Sai Baba - a prophet or a charlatan? The leader of the pseudo-Hindu sect Sai Baba died Indian Sathya Sai Baba autobiography

I was thinking and planning

Frankly speaking, I had no particular desire to go to Sai Baba in Puttaparthi. Having arrived in India for more than two months for two reasons - to see this amazing country and to resolve several business issues - I stayed near the resort town of Pondicherry on the ocean coast, in an inexpensive guesthouse "Damo".

My choice was not accidental. There are persistent rumors that it was from this place that the “bearded barbarian” Bodhidharma once left for China. And the guesthouse itself is located in a very convenient and advantageous location. Nearby is Auroville. The ocean is 100 meters away. Pondicherry is just a stone's throw away. And so I settled down well in this place that I was, at least, reluctant to leave it anywhere. But, fortunately, one of my good friends still convinced me that “to be in India and not visit Sai Baba means not to be in India.” So I decided to take this trip.

Path-path

An overnight bus from Pondicherry took me 7 hours to Bangalore. Transfer in Bangalore. Take another bus to Puttaparthi. Buses in India are certainly not that great. It cannot be compared with the Hungarian Ikarus or even our LiAZ. I, probably as a foreigner, had the fate of sitting next to a broken window. It can’t be said that it was too cold at night, but the sweater I brought “just in case” came in handy. Covered with it like a blanket, I tried to sleep the whole way in the shaking, rattling and constantly loud honking bus. But my attempts were unsuccessful, and during the entire journey, if I fell asleep, it was for no more than 20-30 minutes.

On the road all the way to Puttaparthi I did not meet a single white person. This fact made me think that now is obviously not the best time to travel for white tourists - there is a war in Afghanistan, unrest in Kashmir and, in general, the world is somehow restless. But upon arrival at Sai Baba's ashram, my fears of being the only white person in Puttaparthi were dispelled. At least a third of the ashram guests were of my own skin color.

Thus, knowing only 3.5 English words and having a very vague idea of ​​where and why I came, I found myself visiting Swami - as Baba is affectionately called by the people.

Immediately at the entrance to the ashram - and it turned out to be a few steps from the bus station and was found by me intuitively, according to the principle of “wherever my feet took me” - I was greeted by smiling Indians in blue-striped ties with the words: “Sai Ram!” with a golden-colored medal-emblem on the chest.

I guess that these are none other than the sevadals - ashram servants, whose duties include maintaining discipline and order, and the combination “sairam”, as it later turned out, is the most popular phrase in Puttaparthi, which, depending on the intonation of its pronunciation, has a very wide range of meanings — from “thank you, please” to — “Where are you going, you bastard?”

Smiling back as joyfully as possible, I approach one of the sevadals and begin to weave something about “where is your guesthouse” in very clear English. Oddly enough, they understand me and, moreover, they give me a person to accompany me, who literally leads me by the hand to the administrative building.

At the entrance to the office, the Indian accompanying me gestures to indicate that the backpack should be left at the entrance. Having heard about Indian clever swindlers, I part with my luggage with some apprehension, but, at some point, I remember WHERE I came, and I am immediately ashamed of my thoughts. I’m ashamed to be ashamed, but just in case I keep an eye on my backpack. As you know, God protects those who are protected.

A friendly administrative employee at the computer explains something to me for a long time in English about the rules for checking into a hotel at the ashram. There are a large number of different classes of their hotels on the territory, ranging from “suites” with carports for private cars, and ending with the so-called “shed”, where the poorest segments of the population, as well as tourists who do not have enough places in comfortable rooms, can for a nominal fee, live according to the “dormitory” principle, sitting right on the floor in a not very spacious room that can accommodate, probably, up to fifty people.

From everything that the administrator said a lot, I only understand that there are no single rooms and I have a choice - either to go to a double room, or to a "shed". Naturally, I choose “double”. But - in vain. It turns out that to stay in a double room you need two people at the same time, and since I arrived alone, my only direct route was to the “shed”, which, on top of everything else, doesn’t even provide mattresses - sleep as you want.

And so I was leaving the administrative building with a wolf ticket for 30 rupees to that very “shed” in a not very cheerful mood, when suddenly - lo and behold! — an intelligent-looking young man with glasses comes up to me and introduces himself as Raja from Malaysia, who also needs a double room, like me. This was my first accidental luck in Sai Baba's ashram.

Thus, having met the wonderful man Raja and through joint efforts received the long-awaited key to the double room, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and, after taking a shower, lie to my heart’s content on the bed. What I am doing. True, I somehow couldn’t lie down for a long time. Some inner force was pushing me to finish my rest and go for a walk. By this time, Raja had already left his room for the city, and I went alone to inspect the territory of the ashram. This is where the second pleasant accident occurred.

Absolutely not knowing where to go, by some miracle I came to the exact place where the main action in the ashram takes place - “darshn”, during which Sai Baba walks from his residence to the temple past the guests of the ashram sitting on the marble floor. This sacred place is called a "mandir" and is a huge canopy made in a highly artistic religious style with many marble columns, crystal chandeliers on the ceiling and gilded figures and statues.

The luxury of the mandir pleasantly shocked me. But most of all, I was struck by my luck. As soon as I approached the gates of the mandir, softly pleasant Indian music suddenly began to sound, as if on order, and, a few minutes later, I saw about 50 meters away from me a small procession, led by a small old man with a lush head of hair on his head in a bright dress. orange robe. Without any doubt it was Sai Baba.

It is difficult to describe the feelings I experienced. Most likely, it was purely human curiosity. I saw a man about whom legends are made and who is even called God, but at the same time, I saw ONLY a man. If I had met him in an ordinary Indian crowd, the only thing I might have noticed was his luxurious hair. That was my first meeting with Sai Baba.

During the 5 days I spent in the ashram, there were several such meetings. As an exemplary “devotee” - that’s what Sai Baba’s fans are called in the ashram - every morning, at about 4 o’clock, I got up at the sound of the alarm clock together with Raja and went to the mandir, in front of which by this time there was already a long line of people sitting right on the concrete sidewalk see Baba. After an hour of waiting in an uncomfortable and unusual “lotus position” for me, the sevadals raised us on command and escorted us directly to the mandir itself, where the next test lay ahead - to sit on the marble, but no less hard floor for another 3 hours until Swami appeared.

This was a difficult ordeal, probably not only for me, since literally the entire mandir - and by 6-7 o’clock in the morning up to a thousand people had already gathered there - sighed and groaned, rolling from one sore buttock to another. But there were real yogis among us. They could sit for several hours in a row without moving until Sai Baba appeared and aroused my sincere admiration.

It is a great honor to be in the front row of those sitting in the mandir. This means that Sai Baba will pass very close, and you can touch his feet or give him a letter. True, Swami’s guards were very careful to ensure that as few as possible reached Baba’s sacred body and robe. Only a few were given such a great honor, and their joy knew no bounds.

During my five days at the ashram, I was not lucky enough to sit in the front row even once. Fortune stubbornly turned away from me at the moment of drawing lots, when one of the sevadals took out of the bag a tag with a number, according to which one line of people sitting on the street in even rows was located in a certain place directly in the mandir itself. The most I was worthy of was getting into the third row one afternoon, after yet another tedious stay under the scorching sun in front of the mandir. But this was another pleasant accident for me.

Ash

This time I was lucky enough to see one of Sai Baba’s most popular magical actions - the materialization of the sacred ash of vibhuti (?).

This was the day before I left the ashram. I was sitting in the third row from the red carpet where Sai Baba was to walk. And so, when Swami came close enough to where I was sitting, he suddenly stopped and turned his gaze to the person sitting in the first row in front of me. A man, about 50 years old, of Asian appearance, instantly fell at Swami’s feet in joyful ecstasy, to which Baba responded unequivocally: “No need!” and, raising his devotee with a gesture, asked him several questions. After their short dialogue, Sai Baba waved his hand several times and - I saw it from a very close distance - suddenly a handful of grayish ash powder appeared in his palm, which he poured into the hands of the lucky one.

As a child, I visited the circus more than once and saw magicians. But I have never seen such joy that ADULT people showed from Sai Baba’s “trick” in any circus. I really wanted to believe that this was really a real miracle, and not a clever trick. And I believed it. Just like millions of people in the world believed Sai Baba, revere him and worship him as God. They believed that it was he who would help them find health, love, material well-being, and for this they were ready not only to sit on the marble floor of the mandir for hours or days in meditation or chanting mantras. And as a confirmation and strengthening of their faith, they want to see miracles, of which Sai Baba has a sufficient number in her arsenal.

Do you want ashes!? - As many as you like!

A little later, that devotee who was lucky enough to receive the sacred ash from the hands of Swami himself was literally almost “torn to pieces” by other, less fortunate devotees in an effort to get at least a pinch of this magic powder from him. Fortunately, the man turned out to be not too greedy and shared every last speck of dust with his neighbors, although he was clearly shocked by this behavior of his brothers.

Who is Sai Baba?

And this is what I thought about at that moment, watching the actions of the “devotees” - and yet, who is this Sai Baba?

While still in Russia, I heard many versions on this topic, starting with the fact that he is a swindler posing as God, and ending with the fact that he is God. In India, too, opinions on this topic are very controversial. Some, with foam at the mouth and a fanatical gleam in their eyes, insist on the “divine version”, while others - and these are mainly those people who did not receive anything from Sai Baba - claim that he is not God. There is also a neutral version, which, by the way, is closest to me personally.

Sai Baba is the greatest person, undoubtedly possessing outstanding magical abilities. If we adhere to the version that “God is present everywhere and in everything,” then, of course, he is God, as is each of us potentially. Another question is that not every person has such great magical power as Sai Baba. After all, he not only works miracles, materializing ashes and rings before the eyes of his devotees, but, in the literal sense, arranges the fate of some people.

Raja's healing story

This is the story that my new friend Raja told me with such inspiration that I understood him even without special knowledge of the English language.

Raja is 41 years old. He has his own small fish farming business in Malaysia. In 1999, according to him, he became a victim of "bad people" - bad people who used "black magic" - black magic - against him. It was necessary to see with what gestures and facial expressions Raja conveyed his pain to me during that period. He could neither sleep nor eat and became so weak that he stopped going to work.

Raja first learned about Sai Baba in 1979. Throughout this period, before his terrible illness, he was not a fan of Sai Baba, but revered him as a great man of the world. But this illness forced him to reconsider his life guidelines.

One night, in a dream, Raja saw the image of Sai Baba. At this moment - and again Raja very energetically demonstrated his sensations to me - he felt strong currents of energy piercing his body along his spine from bottom to top, like an electric shock. Suddenly he started vomiting, and he was very scared, not understanding what was happening to him. Closing his eyes, he saw the stable image of Sai Baba in front of him.

A few days after this event, Raja completely recovered. His body was filled with new strength and energy, and from then on he became a devoted devotee of Sai Baba. This year he came to Puttaparthi for the first time to be with his healer during darshna for 108 days, and his most cherished dream is the desire to get an appointment with Sai Baba, the so-called “interview”.

***

It would also be unfair not to note the fact that even I managed to resolve one vital issue in Sai Baba’s mandir. Perhaps this is a direct consequence of the fact that for several days I found myself in a calm and friendly environment, or perhaps this is a direct result of the influence of Sai Baba’s radiation, which I personally felt very strongly, in the form of a surge of causeless joy at his appearance.

Moreover, the solution to my question came somehow suddenly - like a flash of insight in my head. In a split second, I was presented with the optimal solution to the issue with such convincing power that, remembering and analyzing it later, I came to the conclusion that yes, it was not a random decision.

