By Karline McLain
In a recent address in his monthly devotional magazine, Heritage of Shirdi Sai, C. B. Satpathy called upon his readers to join him in prayer to Shirdi Sai Baba. Praying to this figure, he believes, is the solution to much that ails humanity today. Such prayer, he insists, will bring about not only individual spiritual fulfilment, but also tangible worldly benefits in the form of ‘peace and continued prosperity’:
Today the world is passing through a period of transition. On the one hand scientific and technological achievements of the human race are going ahead at a rapid pace, but on the other hand, such a progress is not bringing about happiness and evolution of human values. As a result, racial, religious and national conflicts are raising their ugly heads. Wars and battle have never solved human problems. What brings peace and continued prosperity is mutual tolerance, sacrifice and love. The universal brotherhood of man can only be achieved by understanding the spirit of god playing through the human beings. Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi was the embodiment of the Divine Spirit, which yet continues in the subtle form. The only panacea to all the maladies we face lies in ardently following the principles of the rich heritage He has left. Let us pray to Him. (Satpathy, 2009b)
Satpathy, better known as ‘Guruji’ to his many followers, is the founder of the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust. Based in New Delhi, India, the mission of this organisation as stated on its website is to ‘spread Sai philosophy and His teachings among the devotees who are living all over the world and for charitable activities with the purpose of giving something back to the society’.2
The Shirdi Sai Baba new religious movement has yet to receive substantial academic attention. However, the two scholars who have studied in detail the life of Shirdi Sai Baba, Antonio Rigopoulos and Marianne Warren, both lament the increasing ‘Hinduisation’ of Shirdi Sai Baba by his followers since the latter years of his life, as can be seen in the use of Hindu rituals to worship him, the use of Hindu architectural elements in new construction at Shirdi and at other Sai Baba temple sites, the use of Hindu symbols in devotional pictures of him and the use of Hindu terminology to describe him. Rigopoulos (1993: 241–42) comments that the ‘process of Sai Baba’s Hinduization was thus completed’ after his death in 1918, when his body was given to his Hindu followers, rather than his Muslim followers, for the funeral rites. Warren, however, views this process of Hinduisation as ongoing:
In the eighty or so years since the death of Sai Baba, [his image] has been slowly transformed from that of an obscure ascetic Muslim faqir into that of a popular Hindu saint worshipped with full traditional pomp, grandeur, rituals, abhisekam, garlands, puja and arati, in a manner usually reserved for Hindu deities. In fact many regard Sai Baba as the very incarnation of Divinity, and popular poster paintings of Sai Baba reflect this. (Warren, 2004: 338)
Describing modern Hinduism in practice, Nancy Falk writes that there is a ‘massive Hindu revival in today’s India’. She classifies this revival into two broad categories: the ‘cluster of movements promoting Hindu nationalist sentiments’ on the one hand and the ‘spate of new “spiritual” movements’ on the other hand that emphasise self-transformation, service to others and the need to work for the good of all (Falk, 2006: 236–37). While many of Shirdi Sai Baba’s devotees do come from Hindu backgrounds and frequently do interpret his life and teachings through a Hindu lens and express their devotion through Hindu ritual behaviour, many other Hindu devotees (as well as Muslims and devotees from other religious backgrounds) are drawn to this new movement because they perceive Shirdi Sai Baba’s life and teachings as a syncretistic example of spirituality that defies rigid religious boundaries. As I have argued elsewhere, it is this pro-syncretistic or composite understanding of Shirdi Sai Baba and his message that accounts for much of the rising popularity of this movement during the past several decades (McLain, 2011). Since it was founded in the early 1990s, the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust has been one of the most prominent organisations behind the growth of the Shirdi Sai Baba movement. It has now established over 230 Shirdi Sai Baba temples and also published a multitude of textual, audio and visual devotional materials. This essay examines the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust’s teachings about Shirdi Sai Baba, arguing that this organisation does not seek to further ‘Hinduise’ Shirdi Sai Baba or promote religious sectarianism, but instead is better understood as one among the spate of new spiritual organisations seeking to move beyond such categories as ‘Hindu’ and ’Muslim’ in the effort to cultivate a unified and peaceful community of believers.
Little is known with historical certainty of Shirdi Sai Baba’s early years. He was born circa 1838, but the exact location of his birth and the identity of his parents are not documented; many of the details of his religious upbringing are also unknown; even his original name is not known, for ‘Sai Baba’ is an appellation meaning ‘saintly father’.3 What is known of Sai Baba’s life and teachings dates to the time he arrived in the small village of Shirdi, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, circa 1858, after spending several years as an itinerant holy man. Assuming him to be a Muslim fakir due to his white robe and head wrap, the Hindu priest of the Khandoba temple turned Sai Baba away when he sought refuge there, pointing him instead to the nearby mosque. Sai Baba eventually made the dilapidated mosque known as Dwarkamai his abode and remained in Shirdi for the next 60 years, until his death in 1918.4 By the final years of his life, Sai Baba had acquired a number of followers in Shirdi and the surrounding area who were drawn to him on the strength of his reputation for possessing miraculous powers (especially the ability to grant offspring to childless couples and to heal illnesses) and attracted to his teachings from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita and the Muslim Quran. These early followers were male and female, high caste and low, Hindu and Muslim.
