The Sathya Sai Baba Balloon Deflated.

“In the days ahead, the whole world will be obliged to come to Prashanthi Nilayam”

(p. 320 Sanathana Sarathi December 1991)

Sathya Sai Baba’s bombastic boast that the “whole world” will be “obliged” to visit his ashram in Puttaparthi (i.e. because of himself) is obviously totally invalid. It is only correct to say that some individuals from most countries of the world have visited… and now the visitors from abroad have dropped off most considerably (the reasons being obvious). Considerably more of the world visitors to Indian gurus nowadays go to such venues as Ravi Shankar’s ‘Art of Living’ centre, or the ashram of Amma the ‘Hugging Mother’.

The Sathya Sai Airport cannot accommodate the whole world even were it to stand for 100 years… it has long been a failed airport and is up for sale with sweetener inducements like free land for property development, but there are no buyers after a year on the market. Sathya Sai Baba cannot even buck the market!  It was built at great expense to the Indian taxpayer in 1990 through the intervention of a Government official (Civil Aviation Secretary) and long-term Sai devotee, Mr. M.K. Kaw, was unused for years – then very little used (for visiting devotees) until the present.

There has indeed been a ‘divine downfall’ since 1999. This decline or “Divine Downfall” (to use the title of author and journalist Mick Brown’s Telegraph article) continues despite hundreds of Sai-propaganda web pages numerous sites, blogs, constant world-wide radio broadcasts via Sai Global Harmony and WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service.

Before the world-wide furore about Sathya Sai Baba’s genital oilings and sexual abuses broke on the Internet in 1999, many prominent newspapers around the world carried articles about what a holy man Sathya Sai Baba was. If his devotees were gullible it was because they were being so thoroughly and cleverly deceived. The even the Observer and the Times had once carried two-page spreads heralding him in such terms as “one of the most impressive holy men of the age”. After airing of the BBC documentary ‘The Secret Swami, both papers became nothing but highly critical of him. Indian newspapers were – but still are – among the worst offenders in this pro-Sai propaganda. True, he once had prominent visitors from many countries – Presidents and Prime Ministers (Italy, Fiji, Mauritius, Nepal, Sri Lanka) – and from several European royal families (including the Duchess of York Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson) and from the ruling elites of several nations of the world. UNESCO even arranged to partake officially in an Educational Conference in his ashram, but dropped it like a hot potato when they investigated the sex abuse allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, after contacting some of the alleging victims.

Since UNESCO made their statement of withdrawal and its reasons public, no United Nations organization has had anything to do with him, despite major and signally unsuccessful efforts by his representatives in the Indian government and among mega-rich and/or influential supporters in the USA (eg. Dr. Michael Goldstein, Dr. William Harvey etc.)

Read also The Sathya Sai White Elephant airport
Mick Brown: Divine Downfall – Sunday Telegraph
UNESCO withdrawal from Sathya Sai Baba’s Educational Conference