‘God’s’ Ex-Shah, Indulal Shah

Indulal Shah, of Mumbai, India, was the world head of the Sathya Sai Organization, and, previously, for decades, the head of the Indian wing of that organization.

In June 1993, at the time of the Puttaparthi police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom, Indulal Shah rose to his height in adroit and politically powerful suppressive actions that would rate a place in a primer for feudal but effective crisis management.

The Hindu, June 10, 1993, reported:

“When press persons met Mr. Indulal Shah, chief functionary of the Sri Sathya Sai World Trust, he said, ‘the matter is purely internal and we do not wish to have any law enforcement agency investigating into it.’”

The then Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and his Home Minister S.B. Chavan and other powerful forces in Indian politics supported and greatly extended upon Puttaparthi’s extensive cover up. Chavan was in Puttaparthi assisting in the damage control. So powerful is Sathya Sai Baba in India right across the political spectrum that Indian governments, irrespective of hue, have ever since maintained an iron-clad damper on the issue, and prevented police, media and judicial investigation. The voices of journalists, such as members of the Anantapur Journalist’s Union in Sathya Sai Baba’s State of Andhra Pradesh, were suppressed.

Andhra Pradesh former Home Secretary, V.P.B. Nair, has described the killings in the BBC’s television documentary The Secret Swami as “absolute cold blooded murder”. View and hear Nair speaking to interviewer Tanya Datta, in this film clip HERE. These intruders could easily have been captured without murdering them. Sai Baba was nearby as events unfolded, hour by hour, and yet – a virtual ‘omnipotent’ dictator within his independent ashram township, at least – did not lift a finger to stop the deaths.

Some Further Resources

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

The BBC and the 1993 murders

Murders In Sai Baba’s Private Quarters

Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom Murders – Part 1

The Secret Swami. BBC Docu. Review. Condensed

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

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

Indian Minister Shields Sai Baba on BBC television

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

Testimony To BBC – After Years of Silence

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

A Shah Under A Lord of Misrule

Inequality before the law in India

Serial Sex Molestation and Bedroom Killings. But Much More

Police Killings in Sai Baba’s Bedroom

Police Killings Related to Sai Baba Sex Abuse Says Dr Bhatia

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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   

There is a Spanish version available:   

PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)   

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

Robert Priddy has blogged ‘Undisputable facts about Sathya Sai Baba by BBC’. This is a summary of a number of major factors that came out of BBC’s television documentary ‘The Secret Swami’ (2004) exposing Sathya Sai Baba and his worldwide cult. The documentary was seen by millions in around 200 countries. He cites a number of the many major British press reviews that highly praised this documentary, such as Andrew Billen, of The Times (of London), who wrote:-

“One of the richest supporters of the Indian guru Sai Baba – no less than Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe – told his interviewer that he was perfectly willing to believe that Baba was simultaneously a) quite likely a paedophile and b) God incarnate”

See also The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision , written from the point of view of one who for several months was closely involved in coordinating witnesses for the BBC from around the world.

 Here is Tigrett’s statement to the BBC’s Tanya Datta in “The Secret Swami

Tanya Datta: But even if it was proven to you that Sai Baba was a paedophile and a serial sex abuser, you’re saying it wouldn’t change the fact that he is your guru.

 Isaac Tigrett: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. He could go out and murder someone tomorrow, as I said, it’s not going to change my evolution, it’s not going to change the good things that have come out of my relationship down there.

 Tanya Datta: Does that mean that some part of you believes there could be some truth to the rumours?

Isaac Tigrett: Oh, absolutely I believe there is truth to the rumours.

U.S. Billionaire supporter of Sathya Sai Baba, Isaak Tigrett, bowing to the Secret Swami

In the same Robert Priddy article see, too, the sections:  Vile sexual abuse and threats by Sathya Sai Baba alleged and:  Cold-blooded Police Executions in Sai Baba’s bedroom

Further Reading

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

BBC Hidden Camera in ‘Secret Swami’. Ethical?

Guru Sex Abuse Testimony To BBC – After Years of Silence

Indian Minister Shields Sai Baba on BBC television

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

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

Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List

Video Resources

             The Secret Swami (BBC Television): 

(154 MB, Broadband)   

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

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

Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)

BBC and Other Film Footage Shows India’s Top Guru Sathya Sai Baba Faking Miracles

BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle « Call For Media and Government Investigation

‘The Secret Swami’ showcased with selected transcripts and brief
video clips   

Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)

Raising ever more serious questions about how spiritual is the head of what Sathya Sai Baba has called THE divine organization in the world

Dr Michael Goldstein. Love All Serve All

Note:  How very spiritual!

Michael Goldstein explodes with anger (710kbs)

at the BBC’s perfectly reasonable questions about accountability

Dr. Goldstein again reveals his higher self (1.500Kb)

Michael Goldstein and the sexual allegations (2,10 Mbs)

Michael Goldstein admits his view is merely a belief (456kbs)

Sathya Sai Baba Cult Exposure By Major TV Channel In Australia « Call For Media and Government Investigation

The Public Petition   

Excerpt From Public Petition (and comments)  

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

There is a Spanish version available:   

PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)   

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

Very few former followers of Sathya Sai Baba have responded to the extraordinary attacks on the integrity of those many who have left him, having made their own enquiries.

These attacks continue year after year.

The ex-devotees do not at all agree with everything that has been written against their former teacher or his cult, and deeply deplore those writings against him, or his international Sathya Sai Organization, whose language is heated and contains nasty put-downs of those who defend Sathya Sai Baba or his devotees viewpoints.

Most serious Sathya Sai Baba followers and most former followers are good and decent people. They have long been noted as being so in their jobs, places of study and communities at large.

Agreeing with a person’s right to their opinion is very far removed from agreeing with that opinion. What one has seen in some of the forums has been enough to make one not want to read them – and this is surely true of the offerings by the hotheads of either side.

Therefore, atttempts at the classic ploy of ‘guilt-by-association’ is reprehensible indeed.

And no doubt, most Sathya Sai Baba devotees, inasmuch as they view these related topics on the Internet, are appalled by the shocking departure by the main pro Sathya Sai Baba defenders from civil discourse. There is extensive resort to poor arguments, distortion of contexts and character assassination. Likewise, most former Sathya Sai Baba devotees find abhorrent the crudeness, nastiness and vilification evinced by an extremely small minority of former devotees.

Former devotees who have named key servitors of Sathya Sai Baba (as indeed have I) do not sink to ad hominem arguments, which are distinguishable from playing-the-man by requiring accountability from those who have major public roles in the Sathya Sai Organization and who should be held accountable. Naming an individual and asking for answers can only be mistaken for ad hominem by those who distort deliberately or else out of extraordinary ignorance.

One of the very few who have responded (not in the discussion forums etc., but in the locales listed in the links below) – on a particular issue – is Timothy Conway Ph.D.

This was because it involved, as he uniquely is able to do, authenticating vital documents that the Sathya Sai Organization heads (such as Dr John Hislop and Dr Michael Goldstein), since 1982, in the USA never intended its membership, let alone the world, to see. His reply to an vehement antagonist is of the quality that one would like to see excercised by any Satha Sai Baba follower or ex-Sai Baba follower whose integrity had been assailed. Indeed, this same quality of decency and moderation of language has been shown by some of Sathya Sai Baba’s former students who have testified that he is not guilty of the terrible allegations that have been made, worldwide, against him.

Some Key Documents

Timothy Conway’s Update

Timothy Conway PH.D confirms the Hislop letters

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

Click here to access Timothy Conway’s website

An article in which Timothy Conway outlines many key issues

The Two Sai Baba’s and Miracles. (Intro)

The interested reader can readily find a whole literature concerning the scientific investigation of miracles and other alleged supraphenomena.

(I shall soon blog on the issue of the alleged Shirdi Sai Baba miracle, said to have occurred in Bangalore on July 18, 2008, courting such headlines in the Indian national press such as the Times of India as: Frenzy over Sai idol with one eye open).

Blind Faith and Blind Science. Unbeknown to themselves – quarreling cousins with a stark family resemblance

Many serious and well-qualified investigators who have gone to homes, temples, grottos, etc., that are scenes of apparent miracles have not always found fraudulence – nor even unconscious self-deception on the part of the hosts.

There appear to be phenomena as yet unexplained within the present state of scientific knowledge. Ironically enough, it may be true that Papal investigators of miracles have more in common with rationalists. Comparative studies are important. There are many cases that need scientific enquiry and understanding, and – if there is not cross-cultural, interdisciplinary work – any serious undertaking risks being weakened from the start.

Variety

The tendency of many faithful of various persuasions is to think that God is blessing them as Hindus or Sikhs or Christians or Buddhists, or whatever the Faith, all the while not realizing that similar phenomena – with different historical-cultural reference points – occur throughout the world.

There are also those in many belief systems whose adherents are perfectly ready to believe that mystic phenomena (beyond the merely ‘spooky’or superficial) are likely to happen anywhere and to anyone irrespective of religious background. There are those, too, from many faiths who do not regard the ‘miraculous’ as important for them at all.

The Mountain Human Beings Created Without A Single Miracle

The interfaith movement has made headway in breaking down such insularity, but there is a mountain of profound ignorance exhibited by one culture of another. Diminish its sovereign power and one is likely, in both the jolt and delight of it all, to start getting some clearer views of those who are ‘different’. From a human and humane point of view, one can find more commonalities than points of quarrel. Such a discovery process can shame all except the shameless out of demonizing or misunderstanding those of other beliefs and, indeed, non-beliefs.

None of this is to say that one needs to lapse into a simpering uncriticalness or bloodless relativism, in which none is served well.

The Almost Miracle of Those Who Are Most Civil 

Criticism among those who have learnt to respect each other is an ennobling, rather than bloodletting activity. An urbane discussion between a civilized believer and a civilized rationalist may not bring conversion either way, but what exists is something far finer – civilized behavior, which is a given and requires no conversion. Neither participant is likely to be lacking in a good sense of humor. So much so that if a miracle happened to them they would not find in it cause to take up arms, one against the other.

Select Readings

(Regarding the two Sai Babas, especially in the light of the use made of the old saint’s fame by Sathya Sai Baba on his own myth-making pathway to fame): 

Robert Priddy:

 

UNRAVELLING THE ENIGMA
– SHIRDI SAI BABA – IN THE LIGHT OF SUFISM
by Marianne Warren. Sterling Paperbacks – New Delhi Revised edition 2004 – ISBN 81-207-2147-0

Featured on Robert Priddy’s website: http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/7/W/WarrenBook.htm

 

At: http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com

 

Unique Shirdi Sai Photo – private ownership

Undiscovered Photo of Shirdi Sai Baba

 

Brian Steel:

 

Sai Baba’s Claim to be the Reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba

SB’s Claims of Divinity: Avatar and Triple Avatar (Revised Version, 2002)

Legalistic Abuse: Catholic Church And Sathya Sai Organization

Many of my readers will be quick to see certain striking parallels between, respectively, core powerholders in the Roman Catholic Church and in the International Sathya Sai Organization. In the Australian Broadcasting Corporation report, I have highlighted in red some salient points.

Sathya Sai Baba (says he's God) and Pope Benedict (Christ's 'Vicar').

As development continues in the Australian story about the Foster family’s years’-long fight for justice and the end of ecclesiastical cover up and denial, in the aftermath of the Catholic Church’s evidently dreadful treatment of the family – and of so many thousands of others around the world – I intend to blog further.

In regard to the profound institutional desertion of accountability and duty of care, the similarities between these powerful and wealthy ‘religious’ organizations, are quite chilling.

In the meantime, I refer readers to a few of my related articles:

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

Cost Of Cover Ups Can Far Exceed Hoped-for Benefits

Cult Exposure. By Their Documents Ye Shall Know Them

Fighting Multi Billion Corruption Takes Longer

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

………………….

Parents of assault victims plea for response

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 17/07/2008  Reporter: Conor Duffy

While the Pope may have praised the Federal Government’s apology there is growing uncertainty about whether he will say sorry to the victims of sexual assault by Catholic clergy.

Transcript
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Today, the Foster family arrived in Sydney to seek an audience with the Pope and force the Church to reform the way it deals with complaints of sexual abuse.

On Tuesday night, Lateline revealed how Church lawyers fought for eight years to limit a compensation payout to the Fosters, whose two daughters were raped by an abusive priest in Melbourne.

So far, the Church has remained silent on whether it will meet the Fosters, but tonight there was some support from within the Church.

