V.K. Narasimhan – shattering revelations on the murders

V.K. Narasimhan was quite a national figure in journalism before he came to Sathya Sai Baba, having held many editorial chairs. He had a reputation for having put his life on the line for the truth about the 1975 Emergency, and so he was initially VERY important in helping various influential Indian circles to accept Sai Baba…. for VKN knew all the leading figures and had attended college and subsequent activities with Presidents and Prime Ministers. He was a Mylapore Brahmin (as was R.K. Narayanen, a friend of his also of that highest caste). He began to mix with the Indian elite since he was released from prison as a follower of Gandhi before Indian Independence. He became a central figure for visiting plenipotentiaries at the ashrams, still wondering why Sai Baba was so kind to him.

Unassumingly, Narasimhan constantly helped satisfy Sathya Sai Baba’s insatiable appetite for social and political influence.  In his role as a kind of mediator for Sathya Sai Baba he actually became something of a genuine devotee in his latter years. VKN was, however, most skeptical about the Sathya Sai Organisation and its inflated claims under its former International Chairman, Indulal Shah., most of which he considered largely  a front for spiritual go-getters who only wanted Sai Baba’s approval and ‘blessings’.

The most shocking information I ever received was from VKN – in January 1997 – was how Sai Baba’s multi-millionaire younger brother, Janaki Ramiah  had – after lengthy negotiations with the Puttaparthi police – blackmailed them into executing the four intruders (armed with knives) who were holed up in Sai Baba’s bedroom apartment.

No one closely involved in that notorious episode dared to tell what they know. However,  Narasimhan told me many details in private and that he was present when Janaki Ramiah was congratulated for the results of his blackmailing activity by the former Home Minister of India, S.B. Chavan, and who replied, “Dead men tell no tales”, upon which these two laughed heartily! Narasimhan was very disturbed,  lowering his voice to a whisper when he told me. Though I tried my utmost to explain this away and somehow clear Sai Baba of any involvement, the evidence was finally too overwhelming.

V.K.N. also told me how Sai Baba put him under strong and repeated pressure to lie about the embezzlements of the secretive Sathya Sai Central Trust unearthed by the press in 1993 after the murders. Though he argued his case, he had seen no way out of the repeated demands and wrote an article clearing the Sai organisation in the newspaper where his son was then the editor (The Tribune, Chandigarth). His former newspapers – The Hindu and the Indian Express – had refused to publish his (false) testimony.  (See here) (Not entirely without relevance is the fact that his son, V.N. Narayanan, was later sadly disgraced throughout the Indian press, having directly plagiarised materials for his column from Brian Appleyard of the Sunday Times That cost him the editorship of the Hindustan Times and his previous prestigious career in journalism.

Sai Baba’s very close confidante V.K. Narasimhan

It is necessary once more to restate certain facts I have publicised earlier, but which newcomers to the Sathya Sai Baba movement will not be told and may never discover. I concentrate on all the negative facts – and they are facts too – because I gave far to much of my life to promoting Sathya Sathya Sai Baba when he was deceiving me and everyone around him in the most demeaning manner. The massive positive propaganda for Sai Baba across the entire Internet and the major slur campaign against critics needs to be consistently countered. It is a matter of protection of the innocent and the vulnerable.

VKN and Priddy

After 15 years of regular visits to Sathya Sai Baba, countless ‘darshans‘, five long interviews, I know with certainty that most of Sai Baba’s activities are kept strictly secret, except to a handful of his inner circle of attendants. The top leaders in his Sathya Sai Organisation (both Indians and foreign) are unable to scrutinize more than a tiny fraction of his activities, they must wait on his beck and call and do what they are told. This was often said to me by one of his close attendants, the famous newspaper editor, V.K. Narasimhan, with whom I had a long and deep friendship (see here)

Known as ‘VKN’ or Narasimhan deceased in March 2000) who lived his retirement at Sai Baba’s ashram where he edited the monthly journal of the movement. VKN confided to me experiences and facts known to insiders of the ashram but which he was unable, not least for reasons of his own and others’ security, to speak openly about there. I am fortunately able to present much evidence of this in the form of scans of notebooks pages from the extensive diary and notes, which I kept every day at the ashrams through 9 long visits.  I was deceived and led into self-censorship not to question much most of that time – like all devotees, I was rationalising everything untoward to make it all fit the Procrustean bed of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims about himself, his work and ‘mission’. Narasimhan was decisively instrumental in putting an end to all of that for me.