These two examples, of course, do not constitute indisputable proof of the “divine version” of Sai Baba - and, to be honest, this question does not bother me too much - but they confirmed my personal assumption that yes! — Sai Baba’s activities are needed not only by him and the sevadals around him. People need Baba. He is needed exactly as they want him to be - materializing ashes and coming in dreams, since the ancient wisdom about bread and circuses is still relevant. There is currently no way in the world that is more effective in persuading a crowd than the method of “theatrical performance” with the demonstration of all kinds of miracles and tricks. The first word that comes out of the mouth of a man in the street to a man who calls himself God: “Prove it!” So they prove it as best they can. Jesus went to the cross. Baba - ashes materialize.

I have heard a lot of criticism against Sai Baba. Yes, it is as easy to criticize him as it is easy to criticize any outstanding person or political figure. But I want to draw attention to the fact that it is thanks to the activities of this person that the tourism business in India is thriving today. It’s no secret that most tourists go to India to visit Sai Baba. Moreover, from an ordinary village, Puttaparthi is growing into a city with powerful infrastructure and trading business, and for India, which is not too rich, this is a good indicator.

Most of the population of Puttaparthi lives by serving guests of the ashram, selling souvenirs and food. Of course, all this is due to Sai Baba.

Another thing is the ethical side of the question, which can be formulated very specifically - isn’t the Great Indian Teacher fooling his students by calling himself God in exactly the sense that they mean by this concept - God, to whom you need to constantly pray and, if possible, kiss legs? This question remains open.

Of course, like any organization, the ashram has its excesses. So, for example, I happened to observe a picture when Sai Baba’s sevadal guards almost beat one devotee who was too zealously trying to get closer to their master. But one cannot help but point out the fact that literally a few seconds after this incident, the guards were quite seriously - judging by their frightened appearance - punished by some superior officer.

Yes. Of course, there are and will be excesses. And how could they not be, since not only true believers and devotees of Sai Baba go to the ashram, but also simply mouthwatering people, greedy for all sorts of miracles and wonders. In the ashram I saw punks with a tuft of hair on their shaved heads and a slovenly appearance, whose behavior was clearly not in accordance with the ashram’s rules, and a group of aggressively minded people in black clothes, who responded to any, by the way, fair remark from the sevadals with daring attacks on their side and disdainful attitude towards people around.

As elsewhere in the world, these phenomena are completely natural. Another question is how to organize an institution like Sai Baba’s ashram in such a way that, without restricting the access of absolutely everyone who wants to visit it, maintain discipline and order in it, ensuring the safety of people. So far, only Sai Baba has managed to solve this problem in the most effective way, as evidenced by the constant increase in the number of ashram guests from all over the world.

As for the issue of the “purity” of Sai Baba’s activities, my position is as follows. In a world ruled by dishonest politicians and businessmen, totalitarian sects and Islamist fanatics, Sai Baba’s experience is the most harmless and harmless experience.

I am not a fan of Sai Baba, but to anyone who asks me, I will only tell about him what I saw with my own eyes. Yes! - great person. Yes! — materializes ashes. Yes! - helped me personally...

PS. Literally an hour before my departure from Puttaparthi, I went to Sai Baba’s darshn for the last time, holding in my hands several freshly printed sheets with the text of this article. I was again lucky enough to sit in the third row. Moreover, I ended up in a group of Russian tourists who had just arrived. During his rounds, Sai Baba again stopped two steps away from me, asking the question: “What country are you from?” to one of the Russians sitting to my right. "Rashia!" - came the answer. "Oh! Rashia!" - Sai Baba meaningfully shook his head and - waving his hand a couple of times - again, before my eyes, he materialized ashes for a man from Russia. For some reason I was very happy for this man and for Russia as a whole. And here's what's interesting. I specifically observed the actions of the people around me this time. No one even tried to lay claim to the sacred ashes that went to our compatriot. Thus, all the ashes remained in Russia!

One hundred and thirty-eight years ago, he was born, with whose name on my lips my childhood passed... The image was very bright - grandfather Lenin... That unattainable ideal to which many children's souls were directed (I write without sarcasm)... Octobrists, pioneers, Komsomol members... everyone wore badges with his image. Later, when I worked as a senior pioneer leader, I told the children about Ilyich’s bright ideas that were supposed to make the poor and disadvantaged happy; I tied a red pioneer tie for them and taught them the laws of young Leninists. Trying to comprehend now what IT was, I can subscribe to every previously spoken word for a children's audience, because they concerned the concepts of honesty, decency, internal duty, friendship and responsibility for the country in which each of us lives... And the statement "Study, study, etc." was very encouraging.
Don’t think that I’m nostalgic for the past... I want to know how other people feel about those distant and very close times when we celebrated V.I.’s birthday. the whole country.
I don’t like grandfather Lenin, but I treat him as a historical figure necessary at a certain stage in the development of our country.
In this sense, the words from E.I.’s letters are very close to me. Roerich:
...in terms of evolution, there may be thankless roles that must be performed by someone... And often these roles are performed by spirits that are not as bad as they are commonly believed to be. And, of course, these roles are distributed by the great Director, in other words, by the law of karma. But, undoubtedly, these considerations are not easily perceived by unprepared consciousnesses who have not thought about the greatness and immutability of the law of cause and effect.
By the way, is there really such a big difference between persons who plunge entire nations into devastating wars for personal gain, and the person named and condemned? Familiarize yourself with the true history of many, or rather most, wars, what an abyss of greed, ambition, envy and vindictiveness of individuals plunged countries into the abyss of misfortune! Life is so complex that before making a final verdict, we must familiarize ourselves with the true reasons that gave rise to certain disastrous consequences. Of course, the misfortune of humanity is that in most cases, strong spirits, committed even to a bright idea, understand it one-sidedly, intolerantly and narrowly, hence all the destructive actions. The history of all peoples is full of bloody and disgusting pages. How much blood is shed for each new construction, for each new teaching or religion? That is why it is so necessary for humanity to quickly learn two great concepts - Tolerance and Cooperation. These are the two foundations on which a new era will be built.

Here on the forum, words have already been heard about the “Great Mahatmas”, among which Lenin was counted among the Great Teachers.

But today I came across a statement by Mahatma Gandhi:
The ideal to which such titans of the spirit as Lenin devoted themselves cannot be sterile. The noble example of his selflessness, which will be glorified throughout the ages, will make this ideal even more sublime and beautiful
What matters... There are so many contradictions in my restless mind

Or maybe someone knows if Swami said anything about V.I.?

In general...As it was sung in one children's song:
"And then it blossomed at the appointed time
A red flower for Lenin's birth..."

P.S. But what I really liked was the name of our country - the USSR. For me, these three letters "S"... well, you understand. And the "USSR" option is even better: United by Sathya Sai Republics. The Lord united us in 1922, during the change of His Incarnations, and then separated us... For everything, His Holy Will!
OM SRI SAI RAM!





Russia did not have any special mission, and no!
The people of Russia will be saved by culture and art!
There is no need to look for any national idea for Russia, this is a mirage.
Culture and art are the basis of all our achievements and successes.
Living with a national idea will inevitably lead first to restrictions, and then intolerance will arise towards another race, another people and another religion.
Intolerance will certainly lead to terror.
It is impossible to achieve a return of Russia to any single ideology, because a single ideology will sooner or later lead Russia to fascism.

Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev (1906 – 1999)






Today, February 23, I would like to congratulate all the defenders of the Fatherland of invincible Russia on the holiday. May there always be peace, shanti and tranquility everywhere. May all people be happy! Why did you want to write this post? I read the statement of Sathya Sai Baba:
-Many years ago, during the liberation movement, I composed a song for a scene where a child is crying and the mother is comforting him and assuring him that everything will be fine and that there is no need to worry about the fate of the country. I sang it on stage, putting a rubber doll in a cradle and slowly rocking it.
Don't cry, my child, don't cry.
And if you cry, they will not call you the valiant son of Bharata.
Go to sleep, my baby, go to sleep.
Are you afraid that the terrible Hitler has invaded invincible Russia?
Go to sleep, my baby, go to sleep.
Don't cry, my baby, don't cry.
The Red Army is already marching, led by Stalin.
He will put an end to Hitler.
Are you crying because people lack unity?
All compatriots will unite in the fight for freedom.
Go to sleep, my baby, go to sleep.
(Telugu poem)
(From the Divine Discourse of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba at the International Conference on Education on July 22, 2008).

Sathya Sai Baba, whose name can be translated from Sanskrit as “true mother and father,” was born in 1926 in a village in southern India. As usual, Sai Baba says that already in childhood, various wonderful stories happened to him, for example, that he several times materialized fruits, sweets and even rare Himalayan medicinal herbs out of thin air for friends. According to him, at the age of 14 he suffered a state close to a coma. For two months he was in severe pain and suffered from intermittent pain. lost consciousness. After this strange illness, “his psychic powers increased and expanded,” and Sai Baba declared that he was a living god and the reincarnation of the popular Indian “saint” and miracle worker Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi (18567-1918), considered an apparition of Shiva. Sai Baba left his family and soon, with the help of his followers, founded the Abode of Eternal Peace Ashram (Prashanti Nilayam) in the village of Puggaparthi, and then the international organization Sathya Sai Baba Foundation.

Sathya Sai declared that he was an avatar of Shiva and Shakti, the male and female principles of the deity, and that he would be born again in the guise of Prema Sai as a manifestation of one Shakti. At the same time, he refers to the fulfillment of some ancient prophecies about himself, allegedly contained in the Bible, Koran, Mahabharata and other scriptures. Sai Baba himself prophesies:

The glory of this Avatar, the Avatar of the present era, will increase day by day. In the old days, when a little boy named Krishna tore Mount Govardana from the ground, the milkmaids and cowherd men, who were Krishna's friends and associates, realized that he was the Deity. And now not just one mountain, but an entire mountain range will be lifted into the air. And you will witness this! Be patient, have faith!

According to another prediction of Sai Baba, he will die in 2022. Using the propaganda work of Vivekananda, Sai Baba declares that he came for the sake of all humanity, and not for the sake of individual nations and religions, that his task is not to found a new religion or impose his teachings on people: , and through Truth and Love, restore the direct path to God and revive in people the desire for spirituality, brotherhood and cooperation. This meaning is also contained in one of the names of Sai Baba’s sect - “Movement for a Comprehensive Faith”.

However, in 1976, Sai Baba proclaimed the “Sai Religion”. The direct path to God, according to the Sai Religion, consists of bhakti directed towards Sai Baba as the “incarnate” God. Sai Baba also speaks of himself as an object of mystical knowledge: “...in a spiritual quest, one must dive as deep as possible and immerse oneself in Sathya Sai in order to reap the fruits of the presence of the Avatar on earth. Following the anthropology of monism, Sai Baba teaches: “We are by nature not limited by time and space, for our true essence is limitless, unchanging and imperishable…. our true being is an ethereal state of pure love and bliss.” Even if we put aside the absurdities in word usage and the strange non-distinction between “being” and “state”, it is obvious that Sai Baba affirms the coexistence of man and the Absolute. But at the same time, Sai Baba constantly insists on his qualitative difference from “just saints”, who through certain efforts revealed the divine essence within themselves.

The teachings of Sai Baba are full of such contradictions. However, it is not designed for rational perception, but mainly for emotional one. The main thing in his syncretic doctrine is himself as “Lord”, “Helper and Patron” in life and after death, the one who can help devotees realize their hidden divinity.

