The Chosen People

As I was travelling on the bus this afternoon, the concept of the "chosen ones" entered into my mind for due contemplation. I began to wonder what it really means to be "chosen"; does "chosen" mean to be part of a community or race of people such as the Jews, with whom "chosen people" is a fundamental cornerstone of Old Testament rhetoric, or does it mean someone who actually makes the effort to put into practice some or all of the ideals that are expected of him within such a community?

Of course it just had to also occur to me how devotees of SB think that they are the chosen ones; chosen to know of his presence in this world and believe in Him since apparently you cannot even hear about him without his willing it so. The very thought of this brought forth an incredulous chuckle. Having exited from the Sai Org around 3 years ago, that line of thinking has become so far removed from my schema that I had to laugh at it. How twee do you have to be to actually believe that you are a privileged member of the elite, so to speak?

Of course there is nothing fundamentally wrong in having self-confidence or feeling special about yourself in other ways within the realm of positive thinking, but to actually believe that God has incarnated on earth and he has chosen you - YOU - to know about it is, well, a tad narcissistic.

What can I say? How can we deal with such people, who genuinely think that they are the bearers of the divine torchlight, recruited soldiers in the war against illusion, the type of people who would be happy to give their lives in "Sai Service"?

It appears to be the same sort of mindset as an Islamic suicide bomber. This is not to say that we can expect SB devotees to blow themselves up in the middle of crowded places, but the mentality and the innate sense of exclusivity is something that I find horrifically similar. Having spent some time indulging one of my favourite hobbies (reading political history), the parallels that I find in the mentalities are unnerving and uncanny. The same sort of foreboding mentality, the utter refusal to accept a different point of view, the senseless denial that is employed in the face of undisputed facts, and lastly, the firm conviction that they will one day be vindicated for their beliefs.

This topic of vindication is also something of a botheration. One particular topic that SB is famous for bringing up is how he has advented to bring about the Golden Age. For years he was vague about how he would so such a thing and in what manner it would happen. And then he gave a firm date: 23rd November 2000, the date of his 75th Birthday so I understand. He is now 79 and his Golden Age is well overdue by almost five years now. Conveniently, most of his followers changed tack and started muttering about how this Age had started at an imperceptible and subtle level, out of the range of perception of us lowly mortal beings. This, despite the long and palpable excitement that has been building up through the years for a tangible "Golden Age" that was understood to be of similar structure to the descriptions of the same in scripture.

Despite the glaring falsity of this single case, it amazes how SB devotees continue to ignore it and carry on as normal as if nothing was wrong, still looking forward. I feel that such self-evident absurdity need not be explained any further and it is really up to the onlooking observers to decide whether Sai Baba really merits the amount of attention that he receives.

As I am currently reading 'Rocks of Ages' by Stephen Jay Gould, I notice that he has some interesting things to say about the concept of a Golden Age in itself. Perhaps that shall be the subject of my next blog once I digest his views on the matter.

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