Venkamma, Sai Baba’s elder sister in focus

‘Divya’ (Eileen Weed) with Venkamma in 1993

Sathya Sai Baba’s elder sister Venkamma, who knew him from birth, lived in Prashanthi Nilayam along with other family members. The young US lady devotee known as ‘Divya’ (Eileen Weed) did long and arduous service to the sisters, especially Venkamma with whom she stayed and served in her small household in a standard apartment in South Prashanthi. Fortunately, Divya preserved her thoughts throughout the period of her stay in India (altogether 1984 to 2005) in the form of letters to her parents (also devotees until the sex allegations broke in 1999 when they left and soon created an exposé website ( http://www.snowcrest.net). Divya made many of these letters available in full on-line (see here). Some excerpts from those letters and Divya’s e-mails follow:-

About Venkamma’s letters to Divya:
I dug out the letters she wrote and reread them. Funny thing I notice: no matter how serious something is, mum’s the word. Is it any wonder I never heard anything about unsavory things going on in PN? We would all silently observe, and know, but speak not – and especially not in letters! Of course there was the other side of it too, the endless gossip about other family members. But rarely would a negative word be raised in connection with sb. Venkamma would never allow talk against her brother. (The only time I can recall offhand, was during her last illness when she declared to me, in utter seriousness, that there was no god and elders only declared there was such a thing as god to put fear into young children.) 

When I went to Anandashram in Aug 1988 due to office hassles (one of the numerous times I was overstayed and chucked out), it happens that sb fell down (first time?) and broke his hip just a few days after I left, and didn’t give darshan for weeks. Though Venkamma wrote me two letters at that time, she didn’t mention anything about his fall! She mentioned how Onam went well and the cows came for Krishnashtami. In letters she wrote me from Whitefield where she had been taken in a near-death state (her first illness leading to several more over the next few years), she wrote that all tests were done and all was OK. 

I got Typhoid in 1992 (no one told me – I had stolen my own medical chart when the nurses were not around and read my test results and diagnosis) and was stuck at the General Hospital for 10 days. In the attached letter, Venkamma wrote (sending it with a Seva Dal to deliver to me) saying she talked to the doc and I had “nothing”. Next line was about how I can’t come home because I was contagious! Haha! Since it was me who was slaving day and night, she let me know that the office assigned a Seva Dal (actually, several of them who exchanged shifts, because Venkamma always needed something or the other 24 hours a day!!) Here’s the translation of the attached letter: 

CLICK TO ENLARGE SCAN

1 April 1992
Dear one, to Divya,

I am fine. Yesterday they did all tests and found you don’t have anything. Dr. Shantamma said you must take a few more days of rest. She said there’s a danger that your disease could spread to others. Because of this, take a few days rest.
Whatever you want, I will send. This girl (Seva-Dal) is with me only. I have no trouble.
Venkamma
The original letter in Telugu written in Venkamma’s own hand is scanned here (click on thumbnail to enlarge). Telling Divya that she was healthy while she knew she had typhoid can hardly be correct behaviour? Adding that she could be contagious (and had a disease) seems like an April Fools trick. I consider that this well shows the naive but tricky mentality that prevailed in SB’s family, not uncommonly among Parthi villagers too.

To learn the conditions under which Venkamma was left to die by SB, with only Divya to attend her, read the letter written by Divya to her parents at the time.

See some excerpts about Venkamma scanned here from Eileen’s letters. Click on thumbnails to enlarge.

CLICK TO ZOOM IN Ups and Downs with Venkamma Venkamma nice – but also harsh to Divya CLICK TO ZOOM IN Venkamma acts like her brother SB   Venkamma demanded silence of Divya Venkamma also very demanding Sai’s family ate meat even in the 1990s

Venkamma acted guru-like

SB claimed birth date defended by Venkamma (comment: but hard to believe his birth was recorded either!) CLICK TO ENLARGE

After reading Divya’s accounts of life with Parvatamma, Venkamma and the female side of Sai Baba’s family on her Wattpad letters, one must conclude, that life with them was far from being one of light, love and ‘supreme peace’ (Prashanthi), as one would have been led to expect by all the hype in the biographies and accounts put out under Sai Baba’s supervision. That Divya was able to countenance this after having been brought up to believe in the highest ideals of Indian spirituality without losing faith in this family and its ruler (SB) is remarkable . To stay and contend with the many most unpleasant challenges and frequent very hard words that were thrown at her by Venkamma, to persist in serving her selflessly and putting up with diverse accusations by this demanding woman, can only be understood on the basis of the indoctrination that all SB followers have to adopt and extend to themselves if they wish to remain aspirants for salvation from all the ills of the world. It says a lot about the tolerant attitude of Eileen Weed, her determination to do good, strength of purpose and truthfulness. These qualities have no doubt been important in her being able to overcome the entire spiritual fraud involved and ‘bounce back’ without falling into depression or another guru’s clutches.

To followers of this blogsite, please note that I shall be absent traveling from the Internet for 10 days from May 17th.

Sai Baba sexual activities reported again

Unless the many testimonies of sexual abuse are repeatedly brought forth, people do not easily find them. They brought great and utter shame both on SB and the entire Indian elite in government, the judiciary, the police who backed the cover-up against better knowledge, and including most residents in Prashanthi Nilayam! The world-wide sworn accounts have never been successfully refuted in any way by Sai Baba or his followers, nor did anyone dare to prosecute any of them for false accusations!  At least 30 young men have testified to one or another form of sexual abuse by Sathya Sai Baba, from handling of genitals to masturbation and oral sex:

• SAI BABA ALLEGED SEXUAL ABUSES – A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE A documented overview of the history and extent of the alleged sexual
  abuses by Sathya Sai Baba.
• A DEFENCE OF SEXUAL ABUSES BY SATHYA SAI BABA
  The reasons – acceptable to Ram Das Awle and other Sai followers – as to why Sai Baba rapes boys and young men.
  
• DR. JOHN HISLOP LETTERS – INFAMOUS SEX ABUSE COVER-UP
  
• ON THE OILING OF GENITALS IN PRIVATE INTERVIEWS On the ‘genital oilings’ which a Central Coordinator and Sai VIPs admit do take place.
• TESTIMONY OF GENITAL OILING AND FRADULENCE by an academic versed in Eastern studies
• BOYS SLEEP IN SAI BABA’S BEDROOM He states this himself definitively!
• PROSTITUTION IN PUTTAPARTHI at clinic run by Dr. Samba Shiva Rao, one of Sai Baba prominent veranda guests
• INDIAN GOVERNMENT REPORT ON CHILD SEX ABUSE IN INDIA Wide-ranging internationally-backed research shows 53% of Indians allege being abused sexually as children.
• MORE STRONG CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE ON SEXUAL ABUSE BY SAI BABA More evidence.
• CLOSE DEVOTEE DR. N. BHATIA FORCED TO LEAVE ASHRAM after challenging Sai over sexual abuse of an underage college boy
• TESTIMONY BY YOUNG MAN, ALAYA RAHM As made on two major documentaries
• THE SCANDALOUS HISLOP LETTERS – WITH COMMENTS Full coverage, transcripts, scans and analysis
• THE MAJOR TESTIMONY OF ULLRICH ZIMMERMAN On Sathya Sai Baba sex abuse - with video links
• TRANSCRIPT OF THE ZIMMERMAN VIDEO TALK on the details of his ‘private interview’
• HANS DE KRAKER’S TESTIMONY OF SAI SEX DESIRES & ABUSE OF FAITH
• STUDENT TELLS OF SEXUAL ABUSE The problems of revealing identity
• TRANSCRIPT OF FILM COMMENTARY ‘SEDUCED BY SAI BABA’ Danish TV documentary
• AFSHIN KHORRAMSHAHGOL’S TESTIMONY in e-mails to David Lane & David Bailey
• AFSHIN’S THOROUGH REBUTTAL OF ATTACKS BY GERALD MORENO

Easwaramma – the chosen mother in poverty, scorned by her husband!

