Nityananda Sex Scandal Erupts in India. Sathya Sai Baba Lessons?

More than once, I have alluded to that India which is profoundly wonderful, but an India which has been traduced by her often immeasurably corrupt elites. Sometimes – according to presence or lack of the ‘right’ political patronage and the amounts of grubby money and other enticements at stake – the crimes of gurus are exposed but often the cover up is great.

However, there has been a big backlash against corrupt gurus in recent days. A hugely publicized sex scandal involving sex allegations against Swami Nityananda (alternative, Nithyananda) is part of the outrage. Apparently, he claims to be an avatar of Shiva, claiming 2 million devotees in 33 countries. Like Sathya Sai Baba, he has presided over social work and so forth. Some of Sathya Sai Baba’s followers who do not deny his sexual and other activities say: but look at all the good social work that he does. (Actually, one might have thought that it is his devotees that do it!). The laws of many countries, though there may be elements of mitigation, do not take any such absurd position.

I have yet to examine the issues, but fully expect, as has been the response of Sai Baba’s apologists to the mountain of evidence against him, no end of the same types of spurious, head-in-the-sand justification from devotees of the exposed gurus and malicious attacks on those who have stood forth to speak the truth, and who call – all the while at great readiness themselves to be accountable – for independent and proper third party investigation of allegations. See my update:

Why Nithyananda Sex Scandal Investigations and Not A Sathya Sai Baba Probe?

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 26, 2010

My colleague Robert Priddy, former leader of the Sathya Sai Organization in Norway, has written posts on the uproar, looking at instructive parallels and providing useful links to footage and media commentary:

Swami ‘Paramahamsa’ Nityananda scandal – latest

Posted by robertpriddy on March 28, 2010

Nityananda sex scandal compounded by his lies and deceits

Posted by robertpriddy on March 13, 2010

Nityananda video, lies and ’sex allegations’

Posted by robertpriddy on March 10, 2010

Sex scandal in Indian media – Nityananda and forerunners

Posted by robertpriddy on March 6, 2010

——————————————-

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

U.S. State Department Named Sathya Sai Baba To BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’

(The late) Glen Meloy and U.S. Citizens from an array of professions, and others including myself, made very carefully documented disclosures about allegations confronting Sathya Sai Baba. After former devotees, both in the U.S. and internationally, had spent a great deal of time and effort, the U.S. Department of State issued a Travel Warning to U.S. citizens traveling in Sai Baba’s State, Andhra Pradesh, in South India. This was reflected in the ‘Travel warning page and Consular information sheet, November 23, 2000’.

(Note on Glen Meloy, loved and honored by many Sai devotees during his 26 years of service and devotion to Sai Baba, and by hundreds of former devotees whom he magnificently supported in the aftermath of Sathya Sai Baba’s profound betrayal of faith, see: Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam )

I also made a number of supporting written submissions, and spoke by phone to, the then head of Interpol in Australia. I was in regular contact, written and spoken, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. Those from various countries who submitted testimony to the U.S. State Department presented credentials attesting to their integrity in their various professions, trades, communities, etc. There was some sworn testimony, along with ample readiness to provide still more. We made ourselves available for purposes of any FBI or Interpol investigation into the allegations, particularly those concerning evidence of Sai Baba’s serial and wide-scale sexual abuse of boys and young men.

The first stumbling block was that the accounts of sexual abuse all stated that abuse occurred in India.  Another was that the U.S., for legal reasons, was not ready (a fact late changed in response to BBC contact with the State Department) to name Sathya Sai Baba. There were no cases, successful or otherwise, brought against him in India. (Nor were those of us with long experience of living and working in India, in which corruption is so rife, convinced that there ever would be, given the sheer extent of his power and influence. See: Why Has Sathya Sai Baba Not Faced The Indian Justice System?).

These presentations, which were made to very senior State Department officials, were more than vindicated when the BBC checked with the U.S. Department of State confirmed that the “noted Godman who reportedly indulges in inappropriate sexual behaviour with young male devotees” was, in fact, Sathya Sai Baba. See Robert Priddy’s article ‘The Secret Swami’ & U.S. State Department Warning against Sai Baba , in which he exposes the flawed and hostile attempts of Sathya Sai Baba’s leading protagonist on the internet to misportray the facts.

For a detailed look issues surrounding the BBC documentary, See: 

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

BBC Hidden Camera in ‘Secret Swami’. Ethical?

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

Excerpt from Transcript of ‘The Secret Swami’ – one-hour BBC documentary (first aired June 2004, and subsequently seen in some 200 countries. Below, BBC presenter Tanya Datta reports on investigations at the U.S. Embassy, Delhi.

To view and hear BBC’s Tanya Datta On Sathya Sai Baba – ‘The Secret Swami’ – see the short video clip (1.5 Mb). She notes the following:

 “The American Government is also concerned. On the web site of the American Embassy in Delhi there’s a warning to U.S. citizens visiting the State of Andhra Pradesh. It draws attention to a noted Godman who reportedly indulges in inappropriate sexual behaviour with young male devotees.We contacted the U.S. Embassy in Delhi and they confirmed to us, and for the first time, that they are directly referring to Sai Baba”.

————————————–

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. State Department Travel Warning. BBC confirms Sathya Sai Baba is the subject

U.S. Department of State warning to travelers

CRIME IN ANDHRA PRADESH – Americans traveling to or residing in Andhra Pradesh should also be aware that there have been media and other reports of inappropriate sexual behavior by a prominent local religious leader. Most of the reports indicate that the subjects of these approaches have been young male devotees, including a number of Americans. Although these reports are unconfirmed, American citizens should be aware of this information.

Some Resources

U.S. Department of State travel warning concerning Sathya Sai Baba .

Quote from this page editor’s (Robert Priddy’s) commentary on the State Department warning: 

“The U.S. State Department does not issue warnings without having investigated the reasons most thoroughly. The State Department NEVER issued any formal withdrawal of the warning against Sai Baba, which would have also required them to make an apology for promoting false information … The chief argument of pro-Sai Baba defenders is that the warning was withdrawn. However, ‘withdrawal’ of a web page is not the same as withdrawal of the allegations already made by such responsible bodies, for no mention is made of refutation of the warnings, far from it … The warning was made, did refer to him, as he was nevertheless named by US officials who were contactable”.

 

http://www.saipetition.net/UScontacts.htm

 

http://www.saipetition.net/India%20-%20Consular%20Information%20Sheet.htm

…………………………………………………….

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 to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe in a reader

The Sathya Sai Organization: Almost overnight, dissenters treated as demons!

Circa 2000 was a watershed time. Hard questions were being raised. It was not enough for loyalists to assume, somehow, the unworthiness of those who questioned. This is the typical reaction of devout believers when faced with a rigorous process of questioning, The psychological factor of being in-denial is a knee jerk response, and the knee never seems to stop jerking. Honest questions merited honest answers. During twenty-five years of deep devotion, I underwent many wonderful experiences, but, in some respects, facing the questions was not one of them. This is not to deny the great benefits in standing forth no matter what the odds, and I may address that aspect at some other time. In the meantime, the fine Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith can express it for me in his song ‘There’s Gold In Them Hills’ – (I prefer his version with Coldplay):

And if we’d get up off our knees
Why then we’d see the forest for the trees
And we’d see the new sun rising
Over the hills on the horizon

In common with so many former devotees and other critics around the world, as I began to hear the direct testimony, and, in other cases, from parents and close friends of those young males who, clearly, had been sexually abused, the experience was gut-wrenching. Indeed, I may add, not all of those abused were now young men, and an example of this is the account to the BBC ‘The Secret Swami’ team of Mark Roche. 

                             The BBC 2 This World presenter, Tanya Datta, interviewed Mark Roche for ‘The Secret Swami’, which was first screened, Thursday 17, 2004, and subsequently seen in over 100 countries. The effects on the Sathya Sai Organization were huge. Apart from exits from the organization, other organizations, including those with which the SS Org. would have liked to have had dealings (e.g., the interfaith movement and various service organizations), were now alerted. See my article:  Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Considerable Concern’ In Wider Hindu Community.  See also list of links below, under The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ 

Indeed one of the ways in which the scandal that is Puttaparthi has become ever more widely known is because, quite often, those who have left it have sought spiritual guidance from other religious organizations of various kinds.

There was a feeling of truthfulness in the written accounts of the authors, and I contacted them – for example, Terry Gallagher (who had resigned as head of the Sathya Sai Organization after rigorously investigating), Hans de Kraker (Australia, who for a number of years ran the Western Canteen at Puttaparthi), Jens Sethi (Germany), David Bailey (UK), Hari Sampath (India), Britt Marie (Bi-ma) Andén (Sweden),  Glen Meloy , Shirley Pike (psychologist), Elena Hartgering (psychotherapist), Ella Evers, Richard and Terry Nelson, Rick Raines, Al Rahm, Timothy Conway Ph.D., and many others from the USA, and eventually others in many countries. See my: Sai Baba. Some Dissenting Themes and Resources

As my intensive investigation unfolded, I spoke to males with first-hand accounts – or in some instances their parents: terrible were the anguished testimonies of Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of boys and young men. A common factor in many accounts was Sai Baba’s demands for oral sex to be performed on himself. Other factors were the use of bribes and threats. In case after case, the individuals involved were often regarded by those who knew them as unusually good-looking.

I also spoke to others, including prominent leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization in various countries who, like Terry Gallagher, had resigned on a matter of principle as a result of their own investigations. I contacted the Rahm family. Al and Marisa Rahm and their son were, in 2004, to appear in the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’.  I should add that many others had discussed their experiences with BBC researchers such as Eamon Hardy, Iris Asic, David Saville and Tanya Datta. The Assistant Producer David Saville told me that there were over 80 hours of filmed testimony, and that the BBC had uncovered compelling accounts from others who did not appear on our international lists.

I contacted a number of former devotee sexual abuse professionals who knew of various cases at first hand. As I listened to, or read the written accounts. I was acutely aware that many of those giving the accounts did not even know each other.

Once it was known I was investigating Sathya Sai Baba’s matters, I went on to discover compelling accounts from sources well apart from Sathya Sai Baba circles. Having studied Epistemology, Logic and Methodology in my university honors Philosophy course, I was all the more acutely aware that the criterion of non-collusion was being repeatedly satisfied. That is to say, clearly many of those testifying had no knowledge of other compelling accounts which I and other trusted former devotee researchers had private access to. Nor did the evidence point at all to the sort of issues involved in the witch hunts in three counties of late 17th century colonial Massachusetts, so brilliantly portrayed in Arthur Miller‘s great play ‘The Crucible’.

I could not escape the conclusion that – whatever else he may be – Sathya Sai Baba was a serial sexual molester, on an appalling scale, of minors and young men from his educational institutions and from around the world. The finding sat with great difficulty with the many positive experiences I had received in my 25 years of devotion to Sathya Sai Baba, not a few of them beyond the ability of science to explain, though I expect elucidations will one day be within its grasp. However, not to act on the allegations was out of the question.  What the case if citizens should fail to report crimes and abuses just because they think their leader is divine? This point is the very locus of the problem with the Sathya Sai Organization. It has failed in the most fundamental tenets of accountability and transparency.

I also felt acutely conscious that I had been, over many years, whether directly or indirectly (though certainly without proselytizing), instrumental in various people becoming devotees. Like so many others who have investigated and become former devotees, my then partner’s and my hearts were heavy indeed. Typical of others who have just become former devotees, there was a clearing of the house of Sai all Baba-related artefacts. Ironically enough, when it came to exposing Sathya Sai Baba’s many inconsistencies so amply documented in decades of published discourse, some ex-followers no longer had the texts. Fortunately, major commentators such as Robert Priddy and Brian Steel had far-reaching collections.

As former devotees universally have found, dear friends, in some cases of many years standing, who remained devotees, dropped us, even though we showed no hostility towards them or Sathya Sai Baba. It was painful for many. Incredibly, devotees forget that those they have so mistakenly judged and shunned are the same individuals in whom they have long cherished qualities of truthfulness, love and service to others.

Sai Baba has said:

“… a hard-hearted person cannot be called a spark of Divinity; he is verily a demon.” p. 323, Sanathana Sarathi, November 2002

His proxy defenders on the Internet and beyond engage in the utmost slander and vilification of those many who have called for proper, third party investigation of the allegations of Sai Baba’s involvement in the massive cover up of the police killings in his bedroom on April 6, 1993, wide-scale, serial sexual molestation of boys and young men from different countries, vast misappropriation of funds from around the world, etc. In his (profoundly unChristmas-like) Christmas discourse of 2000, he thumped loudly on his lectern and – ignoring his (now) former devotees many years of great love for him and service in his name – he berated fine men and women as “demons”, “Judases”, stating that they were being paid off to lie, and so on.

Almost overnight, we had become demons!

 ————————————————————————-

Further Reading

Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”) – In Memoriam

Sathya Sai Organization, Australia, Ex-Head Terry Gallagher’s Testimony Against Sathya Sai Baba

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

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

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

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

Letter from Stephen Carthew

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

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

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

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

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

Story of My Disqualification, and other articles by Serguei Badaev

Dr Naresh Bhatia. Silenced Now In Indian Child Abuse Scourge

Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of AmericaAl Rahm’s explanatory letter

Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family

Top UK Sathya Sai Organization leaders left Sathya Sai Baba

Dr. Dale Beyerstein’s study of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims and ‘miracles’

On Leaving the Sathya Sai Baba Cult – Ex Leaders and Rank-and-File

Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion

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

The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’

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

BBC and Other Film Footage Shows India’s Top Guru Sathya Sai Baba Faking Miracles

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

“The Secret Swami” – BBC Film Footage and Transcript

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

BBC Hidden Camera in ‘Secret Swami’. Ethical?

BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

————————————————–

Barry Pittard’s comments in regard to the Public Petition) -:

Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult

 ————————————————————————-

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 to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe in a reader

investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe in a reader

Sathya Sai Baba Topic On CNN-IBN – on his 81st birthday

CNN-IBN ( CNN-India Broadcast News) is an English language Indian TV news channel lauched in 2005. The network is a partnership between Global Broadcast News (GBN) and Turner International (Turner) in India. Rajdeep Sardesai is the Editor-in-Chief of the network.

One may comment:  What debate?!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO ON-LINE
if unavailable, click here

Source:  CNN-IBN TV interviews: “Debate – Sai Baba a Godsend?”

——————————————————————————-

See Topics posted at ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation’:  Sathya Sai Baba Birthday 2009

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

Golden Throne of India’s Sathya Sai Baba. He says he will Rule the world soon

Sathya Sai Baba Birthday. Brian Steel Examines Birthdate Issue

For earlier birthday events at Puttaparthi:

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

Sai Baba’s Imperial 83rd Birthday Celebrations Photo, Puttaparthi, India

————————————————-

Barry Pittard’s comments in regard to the Public Petition) -:

Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult

                           ————————————————————————

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

 

On Leaving the Sathya Sai Baba Cult (Part 1.)- Ex Leaders and Rank-and-File

In 1999, came the publication (August-September) of three articles in a piece entitled: Sathya Sai Baba Exposed. These had been taken up from other sources by the editor, Duncan Roads, who, quite separately and via his own sources in Australia, had suffered his own disillisionment in Sai Baba. A person close to me, who knew well that I had deafened my ears to anything inimical to Sathya Sai Baba, strongly urged me to read these articles, one of which was by the (then) head of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization, Terry Gallagher, an agricultural scientist and businessman of Kyama, in the state of New South Wales on Australia’s eastern seaboard. 

Sathya Sai Organization, Australia, Ex-Head Terry Gallagher’s Testimony Against Sathya Sai Baba

Terry Gallagher.  A Voice of Conscience Raised In The Wilderness

 Terry Gallagher had come to realise – between 1986 and 1993 (the latter being the year of the grisly police executions in Sai Baba’s bedroom) that grave matters had been profoundly covered up, not only by the ashram officials but by local, state and central governments. Those who eventually leave commonly do not leave suddenly. There is a fighting against the blinkers. There is refuge in thought of all the positives that have occured. 

In much detail, by telephone, Terry Gallagher told me that, against extraordinary unwillingness of devotees in the Australian Sathya Sai Organization, to look at the allegations,  he had done what he could to investigate. This led to his surfacing, after his private discussions with those whom he regarded as dependable witnesses, including a number of Sathya Sai Baba college/university students, terrible facts about Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of young males. He also took his concerns to Sathya Sai Baba, whom he says tried to get from him who his informants were. He told me that he had extensively, in the course of a whole weekend, shown documentation to Valmai Worthington, a Brisbane leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, who has led many groups to from Australia to see Sai Baba. This led to no meaningful action, and she has continued to lead groups, including those with young males in them. In fact, she led the group of which I was a member when it went to India on mid November 1997.  

Other leaders were likewise impervious and went into the utmost psychological denial. Groups, including those with young males in them, continued to go to the ashram. (See the link at the top of the present article for excerpts from the Terry Gallagher testimony and the link to the full document). These explorations – including direct contact with a number of deeply concerned students from Sai Baba’s education establishment – culminated in Terry Gallager’s resignation on the most serious moral principle from his headship of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization. However, he said, his relations with his brother-in-law, Neville Fredericks, now the head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia, had slowly been repaired in both the family and business sense, and he (Gallagher) didn’t want to raise his voice further. NOTE:  For those with limited time, I have excerpted, for the sake of a focus, some points from Terry Gallagher’s testimony, which was first published by David and Faye Bailey (very prominent leaders who also resigned) in The Quarterly, UK.  See also:

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

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

Later the Gallagher testimony appeared in the September-October 1999 edition of the Australian magazine ‘Nexus’. Before returning to Sathya Sai Baba for a few months in November 1997, I had somehow dared to look at writings on the Internet. I read the Canadian academic rationalist philosopher Professor Dale Beyerstein, of the University of British Columbia. His very incisively-written book: “Sai Baba’s miracles: and overview is HERE.  There was the likewise articulate Italian former devotee Paul Holbach.

Across a range of Sai Baba issues, their writing was disciplined and probing; they raised questions which, by any token, deserved proper answers. These were the sorts of questions which, if not answered frankly and truthfully, could best be answered by properly consitituted processes, such as a police, court of law or government enquiry. Above all, they needed to be answered by the leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization. But they were glacially silent. Except to slander and drive out those who questioned, whom they very well know through years of experience of them to be truthful persons. Sathya Sai Baba and his servitors remain tight-lipped to this day, all these years after – although the allegations, not only of sexual abuse but abuses of various other grave kinds. With incredible mendacity, they tell their congregations – inasmuch as they tell them very much at all – that ‘the allegations’ are made by a small handful of disgruntled individuals. It is a typical ploy used by many groups with serious matters to hide.

Hard questions were being raised. It was not enough, as so many devotees do when there is a process of questioning, to assume, somehow, the unworthiness of those who question.  In that direction the psychological factor of being in-denial is all too likely to kick in. Honest questions merit honest answers. During twenty-five years of deep devotion, I underwent many wonderful experiences, but facing the questions was not one of them. As I began to hear the direct testimony, and, in other cases, from parents and close friends of those who had been affected, the experience was gut-wrenching.

Continued in …… 

On Leaving A Powerful Global Cult. Sathya Sai Baba Example (Part 2)

On Leaving A Powerful Global Cult. Sathya Sai Baba Example (Part 3)

                                                                         ————————————————————————-

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

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

Timothy Conway Ph.D – On ‘The Hislop Letters’

Formal statement provided to Exbaba.com by Timothy Conway Ph. D. concerning the Hislop letters

The crucial John Hislop letters, Sathya Sai Baba, & Sathya’s defender Joe Moreno – by Timothy Conway, PhD

An article in which Timothy Conway outlines many key issues

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

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

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

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

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

Barry Pittard’s comments in regard to the Public Petition) -:

Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult

 ————————————————————————-

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 to Call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba

Subscribe in a reader

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.

Serguei Badaev is an incisive writer with a professional background. His writings critical of the Sai sect – no less than those of others who have raised critical questions – receive no answer from Sathya Sai Baba and his officials. Nor do the latter explain how those with years of loving, sacrificial  and dedicated service to the Sathya Sai Baba organization (what to speak in their own professions and wider communities) should, supposedly and practically overnight, become demons, naysayers, and defamers.

The Moscow centre wrote a letter (see below) to Indulal Shah (then head of the Sathya Sai Baba Organization) and 7th World Conference seeking an explanation from their teacher for the spiritual meaning of the up-rush of criticism on the Internet about him and his mission.In various parts of the so-called ‘Sai Kingdom’, there had been some earlier alarums and excursions. For but three examples of confronting issues, which, however, were contained by Sathya Sai Baba’s bans on discussion and other actions of profound cover up, See:

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

and references to the principled resignation of a probing Terry Gallagher (an agricultural scientist and businessman), the first leader of the Australian Sathya Sai Organization, in the article:

Sathya Sai Baba Organization’s Betrayal of Love and Compassion

and:

Dr. Dale Beyerstein’s study of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims and ‘miracles’

However, there was the enormous growth of the Internet. Starting in great earnest circa 2000, amid allegations coming from a number of countries of Sathya Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men (not to mention other gravely crime-related allegations), there was significant leave-taking and much consternation in Sai centers round the world. Some believed that an airing of concerns was needed, and that, irrespective of findings or views, clampdown invited great risk to the integrity of the organization, as well as to matters of individual integrity and fearlessness to raise the issues no matter how fraught.

Issues about transparency and accountability in the organization arose in acute form. The presence of a highly authoritarian organization was perceived not only by those in active dissent from it but by investigative third parties, such as some of the world’s leading investigative media, UNESCO, scholars and, not least, families, friends and colleagues of those who were involved with Sathya Sai Baba. See:

The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory

Indulal Shah and Indian Government Cover Up

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

Badaev has written about the evils of Soviet secretiveness and suppression in past decades. But here were he and his peers finding that these oppressions now visited from a source that they had thought to be all Light and Love.

The letter drew silence, except that Badaev was dismissed as President of the Moscow Centre.

The then head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia, T.Sri Ramanathan, meted out remarkably similar treatment to Stephen Carthew, spiritual coordinator of that organization in South Australia. He too had called for a democratic and properly chaired forum for the airing of members’ concerns. He too was summarily dismissed. See: Caught In One Of History’s Most Powerful Cults (5)

—————————————————————————–
Story of my disqualification

From: Serguei Badaev (Russia)

Date: 12-21-01.  Date of disqualification: April 2001

Source: http://www.exbaba.com at this page HERE

It started about 2 years ago when we (I mean Russian devotees) were informed that David Baily left the Organisation and disseminated dirty rumours about Sai Baba. It was a sort of a shock because D.Bailey had visited Russia several times (with Faye) and had given talks and appeared to be a dedicated devotee. We were not told about the reasons so we were puzzled very much. The situation was similar with Conny Larsson. Then again with Dr.Bhatia. It was like a mysterious virus which struck people and converted them against Swami.

Then we learnt that some information can be found on the Internet. After some web sites with negative information were located, we looked them through and realised that the accusations were serious enough not to be ignored. We decided to discuss them during the special meeting of the active members in the Moscow Sai centre. I sent to Steen Piculell (central coordinator for region 16) 2 questions about false materialisations and homosexual activities. Both questions were formulated like this: do you know (or believe) that the information about … is a fake or they do exist and have some special spiritual meaning? Steen Piculell did not answer. He forwarded it to T.Meyer (Chairman for the zone 4), who replied not to me but to the Moscow Sai centre. He told us that we were not allowed to arrange such a sort of meeting and that if Serguei Badaev could ask such questions that meant he did not have enough faith to be an office bearer in the Organisation.

The Moscow centre wrote a letter to I.Shah and 7th World Conference with the appeal to acknowledge these facts and ask Bhagavan for their spiritual explanation. The letter was passed to our National Coordinator who went to 7thWC and he passed it to S. Piculell and T.Meyer. As far as I understand it never went further. In the beginning of January the National Coordinator phoned me and announced about my disqualification as a deputy of the National Coordinator and National SSEHV Coordinator. He told it was a sort of recommendation of T.Meyer. When I asked about the reason the answer was – “lack of faith in Bhagavan Baba and His teaching”.

That time my tenure as a President of the Moscow Sai centre after 4 years was finishing, but the active members meeting decided to postpone the change of the President in regard to this situation. When the National Coordinator learnt about it he disqualified me as a President of the centre. The Moscow centre wrote a letter to the National Coordinator asking him to come to the Moscow centre to have a meeting with the active members. He failed. I wrote a letter to all the Central Council members with the appeal not to accept this decision until collective settlement would be reached.

Soon after that the meeting of the Central Council of Russian speaking countries was held. S.Piculell and T.Meyer came there. I was not invited. But I went as an observer as well as a delegation of the office bearers and active members from Moscow, about a dozen people altogether. During the meeting of the Central Council people from Moscow were not given a word. After all the previous decision was confirmed and imposed on the CC members who were keeping absolute silence. So that is the story in brief.

According to the Charter the reason for disqualification is deliberate violation of 9 Points of Code of Conduct. That was not the case. But during the CC meeting T.Meyer clearly formulated that a National Coordinator has the right to disqualify any office bearer under his supervision without assigning any reasons. I have never seen or heard about such regulations in the Organisation.

Soon after this CC meeting National Youth Coordiantor, Maria Ponomareva-Stepnaya, resigned.

Serguei Badaev

March 2001

P.S. In April 2001 I left the Sai Organisation.

                                         A Small Selection of Sergei Badaev’s Writings

 SAI BABA’S CLAIMS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY Documented texts of Sathya Sai Baba on Jesus and the Christian religion analysed.

DISCREPANCIES IN SAI BABA’S PUBLISHED WORDS Documented texts

SATHYA SAI UNIVERSITY PROMOTION NOT WHAT IT SEEMS (if unavailable, see here)

TO SEE WITH OPEN EYES – NOT WITH ROSE-COLOURED GLASSES

THE TWO CHARTERS (OF THE SATHYA SAI ORGANIZATION)

IF AND HOW THE SATHYA SAI ORG. IS A ‘DIVINE TOOL’ 

CAN WE TRUST THE CENTRAL TRUST?

THE CHILD’S DIGNITY AND INDIAN EDUCATION 

SAI BABA AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIA

WHY DOES THE PROTECTOR OF THE WORLD NEED SECURITY?

SAI BABA CANNOT MONOPOLISE SELFLESS SERVICE

………………………………………………………………………………..General

Barry Pittard’s comments in regard to the Public Petition) -:

Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult

Posted by Barry Pittard on July 10, 2009

———————————————————————–

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

There is a Spanish version of the Petition available:

PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)

Buckingham Palace Revisited. Are Wily Sathya Sai Baba Emissaries Again Seeking British Royal Approval?

What may the British Royal Prince Edward’s visit to India portend for Sathya Sai Baba interests? Will Sathya Sai Baba’s top associates – again – attempt to exploit the British Royal Family for propaganda purposes?

The Earl of Wessex Prince Edward is the third son and fourth child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip.

Prince Edward in India, Oct. 2009

Summary Background

1. In late 2006, officials of The Duke of Edinburgh Awards and Buckingham Palace were upset by the manner of publicity by those such as Dr G. Venkataraman and Shitu Chudasama about Award connections. (Dr. G. Venkataraman is deputy world head of the Sathya Sai Organization. He also directs Sai Baba’s international 7 days 24 hours propaganda satellite radio service via the WorldSpace International corporation. See HERE. Shitu Chudasama is the UK Sai Baba national youth coordinator. This and other matters were exposed by Paul Lewis’s Saturday 4 November 2006 article in The Guardian (UK):

The Indian living god, the paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards

2. After efforts via, once might almost say, ‘friends at court’, Superiors to Peter Westgarth, the Director of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, were of the view that he lacked, in this issue, both judgement and experience, and had missed the significance and risk of his dealings with the Sathya Sai Baba officials. One may note in passing that Westgarth, currently faces further unpleasant controversy in another matter about his Award’s job performance. See The Herald Scotland.  Charity chief says UK boss forced her out. By Paul Thornton

3. When matters were finally taken in hand, both Awards and Palace dropped connection with the Sathya Sai Organization

4.  The Royal authorities, via Peter Westgarth, CEO of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards,

Peter Westgarth. CEO, Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Buckingham Palace over-ruled him in Sathya Sai Baba affair

who had already blundered (See story in The Guardian) asked that the embarrassing and untrue material (it was stated that the award had been given to ‘Sathya Sai Baba’) be taken down. Venkataraman and his associates promptly complied

This official Puttaparthi website withdrawal did not stop the Australian Sathya Sai Organization from nonetheless trumpeting the UK youth wing’s award:

5. The FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), had a view to both avoiding any blowbacks in Anglo-Indian relations and further embarrassment to the Royal Family

6. As revealed by The Guardian newspaper, the Duke’s representatives sought legal advice

7. Our efforts made to seek out a well-reputed news agency with clout resulted in IANS (Indo Asian News Service) running with a part of the story independently of The Guardian. See:

Indian Media’s Reticence on Top Guru, Sathya Sai Baba, Weakens

This was a major breakthrough, and signalled sections of the Indian media, where there were previously years of strong censorship of materials inimical to Sathya Sai Baba, carrying the IANS feed. Paul Lewis’s The Guardian article was also referred to.

Will Realpolitik-bent British FCO and Indian Government Interests Exploit Prince Edwards Visit To India?

One of the most persistent ploys of Sathya Sai Baba’s propagandists has been to make it appear that India’s interests are identical with Sathya Sai Baba predispositions. For a glaring example of what, often, is confined to the hushed corridors of power, see: The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory. The BBC exposed machinations by Venkataraman and the then Indian Foreign Affairs Minister and others, but this successful revelation was, alas, effected too late to be included in the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’.

Prince Edward Currently Duke of Edinburgh Awards Emissary

Prince Edward is the Duke’s Awards proxy in a current visit to India. He may not have much of his grandfather Phillip’s stuffing or even lasting effects of his tough (late) uncle Earl Mountbatten’s mentorship. Still further, Edward is of a very different generation, and not likely to have his father Charles’s flirtations with Sathya Sai Baba, – that hapless Prince Charles whom we know to have been warned off Sathya Sai Baba by insistent government authorities. Nevertheless, it is not beyond doubt that Sathya Sai Baba interests will try to curry favour with him, and dally with Edward’s political masters.

The Sathya Sai avidity to bask in British Royal sheen (or what is left of it) has already been amply demonstrated, and any further attempt by Sathya Sai Baba interests that would attempt to borrow lustre from British Royalty will likely be exposed here and elsewhere, as was previously the case, and indeed by the same forces which ensured former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s last minute cancellation of a meeting at Brindavan, Whitefield with Sathya Sai Baba. See:

Tony Blair Was to Visit Sai Baba. Plan Thwarted

Posted by Barry Pittard on March 17, 2007

An acquaintance who has worked close to the hub of power in the UK has  written to me vis a vis some current moves by the British government that may have relevance to power plays by Sathya Sai Baba’s high-level emissaries.

As my reader can see from the links to my earlier articles and those of Robert Priddy, representation on our behalf to the Duke of Edinburgh’s advisors was successful. It obtained the removal of propagandist and untrue information that was put out by Sathya Sai Baba’s officials such as Dr G. Venkataraman. An observer  has recently written to me:

“The UK Govt made the mistake long ago of allowing the Indians to get away with the badly flawed argument that to criticise Sathya Sai Baba was to insult India. This was weak and unprincipled, and senior diplomats admit this privately and regret it. The FCO is all out to try to get the Indians alongside the UK in matters of security, foreign policy, the war on terror, and inward Indian investment in our bankrupt UK economy.

Prince Edward’s appearance in Indian affairs is a pallid affair. He and his advisors are at the whim of the FCO. The UK Government needs India. In pursuit of its own narrow cynical policies, the FCO has a long record of ignoring the plight of British nationals in favour of trade perspectives and other political expediences. The Labour and Conservative India players are alike in this “….

The Guardian (UK) article: ‘The Indian living god, The paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards’

In the article: UK Guardian On Sathya Sai Baba and Duke’s Awards , I wrote:

”His Royal Highness’s officials had to act on top of a ‘politically’ not very experienced or competent UK Duke of Edinburgh Awards CEO, Peter Westgarth – see HERE. They were slow off the mark. However, after very high level representations from our side, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme trustees and Prince Philip’s Private Secretary, Brigadier Sir Miles Hunt-Davis KCVO, CBE,

realized that a serious matter was at hand. Questions were also raised by some powerful citizens, including a former Home Minister, Tom Sackville. The Duke of Edinburgh Awards required of Dr G. Venkataraman, head of Sathya Sai Baba’s international propaganda apparatus and deputy world chairman of the Sathya Sai Organization, that an official Sai Baba website take down the triumphant – but absurdly mistaken – information that the Duke of Edinburgh Award had been awarded to Sai Baba himself. Venkataraman complied”.

Further Reading

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

• UK Guardian On Sathya Sai Baba and Duke’s Awards

Posted by Barry Pittard on October 21, 2008

• The Indian living god, The paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards by Paul Lewis

A Duke Stops An Emperor. Edinburgh Routs Sai Baba

“Officials of The Duke of Edinburgh Awards and Buckingham Palace were upset by the boasting of those such as Dr G. Venkataraman and about the Award connections. (Dr. G. Venkataraman is Sai Baba’s deputy world head, who also directs Sai Baba’s international 7 days 24 hours propaganda satellite radio service via the WorldSpace International corporation. See Shitu Chudasama HERE. Shitu Chudasama is the UK Sai Baba national youth coordinator”.

Robert Priddy writes on the issue

• Queen Elizabeth ‘manipulated’ by omnipresent Sathya Sai Baba?

Posted by robertpriddy on October 15, 2009

• Sai Baba God Incarnate needs Duke of Edinburgh endorsement?

Posted by robertpriddy on October 14, 2009

• The Guardian newspaper, UK. questions The Duke of Edinburgh Award
  – an award made out by subterfuge in the name of Sathya Sai Baba
• The Guardian newspaper, UK. questions The Duke of Edinburgh Award
• Sathya Sai Baba official website deceit exposed
• Sathya Sai Baba lack of awards
• Sathya Sai Baba and the Duke of Edinburgh Award

—————————————————————–

Sathya Sai Organisation – Further Subterfuge and Misinformation

Four-part article by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard

—————————————————————–

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(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)

Nobel Peace Prize To Obama. India’s Past Candidate Sathya Sai Baba Long-forgotten

The Nobel Institute has just awarded US President Barach Obama the Nobel Peace Prize.

News of the Obama receipt of the Prize stirs memories of those involved in submissions contra Sathya Sai Baba to the Nobel Institute a decade ago. They cannot but be reminded of the resounding failure of Sathya Sai Baba-disposed forces within the Indian government to nominate the guru for this same prize.

Well-remembered is all the excitement generated among devotees when news that his name was being put forward was announced in Sai Centers around the world. The strange notion of quite how tasteful it was that ‘God’ should receive such an earth-bound award was remote from their consideration. He and his officials badly misrepresented the status of Dr Michael Nobel, a major player in WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service, which broadcasts Sathya Sai Baba propaganda (Sai Global Harmony) to many countries in the world. See:

Sathya Sai Baba's 'Minister of Propaganda' - Dr G. Venkataraman.

For details of the highly flawed relationship of Sathya Sai Baba and his Puttaparthi officials with the disgraced Dr Michael Nobel and Sathya Sai Baba’s very public mixing up of facts, see my two articles:

‘Black Sheep’ Of Sweden’s Nobel Family Called By Ba-Ba (Sathya Sai Baba)

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 14, 2009

QUOTE

“One of Sathya Sai Baba’s many hugely expensive and major Sai propaganda efforts has been the setting up of Sai Global Harmony via WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service. It broadcasts 24/7 to many countries. A director of WorldSpace is Dr Michael Nobel, who, contrary to long-uncorrected statements (in Wikipedia and in various promotions) by Sai Baba activists, is NOT the son of the Nobel Peace founder Alfred Nobel – who died in 1896! But he, though widely considered ‘black sheep’ of the Nobel family, has answered the Ba-ba call of Sathya Sai Baba who, absurdly, told the Australian journalist Howard Murphet that, historically, when Jesus, the Lamb of God, called ‘Ba-ba’, he was referring to Sathya Sai Baba! The Nobel ‘black sheep’ is making more than a bleat or two of his own, for he has extended his international satellite broadcasting corporation to send Sathya Sai Baba propaganda across the air-waves of the world.

Michael Nobel is a great grand nephew, although Alfred Nobel, were he here today, might not feel too grand about the descendant who has been repudiated by the Nobel authorities”.

and:

No Nobel Peace Prize For Self-Claimed God of Gods Sathya Sai Baba

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 18, 2009

QUOTE

“Not far short of a decade ago, it had been announced in Sathya Sai Baba centers round the world that Sathya Sai Baba was a candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize. On behalf of our networked group of former followers of Sathya Sai Baba, I wrote to Dr Geir Lundestad, then Director of the Nobel Institute. An exchange of emails ensued, and I provided him with in-depth documentation concerning Sathya Sai Baba and his sect”.

(Photo: But no Nobel Prize for Sathya Sai Baba. Dr Lundestad is on the Left of H.H. the Dalai Lama, recipient of that Prize in 1989).

New York Times Article – Unpleasant Revelations

In regard to the New York Times exposure of Dr Michael Nobel, see:

The Nobel Prize that Wasn’t – New York Times

“…the organizers received a disturbing fax from The Nobel Foundation in Sweden. It advised them that Mr. Nobel had been voted out as head of the Nobel Family Society at a meeting in August of 2006 “mainly because of his unauthorized activities and involvements in the name of the Nobel Family Society.” And it threatened legal action against those involved in creating “The Dr. Michael Nobel Award”, as Mr. Nobel had indicated it was to be named.”

Further Resources

Sathya Sai Baba as Nobel Peace Prize Candidate

Posted by robertpriddy on June 3, 2008

QUOTE

“Hunger for top international recognition of Sathya Sai Baba thwarted

Sathya Sai Baba ill-concealed hope of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was backed by Prime Minister Vajpayee’s Indian Government! The chance of this was strongly hinted at by the Sai Baba himself, saying: in his 18 November 2001 Discourse
“They are giving the Nobel Prize to many people. The man who gives the Nobel Prize is coming here on the 22nd November. The ones who will show this to the whole world, TV people, are all coming here on the 22nd.” The Times of India reported further (24-11-2001) – making massive factual errors: “Dr Michael Nobel, Head of the Nobel Institution and Director, Worldspace, told the Times of India, the things that Baba has done is simply amazing and this channel will spread his message to the world. He said there would be an explosion of his teachings. I am confident it will have a lasting impact. Dr Nobel said the channel now offers the reach to take his message to billions in the world.”

Sathya Sai Baba and The Dalai Lama

This article gives some reasons why one such as the Dalai Lama was a worthy recipient of the Nobel Peace and Sathya Sai Baba would be well-disqualified

QUOTE

“The Dalai Lama has convincingly lived fearless non-violence in all he does since the 1950s, which gives substance to his teaching of non-violence. Unlike this, Sathya Sai Baba spews out torrents of repetitive preachings about non-violence yet actively covered up the murders in his bedroom in 1993 and got the entire case quashed by his devotees in the Government of Narasimha Rao and then Home Minister S.B. Chavan. Unlike Sathya Sai Baba, the Dalai Lama has never had to conceal himself nearby in a room in his own ashram while four close attendants were assassinated then giving at least tacit approval and later outright public approval of the event!

Has the Dalai Lama ever damned or threatened anyone? Well, this self-claimed “ever-tranquil, totally unaffected” Sathya Sai Baba dropped his guard and showed everyone his hidden hand in his Christmas 2000 discourse … namely, that by damning his critics to constant rebirths in many shameful lives, he is not compassionate or loving of everyone (as he has always claimed before and since, even of his detractors). He would not even risk answering any questions about the murders, so he damned certain pressmen in Andhra Pradesh who wanted to get to the facts. Also in a later discourse, he heavily attacked the Indian press as spreading slander about him (when someone was arrested with a pistol at his Whitefield ashram). One never hears the Dalai Lama speak of the press in such a manner”.

————————————————————-

Sathya Sai Baba’s Questionable Stories and Claims

Brian Steel    May 2008

————————————————————-

Sathya Sai Baba lack of awards

Posted by robertpriddy on June 3, 2008

————————————————————-

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

For a spurious Sathya Sai Baba connection in regard to President Obama, very typical of the highly-active Sai devotee imagining that Sathya Sai Baba is influencing world leaders, see:

Does Obama Carry Sathya Sai Baba Photo In Wallet?

————————————————————-

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(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)

Michelle Goldberg, US Author-Journalist, on Sathya Sai Baba (1)

It is one of the gambits of pro Sathya Sai Baba activists like Indulal Shah (when he was active), Dr G.Venkataraman and his virtual counterpart Gerald Moreno, to portray highly reputed media journalists as sensationalist, and so on. In their offensive and denunciatory style, they fail to credit world leading media journalists, and the researchers as well, with a sharp eye and habits of careful checking into the credentials of the former devotees and other critics who have shared their accounts. The journalists work, for example, for the BBC, CBC, CNN, SBS, ABC, India Today, Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, The Age, and newspapers in Europe and Canada.

It is a version of the Orwellian “Four legs good, two legs bad!” In George Orwell’s classic novella ‘Animal Farm’, Rule #1. (for the animals contra the human beings) is:  “Whatever goes upon two feet is an enemy”. In the Venkatarman-Moreno nomenclature:  All former devotees and other critics who dissent from Sathya Sai Baba are wrong. Likewise all highly reputed media who investigate and report critically.

Both these individuals can be shown conclusively to have borne false witness against former devotees, notwithstanding that the latter have, many of them for decades, been in good standing as deeply committed workers among Sathya Sai Baba’s faithful. Suddenly:  All legs who have not walked away, good. All who have walked away, in dissenting, bad.

David and Faye Bailey

In short, individuals like David Bailey and his wife Faye are deemed to be bad. This is a man to whom Sathya Sai Baba gave extraordinarily such grave responsibilities, not only in care, as a lecturer in Music at his university, of students whom Sai Baba holds to be the ‘apple of his eye’, but also in David Bailey’s rare status of  being a travelling emissary at Sai Baba’s behest to various parts of the world. Indeed, it was as he travelled that individuals in good standing would come up and privately share their terrible accounts. But Bailey dissented from Sathya Sai Baba and those core leaders who were found to have been covering up for him for many decades.

Therefore, Bailey bad. Bailey to be denounced. Bailey to be defamed.

Faye Bailey, who Sathya Sai Baba chose as bride for David Bailey and himself presided over their wedding, was a widely known and respected figure in the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia. Like David, Faye Bailey was privy to ever-increasing direct, personal accounts of those – or, in other cases, the parents or closely related others – with harrowing accounts of Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of boys and young men over many years, and various other most shocking types of abuses more widely. Again, in the Orwellian schemata referred to above, Faye Bailey bad. Faye Bailey to be denounced and defamed.

For years, people = good, when close to Sathya Sai Baba;  suddenly, as if they have become devils overnight, those same people = bad!

It has been the discovery of each independent third party like the media mentioned above, and like those independent scholars who have tried to research it, that the Sathya Sai Organization leaders are engaged in a powerful suppression of information about itself, and about the many worldwide allegations.

For the long, well-researched Salon.com article (25 July, 2001) the noted US journalist Michelle Goldberg travelled to India, and also interviewed witnesses in various countries.  Ms Goldberg wrote of David and Faye Bailey’s ‘The Findings’:

“Part of the nearly 20,000-word piece is given over to evidence that Sai Baba fakes his materializations and doesn’t magically heal the sick — revelations that seem self-evident to nonbelievers but provoke fierce debate in devotee circles and blazing headlines in the Indian press. Most of “The Findings” consists of testimony of sexual harassment and sexual abuse. “Whilst still at the ashram, the worst thing for me — as a mother of sons — occurred when a young man, a college student, came to our room, to plead with David, ‘Please Sir, do something to stop him sexually abusing us,'” Faye writes. “These sons of devotees, unable to bear their untenable position of being unwilling participants in a pedophile situation any longer, yet unable to share this with their parents because they would be disbelieved, placed their trust in David; a trust which had built over his five years as a visiting professor of music to the Sai college.” These pleas eroded the Baileys’ faith and finally made them go public”.

Notes, drawn from Wikipedia, on Michelle Goldberg:

Born 1975

Buffalo, New York

Education Masters Degree in journalism from UC Berkeley

Occupation Journalist, Author

Michelle Goldberg (born 1975) is a liberal Brooklyn-based journalist and the author of the books Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, and The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World. She is formerly a contributing writer at Salon.com^[1] and currently a blogger at The Huffington Post. Her work has been published in the magazines Rolling Stone and In These Times, and in The New York Observer, The Guardian, Newsday, and other newspapers.^[2] She also writes an online column for The American Prospect.

—————————————————————

This article on the Baileys is to be continued

—————————————————————

Further Resources

• “The Secret Swami” – BBC Film Footage and Transcript

  General

  Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

  (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)

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

The foremost Indian rationalist, Basava Premanand has died, aged 79, of cancer at Podannur, Tamil Nadu (17 February 1930 – 4 October 2009).

 

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

Premanand’s close colleague Professor Narendra Nayak has just informed me of his death, and I am deeply saddened. Premanand and I had an extensive correspondence over the years, joined eventually by my trusted colleague, Robert Priddy.

Premanand, the late Glen Meloy of the USA, and I maintained contact during the making of  BBC television’s “The Secret Swami”. See: In Memoriam – Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness”). This contact strengthened in the difficulties of international co-ordination, which were considerable.

Amid sadness on receipt of the news of Premanand’s passing, I briefly smiled, as memories began to course back, at how some, but happily by no means all, of the members of the international former Sathya Sai Baba network, got upset by my contacting Premanand – but what a priviledge they missed out on!  This was a man who vividly lived the principles about which some but speak and genuflect, their eyes upraised.

The word “warmth” is one of the words that I cherish when think of Premanand, and this quality shows in the words of a glowing tribute at Glen Meloy’s death, when he said: “Glen’s death was a great shock. I wanted him to live till Sai Baba was arrested … I am missing a great loving friend whom I came to know from the BBC film production.”

With Premanand, Robert Priddy and I worked on some research, analysis and written work. Together, we were able to expose  –  including with  some Interpol and Indian police follow-up  –  an extensive attempt at penetration of the networked exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and core colleagues by one of his former college/university teachers.

Had it not been for the economies of telephony, I feel sure we would have spoken more between India and Australia, but were restricted to emailing. In recent months, I was tempted to try, with the assistance of his aides, to set up a Skype link, but, realising that his cancer had struck back again, thought the better of it. About three years ago, Premanand and I spoke on the phone for about an hour, when he was staying with his sister in Bangalore. His warmth of greeting when he answered the phone was touching and palpable. Throughout the conversation, I was aware of his wide grasp of issues, graciousness, and of a sense of stern purpose  lightened by a gentle humour.

A fire-eating, gurubusting Basava Premanand, who traveled widely in India exposing the corrupt gurus' tricks

I don’t know that Sathya Sai Baba will be arrested. He ails considerably, despite his declaration that he would not age after his 60th birthday.  Premanand was his great and unrelenting foe in India. Alas, the forces of corruption in India, which Premanand so courageously faced for so many years, are almost unimaginable. Of course, to let any notion of mountainous difficulties seep into consciousness would be to ensure that any light in the world snuffs out fast. Premanand had those rare blessings – innocence without naivity, and the warrior spirit that fights for goodness and gentleness. Premanand was one of those voices that cry out in a wilderness of superstition, fear and apathy. However, I learn that there is a feisty younger generation who support his work. So he will not die.

Perhaps attempt to educate and warn, rather than the jail scenario for Sathya Sai Baba, will be the one that triumphs.

I have wondered whether Premanand would have achieved some of his ends if it were not for the terrible dereliction by those calling themselves religious.  A foremost Hindu leader wrote to me:

“There is considerable concern among the Hindu Community, especially among the educated. It is very hard to get any action from the temples as they do not wish to cause difficulties with the Sathya Sai Baba groups. People are starting to distance themselves from Sathya Sai Baba. It’s going to be gradual process of education. The biggest impact it appears was the ‘The Secret Swami’ … it seems it has had a tremendous negative effect on Sathya Sai Baba”.

Perhaps if there were to be a Heaven after all, and Premanand, of course, find himself in its halls, one rather thinks that he would find the company, although illustrious, rather too few.

Goodbye, good man …..

Barry Pittard, Australia

See Wikipedia entry for Basava Premanand

See tributes to B. Premanand by Professor Nayak, Premanand’s successor and president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, and others:

Basva Premanand (17 February 1930 – 04 October 2009)- The Passing of a Great Man

Thorbjørn Meyer: Is Democracy Such A Good Idea?

My regular readers will perhaps have noticed my use of – not uncommonly – phrases of the sort:   Sathya Sai Baba and certain of his core leaders.  Worthy leaders have their assistants or followers;  oppressive ones have their henchmen.

Thorbjørn Meyer, Sathya Sai Baba Coordinator for Europe

Thorbjørn Meyer, European Central Coordinator of the Sathya Sai Organization, is regarded by a number who know him well as being of the henchman variety.  Meyer’s lack of accountability is great.  Abandoned are certain essential values of democratic accountability, as if they had never been heard of. This is of course true in regard to various other key Sathya Sai Baba leaders; however, Meyer is one of the foremost of the guru’s leaders, and his accountability even greater. He is right at the hub of the cover up of Sathya Sai Baba, and of his monumental spiritual betrayal, and of the suppression of serious crimes that would, were India far more properly democratic, be investigated as a matter of course. Indian democracy – it would be a good idea! (Pace Gandhiji!)

Robert Priddy, when head of the Sathya Sai Organization, knew  Thorbjørn Meyer well, has just written the article:

Sathya Sai Baba oils genitals (boys/young men) Part 1

Posted by robertpriddy on October 4, 2009

“It is now a wholly undisputed fact, even among many leading devotees (for example, the European Central Coordinator of the Sathya Sai Organisation, Thorbjørn Meyer) that Sathya Sai Baba takes down the trousers of many young men and boys and handles their genitals intimately, rubbing on oil and sometimes also so-called ‘holy ash’. Many report that he also rubs vigorously so as to (try to) cause an erection, also sometimes kissing them voluptuously on the mouth. That any such things took place at all was long covered up by a number of top leaders in the Satya Sai Organisation! In civilised countries, the touching of genitals under such circumstances is an illegal, punishable action unless carried out by a doctor on prior consent of the patient. A number of Indian devotees have actually said that they see no wrong in this or any other sexual abuse of young males, because God Himself can do no wrong! Some have fanciful theories about it awakening spiritual powers, one even condones all forms of sexual abuse as needful karma (see here)“

……………………………………………………………………………….

Further Resources

Thorbjörn Meyer Interviewed on Danish TV News
transcribed word for word in Danish from TV-Avisen, the Danish prime news show on January 31st at apx. 9:05PM. Transcribed and translated into english by Ole Alstrup. This interview was aired directly in the prime news as the first news immediately following the documentary was first shown on Danish Television.

Robert Priddy  –  on his former colleague in Sathya Sai Baba Organization leadership, Thorbjørn Meyer

THORBJØRN MEYER, CENTRAL COORDINATOR IN THE SATHYA SAI ORGANIZATION, EUROPE
who admits in an e-mail that Sathya Sai Baba does actually ‘oil genitals’, calling it an ‘age old Indian oil ceremony’

by Robert Priddy, ex-leader of the Norwegian Sathya Sai Organisation & former Oslo Centre (active 1983-1999).  Email correspondence with Robert Priddy and a revealing discussion

……………………………………………………………………………….

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

(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)

Sathya Sai Baba and Dr G.Venkataraman: Will They Disavow Their Idi Amin Fondness?

Deputy head of the international Sathya Sai Organization and Head of Sai Global Radio G. Venkataraman’s “Mr Idi Amin” Report (http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_05/01JAN07/11-prasanthi-diary.htm) stands as an appalling affront to those who suffered at this monstrous dictator’s hands. Note how Venkataraman, on Sai Global Radio, refers to Mr Idi Amin. I may add that it is interesting that Amin claimed to have a direct line to God. Did he have in mind, specifically, Sathya Sai Baba? Perhaps Amin scholars may have something among their files, and can let us all know.

Sathya Sai Baba-Idi Amin Nexus. Fond Memories

Here is what G. Venkataraman wrote:

“The moment of moments came when Swami stood up to give His divine discourse. Swami thrilled one and all with memories of His Divine tour to Africa, namely Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. Swami related how Mr. Idi Amin was very fond of Him and used to have the darshan of Swami both in the morning and evening. During His stay, he arranged a dinner for Swami and meticulously got all instructions from Dr. Patel as to Swami’s menu and how it should be prepared. On the day of the dinner, Idi Amin’s wives stood in rows on either side and greeted Swami with veneration. Idi Amin himself introduced each of them one by one to Swami.

On the day Swami was to leave, which happened to be Guru Purnima day, Idi Amin was suffering from pangs of separation and started shedding tears pleading with Swami not to leave them.

Not only did Amin but the Africans were all in tears and fell at the feet of Swami praying:

“Bhagavan! Please spend this day with us.” Their devotion melted the heart of Swami and made Him spend Guru Purnima with them. An important miracle happened on this day. The Africans had wished to take photos with Swami.Swami told them that they might silently pray in their heart so that their requests may be fulfilled. To their joy, each of them found a photo of Swami lying beside them”.

Further Reading

Jointly authored

The International Sathya Sai Organization – an accessory to a massive libel and disinformation campaign (Open letter to the Prasanthi Council – c/o Dr. M. Goldstein, Dr. G. Venkataraman and its other members).

Note: This document is signed by the following prominent Sathya Sai Organization members:

Serguei Badaev, Russia 1995-2001 Ex-President of Sai Org. Moscow Centre and Deputy National Chairman for Russia.
Timothy Conway Ph.D, USA. Follower for 22 years; President of the Sathya Sai Baba Center of San Francisco from 1982-4.
Dennis J. Hanisch, USA. Follower for 27 years. Founder member and Vice-President, Seattle Center.
David. J. Lyons, USA. Follower from 1981 to 2000. Ex-President of the Center of Greater New Orleans.
Barry Pittard, Australia. 1976-1999. Former English Lecturer, Sathya Sai College, Whitefield.
Robert Priddy, Norway. 1983-2002. Founder member/Ex-Chairman of Oslo Center & Coordinator for Norway 1986-1996.
Reidun Priddy, Norway. 1983-2000. Founder member and Seva Wing Coordinator 1986-1998
Al Rahm,  Office-bearing member of the SSO for decades. Regional Devotional Coordinator and founder of first Education in Human Values school in the U.S.
Barbara Shocket, USA Follower: 1980-1990.
Dhyani Jo Sinclair, Canada Member and Sai Centre Secretary, 1995-2000

——————————————————–

At ‘Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed’ – http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com

Dr. G. Venkataraman, propagandist in the limelight

Sathya Sai Baba, dictator Idi Amin and G. Venkataraman

Apologist for Sathya Sai Baba

G. VENKATARAMAN – CHIEF PROPAGANDIST FOR ‘GOD’

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

G. Venkataraman’s out-dated and fallacious ideas – part two.

Atomic physics Puttaparthi style. Deeply intriguing

Venkataraman – the most gullible physicist alive?

Venkataraman, a victim of emotional blackmail?

Money, Morality and Sai-worshipper Dr. Venkataraman

——————————————————–

At ‘Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba’ – https://barrypittard.wordpress.com

Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Minister of Propaganda’ – Dr G. Venkataraman

Idi Amin Video Clip. Amin Claimed Direct Line To God

——————————————————–

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

(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)

German Sathya Sai Baba Expose Website Re-gears

Exbaba.com has made this announcement:

German Sai Baba expose Site back on trail !

Date: 09-15-09

By: Exbaba Admin

We congratulate the editors of the new German Sai Baba expose site to have their old url again, which is:

http://www.exbaba.de

Click here for the old German Sai Baba expose site.

————————————————————–

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

(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)

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

The article quoted below, in which Jens Sethi , a former devotee, recounts being sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba, is from the magazine ‘BILD’ of Munich on 21 August, 2000. Wikipedia states that ‘BILD’ is “the best-selling newspaper in Europe and has the sixth-largest circulation worldwide”.

About a year earlier, NEXUS Magazine (Australia), August-September 1999, featured three articles on Sathya Sai Baba, containing serious allegations. One of these was the testimony of a German husband and wife, Jens and Gurprit Sethi who had been devotees, but had left him.The other articles were the testimony of Terry Gallagher,  (who, on principle, had resigned as head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia) and Hans de Kraker, also Australia, who had reported his own experiences of Sathya Sai Baba sexual abuse, and had likewise resigned his roles having further investigated allegations of Sathya Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. Kraker was, for a number of years, head of the Western Canteen at Puttaparthi, See here) . Kraker’s account can be seen at:

A searing testimonial about Sathya Sai Baba

Posted by robertpriddy on August 30, 2009.

Until the NEXUS article, mentioned below, I had dismissed for many years as absurd no fewer than nine accounts of sexual abuse by Sai Baba, five of which I had heard between 1978 and 1982, and two shortly before I read the NEXUS articles, the rest between 1997 and 2000. I must say, though, it was a relief when leading sources such as India Today, The BBC, UNESCO, The Times of London, The Telegraph, The Guardian, BT, The Age, The Australian Financial Times, Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen,  Gatopado , UNESCO, some academic institutions such as Flinders University, Australia and others, not known for sensationalism, took our team and witnesses seriously. Even the like of these have been attacked by an unscrupulous zealot who is known to be assisted by those long and strongly associated with Sathya Sai Baba. See: Exposure of Sathya Sai Baba. Media Source List

Posted by Barry Pittard on October 23, 2007

BILD (Wolfgang Ranft) interview on Sathya Sai Baba

Translation of text:-

RESIDENT FROM MUNICH RAN AWAY FROM INDIA –  GURU ALL OF A SUDDEN WANTS SEX

By Wolfgang Ranft

MUNICH – Jens Sethi was young, naive, full of religious expectations. In 1988 this resident from Munich who worked that time in a printing office travelled to India the land of the Hindu Gurus. The 24-year-old man was looking for new spiritual fulfillment. He found, what he was looking for. Sethi succumbed to the fascination of a Guru who was already 62-years old that time: Sathya Sai Baba. “I was totally fascinated by the Aura of Sai Baba”, he says today. “I surrendered in a way that I was mainly concentrating on him.” Every year he travelled together with his wife for four or six weeks to the Ashram of Sai Baba. During the festival time more than 20 000 devotees gather there.

The fascination remained for Sethi just an external moment as he never could approach the Guru during the first years. This happened only in October 1996 when Sethi finally decided to go to India where he settled down in Puttaparthi close to the Ashram. During the daily pilgrim-meeting he was called for an interview by the Guru, the utmost a pilgrim can expect within the Ashram. Sethi enjoyed his good luck. He, one of those rare devotees, who has been personally selected by the Guru.

But the conversation took a different course than he expected. Sethi appeared together with his wife. The Guru was outraged and has sent the woman away. Alone in the room the old man started to kiss the man from Munich, stroke him and went into the trousers. Shocked but still full of faith and naivety Sethi accepted two other meetings some month later. Again the Guru kissed him and finally touched his genitals.

Only then the young man ran away back to Germany. It took him three years to overcome the crisis and to separate himself mentally from his spiritual guide. During that time he did investigations in the internet and came to know about other young men from UK, Sweden, USA who underwent a fate of similar experiences.

Only this summer he did the final step to escape from the spell under the Guru: He brought a charge against Sathya Sai Baba at the public prosecutor´s office in Munich – because of sexual molestation.

———————————————————–

Related References

In its cover story on the allegations, the mass distribution, multi language edition magazine ‘India Today’ (4 December 2000) stated:

“In Australia too, The Sunday Age carried an article on Baba’s sexual abuse. In Munich, Germany, Jens Sethi, a former devotee who claims he was molested, has filed a complaint in the public prosecutor’s office. In Sweden, the central Sai group has closed down and so too has a school based on programmes devised by educationists at the Baba ashram in Puttaparthi …

JENS SETHI is a German settled in Munich. He was a Sai Baba devotee for 10 years. His charges were published for the first time by the Focus magazine on September 18.

Allegations (as sent in a signed affidavit to INDIA TODAY): “In the private chamber, Baba said ‘Come,’ and kissed me on my lips for a long time. I resisted and he gurgled, ‘Have no fear. This is a good opportunity, so many are waiting for months and will not get.’ He asked me to remove my trousers, unzipped my fly and went with his right hand into my underpants. Baba massaged the genitals unasked. He expected some erection but this did not happen for I didn’t feel any sexual excitement. I also didn’t come for such games to Puttaparthi. I was really disgusted. Baba was disappointed and had the impudence to say, ‘It is very weak, don’t waste energy.’ When I looked at him, I realised the truth about him. He had such an evil vibration that moment. Soon, he sent me out of the room without saying a word.”

STATUS: Sethi recently filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in Munich. The Sai Baba Ashram has no comment on the allegations”.

———————————————————

General

Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

(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)

Gerald Moreno’s Attacks On Individuals and Institutions Critical of Sathya Sai Baba

How could any Sathya Sai Baba devotee – of those many who are decent and sincere – bear to read Gerald Joe Moreno’s writings? The constant welter of the latter’s strident, vituperative and demeaning posts to the Internet can, even at a quick glance, be gauged by the titles of but a small portion of his links, which, for convenience, we have posted here:  Partial List of Gerald Moreno’s Vast Postings Contra Sathya Sai Baba Critics. See also: About Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno’s Chameleon and Deceptive Websites.

Another instant indictment are the ‘hot’ language of his titles and the brief Google or other search engine entries for his work, as they pass by in even the most desultory of searches. The preponderance of his curse-words is striking. That the international Sathya Sai Organization stands by in deep shadow and allows both prominent and rank-and-file members to support Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno’s onslaughts – so incredibly far from the conduct that Sathya Sai Baba advises, not to mention teachers of all the main faiths and ethical systems – does not speak well of the unhappy pass to which that organization has come.

Many  Sathya Sai Baba’s followers strive for the qualities of truth, right conduct, peace, love and non-violence. Perhaps those who do read Moreno’s writings are those whom Sathya Sai Baba has often said are his devotees in name but not in nature. Of course, he and his leaders could well set a better example.The ‘Bhagavad Gita’ speaks of venality and corruption in a leader, but so too, also immortally, does the great English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, in his ‘Canterbury Tales’, in his depiction of the Parson in the General Prologue. (See Here for the more of this magnificent portrait):

This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf,
 That first he wroghte, and afterward he taughte.
 Out of the gospel he tho wordes caughte,
 And this figure he added eek therto,
 That if gold ruste, what shal iren do?
 For if a preest be foul, on whom we truste,
 No wonder is a lewed man to ruste;
 And shame it is, if a prest take keep,
 A shiten shepherde and a clene sheep

Independent British Scholar Kevin R.D. Shepherd’s Meticulous Research and Commentary

I see that Robert Priddy has just blogged drawing attention to the independent British writer on philosophy and religion, Kevin R.D. Shepherd. Priddy writes:

“After having been attacked by the constant would-be character assassinator, Joe Moreno, Kevin R.D. Shepherd responded in civil and reasoned terms. He was only attacked more despicably and unreasonably by Moreno. In stark contrast to this unqualified uneducated full-time cyber persecutor and person abuser Moreno, Shepherd is the accomplished author of numerous philosophical and books and critical analyses, including coverage of Shirdi Sai Baba and his self-appointed ‘reincarnation’, Sathya Narayana Raju. He has just released a new set of web pages at http://www.kevinshepherd.info “

I have just written on an aspect of Kevin R.D. Shepherd’s extensive work here:

Kevin R.D. Shepherd Exposes Sathya Sai Baba Defender Gerald Moreno

Posted by Barry Pittard on August 24, 2009

and also since noted that Brian D. Steel has very recently amended two articles to include, as he notes in an email,   “references to three more of Kevin R.D. Shepherd’s contributions, the latest from his splendid new website”:

Brian D.Steel Updates References To Kevin R.D.Shepherd Writings

Posted by Barry Pittard on August 25, 2009

————————————————–

General

Excerpt From Public Petition

(Note: The above articles contextualizes. Or 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)