Fascinating phenomenon of impersonators of famous divine figures like Jesus Christ and Sathya Sai Baba

Last updated on August 3rd 2014

Some recent incidents led me to refresh my knowledge and also dig up a little on the fascinating phenomenon of impersonators of famous divine figures. Let me start by mentioning some such cases.

Impersonator of Lord Krishna

This is mentioned in the Bhagavatham (Hindu holy scripture which has the history of Krishna and more). One interpretation of the Bhagavatham section related to this impersonator, available on the net, is the ISKCON related one here: http://vedabase.net/sb/10/66/en1. King Paundraka started believing that he was the true Vaasudeva (a name of Krishna), the divine master descended to earth! His impersonation went so far as to result in a challenge, through a messenger, to the real Lord Krishna as follows: "I am the one and only Lord Vaasudeva, and there is no other. It is I who have descended to this world to show mercy to the living beings. Therefore give up Your false name."!!! [BTW Lord Krishna is the son of Vasudeva and hence one of Lord Krishna's names is Vaasudeva - the longer a denoting son of. But in the link above it uses the spelling Vasudeva to refer to Lord Krishna (and not his father).]

Paundraka further says, "O Satvata, give up my personal symbols, which out of foolishness You now carry, and come to me for shelter. If You do not, then You must give me battle." The real Lord Krishna and the (king's court) assembly laughs when the messenger of Paundraka delivers this message.

The real Lord Krishna then takes up the battle challenge of Paundraka. Prior to the battle the real Krishna notes that Paundraka has dressed up like himself (Krishna) and laughs at the impersonation. Later Krishna kills Paundraka in battle by cutting off his head with his Sudarshana Chakra. But the fascinating spiritual aspect is that the Bhagavatham states that Paundraka (his subtle body/suukshma sharira) on his death, merged with Lord Krishna! "By constantly meditating upon the Supreme Lord, Paundraka shattered all his material bonds. Indeed, by imitating Lord Krishna's appearance, O King, he ultimately became Krishna conscious."

Some of the events related to divine masters, especially the Avatars, are very strange even to spiritually well versed people.

Impersonators of Lord Jesus Christ

Wikipedia has a fairly long list of people who claim to be (second coming of) Lord Jesus Christ here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_Jesus

Another interesting aspect about Lord Jesus Christ is that there are accounts of other miracle workers contemporaneous or near-contemporaneous to Jesus. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_background_of_the_New_Testament:

The Talmud provides two examples of such Jewish miracle workers around the time of Jesus. Mishnah Ta'anit 3:8 tells of "Honi the Circledrawer" who, in the middle of the 1st century BCE, was famous for his ability to successfully pray for rain. On one occasion when God did not answer his prayer, he drew a circle in the dust, stood inside it, and informed God that he would not move until it rained. When it began to drizzle, Honi told God that he was not satisfied and expected more rain; it then began to pour. He explained that he wanted a calm rain, at which point the rain calmed to a normal rain.
Mishnah Berakot 5:5 tells of Hanina ben Dosa, who in the generation following Jesus cured Gamaliel's son by prayer (compare with Matthew 8: 5-13). A later story (In the Babylonian Talmud, Berakot 33a) tells of a lizard that used to injure passers-by. Hanina ben Dosa came and put his heel over the hole; the lizard bit him and died.
Such men were respected for their relationship with God but not considered especially saintly; their abilities were seen as one more unknowable thing and not deemed a result of any ultra-strict observance of Jewish law. These men were sometimes doubted, often respected, and even (according to Geza Vermes) addressed by their followers as "lord" — but never considered "saviors" or "messiahs."

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Impersonators of Sathya Sai Baba

I think the most famous such impersonator so far, at least in recent years, is Bala Sai Baba of Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, http://www.sribalasai.com/. Then we have Nepali Sai Baba, http://sanjaysai.org.np/. Both of these persons are look-alikes of our Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Besides the look-alikes there are reports of many non-look-alikes who claim to have some divine aspects/powers which are in some way related to Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. For example, some claim that some divine powers have been bestowed on them by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and/or that they are able to connect to/interact with him in some way (the latter are commonly referred to as mediums/channels/intermediaries).

What can one make of this phenomenon of divine impersonators?

Firstly, some of the divine impersonators mentioned above are or were benign and contributed to spread of spiritual values (worship of God, love, joy, peace, service to fellow human being, brotherhood etc.) in society. So, IMHO, they are a positive force for society and this contribution of theirs must be welcomed. But it must also be said that some were initially considered to be benign but later became horrifying figures. The foremost near-contemporary example of such horrifying figures is Jim Jones, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones, who claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus and others, and who led his followers to commit mass suicide (over 900 people died) in 1978. Another such near-contemporary horrifying figure is David Koresh, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh, who led 80 odd followers of his to their death in 1993 by defying USA law enforcement authorities which ended up in a deadly armed conflict with them.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say. Once divine figures become well known through their miracles and powerful transformational teachings, they inspire large number of people. Some of these inspired people may be getting so taken up by these divine figures that they may start deeply worshiping the divine figure and also identify themselves with the divine figure. That may result in some of them, especially those who consciously/sub-consciously desire paranormal powers, acquiring some spiritual/divine/paranormal powers similar to what the famous divine figure had/has. Some of these people may also start identifying themselves with the same physical features of the divine figure they worship resulting in the look-alike impersonators of famous divine figures.

A tricky and sensitive question is whether such impersonators (look-alikes and non-look-alikes) have the full power that the famous divine figure had/has. I think this gets answered over time. If the impersonators/mediums are able to demonstrate significant divine/miraculous powers consistently over a long period of time and also demonstrate mastery of spiritual knowledge through their teachings/discourses, they will, in all probability, acquire a big following and a big reputation. However, no impersonator of Krishna or Jesus acquired the same heights of fame that Krishna or Jesus acquired.

On Sathya Sai Baba impersonators/mediums, my humble view is that coming anywhere close to, let alone matching, the impact of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba will be an impossible task for any impersonator/medium of Sathya Sai Baba. Only a future avatar like Prema Sai Baba may be able to match or exceed that.