Christmas past – Sathya Sai and Christianity

Promotion of Sathya Sai Baba as the one who sent Jesus to earth into Mary's womb!

In Sathya Sai Baba’s Christmas Discourse, 1996, he made preposterous statements about Christianity and Islam preceding the time of Christ by 350 years… and more of that sort. All the most embarrassing statements were omitted by astute editor V. K. Narasimhan from the official journal Sanathana Sarathi, nor was it printed in the official version in Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume XXIX. However, in a note on page 393 it is referred to as follows:-
“Bhagavan gave a brief account of the Jewish concept of the creation of the cosmos and referred to the birth of Jesus as the son of Mary and Joseph.“
The entire discourse, as printed and published by Sri Sathya Sai Towers Hotels Pvt. Ltd (Padmanabhan) is scanned and available here. However, the 1996 Christmas Discourse was captured in full by the American filmmaker James Redmond, who was for many years Sathya Sai Baba’s official videographer. The following direct quotations (in brown text) are by the translator Anil Kumar on that video:-

Sai Baba: “Three hundred and fifty years B.C., before Christ, Jews lived. However, among Jews, there were religions such as Islam and Christianity. People of that land, they are all Jews. That land is the birthplace of both the religions, Islam and Christianity. The Hebrew language was very prominent. This Hebrew language is more or less equal to our Sanskrit. …”  Comment: Highly amusing idea that Islam and Christianity 350 years before Christ! How could the omniscient avatar (sic) think that Islam existed before the 4th Century! Sai Baba: “Christianity is not just 2,000 years in its origin. It was there even before Christ, 350 years. There the divinity is explained very clearly.” Comment: Sathya Sai Baba never could see any difference between Judaism and Christianity, since he once asked the US Jewish Alvin Drucker at an interview for Jewish devotees (including long-time US Jewish follower Marge Hendel) whether there was any difference! Sai Baba: “The name and the fame of Jesus Christ have spread far and wide. Here, at this moment, there are two schools of thought. The first group of thought – Roman Catholics. There is another group that fought with this group. This group is called Protestants. As they protested, they are Protestants. So among Jews there are these two groups: Catholics and Protestants. The difference of opinion has increased day by day. This led to Jesus, whose life was in danger. Jews there in Jerusalem did not permit Jesus to go there. Like this, religious conflict and fighting was ever on the rise. There were 250 schools of thought, divisions there. They also monopolized certain countries.” Comment: Sai Baba attributed the schism between Catholic and Protestant to the Jews, when it was of course initiated only by Martin Luther in the 16th Century. Sai Baba: “Because of so many groups there, they all attempted even to harm Jesus. Romans on one side. Catholics on the other side. Luther on another side. There were so many groups that went on changing. All these differences are based on violence, and that led to madness. Because of this attachment to group affiliations, naturally there was conflict and fighting.” Comment: Sai Baba speaks as if these groups actually attempted to harm the physical being, Jesus of Nazareth. The Romans certainly did, but the Catholics cannot be said to have existed until many centuries later, and Luther did not appear until the European Reformation! Sai Baba:“Religious affiliation leads to ego. This led to confusion among them as to what Jesus said right or wrong.” Comment: For once the first sentence makes a very reliable statement! Especially affiliation to Sathya Sai Baba, considering the murders in his bedroom in 1993, and many other murders and violent incidents in the ashrams or among followers. Ego leads to confusion, no doubt, but not particularly as to what Jesus said… that is a matter of lacking historical sources, questions of the authenticity of the Gospels and Apocrypha, the mistranslation of Jesus’ language (spoken in Aramaic, not Hebrew) and the editing by Church authorities and transcribers etc.

At length, when the Internet made critical materials about Sathya Sai Baba commonly available, James Redmond examined his large collection of films and announced that he found many instances of Sai Baba faking materializations. James Redmond continued to sell Sathya Sai Baba videos for a considerable period after that, but eventually closed his engagement down and these videos have not been commonly available since the early 2000s.

The material has also been reproduced from the video and commented wisely upon by Brian Steel , the former author of a large and accurate Sai Baba compendium published by Samuel Weiser Inc., USA. See http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Nonsense.htm

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