Mumbai Nightmare. Much Love To India At This Time

Many from India,

Mumbai Tragedy. The heart is sore for those who have been afflicted

and those of Indian origin who live elsewhere in the world, come daily to this blogsite.

Having lived several years in India, and never known to be surpassed the great generosity, kindness and deep love that I so frequently experienced, I join all round the world whose hearts go straight to you.

India has just been – and is still being at this writing – deeply wounded. Her security forces and others in the path of the devastation have reacted with many acts of courage and sacrifice, and loss of their own lives or the shattering of bodies which will always bear the aftermath.

May there, somehow, be a great healing …

I have written a little elsewhere of profoundly life-changing experiences I had while living in India, see:

A Strong India Can Bless The World

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 21, 2008

Quotes

In the work in which I was in a small way involved, I saw the “emphasis on cross-community engagement and responsibility. One could see close up how Indians from various religious and cultural backgrounds (e.g., Hindu, Moslem, Sikh, Parsee, Jain, Christian, etc.) worked extraordinarily well together”.

“Receiving extraordinary kindness wherever I traveled, I experienced how so many Indians from a great array of backgrounds truly practise their time-honored notion that ‘guest is God’. When I was ill on a number of occasions, I experienced bountiful kindness and care of Indian people from various backgrounds, which at least twice saved my life”.

Sathya Sai Baba, 83. Health Critical. Some Key Links

The following is a select resource for critics, scholars, media investigators, and also those questioning their way out of affiliation with Sathya Sai Baba and his international Sathya Sai Organization

Robert Priddy

A glance at this Update Page, indicates the huge labours of key serious writers critical of this teacher and his cult. The Robert Priddy update page is certainly one to consider bookmarking. The list for 2008 alone is extensive, though by no means complete. He was the head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Norway, and a former academic in philosophy and social sciences at the University of Oslo.

http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/HOME/Sai_Baba_news.htm

Robert Priddy’s blogsite, frequently maintained, is:

http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com

Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard

Four-part article, which give further significant hotlinks to other related material, dissecting a seriously defamatory article by Venkataraman – see, Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed

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Brian Steel

Brian Steel is an Australian Spanish language linguistics expert and lexicographer. When devoted to Sathya Sai Baba, he was author, of a major bibliography and other writing widely distributed throughout the Sathya Sai movement.

An Annotated Bibliography for Research on Sathya Sai Baba  (in Three Parts) . He has recently extended this major task by adding a third part of the Bibliography

Sathya Sai Baba: Questionable Stories and Claims, by Brian Steel. Part 1

Sathya Sai Baba: Questionable Stories and Claims. Part 2

New Factors for Researchers to Consider

Sai Baba Researchers’ Huge Debt To Scholar Brian D. Steel

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Barry Pittard On B.D. Steel At Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Sai Baba Researchers’ Huge Debt To Scholar Brian D. Steel

Brian Steel’s Surprise Visit To Sathya Sai Baba’s Ashram

William Aitken’s Sai Baba Book. Major Flaws Says Scholar

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Serguei Badaev

The Story of My Disqualification

Ex-President of Sai Org. Moscow Centre, (served for 4 years) and ex-deputy National Coordinator and National SSEHV Coordinator, Russia). The Moscow centre wrote a letter to then longtime head of the Indian SS Org and eventually the world Org, Indulal Shah, and 7th World Conference asking for clarification concerning the many worldwide allegations facing the founder and that the guru be asked for the spiritual explanation of the negative information on the Internet about him. There was no reply other than the immediate dismissal of Badaev as President of the Moscow Centre (see here).

• 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)
• DISCREPANCIES IN WORDS AND FACTS ABOUT SATHYA SAI BABA’S ‘MISSION’
• IF AND HOW THE SATHYA SAI ORG. IS A ‘DIVINE TOOL’
• CAN WE TRUST THE CENTRAL TRUST?
• SATHYA SAI BABA’S SUPER SPECIALITY HOSPITALS AS TWO-FACED PROJECTS
• 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

For a remarkably similar account of draconian measures meted out to an Australian spiritual convenor, Stephen Carthew, see:

Letter from Stephen Carthew

In this case, the axeman for the demise of yet another lovely and much-respected leader in the movement, was the now retired head of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization, Sri T. Ramanathan.

Timothy Conway, Ph.D.

Timothy Conway Ph.D, author of several books comparative East-West spiritual traditions, was president of the large San Francisco center and a liaison-consultant for the Sathya Sai Organization, Northern California, in the early to mid-1980s), as well as a longtime member of Santa Barbara, CA, Sai Center since 1988. Resigned February 2001.

In December 2007, he released his clarification of points raised about very indicting letters that were circulated to peak leaders of the US Sathya Sai Organization by former head, the late Dr John Hislop.

Timothy Conway Ph.D on: The Crucial John Hislop Letters

Dr Timothy Conway’s Summary of Ullrich Zimmermann Interview

Timothy Conway PH.D confirms the Hislop letters

Formal statement provided to Exbaba.com by Timothy Conway Ph. D. concerning the Hislop letters

An article in which Timothy Conway outlines many key issues

Click here to access Timothy Conway’s website: ‘Enlightened Spirituality’

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Kevin Shepherd

An independent British scholar, author of many books on philosophical and social issues and analyses of major religious figures including Shirdi Sai Baba, Shepherd has taken an interest in the Sathya Sai Baba phenomenon. It is valuable to have a writer not involved in the debates, and no sensible reader could be other than struck by Shepherd’s considerable respect for detail and calm disection of many complex issues.

Citizen Initiative

http://www.kevinrdshepherd.net/index.html

A very detailed page with many links to his own work and that of others is:

Sathya Sai Baba: problems

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Two Detailed, Unresponded-to Former Devotee Communications to Peak Body of International Sathya Sai Organization

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)

Signed on behalf of wider international group by:

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, Professional Counselor in mental health, USA Follower: 1980-1990.

Dhyani Jo Sinclair, Canada Member and Sai Centre Secretary, 1995-2000.

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

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Public Petition

http://www.saipetition.net/

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Video Resources

The Secret Swami (BBC Television):
(154 MB, Broadband)

Seduced (DR, Danish Broadcasting, Denmark’s national television and radio broadcaster):
(80 MB, Broadband)

http://home.hetnet.nl/~seduced/seduced.wmv
(21 MB, Modem)

Sathya Sai Baba Video. Too Weak To Cut Birthday Cake

See videos which reveal Sathya Sai Baba, in November 2007, as unable to cut his birthday cakes any longer

High-powered Minister of State, Renuka Chowdhuri, has to cut 2007 for badly ailing Satya Sai Baba

For some time, he has had a mask-like face, suggestive of a degenerative disease.

The Ageless

One Of Many Examples of Sai Baba’s Falsified Statements

“Many people wonder that I look so young even at the age of 73. The reason is that I have the three P’s in Me. One is Purity, the second is Patiene and the third is Perseverance. It is because of these three that I shall remain like this for any number of years to come. (cheers)”  p. 302 Sanathana 11-1998

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

Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions

There is no end to his failed predictions. In his February 1 16, 2007 (so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sai baba said:

“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.”

Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit

The guru, perhaps the most wealthy and politically powerful in India’s long history, claims that he will save the world in his own lifetime. He will, he says, preside over the greatest changes ever to occur in history

‘World Hindu’ by 2030. VHP’s Singhal Reports Sathya Sai Baba Told Him

One of India’s most powerful Hindu nationalist leaders, Ashok Singhal, who has an international profile in the Hindu world, has just told an assembly of political and religious luminaries in Delhi of a prophecy he says Sathya Sai Baba shared with him. The Organiser, September 14, 2008, reports …

Robert Priddy – former head of Sathya Sai Organization, Norway – at his blogsite Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed

Ageing and collapse in Sai Baba’s health

Sai Baba’s health – miracle or self-sacrifice?

Sai Baba says his close servants live for 100 years

Sathya Sai miracle of transformation of India?

Sai Baba’s failing health

India’s ‘Emperor’ Sai Baba. By His Lavish Spending Ye Shall Know Him

Sathya Sai Baba has said that the world should come to him with empty hands. On the other hand, he has succeeded in getting many to come to him with their hands full of gold.

The Golden Age of The World Sai Kingdom Is At Hand

That gold is now flashing more than Disneyland-like at Puttaparthi, as thousands swarm around the golden honey-pot that he has created for the occasion of his 83rd birthday.

The misspelling in the photo (upper left hand side) of the word ’sceptre’, do kindly trust, is not that of this blogger, but of a Sathya Sai minion, who will quickly need a spelling tutorial before his master leads the world into the Golden Age. This feat of universal salvation Sathya Sai Baba says he will accomplish before he ‘leaves the planet’.

Trustfully, as the gerontocracy that essentially leads India dies out, the young India will turn a back on the crass superstition of many of her older generations.

The gaudiness of all the gold in the Sathya Sai Baba birthday celebrations – mounted aloft India’s anguished land of seething poverty and squalor – will not reflect well in the eyes of the world.

The would-be King of Kings, Lord of Lords and his gold sceptre

Sathya Sai Baba has said

“The success of the task for which I have come will very soon reverberate throughout the world!”
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol XIV, p. 278. 1979

“I do not need grand decorations, huge pandals, arches, flags and such paraphernalia … Even a chair is superfluous! … Spend sparing to the minimum needs; do not involve yourselves in expensive luxury. I would like you to spend any extra money that you have for the feeding of the poor or for any similar beneficial object.” Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol VII, p. 100

He says he will rule the world before leaving it, circa AD 2022

Puttaparthi Prashanthi Nilayam. Modest dwellingplace of the, ahem, Most High

Select Reading

‘Secret Swami’ Cult Recruits At Prime Public Venues

See photos of some of the luxurious venues where the International Sathya Sai Organization – at times hard-pressed for funds in the face of constant public exposure in the media and on the Internet etc., – conducts its recruiting

Sai Baba No Shiva. Gold From His Gut Is Regurgitator’s Trick

See how the BBC cameras catch out the Shiva pretendu.

