What Is The Sanatana Perspective On Shirdi Sai Baba, And How Should We Arrive At It?

'Worshipping Sai Baba is a ploy to dilute Hinduism.'

'Vedic pandits should not go to Shirdi Baba temples.'

'Shirdi Sai worship is a conspiracy to destroy traditional ancestral worship.'

In these days of viral WhatsApp forwards, Shirdi Sai Baba worship is condemned by some as a cultural and spiritual deterioration, or worse, a conspiracy of Islamic evangelism.

A senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader questioned whether Sai Baba was a father or had any other familial connection to the Hindus who worship him.

But that's not all.

A famous female orator of Tamil chauvinist ‘Naam Tamilar Katchi’ (NTK) said in a viral interview that Sai Baba was unknown in Tamil Nadu during the 1970s or ‘80s and that his popularity was a non-Tamil conspiracy.

A veteran journalist perceived to be close to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) claimed that Baba's statues resembled that of Narendra Modi's and the prasad given (sindoor) was a subtle way of introducing Hindutva in Tamil Nadu.

Even outside Tamil Nadu, there's been a growing tendency to view Sai worship as an inferior practice, seen as something for the ignorant or deluded. A practice that dilutes the Hindu identity.

Sai Baba was relatively unknown outside Maharashtra, though inside the state he was quite famous. His fame was widely recognised among both the orthodox and the common people.

It is well known that Bal Gangadhar Tilak paid a visit to him. This was after the Lucknow Congress Session of 1916, which happened in the month of December.

Bharati was venerated as Kaviyogi in Tamil Nadu. The fakir of Dwarakamayi was sitting cross-legged, and seeing Tilak, he said, ‘Go to sleep. Swarajya is coming...’.

Then he blessed the Tamil poet and made him listen to bhajans. The poet later wrote a number of kirtans in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi on Baba. In his memoir, Bharati also revealed that Baba could speak Telugu.

Even before the visit of Tilak, the prominent bhaktas of Shirdi Baba included nationalists and reformers. Naturally, Sai Baba was under the radar of the British CID.

In those days of pre-democratic reforms and the radical nationalist movement, being a nationalist meant the possibility of losing everything, from property to livelihood, and facing life imprisonment.

G S Khaparde was one leader who emerged at such a time. A strong Tilakite, he was also a conservative while being fiercely nationalistic.

Initially, he strongly opposed social reforms, even suggesting that those against untouchability should also be considered social outcasts. Yet he later became a staunch supporter of abolishing untouchability, temple entry movements, and intercaste marriage. Dr Chandra Bhanu Satpathy's book, New Findings of Shirdi Sai Baba (2019), sheds new light on this transformation.

Khaparde used to make daily diary entries, and when he died, there were more than 40 of these diaries, of which the Shirdi period diaries were published by a Shirdi-based Sai organisation. On the whole, he visited Shirdi five times and often stayed for days with Baba.

In his diary entry dated 19 December 1911, Khaparde wrote that Baba made a remark to Khaparde’s wife that Baba had a tussle with the lance of the Governor and saved Khaparde.

Dr Satpathy, in his research, uncovered a confidential report of the British intelligence of the year 1909. This report, prepared by C R Cleveland, Inspector General of Police of the Central Provinces, was sent by R H Craddock, Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces, to the Governor.

The report exhaustively reported the ‘seditious’ activities of Khaparde and Dr Balakrishna Shivram Moonje. Cleveland had suggested that both Khaparde and Moonje be deported to St Helena, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that was more than 10,000 miles from India and 1,200 miles away from the nearest land mass, Western Africa.

However, that did not happen. In the light of this evidence of the secret file uncovered by him, Dr Satpathy provides quite a satisfying interpretation to the cryptic words of Baba uttered in the village of Shirdi in 1911:

What puzzles a sceptic is Shirdi Sai's uncanny knowledge of the British CID's intentions towards Khaparde, hinted at in his cryptic message.

Another question is if the change in Khaparde from a social conservative to a radical reformist also happened because of Sai influence?

Here one should note that another disciple of Shirdi Sai was Krishna Shastri Jageeshwar Bhishma, who was committed to abolition of untouchability. After a grahastha life, he was initiated into sannyas by Vedic pandit Seetaram Hedgewar.

Bhishma was the one responsible for the celebration of ‘Urs’ on every Ram Navami at Shirdi. So it is quite possible that Sai influence and the interaction with Bhishma, along with his own Sanghatanist bent of mind, could have played a role in the transformation of Khaparde.

After the samadhi of Baba in 1918, the spiritual movement centred on Shirdi Sai Baba began spreading far and wide. Once again, a spiritual seeker from Tamil Nadu played an important role in this regard: Sri Narasimhaswami, whose pre-sannyas name was B V Narasimha Iyer.

Sri Narasimhaswami was the one who created a strong, institutionalised movement of Sai bhaktas. In Sai circles, he became known as the ‘apostle’ of Shirdi Baba.

Meanwhile, in Madras of 1943, one Lokanatha Muthaliyar was affected by severe mental problems. According to the Sathya Sai Baba devotees, he was miraculously cured by a young man who came in his dreams. Next morning, even as the family was rejoicing his cure, the young man he saw in the dream appeared before him. He was indeed Satya Sai Baba.

When Muthaliyar wanted to show his gratitude to Baba by building a residential place for him in Madras, Satya Sai Baba, who called himself the next incarnation of Shirdi Sai, wanted a temple to be built for his previous incarnation, that is, Shirdi Sai Baba. Thus, a temple came up with its foundation stone laid in 1946.

For the people of erstwhile Madras, Shirdi Sai Baba was unknown. They did not know how to sculpt the statue, and as miracle narratives go, sure enough a model was materialised by Satya Sai, and later, an unknown sculptor inspired by a dream came and sculpted the statue of Baba.

On 3 February 1949, this temple with the murtis of Ganesha and Shirdi Sai Baba was consecrated and inaugurated by Satya Sai Baba. In Shirdi Samadhi Mandir itself, the sacred form of Baba was consecrated and installed only in 1954.

Again, it was in Madras in 1946 that the first All India Sai Devotees’ Convention was held in Mylapore because of the efforts of Sri Narasimhaswami. The great soul strived to make the movement not just traditionally spiritual but one rooted in holistic spirituality. He systematised Sai worship with three important functions: Sri Rama Navami, Guru Poornima, and his samadhi.

Despite his usual attacks on Hinduism and his expression of his own non-devotional attitude towards Baba, he underscored the importance of humanitarian service that should be rendered by spiritual organisations.

Thus, the Shirdi Sai movement should be seen as an integral and organic part of a living Santana Dharma. It does not matter whether Sai Baba was a fakir or a sadhu; divine non-duality, Advaita, is only validated when it happens beyond the name-form constrictions minds create.

So the Sai Baba phenomenon actually validates, intensifies, and expands Dharma. It does not matter whether one has to believe in Baba or not to understand this phenomenon.

[Disclaimer: This writer has presented the Sai heritage in the context of Dharma, history, and facts. In no way does it reflect his own belief system.]

• Sri Narasimhaswamiji, the Apostle of Sai Baba by Vuppuluri Kalidas, Bhavan's Journal, 1987.