Kasturi has revealed Baba to a much wider number of his fellow Indians. In 1958, Kasturi commenced a long term stint as editor of the new monthly magazine, Sanathana Sarathi.

Other Progress to 1966

The quality of key people drawn to work closely with Baba is remarkable and he now has a small team of very eminent and able helpers. For the next decade or two, or even longer, these chosen people as well as others still to join up, will work devotedly to help Baba to achieve his announced goal and those still to be determined by Baba or the Organisation that now bears his name. The principal associates of this time are:

Kasturi , the closest and the oldest (in full time service since 1954, at the age of 56, and until his death at age 90 in 1987).

Indulal Shah. Following the recruitment in 1965 of this shrewd and able Bombay accountant, there will be a spectacularly fast development of the Sai Baba Organisation and within a few years it will reach far beyond the boundaries of India. Sai Baba will finally be free of the language constraints of Telugu! For many years Shah has been the Chairman of the World Council of Sri Sathya Sai Organisations and in 2001 he is still one of Baba's closest associates and advisors. (See his Sixteen Spiritual Summers for more biographical information on this very influential man.)

The first Organisation under the name of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Samithi was registered in 1965. (I.Shah, 1980:74)

(The retiring Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, Dr V.K.Gokak would soon be recruited to Baba's team (in 1968). His educational and administrative expertise was to be invaluable to Baba and the Organisation, as were the books he would write about Baba, making Baba more widely known and respected (principally) in India.)

The Australian writer and spiritual seeker, Howard Murphet (and his wife, Iris) were also drawn to see Baba in 1965. Howard's fascinating 1971 book, Sai Baba. Man of Miracles, was to become instrumental in drawing many thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of overseas devotees to Baba (as well as many Indian ones). Over the ensuing 30 years Howard would write four more instructive and popular books about Baba.

So, in 1966, the balance was that Sai Baba was widely known within the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and tolerably well known in neighbouring areas. As a result, the major Hindu festivals attract crowds of a few thousand Indians to the ashram in Puttaparthi, as well as a handful of young Western spiritual seekers and hippies, attracted to India on back-packing tours by the recent instant fame of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

The ashram in tiny Puttaparthi has grown in size and land area, but there are still only an estimated 100 permanent residents and maximum temporary crowds of a few thousand visitors at the major Hindu festival times so it is still an Elysian time for devotees to be able to spend time close to Baba on a daily basis.

At this crossroads of 1966, other factors were operating in India and the world. Until the 1960s, the average educated Westerner was not in the habit of visiting India. Then came the 'Beatles' and the Hippie revolution of the 1960s. The Beatles gave the word 'guru' a new popularity when they espoused Maharishi's teachings in India. As for the latter's "TM" (Transcendental Meditation), it eventually achieved a massive audience, especially in middle-class milieux in California, USA and in Europe. Other Indian spiritual leaders also began to cater for this new clientele, which made both gurus and India fashionable at that time and since. From then on large numbers of (mainly young) people from "Western" countries swarmed to India in search of all sorts of fulfilment. For the educated leaders of the Sai Baba Organisation, admirers (as well as critics) of British and European culture, these trends and opportunities cannot have gone unnoticed.

The coming 10 years (culminating in Baba's 50^th Birthday) will witness very important new developments which will accelerate the global spread of knowledge about Baba and about Baba's teachings. With strong influence and initiatives from the Organisation under the leadership of Indulal Shah, a sea change of direction will be taken to expand the movement's aims from the old parochial national and traditional Hindu-centric objectives (without abandoning them) to a more ambitious, contemporary plan to influence the Indians of the future (its students) and to have a worldwide influence and presence. During this period, as we shall see in more detail in Part 2 of this chapter, the early 1960s initiatives of active revival and promotion of traditional Hindu values (notably the Patisala Vedic School and the Vidwan Mahasabha mentioned earlier) decline and disappear. They are speedily replaced by more massive investment of donors' funds into contemporary forms of education initiatives (also incorporating Hindu values and cultural aspects), the eventual development of the exportable Education in Human Values (E.H.V.), rapid foreign expansion of the Organisation and increased emphasis on service to others. Around this time there was a similar "phasing out" of some of Baba's previously popular types of alleged demonstrations of special powers: for example, going into trances in public to bilocate (to be with devotees elsewhere) and the personal assumption of devotees' serious illnesses. (See also Chapter 6)

