Posted by Barry Pittard on January 21, 2012
There is a matter about which I should shortly be able to write. I understand that arrests have been made, money trails unearthed, dangerous and bloody forces exposed through hard evidence and testimony, and that court actions are about to unfold.
I am told that a major media force is now preparing a documentary. It will be interesting to see how the International Sathya Sai Organization reacts.
Many death threats are, of course, bluffs. Some come from idle nutters who rant or bunglers who don’t get very far. But it is important, nonetheless, to keep whatever tracks may have been left by all who threaten.
In regard to some types of information, with the assistance of our relevant professional members, we deal with Interpol or other government agencies. In Australia, I have dealt with the (then) head of Interpol in Australia, Paul Weller, and senior officials in DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade). Our USA members have dealt with the FBI and State Department, UK members, their officials, and so on. In India, there are certain means by which to raise issues that circumvent at least some of the endemic corruption in that country. On occasions, we have been successful there, too, despite huge odds.
Since 1999, when the internationally coordinated former devotee exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult began, there have been times when, for the personal safety of our most active members, we have had to curtail any thought of going public. This has been especially so in relation to India, where one of our brilliantly effective members has reported, and taken to a high government authority in India, attempts either to kill or maim him. Although he had earlier taken strong actions, he heeded family members and other acquaintances deeply concerned for his safety.
In background terms, with the permission of another key person, I earlier began to write of great progress made in India in exposing at least a part of the teacher sexual betrayal of Sathya Sai Baba college boys. I abruptly stopped writing. In the wake of these court actions, an acquaintance of mine, some of whose family elders I have long known, a former Sathya Sai Baba college boy, twice narrowly escaped with his life, in two separate countries. It will be most interesting if the three police forces investigating the second attack on him show in court evidence where those now accused as hired assassins got their training. India is one of the countries that will need to be looked at very closely.
Of course, too, the victim’s immense wealth and effectiveness in exposing at law elements of the Sathya Sai cult will need to be considered as motives for the alleged hiring of hitmen. The alleged hirer will need, among his other associations, to be looked at for any connection with the Sathya Sai Organization, including in his own country, which is outside India, although he is of Indian origin.
In this latter case, various professional security advice is at hand. I understand that close body protection is now provided for the man and his family, and he tells me that he is utterly resolute in continuing to expose some of the more evil-minded of the Sathya Sai fraternity, as are a goodly number of his colleagues who are knowledgeable about Sathya Sai Baba, and India and other countries, who have now risen to positions of outstanding influence and power.
This world would never be such a dangerous place if it were far more common to stand up against the vile miscreants who corrupt it. We should not wait for times of war to show a bit of determination to overcome the evils that, sooner or later, trouble all of us.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Assassination, Assassins, Close Body Protection, Cults, Death Threats, FBI, Hired Assassins, Hired Killers, Hitmen, India, Interpol, Murder, Sathya Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba Organization, Sects | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 19, 2012
Many poison-pen attacks assail those of us who stand forth to tell the facts about Sathya Sai Baba and his worldwide cult. So it is with some relief that one receives mail from those whom one knew long ago and held in high regard. Such an email has just come from Richard in the USA, whom I knew when we twice shared lodgings, during my first year of teaching at the Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore. Prior to our first meeting, Richard served as an overseas officer in the United States armed forces. He left Whitefield and Puttaparthi to work with Mother Teresa of Calcutta, before returning for a time.
I might add, in passing, in reference to Richard’s mention of his book on environmental catastrophe, that I have just returned from a forum, hearing from some of the top environmentalist scientists in the world that the vast ecological troubles threatening the planet are not the concoctions of crack-brain doomsayers. They are very real. Blinded by narrow economic advantage, many governments, corporations and others dangerously ignore compelling scientific data going back forty years. Sathya Sai Baba did not address these immense threats to the planet. In his constant sermonizing, he all too often spoke with extreme abstraction, getting lost in ancient myths that he treated not as allegory or parable but as historic fact.
Below, see Richard’s note:
—————————————
“Dear Barry,
Well do I remember Michael and Faith Hollander, since I was privy to their after-story in New York.
You and I become good friends during first 5 months of 1978, living first at the Singh’s and later at the Tank-cabin with the baba wall. It was from there I departed to spend rest of my 1978 year in Calcutta and more briefly, Madras and Bombay. Meanwhile, you soldiered on as a fine teacher in Karnataka. Well do I recall your wonderful bhajan classes with tiny ones.
Faith and Micheal returned to New York City, where I encountered them in 1979 as leaders of the Sathya Sai Center of Manhattan. I went there twice for bhajans, then disconnected from corporate baba-ism. I now call the guy S. N. Raju. I will fine tune my essay re that issue and send to you in next few months or sooner. (I regret I still viewed Raju as my guru until about 1998-99, when I learned about his evil conduct and that of some around him)
Faith Hollander was a devout if floaty lady with deep spiritual capacities, and Michael was a loud, if well-meaning, “idealogue” and evangelical, a sort of Baba’s apostle ‘Paul’, sent forth to browbeat the earth into Baba-tude. I find it sad but amusing how so many, having drunk the koolaid, cannot transform themselves. I think its like Sam Sandweis or that other leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, the doctor (glad I can’t recall his name) said: “Ive given 20 years of my life to this, I can’t recant now.” That’s sort of like the inquisitors saying about Galileo’s ’round Earth” thesis: I’ve dedicated my life to a flat Earth… so let’s kill or silence that guy.
Anyway… the beat goes on. My book about coming eco-catastrophe is at the printers in Calcutta.
Peace, love and Justice,
Richard
—————————————
General
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Superstition, Michael Hollander, Michael J. Hollander, Fundamentalism, Poison Pen | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 16, 2012
I remember Michael Hollander
This was when I began to teach for two years at the Sathya Sai College (1978-79) and heard that Sai Baba had selected a woman named Faith, a leader in a New York Sathya Sai Baba center, as a wife for Hollander. At a time when very few westerners lived around Sai Baba, she came to spend prolonged time in quiet, focused spiritual retreat. (Earlier to this, he had cleared his ashrams of 60′s spiritual seekers/hippies).
However, Faith preferred, her fellow devotees said, to be – spiritually speaking – married only to Sai Baba. Nonetheless, regarding him as all-knowing and all-seeing, she was ready to comply with Sai Baba’s match-making.
One morning, Michael quickly summoned me. On the spur of a moment, he asked me to act as, it seemed, ‘best man’. I was aware of Michael Hollander as a rather robust, enthusiastic bhajan singer, who was very eager to lead bhajans (conducted from about 9am to 5pm) during Thursday and Sunday lunch-times when the experienced singers retired for lunch.
Sathya Sai Baba conducted Michael and Faith’s wedding in his interview room at the Whitefield campus. I can still ‘hear’ the words of his homily: “Michael, when she is sick, do not say that she is sick. Say – WE are sick. Faith, when he is sick, do not say that he is sick. Say – WE are sick.
This was but one of a few marriages which – to the great surprise of one or both parties – Sai Baba, in his role of spiritual master, ordered. A very noted example was his marriage of David and Fay Bailey, who at great sacrifice to themselves, years later, were among the foremost in exposing Sathya Sai Baba internationally. See:
Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba
For Faith, Sai Baba appeared to materialize a filigree pendent composed of (apparently) gold and gemstones for Faith, by reaching up into the air and pulling it down. For Michael, he produced a ring that looked like it was gold. This Sai Baba did right in front of Michael and me. It seemed to form from out of his fingers, in full sight as the pendant manifestation was. (But see my articles):
Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)
Censored Indian National Television Film of Sai Baba Cheating
BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)
BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle
Michael Hollander, Fervent Sathya Sai Baba Apostle
Below, I copy a comment which was one among a number of comments Michael Hollander sent http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com, the blogsite of my trusted colleague, Robert Priddy. As I read it, I mused about whether Hollander, who has written hagiographically on Sai Baba and who is somewhat venerated in Sai circles because of his long-time association with Sai Baba, has at all learned one of his master’s key teachings: Be loving towards all, even those who may have done ill to you.
In terms of Sai Baba’s marriage homily advising partners to think in terms of WE, Michael Hollander’s email to Robert Priddy may question whether Michael and Faith are at all well all these years later.
In Hollander’s email, is there even a trace of that urbane respect we see in rational discussion when people have a differing viewpoint? Or do we see, rather, a finger-wagging condemnation? Like an old-time Puritan preacher fulminating from the pulpit, threatening hellfire and damnation? Here are a few of Hollander’s – um – exquisitely loving words, rather redolent of an email with which, years ago, he assailed David Bailey (I shall refer to it in my next blog):
“Yes to engage in such slander against God Himself is a sin that only He can gauge.There are Laws that Govern us all and all must and will be held accountable for their own actions.There is no escaping this Fact.Thus for those who chose to write such evil lies and slander-as always ones own karma does come around sooner or later”
“It is only some due to their own internal problems and ego that engage in such trash”
“What a bunch of low-life cowards to print such evil lies and falsehood”
“It is only some due to their own internal problems and ego that engage in such trash”
“Yes Lord Christ had one Judas.God Lord Sri Sathya Sai had thousands of Judas’s” (ed. properly, Judases)
“What a bunch of low-life cowards to print such evil lies and falsehood”
“All of these false accusations will be revealed- it is all part of Natural Law – even as the Sun rises and sets and the Moon waxes and wanes”
“Yes it was a joy to see how Nothing ever touched Him and He still only Taught Love and to serve ones fellow-man”
Why would Hollander even begin to think that his rather lengthy, flowery, often repetitive email would have any effect on such a major, well-known Sai Baba cult critic as Robert Priddy, the former long-time leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway, and a retired University academic in philosophy and social science of the University of Oslo. See: Wikipedia entry, Robert C. Priddy.
Robert Priddy’s many articles over the years on Sathya Sai Baba and his cult are anything but flowery or splenetic. They ask, and answer, the rigorous questions which Sai Baba’s cultic, button-down-minded followers constantly evade. They duck and weave, typically, either by saying nothing or, like Hollander, dealing in great sermonizing abstractions and treating as wicked any who question Sai Baba, his teachings and his cult.
(To be continued in next blog)
Further Reading
Michael Hollander, bigot preacher of preposterous, untested beliefs
Posted by robertpriddy on January 10, 2012
For another example of the demeaning, depersonalizing way in which so many Sai devotees have written to former devotees, see:
Reply to a Sathya Sai Devotee’s Note re: David and Faye Bailey
Here is the text of Michael Hollander’s email to Robert Priddy’s blogsite
“YES – it was easy to see that Sri Sathya Sai Baba was none other then God Himself – to print such evil lies and slander is only a reflection of your own ego and weakness and sheer stupidity.It is unfortunate that some due to their own inability to to see Pure Divinity resort to such evil slander.And as we all know the Truth has and will continue to come out here.Truth Truth Truth He Himself is Truth,and this was so obvious.It is only some due to their own internal problems and ego that engage in such trash.Yes slander is a severe sin of this there is no doubt.Thus the Universe that is all based on Truth will make sure that the Divine Light will expose all fradulent and ego based lies and horrific false accounts be fully exposed.This we know is truth.Is it not the way the Cosmos expands and reveals what is true and what is a lie?.Yes this is the very nature of TRUTH.Yes Lord Christ had one Judas.God Lord Sri Sathya Sai had thousands of Judas’s.What a shame.He Himself was ever perfect in every way.He Himself was Perfection itself. Again this was so obvious.All of these false accusations will be revealed- it is all part of Natural Law – even as the Sun rises and sets and the Moon waxes and wanes.
What a bunch of low-life cowards to print such evil lies and falsehood.
Yes to engage in such slander against God Himself is a sin that only He can gauge.There are Laws that Govern us all and all must and will be held accountable for their own actions.There is no escaping this Fact.Thus for those who chose to write such evil lies and slander-as always ones own karma does come around sooner or later.Of this there is no doubt. Sathya Sai Baba was a Voice for the poorest of the poor as shown by His Work and the Institutions founded by Him.People only turned on Him because of their own problems,ego and hatred.Yet He Himself as God was ever untouched by any of it.This also was obvious.It is only those who engaged in such lies will have to face their own karma.This we all know is True.What a shame that some weak-minded people had to resort to such evil Lies.Yes the Universe we live in is all ultimately based on Truth.And this same Truth will expose all such cowards and all the falsehood that has been written.This I promise you.Over the last 40 years I spent almost 9 years in His Immediate Presence in India.And i met many of the people who now make these horrendous accusations.And once again ones own karma will find each sooner or later.It is just the way the Universe works.
Yes it was a joy to see how Nothing ever touched Him and He still only Taught Love and to serve ones fellow-man”.
General
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Faith Hollander, Michael Hollander, Robert Priddy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 9, 2012
I wish a Happy New Year to all. I am thankful that, since early 2007, many hundreds of thousands of readers have visited this blog.
Each of us plants seeds that grow, hoping they will turn out well, no matter what the terrain – parents, their children; teachers, their charges; visionaries, their creations, and so on. We can all grow a tree that will become a bone-sore weary traveller’s aid.
Possibly more than at any other time, the world – whose population late last year exceeded seven billion people – needs each of us who can do it to plant physical trees, and other wholesome, much-needed plants which will aid a profoundly compromised planet. So that we can breathe. And many other measures that protect the planet.
The other ‘seeds’ that need planting are those which relate to the practical implementation of ethics key to many belief systems, religious and secular. It is no use merely to write and mouth facts, like the endless Sathya Sai Speaks series, but to discover or rediscover those facts which need no establishing, and, often, facts we ignore all along – such as the scientific warnings of the last thirty or forty years about our planet’s spoliation. Our rampant consumerism. Our materialistic, competition-oriented ‘education’. The unimaginable cover ups and lies daily fed us by governments, corporations and other instrumentalities ….
The first great impetus for many who left Sathya Sai Baba was care for the safety of children. That was all good, so far as it went. But those who have worked hardest to draw world attention to great wrongs soon discovered a signal lesson. This is that, eventually, those who speak out, and who work hard do most of, and sometimes all of, the work.
Most former devotees, like most people everywhere, offer a great many excuses, and a few partly decent reasons, for not standing forth. I have long been in touch with former devotees and other critics in many parts of the world. Likewise, I have yet to hear of a single instance where any member of the Sathya Sai Organization has accorded a loving response to any of our representations – no matter how loving and caring those representations have been. The organization stood silent when its members and their supporters attacked former devotees with a hatred very different to the decades of esteem they once accorded our members.
It is hard, then, for the heart of activists with a conscience not to call it cowardice. It looks and it acts just like cowardice does. However one may view the problem, the result is the same: that is to say, when human beings do not question, challenge and engage, sooner or later, the evils which they deplore, and from which they avert their eyes, will grip civil society, like pernicious and unstoppable vines. Power brokers, criminals and other profiteers depend upon our fear. How can we be heroes to our children when we are cowards to ourselves? How can we establish for them a future that is essentially as nasty as so much of the past has been.
I pay great tribute to my close colleague Robert Priddy, retired academic in philosophy and the social sciences. With the death of my earlier colleague, the utterly remarkable, late Glen Meloy, the work supporting survivors and continuing to expose the Sathya Sai Organization publicly was rather rough and sweaty work. It was at this time that Robert entered with his formidable intellectual and humane resources. In any difficulty or danger, those like Robert and Glen, and a few others in the background, are the only sort of persons you would want to travel at your side.
A few days ago, I wrote this song:
Travellers’ Aid. Barry Pittard. (3 January 2012)
Some sowed bright seed deep laid before they went
Among those who’ve sent me shade are those I’ve
Never, never met
But I will bet that they knew sweat
Needs shade as fresh as lemonade
And here is their shade
To be a shade
For a bone-worn, weary traveller’s aid …..
I’ll plant a tree with my spade before I go
And who’ll receive it’s shade I may not
Ever ever know
But I will bet like me they’ll sweat
Their bones will ache, from the marrow ache
But here is a shade
To be a shade
For a bone-worn, weary traveller’s aid
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Glen Meloy, Robert Priddy, Traveller's Aid | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 23, 2011
Tediously, phrases emerge from the mouths of those who could, but do not, speak out forthrightly about their experiences of spiritual and moral betrayal.
Often, one hears them say, “I am moving on, now”.
But the abusers, the criminals, the bullies, don’t move on. They thrive in the knowledge that their victims will, most often, move on. Essentially cowards themselves, they understand that other cowards will protect them – by preferring the easy way out. By shutting up. By not calling a crime a crime. By leaving undefended the abused. By abandoning any shred of self-respect.
There Is No Healing In Hiding
The Sathya Sai Organization certainly moves on, thinking that their dead guru – despite his countless false promises of healing and absurdly unfulfilled predictions and vast secret hoard of currency, gold, silver and other valuables – moves with them and within them.
Those who, against unenviable odds, have continued year after year to expose Sathya Sai Baba and his soviet-style, authoritarian, worldwide cult too often see cases where those who speak of ‘moving on’ get into yet more self-entrapment. Out of one guru’s or cult’s frying pan into another. Again, the problem of lack of self-respect.
For some examples of those who were highly respected leaders when members of the Sathya Sai Organization, and who have spoken out with conscience and decency, see:
Searing true testimony about Sathya Sai Baba abuse (the case of Hans de Kraker, Australia, for years Manager of the Western Canteen at Puttaparthi. Article by Robert Priddy)
Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion (including Terry Gallagher case – Gallagher investigated extensively, and, in consequence, resigned as leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, Australia)
Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia
David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses
Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba
New Zealand Lawyer Exposes Official Cover Up of Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom
Stephen Carthew, A Voice of Testimony From Australia, On The Dangers of Cults
Video of Some Primary Witnesses of Sathya Sai Sex Abuse, and Sai Cult Cover Up
The patient researcher will need to sift carefully among roles played by many individuals. Twenty six years a highly respected devotee who worked in close association with early leaders of the Sai movement, such as the late Elsie and Walter Cowan, the late Glen Meloy was an exceptional former devotee international coordinator. See my tribute to him at the time of his death: Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam. An early key coordinator, Hari Sampath, an Indian from Chennai, who had previously worked in Sai Baba’s Security and Intelligence Wing was, like Glen Meloy, a tour de force.
Some other names to start with are: Terry Gallagher and Stephen Carthew Australia), Al Rahm (USA), Richard Nelson, Rick Raines (USA), Timothy Conway Ph.D (USA), Dave Lyons (USA), Artur Wisniewski (Poland), Although, overwhelmingly, it is men who lead the Sathya Sai Organization, prominent women leaders who have left after years of work on behalf of the organization include: Britt-Marie Anden (Sweden), and (from the USA) Shirley Pike, Sharon Purcell, Elena Hartgering (the latter two deceased), Lori Kaplowitz, Ella Evers. For an incisive writer with a quite academic (though very accessible) approach, see the Dutch former Sai devotee writer: Alexandra Nagel. A Seminal Writer On Sathya Sai Baba, A Guru Accused.
The noted Australian scholar in linguists Brian Steel has long written incisively and voluminously on many aspects of the Sathya Sai cult. His published writings while a devotee of twelve years were already respected for their extensive knowledge of Sai literature. His close and rigorous examination of many primary documents, including large numbers of collected Sathya Sai Baba discourses, have unearthed many egregious mistakes about science and history, prophecies subsequently unfulfilled, and other anomalies.
There are many others, but these men and women raised their voices strongly and clearly from the first. They, who had not been derided in all their involvement in official Sathya Sai circles, were now treated to appalling behaviours such as shunning, defaming, and the rather Orwellian historic obliteration from memory. These responses are so typically evident when there is apostasy after sect membership.
On the surface, ‘moving on’ from a traumatic set of circumstances, as opposed to getting stuck in them, may seem perfectly reasonable. One after another, the various schools of mental health declare that until one has seriously dealt with the underlying issues, there is no successful ‘moving on’. One set of symptoms may replace another set, but masking and not addressing the basic causes.
There remain several questions which often go unanswered, such as:
If one has done little or nothing to mine one’s experiences for serious lessons – spiritual, mental, and physical – does one successfully ‘move on’ from an issue?
Is it ‘moving on’ when one hides, first, from oneself and, then, by not sharing, forthrightly, one’s insights with others?
Coming from countries around the world, a few have, in the face of attacks on their integrity, publicly recorded their experiences of sexual abuse at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba, and in some cases those around him, including teaching staff.
Sadly, the many who could have shown solidarity with those who spoke out left all the heavy-lifting up to a small few.
The Sathya Sai Organizations Treatment of the Rahm Family
Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America. Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family (Al Rahm was one of the foremost of top leaders in the SS Org.) and:
Al Rahm’s explanatory letter and:
Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America
Further Interconnected Articles
Dr Naresh Bhatia. Silenced Now In Indian Child Abuse Scourge
Some prominent ex-devotees of Sathya Sai Baba
Smear Campaign against critics of Sathya Sai Baba
Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment
Evidence of an Internet Activist in Action
On Disinformation and Internet Vandalism
Wikipedia Issues and Sathya Sai Baba (By the Independent British writer on religion and philosophy Kevin R.D. Shepherd)
Sathya Sai Organisation – Further Subterfuge and Misinformation, by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard
General
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Cults, Glen Meloy, Moving On, Sathya Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Organization, Sects, self entrapment, Sexual Abuse, Sri Sathya Sai Organization, true testimony, voice of conscience | 4 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 6, 2011
Since about 1999, former devotees’ replies to enquirers have been a great many. My closest colleagues and I go out of our way to assist those who enquire with courtesy.
It seems very right to ignore those who are offensive. Why – when one has invested so many years in striving to pursue a decent and humane path – fall to the display of hatred and anger that has all too often reached our inboxes?
The below email response which I have just sent to an enquirer is typical in tone and purpose to many that former devotees have, for many years, spent time and care in responding to enquirers.
——————————————————————
Dear ……..,
Thank you for writing to my blogsite.
I may suggest that, in matters so serious as your education, you feel welcome to share this email with your parents and any elders within your extended family or circle of mentors whom you feel that you can approach for wise guidance. I am happy to answer any questions they may wish to put.
I don’t know whether you read further into my blogsite at: http://barrypittard.wordpress.com . I also recommend the blogsite of the longtime former head of the Sathya Sai Organisation, Robert Priddy, a retired academic of the University of Oslo, Norway: http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com
There are other outstanding and highly senior leaders, too, who have resigned – after proper and scrupulous investigation of primary sources (families and young men from countries around the world) – from the Sathya Sai Organization.
It is extremely hard for devotees to credit the integrity of those many former devotees who have investigated the serious allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, and, I must quickly add, certain of his servitors, including some teachers. I myself lectured for two years at the Whitefield college (1978-9), and was deeply devoted to Sathya Sai Baba for twenty-five years.
In 1999, after very careful investigation that extended around the world, the evidence of sexual abuse against boys and young men, and other great wrongdoing was utterly compelling. Some of the investigation was by outstandingly qualified sexual abuse professionals, who have long stood ready to testify in any properly accountable legal jurisdiction.
The truth remains that many of those who have left the Sathya Sai Organisation have done so on the highest moral and ethical principles. They have exercised the same standards that have, all along, been seen in them in their professions, trades and wider communities.
No amount of vilification can change the actions of those renowned for telling the truth and practising righteous principles. We have remained within integrity no matter that some Sai devotees have often and cruelly attacked and libeled us, on and off the internet.
Nothing can equal the sense of inner strength that comes from fearless assertion of truth and right conduct, no matter what the odds.
My best wishes to you,
Barry Pittard, Australia. Former lecturer at the Sathya Sai College, Whitefield.
———————————–
Subject: [Call For Media and Government Investigation] Please moderate: “Sai Baba’s Imperial 83rd Birthday Celebrations Photo, Puttaparthi, India”
A new comment on the post “Sai Baba’s Imperial 83rd Birthday Celebrations Photo, Puttaparthi, India”
Author : ……….. (name omitted, respecting privacy)
Comment:
I am a class X student. I am a devotee of Shri Sathya Sai Baba. I want to get an admission in the Higher Secondary School because I want to devote myself to Babaji service
General
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Education, Indian Education, Puttaparthi, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Sri Sathya Sai College | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 25, 2011
I note that the international Sathya Sai satellite broadcaster, Sai Global Harmony, via the WorldSpace Radio Corporation, has just used a Sai cult member’s account of his ‘meeting’ with Anna Hazare, the courageous and greatly respected leader of the mass, pan-Indian campaign against endemic Indian government and corporate corruption. Allowing for social, political and cultural differences, there are strong comparisons to be drawn between the Indian struggle against corruption among the elite and struggles elsewhere in the world, such as the ‘Arab Spring’ and the ‘Occupy’ movement sweeping the USA and other countries. See my article: Occupy Movement Exemplifies Sathya Sai Baba’s Failure As Social Reformer
Sai Radio Propaganda Uses Respected Names To Cover Up For Sai Corruption
The Sai devotee claimed on-air that Hazare stated to him, in no uncertain terms, the primal divinity of Sathya Sai Baba. I reference:
http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_09/01OCT11/anant_pande.htm
http://aravindb1982.hubpages.com/hub/Anna-Hazare-and-Sathya-Sai.
Locked in a vast effort, following both earlier and more recent exposures, the international Sathya Sai Organization, having lost many members, struggles desperately to rebuild, and at least keep somehow afloat, the Sathya Sai empire.
The Indian media is well-placed to ask Baba Hazare and/or his official spokesperson to confirm or deny the report on Sai Global Harmony? But will they? Will they ever attempt to atone for their shame in allowing the foreign media to expose Sathya Sai Baba and his cult?
Alert sleuths may also like to see whether Sai Global Harmony almost talking to itself, and a smattering of NRI’s and others around the world – speaking essentially to the converted. If not, the Sathya Sai Organisation’s repeated statements (which we can document from official Sai literature) about having vast followings worldwide are yet again exposed as false.
Clearly, the Organisation uses the Hazare name, among other public names (as it does with those such as Gavaskar and Tendulkar), to bolster up what’s left of the Sai Baba ‘name and fame’. This at a time when the discredited cult fights for its survival worldwide. I add that there has been intense pressure to obtain governmental sanctions for a powerful, far-reaching transmitter in the British Isles for Sai Global Harmony satellite radio broadcasts. But the Sathya Sai Central Trust lawyer SS Naganand has just made a watershed statement, which represents a departure from the profound secrecy of the Sathya Sai Organization down many decades. As reported by NDTV – see:
Sathya Sai Central Trust releases annual financial report
by Maya Sharma, Updated: November 23, 2011 17:49 IST
“We are being watched by many organisations, the government and many other institutions in India and abroad. That’s why we thought we will take measured steps”.
Indeed, this international attention of which Naganand speaks has been very much part of our job to ensure. It is our point about the utter failure of the Sathya Sai Organization to show accountability that the cult from top to bottom has reviled and libeled those who have – with rational voice – spoken out. But from the cult, there is not a word of apology for all the hatred vented against former devotees and other critics.
See also:
Ashok Bhagani – Footsying With Top Blair Minister?
Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist
Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard
Ashok Bhagani denies fully documented facts
Ashok Bhagani, Sathya Sai Baba cult promoter in UK
General
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Anna Hazare, Propaganda, Puttaparthi, Sai Global Harmony, Sathya Sai Central Trust, South India, WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 22, 2011
Below, I have excerpted from my articles posted on or close to each Sathya Sai Baba birthday celebration. These go back to 2007, the year in which I began ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba.
One of the key reasons why Robert Priddy and I continue to expose the Sathya Sai Baba cult is that his worldwide Sathya Sai Organization, though it is in vast public discredit and struggling to remain intact, continues to draw unwitting people into its thrall. Now and then, members of major international media continue to consult us, and find us unflaggingly truthful, carefully analytic and responsible, as do other organizations and persons who stand against cultic dangers to human well-being.
Repeatedly, it is the many Sathya Sai Baba devotees who – abjectly forgetful of Sai Baba’s constantly harped-upon preachments about love, peace and sweet-spokenness – break the teachings common to many religions and philosophical systems . Their commonsense and decency paralysed, they cannot look at critical facts, rationally and truthfully presented. Cruelly, they libel those who have stood forth – persons they had long respected and served alongside, year after year, when we shared devotion for Sai Baba.
From the moment we raised our voiced in question, devotees shunned and reviled us. In untold ways, they twisted our words and intentions. They attacked our worthy standing in our professions, trades and wider communities. Ever more sadly, there were attacks against our families, including our children.
Prominent leaders in the Sathya Sai Organization – including those who were close to Sai Baba and part of the Saibabaofindia.com party – have long supported the most vicious and dishonest attacker of former devotees and other critics, Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA. So intensive were his attempts to sabotage the Wikipedia article on Sathya Sai Baba that he was permanently banned, along with an associate. Ironically, many Sai devotees refused to associate with him, and voices for reason, such as Adrian Hoogenbosch, urged that speaking offensively to Sai Baba’s critics was not spiritually or ethically tenable.
Posted by November 20, 2011
The late Sathya Sai Baba’s birthday celebrations occur on 23 November. As usual, around this time, there is an upsurge of visitors to this blogsite and that of Robert Priddy. However, in comparison to other years, the numbers are much down, very much as Sai Baba himself is forever down in the earth, and his devotees infinitely down in the dumps.
After his death in on 24 April 2011, we have seen something of the terrible in-fighting over managerial succession at Puttaparthi, and then of the discovery – not of spiritual treasure but – untold hoarded treasure in Sai Baba’s private quarters. The international Sathya Sai Organization, despite or perhaps in part because of its soviet-style, top-down management style, is in vast disarray. See:
Posted November 25, 2010
Sathya Sai Baba has said:
“In the days ahead, the whole world will be obliged to come to Prashanthi Nilayam” (p. 320 Sanathana Sarathi December 1991)
“The whole world will be transformed into Sathya Sai Organisation and Sathya Sai will be installed in the hearts of one and all”. p. 16 Sanathana Sarathi January 1999)
“In Argentina (Sathya Sai Baba) bhajans are being held in every home [cheers].” Sathya Sai Speaks, XXIII, 29:255 – 20-10-1990, on the alleged 50th anniversary of Sathya Sai Baba’s so-called ‘Declaration’ of his so-called ‘Reality’ as Avatar of all Avatars.)
Here is a simple test: Ask any Argentinian whether this statement is true. If it is not, ergo – this Sathya is not telling the truth or is credulous and badly misinformed! But, then, how can this be so? For he has long said that he is All-knowing and All-seeing ….
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Posted December 31, 2010
Over the years, we have received various reports of Sathya Sai Baba increasingly losing a composure that has been oft-noted in him for decades. But only recently has this type of behaviour been clear for all to see, and in video footage emanating from his own camp. During his November birthday, Sathya Sai Baba – in the midst of being praised for all the good he has done – broke down and sobbed deeply and for some time. To see this video (download 3.9 Mbs), CLICK HERE
“Be happy!” “I have no enemies.. I love all. I am always smiling. Many people think how can I keep smiling? I don’t like castoroil faces.. When you all are happy, I will be happy.” Sathya Sai Baba in his lectern-thumping tirade, Christmas Discourse 2000————————————————————
Posted December 16, 2010
Often, there is the tacit assumption that to criticize Sathya Sai Baba is itself a slight against India. This is offensive to a great many Indians from all walks of life who do not think that Sai Baba is a reflection of all that is good in their country.
Anyone who has lived in India lengthily, as I have, comes to know how profoundly Indians across classes and divides deplore the corruptions and abuses of human rights and democratic freedoms which they see perpetrated by the power elites in their country.
Yet this is the India that Sai Baba has said he will transform. He has spoken of first “cleaning up his own backyard”, before saving the entire world before he dies. He is now very old and sick.
Posted December 11, 2010
Sathya Sai Baba’s many reported weeping episodes have taken – as from circa the year 2000 – a marked upsweep after the advent of worldwide exposure of widespread serial sexual abuse of boys and young men (See also HERE and HERE); his implication in the massive local, state and central governments’ cover up of police killings in his bedroom at Puttaparthi (See HERE and HERE and HERE); vast misappropriation of billions in funds collected worldwide (See HERE and HERE and HERE); his vast opulence in a land of great poverty, squalor, ignorance and superstition; his failed predictions (See HERE and HERE); and much else that reveals him to be one of history’s great imposters, whatever may be the good deeds that he has sparked off in many of his devotees.
Posted November 22, 2009
In marked contrast, a great many Indians do not in substantive ways – even though they acknowledge that his devotees often do good social works - respect Sathya Sai Baba and his extremely undemocratic and unaccountable cult. By way of confirmation, let any traveller to India keep his or her ears open or even politely pose the question to many of her citizens. That simple test is almost enough in itself. Many well-informed Indians do not appreciate that, at a time when vast efforts try, on many fronts, to bring India into the best of 21st century practice, that, buffoon-like, Sathya Sai Baba flourishes unbounded aspirations to create a Ram-Rajarate, as it were, in their country - far more opulent the ‘Glory that was Rome’ or the ‘Splendour that was Greece’.
Mind you, it is more than India he has said that he will rule – it is the world. In regard to India, see, for example, the south Indian scholar-Sai Baba devotee Ra. Ganapati in his semi-official biography, “Baba: Sathya Sai” (Vol II – page 85):
“His college students had the privilege to see another unique creation in the Ootacamund Summer Course in June 1976. Svami, who declared that He would live to see ninety six years in this body, mentioned that eighteen important institutions would be established by Him all over India in the remaining forty six years, and circled His hand.
Immediately there appeared in His hand a big medal with the map of India engraved. There were inscribed therein the eighteen institutions that are to appear in the next near-half-century. Not only that, the medal also carried the important ‘achievements-to-be’ of Svami in the future, in microscopic Devanagiri characters in the Samskrit language.”
Many have heard and read where he says that the whole world will be under his rulership, and that he will return in the name of Prema Sai Baba to complete this work. In a 1961 Discourse, he said: “I shall be in this body for 58 years more; I have assured you of this already.” (Sathya Sai Speaks, II, 18:92.) A year previously, he said: “I will be in this mortal human form for 59 years more and I shall certainly meet the purpose of this avathaar, do not doubt it. I will take My own time and carry out My Plan as far as you are concerned.” (I, 31:198; Prashanthi Nilayam 29-9-1960 – second discourse) Both these statements indicate a death date 2019 (although he would not use the ‘word’ death) of 2019. Other statements in official publications confuse the issue by stating 2022.
He had best get a wriggle on, for he is now terribly ailing. See: Sai Baba – A Degenerative Disease? and Sai Baba’s Tip To Keep Ageing Away and Sathya Sai Baba Is Fast-ailing and Sathya Sai Baba’s Slurred Speech Due To Old Age. ‘Eenadu’ News Report
Posted November 28, 2009
Indian media reported considerably diminished numbers coming to Puttaparthi. For example:
First Published : 24 Nov 2009 03:48:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 24 Nov 2009 11:08:59 AM IST
Baba’s birthday a low-key affair
PUTTAPARTHI: The 84th birthday celebrations of Sri Satya Saibaba were held at Sai Kulwant Hall in Prashanti Nilayam in Puttaparthi. Saibaba has formally cut the cake to mark his birthday in the presence of several dignitaries and thousands of devotees who thronged to witness the celebrations.
The omniscient, ageless Avatar anounced at his 60th birthday that henceforward he would show no physical signs of ageing. See articles:
Click to find the video link that shows Sathya Sai Baba in 2007 just as unable to cut his own birthday cake as exposed in the 2009 report of the Express News Service.
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Posted November 25, 2008
High-powered Minister of State, Renuka Chowdhuri, has to cut 2007 for badly ailing Satya Sai Baba
For some time, he has had a mask-like face, suggestive of a degenerative disease.
One Of Many Examples of Sathya Sai Baba’s Falsified Statements
“Many people wonder that I look so young even at the age of 73. The reason is that I have the three P’s in Me. One is Purity, the second is Patiene and the third is Perseverance. It is because of these three that I shall remain like this for any number of years to come. (cheers)” p. 302 Sanathana 11-1998
Further Reading At ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’
There is no end to his failed predictions. In his February 1 16, 2007 (so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sai baba said:
The guru, perhaps the most wealthy and politically powerful in India’s long history, claims that he will save the world in his own lifetime. He will, he says, preside over the greatest changes ever to occur in history
One of India’s most powerful Hindu nationalist leaders, Ashok Singhal, who has an international profile in the Hindu world, has just told an assembly of political and religious luminaries in Delhi of a prophecy he says Sathya Sai Baba shared with him. The Organiser, September 14, 2008, reports …
Robert Priddy – former head of Sathya Sai Organization, Norway – at his blogsite
Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed
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Posted November 20, 2007
Sathya Sai Baba’s Imperial Decay
Pride is said to come before a fall. In the case of Sathya Sai Baba, the absurd and obscene pomp now come during a fall, since we are now in a better place to see the imperial decay suggested in my article The Decline and Fall of The Showman Empire. (For the busy reader, there is a condensed version, Sai Baba’s Undivine Downfall).
Pictures of Sathya Sai Baba’s Opulence and Self-glorification
For a photographic glimpse of the incredible lavish material ‘spendour of Puttaparthi’, see Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia. Or my reader may like to view some Sathya Sai Baba Chariots.
In the selfsame India, there is, with what deepest irony, a profoundly genuine splendour, down thousands of years, of saints and sages living in the utmost simplicity.
Where Do Sathya Sai Baba’s Riches Come From?
Where do the – no, not millions – billions of dollars (and many another currency) come from that support Sathya Sai Baba’s overweening self-glorification? The answer is, often - from your country and mine. See, Sai Baba Exchequer Worth Billions. Many Countries Donate
Fortunately, a television documentary such as the BBC’s The Secret Swami was one of the means by which networked former Sai Baba devotees from several countries have found to communicate our testimony worldwide. A piece from the BBC’s publicity department gives a small idea of the sheer impact caused by coverage of dissenting views of Sai Baba and his cult, the Sathya Sai Organization. More millions have viewed DR’s Seduced, Azul TV’s Divine Sin, and read articles in major news media in India, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, and so on. See, Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List.
General
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, India, Prashanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi, Robert Priddy, Sathya Sai Baba (Birthday Celebrations), Sathya Sai Organization, Sects, South India | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 20, 2011
The late Sathya Sai Baba’s birthday celebrations occur on 23 November. As usual, around this time, there is an upsurge of visitors to this blogsite and that of Robert Priddy. However, in comparison to other years, the numbers are much down, very much as Sai Baba himself is forever down in the earth, and his devotees infinitely down in the dumps.
After his death in on 24 April 2011, we have seen something of the terrible in-fighting over managerial succession at Puttaparthi, and then of the discovery – not of spiritual treasure but – untold hoarded treasure in Sai Baba’s private quarters. The international Sathya Sai Organization, despite or perhaps in part because of its soviet-style, top-down management style, is in vast disarray. See:
Since our work of international exposure via world leading media began in 1999, the cult has suffered regular resignation upheavals, including of foremost leaders. Indeed, many people leave informally. With a vast amount of work, we used our professional credit to tell many mainstream, reputable religious and civic institutions. They were the target of the Sai cult, avid for wider community acceptance. Our work severely hit the cult’s extensive, and often high-level, fundraising and recruiting efforts around the world.
Below are a few quotes from my articles, over time, which may help to cut the search times of those looking for an overview. In a day or so, I shall include a similar page of articles about a number of Sai Baba’s past birthday celebrations.
In the last few years, evidence mounted of decline of his physical and mental health. He had several falls, one of which I saw in when I lived at Puttaparthi for several months – November 1997 – August 1998. Reports came of e.g., his walking round in circles, uttering gibberish. At other times, he flew into temper tantrums. In During his 85th birthday celebrations he broke into extensive sobbing during a keynote speaker’s praise for his work. See:
Sathya Sai Baba In Fits of Sobbing: Video Footage Confirms Earlier Accounts
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 5, 2011
These and other perverse behaviors reached an appalling point – which his minders worked overtime to mask where possible, and, where not possible, to modify. Their damage control efforts were considerable. Looked at in retrospect, his last crumbling – long years before he had foretold – the ghastly mess in which he left things comes as no surprise. See:
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 14, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 12, 2011
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Note: Here, we see, among a whole plethora of other contradictions up and down his discourses and comments e.g., in interviews, yet more messy dates. His death was a huge mess, but it was long preceded by countless medium to smaller messes. To the anomalies, contradictions and outright lies, devotees forever blind themselves by looking at him like one might look too long into the sun. For insight into devotees’ Procrustean efforts over lunar vs solar dating, see:Sathya Sai Baba reckoned in calendar (solar) years, not ‘lunar years’
Sathya Sai Baba’s (un)Birthday (not born on 23 November 1926)
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Posted October 26, 2007
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Form vs Essence
It is interesting that so many devotees have assumed that the vision apparently promised by Sai Baba via his chief translator and close servitor Professor Anil Kumar to many thousands of devotees gathered at his Puttaparthi ashram would entail seeing the form of Sai Baba on the moon. If they had consulted their timeless sacred classic, Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11, they might have recalled that the vision granted by Sri Krishna to Lord Arjuna (vishwarupa or vishvarupa darshana) was of a very different character. It was not the form of Sri Krishna – who was right beside him! - but a cosmic vision of enormous range and depth. But what fools who rush, with faces agog, to Sai Baba’s local airport would ever want something both so fierce as that?
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Was it not enough for them to have seen it where they had daily darshan (sight) of him within his Puttaparthi ashram?
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Why all the sensationalism, and indeed threat to life or injury, of thousands of devotees rushing headlong to his nearby private airport?
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Is an unruly crowd, which police had great difficulty in controlling, likely in a fit state to receive a divine and blissful vision?
Certainly, if it was the form of Sathya Sai Baba that was so eagerly sought after by the crowds of devotees, they have entirely missed one of his most insistent teachings: that the form is not what is important - but learning that attachment to the form is deleterious to spiritual growth.
Posted July 19, 2011
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‘By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them’
Sai Baba devotees have an appalling record for their maltreatment of former devotees. They have repeatedly vilified, shunned, made apostates out to be liars and fools, cruelly libelled them on the internet, and threatened with law suits and criminal proceedings.
T. Sri Ramanathan, Kulwant Rai, et alia
One of these attempts to cower us was the unconscionable bluff by top Sathya Sai Organization leader T. Sri Ramanathan. As well-informed Sai Baba devotees in Australia know too well, he is – more particularly behind hands and doors in whispers – an authoritarian bully within the Australian Sathya Sai Organization itself, which he led for several years. The devotees, all too lamb-like, would say e.g., “Rama is simply Baba’s test for our sadhana; Swami knows all our karmas”. See: Ramanathan Threatens Barry Pittard With The Law
Likewise appearing to think that we were panicky lambs, the Sathya Sai Baba supporter Kulwant Rai, one of India’s wealthiest moguls, and scion of the Rai family, various of whom are Sathya Sai Baba devotees, threatened us via his lawyers.
With scarcely a penny in our pockets – at that time! – our forces welcomed them to go ahead. We wanted the facts to come out. Our course was, and is, entirely just. We had nothing to hide, but they did, so they threatened like bovver boys.
They – having too much to hide – went away. More’s the pity. Bullies often turn out to be cowards. Which is one of a number of compelling reasons why one must stand up to them. Give them a field day, and one, inevitably, will sink into the slush, having become a coward oneself.
Posted June 7, 2007
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Efforts to Globalize Sathya Sai Baba with World Radio Station
Sai Baba controls with an iron hand the international Sathya Sai Organization. Senior investigators from the world’s top media like the BBC, Times of London, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and in other countries, as well as UNESCO, the U.S. State Department and other institutions deemed the cult extremely hard to investigate or act against. His second most senior aide is its deputy chairman, who, as head of Sai Global Harmony, is his ‘minister of propaganda’, Dr G. Venkataraman, one of the progenitors of India’s atomic bomb, as was Sai Baba’s previous close aide, the late Dr S. Bhagavantam – sometimes called ‘the father of the Indian atomic bomb’ – as was his present staunch devotee, the President of India, Dr A.J. P. Kalam, who writes flowery panegyrics to Sai Baba, as did the last Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Sai Global Harmony affiliates with WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service, 24/7 and broadcasts to many countries. With a behind-the-scenes corporate-style, assisted by the billions of funds that pour from many countries into the Sathya Sai Central Trust, the declared aim is to penetrate to every corner of the globe.
Posted November 6, 2011
Quote
The ‘Select Readings’ cited below show how Hislop, and the top leadership in the U.S. Sai Baba hierarchy (and the incredibly docile lower-echelon leadership worldwide), covered up the seriousness of allegations of Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. No doubt, they seriously and sincerely thought they were doing the right thing. At the same time, they were guilty of the most extraordinary lack of duty of care towards those they had until now, for years, honored and respected.
John Hislop’s Successor, Dr Michael Goldstein of Covena, southern California, USA, is now world leader of the international Sathya Sai Organization, which Sai Baba said is THE divine organization on earth. But it is a multi-billion dollar organization with iron-clad, cultic rules. Goldstein exploded with unprovoked anger, not realizing that the BBC had a hidden camera trained on him.
BBC hidden camera reveals Sai Baba’s world leader in fit of anger. Goldstein’s bullying, coldness and general nastiness – and such qualities in a number of other high echelon Sai Baba hand-picked leaders – cannot be denied. Likewise, often out-of-sight were Sai Baba’s angry discharges.
Posted November 1, 2011
Quote
As the participants compared their experiences, evidence – sometimes gut-sickening – fast mounted, other crimes and ethical betrayals came to our notice, as did the many contradictions and anomalies in Sai Baba’s published discourses. These amounted to a glaringly flawed corpus. They were officially published, but poorly monitored. (I have discussed the later editorial weeding of the many embarrassing contradictions, etc.,:
No truthful explanation would resolve the many contradictions in Sai Baba’s published discourses. Academics such as Robert Priddy and Brian Steel have scrutinized much of this literature. Those who retaliated – chiefly Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno - are poorly educated. They use fallacious arguments such as argumentum ad hominem. They viciously name-call. They use spurious interpretations of what we have written. They deliver us the distinct, though unintended advantage among serious, thoughtful readers. Indeed, in the case of Moreno and an assistant, Wikipedia banned them.
To those coordinating activities, such as Glen Meloy, Hari Sampath, myself and, as time passed, Robert Priddy, the sheer volume and richness of evidence strikingly and repeatedly verified accounts.
In some instances, parents of boys and young men and other abuse survivors went to foremost heads of the Sathya Sai Organization, including Dr John Hislop, Dr Michael Goldstein, Phyllis Kristal, Sri T. Ramananthan, Dr Sarah Pavan and others. These supposed pillars of righteousness shamefully ignored the complainants. The leaders exhibited text-book examples of that psychological denial so commonly found in autocratic, cultic arenas
Posted on July 14, 2011
Quote
But questions arise – What, in these days of immense disruption and confusion within the Sai movement, in exactly what might this entity consist? And what might be its supreme command center? Is it the Sathya Sai Central Trust? Or the international Sathya Sai Organization? Will Tigrett, long known to have something of a mind of his own, be quite happy to bypass the likes of Rathnakar and Srinivasan and deal with the wider organized fold of Sai devotees? Not least those great many donors who are deeply suspicious about the trustworthiness of the Sai Central trust – or some members of it. They worry about what happened to their donations. We are talking billions, and not in rupees, either!
In various Sai devotee magazines, Isaak Tigrett – who has long maintained a relative degree of frankness that markedly contrasts with Sai Baba officials around the world – has spoken of how, the Indian Sai Trust officials constantly thwarted him. This was even though Sai Baba had put him in charge of arrangements to equip the Superspeciality Hospital at Puttaparthi, the multi-million dollar project which Tigrett in fact funded for (according to figures we have heard) some 49 million US dollars, and not sums such as the 108 million so often spoken of in Sai Baba circles round the world. My reader might find it instructive to hear a telephone recording of David Bailey, formerly Sai Baba’s closest western devotee who knew Tigrett and many other key Sai Organization players from India and abroad. See below. See also: Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba and: David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses
General
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, India, Prashanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi, Robert Priddy, Sathya Sai Organization, Sects, South India | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 10, 2011
In the next days, I shall look at aspects of the Occupy movements, many of whose manifestations show how profoundly Sathya Sai Baba and his international organization have failed.
Sathya Sai Baba and his cult always failed to face political and corporate power. They themselves are part of the corrupt system. His successors now fight out power struggles among themselves.
The international Sathya Sai Organization “good works” philosophy plays perfectly into the hands of the power elites, who have nothing against charity. We all like to feel good. Big-name donors to the Sathya Sai cult are legion, especially in India, and from among the Indian diaspora worldwide.
Amid untold golden glitter, the late Sathya Sai Baba said that, in his own lifetime, he would save and rule India and then the world
But those many ‘ordinary’ citizens from many cultural backgrounds who people the Occupy movements are better educated than ever before, and thus able to use social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc., to great advantage. Sathya Sai Baba and his organization could never, and would never, have initiated or supported a mass movement like the Occupy movement.
Occupy Wall Street protestors in Oakland, California, USA, holding “We are the 99%”
This populist manifestation is profoundly opposed to the corrupt machinations of government and corporations – whereas, Sai Baba and the top-level figures of his organization have long been utterly enmeshed with government, police and armed services at every level. Many of his richest devotees long were, and are to this day, corporate moguls. He, his intelligence and security wing, and his formal and informal political operators have for decades utterly influenced local, state and central government police, who are notorious for violent suppression of protest at the behest of Indian governments of any persuasion.
The greed-maddened heads of corporations whom the Occupy movements oppose are, in essence, no different to those far more visible celebrities from the entertainment world who live in the utmost opulence but simultaneously adorn their inflated egos with ostentatious finery when they appear at charity fund-raisers.
From Wikipedia: A chart showing the disparity in income distribution in the United States.[25][26] Wealth inequality and income inequality have been central concerns among Occupy Wall Street protesters.[27][28][29] CBO data shows that in 1980, the top 1% earned 9.1% of all income, while in 2006 they earned 18.8% of all income.[30]
A Protester with a sign at Occupy San Francisco
But far beyond the ‘feel good’ point, the governments and corporations keep up the profiteering, and aid the spawning of the soul-destroying, planet-killing life-styles. From their almost impenetrable fortresses, they aid and abet poverty and social dislocation in the first place.
The US, history’s most formidable superpower is in vast economic decline. But this should really serve to remind many other countries that, in many ways, the US is only themselves writ large – both actually and in unachieved aspiration. Materialism is always itself, and always expands when it can.
The General Assembly meets in Washington Square on 8 October 2011
Millions of ordinary US citizens – and in increasingly many other first world and developing countries – now rebel against the governments and corporations. They need no Marx and Engels to read nor a Lenin to rally them.
They come from many religious and non-religious backgrounds. They come from the smallest towns and the largest cities.
They are the young, who face decades of paying back their student loans, whom the flawed system catapults into jobs after years of study – young lives now not able, even for a moment, to breathe, travel, explore, discover, reflect and mature. At the most idealistic time of their lives, they are seized of the chance to find a sense of meaning that will propel them in the rest of their lives.
They are the middle-aged, who, after great sacrifice have schooled their children, served their communities, and are now being slammed with bank foreclosures.
They are the elderly, for whom superannuation now means little or nothing.
They are often leaderless, but consensual and practical. They, rather than hidden controllers, write the placards for themselves; which they raise above their heads to proclaim their hurt and anger to their representatives who do not represent. And to their country. And to a world which, on the instant, sees, for example, police forces at the behest of their political masters being mobilized to suppress this grassroots uprising. They see sections of the media who, no less than the police, serve the moguls and political managers by sensationalizing and misreporting.
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The Occupy movement: They are fed up in India, too
The United States and India are going through similar upheavals, writes Thomas L. Friedman. Democratically elected governments in both countries are so beholden to special interests they can no longer deliver reform. Therefore, they both need shock therapy from outside.
By Thomas L. Friedman
Syndicated columnist, New York Times
GOA, India — The world’s two biggest democracies, India and the United States, are going through remarkably similar bouts of introspection. Both countries are witnessing grass-roots movements against corruption and excess. The difference is that Indians are protesting what is illegal — a system requiring bribes at every level of governance to get anything done. And Americans are protesting what is legal — a system of Supreme Court-sanctioned bribery in the form of campaign donations that have enabled the financial-services industry to effectively buy the U.S. Congress, and both political parties, and thereby resist curbs on risk-taking.
But the similarities do not stop there. What has brought millions of Indians into the streets to support the India Against Corruption movement and what seems to have triggered not only the Occupy Wall Street movement but also initiatives like Americanselect.org — a centrist group planning to use the Internet to nominate an independent presidential candidate — is a sense that both countries have democratically elected governments that are so beholden to special interests that they can no longer deliver reform. Therefore, they both need shock therapy from outside.
The big difference is that, in America, the Occupy Wall Street movement has no leader and no consensus demand. And while it enjoys a lot of passive support, its activist base is small.
India Against Corruption has millions of followers and a charismatic leader, the social activist Anna Hazare, who went on a hunger strike until the Indian Parliament agreed to create an independent ombudsman with the staff and powers to investigate and prosecute corruption at every level of Indian governance and to do so in this next session of Parliament. A furious debate is now raging here over how to ensure that such an ombudsman doesn’t turn into an Indian “Big Brother,” but some new ombudsman position appears likely to be created.
Arvind Kejriwal, Hazare’s top deputy, told me, “Gandhi said that whenever you do any protests, your demands should be very clear, and it should be very clear who is the authority who can fulfill that demand, so your protests should be directed at that authority.” If your movement lacks leadership at first, that is not necessarily a problem, he added, “because often leaders evolve. But the demands have to be very clear.”
A sense of injustice and widening income gaps brought Occupy Wall Street into the street, “but exactly what needs to be done, which law needs to be changed and who are they demanding that from?” asked Kejriwal. “These things have to be answered quickly.”
That said, there are still many parallels between the Indian and U.S. movements. Both seem to have been spurred to action by a sense that corruption or financial excess had crossed some red lines. In the United States, despite the fact that elements of the financial-services industry nearly sank the economy in 2008, that same industry is still managing to blunt sensible reform efforts because it has so much money to sway Congress. It seems to have learned nothing. People are angry.
Meanwhile, in India, the commodities and telecommunications booms, coupled with urbanization that is driving up land prices, have set loose billions of rupees, and officials who control zoning and mining permits have just been pigging out. Some 50 top officials have been jailed lately for everything from the crony allocation of wireless spectrum, leading to potential losses to the state of up to $38 billion, to illicitly selling Indian iron ore — needed for development here — to China for a higher price. People are fed up.
Yet, commented the Indian writer Chetan Bhagat in The Times of India on Monday, “our government attacks almost every anti-corruption crusader” and “sadly, even our opposition parties have lots of corrupt people.” Sound familiar? Democracy not only needs a decent ruling party, but an intelligent opposition, and neither India nor America has both today.
Yes, Indians are mad at a system that makes them pay a bribe to get their birth certificate. Americans are mad at a system that has made it legal for unions to bribe the officials who will decide their pay and for bankers to bribe the lawmakers who will decide how much risk they can take. But both are essentially threatened by the same disease, best captured in the title of Robert Kaiser’s book about lobbying — “So Damn Much Money” — and it’s being thrown around now by so many special interests that these democracies are not only being warped by it but can’t fix themselves either.
Hazare has called this moment India’s “second struggle for independence.” I think he is on to something for both India and America. I think that repairing our respective dysfunctional democracies — so they are truly enablers for the 21st century and not inhibitors in India’s case or “the sum of all lobbies” in America’s case — is for our generation what the independence movement in India and the civil-rights movement in America were for our parents’ generation. Here’s hoping we’re as successful.
Thomas L. Friedman is a regular columnist for The New York Times
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anna Hazare, Chetan Bhagat (Times of India), Cults, Democracy, Gandhi, Grassroots movements, Occupy Movement, Occupy Wall Street, Sects, Thomas L. Friedman, Wall Street | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 6, 2011
Like so many devotees, especially those close to Sathya Sai Baba, ex-foremost leader of the Sathya Sai Organization (outside India), the Dr John Hislop knew very well that Sai Baba told lies.
Devotees, however, pass these off as, variously, “Baba’s funny little ways”; “his sparing of our feelings”; his “Leelas” (meaning his ‘divine sportiveness’ …. When writing, they use a capital ‘L’); “his perfect ‘Truth’, but our human imperfection” which cannot see that he is teaching us some profound lesson, such as, in learning detachment; and more such Procrustean wracking of human reason and commonsense. Sai Baba long exhorted that his devotees: “Love (him) for (his) Mystery”. (Of course, his editors and other devotee writers capitalized the ‘h’ in ‘him’ and ‘his’) …..
Hislop also well knew that many devotees Sai Baba confused many with his many lies, all his predictions which failed, as did so many of his promised cures and e.g., promises of placements at his university or his colleges, of apartments in the ashram, and so forth. Therefore, in his books and talks (he travelled to various countries as Sathya Sai Baba’s foremost emissary outside India), Jack Hislop needed to come up with covering explanations.
I didn’t get to know Hislop at all well. My acquaintance was primarily via a meeting I arranged (the idea of which was to attract from among the international devotee base the gift of books, audio-visual teaching aids, and so on). This was when I lectured in English at the Sathya Sai college outside Bangalore. But my impression was that of many who did knew him, who thought him sincere. In so many devotees, sincerity is writ large – but it hides the fact that a psychology of self-deception is powerful.
The ‘Select Readings’ cited below show how Hislop, and the top leadership in the U.S. Sai Baba hierarchy (and the incredibly docile lower-echelon leadership worldwide), covered up the seriousness of allegations of Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. No doubt, they seriously and sincerely thought they were doing the right thing. At the same time, they were guilty of the most extraordinary lack of duty of care towards those they had until now, for years, honored and respected.
(“Seeking Divinity” Dr. J. S. Hislop, Sri Sathya Sai Books & Publications Trust. 1998, p. 210)
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John Hislop’s Successor, Dr Michael Goldstein of Covena, southern California, USA, is now world leader of the international Sathya Sai Organization, which Sai Baba said is THE divine organization on earth. But it is a multi-billion dollar organization with iron-clad, cultic rules. Goldstein exploded with unprovoked anger, not realizing that the BBC had a hidden camera trained on him ….
- Goldstein’s Sathya Sai Anger Mismanagement Course!
See the article:
Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)
Select Readings
Brian Steel
Sathya Sai Baba, Elsie and Walter Cowan, and John Hislop. A Discredited 1971 Resurrection Claim
Sathya Sai Baba’s Credibility Gap: Contributions by John Hislop
Robert Priddy
‘Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’ by Dr. J. Hislop
Cover-up letter: Hislop wholly neglects duty of care
Faked “miracle”: crucifix given by Sai Baba to Dr. Hislop
‘My Baba and I’ by Dr. John Hislop – Sai Baba miracles
Priddy notes: “Dr John Hislop, who was for long head of Sathya Sai Baba’s organization in USA and (strangely) ‘the Americas’, wrote most revealing and embarrassing letters in 1980-81. These came into the hands of Timothy Conway Ph.D., from his immediate predecessor the former president of the San Francisco Sathya Sai Centre. This is the third in the series of letters by Hislop dealing with the allegations by Mrs. Payne (see her letter here). The first Hislop reaction is here and the second here”.
View all Hislop letter transcripts, scans, and comments here
Sex scandal and Sathya Sai Baba – 3rd Hislop letter
Barry Pittard
Brian Steel On Sathya Sai Baba’s Credibility Gap. John Hislop Contributions
Brian Steel On Dr John Hislop’s Gift From Sathya Sai Baba – Idol claimed to have wood from cross of Jesus
Brian Steel Demythologizes Early Foreign-led Sathya Sai Baba Myths
Brian Steel On John Hislop’s 27 Years as Sathya Sai Baba’s Spokesman
Timothy Conway Ph.D on: The Crucial John Hislop Letters
Timothy Conway’s Update
Timothy Conway PH.D confirms the Hislop letters
Formal statement provided to Exbaba.com by Timothy Conway Ph. D. concerning the Hislop letters
An article in which Timothy Conway outlines many key issues
General
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Cults, Dr John Hislop (Late Sathya Sai Baba Leader, Dr Michael Goldstein (Sathya Sai Baba's World Chairman), Religion, Scams, Sects, Spirituality | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 1, 2011
In the article, Sathya Sai Organization Shields Its Accused Members From Investigation, (13 October 2011), I wrote:
“On countless occasions, the international Sathya Sai Organization has either refused to deal with serious allegations outright or avoided all questions from dissidents and journalists. If they had any self-respect, truthfulness and regard for democratic ways, rank-and-file members of the organization would demand accountability and transparency. They would also be concerned about why so many respected institutions avoid association with their organization, and why political and government leaders refuse invitations to Sai Organization functions. Members need to heed their own feelings of misgiving at the explanations their leaders give to them”.
Former devotee outreach to key public institutions was enormous. This activity was a concerted international effort in which now former Sai Baba followers – coming from many professional, trade backgrounds and cultural backgrounds – did their best, first, to warn of the danger of boys and young men coming into the orbit of Sathya Sai Baba.
As the participants compared their experiences, evidence – sometimes gut-sickening – fast mounted, other crimes and ethical betrayals came to our notice, as did the many contradictions and anomalies in Sai Baba’s published discourses. These amounted to a glaringly flawed corpus. They were officially published, but poorly monitored. (I have discussed the later editorial weeding of the many embarrassing contradictions, etc.,:
The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements)
No truthful explanation would resolve the many contradictions in Sai Baba’s published discourses. Academics such as Robert Priddy and Brian Steel have scrutinized much of this literature. Those who retaliated – chiefly Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno - are so poorly educated, viciously name-calling, distortive in interpretations, and prone to serious offenses against logical argument that no serious reader can take them seriously. Indeed, Wikipedia banned them. To those coordinating activities, such as Glen Meloy, Hari Sampath, myself and, as time passed, Robert Priddy, the sheer volume and richness of evidence strikingly and repeatedly verified accounts.
In some instances, parents of boys and young men and other abuse survivors went to foremost heads of the Sathya Sai Organization, including Dr John Hislop, Dr Michael Goldstein, Phyllis Kristal, Sri T. Ramananthan, Dr Sarah Pavan and others. These supposed pillars of righteousness shamefully ignored the complainants. The leaders exhibited text-book examples of that psychological denial so commonly found in autocratic, cultic arenas.
It is a terrible chapter in institutional abuse history. Let there be no ‘statute of limitation’! The terrible acts, sexual and other, outraged many young and innocent lives. Historians need to look at the sheer scale of the ethical betrayal. What is more, academics who duck for cover and refuse to study ‘difficult’ areas such as cults, should themselves be exposed. So too should those politicians and academics who, with a distorted understanding of what ‘liberalism’ really means. In their notions about not giving offense to various faiths, they are insipid in the extreme. In short, there is a farcical ‘political correctness’ – one that fears to give offense when, all the while, cults perpetrate great offense.
If society is to come to grips with issues of cultism, writers will need to get beyond just looking at more spectacular and dramatic cults like the Jim Jones or David Koresh cults. Society suffers greatly when there is no well-publicised, properly-researched, non-sensationalistic enquiry into the effect of cults on the rest of society.
For lack of understanding these less dramatic but, in some ways, no less invidious cultic phenomena, the Sathya Sai Organization continue to penetrate and influence, without, however, recruiting wider communities throughout the world. Among both their own membership AND in their outreach to institutions and governments, the Sathya Sai Organization leaders act as though nothing questionable has happened.
Why should these leaders escape question? Their crimes of complicity are too great to ignore.
In processing the immense amount of work on testimony, and in supporting the Sai Baba’s devastated survivors, our international coordinators often found that many witnesses clearly had no knowledge of each other. Still further, evidence came from sources well beyond former devotees. Sai Baba had not only practised his sexual and other abuses on his immediate followers but on others who were spiritual seekers traveling through India from one ashram to another.
Despite the huge damage to it since 2000 – when we made professional submissions to major media, the UN, various governments, Interpol, FBI, and other foremost agencies – the international Sathya Sai Organization to this day, is highly evasive. We can expect this type of response from organizations with a great deal to hide. The ‘secret swami’s’ key followers are secret just as he was secret when Sai Baba hid his vast millions in currency, gold, silver and other precious commodities in his private quarters. Secrecy runs in the ‘Sai family’. Just as when he, complicit with local, state and national government leaders, concealed the facts about the 1993 killings in his bedroom. And likewise, when he and his accomplices engaged in terrible threats and bribes when then he concealed his (and some subordinates’) serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. And, likewise, scandals such as the water projects, apartments and other scams. All of which, and more, left a huge wake of human suffering. Over many years, including 2011, Robert Priddy and I have received highly confidential accounts in which profound sexual disorientation has happened to survivors of Sai Baba’s sexual depredations, and, sometimes, those of servitors close to him.
Although at much-reduced capacity, the Sathya Sai Organization, now in huge disarray after its founder died (April 2011) many years before the time he predicted, continues to act towards communities as though it is a respectable, conservative organization. This does not surprise – for, against massive odds, it struggles to find funding resources to match its incredible overheads.
Nor does it surprise that, as the organization continues to face such grave threats to its existence, it refuses to face questions from many quarters. These include institutions and people (typically wealthy and powerful) with whom the cult tries to link. The public damage to it is vast. Some members, naïvely, try from within it to reform the organization. But there is a sorry trail in which the Sathya Sai Organization has cast out long-respected leaders and other members who have been courageous enough to raise questions. Senior journalists from the several of the world’s top media and scholars from leading universities and others who have tried to investigate, are at one: this is a highly secretive, authoritarian cult.
Where can the Sathya Sai cult turn – its distraught, broken founder being now dead, except in on its distraught – broken self?
Select Reading
Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling?
Guardians of Our Young? Or De Facto Sexual Abuse Pimps?
The Public PetitionInformation on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
About the Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition): Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Cults, Gurus, Puttaparthi, Sects, Sexual Abuse, Spiritual betrayal | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on October 13, 2011
In responsible, accountable organizations, correct, fair and reasonable processes address inappropriate or criminal behavior.
On countless occasions, the international Sathya Sai Organizationis refuses to deal with serious allegations. If they have any self-respect and regard for democratic ways, rank-and-file members of the organization should demand accountability and transparency. They should also be concerned about why so many respected institutions avoid association with their organization, and why political and government leaders refuse invitations to Sai Organization functions. Members need to heed their own feelings of misgiving at the explanations their leaders give to them.
This lack of speaking up, of questioning, profoundly ails the organization. It is also why, for example, so many costly drives in luxurious venues fail. See:
‘Secret Swami’ Cult Recruits At Prime Public Venues
Those of us who have stood forth have often been assailed by Sai Baba activists such as Gerald Moreno, of New Mexico, USA, who deride Sai Baba’s accusers for not having succeeded in court actions. However, the difficulties the victims face are formidable. Many of them wish to hide what they regard as their sense of shame. They do not wish to suffer discrimination against them in their personal or professional lives. Many have friends or relatives still closely associated with the Sathya Sai Organization. Sadly, many of them will not reach out for professional counseling, even though offered excellently qualified professional counseling.
These and other formidable obstacles are familiar to all those familiar with the years of denial and cover up in the case of such institutions as the Roman Catholic Church. (See Further Reading, below)
Robert Priddy, former, well-respected leader (Norway) in the Sathya Sai Organization and retired academic of the University of Oslo, has just posted a note on Hal Honig, of New York, USA, a high-profile Sai Baba cult leader in the United States:
Hal Honig – misguided copier of Sai Baba’s practices
Posted by robertpriddy on October 11, 2011.
Hal Honig with Sathya Sai Baba. Dare this love breathe its name?
Priddy cites my article:
Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling?
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 22, 2007
in which I include reference to allegations of pedophilia against Honig. A noted former leader, Shirley Pike, a U.S. psychologist highly qualified in dealing with sexual abuse of young people, made allegations at a Sai conference that Honig acted as a sexual pimp for Sathya Sai Baba.
See: U.S. Psychologist Shirley Pike’s Moving Challenge To Sathya Sai Baba and His Organization
The former Swedish leader, Conny Larsson, among others, has made the same allegations, as my above-mentioned article details.
Hal Honig Speaks. Unholy Ghost Whispers
Read independent report of what happened to some group members here
Commentators such as Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, Alexandra Nagel, Conny Larsson, and myself in addition to others who have spoken out (and left the Sathya Sai Organization), have expressed a constant theme: the need for extensive, proper and independent investigation of the many allegations.
Why should killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom, and later cover up on a monumental scale, apartments and other scams by those in his front office, and worldwide allegations of sexual abuse (some involving those other than Sathya Sai Baba, such as Hal Honig) escape due processes of the law?
Why should Sathya Sai Baba devotees remain members of an organization which, demonstrably, escapes those proper processes which are best placed to adjudicate issues? The BBC spoke of Sathya Sai Baba as ‘The Secret Swami’.
But, though he died in April 2011, his Sathya Sai Organization remains the secret swami’s secret organization.
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Further Reading
Barry Pittard – On Institutional Cover Ups and Psychological Denial
Institutional Sex Corruption: Plight of Roman Catholic Church and Sathya Sai Organization
Boy Scouts of America – Sex Abuse Revelations. Who Next?
Roman Catholics’ Deep Concern At Pope’s Apology. But He Is Way Ahead Of Indian ‘Pope’ Sathya Sai Baba
The Public PetitionInformation on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
About the Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition): Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Cults, Gerald Moreno, Hal Honig, pedophilia, Robert Priddy, Roman Catholic Church, Sathya Sai Organization, Sects | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on October 5, 2011
A few days back, Robert Priddy posted about Sathya Sai Baba’s claims to have incarnated the major Indian saint Shirdi Sai Baba. See:
Shirdi Sai stated “I am not God”, while Sathya misrepresented him
For those interested in looking at a few of the issues involved in such spectacular claims, I shall, in the next few days, further give some comments and links.
On his way to becoming his own notion of Avatar of all Avatars, did Sathya Sai Baba truly believe that he had incarnated in the 19th century in the north-west Indian state of Maharashtra? Or was he shrewdly aware of practising a deception? My own guess is that, like others who have extraordinary inner experiences, he may have been in the grip of very powerful aspects of mind – especially the right brain – of which we understand far too little.
In certain unusual states of mind, an individual believes that extraordinary, real-seeming experiences are actually God’s voice speaking out of a burning bush to Moses. Actually, Allah speaking to Mohammad. Or actually one’s ‘spirit guides’ speaking from within, and so on. One part of the mind is tricked by other parts of the mind. The intangible seems to solidify. The fictive appears as real.
But how can we know what Sai Baba thought about Shirdi Sai Baba? And why he said that he was part of a series of three avatars – Shirdi Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, and, one yet to come, Prema Sai Baba?
