The Vedas – Sai Baba vs. N. Chaudhuri

Sai Baba’s claims for the Vedas are so excessive as to surpass all reason, as one of many quotes shows:-

Sathya Sai Baba being worshipped as the ‘living form of the Vedas’

“The Vedhas (sacred ancient scriptures) are the very roots of Bhaaratheeya Culture. So, it is the bounden duty of every son of India to observe the rites and rituals, the injunctions and instructions, laid down in the Vedhas.” “…let Me tell them that the one single object that the Vedhas have in view is to make man Divine, through a series of spiritual exercises.” “… the Vedhas persuade him to use his intelligence and discrimination to sublimate his passions and emotions to the Divine level where he is in eternal bliss. The Vedhas elaborate the Sanaathana Shaasthra (the primal science of the spirit). Understanding this science well and practising it form the duties every man owes to himself. That science results in the removal of ignorance, the gaining of knowledge; not the knowledge of material, worldly things, which changes and gets superseded every few years! It endows the seeker with the knowledge that is the key to the entire gamut of knowledge, that which if known, everything else is known. That is why the Vedhas are called so. The word means, that is to say, “Vedha” means that which makes you know.” (Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 12 Chapter 46)

If Indians were to follow that vastly impracticable advice, it would soon return them to an almost prehistoric mentality devoid of all interest in the world and all the ills herein and the fruits of millennia of human civilization in favour of slavery to religious delusions and the rule of the priesthood and kings with divine rights, like Rama. It would mean renunciation of  “worldly knowledge” (i.e. science, modern medicine, scientific agriculture, all industry and technology just for a start… ). This is no doubt something of what India’s great polymath and Honorary Doctor at Oxford, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, was concerned about when he castigated the role of the Vedas in India today. By the Vedas, Chaudhuri refers to the four Samhitas; the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda, which he regards as holding a position in Indian culture not even matched by the Bible or the Quoran. He stated: – 

“I know of no sacred books or scriptures which have the same prestige as among the Hindus these books, especially the Rigveda… The Vedas present an exceptional phenomenon. Their prestige is not accounted for either by their contents or by the use that has been made of them. They are not the word of any God or gods, but mostly words addressed to gods.“

Many of the beliefs now looked upon as basic to Hinduism are not even adumbrated in the Vedas.” “… the Vedas have never been read as devotional books for their contents, and not even as literature.” “…their language became wholly obsolete. For their devotional reading the Hindus chose later books, and these are read even now – not the Vedas.”

“The only part of the Vedic religion which survives in India is some of the liturgy and ritual, belonging to the Karma-Kanda, or the chapter of ‘works’, which were specially denounced by the Hindu devotional schools and the Vedanta school of philosophy. But these also have remained only mechanically alive. They are performed, but there is no consciousness of their doctrinal significance, and no understanding even of the words as such. The oblations are still offered to the departed ancestors in an unmodified Vedic manner, but the ceremony bears no relation whatever to the later and present-day beliefs of the Hindus about after-life. The Vedic concept about the dead and the belief in Karma and rebirth are utterly irreconcilable, and the contradiction is not perceived only because nobody understands the Vedic rite.

To the Hindu the Vedas always were and even now are the fons et origo of his entire way of life. Theoretically, at least, everything in it must be derived from them, and even when many things he does or believes in cannot be connected with any Vedic text, he will say that these are implicit in the Vedas. He would add that when properly interpreted the Vedas were bound to disclose them. During the last one hundred years or so this belief that the Vedas contain everything has been carried to the length of absurdity in the face of the challenge of European science. I have heard scholars who are otherwise quite respectable, say that evidence for the existence, not only of firearms, but even of aeroplanes in ancient India is to be found in the Vedas. This is a new aspect of the worship of the Vedas.

This prestige, which has nothing to do with the contents of the Vedas and is purely mythical, cannot be explained on any rational ground except one: that they were the original scriptures of the Aryan way of life and were brought into India as such. I do not deny that in their existing form the Vedas may have been partly recast and rewritten in India, but there can be no doubt that substantially they come down from the pre-Indian existence of the Aryans, One aspect of the Vedic faith can be said to be decisive for this conclusion. It is the dogma that the Vedas and existed since the beginning of time, taken with the connected belief that they were saved from the Deluge by being carried on a leaf by the first incarnation of Vishnu, the preserving god. It is quite improbable that the Aryans could have evolved the concept of the Deluge in India.

Last of all, the modern Hindu interest in the Vedas is wholly artificial, and is a creation of Western scholarship. It is an academic interest. but not competent academic interest, for most of the Indian scholars and historians who deal with the Vedic age cannot read Vedic Sanskrit, and are wholly dependent on Western translations and exegesis. (from ‘The Continent of Circe’ Chapter 8. Nirad C. Chaudhuri)

Progressive, realistic, forward-looking Indians surely cannot but side more with Chaudhuri’s interpretation than with Sai Baba’s, however religiously inclined they may be otherwise. Vedic rituals have most evidently not hindered India’s constant decline into what Sai Baba himself characterizes as follows:-

“It is a great pity that Bhaarath which earned such eminent renown in the spiritual field is today in the throes of a devil dance of vice and wickedness, in the background of falsehood, injustice, hatred and faction. The land is sunk in anxiety and fear.” (ibid)

Of course, those who know Sai Baba’s many enormous claims will be aware that he has repeatedly said that figures like Hiranyakasipu and Ravanna mastered all the supposed “Vedic sciences”, while Rama used mantras to power Pushpa (a kind of airplane) and also that nuclear weaponry was used in th long-gone past of India. He said:-

”Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu also were ones of very great capabilities. They were great scientists. Hiranyakasipu not only went to the moon; he also went to the sun. Not only the sun, he also reached the stars. When he went to star Dhruva and touched it, the earth spun. With that he suffered. Though he was such a great scientist, things should be done only as much as is needed; but if it is in excess, a very big danger will happen.” (Sanathana Sarathi – August 2002)

Read a very insightful Indian comment on Chaudhuri here. It also describes his role vis-a-vis India and how his relationship with India’s middle class and others developed. He lived to age 101 and received many accolades and distinctions (In short, much that Sathya Sai Baba never got), including a CBE from Queen Elizabeth.

Meanwhile please see also Sathya Sai Baba and the Vedas part one 

Sathya Sai Baba’s last days

A reminder of what was reported about the minders of Sai Baba while he was in “intensive care”, before they secretly took him off life support on Easter Sunday!

But note too that the journalist could not get the simplest fact right – SB did not break a leg two years ago, he suffered from a major hip joint collapse and botched surgery in 2003!

The matter was never cleared up – the guilty parties remained as silent as the grave and the attempt of Naidu to get the matter brought up officially never came to anything… one can only suspect massive bribery of officials and lawmakers in Andhra Pradesh (no doubt taken from the limitless funds the Sai Trust had got final control over when Sai Baba died). Considering the observable deterioration, weight loss and immobile features of Sai Baba as seen at his brief 85th birthday celebrations, the published assurances that he would soon be home etc. are seen to be either safeguards in case he DID survive, ways to placate the devotees who were angry at the tight secrecy around – and total isolation of – their guru-god or possibly blind belief in the infallibility of his predictions as to how long he would live!

Sathya Sai Baba’s death – no miracles

Satyajit,  who laid claim to Sai Baba’s Central Trust, accused of drugging and manipulating Sai Baba 

Death of SATHYA SAI BABA – April 24th, 2011 – aged 84 (i.e. being in his 85th year)