Indian Army Abuse – A Young Indian’s View

I received this note from a young person living in India. Interestingly, in this person’s report, the Indian army comes off  badly and not the police. In the years that I lived in India, many Indians had great respect for the army but widely despised the police for their cruelty and corruption.

Whatever the case, Sathya Sai Baba is heavily surrounded by both police and army personnel all the way to the very highest echelons. These days, he is very fragile, his thoughts and actions unfocused, but he still rides around on his huge gold chariot, mounts his golden throne, and celebrates his birthdays with an enormously extravagant and wasteful pomp that attracts the scorn of most and the blinded fervour of his devotees.

But Sathya Sai Baba’s long-ago made predictions have spectacularly failed. He said that in the last quadrant of his life he would rule India and that the world would come to him in fealty. But he has not transformed India. One sees from its daily newspapers that it is not a land  of democracy – except for a thin veneer of it – but, rather of tragedy. And indeed India’s media fails to reveal a great deal because it is so heavily muzzled. It is, for example, foreign media like the BBC, The Times of London, The Telegraph, The Guardian, and newspapers in Europe, Canada and Australia that have been able to get the powerfully indicting Sathya Sai Baba facts out to the world.

‘Beatings and electric shocks inflicted on hundreds of civilians detained in Kashmir, US diplomats in Delhi told by ICR. Unrest in Kashmir, where a leaked cable said the Indian government ‘condoned torture’’. Photograph: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images

Even in those areas in which India, powerfully vying with China for superpower status, is making remarkable economic and  technological advances, it is light years away from the moral and spiritual dimensions that India’s often gerontocratic, nepotistic and astrology-mired leaders characteristically cite in their speeches.

The raw fact is that India is no less materialistic than the socio-economically developed countries which have, in their own way, in a mixture of rampant greed and untold ignorance, brought the planet to a point where its sustainability is in the gravest doubt.

The young Indian, recollecting the spirit of India’s national anthem, says:

“Army people keep saying “Mera Bharat Mahan” but they really don’t mean it. They torture the civilians like dogs. They treat every civilian as a terrorist. I hate the indian army. I don’t know to which ‘Bharath’ are they giving service. They are of no use to us. Some are really fighting for our country, I do respect those who serve our country, but not the others.  They are fit for nothing. Many Indian Army sections trouble the general people in every way. In our area there is a small defence area but they don’t allow us to pass through that area though we give them the valid residential proof, driving license and vehicle registration papers. They say only army people can pass through that area. What is the use if they cannot give service to the general public? Their behaviour is so rude with us. Even Indian police cannot do nothing about them. Recently one of our teachers met with an accident by a vehicle driven by an army person but we could not take any action on him only because he was an army person, and even the civil police was unable to take action. How long will our Country be like this? It has turned to hell. Many people elsewhere are not aware about the small incidents that happen with the people living nearby to the army area. We are troubled a lot”

—————————————————–

Further Reading

Indian Army and Police Torture: Wikileaks Revelations

Police and Army Rapists Rarely Punished, Says Kavita Krishnan (Of AIPWA)

Will India clean up its Augean police and political stables?

V.P.B. Nair Told BBC Sai Baba Bedroom Killings Were “Coldblooded Murder”

Prominent Indians Berate India’s Rife Political Corruption

Flag Follows Trade. Abetting Indian Government Corruption

Tony Blair Was to Visit Sai Baba. Plan Thwarted

—————————————————–

General

Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

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

Many Notable Sathya Sai Baba Cult Leaders Resign

One of the potent, indirect damages to the Sathya Sai Organization comes via the concerned activities of very large numbers of those who are non-devotee family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers in profession, business, and trade, fellow college and students,  etc.

These concerned well-wishers of devotees actively confront the followers in a way those critical writers and apostates could often not directly achieve.

Sathya Sai Baba and his leaders tell followers that they must not look at the critical writing – especially on the internet – about their leader and organization.

Is he the ‘divine’ Luddite?  Or, rather, did he think – at an early of the internet’s development about which he has several times shown crass ignorance – that telling his followers not to look at the internet would succeed in keeping them ignorant of the widespread reports of his crimes?  Reacting to the first surges of internet exposure of him, and in a cranky attempt to hold back the ever-mounting and crashing waves of the internet,  he – King Canute-like – said (Discourse of 15 October 1999:

“Swami has nothing to do with internet. Not only now, even in future also You should not indulge in such wrong activities”. 