BBC Hidden Camera in ‘Secret Swami’. Ethical?

How the BBC caught Sai Baba’s world chairman in moments of profound

Will World Accept Sathya Sai Baba? He Says Yes. Very Soon

Indulal Shah and Indian Government Cover Up

Sathya Sai Organisation Misinformation and False Propaganda
Part Two, Part Three, Part Four

By Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard

Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Video Resources

The Secret Swami (BBC Television):
(154 MB, Broadband)

Seduced (DR, Danish Broadcasting, Denmark’s national television and radio broadcaster):
(80 MB, Broadband)

http://home.hetnet.nl/~seduced/seduced.wmv
(21 MB, Modem)

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For information on the highly revealing photo below, see

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision

Michael Goldstein’s Chilling 9/11 Remarks

Sathya Sai Anger Mismanagement as demonstrated by Sai Baba's international chairman Dr Michael Goldstein of Corvina, California, USA. Caught by BBC hidden camera in 'The Secret Swami' (2004)

Sai Baba 83. Has Said He Will Rule World

For such a golden self-proclaimed Avatar of all Avatars (Divine Incarnations), can there be any better illustration of the old saw: all that glitters is not gold? See the photo evidence in this and my recent posts.

Some further revealing photos of the incredible opulence via which Sathya Sai Baba presents himself are at the links listed below.

The photo below was taken a few days ago, in a public appearance intended as a lead-up to the Sathya Sai Baba’s 83rd birthday, which is 23 November, 2008.

Sathya Sai Speaks. ‘I Do Not Like This Pomp’

Posted by Barry Pittard on November 21, 2008

Indian God’s Birthday. Says Will Rule World. Photo

Posted by Barry Pittard on November 21, 2008

Sai Baba’s Imperial 83rd Birthday Celebrations Photo, Puttaparthi, India

Posted by Barry Pittard on November 21, 2008

Sai Baba’s Birthday. Vast, Costly Pomp and Ceremony

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

Golden Glitter For Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Speaks. ‘I Do Not Like This Pomp’

Sathya Sai Baba, who is on the brink of celebrating his 83rd birthday,

has said that he will first rule India (innumerable of whose top leaders bow down to him!) and soon the rest of the world. He also has said, December 14, 1963:

“Let Me tell you this now itself: I do not like this pomp and show. I do not derive any joy out of it. Pomp, such as this, has become a fashion now, even among ascetics and monks who ought to know better. They profess poverty and simplicity and yet, they allow or encourage their disciples to waste much energy and money on pomp and pageantry which serve only to develop the egotism of themselves and their followers. The emphasis on show makes a thing hollow of all meaning.” (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol 3., p 228)

Sathya Sai Baba says he dislikes pomp

He has said:

“In the days ahead, the whole world will be obliged to come to Prashanthi Nilayam” (p. 320 Sanathana Sarathi December 1991)

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Some edifying discourses which will no doubt hasten the golden glory of the coming of the Kingdom of Sai:

Sai Baba’s Birthday. Vast, Costly Pomp and Ceremony

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

Sai Baba To Be Seen In Moon? But Where Was Moon?

Robert Priddy

Sathya Sai Baba worshipped by India’s P.M.s etc

Sathya Sai Baba upcoming birthday

Sai Baba’s failing health

Indian God’s Birthday. Says Will Rule World. Photo

God Sai Baba. 83 years

Sai Baba’s Imperial 83rd Birthday Celebrations Photo, Puttaparthi, India

Gold and Glitter of Imperial Pomp

When Facts Fly The Coop of Massive Cover Up

Given the sensitivity, the anguish, and difficult situations regarding family, job, studies and so on, a great amount of testimony in the hands of former devotees of Sathya Sai Baba has had to be withheld from public view.

Media Coverage Helps – BUT …

However, some of it, with the permission of those individuals and families involved, has been available to responsible media such as the BBC, Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, and major respected newspapers in India (India Today), Europe, Canada, Australia and so on.

Here too, most of the testimony proffered is not used – there being so much of it, and also because any day’s media contains so many other reports. Hour by hour, of news there is no end. Newspapers work to fearsome deadlines and cannot be expected (with the exception of a few genuinely interested journalists) to have at heart the interest and motivation of individuals directly involved, no matter how just their cause. Certainly, those of us involved in coordination across several countries were able to glimpse the immense amount of work that can be put into a researched story; in some cases travel (e.g., that of  Mick Brown of The Telegraph), Michelle Goldberg of Salon.com, and the BBC team working on ‘The Secret Swami’.

… BUT – the Survivors Find They Are Not Alone

Whatever the limitations of even wide media and internet coverage, for many who turn to questioning their experiences, the exposure of the abuses – anomalies, contradictions, fraudulence, spiritual betrayal, etc., there is value  in the processing and clarification their own experiences. Often, they do not have to question whether this or that former devotee article is flawed as to dates, conflicted emotions, agendas, vagaries of memory or other such problems. They are simply able to compare what has been written with their own experiences. They view the BBC and other video materials and sort among many articles (See brief examples below under Resources). Sometimes, they contact others who report the shattering experiences. They realise their frightful experiences are not theirs alone.

Taking In Sunshine. Breathing In Fresh Air. Flying For Oneself

The social networking that then occurs is profound and far-reaching. Quite apart from more or less formal channels, simple accidental meetings with significant other individuals in car parks, airports, supermarkets and so on have enormous consequences. Many do not process their findings by going public but the numbers of people supporting the cult are adversely affected, and no apologist for Sathya Sai Baba can truthfully claim that these individuals and families are out to cause mischief or are merely disgruntled. Many of them had wonderful experiences as well. They did not think (in some cases, after decades of outstanding devotion and service), that their lives would be in upheaval. All those close to the survivors – family, friends, treating professionals – know how real is the sense of frightful discovery and of soul-searching. Sathya Sai apologists who attempt to deny these situations perpetrate a great injustice.

Not All Comparisons Are Odious

Each new ‘flock’ of those soaring beyond their experiences of the powerful but secretly flawed guru and his cult are able to compare their own situation with those which appear on former devotee websites such as:

http://www.exbaba.com/

http://www.saiguru.net/

Robert Priddy – dissident and ex-Sathya Sai Baba follower

Brian Steel. Research on the Divine Claims of Sathya Sai Baba

Timothy Conway, Ph.D.The Crucial Hislop Letters

Timothy Conway, Ph.D. My Concerns About Sathya Sai Baba

Kevin Shepherd. Citizen Initiative

In this sense, the information – often tended at a great deal of sacrifice of time, energy and personal difficulty – is never ’stale’.

Unfortunately for the G. Venkataramans, M.Goldsteins, and other prime agencies of Sathya Sai cover up, the birds have flown. Uncaged, many learn to fly by themselves, and attain freedom, and sometimes come to grief, never debriefing or healing. Some go off to another charismatic figure, often in Eastern traditions. Some give in after awhile; others refuse to be intimidated, no matter the attacks, or the evasion of central issues, which the Sathya Sai Organization, forever in damage control by the upmost echelons, has never dealt with.

Cover up gets bogged down under its own internal stresses, its inner denials truths being too shocking to face, and all of its tangled webs of deceit, obfuscation, and inner psychological denial. News of massive cover up travels irrecoverably. There is no wishing it away. No holding of it back.

Select Resources

BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ and British Press Praise

Guru Sex Abuse Testimony To BBC – After Years of Silence

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision

Indian Ex Top Official Dogs Sai Baba On BBC. ‘Cold-blooded Murder’

Sai Baba: God-man or con man?

By Tanya Datta, BBC. Reporter, Secret Swami

Divine Downfall. The Telegraph. Saturday 28 October 2000.                   By Mick Brown

Laying on of hands. The guru who thinks he’s God is exposed as far from divine. The Statesman. 21 June 2004. By Andrew Billen

Michelle Goldberg Untouchable? Salon.Com 25, July 2001

Sai Baba: Pedophile or God incarnate?

Untouchable? – Page 2

Untouchable? – Page 3

Untouchable? – Page 4

Brian Steel’s Surprise Visit To Sathya Sai Baba’s Ashram

With a scholar’s eye for detail, Brian Steel, former follower of Sathya Sai Baba and author of significant books related to him, has just returned from a brief visit to Puttaparthi.

For busy readers who may not have time to read the lengthy, although crisply written, article, I shall digest portions, along with a few comments and links to further resources; otherwise you may wish to go straight to the article itself at: Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram in October 2008.

Sathya Sai Dizzyland

Note: For more pictorial evidence of the vast lavishness of Puttparthi – much of it achieved via the influx of foreign funds in the scores of millions (to put the matter conservatively!) – see my article: Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia

Brian Steel writes:

“In mid-October 2008, during a three week visit to India, I made a 5-hour visit to Puttaparthi and Prasanthi Nilayam. My visit was timed to avoid the festivals of Navaratri, Dassera / Vijayadashami, so moving around the township and the ashram would be comfortable”.

Where Have All The Foreigners Gone?

“At Prasanthi and Puttaparthi I only saw a handful of foreign visitors, mainly middle-aged and post-middle-aged women. I saw no foreigner of either sex under about 40 in the ashram, in the cafés or in the shops”.

More Sathya Sai Sumptuousness

Ashram Security

“The mandir was empty and closed. Photographs were forbidden and loitering (even to peer inside the mandir, where ramps for the ailing Sathya Sai Baba’s chair were clearly visible) was discouraged by Seva Dal volunteers posted around the perimeter. The number of items prohibited in the mandir has now reached about 20, including books and pens … From the tall surrounding township buildings, for example the Sai Heritage Hotel just past the ornate main entrance to the ashram, photographs were strictly prohibited

Sai Towers bookshop offered up a few purchases of typical recent publications but most of the Sai Towers shelves are now stocked with books by other publishers on other gurus and on general spiritual topics”.