Of course, God, even in the form of a man, must be characterized by omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence, the manifestation of which will be the miracles he performs. They constitute the main content of the literature of the Saibabits, as well as their conversations. “Swami” is credited with miraculous abilities to read thoughts, instantly move in space at any distance, prevent disasters, control the elements, turn water into oil (sic!), heal the sick and even resurrect the dead. Here are excerpts from a typical story about one of Sai Baba’s “outstanding miracles”:

On the first day of Christmas, early in the morning, a rumor spread among Sai devotees that an elderly American had suffered a severe heart attack... Elsie Cowan confirmed that her husband had died. She prayed to Sathya Sai, asking for his help, but maintained complete composure and, remembering our mortal nature, ended her prayer with the words: “Lord, Thy will be done.”

An ambulance transported Walter's body to the hospital. When Elsie and her friend... came to the hospital, they learned that Sathya Sai had visited the hospital before their arrival. To their surprise, they found Walter alive. Dr. Rao testifies that he examined Walter shortly after the arrival of the ambulance and, finding no signs of life, pronounced him dead and stuffed his ears and nose with cotton. That same day, a few hours later, Sathya Sai informed his followers and disciples that he had indeed brought Walter back to life.

Prophecies, the resurrection of the dead on Christmas Day through the humble prayer of a widow, as well as the requirement of faith and the afterlife judgment - all these evangelical allusions are designed for “religious tourists” from Western countries, who make up a significant part of Sai Baba’s fans. And they themselves tend to perceive Sai through the prism of Christianity. However, popular veneration of Sai Baba is also widespread among Hindus. If he does not reject Hinduism either at the everyday or at the theoretical level, donates to temples and, moreover, works miracles, why not worship him as a god? There are many gods, there are also enough avatars - who can figure them out?

Sai Baba’s “signature miracle” is the “materialization” from the air of various small objects from “sacred ash” (vibhuti) and sweets to massive golden lingas, which he allegedly gives birth through his mouth, and a gold watch, on which the serial number is stamped and indicated manufacturer country. “Blessed” or “materialized” by Sai Baba, all kinds of small objects (most often various jewelry and costume jewelry) are intended for “healing and blessing” of fans. There are even films that document “materialization” and “healings,” as well as films that expose them.

Sai Baba's technology for producing "miracles" is well known and described in detail. In essence, we are talking about simple tricks, multiplied by superstition and the excited imagination of the public. For example, “sacred ash” is pre-made from burnt dry cow dung mixed with sandalwood and rolled into small balls or tablets. Sai Baba discreetly manipulates these balls during performances, pinching them between his fingers. He transfers them from one hand to another, for example, when accepting notes from devotees, and then rubs them at the right time. Similarly, Sai Baba fabricates the “miracle” of the birth of the lingam (symbol of Shiva), which he used to demonstrate every year at large gatherings of sectarians. Many of his fans wept with compassion as they saw their idol painfully trying to regurgitate the impressively sized egg-shaped linga. In fact, the lingam was placed in a handkerchief in advance, onto which it seemed to fall out of Sai Baba’s mouth. Watches and jewelry are handed over to Sai Baba by assistants, hidden in the folds of clothing or taken out from under the chair cushion. There is not a single reliably recorded case of Sai Baba healing patients: the majority are refused under one pretext or another, while the condition of others worsens again after a short period of improvement. The stories about many of the wonders of the “avatar” are completely fictitious.

The spread of the movement of fans of Sai Baba in the West began with lectures about him given at the University of California at Sai Baba in 1967. Films about Sai Baba were brought to the United States by Indra Devi, in reality Eugenia Peterson, a cabaret dancer who emigrated from Russia in the 20s . She lived for a long time in the East, including India. In 1947, she opened the first hatha yoga courses in the West in Hollywood (of course, in a reduced version). In the 60s and 70s, her yoga school on a ranch in northern Mexico, near the United States border, was one of the most popular in America. Now the 90-year-old “first lady of yoga” lives in Buenos Aires. Being an ardent admirer of Sai Baba, she states, “that anyone who would like to personally experience the effect of the presence of Christ, Buddha or Krishna should go to Sathya Sai, because he is their reincarnation.” Additional publicity for Sai Baba was made by John Lennon, who visited him along with other neo-gurus.

By the end of the 70s, a network of centers of Sai Baba's followers covered North America and Western Europe. Several book titles written by him and his fans have been published; his speeches and conversations are distributed on videotapes and via the Internet. Dozens of different organizations are associated with the cult of Sai Baba - hospitals, schools, hotels, art studios - in different cities and regions of India, as well as in many countries around the world. Sai Baba almost always lives in his ashram near Bangalore, which is the headquarters of the entire movement. Here, in Puttaparthi, among the poor village buildings, Sai Baba, with the money of his admirers, built a temple complex, a luxurious building of the Theological College, a modern hospital, several multi-storey hotels, a museum of world religions, a planetarium and even a small airport. The ceiling of the mandir (temple) is now covered with gold leaf. Sai has several of the most modern and expensive cars. Baba assures his fans that he eats only chapatis (flatbread) and rice, and drinks only hot water. In fact, he drinks both tea and coffee, and his evening meal consists of six to eight different dishes.

Three or four people live in the ashram dormitory rooms for a small fee (women and men separately). After lights out at 9 pm, leaving the rooms is strongly discouraged.

Let us give a description of a visit to Sai Baba’s ashram, made by a journalist from a supplement to the newspaper “Arguments and Facts” and which well illustrates the process of “brainwashing” pilgrims. Sai Baba is one of the latest hobbies of rock guru Boris Grebenshchikov. He has made pilgrimages to Bangalore more than once, and on one of them he took with him a correspondent from a tabloid publication. Talking with him on the plane, Grebenshchikov formulated something like the “Credo” of the Saibabites: “From my own experience, I know that he [Sai Baba] is omniscient and omnipresent... Baba is something like God.” So, meeting with the “living god” in the ashram:

On the second day of our stay in the Ashram, we had to take part in a session of direct communication between Sai Baba and the pilgrims. They take place twice a day and are called “darshn”. The first one starts at seven in the morning, but the old-timers recommended going to the temple around four o’clock. To be in the front row, closer to the living deity, it is better to take the queue in advance.

And now it’s morning. Its silence is broken only by roosters and the sounds of an Indian drum coming from behind the gates of the Ashram - like us when Hare Krishnas march along the Arbat. Dark. Somehow specially solemn and slightly otherworldly. The Owski Ashram and temple, illuminated by floodlights, looms over the area like the castle of a fabulous Kiplingian Maharaja. Men in white robes and women in saris with rugs under their arms silently flock to the main ritual place of the Ashram, the Mandir. It's like a huge indoor dance floor. It is fenced on all sides, and inside there are columns and sculptures of elephants. Strict, silent servants show with gestures where to be placed. At the entrance to the Mandir there is a metal detector - when I go into it, it beeps, hinting at a hidden voice recorder. You have to take it to a storage room located nearby.

People in the Mandir are seated in lines according to corridors marked out on the polished granite floor. Baba will walk along these corridors. You can sit cross-legged on the mat, or stand on your knees - whichever is more comfortable for you. You are not allowed to talk loudly. Indian spiritual music plays all the time; your nerves, I must say, are pretty tense - you’re expecting the second coming... There’s absolutely no sense of the reality of what’s happening - it’s more like an adventure film a la “Indiana Jones”. My neighbors - several Frenchmen, two elderly Indians and a colorful, powerful black man - are also noticeably nervous.

We wait. There is still almost an hour before the start, and it drags on for an unimaginably long time. One of the Hindu neighbors keeps falling asleep with his head on his chest. The huge Mandir site is almost completely filled. Finally, at five minutes to seven, there is some kind of excitement, a light whisper sweeps through the rows, and I feel rather than see that HE has come out...

Of course, your correspondent was repeatedly instructed how to behave during the “darshn” in order to ultimately receive real help from Sai Baba.

“Talk to him in your mind! - they taught me. “Speak, ask, tune yourself only to him!” But what does “attitude” mean? I look at Baba without stopping; I, of course, like any mortal, have something to ask of him, but for some reason nothing is really formulated, except for one thing: at least somehow prove that you are God! Make me a sign, notice me! Send me some thought, contact me only! I listen intently to myself, waiting for some signal, revelation - nothing. He just walks - slowly, smoothly, collecting letters with petitions that are desperately pulled at him from all sides. Sometimes he lingers near someone and exchanges a few words. He smiles slyly almost all the time... Those sitting in the front row strive to hug his legs, and some rush to kiss them - in India this is a sign of the highest veneration and respect. I suddenly notice that I, too, am falling into this euphoria and, despite my atheism and completely European upbringing, I am ready to follow their example. However, I quickly pull myself together and continue to “catch signs of divine attention.” Alas, I still feel nothing but growing disappointment...

Ten minutes pass in this way, and Baba majestically retreats inside the temple, inviting several lucky people for the so-called interview - one-on-one communication. (This is the highest mercy, the pipe dream of believers and... the long-standing desire of Grebenshchikov, who has never been there before.) The darsion is over, everyone leaves. Alas, there has been no contact with Baba yet. Well, let's wait...

And on the second, and on the third, and on the fourth day of the visit to Puttaparthi, instead of asking for an increase in salary, etc., I begged Sai Baba to demonstrate his divine essence. In vain. But they assured me that ALL wishes come true on the territory of the Ashram. I had to turn to Grebenshchikov for clarification.

Grebenshchikov, of course, explained:

If he is divine, then he has no need to give you any signs; he's doing other things. The fact that you don't get any evidence is your problem, not his.

Another short excerpt from the correspondent’s dialogue with Grebenshchikov:

— Some people on the Ashram territory told me that they receive some kind of energy here. It seems to me that, on the contrary, it comes from me. How do you feel?

Like in a pioneer camp! Here, in fact, there is a pioneer camp. People walk barefoot, everyone wears white, and in the evenings they sing songs around the fire. It's a mixture of a pioneer camp and a mental hospital.

The journalist was personally convinced of the correctness of this definition by talking

... with an impressive Russian grandfather, who immediately confided that yesterday he saw an angel fly past his dormitory building.

And just the other day I talked with the reincarnated Stalin! (That is, a man who was Stalin in a past life. — corr.) Maybe he’s lying, of course, but it doesn’t look like it—the eyes are as creepy as Joseph Vissarionovich’s. For some reason, they, tyrants, are drawn here. Right now, Napoleon, Caesar, and Alexander the Great dropped in once... Everyone wants to get to Baba for an interview. Only Hitler got in. Nobody knows what they were talking about, but this man shot himself shortly after returning from India! And there are also rumors that Boris Grebenshchikov is now living here. You know, I think that he is none other than the reincarnated Pushkin!

In the ashram, “the conversation... is almost exclusively about Baba. “Baba is kind of gloomy today, the darshn was short,” “Baba appeared to me at night,” “I was put up here with some consumptive blacks—that means that’s what Baba ordered. Cleanse karma..." - and the like."

There are constant stories about the “miracles” of Sai Baba. Of course, in such a situation, our correspondent still “received evidence” of the divinity of a little fat man with black hair a la “Bonnie M”, who wears loose orange robes that hide his divine belly and performs tricks on faint-hearted simpletons. The correspondent wished in the evening for a star to fall, and just imagine, it did, “not even five seconds passed.” What is not proof of the omnipotence of Sai Baba?

2. The one who was revered as a god turned out to be a pervert and a fraudster

In recent years, more and more devotees are moving away from Sai Baba due to increasing evidence of his fabrication of “miracles” and his, to put it mildly, immoral behavior. The one who was revered as a god turned out to be a pervert and a fraudster. It turned out that many students of Sai Baba's college in Pugtaparthi - teenagers and young men - were raped or seduced by him. Most of them could not do anything because they were completely at the mercy of the “avatar” and his guards (“sevadals”), and their parents, who sent them to this boarding school, were ardent admirers of Sai Baba and did not want to believe anything like that. Students whom Sai Baba makes his lovers find themselves in a privileged position and receive money and valuable gifts from him. As a result, cynicism and hypocrisy reign among college students. Young people are left to entertain each other with obscene jokes about their relationship with Sai Baba, unravel his tricks with “materialization” and repeat them in front of each other.

Dr. Bhatya, who examined a 17-year-old Sai Baba college student after being raped by the latter, barely saved his life because the “sevadals” wanted to kill him, and the entire local police were bribed by the “business guru”. The dark story took place on June 6, 1993, when four college students, apparently driven to despair by Sai Baba's abuses, made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate him. All of them were shot by police. Terry Gallagher, who was the chief coordinator of the Sai Center in Australia for three years, knew about the faked miracles and was aware of the background to this tragedy. He claims that the students were deliberately provoked, lured into a trap, interrogated and killed in cold blood. Shortly after this incident, Gallagher left the sect.

The secret became clear. American Jeff Young and his wife worshiped Baba as a god for more than 20 years. Now Young, who until recently was president of the Sai Baba Center in the south-central region of the United States, accuses Sai Baba of sexually abusing his son Sam from 1977 (when Sam was 16 years old) to 1999. Another American is Jed Jaran. - states that at the age of 16 he was sexually harassed by Baba. Australian Hans de Kroeker was a devotee of Sai Baba for five years until Sai Baba tried to seduce him. The same thing happened to Iranian-American Afshin Koramshahgol. German citizen Jene Sethu worshiped Sai Baba for 10 years. In 1999, he registered with the public prosecutor in Munich his affidavit (written testimony given under oath) about sexual harassment by Sai Baba, who also forced him to divorce his wife. While trying to leave the ashram, he was detained by the Puttaparthi police, who confiscated his passport and materials about Sai Baba from the Internet. After being warned that his life was in danger, Sethu fled and managed to reach the German embassy in Delhi. Harry Sampet, an engineer from Chicago, was a volunteer member of the internal security team at Sai Baba's ashram from 1992 to 1995. He conducted his own investigation into the rumors defaming Sai Baba. As a result, he broke with the cult and made public the facts of Sai Baba's sexual crimes that he had discovered.

Irish and Australian TV (60 Minutes program, aired 08/24/97) showed programs demonstrating the technology of fake miracles and abuses that reign in Sai Baba's ashram. “The model hospital, built by Sai Baba with donations from Western devotees, supposedly for the poor, was 80% empty due to high prices, unaffordable for most Indians. At the same time, the sanitary condition of the hospital is appalling. In addition, the programs included reports that the hospital practiced theft and sale of organs to wealthy Arabs.

Finally, the theft of funds donated to Sai Baba for the construction of a hospital and water supply system for seven hundred and fifty villages came to light. With money allocated by the World Development Fund, the water supply of the ashram itself was improved and only a few villages received a working water supply. The Sathya Sai Organization has also been accused of other financial abuses.

Former students of Sai Baba's college, such as Krishna Kumar, who is now working in Singapore, claim that most people in the ashram are aware of the avatar's sexual harassment. Some of them believe that these are special tantric techniques for awakening kundalini. Even if this is true, such “methods” do not become any less disgusting. Moreover, there is not a single case known when Sai Baba awakened kundalini in women.

Other devotees, who are completely brainwashed, simply repeat that since Sai Baba is God, he can do whatever he wants, and all his actions, even immoral ones, have a hidden pedagogical meaning.

3. International Sai Baba Organization

Sri Sathya Sai Baba's network of centers covered North America and Western Europe by the end of the 70s. The International Sathya Sai Organization has a centralized hierarchical structure. The top of the pyramid is the ashram in Puttaparthi headed by Sai Baba himself. He manages the Central Office at Prasanthi Nilayam, which includes the General Office, the All India President and the International Chairman. The main responsibilities of the Central Office are to establish periodically updated rules, resolve administrative issues, convene meetings and collect control information about each of the 15 regions into which the whole world is divided. Russia and some former Soviet Union countries are included in the third region. Regions have their own internal divisions, which are established according to the administrative-geographical principle: country or state, then region, zone or district, and finally locality. The International Chairman appoints Chief Coordinators to each region, who establish Coordination Committees in their regions. The heads of the latter constitute the Central Council of the region, the chairman of which is also appointed by the International Chairman. The members of the Coordination Committees are all the leaders of Sai Baba Centers and one from each of the three Sai Baba groups. The status of a Sai Center is given to any group of devotees of at least 9 people, working in all main areas of activity of the Sathya Sai Organization. According to the Charter of the Sathya Sai Organization, “A center or group should not seek registration... unless such registration is compulsory” (p. 20). All centers, whether in India or in Moscow, are registered by Sai Baba in Puttaparthi, so they all have the official “blessing” of their activities and are controlled. According to information published on Saibabit sites on the Internet, there are currently 1,200 Sai centers operating in 137 countries.

All members of the Sathya Sai Organization take part in one or more of the following activities (or programmes): Bhajana Mandali (conducting prayer meetings); “Bala Vikas” (organization of youth and children's meetings, events and clubs); “Seva Dal” (organizational activities and security); “Mahila Vibhag” (organization of women for economic activities and pedagogical support of Bal Vikas educational programs).

In Russia, centers and groups of Sai Baba’s followers appeared in the first half of the 90s. They are in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Khabarovsk, Voronezh and other large cities. Saibabi meetings are held mainly on Sundays. In Moscow, they are visited each time by 100-150 people, of whom about 40 are active members of the sect. In addition, meetings are held on other days at the apartments of devotees. The sect claims to participate in educational programs of educational institutions. There is a known case when a teacher of one of the kindergartens in Moscow - a follower of Sai Baba - began to actively preach among her children in her care. At the insistence of the parents, this was stopped by a law enforcement officer, who explained to the teacher the illegality of her actions.

It is characteristic that the worship of Sai Baba is often combined with adherence to other Eastern or New Age religious movements, but, of course, only those whose gurus do not claim their exclusive divine status and do not have a sharply negative attitude towards competitors. For example, in the Center of St. Irenaeus of Lyons was approached by a girl whose mother, being a “siddha” in TM, was an adorer of Sai Baba. Some homegrown gurus introduce the cult of Sai Baba into the practice of their syncretic sects. An example is the Help Yourself group in Moscow. The same Grebenshchikov, a “beginning Tibetan Buddhist,” gives a fundamentally pagan explanation for this apparent duality:

God is not something special and, in any case, not the final absolute point of the universe. There are many gods, they are all good...

Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin “Sectology”

Sathya Sai Baba was born on November 23, 1926 in a small village Puttaparthi, in state Andhra Pradesh in south India. At birth he was given the name Satya Narayana Raju. His childhood, full of extraordinary miracles, passed before the eyes of many people. And now many of his peers testify to little Satya’s extraordinary love and compassion for all living things. In May 1940, at the age of 14, he discovered that he was an incarnation of Sai Baba from Shirdi. Sai Baba of Shirdi, despite being a Brahmin by birth, lived the life of a Muslim saint and died in 1918. With his life and work, Sai Baba of Shirdi laid the foundation of Hindu-Muslim unity in North India. Before his death, he predicted that he would be born again after 8 years.

Sathya Sai Baba(English) Sathya Sai Baba, Telugu సత్య సాయి బాబా ; birth name - Satya Narayana Raju; November 23, 1926 - April 24, 2011) - neo-Hindu religious leader, guru. He was revered by his followers as a miracle worker, an avatar, an incarnation of God.

Sathya Sai Baba was one of the most prominent and controversial figures in Indian spiritual, social and political life, he attracted a large number of followers from the middle and upper strata of society, including "the richest, most educated and influenced by Western ideas" of Indians: from the Presidents and prime ministers to famous artists. He created a billion-dollar financial empire.

The National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in its declaration named Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba Mahatma along with Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa. In 2002, the UK Parliament debated allegations of sexual abuse against Sathya Sai Baba due to the potential danger to the children of British followers who might find themselves alone with Sathya Sai Baba during a so-called interview at his ashram. In addition to his many devotees, Sathya Sai Baba also had critics from among his former followers around the world.

• 1 Biography
  • 1.1
  • 1.2 Youth and mature years
  • 1.3 Attempted murder
  • 1.4 Last years and death
• 2 Teachings of Sathya Sai Baba
  • 2.1 General provisions
  • 2.2 Human purpose
  • 2.3 Ethics
  • 2.4 Teaching about Avatars
  • 2.5 Life is like a divine game
  • 2.6
  • 2.7 Teaching in Russia
  • 2.8
• 3 Claims to divinity
• 4 Followers
• 5 Ashrams of Sathya Sai Baba
• 8 Positive reviews
• 9 Criticism
  • 9.1 Magic tricks
  • 9.2
  • 9.3
• 10 Reply to criticism

Biography

Childhood and mission statement

Sri Sathya Sai Baba was born on November 23, 1926 in the small village of Puttaparthi (Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh, South India) into a family of hereditary actors. He was named Satya Narayana Raju. He received his initial religious education from his grandfather, Kondama Raja.

He studies at the Uravakonde school, knew English from childhood, and was also an activist in the Boy Scout movement, and was interested in theater arts, music, poetry and acting. They said that at the age of 8 Sai Baba wrote operas. At the age of 10, Sai Baba organized a “Pandari Bhajan” group of 16-18 children in the village to perform glorifications of Sai Baba from Shirdi. And at the age of 12, under the guidance of his teacher Sri Trima Raju, he wrote a play. The most amazing stories are told about him, for example, that little Satya repeatedly managed to materialize rare medicinal plants that grow only in the Himalayas for sick friends. March 8, 1940 is considered the beginning of his ascent as a religious figure. Then, the day after the all-Indian holiday of the Great Night of Shiva (Maha Shivaratri), at about 7 o’clock in the evening, Sai Baba, according to him, was stung in the leg by a large black scorpion, as a result of which he experienced a state close to a coma, although he later denied that it was it was a scorpio. For two months he was in severe pain and periodically lost consciousness. After this, Satya, according to others, developed the ability to heal and make predictions. Although the parents believed that the boy was possessed by an evil spirit and even invited exorcists. It is reported that he began to quote sayings in Sanskrit, which he did not know before.

Thursday, May 23, 1940, is considered the day the public miraculous performances of Sathya Sai Baba began. Having gathered his relatives and neighbors, he handed them sweets and flowers, obtained “out of nowhere,” and announced: “I am no longer your Satya. I am Sai Baba. I am from the family of Bharadwaja, and have appeared to ward off all your troubles.” Having said this, he “gathered from thin air” handfuls of vibhuti and scattered it in all directions. Then he took a handful of jasmine flowers from the basket and threw them on the floor: “Look.” And those present saw how the fallen flowers formed the words “Sai Baba” in Telugu (the language of Andhra Pradesh). He proclaimed himself an avatar, as well as the reincarnation (reincarnation) of the Indian saint Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi (died 1918), a preacher of human equality and a supporter of the unity of Muslims and Hindus. On October 20, 1940, 14-year-old Satya Narayana Raju announced that he was leaving his parents and brother as his devotees were waiting for him: “I am leaving. I don't belong to you anymore. From now on I belong to the whole world. Maya (illusion) was sleeping. My followers are waiting for me. I have a lot of work ahead of me. I can't stay here any longer." And, leaving his parents’ home, he began to fulfill his mission.

Youth and mature years

Leaving his family, he traveled for a long time in South India. From 1952 to 1957, the young Sathya Sai Baba made many trips around the country, visiting the sacred places of India, including Varanasi, Ayodhya, Allahabad, Lucknow, Tirupati, Hyderabad, Mysore, Nilgiri, Coimbatore, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Madras, Bombay, Delhi, Haridwar , Rishikesh and other cities, visiting, including the ashram of Swami Sivananda.