"Svami has discontinued for some time now the act of petrifying His body in one place and carrying His life force to some other place and performing His leelas there. This act of transmigration [=bilocation?] , considered a crowning achievement in the siddha style, only detracted from the divine glory of Svami as avatar, because an Avatar being omnipresent has no need for any migration. ... At last He stopped this, and the last of it we hear was on the 1969 Sivaratri, when He went on a round-the-world tour leaving His body after the Lingodbhava in a trance for forty-five minutes to observe the celebrations of Sivaratri in various parts of the world." (Ganapati, Part II, p. 173)

Just two years after the appearance of Indulal Shah as a leading light in the Sai Baba Organisation came the First All-India Conference of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations in Madras (April 20, 1967) followed 3 days later by the First All-India Conference of Sathya Sai Organisations. Only a year later, in Bombay, Shah's home city and future power base for the Organisation, came the First world Conference of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations, organised by the fast-growing Bombay Centre (May 1968). At this triumphant meeting, attended by a number of overseas visitors, Baba made several resounding and well-known statements meant for external as well as Indian consumption, including the paradoxical (but doubtless intended to be reassuring for Christians and others): "I have not come to set afoot a new cult. I do not want people to be misled on this point. I affirm that this Sai form is the form of all the various names that man uses for the adoration of the Divine." (Sathya Sai Speaks, VIII, 19:95) And to make his claim even clearer: "This is a human form in which every Divine entity, every Divine Principle, that is to say, all the Names and Forms ascribed to God, are manifest." (p. 99)

In the following month Baba undertook his first (and only) overseas visit, two weeks in West Africa (June 30 - July 14, 1968), visiting Indian devotees in Nairobi, Kenya and in dictator Idi Amin's Uganda (Kampala). (After Baba's visit, many Indians left Uganda and thus missed the imminent persecution by Amin.)

The Beginnings of Foreign Expansion: America, and then the world!

Given the available evidence, this can also be fairly confidently pinpointed to this same crucial period of 1965-1975.

1965 Visit by the Australian writer and spiritual seeker, Howard Murphet

1966 Visit to Puttaparthi by the famous Russian U.S. yoga teacher, Indra Devi. She made such a favourable impression on Baba that he allowed her to give yoga classes in the ashram, and recommended them (Sathya Sai Speaks, VII, 3:15) She subsequently taught in the Anantapur Women's College (Sathya Sai Speaks, VIII, 32:177) On her return to America she was a fervent and active devotee. In her fashionable yoga academy, 50 miles from San Diego, California, Samuel Sandweiss (and many others) were to first hear about Sai Baba.

1968 Visit by John Hislop (1904-1995)

John Hislop, a longtime spiritual seeker but also a wealthy retired U.S. businessman and an ex-US World President of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Foundation in the late 1950s. Hislop was to become the closest of Baba's foreign associates (and his mentor in English) for 3 decades. Hislop had countless private conversations with Baba (many of which were noted down and published in the Organisation magazine, Sanathana Sarathi, in the early 1970s). In addition, Hislop was Baba's trusted spokesperson and ambassador to the U.S and other English-speaking countries. He published two very influential and privileged books of conversations with Sai Baba. (A third was posthumously published by his friends.)

1970 Visit to U.S.A. by Professor S. Bhagavantam representing Baba.

1971 Publication of Howard Murphet's Sai Baba. Man of Miracles.

1972 Visit by the American psychiatrist, Samuel Sandweiss.

1973 The publication by the well-known New York publisher, Viking Press, of Baba by the Hollywood screenwriter Arnold Schulman. Whatever brief impact this interesting book may have had at the time, it never really "took off" and is now almost totally unknown and unavailable to devotees.

