A FEW OF SAI BABA’S TRADITIONAL VIEWS ON WOMEN
“Women should realise that, irrespective of their education or position, their foremost obligation is to protect the home. For lakhs of students and children who go to school, the mother is the first teacher. From the moment of birth, for every one the mother is the preceptor. If such a teacher leaves her home to teach other children, who will teach her children? For Indian (Bharatiya) women, the first duty is to reform the home and run it along ideal lines! The home and the family is the basic social institution everywhere in the world. When the home improves, the whole world will be better.”
Sai Baba at Prashanthi Nilayam on 'Ladies day' 19/10/1996. (Sanathana Sarathi, Dec. 1996, p. 334)
This is interesting thinking indeed, for each woman must teach only her own children, so “who will teach”. The answer to that is that there is no lack of male teachers, nor of women who are unmarried or whose children have grown up. These women could teach. The faulty assumption SB implies he has made in the above, however, is that it isdue to the negligence of the home by women that the whole world has become as it is… and we know how SB sees the world through extremely jaundiced eyes as a place where unrighteousness rules and almost everything is wrong. He puts the burden of the home and the family on women, and the burden of the world on them, just as men have done throughout most of history! His belief is wholly untenable, of course, a prejudice of bygone ages.
In a turnaround from his “women’s place is in the home” talk, he suddenly pronounced:
“Women too are doing all jobs equal to men. In fact, women do work more sincerely with dedication. Swami questioned the Director of the Indian Telephone Industries when he came to see Swami, about the percentage of women employed in the industry. He said 99% of the employees were women and added that women do better work than men. They do not stop or step out till the allotted work is completed. They have the work culture better than men. It is nowhere stated in any sacred text that women should only cook and not do work like men.” (Sai Echoes from Kodai Hills, 1998, p. 48-9).
Here, SB sees it as exemplary that cheap women’s labour is exploited in the most boring and repetitive work of telephone exchanges. These women must work long hours, then be home makers supreme etc. etc. This is much closer to the exploitation of women than respecting and honouring them.
But SB bemoans this situation where women are empowered to work outside the home and earn. Again, he harps back to the past he wants to see us all return to:
“Rama told Bharata that he should not permit women to take part in affairs of state. Women have their estimable role in household affairs, but they should be kept out of state politics. “Don't employ women as ministers. The reason is: a nation’s honour is based upon its women. It is only when women maintain their respect and honour that the nation will be respected. It is not proper for women to cheapen themselves by roaming in public places.” …and… “How does the situation in the country today compare with Rama’s conception of an ideal government? The state of things today is 100% contrary to the ideas and ideals of Rama. How, then, can Rama Rajya be established here? If we desire to establish Rama Rajya there should be harmony in thought, word and deed… “ etc. . (Sanathana Sarathi, May 1995, p. 118).
No need to stick to the same opinion at all, so SB changes tack to:
“…in the modern world, it is necessary for the women to share the burden of maintaining the family with their husbands and so the women should also pursue studies as much as possible and take up suitable jobs to share the burden of the family. It will smack of selfishness if the males prevent them from going to work for which they have acquired the requisite qualifications. Women can control the whole world for themselves by virtue of their inherent qualities of love and spirit of sacrifice.”
Sai Baba in a discourse, 19/4/1999 at Kodaikanal. (Sanathana Sarathi, July 1998, p. 172)
So now we see that Rama must have been seriously wrong, after all:-
“It will not be out of place to mention here that women who have wielded power in Bharat or other countries have proved themselves to be exceptionally able and successful. There have been many kings of Britain but no one ruled the country so well as Queen Victoria. Her rule was marked by righteousness, prosperity and efficiency. There was no discontent during her reign. In more recent times, Indira Gandhi ran the Government with courage and consummate skill. She was prepared for any sacrifice in the interests of her country.” (see Sanathana Sarathi, Nov.-Dec.1995, p. 293)
Sai Baba’s view of British history is that of some outdated and revisionist old time Anglo-Indian, one wonders where he picked it up… a quaint anachronism that historians can chuckle over. Queen Victoria withdrew from all normal duties as a sovereign for decades, mourning her dead Prince Albert and causing huge constitutional problems due to her disinterest, wallowing in grief and comfortable seclusion. So there was no discontent during her reign? Not under the horrendous conditions in the British lower classes during the Industrial Revolution? Not anywhere in the British Empire? This SB is an original historian indeed, a marvellous joker no doubt… who really knows that it was not so, but doesn’t want to think or speak ill of anything? Congratulations!
But Queen Victoria’s rule also saw the extremely brutal quelling of the Indian Mutiny or Revolution, did it not? The prosperity and efficiency was for the upper classes only (headed by Queen Victoria) and for the exploitation of colonies. So much for Sai Baba as a historian of Britain.
SB seems to dither back and forth between the tradition he knows from Indian village life and the more modern approach many of his middle-class Indian ladies now hold. Women must in effect do two jobs if need be:-
“A lady must look after the home first and then work outside, if necessary… she can study to get degrees, enter politics or do any other work but she should not neglect the home, which is the very foundation of her life.” (Sanathana Sarathi, Dec. 1997, p. 327-8).
This is the omniscient SB! Are you confused? Well, someone is! All in all, SB must all be very confusing to women devotees!
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TWO RECENT QUOTES FROM SAI BABA’S WONDERFUL WORLD
Today man is putting his senses to misuse and as a result his body is becoming weaker day by day. He shortens his life-span by his unsacred vision and by indulgence in sensual pleasures. Lakhs of light rays in his eyes are being destroyed because of his unsacred vision. That is the reason what man is developing eye defects.” (Sai Baba, discourse on 5/7/2001 (Sanathana Sarathi, August 2001, p. 226)
Comment: Is this the kind of absurdly non-scientific doctrine that students at Sai Baba colleges have to swallow? So man is developing eye defects and shortening life span… doesn’t Baba know about the vast improvements in health, life span and eye-care made by science in recent centuries? Age expectancy has risen progressively in almost all countries in the world, (notably except Russia since the Soviet State fell, the economy was wrecked). Bjorn Lomborg writes in his 2001 book “The Sceptical Environmentalist”:
“Fewer and fewer people are starving. In 1900 we lived for an average of 30 years; today we live for 67. According to the UN we have reduced poverty more in the last 50 years than we did in the preceding 500, and it has been reduced in practically every country."
So, any shortcomings in world health certainly have quite other causes than unsacred vision!
“Actually, one should never seek pardon for the mistake committed. One should be prepared to undergo the punishment. Only then can one be free from defects. When a person commits a serious offence, he is put in jail. He is released only after he undergoes punishment for the required period. Likewise, if you want redemption, you should atone for your sins and be prepared to face punishment for your mistakes. You should exercise control over the senses and see that you do not repeat your mistakes.” (Sai Baba, discourse on 5/7/2001 (Sanathana Sarathi, August 2001, p. 230)
Comment: Will SB follow his own advice? Does he mean that being a passive accomplice to the cold-blooded execution of young men is a mistake? Would he think not exercising control of the senses and repeating the lifelong mistakes of sexual molestation to be a mistake?