¹ Nirad C. Chaudhuri says somewhere that although Indians have in large measure forgotten their history, their present is but a thin crust over their past, very deep and tangible everywhere, even though one could not put it all into so many words.

² Gonda, J., Change and Continuity in Indian Religion, (Mouton and Co.: The Hague, 1965), p. 337Google Scholar.

³ Ibid., p. 244.

⁴ Ibid., p. 252.

⁵ Ghurye, G. S., Indian Sadhus, (Bombay: The Popular Book Depot, 1953), p. 12Google Scholar. This work was republished without substantial change by Popular Prakashan in 1964.

⁶ Ibid., p. 15.

⁷ Wilson, H. H., trans. & ed., The Vishńu Puráná, (Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1961)Google Scholar. Original edition 1840. For a typical analysis of leading features see also, ”Vaisnavism” in Walker, Benjamin, The Hindu World (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1968), Vol. II, p. 541Google Scholar. Mircea Eliade in his work, Yoga, attests to the possibility that the concept of a personal God in Hinduism was influenced by yogic experience.

⁸ As regards the former I have in mind particularly the deification of the founders of sects: such as Vallabha, Caitanya, Harivamś, et al. A good number of these are described in the medieval Nabhadas's Bhaklamāla and convenient summaries can be read in Growse's, F. S.Mathura: A District Memoir, revised and abridged, (North-western and Oudh Government Press, 1883)Google Scholar.

⁹ A complete discussion of these factors is found in a manuscript I am preparing, entitled, Medieval Hinduism, and in part in my “Kṛṣṇsna as Divine Child” in History of Religions, Vol. 10, no. 2, Nov. 1970.

¹⁰ Sec J. A. Subhan, Sufism: Its Saints and Shrines, (Lucknow: The Lucknow Publishing House, N. D.); my “Sufism in Medieval Hindi Literature,” History of Religions, Vol. 5, no. 1, Summer 1965; Ahmad, Aziz, Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964)Google Scholar; and Mujeeb, M., The Indian Muslims (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968)Google Scholar.

¹¹ See Briggs, George W., Gorakhnath and the Kanpatha Yogis, (Calcutta: Oxford University Press, 1938)Google Scholar.

¹² Indian Sadhus, p. 60 ff. For earliest background of tantric monasticism see Shahidullah, M., Les Chants Mystiques de Kanha et de Saraha (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1928)Google Scholar.

¹³ Indian Sadhus, p. 39.

¹⁴ See Vaudeville, Charlotte, Translation and commentary, Au Cabaret de L'amour (Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1959)Google Scholar; and her Kabīr Granthāvali (Pondichery: Institut Français d'Indologie, 1957)Google Scholar.

¹⁵ For general background on die complex interrelations of religious sects in the period see, Dvivedi, Hazariprasad, Hindī Sahityakī Bhūmika (Bombay: Hindī-Granth-Ratnakar, 1959)Google Scholar.

¹⁶ The primary sources I have consulted in English are: Nagesh Vasudev Gunaji, Shri Sāi Satcharita or “The Wonderful Life and Teachings of Shri Sāi Bābā, adapted from the original Marathi of Hemadpant,” Bombay: Shri Sāi Bābā Sansthan Shirdi, N. D.); Saheb, RaoMehta, Harshad P., The Spiritual Symphony of Shree Sainath of Shirdi (Baroda: Rana and Patel Indira Press, 1952)Google Scholar; Khaparde, G. S., Sources of Sāi History (diary 1910, 1911, 1912) [hereafter SSH] (Bangalore: The Jupiter Press, 1956?)Google Scholar; Narasimhaswamiji, H. H., Devotees Experiences of Śri Sāi Bābā, Vols. I, II, III [hereafter, DE] (Madras: All India Sāi Samaj, 1966)Google Scholar; Narasimhaswamiji, H. H., Life of Sāi Bābā, Vols. I, II, III, IV [hereafter, LSB] (Madras: All India Sāi Samaj, 1955)Google Scholar; A useful western interpretation is in Osborne, Arthur, The Incredible Sāi Bābā, [hereafter, ISB] (Bombay: Orient Longmans, 1957)Google Scholar.

¹⁷ “… used for any ascetic who was believed to be or who had a right to be above all rules of observance.” Indian Sadhus, p. 77.

¹⁸ LSB, I, p. 13. ISB, p. 96.

¹⁹ ISB, p. 3.

²⁰ A report of these various aspects of his powers is contained in DE II, p. 17, et passim.

²¹ ISB, p. 23.

²² Sāi Bābā sometimes spoke of himself as a reincarnation of Kabir, the poet-saint of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century who had both Hindu and Muslim disciples and taught each in the terms of their own religion.” ISB, p. 50.

²³ “26-12-1911. I got up early and attended Kakadarti, Sayin Mahārāj, [Sāi Bābā] was in a rather unusual mood, took his stick and with it tapped the ground round about. By the time he descended the steps of Chavadi he walked twice backward and forward and used violent language.” SSH, p. 36 et passim.

²⁴ “The phenomenal spread like wild fire of faith in Shri Sāi Bābā throughout this great country within the last decade or two and its wonderful hold on the mass mind …” LSB, I, p. 1.

²⁵ Narasimha Swami, B. V. and Subbarao, S., Sage of Skuri (Sakuri: Shri Upasani Kanya Kumari Sthan, 1966), p. 2Google Scholar ff and Tipnis, S. N., Contribution of Upasani Bābā to Indian Culture (Sakuri: Shri Upasani Kanya Kumari Sthan, 1966), p. 20Google Scholar ff A somewhat different version appears in LSB, II, p. 262 ff. where the effort on the part of “orthodox” followers of Shirdi Sāi Bābā is to show that Upasani Baba is only imperfectly the successor of his guru.

²⁶ It is important to note that the physical “sufferings” that accompany spiritual development, especially in Siddha Hinduism, testify to a certain process taking place in the body that prepares for “enlightenment” or approaching sainthood: “Even at Nagpur the breathing difficulty would crop up often and force him to strain himself and breathe very quickly and with noise to ensure respiration. Apart from that strain, and even when the fits of forced breathing were not on, there was the ever present fear … that suddenly his breathing and heartbeats might stop and leave him dead. He could not, therefore, sleep, gulp solid food, or evacuate his bowels (his constipation involved a straining at this process mostly)—and such an interference with the fundamental functions of life greatly reduced and weakened his frame and rendered life miserable.” Sage of Sakuri, p. 23.

²⁷ A photographic survey of the ashram at Sakuri is published in Junneskar, R. S., Eternal Flame (Sakuri: Shree Kanya Kumari Ashram, 1964)Google Scholar.

²⁸ The Talks of Sadguru Upasani-Bābā Mahārāja, Vols. I & II, (Nagpur: Dr. Sahasrabudhe, “Ashirvada,” N. D.). These are among the most interesting and skillfully composed of the various works of recent Hindu saints known to the present writer.

²⁹ Narasimhaswami who wrote part of Sage of Sakuri later reverted to Shirdi Sāi Bābā devotion exclusively and expresses his concern over these matters in his subsequent work, LSB, II, pp. 335, ff.

³⁰ See, “He Showed Women Way to Salvation,” in The Sunday Standard, May 4, 1969.

³¹ Kasturi, N., The Life of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sāi Bābā (Bombay: Dolton Printers, 1969)Google Scholar. Other works consulted include Janaki Charan Das, Garland of 108 Precious Gems (Poona: Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Seva Samitee, N. D.); Sri Sathya Sāi Bābā, Bhagavan, Prema Vahini (Prasanthi Nilayam: Sanathana Sarathi, 1962)Google Scholar; Prasanthi Vahini (Prasanthi Nilayam: Sanathana Sarathi, 1962)Google Scholar; Githa Vahini, (Prasanthi Nilayam: Sanathana Sarathi, 1966)Google Scholar; and various editions of the devotional journal, Sanathana Sarathi.

³² The Life of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sāi Bābā, p. 46.

³³ However, it is as typical of some saints that they should live a life of luxury and public renown, as yogis “Mahārāj,” as it is of others that their lives are passed in poverty and obscurity.

³⁴ Singh, Harbans, Guru Nanak. (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1969), p. 106Google Scholar.

* “The Hindu Renaissance and Its Apologetic Patterns,” Vol. XXIX, no. 2, February 1970.

³⁵ Writing more recently in “Hinduism and Modernization” in Spencer's, Robert F. (ed.) Religion and Change in Contemporary Asia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971)Google Scholar Bharati continues to pursue the argument now to be discussed.

³⁶ cf. “Hinduism and Modernization,” op. cit., p. 79. “Perhaps an even more important feature of the modernization of Hinduism is its boundless eclecticism. This quality is epitomized by the undue favor given to the Bhagavad-Gītā …”