"A CRITICAL SITE ABOUT SAI BABA"
The Revelation of St. John
Just to begin, at this address you can find the complete english text of the Holy Bible, King James version, including the Revelation of John.
Let's read what Giancarlo Rosati says in the book "L'uomo venuto dal cielo (1991, Giancarlo Rosati Editore)"; in the book "Il Cristo e' tornato" from the same author the same concepts are expressed:
"Tells John in his Revelation (chapter IXX):
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. …And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean...
…And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years... and after that he must be loosed a little season".
The name with wich Sai Baba was registered to the public registry from the parents is Sathya Narayena Raju. Raju is the family name. Sathya means truth and Narayena means "the one whom stays faithful in the human heart".
In synthesis, the meaning of Sai Baba's name is Faithful and True.
John had seen correct."
Here instead I take back the excerpt of Sai Baba's discourse regarding "Jesus statement":
The statement itself has been manipulated and tangled into a conundrum. The statement of Christ is simple. "He who sent me among you will come again!", and He pointed to a lamb. The lamb is merely a symbol, a sign. It stands for the Voice -- Ba-Ba; the announcement was of the Advent of Baba. "His Name will be Truth," Christ declared. Sathya means Truth. "He will wear a robe of red, a blood-red robe." (Here Baba pointed to the robe He was wearing!) He will be short with a crown (of hair). The lamb is the sign and symbol of Love. Christ did not declare that He will come again, He said, "He who made me will come again." That Ba-Ba is this Baba, and Sai, the short, curly-hair-crowned red-robed Baba is come. He is not only in this Form, but he is in every one of you, as the Dweller in the Heart. He is there, short, with a robe of the color of the blood that fills it. [...]"
(quoted from the discourse of Christmas 1973, and present in "Sai Baba, God Incarnate", di V.Kanu)
And here is the integral text of the part of the Revelation that is quoted as prophecy of the advent of Baba: it is chapter 19, from verse 11, which is the beginning of the "first eschatological fight":
[11] And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
[12] His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
[13] And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
[14] And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
[15] And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
[16] And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND
LORD OF LORDS.
By comparing attentively between them the excerpts quoted above, it will be noticeable how there is not ANY real coincidence of signs (in the following comparation, SB stands for Sai Baba and RV for Revelation):
SB:
"His Name will be Truth" / RV: "he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True"In effects "Sathya" means "truth", but is different from "the True"; if they are equivalent, why SB quotes the passage modified?
SB: "
He will wear a robe of red, a blood-red robe" / RV: "he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood."A "blood-red robe" is not the same as a "vesture dipped in blood": it is dipped in the blood of the peoples that the apocalyptical fighter has come to strike (what Sai Baba, by his own admission doesn't want and cannot do). Anyway SB wears, according to the opportunity, clothes coloured of white, yellow, orange, purple red, but his abitual one is the coloured of saffron (not blood-red): this colour has nothing to do with the apocalyptical symbology, since in India the saffron clothing simbolizes the renouncement and the asceticism;
SB:
"He will be short with a crown (of hair)" / RV: " ...on his head were many crowns... "It doesn't need any comment; the manipulation is evident;
Reading with care, we see that also the rest of Revelation's passage doesn't prophesizes NOTHING about Sai Baba: the fighter is not God (as instead SB claims to be), but an avenger of God, who has come to strike and destroy (in fact his vesture is diped in blood); a part from "Faithful and True" he has other unknown names, or that have nothing to do with SB: "the Word of God", "King of Kings and Lord of Lords". He has come to rule "... with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.". It is not exactly the image of Sai Baba...
It remains Rosati's passage related to Sai Baba's name: it seems to me a poor thing, compared to the rest of the Revelation of John. I think that "truthfulness" and "faithfulness" are most expectable qualities in a right leader, therefore I find quite normal that John, in his vision, attributes these qualities to his eschatological fighter; whom, it's useful to remember, neither is Jesus coming back, nor a divine incarnation, nor any kind of avatar, as instead Sai Baba defines himself. It's also normal in his various manifetsations, God could be "Faithful and True"; moreover, in India are very frequent peoples with names of divinities or divine qualities. Enlightening at this regard is the book "Baba" by Arnold Schulman, which in one chapter reconstructs SB's birth and childhood; let's read this passage:
"Easwaramma (it was the name of Baba's mother), had just finished her Sathyanarayana puja when she startted feeling some violent abdomen contractions. She went home and sent someone to her mather-in-law, who was the head of family, to tell her that she was about to bear. [...] And, when [Baba] was born, they called him Sathyanarayana in honour of the puja."
