NF (2004) Gods and Godmen of India by Khushwant Singh

Author:Khushwant Singh
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: religion, India, non fiction
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2003-07-01T18:30:00+00:00

Sai Baba is 60

Today (November 23,1985) Shri Sathya Sai Baba celebrates his 60th birthday. It is estimated that upwards of six lakh devotees will assemble at Prashanti Nilayam Ashram at Puttaparthi to pay him homage over a fortnight of celebrations. Millions of other followers spread over the globe will likewise come together for congregational worship. Not being a believer the phenomenon of godmen continues to baffle me. Like mortals they age, fall sick, and die but are nevertheless regarded by their followers as immortal. I am dismayed by the fact that Sai Baba’s worshippers include highly literate men (amongst them Chief Justice Bhagwati and Nani Palkhivala), scientists and doctor. I have questioned a few of them and referred them to the experiences of a young American devotee recorded in his book Lord of the Air. It is far from flattering to the Baba. They dismissed it with scorn. The latest publication deifying him comes from the pen of a man who is soon to lay claim to divinity for himself. He writes: “Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is no yogi or saint. He is the incarnation of God. He is Lord Krishna. He is Lord Shiva. He is Lord Jesus Christ. In short, He is everything.”

Fifty years old Rawalpindi-born Bhim Sain Goel with a doctorate in History of Education and twenty years in research is currently a Senior Officer with the National Council for Educational Research and Training. He intends to resign his job and take up Spiritual Ministry under the title Sidheshwar Baba and likely to become head of one of the five dozen centres for “the propagation of Dharma and righteousness", to be established by Sai Baba. How Dr B.S. Goel, the son of bania cloth merchant trod the pilgrim’s path to semi-godhood is spelt out in his spiritual autobiography published last month entitled Third Eye & Kundalini. Briefly it is the story of a sensitive indrawn boy given to hallucinations and dreams accentuated by assiduous practice of Hatha Yoga. Many years later the suicide of an office colleague sent him into the mood of ‘fearful depression’ from which he was rescued by Sathya Sai Baba appearing in person by his bedside and asking him to meditate with his attention focussed between his two eyebrows. For Goel the pilgrimage already begun had reached the point of no return. The serpent lying dormant close to his anus had begun its upward crawl along his spine to his skull unfolding vision after vision of God’s many manifestations with Sathya Sai Baba as the central point of focus. The Third Eye is a most readable account of the experiences of a person seeking salvation by way of rousing his Kundalini. If you accept the author’s premises that all humans are caught in the cycle of birth, death and rebirth and the ultimate of human endeavour should be to opt out of this vicious circle by merging your identity with God, you will merrily to along with all that Guru Goel has to say.

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