Puttaparthi and Cover Up of Health Hazards

Since matters of life and limb are entailed, every traveler appreciates honesty about conditions involving health. For example, proper notification by governments, tourist venues, businesses, and various other instrumentalities. Once Sathya Sai Baba’s highest profile western follower, a lecturer at his university at Puttaparthi, and a roving ambassador for him internationally, David Bailey has related:

“I know Sara Pavan who is the top anaesthetist from Australia who’s there all the time, and he said to me ‘David, you never, ever, ever let anybody come to this hospital because they do not understand hygiene'”. Source: Part Two – Transcript of David Bailey’s Account By Phone Of His Disaffection in 1999 (to Thomas Wiehe).

Puttaparthi A Disease Trap, Covered Up By Officals

A very different and frightening picture emerges regarding Puttaparthi, despite Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram there being called “the Abode of Peace” (Prashanthi Nilayam).  When he was a deeply committed follower of Sathya Sai Baba, Robert Priddy made notes of some of the health hazards met with. See Sathya Sai Baba Birthday Celebrations. Posted by robertpriddy on October 29, 2008.

Today’s visitors can decide whether these older observations hold true for the ashram today. Certainly, the modus of cover up has not changed, neither by the officials in India nor by key international servitors of Sathya Sai Baba. See:

Indulal Shah and Indian Government Cover Up

J. Jegathesan. Part of The Secret Swami’s Cover Up

Dato J. Jegathesan, a ‘Secret Swami’ cult top leader-roving ambassador

As I have stated elsewhere, Robert Priddy’s carefully and promptly taken diary notes over several years will prove an invaluable source for historians, media investigators and others interested in the Sathya Sai Baba phenomenon. See Priddy’s My Notebooks Covering Nine Visits To Prashanthi Nilayam (from 1984/5 to 1998). See too my articles Sathya Sai Baba’s Self-generated Mythos.

Robert Priddy was a national leader of the Sathya Sai Organization (Norway), and had access to all the internal correspondence of the Sathya Sai Organization and international meetings. For many years, he was a highly-respected friend of the late V.K.Narasimhan, one of India’s most famous and courageous newspaper editors, and, succeeding Professor N.Kasturi, editor of the official magazine Sanathana Sarathi, distributed worldwide.

Quotes

“The estimated numbers of persons during each of these celebrations was doubtless much in excess of the actual numbers. Figures of from 1 to 3 million have been suggested for the various birthdays!Sathya Sai Baba stated to several persons (Robert and Rita Bruce, V.K. Narasimhan and others) that 3 million were present, which was a total impossibility. V.K.N. told me several times that Sathya Sai Baba regularly multiplied numbers of actual visitors by 10!“

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Apart from the infamous murders of 4 young men in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom in 18993, a long series of accidents, suicides and murders have been recorded – see some of them listed here.

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“At the 60th Birthday celebrations of Sathya Sai Baba at Prashanthi in 1985 there was a virtual epidemic of stomach ailments, especially among Western visitors. This was denied officially, no doubt so as not to put anyone off visiting as a result. One Western doctor who was present estimated those foreigners affected could amount to 80%. Many people who had been there confirmed that many were affected. Also, the usual throat and chest infections due to excessive clouds of dust – up to at least 2-3 metres high during the main celebrations which obscured objects even at short distances! That there had been any kind of epidemic, however, was publicly denied as baseless rumour in Sanathana Sarathi. One contributing cause of the excessive infection rate was the new Western canteen, where the refuse was dumped outside it upon which masses of flies bred which easily entered the canteen, then without any netting on the windows”.

Priddy comments on the reference to the canteen: “[This was confirmed by Al Drucker to foreigners who cleaned up the canteen afterwards – including myself]”.

Note: Al Drucker is an ex-Nasa physicist, whom Sathya Sai Baba has used extensively in his propaganda work.

Further Resources

Sathya Sai Baba Ashram Notebooks of Robert Priddy

Robert Priddy – Published Writings and General Postings. On Sathya Sai Baba and Related Materials

Sathya Sai Baba – Prashanthi Nilayam notes

“On the cesspool near the North blocks which cause horrific nauseating stinks for hours every day plus comments on how the money collected to solve this problem was misappropriated by ashram officials”. This note refers to: Directly Recorded Notes