Replies on Comments of Sai Baba

Recently some ardent devotees of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba approached Shri Datta Swami expressing their pain about the criticism of Baba from Shri Swaroopananda ji, the head of Dvaarakaapeeth. Swami gave the following message to them.

Shri Datta Swami replies all of Shri Swaroopananda's comments:

Sai Baba Was a Hindu ...

The remark that Saibaba has no tradition of preachers (Guru parampara) is also meaningless. He was the disciple of Shri Venkusa, who was disciple of Lord Venkateswara. The same tradition can be seen in the sect of Shankaracharyas also. Swami Chandrasekhara was a disciple of Adi Shankara, who was disciple of Lord Shiva. Saibaba keept a brick along with Him, which was given by Shri Venkusa as a gift of His grace.

The Number of God’s Incarnations ...

The remark that Saibaba was not mentioned in the 22 incarnations that appear in this age of Kali is also meaningless. Adi Shankara is considered to be the incarnation of God mentioned even in the Veda. The Veda says that the God will come with shaved head (vyupta keshaya cha). Adi Shankara is not mentioned in those 22 incarnations as mentioned in the Bhagavatam. The Veda is more superior authority than the Bhagavatam (shrutireva gariyasi). The Gita says that God will incarnate whenever there is a necessity (yadaa yadaa hi). The number cannot be a controlling factor of God. Such number is not mentioned in the Veda. Will Shri Swamiji say that Adi Shankara is also not a human incarnation of God just like Saibaba based on the number 22?
Ban on Bathing in the Ganga

The remark that the devotees of Saibaba should not take bath in Ganga River shows the extensively solidified ignorance of Swamiji. The nature of any river is to contain the water, which is a chemical compound of Hydrogen and Oxygen in 2:1 ratio. Along with the water, several pollutants and minerals are associated. As far as the water is concerned, there is no difference between any two rivers. At present, the pollutants representing the bad qualities of ignorance are highest in number in the river Ganga. This really represents the polluted mind of Swamiji also. Hence, the meaning of his warning to the devotees of Saibaba indicates that they should not dip in ignorance.

However, now, there is a proposal to purify the water of Ganga River just like My present message to clean the remarks of Swamiji. There are other rivers born in Himalayas and end in the ocean. When other rivers are exempted from restriction to bath, why not the Ganga river also? In the Mahimnah Stotram, which is considered to be the best of all prayers (Mahimno naapara stutih), it is said that just like all rivers travelling in straight or curved paths reach the same ocean finally, all the religions with different straight or curved cultures reach the same final goal, the same one God (payasaamarnava iva).

Vegetarianism and God ...

If Swamiji (the Shankaracharya of Dwaraka peetham) says that Saibaba was a non-vegetarian, Shri Rama was also a non-vegetarian. On this basis, Swamiji cannot say that the devotees worshipping Saibaba should not worship Shri Rama. The food habits belong to the external culture. God follows the line of external culture of a particular sect of people so that He can become friendly to them and slowly introduce the spiritual knowledge to them to bring them out of the sin of violence in the non-vegetarian path. A person standing outside wishing to bring out the drowning person in mud pond can drag him out by jumping into the same mud pond. Mud will stick to his body also. A running bull can be controlled by you after some steps only in which you have to also run along with the bull.

Hence, God in human form has to follow the path of ignorance for sometime to become friendly with ignorant people before bringing them out of the ignorance. Thus, the non-vegetarian habit of Jesus can be also viewed as in the case of Shri Rama. However, the remark on Shri Saibaba that He was a non-vegetarian is not correct. He only supplied the non-vegetarian food to the non-vegetarians and slowly preached about the non-violence to stop the habit of non-vegetarian food. The remark that Saibaba killed a goat is also wrong. He ordered a bramhin to kill the goat to test the faith of that devotee in Him. Then, the devotee became ready to kill the goat. He stopped the devotee telling that He Himself will kill the goat. In fact, the goat died immediately without killing from anybody. This shows that God in Saibaba was speaking all this denoting that the death of any living being is on the will of the God only.