Sathya Sai Baba and the Vedas – part two

from Sai Baba Discourse November, 1999

Sathya Sai Baba claims that the original language of the Vedas was Sanskrit, saying:-
“In the Sanskrit language, the first letter of the alphabet is ‘A’ and the last one is ‘Ha.’ When you combine A and Ha, it becomes Aha.” [10 July 1986]

Aha! Interesting indeed. The quote is a good example of the simplistic quality of the “wisdom” that Sathya Sai Baba dispenses. It virtually guarantees that no serious educated person who is not deeply indoctrinated with religious nonsense, will never consider his massive claims to have any weight whatever.

Countless contradictions arise when Sathya Sai Baba makes statements about the Vedas. For example, he states that the Vedas are limitless (Sutra Vahini , p. 30) and in the same sentence says they are “incommunicable” but “can be experienced”. Yet he also promotes the daily chanting of the text of the Vedas – such as at his college and ‘Vedas Patsala’, insisting that the “correct pronunciation of them is essential. This last he illustrates with a story in Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 2, p. 256f) The widespread divorce from empirical reality into ‘inner’ spiritual realms of belief were based on the Vedic scriptures as formulated (and then written) by an ‘anonymous author’ (see Summer Showers at Brindavan 1974, p. 34) .

On the right we see another incredibly bizarre statement of Sai Baba’s about how the Vedas were so helpful to the Germans and the Japanese in developing weapons during World War II! THAT is surely a great advert for the Vedas… and further, both those nations were defeated. The Japanese were defeated by the superior weapon, which today’s ruling Indians (“Bharatiyas” who were believers in Sai Baba too, like Narasimha Rao, President Kalam and other) have now also developed and tested as a challenge to Pakistan. See Sai Baba and India’s atomic arsenal. Neither the Allies nor Russian derived one fig of nuclear weapon  information from the Vedas! How come the Indians didn’t either?

Sathya Sai Baba claims he created the universe!

Sathya Sai Baba has declared that the Vedas emanated from God Himself as inhalation/exhalation (Sathya Sai Vahini p. 176). This is in accordance with Hindu mythology, whereby Brahma let the Vedas slip from his mouth after he had created the universe, and the demonic (i.e. ‘asura‘) horse Hayagriva took hold of them and made them available to the world. This kind of nonsense is put forward even today and believed by millions.

See also  Sai Baba – India’s great lost culture and values

The Dark Side of very prominent Hindu gurus

While there are still Indian swamis and religious spiritual preachers and teachers who are not accused or convicted of crimes, those who have been caught out in nefarious activities are many. As soon as followings grow large, they attract people who are looking for advantages – both supposedly spiritual ones, but also not least financial and social gains. Organization becomes a necessity and, led by a charismatic figurehead whose word is taken as unquestionable divine truth, those who become part of their fiefdoms willingly carry out his (or her) orders, for which they are rewarded. This scenario is one chief way in which a guru cult begins. This is by no means only an Indian phenomenon, of course, as there are also some very well-known major cults in U.S.A., Italy. South Korea… and, of course, many sexually abusing priests in Christian churches and sects, and there have been many revelations concerning the Catholic Church in many countries, which has had to face vast sums in payouts following lawsuits.

Religious gurus are among the big money-earners in India, so it is hardly surprising that these cults are able to buy police and yet higher protection. Despite this, in an increasing number of instances, so-called “spiritual” gurus have been successfully prosecuted by Indian authorities for crimes ranging from sexual abuse to cynical murder. India, being such a religious cauldron seems to have the lions’ share. Indian gurus either convicted or widely accused of crimes, including major fraud, include:-

1) Sathya Sai Baba (deceased 2011) is most likely the most influential guru in India and abroad – self-proclaimed God Incarnate, Deity of Deities, the Vishnu Avatar of the Age etc. – who has obtained protection from attempts to convict him for murder complicity (http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/8/MurderReview.htm) and serial sex abuse (http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/6/saisex1.htm) by his devotees among Indian Prime Ministers, Presidents and Supreme or High Court judges. This is itself an indictment of the Indian State’s ongoing corruption – a kind of protection that typifies a de facto despotism (though possible only while in office) rather than the exercise of democratic and legal principles. Of course, his fraudulent ‘materializations’ and many false statements and predictions are also very documented or reported by disaffected followers.

2) The well-known ‘all singing all dancing’ Indian-based Hare Krishna sect (ISKCON) has had many and major convictions against them in the USA. See here, here

3) Indicted for many felonies, but not convicted, was Rajneesh-Osho (who fled the USA with over 100 indictments against him). See documentation here.