In 1950, he founded his first ashram in his homeland, in the then village of Puttaparthi, which he called “Prashanti Nilayam” (English) Russian. (“Abode of the Great Peace”), which has now become the main center of Sathya Sai Baba’s spiritual movement. In 1954, he established the first small free hospital in Puttaparthi. In 1957, the 9th All India Spiritual Conference was held in Venkatagiri, speaking at which Sathya Sai Baba declared from the platform that a person must transform from religious or spiritual life to divine life. In 1963, Sathya Sai Baba suffered his first stroke. After his recovery, Sathya Sai Baba gave a lecture announcing that he would be reborn as Prema Sai Baba in the neighboring state of Karnataka. In 1968, Sathya Sai Baba made his only foreign trip to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. In the 1970s, several educational projects were implemented: a high school, a college and a University of Higher Knowledge were opened in Puttaparthi and Brindavan, as well as the Purnachandra Auditorium in Prasanthi Nilayam. Sathya Sai Baba's trips around the country continue, he visits Delhi, Jaipur, Bombay, Pune, Madras, Hyderabad, Amritsar, as well as the states: Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and others. In the early 80s, Sathya Sai Baba began to give an annual course of lectures “Summer Showers of Brindavan”, and prepared for publication a series of his books “Vahini”. In 1981, at the 3rd World Conference, the Charter of the Sathya Sai Organization was adopted. In 1985, the Planetarium opened in Puttaparthi, and in 1990, the Museum of All Religions. In 1991, the Super-Speciality Hospital began accepting its first patients, and the Medical Research Institute opened. Super-Speciality Hospital was funded by one of the American followers and was free for local residents.

Attempted murder

On June 6, 1993, four former students of one of Sai Baba's colleges - Suresh Kumar (28 years old), Jagannathan, Suresh Prabhu (about 37 years old), and Sairam (22 years old), armed with knives, burst into Sai Baba's bedroom in the Prasanthi Nilayam ashram. Sai Baba remained unharmed, but his driver Radhakrishna (45 years old) and cook Sai Kumar Mahajan were killed. The four attackers were also shot dead by police, believed to have been questioned. The two who participated in the preparation of the assassination managed to escape, but a month later they were captured by the police. Some circumstances of this incident are still unclear. The surviving attackers told investigators that they had no intention of killing Sai Baba, they only wanted to inform him about certain members of the Sai Trust who wanted to usurp his powers.

Administration Building and Museum of All Religions in Puttaparthi

Another version of the event is given by Chicago engineer Harry Sampet, a former volunteer member of the Sai Baba Ashram security department from 1992 to 1995. He said the attackers were beaten to death by a crowd of about 60 people and then police shot at the now dead bodies. It is noted that this outcome was predetermined by the fact that Sai Baba had close ties with the local police, and the then head of the police was once himself Sai Baba’s personal driver. One of the famous critics of Sai Baba, Indian skeptic and rationalist Basava Premanand, notes:

Last years and death

In 2003, after a hip fracture, Sathya Sai Baba partially lost his mobility, and in the future he would appear for darshans on a special chair or car. In 2005, a scandal erupted over the BBC's broadcast of the documentary Secret Swami, which highlighted allegations against Sathya Sai Baba. The film was broadcast in many countries around the world, including India. Sathya Sai Baba himself ignored these accusations, calling them “the cawing of crows,” but did not sue the BBC. In 2006, the Sports Palace was opened in Puttaparthi with the participation of the President of India Adbul Kalam. In November 2008, the festival “1000 Moons of Sathya Sai” (1000 lunar months) is celebrated in Prasanthi, during which Sathya Sai Baba rides out on a golden chariot.

On November 23, 2010, Sathya Sai Baba celebrated his 85th birthday (according to Eastern tradition, another year spent in the womb is added to the years from birth). At the end of March 2011, 84-year-old Sathya Sai Baba was hospitalized due to a heart attack in one of his medical centers, where, after three weeks, he died on April 24, 2011 without regaining consciousness. The cause of death was heart failure (Sathya Sai Baba suffered his first stroke in 1963), as well as lung and kidney disease. He stated that he would die at the age of 96 (in 2022).

The body of Sathya Sai Baba was buried in the mandir of the ashram with great honor, in the presence of a large gathering of political leaders of India. The sarcophagus of Sathya Sai Baba was covered with honors by the national flag of India. During the last rituals, a 21-volley gun salute sounded. The funeral ceremony, broadcast on Indian television, was attended by the governor and chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. The mourning events were attended by senior Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the head of the ruling United Progressive Alliance and INC Sonia Gandhi. In total, about 500 thousand people came to say goodbye to Sathya Sai Baba. According to the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Chennai, at the funeral of Sathya Sai Baba, not only Hindu, but also Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Judaic, Sikh and Bahai prayers were heard. The 14th Dalai Lama, in his condolences, called Sathya Sai Baba a revered spiritual leader.

The National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expressed spiritual unity with the government and people of the Republic of India on the occasion of the death of Sathya Sai Baba. The Consul General of Russia in South India N. A. Listopadov took part in the farewell ceremony for Sathya Sai Baba. He expressed sincere sympathy to the leading minister of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the leader of the INC faction in the local parliament, Geeta Reddy, and emphasized the gratitude of the Russians to Sathya Sai Baba for his warm attitude towards Russia and his Russian followers. G. Reddy noted that Sathya Sai Baba was a great friend of Russia. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to India Alexander Kadakin, in his address on the occasion of the death of Sathya Sai Baba, highly appreciated his contribution to the preservation of civil peace and the establishment of strong friendly relations between the Russian and Indian peoples, their spiritual and cultural rapprochement. Sathya Sai Baba never married and had no children.

Teachings of Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba actively gave lectures in his native language Telugu, which were simultaneously translated into English. Later, with his approval, the texts of the speeches were published in other languages, including Russian. At the same time, there is no complete presentation of the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba in the form of a separate publication. In his lectures, Sathya Sai Baba refers to the experience of world religions and gives examples of stories from the sacred scriptures of Hinduism: “Ramayana”, “Bhagavad Gita”, “Mahabharata”.

General provisions

Scientists attribute the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba to the New Age movement, as well as to modernized Hinduism, and Sathya Sai Baba himself is called a neo-guru. The teachings of Sathya Sai Baba are based on the ideas of Advaita Vedanta (a-dvaita - literally “non-duality”, “non-dualism”), which states that the basis of the world is Brahman (the Absolute), which has neither beginning nor end, while At the same time, the spiritual essence of man, perceived as a single consciousness and called Atman, according to Advaita, is considered identical to Brahman. The essence of man's ultimate religious task is to realize this identity, which is hampered by false shells, stereotypes, material layers, generalized by the term Maya. In the spirit of Advaita Vedanta, Sathya Sai Baba divides the world into the true world and the illusory world, which reveal themselves as partial manifestations of the same indivisible Consciousness. These worlds are not fenced off from each other by an impenetrable wall, they complement each other, uniting into a Single Completeness. Individual souls (jivas) for Sathya Sai Baba are additions arising from the Whole (Parabrahma).

A.L. Dvorkin notes that Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings are built on the anthropology of monism, since Sathya Sai Baba directly stated that: “We by nature are not limited by time and space, for our true essence is limitless, unchanging and imperishable. ... Our true existence is an ethereal state of pure love for our neighbor.” However, despite Sathya Sai Baba’s constant emphasis on the consubstantiality of man and the Absolute, he at the same time constantly insisted on his exclusivity and qualitative difference from “just saints,” because he believed that with the help of some efforts he was able to reveal the divine essence within himself. The knowledge that allows us to understand the world as One is called Vidya by Sathya Sai Baba. Vidya is non-rational knowledge, super-rational intuition that dispels ignorance (avidya) and is the direct cause of spiritual enlightenment. Vidya - knowledge of Truth - has two aspects: Baahya Vidya and Brahma Vidya. Baahya Vidya provides all the necessary means to maintain life, gives knowledge about the reality surrounding a person, Brahma Vidya is the highest knowledge, it allows one to cognize the Omnipresence, the Absolute, Parabrahma and leads to liberation. With the help of such knowledge, a person understands that the Cosmos is a manifestation of the Divine game, the place of his stay, and therefore there should be no possessive feelings towards the world.

Education does not imply knowledge of scientific concepts and hypotheses, as in Western science, but knowledge gleaned from antiquity. It was originally acquired through revelation by the Rishis, the divine sages. Then this knowledge is presented in Vedanta - ancient Vedic texts. For modern man, the main sources of divine knowledge are the Upanishads, Brahma Sutra and Bhagavad Gita. Sathya Sai Baba and his followers in Russia consider Helena Blavatsky and her “Theosophical Society” to be their predecessors in the development of ideas of spiritual integration; Ralph Emerson, Henry Topo and the Transcendentalism movement; William Channing and Unitarianism; Rudolf Steiner and his Anthroposophy; Rene Guenon, Bala Tilak Bala Tilak, Anand Coomaraswamy, Julius Evol, Mircea Eliade, Herman Wirth and “Traditionalism”; Carl Gustav Jung and the doctrine of the “Collective Unconscious”; Schopenhauer, Spengler, Leo Tolstoy, Arnold Toynbee, Huxley, Hermann Hesse, Franklin Merrell-Wolf (English) Russian. , Daisetsu Suzuki, Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, Daniil Andreev, Krishnamurti, Ramakrishna, Aurobindo, Paramahansa Yogananda, Maharishi Mahesh, Sri Chinmoy, Meher Babu and other religious and cultural figures. The most progressive of the religious movements of the 20th century. they consider the Baha'i religion, ecumenism and super-ecumenism, Agiornamento, as well as those forms of yoga and Vedanta that do not have the ethno-confessional character characteristic of traditional Hinduism.

Significant space in the printed publications of Sathya Sai Baba's organization is devoted to parallels between Christianity and the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba. The description of the life of Sathya Sai Baba is replete with references to the Gospel in order to influence, as A.L. Dvorkin believes, with the help of these allusions the consciousness of visitors and adherents from the West brought up in Christian culture. Russian religious and philosophical culture also finds its place in the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba himself and in the culture of his followers around the world. It is noteworthy that among the literature actively used in Sathya Sai Baba’s organization and distributed by it, there are also a number of works of Russian religious philosophy. Thus, in 1998, at the world conference of the heads of the centers of his Organization, Sathya Sai Baba recommended as the best manual on japa (mumbling, whispering - means repeated repetition of a mantra or the name of God in order to focus on its essence) the book “Frank Stories of a Wanderer to the Spiritual”, popular in Orthodoxy. to your father." In addition, one should point out the popularity of Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi, who preached the ideology of non-violence. In his speeches, he called for loving one’s native country and sincerely respecting people of other races, nationalities and religions. According to The New Indian Express, he often said:

Human purpose

Sathya Sai Baba taught that the basis of human nature is divine. It was precisely the awakening of man's inherent divine essence that Sathya Sai Baba considered his main mission on earth. The goal of human life is to realize this divinity and restore the straight path to God. This can be achieved by leading a moral life, selflessly serving all people, especially those in need, and developing love and respect for all forms of life. God is man minus desire, says Sathya Sai Baba. Desires do not allow a person to directly follow the path to divinity and, first of all, to realize the unity of all people, belonging to the same “caste”. Raising human consciousness above the existing syndrome of anger, hatred, violence and war and saving the world from disaster can only be done by reviving the brotherhood of humanity through the Vedas, Shastras and all religions with their good news of dharma (justice) for the liberation of the human race from the Wheel of Samsara (the cycle of birth and death caused by sins in past lives). Sathya Sai Baba calls for respecting the differences between faiths and recognizing their validity as long as they do not extinguish the flame of unity.

