Date: 07-09-02
From: Brian Steel
Email: ompukalani@hotmail.com
Website: http://bdsteel.tripod.com/index.html
In previous Notes, I have shared my
astonishment at the many welcome revelations in LIMF (accompanied by convincing documentary and interview evidence).
One of these revelations is that, according to LIMF, SB's twin teenage
Declarations of being Shirdi Sai reincarnated and of being the Avatar took
place in 1943, NOT 1940, the official date which, for 60 years, devotees and
observers alike have all accepted for those momentous events in the life of
Sathya Narayana Raju.
Now that the year 1945 has been
brought under the spotlight thanks to Sanjay Dadlani's penetrating analysis of
SB=s secret austerities as a Sadhaka (ex-baba/engels/) in caves near
Puttaparthi, I have re-examined my research notes to reach a clearer
hypothesis about the crucial period in SB=s life of 1940 to 1945.
(Naturally, this still leaves many other points to be clarified about that
period.)
First of all, since any evidence
that contradicts the official story, or even SB's own words, is often subject
to olympian but shortsighted rejection by some, I would suggest that in
connection with this period in SB's life, LIMF
should be carefully read before making any dismissive comments. I further
suggest to such people - and to everyone else - that they search in the major biographies of SB for specific mentions of the years 1941,
1942 and 1943, which, according to the official version of SB's life story
(inevitably followed by all writers until now for want of other evidence), are
the first years of his functioning as a guru.
For some time, it has puzzled me
that the chronology for those early years of the SB Mission is so blurred, whereas dates are
(sometimes) offered from 1945 onward. Although I have not yet been able to make
a thorough search for such specific references, my first results indicate that
major commentators do NOT mention 1941, 1942, or 1943 in connection with SB's
early years in his position as guru.
1941,1942, and 1943, according to
the official version of the SB story, are the first years of SB's life as a guru, when he was setting up
his mission in Puttaparthi and busy attracting his first devotees and benefactors.
According to the LIMF evidence,
however, he was still at school, so such 'guru' evidence should be non-existent. If any writers do mention those years in a
guru context, the next step is to check whether the references are plausible, given the new state of the
documentary evidence at our disposal. I suggest that when such specific
mentions of those three years are found, they will simply not fit in with the
new facts that we know today! At some point, therefore, even the official
history of SB's Mission will have to be corrected: 1940 = 1943. So any references to SB's Mission in 1941, 1942, and
1943 must be assumed to refer to 1944 and 1945, and adjusted accordingly.
I have found only two such specific
references so far. Ra. Ganapathi (Vol I, page 184) says: "For four years
from 1941, the house of the Karnam was the habitation of our Lord." But
this is impossible, if he was still at school for almost all that time.
Howard Murphet, in the celebrated
first book, Man of Miracles, which
attracted so many people to SB, states on page 61, (quoting an alleged Kasturi story which I have not yet
traced), "about a year after the announcement, when Satya Sai was 15, he
was visited by the Rani of Chincholi." [One of his first aristocratic
benefactors.] For Murphet, that must mean 1941, "a year after the
announcement", but there is evidence both in LIMF and elsewhere that this meeting took place in 1944 or even
1945, so Murphet's year reference, like Ganapathi=s is simply NOT valid.
I can find no references to 1941,
1942, or 1943 in the first volume of Prof. Kasturi's 4-volume hagiography.
Kasturi mentions the Declaration date of 1940 on page 46. The next date given
by Kasturi is 1945 (on page 68) for the planning of the FIRST mandir, which
fits in with the LIMF chronology.
Then he mentions 1950 (the second mandir) on page 90. But, in spite of Kasturi=s
accounts of lots of happenings on those intervening 44 pages, there is no
specific mention of those three "missing years" (1941-1943)!
If the literature does contain
further independent references to SB as an independent but fledgeling guru
during 1941-1943 (rather than as a schoolboy, the victim of the 'scorpion'
trauma and the maker of the Declarations), I suggest that they will have to be
similarly re-dated to 1944 and 1945, like the ones by Ganapathi and Murphet,
because this was when the Mission really began (from 20 October 1943).
On the basis of the above, we can
postulate an alternative chronology for those early years which does fit in
with what we now know (see LIMF).
1940-1942: at school - but with
almost a year when he was apparently not at school, perhaps because of private tuition from his elder brother
Seshama (the teacher), to 'catch up' with his studies prior to being admitted
to the High School at Uravakonda, or perhaps for other as yet unknown reasons.
1943: Transfer to Uravakonda, the
'scorpion' incident and the weeks of trauma, the first Shirdi Declaration, 3
months of school at Uravakonda, then the 20 October Declaration.
1943 (late October): Back to
Puttaparthi to begin his mission, at Subbamma's house.
1944: Mission continued. The first
devotees and benefactors including many from Bangalore and further afield, including
perhaps Madras. Perhaps SB became quite tired with all the activity and
responsibility, and in particular the strong local resentment and opposition to
his activities and to his residence in Subbamma's Brahmin house. He was obliged
to move out and go and live in a hut on Subbamma's land. At around this time,
he mentioned the wish for Samadhi to some of his close devotees (LIMF, p. 197).
During this year the first known
photographs of SB were taken. They show a pleasant, smiling, chubby-faced boy with
a garland around his neck. (In view of the still undecided matter of his date
of birth, one is left wondering if this is the face of a 17 year old or a 14
year old.)
1945: This begins with the
approximate 6 months of ascetic seclusion and Sadhana (and perhaps even occult
exercises) in the cave, as described by Sanjay Dadlani in his recent article
and more or less hushed up in the SB literature, or referred to in the vaguest
of short references. We also know that by 21 July 1945 the seclusion ended
through the intercession of Kamalama and Subbamma. (The title deed for the land
for the first mandir was granted to SB on that date.) By the time of the
"tiger skin" photograph mentioned by Dadlani, SB is looking emaciated
and gaunt - almost a different person -
which would be a plausible further proof of his recent total seclusion.
1945, end of July to 15 December:
the building of the first mandir on the small plot of land donated by Subbamma.
Bangalore builder Thirumal Rao was the principal other benefactor and devotees,
particularly from Bangalore, worked on the project. The mandir was inaugurated
on 15 December 1945.
And from this point on, the official
chronology (as well as that of Kasturi and those writers who bother to mention
dates) begins to coincide with the dates mentioned in LIMF. But, officially, 1941-1943 remain in limbo. We now know why.