1973 First visit by Phyllis Krystal and her husband.

1975 Publication of his emotionally intense account of his first experiences with Sai Baba by Samuel Sandweiss, Sai Baba. The Holy Man and .... the Psychiatrist.

1978 J.Hislop, Conversations with Sathya Sai Baba.

Publication of books about Baba in 1978 by Jagadeesan (Malaysia) and in 1982 by Peggy Mason and Ron Laing (U.K.) would also be instrumental in promoting the rapid development of Sai Baba Organisations in other key overseas areas in the early 1980s.

The American Connection is firmly Established (1970s)

Another event which must have had a facilitating influence on the (already imminent) formation of the U.S. Sai Baba Organisation was the visit by the wealthy U.S. couple Walter and Elsie Cowan. They were so inspired by their meeting with Baba and by Walter's (controversial) recovery after a heart attack on Christmas Day 1971 that they became close to Baba and Elsie made a substantial donation for a Boys' Hostel at the new Whitefield College (Ra. Ganapati, I:344 - who also tells us that "Baba called Elsie 'Rani'", and Sandweiss -1975:145 - indicates that she signed her notes to Baba with the same affectionate title). Mrs Cowan devoted the rest of her life and part of her considerable fortune to the U.S. Sai Baba Organisation and the Sathya Sai Book Center in Tustin, California.

Other signs of opening up by the Sai Baba's mission to outside expansion:

On Christmas Day 1970 came the first fleeting reference to Jesus. (See also Chapter 5.) In the 1971 Christmas Discourse there was a longer reference to Jesus. But at Christmas 1972 Baba included a very detailed 10-page treatment of the Jesus story. Jesus Christ is acknowledged and claimed as a universal spiritual leader by Baba. But Baba uses this Discourse (on 24-12-72, in Bangalore), titled 'He whom Christ Announced', not only to comment ambivalently on the miracle of the star of Bethlehem but much more significantly, to make the extraordinary, spectacular, breathtaking claim that Jesus actually foreshadowed the eventual coming of Baba himself, not as Jesus's successor, but as God the Father. Baba puts into the mouth of Jesus several prophetic references clearly describing Baba, including a reference to a lamb and to the word "Ba-Ba", imitating the sound of a lamb. (This time, in the printed version, there are one or two references to Jesus as with an initial capital letter: 'He'.)

"There is one point that I cannot but bring to your special notice today. At the moment when Jesus was merging in the Supreme Principle of Divinity, He communicated some news to his followers, which was interpreted in a variety of ways by commentators and those who relish the piling of writings on writings and meanings upon meanings, until it all swells up into a huge mess."

This is where Baba makes his striking claim referred to above:

"The statement itself has been manipulated and tangled into a conundrum. The statement of Christ is simple: ' he who sent me among you will come again!' and he pointed to a Lamb. The Lamb is merely a symbol, a sign. It stands for the Voice: Ba-Ba; the announcement was the Advent of Baba. 'His Name will be Truth,' Christ declared. Sathya means Truth. 'He will wear a robe of red, a blood-red robe.' [Here Baba pointed to the robe He was wearing.] 'He will be short, with a crown (of hair). The Lamb is the sign and symbol of Love.'

"Christ did not declare that he will come again. He said, 'He who made me will come again.' That Ba-ba is this Baba and Sai, the short, curly-hair-crowned red-robed Baba, is come. He is not only in this Form, but he is in every one of you, as the dweller in the Heart. He is there, short, with a robe of the colour of the blood that fills it." (XI, 54:346)

This was a sensational piece of news, especially for Christian and Jewish devotees! Samuel Sandweiss, who was there to witness it, enthusiastically includes an excerpt in his first book on Baba (1975:176-8).

