Alexandra Nagel. A Seminal Writer On Sathya Sai Baba, A Guru Accused
Posted by Barry Pittard on July 3, 2010
Sathya Sai Baba’s slow but enormous rise was badly retarded with an explosive series of revelations, commencing circa 2000. From around the world, the indicting accounts were greatly facilitated by the advent of the internet age. What Sathya Sai Baba defenders do not reveal is that the majority of those who left his fold have never taken to the internet. They do not engage in controversy, and refusal to speak about the sufferings endured is quite common. The Sathya Sai Organization knows the seriousness of its widespread losses. There is a repeated pattern of senior leaders telling Sai Centre leaders that the mischief comes from the merest handful of disgruntled former members. In quite Orwellian fashion, there is an erasure of uncomfortable memory, for many devotees know that those who have left have not, down many years, been other than tremendously devoted, hardworking, and dear friends or colleagues.
In a manner which contradicts Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings about truthfulness, loving words and actions, etc., members of the Sathya Sai Organization (in some cases who are close to Sathya Sai Baba and his core leadership) have supported, from the background, untold attacks on former devotees, and even their children and others who have had no part in exposing Sathya Sai Baba. The veracity and decency of many who have left the organization, including those who have had years of closeness to Sathya Sai Baba, and roles of outstanding responsibility, have been assailed. Decades have passed, and, overnight, former devotees are pronounced to be “demons”, “Judases”, and so forth.
Those who attack Sathya Sai Baba apostates ignore, in the case of those who have quit his side, the great deal of pain, and sometimes tragedy as when suicide, death, missing persons, the failure of his promises to cure, family, financial and other forms of severe breakdown have been the case, that has afflicted so many Sathya Sai Baba centers when revelations, impossible to ignore, erupt. The cultish blindness has been monumental. It is the poignant story reported by those who have left so many other authoritarian cults.
Rapidly, from around the world, there was an upthrust of allegation and counter-allegation. Apart from material often by non-writers, there was serious, sustained, analytical work. After the watershed first two to three years of internet exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and his sect, others than the Dutch former devotee academic writer Alexandra Nagel, like Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, Timothy Conway Ph.D., and myself took issues to many other levels, but certainly Ms Nagel’s writing was seminal, and it would be a pity to see it neglected. (Her M.A. thesis deals with aspects of the History of Western Esotericism). Though she has dealt with internet issues, she herself has not had a blogsite or website. Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, Timothy Conway have long had extensive websites. The former two have blogsites, and I have this one, ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’.
See: A Guru Accused. Sai Baba, from Avatar to Homo-paedophile. Alexandra H. M. Nagel. The Netherlands, August, 2001
Most people are deeply conservative, and afraid to enter controversy. It can have repercussions in the family, among friends, in the workforce and places of study, and so forth. Alexandra Nagel, in the very midst of the furore, wrote clearly and intelligently.
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The Public Petition
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
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