LIFE AT SAI BABA ASHRAMS - 'PRASHANTHI NILAYAM' AND 'BRINDAVAN'
NATURAL AND POSSIBLY FATAL ATTRACTIONS AT THE MINI-WORLD DISNEYLAND CIRCUS

Besides the attractions of ashram life, which for many Westerners is a new, exotic cultural experience and the hope of seeing and being helped or healed a God man. Westerners usually arrive with their heads stuffed with what actually are illusions about 'spirituality', excited at seeing the ca. two million parasitic sannyasins, fakirs, soothsayers, yogis, astrologers, nagas, priests, religious mountebanks and swamis, of whom the vast majority are out-and-out (but clever) frauds. One also meets more peculiarly confused, unrealistic and suffering people visiting there than any of the followers ever admit or write about. By comparison, Prashanthi Nilayam seems a relative oasis, inside its walls there are seldom beggars, itinerant priests, pressing salesmen or other such disturbances. But Prashanti Nilayam is definitely no "Abode of Supreme Peace" for the visitor - sanctuary from worldly problems nor a place full of saintly people, it is no utopian retreat... not by any means, for it is a place of both physical and mental-emotional hardship for many visitors (and the prices of rooms have increased from almost nothing to very considerable sums). One elderly Indian devotee in the IAS with long experience of the ashrams and residents assured me it is "a snake pit of jealousy". I have witnessed many incidents which bear this out. The former Head of Administration for over 20 years, Mr. Kanhaia Jee, told me that the PN staff "fight like dogs" when Swami's back is turned!

Apart from the hope that being near to the self-proclaimed God will confer spiritual gifts and blessings, there are some other attractions of ashram life for foreigners. One is the great change of culture, climate, food habits etc. involved (until it becomes too familiar). There is often (not always) a lack of hurry and stress. Life there is still slower and closer to non-industrial society. It can also be fine to isolate oneself thus from the world, its media and constant depressing news. Part of the visiting experience is to meet culture and the people rather than suffer the usual alienation of mere tourism. It is instructive to persons who have seldom stepped over cultural boundary lines before. Despite the enormous physical and social problems in India, one can meet smiling faces among even the poorest of Indians, who would seem to have little to be happy about - few material goods, health benefits or social compensations.

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