Sai Baba’s Bread

Question from Alex:
Hi, I am an atheist. But one of my friend told me that she had got some sai baba bread (appam) from her friend. And if she keep it in one vessel and pray him daily, it will become double. As usual i have not believed. And today she said that it becomes double. I want to prove her wrong that it is not because of sai baba.. Can you please explain me the reason.

Answer by SmartLX:
It’s not your job to prove her wrong as long as she hasn’t presented any evidence. All she’s given you is a story, and a pretty vague one at that. If we even assume she’s telling the truth, pretty much anyone could have put a second appam in the “vessel”. Sathya Sai Baba had a lot of followers, and some would probably engage in some mild deception in order to sustain belief in his divinity.

What we have here is a rare example of a supposedly repeatable, and therefore testable, miracle. If your friend wants you to believe, she can do it again with a fresh appam – but this time, ensure by means of surveillance or a locked container that no one can get to it but the spirit of Sai Baba until it’s time to check for the extra bread. If he pulls it off in these conditions, then you’ll have something to disprove. Until then, the burden of proof is not on you.

8 thoughts on “Sai Baba’s Bread”

  1. Sai Baba was in all probability a pious fraud.
    He’s said to have amassed over $ 10 bn in his trust – a part of which was used on maintaining his own personal lifestyle.
    There’s no denying he’s done a lot of good in Puttaparti and surrounding areas in Southern India where his ashram is located (I’ve been drageed there once, by the way). But he’s also made unthinking, superstitious devotees out of rational men and women, which in my opinion, is more damaging than the good he’s done.
    The only saving grace is that his devotees are usually not extreme religious nuts unlike some other sects and cults in India.

    A lot of Sai baba devotees claim incredible things about him. I’ve been to the house of a very wealthy devotee family where the woman of the house claimed to have heard the guy’s voice in her head telling her to do things. This woman’s pretty materialistic and very practical in all her aspects of life, except for this one.

    If praying to an appam doubles it, I don’t understand why all Sai baba devotees don’t wipe off world hunger simply by praying to appams daily and distributing the extra appam gained …

  2. I agree with all of that, Rohit, except that Sai Baba does not likely qualify as a pious fraud. The ultimate objective of an act of pious fraud is to increase or maintain people’s faith, but it appears that Sai Baba’s fraud was mostly for personal gain.

  3. Ha ha … yes. Probably just a fraud then – but I have to be careful as there are a lot of Sai Baba devotees in my extended family.

    He did take a lot of money from people and gave them “vibhooti” (holy ash) in return. That’s a hundred percent profit margin right there, and on extremely thin invested capital. Better than hedge funds returns!

    Human gullibility seems to be a perennial arbitrage opportunity …

  4. i am also a atheist. but this saibaba mentioned above is not that fraud saibaba, but shirdi saibaba (original one who lived in shirdi).

    just for info i am telling.

  5. Thanks for clearing that up Gokul, and I apologise for the confusion. The objections to the miracle claim still stand, of course.

    1. the above said incident is true—i can provide one appam to anybody—definitely it will become 2 –no doubt–but i am behind it and i am searching for a true—i am challenging you —it will become 2—

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