Sathya Sai Baba – transformation of the self?

sitting at the master's feet?

The most positive aspect of becoming a Sathya Sai Baba follower is the hope it awakens of a transformation of society through voluntary and selfless service to others. The emphasis is also very much on self-improvement, though observably this turns out very largely to be less evident in action than in theory. Because one’s ideas and ideals changes in those who experience a fairly rapid conversion to the faith in Sai Baba, it is easy to imagine oneself having been ‘transformed’ when one manages to modify some of one’s behaviour in a positive way. However, it is a psychological fact that, once one’s personality is formed and matured in adulthood, the amount of change possible through faith alone is limited.

Along with conversion to Sathya Sai Baba’s eclectically varied and inconsistent ‘divine teachings’, the disciples have to sacrifice their freedom for what ultimately proves to be a false security, since the promises made by the guru very seldom manifest, and then only as a result of personal effort or events in the normal course of life over which one has no control. Devotees must give up their basic independence of mind and action and rely on the authoritarian guru’s commands or advice, no less than in many totalitarian churches and states.

There is little or no attempt at direct enforcement of devotees’ lives other than through social pressures, but not through external means, as is the case in most dictatorships. The method is cultist, which means it is largely achieved through self-programming. This means learning to interpret oneself and one’s life through the ‘teachings’, based on the faith that Sathya Sai Baba can never guide incorrectly – knowing, as he claims, every tiniest details of every living person’s entire life. The promise of blessings unlimited leading up to total liberation from the troubles of life are the bait, and it is exclusion from this that devotees fear above all. In ‘surrendering’ to the guru (seen as infallible God incarnate) the devotee is able to feel that God (qua Sathya Sai Baba) has taken over full responsibility for their entire lives, freeing them from the consequences of their actions and – for what seems a large majority of his followers – allowing them to continue as before and drift passively by leaving everything up to him. That it is possible is undoubtedly a fiction, the result is therefore a set of irrational ideas and motivations which are largely divorced from their own personalities and steered by contingent events and forces.

See a full coverage of cult entrapment with special reference to the Sathya Sai Baba movement

The International Sathya Sai Organization

“The Sai religion is the harmonious blending, through love, of all religions. Though some followers and other faiths feel that the Sai religion is contrary to theirs, we should not entertain similar feelings. Ours is the totality, the sum. So we should not limit or restrict our vision” (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 10 – p. 283f)

The International Sathya Sai Organization has two faces … one for the public, the other for members. This Janus face has one visage towards the general public and another different one towards its own members. This makes its members get used to a kind of mental ‘double accounting’ according to what they say to insiders or outsiders.

THE PUBLIC FACE Its face towards the world is one of promoting religious tolerance and accepting that anyone can worship what or who they will. It for peace between religions and sects in that reciprocal criticism of the various religion’s different doctrines is to be avoided.

It claims that shared ‘human values’ are at the core of all religions, yet the many differences in religious values are ignored or denied. For example, any human rights which challenge the core values embedded in the different religions are rejected (such as freedom of speech, women’s rights and other challenges to backward religions, sects and cults).

THE PRIVATE FACE The Sathya Sai Organization’s face towards its members is intolerance towards those who can not fully accept Sathya Sai Baba as the avatar, incarnate deity or a being who is perfect and can never be wrong or be criticized. This means that one cannot accept the Christians who believe that ‘only Jesus is the way’, nor and Islam’s total rejection of divine incarnations, nor Mahayana Buddhism’s atheist conceptions.

Members are expected not to inform the public about the extreme tenet of faith members must accept, such as that Sathya Sai Baba’s claim to be God Incarnate, the father who sent Jesus, the Creator of the Universe etc. This applies mainly in Western Sathya Sai organizations where leaders keep a tighter control over members’ publicity for Sathya Sai Baba. (See here)
No criticism – however constructive -of any of Sathya Sai Baba organizations or institutions is permitted, for it is lead by a supposedly infallible Divinity.

See my extensive study and sociological analyses of the Sathya Sai Organization