God Man or Good Man.....You Decide

I am like most of the six billion homo-sapiens teeming the face of earth like ants. Why, you ask? Well, the answers simple, I seem to remember God, only when I am in trouble or need his divine intervention for some of my earthly troubles. I might have been lax and lazy in my prayers to God, but I have one thing which I hold dear and that is FAITH. Faith that there is a God, who listens to my prayers. The prayers I said for my cousins to stay for one more day with me during summer vacations, prayer I said when I hoped against hope that the class hottie would accept my proposal when I was in class 9, prayer I said to pass me in Mathematics during my board exams, prayer I said when I wanted my paternal grand-mother to pass away soon without suffering any more pain from her cancer, prayer I say each day today to overcome the new technical challenges I face each day in office. But this post, is not about my faith. This post is about the faith of more than 30 million people who believed in Sathya Sai Baba being an incarnation of God.

Since my childhood, my parents discouraged worshiping of God men/ women and that feeling was inculcated into my core. How can a human being be God? God's messenger may be, but not God surely. How can someone conjure magic and deliver material things out of thin air. The rationalist in my mind could not accept this. So Sathya Sai Baba never entered my consciousness. Then I saw my uncle and aunt who were going through lots of trauma and disturbance in their life. They chose to pray to Sathy Sai Baba and I saw with my own eyes, how their lives improved. The pain that always seem to be in their eyes soon ebbed and they started facing their difficulties with renewed vigour. Soon they overcame all their personal troubles and were living happily. This they attributed completely to Sathya Sai Baba.  As I was growing up I heard many such stories of how Sri Sathya Sai Baba did much good for humanity and how people from all walks of life seem to be attracted to him like ants to sugar syrup spilt on floor.

Then I had my friends who were educated and considered Baba to be nothing sort of P.C Sorcar junior who depended on sleight of hand to impress his followers. How can that be? I mean you can lets say fool a million people with magic tricks not 30 million people can you ?? But in a country like ours where a cricketer is considered nothing sort of a God, anybody can be somebody if you do anything out of ordinary – be it magic or a sleight of hand!

There are talks today that his trust today is worth conservatively around 40,000 crores and how he amassed it. I don't know how he amassed such wealth, but I sure know that he did a lot good with his wealth where others prefer to keep their moolah stashed away in Swiss and Lichiesten banks. He developed the small town Puttaparthi to such scales that it holds its own place on the face of the earth today. World class hospitals with world renowned physicians. Universities that produce some of the brightest minds in the planet. Irrigation facilities that even the government of India could not execute. Sure, he was doing magic, but this was good magic. Baba, was doing what governments could not dream of achieving. I live in Chennai and I am told that nearly all of the potable water that comes to Chennai is because of Baba's irrigation facilities.

He was a do gooder and that cannot be wished away. But so is Warren Buffet, who has pledged billions of dollars to charity. So doesn't that make Warren Buffet a God also? Then how can you distinguish between them. The biggest point of Baba was that he never forced conversions in faith. He just preached 'Love Others Unconditionally'. His teachings were meant to make a Hindu a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim and a Christian a better Christian. In short, keep your own faith but become a better human being. Yes, a better human being is a much in need commodity these days.

I am just an ordinary man. From what my grandfather used to teach me, it is said in 'Bhagvatgita', He (the Lord) is present in every form - you, me or Sai and even in the tiniest of life forms He is formless, He cannot be confined into limited boundaries. The saints (by saints I mean the knowledgeable ones) know this and worship Him in that universal form. But, we the ignorants, insist on a form and our FAITH makes us treat the benefactor as God. For this very reason Satya Sai Baba, with all his benevolence, is truly a God for the benefiters and other seekers. I bow my head in reverence to the departed soul.

May Sathya Sai Baba Rest in Peace.