Like Meher Baba, Sathya Sai Baba said he was the Avatar, God in human form. And there the comparison ends. I suggest if anyone watches this video they click the full-screen icon on the bottom right of its screen.
Just like Jesus he could vomit up golden eggs.
I think there was also a goose that could do this. Anyway, from the looks of the crowd it is very inspiring to see someone vomit up a golden egg. Very interesting. I actually don't know much about other gurus. But this is very interesting about these eggs.
It turns out that these eggs are actually called golden lingams. When I learn more about these, I will write a post about them.
The Sanskrit dictionary gives the following meanings for the word lingam.
- A mark, sign, token, an emblem, a badge, symbol, distinguishing mark, characteristic
- A false or unreal mark, a guise, disguise, a deceptive badge
- A symptom, mark of disease
- A means of proof, a proof, evidence
- (In logic) The hetu or middle term in a syllogism
- The sign of gender or sex
- Sex
- The male organ of generation
- Gender (in gram.)
- The genital organ of Śiva worshipped in the form of a Phallus
- The image of a god, an idol
- One of the relations or indications...which serve to fix the meaning of a word in any particular passage
- (In Vedānta philosophy) The subtle frame or body, the indestructible original of the gross or visible body
- A spot, stain
- The nominal base, the crude form of a noun
- (In Sāṅ. phil.) Pradhāna or Prakṛiti
- The effect or product (that which is evolved out of a primary cause and itself becomes a producer).
- Inference, conclusion
Sort of confusing. So I think it's going to take me a while to sort it out.
For more on Sathya Sai Baba, see my post Baba on Tantric Tricks.
I learned from this documentary that Satya Si Baba is a pedophile whose "miracles" can be replicated by people such as the scholar shown in this documentary who has practiced performing these magic tricks and has performed these same magic trick "miracles" in public. One of my earliest Meher Baba friends often celebrated the fact that Meher Baba was always being observed around the clock and that therefore we know there were no scandals around Meher Baba..
ReplyDeleteHere is my response to my own blog post. I quote from a long post I put on Facebook, after one Baba lover removed his comment that this film was a waste of time, and another asked where his comment had gone to:
ReplyDelete[Name Removed] Where'd [Name Removed]'s comment go?
I myself found the first (long) video quite interesting. For one, it illustrates the difficulty of bringing off the role of being God-Man when you're not God-Man. For two, it illustrates the difficulty and pitfalls of the leap of faith that devotees must at some point make if they are to get the full benefit of a guru.
7 hours ago · Like
Chris Ott: Well at first I removed it, as when I went to the Center tea, Dennis Shlaen, a good close friend of mine, told me that [Name Removed] commented that it was a waste of time. I was worried he was correct in that assessment, so came home and ashamedly removed the post, along with the second one after it that was really a kind of part two to it. But then, after that, I found that two people did in fact find it interesting. One was Talat Halman, professor of Islamic studies in Michican, who in fact commented on the post itself, and the other was you [Name Removed]. What you said was exactly my point. Dennis himself said to me in person to me that he felt it was too depressing, and he knew all this and would not bother to see the documentary. I myself did know some of this vaguely, but found that the documentary brought many things to life that went beyond what I had known. One was just what [Name Removed] said, the leap of faith that devotees must take (me included) at some point if they want the full benefit of a guru. And this is a touching point. In fact, though I was of course obviously never abused in the way that the teenager was in the film (in a S. Baba family not unlike my own), I could certainly identify with much of what he said in the documentary. As I was also a teenager (and small boy) who grew up on a Center (as he did in Arkansas) devoted to an Indian Baba that all around me took to be the God-Man, the Avatar, literally God-in-human-form, Jesus Christ, Buddha, and all the
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ReplyDeleterest -- and also experienced the alienation in schools (in the South no less, as he was in Arkansas, where I raised my daughter incidentally) that he described.
In fact I stumbled upon this documentary by accident, trying to replace my miracles video I had on my previous Sathya Sai Baba post, "Tantric Tricks and Miracles," that I wrote years ago. A person I met on the Meher Center, new to Baba, had read that post, and was very deeply interested in what Baba had said in that post. This inspired me to go back and clean it up a bit, and in looking for a suitable replacement video (which I eventually found) I came upon this documentary -- and stayed up late last night watching it. I was so moved and disturbed by the similarity to some the the wording of characters in the documentary gushing about Sai Baba to those I grew up around gushing about Meher Baba, that I had to give a response. And it was very difficult.
The line I chose, ". . . and there the comparison ends." has a history to it. These were the words that J.R.R. Tolkien used to respond to the literary critique that he had stolen his ring in the Ring Trilogy from Wagner's opera. He said of the comparison, 'Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ends.' (For the Tolkien purists, his precise words were, ". . . and there the resemblance eases.")
The film made me go to bed soul-searching, something I don't often do, about something I take for granted every day of my life -- and is I am sure a total waste of time for Kevin, who did not have experiences anything like the terribly abused boy in the story. But for me, the statement by one man, that he was not about to call the entire previous 25 years of his life a complete waste of time, chilling. For the words in the mouths of the educated, wealthy, respectable adults in the film were eerily (truly eerily) identical to the words spoken by my own father, by people I deeply admired.
And thus this soul search I went to bed with caused me to wake
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ReplyDeletefeeling the need to give some response to the first post, and that response is, naturally, what can I possibly say is the difference? If the comparison is between apples and eggs, a spin on the expression 'apples and oranges' and an allusion to the golden eggs that Sathya Sai Baba materialized out of his mouth (golden Lingams) to gaping crowds, who applauded to their smiling master holding up an gold egg to their adoring eyes as cameras flashed wildly for the press, the presidents, and the world's leaders, then what might that comparison be based on? I can't say my heart. For that is a line repeated over and over in the documentary. It can't be a gush that Meher Baba gives off an feeling of an ocean of love, because that was a line straight out of the documentary too, and I haver heard this before from someone who visited his ashram, and then came to the Center. I believe him. And besides that, I never in my life experienced anything about Baba as an Ocean of Love, but an Ocean of troubles, and a life of suffering, and tests, and endurance and faith forever tested. And putting up with a thousand liars and hypocrites like those in the film -- people whose sins I hide for the sake of protecting the reputation of my master -- as he would be judged by their sick secrets. And my sister holds them too. Does anyone think we grew up on the Meher Center, and saw nothing? Is anyone in this community still that ignorant? I'll say no more. I'll go to my grave protecting people who do not belong being admired and gushed upon -- for the sake of reputation -- just like Sathya Sai Baba fans will throw overboard a rape victim for the sake of their guru, and then, upon waking, find themselves suffering with guilt and millions of people calling them liars.
So to face this is in fact a waste of time, and not something to be brought up on Baba's birthday weekend. We should be focussed on love for Baba. And hiding all that is not pleasant on this sacred day -- which was not that sacred to Baba himself. All days were sacred to him.
So what was my final response this morning? A kind of poem, a groping for words in a mind troubled by its own self-deceptions, and burdened by a thousand secrets since I was a small boy.
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ReplyDeleteAnd I am ashamed. Baba has nothing to show. But what of those fifty years I just celebrated with my viewers, and shared with them? Was it a waste, when a man in the documentary can't even face half that many being wasted -- to the point of throwing the boy overboard, when he is a doctor and sworn to do no harm to anyone in a sacred oath? Is nothing sacred to the lovers of gurus? Is this the message we want to send to the world? That thinking about such things is a total waste of our precious time?
Baba teaches that in one sense your entire life, and the millions before it, were a waste of time. Is there some TV show that is not a waste of time, some pass time that is not time wasted? And at the same time no moment is wasted, as every moment takes us a step closer to the goal, even if we are in a prison and all we do is stare at walls and wait -- that time is time that will not have to be spent again.
Shame upon us to role our eyes at the suffering of aspirants who didn't have enough honesty and intuition to be true with themselves, and save their son. I say that for the young it is not a waste of time. And more than a few are not young. My daughter would have her time well spent to watch that film, but would never do so. As she is busy with her budding life in theater, and spending time with friends -- who she has brought to visit the Center.
My real answer is that there is no answer. And that my daughter's line, "It makes sense" is all I have. Baba's theme of creation makes sense. It is a small reward for fifty years, and countless lives, to say that. And that is my tiny taste of the apple.
Hi Chris,
DeleteAlthough I responded earlier, I have only just now finished viewing the videos. Certainly not a waste of time, but a fair chunk of time, even for a retired dude!
Watching this was a painful experience for the reasons you capably expounded above. When Baba says, "I veil myself from man by his own curtain of ignorance," I am inclined to think that the Avatar allows this travesty of the God-Man state to exist as part of that veiling. How excruciating...
I remember sitting one day at Meherabad one time when there was a ribald discussion about the rampant sexuality that transpired around the Osho ashram in Pune. I had the same feeling, a reticence born out of Baba's warnings not to criticize other gurus, considering our abject ignorance of their spiritual status. In this case, given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear that something evil is afoot and has been for a long time.
With reference to your initial hesitation about posting, I totally relate. I have often posted something and then withdrawn it, having second thoughts. Last night I stumbled across something in Ivy Duce's book that may be pertinent (How a Master Works, p. 85): "There are three things that always hinder Truth. First is temptation--very, very few persons can overcome temptation; temptation of money, fame, power, lust, leadership are disastrous, very binding and few escape it. Second, vagueness about things, and third, dishonesty." The first of these pertains to the pitfalls of spiritual teachers, but it is the concern expressed about "vagueness" with which I personally identify. Thanks for your dedication to truth.
With regard to child-rearing, I had three sons, and each of those experienced little or no teaching about Meher Baba from me or the Baba community, as I was in a kind of "spiritual latency" when they were young & impressionable. Whatever they received was given & received in silence, I guess. Baba tells me they're His, and though I would love to have kindred-spirit Baba-lovers amongst them, I of course respect their own spiritual walk. When I read Rachel Brown's book, I realized how difficult it must be for some second-generation Baba lovers. It seems to be a great blessing to be born into a (Meher) Baba family, but...
Finally, the pain or Dukkha I referred to is tragically common in this Kali Yuga. There is so much disappointment and hurt. I trust that Baba blesses those who continue to reach out for God with love and vulnerability.
Thanks again for eschewing "vagueness about things" and for your honesty.
Hi Chris;
ReplyDeleteThis expose is not a at all a waste of time if the point is that one can glean something from the sick and outrageous behavior of others.
What I find interesting is the peculiar theme of vomiting up a golden lingam on the one hand, and the alleged sucking up of a boy's lingam on the other hand. This is too fantastic for words!
The magic tricks of sexual tantra are...what should I say...disgusting!
Thank you Bill. I had missed that piece of irony about the lingams. I had heard that sex is associated with tantra, but now I think I see it viscerally. And I agree it is disgusting. Yes, and the point is to glean something from it about ourselves, not to poke ridicule at another group. I pity that family.
DeleteChris - I am moved by and grateful for your example. What you are sharing and your discretion, is very helpful to me. I wish you continued support, healing, and insight from the travails of this path. It is my firm belief that you (are)/will be held close by Baba in a way that confirms to you and satisfies you completely regarding His Reality and your connection, beyond even what may already be clear to you. Consider me as a supporter of your continued sharing of this important work, discussion, and information, as difficult as it may be at times... Dan Sparks
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