Sai Baba is a GURU and as such he should be judged. As stated earlier, there are requirements central to that task while others are peripheral. Those requirements are:
Sri Sathya Sai Baba's ability to transform others is unparalleled in the history of humanity.
This is no laudatory examination; a simple statement of the facts; wherever Sai Baba appears, crowds begin to form, persons wait to see him, persons queue up for hours to see him. People from all parts of India and from many nations on earth gather around Sai Baba.
People seek interaction with or acknowledgment from Sai Baba. They want front row darshan, letters taken, favours granted, perhaps an in-law, brother or their child healed; or interview, or divine keepsake. A person may not make an appointment with Sai Baba and nor may interaction with Sai Baba be obtained through corrupt praxis; baksheesh and corruption are contrary to, and in disagreement with, the 9 Point Code of Conduct.
When Baba first travelled in India, his status as avatar had gone ahead of Him. In order to get a close look at him, people slept on the roads. They did not want to leave their places lest they lose their vantage positions.
In order to obtain interview, interaction, grace or miracle from Sai Baba, his devotees and students in his colleges transform themselves willingly. They make this transformation of their own volition. Sai Baba has repeatedly told that if a person is in error in their ways or in their conduct, he will not waste his time or his words with such persons. Until they reform and transform their behaviour, Sai Baba has said he will not speak with them.
In order to obtain that highly valued and desired interaction with Sai Baba, many persons who seek His grace willingly transform themselves. This personal transformation takes place on the moral, social, physical, mental and spiritual level. Sai Baba will guide the transformation process, personally. Some will form an inner relationship with Sai Baba, so they follow the inner directions; those who do not have the capacity or their preferred mode of guidance is external, receive that appropriate guidance.
Sai Baba functions on multiple levels at the same time when he is imparting teaching, personal guidance and example to persons who gather around him. He may address students in terms of do good and don't do wrong, when Good and Evil are nonexistent mental creations; He may tell more advanced people that joy and pain are two extremes of the one continuum of experience. He may turn and tell another "Bad boy" and chastise in front of others. Sai Baba undertakes a challenging multi-faceted role, in which he teaches everyone in accordance to what he or she needs, and that very often at the same time. In the past, other evolved beings, like Rama, Krishna or Jesus, had to do the same.
One of these characteristics is that Sai Baba is not attached to his devotees as a mother is to a child. As we grow up, we are not constantly in our mother's minds like we were, when we were toddlers. We mature, become independent, make friends, lead our own lives. It is the same with Sai Baba and his devotees. Sai Baba will first provide impetus and movement toward transformation like a mother; He will hand feed the us, he will sit us at the table and prompt us to eat and not play with our food; later on he puts the food on the table for us to eat, and the teenager who arrives late is told where the food is in the kitchen. The teenager is perfectly capable of getting food out of the oven or the refrigerator, preparing a meal, and coming to eat with the family. This does not mean the mother no longer loves or cares for the teenager. The teenager can stand on his or her own feet and take care of themselves.
In this wise, so the transformation of persons devoted to Sai Baba and His teachings, occurs.
In this modern day and age, of hip, hop, the modern bop of "get a life" terminology of the young wannabees, commitment to discipline, noble character and integrity are all too rare phenomena.
Sai Baba and the transformation of persons who are devoted to him and his teachings has to be seen in perspective against the backdrop of the values and lifestyle of both the East and the West with their Holy Gods of Money, Power and Pelf, Position, isolation, breakdown of order, civil strife, loneliness, drug addiction, attachment and rampant desire based on acquisition. "Have it, have it now, have your very own"! So the keepers of the cultural story urge through advertising. There is a powerful pop culture of eternal youth and beauty, and an even stronger financial culture of success and "I did it my way" All these extol the body, achievement, selfishness, greed.
One major failing of the modern world is lack of commitment; Westerners in society at large, don't understand commitment very well; the former life-time institution of marriage, once upon a time the foundation of stability, love and discipline in society, now has a failure rate of 60%; persons no longer marry, they have partners.
It is significant to observe that the devotees of Sathya Sai Baba do not run away or lose faith when things get difficult whether in the world or on the spiritual path. Sathya Sai Baba has not LOST followers or devotees, although, as we have seen, he has always had his traducers since he declared his identity. Recall that he wrote the letter of consolation to his brother Seshama Raju, in 1947 and reminded him "The work for which I have come concerns me. Fame or ill fame, good or bad does not concern me. All are alike to me."
Sai Baba's devotees continue to live and practice the Five Human Values, the principal teachings of love and service, and to speak truthfully and act righteously in a social environment that does not propagate nor publicly foster those human values.
A story from the Ramayana exemplifies the meaning of love and transformation:
In order to reach Lanka, Lord Rama ordered his army to build a bridge across the mighty ocean. Amidst the furious clamor of giant monkeys bearing boulders and trees, a tiny squirrel was scurrying back and forth carrying grains of sand and depositing them on the bridge. Watching the squirrel, the monkeys laughed at the utter futility of its task. But Lord Rama, touched by the squirrel's love and desire to be of service to Him, blessed it by picking it up and lovingly stroking it with His hand. We must remember that no task or commitment to self-transformation is inconsequential to Sai Baba. He does not measure personal self transformation scope or notoriety, but simply asks if it is done with love. It is better in the Lord's eyes to carry a little sand with love than to carry a whole mountain with vanity.
"The Avatar only tells man what to do indirectly. The avatar never tells man what to do directly. The reason for this is Sai wants you to be your own God, to establish a relationship with the God in you."
Examine dimensions of Leading
