Reply To Sathya Sai Baba Defender

A former devotee received a note from one clearly upset at dissent from Sathya Sai Baba. Its mood is fairly typical of emails former followers receive. It may be noted that, apart from a minority of former Sai devotees who don’t know their manners, there is a strong commitment among Sai Baba’s leave-takers to courtesy (just as, indeed, there is among Sai devotees too). The recipient responded as follows:

“Every group, from every land, contains those who seek the ‘tinsel and trash’. I am sad to see you single out any race, such as when you specify Westerners.

Many wonderful people, who have now left him, have spent decades in Sathya Sai Baba’s service, and in the utmost devotion and service to him, including those who held very high positions in the Sathya Sai Organisation, and they have left his side.To equate them with the voices of hatred and anger and so on simply does not state the facts.

Because some persons speak out of hatred does not mean that all former devotees do so. In the same way, it would be wrong to judge genuine Sai devotees by the hatred aimed so cruelly at those who have spoken out. It is not wrong to expect that serious allegations be aired. Will truth, or Sathya, flourish in an atmosphere of suppression and the lack of accountability? It is accountability that a great many organisations in democratic countries regard as a vital practice?

There are many former devotees who have been extremely libelled and slandered, and who have refused to deal hatefully with the matter. Most remain silent, so you will not, of course, have heard of them. It is,therefore, most inappropriate to judge of those whom you do not know. Have you, as dispassionately as you best may, attempted to read through the evidence? Is automatically damning of a different point of view a healthy thing? The abundant fact is that, although Sai Baba and his officials have sealed themselves off from normal processes of enquiry, there are many evidences of great duplicity, including of the sort that comes from examining of official Sathya Sai-related documents published over many years. There are many terribly contradictory statements, and misstatements of historical fact, as well as prophecies that have clearly not come to pass.

However one may interpret the accounts of miracles, there remains the fact that many good and decent individuals and families around the world have been profoundly shattered by what has happened in regard of their young male children, as well as other shocking experiences at the ashram.That focus on the miracles can so obscure normal and healthy concern for human beings is greatly saddening. One might have thought, given that many Sai devotees know how badly these individuals and families have been affected, that compassion would have been the first of all responses”.

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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)