Naughty Waves Fail To Obey King Canute

Fortunately, this constraint does not apply to those non-devotees who keenly wish for the well-being of those they know who are Sai Baba followers.

Concerned Sai devotee well-wishers DO examine the critical material which we bring to a very wide public. It is a very large group indeed, and we receive feedback from both individuals and institutions. They are no fools, and come from many socio-cultural, educational backgrounds. They are able to form their own independent view about whether prominent critics write with acceptable tones of public discourse. They see whether we argue well or badly.

The above quote shows but one of Sathya Sai Baba’s Anachronisms (historical mix-ups).

For information and further links  devastating to Sai Baba’s claims of all-knowingness, see:

Brian Steel Demythologizes Early  Foreign-led Sathya Sai Baba Myths

They note that we very often show, via close analysis, indicting documentation from within the Sathya Sai Organization, such as evidence in official publications of Sai Baba’s discourses, which show whole tangled trails of contradiction, hypocrisy and absurdity.

They also see our exposures of the untold lavish pomp and ceremony with which Sai Baba surrounds himself.

Sathya Sai Baba Aloft On Golden Chariot

Sai Baba Quotation In Strange Photographic Juxtaposition

For many third party enquirers, all the pseudo-imperial panoply – the untold, unaccountable spurge of expense in a country so poor as India, and in a world in which even the materialistic West is having to watch its pennies – is alone decisive in forming an extremely poor opinion of Sathya Sai Baba and those who keep him propped up on his gold throne, gold processional float, opulent buildings like his twin palace, and other grossly inappropriate accessories of self-presumptive, almighty office.

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

One Of Sathya Sai Baba's Palatial Residences

Still further, they look at the prominent defenders of Sai Baba and his sect and observe levels of vituperation, name-calling, ploys of character assassination, defamation and so on which are remote from Sai Baba’s teachings, such as to speak sweetly, including to those with whom they disagree.

Very commonly, members of the Sathya Sai fold, and Sai Baba himself, demonize those who have raised questions. A great difficulty for the morale of the Sathya Sai Organization is that many devotees with deep misgivings, but who do not dare to speak up, continue to pay lip service. This one fact alone has caused many deep divisions within families of Sai Baba devotees.

Shamefully devotees traduce many around the world who, before they left it, have given decades of honorable service to the Sathya Sai Organization, and to their own wider communities. In the eyes of devotees, these fine individuals were regarded as angels when on-board but demons when they left the ship. So much for blind faith and and an Orwellian collective and selective memory which can quell discernment and conscience ……

Here are two articles featuring the type of conscience-led Sai Baba leaders who were shamefully treated at the highest levels of the Sathya Sai Organization:

Sathya Sai Organization National President – disaffected

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

—————————————-

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

Further Reading

Sathya Sai Baba Critic Serguei Badaev: An Incisive Voice of Conscience From Russia (Serguei Badaev was ex-President of the Sathya Sai Organization’s Moscow centre, ex-deputy National Coordinator, and National Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV) Coordinator for Russia. He is a biology graduate from Moscow University and an educator)

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

A Sathya Sai Saga. Barry Pittard Recollects. Part 3 (More on Hans de Kraker)

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)

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

Truth In Action: David and Faye Bailey Vs Sathya Sai Baba (Formerly, David Bailey was a lecturer at Sathya Sai Baba’s university at Puttaparthi, and Sathya Sai Baba’s preeminent foreign follower. A classical pianist, who attended over a hundred interviews with Sathya Sai Baba, and had a rare role as Sai Baba’s world-roving emissary. For years, Sai devotees round the world welcomed him with excitement and adulation, virtually seeing him as a demi-god. He sometimes performed for the British Royal family, and taught one of the princes at a private school)

Key Apostates, David and Faye Bailey. With Sathya Sai Baba

David Bailey’s ‘The Findings’ its consequences

Al Rahm’s Explanatory Letter To Sathya Sai Baba Internet Proxy Gerald Moreno

Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam. (Of outstanding note among conscience-raised United States voices was the late Glen Meloy, a retired Californian businesman)

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

Joseph. Early Sathya Sai Baba Whistleblower

General

Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

—————————————-

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

Can Tomorrow’s Indian Citizens March Like Today’s Egyptians?

Kind reader, please indulge me an acute understatement:

Exposing Sathya Sai Baba, and that core of servitors who exercise control over his worldwide cult, has not been easy.

Crowded around him, like a protective phalanx, have long been Indian presidents, prime and ministers, many ministers and civil service heads from both State and Central governments, Supreme and High Court judges, heads of police, the armed services, foreign service, foremost industrialists, financiers …. and a long list more of India’s social, political and cultural elites.

As I watched the footage of brave Egyptian citizens risking their lives to unseat a leader and government they believe have sorely betrayed the people, my mind reflected back to the courage – to take but one example – of thousands of Indian citizens who accompanied Mahatma Gandhi on the great salt marches.

^{Mahatma Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu march for India’s freedom, 1930}

These marches protested – non-violently – the British monopoly (to name just one facet of rulership over India) on salt. It led to the far greater Civil Disobedience Movement. And, in the spirit of Gandhi’s extraordinary example of non-violence, millions of Indians engaged in acts of civil disobedience, after which (although, far beyond the power of a Gandhi to stop the blood-soaked madness that engulfed vast numbers, in particular of Hindus and Muslims at the time of partition between India and what became Pakistan),  India gained her political freedom in August 1947.

Whatever may be thought of Gandhi’s notions of tradition-versus-modernity, he had something that India’s subsequent leaders have distinctively not had – freedom from corruption.

Perhaps, if India’s people took their courage in their own hands, they could, once more, show a shining example to the world, and come out on the streets like the Egyptian people are now doing – but without the bloodshed. But perhaps the culture of violent governmental suppression in that great and tragic country has gone too far. For but one of countless examples, see: Beatings, torture and killings by Police in India

One thing is sure. Sathya Sai Baba is not – and never has been – a leader who can transform a nation. But then, who else in India can?

Sai Baba and Indian PM and President: Is anyone in charge?

Further Reading

Inequality before the law in India

Avoidance of the law in India

Note:  To the great distaste of lawyers from countries with far more respect for the law, many Indian judges, without accountability, throw out cases. One case was that run by one of India’s highest profile lawyers, Kamini Jaiswal. For her 2001 petition against Sathya Sai Baba, see an account here. Then see the Supreme Court document – which despite of slanderous allegations against our veracity by key Sathya Sai Baba supporters, proves that the petition was in fact presented and rejected here. The disgraced judges in the kangaroo court treatment of the Jaiswal led petition are pictured here:

Another writ petition was rejected by the Sathya Sai-biased High Court of Andhra Pradesh, see here. For  the typical sort of extraordinary judicial and other protection accorded Sathya Sai Baba and further evidence by the published letter of a former Prime Minister and Supreme Court judge, see here.

Judge Y.V. Anjaneyulu, of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, a long time devotee of Sathya Sai Baba (who also lives in Andhra Pradesh), ruled against B. Premanand’s petition, saying that a divine sort of person such as Sathya Sai Baba is not, when he materializes gold from spiritual realms, subject to the law appertaining to India’s Gold Standard Act. Sadly, Basava Premanand,

stripped of all rights of reason that would have stood in any properly conducted, democratic court, could but say:

“Defence based on spiritual powers is not recognised in law. If such a defence is permitted, there is not a single offence the commission of which could be met with the penalties and punishments, for the reason that on a plea of spiritual power being raised by the accused there is no way to prove or disprove the existence or non-existence of the pleaded spiritual power.” See: Satya Sai Baba and the Gold Act.

Note:  My tribute at the time of the death of B. Premanand is here: Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach.

Corrupt Indian Judges Stonewall Case Vs Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba Bedroom Murders.

Who In India Will Stand out Against Abuses?

Sathya Sai Baba Organization and Libel and Disinformation

Liberhan Commission Report, India: Names Some Long-time Close Associates of Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Considerable Concern’ In Wider Hindu Community

See BBC’s The Secret Swami video clip of Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary, where former Home Secretary V.P.B. Nair speaks of “absolute cold-blooded murder” and makes clear to the BBC that there occurred a massive cover-up by Sai Baba, his ashram officials, police, local, state and central governments. See also the article: Will V.P.B. Nair Keep His Word To BBC On Sathya Sai Baba?

Sathya Sai Baba as Nobel Peace Prize Candidate

Police expert on security at Prashanthi Nilayam

Police chiefs in India can escape justice

———————————————————

General

Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

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

Will V.P.B. Nair Keep His Word To BBC On Sathya Sai Baba?

In mid 2004, former Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary, V.P.B. Nair spoke to the BBC in its 2004 television documentary – ‘The Secret Swami’ – about the official corruption that attended the police killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom in June 1993. He said he intended to take steps to get the case re-opened.

I again ask:  has Nair done what he told the BBC that he would do? And, indeed, hope that Indian citizens ask him:

Have you, as you told the BBC that you would do, made efforts to keep your promise to see that there is a proper investigation into the killings at Puttaparthi?

CLICK HERE for a film clip from the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’, in which V.P.B. Nair speaks of the killings, which he said were in ‘cold blood’.  And HERE to read the transcript of Nair’s statement:  BBC Interview with V.P.B. Nair

Only the Indian people can rally their sense of national honor and rise up and demand answers from their authorities, who continue to protect Sathya Sai Baba.

Here is the extraordinary fact: Exposure of these killings in Sai Baba’s bedroom at Puttaparthi, and of the subsequent suppression by local, state and central government of the police investigations, has been effectively left up to two individuals gifted with cussed unstoppableness – the late Basava Premanand in India and Robert Priddy in Norway.

The lengths to which Premanand and Priddy have gone to examine the welter of documentation have demanded much sacrifice of time and energy, as have their many other Sai Baba exposure efforts. They have been attacked, reviled, and libeled.

Priddy and I kept in touch with Premanand over the years, and this contact allowed us a degree of confidential insight into the very real risks to life and limb that Premanand ran in a country so volatile as India.

Soon after Basava Premanand’s death, I wrote a tribute – about a man whose decency and valor both Robert Priddy and I had come, over the years, to know from personal dealings with him:

Basava Premanand. Vale. A fighter for truth who lived what others preach

Posted by Barry Pittard on October 6, 2009

Basava Premanand (17 Feb. 1930-4 October 2009). India’s most famous Rationalist

——————————————————-

Further Reading

See simulation of Sai Baba’s stage act: Short VIDEO CLIP (only 420Kb) B. Premanand tells of Sathya Sai Baba and his family in his early years)

The BBC and the 1993 murders

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

BBC Footage Still Potent In Exposing Sathya Sai Sect (See Video Clips and Secret Swami Documentary)

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

MAJOR CRITIC BASAVA PREMANAND…. see Wikipedia ‘Basava Premanand’ Massive sabotage try by Sai. Org person foiled Summary: Key Points on the Sai Baba Murders Indian official tries to conceal facts Sexual Abuse, healing, or oil anointing? Sexual abuse, Gerald Moreno etc. part two ! On Alaya Rahm’s testimonies against Sai Baba Murders issue – a defamatory critic rebutted. Further rebuttals about the murders Conclusive rebuttal about the murders – plus Conclusive final rebuttal on the murders Concerning my reputation & writings (1 2 3 4 5 ) Further refutation of Moreno’s obfuscations Unfounded allegations & an anon. letter Part Four on the ‘Betrayal’ letter Baseless allegations about a letter refuted BBC’s ‘This World’ article on Basava Premanand More unfounded misleading claims about my writings

——————————————————-

General

Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide OrganizationPublic Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

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

Sathya Sai Baba and Deception: Does Truth Catch Up In The End?

Slowly but steadily – although both greatly aided AND greatly impeded by the internet – the awful facts about Sathya Sai Baba have been able to spread far and wide.

Aided, of course, because no other communication method in history has had such impact on transmission. But impeded because, although the internet can spread the facts, it is also a ‘wild west’ in which consummate liars as well as those determined to speak the truth can reach the world. And, what is more, get away with it. See my second last post: Sathya Sai Baba’s Mastery of ‘The Big Lie’

The internet is both main street and back alley. Here, the blackguard can shoot down and murder or cripple those with a lifetime of integrity and service to their communities. It can make lies to seem truth, and truth to seem lies.

Until he died in January 2005, Glen Meloy was my great friend and collaborator in exposing Sathya Sai Baba and his cult. By the time he left the Sai fold, Glen had been a deeply committed devotee of Sathya Sai Baba. He was a tireless worker and very well-known to a number of Sai Baba top leaders, such as Elsie and Walter Cowan, Dr John Hislop, Bob Bozzani, Dr Michael Goldstein, Dr William M. Harvey, and many in the rank-and-file, of the United States Sathya Sai Organization. See: Timothy Conway Ph.D – On ‘The Hislop Letters’

The last quadrant of Glen Meloy’s life is tremendously moving for those who know it. He was one who continued to speak the truth no matter how greatly he was calumniated. The way in which members of the Sathya Sai Organization have treated those who question and reveal will forever remain a terrible indictment of cultic blindness and suppression of conscience.  Only the slow unfolding of historic revelation can validate those who do not compromise their conscience, but who would rather live truth than go about singing its praises in hymns and preachments. My profoundly inadequate tribute to Glen is here: Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam

The fact will always remain, and the worldwide Sathya Sai Organization has never faced it. Many individuals whom  (then) fellow devotees esteemed for having qualities of truthfulness, kindness, service and decency, were suddenly, from virtually the moment they spoke out or tried to assist those raising heart-rending accounts, almost overnight, deemed to have become demons, Judases, and either mad or bad.  See: Sathya Sai Baba condemns his critics as “demons” and: The Sathya Sai Organisation’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed – by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. Part One Part Two Part Three

The following is a small excerpt of a piece Glen wrote in helping to surface the story of Sharon Purcell, of Tustin, California (now deceased, who had been a devotee of 32 years, and also well-known to many in the United States Sathya Sai Organization . More about Mrs Purcell and her son Sathya can be found in the articles:

My Life As Sathya Sai Baba’s Prophecy, by Sathya (Satya) Purcell. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling?

NOTE. I have elsewhere written:

“For Satya Purcell, the Hal Honig-led trip to see Sai Baba was decisive in the most negative way. He had been named from birth by Sai Baba, and was devoted since his earliest years. His mother, Sharon Purcell, was close to major figures in establishing Sai Baba’s fame in the West, such as the wealthy husband and wife Walter and Elsie Cowan, and Dr John Hislop. He came away profoundly alienated, and his belief that Sai Baba was the Divine in human form was shattered, as it became for his mother too, and a great many others from various countries and cultures who, over the years, have felt profound ethical and spiritual betrayal. A number of the youths on the trip lost their faith in Sai Baba, and confided that he had sexually abused them. They also relate seeing mistakes by Sai Baba that showed that he was faking his ‘miracles’ of materialization”.

———————————————————–

Sharon Purcell’s personal story, by Glen Meloy (July 2001)

….. As if the molestations were not enough, the infamous shootings at Puttaparthi occured while Sathya and his Mother were still there and young Sathya remembers vividly having to jump out of the way when they were still sweeping the blood from the temple later that morning. Honig’s group of boys had been allowed to be on the verandah for morning darshan.

Unfortunately, Sharon said she mistakenly believed at the time that Sai Baba was merely re-channeling the sexual energies of the boys into spiritual energy and she continued to believe in Sai Baba for 7 more years.

This continued until May 2000 when a close female friend told her a pathetic and tragic story of how her husband had his genitals oiled by Sai Baba in 1968. She told Sharon about all the negative stories concerning Sai baba on the Internet and  how her husband, who was an intimate friend of Iris and Howard Murphet, had been asked by Sai baba to go back to the USA to study and get all the necessary credentials and experience to be Baba’s personal airplane pilot.

This came as a shock to the young man, who at the time was thinking about becoming an accountant. But because this was a direct request from God Almighty, the young man spent thousands of dollars and for 10 years invested all his energies and money into becoming qualified to be the personal airplane pilot for Sai baba.

When he returned to India, he was on the front line trying to tell ssb that he had done what Sai Baba had requested and that he was now returning to be his pilot. After completely ignoring him, the day finally arrived when he stood up and waved all of his credentials at Baba and then came the incredulous words from baba’s mouth…….”WHAT CAN I SAY?????………….NO PLANE!”

CAN YOU IMAGINE THE INSULT? THE HURT? THE STUNNED DISBELIEF?

Sharon was in shock for several days after hearing that story and then to confirm what she had heard, she called another close male friend who revealed to her that Sai Baba had also molested him. She told him that she no longer believes in Sai Baba and that she wanted him to tell her exactly what Sai Baba had done to him over 30 years prior. He told her that Baba had molested him and had ejaculated into his mouth after taking Padanamaskar. It was such a disgusting story that she immediately called her female friend married to the would be airplane pilot and her friend also instantly stopped believing in what they both now call a monster.

——————————————————————–

Further Reading

‘Genital Oiling’ by Sathya Sai Baba + video evidence

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

Dr John Hislop: Sathya Sai Baba Both Fallible and Infallible

Sathya Sai Organization Libels Those Who Have Left It

Brian Steel Demythologizes Early Foreign-led Sathya Sai Baba Myths

View all Hislop letter transcripts, scans, and comments here

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

Cover-up letter: Hislop wholly neglects duty of care

Early Sathya Sai Baba Proselytizers

——————————————————————–

General

Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization 

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

——————————————————————–

Early Sathya Sai Baba Proselytizers

The following article provides background and context relating to the growth of interest in Sathya Sai Baba from within the USA – circa 1965-1970. Brian Steel lists key American followers of this period who had already embarked in actively publicizing him in the USA.

In Sathya Sai Baba, Elsie and Walter Cowan, and John Hislop.  A Discredited 1971 Resurrection Claim, February 2009, Steel relates:

“By 1971, the following Americans had already been attracted to Sathya Sai Baba and were already publicising his name back in USA: Indra Devi and Hilda Charlton (major independent early proselytisers, 1965- ), Arnold Schulman, Charles Penn, Hilda Charlton, Bob Rayman (or Reiman), Elsie and Walter Cowan, Dr John Hislop, Tal Brooke and Howard Levin. (All, except Schulman, became devotees and proselytisers, and Tal Brooke had already become the first ‘defector’ and critic.) 1971 saw the publication of the first books about SSB by foreigners Schulman and (Australian) Howard Murphet. Phyllis Krystal and Dr Samuel Sandweiss would be drawn to meet SSB in 1972, the businessman Isaac Tigrett in 1973 and Robert A. Bozzani in 1974. The 1970s would see a strong general growth in foreign devotee numbers and Sathya Sai Organisation Centres but it was the Americans who were the original driving force behind international recognition and worship of Sathya Sai Baba.

By 1965, with the formation of the first Sathya Sai Samithis (Centres), and later the Sathya Sai Seva Organisation under the capable leadership of Indulal Shah, an effective corporate structure had begun to take shape, to be followed by a rapid expansion in India of SSO Centres and in quick succession, All-India Conferences of members and (a few years later) International Conferences. By 1974, with the inauguration of the Sathya Sai Baba Association of the Americas and Canada, the Sathya Sai Organisation would be launched on a significantly wider international expansion of its activities”.

—————————————————  

For further links and issues, see:

Brian Steel Demythologizes Early Foreign-led Sathya Sai Baba Myths 

Professor Erlendure Haraldsson contests Sai Baba’s claim of resurrection as bogus

—————————————————

General

Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization 

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

————————————————————

Sathya Sai Baba’s Mastery of ‘The Big Lie’

Among the plethora of Puttaparthi untruths, there is the constant repetition, mantra-like and mind-numbing, from Sathya Sai Baba and many of his followers about the supposedly vast millions who follow him.

He, like many other misleaders of the world, long ago mastered the strategy of what is often referred to as ‘the big’ lie. A scholar studying Sathya Sai Baba may consider some comparisons by looking at the US Office of Strategic Service’s war-time profile report on Adolph Hitler (^ Hitler as His Associates Know Him, OSS report, p.51, cited in Wikipedia: ‘The Big Lie’), which stated:

“His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it”

Indeed, in their constant harping about the virtue of truth at its several levels, we see how misled individuals can become – especially when they subsume, within deep cloud banks, their intellect beneath their blind faith.

In discussions about numbers of devotees worldwide or crowd numbers at Puttaparthi, one commonly hears phrases like:  “is estimated”, “is thought to be about”, “Baba says three million  attended his 70th birthday”, “Baba’s Glory is being seen by all the world” … Etc., and ad nauseam .., not least from his hand-picked students who have been so thoroughly brain-washed, and can always be depended upon to win the hearts of audiences. (Which is a sad reflection for me as a former teacher (ca 178-79) in his college education system.

Robert Priddy who, like myself, worked (although not Priddy and I at the same time) with mutual respect and amity with the eminent Indian former newspaper editor V.K. Narasimhan, reported – supported by his detailed diaries – that the latter told him

…. (Sathya Sai Baba) “always multiplies by 10″ when counting heads. He told me of a number of such instances. One example, the less than 300,000 (absolute maximum) who were present on the 70th Birthday were said to be three million by Sathya Sai Baba himself. Several persons I know heard Sathya Sai Baba actually say this”. See: Concerning V.K. Narasimhan’s Revelations to Robert Priddy
A Heavy Legacy

Many devotees have spoken of 50 million followers and upwards. Publically extolling his guru Sai Baba, an eminent American birth scientist (see below) crazily puts the number Sai Baba worshippers at 100 million. (And, just as crazily, Sai Baba’s chief defendant on the internet, Gerald Joe Moreno,  attacks Sai Baba critics for pointing out the absurdity). The apostles of the so-called ‘Avatar of All Avatars are quite without sense when one drives the question: Estimated by whom? Using what (if any) polling method?

As if to prove the folk wisdom that no quantity of strings of letters after a person’s name is any guarantee of commonsense, we have the case of:

“Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand, MBBS, D.Phil., FAAP, FCCM, FRCPCH
Pediatrician of repute from United States…
Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences UAMS College of Medicine; Board of Directors, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute.”

One may mention that K. ‘Sunny’ Anand was a health advisor to past US President George W. Bush. Here he delivers the kind of rhetoric one grows very used to hearing from lecterns at Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram at Puttaparthi:

“All of Humanity is beholden that Sri Sathya Sai Baba has taken a human form that lives in Puttaparthi, in the Southern part of India. He was born on Nov 23, 1926 and announced his Divine Mission in May, 1940. Millions and millions of instances have proven to the world that God Almighty, the Absolute Reality, the Divine Cosmic Being, the Creator of the Universe has set aside His difficult to grasp Immanence and manifested in the form of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. HE has assumed a human form to guide humankind towards their own Divinity within and to save humanity from its own annihilation …..

….. The Advent of this Divine Form is referenced in the Book of Revelations of the Bible, in the Holy Koran, in the Vedas and Jaimini Mahabharatha, in the Guru Granth Sahib, and in all of the major religious texts of the world. Currently, Sri Sathya Sai Baba is worshipped by more than 100 million people from more than 200 countries in the world (ed. note – emphasis in red highlight is mine) but most of the world remains oblivious of His Presence”. (For extended commentary and sources, see Brian Steel’s article: A New Celebrity Endorsement of SSB’s Alleged Divinity?)

Hardly much need to comment on the last line where Anand says that “most of the world remains …..”, etc. Sometimes the world knows about him. Sometimes the world doesn’t know about him. Reason rolls about like a kid’s alley on shifting ground. Or, to mix the metaphor – when blind faith grips the heart, the mind can be as elastic as it likes.

Devotees go on about the “Glory of Puttaparthi”, etc., but ignored is the Inglorious Confusion of Puttaparthi.

See:

Sathya Sai Baba’s Gross Exaggerations of Puttaparthi Crowd Numbers

Major Downturn of Foreigners Visiting Sai Baba At Puttaparthi

——————————————————

General

Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

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

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

BBC Cameras Catch Sai Baba Cheating With Gold Sivalingam. (Film Clip)

BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle

BBC Footage Still Potent In Exposing Sathya Sai Sect (See Video Clips and Secret Swami Documentary)

————————————————————