The worship of Sathya Sai Baba’s person

Sathya Sai Baba is at the focus of a constant crowd of thousands of persons, which swells up to over a quarter of a million on some of his birthday celebrations (though he has once falsely claimed there were three million!). He is worshipped and set apart from – and way above – all other living persons by his followers. He is regarded, not as a God, but literally as God Himself, the One and only living divinity. This is his pronouncement and is the chief cause of all the eulogisation.His following is one of the largest organized personality cults in the world today.

Touching and kissing the "holy feet' of Sathya Sai Baba

Having set himself up as a God from his youth, Sathya Sai Baba is already becoming the focus of a kind of mythology, and this process is apparently gaining in strength as he becomes less available for personal contacts. He is admittedly a fascinating figure, if only because his enormous claims surpass all known limits. That he claims to be wholly pure and divine, ever-present everywhere, all-knowing, almighty is a fact. Sathya Sai Baba has instructed many people to worship him, including his own parents, but has also conflictingly said at times that he does not wish to be worshipped. Also, for decades he welcomed people to touch – or even kiss – his bare feet… then a few years ago he declared that this was not right, for it created a distance between him and the devotee, so it should be discontinued. Nonetheless he continued to accept it willingly… a typical Sai ploy, to say one thing and do another.

The observable fact is that he is constantly surrounded by worshippers, whose worship he willingly accepts on all occasions (eg. particularly visible during the fire ceremony (arathi) which is usually done before him twice daily). In addition to this, he accepts to sit on many thrones that are made for him, ride in various chariots, including a magnificent and costly golden one (even though he also criticised this as a misuse of funds), swing at least once yearly on a silver swing to be worshipped as Krishna and so on. People bow before him constantly, touch his feet, lie flat on the ground at his feet etc.

Overloaded with flower garlands, Sai emulates Krishna swinging

In days gone be he allowed himself to be garlanded frequently, even accepting a many dozens of huge flower garlands around his neck at one time. This practice he stopped, and one would assume that it must be a relief not to have to bear their occasional huge weight. Only infrequently is he garlanded very briefly nowadays, taking the garland only symbolically over the head then giving it back. Though he insists repeatedly that worship of himself is the easiest way to liberation in this era, he has declared time and again that he has come to show us the way to supposed ‘self-realisation’, meaning the direct experience of our own identity as one with God! He long preached that everyone has the divine spark and everyone actually is God, thought unaware of it. Typically, however, he has since his infamous Christmas 2000 discourse, begun to declare that some people are demons without a ‘divine spark’… namely, those many “Judases” who accuse or criticise him.

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Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization