‘Marriage Mart’ – Are Known Sex Abusees Disadvantaged?

Witnesses Speaking Out On Sex abuse. Opportunities? Obstacles?

Getting those of Sai Baba’s ex college boys and staff, with whom we have had contact over time, to speak out publicly has proven difficult.

Indeed, in our own movement of exposure, except around 2000, encouraging Sai Baba’s abuse survivors, no matter what their country or culture, has been hard. At  this time, there was unusually intense effort to bring allegations against Sai Baba and his organization to world attention. There were also high hopes – terribly idealistic, in retrospect – that simply getting the major media to investigate, and informing governments, law enforcement agencies, the general public and as many remaining devotees as possible would effect transformation.

Caution In the Primary Witness Process Essential

Of key significance in obtaining cooperation of those making primary allegations circa 2000 was that one of the former devotees was an Indian, with many contacts within Sai Baba circles in India – but added to this fact were his own distinctive qualities. For he was an enormously energetic campaigner, matched outside India by another extraordinary activist, now deceased, who was non-Indian.

The issue of charismatic ability of some activists to inspire abuse survivors to come forth – has been been re-raised by recent developments. These will not be made public yet – but of which more, trustfully, in the next year or so. However, with the utmost emphasis, I wish to suggest a caution. As in the example given above, a highly energetic, articulate, personable individual may indeed have unusual success in obtaining cooperation with abused individuals – e.g., getting sworn testimony, undertakings to travel as court witnesses, sharing of abuse experiences with leading media, law enforcement agencies, governments, UNESCO, academic researchers, etc.

However, my view is that, under a regimen of caution and great sensitivity, it is essential to have well-qualified, experienced abuse professionals involved – as well as those with other professional skills, such as lawyers, social workers, financial advisors, etc. With such constraints, there will, I should think, be some falling away in the numbers ready to testify. When all is said and done, those who are inwardly crumbling may not make the best witnesses, anyway. However, the issue is an ethical one, and should not be up for grabs! Although activists may have the very best intentions, and be far from exercising any coercion, there are nonetheless serious dangers to be avoided. Badly traumatized human beings can be like ticking bombs, where the approach must be made with a great care and skill not possessed by most of us.

Is There A ‘Damaged Goods’ Problem Within India Marriage ‘Markets’?

Indian boys with sexual molestation accounts have shared with networked former Sai Baba devotees a number of difficulties facing them. These relate to the conduct of Sai Baba and some of his personnel such as certain of his teaching staff and students. Suppose Indian abuse survivors were to go public. Are we able to imagine the ramifications within that extraordinarily complex institution – the joint family?

Ex-students and staff of Sai Baba’s institutions who are cooperating with us are acutely aware, for example, that members of their own families are strong devotees of Sai Baba. Some of these live in his ashrams, and are vitally dependent on his largesse, and anxious lest his officials find any fault, real or imagined, which could lead to their casting out. If ex-students and other young male devotees who have come to grief with Sai Baba, or are friends of those who have, were to speak out, what would be their fate, and that of those they love?

Joint Family A Great Institution. Like Any, It Has Its Stresses, Strains 

A great many marriages in India are still arranged, where a boy or girl does not, in certain respects, so much marry an individual but rather a complex set of family alliances.

To spend considerable time – as I have had the great fortune to have done in the case of India – in any other culture is often a humbling experience. Customs which vastly differ from one’s own can, on closer inspection, enshrine a great deal of commonsense, adaptive capacity and profundity – all too easily missed by superficial judgement. Therefore, it is not the topic in general of arranged marriages that I allude to in this piece, but a facet of the tradition which can pose – unless those in the culture itself  find creative ways around it – a difficulty for many Indian sexual abuse survivors.

Creative Indian Solutions Needed

All round the world, there are those who wish, of course, that ex students and ex staff of Sai Baba’s institutions would go public with what they know to be true, tragic as it is. (I do not say that they will not do so, eventually). However, such an event needs a uniquely Indo-centric approach – with Indian legal, spiritual, emotional and other support systems well in place. Where well-wishers in other countries may be able to assist is in contact with governments to smoothe the path for those Indian individuals or families who, for their own safety and well-being may wish to relocate.

Many who have been abused have real issues of reintegration, of  “moving on” (which is a phrase they themselves often use), and living with a sense of betrayal – especially acute in the face of their experience of a guru they supremely loved and trusted.

Legal Situation Can Be Problem-fraught

Any abuse survivors looking for legal remedies need to ensure that they obtain the most competent and sensitive advocacy. To win a monetary settlement and yet lose peace of mind is not worth it – unless an individual is very strong and believes that his sufferings will obtain tangible reforms for other abuse survivors, including the eduction of the wider public, and the breaking down of taboos against speaking out.

Related Reading at: https://barrypittard.wordpress.com

Indian Government Study of Child Abuse Is Groundbreaking

Child Abuse Rife In India. But Who Would Speak Out?

Child Abuse in India. Will Minister Renuka Chowdhury Act?

Child Abuse. Landmark Indian Government Study

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Police Killings Related to Sai Baba Sex Abuse Says Dr Bhatia

Mick Brown, British journalist and author of several books, extensively researched some of the scandals that continue to erupt for Sathya Sai Baba and his exceptionally powerful and wealthy worldwide organization. Members of the Sai Baba cult – including a great many otherwise educated members from an astonishing array of professions – believe that they are his workers in bringing about the greatest spiritual revolution in mankind’s history.

In a long article researched on both sides of the Atlantic, ‘The Divine Downfall’, Mick Brown of The Telegraph (U.K.), November 12, 2000, wrote:

“For all the allegations laid against him over the years, Sai Baba has never been charged with any crime, sexual or otherwise. And his exalted position in India has until now kept him safely insulated from any kind of public inquiry.

In June 1993 he was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt when five young men broke into his private residence. Two of his personal attendants were stabbed to death and four of the assailants were shot dead by police ‘in self-defence’. Sai Baba allegedly escaped by rushing out of his room and activating an alarm system. In a subsequent discourse, he said the attack was caused by ‘jealousy’. Dr Bhatia told me he believed the attack was linked to Baba’s sexual activities. The guru was never interrogated by police over the attack. The Indian press raised the obvious question: if Sai Baba is omniscient, why couldn’t he see it coming?”

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Dr Naresh Bhatia. Silenced Now In Indian Child Abuse Scourge

For many years, Dr Naresh Bhatia was a prominent doctor (and head of the Blood Bank) in Sai Baba’s vast but from many reports badly under-utilized Super Speciality hospital at Puttaparthi. There are accounts of his having to flee for his own safety from Puttaparthi and then finally being able to retrieve his possessions only after his undertaking with Sai Baba’s top officials to make no further public statements. A secret swami’s secret India, where at last a landmark study of abuse and the extreme hiding of it has just been released by the Manmohan Singh government. See Resources, at the foot of this article.

The Guru Can Do No Wrong

Dr Bhatia says that he, when younger, was for a long time a homosexual lover of Sai Baba. (The former Swedish film star Conny Larsson, now a drug rehabilitator among prisoners and others, says the same of himself). Dr Bhatia has told me that he still cannot shake off his belief that Sai Baba is Divine even though he knows that Sai Baba has sexually abused very many of his male students and other young males. One may note that the guru tradition in India cannot be readily understood by outsiders. One concept is that one does not criticize one’s guru, no matter what he or she says or does. Rooted in almost timeless history, the grip of the guru and other religious authorities is endemic in India.

On November 12, 2000, in an extensively researched article, author and journalist Mick Brown wrote:

“Contacted by phone, Bhatia said that he had become a devotee of Sai Baba in 1971, at the age of 20, and that he had sexual relations with Sai Baba for “15 or 16 years”. In that time, he said, he was also aware that Sai Baba had relations with “many, many” students from the college and school, and with devotees from overseas.”

When making The Secret Swami the BBC television producer Eamon Hardy also spoke with Dr Bhatia, this time in New Delhi but the segment was not included in the documentary, for which 80 plus hours of footage had been shot, containing many compelling testimonies from various countries that, taken together, depict Sai Baba as a serial sexual molester on a most terrible scale.

Many Indian Gurus Abuse But Followers Shut Up About it

Among my papers, I have a note by a former national leader of the Sathya Sai Organization (who still has not gone public). He had a huge outreach among both Indian and Western devotees. He wrote the note while still a devotee but already going through angst following the upheavals following fusillades of revelations around 2000 in the organization which he and his wife so much loved:

“Talking to some Indian devotees (who by the way are not affected at all hardly any of them have left) they tell us that it is common knowledge that “Gurus” generally have some of those tendencies”

Anecdotally, this scenario would surely suggest the origins of the vast shockwaves right now going through India, following the release by the Manmohan Singh government of a landmark study of child abuse in that country. Where sexual abuse is concerned, Sai Baba the ‘secret Swami’ (as BBC television has called him) is close kindred to countless other Indian secret gurus who but reflect countless millions of ‘secret’ citizens of India. Like those of us in other countries who shut up for the sake of the ‘quiet life’, they are – even when not directly committing child abuse – to an extreme degree, therefore permitting it. For decades, Sai Baba has said India is about to lead the world in spirituality, under his banner. But his own ‘backyard’ (which he has said he will clean up before visiting the world) is in a dire shambles. So is he, as we can see when we examine photos and film footage that emphatically display his decrepitude. He is also increasingly given to unquestionably inane utterances and other odd behaviour. Click here for my articles  Sai Baba’s Tip To Keep Ageing Away and Sai Baba – A Degenerative Disease?

Dr Naresh Bhatia – Some Clarifications

Dr Bhatia told me that he felt the threat to his life was very real and that he was concerned that no further harm should come to a young boy who he (and a medical colleague in Bangalore) professionally believed was injuriously sodomized by Sai Baba. For this reason, he says, he has modified his earlier public stance that can be read in David and Faye Bailey’s The Findings (April 2000). Though one child is extremely precious, there can be a great danger to protecting a single individual. Shutting up rather than strong combattive action can threaten the safety and well-being of a great many children.

There Have Been Threats to Life or Limb

I asked Dr Bhatia whether he thought his near fatal accident where a truck hit him was likely to be the work of those on the nasty side of Sai Baba’s outreach. He replied that he felt that the distance and speed from which the truck came before hitting him did not seem focused enough to have been an assassination attempt. I also asked him to clarify a point that has raised some confusion.

The Abuse Patient Was A Level Seven (Primary School) Boy

It had been repeated – either originating, or worse confounded, in the Bailey’s seminal article that a boy was seven years old when very badly sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba. Dr Bhatia responded that the boy was not seven but was then in Level 7 at Sai Baba’s school at Puttaparthi. He has also confirmed this to my fellow Australian, Stephen Carthew, long known for his courage and truthfulness not least when trying to reform the Sathya Sai Organisation from within, who visited Dr Bhatia in New Delhi 2000. Stephen, who had made kept this visit to India very secret, wrote to me that:

“I found Dr Bhatia delightful and most welcoming, notwithstanding the bind he is in. His own ambivalence regarding the spiritual nature of his Guru and the pressures coming from many sources to keep quiet make it difficult for him to do more than tell his story when asked. Certainly, he believed he was threatened and harassed during his rushed departure from Puttaparthi, after criticizing Sai Baba to his face.”

Abuse Is Too Cruel At Any Age

I should add that, in essence, abuse of a person is still grievous no matter what the age of a victim. However, amongst Sai Baba apologist documents is the incessant habit of siezing on every mistake or inconsistency or inadvertency in the writings of critics of Sai Baba. Any attempt to point out the actual facts results in, for example, further adversarial displays of nitpicking and obsession with peripherals. There are also cases when responding so as to put the record right would entail releasing information that is sensitive and should be secure. However, to genuine and bona fide investigators, such as leading media and those doing studies with well-accredited tertiary institutions, patently sincere enquirers such as those processing the anguish of leaving Sai Baba, and so on, this constraint is often not present.

Note on the Baileys

The Findings reports the Baileys’ discoveries that Sai Baba is guilty of male sexual molestation, huge financial fraud, faked miracles and other criminal and vastly hypocritical deceptions. David Bailey is a well-known British musician who lectured in Music at Sai Baba’s university in Puttaparthi. Travelling around the world as Sai Baba would direct, he was his highest profile roving ‘ambassador’ among devotees. Sai Baba arranged his marriage with Faye, who had previously been a key worker in the Australian Sathya Sai Organization. Unlike so many of the other leaders who know the truth of the accusations, David and Faye were possessed with a conscience. When they spoke out, they had to endure untold scurrility. It went throughout many countries in the Sathya Sai Organization that David languished in jail on charges of paedophilia. Similar outrages occurred when Conny Larrson, former head of the Swedish organization, spoke out. Those of us who were in touch with them on their private telephones were struck by the fact that they were decidedly free – except from the dastardly slanders of many Sai devotees around the world. As has been the case with a number of those of us formerly connected with Sai Baba’s work, Sai Baba’s male students and others who have come under his sway, David and Faye Bailey have been the repository of many accounts of sexual abuse (not to mention other shocking revelations) by Sai Baba. Against almost unimaginable slander and distortion by his defenders, former devotees in various countries continue the attempt to expose these abuses to the world.

Resources:

Child Abuse. Landmark Indian Government Study
Abuse of Indian children ‘common’
By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

The Findings
By David and Faye Bailey (an historic but in various ways a very dated document)

Child Abuse in India. Will Minister Renuka Chowdhury Act?
By Barry Pittard.  Email:  bpittard (at) optusnet.com.au

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Child Abuse Rife In India. But Who Would Speak Out?

It is impossible for many of the Indian students and former students of Sathya Sai Baba’s colleges and university, and others to come forward with their accounts, which are innumerable from around the world of his decades of sexual abuse of boys and young men.    

Their parents, relatives and friends are – very often – Sai Baba devotees who worship Sai Baba as God, and are unlikely to believe them, or, in other cases, concoct rationalizations for why Sai Baba would do such a thing. The victims have nowhere to turn, unless to persons such as David Bailey, who was a music teacher at Sai Baba’s Institute of Higher Learning), or Terry Gallagher who, after considerable investigation resigned as head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia. They, like even myself once, as a lecturer in a Sai Baba college, had a ‘privileged’ seat on Sai Baba’s veranda. Various Indian and western former students and others who have had close ties with Sai Baba also get in touch with those such as Robert Priddy and me, owing to our high profile in investigating Sai Baba and his movement, and ensuring that information reaches the world more widely. It is essential that their accounts be kept highly secure, such as lodgement in the vaults of a bank.  Many may never wish to witness in for example a class action lawsuit but if ever they should so wish the option is there.

A former staff member who contacted me told of how, when he raised disturbing questions with other staff members, he was tipped off by one of his teaching colleagues that his life was now in danger. The Germans Jens and Gurprit Sethi were similarly tipped off and fled from Puttaparthi. They informed their embasssy in Delhi and the German police, and returned to their country for good.  If students were to withdraw from their studies, they would lose their education, career and marriage prospects.

In India a great many marriages are arranged, and marriage is in many ways a complex family alliance. Some of Sai Baba’s former Indian students, including those with personal accounts of his sexual abuse of them, have told me that the shame and stigma attached to having been abused by Sai Baba thwarts the type of action former devotees have initiated in the West.

India is a country where survival is often a fight, if not in everyone’s case for food and shelter , at least to achieve and maintain tenuous social position.  The abuser is a world-famous religious teacher, in a country with thousands of years’ tradition of intense guru worship and extreme idolising of notable public figures. Sai Baba’s power and influence in virtually all sectors of Indian society is so great as almost to defy the imagination.Discussion of various forms of sexual abuse, such as rape, incest and molestation, is strictly tabooed in India.

A common Indian perception is that only if one has a great deal of money and power, with the ability to use them corruptly, is there a chance of getting one’s story out and acted upon. But even here, who would wish to break the taboo?

Barry Pittard. Email:  bpittard AT optusnet.com.au

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Child Abuse in India. Will Minister Renuka Chowdhury Act?

(Renuka, in blue sari, and close business friend)

In the last hours, the BBC and other news services have reported on a major study of child abuse in India. See:
https://barrypittard.wordpress.com/2007/04/11/child-abuse-landmark-indian-government-study/

The BBC report says, 

“Two out of every three children in India are physically abused, according to a landmark Indian government study”

The Manmohan Singh government of India Minister responsible for the release of the report is Renuka Choudhury (also spelt Chowdhury). Before she became Minister for Women and Child Development, Ms Choudhury was Minister for Tourism who worked hard at driving tourism to Sai Baba and Puttaparthi, where he has his main ashram. She  comes from Andhra Pradesh, the same state of India as Sai Baba. Among many other serious accusations, Sai Baba faces worldwide allegations of sexual abuse of boys and young men, implication in police killings in his bedroom on June 6, 1993, and, along with his ashram officials and the Congress Party government of the time (the present Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Party), is accused of a massive cover-up of the scandal.

One of our Indian workers reports dealing closely with Ms Choudhury and briefing her in detail about compelling evidence against Sai Baba. He said that she went to real effort to personally photocopy vital documents our group shared with her and, still further, to go around to the then Opposition leader Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s residence to brief her on them. The rest was silence – which, of course, is the very essence of deep compromise and cover-up.

In her Tourism portfolio, Renuka Chaudhury, in all practical effect, drove large numbers of boys and young males to Sai Baba. This was even though she was in possession of extremely revealing documents (too sensitive to reveal on the Internet) that, among other terrible matters, evidenced years of large-scale, serial sexual molestation by Sai Baba.

How, then, after all, can Mrs Chaudhuri act to rid India of a sexual abuse scourge that implicates such powerful figures as Sathya Sai Baba?  Manmohan Singh and so many members of his political party – and indeed the President of India, Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam – are deeply implicated with Sai Baba. 

Sai Baba is arguably the most powerful and influential guru in India’s history. How could Renuka Chaudhury and her Ministry of Women and Child Development possibly prevail against one who is so incredibly powerful, and one who the BBC has named ‘The Secret Swami’?

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Child Abuse. Landmark Indian Government Study

Abuse of Indian children ‘common’
By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

This is the first time India has done such a survey on child abuse
Two out of every three children in India are physically abused, according to a landmark government study.

Commissioned by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the study says 53% of the surveyed children reported one or more forms of sexual abuse.

This is the first time the government has done such an exhaustive survey on the controversial issue of child abuse.

Abuse of children, particularly sexual abuse, is rarely admitted in India and activists have welcomed the study.

Releasing the report at a press conference in the capital, Delhi, Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said: “In India there’s a tradition of denying child abuse. It doesn’t happen here is what we normally say.

“But by remaining silent, we have aided and abetted the abuse of children.”

Thousands quizzed

Describing the findings of the study as “disturbing”, Ms Chowdhury called for an end to the “conspiracy of silence”.

The issue of child abuse has been raised in the past by non-governmental organisations, but this is the first time an attempt has been made by the government to document the scale of the problem.

The study took two years to complete, and covered 13 states where 12,247 children (between five and 12) and 2,324 young adults (over the age of 12) were quizzed.

Dr Loveleen Kacker, the official in charge of child welfare in the ministry, compiled the report.

She said the study had revealed that contrary to the general belief that only girls were abused, boys were equally at risk, if not more.

She said a substantial number of the abusers were “persons in trust and care-givers” who included parents, relatives and school teachers.

Ms Chowdhury said the findings of the study were disturbing

Dr Kacker said a disturbing finding of the study had been that 70% had not reported the abuse to anyone.

Besides surveying physical and sexual abuse, the study also collected statistics on emotional abuse and neglect of girls.

The study called for efforts to make society aware of the rights of children and officials say the data will help them formulate better policies to protect children.

‘One too many’

The report has been welcomed by child rights activists who say such a study was sorely needed in India.

Roland Angerer, country director of Plan International, told BBC News it was “very important that the government has finally taken up the issue”.

“It doesn’t matter what statistics say. Whether the percentage of abused children is 75 or whether it is 58 is unimportant. Each child that is abused is one too many,” he said.

“It’s important that parents and adults must learn that children are not property, that they have rights too.”

In India, parents are often reluctant to admit child abuse and sexual abuse of children involving family members is almost always hushed up.

The study also collected data on how girls are neglected

Perhaps that is why – as the study shows – more than 50% of the young adults surveyed wanted the matter of abuse to remain within the family.

Only 17% of the abused young adults wanted harsh punishment for the abusers.

Officials and activists say the biggest challenge for the authorities and society is to ensure that children are encouraged to report abuse.

India is home to almost 19% of the world’s children. More than one-third of the country’s population – 440m people – is made up of children below 18 years of age.

According to one study, at least 40% of these children are in need of care and protection.

The country has millions of child workers.

Many are employed in hazardous industries and also in homes and small restaurants, which makes them vulnerable to violence and exploitation.

Last year the government banned children under 14 from being employed in homes and at restaurants to avoid their exploitation and abuse, but millions of children continue to work in these sectors.

India is a signatory to various international laws on the protection of children, but implementation of these laws is often lax.

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Sai Baba Promised to Transform India. But Child Abuse Rampant

Children vulnerable to abuse during travel, weddings Apr 10, 2007 – 3:49:12 PM

The survey is expected to develop a dependable and comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of child abuse.

By IANS, [RxPG] New Delhi, April 10 – Almost 50 percent of India’s children aged between 5 and 12 are prone to sexual abuse such as forcible kissing and being made to exhibit their private parts during travel, marriage and other family ceremonies, says the national study on child abuse.The figure reduces to half as soon as they cross into their teens, points out a study conducted by ministry of women and child development, UNICEF and two NGOs,Save the Child and Prayas.The survey among 15,000 children in 13 sample states has come up with disturbing data.While 41.17 percent of children in the 5-12 age group complained of being forcibly kissed, the figure came down to 25.73 percent for the 13-14 years category. Similarly, around 25.86 percent of teenagers reported being forced to exhibit their private parts, but the relevant figure for those below 12 was 35.86 percent.

Around 37.25 percent of the younger age group and 27.61 percent of teenagers were sexually abused during travel. As much as 41.33 percent in the 5-12 category and 25.29 in the 13-14 category reported abuse during marriages and other ceremonies in the family.

According to the study, 53.22 percent of the children surveyed faced one or more forms of sexual abuse while 21.9 percent of them faced severe forms of sexual abuse and 50.76 percent other forms of sexual abuse.

What is worse, the report said, ‘around 70 percent of abused children have never reported the matter to anyone’.

While Assam – topped the list of states where children faced sexual abuse, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi followed closely at 72.83 percent and 72.26 percent. Rajasthan reported the lowest complaints with only 29.36 percent.

The percentage of sexually abused young adults – is also high in Assam at 77.5 percent, followed by Delhi at 69.11 percent. Goa reported the least complaints – 23.01 percent.

‘Every second child reported facing emotional abuse,’ says the report. While 68.26 percent of children in Assam reported being emotionally abused through humiliation, the figure was 58.32 percent for Delhi and 55.67 percent for Madhya Pradesh.

The survey is expected to develop a dependable and comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of child abuse.

‘It will also facilitate the formulation of appropriate policy and programmes meant to effectively curb and control the menace,’ Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Choudhury said.

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British Labour and Tory Whips Suppressed Motion On Sai Baba

British House of Commons: “Sai Baba and sexual abuse of children” Early Day Motion No. 886 November 2000

In November 2000, a petition signed by over fifty cross party Members of Parliament, was made by Hon. Tony Colman, (then) MP for Putney (Labour):

“That this House, mindful of the many accounts and witness statements of the sexual abuse of the male children of devotees by the Indian guru, Sai Baba, calls upon the Foreign Secretary to use the Travel Advice for India page of the Foreign Office Website to issue guidance to British families intending to visit the Ashram of Sai Baba about the possible danger to their male children of individual audiences with the guru.”

For information about how this Motion was suppressed (primary sources of which can be revealed to responsible media, academic investigators, etc), see my article: ‘Flag Follows Trade. Abetting Indian Government Corruption’ 

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Sai Baba Head Michael Goldstein’s Extreme Statement on 9/11

During the making of the television documentary The Secret Swami, the BBC confirmed but did not use (amid 80+ hours of its investigative film footage, a significant amount shot in the USA) the document in which Sai Baba’s U.S. head – who is now world Chairman of the Sathya Sai Organization, Dr Michael Goldstein of Corvina, southern California – in an email to devotees, made the following statements about 9/11: 

“A number of reports have been received from (Sai Baba) devotees indicating that our Beloved Swami prevented many of his devotees from being injured or killed in the World Trade Center where they are employed or had meetings scheduled. His Miraculous Intervention on behalf of His devotees is clearly evident… They were either late or never arrived…” 

In a public meeting in Buenos Aires, attended by some 1500 Sai Baba devotees, October 20, 2001, Goldstein also said:

“There are many (Sai Baba) devotees that worked in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon… And none of them went to work that day, or they arrived late…all the New York and Washington devotees are safe…”

Too bad for the thousands of non-devotees of Sai Baba who were killed or maimed in those catastrophes, and all who were left behind to grieve – Hindus, Moslems, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, and those of other faiths and of none)!

Further Reading:

The English translation from Spanish of “Gatapado” journal article by a top Argentinean investigative journalist and Azul TV presenter Alejandro Agostinelli is at:  

http://www.saiguru.net/english/media/020201divine_sin.htm

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Sai Baba. IHEU Presentation to United Nations

International Humanist and Ethical Union Presentation to United Nations

Extract from statement by Mr Roy BROWN, Tuesday 6th April 2004,
Commission on Human Rights: 60th session. Chair: Mike Smith (15 March – 23 April 2004), Item 13. Rights of the Child. Abuse of Children in the name of Religion.
Source: http://www.iheu.org/node/1305

…”We are equally appalled that even though widely reported allegations of paedophilia against the highly successful and powerful Indian god man Satya Sai Baba have led UNESCO to withdraw in 2000 from a proposed joint event with the Institute for Satya Sai Education (see UNESCO Media advisory below), despite the matter being raised in the UK Parliament (early day motion by MP Tony Coleman), and despite the issuing by the US State Department of a Travel advisory in 2001 (see US State Department Travel Advisory below), the disturbing allegations have not received the appropriate attention of the Government of India which is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We are hopeful that international attention, scrutiny and pressure will lead to a full scale investigation into the activities of this so-called god man and ensure the protection of children who come into contact with him.”

 

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Vivekananda Has Come Again, Says Sai Baba. But Has He?

“Vivekananda has come again;  he is growing up in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).  He will come to Me and join in My task.”    Sathyam, Shivam, Sundaram, Part II, p. 130. 1960-61. Professor N. Kasturi, official biographer of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

On Wednesday April 13,1998, I flew from South India to Sri Lanka. Among other matters, I  wished to locate the young man, Nalin Sedera. According to major Sai Baba-approved writers N.Kasturi and Howard Murphet, Sai Baba had told Sedera he was

Swami Vivekananda in his last life.

I had encountered personally (and India is the place of all places to encounter them!) similar stories, sometimes in relation to Sai Baba but also cases where, muchto their surprise, individuals from various countries had found their names cited in one or more of the palm leaf traditions in India, supposedly written or dictated by ancient Indian rishis (seer, sages, spiritual masters) called Nadis.

In common with devotees from many countries, I had heard various reliable reports that Sai Baba had informed certain individuals of who they were in some past life. For example, disclosing their identity when (as he claims) he ‘came’ as God manifest in Rama, Krishna, and Shirdi Sai Baba (circa 1838-1918).

Many devotees relate that Sai Baba has said that Paramahansa Yogananda(1893-1952), another earlier Indian swami who went to the West and became famous worldwide, was now a child growing up in a Greek family of Sai Baba devotees. I wondered what would be the case if Nalin were to undergo one of these readings (nadis, naadis, granthas, granthams) scattered about India in which I had taken an interest – e.g., Brighu (in North India), Agasthya (Agasthiar),Suka,Sukha, Siva, etc., (South India).

What was this mention of a “task” in the Professor Kasturi quotation?  Sai Baba has many times stated that he will bring, before he dies (not that he uses the word ‘dies’) the entire world into an era of truth, right conduct, peace, love and non-violence, before leaving the planet, aged 95 or 96?  (The one year differential depends on which calendar one uses, Gregorian or Indian).

Many years ago, Sathya Sai Baba said that Ramakrishna, Vivekananda’s illustrious guru, had but one Vivekananda and one Brahmananda, whereas he, Sai Baba had hundreds of great yogic souls among his devotees through whom he will perform global transformations on a scale never witnessed in mankind’s history. Could it, I (then) thought, be possible to locate some of these great souls; and might they, sensing the seriousness of my nadi study, grant permission to submit a thumbprint or any other initial information required by nadi custodians by which to gradually reticulate to an individual’s given reading? If I located Nalin, would he in any way resemble Swami Vivekananda? Would any reading for him in any of the nadis confirm what Sai Baba had foretold?

As I waited in the queue awaiting to see Sai Baba at Kodai Kanal, a gorgeous hill station in the Nilgiris of the state of Tamil Nadu where Sai Baba has a villa, two gentlemen asked me about my work – at that time, editing a Sai Baba related magazine, Spiritual Impressions, and books by some devotees of Sathya Sai Baba.  I noticed a man intently listening in, and welcomed him into the conversation.  He soon said he was from Sri Lanka.  More than that, he and his family personally knew Nalin. After the darshan (viewing of a person deemed holy), he gave me contact details.

In that morning’s darshan of Sai Baba, I found myself against considerable odds in a second row.  Sai Baba came right up. I handed him a small card on which I had written the name: Nalin. He moved the card little by little several times gently along the palm of my hand towards Him. This was in a similar manner to which he had stroked my hand in the darshan of morning before. Then, as though to create an emphasis, Sai Baba snapped the card deftly towards his chest.  He then put the card among the letters in his left hand, and moved a few paces towards the centre of the pathway, turning to the rows of men sitting opposite. Unexpectedly, he turned right round and, looking towards me with what I took to be great love, made a deep bowing movement with his head. Keeping the steady heart-melting gaze all the while, he smiled very sweetly, then raised His hand in blessing me for quite some moments. From my then devotee perspective, not without various extraordinary experiences I had had, thinking him to have omniscience, I felt very strongly that he was bowing to, and blessing, the intention that had formed in my mind: to seek out Nalin.

On Sunday April 19th, 1998, I had planned for a quiet evening in my room at the Ramakrishna Mission in Columbo, the capital of Sri Lanka.  I had arranged with Nalin’s brother, Ajitha, to go to their home on the Monday.  He told me that Nalin had been spending a few days meditating in a temple at the southern tip of his country – at Karthirkamagiri, long a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists and Hindus alike. Until a month before, I had never heard of it. However, it was mentioned in a Chapter (Kandam) in one of my Agasthya nadis at Vaithishwarankoil in Tamil Nadu (where it stated that I was associated with this place in a former life as a doctor).

At 6.15 p.m., as I made my way up Ramakrishna Road for a quiet cup of Horlicks, a tall, slender, striking young Singhalese man around thirty years called across to me, “Are you the Australian gentleman staying at the Ramakrishna Mission?”  It was Nalin accompanied by his brother, Ajitha.  He explained that they thought they would find me more easily than I them.  A few minutes later, as we sat ourselves down at the table of the crowded vegetarian restaurant, I sat facing a tall, lithe, well built young man, clean shaven, dressed very neatly, wearing denim, his dark red shirt smart. He blended in with middle class Sri Lankans. His face had a fine-boned, sculptured look, and a bright, golden brown that had an inner lustre. His voice was rich and resonant, as though coming from a cavern. Was there anything about his physical appearance which resembled Vivekananda? Yes, I thought  –  the lips:  delicate, fine-etched, contoured. I  sensed strong character, and he he displayed spontaneous, sincere good manners.  He was direct, with a controlled but passionate intensity about things that mattered to him.  

“They are trying to take my life”

Even before we sat down, I had asked him whether the attention he had received had affected his life.  His distaste for those who mobbed him was immediate, unmistakable. “They are trying to take my life.”  It was an odd sentence. I asked Nalin, “When you say,’They are trying to take my life,’ do you mean that your life is actually in danger from anyone?” With burning intensity, and a mix of smile and leer that reminded me of Humphrey Bogart, he replied, “They would be writing their last will and testament if they tried!”Here, I did not sense a Vivekananda-like commitment to ahimsa (non-violence). Nalin’s occasional intensities became one of my abiding impressions of him.

As we sat down, he referred to crowds that gathered round him after word travelled bushfire-like that Sathya Sai Baba had said that Nalin, in his previous life, was Swami Vivekananda. He said:

 “My mind didn’t go. But I lost a lot  –  my liberty, my freedom.”

I checked with him, just to be sure I understood his exact meaning. By “my life”, he meant a broad leeway to be himself. I asked  Nalin if he related to books? Again, the intensity.

“I want to have experience. It is all that matters. Not read about anyone else’s. Books are a waste of time.”

I mentioned the book by the Australian writer Howard Murphet’s book. Nalin said that he felt very let down by the people who had informed the author of his story (he referred to them as Tamilians  –  i.e., belonging to or originating from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu).

 “I had asked them to allow nothing to be published without my permission. They went ahead without consulting me”.

As he began to unfold his experiences, he said:

 “I’ve had a lot of troubles. I am a normal person, whatever people may think.  Whatever may have been the case in my last life, I am living in this  life!  I have no idea what happened in my last life.  When Swami made the revelation  –  or call it a pronouncement  –  I had no idea of who Swami Vivekananda was.  This is this life.  It’s all I’m interested in.  Now, as a result of all the attention, I’ve lost what is most precious to me  –  my liberty, my freedom.  At the ashram after Swami had spoken, there were hundreds of people milling all round me. And hundreds of people here in Sri Lanka.” 

What did the mobs ask? 

“They asked funny questions.  Do I remember my previous birth?  They regard me as some kind of alien.  Some of them say I should be wearing a robe like a sadhu (ed., spiritual renunciate).  Why should I do that?  I want to wear my denims.  Some have even said that, at a certain time, I’ll get up in darshan and take over Puttaparthi.”

Typically, after reflection, usually following a question of mine, he would return with a perfectly crystalised reply, like a pearl slipping out of the oyster shell when, after inner effort, it opens at last.  His voice struck flint; a small spark lit his eye. “I don’t like that!”  The tone was very emphatic.  Again the spurt of intensity.  I sensed a deep indignity, a smouldering anguish from which he had somewhat distanced himself. Embers still glowed hot.

He spoke of his anger at the time of Sai Baba’s ‘revelation’ or ‘pronouncement.’  The interview in which this was made occurred, he said, at Puttaparthi, March 23, 1987.  Two more interviews followed – on the 24th and 26th.  He was then nineteen years. He said that the Sri Lankan group of which Nalin was a member was led by Mrs Ganhewa. He was baffled to know how the news got out.  “Swami took me into a private room next to the interview room. I cannot see how others in the interview could have heard what Swami said.  I certainly didn’t say anything about it.”

I have since asked a number of others their opinion as to the audibility or otherwise of what is said, from the standpoint of someone in the outer room.  Some say the speech is too muffled to be understood.  Others say that sometimes one can hear what is being said. In an interview on July 24,1998, I noted this: a curtain separates the two rooms, as it has long done. I was in a group of seven Australians. However, a Canadian husband and wife briefly preceded us into the inner room. Later, Sai Baba also saw the three ladies in our group separately to the men. In both cases, a few drift words of speech could be understood; much could not be, because he and the Canadians and, separately, he and the Australian women spoke quite quietly.

Nalin told me that he returned to Puttaparthi in August 1987.  Sai Baba called him and his group for interview.  He said that Sai Baba asked the group leader, referring to Nalin’s parents, “Are his parents happy?”  Nalin relates that she replied yes, they were very happy when they heard the news, but

“Swami replied, ‘No, no, no, they are not happy but they are worried about that boy. Look at him, he’s just a boy.  Just leave him alone and don’t disturb him, because if anything happens, you must be responsible for that”‘. 

Nalin says 

“Swami turned to me and said, ‘A lot of people are angry with you and jealous of you, here and there.  Don’t go to any bhajan places. You just stay at your home, and do your work'” 

I asked Nalin what work did he do? 

“Not ordinary work. A friend of my age and I have been working among the poorer classes. At one time, we got involved in an eye camp.”

(These were organised clinics designed to bring medical aid to the poor. For example, combating eye diseases such as glaucoma).

Nalin continued,

“Swami then said, ‘You are angry with me.  Why are you angry with me?’  I said, ‘You know why I am angry with you.’  Baba said, ‘Yes, I know.'” 

Nalin relates that it was only on his return home that he discovered from his parents that they had been in fact worried at the extraordinary revelation about their son. Not wanting to trouble their family, they had kept their concern to themselves.

He said that, in two or three months, he would like to visit Sai Baba wherever he was stationed at the time. A lot would depend on how Nalin’s father managed with a shortly upcoming by-pass operation in Chennai. He wondered whether it would be possible to get Sri Lankan Sai devotees to leave him alone – perhaps via a note printed in Sanathana Sarathi, the official magazine of the Sathya Sai Central Trust. Considering the essential purpose of the publication (to publish Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s Discourses, a small few articles by contributors, Sathya Sai Organization news), I rather doubted his chances, but suggested he call on the Editor, Sri V.K. Narasimhan, whom I regarded as a good, decent man and a warm friend. With distinction and courage, V.K.N. had formerly edited major Indian newspapers – the Indian Express, Hindustan Times and Deccan Herald– and he and I had a warm friendship and were in fairly regular contact. From V.K.N. I soon after found that Nalin had, while I was absent, called on him, a visit I had already told V.K.N that Nalin may make. When we later spoke, V.K.N smiled wryly and admitted defeat in observing any similarities to Swami Vivekananda.

Since so many of Sathya Sai Baba’s predictions large and small have proved false, one may fail to see how the one about Nalin could come true. Trustfully, given the fickleness of the madding crowd, Nalin’s botherers will have long given up their bothering of him.

If Nalin ever takes over Puttaparthi, I shall personally ‘come again’. Reborn there as a service volunteer. And eat my hat!

Resources:Manisha Rathore
http://sify.com/astrology/fullstory.php?id=13624255

Robert Priddy, former Norwegian leader and a founder member of the Norwegian Sathya Sai Organization: ‘Requiem To A Kindly Spirit. Celebrated Indian journalist V.K. Narasimhan
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/VKN2.htm

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Sai Baba Vs Kerry Packer

The late Kerry Packer, Australia’s richest man, who redefined cricket forever, has a contender in Sathya Sai Baba of South India.

One of a slew of Sai Baba propagandist ploys to gain international attention has been to create a world-class cricket pitch in Puttaparthi. Planners were former Indian cricket greats like Sunil Gavaskar and E.A.S. Prasanna. The inaugural event was a cricket match played at Sai Baba’s Hill View Stadium on December 30, 1997, billed as the Sri Sathya Sai Unity Cup. The trophy itself was a huge – and very real- gold cup. The international engineering giant Larsen & Toubro, with inputs from famous Indian cricketing experts, prepared the grounds, a short walk from Sai Baba’s ashram. (On the day, I was taking photos for the internationally distributed Spiritual Impressions, a magazine which I was editing along with the owner, R. Padmanaban).

Such A Thing As A Free Lunch – And Breakfast?

Somewhat like the Roman ‘pompa’, the game opened with a ‘grand’ parade. There was a brass band composed of Sai Baba’s university students. Thousands of villagers spectated from the surrounding hill. Sai Baba’s caparisoned elephant led flag-bearing devotees from many different countries from around the world, who marched around one side of the arena, coming to lay their flags at Sai Baba’s ‘feet’ in the presence of the Indian Prime Minister, I.K. Gujral, and other high government and other dignitaries. The Indian national broadcaster Doordarshan televised the match throughout, and images of the event went later to many different countries, including Great Britain via the BBC. There was free breakfast and lunch for all.

Caught and Bowled By Sai Baba

Surely there had to be a catch. But who was caught? Who was bowled? All of us – who were blinded by the pomp and ceremony created to hide the corruption. Like the Puttaparthi cover-up concerning the police killings in Sai Baba’s bedroom in June 1993. Like the serial sexual abuse of boys and young men by Sai Baba and other accomplices. Like the frequent faking of miracles. Like his forever uneventuating promised cures for dread diseases. Like the many failed predictions. Like the shameless scams practised down the years by his administration – and realised by many devotees! – relating to the purchase of apartments at his ashrams. Like the vast unaccountability of some of the billions in many currencies that flow from many countries to the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust.

Caught and bowled – all of us who thought what we called ‘the Sai Revolution’ – one of truth, goodness, peace and love – was ready to transform the world. Who else? The Indian people. Unutterably sad, that. Those who, in short, treated me with almost unimaginable and exquisite kindness in the years I lived in that country, so great in its cultural treasures, so bravely served in her fight for Independence, so profoundly betrayed by so many of her politicians. That beautiful people – but many of whom are still terribly prone to worship as demigods their cricketing greats, film stars, etc., with no less hysteria than they worship gurus, many of whom, like Sai Baba himself, prove to have feet of clay.

I saw many women, no less than the men, crazed with adulation for the Indian cricketers whose bus somehow, at a snail’s pace at times, had to chug its way out of Puttaparthi. I may add, from an impeccable source with close connections to Sai Baba’s Security Wing, that the news of those killed and injured in the immense crushes was able to be suppressed by the ashram authorities.

Attempt to Fetch Nonagenarian Sir Donald Bradman

Sai Baba’s objective – about which little if anything has flourished since – was to get the world’s top cricketers to play there. At Puttaparthi close to the time of the December 1997 match, I was at the same lunch table in the canteen as Prasanna. Hearing that I was Australian, he told me that they had asked Sir Donald Bradman to attend a match but that he declined on the grounds of ill-health. Bradman, far more the icon of Australia than Sai Baba is or ever will be of India, was the world’s greatest cricket player and died aged 92 in February 2001. The effort to draw world attention to the match was obvious. The organizers were able to go so far as to attempt to bring the terribly aged and already ailing Bradman – then in his 90’s! – to travel to India, despite all the health crises that can strike foreigners not used to its water, food, climate and so on. ‘Puttaparthi belly’ could have finished him off in a trice.

Gavaskar Bowled Out In A Fabrication

Sunil Gavaskar, the great former Indian Test captain and long-time devotee of Sathya Sai Baba, maintained a fiction about the match being genuinely international. On a piece for Sai Baba’s official website, he said:

“So, the Unity Cup was played with players from all over the world including Pakistan”:
http://saibaba.ws/experiences1/
realisingsupremebeatitude.htm

How impressive it sounds – “from all over the world”. Pieces like this are all grist for the ceaselessly grinding mill of Dr G.Venkataraman, Sai Baba’s Dr Joseph Goebbels, who, with his team at Radio Sai, is going all out promote Sai Baba with satellite radio, Sai Global Harmony, beamed to every possible corner of the globe via the WorldSpace Corporation.

Hardly Any Nations Turned Up

The match failed to fetch players from West Indies, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, New Zealand, Australia, and any of the scores of nations where cricket is taken seriously. The ridiculously named ‘world XI’ was captained by Sri Lanka’s Arjuna Ranatunga. The Indian team’s captain was Sachin Tendulkar. England was slenderly represented by Doug Brown in what otherwise remained a game of Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans. Pakistan sent a few players, including ‘Boom Boom’ Shahid Afridi (players from the past Hanif Mohamed and Zaheer Abbas were non-playing Pakistani guests). Sri Lanka provided six players. Former Test captain Clive Lloyd presented the trophy. India’s national broadcaster Doordarshan televised the match. In the commentator’s box was ‘Kiri’, Syed Kirmani, often hailed as India’s best ever wicket keeper, who became a Chairman of Selectors for India. He was no doubt well ‘selected’ for the day’s job at the Sri Sathya Sai Unity Cup, since he quite often dropped all objective commentary of the match being played, instead indulging in rhapsodic eulogies on Sai Baba. I saw the Doordarshan producer repeatedly directing attention of the camera crew to features of the grandiose architecture like Sai Baba’s university, the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. Segments of the game were telecast round the world, including Great Britain.

India – or rather, one should say, Sai Baba’s propaganda machine – won the day.

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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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