Sathya Sai Baba
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Sathya Sai Baba (Telugu: సత్య సాయి బాబా) was born as Sathyanarayana Raju on November 23 1926[1][2] — or later than 1927[3] — with the family name of "Ratnakaram",[4] and is a South Indian guru, religious leader, orator and often described - not uncontroversially - as a Godman[1][5] and a miracle worker.[6][7] According to Sathya Sai Organization there are an estimated 1,200 Sathya Sai Baba Centers in 114 countries world-wide.[8] The number of Sathya Sai Baba adherents is estimated sometimes as around 6 million, and followers cite "50 to 100 million".[9] He is considered by his followers to be an avatar and the reincarnation of the saint Sai Baba of Shirdi.
LifeSathyanarayana Raju was born to Peddavenkappa and Easwaramma Raju in a poor agrarian family in the remote village of Puttaparthi, located in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh. Having born after a satyanārāyaṇa pūjā he was given the name Satyanarayana. It is believed that instruments played on their own accord in his household.[10] An official four-volume biography, called a hagiography by the Daily Telegraph, was written by Prof. Narayana Kasturi[11] in which he reported that Easwaramma found herself pregnant after dreaming of the Hindu Lord Sathyanarayana Swamy and after a huge sphere of blue light rolled into and made her faint.[12] According to Kasturi, a cobra was found in the bedclothes of the baby shortly after Sathya Sai Baba was born[13][6] which has led to his being identified as the Lord of Serpents, Sheshasai.[2] However, the Hollywood screenwriter Arnold Schulman contradicts this story by reporting that Sai Baba's sister denied the presence of a cobra and that "the cobra was not found under the blanket, but several hours after Baba was born a cobra was seen outside the house."[14] He also affirms that "for any episode of Baba's childhood, there are countless contrasting versions and, at this point, the author discovered that it was no longer possible to separate the facts from the legend".[15] The young Sathyanarayana was a vegetarian and was known for his aversion to animal cruelty and compassion for the poor, disabled and elderly.[16] According to Kasturi and to Sathya Sai Baba himself, the young Sathya composed bhajans spontaneously (even as young as 8 years of age). He had shown immense talent in drama, dance, music and poetry.[citation needed] Image:FaceSwami.jpg
A younger Sathya Sai Baba.
At the age of 8, Satynanarayana Raju attended Higher Elementary School in Bukkapatnam.[16]. After that Sai Baba joined another High School at Uravakonda. On on March 8, 1940, Satynanarayana Raju started behaving as if a scorpion had stung in his foot. He exhibited strange behaviour after this and entered a coma state. After some time, he got up and his behaviour worried his parents - he didn't want to eat, he would often keep silent for a long time, recited ancient shlokas or elaborated on holy Hindu scriptures. At his family's request, Sai Baba again went back to Uravakonda High school in June.[citation needed] In May 1940, he proclaimed himself to be a reincarnation of the Fakir and Saint Sai Baba of Shirdi (d. 1918) and subsequently took the Fakir's name, SAI BABA.[17] According to Kasturi, on October 20 1940 at the age of 14, Sai Baba threw away his books and announced, "My devotees are calling me. I have my work." He then spent the next three days under a tree in the garden of an excise inspector(Government Officer) and many people gathered around him. Baba taught them bhajans. From then on Sai Baba claimed to be the avatar for our age, i.e. a divine incarnation sent to Earth to bring about spiritual renewal. He has consistently maintained this position ever since. Sathya Sai Baba is listed in the 1942 school record of Bukkapatnam.[18] In 1944 a mandir for followers of Sathya Sai Baba was built near the village which is now called the "old mandir".[19][16] The construction of Prashanthi Nilayam, the current ashram, was started in 1948.[19] It is believed by the devotees of Shirdi Baba that he would return back as a child in eight years after his Samadhi. In 1940, at the age of fourteen, Sathya Narayan Raju proclaimed himself to be a reincarnation of the celebrated Sai Baba of Shirdi--a Saint who became famous in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Babb, Lawrence; Sathya Sai Baba's Magic in Anthropological Quarterly, 1983)." Sathya Sai Baba was born in 1926, eight years after Shirdi Baba passed. "This first Sai Baba, a holy man and miracle worker, laid the foundation for the Muslim-Hindu unity and was influenced to teach the Hindu traditions and emphasize certain parts of the text. Before his death in 1918, he had proclaimed that he would be reborn eight years later; the second Sai Baba was born exactly eight years later. Thus, the present Sai Baba had to continue his mission of turning people toward God and urging them to lead moral lives as well as build a world community based on peace (Ruhela, S.P., and Duane Robinson. 1976. Sai Baba and his Message. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd.)." In 1963, during a discourse, Baba controversially made statements claiming to be a reincarnation of Shiva and Shakti.[20] He also claimed that Sai Baba of Shirdi was an incarnation of Shiva and that his future reincarnation, Prema Sai Baba, would be a reincarnation of Shakti. He publicly repeated this claim in 1976.[21] Baba's biography states that Prema Sai Baba will be born in Mysore state[22] In 1958, Sanathana Sarathi, the official magazine for the followers of Sathya Sai Baba, was published for the first time.[19] In the late 1960s Western spiritual seekers began to be attracted to him and he became increasingly popular among Western Spiritual seekers. Baba traveled once once outside India to visit North East Africa in 1968.[19][23] Sathya Sai Baba had two sisters, one older brother (the late Seshama Raju) and an younger brother, Late R.V.Janaki Ramaiah.[24][25] In 1960, Sathya Sai Baba said that he would be in this mortal Human form for another 59 years.[26] According to a 1984 book, Sathya Sai Baba said that "In this body I will not become old or infirm as in my old body."[27] In 2003 Michael Goldstein, an official of the Sathya Sai Organisation, reported that Baba had suffered an accident that injured his hip. As of 2005, Sathya Sai Baba sometimes uses a wheelchair.[28] Beliefs and practices of Sathya Sai Baba's followers
Ashrams and mandirsPuttaparthi, where Sathya Sai Baba was born and still lives, was originally a small village where one can now find an extensive University complex, Chaitanya Jyoti (a World-Religions Museum that has won several international awards for design[29]), a spiritual museum, a Planetarium, a railway station, a hill-view stadium, an administrative building, an airport, an indoor sports stadium and more.[30] High ranking Indian politicians, like the former President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee have been official guests at the ashram in Puttaparthi.[31][32] On Sathya Sai Baba's 80th birthday celebrations it was reported that well over a million people attended, as well as 13,000 delegates from India and 180 countries abroad.[33] Sathya Sai Baba resides much of the time in his main ashram called Prashanthi Nilayam (abode of highest peace) at Puttaparthi. In the hot summer Baba leaves for his other ashram called Brindavan in Kadugodi, Whitefield, a town on the outskirts of Bangalore. Occasionally, he visits his Sai Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal.[34] Sathya Sai Baba established three primary mandirs in India. The first center, established in Mumbai, is referred to as either "Dharmakshetra" or "Sathyam". The second center, established in Hyderabad, is referred to as "Shivam". The third center, established in Chennai, is referred to as "Sundaram".[35] The daily program at Sathya Sai Baba's ashrams usually begin with the chanting of "OM" and a morning prayer (Suprabatham). This is followed by Veda Parayan (chanting of the Vedas), nagarasankirtana (morning devotional songs) and twice a day bhajans and darshan(appearance of Sai Baba to devotees)[36]. Particularly significant are the darshans during October (the Dasara holidays and November (the month of Sai Baba's birth).[37]During darshan Sathya Sai Baba walks among his followers and may interact with people, accept letters, materialize and distribute vibhuti (sacred ash) or call groups or individuals for interviews. Interviews are chosen solely by the guru's discretion. Followers consider it a great privilege to get an interview and sometimes a single person, group or family will be invited for a private interview. People who receive such interviews may be startled by the materializations and the disclosures that Sathya Sai Baba as a clairvoyant reveals of their own lives.[38]Sathya Sai Baba claims that his darshan has spiritual benefits, which is a common belief among Hindus regarding saints and gurus. Reported miraclesIn some books, magazines, filmed interviews and articles, Sathya Sai Baba's followers report miracles and healings of various kinds that they attribute to him.[39] Sathya Sai Baba's devotees believe that he relieves his devotees by transfering their pain to himself.[40] Daily, he is observed to allegedly manifest vibuthi (holy ash), and sometimes food and small objects such as rings, necklaces and watches. [41] In devotees' houses all around the world, there are claims from observers, journalists and devotees that vibuthi, kumkum, turmeric powder, holy water, Siva lingams, statues of deities (brass and gold), Sugar Candy, fruits, herbs, amrita (a fragrant, nectar-like honey), gems, colored string, writings in ash and various other substances spontaneously manifest and materialize on the walls, furniture, pictures and altars of Sathya Sai Baba.