4) Swami Premananda (deceased)- convicted for murder and multiple rape – double life sentence. The case went right to the Supreme Court of India, which confirmed the conviction, based on DNA evidence. See also Deccan Herald April 5 and April 6, 2005. Premananda’s alleged vibuthi materializations were investigated for fraud by Erlendur Haraldasson and Richard Wiseman See larger photo no. (No. 42) here- and read their most critical report (1995) Investigating Macro-PK in India: Swami Premananda. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 60(839) 193-202t

5) Swami Rama (Deceased – Author of ‘Living Among the Himalayan Masters’) who escaped likely conviction for sexual abuses by dying before the case could be concluded. See evidence here. Also here

6) Swami Rameshwaranand Giriji Maharaj – who has a large following in India and abroad – was arrested in September ’95 as a party to the murder of his lover’s husband. The 26-year old Manoj Girothra, husband of Savita, who was having an affair with the ‘godman’, was murdered on December 3rd, 1994, some two months after his marriage. Two professional hitmen had been hired by the ‘godman’.

7) Gayatri Swami, whose influence in South India was very considerable was thoroughly exposed by Professor Erlendur Haraldsson and Richard Wiseman. He was found to be pretending to materialize objects within fruits, but had a silk thread attached to them! Likewise, his ‘materialization’ inside fruits of right-handed conches (extremely rare in India as ‘Sri Lakshmi conches’) the ‘left-handed type’ are the only indiginous sort), Haraldsson traced his imports of them from California, where they are indigenous! (See larger photo here photo no. 17).
Erlendur Haraldsson & Joop M. Houtkooper (1994). Report of an Indian swami claiming to materialize objects: The value and limitations of field observations. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 8(3), 381-397. (Full text).

8 ) Swami Balyogi Premvarni. (‘Yogant Foundation’) of Rishikesk, where he has an ashram. He also has various branches abroad. He has been exposed as a serial womaniser, especially convincingly in Mary Garden’s book ‘The Serpent Rising’ which she bases on her experiences in India in the 1970s. See the book here. And read a review by David Mainwaring here

9) Gowrishankara Swami; ‘Hindu monk gets 10 years RI for sodomy.’‘The Hindu’ Bangalore, Feb. 3 2004 (PTI): “The Karnataka High Court today sentenced a Hindu monk to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and awarded a fine of Rs 25 lakhs after holding him guilty of sodomy. In default of payment of fine, the court sentenced the Gowrishankara Swami, the previous junior pontiff of Sri Siddaganga Mutt at Kyatasandra in Tumkur District, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of one year.”

Swami Shyam of Kulu

10) Swami Shyam , a current ‘advaita’ guru, popular with Westerners (particularily Canadians and Northern Europeans), many of whom have bought expensive residences at Kullu in the Himalayas, where he has his ashram. He considers himself a reincarnation of Krishna! He is under attack for seducing the wives of his followers. He has recently been exposed by Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper here. Another exposé source is found here. A book has recently been published which exposes him – Himalayan Hoedown.

11) The Palghat (of Kerala) born Bala Sai Baba (the child Sai Baba), who at 35 years of age is a bit overgrown for his name. He claims to be the real Sai avatar, set up an ashram in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh and purposely copies Satya Sai Baba trait for trait in amazing detail. A clearly fraudulent attempt to hi-jack the Sathya Sai Baba ‘phenomenon’. He is the most ‘lookalike’ of a series of imitators of Sathya Sai Baba, a few of whom can be seen here.

12) Swami Nithyananda The scandal of his sexual activities broke early in 2010 with a video of him and a well-known actress (he originally claimed to be celibate!), later documents came to light showing how tantrik sexual perversions were practiced and partakers were sworn to secrecy by signatures. An overview can be obtained here: Swami Nityananda chargesheet: rape and unnatural sex

13) Bhagavan Kalki See Severe Problems with ” Deeksha Oneness Movement also note what dissident voices have to say:- I’m not going to beat around the bush. Kalki is saying that he wants everything disbanded because he doesn’t want it to become a cult. Well, it is a cult. He’s saying he’s an avatar, I am God, and I’m going to decide when you pray, if you get the job you’re praying for or not. So if somebody … is saying that I am God, that’s delusion. There is only God, equally everywhere. Just because there’s realisation doesn’t mean there’s more god, or that the persona has changed into a go. You know, one doesn’t become a god.” transcript of part of Kalki Oneness U. Snafu – Enlightenment or Oneness

14) Kripalu Maharaj – 88 years old -  It is reported that There are thousands of people who are trapped in his ashrams from around the world living a life of horrible mental abuse in his ashram under disguise to serve him as god. A CBI inquiry has been demanded because ca. 170 bodies are untraceable.The guru himself has absconded. He had faced charges of indecent assault and rape in 1997 in Nagpur. Millions of dollars of money was taken from people in America.

