Why Sai Baba makes Swami Swaroopanand angry
Sai Baba would have exploded into a temper if he were sitting today in the dilapidated mosque in the village Shirdi. Not at Swami Swaroopanand, the Shankaracharya of Dwarka Peeth, who calls him a meat eater, a Muslim, denies sainthood quality to him and has been campaigning for Sai Baba's idols to be removed from temple premises.
His temper - he indeed had a temper that he reserved for scoundrels he wanted to reform and sometime he feigned anger - would have been directed at those who have turned the fakir of Shirdi into an industry.
Firstly, the very people who were appointed custodians to preserve Sai Baba's legacy metamorphosed him into a gold and diamond-laden deity. His transformation from a lifelong ascetic mendicant into a deity is modern India's unique phenomenon. Unique he was in many ways as late journalist MV Kamath describes him in Sai Baba of Shirdi: A Unique Saint.
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| Swami Swaroopanand. |
From the day he landed in Shirdi sometime in 1830s to his death in 1918, he walked barefoot. He survived on alms. Twice a day, he would go from door to door in Shirdi, stand outside and beg for food. He accepted whatever was given in a tin-pot. The routine continued till he died.
The Sufi fakir lived in a mosque that had fallen in disuse and had half collapsed. Baba wore a torn "kafni," a full-length robe of coarse cotton. The fakir used a coarse mat to sleep on and a brick as a pillow. When he died, he left behind a tin trunk that had an idol of Hanuman and not a penny. The trust museum displays a few possessions of Sai Baba including a kafni torn at one shoulder and a baton that he carried.
Today, almost 100 years after his death the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust is the second richest after Tirupati Balaji. The shrine's annual income is reported to be approximately Rs 500 crore a year. That's one good reason why Swami Swaroopanand is venting anger.
Secondly, if the Shirdi shrine's riches evoke envy among heads of religious institutions and trusts - the likes of Swaroopanand - the increasing popularity of Sai Baba is perceived as nothing less than existential threat to them. That's a much more serious reason than envy for wealth.
The reason is Sai Baba represented the syncretic tradition of India. His spiritual attainment had no method. He didn't prescribe any text and any outward manifestation. Nobody knew, still nobody knows, whether he was born a Hindu or a Muslim. He recited verses from Gita and Quran. The only words he uttered by way of paying obeisance to God were "Allah Malik." The only words he uttered by way of preaching were "Sabka Malik ek (One God for all) and "faith and patience."
Once when a magistrate asked him who he was he said "Kabir," hinting that he followed the tradition of Kabir, the 15th century mystic saint and poet. Sai Baba had no apostles, no gospels. He didn't nominate any spiritual successor to carry on his name, tradition and legacy.
How and when a Sufi fakir, who died a pauper was converted into an epitome of wealth; how the dilapidated mosque that he called his home was converted into a shrine? The answer to those questions is a reason that makes Swaroopanand and the likes of him insecure and uncomfortable.
The reason is gradual Hinduisation of Sai Baba. It's true that Shirdi Shrine is open to people of all faith and people of all faith are among his followers. But the overwhelming majority of them are Hindus.
The Brahmins of Maharashtra had begun the Hinduisation of a secular Sufi fakir during Sai Baba's lifetime. It gained pace after his death.
When he died, a conflict arose over his burial. The Hindus wanted it their way and the Muslim insisted on theirs. A unique compromise resolved the conflict. Sai Baba's body was entered in a sanctum sanctorum of a temple that was built there but was waiting to be inaugurated by Sai Baba. The place of burial was a Hindu temple in the making; the burial itself was as per the wishes of Muslims. In a place where an idol of Lord Krishna was to reside lies buried Sai Baba. It was more of a mazar than a temple.
For at least a decade after his death, Sai Baba's chief servitor Abdul looked after the mazar. Few people came to the mazar those days. Gradually, the fame of mazar spread when the lore of Sai Baba became popular.
In due course, the Sufi fakir of Shirdi was converted into a deity. Not by any force but through majoritarian assimilation. Dr Marianne Warren, a Canadian scholar, in a book Unravelling the Enigma says "Within the warm embrace of the Hindu bhakts, Sai Baba has unwittingly been given a Hindu gloss, while his Muslim and Sufi features have been slowly submerged. This process was not deliberate or intentional on the part of the Hindus, but is typical of the way Hinduism has traditionally assimilated new ideas."
Yet, the great tradition of Sufism survives, the syncretic culture thrives.
At a time when fundamentalism is growing in all faiths, when purity of faith has become hallmark of age, the syncretic and secular legacy of Sai Baba is growing at amazing pace.
It makes Swami Swaroopanand angry.