Puttaparthi Airport A ‘White Elephant”

Steel confirms the demise of the airport at Puttaparthi. Many devotees who felt (myself among them when still a follower) felt, with the excitement of anticipation, that the airport symbolised the imminent appearance of Sathya Sai Baba on the world stage – he taking off from the airport, and the leaders of the world flying in at other times to be guided by him. (See relevant article links below). Steel writes:

“Apart from its convenience for visiting VIPs with their own jets (especially before elections) and apart from special charters on big festivals like the 23 November birthday and Christmas, it is rarely used, as taxi drivers confirmed. Nevertheless, for the present at least, Sathya Sai Baba’s expensive airport is still featured on the Indian Airlines map of routes in India (see the in-flight magazine Swagat – Welcome)”.

The massive new airport at Bengaluru (an unpopular politically imposed new name), inaugurated only a few months ago along with its 3,000 acres of land and gardens, will be a blessing (godsend?) for Sathya Sai’s dwindling foreign devotees, especially those from countries in financial turmoil”.

Failure of Promised Moon Miracle Ignored. Myth-making Continues

Brian Steel further confirms information about failure of Sathya Sai Baba’s promised moon miracle contained in Priddy and Pittard articles (see Urls below), pointing to the sale of unreferenced postcards of “Saibaba on Moon” in the roadside shops of Puttaparthi:

“And in a special glossy 15 Rupee booklet of postcards of Puttaparthi Sightseeing (another local website offers ‘Puttaparthi shopping’), the same card, which shows Sathya Sai Baba’s head superimposed on the Moon is dated as 22 October 2007 and is sourced to Richard Margolin of the Manhattan Sai Baba Center”.

Steel also observed the presence of the same type of postcards depicting the hugely-funded projects such as the Indoor Sports Stadium, the Music building and the Chaitanya Jyoti Museum. He comments:

“So the rural town of Puttaparthi (with its 10,000 residents) seems set to become a huge Sathya Sai Baba Memorial venue, perhaps even on the Tirupati circuit”

Evidence of Marked Decline in Sai Baba’s Health

Elsewhere in India Brian Steel was able to acquire an official DVD issued by the Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust of SSB’s 2006 visit to the guru’s summer retreat (Sai Sruti) in Kodaikanal, on the southern crest of the upper Palani Hills near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, one of India’s the jewel-like ‘hill stations’ (resorts) so beloved of the British colonisers and many others who can afford to retreat there.

Sathya Sai Baba Retreat, Kodaikanal. (Can a semi-retired ‘Avatar’ retreat?)

Brian Steel says:

“The footage is of research interest because it offers official evidence of the steady physical (and perhaps mental) decline of Sathya Sai Baba in the past four or five years. This has brought about major changes in his former flamboyant darshan style, which now consists mainly of wheelchair-bound appearances with many students constantly hovering in attendance, particularly to support him if he attempts to stands up or move about. His conversation and personal contact with devotees is more limited than in his heyday but the DVD shows that in 2006 he was still able to accept many letters from his chair and exchange some words from his wheelchair. Recent 2008 official website footage (especially from www.saicast.org) shows how his physical condition has continued to decline in the past two years and how painful it seems for him to make discourses. His face now remains expressionless for most of the time or seems to display something akin to disorientation”.

Further Reading

Brian Steel

Retired academic Brian Steel’s extensive website Recent Research on the Claims of Sathya Sai Baba – with his long-established, incisive and well-researched articles on the Sathya Sai Baba phenomenon. His blogsite, which contains a variety of themes, some related to Sathya Sai Baba – is at: http://briansteel.wordpress.com/

A Brian Steel Sampler: Undermining of the Sai Mythos

Sathya Sai Baba: Questionable Stories and Claims. Part 1

Sathya Sai Baba: Questionable Stories and Claims. Part 2

Fuzzy Dates in the Official Biography of Sathya Sai Baba. A Re-examination

For a detailed, critical examination of the Medhi Moud prophecy countless Sai Baba devotees place great but sorely unfounded faith in, see The “Mehdi Moud” Prophecy Revisited

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Robert Priddy’s blogsite

On Sai Baba’s Failed Moon Darshan

Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed

Deceiving ‘devotee’ makes bogus image of Sai in the Moon

Oops! Apparently Sai Baba DID appear on the moon?

Why build moon rockets when Sai Baba has mantras?

More Sathya Sai Baba Moon Madness

Sai Baba postpones moon buggy ride

On Sai Baba’s Failed Airport

Sathya Sai Airport “white elephant” for sale!

Related

Sai Baba’s tennis stadium another white elephant?

Visiting Sathya Sai Baba ashrams (photos)

Travellers Beware

AT SATHYA SAI ASHRAMS - 1

AT SATHYA SAI ASHRAMS - 2

AT SATHYA SAI ASHRAMS - 3

SATHYA SAI ASHRAMS - 4

SATHYA SAI ASHRAMS - 5

AT SATHYA SAI ASHRAMS - 6

At this blogsite: Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba -

Sai Baba Researchers’ Huge Debt To Scholar Brian D. Steel

Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions

On The Failed Moon Darshan

Sai Baba To Be Seen In Moon? But Where Was Moon?

Sai Baba Fails to Grant Great Moon Darshan

Sai Baba Fails To Appear In The Moon, IANS Reports

Is Indian ‘Godman’ Sai Baba’s Moon Waning Still Further

‘Moon Mission of Sathya Sai Baba’. Re Merinews Article

On Sai Baba’s Failed Airport At Puttaparthi

Sai Baba’s Airport Up For Sale, Reports Business Standard

Ex-NASA Scientist and Wife Test Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Grace’

In 2000, Sathya Sai Baba devotees worldwide wanted desperately to cope with the allegations falling thick and fast of Sai Baba’s serial widespread sexual molestations of boys and young men.

Devotees extensively circulated a photocopy of talks by Yaani and her husband Professor Al Drucker at the ‘United Kingdom Sai Baba Retreat’, April, 2000. These two, especially Al Drucker, have been very influential in the history of the Sai Baba movement. Referring in their talks to Jaani Drucker’s rape in an official Sathya Sai Center, they both held that Jaani is not her body. She is only in a dream. Not being her body, but the eternal Atma, Jaani was never raped. All is the Lord’s Grace.

There is here a procrustean stretching of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy. Some have posited an ultimate state of non-physical being, but to do so can be to merge not into some blissful state of enlightenment but rather partake of an unreality which little equips human beings for deciding on issues of responsibility to their psychological welfare.

The Wishing Away Of Unpleasant Realities

For example, none should entertain the notion: The boys and young men who have had terribly shocking experiences at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba are not their body. Therefore, nothing, in all reality, happened to them. Secondly, even IF the Druckers were to be in some elevated state of spiritual enlightenment, it would be mistaken for anyone to think that all others should be as the Druckers.

Is the Druckers’ expression of a non-dualistic philosophy one to model to those struggling to make sense out of the shocks of the world or of the workaday world of commonsense and responsibility? The advaita philosophy improperly interpreted is full of dangers for the unwary.

Alvin Drucker, Former NASA scientist . (An early photo)

Al Drucker’s wife, Jaani

Belief System Interpretation of ‘Exalted’ Experiences

Jaani Drucker is surely right when she says “Denial gives energy to the darkest fears by attempting to hide them and put them out of the consciousness.  Exposing our fears or negative qualities undoes them and reveals them as the nothing that they have always been”.

However, one may doubt whether she has understood the power of but one of the human mind’s radical coping mechanisms when she relates, “Even while I was being brutally raped, within me all fear and horror of the situation had left. Quite inexplicably I became very calm and to my astonishment discovered an incredible compassion welling up in my heart”. However, those on some ’spiritual’ paths will immediately interpret the experience according to their belief system. There are many accounts of those in situations of danger who have had similar experiences. But the happy state into which they entered is later belied, for example by their shaking bodies subsequent to the event and, far more, to poste-traumatic aftermaths.

Former Devotee Ends Her Euphoria

Ella Evers, along with her late husband had led a US Sathya Sai Baba center in Oregon, USA. (John had been a banker who had served as a Dutch intelligence officer in the war against Hitler’s Germany). Ella and John were among those many in the United States Sathya Sai Organization who left it after investigated cases within Sai Centers, having – with signal failure – put to the national leaders – such as Dr John Hislop, Dr Michael Goldstein, Bob Bozzani, Dr John C. Evans, Dr William Harvey, Dr Phylis Kristal, and others – the serious allegations that were arising within the organization, particularly about allegations against Sathya Sai Baba of his serial widespread sexual abuse of boys and young men. The following report depicts an experience familiar to very many former devotees who had earlier ignored the evidence of grave malpractice. They, in a state of psychological denial and commonly a euphoric state, preferred to rationalize the conflicted situations as “Swami’s Divine Play”, “Swami’s helping to speed up the evolution of those with bad karma”, and so on.

A Former Devotee Ends Her Euphoria

The Grant’s Pass (Oregon, USA) newspaper reporter wrote:

Evers claims that, during a trip to the India compound in 1989, she glimpsed Sai Baba unzipping the pants of a boy before the holy man jumped up and closed a gap in the interview curtain. “Wanting so desperately to be a good devotee”, she blamed her own impure thoughts and suppressed what she’d seen until she learned of other stories last year, she said. Evers doesn’t want to take away from the good works of Sai Baba followers, but she believes they have been slowly drawn in and discouraged from thinking for themselves.
Source: Controversial holy man’s followers gather near Grants Pass. Patricia Snyder. Grants Pass Daily Courier. August 31, 2001.

Further Resources

The Ways of The Mind. Some reflections on an article by Elena Hartgering. By Åsa Samsioe (psychologist and practicing therapist, Sweden. Åsa is a former devotee of Sathya Sai Baba)

Nothing Is Real, Strawberry Fields Forever
or ‘Yaani Drucker on how nothing was turned into nothing, by nobody’
by Reidun Priddy

Yanni Drucker and Sathya Sai Baba’s Advaitic Doctrine
A recipe for confusion and personality disorder?
by Robert Priddy

Cultic Depersonalization or Demonization of Dissenters

Some Key Cultic Responses To Critics

Being In Denial. A Sai Baba Experience

Exiting A Top International Cult. A Sai Baba Experience

Dr Timothy Conway’s Summary of Ullrich Zimmermann Interview

Legalistic Abuse: Catholic Church And Sathya Sai Organization

Puttaparthi and Cover Up of Health Hazards

Since matters of life and limb are entailed, every traveler appreciates honesty about conditions involving health. For example, proper notification by governments, tourist venues, businesses, and various other instrumentalities. Once Sathya Sai Baba’s highest profile western follower, a lecturer at his university at Puttaparthi, and a roving ambassador for him internationally, David Bailey has related:

“I know Sara Pavan who is the top anaesthetist from Australia who’s there all the time, and he said to me ‘David, you never, ever, ever let anybody come to this hospital because they do not understand hygiene’”. Source: Part Two – Transcript of David Bailey’s Account By Phone Of His Disaffection in 1999 (to Thomas Wiehe).

Puttaparthi A Disease Trap, Covered Up By Officals

A very different and frightening picture emerges regarding Puttaparthi, despite Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram there being called “the Abode of Peace” (Prashanthi Nilayam).  When he was a deeply committed follower of Sathya Sai Baba, Robert Priddy made notes of some of the health hazards met with. See Sathya Sai Baba Birthday Celebrations. Posted by robertpriddy on October 29, 2008.

Today’s visitors can decide whether these older observations hold true for the ashram today. Certainly, the modus of cover up has not changed, neither by the officials in India nor by key international servitors of Sathya Sai Baba. See:

Indulal Shah and Indian Government Cover Up

J. Jegathesan. Part of The Secret Swami’s Cover Up

Dato J. Jegathesan, a ‘Secret Swami’ cult top leader-roving ambassador

As I have stated elsewhere, Robert Priddy’s carefully and promptly taken diary notes over several years will prove an invaluable source for historians, media investigators and others interested in the Sathya Sai Baba phenomenon. See Priddy’s My Notebooks Covering Nine Visits To Prashanthi Nilayam (from 1984/5 to 1998). See too my articles Sathya Sai Baba’s Self-generated Mythos.

Robert Priddy was a national leader of the Sathya Sai Organization (Norway), and had access to all the internal correspondence of the Sathya Sai Organization and international meetings. For many years, he was a highly-respected friend of the late V.K.Narasimhan, one of India’s most famous and courageous newspaper editors, and, succeeding Professor N.Kasturi, editor of the official magazine Sanathana Sarathi, distributed worldwide.

Quotes

“The estimated numbers of persons during each of these celebrations was doubtless much in excess of the actual numbers. Figures of from 1 to 3 million have been suggested for the various birthdays!Sathya Sai Baba stated to several persons (Robert and Rita Bruce, V.K. Narasimhan and others) that 3 million were present, which was a total impossibility. V.K.N. told me several times that Sathya Sai Baba regularly multiplied numbers of actual visitors by 10!“

……………………………

Apart from the infamous murders of 4 young men in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom in 18993, a long series of accidents, suicides and murders have been recorded - see some of them listed here.

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“At the 60th Birthday celebrations of Sathya Sai Baba at Prashanthi in 1985 there was a virtual epidemic of stomach ailments, especially among Western visitors. This was denied officially, no doubt so as not to put anyone off visiting as a result. One Western doctor who was present estimated those foreigners affected could amount to 80%. Many people who had been there confirmed that many were affected. Also, the usual throat and chest infections due to excessive clouds of dust – up to at least 2-3 metres high during the main celebrations which obscured objects even at short distances! That there had been any kind of epidemic, however, was publicly denied as baseless rumour in Sanathana Sarathi. One contributing cause of the excessive infection rate was the new Western canteen, where the refuse was dumped outside it upon which masses of flies bred which easily entered the canteen, then without any netting on the windows”.

Priddy comments on the reference to the canteen: “[This was confirmed by Al Drucker to foreigners who cleaned up the canteen afterwards - including myself]“.

Note: Al Drucker is an ex-Nasa physicist, whom Sathya Sai Baba has used extensively in his propaganda work.

Further Resources

Sathya Sai Baba Ashram Notebooks of Robert Priddy

Robert Priddy – Published Writings and General Postings. On Sathya Sai Baba and Related Materials

Sathya Sai Baba – Prashanthi Nilayam notes

“On the cesspool near the North blocks which cause horrific nauseating stinks for hours every day plus comments on how the money collected to solve this problem was misappropriated by ashram officials”. This note refers to: Directly Recorded Notes

Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions

A decade ago, Sathya Sai Baba informed his devotees that his aircraft is about to take off to bring his mission to the whole world.