Conor Duffy reports.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: As World Youth Day delegates continue to pour into Sydney, the Fosters were on a different pilgrimage: cutting short a European holiday to ask the Pope to take action which goes beyond an apology for Church abuse victims.

ANTHONY FOSTER, FATHER: An apology is not enough. Limited compensation is not enough. Limited help is not enough. We wish to meet with the Pope to help formulate the way forward.

CONOR DUFFY: Two of Anthony and Christine Foster’s daughters were raped by their parish priest while they were in primary school. For their oldest child Emma, it sparked a damaging spiral.

CHRISTINE FOSTER, MOTHER: We’ve had 13 years of trauma and disasters.CONOR DUFFY: In January, Emma Foster committed suicide. The Fosters believe her will to live was sapped by an eight year legal battle with the Church for compensation and they’ve condemned comments by bishop Anthony Fisher that victims are dwelling on old wounds.

ANTHONY FOSTER: I’m disgusted, and I believe that he should not be holding the position of authority that he does either in the Church or in regard to World Youth Day.

CONOR DUFFY: The Church today defended bishop Fisher.

DANNY CASEY, WORLD YOUTH DAY: It just misses the mark in terms of this wonderful man of deep compassion who has great sympathy for victims.

CONOR DUFFY: it’s been widely expected the Pope would apologise to the victims of sexual abuse by clergy while in Sydney. But overnight, the Pope’s spokesman said apology might not be word used.

Today, the Foster family began a vigil outside St Mary’s Cathedral, but there’s still no word as to whether the Church would agree to meet them. They’ll formalise their request for a meeting tomorrow, if there’s still no word from the Church.

Tonight, they got some backing from a Sydney priest, father Chris Riley, who broke ranks with the Church. Father Riley attacked the Church’s system for dealing with abuse towards healing, calling it a joke.

CHRIS RILEY, YOUTH OFF THE STREETS: Let’s get rid of Church investigations. We are not qualified to investigate sexual assault; and all victims should go to the police, and go to court, and then after that, the Church’s place is of healing. But the Church being involved in and having to make decisions around guilt and innocence is just a wrong way to go. All that does – the perpetrator is a winner there.CONOR DUFFY: Father Riley said the system should be more focused on getting justice for victims.

Conor Duffy, Lateline.

Self-documented Folly of India’s Would-be God

It is sobering to consider that Sathya Sai Baba’s influence extends into powerful corners, and his marked deficiencies reveal the worthwhileness of exposing his human rather than any divine qualities.

One of the benefits of Brian Steel‘s extensive examination of official Sathya Sai publications is that we can see with considerable impact the extraordinary ignorance, inconsistency and contradiction Sathya Sai Baba has generated over many years.

As Steel justly observes, ‘The inevitable effect of so much strange evidence about SB’s story-telling techniques is to encourage a more careful analysis of some of his other pronouncements’.

In respect to the presently referred to part of the huge Steel opus, see his Sathya Sai Baba: Man of Many Stories, October 2002.

For those of my readers who may be short on time, here is but tiny sample of the incredible howlers that emit from Sathya Sai Baba, in the eyes of whose devotees all that he states must be true, no matter how absurd. However, this absurdity is, to the extent possible among his editorial weeders and his international propaganda machine kept as much out of view as efforts at damage control can achieve.

Steel writes:

‘Ten years ago, Dale Beyerstein pointed out a colossal historical/religious error of SB’s. In spite of its enormity, and because of the unconditional faith of devotees, most (including myself) took no notice!

In his Discourse for 21-8-1986 (Sathya Sai Speaks, XIX , pp. 137-8 ), SB says: “A king from Greece [later identified as Alexander the Great] came to India to study the conditions here …” (p. 137) “He made a study of the Bible, the Quran and Buddhist texts and found that all of this laid emphasis on Truth, … In the Quran he found that only by adherence to the Truth can one be a real man.” (p. 138 )

‘BUT’ says Steel, ‘the enormous discrepancy over this reference to the Quran is a THOUSAND years! (Alexander the great: 4th Century B.C. Muhammad (and the Quran): 6th to 7th Century A.D.)’

………………………

Here is the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful Sathya Sai Baba in full and glorious swing:

“Three hundred and fifty years B.C., before Christ, Jews lived. However, among Jews, there were religions such as Islam and Christianity. People of that land, they are all Jews. That land is the birthplace of both the religions, Islam and Christianity. The Hebrew language was very prominent. This Hebrew language is more or less equal to our Sanskrit. …”

“Christianity is not just 2,000 years in its origin. It was there even before Christ, 350 years. There the divinity is explained very clearly.”

“The name and the fame of Jesus Christ have spread far and wide. Here, at this moment, there are two schools of thought. The first group of thought – Roman Catholics. There is another group that fought with this group. This group is called Protestants. As they protested, they are Protestants. So among Jews there are these two groups: Catholics and Protestants. The difference of opinion has increased day by day. This led to Jesus, whose life was in danger. Jews there in Jerusalem did not permit Jesus to go there. Like this, religious conflict and fighting was ever on the rise. There were 250 schools of thought, divisions there. They also monopolized certain countries.”
“Because of so many groups there, they all attempted even to harm Jesus. Romans on one side. Catholics on the other side. Luther on another side. There were so many groups that went on changing. All these differences are based on violence, and that led to madness. Because of this attachment to group affiliations, naturally there was conflict and fighting.”

“Religious affiliation leads to ego. This led to confusion among them as to what Jesus said right or wrong.”

Brian Steel comments: ‘These strange extracts sound more like a parody of a teenager’s muddled history essay than the words of an omniscient avatar’.

………………………….

“In Argentina (Sathya Sai Baba) bhajans are being held in every home [cheers].”(Sathya Sai Speaks, XXIII, 29:255 – 20-10-1990, on the alleged 50th anniversary of SB’s ‘Declaration’.)

………………………….

Further Reading

Brian Steel:

http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/index.html

Blogsite (Various topics including Sathya Sai Baba): http://briansteel.wordpress.com

Robert Priddy:

http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/

Blogsite:

http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com

General websites:

http://exbaba.com and:

http://saiguru.net (With articles in Spanish, English, Russian, Dutch, German, Polish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish)

When Huge Cult Is A Small Shop. Sai Cult Legal Tricks

In the Orange County court, USA, Alaya Rahm’s pro bono lawyer, William Brelsford, asked the judge if Sathya Sai Baba could be sued from the United Sates of America, to which the answer was no.

(Case: Alaya Rahm vs. Sathya Sai Baba Society, Superior Court of California, filed January 6, 2006, County of Orange)

It transpired that no one in the US could be held responsible for the sexual abuse by Sathya Sai Baba, not least because there was no registered Sathya Sai Organization (or, to be exact, Sathya Sai Society of America), in the US, only a bookshop and a Sathya Sai charitable society.

In short, the Sathya Sai Baba US cult’s legal advisors have been adroit all along e.g., in ensuring that the Sathya Sai Society of America is nothing but a bookshop – no matter how financially vast and highly organized Sathya Sai Baba’s cult in the USA in fact is.

Hence the case had to be withdrawn. But all the allegations stand fully still. Here are some articles/formal documents relevant to the case:

Some Resources

‘Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America – Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family’: http://www.rfjvds.dds.nl/ex-baba/engels/articles/alayarahm.htm .   ‘Alaya Rahm’s Testimony – Some Key Statements:  http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/6/alaya.htm   ‘On Alaya Rahm’s Testimony Against Sathya Sai Baba’:  http://www.saibabaexpose.com/PremRahm.htm .

Sathya Sai Baba Bans But Permits Foot Touching

At the Bal Vikas conference in Prashanti Nilayam in 2001, after sixty years of offering what he deems to be his Holy Feet to be touched, Sathya Sai Baba declared that he was not going to allow padnamaskaar to anyone anymore.

This is reported on an official Sathya Sai Organization web page at http://www.saibaba.org.hk/step6.htm). As is well known among his followers, the matter was also reported in the official magazine Sanathana Sarathi, which is distributed worldwide. After an extraordinary number of years in permitting the practice, he has discovered that it created a sense of separation between himself and his devotees! He wanted them to see him in one and all. He said that the namaskaar that would be offered to him had better be offered to parents, elders, gurus, etc. He added: “See me in your heart and in the heart of everyone you meet.”

One might well wonder whether those who, with the underhand cooperation of prominent Sathya Sai Baba servitors, and rank-and-file members, have behaved so scurrilously towards former devotees who have spoken out have quite got around to noting such noble teachings. See:

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

In short, Sathya Sai Baba has put himself even more at the centre than before – he was to be worshipped in or through everyone else! However, he is still often observed to accept the touching of his feet.

The attached image of 7-year old boy doing padnamaskar is from http://www.saibaba.ws/articles/lettertoswami.htm – before he pronounced that padnamaskaar would stop. However, the photo of his official translator and a key servitor Professor Anil Kumar was captured by the from the BBC film ‘The Secret Swami’ (2004), well after Sathya Sai Baba said he stopped the practice of padnamaskaar of his feet!

BBC Photo from ‘The Secret Swami’, 2004.

Select Reading

Professor Anil Kumar Sathya Sai Baba’s Translator

BBC Hidden Camera in ‘Secret Swami’. Ethical?

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A RevisionProbed On Male Sex Abuse, Sai Baba Evicts BBC TV Team

After Leaving A Cult. Or ‘Moving On’

It is a very great untruth put out by Sathya Sai Baba’s key leaders and by his proxy supporters on the Internet that former devotees are now something other than what they, for many decades, were always known for by Sai Baba devotees – decent, compassionate, hardworking members of their professions and trades in their wider communities. See Sathya Sai Baba Cult. Blind Eye To Massive Slander

Age Power is a Factor That Bewilders Ageists

A network of former devotees is there to assist in the case of any major media or institutional investigations. It is mostly retirees who tend the websites and blogsites. Indeed, one is refreshed, rather than re-tired!

Many ex-cult followers speak of wanting to “move on”, and the experience of the Sathya Sai Baba exposé is no different to that of activists around the world in other areas with whom we are in touch.

Notion of ‘Moving On’ Can Beg The Question

A “moving on” can be commendable but not, I think, if it involves a craven avoidance of social and ethical responsibility, akin to the ostrich-like psychological denial of so many who remain in a cult. And why would one want to ‘move on’ if there is great satisfaction in serving those who have be abused and betrayed?

A few Westerners appear to have gone back to their Judaeo-Christian moorings but the multiplicity of destinations is striking: e.g., other spiritual teachers in the Indian tradition and the Western self-improvement gurus, Humanists, Rationalists, etc.

The slur by the Sai cult’s proxies on the Internet that former devotees are of the type of person who would want to league e.g., with Christian fundamentalists or any other contractive group is a classic piece of ‘guilt-by-association’, and relies on either the deliberate mangling or helpless misperception of the facts. The leaders and many in the rank and file know that former devotees are typically far removed from being this type of individual. When one vexatious – although very sincere – Christian fundamentalist vanished from the former devotees the sigh of relief was almost audible down the network.

Service to Family, Work And To The Less Fortunate Are Still To The Fore

Many who have left the Puttaparthi guru continue to embrace community service, such as working in soup kitchens, mentoring, teaching various skills and subjects among the less fortunate, assisting personally and financially with their charities, and so on. One of a number of very well-qualified mental health professionals in our former devotee network, the late and sorely missed Elena Hartgering of Florida, USA, was one of the first professional workers to attend Ground Zero, right after the tragic events of 9/11.

Naturally, many are limited in the amount of service-oriented work they do, for they are (and what greater cause!) committed to their families and workplaces.

Balance Where One Stands

Fortunately, those most active have a lifetime in the cultivation of speedy work skills, such as in the areas of researching and writing, and are thus left with plenty of time to devote to other happily balancing pursuits.

In any case, the notion of ‘moving on’ can be quite misleading. Unless one has faced the inner issues, it is one’s bodily appearance that moves on and not a tangle of unresolved issues. If joy, a sense of purpose, and a challenge to one’s skills and conscience sufficiently attend one’s work in – which can hardly be the case if one does not have other worthwhile life pursuits – then one can indeed have inwardly and most positively ‘moved on’ whilst being still engaged with exposing social injustices.
                                         ………………………………………………

Select Articles on this topic at:

https://barrypittard.wordpress.com

Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment

Cult Exposure. By Their Documents Ye Shall Know Them

Challenging Historic Deification

Abuse Reportage. A Case for Caution, Not Inaction

Abuse. Some Reach Out. Many Suffer in Silence

Cultic Depersonalization or Demonization of Dissenters