Sathya Sai Baba embraced all faiths as ways to truth, love and peace – Economist Magazine

One month after the passing of Sathya Sai Baba, Swami Aksharananda believes that fellowship of the great mystic will not decline.

“What He stood for will continue to be the rallying centre for people; because the physical person is gone, but the followers believe that He is still around with them, and He will continue to inspire them,” Swami Aksharananda pointed out.

The swami pointed out that Sai Baba had been ailing for some time, and had even warned His followers of His impending demise.

“I hope His teachings will stretch across the world and touch other people as well,” Aksharananda expressed. The swami noted that, at some time later in the year, there may be a function to honour the life of Sai Baba.

But even as the Guyanese chapter seeks to overcome Baba’s death, the May 12th edition of the Economist magazine has described him as a man who embraced all faiths as valid ways to truth, love and peace.

In an article published on the life of Shri Sathya Sai Baba, the Economist stated that, with a mere circling wave of His hand, Sai Baba could make objects materialise out of the air. Gold rings, amulets and necklaces; blocks of sugar candy; images of Shiva made of topaz and sapphire; bottles of tonic and packets of blue pills; rosaries, silver vessels, and even medallions inscribed with the name of the recipient, the day and date. He could produce vibhuti, too, holy ash that poured from under His fingernails. On average, a pound a day flowed from Him as He gave darshan, allowing His followers a sight of God as He moved among them, a tiny ochre- robed figure with an immense black afro, or halo, of hair. The ash might be salty or sweet, blackish or white. Smeared on the body, it forgave sins; taken in water, it helped digestive complaints.

Sceptics were always trying to show how it was done, saying that the ash was a pellet crushed between His fingers, or that the gold and silver ellipsoidal lingams ( the Form of the Formless) that He coughed up at certain festivals were in fact hidden in His handkerchief, the Economist stated.

The BBC made a documentary, and slow-motion videos were all over YouTube. Sai Baba laughed at their efforts. His miracles were as trivial, in comparison with His Reality, as a mosquito to an elephant. But at least six million people, probably closer to 100 million, in 126 countries of the world, accepted them as tokens of the divinity He personified. And He was defended by figures no less than Manmohan Singh, prime minister of India, and Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, who journeyed to pay their respects before His state funeral.

Besides, He said, all the enquiries and science in the world could not begin to explain the other things that He, as an avatar of God, could will to happen. He could raise people from the dead, even when ants were already crawling over them. He could hold back the rains.

He could leave His own body, letting it slump stiff and lifeless in His chair for five minutes while He travelled to the Kashmir Front or the seashore at Mumbai. Sufferers from duodenal ulcers would find Him operating on them, materialising the instruments from thin air. He could change water into petrol or diesel on which cars ran for many miles.

A number of more straightforward good works could also be attributed to Him. At remote Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh, His birthplace and the site, since 1948, of His ashram, He established an airport, two sports stadiums, a free super- speciality hospital, and an institute of higher learning rated A+ by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council. He set up free primary and secondary schools all over India, had another free hospital built at Bangalore, and paid for drinking water to be piped from the Krishna river to Chennai, and from the Godavari river to upland Andhra Pradesh. Perhaps two million people benefited. This helped to muffle, though never to quiet entirely, controversies about His $5 billion trust fund and claims of sexual abuse of His boy disciples.