15) Sri Sri Ravichandran, dressed like Jesus, has amassed immense wealth. His field of operation is in the West. He knows that wealthy westerners are depressed and he promises mental happiness by introducing a course called, “The Art of Living.’ As a matter of fact this title, ‘The Art of Living,’ was plagiarized from the project originally started by Norman Vincent Peale. Peale started a radio program, “The Art of Living,” in 1935, which lasted for 54 years. (See comment to this blog)

16) Prakashanand Saraswati led one of the top Hindu temples in the United States until a jury convicted him of molesting children and he took off for Mexico, reports Ben Crair of ‘The Daily Beast’ (June 20, 2011). He led the premier Hindu temple in Texas and, perhaps, the whole United States. Barsana Dham sat like the Taj Mahal in the hillsides south of Austin. When PBS made its 2004 Many Voices documentary project about American congregations, producers chose Barsana Dham as their exemplar of the Hindu faith. Barsana Dham was “very much an ecumenical mainstream Hindu organization,” says Robert King, a former professor of Asian studies and dean at the University of Texas. And yet there was Saraswati, ordered to trade in the saffron robes for an orange jumpsuit. The charges were serious—20 counts of indecency with a child. See also San Marcos Mercury uses public records law to get $ details of bond deal for Hindu guru/convicted child molester

17) Swamiji Maharaj of Dwarka, Gujurat rapist and criminal … see scan on right

18) A further short list of some gurus East and West, including facts about some of the criminals among them is seen here (http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/listing.html).

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Famous editor confronted Sathya Sai Baba

There were very few persons who knew Sathya Sai Baba since he began his so-called ‘mission’ to save humanity who dared so much as to question anything he said. One of those was V. K. Narasimhan, the once world famous editor of the Indian Express group of newspapers, who defied Indira and Sanjay Gandhi over publishing facts about the 1973 Emergency under the threat of tanks!

However, VKN was privately often most critical of Sai Baba, but he was also able to confront him to his face over some of his self-contradictions and faux-pas. These he knew well since he had to edit out many such from Sai Baba’s ‘discourses’, which he translated for the monthly journal ‘Sanathana Sarathi’. He told me he was worried that he would fall into disrepute because of the editing he had done on the original texts – for VKN hoped and largely believed that Sathya Sai was an important figure in the reformation of corrupt and calamitous India. Now we know that Sathya Sai Baba reflected many of the faults and ignorance of his own village environment, not least as to sexuality (which he denied he had any part in, but which has been testified by over 25 foreign male victims of his advances, though very few Indians have been able so far to come out and tell their stories, not least because of the murder of four young men in his bedroom in 1993).Read here about V.K. Narasimhan’s criticism of Sathya Sai Baba’s advaita preachings and how he changed tack because of these criticisms.

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

Super-Rich Indian Gurus who don’t deliver what they promise

Billionaire Non-delivering ‘Spiritual gurus’ The ‘many-billion dollar question’ is not really so much how Sai Baba has generated such huge coffers, for this is almost ‘par for the course’ for Swamis, gurus and temples in India. Tirupathi is reckoned to be the most fabulous as to wealth, and the Puri Temple of Jagannath is not far behind. Sathya Sai Baba may still not have become top of the ‘national treasure’ pile yet. The self-entitled ‘Baghwan’ Sri Rajneesh (aka Osho) had vast sums before he was indicted by the US Government on so many criminal charges that he had to sell of cheaply his 84 tax-evasion Rolls Royces to a second-hand car dealer in Texas and flee justice, yet he still could lord it over most Indians financially when he settled in Pune. The sect of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is likewise in the money beyond any accounting, his people even having taken over an African state’s economy more or less! [One may pause to wonder whether all this – with the massed chanting of mantras etc. – has stopped drug taking, urban violence, terrorism and brought about peaceful communities and a better world, as the Maharishi has many times guaranteed it would? I’d say no more than Sathya Sai Baba’s promises that India would be transformed by now (due to his 1960s students’ taking over important positions) and become the moral and spiritual engine of the world in a Golden Age (which is long overdue after repeated but unacknowledged ‘postponements’ .

No, the question without a price tag is still why Sathya Sai Baba, who vociferously disdains ownership and filthy lucre, should be one of the richest persons and biggest property owners in that land of such poverties and sufferings? That he claims to own nothing is just a front for the gullible and his trusting followers, for it is a mere technicality. It is the Sathya Sai Central Trust and he rules over it totally, even signing every cheque, so he has stated himself in 1993. The tax-free charitable Central Trust remains essentially behind closed doors, no minutes revealed and no accountability for the expenditure. Is it’s wealth being properly used? Or squandered on too great a scale to build yet more temples and white elephant ‘spiritual museums’, all clearly designed and decorated so as to trumpet the name and fame of Sai Baba himself. Questions as to the misuse of funds expended in building an isolated Super-Speciality Hospital is cogently discussed in Serguei Badaev’s overview of the Sai Baba Super Speciality Hospitals’ wastefulness. If this had not been so, the answer would have been clear and acceptable.

The putative fact remains, Sai Baba’s monies are also used for gaining influence and political power, and without any visible beneficial effects on politics or politicians. The current state of political dishonesty, disinterest for the poor of India, and scams at all levels in India suggest nothing is changing, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer (certainly relative to each other and to the basic cost of living). Sathya Sai’s much heralded “Divine Plan” for changing India – promised to be soon even in the 1960s to Dr. J. Hislop in the well-known interviews he published is not a fact, but a vehicle of falsehoods and foolishly placed faith. See also ‘How far is it to dharma?‘ Ask devotees about it all and they will tell you “Baba has divinely good plans that no one but He can fathom. We are all but puny minds, how can we possibly know?” That is a great conversation stopper to end on!

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