The most authoritative source on Shirdi Sai Baba’s life for his devotees is the Shri Sai Satcharita, a hagiography composed in Marathi by one of Sai Baba’s early followers, ‘Hemadpant’ Govind R. Dabholkar (1859–1929). Dabholkar came from a Hindu Brahmin family in Thane District, Maharashtra, and worked as a Resident Magistrate in Bandra (now a suburb of Mumbai). He records in the Shri Sai Satcharita how he first met Sai Baba in the year 1910. At the repeated behest of his friends Nanasaheb Chandorkar and Kakasaheb Dikshit, both committed devotees of Sai Baba, Dabholkar finally agreed to visit Shirdi. He confesses that the recent death of the only son of a dear friend had him pondering dejectedly the uselessness of gurus and holy men in the face of karmic destiny, asking, ‘Why go to Shirdi at all?’ and ‘What can a guru do before destiny?’ (Dabholkar, 2007: 26). However, upon arriving in Shirdi, Dabholkar immediately felt transformed, ‘As I alighted from the tonga [carriage], my heart was so full of eagerness for Baba’s darshan [auspicious sight], that I could hardly wait to fall at his feet! Waves of joy surged up in my heart!’ (2007: 27). Dabholkar describes in detail the impact of his first vision of Shirdi Sai Baba, writing of it as the highlight of his entire life:
Never before had I heard of or seen Baba’s comely figure. Seeing it now, my eyes were calmed; hunger, thirst, everything was forgotten; all senses stood still.… Sai’s kindly glance destroyed the sins accumulated over past births and gave rise to the hope that his holy feet will bring me eternal joy. (Dabholkar, 2007: 28)
In 1916, after spending several years in the company of Sai Baba and his close circle of followers whenever his work schedule permitted, Dabholkar retired from government service and then asked Sai Baba for permission to write a biography of him. Sai Baba consented to this request, announcing to Dabholkar and the others then present that Dabholkar would be ‘but the instrument’ and that through him Sai Baba would write his own life story for his devotees:
Listening to my stories, narrating them to others in a kirtan [chanted verse of praise], contemplating on them will propagate love and devotion for me, which will destroy ignorance, instantly. Wherever there is faith and devotion together, I remain enslaved forever. Have no doubt about this. (Dabholkar, 2007: 23)
This passage begins to suggest the significance of the Shri Sai Satcharita for devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba. For them, the words in this book are no mere recollection of Sai Baba’s lessons and deeds as scribed by one of his early followers; instead, they are the words of Sai Baba, written by Sai Baba himself after his death in 1918 through the medium of a chosen devotee. Furthermore, the stories told within this book are a primary form of devotional expression for Sai Baba’s followers, who are instructed to read or listen to these stories and to share them with others. Finally, in reading or listening to these stories, devotees continue to interact with Shirdi Sai Baba, who remains accessible—even enslaved—to them despite the fact that he is no longer embodied in human form.
The Shri Sai Satcharita comprises 53 chapters and contains within it Dabholkar’s account of his own interactions with Sai Baba in Shirdi; a biographical account of Sai Baba’s lifetime, focusing on his time in Shirdi; philosophical discussions of the nature of Sai Baba, his mission on earth and the greatness of the guru; ritual discussions of the importance of darshan (auspicious vision) and udi (sacred ash); spontaneous expositions given by Sai Baba on sacred scripture such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Isha Upanishad; stories of the many leelas (miraculous acts) of Sai Baba; and stories of the conversion experiences of many of the fellow devotees in Dabholkar’s circle. Two themes recur throughout these many chapters. Representative of the first is the story of Balaram Mankar, a man who came to Shirdi after his wife had passed away and became one of Sai Baba’s followers there. One day Sai Baba commanded Mankar to leave Shirdi and travel to Machchindergad to undertake meditative austerities. Mankar, despairing over leaving Sai Baba, asked him, ‘What will I do there—where I cannot even have your darshan?’ But he was a devout follower and so he bowed at Sai Baba’s feet and left. Upon reaching Machchindergad, he promptly sat down to meditate. Suddenly, he experienced darshan of Sai Baba. Dabholkar writes that this experience of meditative darshan was so strong that Mankar was not only able to see and be seen by Sai Baba, he was also able to communicate with him. Mankar asked why Sai Baba sent him there, to which Sai Baba replied:
While in Shirdi, many notions, many doubts assailed your mind.… For you I did not exist outside Shirdi and apart from this abode (i.e. body), three-and-a-half cubits in length, which is made up of layer upon layer of a mixture of the five elements, like the earth, water, etc. But I, whom you see here and now, am the same as the one there. (Dabholkar, 2007: 508)
The lesson to be learned from this story is that Shirdi Sai Baba is not limited to a single place or time, he is all-pervasive; and with the proper devotional mindset, he is accessible to his followers anytime, anywhere.
Representative of the second recurring theme is the seventh chapter of the Shri Sai Satcharita, entitled ‘What was Sai Baba?’, in which we can see Dabholkar struggling to understand and to explain Shirdi Sai Baba’s religious identity:
If considered a Hindu, he looked like a Muslim; and if a Muslim, he exhibited all the qualities of a good Hindu. Who, even with all his proficiency and learning, can describe such an extraordinary Avatar? No one could trace in the least, whether he was a Hindu or Muslim, for his conduct towards both these was always the same.… If a Muslim, his ears were pierced; but if a Hindu, his circumcision proved it to be otherwise. Neither a Hindu nor a Muslim—such was this Sai, the very incarnation of sanctity. If he is called a Hindu, he always lived in the mosque, and if he is called a Muslim, the fire burns day and night in the mosque. (Dabholkar, 2007: 104–05)
Here, in Dabholkar’s reference to Shirdi Sai Baba as an avatar or incarnation of God on earth, we can witness Dabholkar processing Shirdi Sai Baba through his own Hindu filter, for Hindu theology—unlike Islamic theology—accepts that God descends to earth in human incarnations or avatars at different historical moments. And yet, despite his usage of Hindu terminology, we see that Dabholkar nonetheless maintains that Shirdi Sai Baba is ‘neither a Hindu nor a Muslim’, but both Hindu and Muslim. Alongside the lesson of Sai Baba’s all-pervasiveness and accessibility, this lesson of his syncretistic identity is also recurring throughout the text. This is central to the appeal of this figure to Dabholkar, who praises Shirdi Sai Baba in this chapter in particular for treating all who came to see him alike, whether they were Hindu or Muslim, high caste or low; for conjoining Hindu and Muslim festivals; and for generally transcending sectarian differences.
Aside from the Shri Sai Satcharita by Dabholkar, several other contemporary devotees wrote memoirs of their experiences with Shirdi Sai Baba during his final years, including G. S. Khaparde, Das Ganu and Abdul Baba.5 The Urdu memoir of Abdul Baba, a Muslim who spent many years in Shirdi with Sai Baba and tended his tomb after his death, is significant as a counterpoint to Dabholkar’s work, for in it he describes Sai Baba not as an avatar but instead as a Sufi master or murshid. Yet, despite his usage of Muslim terminology in his own effort to come to terms with Shirdi Sai Baba, we see that he, like Dabholkar, also maintains that Shirdi Sai Baba is both Hindu and Muslim when he writes:
Sai Baba embodies the Vedas, as also Allah. We give Sai Baba all honours respectfully saluting and bowing before him. Sai Baba operates on two planes, in Shirdi and all over the world. Sai Baba is Supreme in both the present world and the next. The whole universe is vibrant with Sai Baba. (Warren, 2004: 288)
Like Dabholkar, Abdul too recognised Shirdi Sai Baba’s composite nature and his all-pervasiveness.
By the time of his death in 1918, Shirdi Sai Baba’s name was known throughout Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, and had been carried by his devotees to several surrounding districts. His devotees were predominantly Hindu, but visitors to Shirdi in his final years continued to include Muslims as well as several Christians and Parsis. After his death, these devotees continued to share the Shri Sai Satcharita with each new generation. Throughout the 20th century Shirdi Sai Baba devotion remained essentially a regional movement based in Maharashtra and south-central India. However, during the past few decades, there has been a significant rise in Shirdi Sai Baba devotion throughout India, accompanied by a substantial body of testimonial memoir literature produced by these newfound devotees who seek to testify to Shirdi Sai Baba’s all-pervasiveness and continued accessibility beyond the grave by sharing their personal experiences with him.6
C. B. Satpathy, who was raised in a Hindu family and is a retired police officer in New Delhi, is one of the many figures who have written of his calling to Shirdi Sai Baba. In his 2001 testimonial memoir Shirdi Sai Baba and Other Perfect Masters, Satpathy describes how Shirdi Sai Baba came into his life in the late 1980s, placing emphasis on the power of images to convey his afterlife presence:
To write a book on Shri Shirdi Sai had nowhere been in my thoughts, four years ago. Today, I can think of writing on nothing else, but His glory.… Whatever I think, whatever I do in the mundane or on a purely mental plane, His thoughts appear quietly in the background of my mind. He appears sitting on a stone, His right leg over the left, looking upwards with all His glory in that tattered kafni [robe] that He perennially donned. His white headgear would be shining bright in His splendour. This image would remain for long, disturbing my worldly routine. Howsoever I would like to separate my consciousness from it, His thoughts would not leave me, all-pervasive and all-blissful.… In the market, or while sitting in the car, I would often be the victim of a familiar trick played on me. I would suddenly notice a photograph of Shri Sai in a shop, or a locket with His photo on some lady’s neck, or even a ring on somebody’s finger. My first reaction would be to avoid looking at it by concentrating on the display items of the shop, or on the people walking around … [but they] would transform in my mind to that of Shri Sai.… Such unsolicited mental union became a part of my existence, day and night, not leaving me alone even during sleep. (Satpathy, 2001: 23–24)
After viewing a devotional film, Shirdi ke Sai Baba (1977), in order to learn more about this figure whom he felt somehow compelled by, Satpathy decided to undertake a pilgrimage to Shirdi in 1989. Like Dabholkar before him, Satpathy describes in detail his initial scepticism in undertaking this trip as well as the great impact that his vision of Shirdi Sai Baba there had upon him. Again, like Dabholkar, Satpathy too describes this moment as the highlight of his life, explaining that this darshan experience allowed him to begin developing ‘Sai consciousness’ by realising that he is intimately intertwined with the all-pervasive Shirdi Sai Baba:
One look at His face filled me with a strange joy I had never known before. His face was so sublime and so familiar, as if an old memory of a childhood friend had suddenly come back to life. I hurtled back some seventy-two years in time. I was back to the Shirdi Baba’s days. He was the same and very much there. Divine glory poured forth from His face, from every pore of His body. He appeared to gaze at me. There was a hint of a smile at the corner of His lips. What is happening to you, I asked myself? The inner voice echoed—this is the moment for which you have been waiting since your birth. A strange sense of separation and also reunion swept over me like giant tidal waves in succession. Everything felt so divine. (Satpathy, 2001: 30–31)
For Satpathy, this experience of Shirdi Sai Baba’s presence was life changing. While there in Shirdi, he accepted Sai Baba as his sadguru, his spiritual master, and undertook a vow to serve him by having 108 Shirdi Sai Baba temples built throughout India in order to spread this devotional movement. Upon returning to New Delhi, he then established the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust. When the 108th temple was completed approximately a decade later, Satpathy decided that although he had fulfilled his vow, he still had much work to do. Today, through the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust, he has built over 230 Sai Baba temples throughout India and has also been instrumental in the recent globalisation of the Shirdi Sai Baba devotional movement with the completion of temples in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore as well as several temples in North America during the past 10 years.7
Aside from the intimate, personal connection that C. B. Satpathy felt with Sai Baba upon visiting Shirdi, he was also drawn to Shirdi Sai Baba because of his syncretistic identity and his message of religious tolerance. In his book, Shirdi Sai Baba and Other Perfect Masters, he characterises Sai Baba as the ‘incarnation of the age’, whose teachings will ultimately put an end to sectarian violence and initiate an era of ‘peace and amity’:
Today, when India and the whole world is torn asunder with religious conflicts, communal strife and armed clashes, the stream of compassion of the great humanist Shri Sai is yet flowing unabatedly. Today Shirdi is being visited by around 30 thousand people every day on an average for paying homage to the Shrine of Baba, and their number is increasing everyday.… The growing multitude of Sai devotees signals that the historic Sai movement would establish in the coming century, ‘peace and amity’ in India and abroad. Shri Sai is the incarnation of the age and therefore faith in Him is bound to spread with far-reaching consequences in the future. Only time will prove this. (Satpathy, 2001: 20)
Satpathy understands Shirdi Sai Baba as the latest in a long line of sadgurus, perfect masters or enlightened teachers, from across the world’s religions who formerly lived in India and around the world:
Even in ancient times the Sadgurus came on this earth as the Hindu rishis [sages] like Kapila, Vasistha, Suka, Vishwamitra, Bharadwaj and Dattatreya. In other countries they came as Herrnes [sic], Enoch, Orpheus and others. They reincarnated as Abraham, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Christ, Prophet Mohammad, Adi Shankara and many others in different countries and at different times. (Satpathy, 2001: 11)
Five such sadgurus are said to operate in the world at any given time, assisted by a number of spiritually evolved figures (siddhas) who transcend the categories of religion, race, gender and caste and who work on both physical and metaphysical planes. Of these five sadgurus, one is the param sadguru, the supreme perfect master. This param sadguru initially takes on an embodied form and then after death remains the supreme perfect master for the next 700 years. Shirdi Sai Baba, Satpathy (2001: 18–19) argues, is the supreme perfect master of our age. His death in 1918 therefore marks not the end of an era but the beginning of seven centuries of growing Sai consciousness under his metaphysical guidance.
The work of these sadgurus is to ‘advance evolution’ (Satpathy, 2001: 5). Satpathy here puts forth a theory that synthesises science and religion, arguing that natural evolution has a divine purpose. He writes of the sadgurus:
Their job is to bring perfection to anything and everything coming in contact with them, whether living or non-living, cutting across all reference of time, distance and space. Anyone coming into contact with them is bound to evolve whether he likes it or does not like it, whether it is to happen immediately or within a certain period of time. They are upholders of the ultimate laws of nature and the divine principles. (Satpathy, 2001: 6)
At the individual level, the soul begins to evolve after coming into contact with the sadguru, developing or enhancing the qualities of ‘love, sacrifice and forbearance’ (Satpathy, 2001: 7). These qualities enable the individual to evolve spiritually by gradually eliminating the negative karma that binds their soul to its current body and to the cycle of rebirth and re-death, resulting ultimately in freeing the soul to merge ‘with God, the Over-soul from which it came’ (Satpathy, 2001: 72). In Baba: May I Answer, a book that contains a compilation of Satpathy’s answers to questions commonly asked about Shirdi Sai Baba, Satpathy elaborates further on the process of the soul’s evolution, suggesting that the biological evolution of the human species has a divine purpose behind it:
Every soul in the process of its evolution, life after life, is trying to understand and experience God within himself and in the outside world. In fact, this progressive understanding of God through a series of lives is the real purpose of human birth. Human beings are better equipped with cerebral capacity than a monkey or ape (from which stage he evolves). It is for understanding God at the first stage and then realising God at the ultimate stage that the human being had been endowed with these capabilities of nature. (Satpathy, 2009a: 35–36)
At the societal level, civilisation begins to evolve after coming into contact with the sadguru. Citing as past examples the Sumerian, Egyptian, Roman, Aztec, Harappan, Aryan and Chinese civilisations, Satpathy (2001: 11) argues that the developments made in each of these ancient cultures was due to the presence of a sadguru: ‘These sons of God the Almighty, born in groups in different parts of human society, taught the human race at its infant state its primary lessons in science and arts and gave a thrust to the progress of human civilisation’. As a result of the succession of sadgurus throughout history, human knowledge has continued to advance. And yet, human civilisation today is still in need of further evolution by the sadgurus. Satpathy writes:
The world today is going through a process of ‘intellect explosion’ in all fields of knowledge. Yet the lack of moral values to properly utilise the fruits of the intellect for the greatest good of the greatest number on this earth is the biggest limitation. It is these Masters who will redefine religious codes and re-establish moral values on earth.8 (Satpathy, 2001: 12)
As the param sadguru, the incarnation of the supreme perfect master for the current age, Shirdi Sai Baba is actively working to evolve our individual souls and our human civilisation so that we may all eventually realise Godhood by merging our individual souls with the Oversoul. During my interview with C. B. Satpathy at the Sai Ka Angan Temple in Gurgaon, Haryana, he explained that given this emphasis on the evolution of the entire human species, the Shirdi Sai Baba movement is not a Hindu movement; indeed, he insisted that it is better understood not as a religious movement at all but as a spiritual one:
Religion divides, but spirituality is universal. This is why Baba doesn’t care what your religion is—he doesn’t care if you are Hindu or Muslim, Sikh or Christian. He cares what is in your heart.… Many Hindus come to Sai Baba. But anyone can come to this temple. You have already met Hindu and Sikh people here today. Muslims and Christians also come. This is because this temple is not about Hinduism, not about any religion. It is about spirituality. It is about love of God and service to humans—not even service just to humans, love and service to the world.… Baba’s message is love. Love of God, love of self, love of neighbor. In this time, we need this message. There are many difficulties here today because of religion. Not just here, in the whole world, in the U.S. too. But spirituality is above all of this, beyond all of this. (Satpathy, personal interview, 2008)
Thus, according to Satpathy, Shirdi Sai Baba devotion cannot be classified as either Hindu or Muslim. He, like many other devotees, prefers to speak of this devotional movement as a spiritual movement rather than a new religious movement, for he feels that religious traditions are too often exclusive and divisive while spiritual movements are all-inclusive and unifying. This is reflected in the architecture of this temple, which was built by the Gurgaon-based Sai Prakash Spiritual and Charitable Trust under the auspices of the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust in 2002. Given the importance of Shirdi as a place of pilgrimage, Satpathy and the other members of the Trust designed this temple as a replica of Shirdi for the residents of Gurgaon, so that they too might experience the life-changing presence of Shirdi Sai Baba, even if they cannot afford to undertake a pilgrimage to Shirdi. The main temple building is a replica of Dwarkamai, the mosque in Shirdi where Sai Baba lived. Within this temple-mosque are two statues (murtis) of Shirdi Sai Baba and the sacred fire where devotees receive udi. Next to the mosque is a Hanuman (Maruti) temple, a replica of the temple dedicated to the Hindu monkey-god in Shirdi where Sai Baba is reported to have paused to honour Hanuman. Between these two buildings is a replica of the Chavadi, the small village office in Shirdi. Here at the Gurgaon temple, the Chavadi is used to host eminent visitors, especially Mr Satpathy during his regular visits. Indeed, Satpathy is rapidly developing his own following of devotees, who refer to him as ‘Guruji’ and view him as a spiritual master, an intermediary who connects them with Shirdi Sai Baba; thus, he functions very much in the role of a siddha or spiritually evolved figure who aids the param sadguru in the process of evolution of these devotees. While sitting together in the Chavadi, next to the life-size framed painting of Shirdi Sai Baba that dominates the room, Satpathy explained that the design of the temple complex with its combined Hindu and Muslim architectural elements is an example of the spirituality of this movement and of Sai Baba’s calling to devotees from multiple religious backgrounds.
When asked whether Shirdi Sai Baba had been Hindu-ised in the form of ritual practices in the temple, given the emphasis on murti puja or image worship, Satpathy firmly insisted that one could approach Sai Baba in whatever way one was most comfortable. For Hindus, he stated while pointing at the framed painting in the Chavadi, images are important because Hindus practise darshan:
You look at this image, you sit and meditate on it, and you will feel a connection with Baba. You need not come to the temple for this. You can do this at home, anywhere. But you should try to do this daily, try to cultivate this. After some time, Baba will come to you without the image, from inside of you.
The goal of such image worship, Satpathy continued, is to realise Shirdi Sai Baba’s all-pervasiveness, to ‘realise Baba is everywhere, to see him in yourself and in everything. The goal is to find internal darshan of Baba, and to always be in that state, constantly, to develop Sai consciousness’ (2008, personal interview). But those who do not practise image worship can develop Sai consciousness in other ways, such as reading the Sri Sai Satcharita and meditating upon its words. ‘Paths are many but goal is one’, Satpathy concluded (personal interview, 2008). This sentiment that the development of Sai consciousness causes followers of this movement to evolve above religion into a higher spiritual awakening is reiterated again and again in Satpathy’s writings and speeches. In Baba: May I Answer, for instance, Satpathy elaborates:
Shirdi Sai Baba looked after the Hindus, Muslims, Parsees equally. We can find people of all religions visiting His Samadhi temple even now. He always believed in the peaceful co-existence of all species. In today’s world there is a lot of intolerance among the people of various religions and sects. People must believe that all human faiths may be different but the goal is one. Shirdi Sai devotees are equal before God. At Baba’s time Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsees and Christians, etc. used to share their views and talk with each other like real brothers in Shirdi. They firmly believe that flowers may be many but the God to whom the flowers are offered is one. Stars may be many but light is one. Similarly paths may be different but the goal is the same. (Satpathy, 2009a: 5–6)
As I toured the Sai Ka Angan temple, I was guided by a Sikh devotee who works as a professor in New Delhi and volunteers her time one day each week at Sukarya, the neighbouring non-governmental organisation that was founded in 2001 by Meera Satpathy, C. B. Satpathy’s wife, to provide free health services to those in need in the community. My guide grew emotional as she tried to describe the changes that Shirdi Sai Baba had brought into her life, saying, ‘Before, I was focused only on myself, and as a result I was always unhappy. Now, I am focused on Baba and on loving my neighbors, and as a result I am much happier.’ For her, active service or seva was the key to her spiritual awakening, allowing her to realise a connection between love of Shirdi Sai Baba, love of humanity and love of self. Other devotees expressed similar sentiments about the centrality of service to the development of Sai consciousness, such as the Hindu housewife who also volunteered at Sukarya and stated: ‘In my opinion, when I worship Durga, then I am Hindu. But when I worship Baba and do good works like this, then I am human.’ Yet another devotee, a member of the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust and a board member of Sukarya, discussed the centrality of service to what she perceived to be Shirdi Sai Baba’s basic message:
Sai Baba’s basic teaching is shraddha and saburi—faith and tolerance. Have faith in Sai Baba, and develop tolerance for everyone. Tolerance means good works. Because of the sadguru, we are tolerant and we do good works. Even in spite of all of these disturbances, these bombs, we are tolerant. Maybe we shouldn’t be so tolerant, but we are.9
Our conversation took place just after the 13 September 2008 serial bombings in New Delhi. No one claimed responsibility for this bombing but India’s Home Ministry stated that it suspected an Islamic terrorist group. In this atmosphere of heightened fear and communal suspicion, this message of religious tolerance and loving service of others took on a renewed urgency for many devotees. Her final sentence suggests the difficulty entailed in developing Sai consciousness. In a world fractured by sectarian bloodshed as violent encounters erupt between Hindus, Muslims and others, it is not easy to unite with love for all. But for those who visit this temple in Gurgaon or any of the others founded by the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust, Shirdi Sai Baba’s syncretistic identity and his message of religious tolerance and loving service provide hope for a better, more evolved future.
Marianne Warren posits three reasons for the growth of the Shirdi Sai Baba movement in her study of Shirdi Sai Baba: first, the efficacy of prayer to Shirdi Sai Baba in the form of tangible worldly results gained by devotees; second, the proliferation of books and films about Shirdi Sai Baba since the 1970s; and third, the popular Hindu godman Sathya Sai Baba’s declaration that he is the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba (2004, 28–29; Sathya Sai Baba is discussed in this volume by Chad Bauman).10 All of these are significant reasons; however, I argue that one more reason must be added to this list. A primary reason for the transformation of Shirdi Sai Baba from a regional figure into a revered persona of pan-Indian and increasingly global significance is his composite message. The past three decades have witnessed rampant outbreaks of sectarian violence in India, in which Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians have each been targeted.11 In the wake of rising Hindu nationalism and increasingly vocal and at times violent calls for India to become a Hindu nation, paired with a rise in incidents of Islamic terrorism in major Indian cities, many Indians have begun working to overcome sectarian tensions by calling for a recognition of India’s composite culture. The term ‘composite culture’ most commonly refers to the argument that Hindus and Muslims are not two completely separate communities, but that ‘the unique genius of India worked to evolve, over the centuries since the coming of Muslims into the Indian subcontinent, modes of thinking and living which are a subtle intermixing or synthesis of the world-views and living habits of Muslims and Hindus’ (Alam, 1999: 29).12 Yet as Kathryn Hansen (2009) has argued, too often scholars have either overlooked efforts to promote composite culture in their focus on sectarian movements and media or have presumed that the concern with composite culture is limited to intellectuals and politicians, as the ‘polemics related to secular values and pluralism are frequently assumed to be too abstract or theoretical to figure in everyday life among the population at large’. This assumption, she states in her recent study of composite culture as expressed in popular Indian theatrical productions, ‘requires serious interrogation’ (Hansen, 2009: 153).
The rapid growth of the Shirdi Sai Baba devotional movement throughout India during the past several decades demonstrates the powerful appeal of composite culture in the everyday lives of many of those who are drawn to this movement. For a great majority of his newfound devotees, Shirdi Sai Baba’s life is a prime example of the synthesis of Hinduism and Islam, and his teachings provide a powerful foil to sectarian visions of India by calling for a united community that values not only Hindus and Muslims as equals, but Sikhs, Christians and others as well. This is evident in this statement about the meaning of the term sadguru, made by a member of the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust while she sipped chai in her office in New Delhi, after offering the first sip to Shirdi Sai Baba, who was present there in the form of a large framed print hanging over her desk:
He is a sadguru. This means ‘perfect master.’ There have been other sadgurus, but Sai Baba was the biggest, a Muslim fakir, a Hindu saint. He had no property. He had nothing, he renounced everything. Just imagine what that would be like, having nothing. It is the highest epitome of detachment. And yet, he is the greatest emotional force in our life. It is physical renunciation, material renunciation, but not emotional renunciation. You feel directly connected to him when you see him. We Hindus, we are born to worship Shiva, Krishna, or other gods. But it is just ritual, mechanical. The sadguru, this connection is emotional, not mechanical. You almost feel trapped even, sometimes you feel like crying, you are so committed. It is this kind of devotion, faith. You want to see him everywhere. You want to go to Shirdi to see him. And then, when you have really seen him, you realize that he is everywhere, he is in all of humanity. So if you want to serve God, you must serve all of humanity. (personal interview, 2008)
The Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust has a strong missionary impulse. Devotees who can afford to often buy multiple copies of the Shri Sai Satcharita so that they can give them out for free to anyone who expresses an interest in learning more about Shirdi Sai Baba. Devotional posters featuring the ‘Eleven Sayings’ of Shirdi Sai Baba are handed out at temples, to stress Sai Baba’s active afterlife presence and his accessibility to all who look to him with true love and devotion, regardless of their particular religious upbringing.13 And, of course, over 230 Shirdi Sai Baba temples have been built by this organisation to date. Although the members of this Trust and those who attend its temples are predominantly from Hindu backgrounds, they resist the label ‘Hindu’ as applied to this growing devotional movement, preferring instead to define Shirdi Sai Baba devotion as a spiritual movement that is dedicated to spreading Sai consciousness throughout India with the goal of evolving both the individual souls of devotees and the national civilisation.
The missionary impulse of this Trust now extends beyond India. For C. B. Satpathy, Shirdi Sai Baba is the sadguru not only of those who lived in Maharashtra during his lifetime or those who live in India today; Sai consciousness, he believes, must be extended throughout the world in the effort to establish universal peace and amity. The Shri Shirdi Sai Temple of Chicago and Suburbs, located in Hampshire, Illinois, USA, is a good example of the current efforts of this Trust to expand this movement globally not as a sectarian Hindu movement but as a spiritual movement that is open to all. This temple grew out of a small prayer circle that was initiated in the 1990s by devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba who had immigrated to America. Over time they invited neighbours into their homes for these prayer sessions, and the circle grew. Under C. B. Satpathy’s guidance, in 2002 they organised a chitra yatra, an image pilgrimage, wherein a portrait of Shirdi Sai Baba travelled from one prayer circle to the next across the country in an effort to raise Sai consciousness. This image pilgrimage was quite successful not only in spreading Shirdi Sai Baba’s name and promoting the Shri Sai Satcharita to new devotees, including many who were not of South Asian heritage, but also in raising funds for temple construction. The Chicago temple was formally inaugurated by C. B. Satpathy at a grand ceremony in August of 2004, and its website invites people from any religious background to visit, describing Shirdi Sai Baba and his message in this way:
Baba preached at Shirdi all his life and performed numerous miracles to convince people that God exists. He healed people’s diseases, provided moral and material comfort to his Devotees. Baba helped bring Unity and Harmony between all communities. He said that God is one, but called by different names. He said follow your own religion and seek the truth.14
Devotees who turn to Shirdi Sai Baba and join this movement can still retain their identity as Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and so on, should they choose to, while simultaneously practising Shirdi Sai Baba devotion and seeking an emotional connection with this sadguru. This inclusiveness, paired with the movement’s promotion of tolerance and loving service, appeals to many within India and increasingly many around the world who seek a way to find inner spiritual harmony and to transform society for the better in what they perceive as particularly turbulent times.
Alam, Javed. 1999. ‘The Composite Culture and Its Historiography’, South Asia, 22 (001): 29–37.
Asher, Catherine B. and Cynthia Talbot. 2006. India before Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Babb, Lawrence A. 1986. Redemptive Encounters: Three Modern Styles in the Hindu Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bharadwaja, Acharya E. 1993. Sai Baba the Master, 4th ed. Ongole: Sree Guru Paduka Publications.
Dabholkar, Govind R. 2007. Shri Sai Satcharita: The Life and Teachings of Shirdi Sai Baba, Trans. Indira Kher, 2nd ed. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers.
Das Ganu. 1987. A Humble Tribute of Praise to Shri Sainath, Trans. Zarine Taraporevala. Bombay: Sai Dhun Enterprises.
Falk, Nancy Auer. 2006. Living Hinduisms: An Explorer’s Guide. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth.
Hansen, Kathryn. 2009. ‘Staging Composite Culture: Nautanki and Parsi Theatre in Recent Revivals’, South Asia Research, 29 (2): 151–68.
Kamath, M. V. and V. B. Kher. 1991. Sai Baba of Shirdi: A Unique Saint. Bombay: Jaico Publishing House.
Khaparde, G. S. 1997. Shirdi Diary of the Hon’ble Mr. G.S. Khaparde. Shirdi: Sri Sai Baba Sansthan.
McLain, Karline. 2011. ‘Be United, Be Virtuous: Composite Culture and the Growth of Shirdi Sai Baba Devotion’, Nova Religio, 15 (2): 20–49.
Palmer, Norris W. 2005. ‘Baba’s World: A Global Guru and his Movement’, in Thomas A. Forsthoefel and Cynthia Ann Humes (eds), Gurus in America, pp. 97–122. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Ramalingaswamy. 1984. Ambrosia in Shirdi: A Book Never Before. Shirdi: Ramalingaswamy.
Rigopoulos, Antonio. 1993. The Life and Teachings of Sai Baba of Shirdi. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Sahukar, Mani. 1997. Sai Baba: The Saint of Shirdi, 2nd ed. Mumbai: Somaiya Publications.
Satpathy, Shri C. B. 2001. Shirdi Sai Baba and Other Perfect Masters. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd.
———. 2009a. Baba: May I Answer. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd.
———. 2009b. ‘Shri C. B. Satpathy’s Message: The Sai Heritage’, Heritage of Shirdi Sai e-Zine, 92, October. Available online at: http://www.heritageofshirdisai.org/newsletter/Vol92.htm (accessed 22 November 2010).
Srinivas, Smriti. 1999. ‘The Brahmin and the Fakir: Suburban Religiosity in the Cult of Shirdi Sai Baba’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 14 (2): 245–61.
———. 2008. In the Presence of Sai Baba: Body, City, and Memory in a Global Religious Movement. Leiden: Brill.
Srinivas, Tulasi. 2010. Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism through the Sathya Sai Movement. New York: Columbia University Press.
Venkataraman, K. 2004. Beyond Shirdi: Stories of the Living Presence of Sai Baba. Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Warren, Marianne. 2004. Unravelling the Enigma: Shirdi Sai Baba in the Light of Sufism. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers.
White, Charles S. J. 1972. ‘The Sai Baba Movement: Approaches to the Study of Indian Saints’, Journal of Asian Studies, 31 (4): 863–78.
