Sai Baba: The death of a human God

Self proclaimed human God Sai Baba estimated to have about 6 million followers worldwide, died yesterday at the age of 84. The term "human God" need not be considered derogatory as a human God is by no means lesser than an imaginary God.

He (or his disciples) not only claimed him to be a Purna Avatar in the Hindu tradition, but also claimed that his divine incarnation was predicted by Bible and Muhammad. He has predicted that he will be reborn as "Prema Sai Baba" in 2012 somewhere between Bangalore and Mysore.


The good news for the Guru/Baba/Amma worshipers is that, 100s (if not 1000s) of Gods are still left in our country. We may have shortage for food, water & shelter; we may have shortage for jobs; we may have shortage for  natural resources; but its unlikely that we in India will ever have shortage for Gods.

Kissing Hank's Ass

A satire on religion: Kissing Hank's Ass

Swamis, Gurus, Godmen

The "Swami Nithyananda Sex Scandal" is a major news item now-a-days. The poor Swamiji was unfortunate enough to have his LILA (divine play) with an actress captured on video, and watched by the public.

He is only the latest among a string of unfortunate Gurus and Swamis to get caught recently.

The newspapers as usual celebrate such sensational news. The responses are varied. The Guru's followers & well wishers would see it as a conspiracy by the enemies of truth. A few others who follow some other Guru or Mata would consider the culprit Swami as a fake Guru (their own Guru being the true one). The hard core atheist will consider it as another example of the evil called Religion.

But behind any fraud/crime by the so called Gurus or Babas,; what happens is nothing more than the act of a normal human being expressing his or her basal natures (be it lust, selfishness, greed, narcissism, or egoism). In that way the Gurus are no more evil than any average person. The real fault is not on the Guru who claimed to be enlightened or superhuman or divine, but with the followers who believed it.

What applies to Hindu Swamis would very well apply to many Christian faith healers, and to a lesser extent to some Muslim apologists and faith healers.

The number of such Gurus and Godmen all over India is staggering and would easily run into thousands. Only the most successful come on TVs and create web sites.

Does a Swami, Guru, Baba, Godman, Amma, or Faith Healer have to do something very seriously bad (like a sex scandal, murder, etc.) before we realize that they are nothing more than ordinary human beings (whatever be the spiritual state they claim, or whatever be the extra asanas they teach, or whatever direct contact they claim to have with God)?

The Early Church Fathers

The average Christian of today more or less takes it for granted that all that he/she believes in and all that is part of the Church today were there from the beginning of Christianity. But history shows that many of the core Christian ideas that we take for granted today, have an evolutionary history of their own. And The Early Church Fathers had a major role in that.

Understanding the ideas and times of the Early Fathers can give us a better view of why Christian theology is the way it is now. And without these great men, the history of Christianity and the World would have been very different.

Some of the important ones are:

Tertullian, (ca. 155–230)
He introduced the term Trinity the way it is accepted by the Church today. He defined the concept of Trinity with the term Consubstantiality (Tres Personae, Una Substantia - Three Persons, One Substance). Unlike the modern Christian belief, he held that all people (Christians & non-Christians) will be in harmony with God ultimately (the greek term is Apokatastasis).

St. Irenaeus (2nd Century)
A disciple of Polycarp, one of his major influences was his idealogical battle against Gnosticism.

Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150 - ca.216)
With his emphasis on the importance of both knowledge and faith, he had a great impact on later Fathers like Origen, St. Jerome, etc. Like Tertullian, he believed in the Apokatastasis principle.

Origen (185–ca. 254)
A mystic and philosopher. His writings were perhaps the first intellectual attempt to describe and defend Christian principles. He mixed Platonism and Stoic philosphy with Christian principles, to give faith an intellectual basis. He too held the Apokatastasis principle of salvation for all irrespective of their religion.

Athanasius of Alexandria (293 – 373)
A contemporary of Arius. His defense of the official dogma against that of Arius and his followers, was the beginning of a long conflict with Arianism. Famous for the Athanasian Creed that rejected Arianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, and Macedonianism.

Basil of Caesarea (ca. 329 - 379)
Famous for his idealogical battles against Arianism and other heresies. He is well known for his charitable works as well.

Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (ca.337 – 397)
Played the decisive role in suppressing Arianism and pushing Roman paganism to the background, which would have had a phenomenal impact on the future of Christianity.

St. Jerome (ca. 342 - 419)
Translation of the entire Bible into Latin (Vulgate). The Vulgate was to have a major impact on the faith, art & culture of Christian Europe for more than 1000 years. Some scholars even hold that it had an important role in the development of many European languages.

Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354 – 430)
An intellectual and philosophical giant both for Christianity and Western thought. And perhaps the most important person for Christianity after Jesus and Paul. Many of the popular Christian concepts today were either propounded or clarified by him. He expounded the concept of Original Sin as accepted by all major Churches today. Another important principle that came from him was the theory of Just War (fighting for a just cause), as opposed to the traditional "Turn the Other Cheek" principle. He also held that the Bible should be interpreted symbolically and not literally.

Gregory the Great (c. 540 – 604)
He had a major role in transforming the Papacy to a seat of real power.

Historical Validity of the Bible As God's Word

The inerrancy and perfectness of the Bible has been a central aspect of faith for most Christian sects. And this has been the cause (atleast indirectly) of some major tussles between the medieval church and science. But whether we like it or not there are many parts of the Bible which doesn't agree perfectly with known scientific, historic and logical facts.

I feel, its totally unecessary for Christians to claim that every book, verse, word in the Bible is perfect. The simple reason being, we have a lot of contrary evidence.

Also for the believer, Christianity need not stand or fall on the reliability of the Bible. The following are a few notable points.
1) The Bible was written by human beings.
2) Unlike Quran, we don't have any documentary evidence of God or any other divine source dictating the contents of what is to be the Bible. There are no such claims in the Bible itself.
3) The exact choice of the Books to be in the Bible was decided by councils and synods and not by God or angels.

The history of early Christianity is also the story of a number of various heresies and doctrinal differences. The choice of the contents of the Bible would have been definitely influenced by the numerous councils and synods in early Christian period, which were setup to reconcile the differences. A few notable ones being,
-> Council of Jerusalem 50 AD
-> The First Council of Niceae 325 AD
-> The Synod of Laodicea 364 AD
-> The Council of Constantinople 381 AD
-> The Synod of Hippo 393 AD

The role of politics and power too cannot be overridden.

The point is that, if we check history, we see that what is to be the Bible was not given apriori. Early Christianity didn't spring up from an entirely Biblical source. Its more like the Bible evolved over a few centuries during the early Christian period to be what it is now. i.e. The Bible as we know today didn't exist until atleast Christianity reached a certain level. The Bible was not the single source that created early Christianity, rather it evolved with it.

Puranic Timescale of the Universe

The timescale of the Universe as given by Puranas. Though scientifically incorrect, the imagination of our ancient Indians is worth appreciating.

1 charana = 432, 000 human years

Satya Yuga = 4 charanas
Treta Yuga = 3 charanas
Dwapara Yuga = 2 charanas
Kali Yuga = 1 charana

Maha Yuga = one cycle of all four yugas = 4.32 million solar years

One day of Brahma = 1 kalpa = 1000 Maha Yugas

Brahma creates the Universe during his day (1 kalpa) and destroys it during his night (1 kalpa again).

The creation-destruction cycle continues the next day.

The maximum age of a Brahma is 100 brahma years. After which a new Brahma emerges and continues the cycle.

Buddhism, David Hume & Impermanence of Soul

The Buddhist theory of "Pratityasamutpada" and the Scottish philosopher David Hume's (1711-1776) "Bundle theory" & "Causation theory" have an interesting parallel, both lead to the impermanence of the Soul or individual self.

This is a radical shift from what appears to commonsense and that held by most religions of the world. Be it the dualistic traditions of everyday religion or the monist spirituality of mysticism (sufism, advaita, Christian mysticism); almost every one of them assumes the continuity and identity of the Self/Soul.

Both "Pratityasamutpada" and Hume's "Bundle theory", implies that the individual Self/Soul is nothing more than a series of connected sensations, and its the combination of "memory" & "imagination" creates the illusion of a permanent Self/Soul.

The credit should go to great Buddhist thinkers like Nagarjuna (2nd or 3rd century AD) who developed the original Buddhist theory of "impermanence" to an formidable philosophical argument. Though Hume' got the same ideas centuries later, he still deserves a great deal of respect for coming up with these ideas independently and for being the first in the Western world to popularize these ideas.

This perspective looks more probable than that of a permanent self/soul. In fact the possibility of an impermanent Soul/Self is the more scientific viewpoint, as it does away with the "Ghost in the machine" hypothesis of Soul. Soul/Self is no more a non-material "ghost" residing in the material "machine" of the body; but rather its an after effect or by product of the material body in its material environment.

Ego has a central place to play in all human action, and ego is rooted in the concept of I/Self/Soul. But if the very concept of Self is nothing more than the totality of one's experiences and sensations projected through the prism of imagination, what we call as "I" or "Self" loses its subjective nature and becomes objectified.

One major implication of this thought process is that there is no Soul in the usual sense in which we use the term. "No Soul" implies that no part of us survives our physical bodily death. This further implies the improbability of life-after-death, heaven/hell, Moksha, etc.

The Buddhist view point however still holds on to reincarnation in the sense that a set of actions/sensations/thoughts in a particular birth can act as causes to a set of effects in some other birth, thereby maintaining the continuity of Karma. This however is not scientifically possible.