China Courts Dalai Lama. Olympic Good Spirit?

The Chinese government has been making strenuous attempts to ensure a meeting with the Dalai Lama. The troubled events attending the Olympic torch relay, and international condemnation of China for her human rights record, have brought considerable pressure on the Chinese leaders to make this move. This is in marked contrast to its decades of execrating the Tibetan Buddhist leader in exile.

 

 

 

The pint-sized - although reprehensible - thuggery of violent protesters only served further to obscure the Chinese government’s monumental thuggery practised for so long. It also demonstrated one of the Dalai Lama’s difficulties - how to restrain those of his own culture who think violence is the answer. Their lack of restraint lost a priceless opportunity to gain far greater world sympathy for their cause. 

It is a great pity that the violent actions of some protesters have detracted from one of the singular facts in the world’s recent history:  the Dalai Lama, in the extremely small company of those such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, has been a great voice for peace. The Chinese government responded in the way that it so often has done with other individuals who speak out boldly on behalf of the facts. It attempted to denigrate the Dalai Lama by calling him a liar. It is a ploy extremely often and long used by totalitarian governments and by democratic leaders when there is a good chance of getting away with it.  

Rudd’s Diplomacy. Or:  Is There Anything So Dainty As An Old China Hand

My own country’s Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, for all that he spoke frankly to China of human rights concerns about her shockingly violent suppressions in Tibet, will have sore need, when dealing with many other countries, of more than his adroit diplomacy in his recent visit to China. Let us trust that he does not soon become jaded, if he is not already.

  

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd review honour guard, Beijing.

 

That Mr Rudd and the Chinese leaders almost wildly succeeded in their trade aims indicates that his outspokenness on human rights was never going to threaten the trade realpolitic at all. All his fine sentiments about China, splashily but cannily delivered in Mandarin, were always bound to have been reported in the Chinese media, just as his remarks about human rights in Tibet were forever doomed to be highly censored. An old China hand would have known this even in his sleep.

 

India Could Show Way (if she cleans her own backyard).

 

 

As India shakes herself loose of antidemocratic forces within her midst, posed by those powerful oligarchies such as Sathya Sai Baba’s cult, one can hope that a great counterweight to Communist China’s influence will swing into place. Ensuring India a place in the UN Security Council is one of the ways in which the international community can resist the impact that China

hopes, in part, to achieve by holding a successful Olympic Games. Prime MinistChina, may find it harder to play games with countries in Asia and elsewhere that have much to fear from a Communist China rampant.  

 Photos:  1. Sathya Sai Baba with former Indian President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. 2. Sathya Sai Baba in pure gold chariot

Resources

 

Envoys for China, Dalai Lama to meet Sunday

CNN. May 3, 2008.  With the outbreak in violence and the resulting crackdown, Beijing has been under intense international pressure to re-open its dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

 

When the talks were announced last week, China said it would resume meetings with representatives of the Dalai Lama in hopes the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader would use his influence to stop anti-Chinese protests that threaten to disrupt the Olympics, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported. 

The international torch relay ahead of the Olympics in Beijing was dogged along the way by protesters supporting the Free Tibet Movement. The remainder of the relay will take place within China and its territories and was in Macau on Saturday.

 

Some Articles at Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Dalai Lama: Forgiveness does not mean forgetfulness

The Guru Trap. Will India Be Forever Trapped?

Indian Minister Shields Sai Baba on BBC television

India A Mature Democracy? BBC Probes

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

Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment

Indian Gurus Stifle India’s Chance To Excel

Cultic Depersonalization or Demonization of Dissenters

 

 

Pope’s US Visit. Is US to blame for abuse crisis?

The headlines are going up: Pope blames US for abuse crisis.

Of course, we shall need to see whether his statements exactly reflect the headlines. (See BBC News reference below, Pope attacks US sex abuse record)

If they are accurate, it may appear as a type of papal and Roman Catholic hierarchy self-absolution? Surely, the responsibility needs to be taken as a whole by the ‘Captain’. There can be no blame shifting, as decent Roman Catholics themselves have attested, when they were ready to buck an incredibly powerful heirarchy in a courageous coming out against sexual abuse within their church.

A Suggestive Historical Counter-factual

Let us alter the scenario. Suppose this: that, decades ago, a Pope had said: We are getting shocking reports of sexual abuse. We shall move against this iniquity with the utmost urgency and thoroughness and compassionate professionalism - compassionate, above all, for the survivors of this great and abominable abuse. It is not to be tolerated. It would be too facile to blame the problem on any wealthy country, because the same abuses are to be found in countries rich and poor, and at every socio-cultural level.

Resources

BBC NEWS. Pope attacks US sex abuse record

April 18, 2008

‘Pope Benedict XVI has criticized US bishops for their handling of child sex scandals, saying their response to the crisis had sometimes been very poor.

He laid part of the blame for the crisis, of which he feels “deeply ashamed”, on a breakdown in US values’.

The Australian. Pope spreads pedophilia blame

April 18, 2008
‘WASHINGTON: Feted at the White House on his 81st birthday, the Pope told the US’s bishops that the scourge of clergy sex abuse had sometimes been “very badly handled” - and laid part of the blame for the scandal on the breakdown of values in American society … The US church has been racked by falling attendance at mass and financial and other difficulties in recent years, most notably the sexual-abuse scandal that has resulted in the removal of many clergy from the ministry …. Describing clerics who sexually abused children as “gravely immoral”, the Pope warned that the scourge of pedophilia “is found not only in your dioceses but in every sector of society” … Last year, 689 fresh allegations of abuse were lodged, and the church paid out $US615 million to settle child sex abuse cases involving members of the clergy ‘.

Some related Articles at Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Cult Exposure. By Their Documents Ye Shall Know Them

Australia Says ‘Sorry’. A Lesson For Sai Baba And Followers

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

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.

 

 

Cult Exposure. By Their Documents Ye Shall Know Them

Those organizations and individuals approached by the International Sathya Sai Organization may do well to look at the page just constructed by Robert Priddy. Now a retired academic from the University of Norway, he was for over fifteen years its head in Norway, until his prolonged and rigorous investigations disclosed its profound duplicity (often hidden from its rank-and-file).  He documents the Sathya Sai Organization’s (so-called!) ‘Interactive Panel’ of the 8th World Conference (November 2005)
- from [http://www.saiscotland.com/resource/misc/8thWC-QA1.htm].

Non Interactive ‘Interaction’?

The whole notion of interaction can be seen as false by any reader not enmeshed by cultic (non-) thinking. But by what – plausibly more than by the voices of critics – will the Sathya Sai Baba’s cult be exposed to the world? It is by reference to the conflicted words and actions of Sathya Sai Baba’s leaders that the profound failure of intellectual and moral integrity of his operation at large is made manifest to honest enquirers. Indeed, Robert Priddy’s main website is entitled: Sathya Sai Baba In Word And Action

By Their Documents Ye Shall Know Them

It was anciently said: ‘By their fruits ye shall know them’. Very true, and I may add:  By their documents ye shall know them. One does not contend that the leaders of the international Sathya Sai Organization are unendowed with intelligence. If anything, they have all too much of it – but it is unhappily deployed, and if unchallenged, given the group’s Croesus-like wealth,  runs the serious risk of their founder being hailed for centuries. There is, however, a feature that is of interest to those scholars and other investigators who study patterns of cultic thought and action. This factor relates to the way in which – in the worship of a charismatic figurehead – even the most ordinary practices of intellectual probity, the exercise of the most fair, democratic and reasonable processes, the faculty of moral discrimination, and indeed of commonsense itself are self-subverted, and, by powerful reinforcement, undermined by group-think. Or group-non-think. 