The Westerner with the absolutely most privileged access to the family of Sathya Sai Baba, who lived for years in Prashanthi Nilayam with his sister Venkamma and tended her on her deathbed, ‘Divya’ (Eileen Weed) has told what she knew about Sai Baba’s mother, Easwaramma. Her information shows how the glorified presentation of the fate of this poor woman was falsified. Known as “the Chosen Mother”, Eashwaramma had died in 1972 – long before Divya came to India. Divya has written:

“I only know stories the family told me. Such as, how much she suffered disgrace when her husband Pedda Venkappa Raju left her to live with his concubine!  Easwaramma had to deal with sb joking about her “sister” (the concubine) and sending her the same silk saris he sent Easwaramma! 

NOTE THAT THIS WAS EASHWARAMMA’S ‘HOUSE’ (OR SHACK) NOT A FAMILY HOME!

Easwaramma had to suffer a lot of tragedy when her children underwent troubles, too. Like when her daughter Venkamma’s baby daughter died only 10 days after being born, and how her other daughter Parvatamma accidentally dropped her newborn son and he died several days later, from head injuries. Or when Venkamma’s husband died young of rabies due to a dog bite, and Parvatamma’s husband died young of cancer. Parvatamma had told me of how blood came out of all the openings in his body – gruesome! Parvatamma’s son lost his hearing due to a childhood disease and had to be sent away, at age 7, to Madras to a school for the deaf & dumb.

Easwaramma also must have suffered a lot when her son Janakiram got TB as a teenager and had to stay for a year in an Anantapur hospital, losing a lung in the process. His sister Venkamma nursed him back to health but it is not clear to me why Easwaramma wasn’t the one staying there. All this, not to mention all the long and ongoing stories of ill-health and tragedy in the family. Hospital stays of someone or the other were always going on.

If the family members had been spared from so much awful tragedy, we could have said it was the blessings of God. But no opportunity to say that. However, that means nothing to devotees! Everything is a blessing, and sb must have taken away all their karma so they don’t have to be reborn again!”

Shamefully, these facts about the tribulations and separation in family of the ‘full avatar’ and the ‘mother of God’ etc. have all been carefully buried in all the Sai literature so that the mythology seems perfect. In another mail, Divya (Eileen Weed) replied to a linked page I sent her about the possibility investigated by an ex-devotee psychologist from Sweden that Easwaramma lost some babies through infanticide, as follows:-

Re: the first link you sent, “Abortive pregnancies or Sathya Sai Baba’s missing sisters?“

“Since I knew that Indians regularly call miscarriages “abortions,” I didn’t think much of Easwaramma’s four failed pregnancies, except to wonder how she easily had three children but then four miscarriages in a row? Odd! However, after reading this article it suddenly struck me – yes, there is a possibility of girl children being born but then “disposed of”. Everything that Asa Samsioe wrote of regarding the preference of girl children and many people outright murdering girl babies, is completely true. Girls are a burden and if one after another was born, there is tremendous pressure from other family members to quietly dispose of them. I do not recall Venkamma saying anything specific about it, though, other than the four failed pregnancies - she was probably still quite young and unaware of what was going on.

Besides that, Sai Baba’s father was already settled down with his “keep” (I think he had children with her also) and struggling financially so, it is entirely plausible that he would not want more girl children. Venkamma told me many times that now and then Easwaramma would send her to the keep’s house, to beg her father for clothes, as they had no money. Venkamma said she would stand at the door crying and crying, being very young, and asking for money to buy clothes. And even when sb made it big and sent them over frequent baskets of produce and money,  I think it is a well-known ‘open secret’ that sb’s father (Venkappa Raju) died in the keep’s house, and the body had to be quickly brought to Easwaramma’s house, where he had not been living for years, before his death was announced. Venkamma also complained bitterly to me how, after sb became better known, he would send lavish silk saris and other items to the keep, along with sending them to the rest of the family! He would even merrily laugh and give an extra one to Easwaramma saying, “Give this to your husband’s wife,” or some such thing. (I wonder what happened to the keep’s family? I never inquired about it – the subject would make Venkamma tooooo mad!

After years in India mingling with Telugu villagers, I never got over the shock that it was widely practised for men to have one or more keeps besides their wives. Here in the West, people may have affairs and often go their separate ways. But if married men “ruin” a women in an Indian village, they often have to take care of her for life! Especially because since their reputation is ruined, their families don’t want them to live at home any more (and of course, they can never get married!) I’ve met women who were wives and keeps – and sometimes they have to live together in the same house (which gets really, really ugly – but what the man says, goes!), sometimes in a separate house, and sometimes in a tent in some field, depending upon the man’s financial capabilities - but it is understood that the guy just can’t walk away from his indiscretion.”

Sai Baba’s sisters who Eileen knew so well

Venkamma: There’s also the terrible thing that happened to Venkamma’s son (her only child) - after three children were born, when the youngest, a girl baby, was only 3 months old, her mother (Venkamma’s daughter-in-law) died. The three young children were instantly without a mother and Venkamma took them all in and raised them (her son later remarried and had an additional three children). That was several years before Easwaramma died so she would have seen the awful tragedy up close.”
——-
“I posted a letter recently where I describe Venkamma getting ill, first sai says, “It’s nothing, it will get better” and he doesn’t give permission for her to go to the hospital – until it gets much worse (and docs probably convince him she has to be sent there, or die!). Just another aspect of how he was so often so, so wrong. He played with people’s lives and they STILL continued to have faith – awful! Everything was met with the assurance, “He is God – he knows what he is doing!”

One wonders how much sb was supplicated by his relatives, begging for blessings? However as his sisters told me time and time again, ‘”It was never useful to tell Swami anything. Swami always just laughed at us and our problems, and would answer, “What can I do?”

Many close devotees have reported about sb’s lack of compassion. I might have written before about once in darshan when an elderly lady in front of me cried out prayerfully that her eyesight was failing. The answer from sb? “What is there in this world to see?” Said with a self-confident smirk and a chuckle as he walked by. Ultimately, he got his karma I guess, if all that crying in the later days means anything.”
And not least his calling out to devotees ‘Save me’ when he was taken away by his minders to the hospital, then his sufferings, gradual destruction of his organs and disconnection from ‘life support’!
See also Venkamma Passes Away – Sept 1993 http://www.wattpad.com/7119533-letters-from-india-part-2-62-venkamma-passes-away

Sai Trust: Ratnakar alleged violence and embezzlement

It has long been known that Sathya Sai Baba’s nephew has a very bad personal reputation among many SB devotees, including much of Sai Baba’s family. The present news report tells its own story. The news broke on a Telugu news channel, where Sai Baba’s relative, Ganapati Raju, also said that it was Ratnakar’s bad luck that those 30 lakhs were seized (ed. note: This refers to Ratnakar’s involvement in the massive money theft from Sai Baba’s rooms (as found by the police in a taxi. The Trust then said that was for some project but they couldn’t prove where the money came from and so the tax board kept all the money – probably went into the hands of officials!).  “In 6 months, how did Ratnakar amass 20 crores of property? I have photos, I have evidence. If anyone wants proof, I am ready to give it. I am ready to provide all details.”

The authorities in Andhra Pradesh did not carry through on the investigations of the 30 lakhs and other  as issues and nothing more has been heard of the court procedures etc. that were launched. One can only conclude that the usual was involved… bribery of all and sundry using the huge reserves of money over which the Sai Trust, especially Ratnakar, have complete an unaccountable control. It is noteworthy that one of the greatest and most successful Indian authors of the 20th Century, the polymath Bengali Chaudhuri wrote: “An Indian’s faith in bribes is infinite and unshakeable. Not only is bribing believed to be an infallible remedy for all workaday inconveniences – a belief justified by experience – it is also regarded as an equally effective means of managing high affairs of state…” (Autobiography of an Unknown Indian p. 117).”

There is much evidence to show that this was the cultural background of the entire Sathya Sai movement. In this connection it is worth bearing in mind that it is known definitively that Sai Baba used large sums of money on bribery to cover up various criminal affairs, including bribing his own extended family after the 1993 murders. See here).

The Telugu report  went on: “Puttaparthi is a place of devotion, with a Super Specialty hospital and educational institutions; this is a place that not only had water projects, but has done so many other service activities. That was in the past. Now, people are asking about the wealth. The diamonds and jewels given with devotion by devotees, the throne (simha asana) made for Baba and so dear to him, the bundles of cash – where did they all go to,” such questions and accusations are increasing.”  Interestingly the Telugu Channel also shows photos of part of the huge stash of valuables hidden by Sai Baba in his rooms, under his 3 by 3 meter bed etc. and included a photo (see above left) taken from my book ‘Source of the Dream’ of what Sai Baba confirmed was a ‘diamond’ (actually a green synthetic sapphire). The stone was a cheap imitation with silver foil behind it to enhance its brilliance. All this was fully confirmed by Mr. Hertz, the Queen of Denmark’s personal jeweller’s assay, as can be seen here.

Sai Trust to print more books, says obscurantist Anil Kumar

The bombastic former interpreter for Sai Baba, Anil Kumar  is living on the memory of Sai Baba, and – with his small band of servile helpers – obtaining monies from lecturing to the remaining flock of devotees around the land. He is known to have kept a foreign mistress, while married and serving his Lord and Master, who insisted on one wife and maximum celibacy even then (though Sai Baba was never bothered by celibacy himself). Having elevated himself to the role of the dead guru’s presenter now, he capitalizes on his former prominence as translator of Sai Baba’s rambling, repetitive and increasingly absurd and confused discourses.

Kumar is hoping that the University Grants Commission will help him start a pompously named “Sathya Sai Advanced Research Centre (SACRED)” – one which will be so ‘advanced’ as strictly to avoid every remotely negative fact about the subject, as the well-founded researches  of the exposé are providing. Is he succeeds, it will be another proof that the standard of Indian research in the humanities is at intellectual rock-bottom, promoting the ‘teachings’ of a person who was a risible ignoramus about the sciences, the humanities and especially historical facts about famous figures like Jesus and religions, to name by a few of Sai Baba’s many anti-achievements.

The ‘professor’ is in demonstrably in very big time denial about the number of visitors to Puttaparthi, which is huge and has been reported by practically every Indian news outlet in the last couple of years!  He also tried to rationalize away the hoarding of huge wealth under his bed and in his private rooms by Sai Baba, who never gave away diamonds or anything very valuable to his followers, but stashed them away in his private rooms.

The former translator from Telugu to English of Sathya Sai Baba discourses for an international major group, disillusioned ‘Divya’ (aka Eileen Weed) wrote to me: “Who’s going to be around to read all these new brainwashing propaganda books anyway, rehashed from old books that weren’t even the words of their guru, who just repeated the same old simplicities and incorrect facts? One wonders if all those old numbers will be changed or removed now that the Internet makes research so much easier. To increase followers, next thing we know, they will be like ISKON and be handing them out at airports!”

The University Grants Commission? How far can Indian universities sink? The Sathya Sai University is totally off the map on all world surveys of good universities, and with good reason. Those who graduate (and still admire Sai Baba) are trained in rote learning and incapable of thinking for themselves, just like Anil Kumar himself.

Interesting to have complete confirmation that the vastly publicised Sathya Sai Rayalaseema Water Project for hundreds of villages around Puttaparthi failed miserably, as I have documented time and again without a word of recognition of the facts by the Sai Baba authorities or even the Indian press. The proof of the pudding came in the announcements about a new drinking water project (to cost 80 crores) to be implemented for villages near Puttaparthi. Prashanthi Nilayam will be the main beneficiary, as will Parthi village, as it has long been in a water crisis!

See also: PROFESSOR ANIL KUMAR, UNQUESTIONING BELIEVER AND COVER-UP OFFICIAL
Water projects in Rayalaseema and for Chennai – Sathya Sai Baba

Powers of the avatar, Sai Baba

THESE MANIPULATED PHOTOS WERE POSTED BY SAI BABA’S OFFICIAL PROPAGANDISTS

Indian mythology contains many claims about the so-called ‘avatars’, especially the powers which these descended incarnations of the Godhead supposedly possess. Some avatars are supposedly not ‘full’ avatars (or ‘poorna avatara‘) and do not possess all the sixteen distinctive marks (kalas) of a full avatar. Many are the times Sathya Sai Baba claimed that he was the omnipotent creator of the universe and that he was a full avatar with all the powers possible. He proclaimed, in what has been called ‘The Milestone Speech‘, that: “There is nothing that divine power cannot accomplish. It can transmute earth into sky and sky into earth“. The powers as described by interpreters of the scriptures are, in a concise summary:-

1) The power to fulfil desires (of anyone) 2) bestowing the power of reasoning 3) removal of ego-sense (egoism) 4) to master the power of sound (to enchant etc.) 5) power of divine healing and sin-removing touch 6) power of attraction through divine radiance 7) attraction through sweetness, attractiveness 8) removal of karmic memories and consequences 9) the power of divine fragrance 10) indomitable self-confidence and courage 11) powerful memory of everything 12) transformative power of his name 13) creative power over all impulses among living beings 14) soul-power attraction 15) immortality through control of the elixir of life. 16) the totality of the other 15.The 16th is specific only to the totally realised being, becoming the all-knowing Supreme Being (‘Paramatma‘). (See http://www.saibabaofindia.com/16_attributes_of_sai_avatar.html>)

It is hardly possible to control what some of these named ‘powers’ actually are, how they might operate and whether they have any credibility. However, his claims in respect of the most important of these powers have been shown definitively to be false, especially clearly as regards omnipotence and omniscience, which serve as important examples:-

Failed omnipotence: One small example: V.K. Narasimhan (VKN) had remarked to Sai Baba that inviting the Indian President to his 70th birthday celebrations in 1995 was unnecessary for it always caused major problems. The special force, the Black Berets, made devotees suffer huge, life-threatening crushes and endless delays due to their insensitive and heavy-handed security arrangements. Sathya Sai Baba had replied that there was nothing he could do about it! The Indian President himself had decided to visit and he could not be stopped! He also told VKN another thing, “one thing I cannot do is to make a person choose to do good.“ So much for Unfailing Divine Will and Omnipower! Sai Baba made many far-ranging promises of what his ‘advent’ as Sathya would achieve, especially in the total regeneration of India (i.e. immoralism, corruption, poverty, injustices etc.) and thereafter save the whole world. Enough said!

Failed omniscience: Professor Dale Beyerstein has pointed out that “To be omniscient is to be all knowing. Such a claim is impossible to confirm with certainty, for it would involve testing the person’s knowledge about absolutely everything! But it is very easy to refute if it is a false claim. All that is required is to show that the person making the claim lacks some knowledge that it is possible for a person to have. For example, one who is omniscient will know all the human languages of the world. But Sai Baba, by his own admission and that of his followers, only knows two or three Indian languages fluently. And in a country where vast numbers of people speak fluent English, Sai Baba’s English is too broken and unsteady for use in public discourses! In his letters to devotees, Sai Baba makes no pretences about this, and, for instance, excuses himself to one disciple for not having written earlier, explaining that he had no translator about so he could not get his letter translated” (see here)

One of the first comments I heard V.K. Narasimhan make in a lecture he gave for foreigners in 1988 surprised me: he said that all the talk of  Sai Baba  as omniscient was exaggerated! Afterwards he shocked me further in private by saying that talk about Sathya Sai Baba being all-knowing or omnipotent was sheer absurdity! He embroidered this theme with some examples, even though he saw that I already believed in this. However, I already saw that no one could actually know about omniscience – not without themselves being able to check all of his knowledge (thus also being omniscient). Yet at that time I eventually managed somehow to reason how the facts I learned from VKN did not disprove the claim of omniscience, for SB could have been concealing his knowledge of the many things which he appeared not to know or to be mistaken about. The more I got to know about him, however, the more difficult it became to maintain these rationalisations.