[42][43][44][45][46][47] The retired Icelandic psychology professor Erlendur Haraldsson wrote that he did not get Sathya Sai Baba's permission to study him under controlled circumstances. Nevertheless, he wrote, he investigated and documented the guru's alleged miracles and manifestations through first-hand interviews with devotees and ex-devotees. Haraldsson's research yielded many extraordinary testimonies of reported miracles. Some of the reported miracles attributed to Sathya Sai Baba included levitation (both indoors and outdoors), bilocation, physical disappearances, changing granite into sugar candy, changing water into another drink, changing water into gasoline, producing objects on demand, changing the color of his gown into a different color while wearing it, multiplying food, healings, visions, dreams, making different fruits appear on any tree hanging from actual stems, controlling the weather, physically transforming into various deities and physically emitting brilliant light.[48] These devotees and ex-devotees also claimed that they witnessed Sathya Sai Baba materialize many substances from his hand such as vibuthi, lost objects, statues, photographs, Indian pastries (both hot and cold), food (hot, cold, solid and fluid), out of season fruits, new banknotes, pendants, necklaces, watches and rings.[49] Haraldsson wrote that the largest allegedly materialized object that he saw was a mangalsutra necklace, 32 inches long, 16 inches long on each side.[50] Haraldsson wrote that some miracles attributed to Sathya Sai Baba resemble the ones described in the New Testament, but also with some differences. According to Haraldsson, although healings certainly figure into Sai Baba's reputation, his impression is that healings do not play a prominent role in Sathya Sai Baba's activities as in those of Jesus.[51] Sathya Sai Baba has explained the phenomenon of manifestation as being an act of divine creation, but refused to have his materializations investigated under experimental conditions. Critics claim that these materializations are done by sleight of hand and question his claims to perform miracles and other paranormal feats. In April 1976, Dr. H. Narasimhaiah, a physicist, rationalist and then vice chancellor of Bangalore University, founded and chaired a committee "to rationally and scientifically investigate miracles and other verifiable superstitions". Haraldsson stated that Narasimhaiah wrote Sathya Sai Baba a polite letter and two subsequent letters that were widely publicized in which he publicly challenged Baba to perform his miracles under controlled conditions.[52] Sathya Sai Baba said that he ignored Narasimhaiah's challenge because he felt his approach was improper.[53] Sathya Sai Baba further said about the Narasimhaiah committee that "Science must confine its inquiry only to things belonging to the human senses, while spiritualism transcends the senses. If you want to understand the nature of spiritual power you can do so only through the path of spirituality and not science. What science has been able to unravel is merely a fraction of the cosmic phenomena [...]" [53] According to Erlendur Haraldsson, the formal challenge from the committee came to a dead end because the negative attitude of the committee was obvious and perhaps because of all the fanfare involved. Narasimhaiah stated that he considered the fact that Sathya Sai Baba ignored his letters as one among several indications that his miracles are fraudulent.[54] As a result of this episode, a public debate raged for several months in Indian newspapers.[55] Narasimhaiah's committee was dissolved in August of 1977. According to a 1994 article written by Alexandra Nagel, a critic of the guru, the 1992 work of the Canadian skeptic, Dale Beyerstein convincingly negated supernatural stories of all kinds circulating about Sathya Sai Baba.[56] In the 1995 TV documentary "Guru Busters", by UK's Channel 4, Sathya Sai Baba was accused of faking his materializations and a videotape was supplied alleging fraud. The same videotape was mentioned in the Deccan Chronicle, on November 23 1992, on a front page headline "DD Tape Unveils Baba Magic". Erlendur Haraldsson stated that he and his associates carried out a careful analysis of the videotape shown in the "Guru Busters" documentary and mentioned by the Deccan Chronicle. Haraldsson stated that the videotape's quality and resolution left much to be desired and limited the inferences that could be drawn from it. Haraldsson claimed that Dr. Wiseman took the video to a company that specialized in corporate fraud, and which possessed some of the world's best equipment designed to enhance poor quality videotapes. According to Haraldsson, after the videotape was enhanced using a threefold process, the resulting tape contained no firm evidence of fraud. The same company analyzed several still frames from the videotape, enhanced and enlarged them and the images still did not reveal any further information.