Compare and contrast Swami Vivekananda and Sathya Sai Baba

There are some similarities and some divergences between Sathya Sai Baba and Swami Vivekananda. It is worth the effort to compare and contrast them.

SIMILARITIES & CONTRASTS

1. Baba didn't have formal education. Vivekananda passed B.A. 2. Baba depended for English translation of his speeches, on Mr. Anil Kumar. Vivekananda didn't have any problems of translation. 3. Baba didn't visit foreign countries other than Uganda (Africa). Vivekananda visited the United States and Europe. He didn't visit Africa. 4. Baba lived 84 years, by and large a healthy life. Vivekananda lived only 39 years. Vivekananda faced numerous health problems, particularly during the last two years of his life. 5. Baba didn't openly consume alcohol. His preachings did not contain anything which dissuaded his devotees from consuming alcohol. Vivekananda while in N. America and Europe, didn't mind taking alcohol. We can see evidence in his Complete Works. 6. Baba encouraged people to adopt vegetarian diet. Vivekananda did not appreciate the idea of vegetarian diet. Indians are weak, because, according to Vivekananda, they did not eat meat. Vivekananda, while abroad, supported even beef-eating. 7. Baba was good in speeches. Vivekananda was good both in speeches and letters (called epistles). 8. Baba had his mouthpiece Sanatana Saradhi, a monthly journal. Vivekananda had his mouthpiece Prabuddha Bharati. 9. Baba seems did not apparently make much distinction between men devotees and women devotees. Vivekananda, somehow, seems to have preferred women devotees, and somehow aristocratic women of United States were attracted to him. Vivekananda had some facial glamor which attracted more women than men. This point is not intended to be as a comment on the sexual inclinations of both the monks. 10. Baba wore ochre robes. Vivekananda too wore ochre robes. Both, occasionally shifted to other garments. Ochre colored garments are like packing materials and wrappers for a product. Religious/Spiritual products too need packing if they have to sell. 11. Baba didn't apparently take formal 'sanyas' through a Guru. Vivekananda had Ramakrishna Parama Hamsa as his Guru. But there is not sufficient proof to say that Vivekananda received his formal renunciation rituals from RKP. Vivekananda performed monkhood rituals such as 'viraja yagna' along with his co-disciples, after the death of RKP. 12. Baba had fixed for himself his own semi-monkhood name as Sathya Sai Baba, to indicate that he was the true incarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba. Vivekananda changed his monkhood names two or three times, before settling on the name Vivekananda. Raja of Khetri, apparently gave him the name Vivekananda (One who derives his happiness from Wisdom). Vivekananda for some period used a suffix 'paramahamsa' (Great Swan). One must remember that monk names are like brand names which sell. ITC (Indian Tobacco Company) may sell its cigarettes as 'Gold Flakes'. Are the cigarettes really flakes of gold! They are flakes of nicotine and tar. 13. Both Baba and Vivekananda had hidden traits of Hindu fanaticism. This fanaticism of one's own faith is quite a common characteristic among active preachers of most religions. It is as natural as a cow eating grass and a snake eating eggs. We need not find fault with this. For this reason only, the RSS, the Sangh Parivar and VHP have taken Vivekananda into their lap and built a memorial for him at Kanyakumari. They have tried to befriend Baba, but, Baba didn't show much enthusiasm. This, in my humble opinion is because, he would have lost his foreign patrons and remittances. 14. Both Baba and Vivekananda have an open "welcome" invitation and tolerance to foreign Christianity in the name of the Universal Relgion. Domestic poor Christians are unwelcome. Both Baba and Vivekananda preach the theory of One Religion using the technique of 'God is one and all religions lead to the same path of realisation of God, any path is welcome etc.' Clamour for cabbage, craving for cash, desire for dough, lure for lucre, manipulation of words and modulation of voice for attracting customers with moolah is the reason for this approach. Proof for this approach is ubiquitous both in the works of Baba and Vivekananda. 15. Why Baba didn't search for a job. He was a middle-school dropout at an age of 14. At the point of his conversion to the occupation of god-man-ship, we get a story of his getting bit by a scorpion and his changing into a miracle-maker. Having avoided dropped out from school on the pretext of being bit by scorpion had left him as an unskilled youth. He would have had to break stones or work as a farm-hand, if he were to search his livelihood. This he didn't like apparently and the vacuum opened him up to pretensions of an incarnate. Those were the days when people were more illiterate and superstitious. -- Vivekananda on the other hand had a B.A. degree, was living in Calcutta, the Capital of British India at that time. He would have got some job either in trade or Government matching with his education. He too had a dislike for menial or ministerial jobs. Astrology, palmistry, vaastu (linking human lives with their dwelling houses and shops), numerology, face-reading, quackery (distinct from the science of ayurveda), are some occupations open to unskilled/semi-skilled persons who do not want to formally study sciences in depth or perform tasks involving physical labor. The coconut fruits at the feet of the youth and the deer-skin on the back of his chair clearly shows that the boy was being groomed as a demi-godman capable of solving peoples problems. Otherwise, who will keep the coconuts at his feet? Consequently they pretend as scholars, ridiculing the real scholars. Devoid of true scholarship, they depend on anecdotes, chronicles, fables. They thrive more on claims of divine succession. Thus Baba hanged on initially as the incarnation of Shirdi Sai. Vivekananda hanged as the Chief Apostle of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It must be said, in all fairness to Sathya Sai Baba, that he performed his enterpreneurship of the God's Business very capably unlike our M.B.As of today. Even a Harvard Business School M.B.A. or an I.I.M. Ahmedabad graduate would not have better. Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or Henry Ford would not have outshone him. The ilks of Hillary Clintons, Sarah Palins, Chanda Kochhars and Indra Nooyis have to learn from him. Ms. Sonia Gandhi outclasses him. Then, a question will definitely arise. How Baba was able to show such great profound scholarship before judges, scientists, professors , heads of state and Government. Baba had behind him a practice of 70 years in his profession. His greatness lies in his using every opportunity to hone his oratory and presentational skills. He might have received much help from his devotees of early monkhood. He might have spent some long hours on rehearsing and modulating his voice and correcting his body language. How many thousands of times he might have waved his hands? Vivekananda too honed his oratory and presentational skills over a period of time. The phonograph recording of his 1893 lecture at World Parliament of Relgion, Chicago, was apparently not original. It was re-recorded by Vivekananda with the help of an American Grammaphone Company after correcting errors. 16. Most Hindu sages were householders living in cottages with their wives. There was a temporary tenure of celibacy called 'Brahmacharya' adopted during the stage of education. There is no provision for 'monkhood' on the lines of Catholic or Buddhist convents, nunneries and seminaries. The sanyasasrama (4th State of renunciation) explained in Mahabharata's chapters relate to ripe old age where a person renounces household duties after exhausting everything i.e. in modern language we can say 'assets and liabilities, income and expenditure, trading and profit and loss, war and piece, erection and ejaculation, licking and sucking.' This exhaustion should come between 75-100 or at least after 60. It does not start at 14. It is a post-75 stage. Adi Sankaracharya's early monkhood was based on Buddhism and it was shunned upon by the householders of his period. 17. Baba never intended to lead a life of a mendicant monk. Nor, Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda described the pan cakes received by him from Indian housewives during his beggary days as some undesirable foul stuff, his Pasadena - California lecture. But that seems to be to evoke pity and sympathy from his spectators. rather than to ruminate (nostalgise is a better word, but I am unable to trace it in dictionary) on the joys and sorrows of receiving alms surviving as mendicant. Had our Baba or Vivekananda begged for alms at doorsteps of householders, both the Baba and Vivekananda would have behave like the legendary Kausika in Aranya Parva, Chapter 5 of Mahabharata. Our great-great-great Godmen monks never beg. They market themselves. They charge. They want the householders to invite them for padanamaskara (kneeling at feet) or pada puuja (worshiping feet) and pay them the prescribed fees. If readers want to test this: they can invite the Head of the Kanchi Kamakoti Pitham or the Sringeri Pitham or Ganapati Sachidananda or Swami Swaroopananda. 18. The last days of Baba and Vivekananda need some comparison. Baba was like Dhanamjaya (legendary Arjuna of Mahabharata). He was sitting amidst his billions of dollars of fortune. He was surrounded by his Trust Members and close-dedicated-aides. Some TV channels depicted that he led the life of a prisoner. He might have been much worried about his amassed treasures, the gems, gold, diamonds, thrones, cars and chariots, jets, gold-covered walls of the Yajurveda Mamdiram etc. As long as Baba was active and mobiliser of fresh funds, his Trust Members would not have dared to restrain his urges. What did Baba want during his last days, this is an enigma. Did he want to allocate a higher share of the treasure to his nephew? Did he want to distribute some small fortunes to other relatives? If at all, there were to be a point of friction between him and his Trust Members, the revision of his wills or redistribution of his assets, could have become an area of a fissure, howsoever minor, it may be. -- Swami Vivekananda's last days were spent in a sort of solitary confinement in Belur Math, his room, in a couche. He suffered from deprivation of funds for personal consumption and medical treatment. During his last 15 days, he was asking his Lady disciple Christina Greenstidal to procure and send 'Amalaka' fruits from Almora to Calcutta. His end was a dejected end. Was Baba's end a dejected one, in the hands of his Trust Members? (13 more points to continue).