Is the afro hairdo of Sathya Sai Baba real?
Sathya Sai Baba used to sport a black rounded thickly curled hairdo.
Photo kind courtesy Sri Krishna Devaraya University, Ananthapur:
He seems to be wearing this type of hairdo since 1946.
Question: In which way, we should be concerned with a hairdo?
Ans: Appearances can be deceptive. We check a hair-pin or a tie-clip hundred times before buying it. How many times should a person scrutinise a preceptor (guru) before falling down at his feet and donating hundreds of thousands of dollars?
What is the purpose of a public figure wearing ochre robes and sporting an afro? The object seems to be, to make an impression. and emboss an image of high respectability as near to God as possible, in the minds of the viewers.
Question: Now, you tell clearly whether Baba's hairdo was real or an artificial addition.
Answer: Baba's hair appears to be real. Mr. Janardan Tagore, a Senior journalist of the Emergency Era (1974) wrote that he was allowed by the Baba to pluck his hair and satisfy himself that the long hair was real. We cannot expect that every one of us will be allowed to stand in queue and be allowed to pluck Baba's hair and satisfy ourselves that the afro is genuine.
We can find that rationalists performing stage plays to expose the magical tricks of Baba, sport an artificial hair do imitating the hairstyle of the Baba. Consequently, we may get a feel that Baba's hairdo was also fake. I personally feel that, prima facie it was not fake.
One or two TV channels have recently released a photo showing Baba with folded hands. This, they said was the last photo of Baba, when alive. His normal pose was to wave hands as though blessing. The last photo showed that he was folding his hands as though reverancing.
Our concern here is, the photo shows that his hair was cut. Where did the hairdo go? It is possible that the hospital staff might have cut his hair to facilitate his treatment. There is no reason to believe that a wig was removed.
Other observations
Hindu sages of yore used to wear matted hair with dreaded locks (a single round ball-like mass of hair on the forehead or on the mid-scalp). They used to apply the latex of banian tree for gumming the hair to enable the locks stick together. You can find from Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kanda (Book of Forests), Chapter 52, that Rama and Lakshmana matted their hair with banian (banyan - Indian fig tree) latex before entering the forests. Nowhere was there, an indication that they took to tonsured monkhood. Matted hair seems to be a characteristic feature of a forest dwelling hermit rather than a monk.
We shall now, come to Buddha's hairdo. We come across pictures and sculptures of Buddha with matted hair on his mid-head. Buddhist Monks have a tradition of tonsured heads. We can find that the monks of the Shankaracharya tradition (Badari/Dwaraka/Puri/Sringeri/Kanchi) also tonsure their hands, rather than wearing matted hair or dreaded locks. We can find that thousands of mendicant monks moving on the banks of Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri and numerous other rivers, wear matted hair. Tonsures are rare. The Sikh tradition also requires their followers to have matted hair on the mid-head, covered by a turban. The Sikh Guru tradition symbolised sacrfice.
Baba's afro hairdo neither falls in the Hindu sage tradition of matted hair nor the Sankaracharya/Buddhist tradition of tonsured head. Baba wanted to maintain his distinctness to attract people.
Maintaining long hair whether matted/dreaded/afro style is not easy. It requires continuous meticulous care with the activities of combing, applying oils and perfumes, frequent shampooing, and when the age advances- hair dyeing. Carelessness may result in a worse cosmetic appearance when compared to undyed and unkempt hair.
The customs of celibacy, sagehood, monkhood, forbids the spiritual seekers from looking into mirrors, applying perfumes. The problem with most Godmen is they will neither be traditional nor be modern.
We should also make a distinction between an 'indication' and a 'symbol'. An indication is not deliberately worn. A symbol is deliberately worn. An indication does not come with artifiicality. A symbol comes with artificiality.
Practical Example
A cook or cook's help may have knife's scars on their fingers and palms. These are not deliberately made by the cooks and helpers. The scars fall under the category of indications. A Hindu who goes before a temple's sanctum-sanctorum may impress a vermilon dot on his forehead with his index finger in a fraction of a second, and continue to wear it throughout that day till he washes his face. This falls under the category of indication/suggestion/symptom, though he had a little willingly or deliberately applied the vermilon. We need not see pretensions in these quotidian routines and subroutines. Conceits and pretensions arise only when the acts or deliberate.
An ascetic living in seclusion in forests, or living as a mendicant on the banks of rivers, tanks, parks, bus and railway stations may have long hair and beards, owing to non-availability of barbers or lack of money to pay for their services. We can just recall the face of 'Devanand' in the Hindi film ' Guide '. These indicative symtoms come out of deprivation of needs. The same mendicant when he neatly ties a red/ochre cloth around his hair in the Shirdi Sai Baba style it becomes a deliberate symbol. Every such head-cloth-wearer wants the world to believe that he was a representative Sai Baba.
Priests of temples, and mendicants on the shores of rivers and tanks, wear symbols of three white horizontal lines or two vertical lines with one red vertical line in the middle, or some sandalwood and amber mark deliberately, after bath every morning. The mendicants carry mirrors in their bags with them. The object is to show that they represent a particular sect or cult. It is just to impress upon the onlookers.
Most judges of Supreme Court and High Courts wear three piece suits and ties even outside court. Industrialists in Assocham and CII Seminars wear suits and ties. Cricketers wear suits. Bridegrooms wear suits and ties. School children and policemen wear uniforms, ties and shoes. Door-to-door salesmen selling Oxford Dictionaries and Encyclopaedia tuck themselves and wear ties. My son who works in a software Company is not allowed to wear a shirt with a short-sleeve even if he tucks himself, except on a particular day of a week. Politicians in India wear neck-cloths or cravats of different colors to symbolically exhibit the political party they represent. These things take place out of customary , disciplinary or statutory compulsions.
I do not wish to say that indications and symbols do not have their utility at all. Symbols whether taken constrainedly or voluntarily or originally or imitatively have their own revelations. We have to interpret them with some precision and circumspection before proceeding ahead to act on the persuasions the wearers try to make on us. We should not become toys. (Telugu: manamu aat`abommalamu kaaguud`adu. Hindi: ham khilonee nahii ban-naa chaahiiyee.)
Indications are symptoms, which a person's body and his environment generate. Many of them do not mislead, unless they are symbols.
I, as a Bank Manager, had undergone some experience of buying bullocks. We (the farmer, Government Veterinary Assistant Surgeon, a Village Development Officer and I) visited several animal fairs. I, during my first days, as a layman used to go by appearances of the bullocks and point out at stout animals and suggest that we buy. The Vet. had a different object. He was more concerned about the number of teeth, lesions on its skin and limbs, age and health of the animal. The farmers used to be more objective. The farmers used to reply to my suggestions : "Sir: You are going by appearances. Those stout fellows may be good in bull-shows and stone-dragging contests and races. They will not work when yoked to cart or ploughs. The working bullocks are different from the contest and exhibition bulls.".
This type of distinction we can see between the class of housewives and the ramp-models and film-stars. Rarely one class fits into another. The selectors know the difference. A company selling toilet acids and liquids will probably choose a householder or a servant maid (a model somewhat looking like that). The ad. Company will not go for a Katrina Kaif or Kareena Kapoor.
This is the saga of Sathya Sai Baba's afro hairdo.
Photo kind courtesy Sri Krishna Devaraya University, Ananthapur:
He seems to be wearing this type of hairdo since 1946.
Question: In which way, we should be concerned with a hairdo?
Ans: Appearances can be deceptive. We check a hair-pin or a tie-clip hundred times before buying it. How many times should a person scrutinise a preceptor (guru) before falling down at his feet and donating hundreds of thousands of dollars?
What is the purpose of a public figure wearing ochre robes and sporting an afro? The object seems to be, to make an impression. and emboss an image of high respectability as near to God as possible, in the minds of the viewers.
Question: Now, you tell clearly whether Baba's hairdo was real or an artificial addition.
Answer: Baba's hair appears to be real. Mr. Janardan Tagore, a Senior journalist of the Emergency Era (1974) wrote that he was allowed by the Baba to pluck his hair and satisfy himself that the long hair was real. We cannot expect that every one of us will be allowed to stand in queue and be allowed to pluck Baba's hair and satisfy ourselves that the afro is genuine.
We can find that rationalists performing stage plays to expose the magical tricks of Baba, sport an artificial hair do imitating the hairstyle of the Baba. Consequently, we may get a feel that Baba's hairdo was also fake. I personally feel that, prima facie it was not fake.
One or two TV channels have recently released a photo showing Baba with folded hands. This, they said was the last photo of Baba, when alive. His normal pose was to wave hands as though blessing. The last photo showed that he was folding his hands as though reverancing.
Our concern here is, the photo shows that his hair was cut. Where did the hairdo go? It is possible that the hospital staff might have cut his hair to facilitate his treatment. There is no reason to believe that a wig was removed.
Other observations
Hindu sages of yore used to wear matted hair with dreaded locks (a single round ball-like mass of hair on the forehead or on the mid-scalp). They used to apply the latex of banian tree for gumming the hair to enable the locks stick together. You can find from Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kanda (Book of Forests), Chapter 52, that Rama and Lakshmana matted their hair with banian (banyan - Indian fig tree) latex before entering the forests. Nowhere was there, an indication that they took to tonsured monkhood. Matted hair seems to be a characteristic feature of a forest dwelling hermit rather than a monk.
We shall now, come to Buddha's hairdo. We come across pictures and sculptures of Buddha with matted hair on his mid-head. Buddhist Monks have a tradition of tonsured heads. We can find that the monks of the Shankaracharya tradition (Badari/Dwaraka/Puri/Sringeri/Kanchi) also tonsure their hands, rather than wearing matted hair or dreaded locks. We can find that thousands of mendicant monks moving on the banks of Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri and numerous other rivers, wear matted hair. Tonsures are rare. The Sikh tradition also requires their followers to have matted hair on the mid-head, covered by a turban. The Sikh Guru tradition symbolised sacrfice.
Baba's afro hairdo neither falls in the Hindu sage tradition of matted hair nor the Sankaracharya/Buddhist tradition of tonsured head. Baba wanted to maintain his distinctness to attract people.
Maintaining long hair whether matted/dreaded/afro style is not easy. It requires continuous meticulous care with the activities of combing, applying oils and perfumes, frequent shampooing, and when the age advances- hair dyeing. Carelessness may result in a worse cosmetic appearance when compared to undyed and unkempt hair.
The customs of celibacy, sagehood, monkhood, forbids the spiritual seekers from looking into mirrors, applying perfumes. The problem with most Godmen is they will neither be traditional nor be modern.
We should also make a distinction between an 'indication' and a 'symbol'. An indication is not deliberately worn. A symbol is deliberately worn. An indication does not come with artifiicality. A symbol comes with artificiality.
Practical Example
A cook or cook's help may have knife's scars on their fingers and palms. These are not deliberately made by the cooks and helpers. The scars fall under the category of indications. A Hindu who goes before a temple's sanctum-sanctorum may impress a vermilon dot on his forehead with his index finger in a fraction of a second, and continue to wear it throughout that day till he washes his face. This falls under the category of indication/suggestion/symptom, though he had a little willingly or deliberately applied the vermilon. We need not see pretensions in these quotidian routines and subroutines. Conceits and pretensions arise only when the acts or deliberate.
An ascetic living in seclusion in forests, or living as a mendicant on the banks of rivers, tanks, parks, bus and railway stations may have long hair and beards, owing to non-availability of barbers or lack of money to pay for their services. We can just recall the face of 'Devanand' in the Hindi film ' Guide '. These indicative symtoms come out of deprivation of needs. The same mendicant when he neatly ties a red/ochre cloth around his hair in the Shirdi Sai Baba style it becomes a deliberate symbol. Every such head-cloth-wearer wants the world to believe that he was a representative Sai Baba.
Priests of temples, and mendicants on the shores of rivers and tanks, wear symbols of three white horizontal lines or two vertical lines with one red vertical line in the middle, or some sandalwood and amber mark deliberately, after bath every morning. The mendicants carry mirrors in their bags with them. The object is to show that they represent a particular sect or cult. It is just to impress upon the onlookers.
Most judges of Supreme Court and High Courts wear three piece suits and ties even outside court. Industrialists in Assocham and CII Seminars wear suits and ties. Cricketers wear suits. Bridegrooms wear suits and ties. School children and policemen wear uniforms, ties and shoes. Door-to-door salesmen selling Oxford Dictionaries and Encyclopaedia tuck themselves and wear ties. My son who works in a software Company is not allowed to wear a shirt with a short-sleeve even if he tucks himself, except on a particular day of a week. Politicians in India wear neck-cloths or cravats of different colors to symbolically exhibit the political party they represent. These things take place out of customary , disciplinary or statutory compulsions.
I do not wish to say that indications and symbols do not have their utility at all. Symbols whether taken constrainedly or voluntarily or originally or imitatively have their own revelations. We have to interpret them with some precision and circumspection before proceeding ahead to act on the persuasions the wearers try to make on us. We should not become toys. (Telugu: manamu aat`abommalamu kaaguud`adu. Hindi: ham khilonee nahii ban-naa chaahiiyee.)
Indications are symptoms, which a person's body and his environment generate. Many of them do not mislead, unless they are symbols.
I, as a Bank Manager, had undergone some experience of buying bullocks. We (the farmer, Government Veterinary Assistant Surgeon, a Village Development Officer and I) visited several animal fairs. I, during my first days, as a layman used to go by appearances of the bullocks and point out at stout animals and suggest that we buy. The Vet. had a different object. He was more concerned about the number of teeth, lesions on its skin and limbs, age and health of the animal. The farmers used to be more objective. The farmers used to reply to my suggestions : "Sir: You are going by appearances. Those stout fellows may be good in bull-shows and stone-dragging contests and races. They will not work when yoked to cart or ploughs. The working bullocks are different from the contest and exhibition bulls.".
This type of distinction we can see between the class of housewives and the ramp-models and film-stars. Rarely one class fits into another. The selectors know the difference. A company selling toilet acids and liquids will probably choose a householder or a servant maid (a model somewhat looking like that). The ad. Company will not go for a Katrina Kaif or Kareena Kapoor.
This is the saga of Sathya Sai Baba's afro hairdo.
Comments
No way a person's hair remains same for 70 or so years (85-15=70). By some chance if it is stil natural when he died, it is definitely being dyed. Baba is a make believe artist, a showman, among other things. So this is not difficult to imagine.
Just wanted to bring some levity into the discussion. Thanks for the opportunity to post.