A frank exchange on idol/image worship in Sai fraternity, and on arrogance, pomp & show in Sai fraternity

Last updated on 3rd August 2015

Given below are some parts of a conversation from this Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/urnandakumar/posts/912115322163231 [3rd August 2015: This post seems to have become unavailable/been deleted.]

[3rd August 2015, Ravi: I have deleted the Facebook post content and some of the comments from the comment exchange below as I felt those post-authors & comment-authors may have concerns about it being shared on this blog post.]

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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
My humble view on the matter (and I could be wrong) is that while Bhagavan SURELY encouraged idol worship (and photo/image worship) and CLEARLY SHOWED that it is NOT WRONG, He also said it is a stage in the spiritual journey from formful aspect of God to formless. A quotation from His discourse, Shivarathri 2002, http://www.sathyasai.org/discour/2002/d020312.html, "Every creature that takes birth in this universe has a form (murthi). Idols are inert in nature and do not possess the qualities of compassion, love, forbearance, etc. It is for this reason that some people are against idol worship. This is ignorance. You use your forefinger to point a specific object, say, a flower or a tumbler. Similarly, idols are like pointers to Divinity. Once you recognise Divinity, you don't need the pointers, say, idols. Such being the case, is it not foolish to object to idol worship?" ... ... Regarding installing a big idol of Swami in Sai Kulwant Hall which is perhaps what your post is suggesting, I simply do not know enough of the various views & issues to comment. .... BTW a recent post of mine, Need to move from physical form Sathya Sai to mental-form Sathya Sai or formless God Within, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1622306014652636, may be of interest to you (and perhaps other readers) in this context.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Ur Nandakumar: I PROTEST strongly against some words in your comment. Those are not words that we should use about our Sai brothers & sisters. However, I do agree that many in our fraternity are attached to idol and image worship, and that leaders of the Sathya Sai movement should give importance to that aspect of the following.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Well, I believe Swami had said that His mission is mainly for regular people in the world and not for sadhus and sannyasis/sannyasins who have enough spiritual masters to go to. And, if one looks at Rama & Krishna avataric careers, they too were involved in the hurly-burly of the regular world. So, yes, we (Sai fraternity) may not have illumined souls like a Ramana Maharishi but then we surely have many, many people across various samithis as well as various homes of Sai devotees across the world who are "manchi vaadus" (good persons) to use Swami's term. That's what the world badly needs now - good persons and not people with spiritual powers but without strong moral values who end up misusing their spiritual powers for their individual gain and the detriment of society in general. .... And many of these "manchi vaadus" who may be unimportant from official Sai organization hierarchy perspective, demonstrate that they have moved to mental-form Swami within and sometimes even formless God within, without need for idol worship. Perhaps you may not have had the good fortune to identify the low-profile "manchi vaadus" in the Sai fraternity :-). Jai Sairam!
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Well, there are some of that type too in our fraternity especially in positions of power in the Sai organization and institutions. But let us not tar all with the same brush. Perhaps the physical form presence of Swami led some such organization positions people to become arrogant. But now their arrogance will automatically come down as the physical form is not there, and they have to prove their capability on their own. BTW this problem of arrogance was particularly noticed in Puttaparthi with villagers and townfolk around Puttaparthi getting fed up of "Puttaparthi Poguru" (Puttaparthi arrogance). It changed dramatically after Swami's Mahasamadhi where we Puttaparthi people were plunged into CHAOS & CONFUSION and fair bit of disrespect from the public. NOW, fours years after Mahasamadhi, things have stabilized to some extent. ... I think this is part of life in the career of an Avatar. Just read up on the arrogance the Yadavas had when Krishna was in their midst when a son of Krishna, Samba, ridiculed great Rishis bringing upon the Yadavas a curse that destroyed them. Krishna did not come in the way of that curse and allowed the curse to function even on His own body! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausala_Parva.... In comparison we Sathya Sai devotees are far better. Some arrogance among some organization leaders/heads but nowhere near what Samba, the son of Krishna, had.