Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba - any views?

[Gaura Priya]

No, I have nothing to do with Baba, hardly know him, read a few text by his hand, that is all. I asked for respect for him.

In Hinduism Respect is not conditional. You can totally disagree, even dislike a person, disprove of his actions and still respect him. The respect is for his Divinity, not his humanity. When you greet someone, you bow to the God in him, nothing else, that is why this respect is unconditional. In the West respect means something different, respect needs to be earned by the good deeds or beliefs otherwise people find it hard to respect you. This respect is conditional. Same word, different meaning.

Jai Ganesha!

I respect Satya Sai Baba as I respect any religious teacher. However, as I have mentioned earlier, I do take Vaishnavism as my personal Dharma and thus follow suite with this.

In my culture, respect is not simply earned. Elders, for example, have a certain sense of authority and I should respect them. Also, I generally call anyone who is of my parents' or grandparents' age, by tito/tita (uncle, aunt), or lolo/lola (grandfather, or grandmother) as a sign of respect. To call them by their first names is too informal and strange.

 

[Riverwolf]

It is not your heart that was mislead here
It is our ego that wants to give us the role of a hero
we all are prey to that

But I believed it in my heart, through my emotions, rather than my head.

I wonder if "heart" is really what you're looking for.

But understand this
A guru may fool himself in such thinking at times
And he can still be the right guru for someone
In Hinduism even the great sages do not claim perfection
If great sage Vashisht asks forgiveness for his mistakes
and asks Ram to ignore his eroneous words
and only accept what is good
And even shows him his vanity
How can you dismiss Baba as not Divine
because he is not perfect

No, it's not because he's not perfect. It's because of his stage tricks, and the fact that he didn't live to his prophesied age.

You live with the idea of perfection
for man
Perfection lies in the consciousness of imperfection

No, I don't.

As soon as we embrace the idea of perfection
we become judgmental
This is a 10
This is a 6
This is a 0

If we accept
This is A
This is B
This is C
all true but from a different perspective'
then our whole world changes

Good day!

Jai Ganesha!

Perfection is a direction, not a destination.

 

[Riverwolf]

In Hinduism Respect is not conditional. You can totally disagree, even dislike a person, disprove of his actions and still respect him. The respect is for his Divinity, not his humanity. When you greet someone, you bow to the God in him, nothing else, that is why this respect is unconditional. In the West respect means something different, respect needs to be earned by good deeds or similar beliefs otherwise people find it hard to respect you. This respect is conditional. Same word, different meaning.

Jai Ganesha!

I do respect his humanity, AND, of course, as the Vedanta teaches, the God within. The Vedanta teaches that it's because of Atman that we love and respect anyone. But those of us who are worldly people are still strongly held under the illusion of duality, and, for me at least, it's a VERY long way to sustained realization of Oneness.

 

[K.Venugopal]

There is a difference.

I have no reason to doubt the existence of a banyan tree from a thousand years ago. But a saree of infinite length goes against simple laws of nature as we know them regardless of the date of the claim. It is impossible today just as it was impossible thousands of years ago. Of the two possible options - it was a divine miracle vs. it was the result of someone's imagination, the latter easily takes precedence.

Imagination is a truth in itself, albeit of a different order than truths that are objective. Take the story of the saree as it unfolds to a crescendo - Draupathi, clinging on to her saree like we cling on to our ego and asking Krishna to intervene. Krishna was not moved till she let go of her saree and as it unraveled He intervened as He would when we let go of our ego - and how! A truth is thereby expressed. After all, is "tree" a truth or merely a word? No wonder Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge.

 

[K.Venugopal]

This discussion is about different views on Sai Baba. The OP did not place filters on the types of views to be posted. Obviously, a view where one is skeptic about his divinity or even dimisses his divinity outright, is not out of place.

Definitely no view is out of place. I can imagine Sai Baba himself being amused by critical views. Those who knew him at close quarters say he had a great sense of humour.

 

[K.Venugopal]

...but is often not enforced as strictly here, since Hinduism is so vast in its beliefs, and thus prone to all kinds of disagreements between members.

This is because a Hindu tends more to celebrate a position than defend a position.

 

[zenzero]

Friend nnmartin,

I have noticed there is a Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba weekly meeting in my locality - seems to be a form of Hinduism/Spirituality so think I will give it a try. (meets on thursdays).

any views on this?

is it worth a look?

All depends on what you are looking for!
Rgds enlightenment - one has to find a way to look INWARDS!

Love & rgds

 

[rozidesouza]

No i have no any view for this.

 

[Ekanta]

To quote Baba: "Don't clamor for an interview. Instead search for the inner view".

 

[bruno12]

Yes i have view many time bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in movies and in pictures. He is really very good and noble nature person.

 

[Satyamavejayanti]

I have noticed there is a Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba weekly meeting in my locality - seems to be a form of Hinduism/Spirituality so think I will give it a try. (meets on thursdays).

any views on this?

is it worth a look?

I would agree with Riverwolf on this one, it seems to me that anyone that can pull a rabbit out of a hat is a avatar these days.

Satya Sai Baba must have been a good human being, but i dont see him as an avatar.

 

[Vinayaka]

I tend to look at the devotees, and what they do, not what they say. From the distance I'm at, (quite far away) it seems to be primarily a service organisation focused on charya.

 

[Shuddhasattva]

Exploitative charlatan.

 

[George-ananda]

Exploitative charlatan.

I don't understand. Who did he exploit and why?

 

[Vinayaka]

I know a lot of Sai devotees, and only 2 or 3 out of the 50 or so I've met seem to be 'a bit off'' , and its usually just in young overzealousness as to his avatarness, like using his name in a list of Gods. But there is no doubt that Sai himself is loaded with controversy. One just has to google to find that out. But out of respect to the devotees I know, I keep my mouth shut.

 

[George-ananda]

I know a lot of Sai devotees, and only 2 or 3 out of the 50 or so I've met seem to be 'a bit off'' , and its usually just in young overzealousness as to his avatarness, like using his name in a list of Gods. But there is no doubt that Sai himself is loaded with controversy. One just has to google to find that out. But out of respect to the devotees I know, I keep my mouth shut.

First, I have no problem with the Avatar claim. As he says; we are all God, he justs realizes it.

I'm well aware of all the controversies. As we would expect, they have all been denied by Sai Baba and his proponents. What great personages haven't faced controversy. Jesus was put to death as a criminal. The dull and jealous will always attack the great. To form a serious opinion, you have to dig deeper into the facts, And I felt I've done that and I believe there is strong reason to conclude the attacks are not true and orchastrated by a small number of atheists and ex-devotees with an agenda other than truth.

 

[Vinayaka]

First, I have no problem with the Avatar claim. As he says; we are all God, he justs realizes it.

I'm well aware of all the controversies. As we would expect, they have all been denied by Sai Baba and his proponents. What great personages haven't faced controversy. Jesus was put to death as a criminal. The dull and jealous will always attack the great. To form a serious opinion, you have to dig deeper into the facts, And I felt I've done that and I believe there is strong reason to conclude the attacks are not true and orchastrated by a small number of atheists and ex-devotees with an agenda other than truth.

Sorry I shouldn't have butted in. If Shuddasattva wants to explain his reasoning, I'll let him. Your question was for him, not me. My personal stance is simple, "I don't know.' With that, I'm out of a thread I should never have entered in the first place. :no: