Sathya Sai Baba – A Fake Avatar’s Fake Materializations

Increasingly, the Sathya Sai Organization leaders struggle to promote their guru. Their impossible task is to keep from the public – or, at desperate best, from their own members – the embarrassing history of his demonstrably untrue statements. For example, he has said that no one is required to promote himself or his work. On his forty-third birthday he proclaimed, “Avatars need no advertisement.

In their recruiting efforts, Sai Baba’s officials show costly Sai Baba propaganda films. No doubt they wish to attract a high-paying class of new clientele. The billions (this is no exaggeration) that are sent from around the world to the Sathya Sai Central Trust in India need to be kept flowing!  They hire very expensive venues such as the Copley International Conference Center, a Hilton Ballroom, the Cooper Union, La Mirada Theatre, Sydney Superdome, Melbourne Town Hall, etc …., mounting tightly-controlled presentations, as would befit any cult. They withhold from the public the fact that they regard Sathya Sai Baba as God fully incarnate – the ‘Avatar’ of all the ages, as he claims, who has come to save the entire world before his self-prophesied death in AD 2022.

Nor do the leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization reveal that some of his flashy ‘miracles’ have been exposed as fakes – Click here to see BBC video footage

Neither do they acknowledge that some of his supposedly miraculously manifested jewellery have been assayed and shown to be clever fakes.  See HERE

Former head of the Norwegian Sathya Sai Baba Organization Robert Priddy writes:

On 31/10/2002, my wife Reidun and I returned from three days in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the ‘green diamond’ Sathya Sai Baba gave me in 1986 (shown above) was examined by Mr. Peter Hertz, the Danish Queen Margarethe’s jeweller, a top Scandinavian expert on precious stones and diamonds. All was filmed in detail by Øjvind Kyrø’s team for Danish TV. The result of the investigation, which took two days, is that the stone is a synthetic green sapphire.Value only about $40 today in super-expensive Denmark. Its value in India today could therefore probably be around $10.

Characteristically, Sai Baba’s devotees scorn the slightest testimony delivered against him. They shun and defame those who have spoken out who for years they have known to be truthful and caring individuals, some of whom were high-ranking leaders in the Sathya Sai Organization. An honest thing to do would be to have their own supposedly Sai Baba materialized rings and pendants assayed by a third party expert. If they are not prepared to submit to this form of testing, then by what right do they disparage and ridicule those who have done so?

Except in the case of those productions which have - shrewdly – been given as genuinely costly gifts by Sai Baba (although still ‘manifested’ by sleight-of-hand), the recipients would be bound to be shocked at the all too objective result. But then real truth (Sanskrit, ’sathya’) requires a conscience brighter than any diamond, real or fake, and a courage that does not fall into bits of tinsel and trash when opened up.

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Further Reading

Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment
Demonization of Dissenters:
Evidence of an Internet Activist in Action
See On Disinformation and Internet Vandalism
Bias against Sai critics – article by author Kevin R.D. Shepherd

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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

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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Sathya Sai Baba and Sexual “Grooming” of Boys and Young Men

Shortly before Christmas 1997, a highly capable and lovely person,with whom I worked among orphans at Puttaparthi,  Maria Quoos, a Polish film and stage actress and businesswoman, came anxiously to me .  She is now leader of the Polish Sathya Sai Organization.

Ms Quoos brought a married Polish man in his mid twenties to meet me in my old friend Walia’s restaurant (the owner was Sathya Sai Baba’s former head gardener). The Polish man, a member of the group of which she led, was distressed and confused and Ms Quoos wanted me to help. He told us that in their recent interview with him, Sai Baba had covertly grasped his penis.

I responded in a way that I now know to be very typical of believers who are confronted with anything that might question a charismatic leader. I fortified him with inspirational stories intended to convince him that there must be a spiritual reason for this act. 

One of these concerned a young Indian Malaysian who, in about 1980, had asked me to wait until he emerged from the interview to which he alone, in a rare example of a solitary interview, had just been called by Sathya Sai Baba and at an hour well past the morning darshan time when people are normally called for interview.  He had already told me of his concern that he was irresistible to many women, and that he certainly did not resist them.  On his exit, some three quarters of an hour later, he told me that Sai Baba took him, alone, into the inner interview room, got him to drop his pants, materialised (so it seemed)  sacred ash (vibhuthi) and applied it to the man’s penis. 

As many Sai devotees have done, I took this to be a healing – ‘calming the raging hormones’, as it were. It is a very typical response by Sathya Sai Baba devotees when the are convinced of the truthfulness of accounts of they way in which Sathya Sai Baba’s sometimes handles the genitals of young males. 

However, overwhelming numbers of accounts from many countries suggest that Sai Baba has, down many decades, practised ‘grooming’. This practice has been defined (although the practice extends far beyond the child example referred to in this quote) as: “The process of manipulation often utilized by child molesters, intended to reduce a victim’s or potential victim’s resistance to sexual abuse.  Typical grooming activities include gaining the child victim’s trust or gradually escalating boundary violations of the child’s body in order to desensitize the victim to further abuse.” (Center for Sex Offender Management, A project of the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, June 1999).

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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

  ————————————————————

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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Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

‘Spiritual’ Politicking Sathya Sai Baba Style. An India-UK Nexus

After our urgent, coordinated actions, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie were – indeed within minutes – prevented from visiting Sai Baba  at Whitefield near Bangalore. They were about ten minute’s drive away from his ashram when, heeding our representations, British High Commission officials were able to dissuade Blair and his wife from visiting Sathya Sai Baba.

Tony Blair and Sathya Sai Baba: The Meeting That Was Averted With Minutes To Spare

A photo call, with results expected to be flashed round the world, was thus averted. The Blair visit to Bangalore occurred at an historic watershed period for the Sathya Sai Baba movement.  He and his global sect was under tremendous scrutiny – very difficult for a group whose top officials act with considerable secrecy and suppression.

In the British House of Commons, questions about Sathya Sai Baba were raised  (November 2000).  This was maintained in early 2002:

‘Sai Baba and sexual abuse of children’ no. 886
That this House, mindful of the many accounts and witness statements of the sexual abuse of the male children of devotees by the Indian guru, Sai Baba, calls upon the Foreign Secretary to use the Travel Advice for India page of the Foreign Office Website to issue guidance to British families intending to visit the Ashram of Sai Baba about the possible danger to their male children of individual audiences with the guru.
Source: UK Parliament, 26.02.02 House of Commons

Major, researched stories appeared in India Today (October 2000), Daily Telegraph (December 2000), and Times of London (August 2001).

Internal crises erupted within the Sathya Sai Organization. In Sathya Sai centers in various parts of the world, members discovered among their own local memberships terrible evidence from respected, longtime members that all was far from well. Some centers disbanded altogether. Increasing attention focused on many accounts of Sai Baba’s sexual abuses of boys and young men, implication in the ashram, local, state and central government cover up of killings in his bedroom, and other monumental spiritual betrayals. Many of its members left the Sathya Sai Organisation, including some of its most respected leaders. See:

Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba

‘BILD’ Story. “Guru Wants Sex” (Sathya Sai Baba)

Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion (Terry Gallagher case – Gallagher investigated extensively, and 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

Letter from Stephen Carthew (the case of Stephen Carthew, a South Australian leader, who likewise advocated democratic norms of discussion), and was axed by the now retired head of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization, Sri T.Ramananathan)

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

Story of My Disqualification (Serguei Badaev case. Badaev, Russia’s most outstanding SS Org. leader was insufferably shoved by Sathya Sai Baba’s top axemen. Why? He wanted open and properly convened canons of enquiry)

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)

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

‘Spiritual’ Politicking Sathya Sai Style

There was a concerted plan to bring Sathya Sai Baba to the attention of the world. From various sources we were able to piece together information about some of the survival strategies of Sathya Sai Baba and his core, high-level servitors. for example, we learnt that his top leaders in India and the UK, along with the Indian and British governments (most notably the Foreign and Commonwealth Office), planned as follows:

• To ensure a meeting between Hon. Tony Blair MP and Sathya Sai Baba during the British Prime Minister’s Bangalore visit in the first week of January 2002
• To ensure that a bevy of Indian and UK journalists asked him and his wife questions about his experiences of Sathya Sai Baba
• To get the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a publicly professed devotee of Sai Baba, to speak to Blair personally about Sai Baba, which he did at Chequers on November 12, 2001 when he visited the UK.
• To obtain Vajpayee’s signature to a pre-written letter vociferously defending Sai Baba, co-signed by then Chief Justice of India, P.N. Bhagawati, former Chief Justice Ranganath Mishra, at that time Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission of India, and Dr Najma Heptulla, former President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Council, former Speaker Lok Sabha, and Union Minister. See:

Open 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, via Banglalore, Karnataka

• To publicise this letter, for example on the UK Sathya Sai Organisation’s website (it was later taken off)
• To get Tony Blair, via direct personal pressure from former Indian Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, to curb British parliamentary efforts critical of Sathya Sai Baba.

Further Resources

Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment
Demonization of Dissenters:
Evidence of an Internet Activist in Action
See On Disinformation and Internet Vandalism
Bias against Sai critics – article by author Kevin R.D. Shepherd

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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

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)

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.

The Moscow centre wrote a letter (see below) to Indulal Shah (then head of the Sathya Sai Baba Organization) and 7th World Conference seeking an explanation from their teacher for the spiritual meaning of the up-rush of criticism on the Internet about him and his mission.

In various parts of the so-called ‘Sai Kingdom’, there had been some earlier alarums and excursions. For but three examples of confronting issues, which, however, were contained by Sathya Sai Baba’s bans on discussion and other actions of profound cover up, See:

New Zealand Lawyer Exposes Official Cover Up of Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom

and references to the principled resignation of a probing Terry Gallagher (an agricultural scientist and businessman), the first leader of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization, in the article:

Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion

and:

Dr. Dale Beyerstein’s study of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims and ‘miracles’

However, there was the enormous growth of the Internet. Starting in great earnest circa 2000, amid allegations coming from a number of countries of Sathya Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men (not to mention other gravely crime-related allegations), there was significant leave-taking and much consternation in Sai centers round the world. Some believed that an airing of concerns was needed, and that, irrespective of findings or views, clampdown invited great risk to the integrity of the organization, as well as to matters of individual integrity and fearlessness to raise the issues no matter how fraught.

Issues about transparency and accountability in the organization arose in acute form. The presence of a highly authoritarian organization was perceived not only by those in active dissent from it but by investigative third parties, such as some of the world’s leading investigative media, UNESCO, scholars and, not least, families, friends and colleagues of those who were involved with Sathya Sai Baba. See:

The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory

Indulal Shah and Indian Government Cover Up

Sathya Sai Organisation – Further Subterfuge and Misinformation, by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard

Badaev has written about the evils of Soviet secretiveness and suppression in past decades. But here were he and his peers finding that these oppressions now visited from a source that they had thought to be all Light and Love.

The letter drew silence, except that Badaev was dismissed as President of the Moscow Centre.

The then head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia, T.Sri Ramanathan, meted out remarkably similar treatment to Stephen Carthew, spiritual coordinator of that organization in South Australia. He too had called for a democratic and properly chaired forum for the airing of members’ concerns. He too was summarily dismissed. See: Caught In One Of History’s Most Powerful Cults (5)

Serguei Badaev is an incisive writer with a professional background. His writings critical of the Sai sect – no less than those of others who have raised critical questions – receive no answer from Sathya Sai Baba and his officials. Nor do the latter explain how those with years of loving, sacrificial  and dedicated service to the Sathya Sai Baba organization (what to speak in their own professions and wider communities) should, supposedly and practically overnight, become demons, naysayers, and defamers.

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Story of my disqualification

From: Serguei Badaev (Russia)

Date: 12-21-01

Date of disqualification: April 2001

Source: http://www.exbaba.com at this page HERE

It started about 2 years ago when we (I mean Russian devotees) were informed that David Baily left the Organisation and disseminated dirty rumours about Sai Baba. It was a sort of a shock because D.Bailey had visited Russia several times (with Faye) and had given talks and appeared to be a dedicated devotee. We were not told about the reasons so we were puzzled very much. The situation was similar with Conny Larsson. Then again with Dr.Bhatia. It was like a mysterious virus which struck people and converted them against Swami.

Then we learnt that some information can be found on the Internet. After some web sites with negative information were located, we looked them through and realised that the accusations were serious enough not to be ignored. We decided to discuss them during the special meeting of the active members in the Moscow Sai centre. I sent to Steen Piculell (central coordinator for region 16) 2 questions about false materialisations and homosexual activities. Both questions were formulated like this: do you know (or believe) that the information about … is a fake or they do exist and have some special spiritual meaning? Steen Piculell did not answer. He forwarded it to T.Meyer (Chairman for the zone 4), who replied not to me but to the Moscow Sai centre. He told us that we were not allowed to arrange such a sort of meeting and that if Serguei Badaev could ask such questions that meant he did not have enough faith to be an office bearer in the Organisation.

The Moscow centre wrote a letter to I.Shah and 7th World Conference with the appeal to acknowledge these facts and ask Bhagavan for their spiritual explanation. The letter was passed to our National Coordinator who went to 7thWC and he passed it to S. Piculell and T.Meyer. As far as I understand it never went further. In the beginning of January the National Coordinator phoned me and announced about my disqualification as a deputy of the National Coordinator and National SSEHV Coordinator. He told it was a sort of recommendation of T.Meyer. When I asked about the reason the answer was – “lack of faith in Bhagavan Baba and His teaching”.

That time my tenure as a President of the Moscow Sai centre after 4 years was finishing, but the active members meeting decided to postpone the change of the President in regard to this situation. When the National Coordinator learnt about it he disqualified me as a President of the centre. The Moscow centre wrote a letter to the National Coordinator asking him to come to the Moscow centre to have a meeting with the active members. He failed. I wrote a letter to all the Central Council members with the appeal not to accept this decision until collective settlement would be reached.

Soon after that the meeting of the Central Council of Russian speaking countries was held. S.Piculell and T.Meyer came there. I was not invited. But I went as an observer as well as a delegation of the office bearers and active members from Moscow, about a dozen people altogether. During the meeting of the Central Council people from Moscow were not given a word. After all the previous decision was confirmed and imposed on the CC members who were keeping absolute silence. So that is the story in brief.

According to the Charter the reason for disqualification is deliberate violation of 9 Points of Code of Conduct. That was not the case. But during the CC meeting T.Meyer clearly formulated that a National Coordinator has the right to disqualify any office bearer under his supervision without assigning any reasons. I have never seen or heard about such regulations in the Organisation.

Soon after this CC meeting National Youth Coordiantor, Maria Ponomareva-Stepnaya, resigned.

Serguei Badaev

March 2001

P.S. In April 2001 I left the Sai Organisation.

A Small Selection of Sergei Badaev’s Writings

• SAI BABA’S CLAIMS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY Documented texts of Sathya Sai Baba on Jesus and the Christian religion analysed.
• DISCREPANCIES IN SAI BABA’S PUBLISHED WORDS Documented texts
• SATHYA SAI UNIVERSITY PROMOTION NOT WHAT IT SEEMS (if unavailable, see here)
• RUSSIAN SATHYA SAI BABA FORUM – APPEAL AND REPLY
• TO SEE WITH OPEN EYES – NOT WITH ROSE-COLOURED GLASSES
• THE TWO CHARTERS (OF THE SATHYA SAI ORGANIZATION)
• IF AND HOW THE SATHYA SAI ORG. IS A ‘DIVINE TOOL’
• CAN WE TRUST THE CENTRAL TRUST?
• THE CHILD’S DIGNITY AND INDIAN EDUCATION
• SAI BABA AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIA
• WHY DOES THE PROTECTOR OF THE WORLD NEED SECURITY?
• SAI BABA CANNOT MONOPOLISE SELFLESS SERVICE

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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)

Links Critical of Sathya Sai Baba: India’s Most Famous Living Guru

• http://www.exbaba.com/ Extensive website – testimonies, articles, videos

• Ongoing Investigations into Claims and Realities Surrounding Sathya Sai Baba - a thoroughly documented scholarly website by Brian Steel.

• Sai Baba Exposé Hidden facts about Sai Baba and his Worldwide Cult.

• Sai Baba Exposed Indian religionist examines the guru’s claims, also from a Hindu scriptural viewpoint.

• Call for Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

• Sathya Sai Baba (and Wikipedia) – website of author Kevin R.D. Shepherd

• Sathya Sai Baba – The Truth

• Anti-Sai Baba Deceptions? M. Alan Kazlev, investigates allegations against the exposé

• Italian ExBaba exposé website http://www.exbaba.it

• Scandinavian Sai Baba exposé websites Swedish) Danish, & Norwegian (Norsk)

• Professor Dr. Dale Beyerstein’s study of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims and ‘miracles’

• Belief and Sathya Sai Baba: Avatar or Imposter-Trickster? Useful page with links to relevant websites (but some no longer extant)

• The Rick Ross Sathya Sai Baba pages

• Breaking the spell of religious/’spiritual’ superstitions

• Website informing about sects, including the Sathya Sai Baba cult

• FRENCH WEB LOG Marc-André

• Sai Baba Exposed | International Humanist and Ethical Union

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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:

• The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision
• BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ and British Press Praise Sathya Sai
• Probed On Male Sex Abuse, Sai Baba Evicts BBC TV Team
• Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)
• Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)
• Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)
• BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle
• Sai Baba No Shiva. Gold From His Gut Is Regurgitator’s Trick
• BBC and Other Film Footage Shows India’s Top Guru Sathya Sai Baba Faking Miracles
• Sleight Of Hand. The Sleightness of Sathya Sai Baba (Exposing film clips)

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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)

Inner Ignoring of ‘Warning Flags’ Prior To Dissent From A Sect

There is an ignoring, while one is still a member of a questionable group, of what apostates, looking back on their process, have called ‘warning flags’. The rationalising and psychological denial factors loom, but not so large as to cause deeper questioning and leave-taking. These are phenomena widely encountered in the reports of dissenters from sects. I have written of this aspect in an article, where I wrote:

“Since leaving Sathya Sai Baba in October 1999, I have counted around 10 major ‘flags’ that I myself ignored. The realization of most of these resistances only occurred over time. Coming out of the spell’s grip is a painful, arduous process”.  See:

A Cult’s Powerful Grip. (Sathya Sai Baba Sect Example)

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 29, 2009

I also noted:

“Nowhere has the Sathya Sai Organization been able to answer the many facts and arguments advanced by writers such as Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, Serguei Badaev (go to Brian Steel’s home page and insert:  Serguei Badaev), Timothy Conway Ph.D., Barry Pittard, and those many former Sathya Sai Baba devotees who have attempted to raise the matters with top leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization. I include, too, the writings of the independent British scholar Kevin Shepherd, who has never had affiliation with Sathya Sai Baba, but likewise (along, even more miserably, with his mother) who, typically, has been attacked as soon as he raised serious issues”.

