To Tend Mother Earth. A Lyric

In my blog of last Thursday, I observed that:

“I have just returned from a forum, hearing from some of the top environmentalist scientists in the world that the vast ecological troubles threatening the planet are not the concoctions of crack-brain doomsayers. They are very real. Blinded by narrow economic advantage, many governments, corporations and others dangerously ignore compelling scientific data going back forty years. Sathya Sai Baba did not address these immense threats to the planet. In his constant sermonizing, he all too often spoke with extreme abstraction, getting lost in ancient myths that he treated not as allegory or parable but as historic fact”.

Returning home with that forum very present in my mind, I wrote a song, the lyrics for which follow.

———————————-

To Tend Mother Earth. By Barry Pittard. 22 January 2012

—

 If it takes the sweat of planting many billions of trees

To save all of the countries, and all of the people

Let’s grow instead of axe down, let’s stop the Earth’s decease

And tend this Mother Earth and bring her kind love back

—

If it takes the work of unchoking of each river and stream

To save all of the countries, and all of the people

Let’s work instead of slack down and forever day-dream

Let’s tempt this Mother Earth to flow her sweet love back?

—

If it takes a natural growing against what gunk pollutes

To save all of the countries, and all of the people

We’ll stop from pushing lawn-mowers, and raise blossoms and fruits

And save poor Mother Earth and draw her sweet love back

—

If it takes majestic glaciers that Man cannot invent

To save all of the countries, and all of the people

Why in hell melt a glacier for a dollar and a cent?

As if this Mother Earth could sell her loving back

—

If it takes a modest lifestyle to stop us getting sick

To save all of the countries, and all of the people

Nobody can stagger waif thin if nobody is far too thick

To tend to Mother Earth and win her sweet love back

General

Excerpt From and Comment On 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)

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Will Court Action Outside India Expose Hired Killers In The Sathya Sai Cult?

There is a matter about which I should shortly be able to write. I understand that arrests have been made, money trails unearthed, dangerous and bloody forces exposed through hard evidence and testimony, and that court actions are about to unfold.

I am told that a major media force is now preparing a documentary. It will be interesting to see how the International Sathya Sai Organization reacts.

Many death threats are, of course, bluffs. Some come from idle nutters who rant or bunglers who don’t get very far. But it is important, nonetheless, to keep whatever tracks may have been left by all who threaten.

In regard to some types of information, with the assistance of our relevant professional members, we deal with Interpol or other government agencies. In Australia, I have dealt with the (then) head of Interpol in Australia, Paul Weller, and senior officials in DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade). Our USA members have dealt with the FBI and State Department, UK members, their officials, and so on. In India, there are certain means by which to raise issues that circumvent at least some of the endemic corruption in that country. On occasions, we have been successful there, too, despite huge odds.

Since 1999, when the internationally coordinated former devotee exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and his cult began, there have been times when, for the personal safety of our most active members, we have had to curtail any thought of going public. This has been especially so in relation to India, where one of our brilliantly effective members has reported, and taken to a high government authority in India, attempts either to kill or maim him. Although he had earlier taken strong actions, he heeded family members and other acquaintances deeply concerned for his safety.

In background terms, with the permission of another key person, I earlier began to write of great progress made in India in exposing at least a part of the teacher sexual betrayal of Sathya Sai Baba college boys. I abruptly stopped writing. In the wake of these court actions, an acquaintance of mine, some of whose family elders I have long known, a former Sathya Sai Baba college boy, twice narrowly escaped with his life, in two separate countries. It will be most interesting if the three police forces investigating the second attack on him show in court evidence where those now accused as hired assassins got their training. India is one of the countries that will need to be looked at very closely.

Of course, too, the victim’s immense wealth and effectiveness in exposing at law elements of the Sathya Sai cult will need to be considered as motives for the alleged hiring of hitmen. The alleged hirer will need, among his other associations, to be looked at for any connection with the Sathya Sai Organization, including in his own country, which is outside India, although he is of Indian origin.

In this latter case, various professional security advice is at hand. I understand that close body protection is now provided for the man and his family, and he tells me that he is utterly resolute in continuing to expose some of the more evil-minded of the Sathya Sai fraternity, as are a goodly number of his colleagues who are knowledgeable about Sathya Sai Baba, and India and other countries, who have now risen to positions of outstanding influence and power.

This world would never be such a dangerous place if it were far more common to stand up against the vile miscreants who corrupt it. We should not wait for times of war to show a bit of determination to overcome the evils that, sooner or later, trouble all of us.

Michael J. Hollander – Longtime Ardent Sathya Sai Baba Apostle

Many poison-pen attacks assail those of us who stand forth to tell the facts about Sathya Sai Baba and his worldwide cult.  So it is with some relief that one receives mail from those whom one knew long ago and held in high regard. Such an email has just come from Richard in the USA, whom I knew when we twice shared lodgings, during my first year of teaching at the Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore. Prior to our first meeting, Richard served as an overseas officer in the United States armed forces. He left Whitefield and Puttaparthi to work with Mother Teresa of Calcutta, before returning for a time.

I might add, in passing,in reference to Richard’s mention of his book on environmental catastrophe, that I have just returned from a forum, hearing from some of the top environmentalist scientists in the world that the vast ecological troubles threatening the planet are not the concoctions of crack-brain doomsayers. They are very real. Blinded by narrow economic advantage, many governments, corporations and others dangerously ignore compelling scientific data going back forty years. Sathya Sai Baba did not address these immense threats to the planet. In his constant sermonizing, he all too often spoke with extreme abstraction, getting lost in ancient myths that he treated not as allegory or parable but as historic fact.

For context to this note, see my previous blog: Michael J. Hollander: A Sathya Sai Baba Preacher of ‘Woe-Unto-The-Wicked’Posted by Barry Pittard on January 16, 2012

Below, see Richard’s note:

—————————————

“Dear Barry,

Well do I remember Michael and Faith Hollander, since I was privy to their after-story in New York.

You and I become good friends during first 5 months of 1978, living first at the Singh’s and later at the Tank-cabin with the baba wall. It was from there I departed to spend rest of my 1978 year in Calcutta and more briefly, Madras and Bombay. Meanwhile, you soldiered on as a fine teacher in Karnataka. Well do I recall your wonderful bhajan classes with tiny ones.

Faith and Micheal returned to New York City, where I encountered them in 1979 as leaders of the Sathya Sai Center of Manhattan. I went there twice for bhajans, then disconnected from corporate baba-ism. I now call the guy S. N. Raju. I will fine tune my essay re that issue and send to you in next few months or sooner. (I regret I still viewed Raju as my guru until about 1998-99, when I learned about his evil conduct and that of some around him)

Faith Hollander was a devout if floaty lady with deep spiritual capacities, and Michael was a loud, if well-meaning, “idealogue” and evangelical, a sort of Baba’s apostle ‘Paul’, sent forth to browbeat the earth into Baba-tude. I find it sad but amusing how so many, having drunk the koolaid, cannot transform themselves. I think its like Sam Sandweis or that other leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, the doctor (glad I can’t recall his name) said: “Ive given 20 years of my life to this, I can’t recant now.”  That’s sort of like the inquisitors saying about Galileo’s ’round Earth” thesis: I’ve dedicated my life to a flat Earth… so let’s kill or silence that guy.

Anyway… the beat goes on. My book about coming eco-catastrophe is at the printers in Calcutta.

Peace, love and Justice,

Richard

—————————————

General

Excerpt From and Comment On 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

Michael J. Hollander: A Sathya Sai Baba Preacher of ‘Woe-Unto-The-Wicked’

I remember Michael Hollander

This was when I began to teach for two years at the Sathya Sai College (1978-79) and heard that Sai Baba had selected a woman named Faith, a leader in a New York Sathya Sai Baba center, as a wife for Hollander. At a time when very few westerners lived around Sai Baba, she came to spend prolonged time in quiet, focused spiritual retreat. (Earlier to this, he had cleared his ashrams of 60’s spiritual seekers/hippies).

However, Faith preferred, her fellow devotees said, to be – spiritually speaking – married only to Sai Baba. Nonetheless, regarding him as all-knowing and all-seeing, she was ready to comply with Sai Baba’s match-making.

One morning, Michael quickly summoned me. On the spur of a moment, he asked me to act as, it seemed, ‘best man’. I was aware of Michael Hollander as a rather robust, enthusiastic bhajan singer, who was very eager to lead bhajans (conducted from about 9am to 5pm) during Thursday and Sunday lunch-times when the experienced singers retired for lunch.

Sathya Sai Baba conducted Michael and Faith’s wedding in his interview room at the Whitefield campus. I can still ‘hear’ the words of his homily: “Michael, when she is sick, do not say that she is sick. Say – WE are sick. Faith, when he is sick, do not say that he is sick. Say – WE are sick”. 

This was but one of a few marriages which – to the great surprise of one or both parties – Sai Baba, in his role of spiritual master, ordered. A very noted example was his marriage of David and Fay Bailey, who at great sacrifice to themselves, years later, were among the foremost in exposing Sathya Sai Baba internationally. See:

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

For Faith, Sai Baba appeared to materialize a filigree pendent composed of (apparently) gold and gemstones for Faith, by reaching up into the air and pulling it down.  For Michael, he produced a ring that looked like it was gold. This Sai Baba did right in front of Michael and me. It seemed to form from out of his fingers, in full sight as the pendant manifestation was. (But see my articles): 

Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)

Censored Indian National Television Film of Sai Baba Cheating

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

BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle

Michael Hollander, Fervent Sathya Sai Baba Apostle

Below, I copy a comment which was one among a number of comments Michael Hollander sent http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com, the blogsite of my trusted colleague, Robert Priddy. As I read it, I mused about whether Hollander, who has written hagiographically on Sai Baba and who is somewhat venerated in Sai circles because of his long-time association with Sai Baba, has at all learned one of his master’s key teachings:  Be loving towards all, even those who may have done ill to you.

In terms of Sai Baba’s marriage homily advising partners to think in terms of WE, Michael Hollander’s email to Robert Priddy may question whether Michael and Faith are at all well all these years later.

In Hollander’s email, is there even a trace of that urbane respect we see in rational discussion when people have a differing viewpoint? Or do we see, rather, a finger-wagging condemnation? Like an old-time Puritan preacher fulminating from the pulpit, threatening  hellfire and damnation? Here are a few of Hollander’s – um – exquisitely loving words, rather redolent of an email with which, years ago, he assailed David Bailey (I shall refer to it in my next blog):

“Yes to engage in such slander against God Himself is a sin that only He can gauge.There are Laws that Govern us all and all must and will be held accountable for their own actions.There is no escaping this Fact.Thus for those who chose to write such evil lies and slander-as always ones own karma does come around sooner or later”

“It is only some due to their own internal problems and ego that engage in such trash”

“What a bunch of low-life cowards to print such evil lies and falsehood”

“It is only some due to their own internal problems and ego that engage in such trash”

“Yes Lord Christ had one Judas.God Lord Sri Sathya Sai had thousands of Judas’s” (ed. properly, Judases)

“What a bunch of low-life cowards to print such evil lies and falsehood”

“All of these false accusations will be revealed- it is all part of Natural Law – even as the Sun rises and sets and the Moon waxes and wanes”

“Yes it was a joy to see how Nothing ever touched Him and He still only Taught Love and to serve ones fellow-man”

Why would Hollander even begin to think that his rather lengthy, flowery, often repetitive email would have any effect on such a major, well-known Sai Baba cult critic as Robert Priddy, the former long-time leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway, and a retired University academic in philosophy and social science of the University of Oslo. See: Wikipedia entry, Robert C. Priddy.

Robert Priddy’s many articles over the years on Sathya Sai Baba and his cult are anything but flowery or splenetic. They ask, and answer, the rigorous questions which Sai Baba’s cultic, button-down-minded followers constantly evade. They duck and weave, typically, either by saying nothing or, like Hollander, dealing in great sermonizing abstractions and treating as wicked any who question Sai Baba, his teachings and his cult.

(To be continued in next blog)

Further Reading

Michael Hollander, bigot preacher of preposterous, untested beliefs

Posted by robertpriddy on January 10, 2012

For another example of the demeaning, depersonalizing way in which so many Sai devotees have written to former devotees, see:

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

Here is the text of Michael Hollander’s email to Robert Priddy’s blogsite

“YES – it was easy to see that Sri Sathya Sai Baba was none other then God Himself – to print such evil lies and slander is only a reflection of your own ego and weakness and sheer stupidity.It is unfortunate that some due to their own inability to to see Pure Divinity resort to such evil slander.And as we all know the Truth has and will continue to come out here.Truth Truth Truth He Himself is Truth,and this was so obvious.It is only some due to their own internal problems and ego that engage in such trash.Yes slander is a severe sin of this there is no doubt.Thus the Universe that is all based on Truth will make sure that the Divine Light will expose all fradulent and ego based lies and horrific false accounts be fully exposed.This we know is truth.Is it not the way the Cosmos expands and reveals what is true and what is a lie?.Yes this is the very nature of TRUTH.Yes Lord Christ had one Judas.God Lord Sri Sathya Sai had thousands of Judas’s.What a shame.He Himself was ever perfect in every way.He Himself was Perfection itself. Again this was so obvious.All of these false accusations will be revealed- it is all part of Natural Law – even as the Sun rises and sets and the Moon waxes and wanes.

What a bunch of low-life cowards to print such evil lies and falsehood.

Yes to engage in such slander against God Himself is a sin that only He can gauge.There are Laws that Govern us all and all must and will be held accountable for their own actions.There is no escaping this Fact.Thus for those who chose to write such evil lies and slander-as always ones own karma does come around sooner or later.Of this there is no doubt. Sathya Sai Baba was a Voice for the poorest of the poor as shown by His Work and the Institutions founded by Him.People only turned on Him because of their own problems,ego and hatred.Yet He Himself as God was ever untouched by any of it.This also was obvious.It is only those who engaged in such lies will have to face their own karma.This we all know is True.What a shame that some weak-minded people had to resort to such evil Lies.Yes the Universe we live in is all ultimately based on Truth.And this same Truth will expose all such cowards and all the falsehood that has been written.This I promise you.Over the last 40 years I spent almost 9 years in His Immediate Presence in India.And i met many of the people who now make these horrendous accusations.And once again ones own karma will find each sooner or later.It is just the way the Universe works.

Yes it was a joy to see how Nothing ever touched Him and He still only Taught Love and to serve ones fellow-man”.

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

Traveller’s Aid

I wish a Happy New Year to all.  I am thankful that, since early 2007, many hundreds of thousands of readers have visited this blog.

Each of us plants seeds that grow, hoping they will turn out well, no matter what the terrain – parents, their children;  teachers, their charges; visionaries, their creations, and so on. We can all grow a tree that will become a bone-sore weary traveller’s aid.

Possibly more than at any other time, the world – whose population late last year exceeded seven billion people – needs each of us who can do it to plant physical trees, and other wholesome, much-needed plants which will aid a profoundly compromised planet. So that we can breathe. And many other measures that protect the planet.

The other ‘seeds’ that need planting are those which relate to the practical implementation of ethics key to many belief systems, religious and secular. It is no use merely to write and mouth facts, like the endless Sathya Sai Speaks series, but to discover or rediscover those facts which need no establishing, and, often, facts we ignore all along – such as the scientific warnings of the last thirty or forty years about our planet’s spoliation. Our rampant consumerism. Our materialistic, competition-oriented ‘education’. The unimaginable cover ups and lies daily fed us by governments, corporations and other instrumentalities ….

The first great impetus for many who left Sathya Sai Baba was care for the safety of children. That was all good, so far as it went. But those who have worked hardest to draw world attention to great wrongs soon discovered a signal lesson. This is that, eventually, those who speak out, and who work hard do most of, and sometimes all of, the work.

Most former devotees, like most people everywhere, offer a great many excuses, and a few partly decent reasons,  for not standing forth. I have long been in touch with former devotees and other critics in many parts of the world. Likewise, I have yet to hear of a single instance where any member of the Sathya Sai Organization has accorded a loving response to any of our representations – no matter how loving and caring those representations have been. The organization stood silent when its members and their supporters attacked former devotees with a hatred very different to the decades of esteem they once accorded our members.

It is hard, then, for the heart of activists with a conscience not to call it cowardice. It looks and it acts just like cowardice does. However one may view the problem, the result is the same:  that is to say, when human beings do not question, challenge and engage,  sooner or later, the evils which they deplore, and from which they avert their eyes, will grip civil society, like pernicious and unstoppable vines. Power brokers, criminals and other profiteers depend upon our fear. How can we be heroes to our children when we are cowards to ourselves? How can we establish for them a future that is essentially as nasty as so much of the past has been.

I pay great tribute to my close colleague Robert Priddy, retired academic in philosophy and the social sciences. With the death of my earlier colleague, the utterly remarkable, late Glen Meloy, the work supporting survivors and continuing to expose the Sathya Sai Organization publicly was rather rough and sweaty work. It was at this time that Robert entered with his formidable intellectual and humane resources. In any difficulty or danger, those like Robert and Glen, and a few others in the background, are the only sort of persons you would want to travel at your side.

A few days ago, I wrote this song:

Travellers’ Aid. By Barry Pittard (3 January 2012)

—

Some gone dug deeper, and before they went

A green cool shade over the future spread

And I will bet that they knew sweat

Needs a shade as fresh as lemonade

A treeful of shade

To be a shade

For some bone-worn, weary traveller’s aid …..

—

So I’ll take some seeds and a spade before I go

And plant a tree for those I’ll never know

And I will bet like me they’ll sweat

Their bones will ache, from the marrow ache

But here is a shade

To be a shade

For some bone-worn, weary traveller’s aid