Sai Baba: Death of a Guru

Sri Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011)

Today, on Easter Sunday, one of the long line of India's great spiritual gurus passed on. Sri Sathya Sai Baba, known universally as Sai Baba, passed away at age 86, in his hometown of Puttaparthi, India - a small and humble town that Sai Baba built into a spiritual Mecca for his domestic and international devotees.

According to reports in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, "The death of Sri Sathya Sai Baba at the age of 85 from heart and breathing problems has prompted scenes of mass grief across India – where his distinctive frizzy hair, trademark saffron robes, controversial miracles and simple message of ecumenical spiritualism had made him a new-age icon."

While his legacy, like that of so many other modern self-realized spiritual gurus, like Adi Da and Osho, may be tarnished by accusations of sexual improprieties, Sai Baba is much more likely to be remembered for his non-dual teachings of 'One-ness' and for his teachings that the basis of all religions is 'Love.'

"Man extols God as omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent," says Sai Baba, "but, he ignores his Presence in himself! Of course, many venture to describe the attributes of God and proclaim Him to be such and such; but, these are but their own guesses and the reflections of their own predilections and preferences."

"Who can affirm that God is this or thus," he asks? "Who can affirm that God is not of this form or with this attribute? Each one can acquire from the vast expanse of the ocean only as much as can be contained in the vessel he carries to its shore. From that quantity, they can grasp but little of that immensity."

"Each religion defines God within the limits it demarcates and then claims to have grasped Him. Like the seven blind men who spoke of the elephant as a pillar, a fan, a rope or a wall, because they contacted but a part and could not comprehend the entire animal, so too, religions speak of a part and assert that its vision is full and total."

"Each religion forgets that God is all forms and all names, all attributes and all assertions. The religion of humanity is the sum and substance of all these partial faiths; for there is only one religion and that is the religion of Love."
"The various limbs of the elephant that seemed separate and distinct to the eye-less seekers of its truth were all fostered and activated by one single stream of blood; the various religions and faiths that feel separate and distinct are all fostered by a single stream of love."