7.1 - Unification and Purification

The Divergences of worship between classes or groups in India are so great that some foreigners thought that there was nothing like Hinduism. In worship, there is nothing in common at all between the Todas and the Brahmins and that they reflected different levels of thought and had contents of truth or degrees of philosophy in them. Toda worship might simply amount to bowing to natural forces or a few objects. The worship by the highest cultured classes in Hindu temples reveals a great diversity of philosophical systems. Worship in Siva temples, Vishnu temples, Jain temples and other temples, was noticeable enough. Baba bridged the differences by enclosing Siva and Vishnu temples in the same compound or inside the Mosque. In some cases there was amicable worship of the different deities inside the same place but in others the difference of view were intensified by the closer contact. In some cases, the bhaktas of Siva claim the Siva should have priority in procession and that Vishnu’s procession must follow. The other group contests this claim. These and other similar matters appear however to be a quarrel over trifles. But there was bitterness enough to take the differences to courts and even to the highest court like the Privy Council. It was only easy for anyone to say that there was a single religion called Hinduism, the characteristics of which one could set out. In any case, there was a war of literature going on during the last two or three centuries developing bitter antagonism between Siva and Vishnu faiths and between Jain and both of these and other similar religious institutions. The quarrels were always on non-essentials. But anyhow they prevented unity and sowed dissension. The consequence on society was to weaken society and demoralize religion. Therefore, in order, to unify the people and to purify the religion and raise it to the highest grade, the one great thing needed was to discover what was the essential substratum of all these faiths called Hinduism and to bring in actual practice and views of the adherents of all sects into one mass that could work harmoniously. Marvelously, Sri Sai Baba has done the good work in this connection. Having been brought up in his earliest years by a fakir, the idea of unity of God struck deep in him. At a very early age, he changed his residence and his caretaker. Coming under the Selu Zamindar’s care He involved contact with various forms of gods. Thus, Baba naturally developed the feeling that the one God or Allah that he knew in his earliest years under the fakir was the same as Venkatesa whom his Guru at Selu worshipped. Other gods or god-forms that were incidentally brought to Selu or were visited by his master were all forms of the same God. Baba believed as follows:
“The Real is one. The wise call it variously.
All gods are part of God”.