V.P.B. Nair. B.Premanand. R.Priddy: Sai Baba Bedroom Killings

The more media, institutional, academic and other third party investigators become aware of the sheer extent of the evidence of criminal cover up by successive Indian governments over the years of the Puttaparthi police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom - the better.

Libel and Slander Replace Due and Proper Third Party Investigation

Researchers will see that what has regretably too often fallen to the lot of former devotees, and also other critics of Sai Baba (most notably B.Premanand), should have been investigated according to well-laid canons of independent, fully accountable probes by government, parliament, police, judicary, media and so on.

Instead, there has been, from Sathya Sai Baba ‘down’, the attempt to  ridicule, demean, and slander those many former Sai devotees from countries right round the world who have attempted to raise questions properly to be asked - when serious and sustained allegations are made - of any organization.

The way in which both certain top leaders and various rank-and-file members of the Sathya Sai Organization have covertly reacted in supporting attacks on former devotees on the Internet and elsewhere is light years away from the spirituality they preach. Those who have been so profoundly and viciously slandered and libeled gave decades of deep devotion and service, only to be, virtually from the moment they began to raise questions demonized.

By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

This culpability of foremost Sathya Sai Officials, and also rank-and-file members of the Sathya Sai Organization, for covertly supporting scurrilous attacks against former devotees and other Sai Baba critics on the Internet and beyond is now being documented, as for example:

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. Here is a quote from that document:

Two semi-official pro-Sai web sites - saibabaofindia.com/ and saibabalinks.org/ - which could not operate without the help of central officials of the Sathya Sai Organization, Radio Sai Global Harmony and Sai ashrams, have links to websites which libel all former members who have spoken out. Such links reveal the obvious inability of Sai representatives in these groups to reply honestly and cogently to any of the many published allegations about Sai Baba made by those who were long respected members, in some cases prominent leaders, of his international organization. Furthermore, some members link to extremist web sites which have as their primary agenda contrived attempts at character assassination of ex-followers who present critical views. The most prominent of such sites are examined here and here.

See a list (by no means exhaustive) of typical depradations of those Sathya Sai Baba forces (and those caught up in other cults) who claim to be involved in spirituality: Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment. See also, Cultic Depersonalization or Demonization of Dissenters

The one-hour BBC dcumentary, The Secret Swami (2004) on Sathya Sai Baba, is compelling, and was the work of more than seven intensive months. Its scope was, however, narrow indeed in comparison to a vast database that discloses that much else ails Puttaparthi Sai Baba and his forces such as the Prashanti Council and the International Sathya Sai Organization.

The Indian Government and Police Cover Up of Killings in Sai Baba’s Bedroom

Even so, The Secret Swami reveals much, including information about gruesome Puttaparthi police killings in Sai Baba’s bedroom on June 6, 1993.

Many Indian journalists and editors and others know of the profound extent of the cover up by the then powerful Home Minister S.B. Chavan, and central, Andhra Pradesh State and local governments. It is a pity that very few have had the courage to speak out publicly on the issue, as has former Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary V.P.B. Nair, who was in office at the time of the killings. It is a sad commentary that very few had the courage in speaking out displayed by those such as Nair and B. Premanand. See the BBC Film Clip of V.P.B. Nair making his statement

Sathya Sai Baba and Chief Officals Caught in Covering Up

The BBC shot more than 80 hours of footage. It saw the impressive line-up of former devotee witnesses from various countries and, correspondingly, the sheer degree of cover up by Sai Baba’s officials. Consequently, the producers, Eamon Hardy and David Savill, obtained from the top Executives of the BBC permission to use the terribly sparingly-used resort of a hidden camera. They were able to get such a noble and spiritual glimpse of the Sai Baba’s world head Goldstein as THIS! Or, should you prefer to see a beatific piece of moving BBC footage of Sai Baba’s main man (or heavenly messenger?!), see THIS!

Officials included  Sathya Sai Central Trust Secretary, K. Chakravarthy, and Sathya Sai Organization World Chairman, Dr Michael Goldstein of Covena, California, USA. As have other major media organizations, the BBC withstood attempts to silence it by extremely high-ranking officials of Sai Baba’s outfit. Canada’s national broadcaster CBC was waylaid by hundreds of phone calls and emails by Sathya Sai Baba devotees, both before and after the screenings of the documentary in Canada. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program host said on air:

“We stand by the professionalism of our BBC colleagues”.

See my review (not in some respects favourable) of The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ - A Revision. NOTE: At the foot of this article, there are links to video footage that you can access both on broadband and dialup. See also my articles:

Probed On Male Sex Abuse, Sai Baba Evicts BBC TV Team

Indian Minister Shields Sai Baba on BBC television

BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

Serial Sex Molestation and Bedroom Killings. But Much More

Serial Sex Molestation and Bedroom Killings. But Much More

Guru Sex Abuse Testimony To BBC - After Years of Silence

India A Mature Democracy? BBC Probes

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

Criticism of Sai Baba No Reflection On Hinduism

Some Key Cultic Responses To Critics

Serial Sex Molestation and Bedroom Killings. But Much More

Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List 

Gurubusting Sathya Sai Baba

 

Some Further Resources

“Murders in Sai Baba’s Bedroom” by B. Premanand. Price India Rs. 400/-, Overseas US $40/- (free postage). Publ. by B. Premanand. 11/7 Chettipalayam Road, Podnadur. 641 023 Tamil Nadu, India

B. Premanand Online Articles

see Wikipedia ‘Basava Premanand’
Massive sabotage try by Sai. Org person foiled !!!!!
Summary: Key Points on the Sai Baba Murders
Indian official tries to conceal facts
Sexual Abuse, healing, or oil anointing?
Sexual abuse, Gerald Moreno etc. part two !
On Alaya Rahm’s testimonies against Sai Baba
Murders issue - a defamatory critic rebutted.
Further rebuttals about the murders
Conclusive rebuttal about the murders - plus
Conclusive final rebuttal on the murders
Concerning my reputation & writings (1 2 3 4 5 )
Further refutation of Moreno’s obfuscations
Unfounded allegations & an anon. letter
Part Four on the ‘Betrayal’ letter
Baseless allegations about a letter refuted
BBC’s ‘This World’ article on Basava Premanand

Articles by Robert Priddy

See Wikipedia article under ‘Robert Priddy’. He was founder member of Sathya Sai Organization, Norway. Office-bearer Oslo Sai Centre 1983. Chairman from 1987 while acting national contact-person of the Sathya Sai Organisation, Norway 1987-2000.  Retired academic, Philosophy and Social Science, University of Oslo. Robert Priddy was for many years a close and trusted friend of (Late) V.K. Narasimhan, one of India’s great newspaper editors, and editor, following  Professor N. Kasturi, of Sai Baba’s official magazine Sanathana Sarathi.

Sathya Sai Says: “Why fear when I am here?”. On the Events of June 6, 1993 - Murders in Sai Baba’s Private Quarters

More Concerning The 1993 Murders In Prashanthi Mandir

Excerpts from newspaper reports with information concerning the murders in Sai Baba’s vicinity at Prashanthi Nilayam of 6-6-1993

The Unresolved, Covered-up 1993 Murders in Sathya Sai Baba’s Bedroom Revisited

Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom Murders

A convenient coverage of many of the issues is at Robert Priddy’s blogsite: http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com. See,  Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom Murders

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. 

Part 4. Part 5.

 

 

The Guru Trap. Will India Be Forever Trapped?

Tehelka is regarded by many observers as one of few newspapers in India which can show some investigate clout and courage. It has sustained tremendous pressure by Indian governments and other power brokerage forces in India. Below is an excerpt from Tehelka, which points the need for India to come clean and act decisively about her frequent cultivation and protection of nefarious gurus. Sathya Sai Baba gets a reference.

Some Related articles at http://barrypittard.wordpress.com

Indian Gurus Stifle India’s Chance To Excel 

Why Might There Be Religious and Political Disconnects?

P.N. Bhagwati, India’s Ex-Chief Justice: Wild, Reckless Claims

Renowned Indian Editor VKN. Diary and Letter Scans Reveal

NOTE: The Tehelka article reference to UNESCO involvement, in which it, along with the University of Flinders, Australia, backed out of a major Sai Baba led international education conference, is available HERE, and related is my article: BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

For the full story clink on the Tehelka story title:

THE HUB
 
Holy ghost! Unholy fathers
Three godmen in one month, charged for raping, killing. Gullible victims, a society steeped in spirituality. The gory trail.

By Chinmayee Manjunath

 In the past month, two godmen have been charged of sexual molestation. Swami Premananda in Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu has been accorded life imprisonment and Swami Gnyanachaitanya in Kottakal, Kerala was arrested and is now on bail. These are just additions to a list of famous names, accused of similar charges. Chandraswami. Sathya Sai Baba. Yet, in a society steeped in the spiritual, no amount of sordid cases seems to taint the lure of ochre ….

“There is no spirit of critical inquiry in our society,” says Sanal Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalists Association in New Delhi. “People want to surrender their problems to godmen and believe them to be supernatural. They don’t question them. There is an element of fear also.” Dr Mathew Chandrankunnel, Centre for Study of World Religions, Bangalore adds, “It’s the fatalistic attitude. People might be disturbed by what these swamis do but accept it as part of their fate” …..

The Sathya Sai Baba, despite sordid allegations of sexual abuse and a boycott by unesco, continues to have the powerful falling at his feet.

“When people need solace, they believe anything associated with spirituality,” says Edamaruku. This is, perhaps, linked with the mirage of instant gratification. Rising trp ratings of religious shows on TV are indicative of this. Praying to an unseen, silent god pales when compared to talking to a swami who can do something immediately.

Hazards For Abuse Survivors Both Timid and Bold

Many abuse survivors are afraid to speak out.

Sai Baba’s proxy defenders on the Internet and elsewhere make the most of this difficulty. They say there have been no prosecutions of Sai Baba. Yet it often takes years or decades before survivors can come to terms with what happened to them.  

Hazards Of Brave Abuse Survivors

 

Even those few ready to face the public with the facts can often be in no position to litigate. This is because of lack of funds, time, energy, or family or close friends to support them in an intelligent and genuine manner.

In one case (See 1. under Further Resources) which should never have failed, a pro bono lawyer let his client down badly and was not proactive enough to field excellent witnesses who stood ready - indeed at various kinds of personal sacrifice - to testify.

Problems of Litigation Acute

In any case, litigation is always an uncertain, costly and often extremely drawn-out process, especially in sex abuse cases where the success rate is still far lower than in most other common crimes.

Sai Baba Heavily Protected In India.

Added to these huge obstacles, Sathya Sai Baba enjoys (as he has done for many decades) powerful protection from the Indian Government, judiciary and other power echelons from any prosecution, as attempts to bring him to book in the Supreme Court of India and High Court of Andhra Pradesh have amply demonstrated. (See 2. 3. and 4. below)

Further Resources

1. Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America - Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family

2. Sai Baba Protected By The Supreme Court Of India

The archive at this link contains a document with court proof - contrary to assertions of Sai Baba’s proxy defenders on the Internet - that a case was in fact brought. One of India’s top advocates, Kamini Jaiswal, took the case on behalf of Hari Sampath, and she and her assisting Counsel Prashant Kumar and Gaurav Agarwal and their client had to suffer the ignominy of a kangaroo court presided over by the profoundly compromised  judges: S.P. Barucha, A.S. Anand, G.B. Patnaik (or G.B. Pattnaik), and R.C. Lahoti. Each one of these went on to become Chief Justice of India. Their CJ at the time was P.N. Bhagwati, a very active member of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, well known for keeping a damper on Sai Baba scandals over many years. As a number of us know personally, when the legal notes for this case are shown in eminent legal quarters where mature democratic principles much more cohere, the lawyers are disgusted! We shall share the as yet unpublished details of this case with responsible media, legal authorities or academic researchers.

3. See my Corrupt Indian Judges Stonewall Case Vs Sai Baba. In 1986, a case B. Premanand brought in the Andhra Pradesh High Court shows a judge’s clear violation of India’s secular legal system. Judge Y.V.Anjaneyulu (who just happened to be a Sai Baba devotee!) pronounced,

“An article or ornament materialized from air in a split second by the use of spiritual powers or otherwise cannot be said to be made, manufactured, prepared or processed within the meaning of section 11 of the Gold Control Act”

See also, Satya Sai Baba and the Gold Control Act, by B. Premanand, 1986

4. My reader may be curious (or could simply guess) as to the outcome of the following. The news article is from the Deccan Herald, May 11, 1999:

“Hyderabad Nov 4: Justice G Raghu Ram of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday admitted a writ petition seeking initiation of criminal prosecution against the doctors of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi in Anantapur district alleging malpractices regarding the transplantation of kidney”

For the kidney donation scandal, See material HERE 

Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment

Discussions with activists from other movements of exposure of corrupt gurus are revealing. The various types of comparison between our separate experiences fall thick and fast. Those who speak out have typically and intensively undergone:     

• threats of injury or death
• cyber and other forms of stalking
• vilification, demonization, libels, character assassination
• attacks on privacy and attempts at muckracking
• attempts at intimidation by threats of various kinds, including those aimed at media who investigate the allegations
• shunning or sometimes harassment by former fellow followers
• mixed falsification and concealment by leaders to the rank-and-file of the testimony of those who have dissented
• dereliction of the duty-of-care by organization leaders
• gross distortions of words, intentions and actions of those who speak out
• frequent branding of dissenters as ‘liars’
• putting worst case interpretations on statements and situations, without considering alternative explanations
• failure to understand, or at other times deliberate failure to acknowledge, why in many cases replies cannot be given to questions aimed at dissenters (e.g., security, individual or family sensitivities, knowledge that whatever is stated, attackers will use it for their own ends, sometimes devious, sometimes simply blinded)
• ignoring the points being made, leaping on peripherals and ignoring essentials
•  making extremely improper inferences by extrapolation and decrying of dissenters as e.g., perverts, anti-Semitic, fascists, drunkards, Hindu hating, Christian fundamentalists, liars, hallucinators, addicted to drugs, etc
• the lumping of all dissenters, as though they are perfectly co-ordinated or speak with one voice at all times (The Aristotelian ‘law of the undistributed middle’ - the confusion of the logical operators of ‘all’ and ’some’ - is frequently violated)
• complicity by organization leaders, of both high and lower rank, in standing back and allowing proxy defenders of a guru to attack dissenters, while secretly ensuring that legal or other information or funding is passed to the proxies, and turning a blind eye to devotees who stalk, harass, and defame those who speak out or, more often, covertly assist those who do.

All of this proceeds despite the knowledge that dissenters have spent long years of dedication, service and sacrifice in their former cause, and who are known in their professions, trades and communities at large as persons of integrity, sacrificial service in noble causes, kindness and decency.

The Sharing of Experiences With Those Abused By Other Leaders

In discussions with those involved in other abuse exposures (sometimes very usefully conducted via webcam via a service like Skype), discussants have often not had to end our sentences. This is because of the great similarity of experience of the crimes, dirty tricks, cover ups, and shocking vilification of those who raise their voices out of conscience and deepest concern. The recognition-of-situation factor is sky-high, and tragedy, betrayal and - that greatest of emotional allies and sublime social lubricant - humor are able to be deeply and spontaneously shared.

Further Resources

A selection of closely-related articles on http://barrypittard.wordpress.com follows:

Some Key Cultic Responses To Critics

Probed On Male Sex Abuse, Sai Baba Evicts BBC TV Team

Cost Of Cover Ups Can Far Exceed Hoped-for Benefits

Exiting A Top International Cult. A Sai Baba Experience

The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory

Sexual Abuse And Cover-up

Corrupt Indian Judges Stonewall Case Vs Sai Baba

If Not For Whistleblowers

Cultic Depersonalization or Demonization of Dissenters

Caught In One of History’s Most Powerful Cults (Parts 1-4)

Indian Gurus Stifle India’s Chance To Excel

Is Humanity One Big Cult?

Sai Baba. Some Dissenting Themes and Resources

Public Petition On Sathya Sai Baba (1)

There is a Public Petition calling for official probing of Sai Baba and his Sathya Sai Organization. (See website details at the end of this post).

The JUST (Just Seekers of Truth) petition is presented by a globally networked group of former followers of Sathya Sai Baba. In the ranks of both devotees and dissenters, there are those who say that Sai Baba is history’s most powerful guru. Some critics regard him as one of history’s arch deceivers - highly charismatic, highly flawed. He may brilliantly inspire good social uplift works, which is why so many earnest and good people are attracted to him, but profoundly conceals, along with his core servitors who keep an vice-like grip on his global organization, what is morally loathsome and criminal.

Allegations Far Exceed Issue of Sexual Molestation

At first, the overwhelming thrust of the Sathya Sai Baba exposé related to the perfectly normal and profound human shock at the disclosure of threats to the innocence of the young - in this case males. As investigation proceeded, and with rapid swelling of the ranks of leave-takers from Sai Baba, the volume of other types of evidence and allegation arose. In retrospect, it was to the Australian scholar and former devotee Brian Steel’s credit that from quite early he insisted to some of us that there were also other and formidable types of anomaly and evidence for wrongdoings. One of the strengths of Steel’s work was to expose many grave inconsistencies in Sai Baba’s discourses over a considerable time. He also, for example, highlighted the dubious nature of many alleged predictions of Sai Baba’s so-called ‘Advent’, and revealed Sai Baba’s own, and his movement’s generation and propagation of demonstrable myths that have come to be believed as truths by his devotees. These myths are typically sustained via his costly, so-called spiritual museums - ostensibly respectful of major world Faiths but which glorify Sai Baba beyond all. A small selection Brian Steel articles I have personally found useful are listed below under Further Reading.

Sai Attack on Integrity of Petition Authors

I was personally involved in the drafting of the JuST Petition, to the final product of which 32 signatories gave their contact details publicly. It was but an early example of how cautious networked Sai Baba former devotees have to be - if they speak out.

Value of Speaking Out Great But Cost Is High

However, conscience demands that former devotees who have personally investigated the claims of many primary witnesses speak out. We face an extremely powerful, wealthy and influential global organization. Therefore, one must, sadly, expect the distortions and vilification of those who, in the name of Sathya Sai Baba, would presume to defend him with tactics of a kind that deprives the Internet of civil decency and self-condemns any organization calling itself spiritual. Our contact with those who have exposed other famous gurus reveals copious examples of the same sinister types of defensive behaviours by those who cover up their gurus’ corruptions.

The Eternal Disjunct Between Practice and Precept

Strange indeed it is that Sai Baba’s much vaunted pillars are: Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, Love and Non-violence (Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema, Ahimsa)

The merest glance at the search engines reveals the shocking language used to constantly attack and slander former devotees and other critics who have called for proper investigation of the many, varied and most serious allegations facing Sathya Sai Baba and his organization.

In stark contrast to the case of the few hotheads among former devotees who seem to relish Internet clashes, the overwhelming number of former devotees are the majority of those we have long known  in the Sathya Sai Organization who utterly disdain such behaviour.

Sai Baba has warned his devotees, via his Sai Center leaders throughout the world, not to look at the dissenting views contained on the Internet. As his organization is extremely controlled from ‘above’, it is difficult for dissenters to message to the more honest leaders and rank-and-file that the truth is not being told to them.

Cyber Combattants - The Unedifying in Full Pursuit of the Unedifying 

The best we have been able to do with former devotee hotheads is (many times!) privately and patiently to prevail upon these very few irresponsible individuals to stop altogether or else to greatly moderate their language.

Networked former devotees are not a cult, and believe strongly in working on the basis (for all that it can be demanding on international coordinators at times) of consultation and consensus. On a rare occasion, there is the case where an individual’s exceptionally good commentary has sometimes been sadly blemished by returns to nasty name-calling language and other immature self-indulgences. This shabby behaviour is to be deplored, from whatever side it may come. At the same time, however, the rest of us refuse to act like some sort of police heavies. Even if we wished to do so, we are often too busy with life’s many other calls to go hunting down unseemly comments amid the vast output that the Sai Baba issue has provoked. Nor is the reading of toxic writings good for digestion, mental or physical. Thank heaven for better things to do, because they help to balance and beautify life.

Core Sai Cult Leaders Fail Their Own Rank-and-file

One of the foremost untruths of the Sathya Sai Organization is that various of its leaders know extremely well that there has been a formidable exit of excellent members from it around the world, and that those, like Dr G. Venkataraman, the Deputy Chairman of the world Sathya Sai Organization, a rare case of a Sai Baba leader who is allowed to write publicly (if  limitedly) in relation to the allegations, have profoundly defamed the many wonderful and decent people who have left it. (This should not to obscure that there are wonderful and decent people remaining in it). For Robert Priddy’s and Barry Pittard’s four-part article, which give further important hotlinks to other material, dissecting a seriously defamatory article by Venkataraman - see, Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed.

Once they have identified themselves, former devotees and other critics of Sai Baba are attacked, slandered and demeaned - absolutely breaking teaching after teaching of Sai Baba, who forever speaks of love, compassion, peacefulness, and forebearance.

Further Reading

1. The JuST Petiton is HERE

2. Brian Steel’s writings are typically exacting and detailed, and require, if any response were at all reasonable, a careful, ruthlessly honest reply by any writer of comparable integrity. That no such Sai Baba writer of intellectual note has emerged to challenge what Steel has written, makes it all the more deplorable that he has been assailed by Sai Baba forces whose one métier is the superficial rush to carping judgement. Dr G. Venkataraman, the former Indian nuclear scientist and Sai Baba’s head of propaganda organ Sai Global Harmony via WorldSpace Satellite Radio Service, who is beloved of sweeping (and untrue) generalizations, seems incapable of uttering response, reasoned or otherwise, to any part of Brian Steel’s many articles, so freely available on his extensive and highly researched website, the Index page of which is HERE.

Select articles by Brian Steel

B.D. Steel is a semi-retired linguist specializing in Spanish language and translation research, and the author of several advanced textbooks and dictionaries. During his twelve years as a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba, he compiled two hagiographies which were published in USA by Samuel Weiser, Inc and in New Delhi.

The Truth Resuscitated: Suppressed Evidence Reappears
(A Brief Update on the Packaging of SSB’s Discourses)
Discrepancies in the Official Sathya Sai Baba Story: The Early Years
An Annotated Bibliography for Research on Sathya Sai Baba. Part 2. Work Critical of Sathya Sai Baba and his Mission by non-devotees (including ex-devotees)

Robert Priddy (5). Reports Sai Baba Ashram Donation Scams

Robert Priddy, retired academic from the University of Oslo, was the head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Norway for fifteen years, and a frequent contributer of articles to Sanathana Sarathi, Sai Baba’s official magazine distributed worldwide.

He tells me that he was in India with Sai Baba nine times since 1984, amounting to well over one year in all, and had five long interviews. On each occasion, there were also private interviews as distinct from group ones, as well as many contacts during darshan (when Sai Baba walks among a seated crowd of many thousands).

In Face of Ashram Scams, Sai Baba Says: “What can I do? My hands are tied”

He relates that he and his wife Reidun donated thousands of pounds sterling to the Sathya Sai Central Trust. However, while still devotees, they were to learn from well-informed insiders that donated money is regularly subject to much waste and embezzlement, despite Sai Baba’s repeated and unconvincing denials.

There are many Sai Baba devotees who know perfectly well of these scams. When some have spoken to Sai Baba he has replied e.g., “What can I do? My hands are tied”. It is heartrending to hear of the sufferings of those who have been defrauded. Such accounts keep on coming.

Process of Spurious Rationalization By Scammed Devotees

The scammed devotees’ reaction (it was mine, too) is, for example, to think that somehow ‘Swami will guide’ or ‘Baba is testing us’, ‘Baba says that he has some evil souls around him and that they are put there to test our sadhana’ (spiritual development), and other such rationalizations. In some cases, the issue is very considerable, such that many devotees from various countries are aware of most shocking irregularities in the ashram’s handling of large payments and other arrangements concerning the purchase of apartments with the ashram. Very shaken devotees tell of being denied access to what they had properly and legally purchased. Still others relate that although they are recognized as the owners, the apartments are used in any way the ashram management likes - which prevents an owner or other members of his or her family, or fellow members of their Sai Center or zone or other close Sai devotee friends from using the appartment when the owner is not there.

Cognitive Dissonance and Cults Are Inseparable

This rationalization process is of course the psychological state of denial or handling of conflicted information, ‘cognitive dissonance’). It has been described classically by the social psychologist Leon Festinger, but by many others in various forms of psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy. See, Wikipedia reference ‘Cognitive Dissonance’. Robert Priddy has written about some aspects of the Sai Baba ashrams donor scams HERE.

Further Reading

Robert Priddy’s very extensive website is HERE:
He blogs frequently at his blogsite ‘Sathya Sai Baba Exposed’, HERE
His article My Credo is HERE
Wikipedia entry under ‘Robert Priddy’.
The Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed, a four-Part article co-authored with Barry Pittard, dissecting views of Dr G. Venkataraman (Sai Baba’s head of propaganda and deputy world chairman) antipathetic to those of organized former devotees, whom Venkataraman has badly misrepresented, and demonstrably defamed.

Robert Priddy (3) Friendship With V.K. Narasimhan

Robert Priddy says that he found some devastating facts from one of Sai Baba’s very closest confidants in the 1980s and 1990s.

This was V.K. Narasimhan (d. March 2000). This remarkable man, whose history of standing courageously up (many fine citizens were flung into jail!) as a newspaper Editor to Indira Gandhi during the 21-month 1975–1977 Emergency was known and is still remembered with admiration throughout India, and well beyond.

Friendship With VKN Was Worth Cherishing

Narasimhan, Editor of the Sai Baba official magazine, Sanathana Sarathi, that is distributed worldwide, was a warm mutual friend of the both of us, although Priddy’s and my paths did not cross. VKN, as he was with much affection known, was earlier ex-Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Express group of newspapers, and widely regarded as very upright, and one of the few who were not fauning lickspittles around Sai Baba. He was, although an outstanding public speaker, in many ways a very private man. He would not in any other circumstance than admiration and trust have shared years of trusted friendship with Robert Priddy.

A Top Indian Official Tells BBC Television: “Absolute Cold Blooded Murder”

Robert Priddy relates how, on the direct initiative of Sai Baba’s younger brother and multi millionaire property developer, Janaki Ramiah (now deceased) and other officials of the ashram and Central Trust, the police were blackmailed into executing in cold blood in Sai Baba’s own rooms, four intruders who had killed two of his attendants. No less than a former Andhra Pradesh former Home Secretary, V.P.B. Nair, has described the killings in the BBC’s television documentary The Secret Swami as “absolute cold blooded murder”. View and hear Nair speaking to interviewer Tanya Datta, in this film clip HERE.

These intruders could easily have been captured without murdering them. Sai Baba was nearby as events unfolded, hour by hour, and yet - a virtual ‘omnipotent’ dictator within his independent ashram township, at least - did not lift a finger to stop the deaths. These he said afterwards in a discourse he knew beforehand would happen!

Chilling Whisperings Under Less Than Spiritual Temple Pillars

Priddy recounts how VKN shared this information with him with a lowered voice. Robert has remarked to me in various connections over time that his own subsequent extensive investigations have confirmed Narasimhan’s account. He says that VKN informed him of a discussion to which he was witness between Janaki Ramiah (Sai Baba’s younger brother) and the particularly powerful then Home Minister of India (S.B. Chavan, a Sai Baba devotee) who congratulated the brother on his actions in dealing with the matter, whereupon they laughed together over the words ‘Dead men tell no tales.’ The account is spine-chilling.

Priddy, who kept a detailed journal during these years, has given a long account of his very close friendship through a decade with V.K. Narasimhan and what they shared in hundreds of hours of private conversation, HERE

Further Reading

Wikipedia entry under: Robert Priddy

My Credo

His Blogsite

His Website

On the V.P.B. Nair BBC interview, See my article:
Indian Ex Top Official Dogs Sai Baba On BBC. ‘Cold-blooded Murder’

And more on the BBC 2 This World Documentary:
The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ - A Revision 
Probed On Male Sex Abuse, Sai Baba Evicts BBC TV Team
India A Mature Democracy? BBC Probes

P.N. Bhagwati, India’s Ex-Chief Justice: Wild, Reckless Claims

P.N. Bhagawati, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, a key figure on the Sathya Sai Central Trust (India) has also long been on the Board of Directors of The Times of India. 

In a joint public letter (December 2001), Bhagwati along with the former Prime Minister of India of the right wing BJP, A.B. Vajpayee, and another former Chief Justice of India, Ranganath Mishra, and three other prominent leaders wrote a public letter stating that contentions of Sai Baba’s dissenters represent a:

“wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests and people against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba”.

See my own responses after this issue broke, HERE

“Wild and Reckless”?

What then of an Indian Prime Minister and former Chief Justices and others (one now Home Minister in the current Manmohan Singh Government) who proffer no evidence that they, in a transparent and accountable way, have investigated any of the substantive allegations against Sai Baba?

P.N. Bhagwati - supposedly a model of the dispensation of Justice - does a profound injustice to hundreds of good and decent former Sai Baba devotees from many countries who have, on the strictest ethical principle, left Sai Baba and his worldwide Sathya Sai Baba Organization.

(Dr Goldstein pic from: The Secret Swami, BBC). What? Not looking wild and reckless?!

The leaders of this organization, such as the world chairman Dr Michael Goldstein of Covina, California, USA, know perfectly well the excellent standing of many former devotees who have attempted to bring attention to the allegations. This is both from the point of view of their role when still members and of the high esteem they have attracted in their professions, trades, education institutions and wider communities.

Yet P.N. Bhagwati and the other signatories wrote of “wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests and people against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.”

History will judge very harshly of the failure of those blinded by their devotion so greatly as to be incapable of exercising requisite ethics, sensitivity and applied skills and processes to investigate serious and repeated allegations. These have been asserted by scrupulous and conscientious individuals who have, indeed, investigated the allegations with probity, moral responsibility and a natural compassion.

Why the great anomaly? Why should the Sathya Sai Organization and a few public figures who support Sai Baba not be subject to the same accountability criteria that are now best practice in countless organizations?

We Are Open to Bona Fide Investigators

Many individuals worldwide have, in varying degrees, been alienated from Sai Baba and his Sathya Sai Organization from which they expected to see spirituality and compassion in action. In some cases they have been terribly traumatized by their experiences of Sai Baba and his core leaders, whom they see as having grossly derelicted their duty-of-care for members. Therefore, they are not likely to be too open to those who are aggressive, name-calling, and who fail to observe proper ethical and professional canons of enquiry.

In fact, our submissions to various media, government, civic, academic, law enforcement and other authorities are submitted with the utmost responsibility.  For those of them who are ready to act with integrity, sensitivity and care, we provide as a further mark of good faith, and on the basis of strict privacy, the contact details of those in outstanding, in some cases eminent, positions in government, law, media, education, psychology, medicine, etc., who know the facts.

As well, we are able to coordinate personal and telephonic, and where practicable, contact with articulate individuals and families - and also others not intellectually articulate but who are nevertheless also poignantly moving in their accounts - who are ready to share, in a proper atmosphere, their harrowing experiences of sexual abuse by Sai Baba and other wrongdoings. These are very far from confined to those like the Rahm family (BBC and DR, Denmark’s national television and radio broadcaster), who have already shared their experiences in the media and elsewhere.

We have always been ready to to assist investigative journalists from quality major media in various parts of the world, as well as important religious and civic institutions, and, for example, academics who are either researching allied issues themselves or supervising students who are doing so.

We also have provision of highly qualified professional counselors.

In short, we are able, with the strictest accountability, to provide compelling credentials, for those who are far removed from attacking, slandering and maligning the many witnesses who attempt to tell (not always particularly coherently and yet often most movingly) of their extremely painful and traumatic experiences at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba, and of his also profoundly compromised officials and other supporters.

Related Reading and Viewing

Indian Minister Shields Sai Baba on BBC TV

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ - a Revision

See this video clip. Here, BBC footage clearly exposes one of the then Vajpayee Government’s most powerful Ministers, Murali Manohar Joshi, follower of Sai Baba, as he angrily bullies and slipperily evades the interviewer Tanya Datta, who asks him entirely reasonable questions.

This Link is worth a look. India’s foremost Rationalist B.Premanand (later copying the exchange to his newsletter The Indian Skeptic, Vol. 19. No. 7 15-11-2006) wrote a series of letters in 2006 to top echelon Government of India officials, including police, referring back to the period when A.B. Vajpayee was in office. The letters attempt to establish a) whether the provenance of the letter ostensibly written by Vajpayee and other in defense of Sai Baba was true and b) whether, if it was, there had been any proper investigations of allegations against Sai Baba for sexual abuse of young males. The essence is that, as usual - since Sai Baba has for decades been heavily protected by Indian governments irrespective of what regime is in power - he got grand obstruction. Of course, one of the great successes of Premanand’s “failures” in his tireless efforts with power structures is to reveal the billowing smokescreens that rise as soon as accountability issues are probed.

List of signatories to letter supporting Sai Baba

(a Wikipedia linked copy of the joint letter is HERE)

A.B. Vajpayee
(then) Prime Minister of India
P.N. Bhagawati
Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India
Ranganath Mishra
(then) Chair Person, National Human Rights Commissioner of India
Formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India
Najma Heptulla
(then) President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union; UNDP Distinguished Human Development Ambassador
Shivraj V. Patil
(Details as signatory: Member of Parliament, India; Formerly of the Lok Sabha & Union Minister. However Patil is now Home Minister in the Government of Manmohan Singh, who himself has shown strong partiality to Sathya Sai Baba)

Note On The Provenance of the Letter:

The good provenance of the letter can scarcely be in doubt. Clearly none of those whose signatures it bears are of a character too timid to wish to set aright matters concerning their position in regard to Sathya Sai Baba.

Former devotee websites did of course carry the letter. But good provenance (in this respect) is the official online Sai Radio Listener’s Journal run by Dr G. Venkataraman, the Deputy World Chairman of the Sathya Sai Organisation and Director of Sai Global Radio. The relevant page contains the Vajpayee et al letter - the provenance of which has never been disputed by any of the signatories. The link is HERE. Page down to the subheading: ‘Mr Vajpayee et al Counter The Lies Through A Public Statement’:

There is also a Wikipedia citation in the article under ‘Sathya Sai Baba’ which links to a copy of the letter at a Wikirefs page HERE. The Wiki article states:

“In an official letter released to the general public, in December 2001 … (the signatories) “called the allegations against Sathya Sai Baba “wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests” and that they “unequivocally condemned” the allegations as “baseless and malicious”.

Robert Priddy (2). The Protection of the Young and Innocent

Disaffection from a powerful belief system is often a slowgoing process, particularly when there has been adherence to a charismatic figure. And this, moreover, when many followers experience states difficult to understand for those who undergo them as it is for even sympathetic scientists. Going on then, to expose to the public an institution’s and guru’s corruptions and other major shortcomings, no matter how determined the activist, is an often an extremely uphill journey.

This is a note on but a small aspect of the work of a valued colleague in the exposure of Sai Baba and his worldwide cult, Robert Priddy, now a retired lecturer in philosophy and social science from the University of Oslo. He was a long-term follower of Sai Baba and national leader of the Sathya Sai Organization. He makes the big effort, and stays the long haul, no matter the strenous demands, as a duty of conscience.

Protecting the Young First Imperative

The overwhelming concern of many disaffected, now former, Sai Baba followers was - as it is for adults the world over - the protection of the young and innocent. Comparing notes with Robert Priddy over time has only reinforced my repeated discovery that disaffection from a powerful movement is a slowgoing process, not least for those who are investigative by bent and training. (See, Robert Priddy (1). Erosion of Trust in Sai Baba Over Time).

Priddy, former head of Sai Baba’s Norwegian organization, and I were both strongly commited to work inspired by Sai Baba - he for nearly two decades, and I for 25 years. He ended his affiliation with the Sathya Sai Organization in 2000. My own leave-taking of Sai Baba occurred in October 1999, after my having been lengthily blind to quite a number of situations that for the less blinded would have been warning flags of something deeply amiss. I now begun to contact primary witnesses and/or their families in various parts of the world, with their reports that Sai Baba sexually abused boys and young men, and other allegations of profound misconduct - in regard to him, and - a later development - to certain Staff in his educational establishments. There was repeated evidence of cover up by leaders close to him, and by core leaders of his wordwide Sathya Sai Organization. Ever and again came the gutwrenching accounts, and these from people not remotely connected with each other.

Opposing Cover up That Is On A Grand Scale

This massive cover up prevails  irrespective of which political forces have ruled India at any given time, and which protect Sai Baba. Apart from our own researchers, of whom Robert Pridddy is one of several, information highly adverse to Sai Baba and his ashrams has long been known to professionals in Indian journalism, police, government and politics. See, for example, my articles:  Indian Ex Top Official Dogs Sai Baba On BBC. ‘Cold-blooded Murder’, and