Questioning Sathya Sai Baba: India’s Most Famous and Politically Powerful Guru
Posted by Barry Pittard on December 9, 2009
In 1999 came the publication of three articles in Nexus magazine (August-September). A person close to me, who knew well that I had deafened my ears to anything inimical to Sathya Sai Baba, strongly urged me (putting the magazine right into my hand) to read these articles, one of which was by the head of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization, Terry Gallagher, an agricultural scientist and businessman of Kyama, New South Wales, Australia. The editor, Duncan Roads, wrote of this own experiences of disillusionment with Sathya Sai Baba, but, more particularly, printed three articles that were already to be found on the Internet. See also: ‘BILD’ Story. “Guru Wants Sex” (Sathya Sai Baba) and Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion
Before returning to Sathya Sai Baba for a few months in November 1997, and sensing a momentous issue looming, I had somehow briefly dared to look at writings on the Internet. I read the Canadian academic rationalist philosopher Professor Dale Beyerstein (now deceased) of the University of British Columbia. His very incisively-written book: “Sai Baba’s miracles: and overview” is HERE. There was also the writing of the likewise articulate Italian former devotee Paul Holbach.
Across a range of Sai Baba issues, their writing was disciplined; they raised sharp questions which, by any token, deserved proper answers. Some of the questions, if not answered frankly and truthfully, could best be answered by properly consitituted processes, such as a police, court of law or government enquiry. It was not enough for Indulal Shah, head of the Sathya Sai Organization, to make blatantly antidemocratic proclamations in June 1993, at the time of the Puttaparthi police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom. For example, it was reported in one of India’s elite newspapers The Hindu, June 10, 1993:
“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.’”
See: ‘God’s’ Ex-Shah, Indulal Shah
Where were all the other leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization? Were there evidences, under real testing conditions, of that truth, right conduct, love and peace, everywhere evangelized by Sathya Sai Baba and his followers? Were there voices of independence, clarity and conscience? No. There was glacial silence. The smell of suppressed fear. Smiles that did not smile. Eyes that looked away. There was the ruthless driving out of those who questioned. Were the questioners mavericks? Typical trouble-makers? Deficient of intelligence and efficiency in their lives? No, they were not. Those who started to investigate the first hand accounts of terrible, and in many cases criminal, abuse were longtime stalwarts, some of them highly-respected leaders. The Sathya Sai Organization perfectly well knew of the years of signal devotion and service of those who were now questioning.
But Sathya Sai Baba and his servitors remain tight-lipped to this day, all these years after. As well as the terrible abuses that occurred in the first instance, to their undying shame, they have allowed many fine man and women to be execrated and slandered. With incredible mendacity, they tell their congregations – inasmuch as they tell them very much at all – that ‘the allegations’ are made by a small handful of disgruntled individuals.
Select Further Reading
Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam
Sathya Sai Organization, Australia, Ex-Head Terry Gallagher’s Testimony Against Sathya Sai Baba
Stephen Carthew, A Voice of Testimony From Australia, On The Dangers of Cults
The Late Leo Boogaard: A Dutch Voice of Conscience On Sathya Sai Baba
(Late) Ron and Peggy Laing: Deeply Alienated From Sathya Sai Organization
Timothy Conway PH.D confirms the Hislop letters
Formal statement provided to Exbaba.com by Timothy Conway Ph. D. concerning the Hislop letters
Dr Naresh Bhatia. Silenced Now In Indian Child Abuse Scourge
Story of My Disqualification, and other articles by Serguei Badaev
Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of AmericaAl Rahm’s explanatory letter
Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family
Top UK Sathya Sai Organization leaders left Sathya Sai Baba
Dr. Dale Beyerstein’s study of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims and ‘miracles’
On Leaving the Sathya Sai Baba Cult – Ex Leaders and Rank-and-File
New Zealand Lawyer Exposes Official Cover Up of Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom
Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion
Dr. Dale Beyerstein’s study of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims and ‘miracles’
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Barry Pittard’s comments in regard to the Public Petition) -:
Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult
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Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
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Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba
investigation of Sathya Sai Baba
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