That this was stated in no metaphorical sense is well-indicated, for he has told various of his key leaders that he would visit Rome, the UK., Malaysia, southern California.

We know that the wealthy Robert Baskin, a key lawyer to the Sathya Sai Organization, has bought a luxury mansion in southern California, equipping it to receive a visit from Sai Baba. See:

Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit

The late Howard Murphet, Australian journalist and author of best-selling books on Sai Baba, with whom he was close for years, wrote:

“Swami once, a good many years ago told me that He would not travel abroad until His own house was in order, by that He means India, of course”. Source: Online version, “The Lights of Home”

Can a wheelchair-

bound ‘world Avatar’ travel the world?

Sai Baba’s Back Yard Still in Shocking State

But a badly ailing Sai Baba has not put his own house, India, in order. See:

Has Sathya Sai Baba Moved An Inch To Clean Up His Yard?

Two Indias. Barry Pittard Reflects On India Days

Will World Accept Sathya Sai Baba? He Says Yes. Very Soon

When Disasters Overtake S. Sai Baba’s Promises

Human Rights World Report 2008. India In Sore Shape

CNN-IBN Reports Action On Corrupt Indian Gurus

Indian Gurus Stifle India’s Chance To Excel

India Lead World? Sai Baba Says Yes. Robert Priddy No

Inequality before the law in India

Ageless - Old 'Avatars' never die, but merely fade away

How indeed shall a failed ‘Avatar’ save himself?

Recent Statement

There is no end to his failed predictions. In his February 1 16, 2007 (so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sai baba said:

“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.”

But the runway, like his own imagination, would seem to have run away on him. He celebrates his 83rd birthday this November 23rd.

Unlike his physical body, the following quoted words of his have no difficulty in flying around the world to his many devotees. But they represent just one more example of his myriad failed predictions:

‘Swami’s mission has made this turn to face the runway. The 70th birthday was the signal from the tower to accelerate. In the 75th birthday, the airplane will leave the ground’. Sri Sathya Sai Newsletter, USA, 31, Winter 1996-1997, 29.)

Or here again:

“Bhagavan told the group of his students, that His mission can be compared with an aeroplane that is going to take off. Up to 70th birthday his mission would be like an aeroplane going along the take-off track and gaining speed. These days the aeroplane is rushing and speeding up and will take off at the 75th birthday”. Sai Reflections: The UK Sai Organisation. Quarterly Magazine: February, 1997, p.15)

Sai Baba’s Deteriorating Health Affects His Judgment

It becomes increasingly easy to see how Sai Baba’s declining health has deleterious effects on his judgment, leading him into making statements that expose him very effectively. See my article:

Idi Amin Video Clip. Amin Claimed Direct Line To God

Quote:

“Sathya Sai Baba has reminisced on how Idi Amin wept tears of devotion for him, when he visited Uganda in 1968. Actually, Sai Baba goes a step further than Amin, proclaiming that he is the Divine Incarnation surpassing all Incarnations. His devotee propagandists are now fervently downplaying his actual claims by telling the wider public that Sai Baba simply says that “all are God”. Their intellectual dishonesty is patent, for they know full well that he has long and often claimed to have incarnated to save the whole world in his own lifetime, saying that he came as Sri Ram, Sri Krishna, Shirdi Sai Baba, and will return soon after he dies (not that he uses this word!) as Prema Sai Baba”.

See also my articles:

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

The Last King of Scotland – GOD’S ORDERS and Sai Baba

Quote from my article:

Has ‘World Saviour’ Missed His Plane?

“The late Dr D.J. (Dhirubhai Jagjivandas) Gardhia, a UK citizen formerly of Uganda, who Sai Baba married, was an old acquaintance of mine. He told me at Whitefield in March or April 1998 that Sathya Sai Baba had told him that a) the present round of Gardhia’s visits was the last tour around the world he wanted Gardhia to make speaking at his specific request and b) that he would be visiting Rome, Southern California, Malaysia and the UK. Gardhia shared the same information with many, and it was published in the official UK Sai newsletter” …

But the would-be ‘Avatar’ says:

“The attributes of the Avatars are beyond human comprehension…. Rama and Krishna were ever youthful. Have you ever seen a picture of Rama or Krishna with grey hair?….. Usually old people have wrinkles on their faces … I do not have any signs of old age. (loud applause). There is not a single wrinkle on My face”. Sanathana Sarathi, October, 2002. See

Sathya Sai Baba’s Tips To Keep Ageing Away

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Further Resources – ‘Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed’ at http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com

Sathya Sai Baba Birthday Celebrations

Posted by robertpriddy on October 29, 2008

Sai Baba’s Mission to Save India

Posted on July 12, 2008

Sai Baba’s health – miracle or self-sacrifice?

Posted on July 11, 2008

82nd Birthday of Sathya Sai Baba

Posted on November 22, 2007

Ageing and collapse in Sai Baba’s health

Posted on August 22, 2007