Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
At times, the claim has included more complicated details: Shirdi
Sai Baba, says Sathya Sai, was a manifestation of the pure Siva
force; he, however, is an incarnation of the Siva-Shakti force, a
combination of the Destroyer of Worlds and his terrifying consort,
also called Kali and frequently depicted wearing a necklace of human
skulls while feasting on someone's head. There will be one more
manifestation in this series of avatars, Baba has often declared, and
that will be the incarnation of Shakti alone. After he dies, this to be
at the age of ninety-six in the year 2022, Prema Sai Baba will be
born four years later also somewhere in South India.
A Californian called Jack Hislop showed me an enamelled ring
that Baba had materialised for him, bearing the image of a shaggy,
vastly bearded man. This, he'd been informed, was Prema Sai Baba.
The image was rather terrifying.
Prema
means love. Sathya Sai's
version of the Hindu theory of avatars, which itself became very
confused after the Buddha's appearance, would be heretical in any
other religion. But since the incarnations of Vishnu range from a
large fish through a turtle, a boar, a humanoid lion, and a dwarf -
easily suggesting a parable of evolution - Baba's additional confusion
is hardly noticed. All agree, however, that there is one avatar left to
come: Kalki, who will orchestrate the end of all creation.
Sathya Sai's message, though, is devoid of apocalyptic overtones.
Indeed, his is a vision of the coming golden age, a heaven on earth
brought about by man's return to the cardinal rules of Truth, Selfless
Work, Peace and Love. This is what he has emblazoned on his logo
- a lotus with the sign of Om, the primal word, surrounded by the
symbols of all the major world religions.
At least that's how the logo was explained to me. Jews who came
to Baba were openly hurt or offended by the absence of any Magen
David on this logo, which included the cross, the star and crescent
moon of Islam, the Buddhist wheel of dharma, and the Om. There
was also another symbol few Westerners recognised: a burning
Olympic-style torch. This turned out to be the Zoroastrian fire. It
was not, of course, all the major
world
religions that Baba had on his
emblem, but rather all the major
Indian
religions. While India has
never persecuted Jews, and it surprises many to learn there are still
a few exceptionally beautiful synagogues functioning, the Jewish
