Survivors ‘Move On’? But Abusers Move On – From Victim To Victim. And Must Be Opposed

Tediously, phrases emerge from the mouths of those who could, but do not, speak out forthrightly about their experiences of spiritual and moral betrayal.

Often, one hears them say, “I am moving on, now”.

But the abusers, the criminals, the bullies, don’t move on. They thrive in the knowledge that their victims will, most often, move on. Essentially cowards themselves, they understand that other cowards will protect them – by preferring the easy way out. By shutting up. By not calling a crime a crime. By leaving undefended the abused. By abandoning any shred of self-respect.

There Is No Healing In Hiding

The Sathya Sai Organization certainly moves on, thinking that their dead guru – despite his countless false promises of healing and absurdly unfulfilled predictions and vast secret hoard of currency, gold, silver and other valuables – moves with them and within them.

Those who, against unenviable odds, have continued year after year to expose Sathya Sai Baba and his soviet-style, authoritarian, worldwide cult too often see cases where those who speak of ‘moving on’ get into yet more self-entrapment. Out of one guru’s or cult’s frying pan into another. Again, the problem of lack of self-respect.

For some examples of those who were highly respected leaders when members of the Sathya Sai Organization, and who have spoken out with conscience and decency, see:

Searing true testimony about Sathya Sai Baba abuse (the case of Hans de Kraker, Australia, for years Manager of the Western Canteen at Puttaparthi. Article by Robert Priddy)

Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion (including Terry Gallagher case –  Gallagher investigated extensively, and, in consequence, resigned as leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, Australia)

Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia

U.S. Psychologist Shirley Pike’s Moving Challenge To Sathya Sai Baba and His Organization « Call For Media and Government Investigation

The Sathya Sai Organization: Almost overnight, dissenters treated as demons! « Call For Media and Government Investigation

David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses

Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba

New Zealand Lawyer Exposes Official Cover Up of Killings In Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom

Stephen Carthew, A Voice of Testimony From Australia, On The Dangers of Cults

Video of Some Primary Witnesses of Sathya Sai Sex Abuse, and Sai Cult Cover Up

The patient researcher will need to sift carefully among roles played by many individuals. Twenty six years a highly respected devotee who worked in close association with early leaders of the Sai movement, such as the late Elsie and Walter Cowan, the late Glen Meloy was an exceptional former devotee international coordinator. See my tribute to him at the time of his death:  Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam. An early key coordinator, Hari Sampath, an Indian from Chennai, who had previously worked in Sai Baba’s Security and Intelligence Wing was, like Glen Meloy, a tour de force.

Some other names to start with are:  Terry Gallagher and Stephen Carthew Australia), Al Rahm (USA), Richard Nelson, Rick Raines (USA), Timothy Conway Ph.D (USA), Dave Lyons (USA),  Artur Wisniewski (Poland), Although, overwhelmingly, it is men who lead the Sathya Sai Organization, prominent women leaders who have left after years of work on behalf of the organization include: Britt-Marie Anden (Sweden), and (from the USA) Shirley Pike, Sharon Purcell, Elena Hartgering (the latter two deceased), Lori Kaplowitz, Ella Evers.  For an incisive writer with a quite academic (though very accessible) approach, see the Dutch former Sai devotee writer:  Alexandra Nagel. A Seminal Writer On Sathya Sai Baba, A Guru Accused. 

The noted Australian scholar in linguists Brian Steel has long written incisively and voluminously on many aspects of the Sathya Sai cult. His published writings while a devotee of twelve years were already respected for their extensive knowledge of Sai literature. His close and rigorous examination of many primary documents, including large numbers of collected Sathya Sai Baba discourses, have unearthed many egregious mistakes about science and history, prophecies subsequently unfulfilled, and other anomalies.

There are many others, but these men and women raised their voices strongly and clearly from the first. They, who had not been derided in all their involvement in official Sathya Sai circles, were now treated to appalling behaviours such as shunning, defaming, and the rather Orwellian historic obliteration from memory. These responses are so typically evident when there is apostasy after sect membership.

On the surface, ‘moving on’ from a traumatic set of circumstances, as opposed to getting stuck in them, may seem perfectly reasonable. One after another, the various schools of mental health declare that until one has seriously dealt with the underlying issues, there is no successful ‘moving on’. One set of symptoms may replace another set, but masking and not addressing the basic causes. 

There remain several questions which often go unanswered, such as:

If one has done little or nothing to mine one’s experiences for serious lessons – spiritual, mental, and physical – does one successfully ‘move on’ from an issue?

Is it ‘moving on’ when one hides, first, from oneself and, then, by not sharing, forthrightly, one’s insights with others?

Coming from countries around the world, a few have, in the face of attacks on their integrity, publicly recorded their experiences of sexual abuse at the hands of Sathya Sai Baba, and in some cases those around him, including teaching staff.

Sadly, the many who could have shown solidarity with those who spoke out left all the heavy-lifting up to a small few.

The Sathya Sai Organizations Treatment of the Rahm Family

Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America.  Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family (Al Rahm was one of the foremost of top leaders in the SS Org.) and:

Al Rahm’s explanatory letter and:

Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America

Further Interconnected Articles

Dr Naresh Bhatia. Silenced Now In Indian Child Abuse Scourge

Some prominent ex-devotees of Sathya Sai Baba

Smear Campaign against critics of Sathya Sai Baba

Dissent From Guru Cults Draws Slander and Harassment

Evidence of an Internet Activist in Action

On Disinformation and Internet Vandalism

Wikipedia Issues and Sathya Sai Baba (By the Independent British writer on religion and philosophy Kevin R.D. Shepherd)

Sathya Sai Organisation – Further Subterfuge and Misinformation, by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(Note: You may prefer to go 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)

Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Note From Former Lecturer To An Enquirer About Sathya Sai Education

Since about 1999, former devotees’ replies to enquirers have been a great many. My closest colleagues and I go out of our way to assist those who enquire with courtesy.

It seems very right to ignore those who are offensive. Why – when one has invested so many years in striving to pursue a decent and humane path – fall to the display of hatred and anger that has all too often reached our inboxes?

The below email response which I have just sent to an enquirer is typical in tone and purpose to many that former devotees have, for many years, spent time and care in responding to enquirers.

——————————————————————

Dear ……..,

Thank you for writing to my blogsite.

I may suggest that, in matters so serious as your education, you feel welcome to share this email with your parents and any elders within your extended family or circle of mentors whom you feel that you can approach for wise guidance. I am happy to answer any questions they may wish to put.

I don’t know whether you read further into my blogsite at:  https://barrypittard.wordpress.com . I also recommend the blogsite of the longtime former head of the Sathya Sai Organisation, Robert Priddy, a retired academic of the University of Oslo, Norway: http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com

There are other outstanding and highly senior leaders, too, who have resigned – after proper and scrupulous investigation of primary sources (families and young men from countries around the world) – from the Sathya Sai Organization.

It is extremely hard for devotees to credit the integrity of those many former devotees who have investigated the serious allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, and, I must quickly add, certain of his servitors, including some teachers. I myself lectured for two years at the Whitefield college (1978-9), and was deeply devoted to Sathya Sai Baba for twenty-five years.

In 1999, after very careful investigation that extended around the world, the evidence of sexual abuse against boys and young men, and other great wrongdoing was utterly compelling. Some of the investigation was by outstandingly qualified sexual abuse professionals, who have long stood ready to testify in any properly accountable legal jurisdiction.

The truth remains that many of those who have left the Sathya Sai Organisation have done so on the highest moral and ethical principles. They have exercised the same standards that have, all along, been seen in them in their professions, trades and wider communities.

No amount of vilification can change the actions of those renowned for telling the truth and practising righteous principles. We have remained within integrity no matter that some Sai devotees have often and cruelly attacked and libeled us, on and off the internet.

Nothing can equal the sense of inner strength that comes from fearless assertion of truth and right conduct, no matter what the odds.

My best wishes to you,

Barry Pittard, Australia. Former lecturer at the Sathya Sai College, Whitefield.

                                                ———————————–

Subject: [Call For Media and Government Investigation] Please moderate: “Sai Baba’s Imperial 83rd Birthday Celebrations Photo, Puttaparthi, India”

A new comment on the post “Sai Baba’s Imperial 83rd Birthday Celebrations Photo, Puttaparthi, India”

Author : ……….. (name omitted, respecting privacy)
Comment:

I am a class X student. I am a devotee of Shri Sathya Sai Baba. I want to get an admission in the Higher Secondary School because I want to devote myself to Babaji service

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(Note: You may prefer to go 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)

Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Sai Global Harmony Radio International Broadcaster Uses Anna Hazare’s Name In Propaganda Efforts

I note that the international Sathya Sai satellite broadcaster, Sai Global Harmony, via the WorldSpace Radio Corporation, has just used a Sai cult member’s account of his ‘meeting’ with Anna Hazare, the courageous and greatly respected leader of the mass, pan-Indian campaign against endemic Indian government and corporate corruption. Allowing for social, political and cultural differences, there are strong comparisons to be drawn between the Indian struggle against corruption among the elite and struggles elsewhere in the world, such as the ‘Arab Spring’ and the ‘Occupy’ movement sweeping the USA and other countries. See my article: Occupy Movement Exemplifies Sathya Sai Baba’s Failure As Social Reformer

Sai Radio Propaganda Uses Respected Names To Cover Up For Sai Corruption

The Sai devotee claimed on-air that Hazare stated to him, in no uncertain terms, the primal divinity of Sathya Sai Baba. I reference:

http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_09/01OCT11/anant_pande.htm

http://aravindb1982.hubpages.com/hub/Anna-Hazare-and-Sathya-Sai.

Locked in a vast effort, following both earlier and more recent exposures, the international Sathya Sai Organization, having lost many members, struggles desperately to rebuild, and at least keep somehow afloat, the Sathya Sai empire.

The Indian media is well-placed to ask Baba Hazare and/or his official spokesperson to confirm or deny the report on Sai Global Harmony? But will they? Will they ever attempt to atone for their shame in allowing the foreign media to expose Sathya Sai Baba and his cult?

Alert sleuths may also like to see whether Sai Global Harmony almost talking to itself, and a smattering of NRI’s and others around the world – speaking essentially to the converted. If not, the Sathya Sai Organisation’s repeated statements (which we can document from official Sai literature) about having vast followings worldwide are yet again exposed as false.

Clearly, the Organisation uses the Hazare name, among other public names (as it does with those such as Gavaskar and Tendulkar), to bolster up what’s left of the Sai Baba ‘name and fame’. This at a time when the discredited cult fights for its survival worldwide. I add that there has been intense pressure to obtain governmental sanctions for a powerful, far-reaching transmitter in the British Isles for Sai Global Harmony satellite radio broadcasts. But the Sathya Sai Central Trust lawyer SS Naganand has just made a watershed statement, which represents a departure from the profound secrecy of the Sathya Sai Organization down many decades. As reported by NDTV – see:

Sathya Sai Central Trust releases annual financial report

by Maya Sharma, Updated: November 23, 2011 17:49 IST

“We are being watched by many organisations, the government and many other institutions in India and abroad. That’s why we thought we will take measured steps”.

Indeed, this international attention of which Naganand speaks has been very much part of our job to ensure. It is our point about the utter failure of the Sathya Sai Organization to show accountability that the cult from top to bottom has reviled and libeled those who have – with rational voice – spoken out. But from the cult, there is not a word of apology for all the hatred vented against former devotees and other critics.

See also:

Ashok Bhagani – Footsying With Top Blair Minister?

Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard On Dr G. Venkataraman – Sathya Sai Baba Global Propagandist

Sathya Sai Baba’s Chief Broadcaster Dr G. Venkataraman: Select Critical Articles by Barry Pittard

Ashok Bhagani denies fully documented facts

Ashok Bhagani, Sathya Sai Baba cult promoter in UK

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(Note: You may prefer to go 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)

Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba Birthday Celebrations – Barry Pittard articles: 2007 to 2011

Below, I have excerpted from my articles posted on or close to each Sathya Sai Baba birthday celebration. These go back to 2007, the year in which I began ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba.

One of the key reasons why Robert Priddy and I continue to expose the Sathya Sai Baba cult is that his worldwide Sathya Sai Organization, though it is in vast public discredit and struggling to remain intact, continues to draw unwitting people into its thrall. Now and then, members of major international media continue to consult us, and find us unflaggingly truthful, carefully analytic and responsible, as do other organizations and persons who stand against cultic dangers to human well-being.

Repeatedly, it is the many Sathya Sai Baba devotees who – abjectly forgetful of  Sai Baba’s constantly harped-upon preachments about love, peace and sweet-spokenness – break the teachings common to many religions and philosophical systems . Their commonsense and decency paralysed, they cannot look at critical facts, rationally and truthfully presented. Cruelly, they libel those who have stood forth – persons they had long respected and served alongside, year after year, when we shared devotion for Sai Baba.

From the moment we raised our voiced in question, devotees shunned and reviled us. In untold ways, they twisted our words and intentions. They attacked our worthy standing in our professions, trades and wider communities. Ever more sadly, there were attacks against our families, including our children.

Prominent leaders in the Sathya Sai Organization – including those who were close to Sai Baba and part of the Saibabaofindia.com party – have long supported the most vicious and dishonest attacker of former devotees and other critics, Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA. So intensive were his attempts to sabotage the Wikipedia article on Sathya Sai Baba that he was permanently banned, along with an associate. Ironically, many Sai devotees refused to associate with him, and voices for reason, such as Adrian Hoogenbosch, urged that speaking offensively to Sai Baba’s critics was not spiritually or ethically tenable.

Puttaparthi Sai Baba Birthday 2011 – Where Have All The Golden Pomp and Circumstance Gone?

Posted by November 20, 2011

The late Sathya Sai Baba’s birthday celebrations occur on 23 November. As usual, around this time, there is an upsurge of visitors to this blogsite and that of Robert Priddy. However, in comparison to other years, the numbers are much down, very much as Sai Baba himself is forever down in the earth, and his devotees infinitely down in the dumps.

After his death in on 24 April 2011, we have seen something of the terrible in-fighting over managerial succession at Puttaparthi, and then of the discovery – not of spiritual treasure but – untold hoarded treasure in Sai Baba’s private quarters. The international Sathya Sai Organization, despite or perhaps in part because of its soviet-style, top-down management style, is in vast disarray. See:

‘Secret Swami’ (Late) Sai Baba: Vast Millions In Hoard Found Hidden In His Palace-Temple and:

Sai Baba: hoarding, secrecy, mistrust, powerlessness, deceit

Sathya Sai 85th Birthday. Has Said He Will Soon Rule World, And Not Age

Posted November 25, 2010

 Sathya Sai Baba has said:

“In the days ahead, the whole world will be obliged to come to Prashanthi Nilayam” (p. 320 Sanathana Sarathi December 1991)

“The whole world will be transformed into Sathya Sai Organisation and Sathya Sai will be installed in the hearts of one and all”.  p. 16 Sanathana Sarathi January 1999)

“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 Sathya Sai Baba’s so-called ‘Declaration’ of his so-called ‘Reality’ as Avatar of all Avatars.)

Here is a simple test:  Ask any Argentinian whether this statement is true. If it is not, ergo – this Sathya is not telling the truth or is credulous and badly misinformed! But, then, how can this be so?  For he has long said that he is All-knowing and All-seeing ….

————————————————————

Sai Baba Breaks Down and Sobs At 85th Birthday Celebration (Video Footage)

Posted December 31, 2010

Over the years, we have received various reports of Sathya Sai Baba increasingly losing a composure that has been oft-noted in him for decades. But only recently has this type of behaviour been clear for all to see, and in video footage emanating from his own camp. During his November birthday, Sathya Sai Baba – in the midst of being praised for all the good he has done – broke down and sobbed deeply and for some time. To see this video (download 3.9 Mbs), CLICK HERE

“Be happy!” “I have no enemies.. I love all. I am always smiling. Many people think how can I keep smiling? I don’t like castoroil faces.. When you all are happy, I will be happy.” Sathya Sai Baba in his lectern-thumping tirade, Christmas Discourse 2000

————————————————————

Is Puttaparthi Glitter the ‘Shining India’?

Posted December 16, 2010

Often, there is the tacit assumption that to criticize Sathya Sai Baba is itself a slight against India. This is offensive to a great many Indians from all walks of life who do not think that Sai Baba is a reflection of all that is good in their country.

Anyone who has lived in India lengthily, as I have, comes to know how profoundly Indians across classes and divides deplore the corruptions and abuses of human rights and democratic freedoms which they see perpetrated by the power elites in their country.

Yet this is the India that Sai Baba has said he will transform. He has spoken of first “cleaning up his own backyard”, before saving the entire world before he dies. He is now very old and sick.

Sathya Sai Baba Breaks Down and Sobs at 85th Birthday

Posted December 11, 2010

Sathya Sai Baba’s many reported weeping episodes have taken – as from circa the year 2000 – a marked upsweep after the advent of worldwide exposure of widespread serial sexual abuse of boys and young men (See also HERE and HERE);  his implication in the massive local, state and central governments’ cover up of police killings in his bedroom at Puttaparthi (See HERE and HERE and HERE); vast misappropriation of billions in funds collected worldwide (See HERE and HERE and HERE); his vast opulence in a land of great poverty, squalor, ignorance and superstition; his failed predictions (See HERE and HERE); and much else that reveals him to be one of history’s great imposters, whatever may be the good deeds that he has sparked off in many of his devotees.

Sathya Sai Baba 84th Birthday Celebrations. Will 21st Century India Tolerate The Shame That Is Puttaparthi?

Posted November 22, 2009

In marked contrast, a great many Indians do not in substantive ways – even though they acknowledge that his devotees often do good social works – respect Sathya Sai Baba and his extremely undemocratic and unaccountable cult. By way of confirmation, let any traveller to India keep his or her ears open or even politely pose the question to many of her citizens. That simple test is almost enough in itself. Many well-informed Indians do not appreciate that, at a time when vast efforts  try, on many fronts, to bring India into the best of 21st century practice, that, buffoon-like, Sathya Sai Baba flourishes unbounded aspirations to create a Ram-Rajarate, as it were, in their country – far more opulent the ‘Glory that was Rome’ or the ‘Splendour that was Greece’. Mind you, it is more than India he has said that he will rule – it is the world. In regard to India, see, for example, the south Indian scholar-Sai Baba devotee Ra. Ganapati  in his semi-official biography, “Baba: Sathya Sai” (Vol II – page 85):

“His college students had the privilege to see another unique creation in the Ootacamund Summer Course in June 1976. Svami, who declared that He would live to see ninety six years in this body, mentioned that eighteen important institutions would be established by Him all over India in the remaining forty six years, and circled His hand.
Immediately there appeared in His hand a big medal with the map of India engraved. There were inscribed therein the eighteen institutions that are to appear in the next near-half-century. Not only that, the medal also carried the important ‘achievements-to-be’ of Svami in the future, in microscopic Devanagiri characters in the Samskrit language.”

Many have heard and read where he says that the whole world will be under his rulership, and that he will return in the name of Prema Sai Baba to complete this work. In a 1961 Discourse, he said: “I shall be in this body for 58 years more; I have assured you of this already.” (Sathya Sai Speaks, II, 18:92.) A year previously, he said: “I will be in this mortal human form for 59 years more and I shall certainly meet the purpose of this avathaar, do not doubt it. I will take My own time and carry out My Plan as far as you are concerned.” (I, 31:198; Prashanthi Nilayam 29-9-1960 – second discourse) Both these statements indicate a death date 2019 (although he would not use the ‘word’ death) of 2019. Other statements in official publications confuse the issue by stating 2022. 

He had best get a wriggle on, for he is now terribly ailing. See:   Sai Baba – A Degenerative Disease? and Sai Baba’s Tip To Keep Ageing Away and Sathya Sai Baba Is Fast-ailing and Sathya Sai Baba’s Slurred Speech Due To Old Age. ‘Eenadu’ News Report

Sathya Sai Baba Birthday, 2009. Where have all the “millions” Gone?

Posted November 28, 2009

Indian media reported considerably diminished numbers coming to Puttaparthi. For example:

Express News Service. India

First Published : 24 Nov 2009 03:48:00 AM IST

Last Updated : 24 Nov 2009 11:08:59 AM IST

             Baba’s birthday a low-key affair

PUTTAPARTHI: The 84th birthday celebrations of Sri Satya Saibaba were held at Sai Kulwant Hall in Prashanti Nilayam in Puttaparthi. Saibaba has formally cut the cake to mark his birthday in the presence of several dignitaries and thousands of devotees who thronged to witness the celebrations.

 The omniscient, ageless Avatar anounced at his 60th birthday that henceforward he would show no physical signs of ageing. See articles:

Sathya Sai Baba’s Tips To Keep Ageing Away

Sathya Sai Baba’s Slurred Speech Due To Old Age. ‘Eenadu’ News Report

Sathya Sai Baba Is Fast-ailing

Sai Baba-A Degenerative Disease?

Sai Baba 82nd birthday – cakes and security

Click to  find the video link that shows Sathya Sai Baba in 2007 just as unable to cut his own birthday cake as exposed in the 2009 report of the Express News Service.

————————————————————

Sathya Sai Baba Video. Too Weak To Cut Birthday Cake

Posted November 25, 2008

See video which reveals Sathya Sai Baba, in November 2007, as unable to cut his birthday cakes any longer

High-powered Minister of State, Renuka Chowdhuri, has to cut 2007 for badly ailing Satya Sai Baba

For some time, he has had a mask-like face, suggestive of a degenerative disease.

One Of Many Examples of Sathya Sai Baba’s Falsified Statements

“Many people wonder that I look so young even at the age of 73. The reason is that I have the three P’s in Me. One is Purity, the second is Patiene and the third is Perseverance. It is because of these three that I shall remain like this for any number of years to come. (cheers)”  p. 302 Sanathana 11-1998

Further Reading At ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’

Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions

There is no end to his failed predictions. In his February 1 16, 2007 (so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sai baba said:

“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.”

Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit

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

‘World Hindu’ by 2030. VHP’s Singhal Reports Sathya Sai Baba Told Him

One of India’s most powerful Hindu nationalist leaders, Ashok Singhal, who has an international profile in the Hindu world, has just told an assembly of political and religious luminaries in Delhi of a prophecy he says Sathya Sai Baba shared with him. The Organiser, September 14, 2008, reports …

Robert Priddy – former head of Sathya Sai Organization, Norway – at his blogsite

Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed

Ageing and collapse in Sai Baba’s health

Sai Baba’s health – miracle or self-sacrifice?

Sai Baba says his close servants live for 100 years

Sathya Sai miracle of transformation of India?

Sai Baba’s failing health

————————————————————

Sai Baba’s Birthday. Vast, Costly Pomp and Ceremony

Posted November 20, 2007

Sathya Sai Baba’s Imperial Decay

Pride is said to come before a fall. In the case of Sathya Sai Baba, the absurd and obscene pomp now come during a fall, since we are now in a better place to see the imperial decay suggested in my article The Decline and Fall of The Showman Empire. (For the busy reader, there is a condensed version, Sai Baba’s Undivine Downfall).

Pictures of Sathya Sai Baba’s Opulence and Self-glorification

For a photographic glimpse of the incredible lavish material ‘spendour of Puttaparthi’, see Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia. Or my reader may like to view some Sathya Sai Baba Chariots.

In the selfsame India, there is, with what deepest irony, a profoundly genuine splendour, down thousands of years, of saints and sages living in the utmost simplicity.

Where Do Sathya Sai Baba’s Riches Come From?

Where do the – no, not millions – billions of dollars (and many another currency) come from that support Sathya Sai Baba’s overweening self-glorification? The answer is, often – from your country and mine.  See, Sai Baba Exchequer Worth Billions. Many Countries Donate

Fortunately, a television documentary such as the BBC’s The Secret Swami was one of the means by which networked former Sai Baba devotees from several countries have found to communicate our testimony worldwide. A piece from the BBC’s publicity department gives a small idea of the sheer impact caused by coverage of dissenting views of Sai Baba and his cult, the Sathya Sai Organization. More millions have viewed DR’s Seduced, Azul TV’s Divine Sin, and read articles in major news media in India, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, and so on. See, Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List.

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(Note: You may prefer to go 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)

Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Puttaparthi Sai Baba Birthday 2011 – Where Have All The Golden Pomp and Circumstance Gone?

The late Sathya Sai Baba’s birthday celebrations occur on 23 November. As usual, around this time, there is an upsurge of visitors to this blogsite and that of Robert Priddy. However, in comparison to other years, the numbers are much down, very much as Sai Baba himself is forever down in the earth, and his devotees infinitely down in the dumps.

After his death in on 24 April 2011, we have seen something of the terrible in-fighting over managerial succession at Puttaparthi, and then of the discovery – not of spiritual treasure but – untold hoarded treasure in Sai Baba’s private quarters. The international Sathya Sai Organization, despite or perhaps in part because of its soviet-style, top-down management style, is in vast disarray. See:

‘Secret Swami’ (Late) Sai Baba: Vast Millions In Hoard Found Hidden In His Palace-Temple and:

Sai Baba: hoarding, secrecy, mistrust, powerlessness, deceit

Since our work of international exposure via world leading media began in 1999, the cult has suffered regular resignation upheavals, including of foremost leaders. Indeed, many people leave informally. With a vast amount of work, we used our professional credit to tell many mainstream, reputable religious and civic institutions. They were the target of the Sai cult, avid for wider community acceptance. Our work severely hit the cult’s extensive, and often high-level, fundraising and recruiting efforts around the world. 

Below are a few quotes from my articles, over time, which may help to cut the search times of those looking for an overview.  In a day or so, I shall include a similar page of articles about a number of Sai Baba’s past birthday celebrations.

In the last few years, evidence mounted of decline of his physical and mental health. He had several falls, one of which I saw in when I lived at Puttaparthi for several months – November 1997 – August 1998. Reports came of e.g., his walking round in circles, uttering gibberish. At other times, he flew into temper tantrums. In During his 85th birthday celebrations he broke into extensive sobbing during a keynote speaker’s praise for his work. See:

Sathya Sai Baba In Fits of Sobbing: Video Footage Confirms Earlier Accounts

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 5, 2011

These and other perverse behaviors reached an appalling point – which his minders worked overtime to mask where possible, and, where not possible, to modify. Their damage control efforts were considerable. Looked at in retrospect, his last crumbling – long years before he had foretold – the ghastly mess in which he left things comes as no surprise. See:

Sathya Sai Baba Foretold He Would ‘Die’ Circa 2022. Further Archival Evidence

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 14, 2011

Official Sai Baba Documents Show His Death Date Prophecies Failed

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 12, 2011

————————————————————

Note:  Here, we see, among a whole plethora of other contradictions up and down his discourses and comments e.g., in interviews, yet more messy dates. His death was a huge mess, but it was long preceded by countless medium to smaller messes. To the anomalies, contradictions and outright lies, devotees forever blind themselves by looking at him like one might look too long into the sun. For insight into devotees’ Procrustean efforts over lunar vs solar dating, see:

Sathya Sai Baba reckoned in calendar (solar) years, not ‘lunar years’

Sathya Sai Baba’s (un)Birthday (not born on 23 November 1926)

————————————————————

Sai Baba To Be Seen In Moon? But Where Was Moon?

Posted October 26, 2007

Quote

Form vs Essence

It is interesting that so many devotees have assumed that the vision apparently promised by Sai Baba via his chief translator and close servitor Professor Anil Kumar to many thousands of devotees gathered at his Puttaparthi ashram would entail seeing the form of Sai Baba on the moon. If they had consulted their timeless sacred classic, Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11, they might have recalled that the vision granted by Sri Krishna to Lord Arjuna (vishwarupa or vishvarupa darshana) was of a very different character. It was not the form of Sri Krishna – who was right beside him! – but a cosmic vision of enormous range and depth. But what fools who rush, with faces agog, to Sai Baba’s local airport would ever want something both so fierce as that?

• Was it not enough for them to have seen it where they had daily darshan (sight) of him within his Puttaparthi ashram?

• Why all the sensationalism, and indeed threat to life or injury, of thousands of devotees rushing headlong to his nearby private airport?

• Is an unruly crowd, which police had great difficulty in controlling, likely in a fit state to receive a divine and blissful vision?

Certainly, if it was the form of Sathya Sai Baba that was so eagerly sought after by the crowds of devotees, they have entirely missed one of his most insistent teachings: that the form is not what is important – but learning that attachment to the form is deleterious to spiritual growth.

Young Male Sex Abuse: Legal ‘Locomotive’ Hurtles Towards Sai Baba’s Accomplices

Posted July 19, 2011

Quote

‘By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them’

Sai Baba devotees have an appalling record for their maltreatment of former devotees. They have repeatedly vilified, shunned, made apostates out to be liars and fools, cruelly libelled them on the internet, and threatened with law suits and criminal proceedings.

T. Sri Ramanathan, Kulwant Rai, et alia

One of these attempts to cower us was the unconscionable bluff by top Sathya Sai Organization leader T. Sri Ramanathan. As well-informed Sai Baba devotees in Australia know too well, he is – more particularly behind hands and doors in whispers – an authoritarian bully within the Australian Sathya Sai Organization itself, which he led for several years. The devotees, all too lamb-like, would say e.g., “Rama is simply Baba’s test for our sadhana; Swami knows all our karmas”.  See: Ramanathan Threatens Barry Pittard With The Law 

Likewise appearing to think that we were panicky lambs, the Sathya Sai Baba supporter Kulwant Rai, one of India’s wealthiest moguls, and scion of the Rai family, various of whom are Sathya Sai Baba devotees, threatened us via his lawyers.

With scarcely a penny in our pockets – at that time! – our forces welcomed them to go ahead. We wanted the facts to come out. Our course was, and is, entirely just. We had nothing to hide, but they did, so they threatened like bovver boys.

They – having too much to hide – went away. More’s the pity. Bullies often turn out to be cowards. Which is one of a number of compelling reasons why one must stand up to them. Give them a field day, and one, inevitably, will sink into the slush, having become a coward oneself.

Sai Baba, Kubla Khan, Citizen Kane, Bill Gates et alia

Posted June 7, 2007

Quote

Efforts to Globalize Sathya Sai Baba with World Radio Station

Sai Baba controls with an iron hand the international Sathya Sai Organization.  Senior investigators from the world’s top media like the BBC, Times of London, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and in other countries, as well as UNESCO, the U.S. State Department and other institutions deemed the cult extremely hard to investigate or act against. His second most senior aide is its deputy chairman, who, as head of Sai Global Harmony, is his ‘minister of propaganda’, Dr G. Venkataraman, one of the progenitors of India’s atomic bomb, as was Sai Baba’s previous close aide, the late Dr S. Bhagavantam – sometimes called ‘the father of the Indian atomic bomb’ – as was his present staunch devotee, the President of India, Dr A.J. P. Kalam, who writes flowery  panegyrics to Sai Baba, as did the last Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Sai Global Harmony affiliates with WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service, 24/7 and broadcasts to many countries. With a behind-the-scenes corporate-style, assisted by the billions of funds that pour from many countries into the Sathya Sai Central Trust, the declared aim is to penetrate to every corner of the globe.

Dr John Hislop. Vaunted ‘Perfect Disciple’ of Sathya Sai Baba

Posted November 6, 2011

Quote

The ‘Select Readings’ cited below show how Hislop, and the top leadership in the U.S. Sai Baba hierarchy (and the incredibly docile lower-echelon leadership worldwide), covered up the seriousness of allegations of Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. No doubt, they seriously and sincerely thought they were doing the right thing. At the same time, they were guilty of the most extraordinary lack of duty of care towards those they had until now, for years, honored and respected.

John Hislop’s Successor, Dr Michael Goldstein of Covena, southern California, USA, is now world leader of the international Sathya Sai Organization, which Sai Baba said is THE divine organization on earth.   But it is a multi-billion dollar organization with iron-clad, cultic rules. Goldstein exploded with unprovoked anger, not realizing that the BBC had a hidden camera trained on him.

                                BBC hidden camera reveals Sai Baba’s world leader in fit of anger. Goldstein’s bullying, coldness and general nastiness – and such qualities in a number of  other high echelon Sai Baba hand-picked leaders – cannot be denied. Likewise, often out-of-sight were Sai Baba’s angry discharges.

Sathya Sai Baba Cult Now Distraught and Broken, Like Its Founder In Last Years

Posted November 1, 2011

Quote

As the participants compared their experiences, evidence – sometimes gut-sickening – fast mounted, other crimes and ethical betrayals came to our notice, as did the many contradictions and anomalies in Sai Baba’s published discourses. These amounted to a glaringly flawed corpus. They were officially published, but poorly monitored. (I have discussed the later editorial weeding of the many embarrassing contradictions, etc.,:

The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements)

No truthful explanation would resolve the many contradictions in Sai Baba’s published discourses.  Academics such as Robert Priddy and Brian Steel have scrutinized much of this literature. Those who retaliated – chiefly Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno – are poorly educated. They use fallacious arguments such as argumentum ad hominem. They viciously name-call. They use spurious interpretations of what we have written. They deliver us the distinct, though unintended advantage among serious, thoughtful readers. Indeed, in the case of Moreno and an assistant, Wikipedia banned them.

To those coordinating activities, such as Glen Meloy, Hari Sampath, myself and, as time passed, Robert Priddy, the sheer volume and richness of evidence strikingly and repeatedly verified accounts.

In some instances, parents of boys and young men and other abuse survivors went to foremost heads of the Sathya Sai Organization, including Dr John Hislop, Dr Michael Goldstein, Phyllis Kristal, Sri T. Ramananthan, Dr Sarah Pavan and others.  These supposed pillars of righteousness shamefully ignored the complainants. The leaders exhibited text-book examples of that psychological denial so commonly found in autocratic, cultic arenas

Is Isaac Tigrett Sai Baba’s ‘Walking Will’? Guru Purnima Revelation Or A Fall?

Posted on July 14, 2011

Quote

But questions arise – What, in these days of immense disruption and confusion within the Sai movement, in exactly what might this entity consist? And what might be its supreme command center? Is it the Sathya Sai Central Trust? Or the international Sathya Sai Organization? Will Tigrett, long known to have something of a mind of his own, be quite happy to bypass the likes of Rathnakar and Srinivasan and deal with the wider organized fold of Sai devotees? Not least those great many donors who are deeply suspicious about the trustworthiness of the Sai Central trust – or some members of it. They worry about what happened to their donations. We are talking billions, and not in rupees, either!

In various Sai devotee magazines, Isaak Tigrett – who has long maintained a relative degree of frankness that markedly contrasts with Sai Baba officials around the world – has spoken of how, the Indian Sai Trust officials constantly thwarted him. This was even though Sai Baba had put him in charge of arrangements to equip the Superspeciality Hospital at Puttaparthi, the multi-million dollar project  which Tigrett in fact funded for (according to figures we have heard) some 49 million US dollars, and not sums such as the 108 million so often spoken of in Sai Baba circles round the world.  My reader might find it instructive to hear a telephone recording of David Bailey, formerly Sai Baba’s closest western devotee who knew Tigrett and many other key Sai Organization players from India and abroad. See below.  See also:  Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba and: David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(Note: You may prefer to go 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)

Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Occupy Movement Exemplifies Sathya Sai Baba’s Failure As Social Reformer

In the next days, I shall look at aspects of the Occupy movements, many of whose manifestations show how profoundly Sathya Sai Baba and his international organization have failed.

Sathya Sai Baba and his cult always failed to face political and corporate power. They themselves are part of the corrupt system. His successors now fight out power struggles among themselves.

The international Sathya Sai Organization “good works” philosophy plays perfectly into the hands of the power elites, who have nothing against charity. We all like to feel good. Big-name donors to the Sathya Sai cult are legion, especially in India, and from among the Indian diaspora worldwide.

Amid untold golden glitter, the late Sathya Sai Baba said that, in his own lifetime, he would save and rule India and then the world

But those many ‘ordinary’ citizens from many cultural backgrounds who people the Occupy movements are better educated than ever before, and thus able to use social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc., to great advantage. Sathya Sai Baba and his organization could never, and would never, have initiated or supported a mass movement like the Occupy movement.

Occupy Wall Street protestors in Oakland, California, USA, holding “We are the 99%”

This populist manifestation is profoundly opposed to the corrupt machinations of government and corporations – whereas, Sai Baba and the top-level figures of his organization have long been utterly enmeshed with government, police and armed services at every level. Many of his richest devotees long were, and are to this day, corporate moguls. He, his intelligence and security wing, and his formal and informal political operators have for decades utterly influenced local, state and central government police, who are notorious for violent suppression of protest at the behest of Indian governments of any persuasion.

The greed-maddened heads of corporations whom the Occupy movements oppose are, in essence, no different to those far more visible celebrities from the entertainment world who live in the utmost opulence but simultaneously adorn their inflated egos with ostentatious finery when they appear at charity fund-raisers.

From Wikipedia: A chart showing the disparity in income distribution in the United States.^[25][26] Wealth inequality and income inequality have been central concerns among Occupy Wall Street protesters.^[27][28][29] CBO data shows that in 1980, the top 1% earned 9.1% of all income, while in 2006 they earned 18.8% of all income.^[30]

A Protester with a sign at Occupy San Francisco

But far beyond the ‘feel good’ point, the governments and corporations keep up the profiteering, and aid the spawning of the soul-destroying, planet-killing life-styles. From their almost impenetrable fortresses, they aid and abet poverty and social dislocation in the first place.

The US, history’s most formidable superpower is in vast economic decline. But this should really serve to remind many other countries that, in many ways, the US is only themselves writ large – both actually and in unachieved aspiration. Materialism is always itself, and always expands when it can.

The General Assembly meets in Washington Square on 8 October 2011

Millions of ordinary US citizens – and in increasingly many other first world and developing countries – now rebel against the governments and corporations. They need no Marx and Engels to read nor a Lenin to rally them.

They come from many religious and non-religious backgrounds. They come from the smallest towns and the largest cities.

They are the young, who face decades of paying back their student loans, whom the flawed system catapults into jobs after years of study – young lives now not able, even for a moment, to breathe, travel, explore, discover, reflect and mature. At the most idealistic time of their lives, they are seized of the chance to find a sense of meaning that will propel them in the rest of their lives.

They are the middle-aged, who, after great sacrifice have schooled their children, served their communities, and are now being slammed with bank foreclosures.

They are the elderly, for whom superannuation now means little or nothing.

They are often leaderless, but consensual and practical. They, rather than hidden controllers, write the placards for themselves; which they raise above their heads to proclaim their hurt and anger to their representatives who do not represent. And to their country. And to a world which, on the instant, sees, for example, police forces at the behest of their political masters being mobilized to suppress this grassroots uprising. They see sections of the media who, no less than the police, serve the moguls and political managers by sensationalizing and misreporting.

——————————————

The Occupy movement: They are fed up in India, too

The United States and India are going through similar upheavals, writes Thomas L. Friedman. Democratically elected governments in both countries are so beholden to special interests they can no longer deliver reform. Therefore, they both need shock therapy from outside.

By Thomas L. Friedman

Syndicated columnist, New York Times

GOA, India — The world’s two biggest democracies, India and the United States, are going through remarkably similar bouts of introspection. Both countries are witnessing grass-roots movements against corruption and excess. The difference is that Indians are protesting what is illegal — a system requiring bribes at every level of governance to get anything done. And Americans are protesting what is legal — a system of Supreme Court-sanctioned bribery in the form of campaign donations that have enabled the financial-services industry to effectively buy the U.S. Congress, and both political parties, and thereby resist curbs on risk-taking.

But the similarities do not stop there. What has brought millions of Indians into the streets to support the India Against Corruption movement and what seems to have triggered not only the Occupy Wall Street movement but also initiatives like Americanselect.org — a centrist group planning to use the Internet to nominate an independent presidential candidate — is a sense that both countries have democratically elected governments that are so beholden to special interests that they can no longer deliver reform. Therefore, they both need shock therapy from outside.

The big difference is that, in America, the Occupy Wall Street movement has no leader and no consensus demand. And while it enjoys a lot of passive support, its activist base is small.

India Against Corruption has millions of followers and a charismatic leader, the social activist Anna Hazare, who went on a hunger strike until the Indian Parliament agreed to create an independent ombudsman with the staff and powers to investigate and prosecute corruption at every level of Indian governance and to do so in this next session of Parliament. A furious debate is now raging here over how to ensure that such an ombudsman doesn’t turn into an Indian “Big Brother,” but some new ombudsman position appears likely to be created.

Arvind Kejriwal, Hazare’s top deputy, told me, “Gandhi said that whenever you do any protests, your demands should be very clear, and it should be very clear who is the authority who can fulfill that demand, so your protests should be directed at that authority.” If your movement lacks leadership at first, that is not necessarily a problem, he added, “because often leaders evolve. But the demands have to be very clear.”

A sense of injustice and widening income gaps brought Occupy Wall Street into the street, “but exactly what needs to be done, which law needs to be changed and who are they demanding that from?” asked Kejriwal. “These things have to be answered quickly.”

That said, there are still many parallels between the Indian and U.S. movements. Both seem to have been spurred to action by a sense that corruption or financial excess had crossed some red lines. In the United States, despite the fact that elements of the financial-services industry nearly sank the economy in 2008, that same industry is still managing to blunt sensible reform efforts because it has so much money to sway Congress. It seems to have learned nothing. People are angry.

Meanwhile, in India, the commodities and telecommunications booms, coupled with urbanization that is driving up land prices, have set loose billions of rupees, and officials who control zoning and mining permits have just been pigging out. Some 50 top officials have been jailed lately for everything from the crony allocation of wireless spectrum, leading to potential losses to the state of up to $38 billion, to illicitly selling Indian iron ore — needed for development here — to China for a higher price. People are fed up.

Yet, commented the Indian writer Chetan Bhagat in The Times of India on Monday, “our government attacks almost every anti-corruption crusader” and “sadly, even our opposition parties have lots of corrupt people.” Sound familiar? Democracy not only needs a decent ruling party, but an intelligent opposition, and neither India nor America has both today.

Yes, Indians are mad at a system that makes them pay a bribe to get their birth certificate. Americans are mad at a system that has made it legal for unions to bribe the officials who will decide their pay and for bankers to bribe the lawmakers who will decide how much risk they can take. But both are essentially threatened by the same disease, best captured in the title of Robert Kaiser’s book about lobbying — “So Damn Much Money” — and it’s being thrown around now by so many special interests that these democracies are not only being warped by it but can’t fix themselves either.

Hazare has called this moment India’s “second struggle for independence.” I think he is on to something for both India and America. I think that repairing our respective dysfunctional democracies — so they are truly enablers for the 21st century and not inhibitors in India’s case or “the sum of all lobbies” in America’s case — is for our generation what the independence movement in India and the civil-rights movement in America were for our parents’ generation. Here’s hoping we’re as successful.

Thomas L. Friedman is a regular columnist for The New York Times

Dr John Hislop. Vaunted ‘Perfect Disciple’ of Sathya Sai Baba

Like so many devotees, especially those close to Sathya Sai Baba, ex-foremost leader of the Sathya Sai Organization (outside India), the Dr John Hislop knew very well that Sai Baba told lies.

Devotees, however, pass these off as, variously, “Baba’s funny little ways”; “his sparing of our feelings”; his “Leelas” (meaning his ‘divine sportiveness’ …. When writing, they use a capital ‘L’); “his perfect ‘Truth’, but our human imperfection” which cannot see that he is teaching us some profound lesson, such as, in learning detachment; and more such Procrustean wracking of human reason and commonsense. Sai Baba long exhorted that his devotees:  “Love (him) for (his) Mystery”. (Of course, his editors and other devotee writers capitalized the ‘h’ in ‘him’ and ‘his’) …..

Hislop also well knew that many devotees Sai Baba confused many with his many lies, all his predictions which failed, as did so many of his promised cures and e.g., promises of placements at his university or his colleges, of apartments in the ashram, and so forth. Therefore, in his books and talks (he travelled to various countries as Sathya Sai Baba’s foremost emissary outside India), Jack Hislop needed to come up with covering explanations.

I didn’t get to know Hislop at all well. My acquaintance was primarily via a meeting I arranged (the idea of which was to attract from among the international devotee base the gift of books, audio-visual teaching aids, and so on). This was when I lectured in English at the Sathya Sai college outside Bangalore. But my impression was that of many who did knew him, who thought him sincere. In so many devotees, sincerity is writ large – but it hides the fact that a psychology of self-deception is powerful.

The ‘Select Readings’ cited below show how Hislop, and the top leadership in the U.S. Sai Baba hierarchy (and the incredibly docile lower-echelon leadership worldwide), covered up the seriousness of allegations of Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. No doubt, they seriously and sincerely thought they were doing the right thing. At the same time, they were guilty of the most extraordinary lack of duty of care towards those they had until now, for years, honored and respected.

(“Seeking Divinity” Dr. J. S. Hislop, Sri Sathya Sai Books & Publications Trust. 1998, p. 210)

———————

John Hislop’s Successor, Dr Michael Goldstein of Covena, southern California, USA, is now world leader of the international Sathya Sai Organization, which Sai Baba said is THE divine organization on earth.   But it is a multi-billion dollar organization with iron-clad, cultic rules. Goldstein exploded with unprovoked anger, not realizing that the BBC had a hidden camera trained on him ….

                                Goldstein’s Sathya Sai Anger Mismanagement Course!

See the article:

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

Select Readings

Brian Steel

Sathya Sai Baba, Elsie and Walter Cowan, and John Hislop. A Discredited 1971 Resurrection Claim

Sathya Sai Baba’s Credibility Gap: Contributions by John Hislop

Robert Priddy

‘Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’ by Dr. J. Hislop

Cover-up letter: Hislop wholly neglects duty of care

Faked “miracle”: crucifix given by Sai Baba to Dr. Hislop

‘My Baba and I’ by Dr. John Hislop – Sai Baba miracles

Priddy notes: “Dr John Hislop, who was for long head of Sathya Sai Baba’s organization in USA and (strangely) ‘the Americas’, wrote most revealing and embarrassing letters in 1980-81. These came into the hands of Timothy Conway Ph.D., from his immediate predecessor the former president of the San Francisco Sathya Sai Centre. This is the third in the series of letters by Hislop dealing with the allegations by Mrs. Payne (see her letter here). The first Hislop reaction is here and the second here”.

View all Hislop letter transcripts, scans, and comments here

Sex scandal and Sathya Sai Baba – 3rd Hislop letter

Barry Pittard

Brian Steel On Sathya Sai Baba’s Credibility Gap. John Hislop Contributions

Brian Steel On Dr John Hislop’s Gift From Sathya Sai Baba – Idol claimed to have wood from cross of Jesus

Brian Steel Demythologizes Early Foreign-led Sathya Sai Baba Myths

Brian Steel On John Hislop’s 27 Years as Sathya Sai Baba’s Spokesman

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

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

An article in which Timothy Conway outlines many key issues

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(Note: You may prefer to go 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)

Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba Cult Now Distraught and Broken, Like Its Founder In Last Years

In the article, Sathya Sai Organization Shields Its Accused Members From Investigation, (13 October 2011), I wrote:

“On countless occasions, the international Sathya Sai Organization has either refused to deal with serious allegations outright or avoided all questions from dissidents and journalists. If they had any self-respect, truthfulness and regard for democratic ways, rank-and-file members of the organization would demand accountability and transparency. They would also be concerned about why so many respected institutions avoid association with their organization, and why political and government leaders refuse invitations to Sai Organization functions. Members need to heed their own feelings of misgiving at the explanations their leaders give to them”.

Former devotee outreach to key public institutions was enormous. This activity was a concerted international effort in which now former Sai Baba followers  – coming from many professional, trade backgrounds and cultural backgrounds – did their best, first, to warn of the danger of boys and young men coming into the orbit of Sathya Sai Baba.

As the participants compared their experiences, evidence – sometimes gut-sickening – fast mounted, other crimes and ethical betrayals came to our notice, as did the many contradictions and anomalies in Sai Baba’s published discourses. These amounted to a glaringly flawed corpus. They were officially published, but poorly monitored. (I have discussed the later editorial weeding of the many embarrassing contradictions, etc.,:

The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements)

No truthful explanation would resolve the many contradictions in Sai Baba’s published discourses.  Academics such as Robert Priddy and Brian Steel have scrutinized much of this literature. Those who retaliated – chiefly Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno – are so poorly educated, viciously name-calling, distortive in interpretations, and prone to serious offenses against logical argument that no serious reader can take them seriously. Indeed, Wikipedia banned them. To those coordinating activities, such as Glen Meloy, Hari Sampath, myself and, as time passed, Robert Priddy, the sheer volume and richness of evidence strikingly and repeatedly verified accounts.

In some instances, parents of boys and young men and other abuse survivors went to foremost heads of the Sathya Sai Organization, including Dr John Hislop, Dr Michael Goldstein, Phyllis Kristal, Sri T. Ramananthan, Dr Sarah Pavan and others.  These supposed pillars of righteousness shamefully ignored the complainants. The leaders exhibited text-book examples of that psychological denial so commonly found in autocratic, cultic arenas.

It is a terrible chapter in institutional abuse history. Let there be no ‘statute of limitation’! The terrible acts, sexual and other, outraged many young and innocent lives. Historians need to look at the sheer scale of the ethical betrayal. What is more, academics who duck for cover and refuse to study ‘difficult’ areas such as cults, should themselves be exposed. So too should those politicians and academics who, with a distorted understanding of what ‘liberalism’ really means. In their notions about not giving offense to various faiths, they are insipid in the extreme. In short, there is a farcical ‘political correctness’ – one that fears to give offense when, all the while, cults perpetrate great offense.

If society is to come to grips with issues of cultism, writers will need to get beyond just looking at more spectacular and dramatic cults like the Jim Jones or David Koresh cults. Society suffers greatly when there is no well-publicised, properly-researched, non-sensationalistic enquiry into the effect of cults on the rest of society.

For lack of understanding these less dramatic but, in some ways, no less invidious cultic phenomena, the Sathya Sai Organization continue to penetrate and influence, without, however, recruiting wider communities throughout the world. Among both their own membership AND in their outreach to institutions and governments, the Sathya Sai Organization leaders act as though nothing questionable has happened. 

Why should these leaders escape question? Their crimes of complicity are too great to ignore.

In processing the immense amount of work on testimony, and in supporting the Sai Baba’s devastated survivors, our international coordinators often found that many witnesses clearly had no knowledge of each other. Still further, evidence came from sources well beyond former devotees. Sai Baba had not only practised his sexual and other abuses on his immediate followers but on others who were spiritual seekers traveling through India from one ashram to another.

Despite the huge damage to it since 2000 – when we made professional submissions to major media, the UN, various governments, Interpol, FBI, and other foremost agencies – the international Sathya Sai Organization to this day, is highly evasive. We can expect this type of response from organizations with a great deal to hide. The ‘secret swami’s’ key followers are secret just as he was secret when Sai Baba hid his vast millions in currency, gold, silver and other precious commodities in his private quarters. Secrecy runs in the ‘Sai family’. Just as when he, complicit with local, state and national government leaders, concealed the facts about the 1993 killings in his bedroom. And likewise, when he and his accomplices engaged in terrible threats and bribes when then he concealed his (and some subordinates’) serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. And, likewise, scandals such as the water projects, apartments and other scams. All of which, and more, left a huge wake of human suffering. Over many years, including 2011, Robert Priddy and I have received highly confidential accounts in which profound sexual disorientation has happened to survivors of Sai Baba’s sexual depredations, and, sometimes, those of servitors close to him.

Although at much-reduced capacity, the Sathya Sai Organization, now in huge disarray after its founder died (April 2011) many years before the time he predicted, continues to act towards communities as though it is a respectable, conservative organization. This does not surprise – for, against massive odds, it struggles to find funding resources to match its incredible overheads.

Nor does it surprise that, as the organization continues to face such grave threats to its existence, it refuses to face questions from many quarters. These include institutions and people (typically wealthy and powerful) with whom the cult tries to link. The public damage to it is vast. Some members, naïvely, try from within it to reform the organization. But there is a sorry trail in which the Sathya Sai Organization has cast out long-respected leaders and other members who have been courageous enough to raise questions. Senior journalists from the several of the world’s top media and scholars from leading universities and others who have tried to investigate, are at one: this is a highly secretive, authoritarian cult.

Where can the Sathya Sai cult turn – its distraught, broken founder being now dead, except in on its distraught – broken self?

Select Reading

Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling?

Guardians of Our Young? Or De Facto Sexual Abuse Pimps?

The Public PetitionInformation 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 go 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)

——————————————

Subscribe in a reader

Sathya Sai Organization Shields Its Accused Members From Investigation

In responsible, accountable organizations, correct, fair and reasonable processes address inappropriate or criminal behavior.

On countless occasions, the international Sathya Sai Organizationis refuses to deal with serious allegations. If they have any self-respect and regard for democratic ways, rank-and-file members of the organization should demand accountability and transparency. They should also be concerned about why so many respected institutions avoid association with their organization, and why political and government leaders refuse invitations to Sai Organization functions. Members need to heed their own feelings of misgiving at the explanations their leaders give to them.

This lack of speaking up, of questioning, profoundly ails the organization. It is also why, for example, so many costly drives in luxurious venues fail. See:

‘Secret Swami’ Cult Recruits At Prime Public Venues

Those of us who have stood forth have often been assailed by Sai Baba activists such as Gerald Moreno, of New Mexico, USA, who deride Sai Baba’s accusers for not having succeeded in court actions. However, the difficulties the victims face are formidable. Many of them wish to hide what they regard as their sense of shame. They do not wish to suffer discrimination against them in their personal or professional lives. Many have friends or relatives still closely associated with the Sathya Sai Organization. Sadly, many of them will not reach out for professional counseling, even though offered excellently qualified professional counseling.

These and other formidable obstacles are familiar to all those familiar with the years of denial and cover up in the case of such institutions as the Roman Catholic Church. (See Further Reading, below)

Robert Priddy, former, well-respected leader (Norway) in the Sathya Sai Organization and retired academic of the University of Oslo, has just posted a note on Hal Honig, of New York, USA, a high-profile Sai Baba cult leader in the United States:

Hal Honig – misguided copier of Sai Baba’s practices

Posted by robertpriddy on October 11, 2011.

Hal Honig with Sathya Sai Baba. Dare this love breathe its name?

Priddy cites my article:

Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling?

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 22, 2007

in which I include reference to allegations of pedophilia against Honig. A noted former leader, Shirley Pike, a U.S. psychologist highly qualified in dealing with sexual abuse of young people, made allegations at a Sai conference that Honig acted as a sexual pimp for Sathya Sai Baba.

See: U.S. Psychologist Shirley Pike’s Moving Challenge To Sathya Sai Baba and His Organization

The former Swedish leader, Conny Larsson, among others, has made the same allegations, as my above-mentioned article details.

Hal Honig Speaks. Unholy Ghost Whispers

Read independent report of what happened to some group members here

Commentators such as Robert Priddy, Brian Steel, Alexandra Nagel, Conny Larsson, and myself in addition to others who have spoken out (and left the Sathya Sai Organization), have expressed a constant theme: the need for extensive, proper and independent investigation of the many allegations.

Why should killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom, and later cover up on a monumental scale, apartments and other scams by those in his front office, and worldwide allegations of sexual abuse (some involving those other than Sathya Sai Baba, such as Hal Honig) escape due processes of the law?

Why should Sathya Sai Baba devotees remain members of an organization which, demonstrably, escapes those proper processes which are best placed to adjudicate issues? The BBC spoke of Sathya Sai Baba as ‘The Secret Swami’.

But, though he died in April 2011, his Sathya Sai Organization remains the secret swami’s secret organization.

———————————————————–

Further Reading

Barry Pittard – On Institutional Cover Ups and Psychological Denial

Institutional Sex Corruption: Plight of Roman Catholic Church and Sathya Sai Organization

Boy Scouts of America – Sex Abuse Revelations. Who Next?

Roman Catholics’ Deep Concern At Pope’s Apology. But He Is Way Ahead Of Indian ‘Pope’ Sathya Sai Baba

The Public PetitionInformation 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 go 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)

——————————————

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Sai Baba of Shirdi: Sathya Sai Baba’s Tall Claims (Part 1)

A few days back, Robert Priddy posted about Sathya Sai Baba’s claims to have incarnated the major Indian saint Shirdi Sai Baba. See:

Shirdi Sai stated “I am not God”, while Sathya misrepresented him

For those interested in looking at a few of the issues involved in such spectacular claims, I shall, in the next few days, further give some comments and links.

On his way to becoming his own notion of Avatar of all Avatars, did Sathya Sai Baba truly believe that he had incarnated in the 19th century in the north-west Indian state of Maharashtra? Or was he shrewdly aware of practising a deception? My own guess is that, like others who have extraordinary inner experiences, he may have been in the grip of very powerful aspects of mind – especially the right brain – of which we understand far too little.

In certain unusual states of mind, an individual believes that extraordinary, real-seeming experiences are actually God’s voice speaking out of a burning bush to Moses. Actually, Allah speaking to Mohammad. Or actually one’s ‘spirit guides’ speaking from within, and so on. One part of the mind is tricked by other parts of the mind. The intangible seems to solidify. The fictive appears as real.

But how can we know what Sai Baba thought about Shirdi Sai Baba? And why he said that he was part of a series of three avatars – Shirdi Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, and, one yet to come, Prema Sai Baba?

What we do know, however, is that, of all countries, India is the place where (other than in lunatic asylums of which all our countries have their types) a great many take claims of ‘divine’ realization very seriously. India is the place of instinctive veneration. Including of cricket, film, political and other stars. Visit many Hindu Indian homes, as I have done in my years in that country, and you will find countless instances where historic, human saints and masters, have their place on the household shrine – and depicted elsewhere around the house – alongside deities like Rama, Krishna, Siva, Durga, Kali, Saraswati, Mahalaxmi, and so on.

Shirdi Sai Baba is one of the pan Indian saints, like Adi Shankaracharya, Tulsidas, Mira Bai, Ramakrishna, Ramanana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and so many others. Some worship them as aspects, specifically, of ‘avatars’ like Rama, Krishna, Siva, the divine Mother, and so on. Some simply as great lights. Many Hindus regard Lord Buddha as an aspect of Lord Vishnu (Krishna). There is no end to the gradations, subtleties, emphases – and, therefore, sects.

More thoughtful Hindus fully appreciate the allegorical nature of these gods and goddesses. They see the stories associated with them such as an educated westerner might understand Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, or the characters in Dante, Shakespeare or Goethe or Tolkien – representations of primal forces at work in the human psyche. However, we need to consider the reality in the lives of millions of Indians of a heightened state of mythopoeic conditioning. Of mythopoeic imagination. And of associated rituals, festivals, allowances and proscriptions. All of this along with the ubiquitous supports of temple worship, pilgrimage, funeral and marriage ceremonies, yoga, and so forth. All of this from the very cradle. All of this, as it were, in the air, and everywhere. In the home. In the veneration for the cow. In the astrology. In the priestcraft. In vegetarianism. These norms – daily, and not at a church on Sunday or a synagogue on Saturday – are, perhaps, as alive today as they always were. Flick your television remote and radio dial and it is easy to intercept a pundit or priest or yogi wordily discoursing. Religion is part of the diet – like chapatis, sambar, malai kofta, or sweetmeats, etc. ….. Religious figures attract huge crowds – again the incredible wordiness. Again, eager faces looking up for someone great who speaks to someone small. Some religious figures do not even have to speak; they are, simply, to be seen. In whatever the form, somehow, mysteriously, Grace happens, Merit accrues. The varieties of choice are vast. In anquish, many thoughtful Indians despair of India’s immemorial running after supposed gods, demigods and demagogues.

Sathya Sai Baba appeared to have godlike powers, such as knowing other minds, foreknowledge of the future, the ability to do miracles, to heal terrible illnesses, to forgive sins, to bless with his touch or sight or word, and so on. These seeming divine powers were magnets to the denizens of, arguably, the most hyper-religious and superstitious country in the world. But, interestingly enough, a short walk even for an educated Hindu Indian – so long as there is some sort of appeal to both intellect and emotion. He created his own mythos, relying on an ancient mythos readily available to him, and to his whole milieu.

Sathya Sai Baba was charismatic, but would not have been nearly so had he not appeared to do miracles, see into souls, and answer prayers.

In fact, he was wrong about a lot of things. A recent and dramatic example was the timing of his death in April 2011. See: Sathya Sai Baba death date in serious doubt. Many devotees know perfectly well of his prophecy that he would die (or take ‘mahasamadhi’) ca 2022. Their frequent, addled rationalizations are in full view on official and non-official Sai Baba websites. Their procrustean explanations reveal something of the dreadful confusion he left behind. More than ever before, institutions like UNESCO, governments and civic and religious organizations with whom the Sathya Sai Organization attempts to associate itself reject it. The devotees who now try to reform the organization from within really need to confront their secretive leaders and demand to hear from them the circumstances since 2000 in which many respected organizations have rebuffed Sai Baba leader’s overtures.

But of course unusual phenomena would, of necessity, occur! How can it fail? For, in the annals of medical science, innumerable are the instances of unpredicted remission in the case of many apparently incurable illnesses. Intense belief taps into mental and physical transformation that science is only beginning to understand. And if rational understanding is absent, traditional belief systems, or cosmologies, arise in the form of explanations. Hindu explanations, Jewish ones, Christian ones, Buddhist ones, Muslim ones, and so on.

To these explanations, powerful emotions and dogmas attach themselves. Orthodoxies arise. Dissenting sects arise. We have mainstreams and sects and cults in abundance.

See also:

Sathya Sai Baba Claimed He Will Resurrect After 40 Days

BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle

Sathya Sai Baba Is Dead. Said He Would Rule the World and Die Aged 96

Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions

“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.”

Wealthy Americans Prepare Mansions For “God’s” Visit

‘World Hindu’ by 2030. VHP’s Singhal Reports Sathya Sai Baba Told Him

Predictions/Promises

——————————————–

Select Barry Pittard poems/lyrics expressive of themes about crimes/sexual and other abuses/ spiritual betrayals by Sathya Sai Baba and his international Sathya Sai Organization.

‘Little Fly’. A Ballad of ‘Rock Spiders’ and Sexual Abuse of the Young

Beth Rude. Ballad of a Child Protectrice. By Barry Pittard

Sathya Sai Baba – The Man Who Would Be ‘King of Kings’

No Friend In Sight Song

They’ve Banned the Bulls At Barcelona. By Barry Pittard

Note: Barry Pittard’s songs are copyright protected by The Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA). Contact: barpittard@gmail.com

The Public PetitionInformation 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 go 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)

——————————————

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

They’ve Banned the Bulls At Barcelona. By Barry Pittard

I have worked on this song – words and music – since yesterday. It sprang from seeing that day’s news reports about the banning of bullfighting in Barcelona, Spain. The incident recalled a repeated discovery of prominent figures in confronting the Sathya Sai Organization. Namely, that when you fight a hard cause, you essentially have to fight it pretty well alone.

The crowds may cheer or give thumbs down. But one has to focus on the proper work, and not the pro or anti roars of crowds. Nor, indeed, waste time lamenting on many people’s disappearance from the action, from whom one might have wished to see better.

Whether one believes in bullfighting or this or that cause or not, the true pain and joy – those great inseparables – are in the deed, and in facing it no less than the worthy matador or bull OR active opponent of bullfighting. Those who dare are too few, and would dare regularly if only they knew the sheer satisfaction of making a stand.

My supposition is that the prime activists in the fight for animal rights have far more in common with the matadors than what the madding crowds would like to admit. Both matadors and activists risk their lives (as do, not to forget, the bulls).

—————————————-

They’ve Banned the Bulls At Barcelona. By Barry Pittard. 28 September 2011

—————————————-

They’ve banned the bulls at Barcelona

The bold matadors have had their day

Had their day

Had their day …..

Their capes they’ve tossed to the sun’s corona

Carried by the crowds, they vanish away

Vanish away …..

As they vanish away

The crowd cries out: ‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’

‘Freedom’, and ‘Ole’

‘Freedom’, and ‘Ole’

The blood-sand, there, fades to pallid yellow

No man, no bull, no crowd in the stands

No crowd in the stands

In the Plaza de Toros

No sword, no horn, no clash, no bellow

The wind whips away the blood and the sand

The blood and the sand

The blood and the sand

As the crowd cries out: ‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’

‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’

‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’

When they banned the bulls at Barcelona

The red-eyed crowds how they wept all day!

Wept all day!

Wept all day!

But who faces the bull is no crowd but a loner

Alone with the bull

Alone with the bull …..

It’s only the crowd chants ‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’

‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’

‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’ …..

Thinks the bull: I’ve no time for the crowds in the bleachers

With their lily yellow livers, they are takers, never givers

Takers, never givers!

Takers, never givers! …..

Thinks the bull: I’ve no time for the crowds in the bleachers

The lily livered crowds that make no stand

That make no stand!

That make no stand!

That only glow red when they suck me like leeches

And pour none of their blood gushing into the sand

They have no sand!

They have no sand! …..

It’s only the crowd that chants ‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’

‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’

‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’ …..

When they banned the bulls at Barcelona

A new crowd cheered and leapt all day

Leapt all day!

Leapt all day!

But they too followed some gutsy loner

Who stood their ground, and kept death at bay

Death at bay!

Death at bay!

The matador and the activist are alike, you could say

Though this the bold crowds dare never say

Dare never say!

Never say!….

Thinks the bull: I’ve no time for pallid crowds in the bleachers

With their lily yellow livers, they are takers, never givers

They’ve banned the bulls at Barcelona

My bold matadors have had their day …..

……………………………….

Select Barry Pittard poems/lyrics expressive of themes relating to crimes and spiritual betrayals by Sathya Sai Baba and his international Sathya Sai Organization.

‘Little Fly’. A Ballad of ‘Rock Spiders’ and Sexual Abuse of the Young

Beth Rude. Ballad of a Child Protectrice. By Barry Pittard

Sathya Sai Baba – The Man Who Would Be ‘King of Kings’

No Friend In Sight Song

Note:  Barry Pittard’s songs are copyright protected by The Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA).  Contact:  barpittard@gmail.com

The Public PetitionInformation 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 go 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)

——————————————

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Some Key Themes In Studying Sathya Sai Baba Cult

This post is a resource – especially for those such as former devotees as well as people considering leaving the international Sathya Sai Organization, and investigators such as journalists, scholars, and religious, political, civic and other institutions this cult’s officials tend to approach. We have had notable success in presenting our evidence such that many responsible organizations refuse to have anything to do with them.

Below, selected from a much large corpus, I give thematic headings and link details to, and brief quotation from, articles I have written over time. In turn, these pieces contain further recondite links.

• Large-scale, serial sexual molestation of boys and young men

Ex- Sathya Sai Baba Students Could Aid Sex Abuse Change In India. But Will They?

A few years ago, I addressed an ‘open letter’ to my former Whitefield (‘Brindavan’, via Bangalore, South India) Sathya Sai College Students.

On re-reading, I see that its terms can be addressed (give or take the occasional specific reference) to all alumni, past and present. There have been so many revelations of great and pervasive corruption both in Sathya Sai Baba himself and in many of his officials (especially his core servitors) that it may not go amiss to post this communication here.

Thousands of Sathya Sai education alumni face a dilemma not only in their immediate communities but wherever they may settle or travel. It is hard to imagine a major education institution in which a founder and certain teachers and Trust officials have been so deeply embroiled in scandal.

Dr Naresh Bhatia’s Testimony: Sathya Sai Baba Serial Sexual Abuser of Boys and Young Men

Over the years, many have expressed concerns about the leader of groups visiting Sai Baba, Hal Honig of Manhattan, New York, a U.S. cultural attaché in Rome in the 60′s and now one of the most senior leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization in the U.S., including being, Peter Pan-like, the head of the Sai Youth wing.  See my article “Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling?”

In the late 90′s, Shirley Pike, a very qualified U.S. psychologist with years of experience sexual abuse counseling, including of many children, began to discover compelling evidence that pointed to Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. Mrs Pike was President, North Carolina Region and President of Cedar Rapids Center, Iowa. She denounced Hal Honig at a large Sai Organization gathering as “Sai Baba’s pimp.”

• Being implicated in police killings in his bedroom on June 6, 1993, along with massive cover-up by his ashram authorities and local, state and central government and police

Senior Indian Policeman (Rtd) Speaks Out About Sathya Sai Baba Murders Cover Up

As the years have passed, the Government of India and the Government of Andhra Pradesh have not been able to silence all police. One who has refused to shut up is a senior, retired officer V. J. Ram, whose work as a detective won him a Presidential Medal. He has spoken out against the massive cover up of the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s private quarters, when Sathya Sai Baba and his brother (the late) Janaki Ramaiah (who was on the Sathya Sai Central Trust) had charge of events soon after the slayings occurred. One would like to see the V.J. Ram book get a decent publisher, and, as has been the wish expressed by former Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary V.P.B. Nair to the BBC, to see the case revisited. See Item #7 for video clip Nair’s statement to the BBC HERE.

See my articles:

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

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

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

• Faking many miracles

Repeatedly, on footage of Sathya Sai Baba’s apparent miracles of the materialization type,an observer – other than one stricken with blind faith – can see the same technique that magicians use, the world over.

The One Hand That Knows What The Other Is Doing (more than just slightly)

In the link provided, watch Sai Baba’s right hand. It goes beneath the pile of letters (taken from the seated crowds) he holds in his left hand.  Note the swift movement as, with his right hand, he extricates the solidified material from his left. This material is then crushed by the fingers of his right hand.

Quite literally, he is ‘pulling a swifty’.  Had he carried a hat instead of the letters he might have pulled a rabbit out by the ears.

If he were naturally, and without trickery, manifesting the vibhuthi (sacred ash), there would be no need for this frequent characteristic of reaching under the letters.

In short, the solid (pellet) material that is waiting to be crushed into the powder is already in his left hand.

Sleight Of Hand. The Sleightness of Sathya Sai Baba (Exposing film clips)

For the clear use of a confederate, you can see Doordarshan’s – Indian national radio and television broadcaster –  video footage showing Sathya Sai Baba’s palming of a necklace from beneath a trophy handed to him by his flunky. This film the then Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, a Sathya Sai Baba devotee, quickly moved to censor:

Censored Indian National Television Film of Sai Baba Cheating

• Promising but not delivering miraculous cures and making prophecies which have not eventuated

Official Sai Baba Documents Show His Death Date Prophecies Failed

Sathya Sai Baba in his glass coffin. His 40-day’s later resurrection prophecy has failed

Exhaustive efforts of former devotee researchers such as Robert Priddy and Brian Steel and others have uncovered many instances of palpable absurdities which it is now too late for the Sai editorial weeders to hide. 

These editorial puppets of Sai propaganda started all too late with their, so to speak, Weeders Digest – in which glaringly they have culled many embarrassing Sai Baba statements.  Especially, the Australian scholar Brian Steel was all too fast off the mark for any of them.

Thankfully, not all former devotees destroyed their large stack of back numbers of Sanathana Sarathi and other publications, such as the lengthy Sathya Sai Speaks series, of the Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, Puttapathi.

What these deeply compromised Sathya Sai devotees unwittingly expose is the way their cultic adulation of Sai Baba makes them so foolhardy. This is but one of countless examples of devotee blindness, and serious lapse into untruth – the very opposite of what they claim to stand for.

Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions

 Ageless – Old ‘Avatars’ never die, but merely fade away

How indeed shall a failed ‘Avatar’ save himself?

Recent Statement

There is no end to his failed predictions. In his February 1 16, 2007 (so-called ‘divine discourse’, Sai baba said:

“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.”

But the runway, like his own imagination, would seem to have run away on him. He celebrates his 83rd birthday this November 23rd.

Unlike his physical body, the following quoted words of his have no difficulty in flying around the world to his many devotees. But they represent just one more example of his myriad failed predictions:

‘Swami’s mission has made this turn to face the runway. The 70th birthday was the signal from the tower to accelerate. In the 75th birthday, the airplane will leave the ground’. Sri Sathya Sai Newsletter, USA, 31, Winter 1996-1997, 29.)

• Giving accounts known by modern science to be completely unfounded

Sathya Sai Baba On Magnetism. Science or Sai-ence?

… two areas that expose the blindness of countless Sathya Sai Baba followers are science and history. His comments are extremely ill-informed, and sometimes so absurd as to beggar belief. Here is India’s chronically ailing would-be Avatar of Avatars, the figure who has told us that he will soon be traveling abroad! And who long ago said that in the last quadrant of his life he would be ruling the world!  And who said at the time of his 60th birthday that he would not show signs of physical ageing!

• Contradicting himself, over long years, in published discourses

Many Contradictions In Sathya Sai Baba Official Literature

Worldwide, when deeply concerned people in very large numbers left Sathya Sai Baba – commencing circa 2000 – one of their most typical and prompt responses was to get rid of all the paraphernalia that belonged to devotion to this guru. This meant:  the books, the official newsletter, Sanathana Sarathi,  the photos, rings, pendants, robes, and so on, which would otherwise bring back memories far more painful than joyful.

Fortunately, books and publications such as Sanathana Sarathi, are a ripe field for individuals of scholarly mind, such as Robert Priddy,  Brian Steel and Alexandra Nagel. They early realized how important it is to hang on to material that former Sai Baba devotees, very understandably, wish never to see again.

Robert Priddy was a contributor to Sanathana Sarathi, and much respected by its editor, the renowned (retired to Puttaparthi) Indian newspaper editor, V.K. Narasimhan (See photo). For those who like to delve into archives, here are Priddy’s articles from that widely-distributed publication. They state positions very different to what he has taken, as a major dissenter, in the last decade. Priddy was co-founder and longtime head of the Sathya Sai Organization of Norway.

• Massive misappropriation of funds donated by devotees worldwide

India’s ‘Emperor’ Sai Baba. By His Lavish Spending Ye Shall Know Him

Trustfully, as the gerontocracy that essentially leads India dies out, the young India will turn a back on the crass superstition of many of her older generations.  

The gaudiness of all the gold in the Sathya Sai Baba birthday celebrations – mounted aloft India’s anguished land of seething poverty and squalor – reflect badly on her international reputation. 

• Presiding over a highly unaccountable financial empire

• Creating myths about himself, which he permitted as the basis for materials in public exhibitions, like the museums at Puttaparthi and Mumbai

Revealing Materials On Sai Baba Of India

One of (Brian Steel’s) research strengths is his persistent use of, and great familiarity with, the large load (and, from a critical point of view, lode) of official and other public devotee documents. Through his emphasis on these sources – as distinct from other sources of information – Steel has been able to expose Sai Baba’s astounding array of self-generated myths, failed predictions, incorrect scientific and historical references, and, all in all, a seemingly endless series of contradictions and anomalies, as well as a great deal of highly flawed hagiography. See my article:

Cult Exposure. By Their Documents Ye Shall Know Them

• Falsifying his birth and school details

Sathya Sai Baba Birthday. Brian Steel Examines Birthdate Issue

As part of his extensive and challenging opus on Sathya Sai Baba, the Australian academic Brian Steel has written about questions surrounding Sathya Sai Baba’s birthdate.  This is found in Chapter 5 of his Omniscience and Truth’ (Revised and Enlarged Version). As this Chapter is long, detailed and deals with a variety of topics, I have extracted, to coincide with Sathya Sai Baba’s November 23, 2009 birthday celebrations at Puttaparthi, the relevant section. 

The reader in quest of proper detail and context will be able to read Chapter 5 as a whole. Steel claims no last word on this dating issue. He has serious doubts about the birth date provided by Sathya Sai Baba or his officials but, as he says, this “evidence is far from conclusive”. He has provided certain circumstantial evidence which is his discovery, and offered it in the case that it may fit with other facts that may become known. Not all other commentators have been so careful

If Sathya Sai Baba has got his own birthdate wrong – and he has shown confusion about a number of other details (which devotees commonly pass off as his test of their faith) – then we have yet another example of anything but that omniscience with which he credits himself.

• Plagiarising the sayings of others

Sai Baba’s deputy world head, and the director of his world radio propaganda service ‘Sai Global Radio’ Dr G.Venkataraman certainly follows his master in the vile intellectual sin of plagiarizing.  See: Indian Scientist Dr G. Venkataraman Accused of Plagiarism

• Running a worldwide organisation that is extreme in its lack of public accountability and transparency, and which hides certain core, but embarrassing beliefs and agendas when it runs its recruitment drives in luxurious, costly venues.

Indian Media and Governments Heedless of Decade of Foreign Media and Sai Baba Critics’ Revelations

Longtime Failure to Act of Indian Media and Successive National and State Governments

To the profound shame of the Indian media, leading newspaper and television organizations heeded our representations:

For example, BBC, CBC (Canada), DR (Denmark), Salon.com (USA), SBS (all television), ABC (Radio Australia). In newspaper media – Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Guardian (UK), Marie Claire Magazine, Salon.com, BT, Bild, Focus, Trouw, Speegelbield, Noordhollands Dagblad, Sokaren, Gatopardo, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Age, Australian Financial Review, West Australian (a major front page article by an award-winning journalist (Torrance Mendez) was pulled at the 11th hour!), Adelaide Advertiser, etc., ….. It was not until a close friend of ours, at the top of a notable profession, was able to dine with an official of the Indo Asian News Service that our Duke of Edinburgh story about Sai Baba’s propaganda people that we were able, after many futile attempts, to make some inroads on a small section of the Indian media.

Extraordinarily, in the last days, wide sections of the Indian media are surfacing evidence that powerfully tells against Sathya Sai Baba and many of his core servitors. It is, of course, to the historic shame of the Indian media (with the honorable exception of India Today) and successive, typically corrupt Indian governments, national and state, that we long remained voices crying out in the wilderness. For my appreciation of India Today’s publisher Aroon Purie and his team, see:  Sai Baba Treasure Scandals: His Big Political Protectors Now Run For Cover

The Public PetitionInformation 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 go 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)

——————————————

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

The Long Journey: Exposing Sathya Sai Baba (1)

The present writer was deeply devoted to Sai Baba for twenty-five years and taught for two years at one of his leading institutions, the Sathya Sai College at Whitefield, via Bangalore, South India. He greatly enjoyed this work, teaching many boys and young men in their three years’ degree course. He lived around Sai Baba for several years while engaged in various voluntary social service activities, of which the college teaching was one.

It is not the Sathya Sai Organization’s good works that we contest. Many of former devotees gave hugely of their time and money in the belief that they served one who was the divine incarnate. Rather, the target of the critique is the long history of wrongdoing, and of its cover-up. And this by arguably India’s most historically powerful and influential guru, and, of course, those of his servitors who have been in-the-know, and aided and abetted him. That is to say, who have known of the Sai Baba’s serial sexual and other abuses, of the cover up of the circumstances surrounding the 1993 police killings in Sai Baba’s bedroom, and scams such as misappropriation of funds donated from around the world (e.g., the apartments and water scandals), the faking of miracles, the expert cultivation of wealthy people, the squandering of huge resources in lavish buildings, adornments, general panoply – all of this opulence in a tragically poor country – and so on.

The years since late 1999 saw the rise of that intense activism which knowledgeable former devotees tend to refer to as ‘The Exposé’.  It furnished opportunity to learn much about strike satisfying balances between other life calls, such as family, profession, studies, and so on. The fact that almost all foremost activists in exposing Sai Baba are retired professionals should not surprise. That is,  those of us like (the late) Glen Meloy, Robert Priddy and Brian Steel and myself.  Or should I say – refreshed!

Exposing Sai Baba and the core leadership of the Sathya Sai Organization was far from being a purely  Internet affair. In approaching governments and other influential institutions, we planned and coördinated activities that show the concerns of former devotees in many countries. Many have deep roots in their own wider communities, which assisted us when we needed contact with skilled well-connected, skilled professionals. One is most thankful to them.

For the Sathya Sai apparatchiks have long had great influence in high places. They played dirty, as is well-known to noted scholars, journalists and other investigators who have come to know us well. Historians will never find other than that we played hard but clean. The only way to succeed against bullies like Sai Baba and his henchmen is never to give in. They expect you to do so. They think threats and underhand tactics will do the trick. Sadly, their cynical estimate is, in the case of many, often right. One of the joys of facing ‘goddams’ (as George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan called them) is that the company of those who fight on, within integrity, is the best company anyone can keep.

Any genuine privilege that we have is ours because someone faced bullies who did not want others to have it. To take the proceeds but not pass on the legacy of those who worked to stop the rot is base ingratitude.

The exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and his organization sprang from the keenest wish, and indeed civil duty, to warn of many and terrible abuses. A particularly demanding part of the work was processing the accounts of the abuses and spiritual betrayals. This was emotionally akin, so to speak, to the situation in which paramedics have to learn to handle the sight of blood and guts.

We – i.e., those such as Glen Meloy, Robert Priddy , Hari Sampath, Shirley Pike, Elena Hargering, Åsa Samsioe, Conny Larsson – wanted to see the Sai Baba’s survivor’s in strong, supportive situations – e.g., access to qualified, experienced mental health professionals. Too often, survivors of sexual and other severe forms of abuse do not avail themselves of such services, preferring, as it were, to ‘tough’ things out. Failure to reach out for professional help in dealing with the inner stuffs is, I think, sheer folly.

The BBC’s term ‘the Secret Swami’ is most apt. The more our international outreach increased the more we discovered cases of profound corruption in the organization and its leader.  Sai Baba and his henchmen practised their deceptions with great secrecy. 

However, although many devotees in the international Sathya Sai Organization are ignorant of the evils perpetrated, they bear, nonetheless, some of the culpability. This is because they have allowed themselves to become part of a highly unaccountable, authoritarian organization. They have ignored proper transparency and accountability practices available their own workplaces. Still more, any sense of fairness and decency deserted a great many Sai devotees. Their sense of natural justice is as a filthy rag. For years, they knew and honored the goodness and integrity of those who, as the terrible revelations unfolded, left Sai Baba, and who spoke out. And indeed those who tried to raise issues within the Sathya Sai Organization.

That those who talk so much about truth, right conduct, peace and love deserted the core principles of their faith is the most singular of ironies. Especially to those members or leave-takers who think seriously about these issues, I suggest careful, honest reading of the following articles:

Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba

David Bailey and Thomas Wiehe. Transcript Of Phone Link: Sathya Sai Abuses

Reply to a Sathya Sai Devotee’s Note re: David and Faye Bailey

(Late) Ron and Peggy Laing: Deeply Alienated From Sathya Sai Organization

The Late Leo Boogaard: A Dutch Voice of Conscience On Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia

Badaev’s account is found in his:

Story of My Disqualification

‘BILD’ Story. “Guru Wants Sex” (Sathya Sai Baba)

Letter from Stephen Carthew

Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America.  Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family (Al Rahm was one of the foremost of top leaders in the SS Org.) and:

Al Rahm’s explanatory letter and:

Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America

Dr Naresh Bhatia. Silenced Now In Indian Child Abuse Scourge

Searing true testimony about Sathya Sai Baba abuse (the case of Hans de Kraker, Australia, for years the manager of the Western Canteen at Puttaparthi. Article by Robert Priddy)

Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion (including Terry Gallagher case –  Gallagher investigated extensively, and, in consequence, resigned as leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, Australia)

Guru Sex Abuse Testimony To BBC – After Years of Silence (Mark Roche story)

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

Dr Timothy Conway’s Summary of Ullrich Zimmermann Interview

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

Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List

The Public PetitionInformation 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 go 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)

——————————————

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba Made Huge Science and History Mistakes

“India is the only place where people are not worried about any attacks.  In America , Germany and other countries, they can’t eat well or sleep well. There is fear of bombs always in those countries. But in India, there is no fear of bombs. India will never have any such attacks.” Sathya Sai Baba 22-10-2008.

Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘educated’ devotees have a great deal to answer for. Many of his pronouncements directly contradict basic, long-established, irrefutable facts that their own children learn at school. It is little wonder that many Sai devotees’ children so seriously question their parents’ beliefs, and that unbridgeable gaps of discourse subsist between, on the one hand, the nonsense their parents subscribe to and, on the other, the perfectly legitimate attempts of the children’s teachers to teach them facts of history and science that are not in any dispute.

This regrettable situation does not relate to expected intergenerational differences of perception. It is fundamental to the breakdown that occurs in the case of one cult after another. A young person’s spirit AND intelligence – unless these qualities have, themselves, been damaged by the absurd belief systems – will both rebel. And for the best of reasons.

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”

His ability to mangle historical fact – repeatedly, and within a few sentences – will cause groans to even the slightly well-informed:

“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.”

See:  Brian Steel, Basic Notes on Sathya Sai Baba’s Credibility Problem

His devotees indulge in Procrustean and fallacious methods to explain falsification of his prophecy about the time of his death. The fact they do not want to face is that dates given in countless Sai Trust publications accord with the standard international system – and NOT one or another of the Indian calendars.

Many of these fanciful commentators show no inkling that he also made several conflicting prophecies about his death date (not that they use the word ‘death’).

                                                 Documentary proof of Sai Baba foretelling his death at 96 years

                    Sathya Sai Baba in his gold-plated glass coffin. His 40-day’s-later resurrection prophecy has also failed

For just a few examples Sathya Sai Baba’s absurdities, see:

Sathya Sai Baba Foretold He Would ‘Die’ Circa 2022. Further Archival Evidence

Official Sai Baba Documents Show His Death Date Prophecies Failed

Sathya Sai Baba Claimed He Will Resurrect After 40 Days

Sathya Sai Baba’s Death Falsifies His Vivekananda ‘Reincarnation’ Claim (Part 1)

Sathya Sai Baba’s Death Falsifies Vivekananda ‘Reincarnation’ Story (Part 2)

Sathya Sai Baba’s Death Falsifies Vivekananda ‘Reincarnation’ Story (Part 3)

Sick and Ailing Sathya Sai Baba 85. His Promises to Look Young Have Failed

Sathya Sai Baba On Magnetism. Science or Sai-ence?

Sai Baba Is God Says Top George Bush Doctor

India’s Chronic Addiction To Anacronistic Gurus. Any Sea-change?

Venkataraman – the most gullible physicist alive?

Sathya Sai Baba followers in education and science

Dr.G. Venkataraman – physicist ‘explains’ Sathya Sai Baba

Jorge Reyesvera – Posted Writings On Sathya Sai Baba Claims, Especially On Science

 A New Celebrity Endorsement of SSB’s Alleged Divinity?

Sai Baba To Be Seen In Moon? But Where Was Moon?

Sathya Sai Baba’s Amazing Predictions

Sai Baba Sparks Political Furore

When ‘Divine’ Magnetism Becomes A Dead Weight

Sathya Sai Baba failed prophesy as the ‘great saviour of mankind’

a major analysis of  Sathya Sai Baba prophecies

The Public PetitionInformation 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)

——————————————

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba’s Deterioration: Long Mental and Physical Slide Into Chaos

How many times must a charismatic figure, like a guru, err before people’s mesmerization tapers, and, hopefully, ends. Before, that is, they begin to see the trail of anomaly, broken promises, and betrayed hopes?

Commonly, infantile belief systems – however dressed up to look all grown up – intrudes. Devotees are lost in adulating their idealized father or mother figure. They rationalize away absurdities and often downright lies. They feel comforted by the cultic group that feeds and shelters their sense of belonging. In the case of figures like Sai Baba, they think that the guru holds the power over their chances for heaven or hell. 

Sathya Sai Baba’s minders did all that they could to hide the dreadful physical and mental wreck that he became in his last years. But it cannot be upheld that thousands of devotees from around the world did not see at least some of the signs. Certainly, the many doctors attending darshan or his interviews could not other than have noticed. The Australian scholar Brian Steel’s remark of February 2002  had almost a touch of prescience. He noted:

‘Since the ‘discrepancies’ appear to be increasing nowadays, is there any possibility that Sai Baba is suffering from a degenerative ageing disease which might have an effect on his thinking and speaking?’

Likewise, in October 2002, the Swedish psychologist Åsa Samsioe, noting physical signs of Sai Baba’s ageing like his development of a ‘turkey throat’ and also the “low intellectual level” of his discourses, remarked:

‘He must have one heck of a job, Sathya Sai Baba… it can’t be easy to age in his situation, besides being under so much criticism as he has recently been… not surprising that it leaves its marks. Occasionally I think ‘poor man’… feel some pity for him. A whole life built on lies… captured by the myth about himself… to be the object of the projections of millions… and to be forced , at least outwardly, to live up to all the expectations put to him… to always have to have all those people around him’.

Nonetheless, Sai Baba always claimed he would never suffer from illness, not least due to his self-claimed ‘purity, patience and perserverence’ as in the following statement scanned from one of his web pages:-

—————————————–

Further Reading

Sathya Sai Baba down the rabbit hole

Sathya Sai Baba’s Pacemaker Implant – His Promised Health and Longevity In Doubt

Sai Baba Breaks Down and Sobs At 85th Birthday Celebration (Video Footage)

Sai Baba – A Degenerative Disease?

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 go 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)

——————————————

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba