Rajiv Malhotra on how Hinduism is viewed by USA academic religion and related fields; Perhaps neglect by USA (and Indian) academics of Sathya Sai teachings and movement is for similar reasons

Last updated on 9th Aug. 2019

Firstly, I should say that I am NOT an academic. I am a ***non-academic*** social media writer (blogs & Facebook) on spirituality and religion. These writings include my humble views, experiences and thoughts about Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and his teachings.

My association with Indian academia was with mainly pre-Mahasamadhi Sathya Sai university (SSSIHL) in the role of a free service (Seva) industry expert in software development with designations of Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty from Jan. 2003 to Mar. 2012. That stint does NOT make me an academic. I contributed as an industry expert and NOT as an academic. And the field was software development which is a part of the Computer Science field.

Having said that, I have done some amount of reading about religion from some academics in the field of religion and also of related fields. As far as I can make out, in the academic field of religion and spiritual movements, there is very little about Sathya Sai Baba.

"Winged faith: Rethinking globalization and religious pluralism through the Sathya Sai movement" by Tulsi Srinivas is perhaps the most well known academic scholar work on Sathya Sai in religion, spiritual movements and related fields. I  should also say that I have not read the book.

Also note that parapsychology field work is different. Prof. Erlendur Haraldsson has written about Sathya Sai in that context.

I am talking here about academic fields of religion and spiritual movements, and related fields.

Google Scholar reports some academic articles by A. Kent in relation to Sathya Sai movement of Malaysia.

Why do we have such neglect of Sathya Sai teachings and Sathya Sai movement in academic field (I refer to academic literature)? I don't know the answer.

But here's a video where Rajiv Malhotra talks about how Hinduism is viewed by USA academics, based on his encounters as a donor in the past to academic work in this area in the USA. Note that these views of his may be strongly disputed by US academics in fields of religion, spiritual movements and related areas. They do not seem to like Rajiv Malhotra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWcy5TPKVlk, around 10 mins.
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Given below are my comments on my Facebook post,  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2562974457252449, associated with this blog post:

In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
I think you are referring to schools adopting Sathya Sai system of teaching. That is different from what I am referring to. I am referring to academic literature, which essentially is academic research publications, on Sathya Sai. That is a niche area that is understood only by people with exposure to academics and those fields in academics. ... But it is a vital area as it is these academics that are viewed as experts in the field by encyclopaedias, and by some, I repeat some, government officials and ministers.

In contrast, I believe (but am not sure about it) there is significantly more academic literature (academic research publications) on Shirdi Sai Baba from USA and European academic research scholars (don't know if Indian academic research scholars have contributed to this).
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In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
They need to publish academic research articles on Sathya Sai. Why they have not done much (or perhaps nothing or close to nothing) in this area is a big question mark!
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