You make it sound as if the money donated to his charitable foundation was his personal wealth or something.

Sai Baba’s entire life was dedicated to the service of humanity. Unlike so many other Indian gurus he never travelled to the rich and glamorous West. He ate simple vegan food in moderation, slept in Spartan rooms above his temple. Never married. If he serves as a role model that can only be a good thing.

You claimed that the followers of Sai Baba are a “long way” from the rational educated hindus who ridicule godmen. On what basis do you make that claim? Sai Baba is by far the most significant spiritual guru in India whose following includes large numbers of the best educated hindus including scientists and scholars. Just look at the outpouring of love and respect for him that is coming from all quarters, including from other gurus and even some atheists. It is pretty obvious that he is recognized as genuine rather than fake.

Tell us what “you” consider to be “rational” in the Vedic texts that educated people find immune to ridicule.

he was a media celebrity who accrued an enormous amount of money.

Please don’t put words in my mouth. I didn’t say that they do. But Hinduism does not rule out rationality, and a lot of more educated, rational Hindus like the Vedic texts but use their rationality to see most modern godmen as charlatans exploiting the lower IQ-range of the spectrum. Yes, I know the godmen have out front and center a few educated people–I’m talking about the bulk of their followers.

Which Vedic texts are you talking about? The ones about performing animal and even human sacrifices to the Vedic gods?

Or are you talking about the Upanishads, which were appended to the Vedas and which constitute the foundation of Vedanta philosophy? What do the Upanishads teach that contradict or ridicule the concept of Self-Realized godmen???

I made an observation about what aspects of Hinduism the better-educated tend to get into.

A follower of Sai Baba is a long way from someone who studyies the Vedic texts and ridicules modern-day godmen. But both approaches are comfortably within the borders of Sanatana Dharma.

I don’t think you know much at all about Hinduism or Indian spirituality if you think that the concept of god-man contradicts it’s texts or philosophies.

God is our true innate identity, not the body nor the mind which are mere instruments. We think we are nothing more than our body and mind; this is called delusion or ignorance by the spiritual seers who have dived deeper within themselves and experienced the divine identity. As Sai Baba has been saying all along, the difference between us and him is that he knows he is God while we still have to achieve the realization that so are we. All his teachings are about helping the ignorant realize the truth that they too are the universal super-conscious true and eternal reality, not the body-mind complex which is nothing but a temporary material instrument or machine.