AND SO IT GOES
It is sad to think that all Great Men, are at the end of the day, JUST men. After I wrote the tribute to Sathya Sai Baba, I went back on the net to read about his funeral and the mourners. Mind you, it has been twenty years since my encounter with the great Mystic and my experience was similar to many at the time. In my initial research of him, word of mouth, books and magazines were all that was available as the net itself was in its infancy. There weren't many negative things about him and his manifestations of objects bordered on Magic more than Miracle. That said, I found that the things that had been given to me were inexplicable, no way they could have been anything BUT miraculous.
At the time, the Dali Llama was becoming very popular to the Western world as well and there seemed to be some competition in Japan for the many Gurus of the day. As I said, there were so many New Age religions popping up that you could literally pick your poison! Being a skeptic, I chose not to follow anyone and just admire them all, especially as my clients were following and devoting tons of money, time and effort to sharing space with their own personal favorites. As a Life Counsellor, I felt it more my job to guide them through their Journey rather than to beg them off one.
In my recent web search for Sai Baba's life and his passing, a completely new person has emerged. A story of a strange man whom I could find no hope of following or, even respecting. It seems that there are many questions about his sexuality, which in and of themselves, are simply none of our business. However, there is a trail of sexual abuse of children as often in the Hindu culture, children are "given" to study at the Guru's knee for enlightenment and aggrandisement for the parents. So it is in Tibetan Buddhism, and many other Eastern religions. Often these "schools" are very strict and rigid when it comes to training of young devotees, but I have a very hard time when it comes to physical or sexual abuse, all under the guise of "spiritual training". We have heard of it being rampant in the Catholic church and therefore, it is no surprise that it happens in other religions, it is juts a more rare occurrence.
Sai Baba not only groomed young children for the Journey, but he had favorites, one is a 33 year old young man that the reporters are calling his "boyfriend". Again, I make no judgement about his homosexuality, but the fact that he groomed this man from 6 years old, I have a problem with. It is reported that now this man want, of course, to take over the Ashram and all its fixtures, which now is HUGE! Sai Baba has amassed a huge fortune, creating hospitals, schools and villages for his devotees and Sai Baba's brother is now fighting for the right to take over himself.
Anyway, my point is not about Sai Baba's Life or Death, it is about the devotee. I firmly believe in a Universal God Source and NO MAN is that THING! To follow another human being, I feel, is a mistake as you must give "over" your control in order to have faith is something outside yourself. You may have many Teachers throughout your life, and perhaps even run upon a Master or two, but we should never give our lives to another individual who control any CULT of any KIND! And YES there are Christian Cults as well as others. Our goal is to discover the Divine, WITHIN. Here is the True Master as only YOU have the Power to Divine your own Life. Even though Sai Baba did some miraculous things his own Indian people called him a FAKIR, or a fake. Millions of his devotees will disagree as his message was Pure, yet the Messenger was NOT.
There are so many books today and the information we can gather is endless. TOOLS, TEACHERS AND TIME, are the three things we need to be successful if we are ever going to understand our UNIQUE approach to Life and Living. TOOLS, are the books, candles, implements of meditation or divination, TEACHERS are everyone around us and TIME is hat is required for us to look deep within our Self for the particular Road Map we brought into this Lifetime. Nothing else is required. I certainly don't have the answers, only the Quest. The more I Learn, the less I Know, that is KNOW for sure as the Truth keeps evolving as I do.
So we will continue to Seek the Truth, that which is unique and uniquely ours. Let us follow no MAN, as man has no idea of what is right for all and ALL is not Right for each Being. The First shall be Last! Until next time, I wish you Peace on our continuing Journey!
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