(quoted and translated from Arnold Schulman's "Baba")
Even more interesting, on the name's theme, is what we learn from a recent Sai Baba's speech, during which the godman introduces an old man, who has been his school's companion:
"Although so much time has passed, he's still here. I'm talking about Gunda Satya Narayana from Bukkapatnam. Gunda Satya Narayana is here. He has been my classroom's companion (Swami laughs). You see? Look at how he's now! (laughings). When I was studying at Bukkapatnam, Satya Narayana was used to come to Me and call Me in adoration: 'Swami, Swami, Swami!' "
(from a speech of 18 october 1999, personal translation)
So there's nothing amazing and prophetic in Sai Baba's legal name, since it's simply the name of a devotional practice which was performed in the house of Rajus. In India this kind of names is very requent, thus it wouldn't have to surprise at all, the fact that Sai Baba at the registry has name Sathya Narayena. And as we've seen, there was at least another child who was called exactly like him: that further more invalidates his name's interpretation as a prophetical sign.
Considering that Sai Baba has never shown any equestrian aspect of himself, it is also worth of interest this passage, always by Rosati, regarding commanders and with horses:
"The Hindu sacred writings foretold the descent of an Avatar, symbolically identified as a commander ridinga white horse. The horse is a symbol of the mind eand the One who rides it has the mining of mastering it. The mind is responsible of all the projections that take us away from the supreme truth."
The one to which is referred this passage is the Kalki Avatar (or equestrian avatar), that is expected to be a reincarnation of
Krishna, who is a specifical avatar of Visnhu, and not a purnavatar as Sai Baba defines himself. The interpretation based on horse/mind and rider/mind master, thus an arbitrary symbolical interpretation, is something typical of a Sai Baba follower: he has the habit of using any kind of symbol and metaphor to symbolize the relationship "mind/mastering of the mind"; indeed, he uses any metaphor to symbolize anything, according to his purpose. With this method, which I would call "of flexible symbols", it's possibile to give any meaning to almost everything could be useful to us.
Sai Baba=God? Or what else...?
Obviously, wanting touse also the rest of the Revelation of St. John regarding Sai Baba, we could even find some passages which symbolism is not so "comfortable" and fitting the picture of him that is spreaded around. The followinf for example is contained in 13th chapter, verses 11 to 18, and tells about false prophets working for the Beats (i.e. Satan); it is also mentioned in Tal Brooke's book "Lord of the Air":
[11] And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
[12] And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
[13] And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
[14] And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
[15] And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
[16] And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
[17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
[18] Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Of course, not that I believe in such prophecies, but... for those believing in symbolisms, the above passage could be source of reflections. The verse [11] could indicate that this false prophet at service of the beast, is appearently humble and lovely as a lamb, while really he's authoritative and powerful with those listening to him. Sai Baba fully shows this aspect. Also let's remember that SB is the greater performer of "prodigies" of this age, and on his prodigies he has widely founded his own power over devotees. Moreover SB has really a fllowing composed of "small and great, rich and poor, free and bond", and with his own authority he surely impresses a psychological-spiritual "mark" on them; also he puts his mark on every practical work he makes (Sri Sathya Sai Baba Water Project, Sri Sathya Sai Baba Central Trust, Sri Sathya Sai Baba Education on Human Values, etc. etc.). This mark is evident almost in every street in Puttaparthi.
Sure, this is not properly a "divine" picture coming out this passage, which has the same dignity of the one mentioned by Sai propaganda, and it's drawn from the same prophecy. There's an anecdote told by Tal Brooke in his book, regarding this part of Revelation:
"[the author is reading chapter 13 of the Revelation, when SB comes] Around the time I got to the number 666, the key to the identity of the Beast, I saw a flash of red, and Baba walked in. Feeling a peculiar signifiance in the moment, I decided to ask Baba, since he was omniscient, what it meant. Emitting a soft playful aura, Baba practically swaggered over to me, took the book from my hands, and started reading where I had my finger. He could barely say the words, in fact much of it was word skipping and word blending. Baba gave me an odd smile, made a silly grimace, and then blew me a loud kiss, turned around and exited, saying something like 'the great and the small, will be all in all'. The playfulness of the perfect master?"(from Tal Brooke's "Lord of the air")
In my opinion this story is very interesting. Sai Baba the omniscient needs to read the passage regarding which Tal Brooke is asking the question, while it's claimed that SB knows and is the First Author of any sacred scripture. But what's worse, once he has the Bible in his hands he's not able to read it, because it's in english; and still worse, he's not able to give Brooke any answer. Instead, he makes a grimace, gives him a kiss and goes away saying a senseless phrase, without any sense connection with the context. This is a demonstration of Sai Baba's real omniscience... or there's more, and worse?
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