Seriously now, Satya Sai Baba was a small time magician and a big time crook. His magic tricks were pedestrian and transparent that they could only fool very stupid people. He would “materialize” stuff from thin air. Or so he claimed. But he was an inept magician. Too often his palming was so amateurish that I wish he had had the sense to learn a few tricks from professional stage magicians. (This video is an example of his bumbling silly tricks.)
SSB was a sharp businessman, otherwise. He would materialize bibhuti, “holy ash” (although what’s holy about ash that is not holy about everything in the universe escapes me), and generously distribute it to the poor (although how that helps the poor is also not clear to me.) He would materialize gold chains also but these he reserved for the rich. The rich, in turn, would shower him with tons of gold jewelry. So as I was saying, he was a canny businessman. Take in gold by the tons, and then hand a tiny bit of it back to the same rich people after a conjuring trick. The real trick was how he fooled his followers.
SSB died miserable, it appears. I felt sorry for him. He was bedridden and died of multiple organ failures. It is reported that the people looking after him were impatiently waiting for him to die. They could not wait to get their hands on the wealth that surrounded him. It goes to show that however rich and mighty you may be, in the end, when Yama comes around, it is not a pretty sight.
I have had an acute dislike for SSB. That will not come as a surprise if you know how I feel about “godmen” and their shenanigans. SSB deceived, lied and cheated. He convinced millions of his followers that he was a good man when he himself must have known that he was cheating them. That in my books makes him despicable.
He was a crook. Even if you disregard all other evidence of his dishonesty, just consider this fact. He was praised to the high heavens by the most crooked people alive in India today. Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, and dozens of high powered politicians praised him. L K Advani went so far as to say, “I believe that spiritual leaders in our country provide sources of de-contamination, de-pollution….”. I understand the need for “de-contamination and de-pollution” for those who have to deal with so much dirty money and fraud on a national scale. It is clearly a confederacy of criminals — the politicians and fraudsters like SSB — that royally screws the ignorant Indian masses.
They gave him a state funeral. They usually do to crooks and charlatans. Teresa, the Merciless, the repulsive Catholic missionary who hobnobbed with cruel dictators and took money stolen from the poor, got a state funeral too. Criminals hold other bigger criminals in high regard and it shows in how the politicians of India revere the masters of deceit and deception.
What I find disgusting about SSB is that he gives Hindus and Hinduism a bad name. It is not a matter of national shame if an average guy diddles kids but when SSB does it, it is ammunition in the hands of the missionaries (who, I suppose, don’t like competition in their diddling of kids) and other enemies of India and Hindus. SSB was known around the world and when he cheated, that too was well known. By his pathetic lies, he drags down Hinduism because too many people associate Hinduism with people like him.
SSB claimed he was god. Of course, from a Advaita Vedantic perspective, he was god. But then so is everyone else in the universe. अहम् ब्रम्ह. I am Bramha. तत्वम असी. I Am That.
The man was a megalomaniac and his delusions of grandeur extended to believing that he was the god that monotheists believe in and that he had sent his son Jesus to earth. There’s something wrong with claiming that you are god of the monotheistic kind. It is a mental disorder routinely suffered by many in lunatic asylums. He was certifiably crazy. He said,
The statement of Christ is simple: “He who sent me among you will come again!” and he pointed to a Lamb. The Lamb is merely a symbol, a sign. It stands for the Voice—Ba-Ba; the announcement was the Advent of Baba. “His Name will be Truth,” Christ declared. Sathya means Truth. “He will wear a robe of red, a bloodred robe.” (Here Baba pointed to the robe He was wearing!). “He will be short, with a crown (of hair). The Lamb is the sign and symbol of Love.”
Christ did not declare that he will come again. He said, “He who made me will come again.”
That Ba-ba is this Baba and Sai, the short, curly-hair-crowned red-robed Baba, is come. He is not only in this Form, but, he is in every one of you, as the dweller in the Heart. He is there, short, with a robe of the colour of the blood that fills it.
Unbelievable. You cannot make that sort of stuff up. That quote is from a Satya Sai Publications book.
Believing you are Jesus Christ’s father is not all that remarkable. Christians believe in all sorts of crazy stuff and so do lots of people from other religions and cults, and so do the inmates of loony bins. It’s all crazy crap but nothing evil or wrong. What’s wrong with what SSB did was the message he sent out through the grand larceny he practiced with impunity. It says that it is ok to lie and to cheat as long as you give some of the proceeds to charitable causes and if important people support you. Those who are seeking ways to rationalize their criminal behavior see what people like SSB do and it gives them comfort and justification to keep on ripping off people.
SSB is dead but his legacy of cheating and ripping off the poor and the gullible will continue. The League of Extraordinarily Crooked Politicians headed by Manmohan Singh will carry on the job.
"