Miracles ‘With Bhagavan at Kodaikanal’

Around 1988 I met Prof. S.  Sampath [Vice-Chancellor Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Education, Vidyagiri.] At a ‘lecture’ he held for foreigners at Prashanthi Nilayam, he was clearly a fully indoctrinated follower of Sathya Sai baba, as his various writings show in full. I quote from his ‘With Bhagavan at Kodaikanal’  [Sanathana Sarathi June,1994 p.152 ff]

Lingam supposedly manifested by Sai Baba at Kodaikanal

“On three special occasions, during the stay in Kodaikanal, Bhagavan blessed large audiences with Divine discourses: on Ugadi day (April 11), Tamil/Malayam New year’s day (April 14) and Sri Rama Navami (April 20). On Sri Rama navami day, in the intimacy of ‘Sai Sruthi’, Bhagavan produced, for the spiritual delight of the participants, lustrous ivory figures of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman and the Mangala Sutra worn by Sita on her wedding day. While describing Hanuman’s mission to Lanka in search of Sita, Bhagavan brought forth Lord Rama’s ring which Hanuman carried to Lanka to be shown to Sita, and the ‘Choodamani’ which Sita gave to Hanuman to be shown to Rama. It was an ecstatic experience for one and all to witness these marvellous manifestations of Bhagavan’s Divine power.”

It seems that only a person lacking in any power of critical analysis and at the same time having programmed his mind too thoroughly with Sathya Sai Baba’s more fantastic and unworldly teachings could write such unadulterated drivel about what Sita wore at her wedding thousands of years ago, or about Hanuman who supposedly jumped to Sri Lanka from India with a ring from Rama! How would Sampath be able to judge that the objects Sai Baba produced were those Sita and the half-monkey/half-human Hanuman are supposed, in myth, to have had? The answer is that he was himself “ecstatic” in experiencing this (despite the man being the very incarnation of a solemn, quotidian and joyless bookworm) – because he believed blindly and unquestioningly absolutely everything Sai Baba said.

“One of the highlights of the Odyssey in Kodaikanal this year was the first ever picnic organised in a dense forest area, which Bhagavan blessed with his Divine presence and participation. The three hours that Swami spent in the forest, in a happy mood, amidst passing clouds, will for ever be etched in the memories of all those present. Swami most graciously delivered a discourse in the course of which He materialised a diamond, still not fully cut, bigger than any other diamond known to humanity. Swami observed: “If this diamond is fully cut, the human eye will be totally dazzled by the ensuing brilliance”. On this memorable occasion, Swami spoke also on the divine mystery of “Hiranyagarbha” and produced an enchanting golden globule (i.e. lingam) that contains within it the entire universe.”

Sampath considers the Kodaikanal stay and picnic  to be an “Odessey”! How can he know what is forever etched in the memories of everyone else? Typical Sai hyperbole, what is instituted as the ‘newspeak’ of Prashanthi Nilayam – Divine whatever, He, Him, His, all taken beyond all nondiscrimination to the limits of aggrandizement. Sampath is not alone in such Prashanthi speak – it long became almost required in Sai literature (though I avoided most of it in my book ‘Source of the Dream’.

Sampath naively parrots that Sai Baba materialised the biggest uncut diamond known to humanity (how would Sampath knows this supposed fact to be so?). This is about the standard of those people who Sai Baba makes into ‘professors’ at his third rate university.  Further, Sai Baba again set the tone of superlative exaggeration by claiming that “the human eye would be totally dazzled” by the brilliance if it were ever cut. It all smacks of sheer, unbridled propaganda which those who have seen through the complex labyrinth of deceits and massive false rationalizations which have all the hallmarks of bogus claims.

Sathya Sai Baba’s aimless ramblings take him into mental pitfalls and semantic minefields! But in his 2002 Shivarathri discourse the crushing boredom was temporarily relieved by heavy farce, even though the applause that greeted some of the weirdest statements makes one wonder if many more enthusiasts are not also off their rockers… even if most applause would have been from all the local uneducated villager. For he spoke of the golden linga (i.e. an egg-shaped and egg-sized spheroid) as being “without legs” and “without a head”! This romping fantasy reminds of the ditty by Lewis Carroll, which I modify to read:

The time has come, the swami said,
To speak of many things,
Of pink string and sealing wax,
And whether pigs have wings
Or why a lingam has no legs
And even lacks a head…

So much for Sathya Sai Baba’s “universal spiritual teaching” (bodha)