Of Ghostly Semi Responses, Floating Disembodied Questions, and Human Immobilization

The genuineness (and indeed perhaps an underlying anxiety) of the questions from the conference floor, as any slightly sensible person can see plainly, are in marked contrast to the evasiveness and poor general poor quality of the virtual non-responses by the top leaders in Sathya Sai Baba’s organization. They have a consummate exemplar in their sorely disfigured figurehead. You can scarcely hear the ghosts of their former, and perhaps even likeably human and vulnerable, selves. But you can hear the creaking of the haunted house, and sense the bated breaths of the frightened inhabitants, the captive audience - with a straining-at-the-leash partial awareness of severe need for reform, but unable to see far beyond the kennel to which they are bound.  The Chief ghost has them deeply troubled but immobilized, not even to bay at the moon. Their questions hang in the air like disembodied spirits, never to be communicated with. Sai Baba himself believes in, and claims he is in touch with, ghosts. Yet again is the bad fruit revealed by the self-documentation, publicly available. See, Unnatural Events In Sathya Sai Baba’s Bedroom, Told By Him, Sanathana Sarathi, June 1998, p. 142-3.

The Disappearing Ghost References. Banished by An Eery Touch No Lighter Than An Editorial Hand

Indeed, one of the ghost-vanquishing editorial hands was my own! For a few months ca. 1997-1998, I had a considerable editorial hand in Spiritual Impressions, Puttaparthi, a beautifully-produced magazine distributed worldwide. When I saw Sai Baba’s ghost references (referring to Sai Baba’s account of his seeing his mother’s ghost) in a brand new pencil-written translation by (if I recollect aright) Professor Anil Kumar, Sai Baba’s official translator, I went across the road and conferred with my dear friend (the late) V.K. Narasimhan, one of India’s great newspaper editors, then Editor of Sanathana Sarathi. Each of us censored most of the ghost references felt likely to blow the mind of rational readers, in an account which was, in any case, terribly muddled and a terrible strain on any half-compos mentis translator. Such extraordinary blunders usually get excised before they get into publications that go worldwide like Sanathana Sarathi and Spiritual Impressions. In retrospect, the flap they cause among Sai Baba’s editors and other publication staff are really quite funny. See, Brian Steel,  SB’s Discourses. More Nonsense, where Steel works, as so often, from the tell-tale documents themselves and here from (then devotee and Sai Baba’s official videographer) James Redmond’s video material from which the excisions of the magazine editors were not able to occur.  See also my, Huge Sai Baba Gaffes I quote briefly from Robert Priddy’s page - http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/10/interactive_panel.htm

Here, Robert Priddy copies, and tersely comments on, parts of a transcript of the 8th World Conference (November 2005) of the Sathya Sai Organization - noting that: 

 “the questions and answers demonstrate very well how avoidance of issues, cover-up of damaging facts and patronizing talk is the backbone of all Sathya Sai Organization conferences”.

‘(Dr David Gries) introduced the panel: Dr. Michael Goldstein, Dr. Narendra Reddy, Air Chief Marshall N. C. Suri, and Dr. William Harvey

Question 1. “Why are previous Conference recommendations and resolutions not implemented?” 

Answer 1. (Dr. Goldstein): Many recommendations and resolutions have been made. (Priddy’s comment: That does not answer the question, as usual) Suggested changes to the Charter are being considered by members of the Prasanthi Council. (Priddy: Authoritarian VIPs decide everything, in other words. Anti-democratic because it would all fall apart otherwise)

Q10. Doesn’t the Organization need to set a vision? The Organization is not addressing its sustainability. The speakers are not addressing the theme of the conference.

A10. (Dr. Michael Goldstein, international head of Sathya Sai Organization): First of all, there is no question of addressing sustainability. This organization is imbued with divinity, founded in the name of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Imbued with Love, wisdom and power insofar as we are able to come together as devotees and tap that Love, the organization is invulnerable and eternal as is Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Swami has said so.

A12. (Dr. Goldstein): Swami appointed the members of the Prasanthi Council. (Priddy: and he is a known misogynist) With regard to the panel, I thought these people would be the best to serve you. (Priddy: So it’s a man’s world for Goldstein too!) (Air Chief Marshall Suri): Men and women can relate. Our understanding of Love now is based on animal instincts, but Love should be pure (Priddy: Suri can speak for himself). Swami gives us options, take time to think about what will be correct action. Do relations have to be physical? It is the manner in which we relate to one another that becomes important. Love is different from relationships. We have the task of letting people know the difference. The problem you mention is not foreign to Indians. (Priddy: Women’s liberation may have just begun weakly in India, but certainly NOT in the Sathya Sai Organization!) …  Goldstein is the one to talk about status consciousness see here and treating people with love as his bullying behavior towards Tanya Datta of the BBC)

Q15. Heads of the Sai organization are becoming status conscious. How could this be remedied?

A15. (Dr. Goldstein): The remedy for officers who are so status conscious is to treat them with Love. (Priddy) Better to kick them all out and have genuinely spiritual leaders. Anyone who asks sensitive questions is kicked out (e.g., Leader of the Moscow Centre, Serguei Badaev), so why not also and not least these immature and often authoritarian characters. 

Further General Resources

Citizen Initiative

Recent Research on the Claims of Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed

Sathya Sai Baba In Word And Action

http://www.exbaba.com

http://www.saigurunet.com

William Aitken Fails on Prof. E. Haraldsson and Dr K. Osis

As promised, I shall take some further looks at the work of Brian Steel. See my articles: 

• A Host of Sai Baba Hagiographers

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

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

In this blogging and some upcoming ones, I shall be looking at Brian Steel’s article: Bill Aitken and Sathya Sai Baba. A Writer’s Dilemma,  on Aitken’s book, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. A Life (New Delhi, Penguin Books India, 2004. Paperback edition, 2006).

 

Aitken speaks of his book as a counterweight to “excesses of hagiography”. Steel’s textual analysis, however, reveals beyond any dispute that the book is strongly, despite its claims to the contrary, hagiographical. It isolates “headline grabbing” and superficial views contra Sai Baba, while ignoring the large body of serious criticism by former devotees and other critics that has been taken seriously by many third parties. For example, see below for clickable video material from the BBC’s The Secret Swami and DR’s Seduced. See also, my fairly extensive resource compilation, Exposure of Sai Baba: Media Source List.

 

Brian Steel criticises Bill Aitken’s work for carelessly elevating a minor player, the US parapsychologist Dr Karlis Osis, to major importance and yet leaving out of account Osis’s more relevant and well known research partner, Professor Erlandur (other spelling=Elendur)Haraldsson, author of Miracles Are My Visiting Cards. USA Title, (1988). Modern Miracles. An investigative report on psychic phenomena associated with Sri Sathya Sai Baba. New York: Ballantine Books, 304 pp. This is a work, sold in the many thousands, which Sai Baba devotees commonly - and very mistakenly - hail as ‘proving’ that his so-called miracles are all real.

 

Steel says:

“The author’s preference for Murphet’s quote about the minor participant (Osis) and his inexplicable lack of curiosity about one of the most influential books in the SSB literature is an important flaw in the research for this book, especially since Aitken fleetingly mentions Haraldsson’s book (on p. 220), but merely to recommend its coverage of miracle stories”. 

Dr E. Haraldsson, Emeritus Professor of the University of Iceland, Reykjavík, a leading academic parapsychology researcher. Incorrectly and widely cited by Sai Baba devotees as having ’proved’ Sai Baba’s claims to have extraordinary psychic powers. 

 

Professor Haraldsson’s careful and exhaustive investigations discredited Sai Baba’s claim to have ‘resurrected’ Walter Cowan, which the crypto-/ virtual devotee Aitken fails to note. Morover, Osis is promoted as an expert in Kirlian photography. In fact, ‘photographs of auras’ have been shown to be explainable by physics other than by any supposed ‘aura’. There is an interesting Wikipedia article which notes how Kirlian photography has been discredited in the scientific community.

 

To be continued shortly

For Viewing

See The Secret Swami HERE. Available in broadband and modem

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

Seduced

(21 MB, Modem)

Further References

• Dr Elendur Haraldsson, University of Iceland Faculty of Social Science. Dr E. Haraldsson’s webpage (English version), with his email contact details
• Erlendur Haraldsson, Wikipedia entry
• How Not to Study Paranormal Phenomena. Book Review by Babu Gogineni, Director, International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). This looks at critically at Haraldsson’s work on Sai Baba, and says that the former has not responded to the points made.

A Host of Sai Baba Hagiographers

In the heyday of Sathya Sai Baba’s mission, some devotee writers with various professional backgrounds influenced many, particularly his more educated followers.

These included Professor N. Kasturi, Howard Murphet, Dr John Hislop, Dr Samuel Sandweiss, Ra. Ganapati, Dr Satya Pal Ruhela, V, Balu, Shukuntala Balu, Robert Lowenburg, etc.

Where Hagiography Fails Ethically

The name of William ‘Bill’ Aitken has now to be added to the list of these hagiographical writers on Sai Baba. In coming days I shall be looking at Bill Aitken and Sathya Sai Baba. A Writer’s Dilemma, by the Australian scholar Brian Steel  writing on Aitken’s book, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. A Life (New Delhi, Penguin Books India, 2004. Paperback edition, 2006).

The Blind Misleading of Blind Yearning

The willingness of those searching, often with a great and aching longing, for peace of mind can conceal from their readers, even well-educated ones, just how hagiographic these works really are.  The role of educated writers who forsake time-honoured principles of rigorous questioning of phenomena needs to be looked at in relation to Sai Baba and his hagiographers. They bear a tremendous responsibility, and I think that history will treat them harshly. They have been, in effect, among the prime recruiting agents for Sai Baba, commanding many thousands of readers, and show no sign of the same careful investigation of the allegations that many former devotees and other critics, as well as major institutions such as the BBC and UNESCO, have made. These writers have profoundly failed in their duty of care - in standards of critical research, and in bringing any accountability to Sai Baba or his global Sathya Sai Organization. Our worldwide network shows no sign that they have attempted to meet or in any way engage with our former devotees, who number many who are honored in all their walks of life, and were so honored when they were so very dedicated in their work in various programs of the Sathya Sai Organization. The scale of the shunning of those in dissent has been simply enormous. 

Spurious ‘Appeals to Authority’ Rampant Among Sai Devotees

A professional standing (e.g., teacher, journalist, psychiatrist and so forth) imparts, quite spuriously, an added aura of authority. In the Sathya Sai Baba movement, this logical fallacy of ‘appeal to authority’ has long served as high octane fuel in the promotion of this guru. There is the appearance of urbane reason but in reality an abandonment of questioning. The guru - especially in regard to his own self-concept - is unchallenged and a myriad of inconsistencies are typically explained away in phrases common to devotees, such as: “Baba’s little leela (guru’s sport)”, his “unfathomable mystery”, his “testing of the devotee’s faith, spiritual progress”, his “wiping clean the devotee’s karmic slate”, etc.

Further Reading

Bill Aitken and Sathya Sai Baba. A Writer’s Dilemma

William Aitken’s Sai Baba Book. Major Flaws Says Scholar
Sai Baba Researchers’ Huge Debt To Scholar Brian D. Steel

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

The Australian academic linguist Brian Steel has posted his Research on Sathya Sai Baba and the Sathya Sai Organisation. New Factors for Researchers to Consider, December 2007

Brian D. Steel’s Huge Project

Of the ‘New Factors’ section, he notes: “This extensive survey is also an integral section of the third Part of my annotated Bibliography on Sathya Sai Baba”. Far more that offering long lists of sources, the bibliographies include succinct comments in the case of works that Steel deems of special note. His scope is breathtaking.

“These three Bibliographies have listed and briefly described three large and diverse corpora of information currently available in December 2007 about the guru Sathya Sai Baba, his 60-year spiritual Mission and his organisation (the Sathya Sai Organisation). By winnowing this enormous mass of varied documentation, researchers should be in a better position to separate fact from fantasy and research from propaganda in order to arrive at a fair evaluation of the complex Sathya Sai Baba story”.

Steel’s overview:

‘An Annotated Bibliography for Research on Sathya Sai Baba in Three Parts. Part 1: Sources of public information, including items of a scholarly or academic nature or provenance, with an Appendix on entries in works of reference, surveys and textbooks  An Annotated Bibliography for Research on Sathya Sai Baba
Part 2: Alternative Sources of Information and Opinion about Sathya Sai Baba and his Mission  An Annotated Bibliography for Research on Sathya Sai Baba  Part 3: A Bibliography of Apologetic Writing about Sathya Sai Baba. Presenting Sathya Sai Baba to the World Sections 1-5.   Sathya Sai Baba’s Teachings, etc.

Section 6. New Factors for Researchers to Consider’

Continuum of Sai Scholarship Which Now Includes Dissent

Many readers look to Brian Steel’s work which, with its habits of a lifetime of scholarship, shows cool appraisal and lays great emphasis on care over detail, close textual comparison, verification of sources, and so forth. Much of his work invites wider than scholarly readership. All who are in search of both copious detailed bibliographical sources and/or analysis will find the entire Steel opus (from 2001 on) indispensable. It is vast, and has been groundbreaking from the very first. Indeed, his writing on Sai Baba issues and bibliography was already established when he was still a devotee. After twelve years of following him, he left and continued extensive analysis of texts, many of which he had long known. Some of the contradictions - especially in Sai Baba’s so-called ‘Divine Discourses’ - had already troubled him while he was a devotee. This witnesses a common experience of dissenters in general, since there is often no overnight revelation but rather a prolonged and anguishing period of reassessment. I think that there will be no independent scholars or other investigators of merit who will be able to find serious fault with his project. He will nevertheless be targetted, I think, by fervent  pro Sai Baba polemicists, who increasingly undo themselves wherever there are attentive, sober critical readers, as witness his Endnote (to which I refer below). Even an endnote from Steel is strong medicine. In his endnote to ‘New Factors, he examines the efforts of an individual of extreme zeal who, assisted by some of Sai Baba’s servitors in various countries, has spearheaded Internet attempts to discredit  those who have publicly presented evidence which openly conflicts with Sathya Sai Baba’s Divine Claims.

William ‘Bill’ Aitken - A Non-hagiographic Hagiographer?

I shall shortly review a section of Part 3 (See, link above) of this December 2007 series, which analyses the book William McKay Aitken’s book ‘Sri Sathya Sai Baba. A Life’ (New Delhi, Penguin Books India, 2004. Paperback edition, 2006). The Aitkin material is in Part 3, Section 6, New Factors for Researchers to Consider. 1. Recent Publications and New Promotional Media. Specifically 3. Which Sai Baba Movement? A Writer’s Dilemma

Aitken Accepted By Top Sai Baba Official

‘Bill’ Aitken is extolled as an authoritative intellectual by Dr G. Venkataraman, Sai Baba’s deputy world chairman and head of Sai Global Radio (via WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service). Aitken speaks of his book as a counterweight to “excesses of hagiography”. But is it anything of the sort?

Serious Omissions and Commissions?

Rather, Steel’s textual analysis reveals that the book has strong hagiographical content, and also ignores some critics of Sathya Sai Baba by isolating “headline grabbing” and superficial views contra Sai Baba, while, to an extraordinary extent, ignoring the large body of serious criticism.

(More on Brian Steel’s work shortly)

Champion Tennis At Top Indian Guru’s Ashram

After Sai Baba’s great white elephant, Hillview stadium, has lain virtually dormant for nearly a decade, another Sai Baba involvement in topline sport has just been announced. In December 1997, it was cricket. In January 2008, it is tennis.

 From The Hindu Online. Wednesday, January 2, 2008.