Sathya Sai Baba bhajans - the training pool for wannabe singers

There’s no end, it seems, to those amateurish Sai writers who churn out praise prose using the most exalted words about Sathya Sai Baba’s speaking and singing talents. But his speaking voice in discourses is high-pitched and jarring to the ear. Not attractive or charming at all to me… (maybe it is to Telugu speakers?). With his singularly unattractive voice and appearance to match, no wonder he has never even remotely ‘hit the charts’, despite all his talk of being loved by the whole world! Check it out, I guess even the most extravagent promoter will fail even to get airtime for him and his endless, deadly-boring, moralising, untruthful ‘discourse’ rants , other than on his self-owned radio station - Radio Sai - run by doting Dr. Venkataraman.I always thought the massive praise by so many devotee writers about Swami’s enchanting, pure, honeyed singing voice etc. etc. were overdone. Not very melodious at all, and the timbre of voice is nothing special, it even grated on my ears at times. His performances on the bhajan tapes and films has never impressed anyone but devotees, it seems. The same goes for his bhajan compositions, not one of which has ever reached any public recognition outside the Indian community, if the major world radio, TV and hit parades are any judge at all. Despite all the praise by dozens of Sai writers, the world either ignores his supposed talents with the thumbs down that not noticing him indicates. So the “Divine Voice” cannot make itself heard, despite all the huge and costly propaganda efforts on his behalf.

What does the musical world think? Well, even the Hare Krishna Temple singers got a hit with the ‘Hare Krishna mantra’ in UK and later reached No. 1 on UK’s top twenty back in the 60s with ‘Govindam adi-purusham’ in Sanskrit (George Harrison was the arranger). But Sai Baba has never got anywhere near that… whether in UK or in any other country. Just compare him to the Beatles, for example, worlds apart as composers, singers and stars. Their songs also have understandable messages… see what I mean? Had Sai Baba’s voice and compositions been so wonderful as claimed they would at least have had raised some notice somewhere in the musical world, not least since they are mostly available without payment!Bhajans are a popular attraction to Sai devotees. Without them I think many who attend Sai meetings would fade away, because for a large number of visitors this is the only chance of attention they get. Bhajans attract all would-be singers and wannabe musicians who have been thwarted elsewhere, doubtless very often for the best of musical reasons! Everyone is allowed or even expected to sing along with the back-up choir verses, and in most groups anyone who wants can be a lead singer for some bhajans too. I ran a local bhajan group for years, seeing I was a musician (once professional). This was very hard for me as I held certain musical standards - the least of which was that lead singers should not sing off key or out of tempo. Funny how many tone deaf persons reckon themselves as soloists and insist on leading bhajans. The worst of them barge on regardless of others. Egocentric devotees like Jegathesan of Malaysia even issued tapes with his own bhajan singing, sounding like a crow and a peacock combined - most awful grating voice.

Out of tempo drummers and finger cymbal players abound and were a constant problem. I ran that group mostly out of self-discipline as a ‘good devotee’ and tried to practice full tolerance where it was most hard for me… that is, to accommodate all musical tastes and try to help the incurably cloth-eared. But it never paid off musically… things only got worse when standards were relaxed. This was not just in our bhajan group, I saw it was standard for most Sai groups whenever I visited Sai meetings in other centres and countries. This was also true in the ashrams, where raucous bhajans were never far enough away. Big Japanese groups bashing drums and howling long after 9 pm (lights out time there) in the Prashanti blocks. No wonder that no Sai bhajan has ever hit the charts!