In a public discourse in January 1995, Sathya Sai Baba said: "The good and evil in the world are expressions of Divine consciousness. Man should not be misled by these expressions. Behind all the various actions of the actors, the Divine Director is at work." (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol.28 new ed., p.1)
Since Sathya Sai Baba has many a time proclaimed himself to be the Divine Director of everything, if he is therefore responsible in any way for anything good that happens, he must also be equally responsible for all the evil. This is the classic dilemma of those who believe in an omnipotent God... how could he (or she or it) be good and at the same time create or 'direct' evil actions? To say that whatever this avatar does is merely an expression of divine consciousness does not solve the problem by any means. He also states that "none are free from the taint of evil" (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol 3., p4). At the same time, yet more confusedly, he has sometimes also denied that anyone is either good or bad... or that good and bad even exists at all.
Is there a spark in everyone, or is everyone and everything God - which is it?
Sai Baba often takes two contradictory standpoints [all the better no doubt to herd in more people of differing beliefs]. Though he has long supported and repeated endlessly the
ancient Hindu teaching that there is divinity in everyone, his position is not at all as it seems. Among his many incompatible claims... he holds that every person, as well as every living being, has a spark of the divine within. Then he often proclaims that everyone and everything IS God, nothing but God, nothing less! If it is not blindingly obvious that this is confused and confusing empty talk, one should click here to read why in more detail. If this were not enough, Sathya Sai Baba has gone on record denying that certain people - those who criticize him - even have a spark of the divine in them. with "... a hard-hearted person cannot be called a spark of Divinity; he is verily a demon." p. 323, Sanathana Sarathi, November 2002 (view scans of the official publication of these statements on the right here)).
Of course, the 'spark of the divine' notion is in no way an original idea of Sathya Sai Baba - it is found in many Hindu writings before him and is also
found widely outside Hinduism. It has become popular in numerous so-called 'New Age' thinkers and is evident in corporate culture, 'success' books, inspirational/motivational activities of diverse business leadership 'gurus'. It is no more than an imaginative religious idea - though not accepted in most mainstream religions and sects.
Sai Baba preaches tirelessly to make devotees dependent on him for discovering
their own alleged 'divinity', as by constant prayer to him, repetition of especially his name (as most propitious in this age),
and worship of himself (written "His Divine Form"). He willingly accepts worship... and has let countless thousands touch his feet in obeisance. This only leads
to one becoming less self-dependent, less able to see one's own divine nature in any way independently of "Him" Not surprisingly he denies all free will (except for himself), dislikes all independence of
himself and ridicules self-reliant thinkers, independent scholars, and genuine
intellectuals.Yet sometimes he admits that human beings do possess a degree of free will... for they can choose either to act righteously or not so, and so on.
Those who have thoroughly investigated the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba realize how he has
deceived his followers about his true nature and actual
behaviour. His
actions belie his words and so he cannot be a reliable spiritual guide in any case! He evidently hoped his adharmic actions would
be covered-up, and huge efforts were made - and are still being made - to
do so! But in vain! So how on earth do those who know that he does many of the things of which he is accused manage to explain it away? And how do those who won't look at the nature of the indictments against him manage to explain to themselves how this alleging 'Omnipotent, Omniscient God Incarnate' can ever have been so swamped by these credible allegations and more? Usually it's a case of "It is all part of Swami's Divine Plan" ... programmatic answer to all unanswerable questions about Sai Baba - especially where he acts or speaks entirely against his own main moral rules [which happens often]. This empty 'argument' is used as a panacea to help avoid thinking, observing
sensibly or listening to one's own conscience. The ingrained belief
of so many devotees relies on his claims that "Swami alone is the Doer", which makes everyone else in existence his instruments (written "His Instruments"), about as capable as automatons!