Of Ash and Ashirwad

The well-meaning activist effort to keep people away from pseudo holy figures might be better off if it examined its own understanding of the nature of belief found in faiths

- Chandan Gowda

A group of devotees had gathered around a holy figure on a beach in south India. They started to recall the various names of the ocean found in Indian mythology. “Ratnakara” (Lord of Precious Stones) was one of them. The holy figure smiled and said: “The ocean should have some diamonds for us.” He then dipped his hand into the seawater and brought out a diamond necklace.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011) was this holy figure. Any account of his life will include episodes where he makes objects appear out of thin air. At an early age, he is said to have taken out fruits and flowers from an empty bag for his school friends. He also made pencils and other school items appear for his classmates who needed them. He made flowers appear for his family members all the time. Instances where he increased the quantities of food to make it suffice for a large group of his devotees are also very many.

Sai Baba used to make vibhuti (sacred ash), gold rings and necklaces appear in front of his devotees till late in his life. I doubt there is any other major spiritual figure in 20th century India with whom the performance of miracles is as tightly tied to their persona. By the early 1970s, Sai Baba was probably the most powerful spiritual guru in the country. His devotees in India and abroad numbered in lakhs. Around 1,500 organisations—all accountable to the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust—are known to have existed around this time.

In 1973, H Narasimhaiah (HN), a well-known Gandhian freedom fighter and Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, was invited to inaugurate a summer workshop on spirituality that Sai Baba had organised at his ashram in Whitefield, Bengaluru. In his autobiography, Horatada