St. Shane Sanders and Dr. Lanier Britsch, History

The scope of my research was the analysis of a syncretic paradigm extending from east to west. India houses the three major ashram(a)s of a new religious movement and sub-culture, united by a mythological belief in their guru, Swami Sathya Sai Baba. The village born guru boasts a following of one million, which is made up of indigenous Indians as well as foreigners coming from as nearby as Nepal and Burma to as far as San Francisco, London, Trinidad and Portugal to name but a few of the nationalities of the people I interviewed. The culture incorporates the religious thought of as many nationalities as it represents. The contemporariness of the guru and the newness of the belief system lend themselves well to a study of how myth is created.

My research was carried out first by studying the Sai culture and their literature, in order to prepare for the interviewing process. The next step was to travel to the ashram(a)s and conduct interviews. I gathered information illustrating their perspective of the world in relation to Godhood, and subjects like karma, avatarhood, and the sacred biography of their guru. In addition to the interviews I observed how the people related to Sathya Sai Baba himself during darshan. Furthermore, during my one-and-a-half months with them I was able to attend their lectures and have greater access to their literature.

The results of my research were six theories regarding the purposes mythology serves in the Sai culture. I then used specific examples from my research to support and illuminate each theory.

The first theory was that Sai mythology gives a person a unified theory with which the world can be viewed, and reality is defined through such a world-view. Some examples I cite are how all seemingly secular education among the Sai, such as lectures on astronomy that I attended, are incorporated into the larger mythological world-view. All things are regarded as true or real insofar as they form continuity within the larger picture, and the world and all of its mundane facts are mythologized and made a part of reality.

The second theory was that many of their myths would give way to the growth of additional myth. The Sai mythology is a syncretism of many cultures and faiths and as such the mythology grows to tie together all the major world religions. The Sai mythology was by genesis Hindu, but also integrates Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism and Islam. The mythology makes provision for the integration of the sundry cultures: for example Jesus Christ is considered an avatar sent by Sai Baba, and Lao-tze and Siddhartha Gautama Buddha are thought avatars of Sai Baba, and according to Sai myth the prophet Muhammad was spoken to by Sai Baba who is Allah.

The mythology also serves the purpose of resolving dilemma. As Levi-Strauss pointed out “myth . . . provide(s) a logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction (an impossible achievement if, as it happens, the contradiction is real).”(Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 226). Myth resolves seeming contradiction by showing that what is beyond contradiction alleviates it. An example of this is whenever the avatar is sick, it is said that he is not sick due to the frailties of his body or due to his karma for both of these ideas would imply a weakness that omnipotent avatars should not exhibit. Rather, the Sai explain that it is due God’s grace that Sai Baba gets sick for He elects to take on the sickness of a devotee who would be unable to survive the illness.

Myth also serves the purpose of making concepts that are beyond thought or transcendental and making them understandable. There are thoughts like the concept of eternity, the cosmos, the ultimate ontological reality and Godhood that are linguistically unapproachable and perhaps, except to maybe the mystic, evade even the realm of thought. But, rather than remaining silent about such things, as Wittgenstein would have it, the Sai mythology makes it possible to speak about transcendental thoughts.(Daniel Kolak, \Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company), 49.)

Sai mythology also resolves a human need, the need for love. Divine love or the omnipresent love of God, a God who is the embodiment and origin of love, provides for the human need of love. Even in solitude one has God; no longer is there a need for external, fleeting sources of love when the God within is discovered. Man’s ultimate concern, in the Sai paradigm, is ultimately concerned with man.

Finally, Sai myth has an apologetic function. It serves to show that the Sai paradigm is in harmony with all other religions, and that no one who is open-minded can disclaim the legitimacy of the Sai faith. Another way in which the Sai use myth apologetically, is to show that a mundane perspective is insufficient for understanding the universe. This is done again by referring to modern scientific theories in light of what Swami’s mythology has always taught. However, myths are adapted to include modern scientific theories, or the theories are mythologized to be included within the Mythological world-view of the Sai.

References

• Eliade, Mircea. 1976. Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Haraldsson, Erlendur, Phd. 1997. Modern Miracles. New York: Hastings House.
• Kasturi, N. 1971. Sai Bab: The Life of Bhagavan Sri SathyaSai Baba. Justin, California: Sai Baba Society.
• Kovoor, Dr. Abraham. 1998. Begone Godmen! Encounters with Spiritual Frauds. Bombay: Jaico Publishing house
• Masih, Y. 1998. Introduction to Religious Philosophy. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
• Seshadri, Dr. Hiramalini. 1999. God In Our Midst. Madras: Amra Publishers.
• Steel, Brian. 1999. The Powers of Sathya Sai Baba. Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation.
• Zaehner, R. C. 1994. Hindu and Muslim Mysticism. Delhi: Research Press.