The real purpose of seeking Truth is to liberate oneself. To do this, a person needs to break out of the “embrace” of the ego, which is persistently cultivated by modern Western civilization. Personalistic consciousness also acts as an obstacle to liberation from the shackles of illusion. “The personal God, the individual persons (jivas) and the objective world (understood as prakriti) must cease to exist in the developed consciousness of man.” Then all illusory reality will cease to exist, there will be no differences in personality between people, everyone will understand that they are one single Atman. A person must discard objective knowledge about the world and about himself as an object; only in this case can he understand his essence. Man contains the immortal Spirit, Atman, the spark of Divinity. Sathya Sai Baba insists that human nature is not represented by the material body alone, but has subtle bodies, one of which is the jiva-atma, the individualized Atma or “I”. This individualized “I” is eternal, has no beginning or end, is neither born nor dies.

Sathya Sai Baba interprets faith as the desire to know God, love God and be loved by God. He connects devotion not only with Divine love, but also with service to God. Sathya Sai Baba understands service as activity in the world, which should be the realization of duty, but in a spirit of detachment. The path of spiritual transformation is Sanatana Dharma, those regulations and rules that are necessary to preserve man in the highest status he has achieved among animals and living beings. Sanatana Dharma is impossible without the practice of sadhana. Sadhana is a process or means of achieving spiritual goals. As a process, sadhana represents not only the stages of achieving goals within oneself, it is also associated with the four ashrams-dharmas as certain stages of a person’s life. Sathya Sai Baba does not require his followers to achieve sannyasa (sannyasa is one of the highest stages of asceticism in Hinduism) to gain freedom. A person can remain a householder and achieve liberation, union with Brahman.

Ethics

Sathya Sai Baba's ethics are based on the teaching of five ethical principles: Sathya (Truth), Dharma (Righteousness), Shanti (Peace), Prema (Love) and Ahimsa (Non-Violence). All 5 principles are considered universal in the teaching; they also form the basis of sadhana, aimed at ensuring that a person can develop the divine principle in himself and rise to a truly divine level. According to popular views in Hinduism, the mere presence of a person who strictly observes ahimsa extinguishes the aggressiveness of those around him. A special place among ethical values ​​is occupied by “love based on the awareness of the One Atman.” According to the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba, love can solve all the problems of the world. In Sathya Sai Baba's speeches, calls for vegetarianism and a healthy lifestyle are constantly repeated. Thus, Sathya Sai Baba categorically prohibits his followers from consuming meat, alcoholic beverages and smoking. Among vegetables, those that grow underground are not recommended, but those growing on the surface are preferred (this is explained by the fact that they receive more energy from the sun and are therefore more suitable for people engaged in spiritual practice).

Teaching about Avatars

The very teaching of Sathya Sai Baba is called Sanatana Dharma (Eternal Teaching - the Indian self-name of what is usually designated by the term Hinduism). All religions are considered essentially identical to the religion of Sathya Sai Baba, and a certain line of kinship is historically built between world religions: “The Vedas are the father, Buddhism is the son, Christianity is the grandson, and Islam is the great-grandson.” This principle of teaching turns out to be especially successful in missionary work - a significant part of Sai Baba’s fans are people who consider themselves adherents of all kinds of religions, and their presence among Sai Baba’s fans is strongly welcomed.

In accordance with the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba, the One incorporeal God incarnates on Earth when humanity is in danger. Each of the incarnations performs a specific mission, and therefore is endowed with different powers and abilities. The doctrine of incarnations (avatars) of the god Vishnu is one of the central doctrines of Hinduism, and Sathya Sai Baba claims that there is no difference between the appearances of God as Rama, Krishna or Sai. “Rama came to cultivate the roots of truth and justice, then Krishna nurtured the seedlings of peace (peace) and love. Sai, the present avatar, has come endowed with absolute cosmic power (power) to save dharma (justice) from anti-dharma,” proclaims Sathya Sai Baba.

Sathya Sai Baba stated that he has three incarnations: Shirdi Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba and Prema Sai Baba. And also, what is the avatar of Shiva and Shakti. The previous avatar, Shirdi Baba, lived the life of a Muslim saint in the village of Shirdi and died in 1918. Through his life and work, Shirdi laid the foundation of Hindu-Muslim unity in North India, thereby foretelling the unification of all humanity into a single “caste”, and gave the people the message that duty is work. Before his death, he predicted that he would be reborn after 8 years as Sathya Sai Baba. The mission of the present avatar, Sathya Sai Baba, is to make everyone realize that God or Divinity is within everyone.

Sathya Sai Baba stated that at the age of 96 (in 2022) he will leave his physical body and reincarnate after 8 years in the village of Mandya in Karnataka. He will be known as Prema Sai Baba and will complete the mission of three incarnations. Prema Sai Baba, the third avatar, will spread the good (“gospel”) news that not only God resides in everyone, but also that everyone is God. This will be the final wisdom that will enable everyone to go to God. The three avatars carry the triple message of service, worship and wisdom. The ideas of Sathya Sai Baba's teachings about the future of the world as a whole are dominated by an optimistic humanistic attitude. Because, in contrast to the idea in traditional Hinduism of the modern era as the Kali Yuga (the Iron Age, accompanied by a great impoverishment of virtue in the world), fans of Sathya Sai Baba believe that humanity has already reached the very depths of moral decline. From the middle of the 19th century, that is, from the advent of Sai Baba Shirdi, a spiritual renaissance began on earth and sooner or later all humanity must end up in their organization, after which samsara, that is, the world as a series of rebirths, will cease. At the same time, people are obliged to help speed up this process, each saving himself.

Life is like a divine game

Each person, according to the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba, is the “embodiment of the Divine Atman”, and the world is an illusion, which is the result of the “divine game” (lila). Nevertheless, the only reliable reality is God, who in this case is Sathya Sai Baba himself. And therefore, special emphasis is placed on the “game” component of divine cosmogony: “God created the world as a game (lila) for Himself.” Hence the conclusion is drawn that the main “Player” carries out his activities in the world, remaining unaffected by karma. Therefore, Sathya Sai Baba argued that the secret of happiness lies in participating in daily activities and at the same time realizing that it is all just a “game”. At the same time, those who want to be aware of the “game” must guide their actions by the “law of righteous conduct” (dharma). Dharma, first of all, means faith in the Atman (that is, the “Higher Self”), avoidance of passions (rajas) and even overcoming dispassion (sattva).

Teachings of Sathya Sai Baba in the West

The spread of Sathya Sai Baba's teachings and the emergence of movements and organizations of his adherents in the West began after a course of lectures on Sathya Sai Baba was given at the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1967. Then the impetus for the development of the movement of Sai Baba’s followers was given by the distribution and showing of videos that were brought to the United States by Indra Devi, who was an ardent fan of Sai Baba and believed “that anyone who would like to personally experience the effect of the presence of Christ, Buddha and Krishna should go to Sathya Sai Baba, because he is their living embodiment.” Also, additional attention to Sai Baba was attracted by John Lennon, who visited the ashram in Puttaparthi. By the end of the 1970s, the countries of North America and Western Europe were covered by a network of centers, organizations and branches of Sathya Sai Baba.

Teaching in Russia

In Russia, the first groups, organizations and centers of followers of Sathya Sai Baba appeared in the first half of the 90s. XX century. The main cities in which they arose were Astrakhan, Volgograd, Voronezh, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Khabarovsk. Meetings of members of Saibabit organizations took place on weekends. For example, in Moscow a cell consists of 100-150 people, of which 40 are old-timers. The total number of members in Russia does not exceed 5 thousand people. Meetings are also held at members' homes. Followers of Sathya Sai Baba in Russia are trying to participate in educational programs in educational institutions, including in violation of the constitutional principle of secularism. Thus, a teacher of a Moscow kindergarten, being a follower of Sathya Sai Baba, tried to preach among her students, but at the insistence of her parents, her illegal activities were stopped by law enforcement agencies.

Integration into the process of modern globalization

The religious teachings of Sathya Sai Baba correspond to the modern trend towards globalization. Content-wise, the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba are already significantly closer to the specifics of European consciousness, especially since the main language of the organization is English. There was even an English decoding of the word SAI: Spirituality(spirituality), Awakening(awakening), Inspiration(inspiration). Sathya Sai Baba criticizes Western culture, arguing that in the modern world there is a decline in dharma - Divine order, Western people are only interested in acquisitions and accumulations. However, this can be corrected by changing the consciousness of people, filling them with holiness. This is possible only under the guidance of a Guru through education, faith and devotion.

Sathya Sai Baba believes that spreading spirituality in the world is India's messianic calling. All existing religious doctrines are based on those provisions that were first discovered in Hinduism. There is a benefit from these religions: the service they offer to humanity is the expansion of consciousness beyond the limits of the material sphere and the cultivation of the Divinity that is in it. But only Hinduism is based on the principles of Advaita - the understanding that the plurality of spiritual phenomena is a manifestation of a certain unified reality, representing them as different facets of true spiritual existence. This fact, according to Sai Baba, determines the unlimitedness of Hinduism by the geographical boundaries of the country and its acceptance by people of various nationalities. The teachings of Sathya Sai Baba intertwine local Indian and modern Western European cultures. Initially, the teaching arose as a purely local Indian phenomenon, based on the characteristics of regional religious traditions. Therefore, many terms in Sathya Sai Baba's teachings come from Telugu, the main language of Sathya Sai Baba's home state of Andhra Pradesh. In this area, religious veneration of Shiva and Shakti has been very widespread since ancient times. Some components of these traditions live there to this day. For example, in three temples located on the borders of the state, ancient lings are kept - oval spheroids, which are the image of Shiva. Therefore, it is no coincidence that Sathya Sai Baba called the sphere-shaped objects that he took out of his mouth during the holidays lingams (lingams are a very important part in the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba).

Analyzing the sermons of the Old Testament prophets, Christ, Buddha, Zoroaster and Muhammad, Sathya Sai Baba argues that in all religions it is overlooked that God is all forms and all names, all attributes and all kinds of characteristics. True religion is a synthesis of everything essential that is contained in various one-sided creeds. He claims that he does not intend to found a new religion, but claims that his teaching is universal and combines the best achievements of all religions. The result of the transformation of basic Hindu ideas was the development of the ideas of spirituality, freedom, love and compassion, which serve here as a kind of original analogue of Western psychotherapy, in which the high spiritual orientation and “transcendentality” of Indian thought were supplanted in the consciousness of Western people by the serviceability and practical applicability of the perceived ideas.

Adaptation and interpretation of the ideas of Indian philosophy in Western culture became possible thanks to the religious and ideological pluralism inherent in the Hindu religion. As Hinduism grows from an ethnic religion into a world one, its pantheon includes the divine characters of world religions, including those based on the Old Testament: Old Testament, Christian and Islamic saints. Some representatives of other religions no longer categorically deny Sathya Sai Baba: according to the British newspaper The Guardian, an unnamed Christian priest and an Islamic imam spoke at his funeral. Indian The Hindu reported that in addition to them, during the Vedic ritual, Jewish and Buddhist clergy read their sacred texts.

Claims to divinity

Sathya Sai Baba thought: “Respect all religions. Make every effort to cultivate and strengthen in yourself the highest spiritual thoughts and unity of thoughts, words and actions.” Sathya Sai Baba expressed the essence of his teachings as follows:

Sathya Sai Baba called himself the reincarnation of the guru Sai Baba of Shirdi, whose teachings were a synthesis of Hindu and Muslim beliefs. At various times, Sathya Sai Baba also declared himself to be the incarnation of Krishna, Buddha, Jesus Christ, and the joint incarnation of Shiva and Shakti. For meditative purposes, many Sathya Sai Baba centers use the Crucifixion of Christ. In 1997, Boris Grebenshchikov, while in India, spoke about the abilities of Sathya Sai Baba:

Many followers called Sathya Sai Baba a living deity, said that they witnessed various siddhis (miracles): reading thoughts, healing the sick, relieving pain, predictions, but especially the materialization of various objects, from vibhuti (sacred ash), rings, necklaces and watches to massive golden lingas being pulled out of the mouth. Foreigners pay more attention to these events. Hindus, as a rule, treat them as something secondary, distracting from the main thing - comprehension of God and dissolution in him. Religious scholars Knorre B.K. and Kaskello A. noted that:

According to the message The Independent, famous cricketer Sunil Gavaskar (English) Russian. During a tour of Australia, he was seriously ill for several days. When his mother sent him some sacred vibhuti ash, he anointed himself with it. According to him, after a few hours he was up and ready to compete. Another case of healing is described in an Indian newspaper Hindustan Times:

Another case describes the American Newsweek:

Correspondent for the newspaper "Arguments and Facts". Olga Kostenko-Popova gives the story:

Followers

Almost throughout his long life, Sathya Sai Baba communicated with pilgrims twice a day: at 7-8 in the morning and at 4 in the afternoon. At these moments, he walked past people who sometimes rushed to kiss his feet, collecting letters of petition to him and honoring a subsequent audience (the so-called “interviews”) with only a few of the chosen ones. At the same time, it didn’t matter to him who was in front of him - a simple builder or a great singer. Thus, Sathya Sai Baba did not accept John Lennon, who came to him, at one time, no matter how much he insisted. Every year three festivals were held in Prasanthi Nilayam: Dussehra, Baba's Birthday and Mahashivratri.

According to The New York Times Sathya Sai Baba has followers in 178 countries around the world. The number of Sai Baba's followers is difficult to determine. According to Sai Baba's supporters, their number is about 100 million people. Independent sources indicate their different numbers: 6 million, 20 million and even “close to 100 million” people. For many years, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came to Sathya Sai Baba to meet him and have his darshan. Repeatedly, pilgrims witnessed numerous miracles of Sathya Sai Baba: the healing of the sick, the materialization of various objects, including those made of gold and precious stones. Among the devotees of Sathya Sai Baba are presidents and prime ministers, other senior officials of India and individual states, their official visits were one of the eccentric features of public life in India, Bollywood stars, the Queen of Belgium, members of the Spanish royal family, several former prime ministers of Greece , former Italian prime ministers Giulio Andreotti and Bettino Craxi, former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Sathya Sai Baba was popular in the musical community: he was visited by members of the Beatles George Harrison, John Lennon, the famous Indian composer and performer Ravi Shankar, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, singer Yulian, popular rock musician, creator of the Aquarium group Boris Grebenshchikov, Maxim Leonidov. One of the most famous devotees of Sathya Sai Baba is the American businessman Isaac Tigrett (English) Russian. , founder of the world famous Hard Rock Cafe chain. Followers of Sai Baba are Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

According to the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to India, member of the International Center of the Roerichs A. M. Kadakin, Svyatoslav Roerich and his wife Devika Rani were close friends of Sathya Sai Baba. According to other sources, the Roerichs met Sai Baba only a few times. The 14th Dalai Lama, as well as the leader of the new religious movement “Church of the Last Testament” Vissarion also met with Sathya Sai Baba. Among the admirers of Sai Baba are the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, the wife of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Sara Nazarbayeva, the sister of the former Shah of Iran. Among those who visited the ashram are American astronaut Neil Armstrong, who made the first landing on the moon, actor Steven Seagal, TV presenter, healthy lifestyle promoter Gennady Malakhov, ophthalmologist Ernst Muldashev, winner of the “Battle of Psychics” Vladimir Muranov, who considers Sathya Sai Baba his main teacher.

The former Catholic priest from Italy, Mario Mazzioleni (Polish) Russian, became especially famous among his followers. , trying to show the identity of the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba and Jesus Christ. For this he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. On March 16, 2010, the news became known that in Glasgow, devotees of Sai Baba and their son committed suicide by jumping from the 15th floor of a high-rise building. According to local media, the victims were left without money and were forced to leave the apartment in the near future. In addition, they faced the threat of deportation. According to other sources, living in London, the Gray family did not live in poverty at all, having modern TV, set-top boxes, laptops and office equipment. Russian emigrants rented an apartment in the Wembley Park area for 1,250 pounds a month. And at the same time, the head of the family did not work anywhere. According to the journalist of the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda in Canada” Evelina Azaeva:

Ashrams of Sathya Sai Baba

A modern ashram is a small town with all the necessary infrastructure that meets the requirements of pilgrims from all over the world. During the life of Sathya Sai Baba, thousands of pilgrims from all over the world came to the ashram to receive darshan- seeing the living god. Anyone can come and stay at Sathya Sai Baba's ashrams, regardless of their religion and nationality. There are three main Sathya Sai Baba ashrams, all of them in India. Ashram Prasanthi Nilayam, or “Abode of Supreme Peace,” is located in a fenced area near the small town of Puttaparthi.

On the territory of the ashram there is the Sai Kulwant Hall, unofficially called simply the Mandir, where meetings with Sathya Sai Baba took place and in which his body now rests. It can simultaneously accommodate up to 15 thousand people sitting on the floor. Also on the territory of the ashram there are several temples, hotel complexes and canteens, a concert hall and a shopping complex. The ashram houses an academy of Vedic and Sanskrit studies. In addition to temporary pilgrims, about 700 people live in the ashram on a permanent basis.

Organization of Sri Sathya Sai Ministry

There are 2 thousand centers and branches of the Sri Sathya Sai Service Organization in 137 countries around the world (English) Russian. Religious scholar B. K. Knorre wrote that for the organization “ selling vibhuti is very profitable", and also that " the centers generate a certain income from the sale of printed materials (including distribution by mail for advance payment of individual publications)". B. K. Knorre also notes that “ The main center of the OSSB becomes the ashram founded by Sai Baba in Puttutaparthi, which is visited by everyone, including followers of the guru (the event is paid)».

Sathya Sai Baba's wealth in the form of a charitable foundation is estimated at $8.9 billion. In 2009 alone, the Sathya Sai Trust received donations totaling $19.5 million from abroad.

One of the most famous sponsors of Sathya Sai Baba is the American businessman Isaac Tigrett (English) Russian. , founder of the world famous Hard Rock Cafe chain. After the death of Sathya Sai Baba, as a result of inspections in his personal rooms, cash totaling 146.4 million rupees (USD 3.2 million), gold items weighing 141.1 kg, silver items totaling 2170 kg, a large number of wristwatches, shoes, clothes and other material assets. The Central Sathya Sai Foundation has recognized all these values ​​as its assets. Sathya Sai Baba and his followers founded several organizations engaged in charitable activities: building schools and hospitals, carrying out other humanitarian projects, investing in all this the money that he received as donations.

Charity

Sai Baba urged his disciples to serve the world personally, always provide help to those who need it, and in no case encourage laziness. Don’t give money to the poor, but build houses for them and buy them clothes, and then help them establish a normal life. In 1981, all three educational institutions achieved university status and formed a single Sri Sathya Sai University. In all Sri Sathya Sai educational institutions, attention is paid not only to academic learning, but also to the development of character, morality and spirituality of the students. Addressing Sathya Sai Baba's contribution to education, former President of India Abdul Kalam writes:

According to former Indian President Abdul Kalam, until the 1980s, the bulk of the specialized hospitals in India were located in urban areas. Due to commercialization, they served only a layer of wealthy urban residents. This has become a serious gap in terms of healthcare access among rich and poor people, and between rural and urban populations. On the initiative of Sai Baba, four hospitals were built. All these hospitals provide free medical care; they do not have a cash desk to pay for services. In 1976, Sai Baba ensured the completion of a highly specialized hospital in Whitefield. Today the hospital has expanded, employing many specialists and receiving more than 500 patients daily. On November 22, 1991, a large multidisciplinary hospital with 500 beds was inaugurated in Prasanthi Nilayam. It was built with the organizational and financial participation of the former owner of the Hard Rock Cafe, American devotee of Sai Baba Isaac Tigrett, who donated $108 million. The architect and designer of the project was Keith Critchlow, director of the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture. Specialists in the field of surgery from reputed hospitals in India and foreign countries came to Puttaparthi on a voluntary basis, leaving their regular jobs to perform operations free of charge. A similar picture was observed with nursing services.

Satya participated in the creation of homes for the elderly. Nursing homes operate in Kadugodi, Bangalore and Anantapur. Residents are provided with free shelter, food and medical care. Centers for cultural programs have also been built there.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba's organization was implementing projects to supply the population with clean drinking water. In March 1995, a $75 million water supply project for the Anantapur District, called the Sri Sathya Sai Drinking Water Project, began. It covered 730 settlements, home to over a million people. A year after the work was completed, all structures related to water supply were donated to the residents of the state. From a small village of fishermen and weavers on the ocean in Tamil Nadu, the bustling metropolis of Chennai (formerly Madras) has grown with a population of 8 million people. However, there was an acute shortage of fresh water. As of 2002, while the city needed 750 thousand m³ of fresh water per day, it received only 250 thousand cubic meters. m. Water through the old Telugu Ganga canal from the Krishna river in the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh did not reach Chennai due to its poor condition of seepage and erosion. In 2002, the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust took up the project of upgrading the existing infrastructure of the Kandaleru pundi canal. The purpose of this project was to restore the dilapidated canal and at the same time increase the size of the Kandaleru reservoir, which would provide a guaranteed supply of water to Chennai (then a population of about 5.5 million), as well as help irrigate 300 thousand acres of land in the districts of Nellore and Chittoor of Andhra Pradesh.

Positive reviews

In a statement by the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Chennai (India) on the death of Sathya Sai Baba, he was named the most revered spiritual and religious figure in India at the turn of the millennium.

Abdul Kalam:

Parliament of the Republic of Venezuela:

Indian Foreign Minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna:

Criticism

Pushpa M. Bhargava, former vice-chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, former member of the National Safety Council:

Among the famous critics of Sathya Sai Baba are the American philosopher and sociologist David Lane. David C. Lane), Indian physicist Hosur Narasimhaiah (eng. Hosur Narasimhaiah), Australian translation scholar Brian Steele (eng. Brian Steel), Indian rationalist Abraham Kovoor Abraham Kovoor), Indian rationalist and skeptic, President of the Federation of Indian Skeptics Associations, Assistant Professor (Associate Professor) of Biochemistry at the Center for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Dr. Narendra Nayak (eng. Narendra Nayak) and famous illusionists - James Randi and Prodeep Sorcar (eng. P. C. Sorcar, Jr.) Alexander Dvorkin claims that the teachings of Sai Baba are a totalitarian sect of pseudo-Hinduism and a pseudo-eastern destructive cult.

Dvorkin and Candidate of Theology, Associate Professor of PSTGU, Presbyter Mikhail Plotnikov wrote about the miracles of Sai Baba:

Journalist Lynn Wallis notes that in 1997, the famous program “60 Minutes” was shown on Irish and Australian television, which talked about the abuses taking place in the Sai Baba ashram: about the appalling sanitary condition of the “model” hospital, built with donations from Western followers, about allegedly high prices for treatment, due to which 80% of hospital rooms were empty due to inaccessibility for most Indians, about suspicions of criminal transplantation, during which organs were allegedly stolen from patients and then resold abroad to wealthy Arabs.

