India is at once the most religious country on earth and the most open and tolerant. All spiritual pursuits find fertile ground to put down roots in India, and it absorbs with grace and patience even the most fanatical of sects. Sai Satya Baba (pictured above) and his millions of followers in both India and abroad are no exception to this attitude, to the extent that Sai International's bimonthly newsletter, Volume 6, #3, is dedicated in all but the last page entirely to the Bahá'í Faith, with several articles and photos from Bahá'í and non-Bahá'í sources. What a laudable act! And surprisingly accurate for the most part. The errors are so few that pointing most of them would be mere quibbling, so only a few that could actually have been misleading have been selected for correction, and only that Baba's followers may not develop any basic misconceptions.
Naturally, in these pages the teachings found in the Bahá'í writings are compared with those of Sai Baba, and the various authors gleefully round up the similarities, which, given the enlightenment of their holy man, are indeed many. But Ambasht on pg. 4 lets his enthusiasm get the better of him when he proclaims, “Baba is also considered a 'Manifestation of God.'” This designation is reserved by the Bahá'í Faith for those individuals with a direct revelation of the Word of God, constituting scripture, including Krishna, Buddha, Abraham, Christ, and so on. Notwithstanding, learned and holy ones are highly reverenced in the Faith.
Sangeeta Sharma asserts on pg. 4: “The Bahá'ís declare that 15 years of age is the best to get married.” There is no such declaration. 15 is the minimum age. She further (this time correctly) observes, “This book [The Kitáb-i-Aqdas] allows a man to marry two wives under the condition that they are treated equally.” Bahá'ís understand that this is an impossible condition, and therefore only one wife is permitted, and by mutatis mutandi only one husband.
As to the marriage of Bahá'u'lláh Himself, until the revelation of The Kitáb-i-Aqdas (His Book of Laws for this age), He subjected Himself to previous (Islamic) law, and He had, in fact, three wives and a total of fourteen children. When Progya Shankar on pg. 5 states, “Bahá'u'lláh was married to Asiyih Khanum, they had three children, two sons and a daughter,” the reference is to the the surviving children from His first wife, who were the most distinguished and faithful among His offspring.
On pg. 6 Ved B. Kochar, in discussing Shoghi Effendi, writes, “He appointed 27 individuals as 'hands of the promotion of God' with the tasks of promotion and protection of the Bahá'í Faith.” In English the official title is “Hands of the Cause of God,” and the Guardian actually appointed 42 of them, some posthumously.
In referring to current Bahá'í activity, Kochar writes, “Bahá'í classes for children, which are open to all, focus on normal development in the context of the Bahá'í teachings of the oneness of humankind and the unity of the world's religions.” Surely the word “normal” is a typographical error and was meant to be “moral.”
May millions and billions be as liberal and open-minded as the followers of Satya Sai Baba in their pursuit of truth.
