Ignorance of SB Devotees (3)
In some of my past blogs about the ignorance that is prevalent among Sai deovtees, I feel that I still have not adequately touched on the matter fully in the sense of my own labelling them as such.
One thing that we should consider about spiritual ignorance is how prevalent it is in other religions and traditions too. For example, some Muslims are often criticised for drinking alcohol when this habit is strictly against the principles of Islam. And whereas vegetarianism is considered to be a penultimate virtue among Hindus, you will often find such people consuming meat and mat products. Similar inconsistencies are there among people of all faiths, yet we still find them acknowledging themselves as a member of that faith. And I am not even going to start on the level of spiritual knowledge that such members may have of their respective faiths.
In some circles this would be considered hypocrisy whereas in others it might be considered human nature. I, therefore, do not find it out of line to consider SB devotees to be ignorant despite paying lip-service to him and his organisation's works. Judging by the philosophical content in SB's books I find them often lacking in depth and substance, and also judging by my discussions with devotees over the years it appears that not very many of them spend much time studying his teachings either. In much of the discussions that I have viewed and/or participated in, most participants invariably paraphrase a quote that they have "read somewhere but can't remember where." Devotees who quote from his books as a result of due study are quite rare to find and such study seems to be very much of a recent trend.
It is interesting to see how Sai Baba himself highlights the problems in one of his more famous discourses: "Your worldly intelligence cannot fathom the ways of God. He cannot be recognized by mere cleverness of intelligence. You may benefit from God, but you cannot explain him. Your explanations are merely guesses, attempts to cloak your ignorance in pompous expressions." And yet this is precisely what most devotees do; speaking in vague terms without direct reference to SB's books or mainstream scriptures.
To admit ignorance is a hard thing to swallow, but there is nothing inherently shameful about that. To admit to not reading SB's books or studying them very well and yet participating in discussions on convoluted subjects such as the nature of God, the soul's relationship with Him, our duties, and so on, would be a truthful expression of honesty and an admittance of one's own faults. After all, this is what SB himself preaches all the time; admit your faults, be humble, work on your ego.
And I would have to repeat what I said in an earlier blog: What the devotees need to do before they do anything else is to educate themselves.
It would be an expression of humility and truth for devotees to accept that they know very little philosophy. And what they would need to do is to follow the teachings of their own guru:
"If they learn the Sastras or scriptures, or if they cultivate direct experience, they can understand me. Your innate laziness prevents you from the spiritual exercises necessary to discover the nature of God. This laziness should go. It has to be driven out of man's nature in whatever shape it appears."
Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!
One thing that we should consider about spiritual ignorance is how prevalent it is in other religions and traditions too. For example, some Muslims are often criticised for drinking alcohol when this habit is strictly against the principles of Islam. And whereas vegetarianism is considered to be a penultimate virtue among Hindus, you will often find such people consuming meat and mat products. Similar inconsistencies are there among people of all faiths, yet we still find them acknowledging themselves as a member of that faith. And I am not even going to start on the level of spiritual knowledge that such members may have of their respective faiths.
In some circles this would be considered hypocrisy whereas in others it might be considered human nature. I, therefore, do not find it out of line to consider SB devotees to be ignorant despite paying lip-service to him and his organisation's works. Judging by the philosophical content in SB's books I find them often lacking in depth and substance, and also judging by my discussions with devotees over the years it appears that not very many of them spend much time studying his teachings either. In much of the discussions that I have viewed and/or participated in, most participants invariably paraphrase a quote that they have "read somewhere but can't remember where." Devotees who quote from his books as a result of due study are quite rare to find and such study seems to be very much of a recent trend.
It is interesting to see how Sai Baba himself highlights the problems in one of his more famous discourses: "Your worldly intelligence cannot fathom the ways of God. He cannot be recognized by mere cleverness of intelligence. You may benefit from God, but you cannot explain him. Your explanations are merely guesses, attempts to cloak your ignorance in pompous expressions." And yet this is precisely what most devotees do; speaking in vague terms without direct reference to SB's books or mainstream scriptures.
To admit ignorance is a hard thing to swallow, but there is nothing inherently shameful about that. To admit to not reading SB's books or studying them very well and yet participating in discussions on convoluted subjects such as the nature of God, the soul's relationship with Him, our duties, and so on, would be a truthful expression of honesty and an admittance of one's own faults. After all, this is what SB himself preaches all the time; admit your faults, be humble, work on your ego.
And I would have to repeat what I said in an earlier blog: What the devotees need to do before they do anything else is to educate themselves.
It would be an expression of humility and truth for devotees to accept that they know very little philosophy. And what they would need to do is to follow the teachings of their own guru:
"If they learn the Sastras or scriptures, or if they cultivate direct experience, they can understand me. Your innate laziness prevents you from the spiritual exercises necessary to discover the nature of God. This laziness should go. It has to be driven out of man's nature in whatever shape it appears."
Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!
posted by Swami Saiexposedananda at
00:54
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2 Comments:
I dont believe that I am a spiritual ignorant because I call myself a Hindu and eat beef. Where in hiduism is it said that one should not eat meat? (if you say Veda's as your souce I can show hundreds of examples in Hindu scriptures righteous people eating meat, so point in taking one as the source and disregarding other) .I am not talking about BJP's Hiduism. originally 'hindu' meant however lived in indian subcontinent. People made the mistake of thinking hinduism is religion. It's more a way of life than a religion.
I am posting here another of my responses to SB related blog. enjoy!
"Why should the scriptures foretell the arrival of an avatar?
What special power do the scriptures have? Why people make the mistake of taking them literally?
Scriptures have been (and still are) tools of organized religion and organized religion is always devised to keep people on short leash instilling fear of God and prospect of heaven and hell. There are people who say Organized religion is a neurological disorder. Now, that can be considered as numerological disorder believing in avatars should be the worst kind of mental condition.
Just imagine this- 150 years from now, when SB's is long dead and gone. World is going through idealogical struggle (say,spirituality Vs materialism) and some people from SSO (sathya sai organization) start preaching ( or spreading the teachings of SB) something everybody agrees. And there is this powerful world leader (say head of European Union or President of the US) who for his political benefit embraces SB as the real avatar and condones SSO. What next? Sounds something you read in history books about the history of Christianity?
In next 1000 years if the conditions are right (like it was in 1st century AD) SB will replace Jesus and SSO will replace Vatican. Its not actually far fetched if you are a Sai Devotee and a Christian. Because all Jesus said was he was son of God and SB is the God himself (if you believe that). so there is no contradiction there. Once the Pope and other leaders are convinced of that and deal between SSO and the Vatican goes through, what you have is another powerful religion. As for as Islam is concerned its even easier.( Sorry brothers, I have to admit that if ever a religion made defined God in most meaningful and understandable sense, it must be Islam) Because all SSO has to do is refer SB's coming in Holy book and a new legal (valid) prophet is readily accepted. Teachings of budda and concept of reincarnations are all already all over SB's marketing strategy and Buddhists are easy customers. Hinduism? Don't even worry about it! As it has no single Book are single God, SB can be easily sold. But the hard nuts to crack will be Jews. They didn't buy Jesus so they will be mush harder. SSO will take care of them much later.
Now imagine the other possibility (which is more realistic). That SSB dies like any other human being (or dog for that matter) and SSO is proven just one more cult and 3 generations from now If your grandson comes know that you were a member of SSBC (Sathya Sai Baba Cult), How stupid he going to think you were.
Now, can we prevent this from happening? Yes and No. Yes if powerful people in the world are prevented from buying into it and No because its hard to cure so many people with that mental condition.
So the choice is yours. you have got make a decision whether SB's is cult leader or he is the God on earth (if you are lucky you will be proven right in 1000 years)."
By
3 D, at 26 November, 2005 16:03
Hi Devaran,
sorry if you got offended by what I wrote above. Sometimes I write in a pretty intense manner, and I actually had certain people in mind when I wrote the above blog.
However, I believe that the basic point that I made still holds true. It is not a question of ignorance per se as ignorance can be easily dispelled. It relates more to the fact how Sai devotees generally try to participate in a debate/discussion about some part of Vedic philosophy when they clearly know nothing about it.
To cite just one example; it is commonplace for devotees to talk about Advaita and how Advaita is "Swami's message". But when you try to talk to them about it or even talk them through it, it becomes clear that they have no idea at all about orthodox Advaita as founded by Adi Sankara. They have probably never read a single line of Sankara's, but talk about the subject freely as if they are experts on it. Neither do they know that Sai Baba doesn't preach Advaita, but his own diluted and distorted version of it.
So that was really my main point, how devotees of SB should educate themselves in the different aspects of Vedic philosophy before exhibiting their lack of knowledge about it.
>> I dont believe that I am a spiritual ignorant because I call myself a Hindu and eat beef. Where in hiduism is it said that one should not eat meat? (if you say Veda's as your souce I can show hundreds of examples in Hindu scriptures righteous people eating meat, so point in taking one as the source and disregarding other) . <<
Oh yes, I am aware that there are many directions in the scriptures to eat meat. However, as I understand it from followers of the main spiritual traditions (Dvaita, Sri Vaishnavism, etc) the eating of meat is to be shunned by those who aspire for a spiritual (satvic) quality of life. It's upto the individual, I guess.
By
Swami Saiexposedananda, at 27 November, 2005 04:58
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