HAS SRi SAI BABA REINCARNATED NOW?

(BY B. V. narasimmaswami)

Sai Sudha July 1944

Then if any man shall say unto you, 'Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders;—in so much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you. Behold he is in the desert; go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers believe it not.

For as the lightning cometh out of the .east and shineth, "even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.

For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles.-be; gathered together.

st. MATHEW, XXIV-23—28,

Reincarnation of almost every one is a well known fact— never doubted by Hindus. Says the Gita

i.e. The person born is sure to die and the person dead is sure to be reborn. It is to escape the pain and sorrow of repeated and endless rebirths (known as Samsara) that people aspire through Jnana and Bhakti. This escape is termed Moksha. Hence, Pararnagnanis and Parama Bhaktas are. the exceptions to the above rule stated in the Gita. Sri Sai Baba is admitted by all who know the facts about him to be a Jnani and Bhakta of the highest order, whose Jnana was evidenced by his laya in the Supreme Brahman, and expressed by his " Main Allah Hum" i-e. A Bramhahma Asmi. He had shed his ego and could and did truthfully say " I have done nothing, I receive nothing "— "when his body did or received something. He had no Karma Vasana to pull him back to the Earth, once he left it. But to this exception about Jnanis and Parama Bhaktas, there is an exception. That is, that such saints as may choose rebirth may be born again. These are the Apantaratmas who may, if they choose, not appear in the flesh for a long time, after their departure and may suddenly reappear in a fleshy body and disappear at pleasure. Sai Baba is an Apantaratma. He might reincarnate at will. That is a possibility.

As for the probability of such reincarnation, there are several indications favouring it. First Baba passed away in Dakshinayana {and the Gita says such souls will be born again). Secondly he himself mentioned several times that he would reincarnate. He was requested by a Bombay young man to look after him in the next three births, those being the final births of that young man. Baba promised to take birth and be with him birth after birth. (See Chapters page 202) Baba made a very similar promise to a North Indian Judge. (See'Dev Exp. 1st Chapter). He said in the presence of Sri Bapu Rao Chandorkar, that he will be born as the son of Bapu. Sri H. S. Dixit said that Baba, to the knowledge of several devotees, said that he would reappear as a boy of eight years.

These statements show that Sri Sai Baba may reappear in the flesh. But has he come ?

"Whenever there is an expectation of a great prophet a saint appearing in the flesh, a number of persons come forward with the claim that each of them is the expected Avatar. Christ promised he would reappear and he also warned his devotees that false Christs and false prophets would arise and claiming to be Christ would even show wonders and signs (i.e., miracles), but that the devotees should not believe these pretenders. When the real Messiah reappears, he said, there would be no room for doubt. When a lightning flashes across the sky, everyone sees it and knows it is a lightning there is no need to get the services of an interpreter or intermediary to explain the phenomenon. The world knows its saviour and rushes on to his feet, as eagles gather round a carcase. As Sai Baba promised to reincarnate, we have a crop of claimants averring that each of them is Sai Avatar, Several people of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies have been informed of the existence of such "avatars" and these cases have been investigated and are still being investigated. So far, no well informed and well known Sai Bhaktas have discovered any real incarnation of Sri Sai Baba, amongst these claimants.

In the first place, no one has been discovered who from the age of eight exhibits the remarkable traits of Sri Sai's personality. Next none of the claimants are sons of any Bapu. Thirdly, none of the claimants have shown even a hundredth part of Sri Sai Baba's pure, truthful, loving, sympathetic and all-knowing nature and not even a tiny fraction of Sri Sai's wonderful siddhis. As stated in the above quoted passage from' the gospels, a few might even show some wonders (i.e, a few siddhis) like clairvoyance, tele vision. But these do not prove the identity of the claimant magician or thought reader with Sri Sai Baba. It is the high power of love—Love to all and sundry, absolute truth and knowledge of hearts of every one present and of those hundreds of miles away and of all that has happened in the past, or is now happening and will happen years later ; and his power over the elements, and other physical objects— e.g., to stop the rain or a storm or a blazing fire ; — and above all his God-Realisation or Self-Realisation that constitute the main features of Sri Sai Baba's personality. Where these do not appear in a claimant, that man's claim should be rejected without hesitation. Where these appear, the claimant will not or may not claim his identity with Sai Baba, but the world will run to him and fall at his feet recognising that identity — just as eagles flock to a carcase or ants and flies, to honey.

Will any sincere and earnest inquirer analyse the claims of any such claimant, to Saihood coming to his notice and see if the criteria of the real Sai Avatar are found in him ? If any real avatar is found, this journal which exists only to farther Sri Sai Baba's work will assuredly proclaim his advent to all the world.

One word may be added by way of explanation to the above; It is not intended by this article to denounce as impostors all that say " I am Sai Baba " or " I am Brahman ", without possessing the qualifications mentioned above. There is a purpose with which these slogans or formulae may be uttered by a Sadhaka. The ultimate truth is that the devotee or sadhaka and the Guru Sai are one and the same. Baba used to say so. The Bhagavad Gita also says it.

ie. " Says the Iswara to the Jiva, we are one; the wise descern no difference between us. That is the goal. The goal is reached by the Sadhaka by constantly rubbing the ideal into himself. It is the psychological truth embodied in the Bhramara-Seeta Nyaya. As a man thinketh, so he will become. So some people, — not very much advanced spiritually, do say (and rightly too)

" i.e. "I am He. He is L I am God

(Siva) ". Sai, like Siva, is a name for God with most Bhaktas. Sai Baba recommended it to several devotees that they should constantly think of Him and merge in Him. All that is unobjectionable. Similarly if any one though not spiritually very high is regarded by others as their guru, they will be acting -rightly in identifying that guru with God or Sai Baba ; and in dealing with them the guru will treat himself as Sai Baba or God and receive pooja etc., that is offered to God. This is unobjectionable, as it is ordained in the Sastras. What is objectionable is that any of the above persons should proclaim to the entire Hindu public that he or his guru is, in point of fact, an incarnation of God or of Sai Baba and must be treated as such by the public. It is only this claim that has been dealt with in the first portion of this article.