What we do know, however, is that, of all countries, India is the place where (other than in lunatic asylums of which all our countries have their types) a great many take claims of ‘divine’ realization very seriously. India is the place of instinctive veneration. Including of cricket, film, political and other stars. Visit many Hindu Indian homes, as I have done in my years in that country, and you will find countless instances where historic, human saints and masters, have their place on the household shrine – and depicted elsewhere around the house – alongside deities like Rama, Krishna, Siva, Durga, Kali, Saraswati, Mahalaxmi, and so on.
Shirdi Sai Baba is one of the pan Indian saints, like Adi Shankaracharya, Tulsidas, Mira Bai, Ramakrishna, Ramanana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and so many others. Some worship them as aspects, specifically, of ‘avatars’ like Rama, Krishna, Siva, the divine Mother, and so on. Some simply as great lights. Many Hindus regard Lord Buddha as an aspect of Lord Vishnu (Krishna). There is no end to the gradations, subtleties, emphases – and, therefore, sects.
More thoughtful Hindus fully appreciate the allegorical nature of these gods and goddesses. They see the stories associated with them such as an educated westerner might understand Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, or the characters in Dante, Shakespeare or Goethe or Tolkien – representations of primal forces at work in the human psyche. However, we need to consider the reality in the lives of millions of Indians of a heightened state of mythopoeic conditioning. Of mythopoeic imagination. And of associated rituals, festivals, allowances and proscriptions. All of this along with the ubiquitous supports of temple worship, pilgrimage, funeral and marriage ceremonies, yoga, and so forth. All of this from the very cradle. All of this, as it were, in the air, and everywhere. In the home. In the veneration for the cow. In the astrology. In the priestcraft. In vegetarianism. These norms – daily, and not at a church on Sunday or a synagogue on Saturday – are, perhaps, as alive today as they always were. Flick your television remote and radio dial and it is easy to intercept a pundit or priest or yogi wordily discoursing. Religion is part of the diet – like chapatis, sambar, malai kofta, or sweetmeats, etc. ….. Religious figures attract huge crowds – again the incredible wordiness. Again, eager faces looking up for someone great who speaks to someone small. Some religious figures do not even have to speak; they are, simply, to be seen. In whatever the form, somehow, mysteriously, Grace happens, Merit accrues. The varieties of choice are vast. In anquish, many thoughtful Indians despair of India’s immemorial running after supposed gods, demigods and demagogues.
Sathya Sai Baba appeared to have godlike powers, such as knowing other minds, foreknowledge of the future, the ability to do miracles, to heal terrible illnesses, to forgive sins, to bless with his touch or sight or word, and so on. These seeming divine powers were magnets to the denizens of, arguably, the most hyper-religious and superstitious country in the world. But, interestingly enough, a short walk even for an educated Hindu Indian – so long as there is some sort of appeal to both intellect and emotion. He created his own mythos, relying on an ancient mythos readily available to him, and to his whole milieu.
Sathya Sai Baba was charismatic, but would not have been nearly so had he not appeared to do miracles, see into souls, and answer prayers.
In fact, he was wrong about a lot of things. A recent and dramatic example was the timing of his death in April 2011. See: Sathya Sai Baba death date in serious doubt. Many devotees know perfectly well of his prophecy that he would die (or take ‘mahasamadhi’) ca 2022. Their frequent, addled rationalizations are in full view on official and non-official Sai Baba websites. Their procrustean explanations reveal something of the dreadful confusion he left behind. More than ever before, institutions like UNESCO, governments and civic and religious organizations with whom the Sathya Sai Organization attempts to associate itself reject it. The devotees who now try to reform the organization from within really need to confront their secretive leaders and demand to hear from them the circumstances since 2000 in which many respected organizations have rebuffed Sai Baba leader’s overtures.
But of course unusual phenomena would, of necessity, occur! How can it fail? For, in the annals of medical science, innumerable are the instances of unpredicted remission in the case of many apparently incurable illnesses. Intense belief taps into mental and physical transformation that science is only beginning to understand. And if rational understanding is absent, traditional belief systems, or cosmologies, arise in the form of explanations. Hindu explanations, Jewish ones, Christian ones, Buddhist ones, Muslim ones, and so on.
To these explanations, powerful emotions and dogmas attach themselves. Orthodoxies arise. Dissenting sects arise. We have mainstreams and sects and cults in abundance.
See also:
Sathya Sai Baba Claimed He Will Resurrect After 40 Days
BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle
Sathya Sai Baba Is Dead. Said He Would Rule the World and Die Aged 96
Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions
“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.”
Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit
‘World Hindu’ by 2030. VHP’s Singhal Reports Sathya Sai Baba Told Him
Predictions/Promises
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Select Barry Pittard poems/lyrics expressive of themes about crimes/sexual and other abuses/ spiritual betrayals by Sathya Sai Baba and his international Sathya Sai Organization.
‘Little Fly’. A Ballad of ‘Rock Spiders’ and Sexual Abuse of the Young
Beth Rude. Ballad of a Child Protectrice. By Barry Pittard
Sathya Sai Baba – The Man Who Would Be ‘King of Kings’
No Friend In Sight Song
They’ve Banned the Bulls At Barcelona. By Barry Pittard
Note: Barry Pittard’s songs are copyright protected by The Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA). Contact: barpittard@gmail.com
The Public PetitionInformation on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
About the Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition): Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Belief, Cults, India, Robert Priddy, Sects, Shirdi Sai Baba, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Organization | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 7, 2007
Note: 3 December 2010. In the aftermath of Sathya Sai Baba’s 85th birthday celebrations, here is a 2007 article which shows that the incredible opulence that surrounds him has been in the building for a long time now.
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In the director-writer-actor Orson Welles’s great movie classic Citizen Kane, one can, it is true, note certain differences between the U.S. newspaper proprietor William Randolf Hearst
and Welles’s and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s creation Charles Foster Kane. For decades, the differences have been fought over – fiercely. Nonetheless, both were fabulously wealthy, gigantically egocentric - and corrupt. They splurged incredibly on their domiciles. As does Sathya Sai Baba -See: Sai Baba’s Birthday. Vast, Costly Pomp and Ceremony
(Microsoft founder, Bill Gates’s humble little shack – dubbed by some wag as: Xanadu 2.0. No zoo there yet, but who knows? – with the true coming-of-age of Robotics something cyber-’animal’ might be managed. Although Sai Baba’s imperial fiat has gone out to his devotees that they must have nothing to do with the Internet, his devotees, from top to bottom, are using it extensively. So much for the notion ‘Guru is God’).
In naming the fictive Kane’s dream home on sprawling acres, Xanadu, Welles and his writer Mankiewicz thought – perhaps inevitably – of the fabulous city of the 13th Century Mongolian emperor, Kubla Khan (see portrait above) and of the English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s fittingly eccentric and exotic poem known to millions, whose first line runs:
- In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree
- Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
- Through caverns measureless to man
- Down to a sunless sea
- So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
Today’s Would-be ‘Emperor’ of India and Then the World
Kane in Florida, like Hearst at San Simeon in California, was absolute King of his castle. But there is a virtual Emperor in India - Sathya Sai Baba.
But even Randolph Hearst (as perhaps a modern-day media buccaneer Rupert Murdoch) might have blushed a wee bit for shame to hold such sway with the big end of town as Sathya Sai Baba has long done with India’s power brokers, irrespective of what political party is in power. Sai Baba (and I have seen him up close a great many times), who long ago learnt not to blush, is arguably India’s and history’s most famous – and infamous – guru.
How the stupendous splurger Sai Baba can ever say the name of Mahatma Gandhi, modern India’s simple-living ‘father of the nation’, without blushing is one of his greatest miracles!
Hearst would refer to his establishment as “the ranch”. Hugh Heffner, the ‘soft’ pornography magnate and publisher of Playboy Magazine had built his Playboy Mansion, of which the writer John Marshal has observed that driving through its gates is “like being misdirected into the back entrance of a public zoo”. The zoo atmospheric reminds that Hearst’s estate included a zoo – then the world’s largest. The narrator in Citizen Kane speaks of Kane having the largest zoo since Noah. See USA Weekend LINK.
India’s Fabulous Top Guru Sai Baba. More Emperor Than King
But then see the article:
The Decline and Fall of the Showman Empire. Posted by Barry Pittard on July 10, 2007
One wonders why Sai Baba has not included a gee-wizzo zoo. Perhaps it would be a counter-distraction, because everybody is supposed to have their eyes trained on Sai Baba (it is called ‘darshan’, and his devotees spell it with a capital ‘D’. Instead of gazing at one’s navel, one gazes at the guru). However, one Indian man sitting next to me at a Sai Baba ‘darshan’ described Sai Baba’s setup to me as “a national circus”.
See: SATHYA SAI ORGANIZATION LAVISH SPENDING ON SUPER DOME VENUE MEETING
Compiled from Australian sources, with comments by Barry Pittard and Robert Priddy
Vastly Costly Monuments Glorifying Sai Baba
His splashy-colored and sometimes vast buildings rise up at enormous cost. Sathya Sai Baba’s exchequer owes to vast donations to his Central Trust via his powerful organisation spanning more than 150 countries, and not least to the donations of the extremely wealthy – like James Sinclair, 
the Canadian cable and minerals magnate, Isaac Tigrett the American founder of the Hard Rock Café and House of Blues, 
the Rai family in India in steel and technology, and an astounding number of other hugely wealthy and influential individuals and families from many countries. Rediff News, July 06, 2005, reported:
“The Andhra Pradesh-based Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust is the largest recipient of foreign contributions. The Sathya Sai Trust received Rs 95 crore (Rs 950 million) during 2003-04″.
This figure – which is well over US $20 million – is but the officially declared one and does not account for contributions of those foreigners who donate when they are in India. One can observe how at Sathya Sai Baba’s establishments at Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, and Whitefield, Karnataka, in South India, the Indian and foreign mega business fraternity swap business cards – within what devotees regard as the so-called Holiest of Holy precincts! – and thereafter mutually thrive. At the Puttaparthi temple, on June 6, 1993) police executions took place in Sai Baba’s bedroom, with his close proximity and command of the situation. See my article, at LINK, which contains a further link to a video clip of the BBC The Secret Swami television interview with former Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary V.P.B. Nair saying that the slaying was “absolute cold-blooded murder”).
It is easy to see that far wider national and international economic and political forces are at play, and that it is little wonder how successive Indian governments both State and Central have been loathe to ‘kill’ a goose that lays an incredible number of golden eggs.
Twin Palace. Sai Baba Lives Here
Efforts to Globalize Sathya Sai Baba with World Radio Station
Sai Baba controls with an iron hand the international Sathya Sai Organization. This powerful cult has been found by some of the world’s top media like the BBC, Times of London, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and in other countries, as well as UNESCO, the U.S. State Department and other institutions to be extremely hard to investigate or act against. His second most senior aide is its deputy chairman, who, as head of Sai Global Harmony, is his ‘minister of propaganda’, Dr G. Venkataraman, one of the progenitors of India’s atomic bomb, as was Sai Baba’s previous close aide, the late Dr S. Bhagavantam – sometimes called ‘the father of the Indian atomic bomb’ – as was his present staunch devotee, the President of India, Dr A.J. P. Kalam, who writes flowery panegyrics to Sai Baba, as did the last Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Sai Global Harmony broadcasts, in affiliation with WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service, 24/7 to many countries. With a behind-the-scenes corporate-style, assisted by the billions of funds that pour from many countries into the Sathya Sai Central Trust, the declared aim is to penetrate to every corner of the globe.
Government Inaction on Powerful Cults
A vital question will be whether politicians in democratic countries will be capable of distinguishing between the issue of freedom of religion and the issue of cults that decidedly do not, whatever may be their rhetoric, respect democracy.
Followers Believe Sathya Sai Baba Will Rule World
Former monstrous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (about whom Sai Baba and G. Venkatarman have warmly recollected, See LINK) only imagined himself to be the ‘Last King of Scotland’ but Sai Baba takes all India for his domain, not to mention the world, which he has long said (it is one of his myriad of broken promises) he will travel to and bring to his feet, after he has “set (his) own back yard (India) in order” and before he dies in AD 2022. Given India’s enduring tragedy – despite her superpower aspirations – he had better get a bit of a wriggle on!
Poor Hearst, Jackson, Gates, Murdoch, et alia! For Sai Baba is an Emperor, who has Indian power brokers in his thrall irrespective of their party or religious affiliation. None – except a rare and tremendously courageous individual like B. Premanand, India’s famous “guru buster” – dare take him on in India. See BBC story HERE.
For Successive Indian Governments, Sathya Sai Baba Is ‘goose that lays the golden eggs’
Indian local, central and state governments, often incredibly corrupt and incompetent, are able to watch while the more efficient Sai Baba and his massive organization get social welfare projects done. Drawn out of donations from some 150 foreign countries, his revenue is prodigious. India’s profoundly compromised ruling elites would no more sneeze at that country’s donations from Bill Gates, yet another of history’s outstanding buccaneers, than it would at the taxable revenue pouring into the Sathya Sai Central Trust.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Further Reading
The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision
BBC Hidden Camera in ‘Secret Swami’. Ethical?
Guru Sex Abuse Testimony To BBC – After Years of Silence
Indian Minister Shields Sai Baba on BBC television
Probed On Male Sex Abuse, Sai Baba Evicts BBC TV Team
V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings
Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List
Video Resources
The Secret Swami (BBC Television):
(154 MB, Broadband)
Seduced (DR, Danish Broadcasting, Denmark’s national television and radio broadcaster):
(80 MB, Broadband)
http://home.hetnet.nl/~seduced/seduced.wmv
(21 MB, Modem)
Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)
BBC and Other Film Footage Shows India’s Top Guru Sathya Sai Baba Faking Miracles
BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle « Call For Media and Government Investigation
Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)
Raising ever more serious questions about how spiritual is the head of what Sathya Sai Baba has called THE divine organization in the world,
Michael Goldstein explodes with anger (710kbs)
at the BBC’s perfectly reasonable questions about accountability
Dr. Goldstein again reveals his higher self (1.500Kb)
Michael Goldstein and the sexual allegations (2,10 Mbs)
Michael Goldstein admits his view is merely a belief (456kbs)
Sathya Sai Baba Cult Exposure By Major TV Channel In Australia « Call For Media and Government Investigation
……………………………………………………
General
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba
↑ Grab this Headline Animator
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice ! …..
….. That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
Posted in Morality, Movie Stars, Movies, Neglected/sidelined News, New Age, News and Politics, Opinion, People, Philanthropy, Politics, Pop Music, Propaganda, Prophecy, Protest, Psychology, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Sex, Skeptics, Social and Politics, Society, Spirituality, Successful People, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | Tagged: B. Premanand, Bill Gates, Citizen Kane, Daily Telegraph, G. Venkataraman, Hillview Stadium, Idi Amin, Kublai Khan, Mahatma Gandhi, Orson Welles, President of India, Robert Priddy, Rupert Murdoch, S. Bhagavantam, Sai Baba, Sai Global Harmony, Sathya Sai Central Trust, Sathya Sai Planetarium, The Guardian, Times of London, Unity Cup, Xanadu 2.0 | 19 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on August 12, 2009
Note: Thursday 7 October 2010. But two areas in which the blindness of countless followers of Sathya Sai Baba is exposed are of science and history. His comments are extremely ill-informed, and sometimes so absurd as to beggar belief. Here is India’s chronically ailing would-be Avatar of Avatars, the figure who has told us that he will soon be traveling abroad! And who long ago said that in the last quadrant of his life he would be ruling the world! And who said at the time of his 60th birthday that he would not hitherto show signs of physical ageing! This article from 2009 at ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’ drives home the silliness of it all.
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Sathya Sai Baba is wildly at odds with some of the most basic scientific facts. His jumping between physical and metaphysical notions, vague at best, clash with the physics being taught in his colleges and university – and in any respectable classroom. He would even have it that gold is magnetic!
Sathya Sai Baba – from ‘Sanathana Sarathi’, April 2002, p. 123
In actual fact, at this time, Sai Baba was having grave difficulties with his hip, which had to undergo a series of operations.
In an early blog of mine in 2007 – A Great Deceiver – Laughable But Still Dangerous – I wrote: “Sai Baba’s many scientist followers must have to block their ears or don magical-thinking hearing aids when he opines on matters scientific. Some of his pronouncements are comic, to be sure. But the smile disappears from one’s face when considering that Sai Baba’s devotees number many leaders in the top power echelons of politics, government, the sciences, the judiciary, diplomacy, industry, finance, the arts, medicine, and so on. He speaks, for example, of the nature of magnetism” …..
Since then, Sai Baba’s critical commentators have noted many past and current absurdities. A scholar, Brian Steel, strongly versed in Sathya Sai bibliography, has examined many of these, and I have selected and commented on a number of his writings in articles that contain the links to these extensive writings. Sathya Sai Baba has made very serious scientific and historical blunders.
For Steel’s detailed and sharply contextualized discussions, see
on Jesus Christ and Martin Luther .
and:
Sai Baba and Christianity. Some Observations (2002).
In the latter, Steel remarks on the “alarming nature of Sai Baba’s inventiveness”. This piece can instructively be read in concert with his:
On Jesus Christ and Martin Luther .
These grand pronouncements of Sai Baba are sometimes accompanied by cheering from the crowds he attracts – or, perhaps one may say, magnetizes. Those devotees who have a scientific education would, if their faith were to be sustained, need to make some procrustean mental shifts, performing conceptual acrobatics worthy of the adherents of Manichaeism.
Further Reading
See Jorge Reyesvera‘s point-by-point, rational reductio of Sathya Sai Baba’s terribly confused, sometimes downright contradictory, notions of magnetism:
The Omniscient Sai Baba’s Massive ignorance of Physics Exposed (I)
- Be it noted that the source of the discourse that Reyesvera uses is from a provenance long-accepted by Sathya Sai Baba adherents everywhere. A comment on this article reads that this: “discourse on magnetism by Sathya Sai Baba is from the Mahasivarathri, 2002 … The following is an excerpt from the verbatim translation of the premsai website’s version of Sathya Sai Baba’s discourse on Mahashivarathri, 13-3-2002, which appears in an edited-down version in ‘Sanathana Sarathi’ – March 2002″.
———————————————————————-
General
Public Petition On Sathya Sai Baba (1)
There is a Public Petition calling for official probing of Sai Baba and his Sathya Sai Organization. (See website details at the end of this post).
The JUST (Just Seekers of Truth) petition is presented by a globally networked group of former followers of Sathya Sai Baba. In the ranks of both devotees and dissenters, there are those who say that Sai Baba is history’s most powerful guru. Some critics regard him as one of history’s arch deceivers – highly charismatic, highly flawed. He may brilliantly inspire good social uplift works, which is why so many earnest and good people are attracted to him, but profoundly conceals, along with his core servitors who keep an vice-like grip on his global organization, what is morally loathsome and criminal.
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
……………………………………………
Further useful Resources Critical of Sathya Sai Baba’s Understanding of Science and Education
The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory
Robert Priddy, retired academic in philosophy and the social sciences, University of Oslo, writes in his article
Sathya Sai Baba followers in education and science :-
“Not one head of any independent University in the world has endorsed Sathya Sai Baba educational ideals or programmes, and – as is well known – a branch of UNESCO withdrew from a planned educational conference under the auspices of Sathya Sai Baba at Puttaparthi once they had investigated what this involved. (See UNESCO’s warning on Sathya Sai Baba here)
Not one Nobel laureate is known to be a follower, as far as can be discovered. Incidentally, Sathya Sai Baba has been forwarded as a candidate for the Nobel Peace prize by the Indian Government, obviously without result, of course. He made clear his hopes that he would receive it from Dr. Michael Nobel, a grandson of Alfred Nobel, but a person who the Nobel Committee has denounced. See Sathya Sai Baba’s hunger for international recognition “
Posted in Miracles, Opinion, Rationalism, Religion, South Asia, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Religions | Tagged: Ageing, Charisma, Christianity, Frauds, gold, Jesus Christ, Lingams, magnetism, Manichaeism, Martin Luther, physics, Sanathana Sarathi, Scams, Science, Scientists | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 25, 2009
NOTE: Close on the heels of my last article - Commonwealth Games: ‘Shining India’s’ Mismanagement By Crisis. Sai Baba Not Sighted - there have been many readers for my 2009 article on India’s Liberhan Commission Report on the Ayodhya Mosque demolition. I shall post to my home page the earlier article: Liberhan Commission Report, India: Names Some Long-time Close Associates of Sathya Sai Baba
Millions of foreign eyes are now trained on just a few of the many bizarre failures of India’s power elites. Trustfully, the more the world sees of what the Indian people have to endure at all times the more strength may come to those brave forces within her who struggle against the endemic corruption and inefficiency.
——————————————————————————
A media furore has erupted in India. It relates to the “leaked” details of the Judge Liberhan Commission report, a 17-year inquiry into the tumultuous 1992 Ayodhya Mosque demolition. How the issues did not set India physically ablaze may speak more of the ruthlessness of India’s security apparatus than to the temperateness of many of the country’s leaders and their hot-headed followers. However, the extremely long historic memories that are passed down the generations in non-western cultures may one day have to be reckoned with, and in terms of reaping bitter whirlwinds.
A number of the figures very seriously named are long-time close associates of Sathya Sai Baba and his core servitors.
The report names the former (BJP) Prime Minister Vajpayee (a strongly declared devotee), his Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani (not a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba) and former high-powered government BJP minister Murli Manohar Joshi as instrumental figures in orchestrating the demolition and hiding their roles in this extremely painful episode in modern Indian history. The disgraced former Home Minister, Ashok Singhal, like Vajpayee and Joshi, an old adherent of Sathya Sai Baba, is also named. Media links to this story abound – but here are a couple:
NEWS REPORT, Tuesday, 24 November 2009
An official report in India has blamed leading Hindu nationalist politicians for playing a role in the 1992 demolition of a mosque in Ayodhya.
The report clearly implicates more than 60 people – including the most senior members of the main opposition party, the BJP – in the mosque’s destruction.
The mosque was brought down by a Hindu mob and some 2,000 people died in riots across India after its demolition.
BJP politicians have denied any wrongdoing in the incident.
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A scene at the time of the riots and the demolition of the Babri Mosque
In a joint public letter (December 2001), the (then) Chief Justice of India, P.N. Bhagwati along with the former Prime Minister of India of the right-wing BJP, A.B. Vajpayee, and another former Chief Justice of India, Ranganath Mishra, and three other prominent leaders wrote a public letter stating that contentions of Sai Baba’s dissenters represent a:
“wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests and people against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba”.
But of course the chief players concerning us here are Vajpayee, Advani, and Joshi, the first and the third closely linked with Sathya Sai Baba, as we have often enough referred to – See my:
Letter to Prime Minister of India, Hon. A.B. Vajpayee
By Barry Pittard, Australia, former Lecturer, Sri Sathya Sai College of the Arts, Science and Commerce, Whitefield, Karnataka
Here is the signatory list: A.B. Vajpayee
(then) Prime Minister of India
P.N. Bhagawati
Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India
Ranganath Mishra
(then) Chair Person, National Human Rights Commissioner of India
Formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India
Najma Heptulla
(then) President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union; UNDP Distinguished Human Development Ambassador
Shivraj V. Patil
(Details as signatory: Member of Parliament, India; Formerly of the Lok Sabha & Union Minister. However Patil is now Home Minister in the Government of Manmohan Singh, who himself has shown strong partiality to Sathya Sai Baba)
See my article: Shivraj Patil Falls From Home Ministry and Robert Priddy’s, below.
Murli Manohar JoshiIn blustering, bullying style towards the interviewer, Tanya Datta, who asked perfectly reasonable questions, seen by millions in many countries around the world viewing BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’, (2004) Joshi aggressively defended Sathya Sai Baba. See:
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 31, 2007
In the BBC’s 2004 television documentary The Secret Swami, confronted by the BBC interviewer Tanya Datta, Murali Manohar Joshi (see photo, right), one of the most powerful ministers in the since-defeated A.B. Vajpayee (pictured to left) right-wing government, soon lost his temper, jabbing away with pointed finger at Ms Datta, 
accusing the BBC and people in England of plotting against Sai Baba, A.B. Vajpayee and P.N. Bhagawati (sometimes Bhagwati), a key Sathya Sai Central Trust member and former Chief Justice of India). He arrogantly shouts at her,
“No, no, no… You don’t know the meaning of interviewing a minister in my capacity, as a minister of my stature.”
Allegations against Sathya Sai Baba are worldwide
Ms Datta’s vulnerability in the face of an arch bully was touching to see, and she showed degree of courage, but tougher interviewers would not have put up with an evasiveness like Joshi’s. She did not need to defend the BBC and herself (although her reaction is understandable). She could, for example, have firmly stated the worldwide nature of the serious evidence from many former devotees around the world, whom the Sathya Sai Organization had not hitherto assailed as disreputable. At least, Murali Manohar Joshi’s arrogant evasion of the BBC’s totally fair question about Indian Government accountability was unmasked for the world to see. Joshi exposed himself. Viewers could only have felt for her, and seen Joshi for what he was. See Joshi’s extremely rude behavior towards Tanya Datta in video footage from the BBC’s The Secret Swami HERE
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The T
imes of India story mentions the disgraced Home Minister Ashok Singhal, yet another political figure strongly associated with Sathya Sai Baba.
Posted by Robert Priddy on 30th November 2008
India’s Minister of Home Affairs, Shivraj Patil, who lost his seat at the last election, was nevertheless given the government post by Manmohan Singh. These two cronies are co-worshippers of Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi - and Sonia Gandhi protegees, the self-proclaimed God Incarnate, Deity of deities, The Father who Sent Jesus and virtually whatever else almighty or divine. At last, this worshipper and top home affairs protector of Sathya Sai Baba has met his Waterloo and had to resign! A further casualty is the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh (see CNN report).
Posted in Opinion, Religion, South Asia, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Religions | Tagged: A.B. Vajpayee, Ayodhya, Ayodhya Mosque, Babri, Babri Mosque, Babri Musjid, Bharata Janata Party (BJP), Commonwealth Games, India Shining, Lal Krishna Advani, Liberhan Commission, Mosques, Musjids, Shining India, V.P.B. Nair | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 6, 2010
Some former devotees of Sathya Sai Baba get upset that many survivors of his sexual and other forms of abuse do not go public. They make the same kind of mistaken assumptions that Sai Baba’s defenders make who ask e.g., where is all the proof? Both these reactions are ill-informed, inappropriate and insensitive.
People who are badly traumatized – very typically - feel acute difficulty in being able to talk about their traumatic experience. One human reaction to trauma is lack of awareness of the extent to which upheaval has occurred. Psychological denial, and wanting to ‘move on’ are common. See:
On Leaving the Sathya Sai Baba Cult (Part 1.)- Ex Leaders and Rank-and-File
On Leaving A Powerful Global Cult. Sathya Sai Baba Example (Part 2)
On Leaving A Powerful Global Cult. Sathya Sai Baba Example (Part 3)
Refutation of smear allegations against ex-followers of Sathya Sai Baba (Many links)
It is widely found in a great deal of professional literature that a great many survivors endure years in silence and shame at what has happened to them. The case of those who have suffered at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba and some of his servitors is no different. Common experiences are:
- Fear at being called a liar
- Depression
- Loneliness and isolation, e.g., after being shunned by those one has come to love and trust
- Anger or suppressed anger
- Self-blame and feelings of worthlessness
- Flash-backs and other forms of disturbance at recollection of the abusive events
- Feelings of torn-ness and confusion between positive and negative aspects of the relationship between spiritual teacher and the aspirant
- Uncertainty about the exact order or nature of events – e.g., this lays an honest individual open to charges of fabricating, and many abuse victims who have faced adversarial lawyers have spoken about the experience of being ‘raped twice over’.
See below, a list excerpted from: Post-Cult Problems: An Exit Counselor’s Perspective, by Carol Giambalvo.
A few who allege that Sai Baba has sexually abused them have attempted for a while to expose him and leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization. From many countries, the evidence emerges that the Sathya Sai Organization has repeatedly and profoundly failed in its duty-of-care and its responsibility to act professionally – what to speak of truthfully, honestly and compassionately. Dispirited, many survivors have wanted to ‘move on’. Others have said they are willing to testify so long as there are proper jurisprudential processes and a decent chance of success. Some will speak, and have spoken, with the media but only after the former devotee network, which includes very highly qualified abuse professionals, have carefully gone through the issues involved. An occasional individual like Conny Larsson, the former leader of the Sathya Sai Organization in Sweden – no matter the hatred and ridicule hurled at him by pro Sai Baba antagonists - will write a book. He has be willing to travel at his own expense to various countries, speak at conferences, appear on national radio and television, agitate among government and other movers and shakers, and so on. By far the most prominent author of a book critical of Sathya Sai Baba is Robert Priddy, who taught philosophy and sociology at the University of Oslo, 1968–1985. Of this book (publ. Indian Skeptic/B. Premanand. Podanur, Tamil Nadu, 2004), he has written:
“In 2000 I resigned as National Contact person of the Sathya Sai Organization in Norway after 18 years fulfilling that role. This was no easy decision, since I did not believe that the allegations of sexual abuse could be true, even though I knew that Sathya Sai Baba was deeply involved in the massive cover-up of murders in his own bedroom, and hence an accomplice to the fact.
Having refused to read David Bailey’s account or any of the flood of allegations thereafter for months, I finally felt I must read the sexual allegation testimony. It took me about another six months of intensive investigation – contacting all the sources I could – before I was forced to arrive at a complete conviction that most of the allegations were both true and accurate. Subsequently I began to look carefully into all aspects of Sathya Sai Baba from the viewpoint of critical questioning and found, to my dismay, deceit after deceit and evidence of a major campaign of deception by him and all those close around him. This resulted in many web pages, which the award-winning rationalist, Basava Premanand, asked permission to publish”.
See also, Priddy on his earlier pro-Sathya Sai Baba book ‘Source of The Dream - My Way to Sathya Sai Baba’ (New revised ed. 1997 Samuel Weiser, Inc. P.O. Box 612. York Beach, ME 03910-0612. U.S.A. ISBN 1-57863-028-2), and the transition to his critical work.
Some survivors of sexual and other abuses by Sathya Sai Baba and some of his close servitors have, despite the great upheaval in their lives, joined our representations to governments, media and many civic institutions. Those who have dared to speak of their experiences on the Internet have been attacked in the extreme by some pro Sai Baba activists.
Many young males from countries around the world have come to our network with compelling accounts of being sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba. Some much older men like Mark Roche who shared his ordeals – when very young – in the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ when much older) also speak to us of being seduced by Sai Baba, sometimes when they were in their teens, at others, when still very young men. Repeatedly, we find that survivors have not availed themselves of highly qualified professional counseling – even when it has been offered to them free of any charge.
In short, not debriefing, with proper professional counseling, their experience puts at grave risk an abuse survivor’s chances of health and well-being.
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Excerpted from:
Carol Giambalvo. (International Cultic Studies Association)
Common Issues in Post-Cult Recovery
Some of the recovery issues that keep recurring in my work with ex-cult members are:
- Sense of purposelessness, of being disconnected. They left a group that had a powerful purpose and intense drive; they miss the peak experiences produced from the intensity and the group dynamics.
- Depression.
- Grieving for other group members, for a sense of loss in their life.
- Guilt. Former members will feel guilt for having gotten involved in the first place, for the people they recruited into the group, and for the things they did while in the group.
- Anger. This will be felt toward the group and/or the leaders. At times this anger is misdirected toward themselves.
- Alienation. They will feel alienation from the group, often from old friends (that is, those who were friends prior to their cult involvement), and sometimes from family.
- Isolation. To ex-cult members, no one “out there” seems to understand what they’re going through, especially their families.
- Distrust. This extends to group situations, and often to organized religion (if they were in a religious cult) or organizations in general (depending on the type of cult they were in). There is also a general distrust of their own ability to discern when or if they are being manipulated again. This dissipates after they learn more about mind control and begin to listen to their own inner voice again.
- Fear of going crazy. This is especially common after “floating” experiences (see point 18 below for explanation of floating).
- Fear that what the cult said would happen to them if they left actually might happen.
- Tendency to think in terms of black and white, as conditioned by the cult. They need to practice looking for the gray areas.
- Spiritualizing everything. This residual sometimes lasts for quite a while. Former members need to be encouraged to look for logical reasons why things happen and to deal with reality, to let go of their magical thinking.
- Inability to make decisions. This characteristic reflects the dependency that was fostered by the cult.
- Low self-esteem. This generally comes from those experiences common to most cults, where time and again members are told that they are worthless.
- Embarrassment. This is an expression of the inability to talk about their experience, to explain how or why they got involved or what they had done during that time. It is often manifested by an intense feeling of being ill at ease in both social and work situations. Also, often there is a feeling of being out of sync with everyone else, of going through culture shock, from having lived in a closed environment and having been deprived of participating in everyday culture.
- Employment and/or career problems. Former members face the dilemma of what to put on a resume to cover the blank years of cult membership.
- Dissociation. This also has been fostered by the cult. Either active or passive, it is a period of not being in touch with reality or those around them, an inability to communicate.
- Floating. These are flashbacks into the cult mindset. It can also take on the effect of an intense emotional reaction that is inappropriate to the particular stimuli.
- Nightmares. Some people also experience hallucinations or hearing voices. A small percentage of former members need hospitalization due to this type of residual.
- Family issues.
- Dependency issues.
- Sexuality issues.
- Spiritual (or philosophical) issues. Former members often face difficult questions: Where can I go to have my spiritual (or belief) needs met? What do I believe in now? What is there to believe in, trust in?
- Inability to concentrate, short-term memory loss.
- Re-emergence of pre-cult emotional or psychological issues.
- Impatience with the recovery process.
Carol Giambalvo is an ex-cult member who has been a Thought Reform Consultant since 1984 and a cofounder of reFOCUS, a national support network for former cult members. She is on ICSA’s Board of Directors, Director of ICSA’s Recovery Programs, and is responsible for its Project Outreach. Author of Exit Counseling: A Family Intervention, co-editor of The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ, and co-author of “Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants,” Ms. Giambalvo has written and lectured extensively on cult-related topics. In 2008 Ms. Giambalvo received ICSA’s Margaret T. Singer Award.
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General
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Abuse Survival, Carol Giambalvo, Conny Larsson, Cult Exit, End of the Dream (Robert Priddy), In Denial, Mark Roche, Post traumatic stress disorder, Post-Cult Recovery, psychological denial, Source of the Dream (Robert Priddy), Trauma | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 11, 2010
Confirming many reports of Sathya Sai Baba breaking down and weeping in more recent times, there is now brilliantly clear and revealing video footage for all to see.
To see this video, CLICK HERE
It is not that crying is out of order, per se. It is, however, the case that Sai Baba has had many words to say about stoicism. Or, to be exact: samatva, equal mindedness. Countless times his devotees have heard him utter, e.g.,:
“Let anyone say anything; remain calm”.
Here but another two of countless references he has made to his (assumed) equanimity:
“Sai is unaffected by praise and blame”. Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 14.
“I am not happy about such praises. I have no desire that people should extol Me. I am neither elated nor depressed by such acts. I am beyond praise or ridicule, respect or disrespect, anger or happiness. I have only one attribute throughout – My love. I love even those who hate Me. I love even those who indulge in bad propaganda against Me. I do not consider anyone as enemy”. Sathya Sai Baba 83rd Birthday Celebrations Discourse 2008
Sathya Sai Baba’s many reported weeping episodes have taken – as from circa the year 2000 – a marked upsweep after the advent of worldwide exposure of widespread serial sexual abuse of boys and young men (See also HERE and HERE); his implication in the massive local, state and central governments’ cover up of police killings in his bedroom at Puttaparthi (See HERE and HERE and HERE); vast misappropriation of billions in funds collected worldwide (See HERE and HERE and HERE); his vast opulence in a land of great poverty, squalor, ignorance and superstition; his failed predictions (See HERE and HERE); and much else that reveals him to be one of history’s great imposters, whatever may be the good deeds that he has sparked off in many of his devotees.
He has also said:
“When I am defamed, I never get incensed, for it is only the tree full of edible fruits that is attached by sticks and stones.” Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 4 p. 184.
But here is his so-called equanimity, when he loudly and repeatedly banged with his fist on his lectern (to loud and prolonged applause by the crowds) in his Christmas discourse of 2000, which had scarcely anything to say about Christ – see quote from Sanathana Sarathi, on right hand side:
Sathya Sai Baba Calls His Critics Demons
Robert Priddy has some instructive historical notes on reports of Sathya Sai Baba crying. He comments:
“That Sathya Sai Baba sits and cries so much illustrates the absurd dishonesty of his years of boastful claims to be unmoved by any pain or pleasure! His tears are clearly not those of ecstatic joy as entire demeanour reeks of depression and decline. In the birthday evening video (excerpt 8 mins) one can see how he is more like a wooden idol than a living Divinity. How come that this supposed self-proclaimed infallible and ever youthful Avatar is in such a state? There will as usual surely be no answers from his staff or followers… all they can do is to try to pretend that it is some kind of miracle of showing his humanity (well, it is not showing divinity)!”
See: Sathya Sai Baba crying (video). Posted by robertpriddy on December 10, 2010
In recent years, there has been a marked increase of reports that depict Sai Baba acting in many ways not previously typical of him. However, there is now 85th birthday celebrations video footage of him breaking down and crying. Or, to be exact – as the viewer can, with the greatest clarity see – breaking into uncontrollable sobbing.
As in a great deal of footage, viewers can also see the Sai Baba’s mask-like face and other signs of a deterioration. These afford yet another instance, taken from myriad examples, of how Sai Baba’s predictions have so dramatically and demonstrably failed to materialize. Many statements that are to be seen scattered through official Sathya Sai publications can today be viewed, with sharp and sometimes gross informativeness, in juxtaposition with the reality that is the physically and mentally ailing Sathya Sai Baba. His devotees are blind to the glaring anomalies. He has said, for example:
“Rama and Krishna were ever youthful. Have you ever seen a picture of Rama or Krishna with grey hair?….. Usually old people have wrinkles on their faces … I do not have any signs of old age. (loud applause). There is not a single wrinkle on My face”. Sanathana Sarathi, October, 2002.
“Many people wonder that I look so young even at the age of 73. The reason is that I have the three P’s in Me. One is Purity, the second is Patience and the third is Perseverance. It is because of these three that I shall remain like this for any number of years to come. (cheers)” p. 302 Sanathana Sarathi, 11-1998
We have BBC footage to thank for showing both the faking of a so-called miracle and also documentation of the sort of inane statements that, in recent years, have been reported. On stage in front of February 2004’s Mahasivaratri crowd, the BBC cameras (in footage that would later become part of ‘The Secret Swami’, which has been seen in over 120 countries around the world, see resources below) show Sai Baba looking increasingly sick. He produces the lingam, and the materialization trick demonstrated by Professor Narendra Nayak is easy for the viewer to spot, the lingam being concealed in Sai Baba’s handkerchief. In the ensuing documentary, the BBC journalist Tanya Datta comments:
“To the alarm of the crowd suddenly Sai Baba collapsed. His huge coterie of staff swung into action. There was panic. An organisation used to tight control seemed to have lost its grip. Sai Baba was hastily wheeled off stage.”
Later, he is carried hobbling back, with officials claiming that he manifested two more lingams offstage. To the audience, a shaken Sai Baba makes a preposterous claim:
“Out of the stomach emanated Shiva Lingas of the weight of three tonnes. That’s the reason why some strain on the face and the body” - http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/movies.html
See further examples of Sai Baba’s increasing decrepitude:
Sathya Sai Baba’s Slurred Speech Due To Old Age. ‘Eenadu’ News Report
“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.”
But the reality is very different from the perspective of his devotees, who relegate all contrary evidence to a nether region of what is left of their logical minds. As further witness: …
“No fear of bombs” in India, Said Sai Baba a Week Before Mumbai Terrorist Attack
Has Sathya Sai Baba Moved An Inch To Clean Up His Yard?
Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions
When Disasters Overtake S. Sai Baba’s Promises
India’s prophesied future world leadership?
Major World Catastrophe Predictions Attributed to Sathya Sai Baba
Sathya Sai Baba’s Tips To Keep Ageing Away
Sathya Sai Baba On Magnetism. Science or Sai-ence?
Avatar of Deception: Sathya Sai Baba. 85, But Says He Will Rule World
The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements
Sai Baba predictions, promises and prophecies – index
Sai Baba To Be Seen In Moon? But Where Was Moon?
Sai Baba Fails To Appear In Moon, IANS Reports
“No fear of bombs” in India, Said Sai Baba a Week Before Mumbai Terrorist Attack
Hasty Cover Up Of Sai Baba ‘No bombs in India’ Blunder
MAJOR WORLD CATASTROPHE PREDICTIONS ATTRIBUTED TO SATHYA SAI BABA.
Robert Priddy – ‘Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed’ at http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com
Sites Critical of Sathya Sai Baba
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“The Secret Swami” – BBC Film Footage and Transcript
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Introductory articles by the scholar Brian Steel:-
Sathya Sai Baba: The Guru Who Claimed to be God on Earth
Basic Myths and Pertinent Questions about the Guru Sathya Sai Baba (Updated)
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Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist
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On the BBC exposure, at this blogsite – ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation’ – http://barrypittard.wordpress.com - see the articles:
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General
Barry Pittard’s comments in regard to the Public Petition) -:
Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 10, 2009
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Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Ageing, Equanimity, Frauds, Indian Politics, Miracles, Mumbai terrorist attack, New Age, Predictions, Professor Narendra Nayak, Robert Priddy, Sathya Sai Speaks, Sects, Shiva Lingas, Stoicism, Tanya Datta (BBC), The Secret Swami | 3 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on February 13, 2011
Kind reader, please indulge me an acute understatement:
Exposing Sathya Sai Baba, and that core of servitors who exercise control over his worldwide cult, has not been easy.
Crowded around him, like a protective phalanx, have long been Indian presidents, prime and ministers, many ministers and civil service heads from both State and Central governments, Supreme and High Court judges, heads of police, the armed services, foreign service, foremost industrialists, financiers …. and a long list more of India’s social, political and cultural elites.
As I watched the footage of brave Egyptian citizens risking their lives to unseat a leader and government they believe have sorely betrayed the people, my mind reflected back to the courage – to take but one example – of thousands of Indian citizens who accompanied Mahatma Gandhi on the great salt marches.
Mahatma Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu march for India’s freedom, 1930
These marches protested – non-violently – the British monopoly (to name just one facet of rulership over India) on salt. It led to the far greater Civil Disobedience Movement. And, in the spirit of Gandhi’s extraordinary example of non-violence, millions of Indians engaged in acts of civil disobedience, after which (although, far beyond the power of a Gandhi to stop the blood-soaked madness that engulfed vast numbers, in particular of Hindus and Muslims at the time of partition between India and what became Pakistan), India gained her political freedom in August 1947.
Whatever may be thought of Gandhi’s notions of tradition-versus-modernity, he had something that India’s subsequent leaders have distinctively not had – freedom from corruption.
Perhaps, if India’s people took their courage in their own hands, they could, once more, show a shining example to the world, and come out on the streets like the Egyptian people are now doing – but without the bloodshed. But perhaps the culture of violent governmental suppression in that great and tragic country has gone too far. For but one of countless examples, see: Beatings, torture and killings by Police in India
One thing is sure. Sathya Sai Baba is not – and never has been – a leader who can transform a nation. But then, who else in India can?
Sai Baba and Indian PM and President: Is anyone in charge?
Further Reading
Inequality before the law in India
Avoidance of the law in India
Note: To the great distaste of lawyers from countries with far more respect for the law, many Indian judges, without accountability, throw out cases. One case was that run by one of India’s highest profile lawyers, Kamini Jaiswal. For her 2001 petition against Sathya Sai Baba, see an account here. Then see the Supreme Court document – which despite of slanderous allegations against our veracity by key Sathya Sai Baba supporters, proves that the petition was in fact presented and rejected here. The disgraced judges in the kangaroo court treatment of the Jaiswal led petition are pictured here:
Another writ petition was rejected by the Sathya Sai-biased High Court of Andhra Pradesh, see here. For the typical sort of extraordinary judicial and other protection accorded Sathya Sai Baba and further evidence by the published letter of a former Prime Minister and Supreme Court judge, see here.
Judge Y.V. Anjaneyulu, of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, a long time devotee of Sathya Sai Baba (who also lives in Andhra Pradesh), ruled against B. Premanand’s petition, saying that a divine sort of person such as Sathya Sai Baba is not, when he materializes gold from spiritual realms, subject to the law appertaining to India’s Gold Standard Act. Sadly, Basava Premanand,
stripped of all rights of reason that would have stood in any properly conducted, democratic court, could but say:
“Defence based on spiritual powers is not recognised in law. If such a defence is permitted, there is not a single offence the commission of which could be met with the penalties and punishments, for the reason that on a plea of spiritual power being raised by the accused there is no way to prove or disprove the existence or non-existence of the pleaded spiritual power.” See: Satya Sai Baba and the Gold Act.
Note: My tribute at the time of the death of B. Premanand is here: Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach.
Corrupt Indian Judges Stonewall Case Vs Sai Baba
Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom Murders.
Who In India Will Stand out Against Abuses?
Sathya Sai Baba Organization and Libel and Disinformation
Liberhan Commission Report, India: Names Some Long-time Close Associates of Sathya Sai Baba
Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Considerable Concern’ In Wider Hindu Community
See BBC’s The Secret Swami video clip of Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary, where former Home Secretary V.P.B. Nair speaks of “absolute cold-blooded murder” and makes clear to the BBC that there occurred a massive cover-up by Sai Baba, his ashram officials, police, local, state and central governments. See also the article: Will V.P.B. Nair Keep His Word To BBC On Sathya Sai Baba?
Sathya Sai Baba as Nobel Peace Prize Candidate
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General
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Civil Disobedience, Corrupt Courts, Corrupt Judges, Corrupt Police, Corrupt Politicians, Egyptian Protests, Indian Politics, Kamini Jaiswal (A Leading Indian Lawyer), Mahatma Gandhi, Non Violence (Ahimsa) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 13, 2010
An array of media, scholars, government services, civic institutions, and many others read our writings. I have extracted the following links related to police and security from a Links page with brief commentaries on articles. That page has been assiduously compiled by Robert Priddy, and contains links to many articles he and I, and any other extensive writer such as Brian Steel, have written on an array of topics concerning Sathya Sai Baba and his cult.
Note: Please kindly report any errors, updates, or suggest improvements. These overviews are very far from exhaustive … See contact details under: Barry Pittard, at bottom of right hand sidebar.
Police, Security and Sathya Sai Baba
The Puttaparti Police expansion and Sai Baba – cont. How the publicly-financed security at Sai Baba ashrams was introduced etc.
Massacre at Prasanthi Nilayam ashram, 1993 part 1 — part 2
Police expert on security at Prashanthi Nilayam
Supreme Court of India cover-up: petition ad Sathya Sai Baba rejected Scan of affidavit-attested document showing the paper illegally removed from the Supreme Court records so as to cover-up the petition against Sathya Sai Baba made in 2001
The ‘Abode of Peace’ ashram- the murder victims Some details of two of those murdered in cold bloog in Sai Baba’s bedroom in 1993.
The ‘Abode of Peace’ ashram- the pivotal events Ex-CID police officer’s account of the Puttaparthi murders in 1993
Senior Ex-CID officer J.V. Ram on Sai sex scandals – part 1 — part 2 — part 3 Very grave allegations of numerous sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba are reported by this CID sleuth, as well as cases of rape at his ashram
Senior Ex-CID officer J.V. Ram on Sathya Sai Baba – part 1 — art 2 — part 3 — part 4 Revelations by a top investigator of unexplained murders, deaths and disappearances plus corruption, bribery and other forms of corruption connected to Sathya Sai Baba and/or his minions
Westerners desert Sai Baba’s ashrams, says recent visitor A visitor from UK notes that Westerners are not welcome in Prashanthi Nilayam. They are harassed, discriminated and subject to new laws which limit their stay. Numerous foreigners who moved there cannot sell their apartments and are trapped
V.K. Narasimhan – confidences to Robert Priddy The decisive point for me was when V.K. Narasimhan told me the truth about the 1993 murders – and he should have known as he was on the scene directly and had access to all the top people involved. All this I recorded in my notebook as soon as he had told me
ON VISITING THE SAI BABA ASHRAMS Many difficulties, disappointments and potential dangers – up to and including murder – face those who visit Sathya Sai Baba ashrams. Tight security is used against visitors to protect the fearful Guru-God and discrimination of non-ethnic Indian followers, especially Westerners, has become rife. Judging by countries I know well, the current list of over 200 names of former members or active followers registered represents only perhaps 5% of those who have left Sathya Sai baba’s organization and movement, as most do not wish to speak out and be demonized – many wish to continue to visit India in safety.
Failings in Indian Justice – by ex-Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshan The Indian judicial system as originally inherited from the British stagnated, but is slowly caching up with the developed world – but only on paper, it appears. Abuses and failing are so huge and so many, as any follower of Indian events knows, that police and protected person can and do ‘get away with murder’.
Indian police get away with murder – outrage in India The latest juridical scandal decision outrages Indian citizens, and bears out further what the above entry indicates
Powerful sex abuse testimony against Sathya Sai Baba The German national news journal ‘Bild’ published an account of sexual molestation and subsequent ‘goonda’ harassment of Jens Sethi and his girlfriend after he explained how he refused Sai Baba’s sexual advances. An affidavit to that effect was lodged with Hamburg police
BILD’ Story. “Guru Wants Sex” (Sathya Sai Baba) The damning testimony of Jens Sethi, ex-follower who lodged an affidavit on Sai Baba’s sexual molestation with the Public Prosecutor in Hamburg
Press Council of India Long Silent On Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom Killings The Press Council of India was asked by the Anantapur District Journalists’ Union to inquire into the criticism of Sri Sathya Sai Baba against the Press for publishing news items and special articles on the June 6 incident that occurred in Prashanthi Nilayam in which six persons were killed. No response was forthcoming. See also Indian Newspaper Reports of Killings In Sai Baba’s Bedroom
Murders in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom overview The infamous murders in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom issue will not simply go away because the case was quashed by his devotees, the Indian Home Minister and Prime Minister at the time
Sathya Sai Baba’s India stable? The claim that India is not unstable, like many other countries, does not hold water at all
Sex, suicide and the guru – Sathya Sai Baba Three articles by one of The Times feature writers, Dominic Kennedy, which expose the nature of Sathya Sai Baba and related suicides
Sathya Sai Baba – questions and his silence In a discourse after the six 1993 killings and executions, Sathya Sai Baba attacked the Anantapur media hotly saying that it contained “nothing but flights of the imagination”. He never answered any questions on his part in the incident and was held above the law by the Indian government.
The Death of Sathya Sai Baba’s brother, Janaki Ramiah Sathya Sai Baba sobbed in public over the death of this property millionaire, reported blackmailer and key accomplice to murders in Sai Baba’s apartment in 1993
Murder and repentence at Prashanthi Nilayam Among the numerous reported murders at Sathya Sai Baba’s ashrams through the decades, few are as remarkable as that perpetrated on Sai Baba’s personally chosen gatekeeper Kumar. It is of the stuff of which horror films can be made
V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings
Media, institutional, academic and other third party investigators are being made aware of the sheer extent of the evidence of criminal cover up by successive Indian governments over the years of the Puttaparthi police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom
Will India clean up its Augean police and political stables
The Indian police and government’s attempts to quash the murder of Scarlett MacKeown sends the same signal long observed, cover-ups to the highest levels in India, none more successful – and yet notoriously damaging – than that of the found young men executed by police in Sai Baba’s bedroom
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Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
Subscribe in a reader
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Government Corruption, Indian Law, Indian Police, Indian Security, Law and Order, Police Corruption, Police Killings, Press Council, Robert Priddy, Security, Supreme Court of India, The Law | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 16, 2010
Amid golden glitter, Sai Baba says he will rule world
Many are the demonstrably mistaken accusations thrown at those who have stood forth to expose Sathya Sai Baba and his international sect. For example, typically taking our remarks badly out-of-context, it is said that we are: “India bashers”. But these defenders of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult do their cause harm; and we learn that many Sai devotees will have nothing to do with them – although we also know that some who are close to Sathya Sai Baba have assisted them in various ways.
The absurdity and intellectual dishonesty of their attempts to defame will not win them the favour of astute and questioning readers.
Often, there is the tacit assumption that to criticize Sathya Sai Baba is itself a slight against India. This is offensive to a great many Indians from all walks of life who do not think that Sai Baba is a reflection of all that is good in their country.
Anyone who has lived in India lengthily, as I have, comes to know how profoundly Indians across classes and divides deplore the corruptions and abuses of human rights and democratic freedoms which they see perpetrated by the power elites in their country.
Yet this is the India that Sai Baba has said he will transform. He has spoken of first “cleaning up his own backyard”, before saving the entire world before he dies. He is now very old and sick. See:
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 11, 2010
Confirming many reports of Sathya Sai Baba breaking down and weeping in more recent times, there is now brilliantly clear and revealing video footage for all to see.
To see this video, CLICK HERE
So great is the grip of elites who hold wealth and power in India that many Indians, both those who live inside and outside India welcome – though with feelings of deep shame and desperate hope for deliverance from the evils – well-informed information that emanates from outside India. The article (see below) by a member of School of Regulation, Justice and Diplomacy, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, may serve as but one example of writing that points to the ubiquity of graft scandals in India, while pointing to some of the attempts courageous and determined Indians are making to oppose this.
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Some Further Reading
Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Considerable Concern’ In Wider Hindu Community
Flag Follows Trade. Abetting Indian Government Corruption
Commonwealth Games: ‘Shining India’s’ Mismanagement By Crisis. Sai Baba Not Sighted
Sathya Sai Baba’s Promise To “Clean Up” His “Own Back Yard (India) Unfulfilled
Sathya Sai Baba and the Law. Is A Real Pro-Con Discussion Possible?
Relative Weightings of Allegation and Proof In Exposing Corrupt Institutions (Pt1)
Relative Weightings of Allegation and Proof In Exposing Corrupt Institutions (Pt2)
India’s Painful Experience of Corrupt Leadership
India’s Ancient Tradition of Respect For Elders Waylaid By Corrupt Elites
Sathya Sai Fails To Save Satyam
Sathya Sai Baba crying (video)
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Disillusioned by rampant graft scandals
Sandy Gordon. From: The Australian. December 15, 2010 12:00AM
ALTHOUGH corruption in India is nothing new, recent examples appear to put the country in the category of one of the worst kleptocracies, and a survey indicates widespread disillusionment with the Singh government.
Former mines minister and chief minister of Jharkhand, Madhu Koda, is in jail on charges of having siphoned off $US1 billion ($1bn), mainly from corrupt mining deals, during his short tenure.
By laundering funds through cronies, Koda managed to acquire hotels around the world and even a mine in Africa.
Although India has passed legislation to strengthen its anti-money-laundering regime, a recent Global Financial Integrity report found rich Indians launder a staggering $US19bn a year.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Congress Party, Dawood Ibrahim, Defamation, Financial Scandals, Governance, Graft, Herald Sun, Indian Politics, Indian Premier League, Kleptocracy, Mahatma Gandhi, Mumbai, Scams, Scandal, Sects, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 19, 2010
Wikileaks reports of Indian troops atrocities and judicial barbarism by Indian authorities points to but one of a number of huge issues erupting in India right at the moment. Every tragic year that passes shows that Sathya Sai Baba has not “cleaned up (his) own backyard”, as he long ago promised he would do.
India’s security and well-being do not rest in the hands of her superstitious and corrupt leadership – many individuals of which gather around Sathya Sai Baba. They are in the hands of those who, at every level, actively and honestly struggle, with great sacrifice, against the systemic venalities.
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WikiLeaks: India ‘systematically torturing civilians in Kashmir’
US diplomats were given evidence suggesting India was systematically torturing civilians in Kashmir, according to leaked cables.
Daily Telegraph. By
Nick Allen, Los Angeles 12:17AM GMT 17 Dec 2010
Kashmiri people shout anti-India slogans during a protest in Srinagar Photo: REUTERS
The US officials in Delhi were privately briefed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2005 that Indian security forces were using methods including electrocution, physical beatings and sexual interference against hundreds of detainees.
In a detailed report back to Washington they recorded the view of the ICRC that India “condones torture” and that the detainees were not Islamist insurgents or Pakistani-backed militants, who were “routinely killed.” Instead, they were civilians “connected to or believed to have information about the insurgency.”
According to the cables, which will prove a major embarrassment for the Indian government, the ICRC interviewed 1,296 detainees of whom 681 said they had been tortured.
Of those, 498 claimed to have been electrocuted, 381 said they were suspended from the ceiling, and 304 cases were described as “sexual.”
A total of 294 described a procedure in which guards crushed their legs by putting a bar across their thighs and sitting on it, while 181 said their legs had been pulled apart into the splits. In one cable US officials reported that “terrorism investigations and court cases tend to rely upon confessions, many of which are obtained under duress if not beatings, threats, or in some cases torture.”
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“On 23 November, 2010, devotees from around the world celebrate Sathya Sai Baba’s 85th birthday. Their consciences need to be challenged. They can be asked: How can they lend themselves to such wasteful displays of pomp and ceremony? How can those of them who have so cruelly rejected their once dearly beloved fellow devotees, whom they knew over decades to be good and decent human beings, proclaim that they are, as Sai worshipers, devotees of Truth, Love and Right Action? How can those Indian government and other dignitaries, whom we know to have been apprised in detail of the many worldwide allegations against Sai Baba, look at themselves and their families with any honesty?”
“The context of his September 1960 prophecy makes it clear that the general public attending Puttaparthi gatherings will be privy to these wondrous manifestations. But of the panoply of saints and sages? One’s eyes strain in vain. Of politicians across the broad spectrum – yes, those aplenty. The topmost brass in the armed services – yes, their medals add to the dazzle of Puttaparthi. Of top cops – they are all over the place. Of the foremost judiciary, the diplomats, the industrialists, and so on – no end of them”
“What the former devotee and other critics point out has long been stated by many courageous and truthful Indian citizens down many decades. It may be hoped that these forces of decency and efficiency in India will be aided by the glaring world spotlight which has all too suddenly, because she is hosting the Commonwealth Games, swung on the many corrupt and befuddled Indian leaders”
Witch hunts afflict India
“Belief in such primitive superstitions as “black magic” is promoted and encouraged by Sathya Sai Baba (see here documentation from his books authorised by him and sold in his bookshop) .
One related belief system is a cause of major social problems and murders. “The Great Indian Witch Hunt“, is an award-winning documentary film hosted by noted playwright, writer and actress Sohaila Kapur (sister of director Shekhar Kapur) and directed by Filmmaker Rakhi Varma. It was part of the 12 episode series “It happens only in India” launched by The National Geographic channel – each episode focusing on an aspect of “real India” until now unexplored in detail”
Puttaparthi Sai Baba Celebrates 85th Birthday
This man says he will soon be ruling the whole world
General
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA ”INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Atrocities, Commonwealth Games, Indian Politics, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Kashmir, Robert Priddy, Superstition, The Great Indian Witch Hunt, Wikileaks | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 27, 2010
The person who wrote to me the following apparently comes from Andhra Pradesh, the State in South India where Sathya Sai Baba has his chief ashram in Puttaparthi. They commented on my previous blog: Wikileaks and Indian Troops Atrocities Reports. Sai Baba Fails To ‘Clean Up Own Backyard’. In regard to Sathya Sai Baba-related corruption, the person speaks of my “inferring by some convoluted logic that it parallels the causes for India’s many sicknesses”.
It strikes me that the writer uses the notion of corruption “parallels” in a systemically misleading way. Surely a more helpful contextualization of the corruption issue to be seen in Sathya Sai Baba and his core servitors in comparison to widespread, endemic corruption in India is a notion not of ‘parallel’ but of symptom. This is to say that – apart from the fact that corruption can be found in any social system – many of the Sai Baba-related corruptions reflect aspects deep-rooted in the Indian social system, and promoted by its flaws. It would, of course, be absurd to say that all the corruptions to be seen in one part of a social fabric are replicated in every other instance. For example there are Sathya Sai Organization programs which serve human beings without discrimination on the grounds of caste or creed. A discussion would need to be complex, and attempt some weighting of relevance among phenomena often encountered in India as guru worship, demagoguery, casteism, nepotism, and elitism of various kinds, superstition and dependence in matters such as astrology (not least among the elites), vast social inequality, dowry, and so on ….
In the above article, I had commented:
“Wikileaks reports of Indian troops atrocities and judicial barbarism by Indian authorities points to but one of a number of huge issues erupting in India right at the moment. Every tragic year that passes shows that Sathya Sai Baba has not “cleaned up (his) own backyard”, as he long ago promised he would do. India’s security and well-being do not rest in the hands of her superstitious and corrupt leadership – many individuals of which gather around Sathya Sai Baba. They are in the hands of those who, at every level, actively and honestly struggle, with great sacrifice, against the systemic venalities”.
The correspondent wrote:
“For their own karma, all Gurus deserve a healthy dose of irreverence! However,’guru-bashers’ need to be wary of mixing-up issues. This is particularly true when indulged in by foreigners. Ex-devotees of Sathya Sai Baba may have legitimate complaints about him, but ‘inferring’ by some convoluted logic that it parallels the causes for India’s many sicknesses, is silly and counter-productive.
Today, all Indians, whether devotee or non-devotee, atheist theist and agnostic alike, are hugely shamed by the unending exposure of monumental scams in the country. By imputing Sathya Sai Baba for India’s ills, is trivializing and misconstruing the scale and its causes.
Devotees will exploit the opportunity to elevate the aging Baba to someone like Christ being crucified for the sins of others”.
Whereas, throughout my many writings, I have made points of the sort:
1. That there are courageous forces in India – and always have been – which oppose the corruption.
2. That, among a plethora of other mischiefs, Sathya Sai Baba is exposed by his failure to do what he has long proclaimed that he will do – namely, raise India to great moral and spiritual heights and then the world – effectively, within his own lifetime.
3. The term “guru bashers” is a term that needs, case by case in situations of usage, to be analysed. It is often too much of a label and a curse word, which can obscure the real intents and the arguments being advanced.
4. It is correct that devotees can exploit adverse criticism. Or rather, to be exact, some devotees, because many of them avoid controversy of any sort and simply get on with their prayers, bhajans, etc. But when have not some of those blinded by cultic belief NOT attempted to exploit adverse criticism? Yet, silence or watered down critiques are not likely to be helpful, are they? What critics of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult have attempted to do is to expose the huge deficit between precept and example – the monumental cover ups, the sexual and other abuses, the repeated failures of predictions and of promises (such as of healing, placement in his educational and other wings …), large-scale scams in regard to provision of water, of apartments, the lack of duty of care within the worldwide Sathya Sai Organization, the vast wastage of internationally-contributed funds in glorifying Sai Baba via luxurious buildings, golden trappings of imperial splendour, lack of accountability and transparency by the Sathya Sai Central Trust, Sai Baba’s countless contradictions that are to be found in his officially published discourses and other such sources; and much else.
5. The writer speaks of: “inferring by some convoluted logic that it parallels the causes for India’s many sicknesses”. In regard to causality, one cannot, of course, willy-nilly deal of all corruptions afflicting India as paralleling those of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult. Those who read properly what is actually written will find an avoidance of such simplifying of complex issues in the articles of the most prominent former devotee writers on Sathya Sai Baba, such as Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, Alexandra Nagel or myself, or the independent British author never affiliated with Sai Baba Kevin R.D. Shepherd . They will also find in myriad libraries and on the internet a great many reformist Indian writers who, likewise, cannot fairly be accused of “India bashing”.
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The profound extent of the grasp of superstition across classes in India - not to mention other pre-scientific manifestations – to which Sathya Sai Baba gives credence is exposed in this well-sourced article by Robert Priddy, who writes of how:
WITCHCRAFT AND BLACK MAGIC STILL PLAGUE INDIA
and how Sathya Sai Baba aggravates the current witchcraft problems in India
“Sathya Sai Baba holds firmly that black magic is a real phenomenon, as the quotations below prove. His person and his so-called ‘teachings’ are held in awe by Prime Ministers and Presidents of India and – yet worse – Supreme Court judges. How can this country abolish the dreadful ignorance of so many citizens, apparently including supposedly highly educated persons?”
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Some Resources at ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’
General
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Alexandra Nagel, Astrology, Atrocities, casteism, demagoguery, dowry, Elitism, Guru Bashing, guru worship, Gurus, India bashing, Indian Army, Indian Politics, Indian social system, Indian troops, inequality, Kevin R.D. Shepherd, nepotism, Sathya Sai Central Trust, South India, Superstition, Wikileaks | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 11, 2011
Kavita Krishna, Secretary, All India Progressive Women’s Association, is one of those social justice reformers in India to whom I have at various times referred. Sathya Sai Baba forever preaches truth. right conduct and non-violence but here is an Indian woman who, among other terribly beleagered social justice advocates in India, risk life and limb.
Like many other social reformers in India, she has pointed out:
”Rape in police custody is very common in India, and in such cases, inevitably there is a huge cover-up and rarely at all has any police or army official ever been brought to trial in such cases”.
For many decades, visitors to Puttaparthi have seen Sathya Sai Baba surrounded by police and armed forces personnel all the way up to the top brass. His influence, then, in “cleaning up”, to use his phrase, his “own backyard” before transforming the world has some severe limitations. These days, he is surrounded by Israeli-trained security personnel.
India’s social justice advocates have no such phalanx of security around them. They are often prey to violence. They also court that other great oppression: silence.
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Secretary, All India Progressive Women’s Association
Posted: December 21, 2010 07:44 AM
In India, rape victims routinely face police harassment and refusal to file rape charges. Then, if at all charges are filed, judicial insensitivity, delayed trials, and so on. Only today, I received a report from our activists (of the All India Progressive Women’s Association) in Punjab, about the gang rape of a teenage dalit (oppressed caste) girl. This 17-year-old was lured by police personnel to the police station on the promise of a job, and was then imprisoned and raped by several prominent local citizens, including police officials and a local advocate. Our activists could get a police complaint filed with great difficulty and even now the girl and her family are being pressured to withdraw the case. In the same area of Punjab some years ago, a dalit singer, Bant Singh, had 3 of his limbs chopped off for supporting his daughter in securing a conviction of her rapists — some powerful local people.
Rape in police custody is very common in India, and in such cases, inevitably there is a huge cover-up and rarely at all has any police or army official ever been brought to trial in such cases. The case of gang rape and murder of a young Manipuri woman Thangjam Manorama by Indian army personnel in 2004 is one instance. Last year, there was the case of rape and murder of two Kashmiri women — Asiya and Nilofar — in Shopian, Kashmir, in which the Central Bureau of Investigation (India’s highest government investigative agency) helped in a shameful cover up, coming up with a report that claimed the two women ‘drowned’ in a stream six inches deep. The CBI’s forensic team reported, laughably, that rape had not occurred since the body of one of the women (a teenager), exhumed after four months, showed that “the hymen was intact”! In the Shopian case, doctors and lawyers who had testified to evidence of rape and murder have been prosecuted while the accused paramilitary personnel (as well as the police personnel who assisted in destroying evidence) go free. On This month (December 14), to mark one year of the Shopian rape and murder, women’s groups from all over India sent white sheets to the CBI office in Delhi — “for their next cover up.”
We could also recall the case was of gang rape of a rural women’s health worker Bhanwari Bai in 1995, where a judge ruled that she could not have been raped since she was of a ‘lower caste’ than the four ‘upper caste’ men accused of raping her. The judge’s offensive claim was that upper caste men would not deign to touch a lower caste woman, whereas rape is all too often deployed as a weapon to humiliate and suppress the oppressed castes in India. Another terrible recent rape case was the Khairlanji case where a dalit (oppressed caste) woman and her daughter were very brutally gang raped in full view of a village and then publicly massacred along with her two sons. There was a conviction in this case, (after all the usual delays and refusals by police to file a case) but the verdict was criticized by many activists because it convicted only for rape and refused to invoke India’s law against caste discrimination/atrocities.
In India’s forest areas, tribal women who have with great courage filed cases of rape against security personnel, have found that their rapists not only roam free, they freely abduct and threaten these women and their families that if the cases are pursued, they might be arrested or even killed after being branded as ‘extremists’ and ‘insurgents.’
The national capital, Delhi has seen a series of rape cases in recent times. A high-profile former police officer K P S Gill, himself convicted for sexual harassment, famously commented on the rise in rape cases in Delhi, “I would blame the women who try to wear certain clothes just to keep in tune with the trend. They are the ones who provoke men.” Likewise, in every single instance of rape it is routine to hear women being blamed for being out late at night or in the wrong company. The conviction rate for rape and sexual assault is extremely low. There have been many cases in India where judges have suggested that charges can be dropped if the rapist marries his victim. A former Chief Justice of India’s Supreme Court recently said in a public speech that women’s movement activists should not rule our marriage between rapists and their victims! A man convicted of rape recently had his sentence relaxed by a judge as a reward for clearing exams qualifying to be part of India’s national bureaucratic services.
Certainly, from the perspective of all those women in India who find the most brutal of rapists going free, protected by the police and the state, and their most serious charges of rape trivialized or even suppressed by force, the idea of a man being hunted down by Interpol on charges which are as complex and ambiguous as those in the Assange case is disturbing. From what I hear, Sweden’s rape laws are nothing to quarrel with, and are in fact quite enviable for us in India, where even marital rape is yet to be deemed illegal. But for the US to fire at Assange from the shoulders of the two Swedish women indeed is an insult to the women struggling in vain for justice the world over. It is possible that Assange’s casual flings with female fans may not be very democratic; he may be guilty of insensitivity to the concerns and rights of women (for instance their right to be free from HIV). But if sexism is a crime worthy of Interpol’s attention, then Interpol should immediately arrest Silvio Berlusconi and Bill Clinton, just for starters!
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At Robert Priddy’s blogsite: Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed
General
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Ahimsa, Central Bureau of Investigation, Indian Army, Indian Police, Kavita Krishnan (All India Progressive Women's Association), non-violence, Rape, Robert Priddy, Social Justice, Social Reform, Social Reformers, South India, Violence, Violence Against Women | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 20, 2011
At Sai Baba’s ashram at Puttaparthi in the south Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, one cannot but notice how - up to the top echelons – the ranks of the armed forces and police are to be seen represented in the mass pilgrimage there. For decades it has been so.
These same Indian armed forces and police who flock to Sathya Sai Baba number many of those guilty of human rights violations, and the sort of atrocities referred to in the two articles from The Guardian, see below …
Where, then, is his restraining, so-called ‘Divine Hand’ on his countless devotees who are members of those barbaric forces? And on the governments who deploy them?
