Sathya Sai Super-specialty Hospital

Under the heading ‘Give Help Without Publicity’ in his journal Sanathana Sarathi October 2003, p. 295), Sathya Sai Baba said in a discourse after an earlier speaker had spoken extensively about the achievements of the Sai hospital: “I always advise the doctors not to publicise what we do in the hospital. There are several wonderful things that are happening.“ [All Sai Baba’s words are in italics] Whereupon he goes on at great length about supposedly marvellous achievements of the hospital in two individual cases! This yet again shows the complete discrepancy between Sai Baba’s word and deed within the space of two sentences. He knew too that this went out through huge loudspeakers set all around the ashram, and that it would be printed and air-mailed to tens of thousands, posted on various of his official websites and also sent out repeatedly on his own world-wide radio! What a pathetic parody of true spirituality! His wily chutzpah, evident to the level-headed, does not penetrate the thick cocoons of blind faith in which so many devotees imagine themselves protected from untruth. ‘Give Help Without Publicity’ is completely hollow hypocrisy.

Sai Baba’s braggaddocio about his loving selfless service – literally claiming it to be thousands of times more than anyone else does seems overdone from one who claims to be the father and mother of all beings, the creator and sustainer of the universe! The Sathya Sai Organisation and many of his followers parrot him without ever a twinge of criticism in countless articles, books galore, on dozens of websites, in films (often exhibiting public service by his followers), in repeated photo exhibitions (to which all centres in the world have to send details and pictures of service activities), in constant self-serving radio broadcasts (Radio Sai) and in hiring the most expensive venues in big cities (New York, San Francisco, London, Melbourne etc.) to propagate and propagandize beyond all decency.

Sai Baba also mentioned about boys nightly sharing his bedroom, as he has previously stated is a fact – one which is also well known to ashram residents and regulars. He said: “These boys from the hospital sleep on the ground floor while I stay on the first floor. They discuss hospital related matters. I keep telling them, ‘Do not speak about them anywhere outside’. ” Yet he had just sat through one of these boy’s long glowing account of the achievements of the hospital! Such brazen duplicity shows Sai Baba’s strong desire to have information about ‘His‘ hospitals spread loud and far. The official Radio Sai website – run by his trusted follower and cover-up agent – Dr. G. Venkataraman – trumpets such propaganda continuously.

In that discourse, Sai Baba also waxed large about having personally allowed the use of an injection costing Rs. 80,000.- to save one patient’s life. He said, “Any amount should be spent to save the life of the patient. I shall bear the expenses…“ Yet how indeed can he pay out of his own pocket, who has no pocket? Using such huge sums on single injections is virtually an affront to the millions of poor in India who can’t even afford the simplest proper medicines or treatments. His super-costly and over-opulent hospital buildings declare rather much the same message. He also said: “One patient from Nepal had his heart on his right side! Our doctors have shifted it back to the correct location. I told the doctors that no one needed to be informed about this. People may accuse us of praising ourselves.“ But it is he who praises himself and informs about it as publicly as he can! When hypocrisy becomes so transparent it is a parody of the balanced truth.

Further: “Thousands of students have received education in our university totally free of cost. But we have never publicised the fact.” Thereby he unrepentingly blazoned it! It is NOT true that he has not publicised this before. It has been mentioned constantly in discourses and in many interviews. Further, several people who have applied and were asked to pay fees – or were expected to donate accordingly – have disputed the truth of this.

The SSSIHMS, Puttaparthy (Sathya Sai Institute of medical Sciences) is but a relatively modest contribution to the massive health problems in India, especially for the peasantry. of the peasant populace. The close servitor of Sai Baba – a veteran and prestigious Goenka prize-winning economic journalist V.K. Narasimhan – told me he considered it to be a huge waste of the money donated, rather being a flagship to promote Sathya Sai Baba himself and his various eclectic doctrines. VKN thought the money could have been better employed as prophylactic medicine and out-patient clinics for huge numbers of the poor, such as in ensuring that all received necessary vitamins and simple medicines, rather than in performing a limited number of very high-tech. operations. Narasimhan was slowly weaned from his original scepticism because of the praise and attention Sathya Sai Baba poured on him (he was very prone to flattery as an old age widower), taking him on a tour of the wards. There has, however, been public controversy about its clinical cleanliness and claimed results, especially by Sara Pavan – a doctor who left his post in Australia to work there but who came into conflict with the principal of the hospital and was suspended. The degree of filth found and the re-use of old syringes were among the reasons given for strictly avoiding becoming a patient there. It is not open to independent health inspections by regulatory bodies, nor are its admissions made available as it is a private undertaking. It provides services to Sathya Sai devotees in India and from abroad (who visit for the purpose of operations etc.) and who either donate or are charged with a bill. It is reported – and certainly likely that this hospital’s services are permitted to persons who Sai Baba wishes to bring into his fold.

The Staff Buildings at the Puttaparthi Hospital A former friend of mine from the USA, a retired engineer, attended an interview with Sai Baba in the early 1990s where a person asked why the hospital accommodation had stood empty for nearly 2 years. Sathya Sai Baba had replied that it was to give time for the snakes and scorpions to leave.One suspects that this was untrue and that other reasons – inefficiency, corruption and the like were the cause. Apropos, Sai Baba has said:-

“Many sit here near to me. But are they dear? There are scorpions and snakes near to me in Puttaparthi. Are they dear? No!” (Sathya Sai Speaks new ed. Vol. 25. Ch 9, p. 94). Perhaps he was (also) referring to the many who wished to get some kind of sinecure or benefit from the hospital – like free accommodation, who would not have waited indefinitely for this… but that is rather a far-fetched reason for such a huge waste of resources involved in letting a major complex stand empty and unused for so long.

>See also:-
SUPER SPECIALTY HOSPITALS AS TWO-FACED PROJECTS by Serguei Badaev – former President of the Moscow Sathya Sai Centre and head of Education in Human Values in Russia
See also report on the level of hygiene etc. at the Sathya Sai Super-speciality Hospital here:- Puttaparthi and Cover Up of Health Hazards