View from India: Beginning and End

by Parvathi

Last week saw a beginning and an end. The beginning was the wedding of Kate and William, the current sweethearts of Britain, and the end was the death of Sathya Sai Baba, spiritual guru to millions around the world.

Both sparked endless chatter on the tube and on the virtual networks. My son told me in disgust "They are still showing the wedding on most of the channels!" and it is now two days after the event. Well, there are enough and more people who want to watch it! "Colonial hangover" you might call it; but, no, it is something much deeper than that. Sai Baba's funeral was watched live over the television, again, by millions who mourn his passing like they would their own kith and kin. It is time now to ask why, and let us then like the Red King says "Begin at the beginning."

Kate and William stand for romance and love both very elusive values in this increasingly rushed present life styles where only money really calls the shots. Anything that simply exists for the pure beauty of itself is quickly swept aside for gains, so there go love and romance unless they come with the grinning sidekicks of power and pelf. The royal sweethearts are dream symbols that "love will find a way" in the tradition of Diana who turned away from a cold, loveless marriage. Princess Katherine, Kate as the Brits are wont to call her in their very Anglo Saxon way, is a commoner and therefore the romantic angle gets another boost. Then of course there is the done to death pageantry of the House of Windsor. Rationalization seems to have slowly killed the joy of celebrations in the developed world. Not so in this part of the planet, we still have much to hope for and more to celebrate in hopes of better things to come, and therefore we are a celebratory people. Good for us. Every festival is a huge celebration of colors, smells, sound and taste. Here, religion is a living breathing tradition and God ceases to be abstract and is part of the medley of life: a young impish boy, a dutiful son and husband, a faithful and beautiful wife, a lovable glutton ...the list is endless. They all fit into the normal register of life, and therefore represents a transaction with God on a personal basis.

This is where Sathya Sai comes in. The tirade against him has been there for decades and it is mostly from the rationalists who seem to hate his guts for performing miracles. What's wrong with miracles? Does only rhetoric have value? Don't we all want miracles in one way or the other? And also, if Sathya Sai had not performed miracles, could he have manged to catch the attention of the masses? The miracles are NOT important inasmuch the loaves of bread and the water to wine at Cana are not the pivot on which Christianity turns.

People get curious, they come to scoff, see, and as we saw, remained en masse to pray. When there is darkness at noon, one needs faith that the sun will come out again, and that is the surety that Sai Baba gave millions around the world and they are the better for it. Better because there he was a living breathing, smiling, talking entity you could tell your troubles to, and he had answers. What is faith if it is not a psychological crutch? Why berate it? Look at the practical efficacy of confession among the Roman Catholics. It does one good to go every week and confess everything to the good and holy father in the confessional. The wonderful thing about it is that you don't see each other. Anonymity helps clear the air. So, you confess and are pardoned; told to say a dozen Hail Marys and you come out having got it off your chest. Never has anything more practical been ever thought of. They knew, those crafty cardinals and popes the psychological angle of faith. Today the confessional has been replaced by the psychiatrist's couch, but are there enough takers? Does it really help?

Do the rationalists bother to mention Sathya Sai's charity? What matters the most is that Sai Baba gave enormously back to society.

His epitaph should read: "You receive but what you give."

Sai Baba: Is He Man or God? Or, Does It Matter?

Sai Baba is fighting for his life in a hospital in India. Though he has shown some improvement in recent days, the 85-year old guru may be deep into his last days. He is considered by some to be a god. In Chennai, every Monday evening, just after sundown, there’s a group of his devotees that gathers just outside my window to chant and pray by flickering candlelight and the smell of incense.

Sai started out by performing magic tricks for audiences. He lost followers when he started calling himself ‘God’. They said, not even Jesus referred to himself as ‘God’. But, at the same time, his admirers only grew in number.

I love the Indian greeting: One brings one’s hands together and bows slightly. “Namaste”, one says. It means, “I recognize the God within you.” To me, it makes no sense to quantify God and to assign to it a specific place (within the body) in terms of ‘how much God’ and ‘where’ specifically. If there is God and He is within someone, that someone is essentially God. Let him (or her) be God, or not be God. It makes no difference. (I recommend R. K. Narayan’s delightful novel ‘The Guide’ for an insight into how a common man can become holy in India.)

An awareness of God – or transcendence – comes about when experiencing something that touches one – a U2 or Phil Collins concert; a good play; love; the birth of one’s child; a church service, complete with organ music …or silence.

When I write, I seek a responsive chord within you. When anyone writes, it is to give shape to a truth and putting a frame around it (even while recognizing that the truth cannot be captured by mere words). It’s called ‘inspiration’. It matters not whether you agree or disagree. If you should disagree, it simply means that you have found a better way of saying it - or not saying it at all. There is no sin in that. In fact, I would commend you. I am under no illusion that what I or anyone else says is necessarily the best way of saying anything. The best one can hope for is to remain consistent.

The point is that Sai Baba spoke to millions and they felt uplifted by it. And that, in my book, makes him a God.

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