Indian democracy? Yes, one may think it good idea ….
The very forces of democratic law and order in India are far from reformed. His long-ago made undertakings to transform India are, at every level, refuse stacked on the tall pile of his many broken promises and predictions.
Related Resources
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Mahatma Gandhi, the ‘father of modern India’, said:
Apostle of non-violence. Did what he preached
You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees.
An evil system never deserves such allegiance.
Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil.
A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.
Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will.
Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.
Violent means will give violent freedom.
Jason Burke in Delhi. The Guardian (Guardian.co.uk), Thursday 16 December 2010 21.30 GMT
Beatings and electric shocks inflicted on hundreds of civilians detained in Kashmir, US diplomats in Delhi told by International Red Cross
Beatings and electric shocks inflicted on hundreds of civilians detained in Kashmir, US diplomats in Delhi told by ICRC
Unrest in Kashmir, where a leaked cable said the Indian government ‘condoned torture’. Photograph: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images
US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic cables.
The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats in Delhi were briefed in 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against hundreds of detainees.
Other cables show that as recently as 2007 American diplomats were concerned about widespread human rights abuses by Indian security forces, who they said relied on torture for confessions.
The revelations will be intensely embarrassing for Delhi, which takes pride in its status as the world’s biggest democracy, and come at a time of heightened sensitivity in Kashmir after renewed protests and violence this year.
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By Dilnaz Boga. The Guardian (Guardian.co.uk), Tuesday 21 December 2010 12.45 GMT
Will the leaked communiqués mark a shift in western foreign policy, or is it to be business as usual in Kashmir?
A mother of a disappeared son protests on the eve of International Human Rights Day in Srinagar, Kashmir. Photograph: Farooq Khan/EPA
Almost every household in Kashmir has a story to tell of human rights violation by the local police or the Indian security forces. Generations have experienced violence amid a culture of impunity spanning six decades.
Last Friday, leaked US embassy cables disclosed the findings of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on torture in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) between 2002-2004.
ICRC claimed out of 1,296 detainees it had interviewed, 681 had said that they had been tortured. Of those, 498 claimed to have been electrocuted, 381 said they were suspended from the ceiling, and 304 cases were described as sexual. Things haven’t changed much since that period.
Now, Kashmiris who have endured years of abductions, enforced disappearances, custodial killings, rape, torture and detentions want to know if the cables’ release will make a difference. Will there be a change in policy on torture internationally? Will these revelations fortify India’s justice mechanism after civil society’s intervention? Or will it propel the Indian mainstream media to report Kashmir’s human rights issues from the highest militarised zone in the world?
Kashmiris want answers.
Serious impediments to human rights can stall progress in any society. Kashmir is no different. In the Valley, the state feels free to flout its own constitution. Therefore, the people expect intervention from the international community.
The summer of 2010 brought on a significant change in the Kashmiri struggle for independence from India. From being a pan-Islamic militant movement sponsored by Pakistan in 1989, it has now transformed into a non-violent indigenous people’s movement. But the response of the state has not altered since the 1990s.
Kashmiris expressed themselves against what they view as an illegal military occupation by India through peaceful protests, civil strikes, sit-ins, internet and graffiti campaigns, rallies and demonstrations.
Despite the fear of arrest, young people have used the internet to post blogs, photographs of human rights violations and videos of killings, while the government gagged the press for weeks.
Since June, over 100 men, women and children have been killed at demonstrations for protesting against widespread human rights violations. All of this happened as the world watched silently.
The leaked US cables stated that, in 2005, ICRC’s findings were also communicated to the UK, France and Holland. They chose to stay silent. And why shouldn’t they, when there are defence deals to be signed and investments to be made in the soaring Indian markets?
Diplomacy, coupled with the prospects of a burgeoning economy, have shielded India from criticism by the global community. Even the UN only issued a statement, urging India to tone down its response to the protesters.
Responding to ICRC’s allegations, an official spokesperson from the Indian ministry of external affairs said: “India is an open and democratic nation which adheres to the rule of law. If and when an aberration occurs, it is promptly and firmly dealt with under existing legal mechanisms, in an effective and transparent manner.”
Meanwhile, J&K’s chief minister Omar Abdullah said the government doesn’t condone torture. Passing the buck, he added, “I am not getting into it… it pertains to 2005, and you know who was in power that time.” Omar was referring to the coalition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Congress that ruled the state from November 2002-August 2008.
On Saturday, Indian broadsheet, The Times of India, chose to report on the row over a statement on Hindu terrorism, and comments about Indian Muslims made by former US envoy to New Delhi, David Mulford. In a commentary about India’s 150 million-plus Muslims, Mulford stated: “India’s vibrant democracy, inclusive culture and growing economy have made it easier for Muslim youth to find a place in the mainstream, reduced the pool of potential recruits, and the space in which Islamic extremist organisations can operate.”
There was no mention of torture or of Kashmir in the newspapers.
It is doubtful that India will make changes after these leaks, but hope never dies in places where violence is a way of life. Kashmiris are still hoping, against all odds, for a change.
Courtesy: The Guardian (Guardian.co.uk)
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General
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Ahimsa, Delhi, Divinity, Indian Armed Services, Indian Army, Indian Democracy, Indian media, Indian Police, International Red Cross, Kashmir, Mahatma Gandhi, New Delhi, non-violence, South India, The Guardian, The Guardian (UK), The Times of India, Torture, Torture in India, US Diplomacy, US diplomats, Wikileaks, WikiLeaks cables | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 31, 2010
Over the years, we have received various reports of Sathya Sai Baba increasingly losing a composure that has been oft-noted in him for decades. But only recently has this type of behaviour been clear for all to see, and in video footage emanating from his own camp. During his November birthday, Sathya Sai Baba – in the midst of being praised for all the good he has done – broke down and sobbed deeply and for some time. To see this video (download 3.9 Mbs), CLICK HERE
“Be happy!” “I have no enemies.. I love all. I am always smiling. Many people think how can I keep smiling? I don’t like castoroil faces.. When you all are happy, I will be happy.” Sathya Sai Baba in his lectern-thumping tirade, Christmas Discourse 2000
See the articles from which the quotes are excerpted:
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 16, 2010
“Often, there is the tacit assumption that to criticize Sathya Sai Baba is itself a slight against India. This is offensive to a great many Indians from all walks of life who do not think that Sai Baba is a reflection of all that is good in their country.
Anyone who has lived in India lengthily, as I have, comes to know how profoundly Indians across classes and divides deplore the corruptions and abuses of human rights and democratic freedoms which they see perpetrated by the power elites in their country.
Yet this is the India that Sai Baba has said he will transform. He has spoken of first “cleaning up his own backyard”, before saving the entire world before he dies. He is now very old and sick”.
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 11, 2010
“Sathya Sai Baba’s many reported weeping episodes have taken – as from circa the year 2000 – a marked upsweep after the advent of worldwide exposure of widespread serial sexual abuse of boys and young men (See also HERE and HERE); his implication in the massive local, state and central governments’ cover up of police killings in his bedroom at Puttaparthi (See HERE and HERE and HERE); vast misappropriation of billions in funds collected worldwide (See HERE and HERE and HERE); his vast opulence in a land of great poverty, squalor, ignorance and superstition; his failed predictions (See HERE and HERE); and much else that reveals him to be one of history’s great imposters, whatever may be the good deeds that he has sparked off in many of his devotees”.
“On 23 November, 2010, devotees from around the world celebrate Sathya Sai Baba’s 85th birthday. Their consciences need to be challenged. They can be asked: How can they lend themselves to such wasteful displays of pomp and ceremony? How can those of them who have so cruelly rejected their once dearly beloved fellow devotees, whom they knew over decades to be good and decent human beings, proclaim that they are, as Sai worshipers, devotees of Truth, Love and Right Action? How can those Indian government and other dignitaries, whom we know to have been apprised in detail of the many worldwide allegations against Sai Baba, look at themselves and their families with any honesty?”
“At his 60th birthday, Sathya Sai Baba foretold that he would not physically age. But now look! And compare the various older photos with those only of the last days.
The newspaper Eenadu is the largest circulated Telugu newspaper in Andhra Pradesh (the State where Sathya Sai Baba lives), and claims a daily readership of over 10 million. (See my article: Sathya Sai Baba’s Slurred Speech Due To Old Age. ‘Eenadu’ News Report). Eenadu reported at the time of the last birthday:
“Lacking in Clarity: There was a lack of clarity in Satya Sai’s speech because of his old age. The interpreter struggled much to translate his speech into English. Satya Sai was seated in a special wheel chair which was brought very close to the car, so he could very slowly get into it. At the time of the speech, he stood up with great difficulty with the help of his assistants”.
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 24, 2010
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STOP PRESS!
Puttaparthi town hit by poor civic amenities
November 16th, 2010
While the authorities are making temporary arrangements for the visit of notable persons from 150 nations, problems of long-pending basic amenities haunt the dwellers. Almost all internal roads are ruined and drains are waterlogged across the town …. Sewage treatment is in shambles though civic authorities renovated it with Rs 1 crore last year. Residents are concerned as unhygienic conditions prevail at the municipal compost yard. The government assured that it would provide boating facilities for devotees in Enumulapalli tank, but this has not materialised yet. Dwellers urge the government to take up roads and drainage system restoration works before Baba’s birthday, else it would give a bad impression to the visiting dignitaries.
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Posted by Barry Pittard on November 24, 2010
“That age has its physical and mental ravages is not the point here. Who is not privy to these? …. To which Shakespeare’s Hamlet refers in his famous soliloquy – … “The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” The only point here is that Sathya Sai Baba has made demonstrably unreal and false statements in regard to prophecies about his own physical state.
General
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Avatars, Frauds, guru worship, Gurus, Hinduism, Indian Politics, Religion, Shining India | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 2, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba’s blunders on history and science are big. For some truly egregious science examples, see the articles cited at the foot of this page.
Readers perturbed to see their friends, family or colleagues getting into the Sathya Sai Baba cult may consider – if the victims are not too far blinded – sharing such materials as highlighted in red, below. In recent days Robert Priddy has dug up a Sai Tower’s pamphlet that has the full text of Sai Baba’s 1996 Christmas Discourse. In this, Sai Baba’s (supposedly all-knowing) dating of Jesus Christ’s life and extreme mix-up of historical facts about Catholics and Protestants and Islam and Martin Luther are extremely awry.
A great many educated people have learnt enough history to see what absurd nonsense such Sai Baba claims reveal. Yet here is a man – of imperial wealth and vast sway over the minds of many, including those supposedly educated - who proclaims to the millions that he is all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful. And that he is the ‘Avatar’ (embodiment of God on earth) who will effectively transform the entire world in his own lifetime.
Here is someone – and no god of any sort - at whose feet successive Indian Prime Ministers, Presidents and countless other Indian eminences, across a wide religious and political spectrum, have repeatedly fallen, including the current Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Devisingh Patil. In passing, I note that the latter’s mentor was the exceptionally powerful late S.B. Chavan, the former Home Minister who presided over the profound cover up of attempted police and media investigations of the April 6, 1993 police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom.
India's President Pratibha Devsingh Patil bows to Sai Baba
The then Editor of Sanathana Sarathi, the official Sai newsletter that goes worldwide, V.K. Narasimhan who, as I know from working alongside him, edited out embarrassing statements of Sai Baba, excluded the following blunders. There has also been editorial omission of the embarrassments in Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume XXIX. Unfortunately for the weeders (see my article The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements), the efforts at excision failed to prevent the unwitting inclusion of the damaging material in the American film maker James Redmond’s footage of the entire discourse.
Still further, Robert Priddy has just unearthed – and now scanned and made available - a pamphlet containing Sai Baba’s 1996 Christmas Day discourse, published by Sai Towers, Puttaparthi. He has provided detailed information and commentary. Useful references to re-surfacing of this discourse are also contained in Brian Steel’s ‘SB’s Discourses. More Nonsense’ (24 February 2002), and: The Sathya Sai Baba Discourse on Christmas Day, 1996.
- Dr Manmohan Singh attends Sai Baba’s birthday event, 1996
Here is just one of his many aburdities, which should rock, but does not, his auditors who know the slightest general history details: “Three hundred and fifty years B.C., before Christ, Jews lived. However, among Jews, there were religions such as Islam and Christianity. People of that land, they are all Jews. That land is the birthplace of both the religions, Islam and Christianity. The Hebrew language was very prominent. This Hebrew language is more or less equal to our Sanskrit. …”
“Christianity is not just 2,000 years in its origin. It was there even before Christ, 350 years. There the divinity is explained very clearly.”
“The name and the fame of Jesus Christ have spread far and wide. Here, at this moment, there are two schools of thought. The first group of thought – Roman Catholics. There is another group that fought with this group. This group is called Protestants. As they protested, they are Protestants. So among Jews there are these two groups: Catholics and Protestants. The difference of opinion has increased day by day. This led to Jesus, whose life was in danger. Jews there in Jerusalem did not permit Jesus to go there. Like this, religious conflict and fighting was ever on the rise. There were 250 schools of thought, divisions there. They also monopolized certain countries.”
“Because of so many groups there, they all attempted even to harm Jesus. Romans on one side. Catholics on the other side. Luther on another side. There were so many groups that went on changing. All these differences are based on violence, and that led to madness. Because of this attachment to group affiliations, naturally there was conflict and fighting.”
“Religious affiliation leads to ego. This led to confusion among them as to what Jesus said right or wrong.”
Select Reading
Sathya Sai Baba On Magnetism. Science or Sai-ence?
Sai Baba Is God Says Top George Bush Doctor
India’s Chronic Addiction To Anacronistic Gurus. Any Sea-change?
Venkataraman – the most gullible physicist alive?
Sathya Sai Baba followers in education and science
Dr.G. Venkataraman – physicist ‘explains’ Sathya Sai Baba
Jorge Reyesvera – Posted Writings On Sathya Sai Baba Claims, Especially On Science
A New Celebrity Endorsement of SSB’s Alleged Divinity?
General
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Avatars, Dr G. Venkataraman, Dr Manmohan Singh, Frauds, guru worship, Gurus, Hinduism, Indian Politics, James Redmond, President Pratibha Devisingh Pati, Religion, Robert Priddy, S. B. Chavan, Sai Towers, Sanathana Sarathi, Sathya Sai Speaks, Shining India, V.K Narasimhan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 6, 2011
In mid 2004, former Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary, V.P.B. Nair – see: The BBC and the 1993 murders – spoke to the BBC about the official local, state and central government cover up that attended the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom in June 1993. He said he intended to take steps to get the case re-opened. But has he done anything of the sort?
Most major Indian media have entirely failed to tackle Sathya Sai Baba and his incredibly wealthy and influential cult. The exceptions have been: India Today, Tehelka, The Cavaran and (to a small extent) Hindustan Times. The job of exposure has been via the foreign media – e.g., BBC, CBC (Canada), DR (Denmark), Salon.com (USA), SBS, ABC (Australia, Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Guardian (UK), and newspapers in Europe, Canada, Australia, etc.
It is ironic, too, that NRI’s (Non Resident Indians) get to see coverage in the foreign media, whereas there is a heavy blanket of suppression in India. It makes the notion of ‘Indian democracy’ an oxymoron, and somewhat hollow.
An alert media would challenge V.P.B. Nair with the question: Have you – as you told the BBC you would do – pushed for a re-opening of the Puttaparthi police killings case?
It is of oddest irony that degrees of exposure of these crimes have been effectively left up to two individuals gifted with cussed unstoppableness – the late Basava Premanand in India and Robert Priddy in Norway. It is similarly significant that, so great is the unwillingness of most major Indian media to tackle Sathya Sai Baba and his incredibly wealthy and influential cult, that exposing him has been, with the exception of India Today, Tehelka, The Caravan, and (to a small extent) Hindustan Times, left up to the foreign media to do – e.g., BBC, CBC (Canada), DR (Denmark), SBS, ABC (Australia), Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Guardian (UK), Salon.com (USA), and newspapers in Europe, Canada, Australia, etc.
Again, there is irony in that NRI’s (Non Resident Indians) get to see coverage in the foreign media that is tightly suppressed in India!
The lengths to which Basava Premanand and Robert Priddy have gone to examine the welter of documentation have required much sacrifice of time and energy. Robert Priddy and I kept in touch with Premanand over the years, and this access allowed us confidential insight into the very real risks to life and limb that Premanand ran. My own tribute to this remarkable man is here: Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach.
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Short Selection of Robert Priddy’s Writings on the Killings
Six devotees of Sathya Sai Baba were slain on 6 June 1993. No official investigation was completed since the government quashed the CBI’s investigation. No charges were brought.
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Further Reading At this blogsite: ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba‘
V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings
BBC Footage Still Potent In Exposing Sathya Sai Sect (See Video Clips and Secret Swami Documentary)
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General
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Astrology, Basava Premanand, casteism, Censorship, Government of India, guru worship, Indian media, Indian Politics, Indian Rationalists, Mahatma Gandhi, Media, nepotism, Police Killings, Rationalism, Robert Priddy, The Press, V.P.B. Nair | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on February 8, 2011
In mid 2004, former Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary, V.P.B. Nair spoke to the BBC in its 2004 television documentary - ‘The Secret Swami’ – about the official corruption that attended the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom in June 1993. He said he intended to take steps to get the case re-opened.
I again ask: has Nair done what he told the BBC that he would do? And, indeed, hope that Indian citizens ask him:
Have you, as you told the BBC that you would do, made efforts to keep your promise to see that there is a proper investigation into the killings at Puttaparthi?
CLICK HERE for a film clip from the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’, in which V.P.B. Nair speaks of the killings, which he said were in ‘cold blood’. And HERE to read the transcript of Nair’s statement: BBC Interview with V.P.B. Nair
Only the Indian people can rally their sense of national honor and rise up and demand answers from their authorities, who continue to protect Sathya Sai Baba.
Here is the extraordinary fact: Exposure of these killings in Sai Baba’s bedroom at Puttaparthi, and of the subsequent suppression by local, state and central government of the police investigations, has been effectively left up to two individuals gifted with cussed unstoppableness - the late Basava Premanand in India and Robert Priddy in Norway.
The lengths to which Premanand and Priddy have gone to examine the welter of documentation have demanded much sacrifice of time and energy, as have their many other Sai Baba exposure efforts. They have been attacked, reviled, and libeled.
Priddy and I kept in touch with Premanand over the years, and this contact allowed us a degree of confidential insight into the very real risks to life and limb that Premanand ran in a country so volatile as India.
Soon after Basava Premanand’s death, I wrote a tribute – about a man whose decency and valor both Robert Priddy and I had come, over the years, to know from personal dealings with him:
Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach
Posted by Barry Pittard on October 6, 2009
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- Basava Premanand (17 Feb. 1930-4 October 2009). India’s most famous Rationalist
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Further Reading
See simulation of Sai Baba’s stage act: Short VIDEO CLIP (only 420Kb) B. Premanand tells of Sathya Sai Baba and his family in his early years)
The BBC and the 1993 murders
New Zealand Lawyer Exposes Official Cover Up of Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom
BBC Footage Still Potent In Exposing Sathya Sai Sect (See Video Clips and Secret Swami Documentary)
V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings
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General
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Basava Premanand, The Secret Swami, V.P.B. Nair | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 22, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba And His Sect: Links to Critical Blogsites and Websites
Sathya Sai Baba In Word and Action
An extensive, highly organized site by the former long-time head and co-founder of the Sathya Sai Organization in Norway, Robert Priddy. He was a notable contributor to the official organ, Sanathana Sarathi. The Editor of this publication, V.K. Narasimhan, a courageous and legendary Indian journalist – who was one of the few non-sychophants around Sai Baba – much valued Priddy’s writing, philosophical abilities, and friendship.
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- Robert Priddy, Academic Philosopher and Author
V.K. Narasimhan and Robert Priddy
A note of the Homepage of Priddy’s website states:
The webmaster of this site is Robert C. Priddy (see WIKIPEDIA – ROBERT PRIDDY)
(retired – researched in the sociology of knowledge at The Institute of Social Studies, Oslo, Norway. Researched, lectured and examined in philosophy 1968-85 (Institute of Philosophy & Examen Philosophicum) and sociology 1970-76 (Intitute of Psychology) at the University of Oslo, Norway and as guest lecturer in Scandinavia. Bibliography. Current standpoint on spiritual faith (click here). Home page: robertpriddy.com and Robert C. Priddy blog. Click here to visit Priddy’s main Sai Baba exposé blog. Robert Priddy’s blogsite is updated frequently. See: Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed – Exposing major deceits by guru Sathya Sai Baba in India, incl. murders cover-up and widely alleged sexual abuse. Subscribe in a reader. See also this disclaimer and note that mailers who are non-abusive and reasonable will be answered chivalrously, others ignored or dealt with as merits. Known defamers/libellers are blocked
Call for Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba – Barry Pittard Updated frequently. Barry Pittard lectured in English at the Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India. Since late 1999, he has been closely associated with the work of former Sai Baba followers worldwide to expose the diverse evidence of Sathya Sai Baba corruption, and the complicity of foremost leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization, and of successive local, state and central governments in India, which have supported a profound cover up.
Sathya Sai Baba Expose News Often referred to as: Exbaba.com. Extensive website – testimonies, articles, videos. This site is a huge repository of writings that date back virtually to the commencement of organized former devotee exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and his worldwide Sathya Sai Organization
Ongoing Investigations into Claims and Realities Surrounding Sathya Sai Baba Brian Steel’s scholarly website, with extensive analyses and documentation. Steel’s work was notable and regarded by Sai scholars and readers when he was a follower
Allegations concerning Sathya Sai Baba A wide range of serious exposé articles. Last Updated, 16 Jan 2008. Spanish version. Russian version
Sathya Sai Baba (and Wikipedia) – website of author Kevin R.D. Shepherd This British scholarly author of many books and papers on religious and philosophical subjects was never affiliated with Sathya Sai Baba in any way, but has written extensively and critically on Sathya Sai Baba and his sect
Kevin R.D. Shepherd blog and The Sai `Baba Movement
Sathya Sai Baba – The Truth A blog for collecting breaking news, opinions and other materials concerning Sathya Sai Baba which reveal little-known facts and the concealed truth about his works, acts and words.
Italian ExBaba exposé website http://www.exbaba.it
Scandinavian Sai Baba exposé websites Swedish Danish, and Norwegian (Norsk)
Other European languages German exposé website - Polish - Russian.
Exposé in Spanish and second site in Polish
Dr. Dale Beyerstein’s study of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims and ‘miracles’
Breaking the spell of religious/’spiritual’ superstitions
Website informing about sects, including the Sathya Sai Baba cult
FRENCH WEB LOG Marc-André
Belief and Sathya Sai Baba: Avatar or Imposter-Trickster?
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General
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Barry Pittard's blogsite, Exposé (websites and blogsites), Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Robert Priddy, Robert Priddy's blogsite, Sai Baba Cult, Sai Baba Links, Sects, V.K Narasimhan | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 24, 2011
Did you ever think that you could contribute entries to the world’s most-used encyclopedia?
Virtually anyone from anywhere, given that one is equipped with a computer and an internet account, can contribute.
The Wikipedia catch-cry is: Anyone can edit. However, what suppose many cannot edit for nuts?!
Like ‘democracy’ itself, the Wikipedia online encyclopedia can be a great idea. Against large odds, it has just turned ten years old. Wiki is meant to be a vast knowledge base on almost an infinity of topics. Servers worldwide ensure that it is kept secure and online ….
… That is to say – supposedly – provided they adhere to certain laid-down guidelines and methods. There is also a system of expert arbitrators – dotted (some would say, far too sparsely dotted) round the world – who can assist contributors who fall into difficulty or dispute. The theory is that errors are wide open to be corrected by the original contributor or other users, if not at once then over time. Prima facie, what can be more ‘democratic’ than all this?
Alike, many lay and academic contributors to Wikipedia have striven to make Wikipedia professional in its attitude and approach. But, as in any department of life, ideals can fall prey to reality. They see merit in aspects of its ‘everyman’ approach, but also serious flaws. It is all too open to abuse.
In the New York Times article, ‘Wikipedia: Open-source, and open to abuse’, the Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales is quoted as saying:
“We have constant problems where we have people who are trying to repeatedly abuse our sites”
Sathya Sai Baba Partisan Attacks
In regard to the editorial process that governs entries to the ‘Sathya Sai Baba’ Wikipedia article, former Sathya Sai Baba followers with long and respected academic careers have worked hard to uphold the strong Wiki standards set for contributors. Prominent in contributing to the Sathya Sai Baba entry have been Brian Steel, whose Wiki ID is Ombudswiki. See, e.g., Ombudswiki (talk) 11:01, 9 July 2009 (UTC), and Robert Priddy, whose ID is ProEdits. See, e.g., User_talk:84.208.99.96 and another example of many blatant attacks at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:SSS108#.E2.86.91.C2.A0_Blatant_Untruths_From_ProEdits_.E2.86.91.C2.AO
Wikipedia Authorities Ban Sai Baba Protagonist Offenders. (Including Gerald Joe Moreno – known to be supported by key Sathya Sai Baba figures – who has stalked and libelled former Sathya Sai Baba followers, causing deep hurt in their families, including children). See: Harassment and stalking by Gerald Joe Moreno (which contains many salient links).
The virulence of the attacks in the Wiki ‘talk’ pages on Steel and Priddy finally brought down severe consequences for the perpetrators – whose distortion and defamation on the internet at large are a still worse occurrence! Most prominent of these and virulent on an almost daily basis is Gerald Joe Moreno. See the rational, competent, independent British writer Kevin R.D. Shepherd‘s comments at: 22. Wikipedia, Moreno, Google.
The Open Society and its Enemies
Of course, many Wiki contributors can innocently make mistakes. They may be free of agenda or point of view pushing. But, to use the Austro-British philosopher Sir Karl Popper’s phrase, the ‘open society‘ has its enemies, including those who would subvert it by appearing to hold to its tenets.
In his article Sathya Sai Baba on Wikipedia (Posted by robertpriddy on July 14, 2009), Robert Priddy points out:
“There is a very good reason for Ombudswiki’s call for those who remain anonymous to declare themselves. Sathya Sai devotees very often hide behind anonymous user names – especially when they try to enter comments on this blogsite, and in hundreds of cases of e-mail (often hate mails) which are received by some of us. Gerald Joe Moreno – using the anonymous username SSS108 was one of the most virulent attackers of dissidents who have spoken out about Sai Baba, accused a Wiki administrator of using a ‘sock puppet’ identity. He was then immediately banned, and this was followed up by an indefinite ban on him and others by a board of Wiki administrators”.
A very considerable trouble is that offenders can re-enter the editing process under a new guise, and bypassing conventional restrictions by resort to underhand technical ploys. And this is exactly what has happened in the case of Gerald Moreno and his like.
Some Further Resources
See biographical references on Wiki for: Brian Steel and Robert Priddy
Brian Steel
For the index page to his extensive website, see: Recent Research on the Claims of Sathya Sai Baba.
Evidence of an Internet Activist in Action
Diversionary Tactics by an Internet Demagogue
Robert Priddy
For Robert Priddy’s (also extensive) main website, see: Sathya Sai Baba In Word and Action. His frequently updated blogsite is: Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed – Exposing major deceits by guru Sathya Sai Baba in India, incl. murders cover-up and widely alleged sexual abuse.
Gross fraudulence: Gerald Moreno tries to ridicule Robert Priddy
Information About Gerald Moreno
Sai Baba Internet Man – No Apology When Caught Using Anti-Semitism Slur
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General
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available: PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Gerald Joe Moreno, Jimmy Wales, Kevin R.D. Shepherd, New York Times, Robert Priddy, Wikipedia | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 29, 2011
Is there even one decently educated history student in the West and much beyond, let alone scholar, who could subscribe to the following twaddle by the self-proclaimed omniscient, highest ‘avatar’ ever to have appeared on earth?
The man, deemed to be God incarnate, at whose feet so many Indian Prime Ministers and Presidents and others in highest echelons of power in India and some way further have sunk!
Indian PM, Manmohan Dresses Up For Sathya Sai Baba
Those who honour India for what is great in her, cannot but hope that the young generation can – without falling at the feet of the ‘gods’ of materialistic wealth and futile power – see once for all how crippling their superstitious, guru-worshipping and star-gazing elders have been to India.
But one case in point is the absurdity that many so-called professional individuals round Sathya Sai Baba blot known facts out from their minds. See:
For example, Sai Baba utterly misconceives the historical development of Judaism, Islam and Christianity:
Sai Baba: “Three hundred and fifty years B.C., before Christ, Jews lived. However, among Jews, there were religions such as Islam and Christianity. People of that land, they are all Jews. That land is the birthplace of both the religions, Islam and Christianity. The Hebrew language was very prominent. This Hebrew language is more or less equal to our Sanskrit. …”
…. “Christianity is not just 2,000 years in its origin. It was there even before Christ, 350 years. There the divinity is explained very clearly.”
Adding absurdity to still further absurdity, Sai Baba distorts to an extreme degree entire differences between Jews, Roman Catholics and Protestants.
…. “The name and the fame of Jesus Christ have spread far and wide. Here, at this moment, there are two schools of thought. The first group of thought – Roman Catholics. There is another group that fought with this group. This group is called Protestants. As they protested, they are Protestants. So among Jews there are these two groups: Catholics and Protestants. The difference of opinion has increased day by day. This led to Jesus, whose life was in danger. Jews there in Jerusalem did not permit Jesus to go there. Like this, religious conflict and fighting was ever on the rise. There were 250 schools of thought, divisions there. They also monopolized certain countries.”
The figurehead of the 16th century Protestant revolt and Reformation, Martin Luther, was most assuredly not a Jew.
Note: For reference to the official Sathya Sai Baba from which these texts come, see Brian Steel’s scholarly work, which contain his remarks on Jesus Christ and Martin Luther . For Steel’s detailed and sharply contextualized discussion, see: Sai Baba and Christianity. Some Observations (2002). Steel remarks here the alarming “extent of Sai Baba’s inventiveness”. This can be instructively read in concert with his Basic Notes On Sai Baba’s Credibility Problem (2004)
Further Reading
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Posted by Barry Pittard on February 1, 2011
Among the plethora of Puttaparthi untruths, there is the constant repetition, mantra-like and mind-numbing, from Sathya Sai Baba and many of his followers about the supposedly vast millions who follow him.
He, like many other misleaders of the world, long ago mastered the strategy of what is often referred to as ‘the big’ lie. A scholar studying Sathya Sai Baba may consider some comparisons by looking at the US Office of Strategic Service’s war-time profile report on Adolph Hitler (^ Hitler as His Associates Know Him, OSS report, p.51, cited in Wikipedia: ‘The Big Lie’), which stated:
“His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it”
Indeed, in their constant harping about the virtue of truth at its several levels, we see how misled individuals can become – especially when they subsume, within deep cloud banks, their intellect beneath their blind faith.
In discussions about numbers of devotees worldwide or crowd numbers at Puttaparthi, one commonly hears phrases like: “is estimated”, “is thought to be about”, “Baba says three million attended his 70th birthday”, “Baba’s Glory is being seen by all the world” … Etc., and ad nauseam .., not least from his hand-picked students who have been so thoroughly brain-washed, and can always be depended upon to win the hearts of audiences. (Which is a sad reflection for me as a former teacher (ca 178-79) in his college education system.
Robert Priddy who, like myself, worked (although not Priddy and I at the same time) with mutual respect and amity with the eminent Indian former newspaper editor V.K. Narasimhan, reported – supported by his detailed diaries – that the latter told him
…. (Sathya Sai Baba) “always multiplies by 10″ when counting heads. He told me of a number of such instances. One example, the less than 300,000 (absolute maximum) who were present on the 70th Birthday were said to be three million by Sathya Sai Baba himself. Several persons I know heard Sathya Sai Baba actually say this”. See: Concerning V.K. Narasimhan’s Revelations to Robert Priddy
A Heavy Legacy
Many devotees have spoken of 50 million followers and upwards. Publically extolling his guru Sai Baba, an eminent American birth scientist (see below) crazily puts the number Sai Baba worshippers at 100 million. (And, just as crazily, Sai Baba’s chief defendant on the internet, Gerald Joe Moreno, attacks Sai Baba critics for pointing out the absurdity). The apostles of the so-called ‘Avatar of All Avatars are quite without sense when one drives the question: Estimated by whom? Using what (if any) polling method?
As if to prove the folk wisdom that no quantity of strings of letters after a person’s name is any guarantee of commonsense, we have the case of:
“Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand, MBBS, D.Phil., FAAP, FCCM, FRCPCH
Pediatrician of repute from United States…
Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences UAMS College of Medicine; Board of Directors, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute.”
One may mention that K. ‘Sunny’ Anand was a health advisor to past US President George W. Bush. Here he delivers the kind of rhetoric one grows very used to hearing from lecterns at Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram at Puttaparthi:
“All of Humanity is beholden that Sri Sathya Sai Baba has taken a human form that lives in Puttaparthi, in the Southern part of India. He was born on Nov 23, 1926 and announced his Divine Mission in May, 1940. Millions and millions of instances have proven to the world that God Almighty, the Absolute Reality, the Divine Cosmic Being, the Creator of the Universe has set aside His difficult to grasp Immanence and manifested in the form of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. HE has assumed a human form to guide humankind towards their own Divinity within and to save humanity from its own annihilation …..
….. The Advent of this Divine Form is referenced in the Book of Revelations of the Bible, in the Holy Koran, in the Vedas and Jaimini Mahabharatha, in the Guru Granth Sahib, and in all of the major religious texts of the world. Currently, Sri Sathya Sai Baba is worshipped by more than 100 million people from more than 200 countries in the world (ed. note – emphasis in red highlight is mine) but most of the world remains oblivious of His Presence”. (For extended commentary and sources, see Brian Steel’s article: A New Celebrity Endorsement of SSB’s Alleged Divinity?)
Hardly much need to comment on the last line where Anand says that “most of the world remains …..”, etc. Sometimes the world knows about him. Sometimes the world doesn’t know about him. Reason rolls about like a kid’s alley on shifting ground. Or, to mix the metaphor – when blind faith grips the heart, the mind can be as elastic as it likes.
Devotees go on about the “Glory of Puttaparthi”, etc., but ignored is the Inglorious Confusion of Puttaparthi.
See:
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General
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Adolph Hitler, Puttaparthi, The Big Lie, V.K Narasimhan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on February 3, 2011
The following article provides background and context relating to the growth of interest in Sathya Sai Baba from within the USA – circa 1965-1970. Brian Steel lists key American followers of this period who had already embarked in actively publicizing him in the USA.
In Sathya Sai Baba, Elsie and Walter Cowan, and John Hislop. A Discredited 1971 Resurrection Claim, February 2009, Steel relates:
“By 1971, the following Americans had already been attracted to Sathya Sai Baba and were already publicising his name back in USA: Indra Devi and Hilda Charlton (major independent early proselytisers, 1965- ), Arnold Schulman, Charles Penn, Hilda Charlton, Bob Rayman (or Reiman), Elsie and Walter Cowan, Dr John Hislop, Tal Brooke and Howard Levin. (All, except Schulman, became devotees and proselytisers, and Tal Brooke had already become the first ‘defector’ and critic.) 1971 saw the publication of the first books about SSB by foreigners Schulman and (Australian) Howard Murphet. Phyllis Krystal and Dr Samuel Sandweiss would be drawn to meet SSB in 1972, the businessman Isaac Tigrett in 1973 and Robert A. Bozzani in 1974. The 1970s would see a strong general growth in foreign devotee numbers and Sathya Sai Organisation Centres but it was the Americans who were the original driving force behind international recognition and worship of Sathya Sai Baba.
By 1965, with the formation of the first Sathya Sai Samithis (Centres), and later the Sathya Sai Seva Organisation under the capable leadership of Indulal Shah, an effective corporate structure had begun to take shape, to be followed by a rapid expansion in India of SSO Centres and in quick succession, All-India Conferences of members and (a few years later) International Conferences. By 1974, with the inauguration of the Sathya Sai Baba Association of the Americas and Canada, the Sathya Sai Organisation would be launched on a significantly wider international expansion of its activities”.
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For further links and issues, see:
Professor Erlendure Haraldsson contests Sai Baba’s claim of resurrection as bogus
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General
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Brian Steel, Resurrection | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on February 5, 2011
Slowly but steadily – although both greatly aided AND greatly impeded by the internet – the awful facts about Sathya Sai Baba have been able to spread far and wide.
Aided, of course, because no other communication method in history has had such impact on transmission. But impeded because, although the internet can spread the facts, it is also a ‘wild west’ in which consummate liars as well as those determined to speak the truth can reach the world. And, what is more, get away with it. See my second last post: Sathya Sai Baba’s Mastery of ‘The Big Lie’
The internet is both main street and back alley. Here, the blackguard can shoot down and murder or cripple those with a lifetime of integrity and service to their communities. It can make lies to seem truth, and truth to seem lies.
Until he died in January 2005, Glen Meloy was my great friend and collaborator in exposing Sathya Sai Baba and his cult. By the time he left the Sai fold, Glen had been a deeply committed devotee of Sathya Sai Baba. He was a tireless worker and very well-known to a number of Sai Baba top leaders, such as Elsie and Walter Cowan, Dr John Hislop, Bob Bozzani, Dr Michael Goldstein, Dr William M. Harvey, and many in the rank-and-file, of the United States Sathya Sai Organization. See: Timothy Conway Ph.D – On ‘The Hislop Letters’
The last quadrant of Glen Meloy’s life is tremendously moving for those who know it. He was one who continued to speak the truth no matter how greatly he was calumniated. The way in which members of the Sathya Sai Organization have treated those who question and reveal will forever remain a terrible indictment of cultic blindness and suppression of conscience. Only the slow unfolding of historic revelation can validate those who do not compromise their conscience, but who would rather live truth than go about singing its praises in hymns and preachments. My profoundly inadequate tribute to Glen is here: Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam
The fact will always remain, and the worldwide Sathya Sai Organization has never faced it. Many individuals whom (then) fellow devotees esteemed for having qualities of truthfulness, kindness, service and decency, were suddenly, from virtually the moment they spoke out or tried to assist those raising heart-rending accounts, almost overnight, deemed to have become demons, Judases, and either mad or bad. See: Sathya Sai Baba condemns his critics as “demons” and: The Sathya Sai Organisation’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed – by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. Part One Part Two Part Three
The following is a small excerpt of a piece Glen wrote in helping to surface the story of Sharon Purcell, of Tustin, California (now deceased, who had been a devotee of 32 years, and also well-known to many in the United States Sathya Sai Organization . More about Mrs Purcell and her son Sathya can be found in the articles:
My Life As Sathya Sai Baba’s Prophecy, by Sathya (Satya) Purcell. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling?
NOTE. I have elsewhere written:
“For Satya Purcell, the Hal Honig-led trip to see Sai Baba was decisive in the most negative way. He had been named from birth by Sai Baba, and was devoted since his earliest years. His mother, Sharon Purcell, was close to major figures in establishing Sai Baba’s fame in the West, such as the wealthy husband and wife Walter and Elsie Cowan, and Dr John Hislop. He came away profoundly alienated, and his belief that Sai Baba was the Divine in human form was shattered, as it became for his mother too, and a great many others from various countries and cultures who, over the years, have felt profound ethical and spiritual betrayal. A number of the youths on the trip lost their faith in Sai Baba, and confided that he had sexually abused them. They also relate seeing mistakes by Sai Baba that showed that he was faking his ‘miracles’ of materialization”.
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Sharon Purcell’s personal story, by Glen Meloy (July 2001)
….. As if the molestations were not enough, the infamous shootings at Puttaparthi occured while Sathya and his Mother were still there and young Sathya remembers vividly having to jump out of the way when they were still sweeping the blood from the temple later that morning. Honig’s group of boys had been allowed to be on the verandah for morning darshan.
Unfortunately, Sharon said she mistakenly believed at the time that Sai Baba was merely re-channeling the sexual energies of the boys into spiritual energy and she continued to believe in Sai Baba for 7 more years.
This continued until May 2000 when a close female friend told her a pathetic and tragic story of how her husband had his genitals oiled by Sai Baba in 1968. She told Sharon about all the negative stories concerning Sai baba on the Internet and how her husband, who was an intimate friend of Iris and Howard Murphet, had been asked by Sai baba to go back to the USA to study and get all the necessary credentials and experience to be Baba’s personal airplane pilot.
This came as a shock to the young man, who at the time was thinking about becoming an accountant. But because this was a direct request from God Almighty, the young man spent thousands of dollars and for 10 years invested all his energies and money into becoming qualified to be the personal airplane pilot for Sai baba.
When he returned to India, he was on the front line trying to tell ssb that he had done what Sai Baba had requested and that he was now returning to be his pilot. After completely ignoring him, the day finally arrived when he stood up and waved all of his credentials at Baba and then came the incredulous words from baba’s mouth…….”WHAT CAN I SAY?????………….NO PLANE!”
CAN YOU IMAGINE THE INSULT? THE HURT? THE STUNNED DISBELIEF?
Sharon was in shock for several days after hearing that story and then to confirm what she had heard, she called another close male friend who revealed to her that Sai Baba had also molested him. She told him that she no longer believes in Sai Baba and that she wanted him to tell her exactly what Sai Baba had done to him over 30 years prior. He told her that Baba had molested him and had ejaculated into his mouth after taking Padanamaskar. It was such a disgusting story that she immediately called her female friend married to the would be airplane pilot and her friend also instantly stopped believing in what they both now call a monster.
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Further Reading
‘Genital Oiling’ by Sathya Sai Baba + video evidence
Sathya Sai Baba’s Credibility Gap: Contributions by John Hislop
Dr John Hislop: Sathya Sai Baba Both Fallible and Infallible
Sathya Sai Organization Libels Those Who Have Left It
View all Hislop letter transcripts, scans, and comments here
‘Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’ by Dr. J. Hislop
Cover-up letter: Hislop wholly neglects duty of care
Early Sathya Sai Baba Proselytizers
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General
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Deception, Glen Meloy, Sathya Purcell, Sathya Sai Organization, Scams, Sharon Purcell | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on February 18, 2011
One of the potent, indirect damages to the Sathya Sai Organization comes via the concerned activities of very large numbers of those who are non-devotee family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers in profession, business, and trade, fellow college and students, etc.
These concerned well-wishers of devotees actively confront the followers in a way those critical writers and apostates could often not directly achieve.
Sathya Sai Baba and his leaders tell followers that they must not look at the critical writing – especially on the internet – about their leader and organization.
Is he the ‘divine’ Luddite? Or, rather, did he think – at an early of the internet’s development about which he has several times shown crass ignorance – that telling his followers not to look at the internet would succeed in keeping them ignorant of the widespread reports of his crimes? Reacting to the first surges of internet exposure of him, and in a cranky attempt to hold back the ever-mounting and crashing waves of the internet, he – King Canute-like – said (Discourse of 15 October 1999:
“Swami has nothing to do with internet. Not only now, even in future also You should not indulge in such wrong activities”. 
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Naughty Waves Fail To Obey King Canute
Fortunately, this constraint does not apply to those non-devotees who keenly wish for the well-being of those they know who are Sai Baba followers.
Concerned Sai devotee well-wishers DO examine the critical material which we bring to a very wide public. It is a very large group indeed, and we receive feedback from both individuals and institutions. They are no fools, and come from many socio-cultural, educational backgrounds. They are able to form their own independent view about whether prominent critics write with acceptable tones of public discourse. They see whether we argue well or badly.
They note that we very often show, via close analysis, indicting documentation from within the Sathya Sai Organization, such as evidence in official publications of Sai Baba’s discourses, which show whole tangled trails of contradiction, hypocrisy and absurdity.
They also see our exposures of the untold lavish pomp and ceremony with which Sai Baba surrounds himself.
Sathya Sai Baba Aloft On Golden Chariot
Sai Baba Quotation In Strange Photographic Juxtaposition
For many third party enquirers, all the pseudo-imperial panoply – the untold, unaccountable spurge of expense in a country so poor as India, and in a world in which even the materialistic West is having to watch its pennies – is alone decisive in forming an extremely poor opinion of Sathya Sai Baba and those who keep him propped up on his gold throne, gold processional float, opulent buildings like his twin palace, and other grossly inappropriate accessories of self-presumptive, almighty office.
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One Of Sathya Sai Baba's Palatial Residences
Still further, they look at the prominent defenders of Sai Baba and his sect and observe levels of vituperation, name-calling, ploys of character assassination, defamation and so on which are remote from Sai Baba’s teachings, such as to speak sweetly, including to those with whom they disagree.
Very commonly, members of the Sathya Sai fold, and Sai Baba himself, demonize those who have raised questions. A great difficulty for the morale of the Sathya Sai Organization is that many devotees with deep misgivings, but who do not dare to speak up, continue to pay lip service. This one fact alone has caused many deep divisions within families of Sai Baba devotees.
Shamefully devotees traduce many around the world who, before they left it, have given decades of honorable service to the Sathya Sai Organization, and to their own wider communities. In the eyes of devotees, these fine individuals were regarded as angels when on-board but demons when they left the ship. So much for blind faith and and an Orwellian collective and selective memory which can quell discernment and conscience ……
Here are two articles featuring the type of conscience-led Sai Baba leaders who were shamefully treated at the highest levels of the Sathya Sai Organization:
Sathya Sai Organization National President – disaffected
The Late Leo Boogaard: A Dutch Voice of Conscience On Sathya Sai Baba
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Further Reading
Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia (Serguei Badaev was ex-President of the Sathya Sai Organization’s Moscow centre, ex-deputy National Coordinator, and National Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV) Coordinator for Russia. He is a biology graduate from Moscow University and an educator)
Searing true testimony about Sathya Sai Baba abuse (the case of Hans de Kraker, Australia, who was for a number of years in charge of the Western Canteen at Puttaparthi. Article by Robert Priddy)
A Sathya Sai Saga. Barry Pittard Recollects. Part 3 (More on Hans de Kraker)
Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion (including Terry Gallagher case – Gallagher investigated extensively, and, in consequence, resigned as leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, Australia)
David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses
Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba (Formerly, David Bailey was a lecturer at Sathya Sai Baba’s university at Puttaparthi, and Sathya Sai Baba’s preeminent foreign follower. A classical pianist, who attended over a hundred interviews with Sathya Sai Baba, and had a rare role as Sai Baba’s world-roving emissary. For years, Sai devotees round the world welcomed him with excitement and adulation, virtually seeing him as a demi-god. He sometimes performed for the British Royal family, and taught one of the princes at a private school)
Key Apostates, David and Faye Bailey. With Sathya Sai Baba
David Bailey’s ‘The Findings’ its consequences
Al Rahm’s Explanatory Letter To Sathya Sai Baba Internet Proxy Gerald Moreno
Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam. (Of outstanding note among conscience-raised United States voices was the late Glen Meloy, a retired Californian businesman)
Stephen Carthew, A Voice of Testimony From Australia, On The Dangers of Cults
Joseph. Early Sathya Sai Baba Whistleblower
General
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Apostates, Cults, pomp and ceremony, Sathya Sai Organization, Sects | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on February 25, 2011
I received this note from a young person living in India. Interestingly, in this person’s report, the Indian army comes off badly and not the police. In the years that I lived in India, many Indians had great respect for the army but widely despised the police for their cruelty and corruption.
Whatever the case, Sathya Sai Baba is heavily surrounded by both police and army personnel all the way to the very highest echelons. These days, he is very fragile, his thoughts and actions unfocused, but he still rides around on his huge gold chariot, mounts his golden throne, and celebrates his birthdays with an enormously extravagant and wasteful pomp that attracts the scorn of most and the blinded fervour of his devotees.
But Sathya Sai Baba’s long-ago made predictions have spectacularly failed. He said that in the last quadrant of his life he would rule India and that the world would come to him in fealty. But he has not transformed India. One sees from its daily newspapers that it is not a land of democracy – except for a thin veneer of it – but, rather of tragedy. And indeed India’s media fails to reveal a great deal because it is so heavily muzzled. It is, for example, foreign media like the BBC, The Times of London, The Telegraph, The Guardian, and newspapers in Europe, Canada and Australia that have been able to get the powerfully indicting Sathya Sai Baba facts out to the world.
‘Beatings and electric shocks inflicted on hundreds of civilians detained in Kashmir, US diplomats in Delhi told by ICR. Unrest in Kashmir, where a leaked cable said the Indian government ‘condoned torture’’. Photograph: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images
Even in those areas in which India, powerfully vying with China for superpower status, is making remarkable economic and technological advances, it is light years away from the moral and spiritual dimensions that India’s often gerontocratic, nepotistic and astrology-mired leaders characteristically cite in their speeches.
The raw fact is that India is no less materialistic than the socio-economically developed countries which have, in their own way, in a mixture of rampant greed and untold ignorance, brought the planet to a point where its sustainability is in the gravest doubt.
The young Indian, recollecting the spirit of India’s national anthem, says:
“Army people keep saying “Mera Bharat Mahan” but they really don’t mean it. They torture the civilians like dogs. They treat every civilian as a terrorist. I hate the indian army. I don’t know to which ‘Bharath’ are they giving service. They are of no use to us. Some are really fighting for our country, I do respect those who serve our country, but not the others. They are fit for nothing. Many Indian Army sections trouble the general people in every way. In our area there is a small defence area but they don’t allow us to pass through that area though we give them the valid residential proof, driving license and vehicle registration papers. They say only army people can pass through that area. What is the use if they cannot give service to the general public? Their behaviour is so rude with us. Even Indian police cannot do nothing about them. Recently one of our teachers met with an accident by a vehicle driven by an army person but we could not take any action on him only because he was an army person, and even the civil police was unable to take action. How long will our Country be like this? It has turned to hell. Many people elsewhere are not aware about the small incidents that happen with the people living nearby to the army area. We are troubled a lot”
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Further Reading
Indian Army and Police Torture: Wikileaks Revelations
Will India clean up its Augean police and political stables?
V.P.B. Nair Told BBC Sai Baba Bedroom Killings Were “Coldblooded Murder”
Prominent Indians Berate India’s Rife Political Corruption
Flag Follows Trade. Abetting Indian Government Corruption
Tony Blair Was to Visit Sai Baba. Plan Thwarted
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General
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Corruption, India, The Indian Army, The Indian Police, Violence | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 21, 2011
Is the Sathya Sai Organization a cult? It is a fair question. No careless use of terms will serve us well. We might also enquire – perhaps of our own selves, more than anyone else, whether there are significant cultic elements in those institutions we may too readily deem ‘mainstream’ or liveable-with, or somehow ‘rational’, ‘normal’, and so forth.
Does not the human mind tend to cling to certain presumed verities? How would we do traveling, for a while, without them? Even if such ‘verities’ had some substance to them, does the clinging in itself nullify any more profound nurturing of our being that we would wish to be mediated via our belief systems?
I pose questions, here, rather than wish to plunge into answers. The reader may wish to take the definition below and hold it up to material appearing on this blog more widely, and also to the writings of the most serious, focused commentators critical of Sathya Sai Baba and his Sathya Sai Organization, such as Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, Alexandra Nagel, Serguei Badaev and Kevin R.D. Shepherd.
Perhaps it is our human readiness to come up with answers, and structures and tenets that traps instead of frees us. Perhaps we need, first, to posit, for the sake of argument or simply the fun of it, that we are trapped in our ‘verities’ and ‘solutions’. In short, to see what the trap might look like – before we can ever hope to see what the freedom might look like. It may be that, after searching self-scrutiny, any significant freedom that may be glimpsed may be too much for us to bear ….
Here is a possible useful, and very brief, attempt at getting to a definition of a cult ….
“A cult is a group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control (e.g., isolation from former friends and family, debilitation, the use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individual critical judgment, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of leaving it, etc. designed to advance the goals of the group’s leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families… “ (West and Langone, 1986).
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Further Reading
Is the Sathya Sai Organization not a cult?
On Leaving the Sathya Sai Baba Cult (Part 1.)- Ex Leaders and Rank-and-File
Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia
Jaani Drucker – wild claims not supported by her actions
Will the Real Professor Alvin Drucker Be Upstanding?
‘Marie Claire’ Magazine: April 2011. Sathya Sai Baba Still Further Exposed
In Wikipedia, Moreno, Google Robert Priddy notes: ”There was an exchange of views between Barry Pittard and Jaani [or Yaani] Drucker on his blog on Rationalizing Rape, and his replies to Jaani Drucker here and here. Now I make a more detailed examination of the issues at stake”.
In Wikipedia, Moreno, Google, the independent British author on religious and philosophical topics Kevin Shepherd notes: “In October 2006, I discovered a Wikipedia User page that was very hostile towards my publishing effort known as Citizen Initiative (CI). The pseudonym of the attacker was here SSS108. I did not at first know who the aggressor was, though afterwards some academic friends were able to trace the identity of this person, who is a salient American internet defender of the controversial guru Sathya Sai Baba. He had become a Wikipedia editor in relation to that guru. His name is known in variants. He has identified himself as Gerald Moreno, and as Joe Moreno, and some commentators have therefore called him Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno”.
In Sathya Sai Baba: problems, Kevin Shepherd writes: “One of the major critical commentators on the corpus of Sathya Sai is the ex-devotee Brian Steel. His website has also furnished penetrating analyses of matters such as miracles and the reincarnation claim. See especially Brian Steel, ‘Claim to be the Reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba’ at http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Shirdiessay.htm. That claim is very much open to repudiation, especially as it is so obvious that this recourse produced fame for the claimant at an early stage in his career. See 23.4 below. A recent contribution is Steel, ‘Sathya Sai Baba’s Questionable Stories and Claims’ at http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/storiesclaims08.htm. This makes many references to the edited discourses in Sathya Sai Speaks, and the conclusion is expressed that the subject is not omniscient (contrary to his claim). Steel instead describes Sathya Sai as a charismatic guru ‘who offers eclectic (Hindu-based) spiritual teachings and promotes universal harmony and charitable works achieved by devotees’ efforts or donations’”.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Belief Systems, Cults, Gurus, India, Sects, South Asia, South India | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 5, 2011
It is known that Sathya Sai Baba has, more recently, gone into fits of sobbing – he, who has caused so many terrible and wracking tears to his countless victims from many countries.
In the years following November 1975, the year in which I first read of him, I increasingly thought that Sathya Sai Baba was transforming Indian society, and would transform not only India but many individuals from countries around the world. And that he would achieve this revolution in human consciousness on a far greater scale as time went by; indeed, on a scale unparalleled in history.
He has many times claimed that he will, effectively in his own lifetime, avert mankind’s worst catastrophe, and set it on the path to a golden age. (See a list of his claims, which the scholar Brian Steel has cited from among many more such claims that Sathya Sai Baba has made, over time, where he states that he is the pinnacle of avatarhood - in Sathya Sai Baba’s Claims of Divinity and Divine Powers).
Sathya Sai Baba is the would-be ‘God’ that failed. Well may he cry. His is a crying shame.
When I was 16 years old, I read Louis Fischer’s biography of Mahatma Gandhi – one who lived with a simplicity and an integrity that were a far cry from the extreme pomp and cirumstance with which Sathya Sai Baba has ever-increasingly surrounded himself. See: Sathya Sai Baba 85th Birthday No Celebration For Those He Has So Badly Hurt
Reading Fischer’s book was one of my most riveting and formative experiences. However, I could see that many of Gandhi’s co-workers paid lip-service to spiritual and ethical principles that were of the utmost importance to Gandhi and his closest associates in the fight for freedom from British rule. In any case, there were too many countervailing tendencies in a world in which, as never before, technology was in the ascendant. This grave tension lay at the heart of differences between Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru, the latter of whom was a modernizer.
For me, in personal terms, it meant that no matter how great their character, ideas and ideals, appearances across history of extraordinary individuals were insufficient to solve a great range of human conflicts. Far worse could be staved off, but far better could not be achieved.
This was true of both autocratic and democratic models, and religious and non-religious ones. Despite, here and there, the existence of some precious freedoms, there was another kind of problem: the terrible and daily inner conflict within relationships in an increasingly prosperous society. Not only the lack of healthy relationships within families but among citizens at large. In my country, Australia, the sociopolitical landscape was very different to many features to be seen elsewhere – such as gulags, concentration camps, venues of torture, tramping jackboots, neighbours spying on neighbours, with all the apparatus of the police state and so on. I felt that most of my countrymen, although having a generous if narrow side, were often bland, superficial, naive and isolated from the rest of the world.
Like many others, I lost the Christian faith of my forebears, and, from the 1960′s, along with some of the young of my generation, looked to traditions, such as ancient Indian ones, which were still extant. In my case, I found the sutras of the ancient rishi Patanjali elegant, rational and meaningful. I also enjoyed – although at the level of myth and allegory – certain aspects of ancient Indian culture such as the stories from the Mahabharata, as well as certain saint traditions – in which exemplary lives triumphed over sectarianism and dogma – in particular, accounts of the life of Shirdi Sai Baba.
The hunger and thirst of ardent seekers were very great.
Internally, Australia (since its British origins) had experienced almost no martial conflicts, and the ones that did occur were small-scale. Many of the war-induced emotional scars were those of service personnel who, in large numbers, served in foreign fields in two world wars and other major and lesser military conflicts. Apart from the often very hidden emotional and physical harms intruding from these engagements into the Australian psyche, there was another great harm – again often not obvious. This was the thoughtless hedonism and materialism that came with post-war prosperity, where possession of objects now gripped the acquisitive mind and governed a sense of personal value. Corporations rode ever higher, just as their skyscrapers did. Old community values which had brought coherence to a simpler society often yielded to the growth of sprawling urban conurbations, where neighbourliness increasingly disappeared, and a selfish individualism asserted itself.
The effects of a failed, would-be avatar of all avatar’s, and one possessing a genius to deceive a great many, and a venality to hide, are also very great.
Now 85 years old and both mentally and physically unstable, with many of his predictions abysmally failed, along with countless promises (such as of healing people), it is little wonder that Sathya Sai Baba, from our reliable information, has been seen to weep for hours of a day. Last November, his sobbing has even been captured on video and can be seen by clicking HERE. See my article: Sai Baba Breaks Down and Sobs At 85th Birthday Celebration (Video Footage), Posted by Barry Pittard on December 31, 2010.
At 85th Birthday, Sathya Sai Baba's Sobbing Fit
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Further Reading
Many Notable Sathya Sai Baba Cult Leaders Resign
Ageing and collapse in Sai Baba’s health
BBC and Other Film Footage Shows India’s Top Guru Sathya Sai Baba Faking Miracles
Sai Baba caught in cheating about the Christian Bible
Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions
General
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Autocracy, Democracy, India, Louis Fischer, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Sathya Sai Baba, South India | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 10, 2011
Self-praise is no recommendation.
Sathya Sai Baba’s public discourses, and many speeches by those around him, keep hailing the supposed glories of his education system. It would be useful if there were an authoritative, independent assessment. But where would one look? Certainly, beyond the loud hailing systems at Puttaparthi. And far beyond the political favouritism that is so endemic among the demonstrably corrupt government and political supporters of Sathya Sai, who sanction and support the almost unimaginable wealth, pomp and circumstance that are to be seen at Puttaparthi. And, still worse, cover up the facts surrounding the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom 1n 1993. See: The BBC and the 1993 murders. And innumerable cases of his, and sometimes of his close servitor’s sexual abuses of young males, and many and grievous other forms of abuse. See: Barry Pittard’s Guide To His Articles On The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Exposing Sai Baba)
Let us take, for example, Sathya Sai Baba’s university at Puttaparthi.
There is, in fact, a noted international authority which does rate the top four hundred universities in the world. It is here: www.topuniversities.com. But one searches in vain for any assessment that supports Sathya Sai Baba’s and his associates’ loud hailing of his institution.
A professional, rather than a devotional assessment, is a perfectly reasonable expectation.
Further Reading
Sri Sathya Sai University – Or All That Glitters Is Not Gold. by Serguei Badaev
General
Excerpt From Public Petition
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh (and Sai Baba), Education, Institute of Higher Learning, Top Universities, topuniversities.com | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
In the article: ‘Holy Man Or Hoax?’, the world-famous ‘Marie Claire’ magazine has just furthered the exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and his worldwide cult.
Writing for the Australian edition of ‘Marie Claire’ (April 2011), the British journalist Gethin Chamberlin, who resides in India (See note below), writes:
Sathya Sai Baba, God, guru, magician, is arguably one of the most influential men on earth – and certainly one of the most controversial. He counts presidents, prime ministers and kings (and celebrities like Goldie Hawn and Sarah Ferguson) among his 50 million followers. He sits on a multi-billion-dollar fortune, his picture hangs on the walls of hundreds of institutions that bear his name, he claims he can materialise holy healing ash and diamond rings out of thin air, and perform miracle cures. He claims he is omnipotent and omnipresent. He has variously described himself as the second coming of Jesus and the reincarnation of the Hindu gods Shiva and Shakti, and his followers believe he is God in human form.
But behind the pageantry lies a sinister underbelly.
(Note: there are serious questions to be raised about crowd estimates, and some journalists have trusted figures which, when examined, turn out to be those trumpeted around by the Sathya Sai sect itself. See: Sathya Sai Baba’s Gross Exaggerations of Puttaparthi Crowd Numbers).
Hollywood Legend Goldie Hawn Sprouts Happiness
Scandal-plagued Britsh Royal, and Sai Baba follower, Sarah Ferguson
Major media around the world have exposed various aspects of Sathya Sai Baba, and of his official Sathya Sai Organization, which has grown increasingly authoritarian over the decades. See: Notable Former Devotees Who Have Spoken Out and: Dr. G. Venkataraman, propagandist in the limelight.
Gethin Chamberlain writes:
Since the 70′s, countless men have come forward with accounts of abuse, all familiar: Sai Baba calls them into a private meeting, places his hands on their genitals, then tells them it is not a sexual act. Sometimes he performs oral sex on them, sometimes they on him. Always the explanation is the same: this is an act of God. Many choose to ignore the allegations, and Sai Baba’s army of powerful supporters help to quash the rumours. Last November, more than a million people attended Sai Baba’s 85th birthday, the prime minister and president of India were among them.
See: Avatar of Deception: Sathya Sai Baba. 85, But Says He Will Rule World and: Sai Baba Breaks Down and Sobs At 85th Birthday Celebration (Video Footage) and: Sathya Sai Baba 85th Birthday No Celebration For Those He Has So Badly Hurt.
Although it states that there are many worldwide allegations of Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of young males, and refers to the UNESCO and US State Department advisories, the ‘Maire Claire’ article does not allude to various other scandals, most notably the massive Puttaparthi and local, state and central government cover up of the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom in on 6 April 1993, which BBC television exposed well in ‘The Secret Swami’, in 2004. See: Barry Pittard’s Guide To His Articles On The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Exposing Sai Baba) and: V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings and: Will V.P.B. Nair Keep His Word To BBC On Sathya Sai Baba? and: V.K. Narasimhan on the 1993 Sathya Sai Baba murders and: Sathya Sai Baba and India in-depth study.
Two examples Chamberlain cites give typical examples of the guru-blinded nature of many Sathya Sai Baba cultists (and cultists of many another feather!), and the manner in which they bury their consciences in rationalizations that defy ethics common to many cultures, and indeed contravene the laws of a great many countries. He writes:
But complaints against Sai Baba have now piled so high even some of his most ardent supporters accept there is truth in them. In 2004, Isaac Tigrett (ed., the US billionaire and co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe chain, who also established The House Of Blues) told a BBC reporter that even though he “absolutely believes there is truth to the rumours”, it doesn’t change his feelings about his guru. “He could go out and murder someone tomorrow,” admits Tigrett, “and it’s not going to change the good things that have come out of my relationship [with Sai Baba]“. Devotee Ram Das Awle agrees, but adds that any contact Sai Baba had with young men would have been for their own good: “It seems very likely any sexual contact Sai Baba has had with devotees, of whatever kind, has actually been only a potent blessing, given to awaken the spiritual power within those souls. Who can call that wrong?”.
Isaac Tigrett, Longtime Financial Backer of Sathya Sai Baba
See: Isaac Tigrett. Selling Out Those Condemned to a House Of Blues and: Isaac Tigrett & a fake ‘crystal skull’ Sai Baba ‘materialized’ and: The fall and fantasies of Sai Baba supporter, Isaac Tigrett
To be sure, there are grave types of crime, and spiritual betrayal on a mammoth international scale, which this article and many others have not, understandably, been able to capture. Nevertheless, it is to advantage that ‘Marie Claire’ features world standard photojournalism, and the ‘Holy Man Or Hoax?’ article contains quite recent and strikingly revealing photos of just some of the incredible opulence with which Sai Baba surrounds himself. His madness, authoritarianism and overweening arrogance are damningly evident to a vast array of human beings, but not to those smitten by their unquestioning faith in him.
In responses to the magazine article, both from those in many religions and from those who disdain religion altogether, there cannot help but be a common attitude, here. They will abhor Sathya Sai Baba’s and his organization’s splurging lavishness. Alike, their eyes will behold the disgraceful exhibitionism, the squandering of wealth in a land of great poverty and inequality, and the vaulting arrogance and profound lack of active ethics and genuine spirituality in Sathya Sai Baba and in those who are enslaved to him. See: Sathya Sai Baba: opulence, show, extravagance and waste and: Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia.
The Sweatshop Streets On Which Opulent 'Shining' India Often Thrives
The more the facts get out to mass audiences the more the world will realize the corruptness of successive Indian governments, irrespective of which regime is in power, which have protected and covered up for Sai Baba – a veritable ‘golden goose’ for many among India’s elites – who has never been brought to face laws that are, nonetheless, enshrined in Indian state and central bodies of Law.
Indian PM Manmohan Singh Worships Sathya Sai Baba
India's President Pratibha Devsingh Patil Bows To Sai Baba
Former Indian PM A.B. Vajpayee, a Sathya Sai devotee
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Further Reading
The Divine Downfall of Sathya Sai Baba (UK Telegraph)
UK Guardian On Sathya Sai Baba and Duke’s Awards
The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba). Revealing Footage
Sathya Sai Baba’s Un Divine Downfall
Sathya Sai Baba Cult Exposure By Major TV Channel In Australia
Sathya Sai Organization double morals
Dr. G. Venkataraman’s delusions and cynical cover up
Gethin Chamberlain
….. is a photojournalist covering South Asia for The Observer. He also writes for a number of other newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, Grazia, GQ, Look, News of the World, South China Morning Post and The National. Based in India, he previously worked as a foreign correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph and as The Scotsman’s chief reporter. He can be contacted at: gethin.chamberlain@gmail.com
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, Gethin Chamberlain, Goldie Hawn, Hoaxes, India, Issac Tigrett (US philanthropist), Marie Claire (magazine), Police Killings, Puttaparthi, Sarah Ferguson, Sects, Sexual Abuse, Shiva and Shakti, South Asia, South India | 6 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 25, 2011
There are many means by which the Sathya Sai Organization spreads its influence in communities throughout the world. In regard to education, one is in-house, and introduces children of Sai devotees to the major world faiths, but emphasises primary faith in Sathya Sai Baba as God fully incarnate on earth at this time, and living in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh South India.
On the other hand, it seeks to gain admissions to schools wherever it can, where its devotees take a highly packaged, stripped down, re-vamped version of the program, in which Sathya Sai Baba is not promoted. This is called its secular EHV (Education in Human Values) initiative.
But getting children to think to a purpose, and to become confident in their own self processes, rather than indoctrinating them is among the most vital requirements of this or any other time. For those interested in seeking another approach to values education, this video clip is, I think, worth looking at as a challenge to hard-held ideas about getting kids involved in passionate and meaningful discussions about ethical values.
That is to say, we need to unfold an emphasis on stimulating independent ethical thinking and enquiry, rather than imposing received religious or philosophical systems of one kind or another. Teaching how to think, rather than what to think. And fostering feelingful, mutual acceptance, rather than mere toleration.
See: Special Ethics Education in NSW primary schools (Australia)
See also: Three Died After Putting Their Faith In Guru
Source: The Times. Monday August 27, 2001 Page: 3 Edition: 4M
Byline: Dominic Kennedy.
Quote from this article -
Sai Baba’s message is being preached in more than 500 British schools through charities which claim to provide non-denominational education in “human values”.
Tom Sackville, a former Home Office Minister, last night urged the Government to take decisive action to warn teachers and pilgrims of the dangers of becoming involved with Sai Baba. The guru’s reputation is plummeting after the United Nations cancelled a conference at his headquarters, issuing a condemnation of his alleged sex abuse of youths and boys.
Unicef pulled out of a conference it was due to sponsor with the guru’s educational organisation in Puttaparthi last September.
The UN’s cultural agency issued a trenchant statement: “The organisation is deeply concerned about widely reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been levelled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba.
“Whilst it is not for Unesco to pronounce itself in this regard, the organisation restates its firm moral and practical commitment to combating the sexual exploitation of children, in application of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires states to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and violence.”
In hundreds of British schools, Sai Baba-influenced educational programmes on “human values” are currently being promoted as part of the National Curriculum. The Charity Commission met the trustees of one of the educational charities involved, the Sathya Sai Education in Human Values Trust UK, last year and “found no concerns”, a spokesman said.
Mr Sackville, chairman of the anti-cult organisation Fair (Family Action Information and Resource), said that he had successfully intervened to persuade a girls’ school to reject a Sai Baba-inspired course.
“Schools are not on their guard because at official level they are not given any steer,” Mr Sackville said.
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Further Reading
e-mail exchanges between former Head of Sathya Sai Moscow Centre and EHV in Russia, Serguei Badaev, and Ms. Madhava Majmudar, Sai devotee and Education in Human Values propagator in Scotland
UNESCO conference without UNESCO
Sathya Sai Baba Human Values – EHV and Educare
A Sathya Sai Saga. Barry Pittard Recollects. Part 4
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Educare, Education in Human Values, Religious Education, Sathya Sai Education in Human Values, Secular Society, Secularism, Spiritual Education, Teaching Thinking, UNESCO | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 29, 2011
Stop Press! News of Sathya Sai Baba’s hospitalization is breaking in these last hours.
Reports, cited from medical authorities attending him, state that he has “pneumonia and water has entered his lungs”, and that there are “breathing problems because of severe infection”. A “cardiac problem” exists, and a “permanent pacemaker has been implanted”.
Only an official Puttaparthi sanitized version of health problems afflicting Sathya Sai Baba is possible. Any reader of informed chroniclers – such as Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, Serguei Badaev, Alexandra Nagel, myself and others – knows how we have extensively, and with much care, often documented the tight control on propaganda emanating from Puttaparthi and the leadership of the international Sathya Sai Organization. One of my most read articles is about the deputy international chairman of that organization. He is also the director of Radio Sai Harmony, Sathya Sai Baba’s costly attempt to get radio broadcasts into every corner of the world: Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Minister of Propaganda’ – Dr G. Venkataraman.
A Mahashivaratri 2000 report in Sanathana Sarathi, Sai Baba’s official organ (distributed worldwide), unintentionally makes a mockery of Sathya Sai Baba’s absurd self-presentations regarding his health, of which, by long habit, he forever gives the rosiest reports. It almost sounds like the boxer Cassius Clay proclaiming, “I’m the greatest”. For the Swedish psychologist Åsa Samsioe’s assessment of some of Sai Baba’s self-referential tendencies, see: Sathya Sai Baba As A Narcissist.
- The ailing Sai Baba Hails His ‘Health’
In 2003, he had a second hip fracture in a series of some five. Six doctors implanted a hip-joint, which did not heal properly. How such a routine operation, performed worldwide, can have failed is a case to be wondered at. Since that same year, he has been confined to a wheelchair or driven about in a golf-buggy type of vehicle. An increasing trail of absurd blunders causes great embarrassment to his minders. In this case, his cover story, stated with a detailed seriousness, as his staggering movements began to occur, was that mother earth was attracted to his feet. Making entirely unscientific statements about the nature of magnetism, he claimed that it was a special magnetic force which caused things to stick to him. See ‘Magnetism of feet and hands farce’ and Sathya Sai Baba On Magnetism. Science or Sai-ence?
As if these strange utterances were not more than enough – especially coming from one who claims to be omnipotent, omniscient and omnifelicitous – soon, he made further impossible claims about his hip and bones. These claims, indeed, were all too soon shown by subsequent events to be truly absurd. Again in that same year, a grandiose Sai Baba proclaimed:
“You are going to witness the divine glory of Swami unfolding in the days to come. He will attract the whole world. There won’t be place for people to stand even. You can see it for yourself, what a great change has occurred during the last one month! All are getting attracted to Swami.”
(Discourse 16 March 2003).
At times, his air of unreality, compounded by that of his blind-faith believers, is acute. He has said:
“There is no trace of anger or hatred in Me and hence everyone loves Me” and
“Someone says that Sai Baba is angry with X or Y. Sai Baba has no ill feeling towards anyone.
Equally, nobody is hostile to Bhagawan. Everyone loves and none hates Bhagawan. Bhagawan’s mission is well known”.
(Sathya Sai Baba in his discourse 11th August 2001 in Sai Kulwant Hall, Prasanthi Nilayam)
-
- But, sadly for himself and his devotees, he is not all-powerful but all-senile.
- ————————————-
Breaking News On Sathya Sai Baba’s Health Troubles
Deccan Chronicle Correspondent
Puttaparthi/Anantapur
March 28: The world-renowned spiritual leader Sri Satya Sai Baba was hospitalised in Puttaparthi on Monday with a cardiac problem. Sri Satya Sai Baba, who celebrated his 86th birthday in last November, complained of slow heart beat in the afternoon and the trust officials rushed him to Sri Satya Sai institute of higher medical sciences in Prashantigram.
According to a medical bulletin released by hospital director Dr A.N. Safaya, Satya Sai Baba had developed slow heart rate at below 60 beats per minute and giddiness in the afternoon. He mentioned that a permanent pace maker had been implanted and the Baba’s condition was stable as per clinical parameters. Dr Safaya said that there was no need to worry, as the Baba’s condition was stable now. After hearing the news, thousands of devotees in and around Puttaparti started thronging the hospital. The devotees are offering prayers in several temples seeking Baba’s recovery from illness. Apart from local devotees, foreign devotees also thronged the hospital and inquired about Baba’s condition.
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Sri Satya Sai Baba hospitalised
Times of India
March 29, 2011
HYDERABAD: Sri Satya Sai Baba was admitted to the Sri Satyasai super-speciality hospital on Monday evening due to ill-health. Doctors said he was suffering from pneumonia and water has entered his lungs. Allaying fears of lakhs of his devotees, J Ratnakar of Sri Satyasai Trust said that Sai Baba was recovering.
Sources said Sai Baba has also developed breathing problems because of severe infection. “But his situation is improving with constant medical attention. There is nothing to worry about his health,” Ratnakar added.
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Further Reading
Note: In the article: ‘Holy Man Or Hoax?’, the world-famous ‘Marie Claire’ magazine has just furthered the exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and his worldwide cult. The author is journalist Gethin Chamberlain, who, according to his bio on his website is: “a photojournalist covering South Asia for The Observer. He also writes for a number of other newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, Grazia, GQ, Look, News of the World, South China Morning Post and The National. Based in India, he previously worked as a foreign correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph and as The Scotsman’s chief reporter”. He can be contacted at: gethin.chamberlain@gmail.com
Sathya Sai Baba Continues To Ail
Sathya Sai Baba In Fits of Sobbing: Video Footage Confirms Earlier Accounts
Miracle: Sai Baba spews out 3 tons of gold: he says
The 85th birthday showed an aged and semi-demented figure who seems hardly aware of what is happening around him. (brief video)
A very reduced and senile-looking Sathya Sai Baba at his 85th birthday (brief video)
See Jorge Reyesvera‘s point-by-point, rational reductio of Sathya Sai Baba’s terribly confused, sometimes downright contradictory, notions of magnetism:
The Omniscient Sai Baba’s Massive ignorance of Physics Exposed (I)
- Be it noted that the source of the discourse that Reyesvera uses is from a provenance long-accepted by Sathya Sai Baba adherents everywhere. A comment on this article reads that this: “discourse on magnetism by Sathya Sai Baba is from the Mahasivarathri, 2002 … The following is an excerpt from the verbatim translation of the premsai website’s version of Sathya Sai Baba’s discourse on Mahashivarathri, 13-3-2002, which appears in an edited-down version in ‘Sanathana Sarathi’ – March 2002″.
For Sathya Sai Baba’s statement that was horrendously falsified by the terrorist events of November 26, 2008 in Mumbai that were seen by the world, here is the report of Sathya Sai Baba’s words from his discourse dated November 22 (the day before the vast and opulent birthday celebrations) – from a well-acknowleged Sathya Sai Baba reporter, R. Satish Naik (who lives close to the Puttaparthi ashram), a member of the well-organized, almost official Saibabaofindia group:
“India is the only place where people are not worried about any attacks. In America , Germany and other countries, they can’t eat well or sleep well. There is fear of bombs always in those countries. But in India , there is no fear of bombs. India will never have any such attacks”.
See my article: “No fear of bombs” in India, Said Sai Baba a Week Before Mumbai Terrorist Attack
‘God’ (Sathya Sai Baba) Blunders On! – On History
Hasty Cover Up Of Sai Baba ‘No bombs in India’ Blunder
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, Gethin Chamberlain (British Journalist), Godmen, Gurus, Hip Replacement, Marie Claire (magazine), Pacemaker (Life Support), Puttaparthi, Sanathana Sarathi, Sathya Sai Baba (Health Failing), Scams, Sects, South Asia, South India | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 1, 2011
Increasingly sick and ailing over recent years, Sathya Sai Baba has said: “Purity, patience and perseverance. With these three you are bound to acquire good health and bliss. You may believe it or not. But the truth is that these three are responsible for my health (Arogya) and bliss (Ananda)” (Sanathana Sarathi July 1995, p. 173)
But, sadly for himself and his devotees, he is not all-powerful, as he proclaims himself to be. But all-senile.
This decline into senescence, was of course gradual but not exactly, even when it became glaringly evident, a topic for public discussion among his devotees. Several years back, when our laymen’s eyes spotted the physical changes, senior cardiologists and other doctors among our number confirmed our own naive-level, but realistic, observations.
Even brief extracts from articles over time at this blogsite give unmistakable evidence of what devotees cannot truthfully rationalize or wish away. Namely that their supposedly all-powerful guru has not miraculously materialized the pacemaker implanted in him last Monday. Nor can they explain how their master sits – shoulders humped, face immobile and eyes staring vacantly. They may think that he is going to do an all-three-world-beating great miracle and cure himself, but they cannot falsify the fact of his many failed prophecies and promises. They cannot reconcile many serious and repeated contradictions in his statements with the reality that has grown so glaringly apparent. Such as comments decades ago, and repeated recently, that he will physically visit various countries. The late Howard Murphet, Australian journalist and author of best-selling books on Sathya Sai Baba, with whom he was close for years, wrote:
“Swami once, a good many years ago told me that He would not travel abroad until His own house was in order, by that He means India, of course”. Source: Online version, “The Lights of Home”
Some Recondite Readings At This Blogsite, ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’
See blog of two days ago:
Stop Press! News of Sathya Sai Baba’s hospitalization is breaking in these last hours.
Reports, cited from medical authorities attending him, state that he has “pneumonia and water has entered his lungs”, and that there are “breathing problems because of severe infection”. A “cardiac problem” exists, and a “permanent pacemaker has been implanted”.
This may be read in against an archival background
Posted by Barry Pittard on February 16, 2007
and somewhat shockingly updated to his public breakdown into heaving sobs in November last year. The footage appears among long stretches of video, but we were alerted and able to extract the graphic and incontrovertible evidence of his senile decline, in footage that was, after all, part of his own normally tightly controlled publicity machine:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 5, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba is the would-be ‘God’ that failed. Well may he cry. His is a crying shame …….
Now 85 years old and both mentally and physically unstable, with many of his predictions abysmally failed, along with countless promises (such as of healing people), it is little wonder that Sathya Sai Baba, from our reliable information, has been seen to weep for hours of a day. Last November, his sobbing has even been captured on video and can be seen by clicking HERE. See my article: Sai Baba Breaks Down and Sobs At 85th Birthday Celebration (Video Footage), Posted by Barry Pittard on December 31, 2010.
At 85th Birthday, Sathya Sai Baba’s Sobbing Fit
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 24, 2010
Sai Baba’s Deceptive Hair Management
I made a note: “the Australian scholar Brian Steel’s remark of February 2002 seems almost prescient”:
‘Since the ‘discrepancies’ appear to be increasing nowadays, is there any possibility that Sai Baba is suffering from a degenerative ageing disease which might have an effect on his thinking and speaking?’
Likewise, in October 2002, a Swedish psychologist and former devotee, Åsa Samsioe, noting physical signs of Sai Baba’s ageing like his development of a ’turkey throat’ and also the “low intellectual level” of his discourses, remarked:
‘He must have one heck of a job, Sathya Sai Baba… it can’t be easy to age in his situation, besides being under so much criticism as he has recently been… not surprising that it leaves its marks. Occasionally I think ‘poor man’… feel some pity for him. A whole life built on lies… captured by the myth about himself… to be the object of the projections of millions… and to be forced , at least outwardly, to live up to all the expectations put to him… to always have to have all those people around him’. http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/Swede4.htm
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 2, 2010
Sai editors have done an extensive job of weeding out many such statements, which give, we are well-informed, great concern to his better-informed servitors. See: The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements.
Here is a sample – from ‘Sai Baba Talks To Russian Ladies’. Excerpts Prashanthi Nilayam 25.06.02, seen at a major Sathya Sai Baba website: saibabaofindia.com/interview_russian.htm -:
“Now in Russia husband and wife often live separately. They fight with each other. Husband doesn’t want to take care of the family.
Ladies have two stomachs. One is for food, another is for baby. In that other stomach often there are some diseases. One man comes and gives his blood. Another man comes and gives his blood, and so on. This blood mixes inside and causes problems. Ladies also take pills to prevent being pregnant. This is another reason for a disease. This is not good. Control your senses and you will not fall sick”
Sathya Sai Baba’s Tips To Keep Ageing Away
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 29, 2010
On stage before February 2004’s Mahasivaratri crowd, the BBC cameras (in footage that would later become part of ‘The Secret Swami’, which has been seen in over 120 countries around the world) show Sai Baba looking increasingly sick. He produces the lingam, and the materialization trick demonstrated by Professor Narendra Nayak is easy for the viewer to spot, the lingam being concealed in Sai Baba’s handkerchief. In the ensuing documentary, the BBC journalist Tanya Datta comments:
“To the alarm of the crowd suddenly Sai Baba collapsed. His huge coterie of staff swung into action. There was panic. An organisation used to tight control seemed to have lost its grip. Sai Baba was hastily wheeled off stage.”
Later, he is carried hobbling back, with officials claiming that he manifested two more lingams offstage. To the audience, a shaken Sai Baba makes a preposterous claim:
“Out of the stomach emanated Shiva Lingas of the weight of three tonnes. That’s the reason why some strain on the face and the body”: http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/movies.html
But, as so commonly, Sai Baba, in word and action falsifies what he superabundantly preaches.
“Desire to which you are too fondly attached breeds anger and its nefarious brood. Discard it and you can have perpetual youth! The Aanandha that the Aathman can manifest will keep age and ageing away!” Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Prashanthi Nilayam, 22 Feb 1971. Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust.
“The attributes of the Avatars are beyond human comprehension…. Rama and Krishna were ever youthful. Have you ever seen a picture of Rama or Krishna with grey hair?….. Usually old people have wrinkles on their faces … I do not have any signs of old age. (loud applause). There is not a single wrinkle on My face”. Sanathana Sarathi, October, 2002.
But …!
On his 60th birthday, he promised to look like this, forever young, as it were:
Now he looks like this: 
Sathya Sai Baba said would not age. But …!
Eenadu, a leading Indian mass circulation newspaper, reported:
“Lacking in Clarity: There was a lack of clarity in Sathya Sai’s speech because of his old age. The interpreter struggled much to translate his speech into English. Satya Sai was seated in a special wheel chair which was brought very close to the car, so he could very slowly get into it. At the time of the speech, he stood up with great difficulty with the help of his assistants.”
Posted by Barry Pittard on August 4, 2009
What will the fast-ailing Sathya Sai Baba do? Rub oil or vibhuti on the surface of his multiple infirmities, and do all that he has for so long promised? That is to say:
- Bring the world to him, even before he dies
- Harmonize the world’s major religions
- Save the world from enormous catastrophes
- Lift a whole mountain range
- Travel the world
- Fly through the air
- Put humanity on what he calls ‘the royal road’ to righteousness
- And so much more ….
To listen to his carefully hand-picked and carefully groomed speakers, his fame has spread to virtually every clime. This claim is patently untrue. Ask people on crowded streets in many countries do they know the name Nelson Mandela, or the late Princess Diana. Or whether they can immediately visualize those such as the Pope, Barach Obama, the late Michael Jackson, and so on, and they will instantly affirm that they do.
Do leaders in the interfaith movement feature him or his emissaries as notable in their publications and websites? And yet the following edifice, sited amid the great opulence of his Puttaparthi ashram, displays his symbol (the so-called ‘Sarva Dharma Chakra’ or All Faiths motif):
————————————-
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Ageing, Andhra Pradesh, Cults, Gurus, Howard Murphet, India, Sathya Sai Baba, Sects, Senility, South Asia, South India, The Secret Swami | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 3, 2011
As of Monday 28 March 2011, we have a pacemaker avatar. The Lord of Lords, the Avatar of Avatars. The heart of the universe. The now hump-backed, immobile faced, golf-cart-transported God on earth. A golf-cart-carted-around God who imagines himself more famous than Tiger Woods. He says that all the world loves him. But of course most people in the world at large have never heard of him. He has said he will transform India then the world before he leaves it in when about 96 years old.
But he can’t even get a wriggle on so as to perform these feats. He has had successive hip operations. He breaks down with heaving sobs, now recorded for posterity (if it is interested) – see video footage cited below. Practically all that is left of any sign of rulership is the fantastical gold chair and float that bear him around to be worshipped by devotees too blinded to see the sheer scope of all his failed prophecies and promises.
Among many statements that he is wondrously healthy, here are but two. They capture the essence of much of what he has kept insisting down many years:
“I do not suffer from any kind of disease because there is no trace of greed in Me. That is why I am always healthy…” (Sanathana Sarathi September 2001, page 257f) 186)
Purity, patience and perseverance. With these three you are bound to acquire good health and bliss. You may believe it or not. But the truth is that these three are responsible for my health (Arogya) and bliss (Ananda)” (Sanathana Sarathi July 1995, p. 173.
The Sheer Attachment of Sai Devotees to the Form of Sai Baba
A constantly harped upon evangel of Sathya Sai Baba is that: “We are not this body”.
The maxim forever comes up at Sathya Sai study circles around the world. Devotees are treated to barely differentiated statements of his on this theme, reiterated practically ad infinitum among his public discourses over many years. The official Sathya Sai Central Trust publishes these, and the international Sathya Sai Organization sees that study circles do the instructional job Sai Baba has commanded. They dare not do otherwise. They are harshly evicted from the organization if they should seriously question. Like those individuals who were greatly honoured by so many devotees who knew them well, such as Lucas Ralli, when he was Central Coordinator for UK and Ireland, Serguei Badaev, ex-President of the Sathya Sai Organization’s Moscow centre, ex-deputy National Coordinator, and National Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV) Coordinator for Russia, and Stephen Carthew, Spirtual Convenor, South Australia. See:
To see just how profoundly his devotees are unable to practise this dictum of non attachment to the body, one can, whenever his latest bout of sickness is announced, look at any random devotee thread on the internet. The glaring fact is that his devotees are extremely attached to the form of Sathya Sai Baba.
The moment Sathya Sai Baba’s ill-health is reported there is great concern – the chatrooms, tweets and facebooks, blogsites, websites, mobile and other phones, burst into super activity – abounding with calls to pray for him to get better. That is to say, via the Internet which Sathya Sai Baba has so mightily inveighed against. When the movement of exposure of him and his cult was gathering force both on and off the internet, he said:
“Swami has nothing to do with internet. Not only now, even in future also You should not indulge in such wrong activities. This disease’ has its roots in cities and is spreading like wild-fire into villages polluting the village environment. Villages are the epitome of peace and love. Do not spoil the village atmosphere by imitating the city culture”. Discourse, 15 October 1999, Prashanti Nilayam
But get better? The guru who has told them that he will be in the body and, effectively, ruling the world until circa 2022?
Get better? The one who has told them that he will forever look the same after his 60th birthday?
Get better? The one who told them that he would first put India in order, then travel to various parts of the world (some of which he has named), after which he would, effectively rule the whole world before he dies? (Not that he would use the word ‘dies’ in this connection)
The concern over Sathya Sai Baba’s body is seen in both his leaders and in his rank-and-file followers. Their attachment to it is chronic, and in direct contradiction to his constantly preached virtue of non-attachment to the form.
If a drop of hot water falls among ants, they will all scurry. All is agitation, and nothing is of the calmness and non-attachment on which he and his devotees so harp.
When it is announced that their master is sick, they show not a drop of such qualities.
See:
SATHYA SAI BABA IN ICU – HEALTH NOT GOOD
Posted by robertpriddy on April 2, 2011
Posted by robertpriddy on March 30, 2011
Posted by robertpriddy on March 29, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba’s Pacemaker Implant – His Promised Health and Longevity In Doubt
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 1, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba Hospitalized, Despite Hailing His Extraordinary ‘Health’
See my article: Sai Baba Breaks Down and Sobs At 85th Birthday Celebration (Video Footage), Posted by Barry Pittard on December 31, 2010.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Calmness, Cults, I am not this body (deha deha), India, Non Attachment, Puttaparthi, Sathya Sai Central Trust, Sects, South Asia, South India | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 5, 2011
In a matter of days, rosy reports emanating from official Puttaparthi sources about Sai Baba’s condition are now shown to be either pipe dreams or deliberate gloss. Of course it is conceivable that at least some his leaders who control the bulletins to the media, government and Sathya Sai Organization etc., are unable to believe that their guru can die very soon. He had long prophesied matters very differently.
Sathya Sai Superspeciality Hospital - Where Sai Baba Lies Critically Ill
By a number of usually well-informed sources , we are told that there is a battle royal going on for control of his organization. We learn of serious chicanery leveled against Sai Baba family members and others. Alert media, law firms and other investigators will need for example – very quickly, before witnesses are hushed up – to get hold of stakeholders who have been disaffected, and also those, including many leaders in India and abroad, who have resigned from the Sathya Sai Organization on a matter of ethical principle. Robert Priddy and I can coordinate contact with many individuals of excellent repute in their professions, trades and wider communities, who have provided evidence for major world media, governments, institutions, and so forth.
Experts in law, media, etc., well know that, well-handled and cross-checked, disenfranchised individuals and groups can yield accurate information. At the moment, we are doing some cross-checking of our own. Readers can watch this space.
Note: Investigative media and other serious enquirers can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com
Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
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See articles on Sathya Sai Baba’s Health Crisis
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 3, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 1, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 29, 2011
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Latest Major Indian Media Reports
Hundreds of his followers rushed to Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences here Monday night after doctors confirmed that his condition is critical.
However, in an attempt to control the anxious crowd of devotees, Sai Baba’s nephew Shravan said he has opened his eyes. A police officer also made an announcement over public address system outside the hospital that Baba’s condition is stable.
‘Sathya Sai Baba continues to be on ventilator support for helping his respiration and suction of the secretions from the lungs. He continues to be on CRRT (continuous renal replacement therapy) system to help the functioning of the kidneys,’ said a statement issued by the hospital.
The 85-year-old was admitted to hospital March 28 with pneumonia and breathing problems. The doctors also implanted pacemaker to regulate his heartbeat.
‘His vital systems are not adequately responding. The panel of doctors treating him are doing their best to make the system to respond,’ said the statement by A.N. Safaya, director of the superspeciality hospital.
For the first time the hospital authorities allowed Ratnakar, another nephew of Sai Baba and a member of Sathya Sai Central Trust into Sai’s room in the intensive care unit.
Senior officials of the trust and a large number of policemen rushed to the hospital, triggering apprehensions among the devotees. The restive crowd also stoned few police vehicles, demanding information about Sai’s health.
The trust officials appealed to his devotees to pray for the speedy recovery of Sai Baba.
The hospital health bulletin came hours after two Andhra Pradesh ministers told reporters that the guru was stable and all his vital parameters were functioning well.
The state government has also sent a team of doctors from Hyderabad to monitor his condition.
In Hyderabad, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy held a high-level meeting with officials Monday night to review the situation. Minister for revenue Raghuveera Reddy and minister for major industries J. Geeta Reddy, who are camping in Puttaparthi for last days, briefed the chief minister about Sai?s condition.
Sathya Sai Baba, whose real name is Sathyanarayana Raju, had claimed in 1940 that he was an ‘avatar’ (incarnation) of god.
He became famous with his miracles but for the last two decades he had been focusing on social and charitable work.
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Sathya Sai Baba’s health condition critical: doctors
Puttaparthy, Andhra Pradesh, April 4, 2011
Even as large numbers of devotees from India and abroad prayed for his speedy recovery and well-being, the health condition of spiritual leader Satya Sri Sai Baba remained critical today.
Sai Baba, who is on ventilator and dialysis to assist his kidney function, was critical as some of his organs were not functioning satisfactorily, Sri Satya Sai Baba Institutue of Higher Medical Sciences Director A N Safays said in the latest bulletin released here today evening.
The doctors’ team was still attending on Sai Baba to save his life, he said.
The 85-year-old Sai Baba was admitted to Satya Sai Super Speciality Hospital here on March 28, following pneumonia and respiratory problems.
After hearing the news of the critical condition of the spiritual leader, a large number of devotees and leaders from various political parties were rushing to the hospital.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made around the hospital.
Andhra Pradesh Major Industries Minister Geeta Reddy, an ardent devotee of Sai Baba, is monitoring the situation here.
NNN
(Note – misspelling of Dr Safaya’s name).
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Condition of Satya Saibaba critical
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2011-04-04 19:00:00
Last Updated: 2011-04-04 19:08:12 |
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Anantapur: The condition of Sri Satya Saibaba, who was admitted to hospital following lung and chest congestion, is critical, doctors treating him said on Monday evening.
“Bhagwan Satya Saibaba continues to be on ventilator support for helping his respiration and suction of the secretions from the lungs. He continues to be on CRRT system to help the functioning of the kidneys,” a health bulletin issued by the Director of the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences said.
“The vital systems are not adequately responding. The condition of Baba is critical. The panel of doctors treating him are doing their best to make the system to respond,” it said.
A media release issued earlier in the day said Saibaba was showing improvement though he continued to be on ventilator support.
85-year-old Satya Saibaba was admitted to the super-specialty hospital at Prashantigram at Puttaparthi near here on March 28 following respiration-related problems. |
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Sathya Sai Chief Doctor Safaya Gives ‘Comforting’ News. Soon Dispelled
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, India, Sathya Sai Baba, South Asia, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust | 3 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 6, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba is now kept alive by, according to his medical specialists, “assisted ventilation through ventilator and CRRT, a slow dialysis process to assists kidneys” .
In having to report the health bulletins emitting from Puttarthi, the Indian media – so remiss in reporting anything inimical to Sathya Sai Baba – are, of course, given that he may die at any moment, going to have to do their best to get the facts right.
Sathya Sai Baba's Puttaparthi Hospital. Main funding US Billionaire Isaac Tigrett
However, with the rare exception like the mass circulation magazine India Today, it has signally failed to look for or tell the facts. There has grown the irony that NRI’s (non-resident-Indians) can read of the revelations about Sai Baba of a sort suppressed in the Indian media. But millions in India cannot. It is the media outside India which has investigated the many and serious allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, such as wide-scale, serial sexual molestation of boys and young men, implication in the cover up of murders in his bedroom in 1993, and other scandals.
Those wishing to investigate the antecedents of Sathya Sai Baba’s physical and mental health problems will need to extend their investigations a number of years back. But one of many examples of the ‘cracks’ appearing is, fortunately for the forces of openness and accountability, caught forever in BBC footage. Two major revelations occurred. The first was that of Sai Baba’s cheating in the supposedly miraculous production of the Siva Lingam. See: Sai Baba No Shiva. Gold From His Gut Is Regurgitator’s Trick. The second was the (strictly speaking) inane statement he made, when indeed many such statements have otherwise been suppressed by Puttaparthi authorities. See my article: The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements.
After returning to the Puttaparthi stage, having earlier fainted, Sai Baba tells the crowds (as noted in The Secret Swami):
“Out of the stomach emanated Shiva Lingas of the weight of three tonnes. That’s the reason why some strain on the face and the body”
In the huge efforts of networked former Sathya Sai Baba followers from many countries to get through to world media, UNESCO, governments and institutions, we sought out those known for both high professional repute and strong investigative capability. Earlier approaches – circa 2000 – had been made to the BBC to no avail. Then, in November 2003, BBC producers contacted me (first, via Iris Asic). They said they would also contact various Sathya Sai Baba officials and other followers.
We were successful in attracting extensive response of the BBC, CBC, ABC, SBS, DR, Atul TV, India Today, Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, Salon.com, the Age, Australian Financial Review, Gatopado, West Australian, (Adelaide) Advertiser, Gatopardo, and newspapers in Europe, Canada and and still others.
For an outstanding and profoundly sacrificial advocate on behalf of Sathya Sai Baba’s many victim of sexual and other types of abuse, see: Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam
They did indeed. At the beginning of 2004, as soon as BBC producer Eamon Hardy made it clear to the ashram authorities that BBC would like from Puttaparthi an official reaction to the worldwide allegations of sexual abuse being made against Sathya Sai Baba, the team was at once evicted from the ashram by the Secretary of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, K. Chakravarthi.
(If I may indulge a retired teacher’s memories, in which former students good bad and indifferent float about one’s psyche like figures in heaven and, occasionally, hell, one of the many joys of my teaching at the Sathya Sai College in Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India, in the seventies was to teach Chakravarthi’s son, who subsequently did well at Oxford University. But there is sadness in my heart that families have been torn because the Sai Baba cult has inflicted such ethical compromize in individuals who might otherwise have conducted themselves well. See: Sathya Sai Baba 85th Birthday No Celebration For Those He Has So Badly Hurt. Posted by Barry Pittard on November 23, 2010).
But, along with the bolting of Puttaparthi gates, there was also the bolting of the ‘horse’. As the BBC team retreated, the cameras already had damning footage in the can. The BBC team had already been accorded a rare, and perhaps unique, permission to televise what, for millions in India, is the their peak festival, Mahasivrathri. The Indian television company Sanskaar TV also was permitted to televise this event. My take is that, at this time of intense adverse international exposure of the Sai cult, the Sai elders sought to wrest back some advantage, and show the – now heavily assailed and supposed – ‘Glory of Puttaparthi’.
In 2004, as caught by BBC and Indian television cameras, Sai Baba not only produced one lingam, but, if we take his officials’ word for it, two more. According to Sai Baba’s chief translator and also a world-travelling emissary Professor Anil Kumar in his words to the crowds, Sai Baba privately manifested two more ‘atma lingams’ off-stage. The public ‘miracle’ he performed, to the surprise of many, in terribly fumbling and absent-minded fashion. There have been many incidents that have revealed Sai Baba’s declining faculties. These mental and physical shortfalls his officials, rather ineptly, try to mask. At large, Sai devotees keep a numbed silence, or attribute it all to ‘Baba’s Leela’.
In the BBC’s The Secret Swami, the interviewer Tanya Datta comments:
“To the alarm of the crowd suddenly Sai Baba collapsed. His huge coterie of staff swung into action. There was panic. An organisation used to tight control seemed to have lost its grip. Sai Baba was hastily wheeled off stage.” Later, he is carried hobbling back, with officials claiming that he manifested two more lingams offstage”. Transcript is HERE. See the whole documentary. Broadband users click HERE (80 MB). There is a small version for modem users Here (23,3 MB)
Or you can download it packed in zip file (22 MB) Here.
Returning to the Kulwant Hall stage within the next hour, to the immensely relieved audience of many thousands, a pale and shaken Sai Baba makes the unfathomable claim:
“Out of the stomach emanated Shiva Lingas of the weight of three tonnes. That’s the reason why some strain on the face and the body”
Once the gates slammed shut on it, the BBC team used a secret camera trained on highly elusive chairman of a world organization, Dr Michael Goldstein of Covena, Southern California, head of a cult that faces grave accountability and duty of care questions in India and many countries around the world. Sanctions for the unusual use of hidden camera were obtained by the producers from top echelon BBC management and legals.
The Sathya Sai Organization, despite many claims not to recruit or fund raise should certainly be scrutinized by any public it operates among. In these it cultivates governments, political and institutional organs.
The one-hour television documentary The Secret Swami resulted. It first screened on June 17, 2004, and was subsequently shown by cable and satellite in some two hundred or more countries. British television critics from major newspapers unanimously praised the documentary. My own reflection on it is in this article: The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision. See also: BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ and British Press Praise.
NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Bangalore, Eamon Hardy (BBC Producer), Indian media, Puttaparthi, Sai Baba Article)), Sanskaar TV, South India, The Secret Swami, World Media | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 12, 2011
Medical bulletins emitting from Sathya Sai Baba’s medical team say that 85 year-old patient‘s condition is still critical but stable and with some improvement. The sheer convergence of top Indian medical expertise at Sathya Sai Baba’s bedside from elsewhere in India is quite extraordinary. One wonders how the patients and staffs these eminent doctors have left behind in other parts of India are faring.
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Sathya Sai Baba’s Hospital at Puttaparthi Updated Monday, Apr 11, 2011 1745 Hrs. IST Medical Bulletin released at 1700 hrs by Dr A N Safaya, Director, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba who continues to be under treatment of this hospital is showing positive response to the treatment being given to Him. He continues to be on the ventilator and is undergoing dialysis periodically. His kidneys and lungs are showing signs of improvement. His hemodynamic values like heart rate, blood pressure, blood gas analysis are nearly normal. The functioning of liver is also showing improvement. His over all condition is much better than earlier although He is still critical.
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Robert Priddy Articles During Sathya Sai Baba’s Health Crisis
Posted by robertpriddy on April 11, 2011
Posted by robertpriddy on April 10, 2011 
Robert Priddy comments: Numerous reports about Sathya Sai Baba’s illness, health condition and prospects flood out each day from India papers and medial outlets, mostly repetitive and of no ‘news’ value. Meanwhile, few are reported outside the Indian sub-continent, the god-guru not being newsworthy and largely or wholly unknown to the great majority of the population in developed countries.
Posted by robertpriddy on April 7, 2011 Robert Priddy comments: That Indian government officials – and even Sathya Sai officials – are so concerned about the succession question and what will become of the huge assets controlled by the Sathya Sai Central Trust rather indicates that they are cynical as to the chances of Sai Baba’s recovery.
Posted by robertpriddy on April 6, 2011
Posted by robertpriddy on April 5, 2011 Robert Priddy comments: I have predicted that – as Sai officialdom always does – the facts have been glossed over by Dr. Safaya and all the other believers in Sai Baba’s omnipotent powers. Sai Baba’s condition has been critical and doctors have had to ‘fight to save his life’. That he is on continuous kidney dialysis is a telling sign that his system is not likely to enable him to survive long. Malnutrition in old age is usually connected to mental degeneration or old age depression, signs of both of which have been visible in him since his 85th birthday celebrations where he appeared as an unmoving almost wooden idol. Whether they are successful or not time will show, but it is a sign, perhaps, in that the vultures are gathering already: his nephew Ratnakara (TIMES OF INDIA) is reportedly trying to take control of the Sathya Sai Central Trust and even to ‘step into Sai Baba’s shoes’! The Sathya Sai Central Trust has also reportedly obtained signatures from at least two of Sai Baba’s relatives (Deccan Chronicle). A recent report from various Sai ‘authorities’ is that Sai Baba’s condition has stabilized again and that he is showing sings of some improvement. One must evaluate this on the background of the turmoil surrounding the doctors and officials who have even been attacked by suspicious and fanatical devotees trying forcibly to get immediate access to Sai Baba (who is in intensive care still on a respirator and continuous dialysis!).
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General Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction) (Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
60th Birthday Promise Of Not Physically Ageing – Falsified!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, India, Puttaparthi, Sects, South India | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 14, 2011
When contrasted with the critical and prolonged illness of Sathya Sai Baba, many texts from his discourses are to be seen as mere hyperbole or some form of belief system that he, who claims to be perfection itself, cannot sustain in his own case. He says:
“The attributes of the Avatars are beyond human comprehension…. Rama and Krishna were ever youthful. Have you ever seen a picture of Rama or Krishna with grey hair?….. Usually old people have wrinkles on their faces … I do not have any signs of old age. (loud applause). There is not a single wrinkle on My face”. Sanathana Sarathi, October, 2002.
and:
“Desire to which you are too fondly attached breeds anger and its nefarious brood. Discard it and you can have perpetual youth! The Aanandha that the Aathman can manifest will keep age and ageing away!” Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Prashanthi Nilayam, 22 Feb 1971. Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust.
See: Sick and Ailing Sathya Sai Baba 85. His Promises to Look Young Have Failed
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 24, 2010
Sathya Sai Baba’s Hospital at Puttaparthi
Although it is widely known that most of the Media in India will not go up against Sai Baba’s and his core servitors’ political and religious clout, the following two reports have a touch of realism about them – very different to the positive spin which one finds in Sathya Sai Organization communiques as well as in rank-and-file devotee responses to be seen across the internet. The latter leave out of account that medical science, rather than their guru’s divine power, is sustaining this patient. With all the advanced care that teams of foremost doctors from India can provide, Sathya Sai Baba’s survival factor is likely to be increased.
The devotee reactions make it sound as if doctors around the world, routinely, are unable to keep elderly and very sick patients alive.
DECCAN HERALD. Thursday 14 April 2011
Docs fret over Baba’s sluggish recovery
Chethan Kumar,Bangalore, Apr 12 (PTI)
16 days in hospital, the spiritual guru’s condition remains critical
For the first time since Sathya Sai Baba was admitted to the hospital, doctors treating him have
expressed concern over his condition.Sai Baba, undergoing treatment for past 16 days at the
Sri Sathya Sai Baba Institute of Higher Medical Sciences at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh,
on Tuesday continued to respond to treatment, but the pace at which he is improving has
worried the doctors.
“His response to the treatment is positive but sluggish, which is a bit of a cause for worry
for the team of doctors attending on him… he continues to be in a critical state of health,”
Hospital Director A N Safaya stated in the official health bulletin issued on Tuesday morning.
Safaya’s statement assumes importance as none of the doctors on the panel had so far expressed
any concern over Baba’s condition.
They had repeatedly maintained that “he is critical but responding well.”
A slight improvement in his condition last Wednesday had given the doctors
hope that he would get better further and tide over the trouble.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Bangalore, Cults, Prashanthi Nilayam, Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, Sects, South India | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 16, 2011
A Sathya Sai Central Trust “important press release” just to hand (see notice below) has begun to appear on various prominent Sathya Sai Baba related sites on the web. It notes that “for several days, His (sic) condition was a cause for concern”.
In other words, presumably, there is now NOT cause for concern. But how can it be? Given his advanced age (supposedly 85 years, although this has been disputed in scholarly discussion), and the severity of his many symptoms, one might expect an even more reduced shell of his former self to appear than hitherto.
The bulletin refers to: “the spontaneous upsurge of prayers, bhajans, namasmarana, candle light processions of millions and millions of His devotees all over the globe for His very early and total recovery”.
I invite my dear reader to use the simple expedient of sticking his or her head out the nearest window just to check whether they can see any of it ….. If you should enjoy processions, some you may have to wait for Saint Patrick’s Day in, say, New York, Chicago or Dublin, or the Carnival in Rio, or the Berlin Love Parade, or some such.
But for a rational analysis of Sai Baba’s and his officials’ gross exaggeration of devotee numbers, see: Sai Baba’s exaggerations: The Numbers’ game – the wilful falsification of numbers by Sathya Sai Baba & his organization and: Sathya Sai Organization practices and problems – documented and with official and anecdotal evidence, and: Sathya Sai Organization – False Propaganda
The irrefutable fact is that he has had poor health for recent years. What the eyes of devotion may see – or refuse to see – is likely to be very different to any rational person’s examination of photos of him over the last years. His advanced senescence is clearly visible in recent videos. See: The 85th birthday showed an aged and semi-demented figure crying (brief video) and:
A very reduced and senile-looking Sathya Sai Baba at his 85th birthday (video)
Can the Gravity of Sai Baba’s Health Breakdown Allow For Any Real Recovery?
The Sai Trust bulletin states that he “is responding satisfactorily to the treatment being given to Him by the team of doctors, though somewhat slowly”.
But the real question is: how slowly is – or will continue to be – “slowly”? Nothing more sure than that any progress is bound to be slow. The devotees can have it both ways:
If slow turns out to be very slow, then Sai devotees can say (as they characteristically do) – look how our Lord suffers for us and intensifies our efforts of service in his name, and our faith in him. See below, too, the type of official note that has gone to Sathya Sai centers in various countries.
If on the other hand, some improvement occurs, they can say – see how our Lord, in his Mercy, has come back to us from such a terrible health crisis, even though his body is 85 years.
Apropos, a prominent Sai devotee, who never gives up in the hope that I and my like will eventually see the light, has just emailed to say what a wonder it is that Sathya Sai Baba could pass through the ordeal for over two weeks on a ventilator, and undergo such chronic organ failure, and yet still live.
My response to this sort of assumption is reflected in my post of two days back: Is Sathya Sai Baba’s Survival Divine? But Treatment Keeps Many Elderly Sick Alive. Posted by Barry Pittard on April 14, 2011. There, I noted that considering the intervention of all the advanced care teams of foremost doctors that India can provide, Sathya Sai Baba’s survival factor is, of course, likely to be increased (and indeed perhaps the health of their many other patients correspondingly decrease!), but that devotee reactions make it sound as if doctors around the world, routinely, are unable to keep elderly and very sick patients alive. Of course they do. But then, blind faith is, by its very nature, unreflective.
A Senescence that Sai Minders Cannot Hide (and which falsifies his many self-prophecies). See: The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements, and see, too, the video clip of the sobbing Sai Baba, which a tech person was able to extract from a large amount of official recent footage: Sathya Sai Baba In Fits of Sobbing: Video Footage Confirms Earlier Accounts
When one does a comparison between them, Sai Baba’s statements about his health, and the non-ageing of his body could not be more falsified by even the most rudimentary examination of photographs taken of him across subsequent years. Here are but a few of his statements:
“Usually old people have wrinkles on their faces … I do not have any signs of old age. (loud applause). There is not a single wrinkle on My face”. (The official monthly official journal: Sanathana Sarathi, October, 2002)
“I do not suffer from any kind of disease because there is no trace of greed in Me. That is why I am always healthy…”(Sanathana Sarathi September 2001, page 257f) 186)
“Desire to which you are too fondly attached breeds anger and its nefarious brood. Discard it and you can have perpetual youth! The Aanandha that the Aathman can manifest will keep age and ageing away!” (Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Prashanthi Nilayam, 22 Feb 1971. Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust.)
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Important Press Release by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust
Friday, April 15, 2011:
The health status of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is under constant review by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust in the light of the medical bulletins issued by the Director of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, since the time of His admission to the hospital on the 28th of March, 2011. For several days, His condition was a cause for concern.
In the latest review, as of today, the doctors attending on Him have expressed confidence that He is in a stable condition and is responding satisfactorily to the treatment being given to Him by the team of doctors, though somewhat slowly. They are confident that, if the progress continues to be stable and satisfactory as at present, it might be possible to shift Him from the hospital to His residence at Prasanthi Nilayam in about a fortnight. His residence is being got ready in all aspects to receive Him and provide Him the required level of follow up medical care as also emergency services.
The Trustees are gratified to note the spontaneous upsurge of prayers, bhajans, namasmarana, candle light processions of millions and millions of His devotees all over the globe for His very early and total recovery. Radio Sai, through its Musings, messages and mails from all over the world has been continuously articulating this upsurge. As Bhagavan has repeatedly said on several occasions, it is only the sincere prayers of His devotees that can cure Him. The Trustees consider it their sacred duty to appeal to all the devotees to be calm and sustain their prayers to restore Bhagavan to His normal health at a very early date.
Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Prasanthi Nilayam
The Sai spiritual ‘climate’ has been cool in Delhi ……
New Delhi, April 6 (IANS) Unperturbed by reports of spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba’s health condition, the staff at the Sri Sathya Sai International Centre here said this was just a test of belief for his followers and that they were confident the bad phase will pass.
‘We were not worried. There was no special prayer service because we know this is just a test of belief for his followers,’ Rakesh Joshi, administrative officer of the centre, told IANS Wednesday.
….. But rather warmer around the world among all those “candle light processions of millions and millions of His devotees all over the globe”, mentioned in the Sathya Sai Central Trust bulletin, as witness a typical official Sai circular sent racing round the world (this one is from Canada) -:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On April 12, 2011, Indulal Shah, International Advisor for the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations, requested the following:
For the earliest recovery of Revered Bhagavan’s health, all Sri Sathya Sai Seva Samitis in India as also Sai Centres and Sai Groups all over the world are hereby requested to organise an offering of Joint Prayers and Bhajans as per the SCHEDULES as mentioned below:
Saturday, 16 April, 2011 4 pm to 4 am (Local Time)
Sunday, 17 April, 2011 5 pm to 5 am (Local Time)
Monday, 18 April, 2011 7 pm to 5 am (Local Time)
The original letter is attached for your reference. At the bottom of the letter, he has stated that it is extremely important to strictly and exactly maintain the above schedules.
In unison with our brothers and sisters all over the world, the Sri Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Toronto South will be adhering to the above schedule. We kindly request all devotees to carefully consider this request and participate as much as possible. Devotees from all centres are welcome to attend and participate.
This type of request is unprecedented and it is a unique opportunity to be a part of this historic occasion. We will need the love, support, and participation of as many devotees as possible.
Centres wishing to joing the Book Centre in this prayer are requested to contact one of the following persons:
We look forward to the speedy recovery of Bhagavan.
SSSBIC
Sri Sathya Sai Baba Book and Information Centre of Canada
NEWS Update
From Telegufirst.com
Satya Sai Is Held Captive Says Adikesavulu
Friday, 15 April 2011 21:52
Written by Nayanika
Former TTD Chairman Mr. Adikesavulu Naidu has alleged that Bhagavan Satya Sai Baba was being held captive in the hands of the Trust members.Talking to newsmen here on Friday, he has alleged that a retired IAS officer was controlling the affairs of the Trust and said that Trust members Satyajit and Aiyar were responsible for Baba’s present condition. He said facts would come to light if these two were enquired.
Alleging that Baba was being betrayed by the Trust members he said he was not being offered proper treatment. He has also alleged that when world famous doctors offered to treat Baba, Trust members and Super Specialty Hospital members had not accepted. He said the doctors appointed by Satyajit were not doctors at all. He has wondered why minister Dr. Geeta Reddy who knew every thing, was keeping quiet. Alleging that the government was not taking proper care about Baba’s health, he has demanded the appointment of a committee on the affairs of the Trust. (NSS)//
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, India, Puttaparthi, Sects, South Asia, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Baba | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 16, 2011
In some major Indian newspapers, there are now reports of Sai devotees taking action that challenges the conduct of those close round Sathya Sai Baba, including urgent recourse to law. They suspect the gravest chicanery practised by forces vying for control of Puttaparthi.
IANS (Indo Asian News Service) reports, see full text below:
Former MP and former chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Adikeshavulu Naidu also made a sensational allegation that the trust in collusion with the hospital had kept Baba hostage. He said there was a conspiracy behind the 85-year-old Baba’s illness.
Naidu said Baba was being denied food and better medical treatment. “The top doctors are being denied access to him and when facilities are available to even take him abroad for treatment nothing is being done,” he told reporters in Chittoor.
The accused number prominent members of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust. In one case:
Naidu blamed Baba’s aide Satyajit and said he is not allowing Baba’s ‘darshan’ for his devotees for the last six months. He claimed that those who are not physicians are in the team of doctors treating him. He also alleged that the government was not acting despite knowing all the facts.
If these followers can sustain their case, the chances are that the scandal will be very great. Hitherto, we have had utmost difficulty in getting any but the media outside India to investigate the Sai Baba cult. One of the foremost Indian editors privately told me: it is not possible to investigate Sai Baba – his people are too powerful. The mass circulation magazine India Today is one of the rare exceptions. One of the journalists associated with the December 4, 2000 India Today cover story, Vijay Jung Thapa, 
had to have security mounted (‘close body protection’) during and for some time after he was involved in the exposure story on Sathya Sai Baba. Those of us who have great respect for the Gurka people of Nepal (of which Thapa is one) were not suprised by his courage, professionalism and tenacity in digging into the story. I see that he has now risen high as of 2008, getting the Editorship of The Hindustan Times, which has also, by the way, run an outspoken article critical of Sathya Sai Baba by a former editor. Unfortunately, it was all too impressionistic, rather than the product of hard-nosed research. See my: A Top Indian Editor Vir Sanghvi Fails Research Test.
India media to make some attempt to expose Sai Baba have been: Tehelka, The Cavaran and (to a small extent) Hindustan Times. The job of exposure has been via the foreign media. Owing to a great many sacrificial hours put in by former devotees in good standing in their communities around the world there were, on television – BBC, CBC (Canada), DR (Denmark), Salon.com (USA), SBS, ABC (Australia). In paper media – Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Guardian (UK), Marie Claire Magazine, Salon.com, BT, Bild, Focus, Trouw, Speegelbield, Noordhollands Dagblad, Sokaren, Gatopardo, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Age, Australian Financial Review, West Australian (a major front page article by an award-winning journalist (Torrance Mendez) was pulled at the 11th hour!), Adelaide Advertiser, etc., …..
There has long been a profound lack of Puttaparthi and international Sathya Sai Organization accountability and transparency. Their failure in duty of care, not only in developing countries but in advanced democracies, has been simply appalling. For the type of morally cheap but financially expensive legal tricks they have used against a family who had been among the most prominent Sathya Sai devotees in the world, and whose son, Alaya, is one of many around the world who, over the decades, have reported sexual abuse of boys and young men – see: Alaya Rahm – Some Key Statements. And the full statement of the Rahm family and the International JuST Group is here. An incisive encapsulation of key circumstances is provided by the independent British author of many books and papers Kevin Shepherd: 23.6 The Alaya Rahm Lawsuit in California
Leading Indian journalists and editors, police chiefs and investigators, politicians and a few scholars who have tried to penetrate the heavy veil know of Sai secrecy of the horrific cover up of the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom by Puttaparthi officials in close association with the then powerful Home Minister S.B. Chavan, and central, Andhra Pradesh State and local governments. It is out of no idleness that the BBC entitled its 2004 documentary, which has been seen in some 200 or more countries, The Secret Swami.
Few have had the courage to speak out publicly on the issue, as has former Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary V.P.B. Nair, who was in office at the time of the killings. It is a sad commentary that very few have dared to speak out as Nair and (the late) B. Premanand have done. See the BBC Film Clip of V.P.B. Nair making his statement and my articles: V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings and: The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision
It is ironic, too, that NRI’s (Non Resident Indians) get to see coverage in the foreign media; whereas, there is a heavy blanket of suppression in India. What of the ‘shining India’, beloved of both the naive and the forked of tongue? It makes the notion of ‘Indian democracy’ an oxymoron, and echoingly hollow
Grabs For Power and Wealth – Is There More Than the Usual Skullduggery Going On At Puttaparthi?
These latest reports reflect, in part, private information about power ploys within the Puttaparthi ashram that we have been receiving from within India. The accounts have come from sources found in the past to be reliably informed.
In the years that we have been exposing Sathya Sai Baba and his cult, my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have worked under certain unavoidable constraints. Sometimes, we receive information that, so as to protect those who are vulnerable, we cannot possibly refer to. Another constraint is that any premature release of information, and of information that we cannot check, can only risk our credibility.
With some caution, several posts back – see: Sathya Sai Baba’s Health Condition Again At Grave Risk, Posted by Barry Pittard on April 5, 2011, I wrote:
“By a number of usually well-informed sources , we are told that there is a battle royal going on for control of his organization. We learn of serious chicanery leveled against Sai Baba family members and others. Alert media, law firms and other investigators will need for example – very quickly, before witnesses are hushed up – to get hold of stakeholders who have been disaffected, and also those, including many leaders in India and abroad, who have resigned from the Sathya Sai Organization on a matter of ethical principle. Robert Priddy and I can coordinate contact with many individuals of excellent repute in their professions, trades and wider communities, who have provided evidence for major world media, governments, institutions, and so forth.
Experts in law, media, etc., well know that, well-handled and cross-checked, disenfranchised individuals and groups can yield accurate information. At the moment, we are doing some cross-checking of our own. Readers can watch this space.
Note: Investigative media and other serious enquirers can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com“
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Indo Asian News Service feeds state (Note: IANS is an organization which we have found, compared to a number of other Indian services, quite efficient and reliable):
Hyderabad, April 15, (IANS): Is there a conspiracy behind the health of spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba? Is the Baba, who has millions of followers in India and around the world, being kept hostage by those close to him? A petition has been filed in a court seeking direction to the hospital authorities to reveal the facts about Baba.
A former MP, Adikeshavulu Naidu, has alleged that Baba is being held hostage. An advocate filed a petition in a court at Penugonda, seeking a direction to the Andhra Pradesh government, the hospital and the Sathya Sai Trust to come out with all the details about the Baba’s condition.
The petition, filed by Bhaskar Reddy, will be heard Saturday. The petitioner alleged that the hospital and the trust were suppressing information about Baba’s condition and that there is lack of clarity in the daily medical bulletins being issued by the doctors of Sathya Sai super speciality hospital at Puttaparthu.
The petitioner also sought direction to the state government to come out with all the details of the trust and its activities as it involves several hundreds crore rupees.
A group of devotees also moved the state human rights commission Friday, seeking direction to the hospital to show Baba’s video clips to his devotees to clear the air over his actual condition. The group Dalit Janasabha argued that not showing the clips was a violation of human rights. It alleged that Baba was being kept under detention in the name of treatment.
Former MP and former chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Adikeshavulu Naidu also made a sensational allegation that the trust in collusion with the hospital had kept Baba hostage. He said there was a conspiracy behind the 85-year-old Baba’s illness.
Naidu said Baba was being denied food and better medical treatment. “The top doctors are being denied access to him and when facilities are available to even take him abroad for treatment nothing is being done,” he told reporters in Chittoor.
Naidu blamed Baba’s aide Satyajit and said he is not allowing Baba’s ‘darshan’ for his devotees for the last six months. He claimed that those who are not physicians are in the team of doctors treating him. He also alleged that the government was not acting despite knowing all the facts.
Baba, who was admitted to the hospital on March 28 with heart and lung problems, suffered multiple organ dysfunction. Doctors said he remains stable but critical.
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NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Further Reading
Sathya Sai Baba fully silenced, even maltreated and imprisoned?
Posted by robertpriddy on April 16, 2011
QUOTE:
One well-informed critical source in India has informed me that “Former trust members and ex-MPs are openly threatening to expose the entire sb charade if they are not adequately “paid off”…politicians are descending to grab whatever their grubby hands can….while sb aides are hoping to make a fast buck and make a run for it…and sb trust members and close family are involved in a bitter fight….all this is out in the open…and a public interest legal petition has been filed in an Andhra court to ascertain the facts of the whole dirty affair…”
Lengthy, detailed archival Sai Finance and Deceits and further deceit documentation here
For a broad sweep of many revelations which the Sathya Sai Organization cannot wish away if there is ever court or other investigative action, see:
Sathya Sai Devotees Suspect Foul Play In Guru’s Health Crisis. Seek Court Order
“Can We Trust the Central Trust?” by ex-President of Moscow Sathya Sai Centre, Serguei Badaev
Donations to Sathya Sai Central Trust misused by/for directors etc.
Sathya Sai Baba failing – at the mercy of power brokers- eg. corrupt ex-IAS ashram boss Chackravati
Puttaparthi and Misconduct of Sathya Sai Baba’s Officials
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 16, 2009
V.P.B. Nair Told BBC Sai Baba Bedroom Killings Were “Coldblooded Murder”
Posted by Barry Pittard on January 6, 2011
Many Notable Sathya Sai Baba Cult Leaders Resign
Posted by Barry Pittard on February 18, 2011
General Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction) (Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, Puttaparthi, Scandal, Sects, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 18, 2011
Reports say that Sathya Sai Baba’s health has relapsed. This is in marked contrast to to the optimistic view released by the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust last Friday. It stated:
“In the latest review, as of today, the doctors attending on Him have expressed confidence that He is in a stable condition and is responding satisfactorily to the treatment being given to Him by the team of doctors, though somewhat slowly. They are confident that, if the progress continues to be stable and satisfactory as at present, it might be possible to shift Him from the hospital to His residence at Prasanthi Nilayam in about a fortnight”.
To follow the emerging picture, one must keep a careful eye on the dates. Today’s Deccan Herald, 18th April (see below), indicates that there is no chance of Sai Baba’s being removed from hospital, so serious is his condition.
Sathya Sai Baba’s Hospital at Puttaparthi
For a sense of the rapidly changing reports, I draw my readers’ attention to the following reports in my last days’ blogs. The latest report Deccan Herald report depicts a very different situation to that one stated in the “Important Press Release by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust Friday, April 15, 2011. See: Sathya Sai Trust Officials Say Sai Baba Out of Hospital Soon. Posted by Barry Pittard on April 16, 2011
This Sathya Sai Central Trust bulletin stated that Sathya Sai Baba “is responding satisfactorily to the treatment being given to Him by the team of doctors, though somewhat slowly”.
The situation is yet more complicated by allegations from among Sai devotees, some of them high profile. The Indo Asian News Service feeds reports. See: Sathya Sai Devotees Suspect Foul Play In Guru’s Health Crisis. Seek Court Order. Posted by Barry Pittard on April 16, 2011.
Hyderabad, April 15, (IANS)…. A group of devotees also moved the state human rights commission Friday, seeking direction to the hospital to show Baba’s video clips to his devotees to clear the air over his actual condition. The group Dalit Janasabha argued that not showing the clips was a violation of human rights. It alleged that Baba was being kept under detention in the name of treatment.
Former MP and former chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Adikeshavulu Naidu also made a sensational allegation that the trust in collusion with the hospital had kept Baba hostage. He said there was a conspiracy behind the 85-year-old Baba’s illness.
Naidu said Baba was being denied food and better medical treatment. “The top doctors are being denied access to him and when facilities are available to even take him abroad for treatment nothing is being done,” he told reporters in Chittoor.
Excerpt of text from the Deccan Herald of 18th April
Further Reading
Is Sathya Sai Baba’s Survival Divine? But Treatment Keeps Many Elderly Sick Alive
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 14, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba. Stable But Still Critical, his doctors say
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 12, 2011
BBC-Named ‘The Secret Swami’, Sathya Sai Baba Hospitalized and Fighting For Life
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 6, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba’s Health Condition Again At Grave Risk
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 5, 2011
Pacemaker ‘Avatar’ Says ‘I am not this body’. Worried Devotees Pray For His Body
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 3, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba’s Pacemaker Implant – His Promised Health and Longevity In Doubt
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 1, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba Hospitalized, Despite Hailing His Extraordinary ‘Health’
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 29, 2011
NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
General Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction) (Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, Sects, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 18, 2011
In the last days, there has fast emerged a major new turning point in the Sathya Sai saga. A climate is emerging in which Sathya Sai Baba devotee appointed lawyers are seriously looking at what their clients attest is the severe lack of accountability and the gross misconduct of leading elements of Puttparthi officialdom.
See: Downturn In Sathya Sai Baba’s Condition (April 17th 2011) Posted by Barry Pittard on April 18, 2011 and Sathya Sai Devotees Suspect Foul Play In Guru’s Health Crisis. Seek Court Order Posted by Barry Pittard on April 16, 2011
These lawyers and their clients may pause to consider that networked former devotees have long spoken out about the extreme lack of accountability and duty of care in the international Sri Sathya Sai Organization. Indeed, some of these who have spoken up at great sacrifice to themselves and families were previously prominent leaders highly respected down the many years in which they served Sathya Sai Baba and his international organization. See: The Sathya Sai Organization: Almost overnight, dissenters treated as demons!
In the article: Bob Bozzani Big Donor To Guru Sai Baba Under Siege Posted by Barry Pittard on March 2, 2007, I wrote:
Refusal to have proper mechanisms in place for the hearing of complaints has put the Sri Sathya Sai Organization light years behind today’s demand for accountability. On April 3, 2003, the then Australian head of the Sathya Sai Organisation of Australia, T. Sri Ramanathan, phoned me to threaten dire legal consequences (he was all bluff and bullying, of course) if I did not “cease and desist”.
I suggested that any organisation, including his, is wise to have a workable complaints mechanism, otherwise unaddressed grievances are bound to create problems. He said I was “clouding the issue” and that the only issue was “Swami’s glory”. There was no need, he said, for such a mechanism in the Sathya Sai Organisation, which is “special and different to any other organisation.” It was, he said, “a divine organisation”.
Perhaps the Indian Sathya Sai devotee lawyers will be astute enough to show any court or human rights tribunal that successive executive regimes at Puttaparthi (known as the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust) have constantly and characteristically ridden high, wide and far from handsome over genuine requests by devotees – and indeed the former devotees they for so many decades once honored and worked beside – for transparency and accountability.
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NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Cults, Indian Justice, Indian Law, Marie Claire (magazine), Sects | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 19, 2011
In the last hours, many Indian newspapers have run the story on the direction by the Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Commission to the State government to produce a report on Sathya Sai Baba’s health condition.
None too early in the piece, Sathya Sai Baba devotees themselves are now, at least via their lawyers, demanding answers concerning the workings of the Sathya Sai Central Trust. Readers of this blog, and that of Robert Priddy and of related websites, have long been presented with evidence of grievous lack of accountability in the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, and, at large, the international Sri Sathya Sai Organization. There are trust issues indeed.
Since circa 2000, when the internet began to allow the rapid universal spread of information and communication, constant execration and libel have been heaped on the efforts of former Sathya Sai Baba followers to present a critique of the corrupt workings of the Sathya Sai apparatus.
It is one of history’s odd ironies that Sai devotees themselves are now to the fore in wanting to tear away the iron mask of secrecy that dons the face of the Sathya Sai Trust. It is a further irony that only now is the Indian media really attending to what is happening. We just about busted several of our guts to make it otherwise. We have done our job. They have not done theirs. Decades of Indian media tolerance of the Puttaparthi scandal have allowed India’s ignominy given that it took the efforts of foreigners, working under immense strain and terrible odds, to expose the Sathya Sai cult via major media in the West.
Nor should it be offered as an extenuation that the Indian media is too ill-equipped to research accounts of foreigners. First, it did not even investigate on its own turf. Second, it did not carry feeds until, terribly late in the case we were able to make a strong showing of ourselves with IANS, Indo Asian News Service, which shook up some of their clients enough to get into India some aspects of The Guardian story on the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and the related Sathya Sai mischief involving Dr Venkataraman.
Foreign media we were able to convince of our excellent credentials include:
BBC, CBC (Canada), DR (Denmark), Salon.com (USA), SBS (all television), ABC (Radio Australia). In paper media – Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Guardian (UK), Marie Claire Magazine, Salon.com, BT, Bild, Focus, Trouw, Speegelbield, Noordhollands Dagblad, Sokaren, Gatopardo, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Age, Australian Financial Review, West Australian (a major front page article by an award-winning journalist (Torrance Mendez) was pulled at the 11th hour!), Adelaide Advertiser, etc., …..
In corruption torn India, there are nevertheless some extraordinarily fine workers in Human Rights. Trustfully, there are enough of them available to resist the powers of Andhra Pradesh State government – which, irrespective of any party hue or coalition, have long been awesomely predisposed to protect Sathya Sai Baba.
Will so many politicians of all parties in India want transparency and accountability from Puttaparthi? They! – who are so known for their endemic corruption via nepotism, casteism, gerontocracy, brutal, illicit use of the police and security forces and goondas (hired thugs), and so forth. Will they be too willing to let go the golden – though not indeed at all cosmic! – egg, that Sathya Sai Baba has for so long represented for them – especially the billions of dollars flowing to the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust from abroad?
There is the lonely example of one outspoken Andhra Pradesh former Home Secretary, V.P.B. Nair, who attempted to whistle blow to the BBC in its 2004 exposure of Sai Baba, The Secret Swami. And of the very courageous and unputdownable (late) B. Premanand. See: Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach. Posted by Barry Pittard on October 6, 2009
This concerned the massive cover up following the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom in Puttaparthi, 6 June 1993. Further resources on the BBC documentary and the murders documentation are found here
I see that, overnight (mytime AEST) my colleague from Norway Robert Priddy has blogged suggesting the sort of reports we might wish to expect if only the official health reports on Sathya Sai Baba were more factual. See: Sathya Sai Baba life support problem. Posted by robertpriddy on April 18, 2011. He writes:
Without the life-support system, independent medical opinion would surely expect him to die sooner than later. The malfunctioning of the chief body organs are like this:-
1) the heart (which stopped and had to be operated with a pacemaker) and which now shows fluctuating low blood pressure levels
2) the lungs (which are not muscularly strong enough to keep him breathing sufficiently and cannot expel mucus, so needing medication against spreading infection and a respirator)
3) the kidneys (which have been on more or less continuous dialysis because they cannot expel bodily waste materials which accumulate there as poison)
4) the liver (the very name of which indicates its vital importance to life), was and likely still is badly infected with jaundice and requires constant monitoring so it will not worsen.
5) Last but far from least, the digestive system – unable to eat food, Sai Baba is on intravenous sustenance.
The doctors do not spell things out like this, however, they are both devotees and therefore extra careful diplomats – not least considering the powerful emotions raging around the guru, the diverse accusations of misdeeds by SB’s minders and the litigation against those in charge of his assets and person.
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NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
TIMES OF INDIA
IANS | Apr 18, 2011, 09.46pm IST
Andhra rights commission seeks Sathya Sai Baba’s health report
HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission on Monday directed the state government to submit a report on the health of spiritual leader, who is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Puttaparthi for the last three weeks.
The commission has asked chief secretary SV Prasad to submit a detailed report before April 29 on the condition of the 85-year-old spiritual leader and the treatment being given to him.
The order came on a petition filed by an organisation Dalit Jana Sabha, seeking directions to the government to come out with facts relating to Baba’s health.
The petitioner alleged that the authorities of the Sathya Sai super speciality hospital and Sathya Sai Central Trust were not giving a true picture of his health, causing concern to millions of his devotees in India and abroad.
A team of state government doctors, led by director of Medical Education, Department of Medical and Health, Ravi Raj, is also monitoring Baba’s condition.
Baba, who was admitted to hospital March 28, remains critical. He is suffering from multi-organ dysfunction and continues to be on life support system, doctors attending on him said.
Meanwhile, a group of devotees on Monday lodged a complaint with the Puttaparthi police station that there is a threat to Baba’s life from Sathya Sai Central Trust members.
The complainant demanded that the devotees be allowed to see the spiritual leader.
A petition has already been filed in a court in Penukonda, Anantapur district, seeking direction to the hospital authorities to let the devotees see the spiritual leader.
A section of devotees alleged that trust members were responsible for Baba’s illness and were trying to deny them access to him.
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Further Reading
Part Two Three Four
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission, Cults, Human Rights, Human Rights Watch World Report, India, Sects, South Asia, South India | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 21, 2011
Indian media are starting to report that some Sathya Sai Baba forces favour his burial while he is still technically alive. (See news reports, below).
Countries not steeped in the utmost superstition may find it hard to credit yesterday’s bizarre news.
Yes, buried alive ….
Given the terrible and multiple failures of his body to respond, it would not seem that they have long to wait. One might not unreasonably expect to hear the news of his decease at any time now.
When, then, exactly, is Sathya Sai Baba going – as he has long promised – to visit London, Malaysia, Rome and Southern California, USA?
And when will he, for all the world to see, hold aloft a whole mountain range? And save humanity in its time of greatest threat to civilization? And rule the whole world? All of these events he has foretold.
If Sathya Sai Baba devotees are to be at all truthful, they will need to intelligibly answer these – and many other leading questions.
Because I have lived in India and spent memorable time across a broad socio-economic strata – from the very wealthy to the very poor – this news, macabre though it may appear in the West and elsewhere, comes as no surprise to me. I was often able to see how many so highly educated Indians are able, conceptually, to compartmentalize their thoughts and attitudes. One part of the mind is for practical or professional reasons and the other part for matters of faith. Of course, no country can boast that the health of real questioning and debate is assured. But my experiences of India were of a nation in enormous thraldom to many such brands of irrationality.
Anything from one ‘compartment’ that might cause conflict within the other ‘compartment’ is held back, and not allowed to trespass. In short, no student of Indian life must assume that superstition is the exclusive domain of the poor and uneducated. Belief in the efficacy of gurus, astrology, numerology, psychic readings, supposedly auspicious times of day or sightings of creatures, dreams, and many other types of quackery are exceedingly rife across class. Sathya Sai Baba has long believed in ghosts and evil spirits. See: Robert Priddy diary scan (at the time, Priddy was the longtime head of the Norwegian Sathya Sai Organization), ‘Directly recorded notes 10/10/1998 at Prashanthi Nilayam‘, with comments added.
See some select readings of earlier articles at this blogsite, ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’:
There is no end to his failed predictions. In his February 1 16, 2007 (so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sathya Sai baba said:
The guru, perhaps the most wealthy and politically powerful in India’s long history, claims that he will save the world in his own lifetime, departing (according to one of two dates he has given) circa 2022 AD. He will, he says, preside over the greatest changes ever to occur in history.
One of India’s most powerful Hindu nationalist leaders, Ashok Singhal, who has an international profile in the Hindu world, told an assembly of political and religious luminaries in Delhi of a prophecy he says Sathya Sai Baba shared with him. The Organiser, September 14, 2008, reports …
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NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Further Reading
Part Two Three Four
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Today
| Sathya Sai Baba very critical: Hospital |
| Puttaparthi (AP), Apr 21, (PTI): |
| The condition of Sathya Sai Baba is very critical with all his organs showing very poor response to treatment, doctors attending on him said today. |
|
In view of the deteriorating health of Sathya Sai Baba, the Andhra Pradesh Police have deployed additional forces here to maintain law and order.“Non-functioning of the liver and persistent episodes of low blood pressure are causing great worry to the doctors,” Dr A N Safaya, Director, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Sciences, said here.His breathing is still ventilator dependent and the process of slow hemodialysis has been started in the morning to assist the kidneys, he said.The doctors are putting their best efforts to improve his clinical condition, Dr Safaya said.
86-year-old Sathya Sai Baba was hospitalised on March 28 following problems related to heart and respiration. |
Yesterday
| Puttaparthi security up as Baba is critical again |
| Puttaparthi (AP), Apr 20, DHNS: |
| As Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s condition worsened, security at Puttaparthi is being beefed up to handle any eventuality with 4,000 police personnel, including companies from Kurnool and Chittoor districts, expected to land there on Thursday morning. |
|
| Doctors treating the 85-year-old spiritual leader are expressing concern over his fluctuating BP for the last couple of days.Sri Sathya Sai Baba Institute of Higher Medical Sciences Director A N Safaya said on Wednesday: “Intermittent low BP is causing anxiety to the doctors treating him.”The Baba’s liver functioning has also deteriorated drastically, causing concern among the doctors. In an official bulletin, Dr Safaya said Dr Yegyaraman, an electrophysiology specialist from the US, had joined the doctors’ panel. Many government-deputed doctors have also been inducted as reinforcement.Speaking to Deccan Herald, Ananthpur District Collector Janardhan Reddy, admitting that the police have been put on an alert, said: “I have been regularly interacting with the doctors and they have expressed concerns over his condition. We are getting ready for any eventuality.Puttaparthi Deputy Superintendent of Police Narasimalu said “all measures are precautionary in nature. There is no need to read anything between the lines.” |
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Buried Alive, Cults, Godmen, Gurus, Indian media, Indian News, Miracles, Sathya Sai Central Trust, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Superstition | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 22, 2011
To this point, reports in the Western media of Sathya Sai Baba health troubles are hardly to be seen. So much, then, for the untiring and misleading claims in Puttaparthi propaganda that Sathya Sai Baba is known and honoured by many millions throughout the world.
After no question of life-support apparatus can be further entertained, and when it is announced that Sathya Sai Baba is officially dead, we may see some coverage of it in foreign media. (We shall add our efforts to that end). But this attention will be miniscule beside focus on countless other events. At the moment, the ‘world’ is far more fixated on the upcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, April 29th, 2011. Rather, the talk is, and will be for many days, of Saint James’s Palace, not of Sathya Sai Baba’s palace at Puttaparthi.
Here is the Indian Express report of Sathya Sai Baba’s medical state, as of last night:
Sai Baba’s health worsens; prohibitory orders in Puttaparthi
Thu Apr 21 2011, 09:23 hrs Puttaparthi (AP):
The condition of ailing Sathya Sai Baba deteriorated today with doctors saying that all his organs were showing poor response to treatment.
“Low blood pressure and the non-functioning of liver have become a major cause for concern. The Baba continues to be on ventilator support,” Dr A N Safaya, Director, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Sciences, said here.
The Andhra Pradesh government, which has clamped prohibitory orders in this town and deployed additional forces, said doctors were making efforts to save the 86-year-old Baba.
“The condition of the Baba has deteriorated. Most of his organs have suffered severe damage and stopped functioning. Doctors attending on him are making attempts to save the Baba. Let us pray,” state Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy told reporters in Hyderabad after a high-level meeting with Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in the Secretariat.
But Indian editors and journalists might be wise to consider a point. When the foreign media does report on the death of Sathya Sai Baba, one of the issues that will be glaring is this: in regard of any news inimical to Sathya Sai Baba and his politically very powerful Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust and international Sathya Sai Organization, the Indian media has, for many decades, profoundly failed to be vigilant. With rare exceptions – like India Today and The Caravan – it has decidedly not done its job. Media in India have long failed to check on the propaganda that has always emitted from Puttaparthi.
At the cost of an enormous amount of work, networked former Sathya Sai Baba followers and well-wishers managed, from time to time, to get the facts about Sai Baba and his cult, so heavily suppressed by Puttaparthi and successive local, state and central governments, out to international fora.
If the rest of the world gets to see such absurdities by eminent judges, physicians, scientists, police officers (including police chiefs) and government and political officials, as reported in yesterday’s Times of India, India’s international repute is hardly likely to be enhanced. Nor are the observational powers of top Indian cops likely to do anything to improve their poor image among efficient international police forces, as witness the statement of former Andhra police chief R. Prabhakar Rao who says (see Times of India report, below) “Sai Baba is incarnation of god. He will recover and live for 96 years as he himself had once said”. Are the Intel cadres in the (commonly deeply hated) Indian police asleep? Or do they turn a blind eye to incredibly rich and powerful gurus like Sathya Sai Baba? How can anyone trust them? That most exposure has had to come from efforts outside India, against huge odds, is to the undying shame of successive Indian governments, political parties, judiciaries, media, and so forth. It will, in the long, historical haul, redound to India’s international shame. Let any reader examine the following brief selection of video clips:
BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)
thumb-secretes-miraculous-ring-under-sai-babas-hand-blow-up1
BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle
BBC and Other Film Footage Shows India’s Top Guru Sathya Sai Baba Faking Miracles
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 11, 2009
Sai Baba’s devotees believe he will live for 96 years
IANS | Apr 21, 2011, 03.45pm IST
Eminent Sathy Sai Baba Devotees Claim He Will Do Great Miracle Of Self-rescusitation
In the article Indian Media’s Reticence on Top Guru, Sathya Sai Baba, Weakens, I wrote:
“Breaking decades of virtual Indian media silence on comment critical of Sathya Sai Baba, a number of major Indian news organizations have run (mostly November 22, 2006) the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) report on Paul Lewis’s article in The Guardian, ‘The Indian living god, the paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards’: Several times attempting to draw comment from the Awards representative, Shona Taylor, the IANS met with the same evasions from the Palace authorities as investigators like Paul Lewis”.
However, on one issue, an extenuating circumstance may be made for it. Many in the Indian media cannot be expected to know about the absurdly flawed, achronistic and other errors in statements he has made about e.g., Jesus, Moses, Catholics, Martin Luther and the Reformation, etc. These are officially recorded in the official Sai literature, and, for exposure, rely on no other documentation than publications like Sanathana Sarathi and discourses published under the aegis of the Sathya Sai Central Trust. The errors are so glaring that they can be spotted by historical scholars and schoolchilren alike.
Nor, when some of the statements – scattered across Sai Baba discourse over the years – can be collated viewed simultaneously, is there need for any scholarship or cultural familiarity. The contradictions and anomalies are at once apparent. See, for example:
Sai Baba on the Birth date of Jesus
Sathya Sai Baba said:
“Truly speaking, Christmas falls in the month of March, not in December. Since it is very cold in December and people are confined to their homes, they utilise this time to celebrate Christmas. Actually, Jesus was born in the month of March. With the passage of time, this fact has been distorted and misrepresented in the Bible.” (25.12.1998, Sanathana Sarathi, Vol.42, #1, January 1999, p.6)
“There are various theories about the birth date of Jesus based on the ‘bright star that appeared at his birth.’ It is visible once in 800 years, it is said. Some say he was born on the fifteenth day of September. But, he was born at 3-15 a.m. (early morning) on December 28, 1980 years ago. It was Sunday. “ (25.12.1979, Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol.24, p.288)
“The 25th is not the birth. It was on the 24th, near midnight.” (quote of Sai Baba from Dr. John Hislop. Conversations with Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba. Ch.XXIX, p.92)
“On December 25th, when Jesus was born, three kings came to his birth-place.”(25.12.1992. Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. XXV, p. 397.)
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NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by the prominent British journalist Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Further Reading
Sai Baba’s on Jesus’ own words about himself
Sai Baba about Jesus’s sufferings
Sai Baba on the early years of Jesus
Sai Baba on Birth of Jesus/and 3 kings from the East
Sai Baba on the Status of Jesus
Sai Baba about (St.) Paul and the closest devotees of Jesus
Sai Baba on Romans and Jews
Sai Baba on Jesus and the term Persona
Sai Baba on Jesus and animal sacrifice
Sai Baba on Jesus and his disciples
Sai Baba on Moses love of Jesus!
Part Two Three Four
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Godmen, Gurus, Kate Middleton, Prince William and Kate, South Asia, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Baba | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 22, 2011
This Friday afternoon, The Times of India Reports:
Make intelligence reports public: TDP
TNN | Apr 22, 2011, 03.33am IST
HYDERABAD: The TDP on Thursday demanded that the government make the intelligence reports on the state of affairs of Satya Sai Trust and the health condition of Sai Baba public.
Opposition leader in the legislative council, D. Veerahadra Rao at a press conference on Thursday alleged that the state government has full knowledge of the activities going on in the trust and the health condition of Baba but was not making it public. The state government had appointed four intelligence officers four years back to monitor the health condition of Baba and submit its reports to the government. These officials have been following Baba round the clock. The government should now make those reports public, Rao said. The silence on the part of the government gives rise to several doubts, he added.
Referring to the allegation that Baba was under sedation for long, he said if that was the case then why was the government silent all these days and an inquiry not ordered into it.
“What is causing concern is why the government is showing more interest in the assets of Baba than his health ever since he was admitted to the hospital on March 28. The government did not even consider necessary to call for a team of expert doctors from AIIMS. What is also not clear is why the team of doctors, led by Dr Raviraj, was recalled. The government also needs to explain as to what happened to the earlier medical reports of Baba’s health,” Rao said and demanded that the video footage of Baba’s health condition be made public immediately.
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One may raise the question: why would four very experienced Andhra Pradesh intelligence operatives between them keep round-the-clock watch, that has been continued unabated for four years, on affairs at Puttaparthi? What else might they wish to know? After all, inner-circle Puttaparthi corruption is common knowledge among Indian state and central governments? So what might be new?
One may add that, since money laundering occurs on a national – not to mention international level – and since both the central government of India and the state government of Andhra Pradesh are both in the hands of the Congress government that the intelligence data relating to Sathya Sai Baba and his outfit, gained via the Andhra Pradesh service, may by no means be expected to stop within that state.
Because Sai Baba has so many Indian and overseas billionaire and millionaire supporters, the dimensions of the wealth flowing to the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust are on a scale that beggars the imagination.
A speculation: By any chance, is the intensified interest related to extremely vast money laundering operations involving India and offshore tax havens? Are elements among Sathya Sai Baba’s key servitors – but by no means all of them – involved in money laundering?
See: Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia. Posted by Barry Pittard on June 7, 2007. In this article, I wrote:
His splashy-colored and sometimes vast buildings rise up at enormous cost. Sathya Sai Baba’s exchequer owes to vast donations to his Central Trust via his powerful organisation spanning more than 150 countries, and not least to the donations of the extremely wealthy – like James Sinclair, the Canadian cable and minerals magnate, Isaac Tigrett the American founder of the Hard Rock Café and House of Blues, the Rai family in India in steel and technology, and an astounding number of other hugely wealthy and influential individuals and families from many countries. Rediff News, July 06, 2005, reported:
“The Andhra Pradesh-based Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust is the largest recipient of foreign contributions. The Sathya Sai Trust received Rs 95 crore (Rs 950 million) during 2003-04″.
This figure – which is well over US $20 million – is but the officially declared one and does not account for contributions of those foreigners who donate when they are in India. One can observe how at Sai Baba’s establishments at Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, and Whitefield, Karnataka, in South India, the Indian and foreign mega business fraternity swap business cards – within what devotees regard as the so-called Holiest of Holy precincts! – and thereafter mutually thrive. At the Puttaparthi temple, on June 6, 1993) police executions took place in Sai Baba’s bedroom, with his close proximity and command of the situation.
A few years back, a remark to me of a well-wisher – who was formerly one of the top police chiefs in the world, and, more recently, a major international consultant in black money investigations – suggested to me that Sathya Sai Baba may be regarded as the “arch criminal of the century” (meaning the 20th century). The remark has nagged at me several times since. This is largely because a conflict between my perception that a) an ex Inspector-General of Police in one of the great democracies would not likely be given to hyperbole and b) that I couldn’t see how Sathya Sai Baba could operate at such a level of criminality. This was despite the fact that our huge documentation over the years (much of which we have not been able to disclose) has shown a great deal that is venal in Sathya Sai Baba and certain of his key servitors.
At the research stage of ‘The Secret Swami’, BBC researchers (Iris Asic, David Saville) were about to put me in touch with an international illicit money trails expert, Patrick Masters. However, right at that time, the thinking of the BBC team was swinging more to investigating issues which, in themselves, required enormous time and effort:
- the allegations from many parts of the world against Sathya of serial sexual molestation of boys and young men
- the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom on 6 June 1993
As readers can see by clicking on the following link, I mentioned something of this in my article: Fighting Multi Billion Corruption Takes Longer. Posted by Barry Pittard on March 10, 2007. I wrote:
Although we know too well that he has formidable protection from successive Indian governments, both State and Central, some of our personnel in India have sacrificially put themselves at considerable risk in raising the allegations with Indian authorities. The Sathya Sai Organization arms itself by aligning itself with the power-brokers of trade, finance and politics, both Indian and foreign, who ensure that the vast funds that pour to its Sathya Sai Central Trust are not affected. One of the foremost officials in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office asked Hon. Tony Colman, former MP for Putney to back off in regard to Sai Baba because the Blair government did not want to rock the boat with India. It is, therefore, a pity that the BBC’s intention to engage a financial investigator Patrick Masters was not able to occur in the several months of intense research for ‘The Secret Swami’. But then there were so many components that vied for attention. Again, always with the current consent of those involved, the details of such activities are ready to be shared with bona fide, notably trustworthy experts.
Much turmoil and wide public notice attend the drama of Sathya Sai Baba’s extreme nearness to death. Hitherto, almost entirely, the Indian media has grossly failed to publish anything seriously critical about Sathya Sai Baba and his outfit. Perhaps India’s fifth estate may now begin to make some sort of amends. And to do some substantive investigative research and hard-hitting reportage.
Or do they, like boutique newspaper proprietors and editors, and spotty, wetnosed cadet reporters, want – yet again – the foreign media to do it for them?!
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NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by the prominent British journalist Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Further Reading
THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S DECEPTION AND PROPAGANDA EXPOSED – By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard.
Part Two Three Four
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Espionage, Godmen, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Government Spies, Gurus, India, Intelligence, RAW (Reseach and Intelligence Wing, South Asia, South India, Spies | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 23, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba’s life hangs on by a thread no larger than the electrical impluses of his life support equipment. He is not rallying.
In the present climate of heightened enquiry, the links I give below may be useful for readers – especially those new to, or less familiar with, this blogsite. I shall give below a list of links that are being especially well-visited at this time at this blogsite ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba. As I can see from WordPress-provided internal statistical read-outs, these articles are getting solid ‘hits’. To put the matter mildly ….!
Over the next days, I intend to follow up with Parts 2 and 3.
Well may Sathya Sai Baba’s devotees – in particular, the profoundly non-consulted rank-and-file – begin to question what is happening. If they persist, they will find that appalling unaccountability and transparency have been happening all along.
Perhaps not since the heady days of considerable exposure commencing circa 2000 has there been such a ferment of questioning regarding the trustworthiness or otherwise of Sathya Sai Baba. Over the intervening years, former devotee analysts, researchers and commentators have worked extremely hard to gather documentation (often from official Puttaparthi sources). As well, there has been the work of supporting individuals and families worst devastated by their contact with that version of Sathya Sai Baba that the BBC named ‘The Secret Swami’.
Plenty of these usages of this blogsite originate from: * Google and other search engines. * Our allied blogsites and websites, such as Robert Priddy’s highly organized main website: Sathya Sai Baba In Word and Action and his blogsite: Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed and from the general website Exbaba.com which contains a huge amount of contribution by former devotees from many countries. * Important locations, especially for those who wish extensive, scholarly presentation are Brian Steel’s writings at: Sathya Sai Baba: The Guru Who Claimed to be God on Earth and Recent Research on Sathya Sai Baba and A Bibliography of Apologetic Writings. Many ’hits’ come from: * Individuals who search within this blogsite, ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’. * Surfing from the internal links – article to article. * No, doubt. information passed on by recommendation by word-of-mouth , internet chatroom discussions, emails, the various forms of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and so on.
I see a large inflow of ‘hits’ that I cannot explain by reference to other statistics. I am supposing that many people are referring each other via word-of-mouth. It was the internet enablement, beginning to develop exponentially from that time, which caused untold damage to the repute of the Sathya Sai Central Trust and the international Sathya Sai Organization. It is difficult to suppose other than that the exposure Sai Baba’s health woes have brought that these instrumentalities will receive another bout of powerful blows to both membership and wider public image.
Both Robert Priddy (retired academic University of Oslo and former longtime head of the Norwegian Sathya Sai Organization) and I (retired college teacher and former lecturer at the Sathya Sai College, 1978-79) are experiencing a huge and unabating upsurge of interest for many days – to be exact, since great turmoil and search have erupted following Sathya Sai Baba’s hospitalization and insertion of a pacemaker, on 28 March.
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Current In-Demand Barry Pittard Articles at ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba
BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip). The BBC shot this devastating exposure of Sathya Sai Baba fakery for its documentary ‘The Secret Swami’ at the Maha Shivarathri Festival at Puttaparthi (2004). The carelessness with which Sathya Sai Baba botched his trick may be explicable by reference to other serious mistakes, in the context of his declining mental and physical health. See: Sai Baba To Be Seen In Moon? But Where Was Moon? and Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions and When Disasters Overtake S. Sai Baba’s Promises and Sathya Sai Baba’s Tips To Keep Ageing Away and Ageing and collapse in Sai Baba’s health.
The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision. The BBC’s cameras at Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram at Puttaparthi in South India catch the pomp, circumstance, opulence and the highly stage-managed atmosphere of the crowded Mahasivaratri festival, February 2004. India’s most famous (and controversial) ‘Godman’ has promised a great miracle, the materialization from within his stomach via his mouth of a pure gold lingam (a Hindu cosmic symbol of creation) the size of a generous egg, in full public view. Viewers hoping to see this spectacle will not be disappointed – but they will see the sham in full close-up.
The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision. The BBC’s cameras at Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram at Puttaparthi in South India catch the pomp, circumstance, opulence and the highly stage-managed atmosphere of the crowded Mahasivaratri festival, February 2004. India’s most famous (and controversial) ‘Godman’ has promised a great miracle, the materialization from within his stomach via his mouth of a pure gold lingam (a Hindu cosmic symbol of creation) the size of a generous egg, in full public view. Viewers hoping to see this spectacle will not be disappointed – but they will see the sham in full close-up.
Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Minister of Propaganda’ – Dr G. Venkataraman. More detailed information to that below is found in the article ‘The Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed’. This four-part piece was co-authored by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. It responds to points Dr G. Venkataraman raised against a number of exposure activities by globally networked former followers of Sathya Sai Baba. (See too: Dr G. Venkataraman, Sathya Sai Baba’s Nuclear Boon Companion.
V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings. Many Indian journalists and editors and others know of the profound extent of the cover up by the then powerful Home Minister S.B. Chavan, and central, Andhra Pradesh State and local governments. It is a pity that very few have had the courage to speak out publicly on the issue, as has former Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary V.P.B. Nair, who was in office at the time of the killings. It is a sad commentary that very few had the courage in speaking out displayed by those such as Nair and B. Premanand. See transcript of Nair’s statement to the BBC HERE.
Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions. A decade ago, Sathya Sai Baba informed his devotees that his aircraft is about to take off to bring his mission to the whole world. That this was stated in no metaphorical sense is well-indicated, for he has told various of his key leaders that he would visit Rome, the UK., Malaysia, southern California. We know that the wealthy Robert Baskin, a key lawyer to the Sathya Sai Organization, has bought a luxury mansion in southern California, equipping it to receive a visit from Sai Baba. See: Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit. The late Howard Murphet, Australian journalist and author of best-selling books on Sai Baba, with whom he was close for years, wrote: “Swami once, a good many years ago told me that He would not travel abroad until His own house was in order, by that He means India, of course”. Source: Online version, “The Lights of Home”.
Sai Baba No Shiva. Gold From His Gut Is Regurgitator’s Trick. There had been, especially from 2000, tremendous international pressure for Sai Baba and his worldwide Sathya Sai Organization. (See, towards the end of the article – Sathya Sai Baba’s Deputy Head, Dr G. Venkataraman, Speaks of “Mr Idi Amin” - a number of heavy stressors that were being applied by globally networked former devotees known as ‘the exposé). One outcome was the display of an anger Sai Baba has long kept behind-the-scenes. Bad cracks began to appear in the Sai monolith, and the world began to peep through. In a Christmas 2000 discourse, in which peace and goodwill to all men were remarkable for their absence, Sai Baba repeatedly pounded his lectern, denouncing his accuses as demons and Judases, and vaunting his accomplisments (even though, contrary to his assertions, far from unique), prompting The Times of India, December 26, 2000, to headline: Sai Baba Lashes Out At His Detractors.
Sathya Sai Baba’s Slurred Speech Due To Old Age. ‘Eenadu’ News Report. Telegu Press Report Cites ‘Old Age’ Signs In Sai Baba. ‘Eenadu’, with over 10 million daily readers in Andhra Pradesh, the state of India in which Sathya Sai Baba lives, reports a speech in the guru. See also: Sathya Sai Baba Tells Untruths About His Health? and: Sathya Sai Baba’s Hip Joint Injury and Surgery – 2003. What are the actual facts of the matter? and: Sathya Sai Baba Continues To Ail.
‘SECRET SWAMI’ ARTICLES. Busy journalists, scholars, institutional researchers, and the probing reader in general can do with shortcuts. The piece: Barry Pittard’s Guide To His Articles On The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Exposing Sai Baba) Posted by Barry Pittard on June 6, 2010 – is a guide to my articles written across some six years on the BBC’s one-hour documentary, The Secret Swami (2004) which, according to the BBC itself, has been aired in some two hundred countries. The articles referred to in this guide are those mentioned below. To give enquirers – in one fell swoop as it were - the opportunity to view the scope of these articles in prospectus, the guide has key quotations from each of the articles.
Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard. Dr G.Venkataraman is about as close to Sathya Sai Baba as it is possible to get. His worldwide brief as his international broadcaster and his deputy chairmanship of the Sathya Sai Organization makes it relevant to look at his performance. A detailed analyis of Venkatarman at work is found in Robert Priddy’s and Barry Pittard’s jointly authored, four-part article ‘The Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed’. To get direct documentation of Venkataraman’s machinations in concert with the Vajpayee government and the then Director of UNESCO (which were exposed by the BBC’s David Saville, although this part was pushed out by other foci of the television documentary, along too with Saville’s verification of the U.S. State Department’s that Sathya Sai Baba was, in fact, the person they had been investigating in regard to sexual molestation of US boys and young men), see: The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory, and: U.S. State Department Named Sathya Sai Baba To BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’.
NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by the prominent British journalist Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
‘Marie Claire’ Magazine: April 2011. Sathya Sai Baba Still Further Exposed
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Further Reading
THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S DECEPTION AND PROPAGANDA EXPOSED
(Part One) – By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. And Part Two Three Four
Sathya Sai Baba Expose News Extensive website – testimonies, articles, videos
Allegations concerning Sathya Sai Baba A wide range of serious exposé articles.
Ongoing Investigations into Claims and Realities Surrounding Sathya Sai Baba – a thoroughly documented scholarly website by Brian Steel.
Call for Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba – Barry Pittard
Sathya Sai Baba (and Wikipedia) – website of author Kevin R.D. Shepherd
Sathya Sai Baba – The Truth
Italian ExBaba exposé website http://www.exbaba.it
Scandinavian Sai Baba exposé websites Swedish Danish, and Norwegian (Norsk)
Other European languages German exposé website – Polish – Russian.
Exposé in Spanish and second site in Polish
Dr. Dale Beyerstein’s study of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims and ‘miracles’
Kevin R.D. Shepherd blog and The Sai `Baba Movement
Robert C Priddy philosophy and religious issues web log Breaking the spell of religious/’spiritual’ superstitions
Website informing about sects, including the Sathya Sai Baba cult
FRENCH WEB LOG Marc-André
Belief and Sathya Sai Baba: Avatar or Imposter-Trickster?
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Barry Pittard, Cults, Gethin Chamberlain (British Journalist), Godmen, Gurus, India, magic tricks, Miracles, Robert Priddy, Sects, South Asia, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Organization | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 24, 2011
Cited several times in the Indian media’s sudden, unaccustomed, large coverage of Sathya Sai Baba, are accounts of “eminent” Sai devotees stating that he will not die because he has promised to remain in the physical body until he is 96 years.
Outside India, the notion of outstanding professionals giving credence to such way-out beliefs must seem strange. For the facts to sink in to a foreign brain’s grappling hooks, one has to live and work in India. One has to experience at first hand the sheer extent of superstition from top to bottom in that society of such mutual kindness and cruelty, beauty and tragedy. Valiantly, many Indians struggle on behalf of sense and reason, but what they face is formidable in the extreme.
The Times of India reports:
Sai Baba’s devotees believe he will live for 96 years
IANS, Apr 21, 2011, 03.45pm IST
HYDERABAD: Though the condition of spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba is worsening, some of his devotees are confident he will recover and live for 96 years as he had once predicted.
A group of eminent devotees, including former judges, police officers and physicians, believe that the 85-year-old Sathya Sai Baba’s present condition is because he has taken on himself the sufferings of one of his devotees.
For decades, Sathya Sai Baba’s constant evangel has been for his followers not, except for a few concessions to practicality, to regard the body – a decaying, temporary encasement. In hundreds of his discourses, he has told them not to become attached to his, or indeed, to anyone’s bodily form. Why, then, the overwhelming scenes of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth?
And why are so many of his followers now – in being so disrespectful of life and limb with all their intemperate milling and thronging at Puttaparthi – causing such trouble to the local and state police? According to official statements, there are some 2000 police engaged in crowd control and other security duties at Puttaparthi, with another 2000 or so on standby. This is in addition to Sathya Sai Baba’s large cadres of well-drilled Seva Dal (service volunteers).
One may ask, too, why such unseemly arguments attend the deliberations among some of his closest servitors?
And how, given such scenes of chaos, his devotees could ever have supposed that, within his own lifetime, as he has on various occasions promised, he could ever transform the entire world, bring it to his feet? For he, relatively, despite all the social good works of his organized followers, has been hardly able to apply a hoe or a rake to his own backyard.
My colleague Robert Priddy has just received this note from one who is well-connected, and long known to us:
“As of 4 pm ( April 23rd)…the news coming through is the SB trust, the AP govt administration and members of the SB immediate family have been in an important meeting since 11 AM….to “discuss the health status of Sathya Sai , to decide future course of action and matters of the Sai Baba trust etc”…more than 20 members are said to have been in the meeting which had adjourned at 2PM for lunch and yet to reconvene. Significantly, Ratnakar was absent in the meeting, and the official reason is he had a “knee problem”. I am reliably informed that the compromise formula is not working out, and that Ratnakar has been legally advised by his counsel not to attend the meeting and be any party to any resolution passed…in view of the fact he can legally exercise his control over the trust at a later date, and should not be party to anything now either in his capacity of the legal heir of sb or as a SB trust member. I am informed that this is delaying any “announcement”….and a deadlock has been reached. Apparently, Ratnakar wants 2 trusts to be formed, one dealing with the Ashram itself, the samadhi of Sai Baba and all activities there..and another dealing with the sb educational, medical and all other activities. He wants to be exclusively in charge of the Ashram/shrine/samadhi activities, while he is willing to concede the 2nd to other trust members, provided he still remains on the board. The SB trust is not inclined to accept this formula, and are trying for a compromise solution without dividing anything. Hence the deadlock. the SB trust has issued a message that they would address the media meet later today.”
Reading both the note above, and then the report below, perhaps there is no need to offer any prizes for guessing the identity of the individual whom the Indian newspaper The Economic Times refers to, when it states: “The presence of one family member of the Baba will complicate matters”.
Sathya Sai Baba’s condition deteriorates as multiple organs stop responding
ET Bureau, Apr 22, 2011, 08.16am IST
The 85-year old spiritual guru, who counted many powerful politicians and bureaucrats among his devotees, was admitted last month to the super-speciality hospital run by his trust. With Baba’s condition not letting up, fears have grown of a battle for control at the mega-rich Sri Satya Sai Baba Trust, which controls a number of hospitals, universities and other institutions. The trust claims to have operations in more than 166 countries.
While there is a suggestion that the government must take over the functioning of the trust, many devotees are opposed to it, saying the activities of the trust will suffer. Former Supreme Court chief justice P.N. Bhagwati, chartered accountant Indulal Shah, former central vigilance commissioner SV Giri, WS Industries chairman V. Srinivasan and Sai Baba’s nephew J Ratnakar are members of the trust.
Reports suggest that Bhagwati had recently met the Prime Minister to brief him of the activities of the trust. But in the absence of a clearly identified successor to Baba as the head of the trust, many fear that infighting will break out. The presence of one family member of the Baba will complicate matters.
Born Satyanarayana Raju in November 1926, the Baba has attracted legions of devotees around the world. He was known for materializing holy ash and small objects such as gold rings, coins and chains—a subject of much myth and controversy. While Baba’s charitable work and his ability to give solace to millions brought fame and following of powerful people, Baba’s career has also been daunted by allegations of sexual abuse—subject of a controversial 2004 BBC documentary titled The Secret Swamy.
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NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by the prominent British journalist Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Further Reading
THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S DECEPTION AND PROPAGANDA EXPOSED (Part One) – By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. And Part Two Three Four
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, Godmen, Gurus, India, Indian media, Indian Police, Indian press, Sects, South Asia, South India | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 24, 2011
SATHYA SAI BABA DEAD THIS MORNING ….
Sathya Sai Baba died today, Sunday morning. A Puttaparthi hospital official says:
“Sai Baba is no more with us physically. He breathed his last at 7:40am and died due to cardio-respiratory failure.”
The self-described fullest incarnation of God ever to visit the earth has been clearly documented as saying that he would live until circa 2022, aged 96. But 85 years of age cannot, by any miracle, be said to be 96. There are his well-documented promises that he would rule the world before leaving it. That he would avert the worst calamity mankind has ever faced. That he would usher in a long ‘Golden Age of Sai’. These and other declarations have clearly not even begun to look at all likely. See: my article: Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions.
The late Howard Murphet, an Australian journalist, and author of best-selling hagiorgraphical books on Sai Baba, with whom he was close for years, wrote:
“Swami once, a good many years ago told me that He would not travel abroad until His own house was in order, by that He means India, of course”. Source: Online version, “The Lights of Home”.
In a February 1 16, 2007 ‘divine discourse’, Sai baba said:
“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly”.
Godman proposes, God disposes, it would seem.
Sathya Sai Baba was perhaps the most wealthy and politically powerful in India’s long history. As of today, the world shall have just have to battle things out without him.
I was a faith-smitten devotee of 25 years, and a lecturer in his Whitefield College (via Bangalore, South India) – 1978-9), at the ashram where Sai Baba mainly lived in those days. I taught the 3 years of the degree course, a source of greatly happy memories. I have him to thank for that, and for his protection of my innovations in what was a very conservative, rote-dominated learning milieu. He showed me other kindnesses, too, which I shall always treasure as I do my own breath.
But October 1999 marked the beginning of my intense and far-reaching investigation of profoundly disturbing accounts from around the world. Until then, I thought he would usher in a spiritual and social revolution, the like of which the world had never seen. See:
It must seem odd to anyone but a faith-smitten devotee, but here were just some of the assurances he gave:
“Usually old people have wrinkles on their faces … I do not have any signs of old age. (loud applause). There is not a single wrinkle on My face”. (The official monthly official journal: Sanathana Sarathi, October, 2002)
“I do not suffer from any kind of disease because there is no trace of greed in Me. That is why I am always healthy…” (Sanathana Sarathi September 2001, page 257f) 186)
“Desire to which you are too fondly attached breeds anger and its nefarious brood. Discard it and you can have perpetual youth! The Aanandha that the Aathman can manifest will keep age and ageing away!” (Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Prashanthi Nilayam, 22 Feb 1971. Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust.)
“Millions and Millions” of Devotees! But Has Anyone Done A Proper Head Count?
His devotees – very inattentively followed by many duty-derelict sections of an unquestioning media – speak, as did a Sathya Sai Central Trust bulletin of only days ago, of “millions and millions” of devotees around the world. See: Sathya Sai Trust Officials Say Sai Baba Out of Hospital Soon. Posted by Barry Pittard on April 16, 2011. This statement appeared in the long and anxiously awaited “Important Press Release by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust”, Friday, April 15, 2011. This read, in part:
“His residence is being got ready in all aspects to receive Him and provide Him the required level of follow up medical care as also emergency services.
…. The Trustees are gratified to note the spontaneous upsurge of prayers, bhajans, namasmarana, candle light processions of millions and millions of His devotees all over the globe for His very early and total recovery”.
As anyone in any virtually any street around the world knows perfectly well, this talk of “millions and millions” is a nonsense, where faith and imagination far outrun reality. Let Sathya Sai devotees provide some facts, figures, television footage of these alleged remarkable turnouts round the world. Or ask all the candle manufacturers if they ran out of candles owing to extreme demand by these candle-carrying “millions and millions” of Sathya Sai devotees ….
Let anyone in countries round the world stop any passer-by and ask whether they have heard of Sathya Sai Baba, and they will, frequently, get blank looks for answers. On the other hand, ask people if they know of Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela or Prince William and his wife-to-be Kate Middleton, and one will fare a great deal better.
Will One of So Many Failed Prophecies Fare Any Better With His Foretellings Yet To Be Tested?
A Times of India’s report hands us the excellent opportunity to do a countdown for the next 40 days – for that is the amount of time to be taken for the fulfilment of his reported prophecy of returning from the dead.
PUTTAPARTHI: Did Sathya Sai Baba have premonition 10 years ago that he would fall seriously ill? Yes, claim his followers. According to them, Sai Baba had predicted in 2000 that he would be indisposed for 40 days but would come back strong to give darshan to his devotees. This was revealed in a book ‘Tapovanam — Bhagawan Sri Sathya Saibaba Satcharitra Nityaparaya-nam’ in which the author Jandhyala Venkateswara Sastry has written an essay on Baba’s ill-health. Sai Baba had told his students at his Sai Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal in 2000: ”Though most of my disciples fall at my feet, they don’t know my real value. A time would come when I would vanish and take a walk across the skies. During that phase, my body would face serious health problems and devotees would be desperately praying for my recovery.”
But can we take his word? See: Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions. In fact, many are his failed predictions, and broken promises of miraculous cure. In his February 1 16, 2007 (so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sathya Sai baba said: “I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.” See, too: Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit
Or for further solemn unreality, read and account of what one of India’s most powerful Hindu nationalist leaders, Ashok Singhal, who has an international profile in the Hindu world, told an assembly of political and religious luminaries in Delhi of a prophecy he says Sathya Sai Baba shared with him: ‘World Hindu’ by 2030. VHP’s Singhal Reports Sathya Sai Baba Told Him
Below is Tanya Datta’s obituary. She was part of the BBC team which made ‘The Secret Swami’. See my view as having been closely involved with documentation and international coordination of primary and other witnesses in the making of this 2004, hour-long documentary: The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision . See too Robert Priddy’s Indisputable facts about Sathya Sai Baba by BBC. And for a man upon whom many duties will now focus, see: Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard.
Further Reading
My obituries for two men of remarkable courage, compassion and determination in standing up to the execrations and, indeed, serious defamations of many Sathya Sai devotees from the most prominent to the rank-and-file:
Posted by Barry Pittard on November 18, 2009
Posted by Barry Pittard on October 6, 2009
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South Asia
24 April 2011 Last updated at 05:03 GMT
Obituary: Indian guru Sai Baba
By Tanya Datta Documentary maker
Sri Satya Sai Baba, India’s revered spiritual guru who counted presidents, prime ministers, judges and generals amongst his millions of followers around the world, has died at the age of 84.
Until the last, he was a man who inspired passionately conflicting emotions (as I discovered when I made a BBC investigative documentary about him in 2004 called Secret Swami).
To his devotees, Sai Baba was an avatar, an incarnation of God in human form, who appeared on Earth to preach his inspirational message in one of India’s poorest corners.
To his critics, he was a fraudster dogged for years by controversial allegations of sexual abuse yet protected from prosecution by virtue of his powerful political sway.
Whatever he was, there was no doubt that over time he rose in prominence to become India’s premier “god-man”, eclipsing the likes of Maharishi and Shri Rajneesh who had first drawn Westerners east in the Sixties and Seventies.
A petite, softly spoken man dressed in full length saffron robes and perpetually sporting a trademark afro hairstyle, Sai Baba’s appeal was not limited to Western hippies but cut across Indian society from its lowest to highest echelons as well as spreading to many other countries beyond.
‘Immaculate conception’Satya Sai Baba was born Sathyanarayana Raju on 23 November 1926 in the remote village of Puttaparthi in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, although like many born at this time, there is no proof of his date of birth.
Stories abound of the early signs of his divinity.
It is said that his mother claimed her son was born out of an immaculate conception just as Jesus Christ had been, another messiah who Sai Baba often identified himself with.
On another occasion, he was alleged to have survived a scorpion bite and on his recovery, was miraculously able to speak Sanskrit, a language he did not know before. Indeed, throughout his childhood, he was said to have been abnormally gifted in artistic pursuits such as music, dance, drama and writing.
Sai Baba had a huge following
When he was 13 years old, the young boy announced to his family that he was the incarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba, a 19th century Indian holyman who had been equally venerated by Hindus and Muslims alike. Changing his name was a key spiritual metamorphosis.
The teenage Sai Baba soon began to attract followers and by 1950, had constructed an ashram called Prasanthi Nilayam (Abode of Peace) near his village to accommodate them.
It heralded the start of the transformation of Puttaparthi into a Sai Baba wonderland spread over some 10 square kilometres; the vast complex of hotels, resorts, university buildings, speciality hospital, airport and enormous ashram thronged with devotees that I witnessed while making the documentary.
Non-dogmaticPart of Sai Baba’s huge global popularity may be explained by his non-dogmatic, non-doctrinal approach to spirituality.
In contrast to many sects, followers were not required to give up their previous religious beliefs as the guru stated that he believed in the one God that lay behind all religious paths.
Certainly, Sai Baba inspired love and admiration.
During our time spent filming at the ashram, devotees from around the world would volunteer stories about how Sai Baba had visited them in a dream or had called to them though moments of curious serendipity.
In addition, his mystical ability to manifest vibhuti (holy ash), food as well as jewellery and watches out of thin air was often cited as further proof of his divinity and akin to the ‘miracles’ ascribed to other past prophets.
His opponents, however, refuted this to me.
In the Secret Swami, I was shown how these manifestations could easily be explained by illusionists’ techniques and sleight of hand tricks.
A hospital in Puttaparthi set up by Sai Baba
For decades, various scientists, rationalists and magicians have in turn, attempted to challenge the guru to perform his ‘miracles’ under controlled conditions.
Sai Baba always refused to submit to these tests, once saying: “Science must confine its inquiry only to things belonging to the human senses, while spiritualism transcends the senses. If you want to understand the nature of spiritual power you can do so only through the path of spirituality and not science.”
Sexual Abuse
The most damning allegations against the “god-man”, however, concern the sexual abuse of young boys and male adults during private interviews with him.
Damaging rumours have circulated since the seventies of the guru’s sexual exploits but have always been dismissed out of hand by the tightly controlled Sai Baba organisation.
We interviewed the Rahm family in America who had been Sai Baba devotees for years. Both father and son stated that they had been subjected to Sai Baba rubbing oil on their genitals.
“He took me aside,” said Alaya Rahm, “put the oil on his hands, told me to drop my pants and rubbed my genitals with oil. I was really taken aback.”
Sai Baba counted former Indian prime ministers as his followers
Dr Michael Goldstein, chairman of the international Sai Baba organisation, admitted he had heard rumours, but told us that he did not believe them. He said: “My heart and my conscience tell me that it is not possible.”
Sai Baba was never investigated on this issue. All attempts to prosecute him failed.
Nor was there any satisfactory resolution to the gruesome killing of four male devotees in 1993 who allegedly entered Sai Baba’s bedroom, armed with knives.
The police claimed they had been shot in self-defence.
The lack of any legal proceedings against the guru was perhaps not surprising in light of the level of influence that he commanded.
A previous Indian prime minister, Atal Vajpayee, once issued a letter on his official notepaper calling the attacks on Sai Baba “wild, reckless and concocted”.
Since 2005, Sai Baba’s health had been deteriorating. Although he once predicted he would die in his mid-90s, he also claimed he could choose the moment of his death.
In death as in life, he remained an enigma to the last.
Tanya Dutt is a London-based radio and television broadcaster and writer. She made Secret Swami, an investigative documentary on Sai Baba for BBC Two.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Godmen, Gurus, India, Indian media, Puttaparthi, Sathya Sai Baba Dead, Sects, South Asia, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Sri Sathya Sai Organization, The Secret Swami (BBC Television documentary on Sai Baba) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 25, 2011
• New-age icon dies of heart and breathing problems
• Reputation marred by sexual abuse allegations
By Jason Burke in Delhi guardian.co.uk, Sunday 24 April 2011 19.46 BST
Guardian: Sai Baba had an estimated six million followers, but critics said his ‘miracles’ were simple magic tricks. Photograph: AP
But though revered by millions around the world as a living god, he was a controversial figure, criticised by some as a fraud protected by political influence. His later years were dogged by allegations of sexual abuse.
Comment: For backround, see:
Paul Lewis’s article in The Guardian (UK)
on Duke of Edinburgh Awards
Guardian: Among Sai Baba’s estimated six million followers are hundreds of top Indian politicians, industrialists, tycoons, Bollywood stars and sportsmen such as cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Overseas, they include Goldie Hawn and Isaac Tigrett, the founder of Hard Rock café. Sarah Ferguson has visited one of his ashrams.
Comment: It is refreshing to see a more conservative head count of Sathya Sai Baba followers than e.g., fifty million. But no bona fide researcher has ever, in my or our several avid researchers’ wide Sai-Baba related research experience, been able to come up with the small matter of what ‘head’ counted all the millions of heads. See: Many Contradictions In Sathya Sai Baba Official Literature and: Sathya Sai Baba’s Gross Exaggerations of Puttaparthi Crowd Numbers.
Is this sort of estimate very much a ‘guesstimate’? A matter of the ‘gut’ feeling of devotees? A gutstimate! If so, whose gut? Even the figure of one hundred million has been mentioned. An example of this occurred in a high-profile talk aimed at thousands of devotees. If some rank-and-file devotee made such a claim, we might think: a simple-minded excess of devotion. But here, making a grossly unsupportable statement was:
Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand, of Akansas, USA, MBBS, D.Phil., FAAP, FCCM, FRCPCH, Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, Neurobiology & Developmental Sciences UAMS College of Medicine; Board of Directors, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Anand, for long well-known in official Sathya Sai Baba affairs in the US, was a medical advisor to George Bush when he was US President. See: Sai Baba Is God Says Top George Bush Doctor. It is the constant, most irresponsible repetition of such figures which leads to the sort of reportage we find in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph (UK), which mentions “up to fifty million devotees”.
Guardian: Since Sai Baba founded his first permanent meditation centre more than 60 years ago, a vast construction programme funded by donations has converted the remote village where he was born into a thriving small city with dozens of temples, its own 220-bed specialised hospital offering free treatment, a university and an airport where charter planes bringing devotees from around the world arrive every day.
Comment: The airport detail is very outdated. In the article: Sathya Sai Baba: opulence, show, extravagance and waste, Robert Priddy writes:
The Sathya Sai International Airport, Puttaparthi: Nonetheless, in such a desperately poor State as Andhra Pradesh, it seems very wasteful, as did the airport beside it which stood unused for years and is still used less than ca. 5% of each week. V.K. Narasimhan was present at the interview in 1990 where airport authorities were present. He told how SSB convinced Indian Airport authorities to finance and build the large (allegedly Jumbo jet capacity) airport near Prashanthi Nilayam, telling them that they would earn 10 lakhs of rupees in the first year. No paying passengers even flew in or out during the first year. The frequency of traffic, at best about 2-3 flights of medium jets per week for several years at periods – and when SSB was in residence – ensured that earnings were minimal and well below costs. It was virtually closed often in the 1990s and it hardly justifies its existence at all nowadays. It is truly hard to rationalise such a huge waste of funds in such an impoverished land! The reason can only be Sai Baba’s patently obvious desire for ‘name and fame’. See Sathya Sai Airport “white elephant” for sale!
Guardian: Volunteers working with Sai Baba’s NGOs have effectively delivered disaster relief and undertaken large-scale developmental works that have brought water or sanitation to hundreds of thousands of people.
Comment: None should doubt the devotion of a great many Sathya Sai devotees to service activities. But there is a fallacy – heard repeatedly from many Sai devotees who admit that he routinely had, among what countless communities would regard as terrible, ethical and legal abuses of power, sexual relations with boys and young men. Their position is similar to that of close associate of Sai Baba, one-time billionaire Isaac Tigrett who told the BBC that he did not doubt the truth of the sexual allegations but this did not prevent his devotion and fealty to his guru. Devotees and others, mindless of how serious a crime sexual abuse is, say: But look at all the good works he does!
Guardian: There are thought to be more than 1,200 centres of his Sathya Sai organisation in over a hundred countries around the world.
Comment: How, then, does the international Sathya Sai Organization, manage to fit the “millions and millions” into all the halls, and temples, and houses where Sathya Sai bhajans are typically held? It seems like herds of elephants pressed into a sardine can.
Guardian: Sai Baba did not appoint any successor to run his sprawling spiritual and temporal empire, currently run by a trust, after his death. The local Economic Times newspaper estimated its worth at up to £5bn though admitted no accurate valuation was possible.
Comment: Refreshing to find acknowledgement that “no accurate valuation was possible”.
Guardian: “Some people out of their mean-mindedness are trying to tarnish the image of Sai Baba. I am not after name and fame. So, I do not lose anything by their false allegations. My glory will go on increasing day by day,” the guru told followers in 2000.
Comment: Sai Baba was anything but calm and happy about the upsurge of revelation alleging his abuses. An historic watershed allowed word to get out as never hitherto. Sai Baba’s and his cult’s increasingly top-down, authoritarian style of operation, and the scandals that the top leadership were previously able to suppress, faced a great dilemma. This owed prfoundly to the exponential uprise of the internet around this time. In a Christmas 2000 discourse, in which peace and goodwill to all men were palpable for their absence, Sai Baba repeatedly pounded his lectern, denouncing his accuses as demons and Judas’s, saying that there could be no salvation for people who speak against him, and vaunting his accomplishments (even though, contrary to his assertions, far from unique when one thinks of the countless great charitable organizations in the world), prompting The Times of India, December 26, 2000, to headline: Sai Baba Lashes Out At His Detractors.
Guardian: In 1993, six people died violently in the spiritual leader’s private rooms. The incident has never been fully explained. One possibility is a dispute between followers over money.
Comment: A source of mine, a friend of the boys whom the Puttaparthi police shot down in Sai Baba’s bedroom told me (and, via a particularly eminent elder of his, to the BBC) that the actual wish of the boys, in their confused state, was to plead with Sai Baba to stop using boys for his sexual pleasure. The police action was, said V.P.B. Nair, a former Home Secretary of the state of Andhra Pradesh, a case of “cold-blood murder”, and a profound cover by local, state and central government up of police (CBI) and other evidence. See: Will V.P.B. Nair Keep His Word To BBC On Sathya Sai Baba? and: V.P.B. Nair Told BBC Sai Baba Bedroom Killings Were “Coldblooded Murder” and: V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings and: Indian Ex Top Official Dogs Sai Baba On BBC. ‘Cold-blooded Murder’
Guardian: His followers claim that, as he has died earlier than foreseen, he could return as early as next year.
Comment: Heaven knows! Not nearly so long, according to some reports. Like this one, as reported yesterday in the Times of India:
Baba had said he would come back stronger, claims book
TNN | Apr 24, 2011, 03.38am IST
PUTTAPARTHI: Did Sathya Sai Baba have premonition 10 years ago that he would fall seriously ill? Yes, claim his followers. According to them, Sai Baba had predicted in 2000 that he would be indisposed for 40 days but would come back strong to give darshan to his devotees. This was revealed in a book ‘Tapovanam — Bhagawan Sri Sathya Saibaba Satcharitra Nityaparaya-nam’ in which the author Jandhyala Venkateswara Sastry has written an essay on Baba’s ill-health. Sai Baba had told his students at his Sai Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal in 2000: ”Though most of my disciples fall at my feet, they don’t know my real value. A time would come when I would vanish and take a walk across the skies. During that phase, my body would face serious health problems and devotees would be desperately praying for my recovery. The Baba also goes on to say, according to the writer, that several gun-toting cops would be guarding the premises where he would be hospitalised. As Saturday marked the 27th day of his stay in the SSSIHMS, many devotees said Baba would soon give darshan. “Time and place cannot hold me captive. I decide when to come back. If I want I can go anywhere and come back any time,” he is said to have told students during the discourse. He had said that he would live for 96 years in his present avatar. After 40 days, he would come back. Just watch out,” a devotee said even as he prayed for the Baba.
Comment: Since when were gun-toting cops NOT around Sai Baba?! See:
Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions. “I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.” See, too: Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit. Or sample the account of one of India’s most powerful Hindu nationalist leaders, Ashok Singhal, who has an international profile in the Hindu world, told an assembly of political and religious luminaries in Delhi of a prophecy he says Sathya Sai Baba shared with him: ‘World Hindu’ by 2030. VHP’s Singhal Reports Sathya Sai Baba Told Him
Below is Tanya Datta’s obituary. She was part of the BBC team which made ‘The Secret Swami’. See my view as having been closely involved with documentation and international coordination of primary and other witnesses in the making of this 2004, hour-long documentary: The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision . See too Robert Priddy’s Indisputable facts about Sathya Sai Baba by BBC. And for a man upon whom many duties will now focus, see: Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard.
……………………………………………………………………..
NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by the prominent British journalist Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Further Reading
THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S DECEPTION AND PROPAGANDA EXPOSED (Part One) – By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. And Part Two Three Four
—————————–
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, Gethin Chamberlain (British Journalist), Godmen, Gurus, India, Indian media, Sects, South Asia, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Sri Sathya Sai Organization | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 26, 2011
I dearly wish that, with the great many thousands of visitors to this blogsite and that of Robert Priddy, there will be those who can come out with their experiences of sexual and many other forms of abuse at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba.
There is something dangerous – often unconsciously so – about the burying of terrible secrets. Secrets – secretly – undermine and erode, and play out in symptoms that look very different to their fearful and disruptive causes. Relationships, jobs, and personal happiness and effectiveness are typically damaged.
However, it is with a marked caveat that I speak of coming out. I think, for example, of the acute situation in India, where I lived for several years, and therefore have some sense of how the extended family works, and the effects that speaking out can have in multiple destructive ways, including marriage, economic stability of whole family groupings and so forth. What is more, India is not a society where people can speak out on the most personal issues, such as on Oprah Winfrey, Dr Phil, and many other such television shows.
My caveat is this. That it is of prime importance for anyone who intends to come out with their painful, and sometimes tragic, accounts of coming to grief with Sathya Sai Baba and his cult to get the most ethical, sensitive legal, psychological and emotional support working for oneself.
For those who wish to undertake any such venture in regard to Sathya Sai Baba, our very experienced, credentialed mental health professionals can endeavor, through their own apex, professionally chartered bodies and their further resources, to see that those in need are in good hands. Our former devotee workers work with the same principles of compassionate service that they did in the many decades in the Sathya Sai Organization. (A fact profoundly dishonored by its leaders and many in the rank-and-file who have attempted to obliterate facts from their memories)
Mental health professionals who have excellent qualifications are welcome to contact Robert Priddy and myself, and we shall be glad to provide contact for you with those professionals already knowledgeable of Sathya Sai Baba-related issues in counseling settings.
I should add that we know that, in surfacing issues of various types of abuse, there can be keen issues between directions counseling and law make take. Sometimes, they may be able to work well together; but there are views that they do not and never can. As elsewhere in life, bewildering crossroads can be reached, such as whether an individual had best take the route of debriefing with a lawyer or e.g., or a psychologist, psychotherapist, etc., or combine the services. Perhaps something has to be left up to the researches and determinations of those who feel harmed. (I think ‘survivors’ is often a more useful and proactive word than ‘victims’, though no word does all that much justice).
One of the lessons those centrally engaged in the exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult, such as Robert Priddy and I, Barry Pittard, have had to learn, until it becomes part of the fibre of our being, is of the extreme fragility (often far from obvious) of those whose privacy has been sorely abused. And who have been still further abused by what we view as the international Sathya Sai Organization’s extraordinary dereliction of duty of care.
It is too easy to think that because a person may appear psychologically robust that they are therefore robust. But what happens to that robustness when, as horribly often in court, a person who claims to have been abused. Many legal and mental health records exist where victims, say, of rape make statements of the sort: It was like being raped a second time over. Or what happens when, with the knowledge and participation, in the background, of highly placed leaders in the Sathya Sai Organization defamatory attacks are launched on those who have spoken out. And yet who are known, and have long been known, in their wider communities, professions and trades, to be persons of singular decency and service to others?
It strikes me that history will not look kindly on those countless Sai devotees who have so extensively and blindly failed to follow those teachings that their master has taught in common with those ethics enshrined in all the great systems of values.
Here is the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ video clip where Tanya Datta interviews Mark Roche, long respected by many Sathya Sai devotees. At the time of his interview he was in his 60′s and currently a psychotherapist in the USA:
10.24.10 Aston Santa Monica, California
10.24.16 Music
10.24.28 Tanya Datta: Mark Roche devoted twenty-five years of his life to Sai Baba. He first heard of him in nineteen sixty-nine and soon joined the local centre in California. The guru’s message was the big attraction.
10.24.40 Music
10.24.44 Aston MARK ROCHE: The teachings themselves were very universal and adopted the attitude of embracing all other religions so that it wasn’t a matter of this religion opposed to that, that you had to leave whatever you were in to be associated with Sai Baba, it was something that just be a better Christian or a better Jew or a better whatever it is rather than necessarily having to leave it mixed with the fact that the person who is the head of that is claiming to be God himself.
10.25.12 Music
10.25.15 Tanya Datta: It’s the special moment when God calls. And Mark couldn’t believe his luck when he was summoned for a private interview. But he emerged shocked and confused. Just like the Rahms, Sai Baba had oiled his genitals. Two years later Mark was called for an audience again.
10.25.37 Mark Roche: He kept saying stuff like that I’m giving you a great chance, millions want to touch the feet, you know, I’m giving you whole body, this is great chance, this is great chance. Then he went over to a different of the building and pulled up his dhoti, which is Indian garment kind of thing and exposed himself and sort of indicated that I was supposed to put his penis in my mouth, which, feeling intimidated and confused and all that, I did. And although it didn’t seem right to me but it just seemed like what I was supposed to do.
10.26.12 Music
10.26.15 Tanya Datta: Why would God want to put his penis in your mouth?
10.26.20 Mark Roche: Got me.
10.26.21 Music
10.26.24 Tanya Datta: One of the things that a lot of the abuse victims we’ve talked to have said, is that Sai Baba does these genital oilings because it’s part of Hinduism. Have you ever heard anything like that?
10.26.35 Aston: KHUSHWANT SINGH Writer: I, I, I, for one, it’s nothing to do with, there’s no Indian tradition to support the fact that, you know, worship of the Lingam includes also doing the blow job, if that is what you are referring to. I don’t think there’s any basis for that whatsoever.
—————————————————
NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by the prominent British journalist Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Further Reading
Standing Up To Cultic Monoliths. (Sathya Sai Baba Organization Example)
The Sathya Sai Organization: Almost overnight, dissenters treated as demons!
THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S DECEPTION AND PROPAGANDA EXPOSED (Part One) – By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. And Part Two Three Four
The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami – A Revision’ (2004-2007). By Barry Pittard
BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ and British Press Praise
BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)
BBC Hidden Camera in ‘Secret Swami’. Ethical?
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, India, Mark Roche (Tells BBC of his sexual abuse), Sects, Sexual Abuse, The Secret Swami | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 27, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba Dead (85), Long Before He Had Foretold (96).
From November 1975, continuing until October 1999, I was inspired by a series of remarkable situations to become a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba. In early 1978, he asked me to teach at his college at Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India.
My words below may suggest, indirectly, a little of the intense nature of that connection and what became of it twenty-five years later, as evidence counter to my assumptions, and from the testimony of many credible witnesses from of countries around the world, and then large documentation of the profound cover up by Puttaparthi, local, state and central government of the circumstances to the police killings in his bedroom, of his many failed predictions and promises of healing, and of many anomalies and sometimes risible absurdities became ever more compelling.
A song can sometimes be a better vehicle of such deep experiences and ideals than many prosaic explanations. Should any former devotees, or others, relate to the content, I shall be happy, once they have clearly identified themselves, to send the music, which, though original, is redolent of a long British Isles folk tradition.
The Man Who Would Be ‘King of Kings’. By Barry Pittard
I dreamed a dream
So exquisitely
Believable, sublime
I thought it had more substance
Than the Wafer and the Wine
It was the vision of a man
A man of miracles
He lived in a land
Where a holy man
Is the flesh of the hidden Divine
I saw him stand
Barefoot in the sand
In a silken robe of bright crimson
Beside a temple quaint
That a wizard might paint
“Lord Lord”, they adored him in long chanting
And on and on they chimed:
He gives sight to the blind
Stones speak, the lame leap from their chairs
This vision shook me from head to foot
It took me all unawares …
He crooned to me
Most gracefully:
You’ve been with Me throughout Time
I am the Timeless and am yet
Your Wafer and your Wine …
… I have decreed
The whole world shall be freed
Come advance in my Retreat
For I am the fire, the smoke and the ash
Your sweet Lord and your Lotus Feet
This ‘King of Kings’
Conjured pendants and rings
He said: these gifts hold my deep mysteries
In his temple quaint
That a fakir might paint
When drunk with wild sweet ecstasies
On and on his crowd called:
Thou art the Giver of all
The weight of our dark deeds thou sparest
My dream lit my shrine, like my heart was divine
As I adored him through my rainbow tears
I dreamed this dream
So exquisitely
Believable, sublime
I thought it had more substance
Than the Wafer, than the Wine
Oh it was the vision of a man
Or a God of miracles
He lived in a land
Where a holy man
Is an ikon of the One Divine
From his throne in the sand
He fed the poor with his hand
But raised golden thrones, and florid palaces
Round his temple quaint
Like a Walt Disney might paint
But with bread came the games, came the circuses
And on and on he rolled
In his chariot of pure gold
Told all: Watch me light up all the spheres
Before my eyes, he kappoofed in cloud of ash
Into my last cup full of tears
And he foretold
He would not grow old
His young boys were an endless line
In his boudoir quaint
With its tinsel and paint
And he was bitter bread, and tart wine
His face a mask of stone
He would weep, he would groan
And the rulers of his land covered up for him
His prophecies failed
He walked in circles, he railed
The emperor was nude, but who saw him?
In his temple quaint
He would mutter and faint
But with glory his propagandists would draw him
And on and on the blind droves
Filled his treasury troves
He said: My stomach it weighed three tonnes of gold
And his Fool’s Gold was all seen on a BBC screen
And his empire began to fold
And on and on his cart creaked
His infirmities shreiked
He told all: You must all be well-behaved
And I laughed from my gut, as I at last woke up
With the real world to be faced!
… With the real world
To be
Faced
* Note: Copyright protected by The Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA)
……………………………………………….
-
-
For the title, ‘The Man Who Who Be ‘King of Kings’, I have drawn on the title of the Rudyard Kipling story, ‘The Man Who Would Be King’
……………………………………….
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Call for media and government
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Ballads, Poetry, Songwriters, Songwriting, Sri Sathya Sai Baba | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 28, 2011
Below – in red highlight – are subheadings in the article: The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory. Posted by Barry Pittard on March 15, 2007. This piece is about a watershed event, the involvement of UNESCO, in the history of former devotee exposure of the Sathya Sai Organization operation at the highest government levels.
With the personal assistance of the then Indian foreign minister, the Deputy world chairman of the international Sathya Sai Organization, Dr G. Venkataraman, who is the director of the Sathya Sai international satellite radio station, made a concerted attempt to undo the successful representation to UNESCO of former devotees around the world. For a further glimpse at Venkataraman, see: Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Minister of Propaganda’ – Dr G. Venkataraman.
The BBC assistant producer of ‘The Secret Swami’, David Saville, was able to expose the Puttaparthi-Indian Foreign Minister-UNESCO Director and Assistant Director nexus to undermine the opportunity for a venue for former Sai Baba devotees from many countries.
The UNESCO Director and Deputy Director rode rough shod over us, but the clout of the BBC was too much for them to resist. Simply, they were in well-oiled cover up mode. The BBC exposure of this aspect came too late for inclusion in the one-hour documentary (2004), ‘The Secret Swami’. As a result of strongest complaint to governments and to UNESCO itself, UNESCO had – embarrassingly to it – to admit that we had acted correctly, and made a written statement in reversal of their improper decision, which flew in the face of some of UNESCO’s foremost case officers. See: BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government. Posted by Barry Pittard on June 26, 2007.
In September 2000, after months of extremely taxing work globally, we had succeeding in showing the excellent credentials of many former Sathya Sai Baba followers who made submissions. We had coordinated qualitative documentatary evidence from several countries. Much of this was painful, private and sensitive – from families and survivors of Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of boys and young men. As a result, UNESCO and its joint sponsor the University of Flinders, South Australia, withdrew sponsorship of a large international education conference on human values under Sathya Sai Baba’s aegis at Puttaparthi.
After the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Chubb, 
appointed a senior Staff member to investigate our (also highly detailed) submissions to him, delegates from Flinders University Institute of International Education were required by the University authorities to cancel. UNESCO’s Media Advisory stated:
“The Organisation is deeply concerned about widely reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been leveled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba.”
UNESCO had a Number of Concerns. Inter alia, its Advisory said:
“Certain decisions were taken by the Institute of Sathya Sai Education without consultation, such as plans to hold some of the sessions at the Ashram of the Sathya Sai movement in Puttaparthi, and the inclusion of some speakers in the conference programme without their previous consent. Furthermore, the Organization is deeply concerned about widely reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been levelled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba.””
What do Sathya Sai officials do in such cases? They obfuscate. They use do not answer, as they would assuredly have to answer if they were in a democratic court of law, the questions put to them.
Some of these former Sai devotees involved in the UNESCO submissions were perfectly well-known to Venkataraman and other heads, and a great many rank-and-file devotees, too, as having served the Sathya Sai Organization for many years with the utmost dedication. Some had been high echelon leaders. See: The Sathya Sai Organization: Almost overnight, dissenters treated as demons!
It is by grave untruth and cruel defamation that Venkataraman and others in the Sathya Sai Organization belittle and inveigh against those who, for decades served Sathya Sai Baba with great devotion, and who, in any case, are respected in their wider communities, professions, trades and places of study.
Spiritually, questions of forgiveness are an inner job that each may owe to himself or herself to do – BUT history should not be allowed to forget history. Otherwise, the bullies and all the other unconscienables are allowed to triumph and lay wreckage wherever they wish.
However, internationally networked former devotees have, through their own enormous amount of effort – frequently motivated by the deep human care for the protection of young people – not hesitated to approach their government and political representatives, Interpol, media, and various notable institutions, such as UNESCO.
Fortunately, despite all their grievous failings, western countries are far more responsive to due and diligent processes than India, which is profoundly held back by ills of many sorts – casteism, gerontocracy, elitism, nepotism, graft, kangaroo courts instead of noble and humane justice, and widespread torture by its police and security forces, and so on.
This same India is the land which Sathya Sai Baba said that he would utterly transform before he, in his own lifetime, saved the rest of the world in face its greatest cataclysm.
Sathya Sai Baba Dead (85), Long Before He Had Foretold (96).
———————————————————————-
Subheadings in the article: The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory
UNESCO and University of Flinders (South Australia) Withdraw From Big Sai Baba Conference
Sathya Sai Baba’s Officials Simulate UNESCO Involvement
UNESCO Complains to Press Trust of India
UN’s Dr Leonarda Jekantaite. Witting Sai Baba Tool Or a Babe-in-the-woods?
UNESCO Directors Scuttle Own Senior Officials
Indian Government-Puttaparthi Line: Sai Baba’s and India’s Interests are Synonymous
Top Sai Baba Aide Opens Mouth. Cat Jumps Out
UNESCO Directors Capitulate to India and Sai Baba
Will the Internet Wayback Archive Go Missing Too?
BBC Exposes Two Heads of UNESCO and Their Staff
BBC Catches UNESCO Heads and Staff In Falsehood
Sathya Sai Baba’s Officials Simulate UNESCO Involvement
————————————————————————-
Further Reading
A detailed analyis of Venkatarman’s mind at work is found in Robert Priddy’s and Barry Pittard’s jointly authored, four-part article ‘The Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed’ . The reader can see, with graphic clarity, Venkataraman’s machinations in concert with the Vajpayee government and the UNESCO. The BBC’s David Saville, showed conclusively that there the Deputy Director of UNESCO, with the Director’s written acquiescence to favour Sathya Sai Baba at the behest of the then Indian Foreign Minister with whom, in turn, Venkararam had (from a tactical point of view – incautiously) mentioned publicly.
Why Has Sathya Sai Baba Not Faced The Indian Justice System?
————————————————————————-
NOTE: Responsible, non-sensationalist media and other serious investigators can contact me at: barrypittard@gmail.com. Or email me at this blogsite from the Comments section below, with a guarantee of privacy. Latest major media story to which my trusted colleague Robert Priddy and I have contributed is: Marie Claire Australia. The article ‘Holy Man Or Hoax? by the prominent British journalist Gethin Chamberlain is referred to here:
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 14, 2011
Further Reading
THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S DECEPTION AND PROPAGANDA EXPOSED (Part One) – By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. And Part Two Three Four.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: South Australia, UNESCO, UNESCO Media Advisory (re Sathya Sai Baba and Pedophilia), University of Flinders | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 29, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba In Glass Casket. Unresurrected - As Yet ....
The following article I have updated with some valuable links not available at the time of writing – 28 August 2007. I have, accordingly, withdrawn the old version, which, however, read practically as this version, below.
Shortly before, and since Sathya Sai Baba’s death, news reports, both in India and beyond, report an increasing number of Sai devotees asking accountability and transparency questions about the Sathya Sai Central Trust in India.
I shall briefly make the point that investigative lawyers, media and devotees at large will need to be alert to what former devotee researchers and analysts have shown. This is that the Sathya Sai Central Trust is not an amorphous, homogeneous entity.
Long ago, Hari Sampath (more recently a corporate software engineer) writing as one who had been a member of Sathya Sai Baba’s Security and Intelligence Wing spoke of various circles of knowledge and activity in the Trust members: See: The Sathya Sai Baba set-up: How it works.
The picture is one in which some members, allied with others outside the Trust, are expert practitioners of the darker arts of politics, law, finance, security, and so forth. Whereas others are, by purpose-design, used for their relative innocence of the realpolitik aspects. A consortium of the cynical, on the one hand and a collection of the naive, on the other. Nothing new, of course in the world of power.
My reader may indulge me a most personal note. It comes from from an old teacher – and old students are ever fresh in an old teacher’s heart. When I taught (1978 and 1979) at the Sathya Sai College at Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India, I had any caring teacher’s dream that those I taught would one day be a blessing to the world. And, of course, the young can be a blessing for a teacher, just as they can be for a parent.
As the years wore on, and especially as I became involved in exposing Sathya Sai Baba internationally, I could see, more than I ever had, how powerful is the gerontocratic, nepotistic, and elitist, caste and class-bound grip of political and other types of leadership in India. Certainly, it is not genuine leadership, but an abrogation of responsibility.
However, in my recent speaking with young Indians making their way up in key roles in India, I let my – perhaps unduly hopeful and fond old heart – respond. I thought I could sense these young people starting to carve their own way, rather than having it carved for them by the deadly and disgraced hands of India’s Ancien Régime. They do not have the minatory British colonialist sitting on their shoulder telling them what, and what not, to do.
Perhaps my hope, springing eternal, is but a foolish indulgence. It is most certainly up these new generations of Indians to emulate Hercules’ fifth labour, and clean up India’s befouled governmental and political ‘Augean Stables’. Sathya Sai Baba promised to do it, and, like many of his promises and predictions, his undertakings died long before he did on 24 April 2011.
See:
Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions
Predictions and Promises Made By Sathya Sai Baba plus His Persistent Rumours
Terrorist Smoke Casts Pall Over India and the World,
despite Sathya Sai Baba’s assurances that all is well with India in regard to terrorist attacks.—————————-
P.N. Bhagawati, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, a key figure on the Sathya Sai Central Trust (India) has also long been on the Board of Directors of The Times of India.
In a joint public letter (December 2001), Bhagwati along with the former Prime Minister of India of the right wing BJP, A.B. Vajpayee, and another former Chief Justice of India, Ranganath Mishra, and three other prominent leaders wrote a public letter stating that contentions of Sai Baba’s dissenters represent a:
“wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests and people against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba”.
Wild and Reckless?
What then of an Indian Prime Minister and former Chief Justices and others (one now Home Minister in the current Manmohan Singh Government) who proffer no evidence that they, in a transparent and accountable way, have investigated any of the substantive allegations against Sai Baba?
P.N. Bhagwati – supposedly a model of the dispensation of Justice – does a profound injustice to hundreds of good and decent former Sai Baba devotees from many countries who have, on the strictest ethical principle, left Sai Baba and his worldwide Sathya Sai Baba Organization. Those who have left in this way include outstanding, former, longtime top leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization. These former devotees are not shunned, reviled and defamed by others in their wider communities, professions and trades, and places of study. See the articles:
The Sathya Sai Organization: Almost overnight, dissenters treated as demons!
Sathya Sai Baba and His ‘Demons’.
(Pictured, from the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami, is World head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Dr Michael Goldstein – setting a perfect example of anger management. Faced by a wall of secrecy and evasiveness, the BBC producers gained a sanction given under strict circumstances by BBC topmost to use a hidden camera when they met with Dr Goldstein, of Covena, southern California, USA. Anyone viewing ‘The Secret Swami’ can see that the questions from the interviewer, Tanya Datta were polite and unprovocative. The same was true of her questions to a major former Vajpayee government Minister, Murali Manohar Joshi. Yet again, the anger and the obfuscation were clear for the millions who have watched the BBC program to see).
Does not Dr Goldstein look wild and reckless, here?
The leaders of this organization, such as the world chairman Dr Michael Goldstein of Covina, California, USA, know perfectly well the excellent standing of many former devotees who have attempted to bring attention to the allegations. This is both from the point of view of their role when still members and of the high esteem they have attracted in their professions, trades, education institutions and wider communities.
Yet P.N. Bhagwati and the other signatories wrote of “wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests and people against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.”
History will judge very harshly of the failure of those blinded by their devotion so greatly as to be incapable of exercising requisite ethics, sensitivity and applied skills and processes to investigate serious and repeated allegations. These have been asserted by scrupulous and conscientious individuals who have, indeed, investigated the allegations with probity, moral responsibility and a natural compassion. See:
Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia
The Late Leo Boogaard: A Dutch Voice of Conscience On Sathya Sai Baba
Stephen Carthew, A Voice of Testimony From Australia, On The Dangers of Cults
Al Rahm’s Explanatory Letter To Sathya Sai Baba Internet Proxy Gerald Moreno :
David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses.
Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba
Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam
New Zealand Lawyer Exposes Official Cover Up of Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom
(Late) Ron and Peggy Laing: Deeply Alienated From Sathya Sai Organization
Senior Indian Policeman (Rtd) Speaks Out About Sathya Sai Baba Murders Cover Up
Dr Naresh Bhatia’s Testimony: Sathya Sai Baba Serial Sexual Abuser of Boys and Young Men
Timothy Conway Ph.D – On ‘The Hislop Letters’
Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family
Top UK Sathya Sai Organization leaders left Sathya Sai Baba
Robert Priddy: Why do I concern myself so much?
Why should the Sathya Sai Organization and a few public figures who support Sai Baba not be subject to the same accountability criteria that are now best practice in countless organizations?
Many Former Devotees Have Proved Open to Bona Fide Investigators
To to name just a few – BBC, Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, India Today, and media and other instrumentalities in a number of countries in Europe, and Canada and Australia. And institutions such as UNESCO, University of Flinders, etc.
Many individuals worldwide have, in varying degrees, been alienated from Sai Baba and his Sathya Sai Organization from which they expected to see spirituality and compassion in action. In some cases they have been terribly traumatized by their experiences of Sai Baba and his core leaders, whom they see as having grossly derelicted their duty-of-care for members. Therefore, they are not likely to be too open to those who are aggressive, name-calling, and who fail to observe proper ethical and professional canons of enquiry.
In fact, our submissions to various media, government, civic, academic, law enforcement and other authorities are submitted with the utmost responsibility. For those of them who are ready to act with integrity, sensitivity and care, we provide as a further mark of good faith, and on the basis of strict privacy, the contact details of those in outstanding, in some cases eminent, positions in government, law, media, education, psychology, medicine, etc., and, simply, ‘ordinary’ people who are ready to witness to their experiences, who know the facts.
We are able to coordinate personal and telephonic, and where practicable, contact with articulate individuals and families – and also others not intellectually articulate but who are nevertheless also poignantly moving in their accounts - who are ready to share, in a proper atmosphere of respect, their harrowing experiences of sexual abuse by Sai Baba and other of his, and his key leaders’ wrongdoings. These are very far from confined to those like the Rahm family (BBC and DR, Denmark’s national television and radio broadcaster), who have already shared their experiences in the media and elsewhere. See, e.g.,:
Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family
We have always been ready to assist investigative journalists from quality major media in various parts of the world, as well as important religious and civic institutions, and, for example, academics who are either researching allied issues themselves or supervising students who are doing so.
We also have provision of highly qualified professional counselors.
In short, we are able, with the strictest accountability, to provide compelling credentials, for those who are far removed from attacking, slandering and maligning the many witnesses who attempt to tell (not always particularly coherently and yet often most movingly) of their extremely painful and traumatic experiences at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba, and of his also profoundly compromised officials and other supporters.
Related Reading and Viewing
Indian Minister Shields Sai Baba on BBC TV
The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – a Revision
See this video clip. Here, BBC footage clearly exposes one of the then Vajpayee Government’s most powerful Ministers, Murali Manohar Joshi, follower of Sai Baba, as he angrily bullies, blusters and evades the interviewer Tanya Datta, who asks him entirely reasonable questions.
This Link is worth a look. India’s foremost Rationalist B.Premanand (later copying the exchange to his newsletter The Indian Skeptic, Vol. 19. No. 7 15-11-2006) wrote a series of letters in 2006 to top echelon Government of India officials, including police, referring back to the period when A.B. Vajpayee was in office. The letters attempt to establish a) whether the provenance of the letter ostensibly written by Vajpayee and other in defense of Sai Baba was true and b) whether, if it was, there had been any proper investigations of allegations against Sai Baba for sexual abuse of young males. The essence is that, as usual – since Sai Baba has for decades been heavily protected by Indian governments irrespective of what regime is in power – he got grand obstruction. Of course, one of the great successes of Premanand’s “failures” in his tireless efforts with power structures is to reveal the billowing smokescreens that rise as soon as accountability issues are probed. See also:
Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach
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List of signatories to letter supporting Sathya Sai Baba
A.B. Vajpayee
(then) Prime Minister of India
P.N. Bhagawati
Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India
Ranganath Mishra
(then) Chair Person, National Human Rights Commissioner of India
Formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India
Najma Heptulla
(then) President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union; UNDP Distinguished Human Development Ambassador
Shivraj V. Patil
(Details as signatory: Member of Parliament, India; Formerly of the Lok Sabha & Union Minister. However Patil is now Home Minister in the Government of Manmohan Singh, who himself has shown strong partiality to Sathya Sai Baba)
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Further Reading
THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S DECEPTION AND PROPAGANDA EXPOSED (Part One) – By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. And Part Two Three Four.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, India, Sampath Sampath (Writer on Sathya Sai Baba of India), Sathya Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Central Trust in India, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (India) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on May 1, 2011
Dame Justice - Impartial. Understood to Be Blind to Status, etc.
P.N. Bhagwati - "No Replacement For Baba"
In his interview just conducted by the Times of India (on which he has long been a director, by the way), Ex- Chief Justice of India, P.N. Bhagwati (see picture), about to head the late Sathya Sai Baba’s Central Trust, makes a number of comments which cannot but alienate him from present and former Commonwealth judges, and, indeed, judges, lawyers and citizens far beyond.
One may hope that no view will succeed which is of the sort that: here is a very old man – entering his 90′s. Let him have his eccentricities about his God. What harm can Bhagwati do in his dotage? After all, he no longer presides over Indian Justice.
But Bhagwati was not in his dotage down all those years when, as he now tells us, Sathya Sai Baba has been holding the jurisprudential pen.
Let us remember, for one thing, that influence and mentorship of professionals – especially eminent ones – do not stop. Especially in a country like India, in which the elderly are venerated. One becomes aghast at the thought of how many younger judges and advocates in India see Bhagwati as a role model – not just in matters of precise legal craft – which may give no cause for alarm. But, rather, in the matter of interpretation of the legal job when passed through the distorting glass of a faith that says: Sathya Sai Baba is the Lawyer of Lawyers. And in a manner which gravely questions the professed secularity, as opposed e.g., to theocratic threats to democratic law, of Indian, Commonwealth, and, indeed, international law.
In this interview, among other points which cannot help but give concern in many quarters, Bhagwati has, without any shadow of a doubt, enunciated a principle so totally alien to a central tenet of justice in any of the democracies: namely, that because he believes Sathya Sai Baba to be God, there should be no police or judicial investigation into allegations against Sai Baba. Bhagwati shows not a moment’s thought for what this view implies for any other judge – or, indeed, any other citizen – who may think that his or her version of God is the right one, and therefore omit to hold that ‘version’ to be free from any judicial or police procedure. The thought is truly appalling ….. and one almost blinks in astonishment. There is a corruption of justice at the very core of his pronouncement.
What say if the case was of a Chief Justice who thought that Rajneesh, or Muktananda or the (recent) Nityananda – or any other eminence ochre or saffron or of whatever dye was holding his or her pen in the writing of judgements?
At a number of points during the interview, Bhagwati weeps. Is he weeping for the Justice that he has traduced? Perhaps he is weeping for the loss on 24 April 2011, when his guru died. (After saying saying, over the years, that he, Avatar of All Avatars, come to save the world before he left it a the age of 96. And that he would be fit and healthy into his old age. And that he would not leave until the world had fallen at his feet – except for some last tidying-up to be done by his next incarnation, Prema Sai Baba). But then, why weep so much given Bhagwati’s statement that, all down the years, Sathya Sai Baba has been the mystic pen in Bhagwati’s hand, writing the judgements?
Bhagwati’s hand, that has been in the grip of Sathya Sai Baba’s hand all these years, is a very wavering hand now.
He says, for example, that for long, in writing his judgements, he has been receiving guidance from Sathya Sai Baba. The account he gives sounds very like automatic writing. If it was not, he needs to have been clear about what he means. Judges are meant to be clear, are they not?
Bhagwati also shows some disconcerting lapses (???) of memory. Above all, the parents and families of those slain meters away from where Sathya Sai Baba was hiding on the other side of a locked door of his appartment on the blood-filled night of 6 June will surely want a better effort of memory from Bhagwati, once the lychpin of Indian Justice. A better effort of memory from a man who is now to head the Sathya Sai Central Trust, on which he has so long served as a key member.
It is a test of the maturity of Indian democracy and of its jurisprudence whether India continues to allow such forgetfulness.
Note: The sort of questions that I would like to be asking Ex-Chief Justice Bhagwati (ex-Justice, indeed!) are below, in blue highlight.
…………………………………………………………………….
Times of India Interview With Ex-Chief Justice of India, P.N. Bhagwati.
‘Sai Baba, my god, dictated my every single judgment’
TNN | May 1, 2011, 03.22am IST
(Note: See Interview beneath the extracts on which I have commented)
In relation to his expected installation as head of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, Bhagwati says:
No one will oppose my name. I have cultivated a reputation as the foremost legal luminary across the Commonwealth.
Barry Pittard: Judges throughout the world famously leave it up to others to assess their standing. Do you believe that any Commonwealth judge, other than yourself, has ever made a public statement in which he or she has asserted their own excellence?
- As a professional, each time I would sit down to write a judgment at 5 ‘o’clock in the morning, I was only writing what my god dictated. Bhagwan held my hand as I put pen to paper.
BP’s Question: First, do you know any Commonwealth judges who have made a public statement which only too obviously is open to interpretation that they are engaged in automatic writing? Second, do you cognise that many Indian citizens who refer to many gods and goddesses, and others to none at all are entitled to concern that judgements which affect them are ‘written’, in effect, by your own version of ‘God’ with which they may have serious concerns?
Everything that I have achieved in respect of the law, and people say I have achieved a lot, is owing to the guidance and inspiration of Sathya Sai Baba. There is no doubt on that score.
BP: Are democratic publics not entitled to expect of their judges – irrespective of their presence or absence of religious faith – the ability, under their own steam, to write excellent judgements?
An attempt was made on his life a few years ago. Some ashram inmates were killed.
I am not aware of this. I live in Delhi, so I have no knowledge.
BP: If you do not remember any salient facts of one of the two or three greatest crises to have faced the Trust on which you were, and have long since been, a prominent member, how can we rely on your memory when you tell us that you later say that you “have never told a lie in (your) entire life?
What is the total worth of the assets of the trust? Is it more than Rs 40,000 crore?
I do not know the present worth.
BP: You are in your 90′s now. Has it never occurred to you, prior to this, to check on such a salient matter?
Did you meet trust officials in Mumbai during this visit?
I cannot remember. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. I am not clear in my mind.
BP: First, is not a pre-eminent, expected quality in judges, the world over, clarity of mind? Second, how could you possibly forget main circumstances relating the 6 June 1993 four police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom, and two other slayings outside? Third, do you not diarise?
Inmates of the ashram, particularly young boys, have levied charges of sexual abuse against the godman.
(Agitated) These are all baseless allegations. Bhagwan is a divine person, divinity personified. All these allegations come from interested quarters.
BP: Please, then, name those many individuals whose sworn testimony has convinced India Today, the BBC, and several other world standard investigative media, that a very serious prima facie case faced Sathya Sai Baba and certain of his leaders. You cannot? Of course you cannot. Learned legal counsel has them. They are often deeply gut-churning. Sometimes, they are, literally, tragic, since suicide has eventuated. At other times, one sees testimony to human courage.What is more, the BBC was able to discover still more testimony, which the assistant producer, David Saville, told me did not appear among our plethora of careful, worldwide documentation.
Major media and institutions such as UNESCO, Interpol, the FBI, and others have the documents. How do you dare to opine, Mr Bhagwati?
In that case, you have committed yourself to a statement that grievously lacks evidence, and, in doing so, you demean and defame the efforts of many aggrieved families around the world who have testified that Sathya Sai Baba engaged in very serious criminal abuses, including wide-scale, serial sexual abuse of boys and young men.
Alarmingly, you do not state the irrefutable fact: that many who have made the allegations about Sathya Sai Baba’s abuses, and about his official organization’s wide-scale dereliction of duty of care, were, for years, dedicated and respected workers in the Sathya Sai Organization. And that these now former devotees are, very typically, respected members of their wider communities, professions, trades, places of learning, and so on.
Interviewer: Several alleged offences committed by Sai Baba were never investigated.
What is the point of investigation? (Agitated) Bhagwan is divinity personified, he radiates joy; millions worship him. He is a teacher of mankind.
Most people in the world do not even know of him. Even if they did, in democratic societies, there is, as you know, but seem to have forgotten, the principal of Equality Before the Law – no matter a person’s finances, social status, or the political power. Why would you claim exemption for Sathya Sai Baba? Do you not remember the figure of Dame Justice Blindfold that prominently adorns Indian Court buildings.
Each, then, is fully entitled, in his or her own democratic jurisdiction, to make, or allow others to make, any untested assumption as to whether some alleged divinity or other notable figure is to be exempted from facing well-made charges. A judge is not permitted to do that. But you assert that it can be done, when you say: “What is the point of investigation?”
Your longtime close colleague, the past world head of the Sathya Sai Organization made to the Indian media a remark strikingly similar to your own when you said: “What is the point of investigation?” On 10 June 1993 The Hindu, reported:
“When press persons met Mr. Indulal Shah, chief functionary of the Sri Sathya Sai World Trust, he said, ‘the matter is purely internal and we do not wish to have any law enforcement agency investigating into it.’”
Article 7 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.”
Do you think, then, that justice systems in the Commonwealth, or countries like the USA, would sanction such statements as these which you and Indulal Shah have made? You will be widely condemned for them within and far beyond your own legal fraternity.
On Sathya Sai Baba: Indian Ex-Chief Justice Gives Eccentric Interview
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Cults, India, Indian Justice, Indian Law, Indian media, Law, Lawyers, Sects, The Westminster System | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on May 4, 2011
In the Times of India article – ‘Sai Baba, my god, dictated my every single judgment’ – TNN | May 1, 2011, 03.22am IST – the former Chief Justice of India, P.N. Bhagwati, and now to be head of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, makes this extraordinary claim. He says:
“As a professional, each time I would sit down to write a judgment at 5 ‘o’clock in the morning, I was only writing what my god dictated. Bhagwan held my hand as I put pen to paper”
One wonders how the weighty pens of judges the world over can ever manage – so precariously unaided by such Direct Divine Penmanship as Bhagwati says he is aided - to remain upright and without trembling ….
One may like to pause, then – perhaps with the aid of a soothing Indian tea – just to take in the unexpectedness of all this.
A Strange Notion: A Judge’s Own Guru Is Above The Law
One may also wonder what the case if other judges in India, who are enamoured of this or that guru, were to deem themselves in a mystic-golden-telephone-like contact with their Guru-God, and think that he or she is talking to them, guiding them, holding their pen, etc.
And in India, there is a vast plethora of gurus to go around! Heaven help us, the number of divinely-wielded pens may also be more than a few.
And one may wonder, too, if other guru-affiliated judges would also, like Bhagwati, subscribe to the notion that their guru is in total charge of their legal judgements. What if their guru faced serious, well-made allegations?
In the case of Sathya Sai Baba, the allegations are extremely serious. They include implication in the cover up of several killings in his bedroom, worldwide allegations of wide-scale serial sexual abuse of boys and young men, scamming by his front office in regard to apartments, and other grave charges. In regard to the molestations, sworn testimony has been provided to major world media, UNESCO, police forces in the West (very privately, the latter will say in what great distrust many Indian police are held by international police who have the misfortune to have to deal with them). The interviewer says:
Inmates of the ashram, particularly young boys, have levied charges of sexual abuse against the godman.
Bhagwati (Agitated): These are all baseless allegations. Bhagwan is a divine person, divinity personified. All these allegations come from interested quarters.
Learned legal counsel of several major organizations of high repute have the extensive evidence, and not Bhagwati at all. Therefore, Bhagwati is bare of evidence, and therefore barefaced. He has not seen the sworn testimony that we have lodged with instrumentalities such as India Today, the BBC, Daily Telegraph (UK), Azul TV, Salon.com, police forces such as the FBI, and other instrumentalities such as UNESCO ….. See: BBC Exposed Sai Baba Top Aide’s And Indian Foreign Minister’s Ploy With UNESCO.
Indeed, the BBC Assistant Producer of ‘The Secret Swami’, David Saville, told me that, under its own private efforts, the BBC was able to uncover still more compelling testimony about sexual abuse than that represented by the lists provided by international former devotee coordinators like Glen Meloy, Hari Sampath, Robert Priddy and myself. See my Obituary:
Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam
How dare Bhagwati insult many decent families throughout the world! They have been shattered by the greatest betrayal of their lives, the actions of Sathya Sai Baba, to whom they were – many of the families for decades – hitherto utterly devoted! And in whose Sathya Sai Organization they did so much tireless, sacrificial service! These are the people whom Bhagwati’s close official colleague, Dr G. Venkatarman, too, has so badly and publicly defamed. See: Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard
By what right does Bhagwati opine in such matters? But of course, one may suppose, he claims Divine Right …..
Numerous mere mortals who do not agree with Bhagwati or his Divine-Penmanship-’God’ have left the Sathya Sai Organization. They have been deemed, and in Orwellian fashion, to be non-persons now. Shunned, reviled, defamed. Some of these were, for decades outstanding leaders, a fact well-known by close longtime servitors on the Sathya Sai Central Trust and in the international Sathya Sai Organization, and more widely within the Sathya Sai fold.
For a minute part of the evidence for failure of accountability and transparency, and gross lack of duty of care, see: Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips) and: Bob Bozzani Big Donor To Guru Sai Baba Under Siege and: Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion and: A Sathya Sai Saga. Barry Pittard Recollects. Part 4 and: Thorbjørn Meyer: Is Democracy Such A Good Idea?
Overnight, large numbers were now called (first by Sathya Sai Baba) “demons”, and “Judases”. Sai Baba said that they would not ever escape eternal hell. See: Sathya Sai Baba condemns his critics as “demons”
What has the divinely-guided Bhagati got to say about the undeniable fact that, very typically, these former devotees he defames are, and for long have been, respected members of their wider communities, professions, trades, places of learning, and so on.
But as to his guru:
Bhagwati: (he) is “divinity personified, he radiates joy …. What is the point of investigation?”
As the Times of India reports (see below), this is exactly what Bhagwati says, however difficult it may be for the rest of us to credit it.
Dear reader, how is that cup of Indian tea managing? Is it soothing enough?
P.N. Bhagwati, New Head of Sathya Sai Central Trust
Perhaps, many who have endured Bhagwati’s judgements over the years, and who regard the hand of Sathya Sai Baba as an alien one, and an injust one, may also like to pause for thought. And then to lodge formal complaint, and even sue Bhagwati.
India is, of course, a member of the Commonwealth of nations. And even one badly errant judge, a former Chief Justice at that, does not make life any better for his or her fellow judges who are in such a nexus.
But first, let me give my large number of readers the web address of: The Commonwealth Lawyers Association. You may like the pleasure of sending them your opinion, questioning whether they think India has progressed as far as she should, if she cannot provide better Justice role models.
In fact, Bhagwati makes several extraordinary claims. Thus, there is all the more reason for the world to know the sort of supposed seniormost Justice role model India got for herself in in the person of Bhagawati. Given that India is fast heading, along with China, towards superpower status, one might hope to see far better types among her legal superluminaries.
Will The Indian Government and Legal Profession Dare To Express Their Stance On Bhagwati?
International displeasure can be adverted to The Commonwealth Lawyers Association, and well beyond. And The CLA, for their part, may like to use the Bhagwati example as a cautionary tale for their members – perhaps especially for the young ones coming on, who are challenging the gerontocratic, elitist chambers of Indian and other justice systems that are in such sore need of reform. Cross-Commonwealth colleagial influence can, for example, in a number of ways, be brought to bear, without anyone meddling in the affairs of State. Even grave looks of displeasure and dismay, and refusal to felicitate, or accept invitations from ….. can carry a weight all of their own.
The Bhagwati cautionary tale benefits young and old. It warns of dangers that still face even 90 or so year old judges. My readers may like to ensure that Bhagwati’s comments, and informed criticisms of them, reach further afield than to the readers of the Times of India. Or even further than the readership of ‘Call For media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’, if that is at all imaginable.
India’s P.N. Bhagwati Proclaims His Repute “as the foremost legal luminary across the Commonwealth”
One does not, after all, expect a judge to say that he or she is recognised as the finest legal brain in The Commonwealth. One tends to think: Sober as a judge. Yet -:
Bhagati: I have cultivated a reputation as the foremost legal luminary across the Commonwealth.
He also tells the interviewer:
I have never uttered a lie in my entire life.
Bhagwati In Ignorance of the Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Quarters
One does not expect a key member of an extraordinarily wealthy, religiously and politically powerful Trust to be so blissfully unaware of hard realities. For forty years, he has play an important role around Sathya Sai Baba. How can he expect to be believed when he says that he does not know what he was doing at the time of four killings in his founder’s bedroom? That is to say – one who had, moreover, risen to the highest judicial role in the land. And who is a member of a professional class universally expected to have the best of memories. And yet, when he is asked whether, at this time, he was in Mumbai meeting with Sathya Sai Central Trust members there, Bhagwati says:
“I cannot remember. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. I am not clear in my mind”.
Not clear in his mind? One cannot help but think that the families and friends of those so bloodily killed in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom might wish indeed that Bhagwati had a much better memory, and wish that he WAS clear in his mind …. In fact, as sober as a judge.
About the killings, then, let Indian (or other) journalists ask Bhagwati whether he remembers meeting with the Union Home Minister at the time of the murders, S.B.Chavan. Let him answer whether the discussion was about damage control, and hushing matters up. How would his memory stand up here?
The killings and the cover up were, of course, a singular and terrible circumstance in Puttaparthi history. It was more than enough for some devotees – shaken, they left the Sathya Sai Organization.
So how could Bhagwati forget? Many others do not forget it. They cannot, yet profoundly wish that they could. Why is he so forgetful?
Does Bhagwati remember where he was when he first heard news of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi? Or that of President John F. Kennedy? Or when news came of the events of 9/11? Presumably, he will remember where he was when news came through to him of Sathya Sai Baba’s death. Will he at all remember hearing the news, two days back, of the death Osama bin Laden? Most of the rest of us will never forget that.
Unless, of course, they were not sober as a good judge.
The Times of India interviewer says:
An attempt of was made on (Sai Baba’s) life a few years ago. Some ashram inmates were killed.
Bhagwati: I am not aware of this. I live in Delhi, so I have no knowledge.
The standard of Bhagwati’s extraordinariness does not lapse, as we see:
Interviewer: Several alleged offences committed by Sai Baba were never investigated.
Bhagwati: What is the point of investigation? (Agitated) Bhagwan is divinity personified, he radiates joy; millions worship him. He is a teacher of mankind”
Should one pour another cup of soothing Indian tea?
Bhagwati’s response is of a piece with that of his Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust colleague of many years, Indulal Shah. On 10 June 1993, The Hindu, reported:
“When press persons met Mr. Indulal Shah, chief functionary of the Sri Sathya Sai World Trust, he said, ‘the matter is purely internal and we do not wish to have any law enforcement agency investigating into it.’”
Indulal Shah. Former head of Sathya Sai Organization
A mostly emasculate Indian media corps, afraid of their proprietors, can cower in the face of such cynical, antidemocratic non-answers. How demeaning for India, though, that dereliction of democratic care has meant that foreign media has had to step in where India has vacated. One of India’s great and courageous editors – V.K. Narasimhan – (whom I knew and loved and for one of his books I did some editing) was noble, and not a coward of this ilk.
The evidence of Bhagwati’s and Shah’s internals might not be well digested by those who care for Law, when it is wise and just. Lord Coke, Lord Chancellor under James I, is credited with the saying: ‘Be ye ever so high, the law is above you’. Apparently, Lord Denning, the great British judge, was fond of quoting this aphorism.
Has Bhagwati’s memory grown so poor that he forgets the great legal maxims, such as: Hear the other side. Or: Hear the alternative party – Audi alteram partem. Or: audiatur et altera pars. Does he forget this principle? : “Justice knows neither father nor mother; justice looks to the truth alone” – Justitia non novit patrem nec matrem; solum verrtatem spectat justitia”.
Yet Bhagwati’s very words abnegate these great precepts, which are prime ones in justice systems throughout the world.
Does The Commonwealth Law Association Approve Of The Influential Bhagwati’s Unorthodox Notions?
According to its website notice for 17th Commonwealth Law Conference, the CWL states that the alumni of The Commonwealth Lawyers Association include “some of the finest legal minds in the world today”. Why a return of the CWL Conference to India, after all these forty years? Perhaps it is because some lawyers other than Bhagwati are making the great effort to embody the time-honored, enshrined principles of democratic justice.
One wonders what measure of respect members of The Commonwealth Lawyers Association might accord, given his attitudes made plain just a couple of days ago, a former Chief Justice of India, now to be installed as chairman of one of the wealthiest of Trusts. Might they not think that one of their colleagues now presides over a medieval fiefdom?
Ironically enough, the CLA law conference was held in Hyderabad, the capital of the late Sathya Sai Baba’s state of Andhra Pradesh, South India in February 2011. But what might Bhagwati know of the conference? After all, he may have been in Delhi. Or Mumbai. Or any other place where not even the most dramatic news is likely to echo to his ears.
Will The Indian Media Begin To Do Its Job As Fifth Estate Citizens’ Guardian?
Let us see whether the Indian media will be tame or challenge Bhagwati’s views, and the views of those who think similarly. But, sadly, news critical of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult has been denied to Indian for many decades, with rare exceptions like India Today and Caravan. Ironically non-resident Indians have been able to read or view investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult in foreign media.
In India, the Sathya Sai Organization’s great wealth and political and religious clout hold sway. In dealing with the Canadian media, I know how one of the CanWest newspapers, because of a multi-millionaire Sai devotee’s threat to withdraw his large advertizing, interposed on their journalist, and significantly diluted his article, which former Sathya Sai followers (who are in excellent standing in their communities, professions, trades and places of learning) had gone to sacrificial effort to document. I was reliably informed that the newspaper and the Sai devotees’ lawyers were ensconced for hours. We also know of the attempts of top Sathya Sai Baba aides in to stop media from investigating media such as: the BBC, CBC, SBS, India Today, the Times of London, The Adelaide Advertiser, The West Australian, and also UNESCO. Figures close to Sathya Sai Baba engaged in these attempts at censorship went very high on his VVIP list, e.g., Indian Air Chief Marshal N.C. Suri.
To say that he knows nothing of the killings is a dark stain on Bhagwati. To say that no investigations should take place, fortifies the Puttaparthi, local, state and central Indian government cover up. It is a scandal that is no secret to many Indian police, lawyers, journalists, politicians, government bureaucrats and others. It is one that shows India to the world, not as a ‘Shining India’ but as, all too glaringly, profoundly enmeshed in a corrupt, autocratic past from which she still cannot drag herself free.
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The Times of India Bhagwati Interview With Ex-Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati
‘Sai Baba, my god, dictated my every single judgment’
TNN | May 1, 2011, 03.22am IST
On Sathya Sai Baba: Indian Ex-Chief Justice Bhagwati's Extraordinary Interview
FURTHER READING
Posted by Barry Pittard on May 1, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 29, 2011
New Zealand Lawyer Exposes Official Cover Up of Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom
Senior Indian Policeman (Rtd) Speaks Out About Sathya Sai Baba Murders Cover Up
V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings
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Still Further Reading
THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S DECEPTION AND PROPAGANDA EXPOSED (Part One) – By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. And Part Two Three Four.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Cults, Glen Meloy, India, Indian Justice, Indian legal system, P.N.Bhagwati, Police Killings, Sects, South India, The Commonwealth Lawyers Association | 6 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on May 10, 2011
I posted the following piece 14 February 2007. I shall remove that post – originally entitled: ‘Sai Baba Exchequer Worth Billions Many Countries Donate’ – and repost now. Since the news coverage from March 29, when Sathya Sai Baba was admitted to hospital and had an immediate pacemaker implant, there has been much discussion in India at large about the status of the Sathya Sai Central Trust.
Sri Satya Sai Baba hospitalised
Sources said Sai Baba has also developed breathing problems because of severe infection. (TOI Photo )
TNN, Mar 29, 2011, 03.50am IST
HYDERABAD: Sri Satya Sai Baba was admitted to the Sri Satyasai super-speciality hospital on Monday evening due to ill-health. Doctors said he was suffering from pneumonia and water has entered his lungs. Allaying fears of lakhs of his devotees, J Ratnakar of Sri Satyasai Trust said that Sai Baba was recovering.
Sources said Sai Baba has also developed breathing problems because of severe infection. “But his situation is improving with constant medical attention. There is nothing to worry about his health,” Ratnakar added.
- Sathya Sai Baba. God? Or of the earth earthly ….
Well, since, you may have seen vast numbers of devotees on news footage doing exactly that – worrying. They keep telling us that he will keep his promise and come back when he promised – at 96.
Others, badly mixing up lunar and solar calendars, whether considered together or separately, are either ignorant of, or conceal, the fact that he gave at least three dates of when he would leave the body.
In any case, calendars or not, he has endlessly, over many decades said: “Why fear when I am here”.
But they weep, wail and gnash their teeth, and then say not to worry because he will be back soon. For those prepared to look hard at the arithmetic of these dating matters, see Robert Priddy‘s detailed exposure:
Sathya Sai Baba’s lunar age 96
Sathya Sai Baba’s death and ‘mahasamadhi’
Sathya Sai Baba devotees’ fervour and press reactions
Questions of Sri Sathya Central Trust infighting, and rumours that Sathya Sai Baba was being kept artificially ‘alive’ so that the Trust could resolve what to next to do, were aired. But eventually announcements came that all is well, and that the former Chief Justice of India, and longtime member of the Trust, P.N. Bhagwati, would be the Trust’s new chairman.
However, there are very real questions to be raised about Bhagwati. He shows problems of memory about crucial issues facing the Trust, such as about the killings in and around Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom on 6 July 1993. He also says he has no idea of the value of the Trust’s net money worth. During the interview with the Times of India (on whose board, by the way, he has been for several years a director, Bhagwati weeps a number of times, and one is reminded of his master’s sobbings in November last year. See: Sai Baba Breaks Down and Sobs At 85th Birthday Celebration (Video Footage)
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 31, 2010
Bhagwati discloses, too, that, mystically, Sathya Sai Baba penned all the judgements that Bhagwati signed as being his own (Bhagwati’s). One wonders how other judges get along at all, with that jot of skill so punily alloted to them by mere nature. What if other judges in India, or, heaven knows, anywhere, were to think that their guru was writing ‘their’ judgements?! A bit spooky …..
Bhagwati is adamant that there is no need for an investigation into the many allegations relating to unsolved killings at Puttaparthi (as did his close colleague and former world head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Indulal Shah). And that the allegations of (in fact, serial, worldwide) Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of boys and young men are simple mischief. Whereas, in fact, serious, reputed investigative organisations, including the BBC in the form of the television documentary ‘The Secret Swami, have realised that the former devotees and other critics whom Bhagwati, Venkataraman and other Sai servitors have so cruelly maligned are distinctly varied in background, education and culture, and of outstanding repute in their professions, trades, places and wider communities.
Bhagwati tells us – what no judge in his right senses would ever say, even if he or she believed it: “I have cultivated a reputation as the foremost legal luminary across the Commonwealth. See my three articles:
Ex-Chief Justice of India: Sathya Sai Baba “dictated my every single judgement”
On Sathya Sai Baba: Times of India, Ex-Chief Justice Interview. What Judge Would So Opine?
On Sathya Sai Baba: Times of India, Ex-Chief Justice Interview. What Judge Would So Opine?
Below, then, is that old article, which can now be read against more recent news.
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Looking Back (to article, 14 February 2007)
Sathya Sai Baba’s exchequer owes to vast donations to his Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust via his powerful organisation spanning more than 150 countries, and not least to the donations of the extremely wealthy – like James Sinclair, the Canadian cable and minerals magnate, Isaac Tigrett the American founder of the Hard Rock Café and House of Blues, the Rai family in India in steel and technology and an astounding number of other hugely wealthy and influential individuals and families. Rediff News, July 06, 2005, reported: http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/jul/06spec2.htm
“The Andhra Pradesh-based Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust is the largest recipient of foreign contributions. The Sathya Sai Trust received Rs 95 crore (Rs 950 million) during 2003-04″.
This figure – which is well over US $20 million – is but the officially-declared one and does not account for contributions of those foreigners who donate when they are in India. Anyone who has watched how, at places like Puttaparthi and Whitefield, the Indian and foreign the mega business fraternity swap business cards – within the so-called holiest of holy precincts! – and thereafter thrives will be forced to conclude that far wider economic and political forces are at play, and that it is little wonder how successive Indian governments both State and Central have been loathe to ‘kill’ a goose that lays an incredible number of golden eggs.
Promisingly, as though in further testimony to a thesis suggested earlier in htttp://barrypittard.wordpress.com to the effect that popular Indian uprisings against corruption may come to envelop Sai Baba and the main confederates of this ‘secret swami’, Professor Narendra Nayak has informed us:
“We have been leading a campaign against Sathya Sai Baba and his so called miracles. As of now, a very powerful movement is coming up against him in Tamilnadu. He came to Chennai and performed a yaga and M. Karunanidhi (the Chief Minister), a avowed rationalist, met him and discussed. We don’t know what. He then started praising him. We have started a campaign against that. The Periyar Drvaid Kazagam has made condensed version of the (BBC’s) ‘Secret Swami’ in Tamil and copies are going like anything”.
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Still Further Reading
THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION’S DECEPTION AND PROPAGANDA EXPOSED (Part One) – By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. And Part Two Three Four.
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Posted by Barry Pittard on May 17, 2011
Reportedly, Sathya Sai Baba told a young Sri Lankan man that he was the reincarnation of the great Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). The latter had traveled, briefly, to the West and made a large impression on both scholars and liberal laity alike.
Will Swami Vivekananda's Soul Fix Puttaparthi Succession Woes?
Much before the date he predicted – circa AD 2022, – Sathya Sai is dead. Yet another of his self-progagated myths is exploded. Accounts of his Vivekananda-reborn myth appear in two writers close to Sai Baba, Kasturi and Murphet. Devotees treat their writings as sacrosanct.
Significantly, both official and unofficial Sai Baba devotees strive at present to rationalize the date of Sathya Sai Baba’s death with his prophecy. The premises on which they base their calculations are empirically faulty. They still further expose their ignorance of at least two other death date predictions that he made, and which are in the officially-published Sathya Sai discourses. These statements the officials would be hard-put to weed out. Although in other crucial instances they have done so. See: The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements. In this article, I reference some Brian Steel links. Steel’s detailed scholarly work deserves the closest attention by those prepared to do some rigorous thinking about the many, extremely revealing, Sathya Sai Baba contradictions, and his capacity for generating potent myths about himself.
But more of this in Part 2. In the next days, I shall relate my search for the Sri Lankan man, and my meeting him.
If he is to be in charge of Puttaparthi, in Sai Baba’s aftermath, he had better do a nifty hop, skip and a jump from Sri Lanka to Puttaparthi, and thus end forever the intense infighting over succession that has been going on following Sathya Sai Baba’s death.
Sathya Sai Baba’s longtime associate and his official biographer, the late Professor P.N. Kasturi, wrote that Sai Baba said:
“Vivekananda has come again; he is growing up in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He will come to Me and join in My task.” Sathyam, Shivam, Sundaram, Part II, p. 130. 1960-61.
Another close Sathya Sai Baba associate, the late Howard Murphet, author of best-selling books on Sathya Sai Baba, reported that in an interview in the late 60′s, Sai Baba told him and his wife, Iris:
“Vivekananda has been reborn in Sri Lanka. When his education and training are complete, he will help me with my mission”.
Murphet met the individual concerned, Nalin Sedera, in 1989, and relates that Sai Baba told Sedera:
“I have been waiting for you for eighty-five years”
and that Sedera would come to live at the Puttaparthi ashram in (CE) 2021.
See: Sai Inner Views and Insight, Chapter 10: The Rebirth of Vivekananda, by Howard Murphet, Faber, VA, Leela Press, 1996, pp. 60- 66.
Vivekananda’s appearance in the West was a remote beginning of a wider Western interest in Eastern spirituality and philosophy which did not combust until the descent upon India of thousands of spiritual seekers, most of them young. Central to its impetus was a broad and strong reaction to the gross materialism in the socio-economically developed countries. Superficial views link this convergence on India as being a ‘Hippie’ phenomenon, but those who lived in India or traveled there or else well-acquainted with the serious literature know plainly that this is a vast oversimplification.
Neither India nor the West was ready for this decamping. India was beginning to recover from British imperial domination (in my view, it has never really recovered, and in many cases, where the old oppressions have been overcome, home-grown ones keep springing up in their place). The very notion of ‘seeking’ can imply either a degree of lack of fulfilment or loss outright – real hungering and thirsting. When there is neediness, especially when individuals travel in unfamiliar terrain, two mutally opposed forces, either to aid or to thwart them, arise. One is compassion expressed through decency. The other is exploitation.
Of course, human nature being what it is, such dichotomies as compassion for, as opposed to exploitation of, the seeker are simplistic. There are any number of gurus – no less than human beings in general – who have done many acts of which we may all approve, yet, along with the kindly actions, have done ill.
Leaving aside the many other forms of exploitation, the list of Indian gurus who have been exposed as shams is considerable, as has been the exposure of many religious and other authority figures in countries around the world.
Whatever may be said of the strengths and the integrity of figures such as Vivekananda, Yogananda and other Indian teachers who visited the West, the adulation which they received – and still receive though they are long dead – needs to be looked at critically. I think the greatest benefit that can spring when one looks at these historical developments is to spend serious time in self-examination. That is to say, each one of us can keep posing the question: how did I, and how do I, react to influential role models? Not what is somebody else’s adulation, reverence, attachment. But what constitutes my own tendencies.
If we can find a way to challenge the adulation, and the clinging attachment to external figures, perhaps we will have begun to find instead of to seek. That is, forever, to seek external buttresses for our being.
But, emphatically, this was not my state when attached to the figure of Sathya Sai Baba.
Continued at: Sathya Sai Baba’s Death Falsifies Vivekananda ‘Reincarnation’ Story (Part 2)
Further Reading
Sathya Sai Baba’s lunar age 96
Sathya Sai Baba’s death and ‘mahasamadhi’
Indian Gurus Stifle India’s Chance To Excel
Indian Media’s Reticence on Top Guru, Sathya Sai Baba, Weakens
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Howard Murphet, Nalin Sedera, Swami Vivekananda, Yogananda | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on May 26, 2011
Continuing the three-part series. This follows: Sathya Sai Baba’s Death Falsifies His Vivekananda ‘Reincarnation’ Claim (Part 1)
It was early 1998. An idea struck me. I was then editing books by Sathya Sai Baba devotees and ‘Spiritual Impressions’, an internationally distributed magazine on Sai Baba published by Sai Towers in Puttaparthi. Since I had to go to Sri Lanka on another matter, why not see whether it was possible to meet the young man, Nalin Sedera? Were reports correct? Had Sai Baba’s really said that Sedera was the great Hindu monk Vivekananda reborn, and that he would run Puttaparthi after Sai Baba had died?
Or was this just one of countless stories that, from the moment of inception, race brushfire-like through the Sai community? Indeed, often distorted by the phenomenon often known as the ‘chinese whispers’ effect – the often unwitting embellishment of an account as it goes on being retold.
Were there important witnesses? Well, yes, I thought. There was Kasturi, who wrote:
“Vivekananda has come again; he is growing up in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He will come to Me and join in My task.” Sathyam, Shivam, Sundaram, by Professor N. Kasturi. Part II, p. 130. 1960-61.
And then there was Murphet. He reported that in an interview in the late 60′s, Sai Baba told him and his wife, Iris:
“Vivekananda has been reborn in Sri Lanka. When his education and training are complete, he will help me with my mission. “ ‘Sai Inner Views and Insight’, Chapter 10: The Rebirth of Vivekananda by Howard Murphet, Faber, VA, Leela Press, 1996, pp. 60-66
Murphet met Nalin Sedera in 1989, and wrote that Sai Baba told the latter:
“I have been waiting for you for eighty-five years”
… and that Nalin will come to live at the Puttaparthi ashram in AD 2021.
Was there, I wondered, around Puttaparthi, where I now stayed (on an eight months trip 1997-1998), anyone I could speak to who had been close to the original story? I chatted with the author Bob Lowenberg, whom I knew well from the ‘old days’, whose first book, ‘At the Feet of Sai’, I had assisted with some editing. He had no pointers, although lighted up with interest.
Any others? Not that I could see. Kasturi, with whom I had ( in the 1970′s when I taught at the Sathya Sai College outside Bangalore, South India) much enjoyed sitting and chatting, was now dead. I went to his successor as Editor of ‘Sanathana Sarathi, V.K.Narasimhan, with whom I had formed a warm friendship, and whose book on the great French philosopher Teilhard de Chardin I was later to start editing. He knew some details of the Sedera story, but only at second hand, and I obtained the contact details of the head of the Sathya Sai Organisation in Sri Lanka, who was soon to ask me to address a gathering. I told V.K.N., as he was known with immense affection, that I may try to locate the young man on my upcoming trip to Sri Lanka, and perhaps get his permission to share his account in the magazine ‘Spiritual Impressions‘. He gave me some leads.
In a very long queue, I was speaking quietly with Bob Lowenberg about searching for Nalin Sedera when I was in Sri Lanka. A gentleman standing next to us overheard, and said he knew the family. He straightway wrote down their address. Ah, neat little divine leela, thought I …..
I did indeed locate Nalin Sedera and a brother of his. In fact, they came looking for me before I got round to contacting them. Nalin confirmed the factuality of the Kasturi and Murphet accounts.
Why, then, all the bitterness and infighting between two contenders for the leadership succession?
The Hindustan Times wrote:
“The death of spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba has left a question mark on the future of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (SSSCT), estimated to have assets worth Rs 40,000 crore ($9 billion). As Baba, who was chairperson of the trust, left no successor to the massive empire, his death might trigger a succession among the trust members which include his nephew R.J. Ratnakar. While some eminent devotees of Baba believe that with personalities like former chief justice of India P.N. Bhagvati on the board, the trust will carry on in a smooth manner various charitable work in India and abroad
Now Sathya Sai Baba died April 24, 2011. well before a date official Sai literature mentions that he had clearly foretold – AD 2022. The befuddled attempts of Sai devotees to rationalise this date are well exposed. (See Robert Priddy readings below).
Major Indian newspapers which have, down the decades, censored news inimical to Sathya Sai Baba, have published accounts of the unseemly infighting in regard to settling who runs Puttparthi after Sai Baba demise. According to the Kasturi and Murphet accounts above, and this is a date (or 2022, allowing for some latitude about how a year is expressed) that devotees commonly accept as the time when Sai Baba foretold that he will die (they don’t say die, of course). Many recent news reports also cite this date. (Although it is but one of at least three, seriously conflicting dates that Sai Baba predicted).
Of course, no amount of procrustean explanation, and jumping from calendar to calendar, which runs rife among many devotees right now, can rationally obscure the fact that Sai Baba has died long before this date.
On Wednesday April 13,1998, I flew from South India to Sri Lanka. In part 3., I shall detail my meeting with Nalin Sedera.
See next in article in this series:
Further Reading
By Robert Priddy, former head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway, and retired academic, University of Oslo
Controversy on Sathya Sai Baba’s suspicious death
Sathya Sai Baba prophecies on his own death date(s)
Sathya Sai Baba succession problem
Sathya Sai Baba news sensation – may have died earlier
Sathya Sai Baba death date in serious doubt
Sathya Sai Baba’s death – no miracles
Ex-Chief Justice of India: Sathya Sai Baba “dictated my every single judgement”
Sai Baba’s Bhagwati shows total disrespect for justiceSathya Sai Central Trust untrustworthy!
By Barry Pittard, former lecturer Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India
Ex-Chief Justice of India: Sathya Sai Baba “dictated my every single judgement”
On Sathya Sai Baba: Times of India, Ex-Chief Justice Interview. What Judge Would So Opine?
Indian Ex-Chief Justice: “Wild, Reckless Claims” about Sathya Sai Baba
Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard
Slander by Dr. G. Venkataraman & Joe Moreno
The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Bob Lowenberg, Howard Murphet, Nalin Sedera (Prophesied Successor To Sathya Sai Baba), Professor N. Kasturi, Puttaparthi, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Teilhard de Chardin, V.K Narasimhan | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on May 22, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba core leaders such as Dr Michael Goldstein, Dr G.L. Venkataraman and and others are deeply implicated in the massive cover up of a profoundly dark side of Sathya Sai Baba and the inner machinations of his religious empire.
Those who have left, or are still having a crisis about whether to leave the Sathya Sai Organization, need to do some careful, consecutive thinking about the nature of what Sathya Sai Baba and his core leaders have fed to them down these long years.
More than anything else, they will need to look at themselves with rigorous self-examination. Anything like rationalization and easy answers are to be avoided. Such as: But what about the miracles? But what about all the good that he has done? But what about the transformation in my life, and the lives of so many? And so on … These are worthy questions, but, taken on their own, they can obscure what, within oneself, has been denied, and not faced.
There have been great crimes, manipulations and betrayals. There has been the psychological condition of a greatly charismatic but profoundly flawed master of deception. And there has been our own beguilement. See:
Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist
Because the depth of deception and of self-deception are so deep-layered, it is often not possible to assemble all the answers one might wish. In the face of this difficulty, I suggest this approach:
- carefully note down, firstly – well away from distractions! – and in brief form, those misgivings one has had while involved in Sathya Sai Baba activities, and which one has swept from one’s mind – the contradictions, the anomalies, the autocratic deeds and policies, the conflicts concerning what one would ordinarily regard as against the law, or against ethics, or against common notions of fairness and kindness, etc.
One can consider, for example, how people have left or been cast out of the Sathya Sai Organization. That is to say, people whom you had long regarded as being decent and good, as indeed they are still thus regarded in their lives in their wider communities.
It is, as I say, a rigorous exercise – about facing those anomalies, contradictions, conflicts, dissonances – only as questions. NOT looking for answers.
One can then, drop the exercise, and let it mull, as it were. This sort of fearless self-honesty can have its own liberating power. There is a fresh wind. They are not just cobwebs we have in our mind. There are spiders, so to speak. And they had best be sent scurrying away, and some proper house-keeping be done.
At last, one looks at those concerns which one has avoided all along. There is a return to commonsense, and to simple self-respect. And to compassion for people in general, and not just so-called ‘Sai brothers and sisters’. And to common compassion for those who have dissented, and who, sometimes against enormous attack – including threats to life or limb. There is the unrelenting attack on the repute of those you once loved and honored.
In short, those whom you and your fellow devotees have excluded, shunned, and permitted to be sorely defamed.
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NEXT ARTICLE – coming in two days: Part Two, continuing from
Sathya Sai Baba’s Death Falsifies His Vivekananda ‘Reincarnation’ Claim (Part 1)
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Further Reading
Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard
Slander by Dr. G. Venkataraman & Joe Moreno
The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Abhayam, Dr G.L. Venkataraman, Dr Michael Goldstein, Fearlessness, India, Introspection, Miracles, Propaganda, Self Examination, Sri Sathya Sai Baba | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on May 31, 2011
To refresh on our theme. Here are quotations for two of the most respected of all Sai devotee writers on Sathya Sai Baba.
Professor N. Kasturi, Sathya Sai Baba’s official biographer, wrote:
“Vivekananda has come again; he is growing up in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He will come to Me and join in My task.” Sathyam, Shivam, Sundaram, by Professor P.N. Kasturi. Part II, p. 130. 1960-61.
And Howard Murphet, the Australian journalist and theosophist, who also interviewed various witnesses, including a young Sri Lankan Nalin Sedera, stated that in an interview in the late 60′s, Sai Baba told him and his wife, Iris:
“Vivekananda has been reborn in Sri Lanka. When his education and training are complete, he will help me with my mission. “ ‘Sai Inner Views and Insight’, Chapter 10: The Rebirth of Vivekananda by Howard Murphet, Faber, VA, Leela Press, 1996, pp. 60-66
On Sunday April 19th, 1998, I had planned for a quiet evening in my room at the Ramakrishna Mission in Columbo, the capital of Sri Lanka. I had arranged with Nalin Sedera’s brother, Ajitha, to go to their home on the Monday. He told me that Nalin had been spending a few days meditating in a temple at the southern tip of his country – at Karthirkamagiri, long a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists and Hindus.
At 6.15 p.m., as I made my way up Ramakrishna Road for a quiet cup of Horlicks, a fairly tall, slender, striking young Singhalese man around thirty years called across to me, “Are you the Australian gentleman staying at the Ramakrishna Mission?”
(Photo: Swami Vivekananda)
It was Nalin accompanied by his brother, Ajitha. He explained that they thought they would find me more easily than I them. A few minutes later, as we sat ourselves down at the table of the crowded vegetarian restaurant, I sat facing a lithe, well-built young man, clean-shaven, dressed very neatly, wearing denim, his dark red shirt smart. He blended in with middle class Sri Lankans. His face had a fine-boned, sculptured look, and a bright, golden brown that had an inner lustre. His voice was rich and resonant, as though coming from a cavern. Among my stray thoughts, I wondered – quaintly enough: Was there anything about his physical appearance which resembled Vivekananda? Yes, I thought, in a way - the lips: delicate, fine-etched, contoured. I sensed strong character. His gaze had an honest directness, and he displayed spontaneous, sincere good manners. There appeared to me to be a controlled but passionate intensity about the issues, as our discussion unfolded, that clearly mattered to him. Even before we sat down, I had asked him whether the attention he had received had affected his life. That is to say, the wide-spread belief that Sai Baba had said that Nalin was the great Swami Vivekananda reborn, who would eventually take over the running of Puttaparthi when Sai Baba died.
“They are trying to take my life”
That was sudden. Was there a paranoia? Or was this part of his spontaneity, a cutting-to-the-chase, that I had already begun to notice. There struck me a warmth, a humanity about him. When he referred to the way in which people mobbed him, I saw his palpable distaste for such excesses.
I asked Nalin, “do you mean that your life is actually in danger from anyone?” As if looking inward at some quarry he had in mind and with burning intensity, and a mix of smile and leer that reminded me of Humphrey Bogart, he replied, “They would be writing their last will and testament if they tried!”
I did not sense a Vivekananda-like commitment to ahimsa (non-violence). Nalin’s occasional intense flashes remain one of my abiding impressions of him.
As we took our seats, he referred to crowds that gathered round him after word travelled bushfire-like that Sathya Sai Baba had said that Nalin, in his previous life, was Swami Vivekananda. He said:
“My mind didn’t go. But I lost a lot - my liberty, my freedom.”
I checked with him, just to be sure I understood his exact meaning. By “my life”, he meant: a broad leeway to be himself.
I asked Nalin if he related to books? Again, the intensity.
“I want to have experience. It is all that matters. Not read about anyone else’s. Books are a waste of time.”
I mentioned the book by the Australian writer Howard Murphet’s book. Nalin said that he felt very let down by the people who had informed the author of his story (he referred to them as Tamilians - i.e., belonging to or originating from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu).
“I had asked them to allow nothing to be published without my permission. They went ahead without consulting me”.
As he began to unfold his experiences, he said:
”I’ve had a lot of troubles. I am a normal person, whatever people may think. Whatever may have been the case in my last life, I am living in this life! I have no idea what happened in my last life. When Swami made the revelation - or call it a pronouncement - I had no idea of who Swami Vivekananda was. This is this life. It’s all I’m interested in. Now, as a result of all the attention, I’ve lost what is most precious to me - my liberty, my freedom. At the ashram after Swami had spoken, there were hundreds of people milling all round me. And hundreds of people here in Sri Lanka.”
What did the mobs ask?
“They asked funny questions. Do I remember my previous birth? They regard me as some kind of alien. Some of them say I should be wearing a robe like a sadhu (ed., spiritual renunciate). Why should I do that? I want to wear my denims. Some have even said that, at a certain time, I’ll get up in darshan and take over Puttaparthi.”
Typically, here, after reflection, usually following a question of mine, he would return with a perfectly crystallised reply, like a pearl slipping out of the oyster shell when, after inner effort, it opens at last. His voice struck flint; a small spark lit his eye. “I don’t like that!” The tone was very emphatic. Again the spurt of intensity. I sensed a deep indignity, a smouldering anguish from which he had only somewhat distanced himself. Embers still glowed hot.
He spoke of his anger at the time of Sai Baba’s ‘revelation’ or ‘pronouncement.’ The interview in which this was made occurred, he said, at Puttaparthi, March 23, 1987. Two more interviews followed – on the 24th and 26th. He was then nineteen years. He said that the Sri Lankan group of which Nalin was a member was led by Mrs Ganhewa. He was baffled to know how the news got out. “Swami took me into a private room next to the interview room. I cannot see how others in the interview could have heard what Swami said. I certainly didn’t say anything about it.”
I have since asked a number of others their opinion as to the audibility or otherwise of what is said, from the standpoint of someone in the outer room. Some say speech inside is too muffled to be understood. Others say that sometimes one can hear what is being said. In an interview on July 24,1998, I noted this: a curtain separates the two rooms, as it has long done. I was in a group of seven Australians. However, a Canadian husband and wife briefly preceded us into the inner room. Later, Sai Baba also saw the three ladies in our group separately to the men. In both cases, a few drifting words of speech could be understood; but much could not be, because he and the Canadians and, separately, he and the Australian women spoke quite quietly.
Nalin told me that he returned to Puttaparthi in August 1987. Sai Baba called him and his group for interview. He said that Sai Baba asked the group leader, referring to Nalin’s parents, “Are his parents happy?” Nalin relates that she replied yes, they were very happy when they heard the news, but
“Swami replied, ‘No, no, no, they are not happy but they are worried about that boy. Look at him, he’s just a boy. Just leave him alone and don’t disturb him, because if anything happens, you must be responsible for that”‘.
Nalin said:
“Swami turned to me and said, ‘A lot of people are angry with you and jealous of you, here and there. Don’t go to any bhajan places. You just stay at your home, and do your work’”
I asked Nalin what work did he do?
“Not ordinary work. A friend of my age and I have been working among the poorer classes. At one time, we got involved in an eye camp.”
(These were organised clinics designed to bring medical aid to the poor. For example, combating eye diseases such as glaucoma).
Nalin continued,
“Swami then said, ‘You are angry with me. Why are you angry with me?’ I said, ‘You know why I am angry with you.’ Baba said, ‘Yes, I know.’”
Nalin related that it was only on his return home that he discovered from his parents that they had been in fact worried at the extraordinary revelation about their son. Not wanting to trouble their family, they had kept their concern to themselves.
He said that, in two or three months, he would like to visit Sai Baba wherever he was stationed at the time. A lot would depend on how Nalin’s father managed with a shortly upcoming by-pass operation in Chennai. He wondered whether it would be possible to get Sri Lankan Sai devotees to leave him alone – perhaps via a note printed in Sanathana Sarathi, the official magazine of the Sathya Sai Central Trust. Considering the essential purpose of the publication (to publish Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s Discourses, a small few articles by contributors, Sathya Sai Organization news), I rather doubted his chances, but suggested he call on the Editor, V.K. Narasimhan, whom I regarded as a good, decent man and a warm friend. With distinction and courage, V.K.N. had formerly edited major Indian newspapers – the Indian Express, Hindustan Times and Deccan Herald- and he and I had a warm friendship and were in fairly regular contact. From V.K.N. I soon after found that Nalin had, while I was absent, called on him, a visit I had already told V.K.N that Nalin may make. When we later spoke, V.K.N smiled wryly and admitted defeat in observing any similarities to Swami Vivekananda.
Since so many of Sathya Sai Baba’s predictions large and small have proved false, one may fail to see how the one about Nalin could come true. Trustfully, given the fickleness of the madding crowd, Nalin’s botherers will have long given up their bothering of him.
This concludes the 3-part series:
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Ahimsa (non-violence), Howard Murphet, Humphrey Bogart, Nalin Sedera, Ramakrishna Mission, Reincarnation, Sri Lanka (and Sathya Sai Baba), Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, V.K Narasimhan | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 4, 2011
Amid the dust and decay of his many unfulfilled prophecies, Sathya Sai Baba died 25 April 2011. Yet he foretold that the most of the world would come kneel at his feet.
But of course, he will remain dead. And, except for small parts of it, the world has never been aware of him. That is to say, despite all his untruthful, propagandistic speeches ( and those of his carefully selected keynote speakers) given from the Puttaparthi stage saying that the whole world is becoming aware of his glory. Most of the world press did not cover his death, and those that did gave it no such column inches as the media in India.
Rather, the world is only too likely to adhere to its own multiplicity of belief systems, some of which profoundly disallow any such evangel as that of Sathya Sai Baba.
Contrary to the beliefs rife among his devotees, both (supposedly) educated and the non-educated, he will resurrect.
Some sections of the Indian press – hitherto loathe to publish inimically on Sathya Sai Baba – now report various claims, each report serving to show how deeply compromised in their blind belief his devotees are, including the current President, Prime Minister, and many central, state and local government officials, across party political lines, not to mention a great many others. The Times of India informs:
Baba said he would return stronger, claims book
TNN, Apr 24, 2011, 03.10am IST
PUTTAPARTHI: Did Sathya Sai Baba have premonition 10 years ago that he would fall seriously ill? Yes, claim his followers. According to them, Sai Baba had predicted in 2000 that he would be indisposed for 40 days but would come back strong to give darshan to his devotees.
This was revealed in a book ‘Tapovanam — Bhagawan Sri Sathya Saibaba Satcharitra Nityaparaya-nam’ in which the author Jandhyala Venkateswara Sastry has written an essay on Baba’s ill-health. Sai Baba had told his students at his Sai Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal in 2000: ”Though most of my disciples fall at my feet, they don’t know my real value. A time would come when I would vanish and take a walk across the skies. During that phase, my body would face serious health problems and devotees would be desperately praying for my recovery.”
A great many Sathya Sai Baba devotees are familiar with his statements that he would forsake aircraft and “move across the sky”. I doubt whether I shall bother to stick my head out the window to see any such event. However, if he does appear, his devotees will crow louder than the fowl yard at dawn, and, eyes agleam, let the rest of us know.
At the moment, there does not even appear the chance of a dazzling darshan in the sky of a flying gilded coffin.
Although some devotees are exciting other devotees with accounts of wondrous visions. Interesting – because Sai Baba has on various occasions told devotees to disregard such visions. Contradictorily, he has also told devotees that so long as dreams of him are clear, then they indeed come from him.
His predicted death date in the following quote clashes with at least two other dates for his death (although neither he nor his devotees have used such a bland term as ‘death’). The very commonly referred to death-date is 96, but the one on the left hand side (1963) below indicates an age of 93 years. The text on the right hand (of 2003) makes clear the date that many Sai devotees commonly referred to.
For the madcap attempts to rationalise these dates, and other palpable absurdities, see:
Sathya Sai Baba Is Dead. Said He Would Rule the World and Die Aged 96
Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions
“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.”
Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit
‘World Hindu’ by 2030. VHP’s Singhal Reports Sathya Sai Baba Told Him
An alert media only has to do a bit of research among decades of official Sathya Sai literature to see that stories such as the one the Times of India now prints have been around for years. It redounds to the Indian media’s great discredit that it has, almost all of it, decade after decade, failed to make even the most perfunctory attempt to hold Sathya Sai Baba and the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust to any sort of account. That a number of leading foreign print and television media have investigated shames not only the Indian media but India herself, for being so corrupt. See:
Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List
UK Guardian On Sathya Sai Baba and Duke’s Awards
Probed On Male Sex Abuse, Sai Baba Evicts BBC TV Team
BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)
Suicide, sex and the guru – The Times of London. The reputation of Sai Baba, a holy man to the rich and famous, has been tarnished by mysterious deaths and allegations of sexual abuse
Fortunately for media, government and institutional researchers, academics such as Robert Priddy and Brian Steel refrained from doing what many other former devotees have done, who destroyed their Sai Baba publications and other acquisitions. Priddy and Steel have subjected various key texts to rational and compelling comparison and analysis. Their vast amount of work will save scholars and other keen investigators huge amounts of time in getting to the relevant and revealing works and sections of works.
Rather than the much vaunted “Glory of Puttaparthi” and endless other such epithets, what we see in the following is the Folly of Puttaparthi:
This official publication verifies Sai Baba's death date prediction of 96 years
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Indian media, Indian media censorship, Prophecy, Resurrection, Sathya Sai Baba Research, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Unfulfilled Prophecy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 8, 2011
The Swami Ramdev challenge to high level government and corporate corruption in India is but one indicator of the type of institutional violence with which Manmohan Singh is ready to react (see Reuters report below) when confronted not by a handful of determined foreigners from various countries but by a popular swami from within India itself. Baba Ram Dev, like Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian leaders, resorts to the fast-unto-death means of getting his message across.
An interesting comment appears at Live Mint.com and The Wall Street Journal:
“The root of the problem is the present government. Its complete disregard for serious problems of governance has opened the door for the rash politics of the Ramdev kind. Had it paid more attention to these issues, these groups could have been easily ignored. The UPA’s managers know that this can’t be done because of the depleted political stock of their government. The spectacle of ministers first grovelling before a godman at the airport and then ordering a pre-dawn police crackdown is only a symptom of the larger crisis of governability”.
Paul De Bendern, Reuters
First posted: Monday, June 6, 2011 6:22:45 EDT AM
NEW DELHI - India’s Supreme Court called on the government on Monday to justify why it sent police to end a peaceful anti-graft protest by a popular yoga guru and thousands of his followers, spelling more trouble for embattled prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Around 600 police broke up a mass hunger strike led by Swami Ramdev in New Delhi with batons and tear gas early on Sunday, detaining the guru, who is a TV star, and putting him on a plane to his home state. Dozens of followers and police were injured.
Tapping into spiralling voter anger about corruption as Asia’s third largest economy booms, Ramdev has called on the government to pursue billions of dollars in illegal funds abroad, and introduce tough anti-corruption legislation.
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Further Reading
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Baba Ramdev (Anti Indian Corruption), Corporate Corruption, Corruption, Government Corruption, India, Indian Politics, Swami Ramdev (Anti Indian Corruption) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 8, 2011
Over recent years, those leading the attack against former Sai Baba devotees and other critics have been noted for their vituperation, libel, harassment (including causing deep distress to family and children of prominent spokespersons), and more.
These individuals are known to be connected with Sathya Sai Baba’s leaders. See for example: Gerald Moreno.
Ironically, their words constantly counter the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba, and this has severely cost them respect and cooperation from many Sai devotees who strive to live by his teachings. One of their cries is that critics such as Robert Priddy and myself are “India bashers”.
But there are many Indians who make the same and other criticisms of the moral foulness that infects a great deal of Indian life. For an immediate example, note the case of the Indian anti-corruption crusader, Swami Ram Dev, who has had, and continues to get, enormous coverage in the Indian media. He inveighs against corruption in a way profoundly absent in the words or actions of Sathya Sai Baba.
Baba Ram Dev, like Mahatma Gandhi, is prepared to use the tactic of a fast-unto-death. But – against months of mounting allegations against the corruption within the Indian government, and his own weak efforts to address the problems – Manmohan Singh has just sent in the militia against a peacefully conducted anti government and corporate corruption protest by Swami Ramdev and his followers. See my note of today: Baba Ram Dev’s Challenge to Indian Government and Corporate Corruption.
Indian PM Manmohan Singh, under fire for huge corruption in his government, attends the funeral of Sathya Sai Baba
In referring to the ubiquitous grip that corruption has on India, writers such as Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, Alexandra Nagel, Kevin R.D. Shepherd and many others have not, of course, written anything that has not been stated by decent, educated and deeply concerned Indians everywhere. These critics’ slides of argument – of the type e.g., criticism of Sathya Sai Baba is tantamount to criticism of a decent India – are deplorable and obvious to those not blinded by fanaticism and hatred. Their attacks are so vicious as to alienate many who would have wished Sathya Sai Baba to be defended, if defended at all, in a manner harmonious with his teachings.
Of the constancy of the civil discourse that we pursue, let anyone mouse-click at random on any of our great many articles. On the internet and in other places, we face endless distortions to the contexts of our words, argumentum ad hominem attacks and other forms of disreputable argument, attacks on family privacy and hurting those of our members who are not even connected with exposing Sathya Sai Baba and his cult. Denigrative language is typical throughout the writings of prominent assailants of former devotees and other critics who have spoken out.
Voicing the concerns, irrespective of the attacks, is something we have not stopped, and will not stop. A great many people are still being misled by the culture of deception and secrecy that Sathya Sai Baba and his core servitors have so long practised.Why should we stop?
The attackers clearly ignore the fact that so many whom they attack have spent decades of their lives honored for their dedicated contributions of the Sathya Sai Organization, and well beyond in their own communities.
Those of us who lead the exposure of the Sathya Sai Baba cult have experienced profound varieties of corrupt cover up far too many times not to know something of its nature. Western and Indian media, institutions and scholars who have tried to investigate Sathya Sai Baba and his cult have found the same problem. Former devotees in excellent standing in their professions and wider communities presented a great deal of documentation to UNESCO, Interpol and country police forces such as the FBI, Federal Police (Australia), etc. Media with which we have dealt includes the BBC, CBC, ABC, SBS, DR, Atul TV, India Today, Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, Salon.com, the Age, Australian Financial Review, Gatopado, West Australian, (Adelaide) Advertiser, Marie Clair, and newspapers in Europe, Canada and still others.
In short, the wall of local, state and central Indian government cover up of Sathya Sai Baba’s crimes and other spiritual betrayals, and those of his core servitors, and by his central Trust and international Sathya Sai Organization, that we have had to face is immense.
Further Reading
Will India clean up its Augean police and political stables?
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Indian Government Corruption, Manmohan Singh (Indian PM) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 12, 2011
Documentary proof of Sai Baba foretelling his death at 96 years
As inaccurate in blind faith mathematics as they are careless with so many other types of fact, a number of Sathya Sai Baba devotees have seriously tripped over themselves about his various death date prophecies.
Following his death on 24 April 2011, they try, with Procrustean contortions, to convert his (supposedly) prophetic words into factual statements.
Many of them did not realise that he had made several conflicting prophecies concerning his death date (not that they use the word ‘death’.
Sathya Sai Baba in his glass coffin. His 40-day's later resurrection prophecy has failed
Exhaustive efforts of former devotee researchers such as Robert Priddy and Brian Steel and others have uncovered many instances of palpable absurdities which it is now too late for the Sai editorial weeders to conceal.
These editorial puppets of Sai propaganda started all too late with their, so to speak, Weeders Digest – in which glaringly they have culled many embarrassing Sai Baba statements. Especially, the Australian scholar Brian Steel was all too fast off the mark for any of them.
Thankfully, not all former devotees destroyed their large stack of back numbers of Sanathana Sarathi and other publications, such as the lengthy Sathya Sai Speaks series, of the Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, Puttapathi.
What these deeply compromised Sathya Sai devotees unwittingly expose is the way in which their cultic adulation of Sai Baba makes them so foolhardy. This is but one of countless examples of devotee blindness, and serious lapse into untruth – the very opposite of what they claim to stand for.
Typically, such devotees embrace his utter deceits, an example being written devotee documentation that Sai Baba told a group of his students at his retreat at Kodaikanal that he would resurrect after 40 days. I have referred to this report in the Times of India at:
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 4, 2011
My readers will not of course need to hunt up a calendar to see that these forty days have well elapsed. There is not even the hint of a resurrection. Unless the ‘Secret Swami’ is keeping his resurrection secret.
TNN, Apr 24, 2011, 03.10am IST
PUTTAPARTHI: Did Sathya Sai Baba have premonition 10 years ago that he would fall seriously ill? Yes, claim his followers. According to them, Sai Baba had predicted in 2000 that he would be indisposed for 40 days but would come back strong to give darshan to his devotees.
This was revealed in a book ‘Tapovanam — Bhagawan Sri Sathya Saibaba Satcharitra Nityaparaya-nam’ in which the author Jandhyala Venkateswara Sastry has written an essay on Baba’s ill-health. Sai Baba had told his students at his Sai Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal in 2000: ”Though most of my disciples fall at my feet, they don’t know my real value. A time would come when I would vanish and take a walk across the skies. During that phase, my body would face serious health problems and devotees would be desperately praying for my recovery.”
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More Self-falsifying
Sathya Sai Baba Statements
A Sai Baba Self-contradicting statement about his death date
Further Reading
Barry Pittard (Former lecturer Sathya Sai College, Whitefield)
Sathya Sai Baba’s Death Falsifies His Vivekananda ‘Reincarnation’ Claim (Part 1)
Sathya Sai Baba’s Death Falsifies Vivekananda ‘Reincarnation’ Story (Part 2)
Sathya Sai Baba’s Death Falsifies Vivekananda ‘Reincarnation’ Story (Part 3)
Brian Steel Exposes Sathya Sai Baba On Glaring Historical Mistakes
Robert Priddy (Former head of Sathya Sai Organization, Norway, and regular contributor to ‘Sanathana Sarathi’)
Brian Steel (Former notable Sai Devotee writer, particularly on bibliographical issues)
Fuzzy Dates in the Official Biography of Sathya Sai Baba. A Re-examination. (Extended, April 2008)
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, cover up, India, Propaganda, Prophecy, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, Sri Sathya Sai Speaks | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 14, 2011
Here is further evidence for the best known of the late Sathya Sai Baba’s predictions for the year of his death – circa 2022. See my blog: Official Sai Baba Documents Show His Death Date Prophecies Failed. Posted by Barry Pittard on June 12, 2011.
Of course, after several years of sickness and patently looking far below the roseate physical health he long proclaimed that he would enjoy for the rest of his life - he died 24 April 2011 – very much sooner than 2022.
See at this blogsite:
Sick and Ailing Sathya Sai Baba 85. His Promises to Look Young Have Failed
Sathya Sai Baba’s Slurred Speech Due To Old Age. ‘Eenadu’ News Report
Sathya Sai Baba Tells Untruths About His Health
Sathya Sai Baba Is Fast-ailing
Robert Priddy, former head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway, cites the writing of the Norwegian journalist Thorbjørn Færøvik, who reported a largely attended public speech given in Sai Baba’s presence. The speaker was Dr A. Murthi, a prominent Sai Baba devotee, and a member of the organizing committee for the Sathya Sai World Conference at Puttaparthi in 1998: ‘The Future of Humanity’.
Thorbjørn Færøvik interviewed Dr Murthi:
Murthi: He’s going to die on his 95-year anniversary.
Færøvik: How can Sai Baba know?
Murthi: Because he is the son of God. Son of God knows everything.
Færøvik: It will say that Sai Baba has a good 20 years left to live?
Murthi: Exactly. And during these 20 years we must solve a series of problems.
Færøvik: What?
Murthi: We need to create complete peace and harmony
(The above is Robert Priddy’s Translation from the Norwegian text: “Han kommer til å dø på sin 95-årsdag, sier dr. A. Murthi, som sitter i arrangementskomiteen for verdenskonferansen og er en svoren tilhenger av Sai Baba. – Hvordan kan Sai Baba vite det? – Fordi han er Guds sønn. Guds sønn vet alt. – Det vil si at Sai Baba har vel 20 år igjen å leve? – Nettopp. Og i løpet av disse 20 årene må vi løse en rekke problemer. – Hvilke? – Vi må skape fullstendig fred og harmoni på Jorden. Vi må lære menneskene dannet tale og dannet atferd. “ – from ‘India, stevnemøte med skjebnen’ by Thorbjørn Færøvik. J.W. Cappelans Forlag. 1999)
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Queen Elizabeth 11. A marked contrast in health to 'World Savior' Sathya Sai Baba!
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Call for media and government
Further Reading
By Barry Pittard, former lecturer Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India
Ex-Chief Justice of India: Sathya Sai Baba “dictated my every single judgement”
On Sathya Sai Baba: Times of India, Ex-Chief Justice Interview. What Judge Would So Opine?
Indian Ex-Chief Justice: “Wild, Reckless Claims” about Sathya Sai Baba
Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard
Slander by Dr. G. Venkataraman & Joe Moreno
The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory
By Robert Priddy, former head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway, and retired academic, University of Oslo
Sai Baba contradictory death predictions documented
Sathya Sai Baba’s prediction about Vivekananda’s rebirth proven false
Controversy on Sathya Sai Baba’s suspicious death
Sathya Sai Baba prophecies on his own death date(s)
Sathya Sai Baba succession problem
Sathya Sai Baba news sensation – may have died earlier
Sathya Sai Baba death date in serious doubt
Sathya Sai Baba’s death – no miracles
Ex-Chief Justice of India: Sathya Sai Baba “dictated my every single judgement”
Sai Baba’s Bhagwati shows total disrespect for justiceSathya Sai Central Trust untrustworthy!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, India, Prophecy, Puttaparthi, South India | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 17, 2011
NEWS FLASH
Note: I shall analyse Indian media reports just to hand, and write further, tomorrow. Barry Pittard
From India, one of our correspondents writes:
“Sai Baba’s official residence ‘Yajur mandiram’, built at a cost of around Rs 35-40 crores ( $9-10 millions) in 2006, was opened yesterday by the SSB trust members after having been kept locked for the past 2 months. At 10 AM Thursday morning, the key was brought from the State bank of India by the bank manager and the residence opened. My sources tell me (confirmed by some newspaper reports too) that a staggering amount of hard cash was discovered, in several currencies. It was so much that bank officials decided in 2 hrs to bring in many currency counting machines. At least 15-20 students were pressed into service to count the cash alone and it took them many hours to complete the job. Unofficial reports say that the cash alone would be in the range of several millions of dollars.
Referring to Sathya Sai Baba’s last and probably most important lover, Satjyajit, who has recently renounced any claim to headship of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, the same informant writes:
Satyajit was specially brought in by the SSB trust to identify all the places where the “divine treasure” has been stashed away, as he was the only one Sai Baba had trusted in his last few years. Apart from the huge cash haul, a large amount of gold, diamonds and precious jewelry has been found. Chains, lockets, rings etc in their hundreds were heaped in secret hiding places. Local sources say that this would only be a fraction of what had been originally inside Sai Baba’s residence as after his hospitalisation, several trucks of cash and gold had been reportedly spirited away by SSB trust members/their agents.
A few computers were also found inside the residence complex, and are reported to contain details of Sai Baba’s huge financial empire.
No government official was allowed to be present during the inspection process that lasted the whole day, but SSB trust members say they have videographed the inspection proceedings and would submit an inventory to the government soon SSB trust officials refused to comment or take questions, and Ratnakar, SSB’s nephew has said a statement would be issued within 24 hours”.
Apparently Satyajit had to be brought in to open the personal chamber of Sai Baba because ultra sophisticated biometric security locking system had been installed and Satyajit alone could have opened it. Media was kept out-of-bounds, as were ordinary devotees and the public, even the police were not allowed in, and no district or revenue officials allowed into the compound.
This was reported by India Today even 2 weeks back in India Today, which, as we all know, had always taken an extra interest in Sai Baba. See:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/mystery-shrouds-sai-babas-personal-chamber/1/139965.html
The following are today’s news links in almost all major national newspapers.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Sai-Baba-s-personal-chamber-opened/Article1-710013.aspx
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/hyderabad/precious-diamonds-cash-found-satya-sai-baba%E2%80%99s-room-871
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2110641.ece
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Nearly-2-month-after-Sathya-Sai-Babas-death-Yajur-Mandir-opened/articleshow/8881822.cms
This news item yesterday suggests that the Sathya Sai Central Trust was split about how much importance Satyajit should be given. But, in the end, did the fact he alone could open the biometric security locks force the SSB Central Trust?
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sai-trust-divided-over-priority-to-satyajit/159517-60-114.html “
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, Godmen, Gurus, India, Sathya Sai Baba, South India, Wealth | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 18, 2011
Yesterday, I blogged on an email we received from an Indian correspondent long known to us, and included a number of links to the last 24 hours or so of Indian press reportage of the huge stash of money and valuables secreted in Sathya Sai Baba’s palatial private quarters. See: Sathya Sai Baba’s Residence Unlocked. Vast Treasury Uncovered.
Sathya Sai Baba’s visible opulence contains vast secret stash of money and valuables
In the last two days, the Indian media has just tapped a treasury of potent news to shake up and down in its headlines. Of course, making up for lost time in factual reportage on Sathya Sai Baba is out of the question; for it has an extremely poor record of almost all sections in publishing critically on Sathya Sai Baba.
But now – not least at a time when many Sai Baba devotees in India are starting to speak out and ask accountability and transparency questions – the Indian media can hardly fail to report properly on matters such as the huge treasure hoard just opened up, many unanswered questions about the circumstances of Sai Baba’s illness and death, the internicine fights over succession, and so on.
For decades, almost all of the Indian media has shirked critical comment on Sathya Sai Baba. We know from our private dealings that well-informed journalists, politicians and government officials in India know much about the dark side of Sathya Sai Baba. All the talk about ‘Shining India’ or ‘Incredible India’ does the greatest disservice to its creditable figures. They are shining. They are incredible. But they are too few. The untold corruption makes the country incredibly hard to deal with, a fact relented endlessly by decent Indians themselves and everyone else who has professional, government, financial, trade and other connections with India. ‘
That the Indian media could allow respected media overseas to make the running in exposing Sathya Sai Baba and his profoundly authoritarian and secretive cult is to its utter discredit.
Here are just a few of this morning’s headlines:
Puttaparthi Saibaba’s rich room!
Trust officials find Sai Baba’s room of gold
Treasure found from Sai Baba’s chamber
Sathya Sai Baba’s Personal Chamber Opened
Here is a succinct report (published today, but dated yesterday) from the Indo Asian News Service, which, by the way, in marked contradistinction, we have found professional and reasonable to deal with:
Hyderabad, June 17 (IANS) Around Rs.12 crore in cash and nearly 100 kg of gold were found in the personal chamber of late spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba at Prashanti Nilayam, his ashram in Puttaparthi in Anantapur district, a trust official said Friday.
A day after the Sathya Sai Central Trust opened the locks of the Baba’s personal chamber, Yajur Mandir, his nephew and trust member R.J. Ratnakar Friday evening announced details of the cash and valuables found inside.
He told reporters at Puttaparthi that the trust members found Rs.11.56 crore, 98 kg gold and gold jewelery, 307 kg silver articles in the personal chamber where nobody was alloweed to enter. Ratnakar said the cash would be deposited with the State Bank of India (SBI).
Some bank officials and about 15 disciples of Baba, in the presence of trust members, have since Thursday counted the cash with the help of currency counting machines. The Yajur Mandir is an opulent residence built by Baba.
Ratnakar said Baba’s residential quarter was opened in the presence of all five members of the trust. A former judge of the Supreme Court, A.P. Misra, and former Karnataka High Court judge Vaidyanathan were present as independent witnesses while an assessor approved by the Income Tax department was there to evaluate the gold, jewellery and silver.
Ratnakar claimed the idea behind the whole exercise was to make an inventory of all the items in a transparent manner.
The trust reportedly found gold statues of Hindu gods and diamonds.
Ratnakar, however, denied that they found any will of Baba. He also evaded queries if the trust found any documents about Baba’s personal caregiver Satyajit. There are speculations that the spiritual guru wanted to make Satyajit his successor or a member of the powerful trust.
Yajur Mandir, also known as Yajurveda Mandir, had remained closed ever since Sathya Sai Baba was hospitalised March 28 with multi-organ dysfunction. He died April 24.
There were allegations by a section of devotees that large amounts of cash and gold jewelery were shipped out of the place when Baba was battling for life. The trust, however, has denied this.
Some devotees were also demanding that the locks of Baba’s personal chamber be opened in their presence or at least in the presence of media persons.
The trust, which manages the huge spiritual empire led by Baba, owns assets in Puttaparthi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and other cities.
Meanwhile, the trust has decided to open Yajur Mandir for devotees on July 15. It also plans to open a museum at Prashanti Nilayam to showcase the personal belongings of the spiritual guru.
Related news:
- 98 kg gold, Rs.12 crore cash found in Sathya Sai Baba’s chamber
- Sathya Sai Baba’s personal chamber opened
- Trust decides to open Sathya Sai Baba’s personal chamber
- Crucial meet of Sathya Sai trust after funeral
- Sathya Sai Trust defers selection of new chairman
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Next article – Sunday 19 June 2011 (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Sathya Sai Baba Buried Treasure: Media and Government Need To Probe Sai Central Trust
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Further Reading
Midas hoard revealed was in Sathya Sai Baba’s private possession
Commonwealth Games: ‘Shining India’s’ Mismanagement By Crisis. Sai Baba Not Sighted
The Extreme Departure From Sathya Sai Baba’s Teachings By His Prominent Devotees
Police, Security and Sathya Sai Baba
Will India clean up its Augean police and political stables?
—————————————————————–
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Cults, Godmen, Gurus, India, Sathya Sai Baba, South India, Wealth | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 18, 2011
The Indian correspondent whom I mentioned in my blogs of the last two days has, in addition, raised a number of questions that may fairly be asked of the Sathya Sai Central Trust. See below. The preceding blogs are: - see: ‘Secret Swami’ (Late) Sai Baba: Vast Millions In Hoard Found Hidden In His Palace-Temple and: ‘Secret Swami’ (Late) Sai Baba: Vast Millions In Hoard Found Hidden In His Palace-Temple
Events preceding and following Sathya Sai Baba’s death on 25 April, 2011, show how enmeshed in succession struggles the Trust has been, and also how the Trust now stands glaringly exposed for having attempted to blame the media for reports which, as it turns out, has proven remarkably correct.
It is the type of vilifying attacks that the Trust made on many former Sai devotees (including former highly respected leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization), and on the BBC and other western media which ran investigative stories on Sathya Sai Baba and his international cult.
It can be seen in a Central Trust public statement published in a number of Indian newspapers. Speaking on behalf of the Trustees and the Council of Management, Venu Srinivasan stated:
“In the light of baseless, irresponsible and false accusations of defalcation of gold, valuable artefacts and even money, it is emphatically stated that the accusations are wholly untrue and it is believed these have been engineered by certain vested interests”. (Economic Times article: ‘Baba had no successor in mind: Trustees, election for Sai Trust chairman next week’, Apr 28, 2011, 09.53pm IST).
In his Christmas Day Discourse 2000, as our movement of exposure gained tremendous impetus – greatly enhanced by the exponential rising power of internet communication - Sai Baba, loudly thumping his lectern several times during the discourse, made statements such as:
“These types of publicity are shameless. Truly they are not human beings at all. The ones who put obstacles in the way of all sacred works are demons, not human beings. The determined vow of Sai will never change, even if demons like this may be all over the world”.
The insidious technique is typical of cover up the world over: depersonalize and libel the perceived adversary. Sathya Sai Baba himself had long set the tone among his chief servitors. Those such as Dr G. Venkataraman have used it unconscionably. See: Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist
The full Central Trust statement our Indian correspondent refers to is to be found at:
http://www.saibabaofindia.com/press-release-trustees-sri-sathya-sai-central-trust-28042011.htm
The writer says:
“Note the points 18 and 19 in that statement:
18. In light of the baseless, irresponsible and false accusations of defalcation of gold, valuable artefacts and even money, it is emphatically stated that these accusations are wholly untrue and it is believed that these have been engineered by certain vested interests with a view to defame the fair name of the Trust, its functionaries and the Trustees. There is no truth whatsoever in these allegations.
19. All transactions of the Trusts are duly accounted in their books of account. An experienced and qualified chartered accountant oversees the accounting and financial management. The accounts are duly audited by a reputed firm of Chartered Accountants based at Delhi. Periodical returns, accounts and audit reports as prescribed by law are duly filed with the concerned authorities under the Income Tax Act, FCRA and other applicable statutes. There is no proceeding initiated against any of the Trusts by any authority under any statute alleging any impropriety or violation of law.”
Today, after the staggering amount of cash and gold, silver and jewels were found in Sai Baba’s personal chamber, and with the national print and electronic media blasting SB in their headlines…perhaps the SB trust, left with no choice have issued a press statement….curiously, it’s from Ratnakar who was from the beginning accusing other SB trust members.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/sai-baba-trusts-statement-on-cash-gold-discovered-113053
Now here are my questions for the Sai Baba trust.
1. That seized wealth consisting of 100 kg of gold, 300 kg of silver, diamonds and almost Rs 12 crores of cash in Sai Baba’s personal chamber , now common public knowledge, whose is it ?
2. Since the SB trust had categorically denied presence of any gold or cash earlier on April 28th, what is the explanation now ?
3. Is it the personal property of Sai Baba and not that of the SB central trust ?
4. Since Sai Baba had no known occupation and had not filed income tax returns even once in his life, how was he in possession of the above enormous wealth, with no papers with them ?
5. According to Indian law, anyone with intention of transacting more than Rs 20,000 has to furnish PAN ( permanent account number for Income tax assesses) and do so with proper documents. Did Sai Baba have such a PAN and how did he have such a huge cash/gold stock ?
6. If it is not Sai Baba’s wealth, then whose is it and who gave it to him ? If so, why did he not issue a receipt for it (in the name of the SB trust, and make it official)?
7. If it was part of genuine donations given by devotees, why was donations of 100kg of gold and 300kg of silver and Rs 12 crores of cash accepted by the SB trust ( or SB himself), and not declared to the income tax and govt departments ?
8. If the above discovered wealth was neither the property of Sai Baba nor the property of the trust, why has it been deposited in the account of the SB trust in State bank of India ? shouldn’t it be turned over to the Income tax authorities or Enforcement directorate with a proper official statement that says “we found it, we don’t know what or whose property this is, there are no papers or documents about this, so we are turning it over to proper authorities ” ? Isn’t this the legal , ethical and moral duty of any charity organization?
9. On a larger issue, irrespective of the several legal questions, can the SB trust explain why its founder and “avatar” Sai Baba thought fit to hoard 100s of kilograms of gold, silver, diamonds and several millions of dollars in hard cash in his own bedroom ? Even multi billionaires don’t keep this kind of wealth under their beds. What did Sai Baba need it for?
10. As it is clearly indicated now that far bigger loads of wealth had been spirited out of the residence the moment Sai Baba was hospitalized, will the SB trust retract its earlier statement of April 28th, and acknowledge the fact that huge sums of money and gold had indeed been kept hidden by Sai Baba in his bedroom, and that this is illegally concealed and unaccounted black money with no source shown, no papers and not accounted anywhere. Will the SB trust do so to devotees of Sai Baba at least, or will the SB trust be willing to face a press conference consisting of senior media personnel and members of civil society ?”
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Further Reading
Sathya Sai Baba Organization and Libel and Disinformation
Sathya Sai Baba World Cult At Odds With Itself
How Sai Baba devotees behave and why
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Godmen, Gurus, India, Puttaparthi, South Asia, South India, Wealth | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 19, 2011
FLASH
This story seems only broken as yet via the India Today television news channel.
Overnight (Australian Eastern Standard Time), a usually reliable source of ours with Andhra Pradesh-related police sources reported that Andhra Pradesh State Police have intercepted a Sathya Sai Central Trust van heavily laden with treasure, and arrested three. It seems that the driver has confessed to being an employee of the Trust.
Key words noted in the India Today news segment include:
”Puttaparthi cash haul”……. ” huge cash seized from Sai Baba trust van”………. “Sathya Sai Trust van intercepted and huge cash haul in bags” ……” Van and occupants arrested in Kodikonda checkpost in Ananthapur” ……. “driver confesses being Sathya Sai trust van driver coming from Puttaparthi”…….. “cash seized being held on the spot” ……currency counting machines being rushed to the spot”
Interesting Earlier Sathya Sai Central Trust Statements
This date of this Megamedia News article coincides with the day of Sai Baba’s death: Sai Baba’s wealth in distress now. 3:22 PM, Monday, April 25th, 2011. But, as reported in an Economic Times article: ‘Baba had no successor in mind: Trustees, election for Sai Trust chairman next week’, Apr 28, 2011, 09.53pm IST, a prominent spokesman for Trustees and the Council of Management, Venu Srinivasan stated:
“In the light of baseless, irresponsible and false accusations of defalcation of gold, valuable artefacts and even money, it is emphatically stated that the accusations are wholly untrue and it is believed these have been engineered by certain vested interests”. (Economic Times article: ‘Baba had no successor in mind: Trustees, election for Sai Trust chairman next week’, Apr 28, 2011, 09.53pm IST).
In a very long Press Release by The Trustees and the Council of Management of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust on April 28, 2011 (four days after Sai Baba’s death), it is stated:
18. In light of the baseless, irresponsible and false accusations of defalcation of gold, valuable artefacts and even money, it is emphatically stated that these accusations are wholly untrue and it is believed that these have been engineered by certain vested interests with a view to defame the fair name of the Trust, its functionaries and the Trustees. There is no truth whatsoever in these allegations.
19. All transactions of the Trusts are duly accounted in their books of account. An experienced and qualified chartered accountant oversees the accounting and financial management. The accounts are duly audited by a reputed firm of Chartered Accountants based at Delhi. Periodical returns, accounts and audit reports as prescribed by law are duly filed with the concerned authorities under the Income Tax Act, FCRA and other applicable statutes. There is no proceeding initiated against any of the Trusts by any authority under any statute alleging any impropriety or violation of law.”
But who can possibly believe them?
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An old article of mine springs into relevance:
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 7, 2007
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See next article to follow the above – to be front paged tomorrow:
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The Telegraph. Calcutta
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Open sesame! Baba & his chamber of secrets
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| G.S. RADHAKRISHNA |
 From the Telegraph, Calcutta article “Open Sesame! Baba and his chamber of secrets”
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June 17: Nike and Adidas sneakers. Whole cupboards of perfume and hairspray. Packets full of — and gold crowns studded with — diamonds.
Total worth Rs 35 crore and counting.
The world knew that Sai Baba lived in a cocoon of riches. Only since yesterday has it seen for itself.
Around 8.30 on Thursday morning, the doors were thrown open at Yajur Mandir, the late spiritual leader’s two-storey living quarters at the centre of his Puttaparthi ashram that had been out of bounds for almost everyone for the past 25 years.
A team of chartered accountants, income-tax and bank officials, and members of the Sathya Sai Central Trust walked into the half-dozen rooms to which only Satyajit, the monk’s personal attendant for the past 20 years, had so far had access.
What they found, after Satyajit negotiated the combination locks and biometric security, left everyone staggered, ashram sources said.
If the Rs 11.5 crore in currency notes stashed in cabinets were a surprise, hardly anyone had expected separate almirahs for hair spray and expensive shoes, for dry fruits and biscuits. (See chart)
Thirty-six hours on, the bank officials and student volunteers from the Sathya Sai Educational Institute had just finished counting the cash, aided by three machines from the State Bank of India (SBI). The inventory of jewellery and stones was still incomplete late tonight.
“There are numerous cloth packets with diamonds, whose number and value has not yet been assessed. They and most other valuables will be shifted to the vaults of the SBI’s Puttaparthi branch,” said a trust member.
Some of the gold, silver and personal belongings will stay on at Yajur Mandir, which will be converted into a museum for the monk, who is believed to have left behind assets of Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
Only a handful of VIP visitors had ever been inside the building, and even they would have seen only the outer chamber where the Sai Baba received them.
The complex was locked immediately after the monk was admitted to hospital on March 28, four weeks before he died on April 24. Even yesterday and today, nobody other than the official team was allowed in. Nobody except one unexpected visitor.
Tata visit
If the riches were a surprise, a second surprise greeted the ashram authorities this morning. Industrialist Ratan Tata, a Sai Baba devotee, arrived unannounced at the Prashanti Nilayam.
Tata flew into Bangalore by a chartered plane and drove in a Mercedes to Puttaparthi, 435km from Hyderabad. He was allowed to enter Yajur Mandir as a special case and spent 45 minutes there.
“He was searching for something he wanted to check. We don’t know what he was looking for and whether he found it, but he did not take anything,” one of the trustees said.
A Sai Institute student who was there said: “Our trust member Ratnakar Raju (a nephew of Sai Baba) spent about 15 minutes with Tata discussing something.”
Tata left Puttaparthi in the evening.
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Related Readings
Sathya Sai Baba Buried Treasure: Media and Government Need To Probe Sai Central Trust
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 18, 2011
‘Secret Swami’ (Late) Sai Baba: Vast Millions In Hoard Found Hidden In His Palace-Temple
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 18, 2011
Sathya Sai Baba’s Residence Unlocked. Vast Treasury Uncovered
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 17, 2011
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Godmen, Gurus, India, Puttaparthi, Sects, South Asia, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Wealth | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 19, 2011
Given that Robert Priddy‘s and my dear friend the late V.K. Narasimhan was once its Editor, I find a touch of irony in seeing that the Express Group is one of those beginning, if timorously, to venture a critical opinion on Sathya Sai Baba.
With the honorable exception of India Today, our group has had to bust a gut and go blue in the face, in one futile attempt after another, to get leading Indian media to investigate Sathya Sai Baba and his cult.
As I have recounted several times elsewhere, the Editor of one of the top Indian newspapers told me privately: Sai Baba and his people are too powerful to take on.
India is riven from top to bottom by all manner of gurus and astrologers. But worse are those in that country, which is otherwise admirable in many ways, who know of this and who do not stand up and speak out. The nation is condemned to scorn elsewhere. Diplomats and those with trade, finance and other ties with India alternatively curse, snigger and despair at her – often behind her back. These are simply facts. Sad facts, really.
In Indian press history, there are few Indian editors as respected as V.K.N., who was a man of fine courage, decency and intellect. We both edited at Puttaparthi, and both of us had tasks, now and then, of weeding out utterances of Sathya Sai Baba that struck us as likely to cause confusion among the faithful. See my: The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements.
V.K.N. was a rare case of one who was not a sycophant around Sathya Sai Baba. But, then, how important it was for Sathya Sai Baba to have someone like V.K.N. around him. And likewise for many other powerful, skilled manipulators all down history.
In this perspective, Sathya Sai Baba was, indeed, a master. How handy it is for a canny, charming, charismatic, but very flawed, leader to have around them the odd individual who seems to have a voice of his own. It can then appear that the leader respects minority individuals. The fawners gather around and applaud such independence as the leader allows, though they are cowards themselves.
But it is all more subtle than this. To the one who is not required to flatter the Emperor, it is most flattering not to have to flatter the Emperor. Thus is the non-flatterer flattered. And enfeebled.
And in India, there is another powerful ingredient. It been in the psychic conditioning for millennia, as I was able to observe close up in my several years in that ancient culture, moving among very rich and very poor. It is the power of the guru figure, and of other cultural icons – movie stars and cricketers especially – that makes a great many Indians lose any strong self-center. Down on their bellies – becoming like earthworms.
I have sometimes both smiled and felt saddened when I have seen Indian political or religious or rationalist radicals, fall for this profound and endemic cultural spell. I think very few in India are able to stop and ponder to a point of catharsis, and of consequent pragmatic change, such a concept as ‘feet of clay’. That is to say, very few who will systematically and resolutely refuse the mystification. India may be plucky enough to face the Chinese, or the Pakistanis, and, even more formidably, the Australians at cricket – but she won’t face her gurus.
It has struck me that considerations like the above snatched away true independence from V.K.N., whom I loved dearly, and still do. I also think these factors play an important role in enfeebling the Indian media and government and other institutions in taking on someone so big as Sathya Sai Baba. Smaller gurus here and there – fine, selectively pick them off. The Indian media and others, sometimes the police (although usually at the behest of power brokers) will go after them. But when it comes to real courage – no. In the West, we fail to deal with the Mr Big’s of crime, and tend to fill the jails with the footsoldiers.
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Satya Sai Trusts assurances fall flat
PUTTAPARTI (Anantapur): Satya Sai Central Trust had, on several occasions, dismissed several speculations on why Yajurveda Mandiram was not being opened and assured repeatedly that all was well and if the doors were opened, it would be done in the presence of revenue and police officials, members of Satya Sai Baba’s family and the media.
But on Thursday, when the doors of Yajruveda Mandiram, the abode of Satya Sai, were opened, none of the assurances was kept.
Only trust members and two retired judges were present.
No district administration or pol ice official, leave alone mediapersons, was present.
Questions are now being asked about lack of transparency in the functioning of Satya Sai Central Trust.
Questions are also being raised as to why the relatives of Satya Sai, except Ratnakar, were not allowed inside the building.
Even Baba’s grand niece Chittemma had been kept in the dark about the unlocking of Baba’s residence. Though the trust appeals to people not to have any misgivings on the Yajurveda Mandiram, its way of functioning gives rise to the same suspicions and misconceptions.
In the words of PN Bhagwati, trust board member and former chief justice of India, the reopening of the Mandiram in the presence of all trust members is justified and can be considered transparent as per the constitution.
ANANTAPUR: Sri Satya Saibaba’s dream project `Vidya Vahini’ aimed at providing quality education to rural children was launched in Chandranagar in Nandigama mandal in Krishna district on Friday.
The project, to which industrialist Ratan Tata came forward to fund, was announced by Saibaba on his birthday last year, for improving rural education.
The project was formally launched by Vidya Vahini state incharge PRK Prasad, in the school run by Saibaba devotee Tirupathaiah, in Chandranagar.
Meanwhile, Ratan Tata, came to Puttaparthy by a special helicopter on Friday afternoon. He drove straight to Santhi Bhavan and later had the darshan of Baba’s Mahasamadhi at Sai Kulwant hall.
Before leaving Puttaparthy, Ratan went to Yajur mandir where he spent some time with the trust members.
Several eyebrows were raised over Ratan Tata visiting Yajur mandir while counting of currency and gold ornaments was on.
It may noted that the trust member Ratnakar declared the details of the cash, gold and silver ornaments in the Yajur mandir, just after Ratan Tata left.
Several questions have been raised whether Ratan Tata’s visit to Yajur mandir now is accidental or preplanned.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: South India, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, V.K Narasimhan, Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, India, Yajruveda Mandiram, Yajur mandir | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 19, 2011
In a communication just received, a private source of information relates:
“Bhagwati is pro Satyajit and hence threatened to quit the trust, but was pacified. Day before yesterday in a trust meeting, several trust members walked out in a huff. Some trust members are being spied upon by Ratnakar’s agents. My sources tell me that Trust legal advisor Naganand has actually admitted a will was found”.
I feel that we have reasonably, and at quite some length, exposed ex-Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati.
Sri Sathya Sai Trust’s P.N. Bhagwati – “No Replacement For Baba”
See my articles:
Ex-Chief Justice of India: Sathya Sai Baba “dictated my every single judgement”
Posted by Barry Pittard on May 4, 2011
On Sathya Sai Baba: Times of India, Ex-Chief Justice Interview. What Judge Would So Opine?
Posted by Barry Pittard on May 1, 2011
Indian Ex-Chief Justice: “Wild, Reckless Claims” about Sathya Sai Baba
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 29, 2011
I regret, however, that I am not able to proceed with information that I have received, separately, from legal and retired diplomatic sources, which wish to remain highly circumspect.
I will say, however, that I trust there will be alert researchers from the media and other investigative areas who are able to get a bead on how Bhagawati went in pursuit of his United Nations and Chief Justice of India jobs. There is salient opinion of him around Lincoln Court Inn and other legal watering places redolent of his London days. If bona fide investigators contact me, I should be able to point in some useful directions. Email address: barpittard@gmail.com
Such alert investigators may like to see what they can uncover about the jeweller in Bangalore who long made many gold and silver ornaments, subsequently “materialized” by Sathya Sai Baba. Even nearer to Puttaparthi, journalists should not have too much difficulty in tracking down another such jeweler. Further afield, we are informed, are a jeweler in Mumbai and another in Hyderabad. Still another lost his deal, and was, apparently, deeply upset. Again, we have some direction-pointing resources sleuths may like to use, if it would not lose too much face for them to ask a foreigner: barrypittard@gmail.com, with professional assurances of confidentiality where required.
Among those sleuthing in and around Puttaparthi are: Daijiworld Media Network—Anantapur, near to Puttaparthi in the State of Andhra Pradesh, and feeders for The New Indian Express Group.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Call for media and government
Sai Trust divided over Sathya Sai’s will
Anantapur: By opening the doors of the Yajurveda Mandir, the legatees of Sathya Sai Baba may only have prised open a pandora’s box.
Along with large quantities of gold, silver and cash, the Sathya Sai Central Trust reportedly found the Baba’s diary and will, the contentious contents of which are widening the rifts within the trust. One group in the trust says the will mandated that prominence be given to the Sai Baba’s long-standing caregiver Satyajit. Another group is denying that a will had been found at all.
The issue of Satyajit’s role in future was the focus of a two-day meeting of the trust on June 14 and 15. Reliable sources say senior trust member and former Supreme Court judge PN Bhagwati is all for prominence to Satyajit.
When this was opposed some members, he felt hurt and volunteered to withdraw from the trust.
But he was pacified and persuaded to reconsider his decision.
All the same, some senior members are in a serious sulk. One of them is said to have stomped out of Puttaparthi on Friday night, miffed that Satyajit has not been given prominence.
Source say that one member, a Sai veteran of 35 years, was so put out by alleged spying on his office in Puttaparthi, that he would leave Prashanti Nilayam.
Given such rifts in the trust, chances are the governing body may be dissolved, or its aged members allowed to retire after putting in place a working system. But it is highly unlikely that any one person will be given complete control. “Trust members may each be given a specific activity or Seva programmes to handle. This will prevent power being concentrated in a single individual,” a source said.
Meanwhile, Sai diehards, however, say that “things are slowly settling down” in Puttaparthi.
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Anantapur: Will Satyajit Head Satya Sai Baba Trust?
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Daijiworld Media Network—Anantapur  Anantapur, Jun 17: From the time the doors of Sai Baba’s personal chamber were opened on Friday June 17 and Ratnakar confirmed that about Rs 12 crore in cash and 98 kg gold were found inside the chamber, the media has been awaiting news of the appointment of a new head of the Trust.Satyajit, who hails from the coastal city of Mangalore, was in the news for taking over the Satya Sai Central Trust after the demise of Satya Sai Baba.However, the trustees denied that there were any plans of appointing Satyajit as the head of the trust though he was regarded as being the closest to Sai Baba. Satyajit was the caretaker and a disciple of Godman.According to reliable sources from Puttparthy, three members of the Trust – former Supreme Court judge Justice Bhagavathi, S V Giri, and L Srinivasan proposed that a prominent post be given to Satyajit which was opposed by R J Ratnakar, nephew of Satya Sai Baba and a member of the Trust.It is learnt that Ratnakar wanted the Trust to give no importance to Satyajit under any circumstances.Reportedly, Baba had written a will appointing Satyajit as his successor. But Ratnakar denied this, saying no such will was found in Sai Baba’s chamber. |
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, India, Indian Justice, Indian Law, Indian media, Puttaparthi, South Asia, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 20, 2011
If due diligence occurs, Andhra Pradesh police investigations will need to pursue, at a simple count, at least four lots of alleged Sai Trust illicit treasury violations. Up to the time of Sathya Sai Baba’s death, there were previous reports of at least one truckload of treasure making its way out of Puttaparthi
In addition to the vast treasure trove discovered secreted within Sathya Sai Baba’s temple-palace last Thursday, and the van intercepted with huge amounts of treasure, there now come reports (see Indian press readings below) of yet more treasure being spirited out of Puttaparthi, this time by Sai Baba functionaries on a Bangalore bound bus:
“A man arrested with Rs.35 lakh allegedly belonging to the Sathya Sai Central Trust was Monday sent to judicial custody for a week.
A local court in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district remanded Harishnanda Shetty in custody till June 27. Police presented the arrested man along with the money recovered from him before the magistrate.
Shetty was arrested by the police early Sunday at a toll gate near Hindupur town when he was shifting the cash from Puttaparthi to Bangalore .
He reportedly told the police that a driver of one of the trust members gave him the money for handing it over to a person in Bangalore.” (Remainder of report, below)
But, then, the Sai Central Trust denies any irregularity, just as it denied report of other clandestine movement of treasure just before Sathya Sai Baba died on 24 April. I referred to this earlier, all too easily-forgotten report in my post of yesterday: Reports of Sathya Sai Central Trust Van Laden With Treasure Seized By Andhra State Police.
A prominent spokesman for Trustees and the Council of Management, Venu Srinivasan stated:
“In the light of baseless, irresponsible and false accusations of defalcation of gold, valuable artefacts and even money, it is emphatically stated that the accusations are wholly untrue and it is believed these have been engineered by certain vested interests”. (Economic Times article: ‘Baba had no successor in mind: Trustees, election for Sai Trust chairman next week’, Apr 28, 2011, 09.53pm IST).
In a very long Press Release, the Trustees and the Council of Management of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust on April 28, 2011 (four days after Sai Baba’s death) stated precisely the same.
But this very same Srinivasan is now being implicated in more recent events concerning the spiriting of vast amounts of cash and valuables out of Puttaparthi. An Indian informant who has sent reliable information at other times, has just written to Robert Priddy and myself:
… “perhaps for the first time EVER, cases have been filed, and the Andhra police has stated to the press they have specific details and are going to interrogate Sathya Sai trust members !! My sources inform me that Venu Srinivasan, Ratnakar and Bhagwati are the ones named. It is quite open knowledge that PN Bhagwati used his official car given by the Government (as Retd Chief justice) to transport illegal cash (the one that escaped on Friday)”.
(For an exposure series on Bhagwati, the former Chief Justice of India, another figure who raises some hackles in both diplomatic and legal circles – good media investigators can easily validate this assertion , see Further Reading, below).
But why not look further down the years, too? Does a fascination for hoarding millions in various currencies and mounting up vast stashes of gold, precious stones and other valuables just – what shall I say? – materialise out of nowhere, and all of a sudden. Surely, there are some long antecedents.
One issue comes to my mind quickly. It stems back to 2001. Hari Sampath, formerly a member of Sathya Sai Baba’s Security and Intelligence Wing at Puttaparthi, citing reasons of personal conscience at what he saw to be corruption at the heart of Sathya Sai Baba’s religious empire, took out a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) suit against Sathya Sai Baba. The high-profile advocate Kamini Jaiswal took his case pro bono.
I have shown documents in this case to outstanding legal counsel in various democratic jurisdictions, and the repeated reaction was one of abhorrence for the summary manner in which the judges dealt with the case. An expression used was ‘Kangaroo Court’. Let anyone read, in part, an Indian lawyer’s notes for the case. See the article: Sai Baba protected by the Supreme Court of India.
They will get their own sense of the corruption of some judges at the epicenter of (so-called) Indian Justice.
Anyone accustomed to democratic court procedures can hardly believe, as one reads the lawyer’s notes in transcript, that judges could be so blatant. See, Record of Proceedings document of Hari Sampath’s 2001 case against Sai Baba in the Supreme Court of India. See how the case is scuppered by Judges G.B. Patnaik and R.C. Lahoti with the concurrence of then Chief Justice Dr A.S. Anand. Prompted by concern for her client if he were to proceed in and Andhra Pradesh court – the proposed remedy of the judges, Kamini Jaiswal, a senior advocate in the Indian Supreme Court, strongly contested the three judges’ direction to pursue matters in an Andhra Pradesh court.
Sathya Sai Baba Disposed Judges
Soon after the three judges’ determinations, which have more than raised eyebrows among some most distinguished lawyers of our acquaintance, the Supreme Court of India deleted the public documentation. In vain, even the British Ambassador to India tried to obtain confirmation of the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Sampath PIL. The Court denied all knowledge of any record of the case. Those of us who wrote accounts were savagely attacked as liars, notably by Gerald Moreno, who has long been closely allied with certain leaders around the late Sathya Sai Baba, and visciously and repeatedly libeled many former devotees, including bringing sore distress to children of prominent former devotee leaders. See: Sathya Sai Organisation defended by proxy.
Nonetheless, Kamini Jaiswal’s associate kept careful notes, and there exists a copy of the formal rejection. But, fortunately, we have been able to produce documentary proof, too powerful to be denied. See the scan, below, of the Hari Sampath writ Petition to the Supreme Court of India.
Let us now connect this matter with my remarks at the outset. That is to say – if doing their job properly, police and media investigators – and indeed genuinely concerned Sai Baba devotees themselves – are going to have to consider the long view. Namely, to look, as well, at earlier allegations of gross and extremely improper financial dealings on the grand scale.
For example, did the poor Satyajit, Sathya Sai Baba’s last boyfriend – unseen by anyone – have to carry handfuls, and armfuls, and, donkey-like, shoulder loads of millions of dollars and other currencies, and jewels, and many other valuables up into their many hiding places on the second floor of Sathya Sai Baba opulent temple-palace?
If not, then who were the other beasts of burden? Were there no adjutants in acts of money-laundering, and black marketeering? Were there no recipients of bribery? Were there no witnesses among the ‘form boys’ (that is, homosexual consorts, as had been the case down many years) who were allowed to sleep in Sai Bab’s bedroom? Of the heaps of Nike shoes, watches, etc., one whom we have sound reasons to accept was one of Sathya Sai Baba’s many ex ‘form boys’, has just written:
“These were given as presents to his chosen form boys. I have seen such cameras with the likes of Raman Mehta, Arjun Bannerjee etc. I remember once when we were inside the Poornachandra Hall, a prominent American doctor had got lots of such stuff – he had arrived few hours earlier with cameras, watches etc. as donations to Sai Baba, who had then joked that he allowed good bhaktas to get things like these in order to save them harassment from the income tax officials. Even I was presented with currency worth rs 1500/-”
If there were strong prohibitions against even the most senior Sai Baba aides going into parts of his apartments, why were they not allowed to go there?
Scan of Hari Sampath PIL to Supreme Court of India. Proof of what the Court denied record of when requested by the British Ambassador to India
Inter alia, in his written plea to the court, the applicant, Hari Sampath, wrote:
“There have been considerable reports in many sections of the media for several years that the Sai baba trusts worldwide were in fact being used in many money laundering operations by several politicians, cutting across party lines. The status enjoyed by these trusts as well as avenues of easily getting the money from abroad into Sai Baba’s Indian trusts, lend themselves very comfortably for such illegal scams of staggering proportions, running into thousands of Crores of rupees.
Also, as several thousands of Sai Baba’s followers from all over the world simply mail him cash in dollars, pounds, French francs, Swiss Francs etc, usually a few hundreds at a time, all these cash donations are turned over to the bank by Sai Baba’s organization, and deposited in the Trust accounts. This situation is perfectly exploited by Sai Baba and his helpers, and all they have to do to convert “black money” into white money is by arranging to mail thousands of such “mails from devotees” with cash in them, and all of it gets converted to official money at the banks. No questions are ever asked who sent them, and how much, as all these banks are dependent on Sai Baba trust and its accounts running into hundreds of Crores of rupees.
Sai Baba Central Trust members like Indulal Shah, (who is a Chartered accountant from Bombay and has been with Sai Baba for 40 years, Kulwant Rai, the Industrialist from Delhi, GK Raman, Managing director of Sundaram Finance, Hejmadi, and so many others are all aware of what has been happening for so many years, and all of them stand to gain and to profit from the Sai Baba trusts.
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20 Jun, 2011, 12.57PM IST,
Man held with Sai trust cash sent to custody
HYDERABAD: A man arrested with Rs.35 lakh allegedly belonging to the Sathya Sai Central Trust was Monday sent to judicial custody for a week.
A local court in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district remanded Harishnanda Shetty in custody till June 27. Police presented the arrested man along with the money recovered from him before the magistrate.
Shetty was arrested by the police early Sunday at a toll gate near Hindupur town when he was shifting the cash from Puttaparthi to Bangalore .
He reportedly told the police that a driver of one of the trust members gave him the money for handing it over to a person in Bangalore.
A police officer said they were questioning two trust employees to trace the source of the money.
Sathay Sai Baba’s nephew and trust member R.J. Ratnakar Sunday clarified that the trust has nothing to do with the cash. He said in a statement that the cash belongs to 12 devotees and they would give all the details to the police.
Director General of Police Aravinda Rao Monday said investigations were on in the case.
The money was seized two days after the trust opened Yajur Mandir, the residential chamber of the Sathay Sai Baba at Prashanti Nilayam in Puttaparthi.
The trust Friday declared that it found Rs.11.56 crore, 98 kg gold and gold jewellery, and 307 kg of silver articles inside the chamber and these have been deposited with the State Bank of India.
The arrest and recovery of money at Hindupur came amid apprehensions in a section of devotees that huge amounts of cash and jewellery were shipped out of Yajur Mandir when Sathya Sai Baba was battling for life at a hospital. He passed away April 24.
Bangalore/Puttaparthi: A day after Rs 35 lakh cash was seized from a Qualis vehicle at Kodikonda checkpost, the Anantapur on Sunday morning recovered at least Rs 5 crore stuffed in two gunny bags from a government-owned Puttaparthi-Bangalore Volvo bus. Police detained two Tamil Nadu-based men and took them to a secret location in Anantapur for interrogation.
The two were trying to take away the cash in the guise of passengers. Sources said the money was seized at Kothacheruvu, 12 km from Puttaparthi and 145 km from Bangalore.
“Acting on a tip-off, police stopped the Bangalore-bound bus at Kothacheruvu and recovered the gunny bags loaded with currency notes. Police detained two men and took them to Anantapur along with the money,” sources said. Police suspect that the cash, said to be anywhere between Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore, was being brought from Puttaparthi.
The twin cash recovery has only added fuel to rumours that valuables are being discreetly shifted from Sathya Sai Baba’s abode, an exercise that is said to have started soon after Baba was hospitalised. Also, the unaccounted cash points to a deep-rooted network of a hawala racket thriving in Puttaparthi, sources in the town reported.
Anantapur district SP Shahnawaz Qasim on Sunday said legal notices were being served to the key persons mentioned by those nabbed while shifting out the money from Prasanthi Nilayam. “Those who were caught have revealed names of people in the Trust. We will interrogate them,” he said. Nobody has so far come forward to claim the cash. “We have informed the I-T department and will produce the cash before court on Monday,” the SP said.
He said three persons __ Harishnanda Shetty, Sohan Shetty and driver Sekhar __ were arrested in connection with the recovery of Rs 35 lakh from the Sai Trust vehicle at Kodikonda checkpost on Karnataka border late on Saturday night. The cash was reportedly given by Trust member V Srinivasan and R J Ratnakar at Santhi Bhavan to Srinivasan’s driver Sekhar, who handed it over to Harishnanda Shetty, an engineer involved in the construction of Baba’s Maha Samadhi, to hand it over to an anonymous person in Bangalore. The cash was recovered from a Qualis (registration No. HP 66-0999). Harishnanda Shetty was earlier a site engineer working in Shankar Narayana Construction Ltd in Bangalore. He belongs to Kotakkam village near Udupi in Karnataka. Sources said when police grilled Harishnanda Shetty, Sohan Shetty, another engineer, and Sekhar, the names of Srinivasan and Ratnakar came to light.
According to sources, Rs 35 lakh was kept aside in Yajur Mandir during the inventory session. It was later kept at Shanthi Bhavan with the help of chief security officer Pradhan of Sai Central Trust. “Srinivasan and Ratnakar called up Sekhar and entrusted him the task of shifting Rs 35 lakh to the anonymous person in Bangalore. Sekhar gave the money to Sohan Shetty and Harishanada Shetty,” sources said.
The three took two different vehicles to Bangalore and police stopped the two vehicles, but found the unaccounted cash in Harish’s vehicle on the Karnataka border under Chilamanthur police station limits.
The mystery over the treasure trove inside Sai Baba’s personal chambers in Yajur Mandir was unravelled on Friday with the disclosure that it contained 98 kg of gold, 307 kg of silver apart from Rs 11.56 crore in cash. The Yajur Mandir had remained closed ever since Baba was hospitalised on March 28. He had passed away on April 24.
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TIMES OF INDIA. Hyderabad
Sai Trust member denies charges
TNN | Jun 20, 2011, 12.12am IST
PUTTAPARTHI: Sai Baba’s nephew and Sai Central Trust member R J Rathnakar on Sunday said the Trust has no connection to the cash seized by the police near Kodikonda checkpost. He said that the cash belonged to 12 Baba devotees and that they would claim in the court of law by producing the necessary documents. He also said the Qualis vehicle did not belong to the Trust.While reiterating that the Trust followed the system of accounting in letter and spirit, Rathnakar said they never transacted in unaccounted money and all the transactions were effected only through cheques.In the morning, Baba’s caregiver Satyajit, Rathnakar and senior Trust member S V Giri opened Yajur Mandir and went inside. Their visit assumes significance as it came immediately after Saturday night’s seizure of Rs 35 lakh.Meanwhile, rumours were doing the rounds that the protocol vehicle of Trust member and ex-CJI P N Bhagawati was also involved in the illegal shifting of money from Prasanthi Nilayam. District officials said Bhagawati was given the government vehicle as per protocol since he was the former chief justice of India.
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Further Reading
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh Police (India), Black Market (India), Indian Police, Money Laundering, Sexual Abuse (of boys and young men), Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 22, 2011
The Sathya Sai Baba fold continues to fold. The sheep are running all over the place. And so are the rats, although they are as invisible as they can make themselves. They have had a good deal of experience in mucky cover up.
For some weeks, it has been evident to any careful observer, that the Andhra Pradesh government has been only too aware of troubles in the Sathya Sai camp that might grow too big to suppress. Indeed, it is a campfire that none can stamp out, and looks like becoming a raging forest fire. The critters are on-the-run. And, to mix a metaphor still further, the rats desert the ship.
Most notably, a series of suspicious circumstances led up to Sathya Sai Baba’s death.These are being investigated, including by the Andhra Pradesh Human rights Commission. See: Human Rights Commission Probe Fronts Andhra Government On Sathya Sai Baba Treatment
Hopefully, all the attention given to the treasury scandals will not allow the circumstances of his death to drop from sight, as happened with the suppression of police evidence concerning the police killings in Sai Baba’s bedroom in June 1993.
What is more, prominent followers of Sathya Sai Baba are themselves deeply disturbed at the intense infighting within the Sai Central Trust, despite its repeated – and dishonest – denials. These devotees, too, are asking leading and uncomfortable questions, and consulting legal opinion. Just as those of us, who are now former followers of Sathya Sai Baba, did as, long ago, we began to investigate ever further layers on layers of corruption. And of a spiritual betrayal of the utmost magnitude.
In short, Sai devotees are now finding out what former devotees have, for over a decade, been at very great pains to document and to point out.
My reader may imagine the current feelings of those all round the world who left the Sathya Sai Baba fold. Such feelings as expressed in phrases like: – at long last!
There is relief that at least a few of Sai Baba’s dark deeds, and those of his core servitors, are being revealed on a large-scale – and from within India itself!
Given the fact of decades of massive Puttaparthi and local, state and national government cover up of Sai venality, the sight of seeing, proverbially speaking, rats deserting the ship is satisfying in its own way. Particularly given that the very Sai Central Trust personnel, and politicians (irrespective of which government), and police chiefs and other officials are well-known to us. For these scurrying excuses on two legs are among those who have thwarted our attempts to bring out the facts. They are too well-known to our international coalition of former Sathya Sai devotees and other critics, not to mention investigators like India Today, BBC, Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, etc.
In passing, I note the great courage of the late Basava Premanand. See: Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach. Posted by Barry Pittard on October 6, 2009
India's Basava Premanand. Faced Sai Baba Cult
If there were just a few more like Premanand, and a tiny handful of others in India who have fought valiantly to expose the criminality of Sathya Sai Baba and certain of his core servitors, India might fare better when it comes to international esteem.
Did India and her ‘heroes’ respond to the cries of Sathya Sai Baba’s myriad victims of sexual molestation of boys and young men, or the families of those liquidated by police in Sai Baba’s bedroom, or of those beaten by his key security people, or the people scammed over apartments and in other ways by personnel in the Puttaparthi front office, or of the many who have been thrown out of the international Sathya Sai Organization, including those who, with the greatest of integrity, called for proper organization process, such as duty of care and financial and other forms of accountability …..?
Or did India and her ‘heroes’ side with chief mechanics of cover up, such as Indulal Shah, and Dr G.Venkataraman? See:
Indulal Shah and Indian Government Cover Up
‘God’s’ Ex-Shah, Indulal Shah
Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist
The answer is an anguished testimony to India’s lack of real heroes. They did not uphold what my late dear colleague in exposure of Sai corruption, Glen Meloy, with such glowing love in his voice, used to refer to as ‘standing up for truth and goodness’. See my hopelessly inadequate Obituary for Glen:
Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam. Posted by Barry Pittard on November 18, 2009
India’s rat-pack of false heroes are now running for cover. Hardly anyone in that country heeded our voices. No matter that these dissentient voices included many who had been esteemed, both in and beyond India, for decades. Some of those who spoke up – despite almost unimaginable lack of truth and goodness from Sai Baba and his people – had been for decades outstanding leaders in the international Sathya Sai Organization. And always have been esteemed in their wider communities.
Kamini Jaiswal, Supreme Court senior advocate
Could we turn for justice to the Indian Justice system? No, we emphatically failed. Even though one of India’s gutsiest and most senior advocates to the Supreme Court, Kamini Jaiswal, went in to bat. See references to Hari Sampath’s 2000 Public Interest Litigation (PIL), a case legal opinion in a number of countries have deemed to have been defeated by three judges holding a ‘kangaroo court’ :
Sathya Sai Trust In Vast Treasure Scandals: Secret Temple, Van, and Bus Stashes
Could we turn for justice even to the former pinnacle of the Indian Justice system, P.N. Bhagwati, former Chief Justice of Indian, who is now implicated in the treasury scandals, and is himself up for police investigation? We could not turn to this legal ‘hero’, either.
Former Chief Justice, India. Sai Baba Chief
See:
Ex-Chief Justice of India: Sathya Sai Baba “dictated my every single judgement”
On Sathya Sai Baba: Times of India, Ex-Chief Justice Interview. What Judge Would So Opine?
Indian Ex-Chief Justice: “Wild, Reckless Claims” about Sathya Sai Baba
In sad fact, we turned to many Indian leaders from many backgrounds, political, governmental, religious, and so on. They forsook us. They forsook their hero selves. I make the occasional exception. Bless him! – Aroon Purie, the founder and Managing editor of India Today group. So, in ‘India Today’ (4 December 2000), we got a hearing. India Today has stood up to the filthy mandarins – with their palm-greased agents, and their tremulous cack-mouthed toadies. Purie is of a different cut to India’s pisspot full of lily-livered newspapaper proprietors. I am informed that Vijay Thapa, one of the investigative journalists for the India Today cover story on Sathya Sai Baba, required close body protection during the weeks of investigation, which injects more meaning into the private words to me of the editor of one of the top Indian newspapers that Sathya Sai Baba and his people are to powerful to take on. I’m glad Thapa has risen to editorial heights elswhere today. He is a Nepalese Gurkha, and the Gurkhas, a martial people, are famous for not running.
Vijay Thapa
Aroon Purie, India Today Magazine. Published Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba
My information, too, is that Aroon Purie personally knew a familiy whose son attended a Sathya Sai education institution whom Sathya Sai Baba sexually molested. On discovery, the family took out the boy immediately. It is the same unhappy circumstances that former devotee international coordinators have become, over the years, used to learning about. Sickeningly, at first – until one’s professional instincts kick in. Although, it is understandable that this personal experience of Aroon Purie may have figured in his decision to assign a major cover story, the other disgraceful Indian editors are NOT excused. Our witnesses made sworn testimony, and in the documentation was supported family members with outstanding records of service and leadership in the Sathya Sai Organization.
NOTE: Wikipedia states:
Aroon Purie is an Indian businessman who is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of India Today and the Chief Executive of the India Today Group. He is also the Managing Director of Thomson Press (India) Limited and the Chairman and Managing Director of TV Today. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Reader’s Digest India [1] ……..Purie launched India Today, the magazine in 1975 as a strategic move to keep the printing press busy. The magazine was born in the time of emergency. Its never before seen brand of journalism without fear or favour transformed the landscape of Indian journalism. With editions in five languages, it is the most widely–read publication in India–a position it has held for over a decade–with a readership of over 11 million.[3]
He sets the journalistic style for the largest and most respected magazine publishing group in India and for the premier 24-hour news and current affairs Hindi news channel, Aaj Tak and English news channel Headlines Today.
One after another, the editors and newspaper proprietors of India found excuse. It mattered a fig to them how excellently documented were our submissions. Indeed, our material also went to Interpol, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Australian Federal Police, The French National Police, The German National Police and Federal and State Indian Police – all of this at the highest level. Of our successful case with UNESCO – despite its near scuppering by Sai Baba’s deputy chairman of the international Sathya Sai Organization, Dr Venkataraman, in cahoots with then Prime Minister Vajpayee’s Foreign Minister, see:
BBC Exposed Sai Baba Top Aide’s And Indian Foreign Minister’s Ploy With UNESCO
The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory
BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government
UNESCO and Indian Government – Were Up To Tricks
History will show that the Indian Media utterly failed to expose Sathya Sai Baba, only to endure the professional shame – in having thus derelicted – of seeing leading foreign media investigate. For example, BBC, CBC (Canada), DR (Denmark), Salon.com (USA), SBS (all television), ABC (Radio Australia). In paper media – Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Guardian (UK), Marie Claire Magazine, Salon.com, BT, Bild, Focus, Trouw, Speegelbield, Noordhollands Dagblad, Sokaren, Gatopardo, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Age, Australian Financial Review, West Australian (a major front page article by an award-winning journalist (Torrance Mendez) was pulled at the 11th hour!), Adelaide Advertiser, etc., …..
Repeatedly, in regard to failure of nerve to stand up to Sathya Sai Baba and his henchmen, those whom millions of Indians worship as national heroes have had feet of clay. India had best get something more than their cricket team together ….. The reputation of Dharma had best not rest on the shoulders of cricket idols such as Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulka. It may not be capable of rescue by movie derring-do of Amitabh Bachchan and his ilk. Its even less likely saviors are a succession of Indian Prime Ministers who thought it best to cooperate in the suppression of senior police investigations into Sathya Sai Baba’s misdeeds – the latest being Atul Vajpayee and the present PM Manmohan Singh.
(I shall be happy to pass to bona fide media or other investigators contact details of one of the world’s top policemen (now retired and working in Consultancy), who puts Sathya Sai Baba as the master fraudster of the twentieth century. My email address is: barpittard@gmail.com ).
Erapalli Prasanna. Great Indian 'tail' spinner. No doubt of Sai Baba's interest in a tail ...
In December 1997, I sat at a meal with Indian Test cricketers, such as her great former ‘tail’ Erapalli Prasanna. One would think, just chaps, actually – but then I saw their bus as it made a snail’s pace progress out of Puttaparthi, and men, women and children screamed their heads off and worshipped the cricketers.
Sachin Tendulkar. But are the Sai roses smelling so sweet these days?
The throng’s worship was head-over-heels. The fervor was the same as that which they accorded Sai Baba himself.
Among the bus passengers were Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar (both of them committed Sai devotees), and other such national cricketing heroes. It would have been the same if there had been a Bollywood busload of Indian film stars.
What, then, do Gavaskar and Tendulkar and all the other Indian ‘heroes’ think about all the evidence now daily emerging about Sathya Sai Baba? And what do they think of his untrustworthy Sai Central Trust? Let them answer. But how can they? – for all the ‘heroes’ are running for cover.
Well, at least India is getting a lot of runs …….!
….. Sheep running. Rats running. Crooks running with their ill-begotten gains …..
Sunil Gavaskar. But is Sai 'cricket' a gentleman's game?
And, what of former Sathya Sai Baba devotees who have left him? And what of those who have – despite Sai Baba’s and his associates’ attacks and libels – spoken out?
Be it said into history’s court of true testimony, it is not Sai Baba’s dissenters who are the sheep and the rats.
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Breaking News: Sai Baba’s Ashram Chief Security Officer Arrested
One of our well-wishers from India has just written to us:
“After another round of interrogation, the Andhra Pradesh police have arrested Pradhan, the Chief security officer of Sai Baba’s ashram. With this, the number of arrests is now 4, all connected with the first cash haul.
Two others ( in the Rs 5-10 crores haul in a bus), are being held in an undisclosed location by the AP police and I am informed interrogation is continuing, and possibly more arrests may follow. Legal notices have been issued to V Srinivasan , chairman of WS Industries (senior Trust member) and to RJ Ratnakar, under the Criminal procedure code. So far PN Bhagwati has evaded any legal notice and / or being named officially, although the cash was transported in his protocol car (is he seeking immunity under any clause, being a former Chief Justice of India or have his stronger Govt contacts saved him so far ?)
My sources from high levels of AP police inform me that despite very strong pressure on them to dilute the case, senior politicians are not really pressing their efforts as this Sai Baba case has got national media attention, and no one wants to get his or her name in the news as being remotely associated with any Sai Baba related coverup , especially in the era of scams being exposed in India every week.
An ashram source has informed me that 2 senior Trust members spent the day calling top politicians in Hyderabad and Delhi, but were frustrated that no government official or politician came on the phone line. A senior political leader from Hyderabad has informed an attorney from Hyderabad ” Now, we don’t want to get involved, all opposition parties are stepping up the heat and all Sai Baba related matters are now only bad news, and politically it may become adverse for us”.
Is this why the AP police are proceeding boldly ? I am also informed that the lower level employees like agents, drivers etc are seriously worried about any threat to them should they turn state witness and the police have assured them protection for giving all information.”
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Corruption, Cricket, Government of India, India, Indian Cricket, Indian Police, Indian Politics, Sachin Tendulkar, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Sunil Gavaskar | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 22, 2011
NEWS FLASH.
Our regular well-wisher from India has just emailed:
“The Andhra Pradesh police have definite intelligence of the existence of secret vaults, and concealed storage in false ceilings and behind false walls in Yajur mandir, Sai Baba’s personal living quarters. They strongly believe that the wealth hidden there could be much more than what was actually found, perhaps on a staggering scale.
Meanwhile Sai Baba’s relatives are openly asking political leaders and VVIPs to question the activities of the trust, and are clearly unhappy with the studied silence of these VVIPs who used to flock to Sai Baba not so long back (as my sources reported 2 days back)
Also, the Vigilance and Enforcement directorate are taking an interest in the Sathya Sai Baba matter (as reported yesterday)… and it now seems all it takes is a Public Interest Litigation from someone to spark a major inquiry”.
http://expressbuzz.com/cities/hyderabad/sleuths-suspect-false-ceilings-in-sai-chamber/286861.html
http://expressbuzz.com/states/andhrapradesh/officials-await-pil-to-probe-sai-wealth/286860.html
http://expressbuzz.com/states/andhrapradesh/sai-relatives-challenge-devotees-to-speak-up/286825.html
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Hard on the heels of the above email came this from the same source:
“Isaac Tigrett is on TV…saying Sai Baba left instructions with him as to how the Ashram must be run, several years back….saying he is Sai Baba’s “living will”…has a witness to the conversation he claims…..says he spoke to Srinivasan, SV Giri and Chakravarti…..3 weeks back…Tigrett says ” I am living will now…but don’t know whether I will be after this interview” ….will reveal all to the worldwide Sai Baba devotees on Guru Purnima 6 weeks later…
I will send a report of this interview later….”
And then, this minutes after:
“In a major breaking story by Times Now TV channel on the Sai Baba story…..Isaac Tigrett claims publicly Sai Baba had answered 170 questions on how the Ashram and trust must be run, in 2007…..watch the videos….this was the lead story on Times Now just 30 min back“
http://www.timesnow.tv/Satya-Sai-Babas-secret/videoshow/4376584.cms
http://www.timesnow.tv/INDIA/What-is-Sathya-Sai-Babas-secret/videoshow/4376615.cms
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My reader may also like to watch this Times of India television news report:
I know Sathya Sai’s top secret: Devotee
21 Jun 2011, 9:40pm IST| Duration: 01:33
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Isaac Tigrett
We may ask – Is the fabled multibillionaire, these days, the late Sai Baba’s Rishi? A man of mystery, with a time-release secret?
Here is Tigrett’s own recent video segment, posted to Vimao.com, of him giving the talk that is now a major news story in India:
17 days ago, June 4, 9.56pm EST (Eastern Standard Time)
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- See the article:
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Posted by Barry Pittard on June 9, 2009
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Call for media and government
———————————————————-
| What is Sai Baba’s secret? |
| 22 Jun 2011, 0902 hrs IST, AGENCIES |
Sathya Sai Baba’s trust on Wednesday (June 22) rubbished close devotee Isaac Tigrett’s claims of knowing a secret told by the spiritual leader himself. The trustees have said that Sathya Sai Baba didn’t keep any secrets from them. Isaac Tigrett, one of Baba’s famous devotees claimed that the spiritual guru had personally given him directions on how to run the trust and that only he had been let in Sathya Sai Baba’s big secret.Considering Sathya Sai Baba has left behind a considerable fortune, there is almost a scramble among his successors to know what the secret is all about.
Nagananda, Trustee, Sathya Sai Central Trust Board said, “Bhagwan had a one to one interaction with lot of people & it was an interaction between guru & devotee. So really it is one’s own personal experience. Swami’s administration was different from personal relationships built between devotee & guru. Those personal relationships had nothing to do with the administration of the ashram.”
“Whenever some instructions were given & Bhagwan wanted action to be taken on that instruction, he would inform the administration like the secretary. If somebody got some instructions from Bhagwan it is their bonded duty to pass it on. They cant expect us to go an ask that have you got instructions, what that is & why don’t you tell us?,” added the trustee.
He added, “If Bhagwan has given his instructions in sacred talks it is his business to come & tell us. If he doesn’t he cant expect us to go & ask. I don’t think those discussion or instruction they had from Bhagwan have any value today as they were all personal instructions.”
Earlier, Isaac Tigrett, a key devotee of Sri Sathya Sai Baba who is also the founder of Hard Rock & House of Blues and lives in Sai Baba’s ashram Prasanthi Nilayam, had claimed, “I have an announcement to make. In 2007 Sai Baba started giving me a series of interviews and in those series of interviews he told me exactly how he wanted Prasanthi Nilayam to run. He also had a witness who is so important, who is there, as I asked him over 170 questions about how he wanted me to do this. He said this is our secret. You tell no one. Now I simply have this to say. I will with his approval give this approval to the Sai organisation if they wish to approach me.”
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Hidden Treasure, Isaac Tigrett, Puttaparthi, Secret Vaults, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Top Secret | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 22, 2011
Our Indian well-wisher has just reported:
“News is constantly trickling in from Puttaparthi that Sai Baba devotees have been shaken by the huge haul of wealth in Yajur Mandir, as well as big cash seizures in the following days. Many SB devotees I know, real hardcore devotees that is, are not even attempting to defend or deny the gold, cash hauls, and are in a complete state of confusion. Some blame trust members (as evidenced by 100′s of devotees protesting outside the Ashram 2 days back), while a few are even questioning “why did Swami have to keep so much gold and cash ? didn’t Swami always say he never accepted gifts ?…who to believe or what to believe?”
See this very insightful news item filed from Puttaparthi just an hour back: “
Puttaparti: Was the Big Cache of Cash being Siphoned off to Mangalore?
from special correspondent from Puttaparti
Posted at 1-05 pm
Puttaparti, Andhra Pradesh, Jun 22: Things are totally different in this ‘Baba’ town now. During the earlier visit, soon after the demise of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the crowds were unmanageable. Devotees in lakhs were making a beeline to have a final darshan of Baba. But now, the place almost looks deserted, comparatively, that is.
While being a guest at the residence of an acquaintance from Dakshina Kannada, a professional who gave up his highly lucrative practice back home and took up serving Prashanti Nilayam about a decade ago, this correspondent got a clear indication of a feeling of disillusionment among social workers and devotees here. The host was in the process of moving out of this place once and for all.
A huge cache of gold and unaccounted money was recenly found in the secret vaults of the Ashram. Many devotees, with genuine concern at heart, feel that these valuables, if had been well invested instead of getting hoarded, could have been utilized for the benefit of the needy poor or have taken care of building homes for thousands of homeless.
The material element in the whole set-up has upset and disappointed many devotees. But no one wants to speak in loud voices about it.
The host too looked worried and explained why he thought of packing up from here. A few Mangalorean names are in the news here. Baba’s confidant Satyajit is being sidelined after Baba’s death. To add to that two more names are widely heard here now – they are Harish Shetty, who was caught carrying Rs 35 lakh in a Qualis car, and his brother Sohan Shetty, who was found carting off Rs 10 crore in a KSRTC Volvo bus heading for Bangalore.
They are brothers and are said to be sons of a top retired police official of Mangalore origin. Although it was being mentioned that the money was being transported to Bangalore, during interrogation it has reportedly come to light that the amounts of money were being taken to Mangalore. During inquiries, they are said to have disclosed that the money was taken out with the knowledge of trustee Srinivasan and security officer Pradhan.
In the meantime, the TVS group of companies has clarified that Srinivasan had nothing to do with their group and the clarification was necessitated since the name of the group was also being mentioned in the recent controversies.
In this backdrop, the host confided that people from Karnataka were being looked at with suspicion and hence his decision to leave this place for good to go back to agriculture farming run by his family.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Karnataka, Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, Yajur mandir | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 23, 2011
I have listened to many country’s national anthems. But, I must say, for purely musical reasons, the Indian national anthem has long been my favourite. The melody unfailingly tugs at my heartstrings. Even so, when I listen to it these days, there is an extra freight-load of poignancy to it. I think back to the Indian homes, from rich to poor – sometimes, VERY poor - where I lived for lengths of time with Indian families – forever the honorary ‘uncle’.
Joys and sorrows well up when I hear the Indian national anthem, although I know some families equally dear to me wish that the words used are in, or not in, the Hindi language.
Sheet music for Jana Gana Mana. Words and Music by the great Nobel Prize-winning Indian poet-dramatist, musician-dancer Rabindranath Tagor, whose then still-living relatives, as well as the younger generations of the Tagore family made me feel at home when, in early 1976, I spent time, and performed, at the Shantiniketan University, Bolpur, West Bengal.
At the same time, whatever may seem to be the contraindicators, there can be few, if any, countries in which, in general, those of different persuasions can get along together. Too often, it is the hotheads whom we come to hear about. We don’t always hear, for example, of how some Hindus and Muslims risked their lives to save Sikhs who were set upon in pogroms, after two Sikh bodyguards assassinated Mrs Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 . Following the assassination, there were four days in which marauding maniacs killed thousands of Sikhs in a retaliatory blood let. The bloody-mindedness of some of the top leaders (like longtime Sathya Sai Baba devotee) PM Narasimha Rao, and Rajiv Gandhi with his utterly callous “when a big tree falls” pronouncement, and many newspaper editors are appalling. From time to time, India gets some good people on Commissions of enquiry. But she needs good leaders, so that there is not the dire need for Commissions.
A number of times, in widely different parts of India, courageous, quick-thinking Indians have saved my life or limb. Once, I was spared the blade of an RSS thug, when RSS workers mistakenly thought that I was a Christian missionary. Another time, Indians in a huge crowd making for a ‘sacred’ spot lifted me aloft and bore me to safety. In another far part of India, the police had to assure my safety, because a westerner been arrested on charges of spying.
As a poor traveler, I have been nursed back to life by Indian families who had been strangers, and so tenderly as if I had been of their own family. The list of beneficent occasions is much longer, and knows no Hindu, Moslem, Sikh, Parsee, Jain, Christian etc., distinctions. The poor of India, among whose hovels I have worked, have, touchingly, been no less generous-spirited to me than the rich, even – or perhaps especially! – when these ragged and destitute people saw that I was traveling poor myself.
Therefore, as my regular readers may have noted, I speak not too kindly of the Indian elites. They are venal. They are selfish and cruel. They heavily support a system of brutal suppression and torture by sections of the armed services and police. Without their endemic corruption, India would stand tall in all the world. See my articles:
These rulers, time and again, betray my Indian brothers and sisters. I will say it, although I hesitated, because I do not want anyone to presume upon the common and all-too-decent Indian type. Indians at large are very gentle, tender and infinitely patient. Those of their fellows who are not, or who are selectively so, presume upon the others. But Indians can be tigers, especially in parts of the north, and one enclave in the south, where martial traditions remain strong. In general, though, to my mind, I spot a fierceness more often on the cricket field than off it.
Sachin Tendulkar looks heavenward. But Sachin, I don't think your Sathya Sai got admitted to Swarga Loka. But why not look down here in the real world, and with compassion, where you will find his many sexual abuse victims, boys and young men (many grown much older now), round the world? Do you not have a brave heart when off the cricket field?
Frighteningly, what Manmohan Singh so gravely risks is that, because he has shown his teeth to peaceful anti-corruption protesters – or to be more accurate – got his security forces and police to do the tooth-showing and bovvyer boy musclework, his piddling weakness in the face of immense corruption could plunge the Indian nation into the most terrible bloodshed. By which I mean – he should fix cankerous corruption in his own house, and not ‘fix’ honest and decent protesters.
However, I am encouraged by a number of tidal changes that I now see.
Quite apart from his deep prostrating, longtime association with Sathya Sai Baba, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh now looks to be a spent force. His government is mired in many scandals. Given the evidence so long in front of international former devotee coordinators like Robert Priddy and myself, one can really raise a question: Will the revelations now exploding in the Indian media about Sai Baba and key players on his Sai Central Trust broaden out to include some of the figures in local, state and central government spheres?
India's PM Manmohan Singh. At the Feet of the Late Sathya Sai Baba
Might Manmohan Singh and others be about to face their Watergate?
It will be a test of what the producer of the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami”, Eamon Hardy, threw into question, to use his words, of “India’s maturity as a democracy”.
Manmohan Singh and other members of his government, and a succession of past Prime Ministers and Presidents, and countless other high-ranking individuals in Indian politics, the armed services, police, government, and so on, have protected Sathya Sai Baba. Will, now, the wealth, the family connections, the underhand political wheeler-dealing and other antidemocratic tendencies in India thwart attempts at genuine reform? Will the big Sai Baba-prostrating money-bags like the Tatas, the Rais (the scion of the latter family threatened to sue us and got told firmly where to go!) at last, after too many decades, find that there is something in India that money won’t buy?
Or will the legions of corrupt misleaders continue to overpower democracy? Here is our chance to see.
Anti-Corruption Rallies In Upsurge Across India
Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi by Sathya Sai Baba's golden casket
Large numbers of Indian citizens are rising up. Are they rent-a-crowds fomented by his immediate political rivals to power? Or by the Pakistan government’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)? It would not surprise if any or all of these should want to have a hand. But good Indian citizens inform me that many of these marches against government corruption are deeply genuine, no matter under whose banner the crowds protest.
Some masses rally to the call of solid, old-fashioned anti-corruption crusaders such as Anna Hazare. Others to Swami Ram Dev, whom a range of serious commentators depict as somewhat a religious fundamentalist, politically naive, and a bit of a hot-head, but well-meaning and brave nonetheless. Certainly, both have daily put their lives on the line. Both have also embarked on fasts-unto-death, in the way the better-informed still remember of Mahatma Gandhi.
Are the Indian People Sick of Their Leaders’ Golden Casket Worship?
Anna Hazare. Widely respected, old-style Indian anti-corruption crusader
The Wikipedia entry on Anna Hazare states:
Kisan Baburao Hazare (Marathi: किसन बाबुराव हजारे) (born 15 June 1937), popularly known as Anna Hazare (Marathi: अण्णा हजारे), is an Indian social activist and anarcho-pacifist who is especially recognised for his contribution to the development of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India and his efforts for establishing it as a model village, for which he was awarded the Padma Bhushan—the third-highest civilian award—by the government of India in 1992.[1]
After leading a number of nonviolent protests in Maharashtra state against corruption, Hazare started a fast unto death on 5 April 2011 to exert pressure on the government of India to enact a strong anti-corruption act as envisaged in the Jan Lokpal Bill, a law to establish a Lokpal (ombudsman) with the power to deal with corruption in public offices. The fast led to nationwide protests in support of Hazare. The fast ended on 9 April 2011, the day after all of Hazare’s demands were agreed by the government of India. The government issued a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee (of government and civil society representatives) to draft an effective Lokpal Bill.[2][3]
Another prominent Indian social justice crusader who has risked his life many times is Swami Agnivesh.
Online edition of India’s National Newspaper
Friday, May 27, 2011
Mahant held for slapping Agnivesh
Manas Dasgupta
AHMEDABAD: In an unsavoury incident, the human rights activist, Swami Agnivesh, who was accompanying the anti-corruption bill crusader, Anna Hazare, to a visit to Gujarat on Thursday, was slapped by a Mahant.
The incident occurred before the start of a public meeting to be addressed by Mr. Hazare. While meeting people, Swami Agnivesh tried to greet Mahant Nityanand Das, the chief of a temple near Nadiad, while the latter he slapped him.
The Mahant, who was arrested by the police, told journalists before leaving the venue that his anger against Swami Agnivesh was for his comments about the holy Amarnath shrine of Lord Shiva.
Swami Agnivesh, on the sidelines of a recent peace conference in Srinagar, had allegedly commented that the ice lingam of Amarnath was “artificially made,” and that the annual “Amarnath yatra” was a “religious deception.”
The Mahant had earlier announced a “reward” of Rs. 51,000 for anyone who would dare to hurl a shoe at Swami Agnivesh in public. He said he had nothing against Mr. Hazare and totally supported his crusade against corruption, “but I cannot take the Swami’s comments against a holy shrine of the Hindus.”
Human right activists strongly condemned the incident. “We condemn the attack on Swami Agnivesh.” Said Father Cedric Prakash, a human right activist and convener of Prashant, a voluntary organisation.
Swami Ramdev, anti-corruption crusader, dragged off by PM Mohan Singh's militia
India’s billionaire “heroes” get humbled
By Alistair Scrutton | Reuters – Sun, 27 Feb, 2011 12:31 AM EST
NEW DELHI (Reuters)
But a Who’s Who of corporate India has now been mired in controversy in the past year. Even the icon of India Inc, Ratan Tata, went to court to stop the release of leaked taped conversations of lobbyist Nira Radia and top industrialists, politicians and journalists, with talk of swinging deals, granting favours and ministers taking bribes. The tapes published in local media showed Radia, whose lobby company represents Tata and Mukesh Ambani, speaking to politicians to ensure Andimuthu Raja was appointed telecoms minister. Raja is now under arrest over the graft case. The founder of Satyam Computer was arrested in an accounting fraud — software services had previously been seen as one of India’s cleanest sectors — and the head of India’s $4 billion cricket premier league was fired over alleged irregularities. “The image of the socially responsible businessman, the untainted hero, has taken a beating,” said V. Ravichandar, head of Feedback Consulting in Bangalore, which advises multinationals.
Even the slightest selection of recent Indian newspaper headlines tend to tell the story quite well.
India: Protests against corruption spread
Reuters
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi have come in for criticism for sending hundreds of police using batons and tear gas on Sunday to break up a hunger strike by Swami Ramdev and tens of thousands of his followers in Delhi.
“India is a democratic country. Peacefully protesting and assembling without arms is legal,” said Arvind Kejriwal, an associate of Mr Hazare.
Teachers stage protest against corruption
TNN Jun 18, 2011, 10.51pm IST
DHARWAD: Inspired by the tirade launched by social activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Baba Ramdev against corruption, teachers in Dharwad staged a protest against corruption and exploitation in the education sector.
Responding to the call given by Karnataka State Secondary Teachers’ Association (KSSTA), large number of teachers from Dharwad, Belgaum, Haveri, Gadag, Bijapur and Bagalkot districts participated in the sit-in protest in front of the office of the additional commissioner for public instruction here from 3pm to 5pm.
MLC Arun Shahpur, KSSTA vice-president R M Kuberappa, general secretary M G Sindagi and others spoke on the occasion. They said that corruption in education sector is spoiling the atmosphere as those who are compelled to pay bribe tend to recover the money by resorting to illegal means. “It also encourages people to get illegal things done by offering inducement. This trend will make life difficult for law-abiding citizens. Immunizing education sector is the need of the hour,” the speakers said.
Students protests against corruption in India – Dimapur
DemoTix. 25th of April 2011Student activist from Dimapur Naga Students Union (DNSU) burns candle during a candle light protest called by North East Student Organization (NESO) to show solidarity to the anti- Armed Force Special Power Act (AFSPA) campaign by Iron Sharmila and anti corruption Lokpal Bill by Anna Hazare. The seven Indian north eastern state has, today called a protest to show its solidarity to Iron Sharmila, who has been on fast for more than tens years to remove AFSPA in the region and to Indian social activist, Anna Hazare corruption campaign against the prime minister and cabinet
Churches in India endorse protests against corruption
By: Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International
“The poor are the worst victims of corruption,” says India’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Vincent M. Concessao. Photo: Shutterstock
Bangalore, India
Churches in India have joined the growing support for social activist Anna Hazare, who launched a hunger fast on April 5 to call attention to the problem of corruption in government and is urging the passage of a strict anti-corruption law.
Corruption has become a major national issue in recent months, with allegations of massive corruption running into billions of dollars in wireless telecom licensing and in the preparation for Commonwealth Games that was held in New Delhi last October.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anti Corruption, Atrocities (India), Corruption, Graft, India, Indian Police, Pakistan (ISI Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence), Puttaparthi, Rabindr, Sachin Tendulkar, Scandal, Security, South Asia, South India, Watergate | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 24, 2011
Well wisher from India emails us:
“It looks like the Andra Pradesh govt is putting the squeeze on the Sathya Sai trust. It appears that the Govt has a definite strategy in mind over a period, and hence the politicians and govt officials have been cold shouldering the SB trust officials (besides giving a silent go ahead for slapping criminal cases against them). The government has already withdrawn 16 exemptions to the SB trust, regarding auditing, some taxes, publishing accounts, being supervised by a govt official etc, among others. Even assets like land as well as intellectual properties can no longer be sold by the trust without govt permission.
At a high level meeting , Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy (who is not a devotee), brushed aside his cabinet’s apprehensions that SB devotees may be offended by any Govt takeover of the trust. It is strongly indicated that the Govt is moving towards this decision, and the young AP Chief minister (a former state cricketer/wicket keeper) has even put the trust under intelligence watch.
It seems that an “Aurobindo model” as in the Pondicherry Aurobindo ashram is being contemplated, and also possibly the Whitefield ashram may be made an income creating commercial venture or sold off.
If this happens, it could possibly mean the end of the “Sai Baba mission”, and it would exist as just another charity, maybe with a few pictures of Sai Baba here and there”.
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Andhra Pradesh government plans to take over Sathya Sai Baba trust
A. Srinivasa Rao | Hyderabad, June 24, 2011 | Updated 10:26 IST
Sathya Sai Baba
The Andhra Pradesh government is planning to take over the controversial Sathya Sai Central Trust following the recent seizure of a huge amount of cash from some people close to the trust members.
Chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy held a high-level meeting with officials of the endowments department, chief secretary S. V. Prasad and intelligence department officials on Wednesday evening to discuss reports of alleged irregularities in the Sathya Sai Trust, which manages the multi-crore empire of late godman Sathya Sai Baba at Puttaparthi in Anantapur district.
“In the last four decades, the government has not interfered in the affairs of the trust. But now, we are compelled to intervene in the wake of serious allegations of embezzlement of funds in Prashanti Nilayam. We have sought a report from the trust on its financial dealings and the assets it is holding. Depending on the response from the trust members, we will decide on how to proceed further,” endowments minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said on Thursday.
Sources said the government is also weighing options of taking over the trust, but that would be as a last resort.
Otherwise, it might even consider canceling the exemption granted to the trust under Section 154 of the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, 1997, which would enable the government to have direct supervision over the trust affairs.
“The government has no immediate plans to take over the trust. We will wait until the trust members submit their report,” the minister said.
The government has given strict instructions to the police to probe the trust’s financial irregularities and act tough with erring members. The police had already served notices on trust members R. J. Rantakar and V. Srinivasan, asking them to appear before the superintendent of police before Saturday for interrogation.
The government has also transferred Puttaparthi deputy superintendent of police Narasimhulu, who was allegedly cooperating with the trust members in siphoning off wealth from Yajur Mandir, the personal chamber of Sai Baba. Instructions have also been issued to the local revenue authorities to submit a comprehensive report on whether land transactions had been carried out by the trust members or their associates in the recent past.
The Anantapur police have also alerted the income tax authorities to conduct investigations into the unaccounted cash.
Ratnakar has, meanwhile, sought more time to appear before the police regarding the seizure of Rs 35.5 lakh cash which was being transported out of Prashanti Nilayam. On Thursday, he made an appeal to Anantapur superintendent of police Shah Nawaz Qasim to give him more time. He said he was seeking legal opinion in the case and would provide all the information to the police.
“We are ready to provide all the details to the government. Some vested interests are trying to defame the trust and create mistrust among the devotees,” Ratnakar alleged.
Interestingly, Ratnakar had initially said the trust has nothing to do with the money and claimed it belonged to 12 devotees and that they would appear before the police to give their side of the story. So far, not a single devotee has come forward to stake claim to the money.
There are allegations that Ratnakar was bringing pressure on some students of the Sathya Sai University to stake claim to the money so as to save the trust members, but they have reportedly refused to do so.
Trust member Srinivasan, who was also served notice by the police, has been absconding since. There were reports that the police had grilled him a couple of days back on the cash seized, but the police denied it.
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Finally, Andhra govt to rein in Sai Trust
HYDERABAD: Facing flak for not monitoring the affairs of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, the state government has decided to withdraw some of the 16 concessions that the trust has been accorded to carry out its various philanthropic, educational and charitable activities.In a far reaching decision on Thursday, after detailed discussions with the chief secretary, finance and revenue department officials, chief minister Kiran Kumar gave the green signal to withdraw these concessions. “The exercise is meant to bring about more transparency while not restricting the various activities of the trust including the running of hospitals, university and other missions,” said a senior official dealing with the matter.The 16 concessions, ranging from financial to administrative, were granted to the Sathya Sai Central Trust, the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Sathya Sai University, Super Speciality hospitals, medical trust, Radio-Sai, International Sathya Sai Organisation, Sathya Sai Seva Organisation, Sai Sadhana Samithi and music divisions.The financial concessions, which include no levy of VAT, building fee, commercial tax, registration fee, customs and other duty for importing medical equipment for the hospitals and subsidised electricity, will continue for the time being. “Our focus is to enable transparency in the working of the trust and its various bodies. Therefore, the various exemptions granted to the trust under the Hindu Temples and Trusts Act, 1987, will be withdrawn,” said the sources.As per section 154 of the said Act, every trust should file its income and expenditure report with the respective state government at least once in three years. Similarly, exemption given under section 59 of the Act allowed the trust to evade information about the assets and property of different trusts. Exemptions given under sections 58, 60, 61 and 65 of the Act allowed the trust not to entertain yearly audit by the government, supervision by deputy collector rank officer, submission of annual profit and loss account.
Likewise, exemptions given under sections 79 and 80 gave the trust power to sell its land, property, intellectual property, publications, music and film productions without giving any information to the government or pass through the supervisory system provided by the government. All these exemptions will now be withdrawn, the sources said.
“On the request of the trust, the Congress government headed by chief minister J Vengala Rao had granted the Sai Trust these exemptions under the Hindu Temples and Trusts Act in the mid-70s. Since then, the Sai Trust has not been answerable to the state at all. The only report that the trust is submitting annually is the foreign donation figure to the Union home ministry, which is a pittance of the total money and assets it generates every year,” said the sources. The state is also contemplating to bring the trust under the provisions of the Right to Information Act. Having decided to withdraw some of the exemptions, the state government is waiting for the report from the Sathya Sai
Central Trust before conveying its intentions.
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Today: Fri, Jun 24, 2011
AP govt may tap Sai trust’s assets after takeover
P Pavan. Posted On Friday, June 24, 2011 at 03:05:18 AM
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In Hyderabad In the backdrop of controversies surrounding the Sathya Sai Baba Central Trust, founded by spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba, the Andhra Pradesh government is studying Pondicherry’s Aurobindo Ashram model to control the Sai trust.Under the Aurobindo Ashram model, a government nominee (an IAS officer) is appointed to oversee the trusts’s affairs. Talks about the AP government taking over the Sai trust have been doing rounds for the past many months.Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy took stock of issues relating to the Sai trust on Wednesday night. He called for a report from the trust on its activities, financial position and other details.
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| The Sathya Sai trust has been mired in controversies after Baba’s death in April |
He also called for an intelligence report on the controversies surrounding it. He may consult the cabinet once the trust and intelligence department submit their reports.
With Baba’s death, the flow of donations to the trust is likely to dry up. Therefore, the government feels it should commercially exploit some of the fixed assets of the trust so that the trust activities aren’t hampered in future.
The Sai trust, whose assets are valued at over Rs 40,000 crore, runs several educational and medical institutions, drinking water projects apart from a railway station and an airport.
“For example, the Whitefields in Bangaluru can be converted into a commercial venture so that the income from it can take care of the recurring expenditure on some activities”, said a government source.
Confirming that the state government is considering replicating Aurobindo model in Sathya Sai Trust, a senior minister said, “We are under obligation to respect the sentiments of devotees, continue Trust activities and control any irregularities.” |
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh police, Corruption, India, Intelligence, Police Intelligence, Prashanti Nilayam, Puttaparthi, Sathya Sai Central Trust, South Asia, South India | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 26, 2011
Latest reports in the Indian media reveal that the Anantapur district police have questioned a leading Sathya Sai Central Trust member, Sathya Sai Baba’s nephew R.J. Ratnakar for over five hours. He has refused media interviews. Police have scheduled for Monday 27 June an interview with another prominent Sathya Sai Central Trust member, V. Srinivasan.
As matters stand, there is glaring contradiction between statements of Srinivasan, who has admitted Trust involvement in extraordinary movements of cash, and of R.J. Ratnakar, who says that the money is actually from 12 donors, and can be explained.
But how does one explain Trust workers clandestinely moving – in a van and in a bus – such vast amounts – and right on the heels of the discovery multi millions of cash, gemstones and other valuables secreted in Sai Baba’s bedroom? Where is the transparency in this?
Information is abroad that R.J. Ratnakar has been attempting to involve a number of Sai Baba students in attempts to cover up certain of the financial irregularities, but that the boys and their families have refused to have anything to do with any improper dealings.
See Hindu Times article, below.
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For those with information, I can be contacted at this blogsite. Or via: barpittard@gmail.com. Where special security/confidentiality needs may be called for, there are protocols available. My colleague Robert Priddy and I have dealt with many international situations involving private individuals, media, government and institutions, and confidentiality is assured.
It may be that some fear going to various agencies in the Indian state or federal police. A former head of Interpol in Australia has assured me that there are workarounds in situations of this kind. Should anyone in India wish to share this level of information, please feel welcome to write to me.
Barry Pittard, former Lecturer, Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India.
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For some salient attitudes derived from my several years in India, see portions of my article:
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 23, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on April 27, 2011
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NOTE:
This V. Srinivasan is chairman of WS Industries, Chennai, South India. Various Sai Baba devotees have typically referred to him as: “Venu”. In certain Indian media reports, there has been a mix-up in with a Mr Venu Srinivasan, one of India’s top industrialists, who belongs to the TVS group, a Chennai-based industrial group. Concerned lest the V. Srinivasan of TVS be harmed by the heavy national media attention to the Sathya Sai Central Trust’s V.Srinivasan, also chairman of the WS Industries, Chennai, TVS has sent out a media clarification.
This type of mix-up was addressed, for example, in the Economic Times:
Sathya Sai Baba death: Who will succeed him as chairman of Sai Trust?
ET Bureau Apr 25, 2011, 01.53am IST
“In March 2010, the Trust was reconstituted and included, apart from Baba, the following members: former chief justice of India PN Bhagawati; chartered accountant Indulal Shah; former central chief vigilance commissioner SV Giri; WS Industries chairman V Srinivasan (commonly misunderstood for Venu Srinivasan of TVS Motors); and Rathnakar. Also, the Trust’s council of management has the following members: lawyer SS Naganand; former Canara Bank chairman JV Shetty; former IOB chairman TKK Bhagavat; retired IAS official K Chakravarthi”.
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Front Page.
Police grill Ratnakar for over 5 hours Rakesh Reddy V.K
PUTTAPARTHI: R.J. Ratnakar, a Member of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, was grilled by Anantapur district police at the Prashanthi Nilayam on Saturday, in connection with the seizure of Rs.35 lakh in cash while it was being transported from here on June 18.
A team of police led by DSP of Penukonda Kolar Krishna interrogated Mr. Ratnakar, nephew of late Sai Baba, for more than five hours.
The interrogation is significant in light of the “confessions” to the police by K. Sohan Shetty of Bangalore and S. Chandrasekhara Murthy, driver of the car seized by the police. According to the remand report filed by the Circle Inspector of Hindupur One Town, Mr. Shetty (A2) confessed that Mr. Ratnakar and V. Srinivasan, another trustee, had given him Rs.35 lakh on June 18 to conceal and provide it as and when required.
The driver (A3) said during interrogation that the two trustees had brought the cash bag from Yajur Mandir, residence of Sai Baba, and kept it in a Sonata car. Later, on their directions, he transported the cash and handed it over to Mr. Shetty. “The Trust management or A2, who got possession of the cash, had failed to produce any document or record claiming the money belonged to them,” the report added.
According to sources, the police also questioned Mr. Ratnakar on the basis of the reported statements of Mr. Srinivasan, that the cash indeed belonged to the Trust and that it was just a rare occasion when the Trust decided to pay out in cash for construction of Sai Baba’s Samadhi. This was in contrast to Mr. Ratnakar’s own statement that the cash did not belong to the Trust but to 12 different donors, who would eventually claim it.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of people took out a procession in Puttaparthi demanding the resignation of members of the Trust till such time that they prove themselves to be innocent.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India, Indian Police, Indian Politics, Sathya Sai Central Trust, Scams, South India, Wealth | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 26, 2011
The head of Sathya Sai Baba’s multi-million dollar hospital at Puttaparthi, Dr A.N. Safaya has resigned, along with other medical and nursing staff.
Dr A.N. Safaya, Head of Sathya Sai Superspecialty Hospital Resigns, along with other Staff
I only met Dr Safaya once, when I lengthily interviewed him at the Sri Sathya Sai Superspeciality Hospital for an article to be published in the Puttaparthi-based magazine ‘Spiritual Impressions’, which is distributed internationally. My impression was of a gracious, deeply dedicated man. He is highly respected in India and abroad in the medical profession.
I venture to predict that, given a probing Andhra Pradesh government enquiry into the circumstances of Sathya Sai Baba’s death, the circumstances of Dr Safaya’s resignation, and of other medical and nursing staff at the Sai hospital, will show that forces on the Sathya Sai Central Trust, and certain of their agents, have been grossly unscrupulous. And, more widely, criminal.
There are very serious allegations arising in news coverage that those around Sathya Sai Baba prior to his admission to the hospital where he died on 25 April withheld vital medical information from Dr Safaya and other medical experts in attendance.
From other flows of information we are receiving, it looks as though there is a surge of devotees massing, who are very ethical and deeply concerned with what has been withheld from them.
Fast-mounting events indicate that, just as occurred when we began our exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult, circa 2000, many people are leaving the Sathya Sai Organization, and those contemplating membership have decided not to join.
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For those with information, I can be contacted at this blogsite. Or via: barpittard@gmail.com. Where special security/confidentiality needs may be called for, there are protocols available. My colleague Robert Priddy and I have dealt with many international situations involving private individuals, media, government and institutions, and confidentiality is assured.
It may be that some fear going to various agencies in the Indian state or federal police. A former head of Interpol in Australia has assured me that there are workarounds in situations of this kind. Should anyone in India wish to share this level of information, please feel welcome to write to me.
Barry Pittard, former Lecturer, Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India.
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TIMES OF INDIA
Sai hospital head quits
TNN | Jun 25, 2011, 01.29am IST
PUTTAPARTHI: In yet another indication that the mega Sai empire is undergoing a churn, Dr A N Safaya, director of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS), has decided to quit. Safaya, a former head of AIIMS in Delhi, was looking after Sai Baba when he was in the hospital.Along with Safaya several other heads in the super-speciality hospital on the outskirts of Puttaparthi are all set to quit. Sources told TOI that Safaya has decided to quit his job and has informed the Trust authorities about his decision. He is likely to continue till November-end. “After attending Sai Baba’s birthday celebration, Safaya will put in his papers,” insiders in Prasanthi Nilayam said.Safaya, who has been on leave for 24 days, arrived in Puttaparthi on Friday and made known his decision to quit. Sources said Safaya was upset over the happenings in the Trust and the continuous bashing the hospital has been receiving from various quarters. Sources said Safaya was distraught ever since Baba had passed away on April 24. “I came to serve him and wanted to be here for life. But with Baba himself gone, I don’t see myself serving in the hospital,” he reportedly told his close aides. Safaya could not be contacted.“He has already suggested to the Trust to search for a new director,” sources said. Safaya, originally from Kashmir, was handpicked by Sai Baba when he was serving in AIIMS, Delhi, and made director of SSSIHMS in 1990. Sources said Safaya did not want to face the mounting allegations and charges made by family members of Sai Baba over the alleged medical negligence which led to Baba’s death. Baba was admitted to the hospital on March 28 in a critical condition.Safaya faced a lot of flak from devotees and family members when Sai Baba was being treated in the hospital with multi-organ failure. He landed himself in trouble when he claimed that they had no medical case sheet of Sai Baba. “With no Trust member willing to come forward and share the health updates of Baba with the media, Safaya was providing the daily updates and medical bulletins. He had to face a lot of questions from the government team of doctors and senior bureaucrats,” hospital sources said.Also hurt over the continuous bashing of the super-specialty hospital on the medical treatment provided to Sai Baba, heads of some of the key wings in the hospital have decided to quit and are planning to join other hospitals, it is learnt. Hospital joint director Jagadish Chandra, medical superintendent Bharadwaj and chief engineer Viswanath were among those who have decided to put in their papers.Feeling insecure over their jobs, 11 nurses have resigned in the last one week. “Some of them have quit as the Trust was not implementing the Sixth Pay Commission wages. Three nurses have already joined a private hospital in Bangalore,” hospital sources said.While Sai Baba had set up a general hospital way back in 1968, he opened SSSIHMS in 1991 in a record time of 11 months to offer free and specialised medicare to the poor and downtrodden sections. Now, doubts are cropping up whether the Trust would be able to continue the free services at the hospital.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, health, Hospitals, India, Interpol, Medicine, South India, Sri Sathya Sai Superspeciality Hospital | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 27, 2011
Each day, major sections of the Indian media feature glaring revelations about Sathya Sai Baba’s and key Sathya Sai Central Trust officials. The Andhra Pradesh government is now stepping in – for example, closing down 16 charitable exemptions long accorded to the Sathya Sai Central Trust. It details to the case police investigators with teeth, and arrests have already been made.
There are grave suspicions surrounding the manner of Sai Baba’s death. For example, questions have been raised about why the Indian and international doctors attending Sai Baba since his hospitalization were refused salient details about medical treatment prior to this time. News reports in recent days – such as the surprise emergence of billionaire Sai Baba backer Isaac Tigrett and his secret yet to be revealed – have heavily eclipsed these matters. See: Human Rights Commission Probe Fronts Andhra Government On Sathya Sai Baba Treatment
Several of Sathya Sai Baba’s longtime most prominent workers have resigned, including Dr A.N. Safaya, head of the Superspecialty Hospital at Puttaparthi, along with other doctors and nursing staff. See: Head of Sai Baba Mega Dollar Hospital At Puttaparthi Resigns. Others Quitting Jobs Too. Posted by Barry Pittard on June 26, 2011.
Dereliction of Duty of Care, Accountability and Transparency of International Sathya Sai Organization and Sathya Sai Central Trust
Sai Baba cult's world head, Dr Micael Goldstein, of Covena, southern California. BBC secret camera captures the ugly face that the international leadership of the Sathya Sai Organization wishes to hide.
For many years, small numbers of internationally coordinated former devotees, and other critics such as the late Basava Premanand, worked tremendously hard, and against almost impossible odds, to expose Sathya Sai Baba and his authoritarian worldwide cult. See:
Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach
In Memoriam – Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”
The Sathya Sai Organization now bears the undying stigma of having countless times scorned, rebuked and libeled those former devotees and other critics who have, at cost of great personal sacrifice to themselves and their families and friends, spoken out about the sexual abuses against young males and other crimes and moral and spiritual betrayals.
Longtime Failure to Act of Indian Media and Successive National and State Governments
To the profound shame of the Indian media, leading newspaper and television organizations heeded our representations:
For example, BBC, CBC (Canada), DR (Denmark), Salon.com (USA), SBS (all television), ABC (Radio Australia). In newspaper media – Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Guardian (UK), Marie Claire Magazine, Salon.com, BT, Bild, Focus, Trouw, Speegelbield, Noordhollands Dagblad, Sokaren, Gatopardo, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Age, Australian Financial Review, West Australian (a major front page article by an award-winning journalist (Torrance Mendez) was pulled at the 11th hour!), Adelaide Advertiser, etc., ….. It was not until a close friend of ours, at the top of a notable profession, was able to dine with an official of the Indo Asian News Service that our Duke of Edinburgh story concerning Sai Baba’s propaganda people that we were able, after many futile attempts, to make some inroads on a small section of the Indian media.
Extraordinarily, in the last days, wide sections of the Indian media are surfacing evidence that powerfully tells against Sathya Sai Baba and many of his core servitors. It is, of course, to the historic shame of the Indian media (with the honorable exception of India Today) and successive, typically corrupt Indian governments, national and state, that we long remained voices crying out in the wilderness. For my appreciation of India Today’s publisher Aroon Purie and his team, see: Sai Baba Treasure Scandals: His Big Political Protectors Now Run For Cover
Of course, the greatest crying, emotionally and spiritually speaking, came from the countless boys and young men who had been sexually molested by Sathya Sai Baba, and in some cases by his teachers. For a recent record of a former student of the Sathya Sai university, now a professional who still struggles with terrible guilt, see:
Testimony about Sai Baba and his Hostels for Boys
Posted by robertpriddy on June 9, 2011
More glimpses behind Sai Baba’s veil of secrecy from one who knows
Posted by robertpriddy on June 10, 2011
The crying comes also from those he and certain of his servitors badly damaged in various other ways. including complicity in cover up of police executions in Sai Baba’s bedroom, missing persons, the beating of individuals by key Sai Baba security personnel, terrible financial scams conducted through the Puttaparthi front office, and in many other ways.
From years of living in India, and sometimes with families from very wealthy to very poor, I know that Indians love their children as people anywhere else do. Of course they do. But love operates when it is a verb, an action, rather than when it is a noun, an abstract.
However, the indisputable fact is that, far worse than in countries which have made large strides in facing sexual abuse issues, India profoundly betrays her children in this regard.
Will India continue to maintain the profoundly inhumane taboo against confronting issues around sexual abuse? Will she focus, instead, on scandals such as the secret hoarding in Sathya Sai Baba’s private chambers of millions of dollars worth of currency and large caches of precious stones and other luxury items? Will she not ask what, sexually, in the lives of so many boys and young men, happened down many years in Sai Baba’s bedroom? That is, the same bedroom around which a vast fortune in currency, gold, silver and precious gemstones have now been found. And the selfsame bed in which the treasury of innocence of countless boys and young men has been forever snatched.
Do you, India, wish to leave out forever out in the wilderness those brave Indian advocates for child protection as: Maharukh Adenwala, Rajmangal Prasad, and other national, state and local profiled figures who work for child rights in India. Why don’t you begin to hang out with those who really care, instead of those who only pretend to care?
Do you, India, wish to continue to be known throughout the world as the country with the highest rate of violence against women and children. Do you want a nation in which, according to a survey by India Today, there are between 400000 and 500000 child prostitutes in India. Does it not mean something to you that a 2007 study (brought about only by the tireless efforts of Indian men and women who truly care, by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) found that 53.22 per cent of India’s children have experienced some form of sexual abuse.
Do many of you pass it all off, thinking it is the kids’ Karma? Very well, do you think it is your Karma to be a person who doesn’t care, and who is content to leave matters as they are? Would you want your own children in the clutches of predators? Do you have no voice? No ability to support those who work, back against the wall, for change?
By virtue of former devotees’ intensive coordinated campaigning, Sathya Sai Baba centers in the West have emptied and, in other cases, been sorely depleted. A difficult sticking point is that India is a long way behind in addressing sexual abuse issues. It will be ironic if India’s Sathya Sai Centers empty or deplete because of the revelations about Sai Baba’s material, rather than spiritual treasure. The case in countries outside India was quite other – it was primarily because many individuals were able to exchange their findings about the sheer extent of Sai Baba’s sexual abuses of boys and young men that the credibility of the Sathya Sai Baba was irrecoverably damaged.
After enormous efforts by former Sai Baba devotees around the world – efforts that included proper, professional presentation of our credentials and of primary and secondary witnesses to governments, the United Nations, Interpol, and also of notable institutions which then, thankfully, cut off their connection with the international Sathya Sai Organization.
Robert Priddy and I, with additional help from within India, are keeping up the pressure in our own way. Various leading Indian media have contacted. Our blogsites are receiving thousands of visitors. Though naturally we are keen to avoid any imputation of interfering in the affairs of a sovereign country. We are most sensitive to the need not to tread on the turf of our Indian brothers and sisters who are staging the fight on their home ground. One area we have sometimes been able to assist is in bringing pressure on India deeply corrupt governments via the representatives of former devotees and other Sai Baba critics from around the world. Our friends among Non-Resident Indians (NRI’s) have also been able to contribute here.
My guess is that, just as in the first great wave of our exposure effort, many quit the Sathya Sai Organization, there will now be more waves of leave-taking. Indeed, one would think, of far greater dimensions.
A Seminal Document (August 2000) by Hari Sampath, Former Member of Sathya Sai Security and Intelligence Wing. Indian Media Should Study It
An all-too-neglected Hari Sampath document from 21 August 2000, fully deserves to be widely read, including by an Indian media which may be prone to think themselves as being at the cutting edge of exposing Sathya Sai Baba and core elements of his cult. The Sampath document is entitled – ‘The Sathya Sai Baba set-up: How it works’.
Hari Sampath wrote his piece from the point of view of a member of Sai Baba Security and Intelligence wing who had become alienated by his discoveries of corruption from Sai Baba down. He began to investigate, and later posted some of his findings on the internet. See HERE.
From both my own repeated, direct experience of contact with it, and that of our Indian workers’ extraordinarily hard work to inform it, a fact stands out inescapably: Had the Indian media had been professional and receptive when we embarked on our saga of exposure, Sai cult exposure of the sort happening in India today would surely have happened long ago.
In short, the Indian media, except India Today, was sorely derelict in failing to heed our evidence both in regard to the large-scale serial sexual abuses, and to the financial criminality and corruption which Hari Sampath was the first to reveal publicly.
One area of feedback that would be useful to have at this time is: impact on centers, both within and outside India. Many of you have your own networking and other resources by which to pull in salient information about what is happening with the centers. Please keep this and other forms of information coming. The feedback assists in breaking through the walls of disinformation and, more often, of Sai Organization unaccountability mediated via silence. See:
Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist
There are many lessons that nations can draw from exposures as great as the unmasking of the Sathya Sai Baba cult. The story of its exposure has on of small people having to learn skills which they, almost entirely never previously possessed. Such as dealing with the media, lawyers, and acting as a conduit to various professional areas of support – such as experienced psychological counseling – for the terribly stricken survivors of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult’s abuses. Anyone in the communities of former devotee activists are witness to the fact that these individuals are not takers but givers. Very typically, they serve not only those affected by the Sathya Sai Organization’s utter dereliction of duty of care and accountability, but also are dedicated to serving worthy causes in their own wider communities and professions.
In short, these are the individuals so-called Sai Baba devotees around the world – so full of their earnest talk about truth, righteousness, peace, love and non-violence – have so cruelly and wrongfully shunned, scorned and vilified.
It is important to keep the information flowing.
For those with information, I can be contacted at this blogsite. Or via: barpittard@gmail.com. Where special security/confidentiality needs may be called for, there are protocols available. My colleague Robert Priddy and I have dealt with many international situations involving private individuals, media, government and institutions, and confidentiality is assured.
It may be that some fear going to various agencies in the Indian state or federal police. A former head of Interpol in Australia has assured me that there are workarounds in situations of this kind. Should anyone in India wish to share this level of information, please feel welcome to write to me.
Barry Pittard, former Lecturer, Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India.
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Excerpt from:
Testimony from ‘Raman Sharma’
Date: 05-09-11
Here is an excerpt from an account made by a former student – now an academic – who has been in regular contact with well known ex-follower Conny Larsson by phone and e-mail and with an other ex devotee, for several years. We know his real identity and can confirm that he is a real person, but we must protect him from aggressive Sai stalkers and continued harassment by fanatical Sai Baba devotees where he is in India:
I have been accused from the “people of the 5 Human Values” of all sort of things and foremost even threatened for my life. These stalkers who have been paid by the Sai organisation. are terrible people who were also my former close friends within the Sai organisation. But what more could one expect from people devoted to a Rakshasa like Sai Baba. He once said to me after I told him that I loved him; “Yes I know, my food is your thoughts”. I almost fainted out of satisfaction, could you believe how gullible I was. Seduced both physically, spiritually and mentally. The so called “seva” within his organisation is just a mumbo jumbo that never existed so far.
I am really at pains to understand that one of my closest friends (name given but undisclosed here), who personally told me about the private goings on is still a believer, though I sympathize with him. It can be due to the fact that his father was given free hospital treatment and I believe he has received other benefits . There was also (name undisclosed). They are still my friends and so it is difficult to come out in the open.
(‘Raman Sharma’ tells next of how a close relative of his was a prominent official in the Sathya Sai Organisation but left after he told her of his experiences. They were ostracized by all former Sai Baba friends and none bothered to ask after his relative’s health after a cancer operation. After I came out my mother left the organisation and many senior member spoke ill about us.) I also had a miraculous escape in a way when I had confronted the hostel warden directly (it’s a long story of my own humiliations and shady living and things to which I was introduced as a kid in my eight standard by older boys and close friends). I still recollect another Mephistopheles of SB, Nanjundaiaah, the controller of examinations at the university speaking to our class that “Swami is pure innocence, you students by your association and dirty thoughts are spoiling him and his innocence” referring to the talk that was spreading at the college.
They misbehaved with students whenever rumours or truth about SSB started spreading in the hostel. Earlier SSB use to himself do this job by publicly humiliating those students and expelling them, thereby spoiling their careers. How many days of psychological trauma and torture good students have suffered! If I remember correctly, it was in June 2000 during the summer course (or was it 1999) two Brindavan form boys (who slept with SB) were taken ill. When checked, they were found to be HIV positive. I don’t know what happened to them, but SB was very upset with them and threw them out. I think this information was totally suppressed. In India the atmosphere is such that even people like us who know facts doubts ourselves at times. I do hope and pray that God does not allow India to be a global superpower, otherwise it has everything in it to corrupt the rest of the world. The famous author Nirad C Chaudhuri used a term MEGALOMANIA (In his own words he explained that just as an individual can be overtaken by madness, entire groups of people can grow mad). In India we have no dearth of politicians going collectively mad and so also credulous people in general. At least Nehru, for all his shortcomings never bowed down to irrationality just as his party supremos like PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi did recently by Bowing down at the corpse of dead Sathya sai Baba.
Yesterday, I was going through the exbaba site and the account of SB’s sibling Janakiramiah’s death. I noticed two points: Firstly, While Janakiramiah lay dying, people were allowed to see him in the ICU at SSSIHMS. I really fail to understand why are the devotees not being allowed now. Secondly, there was a reference of a bloated Janakiramaiah’s body being sent back to his residence at Parthi. I would like to bring to your notice about another death at the hospital. It concerns prof. Kailash Kumar Aurora, one of the professors’ of English at the Institute. I heard about his death when I had gone to parthi last in 2004. He also died at SSSIHMS and some students who saw him (may be at the hospital) repeatedly confirmed that his body had bloated up unnaturally. I do know of the fact that many permanent members at the ashram or even students never wanted to go to SSSIHMS for treatment because the Hospital was famous for giving wrong injections or medications to the patients. I personally hold the view that SB knew of these goings-on at the hospital and never wanted any major achievement of the hospital to be highlighted in public. Also, returning to the sequence of my older emails, somewhere around 1990 there was a student called Ramesh from Andhra who use to terrorize me and have sex. He never allowed me to go to class and I was really afraid of him, I don’t know for what, I think most of them knew of SB and I am surprised that even on Facebook none of the old Sai students are showing any serious concern about swami’s health. I think it was in my tenth that I started enjoying sex with males after being forced to do it in eighth and ninth. I even stopped going home during holidays in the pretext of staying with swami and my parents being devotees could not imagine about what was happening to me. I remember praying to SB that my parents should die so that I could enjoy life on my own, such was my foolishness. These memories are indeed painful, but I can certainly say that I have restrained myself from doing it with younger folks at Parthi. Somehow I always had the feeling that it was wrong.
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Basava Premanand, Dr A.N. Safaya, Government of Andhra Pradesh, I, India Today, pedophilia, Sathya Sai Organization, Sathya Sai Superspecialty Hospital, Sexual Abuse, Sexual molestation, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust | 3 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 28, 2011
Beth Rude. A Ballad by Barry Pittard. 2011.
I wonder if you ever knew
That sweet old lady they call Beth Rude
With her steady gaze and a cutting phrase
Did she ever gaze at you?
Was she ever rude to you?
But she’s never rude to kiddies, who
Come racing up to her
And even kids who are the wildest
With her become quieter
And the kids who are the timidest
Learn to build their fire from her
Beth Rude says:
Lots of kids need lots and lots of hugs
And not one kid needs shots of drugs
Some polite people say – how rude is Beth
And that Beth should mind her own business
Beth says -
If someone should do harm to a hair on a child’s head
That harm should be spoken, and not laid to rest
Beth Rude and her friends all sing sweet lullabies
For children who look up with trust in their eyes
With trust in their eyes, sure trust in their eyes
At the love in your eyes, yes at the love in your eyes
Beth Rude and her friends together they wipe
Tears that might ….
Might never be dried
Some polite people say –
Beth Rude you should do something far more mainstream
Instead of being so rude in a lost cause, don’t you see!?
How rude to speak of rockspiders and predatory beasts
Leave things to experts, the government, and to the police
And Beth bites back, she says -
If it’s nobody’s business then whose business is it?!
So you think that rock spiders should pay your kids a visit?!
So –
I wonder if you ever knew
That sweet old lady they call Beth Rude
With her steady gaze and a cutting phrase
Did she ever gaze at you?
Was she ever rude to you?
But she’s never rude to kiddies, who
Draw their warmth from her
And even kids who are the wildest
With her become quieter
And the kids who are the timidest
Learn to build their fire from her
Beth Rude says:
Kids need to feel safe. If they’re not safe
Kids hearts break, kids hearts break!
Some go silent, some grow violent
When polite people not a scrap of notice take
Beth says:
Most rude is a crude cross that nails a child
That nails a kid timid or nails a kid wild
Beth Rude and her friends they sing sweet lullabies
For children who look up with love in their eyes
With love in their eyes. Is your love in their eyes?
You see the trust in their eyes, do they see trust in your eyes?
Beth Rude and her friends together they wipe
Tears that might ….
Might never be dried
Some polite people say -
Beth Rude you should do something far more mainstream
Instead of being so rude in a lost cause, don’t you see!?
Beth says:
What is it with you, who stay silent, who make a shadow in between
So many children who look up for the rainbows of their dreams?!
Call me rude, downright rude, but see I’ll keep you in mind
When you let go rock spiders, who should be doing time!
Doing time, doing time, hard time, don’t you see!?
Doing time, after time …..
So, that’s Beth. And –
I wonder if you ever knew
That sweet old lady they call Beth Rude
With her steady gaze and a cutting phrase
Did she ever gaze at you?
Was she ever rude to you?
While -
Beth Rude and her friends together they wipe
Tears that might ….
Might never be dried
So –
I wonder if you ever new
That sweet old lady they call Beth Rude
With her steady gaze and a cutting phrase
Did she ever gaze at you?
Was she ever rude to you?
But she’s never rude to kiddies, who
Come racing after her
And even the kids who are the wildest
With her become quieter
And the kids who are the timidest
They learn their fire from her
Beth has a fire ….
Do you ….
Do you have a fire ….?
Do you?
(This song is dedicated to the Mother of a great advocate in protecting the young. A teacher for over 30 years, she contacted, having appreciated another lyric of mine: Sathya Sai Baba – The Man Who Would Be ‘King of Kings’).
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Child Protection. Has Hindu India Forgotten the Mothering Nature of Saraswati?
United Nations Child Protection Symbol
Note: Barry Pittard’s songs are copyright protected by The Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA)
See two other related ballads by Barry Pittard:
‘Little Fly’. A Ballad of ‘Rock Spiders’ and Sexual Abuse of the Young
Sathya Sai Baba – The Man Who Would Be ‘King of Kings’
Enquiries regarding music and lyrics, Contact: barpittard@gmail.com
For a great project that uses the power of symbols in liberating children from the evils of child abuse, see:
Symbols for teaching children, via the imaginationart in liberating
http://www.triangle.org.uk/howitis
Kuan Yin
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Child Protection Rainbow
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Barry Pittard, Child Protection, Child Protection Symbols, Children's Rainbow, Children's Rights, Kuan Yin, Lyrics, pedophilia, Poetry, Rights of the Child, Safety of Children, Saraswati, Sathya Sai Baba (Sexual Abuse of Young Males), Sexual Abuse, Songwriters, Songwriting | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 29, 2011
Although Sai Baba once famously wrote a letter in which he renounced his family – as renunciates in time-honored Indian tradition do (except for those such as tantricists) – his nephew R.J. Ratnakar is at centre stage .
The Sai Trust’s R.J.Ratnakar, Renunciate Sai Baba's Nephew. Effective Sai Trust Supremo
Sathya Sai Central Trust. Here is the earlier type of presentation that Ratnakar would now clearly like the public to forget all about. It is a statement a prominent spokesman for Trustees and the Council of Management,V.Srinivasan, chairman of WS Industries, Chennai, South India, made on the same day as the Central Trust made its tediously waffling major public statement, couched verbatim, in this portion, in both cases:
“In the light of baseless, irresponsible and false accusations of defalcation of gold, valuable artefacts and even money, it is emphatically stated that the accusations are wholly untrue and it is believed these have been engineered by certain vested interests”. (Economic Times article: ‘Baba had no successor in mind: Trustees, election for Sai Trust chairman next week’, Apr 28, 2011, 09.53pm IST).
In one moment, we are told that ex Chief Justice of India P.N. Bhagwati is head of the Sai Central Trust. Next thing, we learn that Ratnakar is at the helm. In fact, many Sai devotees see him as having usurped what many viewed as his most trusted aide, Satyajit. Bhagwati himself had affirmed the value of Satyajit. Word has now come through that Bhagwati and K. Chakravarthi (longtime Trust secretary, and the father of one of my students whom I most respected when teaching at the Sathya Sai College, Whitefield via Bangalore, who later went to Oxford University), are resigning. On the other hand, we can produce evidence that K.Chakravarthi was sacked from the Indian Administrative Service for embezzlement.
K. Chakravathi, longtime Sai Trust Secretary. An Expert with a knife
Others, too, have tended resignations, as have the highly reputed Dr A.N. Safaya, along with a number of doctors and nurses. See: Head of Sai Baba Mega Dollar Hospital At Puttaparthi Resigns. Others Quitting Jobs Too
Dr A.N. Safaya. Resigns as head of Sathya Sai Hospital Puttaparthi, AP, South India
In viewing the video of the interview just done with NDTV (Indian) with Ratnakar, my reader may be interested to study his body language. He claims that there is no financial irregularity. That the Sai Central Trust is impeccable. That things are fine. In a fashion usual to his master and to certain other officials in the past, such as Indulal Shah and G. Venkataraman, he inveighs – no matter how well-evidenced are reports – against vested interests and malign campaigning against the Trust. First, former devotees were “demons” and “Judases” who would never achieve salvation in this or any other life. For comparison between then and recently, see:
Indulal Shah and Indian Government Cover Up
‘God’s’ Ex-Shah, Indulal Shah
Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist
V.P.B. Nair Told BBC Sai Baba Bedroom Killings Were “Coldblooded Murder”
Readers who are psychologists, police interrogators and so forth, may especially like to study Ratnakar’s body language – and take careful note of eye movements, gestures, facial expressions such as the smiling, etc. Those scientifically conversant with voice prints may also like to study Ratnakar’s form. Or parents who have a good street sense of when their kids are lying might also like to examine this interview.
At the same time, I do not think that all Sai Baba spokespersons will show up as dishonest. There are some relative innocents among them – but they are, often unwittingly, tools of the dark art players. But kid me not, you Sai Trust members, I have taught many of your or your associates’ children, and I know from the latters’ and my stimulating conversations that some of my students were sharply familiar with the ‘Arthaśāstra’ of Chanakya, who pre-dated his kindred spirit in renaissance Italy Machiavelli by 1800 years. It is a legacy Indian ruling class practitioners of the darker political and diplomatic arts pass on to their smarter sons (and daughters, sometimes).
Heavens! – I used to think that Sai Baba was drawing certain of his trustees and other key leaders to him so as to purify his Trust members and other core leaders, hand-picked by Sai Baba as they have long been, who have long raised deep, but often whispered concern among rank-and-file Sai devotees. But …..
There are, by the way, VERY few leaders in this heavily authoritarian cult who are permitted to speak publicly. Indeed, the complex presence of elusive and different levels of official operandi within the Sai Baba hierarchy of leadership was long ago detailed by Hari Sampath, a former member of Sai Baba’s Security and Intelligence Wing. I trust that Mr Sampath is well on the way to purification these days. See: How It Works (August 2000). It is most instructive to read this article in conjunction with Sampath’s Public Information Litigation suit which he took to the Supreme Court of India. The high-profile advocate Kamini Jaiswal took his case. Even she failed against the sheer weight of judicial corruption, which is common in India. I have written elsewhere:
“I have shown documents in this case to outstanding legal counsel in various democratic jurisdictions, and the repeated reaction was one of abhorrence for the summary manner in which the judges dealt with the case. An expression used was ‘Kangaroo Court’. Let anyone read, in part, an Indian lawyer’s notes for the case. See the article: Sai Baba protected by the Supreme Court of India.
They will get their own sense of the corruption of some judges at the epicenter of (so-called) Indian Justice.
Anyone accustomed to democratic court procedures can hardly believe, as one reads the lawyer’s notes in transcript, that judges could be so blatant. See, Record of Proceedings document of Hari Sampath’s 2001 case against Sai Baba in the Supreme Court of India. See how the case is scuppered by Judges G.B. Patnaik and R.C. Lahoti with the concurrence of then Chief Justice Dr A.S. Anand. Prompted by concern for her client if he were to proceed in and Andhra Pradesh court – the proposed remedy of the judges, Kamini Jaiswal, a senior advocate in the Indian Supreme Court, strongly contested the three judges’ direction to pursue matters in an Andhra Pradesh court”.
In brief, my current observations are: Trust players are turning to the best paid lawyers in India, who can be relied upon for use of technicalities and delay and obfuscation tactics. The Andhra Pradesh government, ostensibly chartered to investigate and report properly to parliament and public, is riddled in practically all quarters by longtime Sai Baba devotees, and still others who wheeled and dealed to their own political or pecuniary advantage.
Central trust personnel first reacted with shock, and confusion. Their communications were sometimes far too little and at other times verbose and careless in that further suspicions among devotees, the Indian media and wider public were aroused. There were panicked attempts to recover lost ground. But now there is the resumption of few but smooth highly tailored statements and carefully measured silences.
See also:
Sathya Sai Trust’s R.J.Ratnakar – Long Police Interrogation. Intensive Investigations Continue
Scan of Hari Sampath PIL to Supreme Court of India. Proof of what the Court denied record of when requested by the British Ambassador to India
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Dr A.N. Safaya (Resigned Head of Sathya Sai Hospital, Hari Sampath, India, Indian Justice System, Indian media, P.N.Bhagwati, Public Information Litigation (PIL, Puttaparthi, R.J Ratnakar, Sathya Sai Central Trust, Satyajit, South India | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on August 2, 2011
There is nothing quite like clarity.
Here is an excellent English-language Indian television report. It is good to see ordinary people who live and work in Puttaparthy being mined for their views. They have large concerns about the veracity of Sathya Sai Central Trust officials. My reader might like to look at the far more convincing body language at the interviewees in the streets of Puttaparthi, than of Sathya Sai Central Trust officials:
(For this NDTV report, click on title above or on photo below)
Puttaparthi citizens have grave trust issues about Sai Central Trust
In the archives of various movements of dissent against authoritarian cults, there is, perhaps, nothing that so frequently recurs and obscures clarity like bad old-fashioned blindness to the testimony of those who have raised their voices. Dissenters almost get used to the strong tendency to fallacious argument, or else the refusal to study any writing which remotely questions the adherents’ rigid belief system.
Until citizens suffer – very often from the involvement of their children or close friends in cults – they themselves have another sort of blindness. It is a perilous naiveté. Clearly, the time to address a threat to civil society is at that stage one may call ‘the Weimar Republic Stage’. Otherwise, in worst case scenarios a Hitler arises and holds sway. Even a little blindness can make people stumble.
Sathya Sai Baba devotees may try all they like to avert their devotion-steeped gaze from all the scandal revelations of the last weeks. First, Sai Baba died in a year very different to his widely known prediction of AD 2022. Then came official Sathya Sai websites carrying Procrustean, mangled and fallacious attempts to confuse issues about Lunar and Solar calendar dates. The ’reasoning’ was so flawed that an alert high school student in clear-thinking exercises could rebut the poor logic, and spot how Sai Baba officials conveniently depart from the usual calendar reckonings in Sai literature.
Soon, the world was treated to reports about the opening of Sai Baba’s rooms, from which he had, it is said, barred all but his paramour, Satyajit, his favoured successor. Lo, dazzling riches enough to make old King Midas or Croesus don their darkest sunglasses.
The next days brought repeated finds of vast hidden treasures. The state police and government were involved, and we saw clear public proof of false and contradictory statements by Sai Central Trust officials. This was exposed in newspapers and television for millions in India to see. There were vast millions in various currencies. Heavy loadings of gold, silver, precious gems. Out-of-date choice foods, and luxury goods mouldered away.
In regard to putrescence, I was reminded of the decaying mansion of Miss Haversham in Charles Dickens’ novel, “Great Expectations”. See: When Perfumes Reek: Lavish Scents, Shampoos etc., Among Sai Baba Secret Treasure Hoard
Sai Baba’s vast, secret treasure and rotting luxury food items hid behind external opulence
So much for Sathya Sai Baba’s and his officials historic claims that he never accumulated wealth and, moreover that “every naya paisa” is accounted for.
“For my sake (believe it or not) do not spend a naya paisa. Though 56 years have passed, I have not got even one shirt or gown stitched for Me. I am now wearing what is given by a student…” (Sathya Sai Speaks Volume XV. page 312.)
“Right from a tender age, I never received anything from others. I only give and give and give, I never receive.”
(Sanathana Sarathi October 1998, page 275)
Soon after the Yajur Mandir haul, large amounts of currency were transported, under great secrecy, with the full knowledge of the ashram’s head of security, Pradhan, from Puttaparthi in a van and a passenger bus. This lead to police arrests of the couriers – (See newpaper report below) “Harish Nandasetty, who was caught carrying Rs 35.5 lakh in a Toyota Qualis at Kodikonda checkpost on Saturday night, before Hindpur Judicial First Class Magistrate Kamalakar Naidu. He was remanded in judicial custody till June 27 and the seized cash was handed over to the court. The other two – Chandrasekhar and Sohan Setty – were also produced before the magistrate and were remanded in judicial custody”. Questioned for many hours were the Trust’s V. Srinivasan and R.J. Ratnakar (Sathya Sai Baba’s nephew). Has my reader noticed how it is the lower ranks who mostly get copped, and not the Mr Bigs?
Darkness still surrounds the issue about the money found on the bus, its original ownership and eventual destination or how such money can be moved about without accountability to any government authority, such as Inland Revenue. Or indeed any typical arrangement like an armoured security vehicle, with trained and armed security personnel. Or why such huge amounts were in cash and not in cheque form, as stated hitherto by the Trust. Commandeered Puttaparthi records themselves disproved the Trust’s story about donations by 12 donors.
No matter that the van and bus episodes came right on the heels of the discovery of many millions in currency and the gold, silver, precious gemstones and many other valuables that abounded in hiding places in Sai Baba’s private quarters, Ratnakar constantly harped, amid smiles of reassurance, on the transparency issue, when all the evidence argued an appalling lack of transparency and the biggest of messes. Ratnakar is the man who has worked to prevent Sai Baba’s favourite, Satyajit, from leadership of the Trust.
Trust public statements are now very few and ever more highly sanitized. A snippet on the heels of over five hours of police questioning Ratnakar got out in only one newspaper, as far as my internet searches could find. Other bulletins said how he gave no interview following his “grilling”. Then came news that Srinivasan gave no statement immediately after his five hours plus of police “grilling”. I search in vain for any since. At the time, I wrote:
“But how does one explain Trust workers clandestinely moving – in a van and in a bus – such vast amounts? In fact, right on the heels of the discovery of multi millions of cash, gemstones and other valuables secreted in walls and ceiling spaces and wherever else in Sai Baba’s bedroom? One may smile at the sheer gall, if not the dark arts of it all. Who are these donors? If the donations were genuine, what sort of security did they get for all their no doubt hard-earned money? An armoured vehicle? Nothing of the sort. Just the two Trust agents, the brothers Shetty, one in a Qalis van, the other, at a different time, in a passenger bus.
Where, too, has gone any semblance of the Sathya Sai Central Trust’s duty of care for the safety of life and limb of its workers on a money transportation assignment fraught with danger? This, in an area with trained eyes not only of individual criminals, criminal gangs, and private armies of feudal landlords but of ubiquitous, highly organized, armed political struggle groups such as the Naxalites (with countless splinter groups), the so-called Peoples’ War Group or PWG, etc. Many police and security authorities complain of the emasculation by Andhra Pradesh state politicians of state security and police cadres capable of action, and the pipe dream of thinking that negotiation and accommodation are going to work.
Why the earlier Trust assertions that donations are dealt with by cheque? Why such vast amounts of loose cash? Where is the accountability and transparency in all this?”
Writers on the Sathya Sai saga, like Robert Priddy, Brian Steel and myself have long exposed the tissues of lies that Sai Trust officials spin to devotees at large and to others. But what devotees were prepared to use their critical faculties in the least? Very few indeed. Against all their knowledge down the years that we were not (as Sai Baba said of us) ‘Demons’, ‘Judases’, and that we had paltry money motives, they mindlessly preferred to listen to the deceitful avowals of leaders such as Indulal Shah, Dr Michael Goldstein – see: Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips), Dr G. Venkataraman, and so on – see:Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist
From the Telegraph, Calcutta article “Open Sesame! Baba and his chamber of secrets”
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Tuesday 21 June 2011
Police today arrested Chief Security Officer (CSO) of Prashanti Nilayam, as part of their ongoing probe into the cash flow from Puttaparthi to Bangalore.
According to sources, during investigation, it was found that Pradhan, a retired Air Force official, brought Rs 35.5 lakh out of Yajurveda Mandir, Sai Baba’s personal chamber, and handed it over to Sathya Sai Central Trust members RJ Ratnakar and V Srinivasan at the Shanti Bhavan. The cash was in turn given to Chandrasekhar, driver of Srinivasan, and later, was passed on to Sohan Setty and Harish Nanda.
The trio was caught by the police on Saturday night while transporting the cash to Bangalore. Police are likely to serve notices on Ratnakar and Srinivasan in a day or two, the sources said.
Meanwhile, Prashanti Nilayam was stunned into silence following the cash seizures in the last two days and disclosure by the police that the flight of capital from Puttaparthi to Bangalore was traced to some of the Sathya Sai Trust members.
Penugonda DSP Kolar Krishna, investigating officer of the case, produced Harish Nandasetty, who was caught carrying Rs 35.5 lakh in a Toyota Qualis at Kodikonda checkpost on Saturday night, before Hindpur Judicial First Class Magistrate Kamalakar Naidu. He was remanded in judicial custody till June 27 and the seized cash was handed over to the court.
The other two – Chandrasekhar and Sohan Setty – were also produced before the magistrate and were remanded in judicial custody.
On Sunday, Sathya Sai Trust member and Sai Baba’s nephew RJ Ratnakar had contradicted the police and claimed the trust had nothing to do with the cash. He had also claimed that 12 devotees of Baba, linked to the cash seizures, would explain themselves either to the court or the police by Monday. “No one has either approached us or contacted us till now. The cash belongs to the trust,” the Penugonda DSP said.
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Further Reading
Oprah Winfrey Show On Male Sexual Abuse: Sathya Sai Baba Cult Survivors Should Watch
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 21, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 20, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 19, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 19, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 16, 2011
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 16, 2011
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, Buried Treasure, Scams, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Treasure Troves, Wealth | 2 Comments »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 29, 2011
Sagarika Gosh-Sardesai and husband Rajdeep Sardesai - major Indian broadcaster/journalists
From India, an informant writes to us:
Yesterday, the Sai Baba debate was again featured on CNN-IBN’s flagship show, Face the Nation, hosted by top TV journalist Sagarika Gosh-Sardesai. FTN is one of the most watched programs in the country. The format is a debate between invited panelists on contentious issues, with a key question posed, and the entire audience is invited to vote through text messages or emails. Several millions vote every nite and a percentage result is given.
Yesterday the question was “Is spirituality an industry?”, with the question being led by the Sathya Sai Baba issue. Although other gurus were discussed, the implication and context of the question was obvious. A couple of panelists attempted to divert issues and pose questions on why only “Hindu gurus” are targeted etc, and not Christian missionaries, but in the end all these arguments fell flat, with whopping 87% of the national audience voting “YES” to the question of the day, in what seems to be a national indictment of Sathya Sai Baba.
As a leadup to the FTN debate , CNN-IBN Editor in Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, poses some hard questions to Sathya Sai trust lawyer Naganand on the most watched News program in the country “India at 9″.
Both Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Gosh-Sardesai were quite critical of the Sathya Sai trust
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/163424/sai-trust-evading-probe.html
You can see the FTN program here …
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/163428/ftn-sathya-sai-trust-under-scanner-is-spirituality-an-industry.html
Almost all national TV channels are doing major shows on the Sai Baba matter, and now the matter is prime time material…..with an audience quite hostile to the entire Sathya Sai fracas….and I am sure the top politicians who are watching would be determined to stay a safe distance from this ugly mess, given the mood of the country on this”.
—————————————————-
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Face the Nation (High-rating Indian Television show), Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Gosh-Sardesai | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 30, 2011
Some random points:
There is glaring contradiction between statements of Srinivasan, who has admitted Trust involvement in extraordinary movements of cash, and of R.J. Ratnakar, who says that the money is actually from 12 donors. And can be explained.
But how does one explain Trust workers clandestinely moving – in a van and in a bus – such vast amounts? In fact, right on the heels of the discovery of multi millions of cash, gemstones and other valuables secreted in walls and ceiling spaces and wherever else in Sai Baba’s bedroom? One may smile at the sheer gall, if not the dark arts of it all. Who are these donors? If the donations were genuine, what sort of security did they get for all their no doubt hard-earned money? An armoured vehicle? Nothing of the sort. Just the two Trust agents, the brothers Shetty, one in a Qalis van, the other, at a different time, in a passenger bus.
Where, too, has gone any semblance of the Sathya Sai Central Trust’s duty of care for the safety of life and limb of its workers on a money transportation assignment fraught with danger? This, in an area with trained eyes not only of individual criminals, criminal gangs, and private armies of feudal landlords but of ubiquitous, highly organized, armed political struggle groups such as the Naxalites (with countless splinter groups), the so-called Peoples’ War Group or PWG, etc. Many police and security authorities complain of the emasculation by Andhra Pradesh state politicians of state security and police cadres capable of action, and the pipe dream of thinking that negotiation and accommodation are going to work.
Why the earlier Trust assertions that donations are dealt with by cheque? Why such vast amounts of loose cash? Where is the accountability and transparency in all this?
———
Can we trust a Trust that doesn’t know about vast funds being transported in the dead of night, or carted in a passenger bus in gunny sacks of cash as if it were mere chaff or ragi? When proper practice by a Trust is upheld, who will dare to hump huge fortunes around the countryside like this? Such a Trust lacks due diligence, and is incompetent. What suppose wicked chaff or ragi robbers assail the van or bus and snatch the sacks?
———-
Although Sai Baba once famously wrote a letter in which he renounced his family – as large numbers of renunciates in time-honored Indian tradition do – his nephew R.J. Ratnakar is at centre stage.
———–
Will our private sources prove correct that the powerful government Minister Chidambaram and his son are supporting Ratnakar, who is politically ambitious and wants to control the Sathya Sai Central Trust?
———–
In one moment, we are told that ex Chief Justice of India P.N. Bhagwati is head of the Sai Central Trust. Next thing, we learn that he has resigned, and that Ratnakar is at the helm. Now Bhagwati has resigned. In fact, many Sai devotees see Ratnakar as having usurped what many viewed as Sai Baba’s most trusted aide, Satyajit. Just as is the case of largely attended anti-corruption protest rallies around India, perhaps it is only the sudden upsurge – blinkers off now – questioning Sathya Sai devotees at large who stand any chance of breaking the nexus of the very worldly Trust members. As many Sai devotees know, Sai centers round the world have often been places of quiet whispers regarding the distinctive non-spirituality of many leaders Sai Baba hand-picked. Remember, dear devotees – your perturbed conversations? E.G., “It must be Baba’s test for our sadhana”. “After all, Baba knows all our past lives, and this must be a working out of our Karma”…. Others have had enough and either resign or quietly fade out of the Sai Organization. That researchers such as some journalists and academics avoid contact with those who leave a cult is professionally disgraceful to them. Worse than being overly cautious, they are not doing their job, and are cowards and lickspittles. They bow to the forces blowing along their system’s narrowest tunnels.
————
The Andhra Pradesh government, ostensibly chartered to investigate and report properly to parliament and public, is riddled in practically all quarters by longtime Sathya Sai Baba devotees, and still others who wheeled and dealed to their own political or pecuniary advantage. (Indications from my conversations with good sources in India are that already a combination of threats, bribes, calling in of favours, etc., endanger the hunt for facts by the media, devotee groups who suspect foul play among those they had formerly trusted, and other investigators.
Some media seem in a too much of a rush for hard facts, such as would stand up in a properly run court. They need to be far more proactive in approaching those with understanding and insight into Sathya Sai Organization, and other such organizations. They should realize that it is often not just hard-boiled facts they need to hunt out, but also clues. And, still more a broader interpretive framework, which can lead to understanding and insight with which to deal with the facts when, at last, they start to disclose themselves.
I doubt the Sai Central Trust or Sathya Sai Organization will be able to sue any in the media. Robert Priddy‘s, Exbaba.com’s and my personal experience is that they are all threat and no action.They are forever blaming someone else for their woes – “a handful of disgruntled former devotees”, the BBC, the Times of London, etc., etc. See:
Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist
————–
The Sai Trust is going to have to decide how much money it has to pay to the Andhra Pradesh Revenue Department. And then, if the wishes of vast numbers of rank-and-file devotees are respected – not to mention the huge national Indian upsurge of opinion about the scandal that is Puttaparthi – how much of their donated money is going to be directed to the properly intended efforts like the poor and needy, and education programs, etc.
As those of us whom Sai Baba’s officials and other devotees have threatened with litigation know too well, the Sathya Sai Organization and the Central Trust fear that if strong legal discovery processes unfold, decades of their dark dealing will perforce come out.
A cautious media is fine, but the often gutless one in India is a major threat to democracy. Indeed, one wonders whether some Indian journalists or their editors really understand or have looked at the difference between judicial levels of proof and prima facie indicators of crime. They need carefully to read the Indian Evidence Act). In the case of a PIL (Public Information Litigation), like the one Hari Sampath advanced on 8 May 2001, they should be vigilant, especially when we have gone to such lengths to let them know the circumstance in which the case was de-railed by abundantly obvious hijacking by Sai Baba-disposed judges. They should also have cognized that such a senior Indian Supreme Court advocate as Kamini Jaiswal is not going to lead her client, Sampath, by the nose and let him embark on a court action likely to frivolous, vexatious, and perilous. However, the Judges assigned to hear the case were of the worst kind.
Kamini Jaiswal, Supreme Court senior advocate
My distinguished legal friends from a number of countries, including the Commonwealth of which India is a member, have all seen this. I don’t believe Indian journalists don’t see this. Rather, they jump to the nervous reflexes of their editors and publishers. Therefore, they are to be held accountable for their professional dereliction. See documentation and further links: Sathya Sai Trust In Vast Treasure Scandals: Secret Temple, Van, and Bus Stashes
Indian Media and Governments Heedless of Decade of Foreign Media and Sai Baba Critics’ Revelations
As I have said elsewhere, the Indian media, except India Today, was sorely derelict in failing to heed our evidence both in regard to the large-scale serial sexual abuses, and to the financial criminality and corruption which Hari Sampath was among the first to reveal publicly.
- Sathya Sai Baba Disposed Indian Supreme Court Judges
———–
Sai Baba’s ‘treasure island’ newsblitz was soon eclipsed by news of great but far less cash being spirited out of the ashram by van and by bus. Trust spokesmen now reassure the media that all is well, and say the media has distorted matters. But many rank-and-file devotees are not reassured, and one reads that some are consulting their own lawyers. I predict Sai Central Trust lawyers will use delaying tactics, allowing Ratnakar and others, publicly, to bluff their way through, as though the blatant dereliction of spiritual principles and purposes had never occurred.
———–
I predict that, IF the Andhra Pradesh government properly probes the circumstances of Sathya Sai Baba’s death, and the circumstances of his well-reputed hospital director A.N. Dr Safaya’s resignation, and of numbers of his other medical and nursing staff at the Sai hospital, will show that individuals round Sai Baba earlier to his hospitalization, have either been negligent or criminal. Did any earlier aide withhold vital medications? Did the medical team fill with alarm to discover prior shortfalls of proper attention? Did any Trust member of associate refuse salient details about medical treatment prior to this time? Did any Trust or any other figure attempt to direct when Sai Baba’s life support system should be turned off, and at a later date than what would be reasonably be deemed proper?
————–
India has a long tradition of genuine, humble saints. Not one of them would have conceived of corporatized or industrialized spirituality. Many Indians, broadly, are joining large rallies against government and corporate corruption. Humble saints are not all that newsworthy.
————
Who except Sai Baba devotees will turn a blind eye to all the late Sai Baba’s parading about in the Hillview Stadium imperially mounted on a huge gold throne, his flashy self-glorifying buildings like his opulent twin palaces and his so-called ‘Spiritual Museum’, and much other extreme pomp and circumstance?
Unfortunately mostly forgotten are the powerful suppression by successive governments of facts about the police executions in his bedroom in 1993, and evidence from many countries of his wide-scale serial sexual molestation of boys and young men, and many other forms of reliably reported abuse, such as apartments scams involving the Puttaparthi front office …..
With the notable exception of India Today (December 4 2000) the Indian media has, in past decades, suppressed reports inimical to Sathya Sai Baba, and has long ignored major investigations by reputed media such as the BBC. NRI’s (Non Resident Indians) get to read what the Indian press has, in craven or incompetent fashion, blatantly ignored.
The countless victims still profoundly hurt, but who will hear their voice? Those who question, no matter how respectfully, are cast out from the international Sathya Sai Organisation.
Barry Pittard, Australia. Former lecturer in English at Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore (1978-79)
—————————————————–
General
Excerpt From Public Petition (and introduction)
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Andhra Pradesh, India, Indian Politics, Naxalites, Puttaparthi, Spirituality, Super Speciality Hospital at Puttaparthi | 1 Comment »
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 3, 2011
Police and other district officials had earlier voiced suspicions of still more undeclared secret stashes of wealth in Sathya Sai Baba’s private quarters. By Saturday, their suspicions proved correct. The Andhra Pradesh authorities now ask: Why was this additional treasure not included in the inventory Sai Trust officials made at the Yajur Mandir several days back? Why did they not search with the same scrutiny as now shown by the Anantapur joint collector and her team of officials.
One of my Indian sources, in a senior role, informs that there may be secret cement tunnels, and that an exhaustive search may be in the offing. There are also reports of clandestine movements of valuables well before the current revelations, including at a time shortly prior to Sathya Sai Baba’s death on 24 April 2004. If these tunnels are found, much will depend on the determination of the Andhra Pradesh government to get down on its hands and knees – not in guru prostration like the Sathya Sai Central Trust members, but in having a proper look, leaving no gemstone unturned. Or unaccounted for!
