Sathya Sai Baba claimed to have appeared on the moon - a darshan, but at the time the sky was overclouded in Puttaparthi, so none of the massed crowds saw anything! Many devotees elsewhere said they "saw" this, and several concocted bogus images of his face on the moon! His was a truly lunatic showing. World astronomers, including NASA were unperturbed as they made no mention of anything unusual.
Sai Baba always had a lot to say about the moon, since it figures largely in Indian scripture and superstition in ways in which it naturally does in the culture and beliefs of all largely pre-industrial and simpler 'primitive' societies. He identified the moon as the 'presiding deity of the mind' (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol.14, p. 330 and Vol 12 p.13) , and insisted that the mind is strongly influenced by its phases, that the "mind is a reflection of the moon". (What this really means is, of course, anyone's guess, but it probably sounds rather good to eager believers, who were never allowed to pin him or his statements' meaning down any further). The full moon is supposed to be the best time for 'destroying illusion' (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol.1 p. 21f) and the mind is, according to him “powerless” at the new moon!
If you happen to have a moderate attention span (or want to wait until a full moon to try to take in Sai Baba words on this!, here is his mix of 'eternal 'divine' confused superstition on the subject:- "The mind is like the moon which received its light from the sun. It has no light of its own. It receives its light from the Atma (i.e. eternal soul" (p. 37 Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 20.) "The mind arose from the moon," says the Purusha Shuktha. The Moon has sixteen digits. Likewise the mind has sixteen digits. On Shivarathri night, fifteen of the Moon's sixteen digits are invisible, so only one digit can be seen. The mind also is in the same state."
Comment: If you can make any reasonable sense out of that (he never explains it better anywhere), then you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din! The world community – not to mention its millions of scientists - has not noticed such a huge decline in mental abilities concurrent with the moon’s phases.
Sai Baba preached that a 'Region of the Moon Principle' exists (Chandraloka or Moon Region): -
"The residence of the soul in the Chandraloka is what the Hindus refer to as the time spent as a Deva in Heaven or as an Angel according to Christian and Islamic religions.... thousands have risen to that position." (p. 50, Sathya Sai Vahini).
Comment: So this is a doctrine of Angels as well as Demons (Sai Baba calls his detractors demons)... just like in olden days. There is also both heaven and hell (Narakaloka) in his world view, though - typically for him - he has also elsewhere denied that hell exists - except figuratively on earth!
"The idea of hell is foreign to the spiritual thought of the Bharatiyas. The idea of Hell and the various descriptions of Hell are all later additions in the Sastras and Puranas. The authors of these texts believe that religion would be incomplete if it does not posit Hell. They laid down diverse tortures as part of hell... The purpose for which hell was created was only to incite fear among the people in order to make them desist from sin." (p. 51 f., Sathya Sai Vahini)
Comment: At last some words that make real sense from Sai Baba! Congratulations. But a shame he goes back on this elsewhere as in Volume 10 of Sathya Sai Speaks:-
Then we were later told:- "You give importance to Technology which is nothing but "Tricknology".... Science has developed but the senses have degenerated… Scientists discovered the Atom Bomb and also the Hydrogen Bomb, wasting huge sums of money to produce weapons of mass destruction... Now you have America and Russia leading in the world in technological skill and destructive power. But Bhaarath (i.e. India) is like Dharmaja... Now Bharath is the nation upholding Dharma. When you develop Dharma there is no need to attack or harm anyone. Hence no need to have destructive weaponry." (p 142, Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 30)
Comment: Odd also is how he claimed: "the senses have degenerated" when the senses are presented by him elsewhere as just about the worst enemy in the quest for the good and knowledge. Yet more strange, is it not, that this self-proclaimed omniscient God who said he knew every detail of the past and future of everyone and everything, did not realise that India - when led by his own devotee, Atal Vihari Vajpayee, would develop India's nuclear arsenal, test nuclear weapons, build ballistic missiles to deliver them and so started a nuclear arms race with Pakistan? The means to bomb Pakistan were provided by none other than by the devotee ex-President of India, Kalam, who Sai Baba has blessed often in public. However, Sai Baba continued to confuse the issue as follows:-
"The achievements of technology which have taken man to the moon are also events in the Cosmic Drama, where the principle performers are only working out His Plan; identification with the adventure and its success or failure will only make the performers proud or depressed --- states which would not help inner peace and joy."
Comment: What superfluous burbling” However, Sai Baba - with ‘His Will’ - has actually planned the moon visits as part of His Drama! Even though he deplores them completely! Being allegedly Omnipotent - a very great mystery, isn't it? IF you can believe him at all, THEN it must be a mystery!
You cannot say 'Sai Baba is God, he is genuine, but some of the things he says are not right', because he has proclaimed he is infallible, knows everything, created the entire Universe.
Now there was something I really like (from Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 12) . Such a pity, though., that he has clammed up entirely about all this since the Indian powers-that-be decided to go the whole hog in moon research (not to mention nuclear testing and research). In fact, one may note that Sathya Sai Baba NEVER criticised any Indian Government to its face. One can understand that he always wanted them on his side, as they always protected him from litigation and total disgrace, for reasons of their own prestige and misguided premature committment to him, his undoubted vote-catching powers in the South and his untaxed money and unaccountable financial operations. Yet nor did he take issue with any of those who practice the most terrible corruptions, cover-ups of terrorism and religious slaughter and any number of other items in the compendium of on-going calamities in India! He spoke in general terms, but left the crooks to continue without even saying ‘boo’ to one of them. One has to wonder why, considering that he promised back in the 1960s to Dr. J. Hislop that he and his students would regenerate India’s morals very soon, (but completely in vain, alas for the poor of India!)
See also links to articles documenting the various claims and reports etc.