Russian orientalist and Indologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading researcher at the Center for Indian Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences B. I. Klyuev classifies Sai Baba as a “reactive guru” (eng. jet-guru), “business guru” and “Coca-Cola guru”, speaking about the luxury in which Sai Baba and others like him lived, unusual for a traditional guru. And notes the following:

Some scholars note that Sathya Sai Baba only considered himself omniscient and omnipotent, although he himself refused to end the suffering of humanity, saying that it must take place: “The main thing I ask of you is to submit to me completely... Give me your mind , your heart, your soul...” Critics note that despite the proclaimed omniscience of Sathya Sai Baba, there were cases when he made both factual errors and semantic and logical contradictions in his statements.

A lot of questions about Sai Baba’s omniscience were raised by the case of the seven-year-old “miracle boy” Sai Krishna, who, by a commission of scientists from Bangalore University, Bangalore University) formed to investigate miracles and superstitions, was caught in fraud with the materialization of ashes, and his parents and he himself claimed that Sai Baba himself gave these abilities. Most of all, it was not clear how an omniscient and omniscient person, as Sai Baba proclaimed himself, could allow one family to deceive the whole world for 8 months and deceive hundreds of people into becoming his adherents. Moreover, the Bangalore University commission Bangalore University) repeatedly sent requests to Sai Baba with a request to allow scientists to verify the authenticity of the miracles he performed, but Sai Baba refused them this.

Icelandic explorer Professor Erlendur Haraldsson Erlendur Haraldsson) interviewed 29 people to test Sathya Sai Baba's mind reading abilities. Of these, 19 people reported that he did it correctly, five - partially correctly. At the same time, one woman whom Sathya Sai advised to get married was already married.

Magic tricks

Skeptics claim that approximately 60% of all miracles demonstrated by Sai Baba can be explained as magic tricks, although they indicate the highest professionalism of the performer, and call him a fraudster. There are a large number of recordings of video performances of Sai Baba, which show at what moment the manipulation occurs.

Thus, the American illusionist James Randi said the following about Sai Baba’s performances with the materialization of objects:

Basava Premanand sued Sai Baba for violating the Gold Control Act by materializing gold necklaces out of thin air without the permission of the Gold Authority administration. When the case was dismissed, he appealed on the grounds that spiritual power was not recognized in law.

Indian illusionist Prodeep Sorcar P. C. Sorcar, Jr.) under a false name attended one of Sai Baba’s speeches and was able to completely repeat all his experiments with the materialization of objects, which aroused Sai Baba’s anger and, on his personal orders, was forcibly expelled from the event.

The Indian magician Nirajan Mathur and the famous hatha yoga expert L. S. Rao, in the editorial of the American weekly Current dated September 11, 1976, unanimously stated that all the miracles of Sai Baba are ordinary sleight of hand. And Nirajan Mathur even challenged Sai Baba that he was ready to become Sai Baba’s slave for life if he could explain the supernatural nature of his “miracles”, and said that:

British music professor David Bailey, who was a follower of Sai Baba for 5 years, found out that the “jewels” materialized by Sai Baba turn out to be worthless trinkets, which are purchased mainly in Bangalore and Hyderabad, and sometimes in the village of Puttaparthi itself. Bailey specifically notes that the “golden” ring with a huge 64-sided “diamond”, which Sai Baba “materialized” for him after checking with a jeweler who, as it turned out, often dealt with counterfeit jewelry “from Sai Baba”, turned out to be cheap and low-quality fakes.

A.L. Dvorkin and Candidate of Theology, Associate Professor of PSTGU, Presbyter Mikhail Plotnikov note that Sai Baba prepared “sacred ash” (vibhuti) in advance from burnt dry cow dung, mixing grated sandalwood into it, and then rolling it into tiny balls, which he squeezed between the fingers and, transferring the notes passed by visitors from one hand to the other, rubs them and distributes them at the right moment. And regarding the “materialization” of lingams, he writes that the lingam is placed in a handkerchief in advance, and then seems to fall out of Sai Baba’s mouth. And the watches and jewelry that he hides in the folds of his clothes were handed over by his assistants in advance.

Suspicions of involvement in murders

Some researchers note that murders also took place in ashrams, but they were not widely publicized.

Thus, the famous Indian rationalist and skeptic, President of the Federation of Indian Skeptics Associations, assistant professor (associate professor) of biochemistry at the Center for Basic Sciences of the Kasturba Medical College at Manipal University, Dr. Narendra Nayak (eng. Narendra Nayak) published an article in Indian Skeptic about the strange death on January 20, 1987 of one of the students of a junior college in the village of Elaiki near Bangalore under the tutelage of the Satya Sai Lokashikshana Trust named Lokaiya Pujari (eng. Lokayya Pujari). The college management hastened to announce that this case was a suicide, to which it had nothing to do.

However, Nayak expresses doubts about this, due to the fact that Pujari was absent for 2 days, and it was not clear how the boy was able to silently leave the bedroom and the college itself without creating a sensation. Also, according to Nayak, it was strange that the discovered body of Pujari was not cremated, as is supposed to be done in India, but buried in the ground. Moreover, the body, including the face, was burned only from the front. Nayak also notes that at the place where the body was found there were no marks on the ground from the probable agony that would surely have occurred if Pujari had attempted to commit suicide by self-immolation with kerosene. After the police received an anonymous letter saying that Pujari had been killed, an investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy was launched. According to Nayak, Lokaiya Pujari informed the college administration that several students, during the absence of teachers, smuggled meat and alcohol into the hostel and consumed it. Disciplinary measures were taken against the offending students. After the incident, the offending students fought with Pujari, taking revenge for the denunciation. The director of the college, conducting an inquiry into the circumstances of the scuffle between Pujari and the said students, according to Nayak, hit Pujari, due to which he died on the spot. The director and those who helped him conduct the inquiry, having decided to hide such obvious evidence as a corpse, took Pujari’s body to a known place and, according to Nayak’s assumption, doused it with kerosene and tried to arrange the circumstances of death to look like suicide.

At the same time, Nayaka assumes that the blame for what happened lies entirely with Sai Baba and his inner circle, who, according to Nayaka, used students for homosexual sexual intercourse, and Lokaiya Pujari was well aware of this and could report, therefore, in Nayaka’s opinion, Sai Baba had to get rid of a dangerous witness.

Allegations of sexual harassment

In 1976, a former follower of Sai Baba, Tal Brooke, wrote the book “Prince of Darkness: The Hidden Side of Sai Baba” (Avatar of the Night: The Hidden Side of Sai Baba), and a number of other books where he talked about his sexual slavery with Sai Baba in 1970-1971, who, according to Brook, during personal interviews hugged him and tried to create excitement with his hand. In 1980, several members of Sai Baba's organization conducted a personal investigation into tape recordings of a group of Indian students from Malaysia who reported that they had been sexually harassed by Sai Baba while at the ashram.

In January 1992, information emerged that in the spring of 1990, Sai Baba harassed Keith Ord, who came to the ashram from Great Britain, in the form of hugging and massaging his genitals. At the same time, a group of American followers who arrived under the leadership of Roger Delano Hinkins were received by Sai Baba, and the entire five minutes of the interview took place in the form of “ oiling the genitals» to the group members. In December 1998, one of Sai Baba's students wrote an open letter reporting sexual abuse of minors, during which Sai Baba, under the guise of teaching spirituality, hugged and kissed boys, caressed and massaged their genitals. In 1999, American follower of Sai Baba Jed Jeiran published in the newspaper The Sunday Age a statement in which he stated that at the age of 16 he was subjected to sexual harassment by Sai Baba.

In 2000, in a reputable Indian magazine India Today Testimonies from several former followers of Sai Baba were published in which they made accusations of homosexual and pedophilic sexual abuse by their guru. Thus, the former president of the Sai Baba Center in the south-central region of the United States stated that his son Sam Young, from the age of 16, was subjected to sexual harassment by Sai Baba from 1977 to the summer of 1999. According to Yang, Sai Baba forced the boy to give him a blowjob, and also performed oral sex on him. Australian follower of Sai Baba Hans de Kroeker Hans de Kraker), according to his testimony given in writing and under oath, was forced by Sai Baba to perform oral sex several times after he greeted Sai Baba with a bow and kissing his feet out of respect. German follower of Sai Baba Jan Seiti Jens Sethi), who also testified in writing and under oath, said that Sai Baba kissed him on the lips for a long time and also tried to induce an erection in him with his hand. Swedish film actor Connie Larsen Conny Larsson) who was a follower of Sai Baba for 21 years, said that Sai Baba anointed his genitals, had masturbation and oral sex with him, and also offered Larsen to do the same to him. Hari Sampat (English) Hari Sampath), an engineer from Chicago, a former volunteer member of the Sai Baba Ashram Security Department from 1992 to 1995, noted the following:

After Connie Larsen's performances in Sweden, the Sai School was closed and the Sai Baba Society ceased its activities. In 2000, UNESCO officially refused to participate in an international educational conference dedicated to the education of universal human values, which was planned to be held at the Sathya Sai Baba ashram. As stated in the official UNESCO press release, one of the reasons was the widespread allegations of sexual abuse against Sathya Sai Baba. In 2002, a group of former followers of Sathya Sai Baba began collecting signatures for an international petition calling for an independent investigation into the activities of Sathya Sai Baba and his organization. At the end of 2009, the petition had over 1,400 signatures from people from all over the world, collected over 8 years. In 2004, the BBC broadcast in the UK and around the world, including India, despite attempts by Sathya Sai Baba's followers to prevent the film from being shown, a critical documentary about Sathya Sai Baba, The Secret Swami. Secret Swami). In the film, former followers of Sai Baba accuse him of forcing numerous boys and young men into sexual relations with him, as well as cheating him through magic tricks. The film also talks about the uninvestigated murder of 6 people in the rooms of Sathya Sai Baba on June 6, 1993. This film was an important evidence from the point of view of a third, disinterested party, in assessing all the accusations and criticism that have accumulated against Sai Baba. Despite the sharply negative reaction in connection with the screening of the film "Secret Swami", no lawsuits alleging defamation against the BBC were received from either Sathya Sai Baba himself or his organization.

No official charges of sexual harassment, especially sexual violence, were brought against Sai Baba. Some believe that these are special tantric techniques for awakening kundalini - a special energy concentrated at the base of the spine. In January 2005, one of the participants in the film “Secret Swami”, US citizen Alaya Ram. Alaya Rahm) (also known as Sam Young) Sam Young) filed a lawsuit in a Californian court against the Sathya Sai Baba Organization in the USA. The trial was scheduled for April 28, 2006, but did not take place because on April 7, 2006, the claim was withdrawn by the plaintiff by mutual consent of the parties.

Reply to criticism

It has been suggested that the intensification of attacks on Sai Baba is due to the vicissitudes of the election struggle in the West. First, the scandal erupted at the moment when Al Gore, a longtime acquaintance of Sai Baba, began to get ahead of George W. Bush in the election race. A year later, the English press remembered pedophilia when another admirer of Sai Baba, Prince Charles, started talking about marrying Camilla Parker Bowles. Sai Baba himself ignored the accusations, calling them “the cawing of crows” and urging people to believe in deeds, not words. The former Prime Minister of India, the communalist Atal Vajpayee, repeatedly spoke out in defense of Sai Baba and in one of his official letters stated:

Although approximately 60% of all miracles demonstrated by Sai Baba can be explained as magic tricks, albeit requiring high skill, the remaining 40% are inexplicable and belong to the class of anomalous phenomena. Head of the Sai Baba International Organization Michael Goldstein Michael Goldstein) admits that he has heard about the accusations against Sai Baba, but does not believe it:

In 2011, his followers released a refutation film “Not Secret Swami” with the slogan: “I, you and no one in the world should speak badly about him.” The film is available on the Internet.