Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and his unique teachings

Prof. Sunanda Degamboda - University of Kelaniya

Millions of devotees of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba celebrate his birthday on November 23 every year. Sathya Sai Baba was born on November 23, 1926, in Puttaparthi, a remote village in India.

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

He was named Sathya Narayana Raju at birth but became known as Sathya Sai Baba after renouncing the family life at the age of 14 years with the mission of propagating Dharma and help people to become consciousness of their own divine nature. Like in the early lives of the Buddha and Lord Jesus, Sathya Sai Baba had only a very few disciples to begin his mission. However, in a few decades, millions belonging to various faiths: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, from every corner of the world flocked into his abode.

Selfless love

Sathya Sai Baba explicitly declared that his mission was not to create another religion but to lead the man towards liberation while remaining in his or her own faith. His teachings and path are most appropriate to the present dark age or the ‘Kali Yuga’.

Sathya Sai Baba taught that the foundation of all major religions is selfless love or love without attachment, devoid of selfish motives.

He taught that the mundane man, who is engrossed in sensual pleasures, does not possess such love or prema but he should journey towards the state of selfless love, which is true wisdom. It is appropriate to mention that two noble Buddhist meditation masters: Achan Cha of Thailand and Goenka Ji from India defined wisdom or ‘Pragna’ as love without attachment.

What is the path to freedom from the sensual world to the selfless love or wisdom? Sai Baba prescribed Bhakthi Marga or surrender to a ‘Sath Guru’ as the most appropriate path for the present ‘Kali Yuga’. A ‘Sath Guru’ is a realized and liberated teacher who is selfless and does not expect any personal gain from the disciples. A Sath Guru is a noble person who lives in human form but he lives only for the welfare of devotees. Krishna, the Buddha, Lord Jesus and Prophet Mohammed were such ‘Sath Gurus’ who appeared on earth to help the mankind.

Divine grace

Sathya Sai Baba, explaining the value of Bhakthi Marga, teaches us that the ordinary man has Bhakthi towards desire generating objects and phenomena like men and women, money, properties, power and fame. Attachment to such transient objects and phenomena binds one to the cycle of births and deaths. However, attachment, love and paying obedience to a Sath Guru produce the opposite effect of getting detached from the phenomenal world and its perils.

The more you are attached to a Sath Guru, his path and teachings, more will be the divine grace the disciple receives from the guru and his cosmic form, irrespective of whether the guru is living or not. Sathya Sai Baba explains that a Sath Guru never dies because such gurus live as the one cosmic energy, which is eternal. Thus, the devotee who has unshaken devotion to any Sath Guru and his path will receive grace from the one cosmic source. This cosmic source is the one reality but the mundane man has given it many names such as Nirvana, Brahman and God and so on.

Mindless state

The mundane man, Sathya Sai Baba explains, cannot fathom or even visualize the cosmic source because it is formless and attributeless and cannot be comprehended or imagined, by a mundane man even in his wildest dream.

This draws a parallel to the Buddha’s description of Nirvana that Nirvana is a mindless state (Chiththa Nirodha). However, the mundane man has to worship the form of a Sath Guru and contemplate on his attributes at the early stages of his journey towards liberation. When such a disciple grows in virtues, knowledge and wisdom, his consciousness will eventually reach the cosmic one.

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba appeared at a time when the world has plunged into the worst part of the dark age and he helped millions to become conscious of their cosmic nature which lies in the deep recesses of man’s construct. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba prophesized that a new golden era is in the making, and this era will appear sooner than expected. However, since human values have been eroded to an abysmal depth, the rebuilding process will witness unprecedented calamities. In fact the process of destruction began a few decades ago, approximately around the beginning of 1990s. We witnessed, or heard of a natural disaster only once or twice a year in the past.

The frequency of disasters began to increase from about 1995 and by today, disasters have become a daily event. Communism has vanished from the surface of earth and the process of eliminating capitalism too has begun.

We can observe the socio-political and economic calamities in the US, Europe and the Middle East. Sathya Sai Baba prophesized that there is a glowing silver lining beyond all such calamities and the good and the pious will remain not only to witness the golden age, but also to become noble souls helping the mission of Prema Sai, the third advent of the divine Sai phenomenon!