SATHYA Sai Baba who died recently at the age of 85 belied the hopes of his devotees who believed the godman will live for 96 years as he had predicted.
According to a report in IANS, several of his devotees believed that he would live up to 96 years. Now that he is gone, there are those who now believe he would come back to life.
There are also those who believe that he lived for 96 years as per the lunar calendar.
Baba, as he was known to his devotees, also claimed once that he would appear over the moon.
Four years ago, word spread among Baba’s followers at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh that he will make a ‘moon appearance’. However, the IANS report said the devotees did not see anything as a cloud cover hid the moon.
Sai Baba died 28 days after he was hospitalized at Sathya Sai Super-Speciality Hospital at Puttaparthi in Anantapur district.
Although the best medical experts in India and from abroad were flown in to the town during the last three weeks, they could not save his life.
What gave credence to the belief that Sai Baba will live for 96 years among his devotees which included former judges, powerful politicians, bureaucrats and even doctors was that he had ‘predicted’ on several occasions to that effect.
Now that he is no more, there are those who claim that he has not actually died but is in a state of meditative sleep (yoga nidra). This is according to the popular Hindu belief that there is no death for incarnations of god.
As a teenager, Sai Baba had claimed to be a reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba, who had reportedly stated before his death in 1918 that he would reappear in the then Madras Presidency eight years later, the report added.
What does the Bible say about:
a) Man’s mortality
…it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27).
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12)
O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! (Psalm 39:4-6).
…death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart (Ecclesiastes 7:2).
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away (Isaiah 64:6).
You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning (Psalm 90:5).
b) Man’s nature
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one (Romans 3:12).
Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 53:3).
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one (Psalm 14:3).
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it (Romans 7:18-20).
For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want (Galatians 5:17).
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Galatians 6:8).
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6).
