Rational Thoughts: Unlimited

A collection of rational thoughts from a true atheist. Rationality, to me, simply means questioning all that's been established as Obvious in our minds. Questioning the obvious is just the first step towards rationalism and leading to atheism… Think about it, and be your own authority rather than trying hard to define some sort of authority (call it god, energy or whatever) outside of yourself.

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The Land of Illusion

Source/Author: Vishal Arora |

Posted on: June 13th, 2010

A journey into Sai Baba’s smalltown fiefdom, where decades-old allegations of sex abuse, murder and deception continue to linger.

Sai baba

ABOUT THREE-AND-A-HALF HOURS from Bangalore, past farmers’ fields and some hills, a small village came into view. The rural area gradually gave way to an airstrip, where a private jet was parked, and then to uptown buildings—resorts, hotels and a huge, pink building, the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthigram, a ‘super specialty hospital’ designed by English architect Dr Keith Critchlow, close to the Sri Sathya Sai Hill View Stadium, inaugurated in November 2006 by then President of India APJ Abdul Kalam, who also happens to be a well-regarded nuclear scientist.

This is Puttaparthi, a small town in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh spread over approximately ten square kilometres. The names of almost all hotels and shops start with ‘Sai.’ Pictures of Sathya Sai Baba are everywhere—on all shop hoardings, on the backs of auto-rickshaws, in lifts and telephone booths and even inside the Puttaparthi police station and the post office. The pictures also carry prominent Sai Baba-isms: ‘Help Ever, Hurt Never,’ ‘Love is God, Live in Love,’ ‘Unity, Purity and Divinity,’ ‘Love All, Serve All,’ and so on. With his benevolent teachings, his emphasis on communal harmony, and his numerous social work projects, Sai Baba seems like Puttaparthi’s own deity.

Everything in the village appears in line with Sai Baba’s worldview. There are many massage parlours—Sai Baba himself claims to be a “masseur healer.” Given his aversion to alcohol and tobacco, cigarettes and liquor are sold only secretly. But you can find several paan shops—Sai Baba is a paan (betel leaf and nut) eater, as his stained teeth also suggest. Almost all restaurants are vegetarian, mirroring Sai Baba’s philosophy that “meat eating fosters animal qualities in man making him descend to the demoniac level.” Puttaparthi often seems like Sai Baba’s personal kingdom.

Baba Black Sheep

Source/Author: Shobhan Saxena |

Posted on: May 2nd, 2010

Want a job, bank loan, a visa? Go to the neighbourhood baba ‘famous’ for solving your particular New Age problem. Urban Indians are increasingly turning to spiritual service providers who seem to take care of everything, except the soul

The baba rolls his bloodshot eyes, his head swinging like a pendulum, murmuring a mantra under his breath. He snatches an amulet and a red thread out of thin air, dropping them into the lap of the woman sitting in front of him. She lowers her eyes and bows, her head touching the baba’s feet. “Put this under your husband’s pillow for a week,” says the baba, a middle-aged man with a flowing grey beard. “Come back to me after seven days,” he whispers in her ear. Shikha Rai, 35, bows, quietly leaving the dimly-lit room, her eyes fixed on Baba Farid ji. It is her second visit to the baba she believes will bring her husband back to her. He has taken a lover in another city. “I am confident the baba’s magic will work,” she says as she drives away in her SUV.

Rai, who lives in a tony neighbourhood in Delhi, heard about the baba from a friend who was delighted with his services. Her son had a job in the US but could not get a visa. The baba arranged the visa in no time at all by performing a ritual. “She paid him only after her son got the visa,” says Rai, vouching for the baba’s honesty.

The visa is just one of a new slew of problems urban Indians are increasingly bringing to tantriks and babas. Want a job, bank loan, foreign travel? Go to the baba best known for his area of expertise. The number of babas operating in south Delhi localities has swelled in the last few years and so has the number of people making a beeline to them seeking answers to problems such as “marriage, break in films, modelling assignment, failure in love.”

In Delhi’s Nev Sarai area, there is a temple called “Chamatkari visa wale Hanuman ka Mandir”. The baba at the temple claims he can get any one any visa with his special prayers. Ahmedabad boasts a similar temple. In Hyderabad, the Chilkur Balaji temple is popularly known as “Balaji Visa temple”. Thousands visit it every week before they head for the local US consulate.