[57] The magazine India Today published in December 2000 a cover story about the Baba and the allegations of fake miracles quoting the magician P. C. Sorcar, Jr. who considered the Baba a fraud.[58] Basava Premanand, a skeptic and amateur magician, asserted that he has been investigating Sathya Sai Baba since 1968 and believes the guru to be a cheater and charlatan. Premanand sued Sathya Sai Baba in 1986 for violation of the Gold Control Act for Sathya Sai Baba's materializations of gold objects. The case was dismissed, but Premanand appealed on the ground that spiritual power is not a defence recognised in law.[59]Premanand also displayed, in the 2004 BBC documentary Secret Swami, that he could duplicate some of the same acts that Sathya Sai Baba presents as miracles; such as materializations by sleight of hand and the production of a lingam from his mouth. The BBC documentary reported that even some of Sathya Sai Baba's critics believe that he has genuine paranormal powers.[60] The British journalist Mick Brown discussed in his 1998 book that Sathya Sai Baba's claim of resurrecting the American Walter Cowan in 1971 was probably untrue.[61] His opinion was based on the letters from attending doctors, provided in the Indian Skeptic magazine (published by Premanand).[62][63][64] In this same book, Mick Brown also related his experiences with manifestations of vibuthi, from Sathya Sai Baba's pictures in houses in London, and felt that these miraculous manifestations were not fraudulent or the result of trickery.[65] Brown wrote with regards to Sathya Sai Baba's claims of omniscience, that "skeptics have produced documentation clearly showing discrepancies between Baba's reading of historical events and biblical prophecies and the established accounts."[66] In October 2007, Baba reportedly announced that he would appear on the moon and asked devotees to proceed to the local airport. The miracle failed to happen after clouds appeared to cover the moon and the Baba had to turn back after waiting for an hour. Police officers found it difficult to disperse the disappointed crowd and no explanation was offered by the Sai Trust for the failure of the miracle. Rationalists claimed the publicity was an attempt to boost the Baba's waning popularity.[67] TeachingsSathya Sai Baba is a prolific orator about religious topics in his native language Telugu, and he is regarded by some as an excellent speaker.[68] He asserted that he is an avatar of God in whom all names and forms ascribed by man to God are manifest.[69] He also says that everybody else is God and that the difference is that he is aware of this and others have yet to realize it, which is consistent with advaita vedanta, including modern teachers such as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj.[53] He stresses humans should always be free from desires and states that desires bring mental pain (depression, anger, jealousy etc).[53] Sathya Sai Baba preaches love and the unity of all world religions and asserts that people who follow him do not need to give up their original religion. His followers view his teachings as syncretic (uniting all religions), but one scholar has said that his message remains fundamentally Hindu.[1] He says that he has come to restore faith in, and encourage the practice of the teachings in the Vedas (Vedasamrakshana).[70] Several books and discourses by him, such as the book Ramakatha Rasavahini teach the literal interpretation of Hindu mythology and advocate the practice of Hindu Dharma (Sthapana).[71] Apart from teaching the unity and equality of all the religions Sathya Sai Baba places particular emphasis on the role of women (especially mothers) in society. He has stated that mothers build society. That is why he teaches respect for parents, especially for the mother. He also said that the level of a nation depends on their respect for women.[72] Across the globe local Sathya Sai Baba groups assemble to sing bhajans (Hindu devotional songs), study Sathya Sai Baba's teachings, do collective community service (called seva), and teach Education in Human Values (Sai Sunday School). Baba's movement is not missionary[73] and Baba discouraged publicity for him in a public discourse in 1968.[74] Bhajans are sung at nearly every meeting with the names of the traditional Hindu deities as well as saints and prophets of other religions occasionally replaced by Baba's name. Based on Sathya Sai Baba's teachings, his organization advocates the five basic human values. These values are sathya (truth), dharma (right conduct, living in accord with natural law), ahimsa (non-violence), prema (love for God and all his creatures)[75] and shantih (peace). Other primary teachings are:
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