While it is not uncommon to order a freezer box in advance, the response of the Central Trust members as well as the district administration that they have no information on it has, in fact, led to many doubting the reported date of his death. The controversy was birthed on Wednesday after a firm making freezer boxes claimed the one in which the 'godman' was kept as its own and said it was ordered on April 4. The cost of the glass freezer was quoted at Rs 1. However, according to sources, the powerful Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust had a role in ordering the freezer box.
Lakshmi, the owner of Kumar and Co International company, told the media on Wednesday that she recognised the freezer box as made by her firm after seeing it on TV. According to Lakshmi, her colleague Ganesh called Rajendranath to confirm this. The allegations were denied and he was never charged with any offence. The hospital said his body would be available for public viewing on Monday and Tuesday before a funeral ceremony is held.
In recent weeks, the hospital has been mobbed by groups of devotees praying for the guru's wellbeing. Satya Sai Baba's hometown has been transformed into a vast complex of hotels, resorts, university buildings, and an enormous ashram thronging with devotees.
He rose to prominence as a youngster after announcing to his family that he was the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba, a 19th Century Indian holy man who had been equally venerated by Hindus and Muslims. He grew the Sai Movement into a transnational phenomenon allowing people to remain in the faith they were born into yet offering them hope and solace as his devotees through a strategic set of embedded practices, multivalent symbols and ambiguous performances.
He never denied the magic but rather claimed that the talismen produced were magical merely a pathway for his larger maya divine magic of devotional transformation to occur. In the s a Commission to investigate Miracles and other Superstitions was set up by Dr. More recently ex-devotees and former devotees have accused Sathya Sai Baba and the Sai Trust of more serious infractions including embezzlement, fraud and sexual abuse of young boys which they claimed culminated in the death of four young men within the ashram in A series of films and internet websites detail these allegations.
But neither Sai Baba nor the Trust were ever convicted of any wrongdoing. Rather Sai Baba and his devotees, on his behalf, claimed that he was vilified in the public arena by disaffected devotees. The Anti Sai movement has been appropriately silent about the current happenings in the ashram. It is a real test of interreligious openness to move beyond respect for the scriptures of another religion to ponder a contemporary representative of another tradition.
It is one thing to admire famous figures of the past, or to imitate a reformer like Mahatma Gandhi — but quite another to reflect on the meaning of a figure whose power lay primarily in himself, his claim to divine status; it was on that basis that millions have been devoted to him, and perhaps it is impossible for us to respond to Sai Baba in that way.
But read about Fr. My own contact with Sai Baba was minimal. In , while at a conference in Bangalore, three of us drove up to Whitefield, to visit his afternoon audience. By that time, he had taken a vow of public silence, and so for about 45 minutes he just walked up and down in front to the crowd, giving blessings, touching the sick, receiving notes from especially devout people who were seeking an audience.
A few years earlier, when studying here in Cambridge, I knew some students who were entirely dedicated to his message, even allowing him to guide them — by spiritual inspiration and dreams — even in their choice of marriage partners. I was impressed, and a bit worried, by their total devotion. It cannot be weighed against his crimes and the damage he has done to the Indian society.
In December , I wrote a letter to the then President Dr. I demanded criminal investigations against Sai Baba. If his social development projects are meant to be indulgence to nullify his crimes, this procedure is unprecedented and unacceptable, I wrote. It is a shame for India that well-founded accusations and numerous reputed witnesses against Sai Baba are ignored without any investigation.
Do saffron clothes make an offender untouchable for the law? Do we have to tolerate that political protectionism raises its head so boldly, mocking India's democracy? Sathya Sai Baba caused great damage to India. His irresponsible political patrons corrupted the political culture of India. Encouraged by the clout of Sathya Sai Baba, a new clan of miracle mongers imitated him. India would have been a better place without Sathya Sai Baba.
Sanal Edamaruku is president of the Indian Rationalist Association.
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