Big fight on TV channel spills into streets as Sai devotee says epics are vile

A big fight over whether Shirdi Saibaba is a god or not started on a TV channel, spilled over into the streets with the followers of Sai staging virtual dharna at the channel office in the city and disrupting traffic there on Thursday morning. The long debate between Govindananda of Sanatan Dharma and Ramanananda, a Saibaba champion, turned hot within minutes with both freely indulging in mutual recriminations. While Govindananda, of Karnataka, said only what was there in the Sastras and the Vedas were the word of God, Ramananda argued that neither Sastras nor the Vedas were the word of God to him. He did not believe in them. Govindananda asked, Is Saibaba a Hindu or Muslim? Who are his parents? Why are you projecting him as a Hindu God? To this Ramananda replied that Sai was beyond religion. He had no parents and hence God. He was an avatar of Siva. While the debate was raging, people were drawn to the TV channel office. For crowd control, the police also appeared on the scene. Several experts such as Nagaphani Sarma and Jonnavittula tried to intervene, but the religious combatants would not listen to any expert. At one stage, Govindananda became enraged because Ramananda flippantly said `Ramayana is vile, Mahabharata is guile.' The Karnataka Acharya told his interlocutor to `go to Sai country' if he so liked the Shirdi saint. Ramananda further said none of the puranas had any basis. Only Sai history had value.