1 Research for this chapter was made possible by an American Institute of Indian Studies Senior Short-Term Fellowship and by a semester of leave provided by Bucknell University in Fall 2008. The author is also grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Academy of Religion for funding a preliminary research trip to India in Summer 2007; to Mr and Mrs Satpathy in New Delhi; to Mr Mukund Raj at the Shri Shirdi Sai Temple of Chicago and Suburbs; and to the participants in the conference on ‘The Public Representation of a Religion Called Hinduism: Ecumenical Hinduism and Umbrella Organizations’ held at Wabash College for their feedback on an earlier version of this chapter.
2 Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust. Trust page. http://www.heritageofshirdisai.org (accessed 22 November 2010).
3 Rigopoulos (1993, esp. pp. 5–15) discusses Sai Baba’s upbringing in the first chapter of his book, citing the reports from various devotees who were present in Shirdi during Sai Baba’s lifetime that Sai Baba was born to a brahman family, then entrusted at an early age to a Sufi Muslim fakir and then ultimately studied with a Hindu guru before arriving in Shirdi. For a re-reading of these same sources to better understand Shirdi Sai Baba’s Muslim Sufi heritage, see Warren (2004). Aside from the work of Rigopoulos and Warren, no full-length academic studies of Shirdi Sai Baba have been undertaken to my knowledge. Academic essays on Shirdi Sai Baba and the Sai Baba movement more generally include White (1972) and Srinivas (1999).
4 Aside from Shirdi Sai Baba’s death in 1918, all dates associated with this figure are approximate, for they are based on his followers’ recollections of key events and there is no general consensus on the exact dates of much of the chronology. On the multiple accounts of the time of Shirdi Sai Baba’s first arrival and later permanent settlement in Shirdi, see Rigopoulos (1993: 45–46). In this chapter I have used the dates given in the Shri Sai Satcharita.
5 See Khaparde (1997) and Das Ganu (1987). Abdul Baba’s Urdu diary has been translated into English in Warren (2004: 275–309).
6 A representative sample of such testimonial memoirs includes works by Bharadwaja (1993), Kamath and Kher (1991), Ramalingaswamy (1984), Sahukar (1997), and Venkataraman (2004).
7 Including the Shri Shirdi Sai Temple of Chicago and Suburbs (inaugurated in 2004); the North American Shirdi Sai Temple of Atlanta (2009); the Shri Shirdi Sai Temple in Detroit (2008); the Shri Shirdi Sai Sansthan in Los Angeles (2009); the Sri Sai Baba Mandir in Dublin, Ohio (2003); and the Shri Shirdi Saibaba Mandir of Canada (2002).
8 Satpathy mysteriously states that the sadgurus are working to evolve a more superior ‘fifth human race’ that will have the capacity to ‘communicate through a mental process with each other’ and will discover and make use of ‘newer energy fields’ (2001: 10). However, neither does he provide further information about this fifth human race, nor about the previous four human races.
9 The terms shraddha (faith) and saburi (patience) are regularly printed on devotional materials of the Shirdi Sai Baba movement, including materials published by the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust, and are said to be key teachings of Shirdi Sai Baba. Here this devotee’s translation of saburi not as patience but as tolerance is significant.
10 Sathya Sai Baba (b. 1926) declared at a young age that he was an incarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba, and he is venerated by millions of devotees throughout India and around the world. On Sathya Sai Baba, see Chad Bauman’s chapter in this volume; also see Babb (1986), Palmer (2005), S. Srinivas (2008) and T. Srinivas (2010). Discussing the crossover appeal between Shirdi Sai Baba and Sathya Sai Baba, Rigopoulos writes, ‘the majority of Shirdi Sai Baba’s bhaktas [devotees] have not shifted their devotion to the present Sat[h]ya Sai. Many of them ignore him or are critical of him: when I was doing research at Shirdi, people preferred to avoid the issue altogether’ (1993: 249). In my own field research, one Shirdi Sai Baba devotee politely deflected questions about Sathya Sai Baba by stating: ‘When you have the original, what need is there of a Xerox?’ While all were respectful of Sathya Sai Baba, polite variants on this statement were a common response to this line of questioning among devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba who view him as an active, all-pervasive presence.
11 Examples include the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi (1984), the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya (1992), the Bombay bombings (1993), the Godhra train burning and the ensuing Gujarat riots (2002), rising anti-Christian attacks since the late 1990s and the bombings of multiple cities in the past five years, including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai and Varanasi.
12 For a history of the composite culture of India from 1200–1750 CE, see Asher and Talbot (2006).
13 I have encountered various lists of the ‘Eleven Sayings of Shirdi Sai Baba’ posted at various shrines and temples and printed on devotional posters during the course of my field research. One representative list, which is printed inside the front cover of each issue of the Heritage of Shirdi Sai magazine (published by the Shri Shirdi Sai Heritage Foundation Trust), is the following: (a) whoever puts his feet on Shirdi soil, his sufferings would come to an end; (b) the wretched and miserable would rise into plenty of joy and happiness as soon as they climb the steps of my samadhi; (c) I shall be ever active and vigorous even after leaving this earthly body; (d) my tomb shall bless and speak to the needs of my devotees; (e) I shall be active and vigorous even from the tomb; (f) my mortal remains would speak from the tomb; (g) I am ever living to help and guide all who come to me, who surrender to me and who seek refuge in me; (h) if you look to me, I look to you; (i) if you cast your burden on me, I shall surely bear it; (j) if you seek my advice and help, it shall be given to you at once; (k) there shall be no want in the house of my devotees.
14 Shri Shirdi Sai Temple of Chicago and Suburbs. About Baba page. Available at http://www.saibaba.us/index.html (accessed 22 November 2010).