Sathya Sai Baba conquers Atheism

Sathya Sai Baba Conquers Atheism

Prof Dr P Chandra Sekharan

Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi was declared dead on April 24, 2011 at 7.40 am at the age of 85 due to cardio respiratory failure. A serious debate is in the anvil that Baba died several days earlier. All said and done, Baba was one of the greatest spiritual leaders this country had ever produced. He had in his kitty presidents, prime ministers, chief ministers, governors, central and state ministers, parliamentarians and legislators, bureaucrats, scientists, Supreme Court and High Court judges, industrialists and entrepreneurs, sportspersons, artists and actors, academicians and educationists, lawyers and judges, besides millions of believers and devotees from world over, an amazing feat indeed.

Baba proclaimed himself as a reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba at the age of fourteen. As it is the case with many spiritual leaders, Sathya Sai during the initial days attracted people towards him by performing tantric acts like producing vibhuthi (sacred ash) from nowhere, culling out tiny icons of lingam from his mouth and presenting them to his devotees. In later years his magical feat went up to the extent of producing costly gold ornaments and Rolex watches for gifts. These types of feats to bring out costly items are of course reserved to catch big fishes like VVIPs and millionaire devotees. Baba is said to have even pulled out cancer from the body of a devotee named Rosy.

The miracle of Rolex watch was of course solved when the identification number was traced and verified with the Rolex Watch makers by one of the rationalists who challenged the godman for his miracles. In fact many rationalists, have challenged Baba to perform his miracles in scientific conditions, but Baba managed to ward them off every time.

Nathigam Ramasamy of Dravidian Movement was a very staunch critic of Baba during his stay in Abbotsberry Chennai. He even nicknamed Afro-haired Baba as ‘croton headed’ (thalaiyan)’. He accused Baba of sexual molestation and murder. His writings and speeches were so accusative challenging Baba’s credibility that the godman had to shift his Head Quarters from Chennai. Had it not been so, Chennai could have been benefitted much more from the philanthropy of Baba! But lately by a strange turn of events another tall leader of the Dravidian Movement Karunanidhi himself has become the admirer (devotee?) of Baba after his charitable work by providing drinking water to Chennaiites.

Another biggest critic was Abraham Kavoor, professor of Botany in Sri Lanka. He performed before the public the act of producing ash out of thin air to drive home the point against godman. He visited Puttaparthi with prior intimation to perform the magic feat in front of the Baba, but Baba avoided meeting him and left for White Field Ashram. Though Kovoor gained international fame, he died during 1978.

Physicist H. Narasimhaiah , who was Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University was a another strong critic of Baba. He went to the extent of constituting a committee of experts to expose Baba’s tantric and challenged him to carry on his magic feat before the committee. But Baba ignored the challenge and declared ‘Narasimhaiah ‘s approach was improper and that is why I reject it. The formula (propounded by the physicist) that nothing can be created out of nothing is appropriate to the limited field and dimensions of science. It does not at all apply to the transcendental field and dimensions of spirituality”. This is the usual defence put forth by all godmen and theists against rationalists and others who believe that God does not exist. Narasimhaiah also expired in 2005 without fulfilling his wish of investigating Baba. The godman also died much earlier than his self proclamation that he will live for ninety six years. The mystical power and occultism he was endowed with did not save his life.

But all said and done, Sathya Sai Baba was a living God to millions of devotees the world over. His spiritual enterprise has earned more than30 million devotees in 1200 Centres in over 180 countries and properties worth more than 4000 crores. No other godman of this country had ever won this magnitude of reputation. No other godman also earned the enormous amount of wrath and enmity from all quarters of the world.

In 1986 Sceptic Basava Premanand filed a case against Baba for violations of the Gold Control Act for materializing gold objects from air. In1993, magician P.C. Sorcar Jr countered Sai Baba by performing materialization tricks. A murder attack was made on Baba during 1993, in which his driver and cook died. Four of his disciples who turned assailants were shot dead by the police.

A TV documentary titled ‘Guru Busters was produced by filmmaker Robert Eagle for Channel 4 of UK exhibiting Baba faking his materializations. British journalist Mick brown wrote a book in which he questioned Baba’s claim that he resurrected his American devotee Walter Cowan in 1971. The height of abuse against Baba was during 2000 from a former devotee, Jeff Young who made startling sexual abuse charges. Similar accusations against Baba were also made by a Swedish therapist in 2001 and as a result the Sai organization and a Sai affiliated school were shut down on the orders of the Swedish government. Manchester Guardian during 2006 published an article accusing Baba of paedophilia. A Danish TV documentary carried interviews from several devotees accusing Baba of sexual abuse.

But none of above these expositions had shattered either Baba or the faith of his devotees. On the contrary his empire expanded day by day and the reverential voices of his devotees silenced all criticisms. One thing is certain it impossible to eradicate people’s deep rooted faith in God and religion and godmen can always thrive exploiting that faith among people. Right from Ingersoll up to EVR Periyar have failed in their attempt.

Who knows? The same episode will be repeated, when the next avatar, as predicted by Baba appears in Mandya! But one thing is true of Satya Sai Baba. He has indeed conquered atheism!!