With the combined declaration of Baba's Divinity and Omniscience, etc. by Murphet's book (1971), and by enthusiastic new converts like the Cowans, Hislop and Sandweiss (whose books were to follow in 1978 and 1975, respectively), interest in Baba in U.S.A. (in particular) was rapidly increasing and Baba Groups were functioning or being formed in several major cities. In 1972 or 1973, Elsie Cowan (now a widow) founded the Sathya Sai Book Center in Tustin, south of Los Angeles. Sandweiss informs us that (probably in late 1973 or early 1974), Sai Baba had written to Mrs Cowan (doubtless after several strong invitations by her and other Americans) "stating his interest in coming to America" (1975:141). Sandweiss gives further details and quotations of conversations with Baba showing his intention of going to America for a week or so before his birthday (November) to fulfil an earlier commitment to the Cowans, accompanied by Drs. Gokak and Bhagavantham (Sandweiss, 1975:143-145). Sandweiss makes no further mention of this topic in his book but we know that the visit did not take place.

Instead, in September-October 1974, Professor Gokak made a one month tour of Sai Baba Centres in several cities in U.S.A. as Baba's representative. (See Gokak, 1975, pp.255-299 for an enthusiastic report of the highly successful visit, which must have delighted the members of the Organisation back in Puttaparthi.) The U.S. Sai Baba Organisation had now been formally constituted and was off to a flying start. It began to grow at a very rapid rate and was soon to become the largest and most influential (and most independent) foreign Sai Baba Organisation under the leadership of Coordinator Dr Goldstein.

(Since April 2000 and the ongoing accusations and controversies, the American Sai Baba Organisation has been one of the national organisations in the Baba fold most seriously affected and bitterly divided.)

In the quarter of a century following 1975, there was be an unceasing exponential growth in numbers of devotees, and a parallel increase in the number of enthusiastic and loving books about Sai Baba. The physical size of the ashram and the surrounding town (a village no more!) was also greatly enlarged to cater for the swarms of visitors. The major overseas development would also begin to surge forward from about 1980. The total growth in devotee numbers in the last 25 years, while probably nowhere near those put out by the Organisation, would still culminate in the presence of uncomfortably huge crowds at Baba's 70^th and 75^th birthdays in 1995 and 2000. All in all, an extraordinary success story.

Part 2 - The Man and the Mission: Some Comments

Without disputing the colossal achievement of this one extraordinary man and his Organisation, it is possible to point out a few personal and historical details which may be worthy of consideration both now and when the full history of this important spiritual institution eventually comes to be written.

The Man

Charisma

No examination of the phenomenal progress of Sathya Sai Baba's Mission can be complete without due regard for his enormous charisma and the love which he projects to other people. People who were later to become prominent devotees of Sathya Sai Baba (like Professor Bhagavantam, a prominent Indian scientist, Howard Murphet, and even Kasturi) have confessed in their writings, of initial skepticism about the authenticity of Baba's miracles. Kasturi tells us that before meeting Baba, he had been a successful academic and literary figure in South India, as well as an official of the prestigious Ramakrishna Mission (which denounced the performance of miracles as an unspiritual exercise which can lead the sadhak astray). Kasturi had actually expressed public mockery of Baba and first went to see him to expose him (K1D, 91). Sai Baba dissolved all their suspicions, although in Bhagavantam's case, it took four years.

In this connection, the story of a writer and devotee of Shirdi Sai is also revealing. Arthur Osborne was the author of the first non-Indian biography of Shirdi Sai. It was published in 1957, forty years after Shirdi Sai Baba's death. There is no mention of Sathya Sai Baba (then aged thirty) in Osborne's book (The Incredible Sai Baba. The Life and Miracles of a Modern-day Saint). In an interview with V.Balu, Osborne confirmed that, until he actually met Sathya Sai Baba later, he had regarded him as a complete charlatan (V.Balu, The Glory of Puttaparthi, 3). The meeting brought with it Osborne's conversion and at the First World Conference of Sathya Sai Organisations in 1968 he made a speech confirming his belief in Sathya Sai's divinity (V.Balu, 13).

