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ye yathâ mâṁ prapadyantetâṁs tathaiva bhajâmy aham, mama vartmânuvartantemanuṣyâḥ pârtha sarvaúaḥ “As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows Mypath in all respects, O son of Pṛthâ." (Lord Krishna) "None knows the real inwardness of my Baba; some said he was a Yogi, a sensualist, a wise man, some a hypocrite, some called him Brahman or God. (But) Baba's state is- Siddha Avasta. Each finds in him what he thinks him to be". Poojya Narasimha Swamiji continues: “Let us pray at the feet of Sai Baba, the incarnation of all gods and protector of all, to show mercy on us, and increase our devotion towards him”. (Source: Sai Leela June 1993)

This research monograph is a unique addition to the existing literature on Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, who lived a humble life and taught the basics of spirituality and morality to the devotees through his many miracles, revelations of their past birhts, simple yet penetrating teachings, stories and thrilling parables.

A vast and diversified religious movement originating from Sai Baba of Shirdi, is often referred to as "the Sai Baba movement." Through the chronological presentation of Sai Baba's life, light is shed on the various ways in which the important guru figures in this movement came to be linked to the saint of Shirdi.

Nearly a century after his death, the image of Sai Baba, the serene old man with the white beard from Shirdi village in Maharashtra, India, is instantly recognizable to most South Asians (and many Westerners) as a guru for all faiths—Hindus, Muslims, and others. During his lifetime Sai Baba accepted all followers who came to him, regardless of religious or caste background, and preached a path of spiritual enlightenment and mutual tolerance. These days, tens of thousands of Indians and foreigners make the pilgrimage to Shirdi each year, and Sai Baba temples have sprung up in unlikely places around the world, such as Munich, Seattle, and Austin. Tracing his rise from small village guru to global phenomenon, religious studies scholar Karline McLain uses a wide range of sources to investigate the different ways that Sai Baba has been understood in South Asia and beyond and the reasons behind his skyrocketing popularity among Hindus in particular. Shining a spotlight on an incredibly forceful devotional movement that avoids fundamental politics and emphasizes unity, service, and peace, The Afterlife of Sai Baba is an entertaining—and enlightening—look at one of South Asia’s most popular spiritual gurus.

Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint focuses on the presence and contemporaneity of Shirdi Sai Baba (d.1918), who has a vast following in postcolonial South Asia and an ever-growing global diaspora. Essays consider the saint’s influence on everyday life and how visual, narrative, textual, sensorial, performative, political, social, and spatial practices interpenetrate to produce multiple terrains of devotion. Contributions by twelve scholars of several academic disciplines explore eruptions and circulations of sacred materials, spatialities of devotional practices, visual and digital imaginaries, transcultural narrativizations, and material affects and effects of Sai Baba. The presentation transcends routine scholarly discussions about sainthood, cultures of worship, religious objects, Hinduism and Islam. Shirdi Sai Baba’s presence conveys inspiration and healing energies and he accepted the entreaties of people of all castes and creeds, offering an alternative to communal ideologies of his time – and the present. Considerations of Shirdi Sai Baba’s milieux of devotional praxis situate and localize debates about the meaning of nation and religion, past and present, urbanization, and class identity in transitions from colonial to postcolonial/global South Asia. The book expands the boundaries of the study of Shirdi Sai Baba and makes important contributions to South Asia Studies, Anthropology, Religious Studies, Global Studies, Urban Studies, Indian Ocean Studies, Inter-Asian Studies, Visual and Media Studies, and Cultural Geography.

In this biographical study, Antonio Rigopoulos explores the fundamental role of a hagiographer within a charismatic religious movement: in this case, the postsectarian, cosmopolitan community of the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba. The guru's hagiographer, Narayan Kasturi, was already a distinguished litterateur by the time he first met Sathya Sai Baba in 1948. The two lived together at the guru's hermitage more or less continuously from 1954 up until Kasturi's death, in 1987. Despite Kasturi's influential hagiography, Sathyam Sivam Sundaram, little scholarly attention has been paid to the hagiographer himself and his importance to the movement. In detailing Kasturi's relationship to Sathya Sai Baba, Rigopoulos emphasizes that the hagiographer's work was not subordinate to the guru's definition of himself. Rather, his discourses with the holy man had a reciprocal and reinforcing influence, resulting in the construction of a unified canon. Furthermore, Kasturi's ability to perform a variety of functions as a hagiographer successfully mediated the relationship between the guru and his followers. Drawing on years of research on the movement as well as interviews with Kasturi himself, this book deepens our understanding of this important pan-Indian figure and his charismatic religious movement.

"“The Eternal Sai Phenomenon” attempts to unravel the nature of Sai phenomenon primarily in the context of the timeless Shrimad Bhagavad Gita. Sai path has been analysed from the standpoint of various yogas, like Karma yoga, Gnana yoga, hyana yoga and Bhakti yoga. Anecdotes from Shirdi Sai Baba’s life have been narrated to bring home the unique confluence of universal truths of world religions in the teachings and conduct. Shri Nanda has brought in the eternal nature of the unique phenomenon of Sai linking it to the earlier prophets and Sadgurus. The appearance of Shirdi Sai, the events in His lifetime and after His Mahasamadhi in 1918 have been recorded in the chronological time period with due acknowledgement to the sources. The historical recording starts from 1854 and comes up to year 2009. Arrangement of selected events year-wise is expected to familiarise the readers to the unfolding of Sai phenonomenon in an orderly historical perspective. This book could serve as a reference document for Sai devotees, researchers and students of spiritual themes, who wish to explore further the nature of Sai Phenomenon and Sai Consciousness.