A devotee reports on Sathya Sai Baba’s appeal and reputation

Excerpt from a web page by  N. Bhanutej of Puttaparthi
From a handful in the 1960s, Sai Baba’s following today is anywhere between one crore and five crore.
Sai Baba did not answer his critics. Narasimhaiah did not get an interview. But in a discourse, Baba said: “It is beyond you to know how or why I create things. The objects that I create, I create them by my will, the same way I created the universe”. Even now, devotees elbow each other during the darshans, hoping to touch his feet or get invited to a private session where Sai Baba usually ‘materialises’ gifts.”

Interesting that the estimate here by a Sai supporter of Sai Baba’s ‘following’ (which is a very vague term indeed) of “between 10 million and 50 million” is far, far below what is claimed by the majority of pro-Sai authors, web loggers, and organization websites. (The Swedish website has for years even claims there are 300 million devotees – which is, of course, sheer fantasy). Sai Baba’s preposterous claim the he created the Universe should need no comment, but the fact that there are so many who believe him requires that his many deceptions and fraudulence be documented and discussed, as is done on this blog site and many other exposé sites.

In 1978, the revolutionary balladeer Gaddar penned and popularised a song ridiculing Sai Baba. He told THE WEEK: “In India, you can exploit people in two ways. One, if you have the capital to invest. Two, you invest in the ignorance of the people and exploit them through superstition.” Though Gaddar’s song became popular, the queues outside Prashanthi Nilayam and Brindavan, his ashram in Whitefield, Bangalore, kept growing longer.

On November 23, 1992, the Deccan Chronicle carried a photograph from a TV footage of Baba taking a gold chain from his private staff before ‘materialising’ it. On June 6, 1993, six inmates of the inner circle of Prashanthi Nilayam died in Sai Baba’s bedroom. Two of them had allegedly made an attempt on Baba’s life. The other four were gunned down by the police, apparently in self defence. The facts of the case were never brought to light.

This says a great deal about the unaccountability of this cult. Sathya Sai Baba has managed, both through his appeal to ideals of ancient Hinduism and India’s inherent spiritual greatness but not least through his accumulation of great wealth by donations, to gain major political influence. He cannot be brought to justice in India because he has protection at the very highest levels of the government and the judiciary, whose prestige was long since invested in him (before the facts about his abuses began to emerge due to the Internet).

The most serious of charges of sexual abuse came from several of his western young male devotees. A book by Tal Brooks titled Avatar of Night describes the author’s quest for God, his seeking Sai Baba and his disillusionment when he was sexually exploited. With the advent of the Internet, disillusioned young men narrated more stories of abuse. Interestingly, there are devotees who justify the alleged sexual acts as Baba’s way of ‘correcting’ the kundalini of the devotee. [SEE HERE]

Unesco, not willing to accept this explanation, withdrew from a conference on education in September 2000, which it was cosponsoring with the Sathya Sai Organisation in Puttaparthi. The grounds: “Deeply concerned about widely reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youth and children.”‘

UNESCO has never had anything to do with Sathya Sai Baba since 2000, not has any other UN institution. The Indian authorities tried hard, through their representatives in UNESCO (Shashi Taroor) and through ministerial interventions to get the advisory warning against Sai Baba removed. When it was no longer on the UNESCO site, but only in the archive, this indicates their pressures succeeded… however, when the BBC investigated they were assured by an UNESCO official that the advisory was simply removed as part of a standard updating of the website (see here)

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Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya (or Satya) Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization