Some former devotees of Sai Baba, though not most, get upset by such large numbers of those who have accounts of being abused by him not going public.
Without doubt, they make make the same kind of mistaken assumptions that Sai Baba’s defenders make who ask e.g., where is all the proof. Both these reactions are ill-informed, inappropriate and insensitive in the extreme.
Typically, survivors of sexual and other abuses that badly violate the human psyche feel acute difficulty in being able to talk about their traumatic experience. One human reaction to trauma can be not to know that one has been traumatized – or at least to not to realize the extent of it, and why other aspects of one’s life, as a consequence of unresolved problems, go badly awry.
It is known that a great many survivors endure years in silence and shame at what has happened to them. Fear at being called a liar, of being thought in some way inadequate, and the wish to ‘move on’ all play a part. Disturbance at recollection of the event can be very powerful. Uncertainty about the exact order or nature of events lays an honest individual open to charges of fabricating, and many abuse victims who have faced adversarial lawyers have spoken about the experience of being ‘raped twice over’.
A few who allege that Sai Baba has sexually abused them have attempted for a while to expose him and leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization who have profoundly failed in duty-of-care and the responsibility to act professionally – what to speak of truthfully, honestly and compassionately. Dispirited some have wanted to ‘move on’. Others have said they are willing to testify so long as there are proper jurisprudential processes and a decent chance of success. Some will speak with the media but only after the former devotee network, which includes very highly qualified abuse professionals, have carefully gone through the issues involved. An occasional individual like Conny Larsson, the former leader of the Sathya Sai Organization in Sweden – no matter the hatred and ridicule hurled at him by pro Sai Baba antagonists – will write a book (which is to appear in a number of languages), travel at his own expense to various countries, speak at conferences, appear on national radio and television, agitate among government and other movers and shakers, and so on. Some, along with their families who have strongly supported them, have joined our representations to governments and institutions at a high level and to various community leaders. Those who have dared to speak of their experiences on the Internet have been attacked in the extreme by some pro Sai Baba activists. Although, I keep wondering whether doing so has helped them towards healing. There is a stirring among the wealthy to consult a lawyer but I question whether there is a risk of getting tied up in litigation that relates to technicalities (on which either side may ‘win’) rather than relate to a genuine healing process.
Many young males from countries around the world have come to our network with compelling accounts of being sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba. Some much older men like Mark Roche who shared his ordeals – when very young – in the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ when much older) also speak to us of being seduced by Sai Baba, sometimes when they were in their teens, at others, when still very young men. Repeatedly, we find that survivors have not availed themselves of highly-qualified professional counseling – even when it has been offered to them free of any charge.
My own view is that not debriefing their experience deeply risks their chances of greater well-being.
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