SRILA PRABHUPADA ON SAI BABA:

Pradyumna prabhu had a lengthy meeting with Srila Prabhupada this afternoon to finalize
his reply to the Blitz article on Sai Baba. Pradyumna read from the opening paragraph of
the article which was entitled "God is an Indian." "'His contemporary avatara rests in the
Trinity of Shirdi Baba, Sai Baba, and Prem Baba to come. So Satya Sai Baba, the second
of the triple incarnation, asserted in the course of a marathon interview to add, 'In my
present avatara, I have come armed with the fullness of the power of the formless God to
save humanity.'"

Srila Prabhupada dictated the outline of the letter to Pradyumna. "'Dear Sai Baba, just
recently in the Blitz paper, published on—give the date—we were surprised to
find one article "God is an Indian." And you have claimed to become an
incarnation of God to save the human society. What is the ground of your
claiming as incarnation? And what
you have done to save the human society? Will you explain for enlightenment of
us, or many of us? We have got the list of incarnations recorded in the Vedic
scriptures and their respective activities also. So where is that record in the
Vedic scripture about your appearing as incarnation? Lord Krsna's incarnation-
ness is fully described in Srimad-Bhägavatam. Similarly, Lord Ramacandra's
incarnation-ness or Lord Buddha's incarnation-ness, Lord Catena’s incarnation-
ness, we have got full information in Vedic literatures. Where is your incarnation
described? Will you kindly give the reference? Anyone can say like you, that one
is incarnation, as it has become a fashion nowadays. But is that claim the only
proof of one's becoming incarnation? Some such unauthorized claim of
becoming an incarnation is certainly ridiculous. Then you have claimed to take
form.' What he has written?"

Pradyumna re-read Baba's claim to being an avatara "armed with the fullness of the
power of the formless God." Prabhupada continued. "'So you have claimed to take a form
of the formless God. But we see in the Bhagavad-Gita that God is never formless.'" He
had Pradyumna read out verse 7:24 from the Gita, and its purport. Telling Pradyumna to
quote the verse in the letter, along with a quote from Yamunäcärya found in the purport,
Prabhupada went on with his dictation: "'Only the rascals and less intelligent class of
men think that God is formless and when He incarnates, He takes a particular
form.... So in this connection, the statement of Bhagavatam is especially
important. Brahmeti paramätmeti bhagavän iti sabdyate. Brahman is impersonal,
Paramätmä is localized, and Bhagavän is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.'"

Voicing aloud Prabhupada statement as he wrote it down, Pradyumna repeated, "Brahman

is the impersonal..." Prabhupada immediately corrected him. "'Brahman is impersonal.'
Not the. 'Paramätmä is localized, and Bhagavän is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.'"
Citing many verses from Bhagavad-Gita, Prabhupada made the point that
Krsna’s personality cannot be understood without His mercy. "'So one has to accept the
statement of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, how He is originally the Purina
or person,'" he said. "'Impersonal Brahman is expansion of the rays of His personal body,
exactly like the sunshine is expansion of the rays of the sun-god Vivasvän. Vivasvän is a
person in the sun globe and Krsna is also a person who spoke the philosophy of
Bhagavad-Gita long, long years before He spoke the same to Arjuna. Therefore, the
conclusion is that originally God is always a person.
Impersonal Brahman is emanation from the personal God. In other words, God, personal
God, is not from impersonal Brahman; but impersonal Brahman is from the personal God.
That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-Gita. Impersonal Brahman is resting on the personal
God, exactly which illumination of light is resting on the electric bulb, not that the bulb is
resting on the illuminated light.'"

Again quoting from the Gita Prabhupada came to a very pointed conclusion: "'So Krsna,
as a person, says to Arjuna that both of them existed in the past as person, and they'll
continue to remain person in the future. So without knowing all this knowledge, a
mayavada accepts the incarnation of God as coming from impersonal. Under this heading
you have proved yourself to become a mayavada. And how a mayavada or an ass can
become the incarnation of God?'" Not content with that, Prabhupada asked Pradyumna to
read the rest of the article to him.

Pradyumna squinted through his glasses at the paper and read out a declaration by the
writer of his acceptance of what he called "the avatara concept which broadly means the
descent of the divine principle into human affairs." Reminding the reader of Lord Krsna’s
Descent to save humanity, the writer declared: "Solution and cure to world's ills: To
Baba's devotees, the avatara has similarly come to provide both the solution and the cure
to a world living in terror of a nuclear holocaust. The false dichotomies created by
Western thought between God and man, purusa and deva, simply do not exist in the
Indian scriptures, which prescribe the assimilation of God in man and man in God as the
basis of religion."

Prabhupada was disgusted. "This is another rascal Dom. God is always distinct
from man." Pradyumna said that Sai Baba made a similar quote himself, later in the
piece. He read it out: "God is man and man is God. All of us have something of God, the
divine spark, within us. All men are divine, like myself, with the spirit embodied in human
flesh and bone. The only difference is that they are unaware of this Godhood."Skipping to
another section of the article, Pradyumna went on, "Here he says, 'The mission of the
present avatara is to make everybody realize that since the same God or divinity resides
in everyone, people should respect, love, and ...'" Prabhupada cut in. "No, no. If he
resides in everyone, then why he has special claim?"

"Yes. Well, he says he has remembered."

"He remembers?" Prabhupada asked. "How God can forget?"
"That he says here. He says that, 'Take paddy or rice by way of an illustration. Every grain
of rice is enclosed in a husk. You have to remove the husk to get the grain of rice. Now
husk and rice both come from the same seed. Rice is the equivalent of God in man.'"
"But still husk is not rice," Prabhupada said. "You cannot say husk is rice."
Nodding in agreement, Pradyumna read on. "He says, 'Rice is the equivalent of God in
man, while the husk can be compared to desire which reduces God to man.'"

Prabhupada sat shaking his head. "No, no."

Pradyumna finished the quote: "Therefore life plus desire equals man. Life minus desire
equals God." Prabhupada dictated the concluding words of his letter: "You are desiring to
become God. There cannot be no desire. But you unceremoniously desire to become God.
Although there is no proof in the sästras. In the Bhagavad-Gita it is accepted that the
living entities are sparks of, part and parcel, of God, Krsna. But part is never equal to the
whole. So you can claim as a spark of God, as every living entity can claim, but
you cannot claim as the Supreme Person with full power.
That is misleading. You can show a little magic, as other magicians also can
show, but you cannot show the full magic, as Krsna displayed or Lord
Rämacandra displayed. Therefore, your claim as a full power is completely false
and blasphemous."

Pradyumna stopped writing and looked up, raising a point of his own, “Now someone may
bring up the one point, they say 'Well, if an avatara comes if he must show all kinds of
great opulence’s and powers.' Then he says sometimes the incarnation shows this, but
sometimes, like when Lord Caitanya appeared He didn't show visvarüpa or..." Prabhupada
replied. "But He [Lord Caitanya] never claimed that 'I am avatara.' But we
understand from the sästric evidence. He never claimed. Rather, when He was
addressed as Krsna He blocked His ears, 'You don't say like that.' He never
claimed. He fully displayed Himself as a devotee, not Bhagavän.

Prabhupada nodded. "In this way, find out the faulty statement and give him proof."
Leaving Prabhupada to chant quietly in the garden, Pradyumna typed the letter out and it
was sent off to Satya Sai Baba.