Does ‘Sai Baba’ - really a ‘god’ ?

Hinduism says  - after creating the universe, 'god the ultimate' or the ‘formless god’- took or created different 'forms' in order to do different things in the 'universe'. Bramha, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, etc..will come under this category and these are all 'gods'. These are not having the 'human bodies' and they didn’t take birth like the ordinary human beings. really

The ‘god ultimate’ or the above said ‘gods’ [ex; Vishnu] too could take different forms to fulfill some particular purpose in the worlds. Examples for these are -Narasimha [lion-headed god], Varaha Narayan [pig-headed god] and these are not coming to the world as in the case of a ‘human being’ from the ‘womb’ of a mother. Just they ‘manifest’ from nowhere all of a sudden like a ‘lightening’.

Apart from this, according to Hindu scriptures – the godliness comes to the ‘human form’, a ‘man’ or ‘woman’ - in TWO different ways.

ONE – The ‘god ultimate’ or the above said ‘gods’ [Vishnu etc.,] – will take birth in the form of a ‘man’ for executing some special purpose on the Earth. Examples for this type are ‘Ram’ and ‘Krishna’. By birth these are all ‘gods’ and these come down to the ‘Earth’ -  just like any other ‘human being’ from the ‘womb’ of a ‘human mother’. The ‘god’ could take different forms too, other than ‘human form’, depending on the situation and necessity and Hanuman [monkey god] is an example for this.

TWO – in the second case, an ordinary man - by ‘birth’ could turn into a ‘god’ due to rigorous spiritual practices and after realization of the ‘god’, after the ‘inner’ blooming. I. e., a person who realizes ‘god’ will become ‘god’ itself. The Hindu scriptures are saying that – ‘Bramhavit bramhaiva bhavati’, it means a person who realizes ‘god’ will become a ‘god’ on himself. This is like a ‘drop’ of water after dropping into the ocean will become the ‘ocean’ itself. So, in this way – there are many ‘gods’ in Hinduism. For example there are people who adore – ‘Kusuma Harinath’, ‘Rama Krishna paramahansa’, ‘Ramana Maharshi’ and others. ‘Sai Baba’ of ‘Shirdi’ too comes in this category, as the life history of ‘Sai Baba’ reveals that he did many spiritual practices in the early stages of his life.

There is NO difference between these types of ‘gods’ and indeed all these are equal as per the saying of the Hindu scriptures,  ‘Bramhavet bramhaiva bhavati’.

Apart from this the Hindu scriptures are saying that – one can adore his ‘guru’ or the ‘master’ too as a ‘god’, the wife can adore his husband as a ‘god’ and nothing is wrong with these. One can take ‘anything’ as ‘god’ if it suits that individual and helps that individual for the ‘spiritual growth’. 

So, from the above descriptions, according to the ‘Hindu scriptures’ there is nothing wrong in adoring ‘Sai Baba’ as a ‘god’, he is perfectly a ‘god’ for sure.

{This post is an answer to the question from  - V Muralidharan, Bangalore, India}