‘Immortality through control of the elixir of life’: This is of course utterly laughable. Sai Baba died many years before his own  predictions and died from multiple organ failures (heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, brain) as is unquestionably the case, repeatedly reported by most  Indian news outlets. See chronicle over his illness, death etc.

Power of divine healing: Though many person have written books, articles and testified to amazing instances of divine healing connected to Sai Baba, there is no published reliable medical proof of this, while some of his closest servitors and followers have denied that they have ever seen anyone healed by Sai Baba, especially VKN who was his daily attendant through many years. See also Sai Baba: Healings and Rescues  and Faith Healing, self-suggestion and Sri Saibaba

Innernet or Internet – Sathya Sai Baba

In a 2000 public discourse, Sathya Sai Baba said,
“Today people are ready to believe all that they see on television and internet but do not repose their faith in the Vedic declarations. Internet is like a waste paper basket. Follow the ‘innernet,’ not the internet.“
(http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume33/sss33-17.pdf)

The Vancouver Sun in 2001 reported that Sathya Sai Baba told his adherents not to browse the Internet due to allegations rapidly circulating on various Internet websites and in a few newspapers. He wanted to hide of all the deceptions and crimes of which he stands accused on the Internet, such as the many credible accusations of his sex abuses, and also his fraudulent ‘manifestations’ and involvement in murders.

So he warned his followers to stick to the ‘innernet’ of the subjective mind, which meant they should not take in any new knowledge, but recycle ones indoctrination! That he advised always to shun both computers and the internet fits very badly with the way he soon began to promote Sai computers, the Sai computer centre at Puttaparhti, the SSO official web pages (for propaganda about himself).

By the ‘innernet’ he obviously meant what the inward-turned mind conceives. He had already spoken of the ‘inner voice’ as a way to contact divinity, superior to getting the much desired ‘interviews’ he gave. This doctrine of meditation or inward prayer also served as justification for a large number of zealous followers who claimed to hear his voice inwardly, often writing down long tracts which they claimed were his own words. Such ‘channeling’ of the supposed thoughts of apparent incorporeal entities is an especial fad of New Age proponents, while modern neurological researches have shown that the brain can creates such voices when there are no sound waves, firing neurons which interfere with the perceptual system. Brain hyperactivity in the temporal lobe (where speech sounds are processed) is seen by magnetic imaging when no external sounds are present, as also seen during hallucinations and when schizophrenics ‘hear voices’.

So Sai Baba held that his interviews were a worldly meeting, while the ‘innerview’, is the real encounter at a supra-mundane level. Thus he stuck with the famous dualism between the profane and the divine, where the profane has to be reinterpreted in terms of the divine. Despite all the talk of unity, oneness etc., strict dualism between body and mind, or body and spirit etc. is the basis of all spirituality (also of the avatar concept itself – Sai Baba as divine but also human).

Sai Baba preached that one must find the true self – eternal divine existence – through meditation, prayer and inner worship. However, all that actually only leads one to restrict oneself to a solipsist cocoon, cut off from all reality, because meditation activates what is already in the conscious and unconscious mind and, just as the mind also works in dreaming, imagining and ‘hallucinating’. Inwardness produces all manner of weird and wonderful fantasy combinations, voices, visions. The meditator usually takes these subjective experiences to be true insight or knowledge relevant to ‘self-realisation’. Yet to withdraw too much from the world into meditation, silent prayer is to isolate oneself in a cocoon of mental solipsism (if not physically in a dark cave). Nonetheless, meditation need not have any religious content whatever – and it has been scientifically proven to have effect in reducing stress levels, which are very widespread in the world and are a major cause of a range of illnesses. Thus, meditation has even been shown to have an effect on recovery from a range of physical illnesses and some research also shows that it also affects considerable changes in the genetic code.)

Had the mind been able to discover new knowledge of itself alone (i.e. through concentration, meditation, imagination etc.), and had it been able to gain access to the supposed fund of divine knowledge (jnana), then the ancient rishis and gurus of India would have discovered what science has taught us. But these ancients mostly only taught about how to assuage through prayer and hymns etc. an imaginary realm of divine beings and places the existence of which is totally unproven in any reasonable way.

See Kushwant Singh on prayer and meditation

Sathya Sai Baba on criticism of others

Sathya Sai Baba said:-
“Criticism of others is a very great sin. Criticism of other is like a great disease… Criticism of others is like cancer. You should free yourself from criticising others. Do not criticise, comment or make remarks about others at any time.”
Prashanthi Nilayam, 21/11/1987 (publ. as pamphlet 2 of the series ‘Advaita Through Seva’, p.10 SSSB & Publ. Trust.)

“Do not ridicule or criticise anyone” p.125 Sanathana Sarathi 5-1999

“None have the right to criticise others” p. 146 Sanathana Sarathi June 1995 and p. 145f Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 28

So did Sathya Sai Baba every criticise others? He railed at critics of others, especially critics of himself. Most notably in his attack on his critics in his Christmas Discourse 2000.  Demonstrating how his words were ignored by his own actions, he made many criticisms of others, including most other gurus, politicians, sham devotees, doubters of his claims and – for example – also those who made profit from health services and hospitals:-

“Addressing these calls of distress, the Sai Baba pointed out that it was not he, but the people of Mumbai themselves who could rise to their own aid. “People here have lots of money. What are they doing with it? Are they serving society with it? No,” he thundered. “The people here only make excellent speeches, but are zeros in practice. We need men willing to make a sacrifice. We are drawing so much from society but not giving anything back to it. People are building hospitals by spending ten crore rupees, only to make a hundred crores out of it. Is this business?” he asked. “ (from The Times Of India – 16th March, 1999)

As a consequence of this central Sai Baba commandment, enforced as rigorously as possible at his ashrams, colleges and other Sai connections, anything that may be said against him or his works is ‘evil’… and evil enough to arouse his ire enough for him to lash out with threats and naming people as bad and even labeling them demons! He would also criticise and/or ridicule others in the interviews, some who were present and others who were not! He very often derided those who he claimed suffered from intellectual pride – while in his discourses he constantly put down and ridiculed scientists, scholars and non-believers in  general.

Insisting that no one has the right to criticise anyone is both misguided, utterly unrealistic and even outright dangerous! If all criticism and condemnation were banned, the law and it courts would have to be abolished! Despotism and/or social anarchy would take over. Besides, advances in scientific and other forms of knowledge – which often come through critical rejection of the false ideas of rigid opponents would be excluded!  Many news media focus on investigating and reporting on negative events, or bad, immoral and criminal affairs. This investigative function is essential to any democracy and the social function of the press as the fourth branch of government so improvements in social and political life would diminish.

Leicester Sathya Sai School sackings – latest news

The on-going crisis over the running of the Sathya Sai School in Leicester has led to the dismissal of two more involved persons. Head of education committee of SSWF (Sathya Sai World Fund) lost his head(ship) and one of the directors of the Sathya Sai School in Leicester, Dr. Madhavi Majmudar likewise. The following report came to me from a concerned person:-

“Mr Kalyan Ray (The head of the education committee Sri Sathya Sai World Fund) was kicked out of his post and also that egoistic women Dr Madhavi Majmudar from the education committee –the reason being the mess they created by sweeping matters under the carpet and hiding the facts from the whole world, ignoring the complaining parents who ultimately went to the social services to complain against the bullying head teacher Mrs Usha Lim.

All this corruption led the SSWF new head of the education committee, Australian Dr Pal Dhall, and other international delegates to inquire about the happenings in SS School Leicester and interview the school board and parents (April 2013)……..hopefully the head teacher Usha Lim the perpetrator and the school board members will be kicked out for their gross unprofessionalism and irrational conduct.”

Earlier postings about these scandals, including about Dr. Majmudar’s cultist educational agenda are found here:-

Sathya Sai Baba cult-biased and Hindu-biassed religious conceptions of morals in ‘Human Values in Education‘ - re Dr. Madhavi Majmudar

Leicester Sathya Sai school & Michael Goldstein’s dismissal

Sathya Sai school, Leicester harassment case

Sathya Sai Schools: Leicester, Puttaparthi, Gothenburg etc. up-date 27/11/12

Love and Light – Sathya Sai Organization UK & Leicester Sai school

Sai Baba’s fraud in ‘materializing’ watches

Among the many deceptions involving alleged ‘materializations’ by Sathya Sai baba are a number of accounts concerning watches he gave to devotees in that way:-

1) Hans de Kraker, who lodged an affidavit on how Sathya Sai Baba had sexually abused him and who wrote openly about it all on various web pages and newspaper comments, also told of an interesting incident of outright fraud by Sathya Sai Baba regarding ‘materializations’ as follows:-

“On one of our trips to India I remember bringing so much, we (had) thousands of kilos of overweight. Among the things the group brought were watches. These hundreds of watches were destined to go to the students. Not long after arriving we brought some of the things we had brought to the front door of the Poornachandra, in front of Sai Baba’s house. I very kind gentleman would be from who the offerings came and that Sai Baba was expecting them (especially after the attempt on his life there was a very strict security control).

Only a few weeks later, I encounter a student, who proudly tells me that his watch was materialised by Sai Baba! He was as happy as I was astounded. And again I decided to stuff the thoughts I had away, saying to myself that it was great that this boy was so happy and that the philosophy was what was important and not where this watch came from. I decided that which was instilled in this boy through this gift was going to help him in life to be the person that he aspired to be. In that same period a friend approached an another person of our group from Europe who had received that same watch. He had asked my friend why he got that watch…” (http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/6/de_Kraker.html)

2) Another example of the kind of fraud that was exposed by Sam Dalal and Abraham Kovoor concerning a Seiko watch (see BEGONE GODMEN! ENCOUNTERS WITH SPIRITUAL FRAUDS by Dr. Abraham T.Kovoor. (First Jaico Impression 1976, Published by: Jaico Press Pvt. Ltd., 121 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bombay, Chapter 3)

Alleged ‘gold watch’ which Sai Baba pretended to ‘materialise’ before Alaya Rahm which failed and its gold coating flaked off.

3) Alaya Rahm, who told on the BBC film ‘The Secret Swami’ about how he was sexually abused by Sai Baba, was also given various trinkets from Sai Baba including a gold watch. After some time the watch failed and gold flaked, as can be seen on the photo from the film.

4) Ex-Sai student Meenakshi Srikanth posted the following on his website in 2000. “A CRITICAL SITE ABOUT SAI BABA”
“In another occasion, a singer had come to Brindavan and we were inside the mandir listening to him sing. Swami wanted to give him a watch and it was in readiness beneath his left thigh in the sofa on which he was sitting. I was sitting in the third row from Swami and was keeping a ‘close’ watch. The song got over and Swami shifted in his seat a slight bit and the watch was now in his left hand. He bent forward and moved the watch to his right hand. I saw this and looked up and saw that Swami was watching me! I turned red but so did Swami! He started shifting around a lot, asked one of the students to change the direction of the table fan and when the audience was looking away put the watch back into his left hand. Now, the student who was changing the fan was a nervous wreck with everyone watching him and whatever happened, there were sparks flying out of the socket! Soon a few other students went there to set it alright. By now the watch had gone back to below the thigh. That singer never got it that day (I really felt sorry for him). The next day morning, in the darshan line, Swami came near me and opened his right palm before my eyes and said, “Hmm..Namasivayah! (He called me this since I used to give talks in Tamil and started all my talks with “Namasivayah vaazhga! Naadhan thaaL vaazhga!”), n’thu ennannav ninaichaachu! raathiri ennannav swapnam kandaachu! paarthukk! Num illa! Doubting Thomas! Doubting Thomas!”. I wish I could have asked him to open the left palm then since, I knew he had something there! Well, now this seems funny, but at that time I got very scared and wrote a very apologetic letter to him!”

5) An article presented by skeptic Basava Premanand on behalf of a former student of Sai Baba who had to remain anonymous due to danger to his life. Besides many damning and facts and highly credible details, it contains the following account of some of Sai Baba’s sleight-of-hand trickery:-

“If you are a little observant and not blind with emotion and pseudo-spirituality, you can make a few simple observations. Lets take the creation of Vibhuti. Most of the seniour hostel teachers know about how it is done but keep mum. As soon as Babaji comes out keep observing his left hand, it will be closed. In the hand are about 5-6 small balls of vibhuti which are made with the help of water or a mild gum and dried. This is done by Babaji personally upstairs. As soon as Babaji comes out of the interview room, immediately he takes a letter and holds it in the left hand which is now kept upwards, hence the balls do not fall. Now while talking he deftly shifts one ball to the right hand, faces the palm down and rotates the palm, the vibhuti ball is always kept between the 1st and the 2nd fingers; while giving the vibhuti he simply crushes the ball and gives it to the waiting Birthday Boy. Some students have actually found these vibhuti balls which fell down accidentally from Babaji’s hands. People like Mr. Khayaldas are well aware of how vibhuti is created and by experience they even know when and where Babaji will do so. Another place to observe is in front of Vinayaka, near the arch, just between the ladies and gents. Here Babaji almost always passes a bunch of letters to his right hand along with a ball ofvibhuti. Experienced boys and old hostel staff members have dubbed his acts as “Changing the baton”. Now Babaji immediately ‘creates’ vibhuti for some VIP’s who are sitting there, this is very significant because a large number of people observe this ‘miracle’. You too can observe all this if you sit with a level head and sharp eyes and notice Babaji’s hand movements closely. Sometimes if you are lucky you can actually see the vibhuti ball being transferred to the right hand for creation. Creations inside the interview room are of different type. If you are sharp you would have noticed that Babaji does not allow anybody in the interview room immediately after selecting a particular batch. He goes inside alone and spends some time before calling the group. If by chance some ignorant person happens to go in following Babaji, he is invariably almost literally pushed out by Babaji or pulled out by the obese Mr. Khayaldas, who knows what Babaji is doing inside. Actually Babaji spends a few minutes in keeping the things to be “materialized” ready; these are kept in various places, behind cushion, sometimes behind the curtain or on window sills of inner room or the sofa etc. These items such as chains, rings, lockets, Talismans, even sweets and watches are later picked up and ‘created’ with a motion of hand in front of preconditioned and almost awe-struck and hypnotized devotees.

Those flashy golden Parker pens and Papermates which you see in the pockets of Intuition Boys are kept in neatly stacked boxes in upstairs rooms of mandir. If you are an Intuition Boy you may as well find same if you are chosen to work upstairs’, if you are observant, not emotional. The watches are made by normal human beings from all over the world. These watches too are kept in their hundreds in upstairs rooms. These are usually presented in bulk by wealthy devotees. Lockets, rings etc. are made of various types and sizes and these are generally supplied by two people, one is Chettiar’s (the fat man from Madurai on Wheelchair) son-in-law, and the other is a dark, balding furitive looking man with specks, always tucking a small bag in his right armpit, he is Mr. Aswathnarayana from Ananatapur.” see full article here

DEATH OF SATHYA SAI BABA, 24-4-2011

Sathya Sai Baba died after multiple organ failures, aged 84 (being in his 85th year). On this 2nd anniversary (so-called 2nd samadhi) I summarise some of the deceptions surrounding his illness, death and the aftermath. The BBC announced his death, but added that he was accused of fraudulent miracle tricks and sexual abuses (which he of course denied). This is an epitaph that will always follow him and, as researchers and historians collect and study the evidence, the accusations and the reason Sai Baba avoided prosecution will become evident and a permanent part of his otherwise largely bogus ‘story’.

His own demise was wrongly predicted by him, he did not live into his 90s as he prophesied on numerous occasions (stating several different ages at different times too!). This event confounded all the devotees who blindly believed his words and in his divinity.

How did Sai Baba actually die? The medical report states cardio-respiratory failure. Now that is very vague medical terminology, but what caused this breathing and heart failure? This happens if one is taken off vital life support. So was he kept until he could be pushed? However, the date fitted in extremely and suspiciously well with all the massive planning of the authorities for a big screen send-off, new helicopter pads for VIPs all preparing to descend on the actual death day which was yet unannounced! As I actually predicted in my blog on April 13th (day before his announced death), his death would most likely be announced on the day that it is widely believed (imaginatively) that Jesus was resurrected – Easter Sunday. Those in power around him most likely kept him on life support – despite earlier brain death – so they could disconnect him on just that day for obvious symbolic reasons, to identify him with Jesus!

A legally invalid ‘death certificate’ was issued by Dr. Safaya here (The Case of the Missing Death Certificate)  after which A Dr. Safaya resigned his post due referring to undue pressures that had been put upon him! In fact, failure of the heart and respiration are not a sufficient or legally valid description of the cause of death. When anyone dies, both the heart and the breathing fail. That Sai Baba had lost weight (reportedly was only 28 lbs.) and suffered multiple organ failures is consistent with what most of his victims suspect, that he died of AIDS, hence the mighty cover-up of all details of his hospitalization, duration and nature of his illness and what a proper account would reveal. A major counter-claim to the information from the Trust and its members was bravely made by a former Minister (Nagireddy) stating that Sai Baba had been badly maltreated, drugged, starved and had cried for help from devotees when he was being ‘taken away’ to his own hospital by his murky ‘minders’ and ‘servitors’. See Sai officials’ secret collusion over the death of Sathya Sai Baba

One of my correspondents mailed me this perceptive comment: “Now after his death the inner circle will do all their best to protect his image of an avatar or at least a saint as it is a vital factor for the future donations and pilgrims attraction. On the other hand, it is a good point for journalists and historians to focus on SSB as he was with all his stuff. This is an opportunity for critical voices to be heard.“
There is much that many people know but dared not speak about in public; the murders ordered by Sai Baba according to an eye-witness to the grisly night of carnage, the countless sexual abuses of students known through our contacts but of which only a relative handful have dared write about and then mostly anonymously (due to murder fears, harassment of many kinds etc. As time goes by, more and more evidence and testimony comes forth… and sexually abused Indian students can be expected largely to take at least a generation before they can come to terms with their being violated enough to speak out. The Hare Krishna and massive Catholic Church sex scandals – to take just two examples – illustrated many such time lapses. In India, the pressure of shame is still on against almost all sex abuse whistle blowers (but not if the accused are foreigners).

Hilarious damage-limitation attempts: What we may call the ‘lunar delusion’ was soon invented to try to explain away (only one of) Sai Baba’s several different false predictions of his age at death. The Sathya Sai Organization – both centrally and in various countries – claim that he calculated his life span in lunar years, not solar (calendar) years. They juggle with various figures and lunar month lengths and try to get his age up to over 90, but none of the calculations agree with their assumption of lunar years. That he gave various conflicting predictions of his death from around 92 to over 96 is, of course, ignored by them. Sai Baba said in a published discourse in 1960 he would live for 59 more years and again in 1961 he would live for 58 more years. Do the arithmetic and see that even lunar years will not rebut his alleged 2011 death date prediction!

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinducalendar we read:-
When a new moon occurs before sunrise on a day, that day is said to be the first day of the lunar month. So it is evident that the end of the lunar month will coincide with a new moon. A lunar month has 29 or 30 days (according to the movement of the moon).”

By definition, a year is the time it takes for the earth to circumnambulate the sun, not for the moon to do likewise (it simply follows the earth around). A “lunar year” is a mere contrivance, firstly because ‘a year’ means the solar cycle of 365 days, which is greater than the number of days it takes for the moon to encircle the earth in on calendar year. So it makes no sense whatever to divide by 12 the total number of ‘lunar’ months in a life time, (as the shastris do) so as to try to ‘prove’ a different number of ‘years’. The hard fact that Sathya Sai Baba lived for only solar/calendar 84 years, and that he always reckoned in calendar years in every documented word (despite desperate posthumous claims that he told other things in private).

The ‘lunar year’ is a most uncommon measure never used in any Sai literature at all… not until after his death. The concept a non-starter The calculations the Hindu shastris presented do not agree with the actual dates anyhow with their own obscure calculations based on their ancient calendars and outdated astrological ideas. See a more detailed analysis of the lunar year confusion
In The Telegraph U.K. ‘Sathya Sai Baba’s death triggers fight for his £5.5 billion empire’ the journalist who interviewed us noted the following:-

… former devotee Barry Pittard said Sai Baba was a dangerous confidence trickster who should (not) (ed. correction) have been allowed to have anything to do with children.“For the worst victims of his depredations, the victims of murder and maiming and people being beaten by his officers and families being broken up and the boys, some of them very young, their sufferings have been very great.”And former Sai organisation teacher Robert Priddy, who helped set up the teacher training model, said most people teaching the programme were unqualified to do so.“The aim of embedding ‘spiritual’ values in children was heavily imprinted with indoctrinating them to believe in Sai Baba’s divinity and doctrine,” he warned.

Death in ignominy despite enormous medical resources used Sathya Sai Baba was a broken man by the time they took him away to his own super-specialty hospital while he cried out to devotees to help him! Of course he was unable to cure himself, as most devotees fully expected! This time it was all too real an illness, not a play-act from which he could appear to cure himself! At his previous birthday (the 85th by Indian reckoning when he was 84 years old) he was like a wooden idol, expressionless and mostly completely silent and rigid. He broke down in tears when a speaker called him ‘Sri, Sri, Sri Sathya Sai’! (see video clip download 3.9 mbs http://www.exbaba.com/videos/crying_baba_231110.wmv or to download quicktime movie shortened clip 9Mbs click here) He proved that he could not live up to his own ideal. He died without the having had the ability to speak at all for weeks, let alone laugh… so believers in him should judge him by his end according to his own words in the quotation scanned here:-

The resurrection that did not happen but is still expected! However, he has died and no resurrection is reported! Still, one should not be surprised if some fantasy peddlers claim to have seen him risen and in the flesh… there are plenty of lunatics among the indoctrinated and deluded believers in his self-proclaimed divinity and even his most bizarre and beyond all credibility miracles!

Take the story that The Times of India put out as an example of ‘fringe lunacy’! How could a major newspaper spread such preposterous rumours (under the cover of ‘reporting’) as “Baba said he would return stronger”? Answer: because it pulls in a mass of desperately hoping devotee readers and sells the paper very well. It may be also partly due to the shadow of Justice Bhagwati – a corrupt Supreme Court ex-judge who is involved with the Times of India and has for decades been a Sai Baba official too Here is the Times of India’s report:-

PUTTAPARTHI: Did Sathya Sai Baba have premonition 10 years ago that he would fall seriously ill? Yes, claim his followers. According to them, Sai Baba had predicted in 2000 that he would be indisposed for 40 days but would come back strong to give darshan to his devotees. This was revealed in a book ‘Tapovanam — Bhagawan Sri Sathya Saibaba Satcharitra Nityaparaya-nam’ in which the author Jandhyala Venkateswara Sastry has written an essay on Baba’s ill-health. Sai Baba had told his students at his Sai Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal in 2000: ”Though most of my disciples fall at my feet, they don’t know my real value. A time would come when I would vanish and take a walk across the skies. During that phase, my body would face serious health problems and devotees would be desperately praying for my recovery.” Devotees in total denial are many, and a book is even published (Sai Kingdom Come) arguing that Sai Baba will return.

VIEW EXCERPT TRANSCRIPTS AND LINKS TO SHORT VIDEO CLIPS FROM THE BBC TV DOCUMENTARY ‘THE SECRET SWAMI‘:-
See a documented chronicle of events with press reports etc. from Sai Baba’s hospitalization until funeral and its aftermath. 
See also  ‘Holy Man or Hoax?’

Rolf Harris, Sai Baba follower, arrested on sex abuse allegation

Dana Gillespie and Rolf Harris perform devotional song to the ‘one god’ (i.e. who in their view was embodied in Sathya Sai Baba)

Rolf Harris C.B.E., celebrated Australian entertainer, is accused of sexual abuse, though he strongly denies the allegations which led to his arrest. He was arrested in November 2012 and again last month by Operation Yewtree Police (UK) and bailed until May, pending further inquiries. His name was published by The Sun yesterday, which led the BBC to withdraw all programmes in which he is involved. Rolf Harris is one of a few public persons in Britain who became a follower of the self-proclaimed God Avatar Sathya Sai baba. He performed with a Sai devotee blues singer, Dana Gillespie, singing “There is only one god” etc. (see image)

To read more, click on British Police Re-Arrest Rolf Harris In Operation Yewtree Pedophilia Hunt

See also Rolf Harris, Prince Charles and Sai Baba the paedo guru

Sai Touch Tablet: or “indulging in wrong activities”?

The cash-strapped Sathya Sai Trust and Co. have ventured into the computer tablet promotion business – which goes directly against Sathya Sai Baba’s clearly expressed warning to his followers!
“Swami has nothing to do with internet. Not only now, even in the future also you should not indulge in such wrong activities.” see http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume32/sss32p2-08.pdf

The tablet is not manufactured by any Sai Baba institution, of course, but an agreement has obviously been made with the makers to sell a version of the tablet (BSNL Tablet Penta T-Pad 701C – a 7-inch Android tablet – selling independently from Rs 3,500). If you fork out another Rs 1,000.- then you also get some already-published materials such as:
“…close to 1GB of audio content which is a good sample of the variety of programmes offered by Radio Sai. There are also four videos and over a hundred beautiful photographs of Bhagawan.  You can connect to the various streams of Radio Sai, watch Radio Sai videos online and also watch the Live Video Webcast of programmes from Prasanthi Nilayam. Though the highlight of the product is the special Radio Sai customization, it can perform all functionalities of a regular Tablet.

One somehow cannot quite see many Sai Baba devotees falling over one another to buy this Sai tablet, with all the Radio Sai with repetitions of repetitions of long redundant and now most boring discourses at an exta Rs. 1,000.- The first question would be, ‘is it worth it?’. The second might be, ‘Consider it a donation to the (corrupt unaccountable) Sai Trust!’ 

Not exactly prescient, Sathya Sai Baba! Unless his much-promised ‘Golden Age’ arrives and we go back to the quill and the abacus of ancient Bharath?He was confused about computers: he began by disparaging them, and also the Internet, then he opened a Sai computer center at Prashanthi, and then took full advantage of the Internet with his massive centrally-funded propaganda machine! See Sai Baba rubbished, then embraced computers

Our native source in Prashanthi Nilayam reports

Our source who lives in Puttaparthi and has formerly been living from providing services to ashram visitors, has fallen on hard times like so many there. We are informed that the ashram was really, really empty for a year and a half after Sai Baba’s death. All the Round Buildings and other buildings are mostly empty. Our source tells that very few foreigners come nowadays, but in recent months groups of pilgrims on the temple circuit, from local Andhra villages, come one day and leave the next. It is a big thing in India: tourist buses of pilgrims are carted to various holy spots for several days or a couple of weeks, one place after the other, and the pilgrims then forever have bragging rights of visiting the holy hot spots. The Seva Dals are still coming as scheduled from various states in India but in fewer numbers. Most shops are shut down but a few remain open for the Indian tourist visitors, while the airport has been non-functioning since Sai Baba’s funeral. All construction inside the ashram has ceased completely. None of the former close contacts of this person, including several very rich US VIPs, have been back or made any contact (though they would know what extremely hard times their former helper has fallen upon). Dr. Michael Goldstein visited twice briefly after the funeral, before he was given the boot by the new powers-that-be in the post-Sai set-up.

The much-trumpeted Rayalaseema Water Project, which suffered from embezzlement, construction failures and bad infrastructure from the start, then began to fail generally due to a huge drop in the ground water level (unseen by the ‘Omniscient God’?) seems to have broken down yet further, despite the AP government’s efforts to administer and improve it.
In these dry summer months, the ground water table is going yet lower and lower. Due to this, there is a shortage of drinking water all around. Puttaparthi was to be the chief beneficiary of the scheme, which has reportedly failed in innumerable villages it was supposed to supply.

Families without water are given one bucket a day by those few who have bore wells with enough water supply. Almost every building in Parthi has their own bore well – but they have GONE DRY! In Parthi village in 2005, on ‘Gopuram Road’ right behind the South Indian Canteen, out of the entire street of at least 14 buildings of 3-4 stories each, only TWO of the buildings had working bore wells.  Digging deeper was cost-prohibitive to their means, and even so there was no guarantee that the hard rock underneath would produce any more water supply. Though most bore wells were dug to similar depths, it is all the luck of the draw who had water in their area and who didn’t. The more bore wells in the area, of course, the less water for others.In that year, every one or two months the whole street would be caked in a layer of soot as some building or the other would decide to bear the expense and dig their bore well deeper (either on our street or one of the surrounding streets). Days later, one would often hear the sad story of how no water came, though the bore well had been dug much deeper.

Water tankers are now the main source of water, not least for agricultural and livestock purposes.

see also Water projects in Rayalaseema and for Chennai – Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Help ever, hurt never’

The utterly scandalous way the murders in Prashanthi Nilayam – the fiefdom Sathya Sai Baba ruled over completely – were covered up to the highest level of government needs to be held before the public repeatedly. If ever empty words were uttered, Sai Baba’s ‘help ever, hurt never’ qualify fully. It is known to many devotees and all dissidents that Sathya Sai Baba was deeply implicated in the murder of four of his devotees in his bedroom in June 1993 after a stand-off between the Puttaparthi police and the four intruders while decisions were made on what to do about them. The foremost India skeptic of the time, Basava Premanand, compiled a huge mass of documentations and evidence, both hard and circumstantial. A very compressed summary of some of his main points extracted from his various writings follows:-

My writ petition in High Court etc., was only for a CBI enquiry and not to a court where I have to present witnesses and prove the case. Murders are police cases and it is the responsibility of the police to investigate and arrest the culprits and produce them in the court along with witnesses. The newspaper items were submitted – not as a proof – but to show how agitated the people were because of the destruction of the evidence by the police and the silence by Sathya Sai Baba and the followers who were present at the time of the murders. Every newspaper in India published about the murders, although the Sathya Sai Baba official magazine Sanathana Sarathi was remarkably silent.

The A.P. state government, the central government, central excise and customs department, the law enforcement department, state CB- CID, C.B.I, CVC, Courts all know what is happening in Sai Baba’s Empire. they can act only on specific orders from the state and central government. This is proved by the State Government closing this murder case on RDO’s report suppressing the CB-CID report by throwing it in cold storage. About the information on the agencies and the government I am not interested as these are about them and GM can refer to them in his speculations about them. That the governments did not take any action against me strongly supports my statements published in the book ‘Murders in Sai Baba’s Bed Room’.

First of all N.Radhakrishna and Sai Kumar Mahajan cannot be stabbed by the alleged assailants at 10.30 PM because they were in the super speciality hospital and reportedly died there at 9.50 and 9.45 pm. ( I do not accept that N.Radhakrishna and Sai Kumar Mahajan died at 9:50 PM and 9:45 PM respectively. I only pointed out the Inquest Reports) [[ I deny the FIR that Radhakrishna and Sai Kumar Mahajan were stabbed in the Sathya Sai Baba's residence after 10.30PM. I have accepted that Radhakrishna and Sai Mahajan died because of poison. I accepted that the 4 assailants entered the mandir at about 10.30 PM based on the receipt of the telegram at 10.05 PM. The proof of the telegram received by Suresh Santharam Prabhu is in the register in the telegraph office. The newspaper reports of this filed in the writ petition have not been refuted by the court nor by the advocates of Sathya Sai Baba in the case, nor were any affidavits filed to that effect! When the alleged assailants entering Sathya Sai Baba residence at about 10.30 they cannot stab the aides in the residence as they were in SSH at that time - dead already by 9.50 PM and 9.45 PM, according to the doctors. Sathya Sai Baba got it covered up. The Inquest Report does not state anything about the two other aides receiving treatment at the same time as Radhakrishna and Mahajan. No one had verified that Bhat and Patley were in the hospital undergoing treatment. Even in the FIR only mentions: “it is further learnt that all the four injured were shifted to SSH. I found all doors of Mandir were bolted from inside.” If all the doors of the mandir were bolted from inside, it is not explained how the 4 aides were shifted to SSH.]]

Sathya Sai Baba’s Guru Pournima Discourse cannot all be taken on face value, as it was given 27 days after the murders. There was criticism in the newspapers as to how the 4 aides were stabbed at 10.30 PM when they were in SSH, the time given by SSH doctors for Radhakrishna’s death.
But what about Sai Kumar’s death time, which he did not mention?
The question is how and why potassium cyanide, syringes and needles were found in the western side of the mandir at the door which leads up to Sai Baba’s dining room.

What I have mentioned in Reference 4 moreover was that N. Radhakrishana and Sai Kumar Mahajan’s bodies would have been sent to the super specialty hospital to be cremated in the electric crematorium, so that they would disappear from the earth. This is supported by the fact that the alarm system was activated only at 10:30 PM and not earlier when the 4 injured aides were taken to the hospital”

“The murder of the 4 alleged assailants also would have been a secret if their bodies were cremated in the electric crematorium. But because they activated the alarm the devotees gathered around the Sai Baba residence. So the police help was sought to get out of the murders by a story explained in the F.I.R to rescue Sai Baba. It is this alarm which forced Sai Baba to rush out of the place of crime so that he would not have been accused of murders.”

A discourse was given by Sathya Sai Baba in which he talks about N. Radhakrishna offering him buttermilk. The story told by him was published by Sri Sathya Sai Publication Society (Vol.1 Page 366 in the book see also here). Baba took a small sip and let N. Radhakrishna drink the rest. According to Sathya Sai this happened at 7:30pm. However, Sathya Sai doesn’t explicitly state that Sai Kumar Mahajan drank any. Did not Radhakrishna go out at 7.30 pm and was not Sai Kumar Mahajan was with Sathya Sai Baba in his bedroom? When Radha Krishna knows that Sathya Sai Baba does not drink buttermilk in the evening why did he offer butter milk to Sathya Sai Baba? Was he afraid that the cooks had mixed the poison in the buttermilk? Or was it to prove that the butter milk did not contain poison that Sathya Sai Baba sipped a little? This story was told by Sathya Sai Baba to his audience – that the poison was not in the butter milk. The people around Sathya Sai Baba in his mandir have remained silent. If Sathya Sai Baba was innocent what was the necessity for the coterie to remain silent?

The time of 10.30 PM – 10.45 PM was when the 4 alleged assailants entered the Sathya Sai Baba mandir.

On 9.6.1993 Indian Express (Vol II page 55 of my book) informed that several attempts to gain access to the F.I.R filed in the case were also thwarted by the officers and their subordinates. I have not accepted that the F.I.R was true anywhere but there is other information collected in my book.

When the post mortem reports on the 4 alleged assailants very clearly states that they died of shock and haemorrhage due to fire arm injuries about 12 to 36 hours prior to autopsy and all injuries are ante-mortem only, why in the case of N.Radhakrishna and Sai Kumar Mahajan was it stated the deceased would appear to have died of shock and hemorrhage as the result of multiple injuries? The doctor did not specifically state that the injuries were ante-mortem because he suspected that the injuries were post mortem. I have not mentioned this anywhere in the references because the post mortem reports do not specifically state that the injuries were ante-mortem, it must mean that the injuries were ante-mortem.

“The opinion in the post-mortem reports of the two aides of Sai Baba states vaguely (Vol I page 347,349) that the 4 deceased would appear to have died to shock & hemorrhage on a result of multiple injuries. This proves that the two aides died not of stab injuries. It is not the inquest report but the post-mortem and forensic report which explains how they died. The mandal magistrate was not there at the place of occurrence as a witness to state that both the deaths were due to stabbing

The Inquest Report on Sai Kumar Mahajan stated:
1) “White cotton full shirt with blood smears; on right side below shirt is torn
2) white pyjama is with blood stains
3) drawer with blood stain”.

The Inquest report and Post Mortem Certificates will not mention about poisoning. The explosives were not found before the murder when, as per protocol, the police had to fully search the Prasanthi Nilayam premises as political VIP’s were visiting.

The explosives were not found even in the 1st search on June 7th, but later. It has been claimed by persons attempting to cover-up and obfuscate the facts that “the inquest failed to specifically say that Radhakrishna’s pants had blood on them”.
The white shirt and banian were full of blood; the trouser did not have even blood smears or blood stains.
The death time given in the inquest report is the time given by the Super Speciality Hospital. Read No.III (Vol. Page 342)

I know very well the Doctors who conducted post mortem. (I did not call him as a material witness for expert testimony because my writ petition was for a CBI enquiry. The higher courts are not the places to bring witnesses.) We have members who are forensic experts: the CCMB and Dr.P.M. Bhargava the founder Director of CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) are our life members. There are others like Dr.M.W.Pandit, who is also a life member, and who proved in the court against Swami Premananda of Trichinopoly that our method was far superior to the methods in use in England. I had met all the three doctors. My letters dated 7.1.1994 in vol I page 81 state that I have met them in a meeting whose terms remain confidential.

As disproof of what some badly uninformed and unqualified commentators from abroad have asserted, the police have nowhere stated that the four alleged assailants confronted the devotees in the Mandir at 9:30 pm. This report on the investigation on the telegram (received by Suresh Santharam Prabhu who was murdered the same night) was published in Mathrubhumi after checking with the records of the Telecommunications department of Puttaparthi. Justice Balakrishna Erady a trustee of the Sathya Sai Baba central Trust is a Director of Mathrubhumi. More than this, this newspaper’s owners are strong Sathya Sai Baba devotees. This report on the telegram was published along with an article by Justice Balakrishna Erady about what happened on 6.6.1993. If the telegram news was false, it is all too likely that Justice Erady, being a director would have taken action against the reporter of Mathrubhumi and the person who has accepted Sathya Sai Baba as god incarnate.

The C.I.D investigations revealed that the police tampered with and destroyed evidence and lied about it.

“The AP State government, the Central Government, the Central Excise and Customs Department, the State CB-CID, CBI, CVC, Courts – all know what is happening in Sai Baba’s Empire. This I have expressed because investigations departments like CB-CID, CBI, and CVC have already collected details but, due to political influence, they cannot take any action.

Basava Premanand – Editor, Indian Skeptic (see http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/31/index.html)