Further Reading

The International Sathya Sai Organization – an accessory to a massive libel and disinformation campaign

Open letter to the Prasanthi Council – c/o Dr. M. Goldstein, Dr. G. Venkataraman and its other members.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Signed by the following former Sathya Sai Organization leaders and members:

Serguei Badaev, Russia 1995-2001 Ex-President of Sai Org. Moscow Centre and Deputy National Chairman for Russia.
Timothy Conway, USA. Follower for 22 years; President of the Sathya Sai Baba Center of San Francisco from 1982-4.
Dennis J. Hanisch, USA. Follower for 27 years. Founder member and Vice-President, Seattle Center.
David. J. Lyons, USA. Follower from 1981 to 2000. Ex-President of the Center of Greater New Orleans.
Barry Pittard, Australia. 1976-1999. Former English Lecturer, Sathya Sai College, Whitefield.
Robert Priddy, Norway. 1983-2002. Founder member/Ex-Chairman of Oslo Center & Coordinator for Norway 1986-1996.
Reidun Priddy, Norway. 1983-2000. Founder member and Seva Wing Coordinator 1986-1998
Al Rahm,  Office-bearing member of the SSO for decades. Regional Devotional Coordinator and founder of first Education in Human Values school in the U.S.
Barbara Shocket, USA Follower: 1980-1990.
Dhyani Jo Sinclair, Canada Member and Sai Centre Secretary, 1995-2000.

See Also

Towards Public Accountability and Due Investigation: A Formal Open Appeal To ‘The Prashanthi Council’

This peak body did not acknowledge this letter either, which was sent two years before the above. The closed nature of the Sathya Sai sect was yet again evident, since it ignores many who for decades were honoured and respected leaders and rank-and-file members. This reveals further the Sathya Sai Organization’s extraordinary public lack of accountability and transparency. Many officials of various organs around the world have encountered the closed nature of the Sai sect, for example, UNESCO. The same is true of reputed media sources such as the BBC, Times of London, Daily Telegraph, The  Guardian, and major media in many countries.

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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)

Reputed Media and Other Agencies Decried By Sathya Sai Baba’s Defenders

Those who defend Sathya Sai Baba and his global cult would tirelessly denigrate and defame all who seriously question him and his Sathya Sai Organization. Quite apart from former followers and other critics, their targets include leading journalists and broadcasters of repute who have investigated Sathya Sai Baba and his sect. This fact alone suggests the cultic mind at work.

Being one of those centrally involved in approaches to Interpol, governments, media, UNESCO, and other agencies in attempting to bring third party scrutiny to the Sathya Sai Baba and his core accomplices, I have repeatedly seen how demanding journalists and officials of these professional organizations are. Media include the BBC, DR, CBC, ABC, SBS, India Today, Times of London, Telegraph, the Guardian, the Age, Gatopado, West Australian, (Adelaide) Advertiser, and newspapers in Europe, Canada and and still others.

Networked former devotees from various countries have strongly stood for transparency and accountability – our own as well as that of the Sathya Sai Organization. This organization of ‘the secret swami’ has repeatedly been seen by the agencies mentioned above to eschew the requirements expected in any genuine democracy.

Further Reading

The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory

BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

The Genesis of the BBC’s The Secret Swami (Sai Baba)

The BBC’s The Secret Swami – A Revision

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(Note: Or 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)

David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses

In 1999, the extensive document ‘The Findings‘ by David and Faye Bailey appeared. This document caused enormous damage to Sathya Sai Baba’s credibility and that of his worldwide Sathya Sai Organization.

 

David Bailey, former unusually close follower of India's most famous guru, along with his wife, Faye, spoke out courageously in exposing Sathya Sai Baba. Their principled stance caused much suffering and sacrifice to themselves

Here was the case where persons previously very close indeed to Sathya Sai Baba spoke out, and in no uncertain terms. Faye had been a noted leader in the Australian Sathya Sai Organization well before the guru, much to the astonishment of them both, chose them to be husband and wife, and presided over their wedding.

The British journalist and author Mick Brown in his widely-researched article (including traveling to the USA) ‘Divine Downfall’ in one of Britain’s foremost daily newspapers, The Telegraph, 27 October 2000, wrote:

“In recent months, an extraordinary storm of allegations have appeared – spurred by a document called The Findings, compiled by an English former devotee named David Bailey – which threaten to shake the very foundations of Sai Baba’s holy empire. Sai Baba may represent an ancient tradition of belief, but the instrument of accusation against him is an altogether modern one. Originally published in document form, The Findings quickly found its way on to the internet, where it has become the catalyst for a raging cyberspace debate about whether Sai Baba is truly divine or, as one disenchanted former devotee describes him, ‘a dangerous paedophile’.

It is one of the many imponderables of this story that the charges against Sai Baba should have begun with a rotund and jocular concert pianist from Llandudno.

David Bailey became a devotee of Sai Baba in 1994, at the age of 40, drawn by an interest in the guru’s reputation as a spiritual healer. ‘I couldn’t see him as a God,’ says Bailey, ‘but I did think, this could be a great holy man who has certain gifts.’

An extrovert man, Bailey quickly became a ubiquitous and popular figure among devotees. He travelled all over the world, speaking and performing at meetings and would visit the ashram in India three or four times a year, often performing during darshan and teaching music to students at the Sathya Sai Baba College. Over the course of four years Bailey claims to have had more than 100 interviews with Baba. At Baba’s instigation, Bailey married a fellow devotee, and together they edited a magazine to propagate Sai Baba’s teachings. But the closer he came to Sai Baba, Bailey told me, the more his doubts multiplied”.

In their speaking out about the untold corruption they and others had uncovered, and the consequent great shock and sense of spiritual betrayal, the unique role in the organization of the Baileys stood in marked contrast to the situation in which increasing numbers of individuals and/or  their families began to relate their harrowing accounts.

In 2000, after we had communicated via email, David phoned me and we spoke for about an hour. Both of us had taught within Sathya Sai Baba’s education establishment, he in Music and I in English, although at different periods.

Like Thomas Wiehe (see below), I preferred to allow David to do most of the talking. As I was to find repeatedly in my contacts with former leading and rank-and-file members of the Sathya Sai Organization, who came from many countries, there was a palpable sense – especially in the phone contacts – of an urgency somehow, against formidable odds, to put matters as right as they might ever be put.

Faye Bailey had a son from a former marriage, who reported to Faye her husband that Sai Baba had repeatedly, alone in an inner room, kissed him on his cheeks and the corners of his mouth, and also sexually touched him. The account further details that, once the young man refused to acquiesce, Sai Baba, in the presence of Faye and the young man at succeeding interviews, called him “Mad dog! Hard hearted!”.

I spoke, face-to-face and at some length, with one who has for many years been exceptionally close to Faye Bailey’s son, who compellingly shared saddening disclosures with me. Hearing such deeply disturbing accounts has been the lot of many former devotees around the world, who have made their own investigations, particularly in their own localities where individuals. In my investigations, and those of others, one was struck by stark fact:   a great many of those giving the accounts had never met each other.  Details were highly cross-confirmed.

Worldwide, former devotees are ready to testify to reputed media, law courts, police and other bona fide investigators. This readiness to be accountable is precisely what the Sathya Sai Organization has so singularly failed to be.

Below, see the Transcript of David Bailey’s conversation with Thomas Wiehe circa 1999 when the allegations were surfacing at an enormous rate, much owing to principled stands by prominent figures such as the Baileys and the former head of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization, Terry Gallagher . See:

Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion

See also:

New Zealand Lawyer Exposes Official Cover Up of Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom

To hear this phone conversation in mp3, Click Part One. Part Two

Thomas Wiehe of Sweden initiated the phone call to David Bailey in the UK. Wiehe had been leading meditation groups for the Sathya Sai Organization in Sweden. He was now in a dilemma whether to proceed further. In regard to B. Premanand, see the article: Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach

Posted by Barry Pittard on October 6, 2009

David Bailey: Premanand was very close to Swami before Terry Gallagher. Terry Gallagher was an Australian who spent five, six, seven years – and a (whole) day – with Swami. He was closer than I was with Swami. Then when he left, through having found out the truth of what is going on, I somehow became so close to Swami that for three years I was blind to what was going on… because I had been told what everybody else had been told. And then after our marriage we became even closer and became part of what it termed the inner circle. And when we saw for ourselves what was going on and realised what other people who had been close also had experienced and why they had left, then when we did our world tour last year, it was disastrous … with so many things that we found. We went back at Christmas to discover that everything that we had found was totally true; as soon as we got back to England, we had the fraud squad from Scotland Yard, the British Government’s Foreign Office and the Charity Commissioners waiting for us with major investigations, with proven fraud in some cases  

Thomas Wiehe: What is that?  

David Bailey: Fraud is mishandling of money – and the other thing which we had discovered was this homosexual activity. You know, to start off with we believed (it) was only Swami – shall we say – raising the kundalini within the student. This is what we were told, but then when we realised that it was not… and it was definitely not just Swami – well I have to be open and honest – playing with the students… but asking the student to actually make sexual acts on Swami, including oral sex. It was just ridiculous. And then the students at the college turned to me for help, because this has been going on for years, it is why the assassination attempts occurred… because the students were absolutely sick of him making them do things they didn’t want to do. I am grown up in my attitudes and realistic to realise that around the world many things happen between consenting adults, but when you are in a position of power as headmaster or teacher or guru or whatever you like… to make your students do things they do not wish to do is not acceptable, and also in England – and I believe it is true in Sweden – it is illegal. And if Swami were in England he would be put in prison for twenty years.. .Now that is my problem because at one of England’s top preparatory schools for children from five to thirteen years old, the Royal family sent their children to this school… and I was suddenly made redundant. I lost my job and they asked me to continue with my job part-time only to teach in the classroom – no work in the evenings… even we had performed one musical and they said you may not attend the rehearsals, you can only attend the performance  

Thomas Wiehe: This questions your connections with Baba?

David Bailey: This I did not understand… T

homas Wiehe: But now you…?

David Bailey: But now I do. Because he is listed as a pedophile and around the world, I was seen – with Faye – to be going round speaking for Swami. From the police, from the authorities from many countries… they saw David and Faye – and other people too – going to speak for Swami. As a result families would go out to Swami… sons, the young men would be sexually approached and come back, there is even one person in England who has committed suicide and we have stopped another one, we pray, from doing so. But we were seen as agents… that we would be very charming, very nice, persuade people to go – because of my involvement with the college boys so closely they thought that I was just a provider of his sex toys. That has now ruined my career in England because I now have a record of being connected with him. Then of course there is the money side of things – as we spoke, people of course wanted to give money. When they investigated the truth of the hospital, the truth of the water project, the truth of where the money goes – and I have personally investigated first hand – that the water project is not finished, there are many villages without water – not even connected. The hospital is very badly run and it is just not what we are told at all. Now people do not want to hear this, but this is the truth. This is why Faye and I have moved away. He knows that he will be caught out. The rings are all bought from Hyderabad and locally in the village, the vibuthi he carries between his fingers in tablets… I’ve seen it, he dropped a tablet in front of me. It is all an illusion, it is all a hoax, it is all one big trick, and so many of us innocent people have been hoodwinked. Faye and I, with our books, we have removed them from sale wherever we can, because we cannot allow anybody else to go and get involved because of us. We also respect that many people do good, but it is now time in my view for people to do good because of good, not because of his name. It is a terrible situation – Magnus [editor's note: Magnus Vrethammar, former leader of national Sathya Sai education and a Sathya Sai Centre in Sweden] was in tears yesterday. When I started to find this out eighteen months ago I had nobody to share this with and I certainly cried myself to sleep for several weeks. When I spoke to the very close people – I have some very good friends there who know exactly what’s going on – when you get to the inner circle it is a business, that’s all they’re interested in really, but people like Phyllis Krystal, people like Mike Hollander, who have been there for many years, they just turn round and they say ‘If you consider he is God, he can do anything. He can have fraud, sex, drugs… anything. If you do not consider he is God, then of course you have a problem, because of the laws of your land, your morality, your own upbringing and your own standards. And they say this is your problem to sort out, you must decide that he is God. I said this is crazy, the one that creates this beautiful world that we live in, does not come to this earth and do these ridiculous things. There is NO record in Prashanthi of him doing any healing at all. Any healing that has happened within people has been an internal personal thing, but there are very, very few serious records of this anyway. The problem with the incidents that have been reported before is that either the young men have been so threatened that they have said ‘I’m sorry, I made a mistake’

Thomas Wiehe: Who has threatened them?

David Bailey: Indulal Shah, for example, the organisation, the coordinators. The pressure from people who have been ‘besotted’, people who are so sincere devotees of Sai Baba? They will not accept that he could do anything like this, and they have pressurised the young men to say ‘Oh I’m sorry… I made this up.’ There is a video which Magnus has got which has been done a year ago that has just been broadcast two weeks ago on Irish television, done by a television company from Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Ireland, who have got together because they are so horrified with what’s going on that they have produced this documentary for about nearly one hour – not being unkind but just to say these are the facts this is what you will find, and it has been very, very well put together and what is on that video I have firsthand experience of, and it is true. It’s very sad, but we have to be serious detectives. Wanting the truth. I think the first thing that made me question was when there was a question of going there and because I have played for the Royal family several times I know that what happened with the detectives that go – you know – to check everything out first. And Prince Charles had written to me about the possibility of going one day and I suddenly thought:  what questions will they ask me, what answers can I give them. And I suddenly realised that I was living in a dream world, not in the real world. That’s when I started to want the real answers, like, what actually happens at the hospital. Not just ‘Oh, this is a beautiful hospital. What happens! How many operations are done? What are the operations? Are all the wards open? The seven hundred and fifty villages… how many villages have now water? And not just ‘isn’t this a lovely project. Isn’t it good and feel good for being involved’. But what is the truth, and when you start finding the truth, you start thinking ‘Oh! No! Oh! NO!’

 Thomas Wiehe: What did you find about the hospital?  I know that Steen Picullell – the coordinator for the Russian-speaking countries – he is going to speak to Indulal Shah [Editor's note: Shah was at that time the head of the Sathya Sai Organization] and to Swami in about a week’s time because he has had many problems, but still believes that Swami is God and God can do anything. But this is not something that is in the real world. Before I found Swami I had many, many experiences of people who could heal, people who were psychic, which could see the future and I have experiences of roses – the flowers – just appearing on the table in front of me. So these things were not something that were new to me. I accepted all of this and this is not something to base somebody’s divinity on. So what do you base it on? because over the centuries the stories have never been like this, and it is only because WE want it to be good we make it [an] excuse for why he does this. But this boy is one of hundreds that we know of. Not just one of ten or twenty.

Thomas Wiehe: Are you talking about T? [Editor's note: Initial correct which stands for Tom, but full name suppressed. This is the so-called "Golden Boy" from Gothenburg, who was laden with 'gold' by Sai Baba and who caused the huge furore in Sweden about Sai baba's sexual abuses]

David Bailey: I don’t know the boy’s name, I’ve not been given it. Thomas Wiehe: Aha. But it must be him. David Bailey: Right.

Thomas Wiehe: “Yeah I was in Puttaparthi in January with him and now in June with him. He talked very openly. Ja… it’s him you mean, Yes, he is a very sincere spiritual seeker and very easy to believe. Did you meet him?”

David Bailey: Well I may have..

Thomas Wiehe: He is, well… I mean, I trust him. Just as a human being. I trust him. Talked a lot and you know you get a feeling ‘is he talking truth or is there something behind it?

David Bailey: Exactly.

Thomas Wiehe: I got the feeling he is very trustworthy. I really think so and he is… he has morality, sound, fine and subtle and strong. It took him – well, he probably told you – it took him some time to decide what to do with this… experiences. But when he had made his decision, he goes out in a very fine way, I think… talking to others and he is fine to talk with.

David Bailey: Yes.

Thomas Wiehe: It’s really bad, I’d say.

David Bailey: Yes. This is very good because if this was somebody who is not balanced it makes the whole thing… where there is a question there. I can tell you I know many, many, many examples of this… the students, because I was so close to them, just turned to me for help – they pleaded with me for help. Thomas Wiehe: Did you teach in [the] Sai school?

David Bailey: Yes, I taught in the college in Prashanthi ah… for three, three-and-a-half years. Not all year, but for periods of six weeks three or four times a year.

Thomas Wiehe: In music?

David Bailey: In music. I prepared the music for Christmas, for Guru Purnima and sometimes the birthday so it meant being with the boys perhaps up to six or seven hours every day. And I’ve a very close relationship with them and with one or two members of staff too. I know exactly what goes on there. When Faye and I discovered what we knew, we decided that we felt it was better to be silent because there are so many people there who rely on him and that’s why we continued with the magazine – not to stop the magazine… but to continue it to give things for people to move on to. Not to change from one guru to another but to find the god within.

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Robert Priddy at ‘Sathya Sai Baba In Word and Action’

Introduction to ‘THE FINDINGS’ by David Bailey

How the International Media began to question the claims of Sathya Sai Baba

Major Exposure of Alleged Sexual Abuses By Sathya Sai Baba A documented overview of the History and extent of the alleged sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba and the questions they raise

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Further Resources at Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed

Moreno’s deception re David Bailey Phone Conversation

Posted by robertpriddy on August 17, 2009

Sathya Sai Baba – disclosure of damaging facts

Further Resources at ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’

Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba Michelle Goldberg, US Author-Journalist, on Sathya Sai Baba (1)

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General

Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

(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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Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist

There is a four-part series by former head and co-founder of the Norway’s Sathya Sai Organization Robert Priddy and myself, which looks in detail at the  inaccurate and sometimes defamatory assertions of Dr G. Venkataraman. The latter is Sathya Sai Baba’s director of Sai Global Harmony, which broadcasts across many countries 24/7 via WorldSpace Satellite Radio. He is deputy chairman of the Prashanti Council:

The Sathya Sai Organisation’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed

Part One Part Two Part Three

Sathya Sai Baba Felicitates Deputy, Dr G. Venkataraman,With Car

QUOTE from:

The Sathya Sai Organisation’s Deception and Propaganda Expose

“The foes of the ‘open society’ (Sir Karl Popper’s term) are those who use its very openness to achieve their closed and devious ends. Sai Baba and his highly authoritarian and cultist organisation have such ends, which critics have tried to make known. Its foremost leaders silence all those who question it- and never face substantive criticisms. For the first time – after six years of pained and guilty silence – since hundreds of long-term devotees left it in disgust – the Sathya Sai Organisation has found it necessary to try to defuse the debate about Sathya Sai Baba’s alleged crimes, deceits and fraudulence. Dr. Venkataraman’s tendentious cover-up article expresses untruths which have long circulated within the cult, giving an opportunity to confront him with facts and truth”

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Further Resources

By Robert Priddy

Donations to Sathya Sai Central Trust misused by/for directors etc.

Sathya Sai Baba, dictator Idi Amin and G. Venkataraman

Sathya Sai Baba, dictator Idi Amin and G. Venkataraman

Apologist for Sathya Sai Baba

G. Venkataraman – chief propagandist for ‘God’

Venkataraman – the most gullible physicist alive?

Venkataraman, a victim of emotional blackmail?

Money, Morality and Sai-worshipper Dr. Venkataraman

Atomic physics Venkataraman-Puttaparthi style. Deeply intriguing

Dr.G. Venkataraman – physicist ‘explains’ Sathya Sai Baba

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Sathya Sai Organisation – Further Subterfuge and Misinformation

Another four-part article by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard

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By Barry Pittard

Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Minister of Propaganda’ – Dr G. Venkataraman

Dr G. Venkataraman, Sathya Sai Baba’s Nuclear Boon Companion

The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory

Sathya Sai Baba’s Followers Face Alienation In Their Wider Communities

Sathya Sai Baba and Dr G.Venkataraman: Will They Disavow Their Idi Amin Fondness?

Idi Amin Video Clip. Amin Claimed Direct Line To God

Sathya Sai Organization: Factors Far Beyond Known Critiques Undermine It

Sathya Sai Baba and his Organization Permit Attacks On Ex-followers

Indian Nuclear Scientist Now Sathya Sai Baba’s Global Radio Chief

Sathya Sai Baba’s Deputy Head, Dr G. Venkataraman, Speaks of “Mr Idi Amin”

Venkataraman, a victim of emotional blackmail?

Money, Morality and Sai-worshipper Dr. Venkataraman

‘Black Sheep’ Of Sweden’s Nobel Family Called By Ba-Ba (Sathya Sai Baba)

No Nobel Peace Prize For Self-Claimed God of Gods Sathya Sai Baba

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General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(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)

Buckingham Palace Revisited. Are Wily Sathya Sai Baba Emissaries Again Seeking British Royal Approval?

What may the British Royal Prince Edward’s visit to India portend for Sathya Sai Baba interests? Will Sathya Sai Baba’s top associates – again – attempt to exploit the British Royal Family for propaganda purposes?

The Earl of Wessex Prince Edward is the third son and fourth child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip.

Prince Edward in India, Oct. 2009

Summary Background

1. In late 2006, officials of The Duke of Edinburgh Awards and Buckingham Palace were upset by the manner of publicity by those such as Dr G. Venkataraman and Shitu Chudasama about Award connections. (Dr. G. Venkataraman is deputy world head of the Sathya Sai Organization. He also directs Sai Baba’s international 7 days 24 hours propaganda satellite radio service via the WorldSpace International corporation. See HERE. Shitu Chudasama is the UK Sai Baba national youth coordinator. This and other matters were exposed by Paul Lewis’s Saturday 4 November 2006 article in The Guardian (UK):

The Indian living god, the paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards

2. After efforts via, once might almost say, ‘friends at court’, Superiors to Peter Westgarth, the Director of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, were of the view that he lacked, in this issue, both judgement and experience, and had missed the significance and risk of his dealings with the Sathya Sai Baba officials. One may note in passing that Westgarth, currently faces further unpleasant controversy in another matter about his Award’s job performance. See The Herald Scotland.  Charity chief says UK boss forced her out. By Paul Thornton

3. When matters were finally taken in hand, both Awards and Palace dropped connection with the Sathya Sai Organization

4.  The Royal authorities, via Peter Westgarth, CEO of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards,

Peter Westgarth. CEO, Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Buckingham Palace over-ruled him in Sathya Sai Baba affair

who had already blundered (See story in The Guardian) asked that the embarrassing and untrue material (it was stated that the award had been given to ‘Sathya Sai Baba’) be taken down. Venkataraman and his associates promptly complied

This official Puttaparthi website withdrawal did not stop the Australian Sathya Sai Organization from nonetheless trumpeting the UK youth wing’s award:

5. The FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), had a view to both avoiding any blowbacks in Anglo-Indian relations and further embarrassment to the Royal Family

6. As revealed by The Guardian newspaper, the Duke’s representatives sought legal advice

7. Our efforts made to seek out a well-reputed news agency with clout resulted in IANS (Indo Asian News Service) running with a part of the story independently of The Guardian. See:

Indian Media’s Reticence on Top Guru, Sathya Sai Baba, Weakens

This was a major breakthrough, and signalled sections of the Indian media, where there were previously years of strong censorship of materials inimical to Sathya Sai Baba, carrying the IANS feed. Paul Lewis’s The Guardian article was also referred to.

Will Realpolitik-bent British FCO and Indian Government Interests Exploit Prince Edwards Visit To India?

One of the most persistent ploys of Sathya Sai Baba’s propagandists has been to make it appear that India’s interests are identical with Sathya Sai Baba predispositions. For a glaring example of what, often, is confined to the hushed corridors of power, see: The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory. The BBC exposed machinations by Venkataraman and the then Indian Foreign Affairs Minister and others, but this successful revelation was, alas, effected too late to be included in the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’.

Prince Edward Currently Duke of Edinburgh Awards Emissary

Prince Edward is the Duke’s Awards proxy in a current visit to India. He may not have much of his grandfather Phillip’s stuffing or even lasting effects of his tough (late) uncle Earl Mountbatten’s mentorship. Still further, Edward is of a very different generation, and not likely to have his father Charles’s flirtations with Sathya Sai Baba, – that hapless Prince Charles whom we know to have been warned off Sathya Sai Baba by insistent government authorities. Nevertheless, it is not beyond doubt that Sathya Sai Baba interests will try to curry favour with him, and dally with Edward’s political masters.

The Sathya Sai avidity to bask in British Royal sheen (or what is left of it) has already been amply demonstrated, and any further attempt by Sathya Sai Baba interests that would attempt to borrow lustre from British Royalty will likely be exposed here and elsewhere, as was previously the case, and indeed by the same forces which ensured former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s last minute cancellation of a meeting at Brindavan, Whitefield with Sathya Sai Baba. See:

Tony Blair Was to Visit Sai Baba. Plan Thwarted

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 17, 2007

An acquaintance who has worked close to the hub of power in the UK has  written to me vis a vis some current moves by the British government that may have relevance to power plays by Sathya Sai Baba’s high-level emissaries.

As my reader can see from the links to my earlier articles and those of Robert Priddy, representation on our behalf to the Duke of Edinburgh’s advisors was successful. It obtained the removal of propagandist and untrue information that was put out by Sathya Sai Baba’s officials such as Dr G. Venkataraman. An observer  has recently written to me:

“The UK Govt made the mistake long ago of allowing the Indians to get away with the badly flawed argument that to criticise Sathya Sai Baba was to insult India. This was weak and unprincipled, and senior diplomats admit this privately and regret it. The FCO is all out to try to get the Indians alongside the UK in matters of security, foreign policy, the war on terror, and inward Indian investment in our bankrupt UK economy.

Prince Edward’s appearance in Indian affairs is a pallid affair. He and his advisors are at the whim of the FCO. The UK Government needs India. In pursuit of its own narrow cynical policies, the FCO has a long record of ignoring the plight of British nationals in favour of trade perspectives and other political expediences. The Labour and Conservative India players are alike in this “….

The Guardian (UK) article: ‘The Indian living god, The paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards’

In the article: UK Guardian On Sathya Sai Baba and Duke’s Awards , I wrote:

”His Royal Highness’s officials had to act on top of a ‘politically’ not very experienced or competent UK Duke of Edinburgh Awards CEO, Peter Westgarth – see HERE. They were slow off the mark. However, after very high level representations from our side, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme trustees and Prince Philip’s Private Secretary, Brigadier Sir Miles Hunt-Davis KCVO, CBE,

realized that a serious matter was at hand. Questions were also raised by some powerful citizens, including a former Home Minister, Tom Sackville. The Duke of Edinburgh Awards required of Dr G. Venkataraman, head of Sathya Sai Baba’s international propaganda apparatus and deputy world chairman of the Sathya Sai Organization, that an official Sai Baba website take down the triumphant – but absurdly mistaken – information that the Duke of Edinburgh Award had been awarded to Sai Baba himself. Venkataraman complied”.

Further Reading

At ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’

• UK Guardian On Sathya Sai Baba and Duke’s Awards

Posted by Barry Pittard on October 21, 2008

• The Indian living god, The paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards by Paul Lewis

A Duke Stops An Emperor. Edinburgh Routs Sai Baba

“Officials of The Duke of Edinburgh Awards and Buckingham Palace were upset by the boasting of those such as Dr G. Venkataraman and about the Award connections. (Dr. G. Venkataraman is Sai Baba’s deputy world head, who also directs Sai Baba’s international 7 days 24 hours propaganda satellite radio service via the WorldSpace International corporation. See Shitu Chudasama HERE. Shitu Chudasama is the UK Sai Baba national youth coordinator”.

Robert Priddy writes on the issue

• Queen Elizabeth ‘manipulated’ by omnipresent Sathya Sai Baba?

Posted by robertpriddy on October 15, 2009

• Sai Baba God Incarnate needs Duke of Edinburgh endorsement?

Posted by robertpriddy on October 14, 2009

• The Guardian newspaper, UK. questions The Duke of Edinburgh Award
  - an award made out by subterfuge in the name of Sathya Sai Baba
• The Guardian newspaper, UK. questions The Duke of Edinburgh Award
• Sathya Sai Baba official website deceit exposed
• Sathya Sai Baba lack of awards
• Sathya Sai Baba and the Duke of Edinburgh Award

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Sathya Sai Organisation – Further Subterfuge and Misinformation

Four-part article by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard

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General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(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)

Lord Paul Swarj Under British Police Investigation

I have written of the Sathya Sathya Sai Baba-implicated and high-profile British Labour Government Minister, Tony McNulty MP, and police investigations earlier this year into allegations of rorting the British taxpayer via parliamentary expenses claims. (See Further Reading, below).

Tony McNulty British MP. Sathya Sai Baba Behind Him

Lord Paul Swarj Under British Police Investigation

 

And now another powerful British Government figure is under British police investigation, Lord Paul Swarj, a close friend of the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and major bank-roller of the British Labour Party.

Lord Paul. British Police Investigate Parliamentary Expenses Claims

The Times of London reports - Deputy Speaker Lord Paul steps down over expenses row -:

“Lord Paul has temporarily stepped down as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords while an investigation is carried out into his expense claims.

Over the weekend it emerged that Lord Paul, a Labour peer, claimed that a flat occupied by one of his employees was his main home, allowing him to claim £38,000 in expenses”.

Of course, a wealthy individual does not usually need to rort 38 thousand pounds sterling. They tend to have plenty of liquid wherewithal at hand or else easily be able to borrow it from mates, if momentarily stuck.  Rich pals help rich pals out, just as poor ones do. However, there may be other reasons, and the British investigators clearly think it worthwhile exploring avenues of possibility. Unscrupulous individuals can have many shady cash cow sources, and the overall yield end up a great deal more than 38 thousand quid. In terms of the last five years, the amount he has claimed reaches 110,000 pound. What exeeds this amount by far is the taxation that Lord Paul is widely criticized for avoiding.

The next weeks or months may result in yet another exposure of those who abuse their wealth and power. It is the story of Sathya Sai Baba and many core leaders around him, including those Sathya Sai Organization members around the world who use their wealth and influence – often without revealing the true agendas of the one called by the BBC “The Secret Swami” –  in the corridors of power.  It may be hoped that the British media, while investigating Lord Paul, will also find time to question any firm ties between Paul and the Sathya Sai Organization.

NOTE:

Should the media and other investigators wish to probe any money trails concerning big-league Sathya Sai Organization players in relation to its British Labour figures such as Lord Paul and Tony McNulty, they may like to take up leads such as I have carefully distributed in several articles (my having been careful to observe all the while considerations of source confidentiality and the laws of libel), see:

Ashok Bhagani – Footsying With Top Blair Minister?

Ashok Bhagani and The Secret Swami

By Robert Priddy:

Ashok Bhagani denies fully documented facts

Ashok Bhagani, Sathya Sai Baba cult promoter in UK

The Daily Telegraph (UK) reports:

Lord Paul under scrutiny over his parliamentary expenses

“Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said: “What concerns me most is that he is claiming £38,000 from British tax-payers for a home where he doesn’t seem to be living when he doesn’t pay full British taxes himself.

That sum of money for a multi-millionaire like Lord Paul is a drop in the ocean compared to the taxes he is dodging from his worldwide income.

Claiming a property is your main home, when someone else lives there but would move out if you asked them to, is stretching the English language and the Lords expenses rules too far.

Lord Paul should not sit in the Lords unless he gives up his non domicile tax status and pays full British taxes on all his worldwide income and assets.”

A Press Trust of India report quotes Lord Paul as saying:

“at Caparo we have been guided by three things — hard work, integrity and luck. But the most important thing, which has no substitute, is integrity.” (PTI).  Source:   NRI Swraj Paul’s Caparo Group to add six new ancillary plants

From Wikipedia entry:

Swraj Paul, Baron Paul, (born 1931) is an Indian-born, British-based business magnate and philanthropist. In 1996, he became a life peer, taking the title Baron Paul, of Marylebone in the City of Westminster, sitting in the House of Lords as a Labour peer. In December 2008, he was appointed deputy speaker of the Lords, the first person of Indian origin to hold the post.

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Further Reading

Tony McNulty Expenses Outcry. Select List of Major UK News Articles

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 28, 2009

Tony McNulty Brit MP. Expenses Scandal Erupts. His Sai Baba Cult Nexus Yet To Be Probed

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 23, 2009

Tony McNulty Sathya Sai Baba Cult Supporter Tipped As UK Home Minister

Posted by Barry Pittard on February 18, 2009

Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Considerable Concern’ In Wider Hindu Community

Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 7, 2007

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General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(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)

 

Nobel Peace Prize To Obama. India’s Past Candidate Sathya Sai Baba Long-forgotten

The Nobel Institute has just awarded US President Barach Obama the Nobel Peace Prize.

News of the Obama receipt of the Prize stirs memories of those involved in submissions contra Sathya Sai Baba to the Nobel Institute a decade ago. They cannot but be reminded of the resounding failure of Sathya Sai Baba-disposed forces within the Indian government to nominate the guru for this same prize.

Well-remembered is all the excitement generated among devotees when news that his name was being put forward was announced in Sai Centers around the world. The strange notion of quite how tasteful it was that ‘God’ should receive such an earth-bound award was remote from their consideration. He and his officials badly misrepresented the status of Dr Michael Nobel, a major player in WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service, which broadcasts Sathya Sai Baba propaganda (Sai Global Harmony) to many countries in the world. See:

Sathya Sai Baba's 'Minister of Propaganda' - Dr G. Venkataraman.

For details of the highly flawed relationship of Sathya Sai Baba and his Puttaparthi officials with the disgraced Dr Michael Nobel and Sathya Sai Baba’s very public mixing up of facts, see my two articles:

‘Black Sheep’ Of Sweden’s Nobel Family Called By Ba-Ba (Sathya Sai Baba)

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 14, 2009

QUOTE

“One of Sathya Sai Baba’s many hugely expensive and major Sai propaganda efforts has been the setting up of Sai Global Harmony via WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service. It broadcasts 24/7 to many countries. A director of WorldSpace is Dr Michael Nobel, who, contrary to long-uncorrected statements (in Wikipedia and in various promotions) by Sai Baba activists, is NOT the son of the Nobel Peace founder Alfred Nobel – who died in 1896! But he, though widely considered ‘black sheep’ of the Nobel family, has answered the Ba-ba call of Sathya Sai Baba who, absurdly, told the Australian journalist Howard Murphet that, historically, when Jesus, the Lamb of God, called ‘Ba-ba’, he was referring to Sathya Sai Baba! The Nobel ‘black sheep’ is making more than a bleat or two of his own, for he has extended his international satellite broadcasting corporation to send Sathya Sai Baba propaganda across the air-waves of the world.

Michael Nobel is a great grand nephew, although Alfred Nobel, were he here today, might not feel too grand about the descendant who has been repudiated by the Nobel authorities”.

and:

No Nobel Peace Prize For Self-Claimed God of Gods Sathya Sai Baba

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 18, 2009

QUOTE

“Not far short of a decade ago, it had been announced in Sathya Sai Baba centers round the world that Sathya Sai Baba was a candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize. On behalf of our networked group of former followers of Sathya Sai Baba, I wrote to Dr Geir Lundestad, then Director of the Nobel Institute. An exchange of emails ensued, and I provided him with in-depth documentation concerning Sathya Sai Baba and his sect”.

(Photo: But no Nobel Prize for Sathya Sai Baba. Dr Lundestad is on the Left of H.H. the Dalai Lama, recipient of that Prize in 1989).

New York Times Article – Unpleasant Revelations

In regard to the New York Times exposure of Dr Michael Nobel, see:

The Nobel Prize that Wasn’t – New York Times

“…the organizers received a disturbing fax from The Nobel Foundation in Sweden. It advised them that Mr. Nobel had been voted out as head of the Nobel Family Society at a meeting in August of 2006 “mainly because of his unauthorized activities and involvements in the name of the Nobel Family Society.” And it threatened legal action against those involved in creating “The Dr. Michael Nobel Award”, as Mr. Nobel had indicated it was to be named.”

Further Resources

Sathya Sai Baba as Nobel Peace Prize Candidate

Posted by robertpriddy on June 3, 2008

QUOTE

“Hunger for top international recognition of Sathya Sai Baba thwarted

Sathya Sai Baba ill-concealed hope of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was backed by Prime Minister Vajpayee’s Indian Government! The chance of this was strongly hinted at by the Sai Baba himself, saying: in his 18 November 2001 Discourse
“They are giving the Nobel Prize to many people. The man who gives the Nobel Prize is coming here on the 22nd November. The ones who will show this to the whole world, TV people, are all coming here on the 22nd.” The Times of India reported further (24-11-2001) – making massive factual errors: “Dr Michael Nobel, Head of the Nobel Institution and Director, Worldspace, told the Times of India, the things that Baba has done is simply amazing and this channel will spread his message to the world. He said there would be an explosion of his teachings. I am confident it will have a lasting impact. Dr Nobel said the channel now offers the reach to take his message to billions in the world.”

Sathya Sai Baba and The Dalai Lama

This article gives some reasons why one such as the Dalai Lama was a worthy recipient of the Nobel Peace and Sathya Sai Baba would be well-disqualified

QUOTE

“The Dalai Lama has convincingly lived fearless non-violence in all he does since the 1950s, which gives substance to his teaching of non-violence. Unlike this, Sathya Sai Baba spews out torrents of repetitive preachings about non-violence yet actively covered up the murders in his bedroom in 1993 and got the entire case quashed by his devotees in the Government of Narasimha Rao and then Home Minister S.B. Chavan. Unlike Sathya Sai Baba, the Dalai Lama has never had to conceal himself nearby in a room in his own ashram while four close attendants were assassinated then giving at least tacit approval and later outright public approval of the event!

Has the Dalai Lama ever damned or threatened anyone? Well, this self-claimed “ever-tranquil, totally unaffected” Sathya Sai Baba dropped his guard and showed everyone his hidden hand in his Christmas 2000 discourse … namely, that by damning his critics to constant rebirths in many shameful lives, he is not compassionate or loving of everyone (as he has always claimed before and since, even of his detractors). He would not even risk answering any questions about the murders, so he damned certain pressmen in Andhra Pradesh who wanted to get to the facts. Also in a later discourse, he heavily attacked the Indian press as spreading slander about him (when someone was arrested with a pistol at his Whitefield ashram). One never hears the Dalai Lama speak of the press in such a manner”.

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Sathya Sai Baba’s Questionable Stories and Claims

Brian Steel    May 2008

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Sathya Sai Baba lack of awards

Posted by robertpriddy on June 3, 2008

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At ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’

For a spurious Sathya Sai Baba connection in regard to President Obama, very typical of the highly-active Sai devotee imagining that Sathya Sai Baba is influencing world leaders, see:

Does Obama Carry Sathya Sai Baba Photo In Wallet?

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General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(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)

Michelle Goldberg, US Author-Journalist, on Sathya Sai Baba (1)

It is one of the gambits of pro Sathya Sai Baba activists like Indulal Shah (when he was active), Dr G.Venkataraman and his virtual counterpart Gerald Moreno, to portray highly reputed media journalists as sensationalist, and so on. In their offensive and denunciatory style, they fail to credit world leading media journalists, and the researchers as well, with a sharp eye and habits of careful checking into the credentials of the former devotees and other critics who have shared their accounts. The journalists work, for example, for the BBC, CBC, CNN, SBS, ABC, India Today, Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, The Age, and newspapers in Europe and Canada.

It is a version of the Orwellian “Four legs good, two legs bad!” In George Orwell’s classic novella ‘Animal Farm’, Rule #1. (for the animals contra the human beings) is:  “Whatever goes upon two feet is an enemy”. In the Venkatarman-Moreno nomenclature:  All former devotees and other critics who dissent from Sathya Sai Baba are wrong. Likewise all highly reputed media who investigate and report critically.

Both these individuals can be shown conclusively to have borne false witness against former devotees, notwithstanding that the latter have, many of them for decades, been in good standing as deeply committed workers among Sathya Sai Baba’s faithful. Suddenly:  All legs who have not walked away, good. All who have walked away, in dissenting, bad.

David and Faye Bailey

In short, individuals like David Bailey and his wife Faye are deemed to be bad. This is a man to whom Sathya Sai Baba gave extraordinarily such grave responsibilities, not only in care, as a lecturer in Music at his university, of students whom Sai Baba holds to be the ‘apple of his eye’, but also in David Bailey’s rare status of  being a travelling emissary at Sai Baba’s behest to various parts of the world. Indeed, it was as he travelled that individuals in good standing would come up and privately share their terrible accounts. But Bailey dissented from Sathya Sai Baba and those core leaders who were found to have been covering up for him for many decades.

Therefore, Bailey bad. Bailey to be denounced. Bailey to be defamed.

Faye Bailey, who Sathya Sai Baba chose as bride for David Bailey and himself presided over their wedding, was a widely known and respected figure in the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia. Like David, Faye Bailey was privy to ever-increasing direct, personal accounts of those – or, in other cases, the parents or closely related others – with harrowing accounts of Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of boys and young men over many years, and various other most shocking types of abuses more widely. Again, in the Orwellian schemata referred to above, Faye Bailey bad. Faye Bailey to be denounced and defamed.

For years, people = good, when close to Sathya Sai Baba;  suddenly, as if they have become devils overnight, those same people = bad!

It has been the discovery of each independent third party like the media mentioned above, and like those independent scholars who have tried to research it, that the Sathya Sai Organization leaders are engaged in a powerful suppression of information about itself, and about the many worldwide allegations.

For the long, well-researched Salon.com article (25 July, 2001) the noted US journalist Michelle Goldberg travelled to India, and also interviewed witnesses in various countries.  Ms Goldberg wrote of David and Faye Bailey’s ‘The Findings’:

“Part of the nearly 20,000-word piece is given over to evidence that Sai Baba fakes his materializations and doesn’t magically heal the sick — revelations that seem self-evident to nonbelievers but provoke fierce debate in devotee circles and blazing headlines in the Indian press. Most of “The Findings” consists of testimony of sexual harassment and sexual abuse. “Whilst still at the ashram, the worst thing for me — as a mother of sons — occurred when a young man, a college student, came to our room, to plead with David, ‘Please Sir, do something to stop him sexually abusing us,’” Faye writes. “These sons of devotees, unable to bear their untenable position of being unwilling participants in a pedophile situation any longer, yet unable to share this with their parents because they would be disbelieved, placed their trust in David; a trust which had built over his five years as a visiting professor of music to the Sai college.” These pleas eroded the Baileys’ faith and finally made them go public”.

Notes, drawn from Wikipedia, on Michelle Goldberg:

Born 1975

Buffalo, New York

Education Masters Degree in journalism from UC Berkeley

Occupation Journalist, Author

Michelle Goldberg (born 1975) is a liberal Brooklyn-based journalist and the author of the books Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, and The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World. She is formerly a contributing writer at Salon.com^[1] and currently a blogger at The Huffington Post. Her work has been published in the magazines Rolling Stone and In These Times, and in The New York Observer, The Guardian, Newsday, and other newspapers.^[2] She also writes an online column for The American Prospect.

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This article on the Baileys is to be continued

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Further Resources

• “The Secret Swami” – BBC Film Footage and Transcript

  General

  Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

  (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)

Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach

The foremost Indian rationalist, Basava Premanand has died, aged 79, of cancer at Podannur, Tamil Nadu (17 February 1930 – 4 October 2009).

Premanand’s close colleague Professor Narendra Nayak has just informed me of his death, and I am deeply saddened. Premanand and I had an extensive correspondence over the years, joined eventually by my trusted colleague, Robert Priddy.

Premanand, the late Glen Meloy of the USA, and I maintained contact during the making of  BBC television’s “The Secret Swami”. See: In Memoriam – Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”). This contact strengthened in the difficulties of international co-ordination, which were considerable.

Amid sadness on receipt of the news of Premanand’s passing, I briefly smiled, as memories began to course back, at how some, but happily by no means all, of the members of the international former Sathya Sai Baba network, got upset by my contacting Premanand – but what a priviledge they missed out on!  This was a man who vividly lived the principles about which some but speak and genuflect, their eyes upraised.

The word “warmth” is one of the words that I cherish when think of Premanand, and this quality shows in the words of a glowing tribute at Glen Meloy’s death, when he said: “Glen’s death was a great shock. I wanted him to live till Sai Baba was arrested … I am missing a great loving friend whom I came to know from the BBC film production.”

With Premanand, Robert Priddy and I worked on some research, analysis and written work. Together, we were able to expose  -  including with  some Interpol and Indian police follow-up  -  an extensive attempt at penetration of the networked exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and core colleagues by one of his former college/university teachers.

Had it not been for the economies of telephony, I feel sure we would have spoken more between India and Australia, but were restricted to emailing. In recent months, I was tempted to try, with the assistance of his aides, to set up a Skype link, but, realising that his cancer had struck back again, thought the better of it. About three years ago, Premanand and I spoke on the phone for about an hour, when he was staying with his sister in Bangalore. His warmth of greeting when he answered the phone was touching and palpable. Throughout the conversation, I was aware of his wide grasp of issues, graciousness, and of a sense of stern purpose  lightened by a gentle humour.

I don’t know that Sathya Sai Baba will be arrested. He ails considerably, despite his declaration that he would not age after his 60th birthday.  Premanand was his great and unrelenting foe in India. Alas, the forces of corruption in India, which Premanand so courageously faced for so many years, are almost unimaginable. Of course, to let any notion of mountainous difficulties seep into consciousness would be to ensure that any light in the world snuffs out fast. Premanand had those rare blessings – innocence without naivity, and the warrior spirit that fights for goodness and gentleness. Premanand was one of those voices that cry out in a wilderness of superstition, fear and apathy. However, I learn that there is a feisty younger generation who support his work. So he will not die.

Perhaps attempt to educate and warn, rather than the jail scenario for Sathya Sai Baba, will be the one that triumphs.

I have wondered whether Premanand would have achieved some of his ends if it were not for the terrible dereliction by those calling themselves religious.  A foremost Hindu leader wrote to me:

“There is considerable concern among the Hindu Community, especially among the educated. It is very hard to get any action from the temples as they do not wish to cause difficulties with the Sathya Sai Baba groups. People are starting to distance themselves from Sathya Sai Baba. It’s going to be gradual process of education. The biggest impact it appears was the ‘The Secret Swami’ … it seems it has had a tremendous negative effect on Sathya Sai Baba”.

Perhaps if there were to be a Heaven after all, and Premanand, of course, find himself in its halls, one rather thinks that he would find the company, although illustrious, rather too few.

Goodbye, most good one …..

Barry Pittard, Australia

See Wikipedia entry for Basava Premanand

See tributes to B. Premanand by Professor Nayak, Premanand’s successor and president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, and others:

Basva Premanand (17 February 1930 – 04 October 2009)- The Passing of a Great Man

Basava Premanand (17 Feb. 1930-4 October 2009). India's most famous Rationalist

Thorbjørn Meyer: Is Democracy Such A Good Idea?

My regular readers will perhaps have noticed my use of – not uncommonly – phrases of the sort:   Sathya Sai Baba and certain of his core leaders.  Worthy leaders have their assistants or followers;  oppressive ones have their henchmen.

Thorbjørn Meyer, Sathya Sai Baba Coordinator for Europe

Thorbjørn Meyer, European Central Coordinator of the Sathya Sai Organization, is regarded by a number who know him well as being of the henchman variety.  Meyer’s lack of accountability is great.  Abandoned are certain essential values of democratic accountability, as if they had never been heard of. This is of course true in regard to various other key Sathya Sai Baba leaders; however, Meyer is one of the foremost of the guru’s leaders, and his accountability even greater. He is right at the hub of the cover up of Sathya Sai Baba, and of his monumental spiritual betrayal, and of the suppression of serious crimes that would, were India far more properly democratic, be investigated as a matter of course. Indian democracy – it would be a good idea! (Pace Gandhiji!)

Robert Priddy, when head of the Sathya Sai Organization, knew  Thorbjørn Meyer well, has just written the article:

Sathya Sai Baba oils genitals (boys/young men) Part 1

Posted by robertpriddy on October 4, 2009

“It is now a wholly undisputed fact, even among many leading devotees (for example, the European Central Coordinator of the Sathya Sai Organisation, Thorbjørn Meyer) that Sathya Sai Baba takes down the trousers of many young men and boys and handles their genitals intimately, rubbing on oil and sometimes also so-called ‘holy ash’. Many report that he also rubs vigorously so as to (try to) cause an erection, also sometimes kissing them voluptuously on the mouth. That any such things took place at all was long covered up by a number of top leaders in the Satya Sai Organisation! In civilised countries, the touching of genitals under such circumstances is an illegal, punishable action unless carried out by a doctor on prior consent of the patient. A number of Indian devotees have actually said that they see no wrong in this or any other sexual abuse of young males, because God Himself can do no wrong! Some have fanciful theories about it awakening spiritual powers, one even condones all forms of sexual abuse as needful karma (see here)“

……………………………………………………………………………….

Further Resources

Thorbjörn Meyer Interviewed on Danish TV News
transcribed word for word in Danish from TV-Avisen, the Danish prime news show on January 31st at apx. 9:05PM. Transcribed and translated into english by Ole Alstrup. This interview was aired directly in the prime news as the first news immediately following the documentary was first shown on Danish Television.

Robert Priddy  -  on his former colleague in Sathya Sai Baba Organization leadership, Thorbjørn Meyer

THORBJØRN MEYER, CENTRAL COORDINATOR IN THE SATHYA SAI ORGANIZATION, EUROPE
who admits in an e-mail that Sathya Sai Baba does actually ‘oil genitals’, calling it an ‘age old Indian oil ceremony’

by Robert Priddy, ex-leader of the Norwegian Sathya Sai Organisation & former Oslo Centre (active 1983-1999).  Email correspondence with Robert Priddy and a revealing discussion

……………………………………………………………………………….

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

(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)

Concerning Attempts To Contact Former Sathya Baba Followers

Every now and then, networked former devotees are approached for information of a kind that, because of sensitivity, stands outside commentary on such trusted sites as:

Allegations concerning Sathya Sai Baba

Brian Steel’s researches on SSB’s claims

A home page by Robert Priddy

Call For Media and Government Investigation

Exbaba.com

Recent Research on the Claims of Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba Casebook-Factsheet

Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed

Sathya Sai Baba In Word And Action

A home page by Robert Priddy

Conny Larsson’s website

Concerning Attempts To Contact Former Sathya Baba Followers

In regard to sincere enquirers:  Not everyone seems to understand how fragile human beings who have survived various forms of abuse most commonly are. We have met with those situations where the abuse accounts to us come from decades back, and yet the person’s sensitivity is still great. It is frequently an area for trained, experienced counselors – and not for the rest of us, however well-meaning.

In the case of approaches to us, we carefully vet so as to screen off the proven attempts of Gerald Moreno and others to infiltrate or otherwise undermine former devotee work to bring about proper third party investigation of Sathya Sai Baba and core components of his international Sathya Sai Organization.

Where certain very serious infractions occur or appear likely to be occurring, we have a direct contact to high-ranking contact in Interpol (details of which we are happy to share with bona fide investigators). In one instance, in which Interpol were informed, a former student and lecturer in Sathya Sai Baba’s establishment at Puttaparthi attempted to penetrate us, and he and his family consequently received a visit from a senior member of the Indian police force.

It has been important for us to take advice from outstanding abuse professionals, lawyers, and so on. The temerity, and in some cases the naivity, of some requests to us for even the most sensitive information might stagger those who had not grown used to it.

In one case, there was an attempted penetrative subterfuge practised – fortunately unsuccessfully – against a major broadcaster. Through our own resources, we were able to uncover the unprincipled interloper. It was a member of a large and powerful law firm, whose head is someone once known to me. He (the latter) is one of the Sathya Sai Organization’s key legal advisors. (Details of this culumny will be shared with any well-reputed media or other bona fide agency which might investigate the Sathya Sai Baba issue).

The Security of Affidavits and Other Sensitive Testimony Concerning Sathya Sai Baba-related Abuses

Under no circumstances are we, on behalf of those who have entrusted to us their affidavits, ready to allow them to be seen by other than appropriate and very reputed lawfirms, and media such as the BBC, Times of London, etc., or agency such as UNESCO, and in some instances to those former devotees of known, long-established standing in relevant professions, such as the mental health or medical areas, who assist us. And then and only then with the updated approval of those who have provided prior documentation to one of my close colleagues or me – the families and/or the abuse survivors themselves. (Other forms of abuse in addition to sexual abuse of boys and young men are included).

Barry Pittard

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Robert Priddy, former long-time head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Norway, has compiled a useful resource. Trustfully, competent researchers will find time to use it well. Any questions can be addressed to Robert Priddy or me. We are happy to put scholars attached to well-reputed institutions in touch with other scholars knowledgeable in these areas.

Robert Priddy, Academic Philosopher and Author

Sathya Sai Baba can’t escape the sex abuse testimonies

Posted by robertpriddy on October 3, 2009

At least 30 young men have openly testified in public to one or another form of sexual abuse by Sathya Sai Baba, from handling of genitals to masturbation and oral sex. Numerous others who fear for their own safety have contacted trusted dissidents in private with their accounts.

• SAI BABA ALLEGED SEXUAL ABUSES – A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE A documented overview of the history and extent of the alleged sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba and examination of questions they raise.
  
• Part 1 – The Great Scandal Has Come to Stay
  1 A long history of reports through decades
  2 The cover-up of allegations about Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual behaviour
  3 ‘The Findings’ by David Bailey released the floodgates for testimonies
  4. Deceptions and failed promises revealed…
  5. Strong circumstantial and corroborating evidence
  6. Sai Baba knew he would some day be caught out, saying, “A great scandal is coming”
• Part 2 – Smoke Not Without Fire- Claims and Evidence of Serious Molestation
  6 Sai Baba’s ‘oiling’ of genitals of young males an ‘acceptable practice’?
  7 Young men and their relatives testify to major sexual abuse by Sai Baba
  8 Sex with “the Avatar” proclaimed as “Good Chances”
  
• Part 3 – More smoke and fuel to the fire
  9 Many young boys from abroad given much attention soon left Sai Baba?
  10 Sai Baba’s entrapped student boys and young men serially abused?
• Part 4 – The Jigsaw of Mounting Testimony & Circumstantial Evidence Takes Shape
  11 More Documented claims of sexual molestation
  12 Ram Das Awle’s alleged ‘channeled’ explanation to justify perverse sex byt Sai Baba
  13 Sai Baba a threat to many of his students
  14 Claims that Sai Baba is a hermaphrodite
• Part 5 – Sathya Sai Baba’s claims of purity and celibacy that defy all accounts
  15 Defending the indefensible – rationalizing pedophile activities
  16 Sathya Sai Baba never celibate – fresh evidence
  17 The self-professed ‘teacher of mankind’ who totally avoids the subject of sexuality?
• A DEFENCE OF SEXUAL ABUSES BY SATHYA SAI BABA
  The reasons of Ram Das Awle and others as to why Sai Baba rapes boys and young men.
  
• ON THE OILING OF GENITALS IN PRIVATE INTERVIEWS On the ‘genital oilings’ which a Central Coordinator and other Sai VIPs admit do take place.
• BOYS SLEEP IN SAI BABA’S BEDROOM He states this himself definitively!
• PROSTITUTION IN PUTTAPARTHI at clinic run by Dr. Samba Shiva Rao, one of Sai Baba prominent veranda guests
• INDIAN GOVERNMENT REPORT ON CHILD SEX ABUSE IN INDIA Wide-ranging internationally-backed research shows 53% of Indians allege being abused sexually as children. So this is endemic in India.
• MORE STRONG CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE ON SEXUAL ABUSE BY SAI BABA More evidence.
• CLOSE DEVOTEE DR. N. BHATIA FORCED TO LEAVE ASHRAM after challenging Sai over sexual abuse of an underage college boy
• TESTIMONY BY YOUNG MAN, ALAYA RAHM As made on two major documentaries
• COMMENTS ON THE SCANDALOUS HISLOP LETTERS an early response to them
• THE MAJOR TESTIMONY OF ULLRICH ZIMMERMAN On Sathya Sai Baba sex abuse - with video links
• TRANSCRIPT OF THE ZIMMERMAN VIDEO TALK on the details of his ‘private interview’
• STUDENT TELLS OF SEXUAL ABUSE The problems of revealing identity

Further Reading

Jointly authored

The International Sathya Sai Organization – an accessory to a massive libel and disinformation campaign (Open letter to the Prasanthi Council – c/o Dr. M. Goldstein, Dr. G. Venkataraman and its other members).

Note: This document is signed by the following prominent Sathya Sai Organization members:

Serguei Badaev, Russia 1995-2001 Ex-President of Sai Org. Moscow Centre and Deputy National Chairman for Russia.
Timothy Conway Ph.D, USA. Follower for 22 years; President of the Sathya Sai Baba Center of San Francisco from 1982-4.
Dennis J. Hanisch, USA. Follower for 27 years. Founder member and Vice-President, Seattle Center.
David. J. Lyons, USA. Follower from 1981 to 2000. Ex-President of the Center of Greater New Orleans.
Barry Pittard, Australia. 1976-1999. Former English Lecturer, Sathya Sai College, Whitefield.
Robert Priddy, Norway. 1983-2002. Founder member/Ex-Chairman of Oslo Center & Coordinator for Norway 1986-1996.
Reidun Priddy, Norway. 1983-2000. Founder member and Seva Wing Coordinator 1986-1998
Al Rahm,  Office-bearing member of the SSO for decades. Regional Devotional Coordinator and founder of first Education in Human Values school in the U.S.
Barbara Shocket, USA Follower: 1980-1990.
Dhyani Jo Sinclair, Canada Member and Sai Centre Secretary, 1995-2000

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General

Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

(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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Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya (or Satya) Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization