Call For Media and Government Investigation

of Sathya Sai Baba And his worldwide cult, the Sathya Sai Organization

Archive for June, 2007

‘Marriage Mart’ – Are Known Sex Abusees Disadvantaged?

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 30, 2007

Witnesses Speaking Out On Sex abuse. Opportunities? Obstacles?

Getting those of Sai Baba’s ex college boys and staff, with whom we have had contact over time, to speak out publicly has proven difficult.

Indeed, in our own movement of exposure, except around 2000, encouraging Sai Baba’s abuse survivors, no matter what their country or culture, has been hard. At  this time, there was unusually intense effort to bring allegations against Sai Baba and his organization to world attention. There were also high hopes – terribly idealistic, in retrospect – that simply getting the major media to investigate, and informing governments, law enforcement agencies, the general public and as many remaining devotees as possible would effect transformation.

Caution In the Primary Witness Process Essential

Of key significance in obtaining cooperation of those making primary allegations circa 2000 was that one of the former devotees was an Indian, with many contacts within Sai Baba circles in India – but added to this fact were his own distinctive qualities. For he was an enormously energetic campaigner, matched outside India by another extraordinary activist, now deceased, who was non-Indian.

The issue of charismatic ability of some activists to inspire abuse survivors to come forth – has been been re-raised by recent developments. These will not be made public yet – but of which more, trustfully, in the next year or so. However, with the utmost emphasis, I wish to suggest a caution. As in the example given above, a highly energetic, articulate, personable individual may indeed have unusual success in obtaining cooperation with abused individuals – e.g., getting sworn testimony, undertakings to travel as court witnesses, sharing of abuse experiences with leading media, law enforcement agencies, governments, UNESCO, academic researchers, etc.

However, my view is that, under a regimen of caution and great sensitivity, it is essential to have well-qualified, experienced abuse professionals involved – as well as those with other professional skills, such as lawyers, social workers, financial advisors, etc. With such constraints, there will, I should think, be some falling away in the numbers ready to testify. When all is said and done, those who are inwardly crumbling may not make the best witnesses, anyway. However, the issue is an ethical one, and should not be up for grabs! Although activists may have the very best intentions, and be far from exercising any coercion, there are nonetheless serious dangers to be avoided. Badly traumatized human beings can be like ticking bombs, where the approach must be made with a great care and skill not possessed by most of us.

Is There A ‘Damaged Goods’ Problem Within India Marriage ‘Markets’?

Indian boys with sexual molestation accounts have shared with networked former Sai Baba devotees a number of difficulties facing them. These relate to the conduct of Sai Baba and some of his personnel such as certain of his teaching staff and students. Suppose Indian abuse survivors were to go public. Are we able to imagine the ramifications within that extraordinarily complex institution – the joint family?

Ex-students and staff of Sai Baba’s institutions who are cooperating with us are acutely aware, for example, that members of their own families are strong devotees of Sai Baba. Some of these live in his ashrams, and are vitally dependent on his largesse, and anxious lest his officials find any fault, real or imagined, which could lead to their casting out. If ex-students and other young male devotees who have come to grief with Sai Baba, or are friends of those who have, were to speak out, what would be their fate, and that of those they love?

Joint Family A Great Institution. Like Any, It Has Its Stresses, Strains 

A great many marriages in India are still arranged, where a boy or girl does not, in certain respects, so much marry an individual but rather a complex set of family alliances.

To spend considerable time – as I have had the great fortune to have done in the case of India – in any other culture is often a humbling experience. Customs which vastly differ from one’s own can, on closer inspection, enshrine a great deal of commonsense, adaptive capacity and profundity – all too easily missed by superficial judgement. Therefore, it is not the topic in general of arranged marriages that I allude to in this piece, but a facet of the tradition which can pose – unless those in the culture itself  find creative ways around it – a difficulty for many Indian sexual abuse survivors.

Creative Indian Solutions Needed

All round the world, there are those who wish, of course, that ex students and ex staff of Sai Baba’s institutions would go public with what they know to be true, tragic as it is. (I do not say that they will not do so, eventually). However, such an event needs a uniquely Indo-centric approach – with Indian legal, spiritual, emotional and other support systems well in place. Where well-wishers in other countries may be able to assist is in contact with governments to smoothe the path for those Indian individuals or families who, for their own safety and well-being may wish to relocate.

Many who have been abused have real issues of reintegration, of  “moving on” (which is a phrase they themselves often use), and living with a sense of betrayal – especially acute in the face of their experience of a guru they supremely loved and trusted.

Legal Situation Can Be Problem-fraught

Any abuse survivors looking for legal remedies need to ensure that they obtain the most competent and sensitive advocacy. To win a monetary settlement and yet lose peace of mind is not worth it – unless an individual is very strong and believes that his sufferings will obtain tangible reforms for other abuse survivors, including the eduction of the wider public, and the breaking down of taboos against speaking out.

Related Reading at: https://barrypittard.wordpress.com

Indian Government Study of Child Abuse Is Groundbreaking

Child Abuse Rife In India. But Who Would Speak Out?

Child Abuse in India. Will Minister Renuka Chowdhury Act?

Child Abuse. Landmark Indian Government Study

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, Nepal, New Age, News and Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Protest, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Sex, Skeptics, Social and Politics, Society, Spirituality, Sri Lanka, Theology, Theosophy, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | Leave a Comment »

Satya Purcell’s My Life As Sathya Sai Baba’s Prophecy, Pt 5

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 29, 2007

Satya Purcell’s serialized account My Life As Sathya Sai Baba’s Prophecy continues, Part 5.

Also known as Sathya, Sathya Sai and Satch, Satya Purcell’s account is being serialized during May-June 2007 at:  http://www.Exbaba.com.

It was Sathya Sai Baba, arguably India’s most historically famous – or infamous – guru who named this son of Sharon and Gary Purcell. The latter were among foundational figures like the U.S. multi millionaire supporters of Sai Baba, Elsie and Walter Cowan (Satya’s godparents), Dr John (Jack) Hislop, and others in the worldwide movement that became the highly organized, powerful and influential authoritarian cult, the Sathya Sai Baba Organization.

Satya’s story harks to 1993, when murderous horrors were unleashed in Sai Baba’s bedroom, then covered up by the Ashram and Indian government. Also male youths in the Hal Honig-led group related accounts of Sai Baba’s sexual molestation of young males. In Part 5, Satya discusses the magical aspects of massive deceit.

To access Part 5, click HERE then click on the NEWS tab then select the entry for June 2007, June 28. (Links to the other parts are given on each instalment page).

Quotes

“As a former amateur magician and member of the International Magician’s Society, I can certainly say that there are a lot better magicians than Sai Baba, both amateur and professional.  His magic is mediocre at best”. 

“Accounts of others over the years indicate that Sai Baba’s security wing runs a whole information network that comprises taxi and bus drivers, beggars, shopkeepers, restauranteurs, service volunteers and those in the ashram front office, etc., etc”.

“How does he know our deepest secrets?  Because Sai devotees are always opening up to him.  They are either talking with others or writing letters to him that expose their private prayers and thoughts.  It’s really an old magician trick. You plant people in the line outside the building and they strike up casual conversations with people to find out some of their life details and then report back to the magician before the show. It is also an old corrupt evangelist’s trick. Have a look at Steve Martin’s ‘Leap of Faith’, in which he plays a traveling shyster preacher”.

Contextualizing comments at this blogsite – https://barrypittard.wordpress.com – for this series are found: HERE and HERE. Sharon Purcell’s story as carefully given to (the late) Glen Meloy, a trusted friend of 30 years and like an Uncle to Satya Purcell, is Here.

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, New Age, Opinion, People, Protest, Psychology, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Sex, Skeptics, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Religions | Leave a Comment »

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

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 28, 2007

Sai Baba has created a multi-billion dollar opulence and spendour around him – from vast donations, be it said, often from your and my countries.

Highly Motivated Sai Cult Members Infiltrate Major Social Organs

He is a showy emperor of his own domain, commanding many Indian power brokers, irrespective of which party rules, and some beyond. He says he will, shortly, be God to the whole world. When a fool without enormous power thus proclaims we can either laugh or feel sorry for him.

But Sai Baba has millions of followers. See pic of Dr Michael Goldstein, Covina, California, U.S.A. caught fulminating by BBC hidden camera. He is world chairman of the Sathya Sai Organization, which Sai Baba says is THE divine organization through which he will change the entire world in his own lifetime, Islam being the last to accept him.

bbc-clip-dr-micael-goldstein-gets-angry.jpg

See BBC’s The Secret Swami HERE.

Sai Baba Cult Recruits In Costly Venues

In their thousands, in your and my countries, at virtually any point of the compass, one can encounter highly motivated Sai Baba devotees. They do not tap on your door like the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehova’s Witnesses, etc. They inhabit the highest echelons of power in various countries, and especially win involvement by contact at the top, whether it is with the various world faiths, politicians, governments, municiple authorities, education institutions, etc. In tightly controlled circumstances, they recruit in highly costly, luxurious venues. For example, Cooper’s Union, New York; La Mirada Theatre; Los Angeles County, Hilton Ballroom; Sheraton Hotel & Towers, both Chicago; Copley International Conference Center, San Diego; Town Hall, Melbourne; Super Dome, Sydney, etc. See article by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard: Sai Organization’s Spending Spree In Super Dome, Sydney.

Sathya Sai Cult Members Face Trails of Broken Promises

It does not seem to occur to Sai Baba’s devotees that the rest of humanity simply will not let him be God. Alas, it can take all of our communities all too long to wake up to Sai Baba devotee infiltrations into many civic, religious and political systems. Sadly, in the long run, it will be the great life crisis of these devotees, so many of them sincere and decent people, that their cherished beliefs, for which they work so tirelessly hard at practically all levels of the society, are doomed. They already have to watch him severely ageing, when he said he would not age after he turned 60 years. They now witness whole trails of his broken promises.

Members’ Air of Unreality Does Not Lessen Cult Danger

Would the rest of us – wearing blank looks on our faces – permit this admittedly charismatic and powerful, mega wealthy, influential would-be World Teacher to have his way – or either in the role of God fully incarnate or at least as a Christ, a Muhammad, a Moses, a Buddha, a Zoroaster, etc., – or even all of these, in some strange manner, rolled up in one? This is what Dr Michael Goldstein, head of the world Sathya Sai Organization and physician of Covina, California, U.S.A, told the BBC cameras in London during the making of The Secret Swami (2004):

“We believe that Sri Sathya Sai Baba is Jesus Christ.  Sri Sathya Sai Baba is Buddha.  Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the founder of all of the world’s religions.  Sri Sathya Sai Baba has always been God”

It is interesting that Goldstein chants this statement, instead of speaking naturally. I am reminded of a remark to me of one of our very qualified, experienced support psychotherapists, who mentioned how she and her medical doctor husband spoke to a close organizational colleague of Goldstein, Dr Samuel Sandweiss, of San Diego, California, a psychiatrist who has led large medical groups to visit Sai Baba. They spoke to him of the sex abuse allegations against Sai Baba, and observed a highly incantatory response, a certain air of unreality, and a marked deflection away from being to the point.

When Shall We Learn The Weimar Republic Lesson?

Humanity has a not un-noted failure to refute obscurantism with reason, and to put a stop to rot. Do we think a figure with a genius for self-promotion like Sai Baba could not succeed in getting the centuries to accept his version of himself? In admittedly the extreme case, what untold ghastliness arose because the Weimar Republic curled up foetal-style in its wretched bed?  Thomas Jefferson had the matter right – “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”.

Cults endanger The Open Society

Cults, with secrecy and authoritarian structures enshrined in them, are dangerous for the open society. We ignore them at peril. We need to find ways that both protect religious and other freedoms, of course. But this should not preclude, as it all too often does, clear and strong action by communities to expose and deal with the cultic mentality. We also need to look within our own communities, and perhaps within our own selves, to see that distorted thinking of cultic thinking, in greater or lesser degree, exists in our own milieu, and not alone in forces without, such as terrorism.

Rigorous education in clear thinking would be a start, as would, necessarily entailed with the latter, addressing social ills which are only too bound to attract it.

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, New Age, Opinion, People, Protest, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Skeptics, Society, Spirituality, Theosophy, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | Tagged: , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

UNESCO and Indian Government – Were Up To Tricks

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 26, 2007

Fortunately, this document – which India’s then Foreign Minister Jaswant Sinha in the now ousted right wing Vajpayee government, a devotee of Sai Baba, tried to have expunged by the Director General of UNESCO is still available at the web.archive.org/ – click HERE.

For a detailed story of how the BBC caught UNESCO out in a subterfuge, getting it to confirm that it still stood by the original terms of the media advisory see:  The Case of the Missing Media Advisory.

The Advisory points to “several factors”, and not alone to sexual abuse allegations against Sathya Sai Baba.

Media Advisory

UNESCO WITHDRAWS FROM CONFERENCE

Paris, September 15 – UNESCO has decided it will no longer sponsor nor take part in a conference it had been due to co-organize with the Institute of Sathya Sai Education (ISSE, Thailand) and The Flinders University Institute of International Education (Australia), in Puttaparthi, India, from September 25 to 29. The decision means UNESCO is no longer associated in any way through sponsorship, organization or participation of any kind with the conference on Strengthening Values Education: Innovative Approaches to Teacher Education for Peace and International Understanding.

UNESCO’s withdrawal was prompted by several factors. Certain decisions were taken by the ISSE without consultation, such as plans to hold some of the sessions at the Ashram of the Sathya Sai movement in Puttaparthi, and the inclusion of some speakers in the conference programme without their previous consent. Furthermore, the Organization is deeply concerned about widely-reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been levelled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba. Whilst it is not for UNESCO to pronounce itself in this regard, the Organization restates its firm moral and practical commitment to combating the sexual exploitation of children, in application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires States to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and violence.

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, Protest, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Sex, Skeptics, Social and Politics, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | 3 Comments »

BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 26, 2007

BBC Enquiries Confirm Collusion Between UNESCO, Indian Government and Sathya Sai Organisation

The BBC spent many months of intensive preparation for its documentary The Secret Swami (2004), exposing Sathya Sai Baba and his extremely wealthy and powerful worldwide cult.

Unfortunately for the credibility of the UNESCO Bureau of Public Information, the BBC went to it, well-armed with a copy of a highly revealing note that portrayed UNESCO-Indian Government-Sathya Sai Organization complicity.

This was to get expunged from the records a UNESCO media advisory, hard worked for by former Sai Baba devotees from many parts of the world. The note was by Dr G. Venkataraman, formerly a top Indian nuclear scientist, Sai Baba’s deputy world chairman and head of Sai Global Harmony via  WorldSpace Radio International – Sai Baba’s effort to get himself into every corner of the globe.

Eamon Hardy, producer of the BBC documentary highly critical of Sai Baba and his leaders, ‘The Secret Swami,’ had also seen a relevant UNESCO letter when speaking at Puttaparthi with Sai Baba’s world chairman, Dr Michael. Goldstein. (This was in the BBC/Puttaparthi  ‘honeymoon’ period just before the BBC tried to question Dr Goldstein about the worldwide allegations against Sai Baba, resulting in the BBC’s immediate eviction by Sathya Sai Baba’s officials. The Secret Swami has already been telecast to many countries throughout the world, in some a number of times). To see documentary footage, click HERE. See also my article The Genesis of the BBC’s The Secret Swami (Sai Baba) and my review of this 2004 documentary, The BBC’s The Secret Swami – A Revision

Furthermore, BBC staff spoke to India’s then Permanent Representative to UNESCO, Mrs Neelam Sabharwal, (since named India’s Ambassador to Cyprus), and were greeted with the blank statement that “Sai Baba is a respected Godman” and no, she didn’t know why UNESCO had issued a media advisory and that it had been withdrawn. Really?! Because Venkataraman had already – rather carelessly, in retrospect – that India’s permananent representative to UNESCO had been informed.

Having sensed serious UNESCO contradiction and evasion – particularly in the light of the Venkataraman material – the BBC first tactically held back and then released the whole Venkataraman piece to the UNESCO official, Sue Williams, whose immediate boss is the Deputy Director General.  After repeated pressure from the BBC via phone and email, Ms Williams wrote to the BBC:

·        “UNESCO does not regret issuing the media release of September 15 2000″.

In short, UNESCO repudiated, then – hard-pressed and cornered by the world’s most famous broadcaster – retracted its repudiation. Unfortunately, the exposure came too late to be included in the documentary. Indeed, the BBC holds over 80 hours of footage of powerful testimony against Sai Baba containing allegations that depict large scale serial sexual abuse of males from many countries, and other very damaging evidence against Sai Baba and his worldwide cult, the Sathya Sai Organization.

See full article on this issue: Does UNESCO Really Protect The Young? The Case Of The Missing Media Advisory. By Barry Pittard

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, New Age, Propaganda, Protest, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Sex, Skeptics, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | 15 Comments »

Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 25, 2007

The English poet Alexander Pope had an exquisite appreciation of situations like desperate devotees clinging to forlorn hope in the face of Sai Baba’s many broken promises to visit places, like Rome, Southern California, the UK, Malaysia, etc,:

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always To be Blest

Below is an email from a foremost Sai Baba critic, the late Glen Meloy (11 Jan 2004), to a researcher at BBC 2’s This World television documentary team and me. She, I.A.,  was working on the documentary that became The Secret Swami (which can be viewed HERE. See also my article:
The Genesis of the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ (Sai Baba). See also, In Memoriam – Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”). The .pdf version, with color motifs, is HERE.

Glen Meloy’s reference to Sai Baba’s promises – and even arrangements – to travel to Southern California hark way back to the early 1970’s. Yet as recently as February 16, 2007, in a so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sai Baba said, “I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.” In yesterday’s blog (See reference at end), I raised the questions, But will he? How can he? For the very thought is drastically absurd!

Glen Meloy’s email note:

The whole Southern California contingent was on “red alert” many times over the alleged visit by SSB to the USA. All of this stemmed from a well publicized promise he had made to Elsie Cowan and the Southern California devotees that he would come and stay at her home and be available for the Tustin Book Center volunteers and selected members from the Southern California Centers. Dr. Sandweiss remodeled his house as did many others. They even created special bathrooms designed just for SSB. Elsie was still hoping for a visit after she donated the land and building for the existing Tustin Book Center on 1sr street in Tustin, California. It had a special bath that was reserved only for SSB.

When the first rumor was thought to be realized in 1974-1975, Elsie asked me to contact the Annenbergs in Rancho Mirage , California to see if we could reserve their estate for a private meeting place that would accommodate at least 150 specially selected devotees. Annenberg was the founder of TV GUIDE and had a huge private guarded castle like estate in the desert and entertained Prince Charles, Ronald Reagan and the like.

Indulah Shaw, Dr. Bhagavatham, and Dr. Gokak visited the USA as advance people for the trip, but it never came about.

Poor Elsie was feeling distraught one evening and invited Walt Neubaurer and myself up to her room at her condo in Tustin, California and she pounded on the wall 3 times and said that was the way she could get Baba’s attention. She was quite a character……multi-millionaires who, with her husband Walter had previously been a close devotee of Kirpal Singh. As soon as they heard about SSB, they hopped on a plane and were met with open arms. After several million dollars in donations, including the new Youth Hostel building in Puttaparthi, The Cowans were given a personal letter from SSB granting them the exclusive right to publish, distribute and re-print ALL of the various Sai Baba Books outside of India. Walter Cowan was an extremly wealthy man who had made his fortune by buying up properties that contained oil and natural gas. A prominent section of Tustin, California is named Cowan Heights in honor of their influence. They had a huge home that was later given to Elsie’s daughter and her grandchildren.

Elsie was quite perky and brazen with SSB and thought nothing of coming up to him at the temple in front of all the Indians and grabbing his hand. This shocked all the locals, but Elsie was the “Grand Dame” with the money and got away with it. She hated Indulal Shah (called him the little weasel) and also never cared for Goldstein.

For an organization that was thought to be so loving, it amazed me that there was so much bickering and jealousy going on in an organization whose leader allegedly lived at the world’s Supreme “Abode of Peace.”
I met personally with Dr. Gardhia several times, both in Canada and the USA. At the time, I was impressed with his little silver box that allegedly manifested Vibhuti whenever it became empty. To fill it, he used to tap it against his forehead 3 times and chant a mantra, after which he would open the lid to display copious amounts of overflowing ash.

There are devotees all over the world waiting for that crazy plane to lift off……..What a joke! How hypnotized we were.

Closely Related Blog:

Has ‘World Saviour’ Missed His Plane?

Quote: “In his February 16, 2007 so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sai Baba said, “I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.” But will he? How can he?

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 – the Moslems being the last to accept that he is God”.

June 24th, 2007 by Barry Pittard

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, New Age, People, Protest, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Skeptics, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Religions | Leave a Comment »

Has ‘World Saviour’ Missed His Plane?

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 24, 2007

In his February 16, 2007 so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sai Baba said, “I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.” But will he? How can he?

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 – the Moslems being the last to accept that he is God. Of course, were such a statement to be made by your average swami, we could simply laugh with either sympathy or derision.

The three-times world heavy-weight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr) proclaimed that he was “the greatest”. But, of course, he turned out to be right! and skeptics had to eat their words. Sai Baba has long proclaimed that he is the greatest “avatar” (manifestation of God in human form), but his empire looks as shakey as his own legs, and as his sagging turkey throat, which wobbles from side to side. A golf buggy transports him now, though he promised to be physically non-ageing after his 60th birthday.

Sai Baba crumbles at 81 – or even older, if British colonial records inform us well, and we may need to add another 4 years, to the birthdate he gives, so often repeated by his hagiographers. Sometimes he falls over (which, along with thousands of others, I saw him do in early 1998). At other times, he mutters indecipherably. His mask-like face suggests serious medical symptoms. His hair, which he has said would remain intact, except to go white, thins badly. He has had a number of hip operations. Film footage and photos show his students and other aides, to a point of anxiety never hitherto witnessed, at extremely close quarters ready to assist him when he stumbles or feebly issues some request. He could not even cut his ’81st’ birthday cake without assistance from a student.

Aged Individuals Can Maintain Sex Lives

None of this should seem to say that, to this day, he is incapable of taking his pleasures with boys and young men, however. With gross failure to check with the gerontological literature on the sexual channels of expression still open to the aged, defenders proclaim that his very age would repudiate the notion that he would be capable of sexual escapades.

Driven around in a golf-buggy, or flown by jet aircraft, his walking days are virtually over, and his long-promised transworld flying days never get off the ground. If not blinded by unquestioning devotion, followers might ask: Why are neither India nor the rest of the world undergoing the transformation he has so long promised to accomplish? He says he is the full avatar but his promises for decades have proved as empty as an aeroplane without fuel.

Does Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Have Abiding Attraction To Sai Baba?

Sai Baba’s worldwide organization is vast, and sends billions to him – which, see photos and commentary HERE – do not all go to social uplift work but to the erection of enormously costly edifices that glorify Sai Baba as God of Gods.

This “God” is worshipped by many millions in India and he has a vast following in many other countries. Many are not Hindus. Many power brokers, in India and far beyond are a mix of overt and covert devotees, or at least admirers. Indeed, since Hillary Clinton vies well to be the next U.S. President, media and other investigators may like to probe just what Hillary and her husband, then US President, Bill Clinton were doing when, in March 2000, they made plans, suddenly aborted, to visit Sathya Sai Baba . (The present writer can give well-reputed media or other bona fide investigators  information that is not to be disclosed on the Internet unless there is proper follow-up of the leads).

Sai Baba’s Back Yard Still Unclean

Sai Baba has said that he will first ‘clean up (his) own backyard’ and then the rest of the world before he exits around A.D. 2022. To judge by how sick he looks (and some prominent doctors are independently monitoring this aspect), any hopes that he will accomplish his stated mission appear to be irrevocably dashed – except, blinded by partiality, for the faithful of his flock, of course. (The word “Bhagavan” means:  God):

“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)

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.

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”

My late and dear friend Glen Meloy (USA), wrote to a BBC researcher for The Secret Swami, and me (11 Jan 2004):

“The whole Southern California contingent was on ‘red alert’ many times over the alleged visit by SSB to the USA. All of this stemmed from a well publicized promise he had made to Elsie Cowan and the Southern California devotees that he would come and stay at her home and be available for the Tustin Book Center volunteers and selected members from the Southern California Centers. Dr. Sandweiss remodeled his house as did many others. They even created special bathrooms designed just for SSB. Elsie was still hoping for a visit after she donated the land and building for the existing Tustin Book Center on 1sr street in Tustin, California. It had a special bath that was reserved only for SSB.

When the first rumor was thought to be realized in 1974-1975, Elsie asked me to contact the Annenbergs in Rancho Mirage, California, to see if we could reserve their estate for a private meeting place that would accommodate at least 150 specially selected devotees. Annenberg was the founder of TV GUIDE and had a huge private guarded castle like estate in the desert and entertained Prince Charles, Ronald Reagan and the like.

Indulah Shaw, Dr. Bhagavatham, and Dr. Gokak visited the USA as advance people for the trip, but it never came about”.

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.

Now, why won’t that craft fly? No doubt it is a smart craft. But is it really crafty enough?

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, New Age, Opinion, Protest, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Sex, Skeptics, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Religions | 6 Comments »

Corrupt Indian Judges Stonewall Case Vs Sai Baba

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 23, 2007

In 2001, the celebrated Indian advocate Kamini Jaiswal (who was a lawyer for the famous ‘Bandit Queen’ Phoolan Devi) attempted to mount, pro bono, a case against Sai Baba on behalf of a former Sai Baba devotee, Hari Sampath.

Jaiswal’s reason for applying for the case to be pled in the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi was precisely for the reason that Andhra Pradesh, Sai Baba’s state, is chockful of Sai Baba police and judges. Therefore, Judges Paitnaik’s and Lahoti’s repeated statements (see link below): “Go the Andhra Pradesh court”, and refusals to give reason for their adverse decision is reprehensible. I have shown the transcripted remarks to a Judge who has also been a top government legal advisor in a major Commonwealth country, who was appalled, as other lawyers and laity alike have been.

Sampath, a software engineer from Chennai may be no bandit like Ms Jaiswal’s client the late Phoolan Devi, although many Sai Baba devotees would perhaps deem him so. He was, he relates, a former member of Sai Baba’s Security and Intelligence wing.  He co-led, with the late Glen Meloy (USA), the first major international former devotee effort that brought Sai Baba to critical attention in major media such as India Today, The Times of LondonSalon.com, The Daily Telegraph, Denmark’s National broadcaster DR and various media in Europe and beyond.

Case Derailed

Two other prominent Indian advocates Prashant Kumar and Gaurav Agarwal appeared along with Kamini Jaiswal. However, they were entirely thwarted by judges in the New Delhi Supreme Court – the Sai Baba-partial Judges Lahoti and Patnaik. There is a document which reveals instantly to any alert and unbiased reader what a ‘kangaroo court’ theirs was. This document’s provenance we can prove to competent and principled enquirers. A legal professional has transcripted the case, and part of this may be viewed HERE.

By the way, our offer of proper provenance checking facilities is likewise the case with a wide range of facts that we often have to state in places like the Internet without evidentiary detail – alas, so cautiously and abstractly! But we are – and have been all along – happy to dislose such matters to reputed, bona fide journalists or other investigators, e.g., scholars, law enforcement, government.

Why Not Plead Against Sai Baba in Andhra Pradesh?

For an example how a Sai Baba devotee Judge in Sai Baba’s state of Andhra Pradesh can pervert the course of justice see HERE. Here are brief details.

B. Premanand, of TV “Guru Buster’s” fame, and fellow Indian Rationalists, among other gutsy actions, tried but failed to expose Sathya Sai Baba in court. He too has reported physical attacks, and has told a number of us that his own son was murdered – the only material stolen being extremely compromising to Sathya Sai Baba. Sri Premanand has formed a Committee for Scientific Investigation into Claims of the Paranormal (CSICP). He mounted a court action in Sathya Sai Baba’s state of Andhra Pradesh, in which the High Court Judge Y.V.Anjaneyulu, a prominent Sai Baba devotee, ruled that the law requiring a license to produce gold does not apply to Sathya Sai Baba, who, he determined, materializes his gold from a divine realm. This 1986 case, which B. Premanand brought in the Andhra Pradesh High Court, exposed a close Sai Baba devotee judge’s violation of India’s secular legal system. Judge Anjaneyulu 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.”

Having lived long in India, I know well that many thinking Indians feel disgusted that their otherwise great country is still awash, from top to bottom with irrationality and corrupt practice that includes the malfeasance of Judges such as Anjaneyalu, Lahoti and Patnaik. If she makes it as a superpower, will there be an insufficient number of ethical ‘freedom fighters’ to prevent her from her existing as a moral and spiritual dwarf?!

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, New Age, Opinion, Protest, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Skeptics, Social and Politics, Spirituality, Theosophy, World Issues, World Religions | 5 Comments »

Sai Baba’s “Back Yard” Still A Mess

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 22, 2007

Will More Indian Activists Speak Out?

Activism from within India against Sai Baba and his worldwide cult, the Sathya Sai Organization, and other corrupt gurus is crucial. 

Activists know best their own culture. It would be good to see many more critics than B.Premanand and Swami Agnivesh and a handful of others speak out against the abuses. As I discovered when a Sai Baba follower for 25 years, as do many other devotees who travel widely in India, there is, and long has been, widespread disrespect for Sai Baba – no matter his popularity, too. Much more would have been uttered, except that a great many Indians are extremely polite and do not like to upset the feelings of others.

Sai Baba Appalls Many Indians

Many Indians of wide socio-economicand religious and non-religious backgrounds do not object to Sai Baba’s evangel of respect for all the faiths – which is something very historic and deeply germane to India. Likewise, they respect the worthy social uplift work which his followers do in his name. However, they point to the contradictions and muddles that he makes with the Hindu scriptures, many of which bungles can be shown to have been later quietly removed by his translators. (I saw this damage control happening at first hand when I was an editor at Sai Towers, Puttaparthi, and saw Professor Anil Kumar, Sai Baba’s principle translator implicated in it, as did I see the re-shaping hand, too, of my dearly loved friend (the late) V.K. Narasimhan), Editor of Sanathana Sarathi, Sai Baba’s official magazine, which is goes worldwide. Many Indians disapprove of the grip that so-called miracles (despite the way Sai Baba says about them only being his “visiting cards”) have on the minds of his devotees.

Concern About India’s Image

My extensive travels and years in India showed that many Hindus feel that he, and many other gurus, bring Hinduism into disrepute. Indians of a variety of religious and nonreligious backgrounds believe that corrupt gurus bring grave international disrespect to India. Many Indian and other Sai Baba devotees wanted to see the Indian diplomat Shashi Tharoor succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary-General of the United Nations. After all, he allowed an article of his to be used in a Sai Baba propaganda effort in The International Tribune right at a time when the sister newspaper ran a piece by Keith Bradsher in the New York Times. See HERE. One only needs to read the writings of Sai Baba’s close servitor, Dr G.Venkataraman, deputy head of the Sathya Sai Organization and head of Sai Global Harmony via WorldSpace Satellite Radio International to see how Sai Baba’s merest interests are advanced in a UN mission by the Government of India. See my article, Does UNESCO Really Protect the Young? The Case of the Missing Media Advisory (2005). HERE

Sai Baba’s Mission Fails

Many dispute that Sai Baba has made significant headway in bringing harmony among the various faiths in India, very few of whose representatives have ever allied themselves with him. They frown at the enormous pomp and circumstance that attends him, and they disdain the spectacularly costly museums and other buildings erected in his ashrams and elsewhere – which are supposed to feature the ‘unity of faiths’ but in fact extol and glorify Sai Baba. Where does all the money come from? Answer: your country and mine! In the article at this blogsite: Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia , see photos of just some of the incredible Sai Baba opulence. HERE.

Puttaparthi – A “National Circus”

Decades ago, an Indian man who sat near to me in Puttaparthi – who was present only because of family considerations and on sufferance – said to me with intense feeling, “this place is a national circus!” I then felt him profoundly mistaken but today see how right he was.

In marked contrast, Indian history, in many of its religious traditions, abounds in examples of spiritual figures who lived in the utmost simplest of circumstances.

Further Readings

Serguei Badaev is a Russian educationist, trained as a scientist. Until he began to raise leading questions about Sai Baba, he was President of the Moscow Sai Baba Center and National Coordinator for Sathya Sai Education in Human Values for Russia. Three of Sai Baba’s top hatchet men – Indulal Shah, Thorbjörn Meyer and Steen Piculell – quickly and ruthlessly militated against him. It is like this elsewhere in the organization. It is a cult cleverly parading as not-a-cult, nothing less. About monthly at http://www.saiguru.net , Badaev continues to provide cool data that suggest Sai Baba’s claim to be divinely transforming India is, like so many of his other claims, extremely fraudulent. HERE.

Badaev uses Indian commentators to indicate how unprogressive Sai Baba’s education system often is. (Indeed the latter’s propaganda tirelessly makes much of narrow indicators of education success,  gold medals, high marks, obedience, etc., and yet the style of teaching has long been that of talk and chalk – eschewing the many extraordinary advances made in Educational theory and practice).  HERE.

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, Opinion, People, Propaganda, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Sex, Skeptics, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | 1 Comment »

Who In India Will Stand out Against Abuses?

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 20, 2007

According to reports by Sanjoy Majumdar, BBC New Delhi and Tim Sullivan of Associated Press, there have been some recent populist stirrings in India against corruption and its cover-up.  Not that there have not long been those Indians who have stood up valiantly against these. One may hope that the groundswell will come to include corrupt gurus. 

A few courageous Indians, like B. Premanand, the famous “guru buster”, Rationalists, Humanists and People’s Union for Civil Liberties PUCL), work to expose Sathya Sai Baba and others who hold such tremendous sway with power brokers, and escape accountability. Would that India’s religious leaders would, in sufficient numbers raise their voices, as, for example, Swami Agnivesh has been doing.

With great courage and undying credit, a handful have not been afraid to mention sexual abuse and other evils publicly.  Even when failing to get certain gurus behind bars, it is a great achievement to get their covert mischief in front of the public gaze. Jail, and the threat of it, may have its uses, but the primary need is to educate a public so that it is on its guard.

Related Reading at: https://barrypittard.wordpress.com

Fighting Multi Billion Corruption Takes Longer

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, New Age, Opinion, Protest, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Sex, Skeptics, Social and Politics, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | 1 Comment »

Taboo On Acting Against Sexual Abuse In India

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 19, 2007

In economically developing countries like India, sexual abuse is a still far more tabooed topic than it is in Western countries.

Even though reformers are having a hard time changing attitudes in Western countries, there can be no doubt that India lags far behind in overcoming the cover up of sexual abuse.

One is always glad, though, to hear of breakthroughs occuring. That attempts are being made to overcome a tragic deficit is evident in the release of a major study sponsored by the current Manmohan Singh government. I have blogged information about this study:

HERE: Indian Government Study of Child Abuse Is Groundbreaking 

HERE: Child Abuse Rife In India. But Who Would Speak Out? 

HERE: Child Abuse in India. Will Minister Renuka Chowdhury Act? and

HERE: Child Abuse. Landmark Indian Government Study

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, Opinion, Politics, Psychology, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Sex, Society, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | Leave a Comment »

My Life As Sathya Sai Baba’s Prophecy, Part 4

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 18, 2007

Satya Purcell’s serialized account ‘My Life As Sathya Sai Baba’s Prophecy’ continues, Part 4.

Also known as Sathya and Satch, Satya Purcell’s account is being serialized during May-June 2007 at:  http://www.Exbaba.com. It was Sathya Sai Baba, arguably India’s most famous – or infamous – guru who named this son of Sharon and Gary Purcell, who were among foundational figures in the worldwide movement that became the highly organized, powerful and influential authoritarian cult, the Sathya Sai Baba Organization. Link for Part 4 is HERE. (Links to the other parts are given on each instalment page).

Three extracts:

“The excitement was due in part to what Sai Baba told Hal Honig before the trip, “You bring them. I will change them”. He changed us, sure enough – except that the change was shattering”.

“It was on this trip that many of us in the group witnessed, no mistake about it, Sai Baba poorly performing magic tricks that he passed off as miracles”.

“Well after Sai Baba had regained control, the local Puttaparthi police shot dead four students in Sai Baba’s bedroom, after which the ashram and the Indian state and central governments ensured that all investigations were suppressed”.

Contextualizing comments at this blogsite – https://barrypittard.wordpress.com – for this series is found: HERE and HERE. Sharon Purcell’s story as given to (the late) Glen Meloy, a friend of 30 years and like an Uncle to Satya Purcell, is Here.

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Dalai Lama: Forgiveness does not mean forgetfulness

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 15, 2007

dalai-lama-in-australia-june-2007.jpgAt the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Australia, July 14, 2007, the 14th Dalai Lama spoke to a capacity, 15000 audience. Several large screens throughout the auditorium meant that people were able to see him close up. I had the privilege to be there.

Someone remarked that the Dalai Lama was “radically informal”. It was true – he had a great naturalness, straightforwardness and simplicity. There were also  large crowds outside watching on a large television screen outside the Brisbane Entertainment Center.

Forgiveness does not entail forgetfulness

First, I shall single out one of the points he made, because it can throw light on the motivations of many former devotees of Sathya Sai Baba around the world. Most are not motivated by hatred against Sai Baba or leaders of his Sathya Sai Organization but believe it important to state their case as best they can, if in very difficult circumstances.

This point of the Dalai Lama’s – about forgiveness – is made, like all of his points, in many wisdom traditions, yet it seems to forever need to be raised and clarified, simple a point although it is.

Anyone who knows those individuals around the world who have dissented from Sai Baba – many of them having been deeply committed to his work for decades until they resigned or simply walked out – knows that most of those individuals speak out decidedly not because of hatred and revenge. It is a simplistic notion that speaking out about crimes and other wrong-doings has to to equate to hatred and revenge. Even if, since none of us is perfect, we err, it is important for us all to look for some better resolution of the issues. Some of the insights gained in the ‘Truth Commission’ processes may afford a guide for groups who are ready to reform themselves and seek compassionate solutions. See e.g., http://www.truthcommission.org

A society in which serious allegations are not brought out will remain a terribly crippled one. It will be one of secrecy, and lack compassion. It will not address the difficulties that so sorely need to be raised. China is far from alone in this, and we each need to address our own country’s failures to be a genuinely just society. However, China, as many cults do, has a long record of severe suppression, secrecy and violation of human rights. It has strongly protested to the Australian government, attempting to get it to stop the Dalai Lama’s visit. It would like us to forget him, and forget its atrocities, including enforced colonization and genocide. It can no more say sorry for these and make amends – to name but one of many Chinese government human outrages, for its violent mass killings in Tienanmen Square in 1989 (see Wikipedia reference HERE) than my own country’s government of John Howard can say sorry to our own wonderful, but tragically decimated indigenous people. Howard and the federal Opposition Leader, a former diplomat, Kevin Rudd, who speaks fluent mandarin Chinese, have both vacilated severely about whether they would meet the Dalai Lama. Most suddenly and curiously, neither appeared to know what their diary was doing but in fact, according to various media reports, they were both locked in consulting their realpolitik options – namely the trade issue, since China is Australia’s biggest trading partner. (I have dealt with this issue, from the perspective of our own interfaces with a number of governments in relation to Sai Baba HERE.  Many so-called ‘democratic’ governments prefer narrow pragmatism over humanitarian conscience). 

What the Dalai Lama has succeeded in doing, and what a few others like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mary Robinson and so on have so powerfully sought to do is to rise above hatred and vengeful, violent retaliation. (It may be good if we all start making a list and add still many more role model names, such as the Myhero project has sought to do at this page HERE). They have struggled on the great scale just as the rest of us have to struggle on the smaller scale. Not one of these leaders failed to speak out against the evils that had been perpetrated – such as those of war, empire, colonialism – and the disgraceful and terrible means used to realize them. Remembering evils can be graceful, especially when we have community support, and personal methods of self-discipline and induction of genuine calmness – such that we do not visit them on others as doctrine.

Forgiveness: Not losing compassion for the other person

Answering a question from the audience, the Dalai Lama distinguished between forgiveness and forgetfulness. He said that forgiveness is logically not possible with the absence of forgetting. To forgive, you need to remember what it is that you are forgiving. Forgiveness means not losing compassion for the other person. Sooner or later that individual, if they have have committed an offence, has to face the consequencies. Forgiveness does not mean taking no action. The important thing is that you do not let hatred overtake you.

‘Secular Ethics’

The Dalai Lama said he had nothing to offer but common sense. His own religion was his own private matter. His thoughts expressed publically may be termed ‘secular ethics’. He had not much to offer, except commonsense.

He was now nearly 72 and since 16 years of age has had lots of difficulties, like the loss of his country. As he tours the world there is always sad news. But it is important to find a way, although recognizing the sadness for what it is, not to detain oneself with it but instead to establish a calm mind. To some, this attitude seems like being careless. But it is not, because a conflicted mind will bring still more troubles. Take problems seriously by all means, of course, but on the objective intellectual level rather than on the emotionally conflictful level. One needs to  look at things objectively, and handle things more realistically, being neither over joyful nor over sad.

Happiness is the very purpose of life

Feelings of compassion and kindness need to be implemented through action. People need to feel a part of society, and self-confident.  We are social ‘animals’. Survival depends on a sense of community. Positive emotions are very good for us, and negative emotions very bad and destructive. The more compassion the better is society’s functioning. This recognition does not belong peculiarly to any religion.

Religious answers often divide

Compassion is very commonly shared by people everywhere since we received it from our time in the mother’s womb and from her as we developed as we developed from our earliest stages as human beings. If morality and ethics were based on adhering to this or that religion, serious questions arise. For example – what religion? Many answers to this are very divisive of humankind. What? Six hundred million human beings should all follow a just one religion and no other. It is not possible. The secular teaching of values is the commonsense solution.

Force has been the typical answer

Compassion cannot be a weapon. If you try to eliminate people’s viewpoints by force the hatred will pass down the generations. Today, one Bin Laden, in ten years 10 Bin Ladens. The Dalai Lama told this in a letter of condolence to President George W. Bush on the day after 9/11. He got a strong laugh from the audience when he said that he has met George Bush and is scheduled to meet him again soon, and finds him individually a very nice man but that “his philosophy and mine are – different”.

Destroying another person is destroying yourself

External disarmament is important but the real need is for internal disarmanant. We need to make these notions familiar to children in school, so that they can confidently say to their parents – this trouble needs to be solved through dialog, not through conflict. Consider the other person as a part of yourself. Destroying another person is destroying yourself.

A questioner asked the Dalai Lama what have been the his greatest joy and and greatest sadness. He replied that there have been so many such moments that it is hard to pick but that two of those that stand out that taken together were very important revelations to him came close together. When he was sixteen he was overjoyed to have obtained his Ph.D. Even as this happened, the Chinese occupation of Tibet was proving very difficult for his people. There was terrible fear of the Chinese soldiers. Over half a million people died, many of starvation, many killed. In March 1958, many Tibetans, including himself, escaped. The experience felt very “Up. Down” but it enforced a sense of reality.

——————————————

The Public Petition   

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

About the Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult

(Note: You may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition): Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization   

Posted in Morality, New Age, Opinion, Protest, Rationalism, Religion, Spirituality, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Dalai Lama visits Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 14, 2007

dalai-lama-and-bindi-steve-irwins-daughter.jpgdalai_zoo_narrowweb__300x3460.jpgposters_steve_koala.jpg

Dalai Lama visits Irwin’s Australia Zoo
Brisbane June 13, 2007

Extract from: theage.com.au (Click for full article)

 Cuddly: the Dalai Lama with, from left, Terry, Bob and Bindi Irwin and a koala. Photo: AP

About 5000 people have gathered at the late Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast to hear the Dalai Lama talk about kindness to animals and the environment.

Monks at the 71-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s Dharamsala monastery are friends with the Irwin family.

Terri Irwin and daughter Bindi today joined with the Dalai Lama at the talk, being held in the zoo’s ‘Crocoseum’.

The Dalai Lama will also use the visit to launch Kindness Week, a community project initiated by Queensland-based palliative care service Karuna Hospice Services.

This afternoon about 15,000 people are expected to fill the Brisbane Entertainment Centre to hear the Dalai Lama speak on the issues of compassion and kindness.

The Chinese government has expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with the Australian government for holding meetings with the Dalai Lama during his 11-day tour of Australia.
…………………………………

Blognote:

Last night, Wednesday June 14, 2007, this blogger got unexpectedly taken to see the Dalai Lama at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. This venue holds 15,000 and almost all seats were taken, with a crowd outside which one newspaper estimated at about 3000, watching on a large screen. Next blog, extract will be from my notes of this enrichening experience, with some references to how this leader of such great naturalness, simplicity and courage has – against incredible adversity – for so long walked his talk. And, indeed this theme’s relatedness to the wider concerns of https://barrypittard.wordpress.com. That the Dalai Lama would have visited Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo, in Beerwah, north of Brisbane, will have a special resonance, not only Australians, who as a nation have terribly lamented his loss, but for millions around the world who loved and revered the beautiful and exemplary life of the late environmentalist Steve Irwin, so tragically struck down by a stingray September 4, 2006, and his remarkable family.

The office of the Dalai Lama’s website is: http://www.dalailama.com

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Posted in Morality, New Age, People, Philosophy, Religion, Society, Spirituality, Successful People, Theology, Trends, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | Leave a Comment »

Sai Baba: I Will Save India Then World. But he’s Failed

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 13, 2007

Unfortunately, a great many valuable statements in the exposé of Sai Baba and his powerful worldwide cult, the Sathya Sai Organization, are somewhat buried among long, detailed articles. Every now and then, this blogsite – https://barrypittard.wordpress.com – will uncover some of these.

Below, is a quotation from a piece by Robert Priddy, Sathya Sai Baba Is Influenced Also By Blame – So He Had To React! (See source Url at end).

sai-babas-private-jet-2005.jpgSai Baba’s hired private jet for a quick hop to his retreat in kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, South India, 2005.

Robert Priddy was head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Norway, 1986-2000. He investigated the ashram and  state and central Indian government cover-up of the police excecutions in Sai Baba’s bedroom on June 6, 1993, and many allegations of sexual abuse of young males by Sai Baba. As a result, he resigned, as did his wife Reidun, an active devotee from 1983-2000. He is a retired lecturer in Philosophy and Social Science, University of Oslo, and author of two books on Sai Baba: Source of the Dream: My Way to Sathya Sai Baba (Paperback) Details HERE at Amazon.com. Hardback publisher, Samuel Weiser, 1998 (301 pages), ISBN 1578630282, and End of the Dream: The Sathya Sai Baba Enigma (600 pages), Podanur, India, 2004, published, Basava Premanand. His professional entry is at Wikipedia HERE, and further bio info HERE.

Sathya Sai Condones India’s Greatest Evils by Ignoring them

Sathya Sai Baba lauds and blesses any politician who visits him and never speaks out against the many inhumane policies, their signal failure to take care of the most basic needs of most Indians, the massive Swiss bank accounts most of them hold, or riding the gravy train while the privileged get richer and richer. Claiming omniscience and omnipotence – Sai Baba never had the guts to speak out against their many powerful and brutal oppressors and utterly vile criminals throughout India. He has never defended in any substantial way whatever the tortured, raped, murdered and utterly desolate people of India, the tribals, the dispossessed, the vast army of beggars. Against Mahatma Gandhi’s revered principle, Sathya Sai welcomes ‘blood money’ and even in a public announcement of donors giving at least one crore (a ‘crore’ equates to 10 million) at his 70th Birthday celebrations (such as Bhangarappa, a known corrupt Karnataka politician, who gave ten million rupees, and two famous Indian ‘liquor barons’, one of whom, Mr. Reddy, was murdered in Madras in 1996 only a week or so after a personal visit by Sai Baba accompanied by V.K. Narasimhan.

(Ed. The latter was former top editor of several India newspapers, and recipient of the prestigious Ramnath (R.N.) Goenka Award  For Excellence in Journalism (Economics), bestowed by the Freedom of Information Foundation. ‘V.K.N’., as he was known and loved throughout India, was a warm and trusted friend of Robert Priddy for many years).

Self-Proclaimed Avatar Can’t Save His Own Back Yard, India, Much Less The World, As He Has Promised

Despite his many earlier ‘avataric predictions’ that he claims cannot fail, India’s gigantic injustices and problems are getting no better – still no social security whatever (all the poor get to live on is sunlight), no reduction of corruption, more infanticide, still bonded labour and life servitude as debtors to criminal moneylenders, child prostitution, a massive and growing AIDS epidemic, unimaginable numbers of child labourers, vast peasant penury, wife killings, ghastly begging mafias which deform babies into ‘rat children’ and ‘spidermen’ for profit, not to mention all manner of sexual abuse of children (sic!)… and so now Sai Baba states he is “minded to take a world tour”. So has he given up on solving India’s problems before he ever would go abroad, as he has repeatedly pledged?

The man is a hotbed of contradictions, false predictions and outright lies. It is well recorded how Sathya Sai Baba has told leading devotees on several occasions that he would visit them in their countries – for example USA, Italy, U.K., Southern California and other places – but then he has changed his supposedly all-knowing mind, saying that India must be cured first!

Further Resources

Source of the quote above is Robert Priddy’s article – Sathya Sai Baba Is Influenced Also By Blame – So He Had To React! – is HERE:

Robert Priddy’s Blog is at:  http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com and an extensive, highly-organized website is HERE.

His appreciation of his friend, ‘V.K.N’, Requeim To A Kindly Spirit – Celebrated Indian journalist V.K. Narasimhan is HERE.

An updated version of Robert Priddy’s End of The Dream. My Credo and Rejection of Sathya Sai Baba is HERE.

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Posted in Morality, Neglected/sidelined News, New Age, Opinion, Philosophy, Propaganda, Protest, Rationalism, Religion, Sai Baba, Scandal, Sex, Skeptics, Spirituality, Successful People, Theosophy, Uncategorized, World Issues, World Religions | 1 Comment »