Puttaparthi report by former long-term devotee

The former very devoted and extreme “true believer”, known as Divya, who lived in the Sathya Sai Baba ashrams and was very close to Sai Baba’s sister Venkamma and other prominent elderly Sai Baba ladies for many years has posted a number of letters she wrote during the period of her most unquestioning devotion between 1984 and 1989 (she has stated that they extended to 2005. so more can be expected). This important documentation of a devotee’s mindset and events observed at the ashrams (mostly suppressed by the Sai authorities) will be commented on in a later blog. She writes that she is posting these letters for the enjoyment of devotees. In view of the fact that Divya has not yet posted about her subsequent disaffection and the reasons for it useful that this should be known already. At the time she was unable to make her evidence public as she was still living in Puttaparthi and made clear to us that she felt she could have been in danger were they to be posted by the exposé. This reservation is no longer necessary, since she left Prashanthi Nilayam and India in 2005 and returned to the USA where she lives at present.

MOST REVEALING E-MAIL FROM PUTTAPARTHI ABOUT SAI BABA’S EARLY DETERIORATION – CLICK TO ZOOM IN

Divya’s parents became dissenters in 2001 and made a website (snowcrest) exposing Sathya Sai Baba as a sexual abuser and more. At the time, Divya commented on that as follows:-  “when my parents became ex-devotees in 2001, they cut off my funds and sent me some of the negative stuff, which of course I tore up to shreds like any decent sai devotee would do!! I had the impression that one or two devotees were making up stories due to not having their wishes fulfilled – the propaganda given by sai himself!” She maintained her faith until 2005 when she volunteered to work with an international group of students and others on literal and full English translations of Sathya Sai Baba’s actual discourses. They were posted on a website under the header ‘premsai’. These translations showed up by comparison the censorious editing done by the editors of Sanathana Sarathi. Consequently, the group was told by the Sai authorities that they must remove all their postings, but the English versions have nonetheless been preserved in full see here.  The reason for her losing faith she stated in an e-mail to Barry Pittard:-

“I became more & more disillusioned while doing the literal discourse translations – all the fumblings, mumblings and contradictions showed this wasn’t the all-knowing god I thought he was. The excuses of him doing it as a “leela” and “playing” became thinner and thinner until I just wanted out. When I heard devotees saying they KNEW what he did to boys were true, but it all had a good reason because sai knows what is good for everyone etc., well, that was just too much for my practical mind to take. I became an ex-devotee without even consciously knowing it. I just went less & less to Darshan and I could not put my hands up in devotion anymore. I just looked at him with a suspicious look on my face!  (full text in scanned page above on right).

It was always the former followers who eventually saw most clearly Sathya Sai Baba as he really was because they had already learned through years the gamut of rationalizations about his every mistake, deceit and failing until they realized how it was all simply a façade of organized appearances. Likewise,  Divya also wrote:-“I am in a unique position at the moment, to observe the actions of sai without a clouded mind, observations which I have been sharing with my parents. It looks to me like sai is fast becoming senile – all explained away by the avid devotees, including a few friends whom I dearly admire for their sweetness, as “taking upon himself the karma of the world,” “enacting a drama of being an ordinary person”. (NOTE These extracts were written in 2005, years after the various DivyaWeed YouTube videos showing her father and others up until 1999 – the year in which the sex allegations began to flood in). 

The Sai ashram authorities were most careful to stop those in the ashram and Puttaparthi from seeing the BBC exposure documentary when it was shown in India on BBC World, as we learned from various sources. Divya told us:-“Guess what? ‘Secret Swami’ on BBC aired here in India on BBC too – about half a year or more after it aired in UK. However, as I sat eagerly down with my TV in Parthi to see it, the BBC channel suddenly went blank after the first five (positive) minutes of the show! It remained blank for over 24 hours, until the last showing was over. Then the channel came back as normal. Quick-thinking Trust Mafia, perhaps?? (Later, I was able to read the transcript from the Internet.)”

Since the letters recording Divya’s experiences in the ashram of Sathya Sai Baba were no doubt genuine and honest, they reveal a lot of facts which the Sai authorities long tried their utmost to bury, they are worthy of further dissemination. Further, they show very clearly the more extreme kind of false hopes, shared delusions and indoctrinated misinterpretations of Sai Baba’s every word and act, they are still of interest when provided with serious commentaries to balance their zealous fervour. This will be shown in subsequent blogs. (See Sathya Sai ashram honeymoon delusions depicted)

Dramatic new sex testimony from ex-student at Prashanthi Nilayam

There have, through the years, been a number of quite independent reports of Sathya Sai Baba having dual sexuality, and dual sexual organs too (physical hermaphroditism). Today I am posting information delivered to me by a person whose identity has been checked and found to be valid, but which will not be made known at this stage for our own reasons. There are evidently others who know of the incident and any confirmation from those who were present when the form boy spoke out in public at Prashanthi Nilayam about Sai Baba’s dual sexual exhibition and are willing to contact me can be confident I shall act in complete confidentiality as they may require. 

Two students from an Indian family settled in Canada, Arun and Kartun (their common surname is not given for obvious reasons). Arun was a smart looking boy who got close to SB through the help of the teachers, like the Principal Mr. Habbu, who were looking for smart boys to speak in public and to go closer to SB. Arun was abused in the very first interview. He used to cry a lot. Even when he disclosed it to his father, this stupid man beat his son with chappals in plain view in front of the school. Later on Arun did a very brave thing which surprised everyone and that is why we think he was thrown out. While Speaking before Sai Baba in public in the Poornachandra Hall, he very clearly stated that swami had shown him in private in the interview room his SHIVA SWAROOP FOLLOWED BY ARDHANARISHWAR ROOP (that means, God Shiva as half man and half woman). For one moment even Sai Baba looked stunned. Later on the boy was given a terrible thrashing for this glaring mistake.

Today, I cannot but respect the bravery of that boy. I think this shows the terrible nature of working at the Sai-schools. I still fail to understand what made” People like Principal Habbu or Munni Kaul partners in crime at Puttaparthi.”

If indeed Sathya Sai Baba was a physical hermaphrodite, the consequences would be enormous for our understanding of his rise to fame. He would have been worshipped by the ignorant villagers as the incarnation of Shiva-Shakti, Shiva-Parvathi and so on, as is still done today in Indian villages to persons with unusual abnormalities. He would have had a free run to dictate to everyone who knew or believed in him as such from his earliest years. I have explored this with reference to early sources etc. in my article Sathya Sai Baba – an enigma or a myth?

As mentioned, this testimony supports a series of similar testimonies through the years. Tal Brooke was told by a close friend how Sai Baba had a vagina, about which he wrote in his first book exposing SB, ‘Avatar of the Night’  (see Tal Brooke – Avatar of Night excerpts).

The same or similar claims are reported in the overview paper ‘A Guru Accused’ by Alexandra Nagel

Further, in and impressive long video interview, Ullrich Zimmerman gives a very credible account of his visit to Puttaparthi and the ensuing private interview with sexual molestation (oral sex) and reports on the apparent Sai Baba’s dual sexuality?

Yet others have reported their experience or perception of Sai Baba as having both sexual organs. Some consider the perception to be a result of hypnosis, which is very easy to achieve when the subject is already a full believer in the omnipotence etc. of Sai Baba. However, the extreme secrecy about Sathya Sai Baba’s condition during his fatal illness and the apparently complete restrictions placed on his doctors’ access to him, reportedly by Sathyajit, his main much younger boyfriend to the last, raise the suspicion that doctors were – at least as far as possible – kept in the dark about Sai Baba’s genitalia. That there was no certified death document nor post mortem also makes it impossible definitively to confirm his having been born with both organs. Had the doctors noticed this, it would have been virtually impossible for them to have said so, as the pressure to cover-up everything about the guru and his misdeeds is so enormous on those within the movement.

---

PLEASE SEE THE SAI PETITION AND DECIDE WHETHER TO SIGN IT – you may also make a comment there. Your IP or e-mail details will NOT be revealed

Descriptive reports from earlier times at Puttaparthi with Sai Baba

One of the ex-students who writes to me now and whose identity must still remain anonymous due recently sent the following:-

It’s so wonderful to know that the expose wild-fire is spreading wildly through the dry desert like environs of Puttaparthi. So many good people left the ashram earlier keeping silent due to the dangers involved. I remember there was a good person, a certain Dr. Bhagvat of great integrity , who was made the in charge of SSS hospital at Prashanti Nilayam (the general hospital). I would be happy to know why he left. I think many good people did come across the misdeeds of Sai Baba and left the place silently.

I am also happy to be a part of the expose in my own way.  I  can stay for certain that Sai Baba was a fraudster, trickster who made people shut up through frightening them or pacifying them in the name of Indian Patriotism, Indian religion, hinduism and spirituality.

Though I do remain my theistic outlook, how guilty I feel that I enjoyed my existence there all the while giving a wrong picture of it and misleading people. My belief system was different then. But I had started to enjoy as a kid in eighth standard the dirty sex as my elders at the Sai College did with me and I really feel so terrible about it. I think all the boys knew very well what they needed to do if they wanted to go closer to Sai Baba and many of the boys did make ample use of the opportunities. After my post graduation, when I realised my mistake, I had stopped going to darshans etc and stopped speaking in public all the stupidly laudable things taught to us. I still cannot digest how and why the teachers there did not question the dirty acts. These thoughts and really troublesome to me now. I do hope that Indians learn a lesson from all this slush and mud dirtying the corrupt Indian system and the Indian media learns to behave in a more responsible manner henceforth.

Mr. V. Srinivasan of WS Industries is a dubious, dirty character and I think the much pro Sai Baba govt (DMK) in Tamil Nadu has been rooted out of power. This idiot tried posing himself as another Bhagwan while doing propaganda about SB. I think he would have donned the SB mantle had it not been for the recent reports in the media. He always posed as some sort of superhuman whenever interacting with other devotees.

Meanwhile it is not long before Guru Poornima, the day when Hindus celebrate their spiritual teachers (July 16th) when Isaac Tigrett is expected to tell what he claims Sathya Sai Baba instructed him to make public. If one were to believe Tigrett has promised, it promises to be something like another Sermon from the Mount, or perhaps a final statement to save humanity from disaster and cause Sai Baba’s students to clean up India and the world and bring in a Golden Age when all will live in peace, truth and harmony – all of which Sathya Sai Baba promised would occur (though the dates given have run out long since). No, one can expect another package of disinformation, false promises and prophesies and lunatic instructions through this Hard Rock man who really believed that Sathya Sai Baba was a sexual abuser and who even said that murder – if done by Sai Baba – would not alter his faith in him!

Now one can read the entire text of Tal Brooke’s seminal whistle-blowing tract ‘Avatar of the Night’ here. This book is interesting not least because it recalls the ashrams, the style, the people from a time when Sathya Sai Baba was far more available than in the 1980s and afterwards. 

Puttaparthi not what it was with ‘heart ripped out’

Puttaparthi peace and quiet

Alas for Puttaparthi, despite all, as First Post Economy posts the headline “Puttaparthi cancelled? Sai Baba’s death tests a town’s faith.” It is all the poorer inhabitants suffer first and most, most of their livelihoods having been totally dependent on the popularity of Sathya Sai Baba, which has waned and waned in recent weeks as the one ugly truth after the other has emerged in such irrefutable ways as to convince even devotees that their faith was misplaced. Many villagers knew about diverse dark, criminal incidents connected to Sathya Sai Baba and/or his institutions and had faith almost only in the economic benefits his presence generated for them, but none dare speak out But for once, when there was a big demonstration against the Sai Central Trust when one of their number who was a student at the Sai College was found murdered and his body burnt. For such reasons – and because the “nerve-centre” of its existence, namely darshan, can never come again – one can’t imagine anything like the same influx of followers for festivals. The may be a last effort made for Guru Poornima this year, but foreign visitors will surely be very few and less and less in years to come.

That Puttaparthi could become like Shirdi, which is flourishing, is considered unlikely too since the image of Sathya has been so badly tarnished by so many scandals of such a kind that Shirdi Sai was never remotely involved in: murders, sex abuses, suicides, huge financial irregularities and hoarding of consumer goods!   There will, however, always be true believers in denial of any facts, however clear, that detract from their imagined God Almighty, but those who were able to take a step back and see things in a longer and more insightful perspective knew that this downfall was to come, that the battles between corrupt Sai officials (who were in plenty) would cause turmoil and disgrace. No tears should be lost over the property speculators, big hoteliers, and smart investors in tourist shops, clinics and the like any more than over the brothel owners. It is the fruit and vegetable sellers, the flower ladies, the maimed street beggars and struggling small stall-holders who face poverty, but will the super-rich Sathya Sai Central Trust will be giving them any handouts?

“Puttaparthi cancelled? Sai Baba’s death tests a town’s faith”

Sai Trust: irregularities & secrecy on Sai Baba’s death

The unrest in Puttaparthi – and no doubt throughout the International Sathya Sai Organization – is surely not caused only by the financial irregularities that are under investigation but by the long history of secrecy, unaccountability and cover-up by the Sathya Sai authorities. The greatest cause for concern is certainly the manner of Sathya Sai Baba’s confinement both before and after he was hospitalized, and – yet more urgently – the EXACT manner of his death. – since he had long been on a life support machine with massive multiple organ failure and was reportedly unconscious – it seems evident to Sai devotees that he was disconnected on the authority of the Trust – the time chosen being very suspicious for a number of reasons. No properly signed death certificate has been issued either!

Not only was the time apparently chosen Easter Sunday – most likely a cynical ploy to try to create bogus ideas connecting Sathya Sai Baba with Jesus Christ – but it has been proven that the casket was ordered a very long time in advance when few believed he would actually die. The Trust did not involve itself in the order, but used a middleman, who also asked for instructions on how to embalm a corpse (i.e. presumably to preserve it until such time as it was deemed best. This strongly indicates that Sathya Sai Baba died much earlier than announced and was kept on life support (i.e. a mechanical system that keeps some of the body functions running) until the Trust could decide how to choreograph the scene. The funeral arrangements and exact travel plans for national VVIP visits to it were also made known even before Sathya Sai Baba’s death was announced! That the populace of Puttaparthi have focused on the financial questions – the non-transparency of the Central Trust’s accounts and decisions – is not surprising seeing how they have lost the largest part of their means of livelihood and are concerned about the reputation of Prashanthi Nilayam for economic reasons.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW THE VIDEO

However, it is very hard to believe that Sathya Sai Baba did any real “hard work”. In fact, the trustees seem to have been delegated to do any work there was. Nor did he earn a penny from his own labour – all was given to him believing it would be used for education, health and projects for the needy in India. But much was used to build his palace and museums promoting himself! (see here) He was the one who set the standards for the Trust – and his own behaviour was supposed to be the example. Yet, after he got his first ashram, Sathya Sai Baba never did any physical labour, nor did he lift a finger to look after himself – all was done by servant devotees. He was for decades enjoying a life that for nearly all Indians is sheer luxury. He gave darsan twice daily most of the time, but that was a pleasant walk among his worshipping followers, and he loved to perform his tricks in interviews and give cheap trinkets as ‘blessings’ which induced people to donate huge sums, many actually thinking they were God’s appointed! He visited his colleges and so forth… but much of the time he was behind closed doors. He never had to walk far after his childhood… he had many cars at his disposal, and also jumbo jets to go on holiday to Kodaikanal. He loved to be lauded by officials at the towns he visited like royalty. Sai Baba constantly based his claims of divinity on what he calls his ‘unique selfless social service’. Yet there are plenty of social service organizations around the world doing service work on a far more massive scale, with self-sacrifice, often even of the lives of workers. Most of them are unknown precisely because – unlike most Sai Baba ‘workers’ and Sai Baba himself -  they are so busy that they do not have time to parrot about the “good work” they do. Sathya Sai Baba used massive amounts of time discoursing about his own tremendous achievements – mostly talk not much action! Then he hoarded goods for himself in secretly-constructed hideouts in his palatial ‘yajur mandir’.

See also:- Indian Media and Governments Heedless of Decade of Foreign Media and Sai Baba Critics’ Revelations

Puttaparthi becoming a ghost town?

One cannot be but sorry for all those poor Indians whose livelihoods have been built around the popularity of Sathya Sai Baba, no more than one can be glad that the big money-making property tycoons – including Sathya Sai Baba family members and corrupt ‘officials’ – are suffering a major setback. The prospects for Puttaparthi have never looked worse – and this applies also to those other resorts Sai Baba frequented – the Whitefield ashram and college complex near Bangalore – has an economy based mostly on foreign and local visitors wanting to see Sai Baba.Even Sai Baba’s summer resort town, Kodaikanal, will struggle much from the absence of foreign income in the summer month or more it was crowded with rich visitors.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/sathya-sai-baba-death-puttaparthi-struggles-for-survival/1/139541.html

Reports on the situation after Sathya Sai Baba’s departure from it all – and the collapsed credibility of the Trust he left behind are several in the Indian press. India Today continues its article (see right) with the words “Puttaparthi is not a ghost town. Not yet. But there are telling signs everywhere. The bustling town in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh has all but come to a standstill. The locked gates at the private airport, the empty cavern that was once an active bus stop, the taxi and autorickshaw stand with vehicles but no passengers and the all-pervasive and omnipresent gloom in the town bear a silent testimony to the travails of the residents struggling to come to terms with the loss of their patron saint, Sathya Sai Baba.”

“The problem with Puttaparthi has always been that it functions around Baba. Even when he was alive when he travelled to live in Whitefield in Bangalore or the Kodaikanal ashram, Puttaparthi would become a ghost town. His devotees would follow him. That was our off-season. Now we have a permanent off-season,” says Dhanush, whose family has lived here for over 50 years. A month after Sai Baba’s demise, the flood of visitors has reduced to a mere trickle. In the past month, nearly a dozen Internet cafes have shut shop.” Most businesses such as Internet cafes, real estate companies, markets, Kerala ayurvedic centres and the quintessential handicraft shops have all been hit by the downslide after Baba’s demise. “During season, we earned about Rs 8,000-10,000 every day. We could afford to wait out the lean months. In the last month, we haven’t managed to make even Rs 100-200 a day,” says Dhanush, who works for a property developer.”

Vinod Kumar runs a family handicrafts business said: “Now there is absolutely no business. We are a family of 12 and the future looks scary.” As he waits for the odd customer, he remembers an old story: “Someone once heard Baba predict that after he passed on, Puttaparthi would be inhabited only by dogs and monkeys. At the moment that’s my greatest fear.”

Sathya Sai Baba to be ‘resurrected’ on Easter Day? – updated

UPDATE – on12 September to the original posting of 23 April: One sees here how I correctly predicted the day before the event that the Sathya Sai Central Trust would disconnect Sathya Sai Baba from his life support on Easter Sunday in a vain attempt to save his reputation as a divine figure. It is worth reviewing the events, for it looks most evident that Sathya Sai baba must have been brain dead long since – the body merely kept animate by the life support system. The huge dilemma the Trust members faced had to be solved and the actual cause of illness and actual cause of death covered up. This unresolved situation remains today. Meanwhile, the attempt to identify Sathya Sai Baba with Jesus Christ may convince some Hindus that he was also God to Christians, but it can only have a decidedly alienating effect on all Christian churches and communities… a direct shot in the foot for the Sai Trust!
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

From one of my Indian sources, a well known Indian who knows the inner working of the sb ashram and had been in the forefront of the sb expose for several years and known personally to me for years, I received this today: “As of 4 pm ( April 23rd)…the news coming through is the SB trust, the AP govt administration and members of the SB immediate family have been in an important meeting since 11 AM….to “discuss the health status of Sathya Sai , to decide future course of action and matters of the Sai Baba trust etc”…more than 20 members are said to have been in the meeting which had adjourned at 2PM for lunch and yet to reconvene. Significantly, Ratnakar was absent in the meeting, and the official reason is he had a “knee problem”. I am reliably informed that the compromise formula is not working out, and that Ratnakar has been legally advised by his counsel not to attend the meeting and be any party to any resolution passed…in view of the fact he can legally exercise his control over the trust at a later date, and should not be party to anything now either in his capacity of the legal heir of sb or as a SB trust member. I am informed that this is delaying any “announcement”….and a deadlock has been reached. Apparently, Ratnakar wants 2 trusts to be formed,  one dealing with the Ashram itself, the samadhi of Sai Baba and all activities there..and another dealing with the sb educational, medical and all other activities. He wants to be exclusively in charge of the Ashram/shrine/samadhi activities, while he is willing to concede the 2nd to other trust members, provided he still remains on the board. The SB trust is not inclined to accept this formula, and are trying for a compromise solution without dividing anything. Hence the deadlock. the SB trust has issued a message that they would address the media meet later today.”

One way or another, the living-deathly shell of Sathya Sai Baba has to be resurrected – some are confident this will happen most miraculously soon in the flesh (see below here), others are instead trying to ensure that his former (now deeply sullied) reputation will somehow rise again if he is given a major Indian-style send-off, with all his sycophantic politicians, judges, doctors, starts of stage, screen and sport present. Their problem is how to try to preserve some figment of his self-developed and self.trumpeted reputation as an omnipotent, omniscient, Incarnate Godhead and Deity of Deities while having to cut him off from his life support systems and get him into the ground somehow without making the much of India’s elite a yet more major world laughing stock than they already are.

Under the title: ‘Trust wavers on taking final call on Sai Baba’ the Times of India explained:- The Trust members went into a huddle at the hospital to discuss the next course of action. One of the members proposed that they announce Baba had attained ‘sajeeva samadhi’ (burial while still alive), said sources. But the proposal was shot down keeping in view the likely complications it could cause. Trust members seem clueless on how to deal with the inevitable, a source told TOI.

Meanwhile the inevitable is being planned for in a big way, and Easter Sunday (not Easter Monday, of course – as I mistakenly wrote here at first) – the day celebrated worldwide as that of the (alleged) resurrection of Jesus – looks like it may well be chosen for disconnecting Sai Baba from his life support:-
The Times of India Apl. 23 reports:

Among his many foot-worshippers devotees are numbered the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the President of India, Pratibha Patil, who will both attend what promises to be the inevitably pompous and spiritually grotesque burial showpiece. The surrealistic views of leading people in India – and a relative handful of minor celebrities from abroad – are a wonder to the educated and liberated wider world, as well – of course – to the billion plus followers of the other mainstream religions which cannot ever accept that Sathya Sai Baba is (or was) a living God and the Father who sent Jesus to earth (as he has claimed outright).

Self-resurrection by this ‘living god’? Times of India PUTTAPARTHI: A sense of surrealism pervades this small town with a population of 25,000. “He is god. He will overcome this phase and start giving darshans. That’s my belief, you may not believe this but I do,” asserted trust secretary and mover and shaker K Chakravarthi to TOI. “He has divine powers to heal himself,” he added emphatically. “We know he’s struggling hard inside the ICU. But he will pull through this traumatic phase. We have hundred per cent belief that it’s only a matter of time before our `living god’ resurrects himself,” said Hanumantha Rao, a staffer in the IT wing in Prasanthi Nilayam without a trace of doubt in his voice. Though Dr A N Safaya, director, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS), said that the medical team is making last-ditch efforts to bring Saibaba to life, his relatives are unfazed. “Doctors are doing their job. But Saibaba will come back. I am sure about that,” M Shankar Raju, son of Saibaba’s sister Venkamma, contended. Some of the followers even come out with absurd rationale. “Nothing will happen to Baba. He’s enduring the pain of a 106-year-old `muni’ (sage) in the Himalayas, who’s in his last stages. Once the sage is revived, the swami will automatically recover,” another staunch disciple and Sai Seva Dal volunteer Venkat Reddy claimed. Analysts said the fact of the matter is that those associated with the spiritual guru in one form or the other are his devotees first. “They are unable to forget this and take a rational point of view. Shockingly, even those in power, who are his strong disciples, refuse to acknowledge the gravity of his health. “Media is unnecessarily going overboard on his health. Lakhs of Issac Tigrett Burton, a staunch devotee who has donated huge sums for SSSIHMS, has the final say: “He’s immortal. I perceive him as a protector of the whole world.” Little wonder then that the trust itself released a two-page letter in the late hours of Thursday that Saibaba’s health would improve and that he would give discourses again.

Through the years there have been many (independently unconfirmed) stories circulating of Sathya Sai Baba recovering from amazing illnesses, heart attacks and so on, and two at least of his resurrecting devotees after they were clinically dead. The main resurrection story (of the US millionaire Walter Cowan) was investigated most thoroughly by psychology Professor Erlendur Haraldsson in the 1970s and he proved from the doctors own statements that it did not take place (See report on this here). Among those who were present throughout the episode who deny Cowan actually died or was brought back was US ex-follower Mark Roche, who figured in the BBC documentary ‘The Secret Swami’. As to Sai Baba’s ‘miraculous recoveries’ and supposedly taking on illnesses of dear devotees, the rational answer is that he was simulating those illnesses. This was no big problem for him to do as he was an actor since childhood, seems to have had yogic achievements in control of blood pressure, breath, metabolism etc. and – above all – being worshipped as an inscrutable God, no doctor dared to touch or examine him without his express permission. This he no doubt did at a much-vaunted self-healing in public where he used water to regain control of the paralysed half of his body (an easily-simulated condition). Insight into or controlled observation of any of his miracles have always been kept under careful wraps away from the scrutiny of investigators, scientists or the media. One thing is certain enough, though… he is not simulating now and cannot heal himself either, however many absurd claims to the contrary are made.

The Sathya Sai Baba mythology has been rooted in stories about his birth and his childhood, when he supposedly did ‘miracles’ for his schoolmates. The hagiographical ‘biographies’ of him present him in such glowing terms that his childhood spirituality would seem to surpass that of any worshipped deith in history or mythology. However, there is another and easily understandable explanation to the entire thing and the myth that has been built and manipulated – not least by Sai Baba himself. See Sathya Sai Baba – an enigma or a myth?

What Sathya Sai Baba has continually claimed about himself:-

Even if you believe only half you hear, you are in deep trouble with the following claims by Sai Baba. Will he go down in history as the Saviour of Mankind from global disaster (as he claims) and human evil? If so, he would necessarily displace Jesus Christ and Christianity, Jehova and Judaism, Buddha and Buddhism, Islam and Allah and Whoever and Whatever? One must certainly hope not – if only for the sake of human rationality and progress in empowering people to improve their lot and that of the world rather than become fixated in prayer to God and his traditional “teachings” about fate and the futility of worldly engagements. His many deceptions – so firmly demonstrated here and elsewhere – and his bogus “universal religion” are accepted by a long line of Indian Presidents and Prime Ministers – and also by those of today and much of the Indian Government! It is an enigma… for can they truly believe in the following words of Sathya Sai Baba? They must… or else they’d have to view him as a megalomaniac.

“I am all deities in one. You may endeavour your best for thousands of years and have all mankind with you in your search. But you cannot understand My Reality.”US ed. of Kasturi’s Sathyam Sivam Sundaram Vol 3 page 315)

“There was no one to understand Me until I created the whole world”(Official biographer N. Kasthuri’s direct quote in ‘Pathway to Peace’ p. 64.)

Sathya Sai Baba said in 1968: “This is a human form in which every Divine entity, every Divine principle, that is to say, all the names and forms ascribed by man to God, are manifest… You are very fortunate that you have the chance to experiences the bliss of the vision of the form, which is the form of all gods, now, in this life itself.”(Sathya Sai Speaks Volume VIII. page 99f)

“God can do anything. He has all power in the palm of His Hand. My Body, like all other bodies, is a temporary habitation; but, My Power is eternal, all-pervasive, ever-dominant.”Christmas Day Discourse, Bombay 1970. ed. of Kasturi’s Sathyam Sivam Sundaram Vol 3 page 136)

“On previous occasions when God incarnated on earth, the bliss of recognising Him in the incarnation was vouchsafed only after the physical embodiment had left the world, in spite of plenty of evidences of His Grace. But, ponder a moment on this Sathya Sai Manifestation; in this age of rampant materialism, aggressive disbelief and irreverence, what is it that brings to It the adoration of millions from all over the world? You will be convinced that the basic reason for this is the fact that this is the Supra-worldly Divinity in Human Form.” (Sathya Sai Baba 17/5/1968. Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 8, p 100)

“If I had come as Narayana with four arms, they would have put me in a circus, charging money for people to see Me. If I had come only as a man, like any other man, who would listen to me? So I had to come in this human form but with more than the human power and wisdom.”(US ed. of Kasturi’s Sathyam Sivam Sundaram -Vol 3 page 309)

Further, on the task of the revival of dharma, he says “… who has to take it up? It was said that I have taken up this Form in answer to the prayers of sadhus (noble souls) and others… I have come, because I felt I had to come. I resolved upon this… This campaign will succeed, it will not fail. The welfare of the world will be ensured through the fostering of the Godly everywhere, and more particularly of these ancient reservoirs of the ancient wisdom of this land.”(Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 3, page 205)

Sathya Sai Baba on illness and death

The sick degenerated man

Despite the detailed statement by Dr. Safaya on all the steps taken to treat Sathya Sai Baba’s multiple illness condition, his all too reassuringly diplomatic style does little to dispel the seriousness of the guru’s critical condition. It is understandable that he would not paint the doomsday scenario for Sai Baba as the devotees who are massing in Puttaparthi, round the ashram and even threatening the security of the hospital are so fanatical, deluded and distraught that it seems Sai Baba’s own teaching is entirely disregarded by them! But the evidence he gave suggest nonetheless that Sathya Sai Baba’s life is hanging by a thread and his longer-term prospects are grim. Many a time, Sai Baba has reacted to the death of close servitors with most cheerful and directly pleased comments. One should be glad that the sentence of life is over, and suchlike. Those who choose to believe in the statements of this guru need a bit of reminding of some of them perhaps (see image)

Despite Sai Baba’s occasional sensible remarks, his actions visible and completely contradict (as so often to those who have still eyes to see and have rejected ‘blind belief’ – See Sathya Sai Baba in Word and Action)

The blind believers include many Indian VIPs, but the great majority of devotees are poor and largely uneducated villagers whose lives are partly ruled by religious fantasies and many superstitions. This is seen in the report by a local journalist (from Anantapur) – one who apparently himself lives within the limits of the Sai Baba mini-world community where the belief that Sathya Sai Baba is a hugely world-famous figure and is worshipped by most of the important people in foreign countries. What a delusion… he refers to “billions of devotees around the world” who see him as “God walking on earth”. This is a fantastic and deranged statement. Probably Elvis Presley – who died decades ago – has more fans still and quite a few who think of him as a god too! The estimated number of Sai Baba followers (and anyone who shows even mere curiosity seems to be counted as one) by reliable sources are far, far lower – see here. The number of foreign followers has decreased all the time since the many testimonies of sexual abuse by Sai Baba were released around 2000 and many office-bearers and prominent persons resigned.

Illness: It is worth remembering some other statements by Sathya Sai Baba at this time:-
Many foreigners often ask Me, ‘Swami, how come you look so young and energetic even at the age of 75?’ I tell them that the three P´s in Me are responsible for this. They are purity, patience and perseverance. If you develop these three virtues, you too will remain young and energetic always.” (Sanathana Sarathi May 2000, p 143)

And perhaps this explains a lot – at least to those from whose eyes the scales of belief and rose-tinted glasses have fallen:-

“It is not only unbridled passion which damage the health of man. Living on Ill-gotten money also causes ill-health to some extent. Living on earnings got by unjust means causes many unknown diseases to take root in us.” Gems of Wisdom Quotations from Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba – page 176 – 178

That Sathya Sai Baba has collected much money under false pretenses is a fact shown by testimony and documentation. That he has misused the money given to him trustingly on self-glorifying pomp and even on giving five brand new Japanese cars to his already well-padded servitors like Dr. G Ventataraman is a published fact (see Donations to Sathya Sai Central Trust misused by/for directors etc.)

Further, Sathya Sai Baba has encouraged people to believe that the stones in rings and other setting which he seems to ‘materialize’ are genuine gemstones, often calling them diamonds. All those which have been assayed by professional jewelers have proven to be cheap paiste gems. Believer recipients think this is miraculous Grace of God and dare not get the stones valued… they fear negative karmic consequences! This applies as much to top politicians who sport greed Sai Baba rings as to all the others. In my case the green diamond eventually was certified as a cheap synthetic sapphire – its brightness enhances with green tinsel paper behind the stone. ). Ask yourself, is this not false pretenses and outright, calculated, deception? Well, no one has ever produced genuine proof that a single gem supposedly ‘created’ by Sai Baba is a genuine and very valuable gift (see here). Believing that they are genuine, countless devotees have then donated large sums of money in thankfulness to this God Almighty. That is his big con trick. He also pretends to ‘materialize ‘ brand-name watches, but sometimes they have been donated previously by visiting groups! See this Close-up photo of Sai Baba ring materializing?

See also BBC-Named ‘The Secret Swami’, Sathya Sai Baba Hospitalized and Fighting For Life