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