Sathya Sai Baba: "Why Fear When I am Here" - My interpretation of it

Last updated on 24th June 2015

Taking Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's (Swami's) statement of "Why fear when I am here" to mean that we should aggressively counter each and every injustice that plagues the world, is NOT the right interpretation of Swami's statement, IMHO. I think it applies more to situations where one is following the principles of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti & Prema (which implies the vital principle of tolerance), but one is still faced with terrible threats. At that time, one should pray to Swami and be assured that He will protect us. One should not forget that Swami has also asked us to avoid bad company. Swami did not tell us to aggressively mix with bad company and force them to change their bad ways.

[This seems to be in line with the famous saying: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. So, IMHO, spiritual people including Sai devotees following principles of tolerance (sahanamu) should not get provoked into doing something foolish by somebody calling them cowards, or their behaviour, cowardly. Just by somebody calling spiritual people, including Sai devotees, who practise tolerance, cowards, does not make them cowards. Being confronted by serious aggression which harms or threatens to harm oneself or one's loved ones is another matter altogether, of course, IMHO. At that time, IMHO, one should pray to Swami, be courageous, and fight the aggressive opponent(s) as needed to prevent them from inflicting harm or further harm.]

About fear (being scared) itself, I certainly have fear and am not fearless. Further, I think having some fear is wise. One must know one's strengths, weaknesses and limitations, and counter threats and face problems using a strategy suited to that.

In this context I would like to add that Swami would say that sometimes His devotees would get scared (have Bhaya) and that He is there to remove that fear/Bhaya (and make them fearless/Abhaya). BTW Swami's famous blessing hand gesture is called the "Abhaya Hasta" gesture (in Sanskrit, I presume) literally translated as "Fearless Palm". Here's a nice pic of Swami showing the Abhaya Hasta gesture, http://www.saibabaofindia.com/june2011/mother-ma-sri-sathya-sai-baba-blessings-abhya-hasta-mudra.jpg.