"What is unique about Sai is the calibre of his Indian followers. He had the educationist

Dr V.K.Gokak and the scientist Dr Bhagwantham on his board of trustees. Today he has Bhagwati, retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as chairman. Among his disciples are ...former President Shankar Dayal Sharma, former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and dozens of Chief Ministers and Governors ... In no other country will you find so many people with such blind, unquestioning faith in another human being. Why?" (K.Singh, The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 20-3-99) [Mr Singh does not offer an answer.]

Can a non-Brahmin be the descendant of the Sage Bharadwaja?

In his famous 6 July 1963 revelation of the Triple Avatars promised by Shiva and Shakti to the lineage of Bharadwaja, it is assumed that the descendants will be of the highest, Brahmin, caste. But Sai Baba's Raju family is described as belonging to the Kshatriya caste (as indicated in Ganapati, Part I, p.43, without adverse comment, and several times in LIMF, pp. 11, 29, 31, 158, and 237).

(See also Sathya Sai Speaks, III, Chapter 15; D. Swallow; and A. Nagel, 2001, September.)

Baba's Declaration of Mission, 3 years later than claimed?

LIMF says that Baba's Declaration of Mission was not on 20 October 1940, as Sai Baba has always maintained and as all the books say, but 3 years later in 1943. (p.147) The editors also place the alleged scorpion incident, the physical and mental trauma and the famous throwing down of the flowers to form the words Sai Baba in Telugu in this same year 1943, prior to the Declaration. They also present some convincing documentary evidence in the form of the Registers of Baba's schools, in particular the School at Bukkapatnam (p.69 and 129), which he entered on 5 July 1941, discontinuing his studies on 6 April 1942, and the School at Uravakonda (p.129 and 132), which Baba is listed as entering on 1 July, 1943. (The authors speculate that he was a bit of an embarrassment to the elders of Bukkapatnam because of his nature and his activities and that he must have had private tuition in the 'missing' year, possibly from his schoolteacher elder brother, Seshama.)

Although the editors are at pains (on p. 149) to deny that the 3 year discrepancy in the new date for the Declaration,is of any importance, their argument is unconvincing: "Indian spirituality tends to discourage numerous debates on scholarly details relating to time and space. Sri Sathya Sai Baba also disapproves of such debates. ..."

So it would seem that the compilers of this book are trying to rewrite history more correctly, but without criticising Baba or the Sai Baba Organisation for misleading devotees for so many years. The Golden Jubilee was officially commemorated on 20 October 1990 (Sathya Sai Speaks, XXIII, 29:246-256 - 'The Day that wrought the great change'). Interestingly, in that printed account, the year is in parentheses, suggesting that Baba did not state it, but that an editor added it! "It was the 20^th of October (1940) - a Monday. This is what I declared on that day:
Know I am verily Sai. Know I am verily Sai.
Give up your attachments and attempts;
The old relationships are at an end..
No one, however eminent, can alter my resolve."

Why has Sai Baba not travelled abroad (except for a brief visit to E. Africa in 1968)?

Most probably because of the limiting factor of Baba's native language, Telugu, and the assumption by devotees that he speaks all languages. (See Chapter 4) He has always relied on a series of trusted and eminent associates, both Indian and foreign, to take his messages abroad.

The Mission

Not a separate religion?

"I have not come to set afoot a new cult, I do not want people to be misled on this point. I affirm that the Sai form is the form of all the various names that man uses for the adoration of the Divine." (Sathya Sai Speaks, VIII, 19:95-96- 17 May 68, First World Conference)

It is difficult to accept this literally since proper devotion to Sai Baba and his teachings would seem to preclude full adherence and worship in some other religious movements, particularly in the Muslim faith and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Planned Avatar?

There are some disturbing clues here and there that what is taken as a preordained Mission from birth and even before may in fact have developed later, during Baba's adult life. (In which case, the Shirdi Sai incarnation claim would be seen as weaker.) Much of the following evidence comes from the invaluable recent work by a team of devotees who are attempting to put Baba's biography on a more professional footing, LIMF (Love is My Form, Volume 1. The Advent (1926-1950).

Unconvinced

One of the suggestions made in LIMF is that in the early years Baba's claims were not accepted by the villagers of Puttaparthi, who saw him as crazy. The elders wanted an eye kept on him. He was hyper-charged with energy, according to his 'associates' and had to be restrained. (p.165) Baba was unpopular with the villagers because of the "crowds" he attracted. There was also local criticism because a non-Brahmin (Baba) was staying in Sakamma's house and it was therefore incorrect for him to enter the kitchen. (p. 237)

LIMF also suggests that Baba's own father was still not convinced in 1944. (p. 170) His maternal uncle cared for him but a footnote (p.178) states that the latter "never thought of Baba as special or divine ..."

In 1947, his brother, Seshama, was concerned at Baba's lack of acceptance locally and that his main devotees were from far away. That is why he wrote a warning letter to Baba telling him to give up his activities - for fear of Baba's failure (LIMF, p.349). For Sai Baba's energetic and lengthy response, see pp. 350-351.(The compilers do not include Seshama's original letter. But I believe it is reproduced in one or two other books whose references I have misplaced.)

Samadhi in 1948?

According to Kasturi, after the extensive travels and activities in the years following his 'Declaration', Baba became exhausted and lost his appetite. Kasturi suggests, logically, that his body was exhausted by the spiritual powers which were growing within him. But in LIMF it is clearly stated that he expressed the desire to attain Samadhi (self-absorption with Brahman) but was dissuaded from this by Sakamma and others!

"Around this time, Baba wanted to attain Samadhi. Sakamma and Savrithramma held His feet and said "You should not leave; You should live with us, Swami, for many years." Finally, Baba changed His mind." (LIMF, p. 447, quoting a personal interview with Shantha Krishnamurthy, on 24 April, 1998.)

An interview with another contemporary corroborates that 3 years previously, in 1944, Baba "was telling us that He would attain Samadhi in three years and take birth again in Mandya near Mysore. We told Him we would not be able to live without Him." (LIMF, 197, citing an interview with D.M. Narayanappa on 27 February 2000.) (Mandya, incidentally, is the district allegedly named by Baba as the future birthplace of Prema Sai.)

A Pre-ordained Mission?

In public, Baba has made many claims that his Mission is planned and unstoppable; that the conversion of the whole of humanity is just a matter of time. And yet in an excited and delightfully warm 3-page letter to Dr. Gokak from Kampala (7-7-68), Baba euphorically describes the wonderful welcome he and his party had received, on his first and only overseas visit, to Nairobi and then to Kampala. (Gokak, 1975: 242-243). On p. 244, Gokak quotes Baba as writing to him: "Bangaru, no one ever imagined that the spread of Dharma will be done in this way in foreign lands. Even Kasturi, Indulal Shah, etc. are getting stunned at this." These words are open to different interpretations, of course, but IF Baba is speaking excitedly of his OWN surprise, that would surely raise further questions about omniscience.

Failed enterprises?

In 1963, Sai Baba inaugurated two important initiatives to foster traditional Hindu spirituality and knowledge: the Vedashastra Paatashaala (School of Vedic Studies) for boys (see Sathya Sai Speaks,, III, 2:17 and the more ambitious Prasanthi Vidwan Mahasabha, a gathering of Vedic scholars and pundits.

Kasturi quotes a very ambitious forecast by Baba about the purpose of the School.

"These boys," He said, pointing to the first batch of boys that was enrolled, "These boys will grow into strong stalwart pillars of Sanathana Dharma; they will be the guides and leaders of this land in the days to come ... You may say they are only twenty in number now; but, when a vast country is administered by a Cabinet of twenty Ministers, this band of students will be ample, for the work I have in view." (K1B, 43-44 - from a Birthday speech, presumably that of 1963, but this is not printed in Volume III of Sathya Sai Speaks)

In 1968, the School was still operating and Baba again reveals the serious traditional purpose behind it:

"Here you study the Vedas, the Shastras and Puranas: in consonance with the teachings contained in them, you are also given instructions in yoga (control over senses) and dhyana (meditation)." (VIII, 5:18) "As students of the pathasala (educational institution), you must be shining examples of humility and reverence." (p. 19) "You have in the coming days to go forth into corners of this land and awaken spiritual hunger among the people and provide the wherewithal by which it can be appeased. ... You have as preceptors, Pandits (scholars) ... You have teachers from America and North India, imbued with faith and devotion." (p. 20)

The potential importance of the Vidwan Mahasabha is also clear from these words of Baba's at its inauguration in 1963:

"First, this Sabha [Prasanthi Vidwan Maha Sabha] will be concerned with Andhra Pradesh and later, it will reach out into Karnataka and Kerala States, and then into all the States of India, and within a short time, even outside India." (Sathya Sai Speaks, III, 32:188)

Three days later, Baba gave his guarantee for the success of his initiative:

"I am unattached to any event or plan. I am not worried at all by fear of failure, for I know that My Plan must succeed. This Prasanthi Vidhwanmahasabha too is not something new; it is Sanaathana (eternal). Only, it is now once again set on the age-old Mission.." (III, 34:199)

A year later, he again refers to the special nature of the Mahasabha:

"This Prashaanthi Vidwanmahaasabha has been formed to teach men this path and this endeavour, revive the pilgrimage which is fast being overwhelmed by the pressure of paltry journeys into the wasteland. The Vidwaans (scholars) are fast declining in numbers and influence. They must be revered and fostered. ... Use them, to learn the essentials of Sanathana Dharma and they will feel happy and contented." (IV, 50:293, Hyderabad 7-12-64)

However, these two projects of Baba's were not to survive for long. The Mahasabha seems to have lasted until about 1972, and then petered out. Ra. Ganapati considers both of these ventures as examples of Baba's failures: "It appeared indeed for the first few years that the Sabha would usher in such a Vedic renaissance. But later on the Sabha began to gradually sink into oblivion. The Patasala (School for Veda) in Puttaparthi itself had to be closed." (Ra. Ganapati, Part II:121) Speculation on a possible pragmatic reason for the decline of these ventures was offered in Part 1 of this chapter (in the section1966-1975).

The same author refers to a similar disappointment in the case of the spiritual-cultural Summer Courses for Indian teenagers. These were inaugurated in 1972, probably under the guidance of Professor V.K.Gokak, for students from all over India, and intended as "the springboard for an annual revolution among the youth" (Ganapati, II:121), but after the first two or three annual Courses, 1973,1974, 1976, the participants were mainly or totally from Baba's Colleges. There was an unexplained 11-year hiatus after 1979, with no courses offered. Since 1990 the Courses have been sporadically offered.

Defectors

As Kasturi and others have written, Baba's is a very strict disciplinarian, insisting on very high standards of behaviour from those around him in the ashram. The slightest lapse or breach, we are told, is punished, sometimes by long period of being ignored, or 'on the outer' by Baba (as Kasturi and Narasimhan experienced). Other close associates of Baba have finally felt it necessary to leave him, like Dr Bhagavantam and, allegedly, Dr V.K.Gokak. But, during their lifetime, they never publicly revealed their reasons, nor publicly criticised Baba.

During the past 18 months, in reaction to the serious accusations of sexual misconduct against Baba, many persons outside India have ceased to be devotees of Baba. Some of these were officials in National Sai Baba Organisations, particularly in U.S.A., European countries and Australia. Many of these defectors are now working actively to publicise the scandal of the alleged "dark side" of Sathya Sai Baba and his Organisation and to seek justice, through the media and the Internet. They are also telling "what they know" and there has been a plethora of information and misinformation, as well as defensive denials and statements of total support for Sai Baba by Organisation officials and individual devotees.

The Sai Baba story is still unfolding.

Endnote:

"I've heard that living so close to Baba you sometimes can get "burned". To what does that refer?"

"It means he is all perfection. In that Light around him, no iota of untruth can survive. No insincerity can have any place around him. No double standards." (V.K.Gokak, 1975:49 - in answer to an American interviewer.)

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Disclaimer:

"How can an ant calculate the depth of the sea?" (Sathya Sai Speaks, V, 43:238)