David Bailey had an interview with Sai Baba wherein he when he attempted to tell Sai Baba that Peggy Mason was dead. Due the following, Bailey claims that Sai Baba does not have omniscience. He gives additional examples of alleged omniscience and some observations are made about the claims made by Bailey. (Background for the Reader: Faye Bailey had taken over as Editor of the Spiritual Magazine which Peggy Mason edited. It was this magazine that Faye (and David) Bailey used to promote their point of view (some would call it an expose) which they called The Findings.)
David Bailey gives his account of the alleged "proof of no omniscience" interview he had with Sai Baba in 1997, to wit:
Peggy Mason
Peggy, a professional journalist who wrote for spiritual magazines, went to see Sai Baba with her husband Ron Laing and had a number of interviews during their short stay. Both she and Ron were enchanted with Swami (as indeed I was at first), and this one visit was the basis for their subsequent writings. In December 1997 on our way to Gatwick airport to leave for India, we collected a letter written to Swami by Peggy. I gave the letter to him during the next afternoon darshan. The following morning I received a fax to say that Peggy had died. A few days later I had an interview in the company of the editor of the Sanathana Sarathi, and he told Swami that Faye was now editor of Peggy Mason's magazine ...
David Bailey goes on to relate this subsequent conversation:
SB : "Yes, yes. It's in very good hands, now make it go! How is Peggy Mason?"
Me : "She has merged with you."
SB : "Yes. She lives near you in England?"
Me : "She lived eighty miles from me, but she died a few days ago Swami. She is with you!"
SB : "Yes, yes, her husband was a good man. When you go home, give my regards to her."
Me : "She is dead Swami. Dead! She has merged with you!"
SB : "Give her my love when you get back to England."
Me : "I cannot Swami, because she is DEAD!"
SB : Oh?? Oh ... ..."
David Bailey continues with further examples of his own wherein he claims Sai Baba does not have omniscience:
In another interview a few days later, (this time with Faye) Swami seemed very confused and spoke randomly without making coherent sense for a minute or so, and ended by telling all in the room that Peggy Mason had played the trumpet very well during the Christmas celebrations just completed in the ashram. He was not making a joke and we were both nonplussed and very disturbed, and everyone else there also looked puzzled and somewhat concerned about these ramblings, as they had all heard Maynard Ferguson play trumpet on Christmas day.
On two occasions he called us into the private interview room and questioned me intently about someone in the outer room. Then after we had both returned to the outer room he repeated everything I had just told him, no more, no less, while implying he was getting the information by "tuning in". This possibly explains why he thought I was American in the first instance, even referring to me in his discourse as American. Perhaps someone had given him incorrect data ...?
My greatest difficulty at this time, was finding someone other than Faye, to talk to about all these disturbing findings. Everyone I knew from the west had had much less interactive experience with Swami than I had. During my six years of being devoted to him I had had over one hundred close encounters in the way of interviews and work sessions, and been very involved with him during my times of teaching the students in the male college.
It seems very clear that the whole matter of "lack of omniscience" is a claim by David Bailey, and descriptive of his own personal relationship with Sai Baba. David Bailey, in his books, describes Sai Baba as his best friend. David does not go on to describe Sai Baba as an avatar in the Hindu tradition, for this is not David Bailey's background. His background is English boarding schools, music, teaching and the environment of spiritualism, mediumship, channelling and spiritual healing.
We propose that Sai Baba is a mirror, and simply reflects the mind of the seer back to the seer. Vedanta teaches that 'the seen reflects the seer'. Another relevant teaching from Vedanta is, "as you feel, so you become". It is clear that David Bailey has expressed that which he has seen and heard, and has expressed his feelings here. For David Bailey, Sai Baba is human, not divine, and does not possess the 16 attributes of an avatar, one of which is omniscience. The claim that Sai Baba is not omniscient arises solely from David Bailey's experiences and perceptions of Sai Baba. He cannot say or write anything else about Sai Baba, for he is limited to his own, personal experience. David Bailey has come to the conclusion that Sai Baba is a bumbling, confused old man with the vagaries. So Bailey presents Sai Baba like so.
This is not the experience of millions of others who have come to Sai Baba. The devotees of Sai Baba are devoted to Him as Avatar of the Age. They relate to Sai Baba as a Divine, therefore he manifests the Divine to them. Moreover, one may not propose to them that their experience is wrong and figment of their imagination or fever-filled, over-active minds. No one can tell another that they have or have not experienced something. Another may interpret experience in this way or that, re-express it in terms of how they view reality, but at no time and place may one tell another person that their experience of God is illusion.
Divine experience is personal, and it is the sole province of he or she who experiences the divine to make sense, meaning and order out of that experience, if and when they can. Another cannot say what the experience is for they have not had the experience.