Since he gave up his Madras house and, at the wish of his Sai-devoted wife, took up residence at Sai Baba’s ashrams,  VKN fell gradually more and more under the charm offensive Sai Baba directed at him .. He was impressed by Sai Baba’s accumulated social influence and movement because it was at least achieving some improvement in the area, providing education where there was none before, and some measure of social support and care.He became a follower despite lifelong scepticism towards gurus and swamis. He told me that throughout his life he had seen the incomprehensible ills and horrors that plague India amid the wall-to-wall corruption of Indian politicians and their scandalous neglect of the poor and suffering and it was because Sai Baba was stimulating people to social involvement that he got involved.

When first I met him he was frankly cynical about all Sai Baba’s claims to miraculous divine powers like  omnipotence… not least after spending being for many hours almost every week in Sai Baba’s close proximity. He did come to consider the widespread belief in his supposed miracles to be important for the cause in that it encouraged donations and such like. As time went by and he learned more about the people involved and their manipulations and embezzlements, he became increasingly critical to many of the social projects as falling short of the claims made for them. Since had already become very dependent on the ashram, he was unable to voice his true opinions in public – though he did to so various people in private and even sometimes in lectures for foreigners. He told me occasionally that he would never have ended up there but for his his wife’s religious devotion to Sai Baba, which he lost shortly thereafter), he grew more and more frail and relied on the care he received from a devotee relative (Usha) others there, so escape from the place was no longer a realistic option and he had no similar place to retire to. However, he did leave the ashram for a spiritual retreat just after the sex allegations against Sai Baba became public, some month or more after he became mortally ill in late 1999.

Book reveals ‘secrets’ of Sathya Sai Baba

In Smt. Vijayakumari’s book “Anyathya Saranam Nasthi” we read about Sathya Sai Baba’s literal belief in disincarnate demons, no less!

“Do  demons really exist, Swami?” he replied “Yes! Those who committed suicide,  those killed in accidents, those who met with an untimely death, all these  will be roaming around like ghosts.“

Sai Baba also promotes the belief in black magic as a reality, which is bound up with widespread beliefs in India about witchcraft, the evil eye and leads to horrendous killings of supposed ‘witches’.

See full coverage of his statements here.

See on the right scan from the book with her shocking testimony about Sathya Sai Baba as a
child abuser, which she – his own mother – accepted because she believed in the gross superstition that there must be some ‘evil power’ being driven away from him!

Also read: more on Sai Baba’s beatings of her son

and Sathya Sai Baba’s narcissism
The English title of the book (in English) is ‘Refuge other that you I have none’ Vijayamma’s e-mail was  <asn_vijayamma@hotmail.com> & address W/o K.S. HemChand, Opp. Brooke Bond, Main Road, Whitefield. B’lore. 560066.  Karnataka. The printers are Sai Shriram Printers, Ekkattuthangal, Chennai.

Sathya Sai Baba blessed criminal Italian Prime Minister, Bettino Craxi

Sathya Sai Baba has blessed numerous convicted or indicted criminals, including Mr. Bettino Crax, and Mr. Guilio Andreotti – both Italian Prime Ministers, Dictator Idi Amin of Uganda, who he personally visited in Kampala, he was strongly supportive of the his devotee, Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, who “fled to his feet” after acquittal on corruption charges (most probably though Sathya Sai Baba’s influence over his devotees such as Supreme Court judges and PM at the time, A.B. Vajpayee). Sai Baba has also visited and blessed a known criminal liquor kind, Mr. Reddy of Madras, among numerous other similar shady persons in India.

Bettino Craxi visited Sathya Sai Baba in Puttaparthi in late 1986 while he was Italy’s Prime Minister.  The visit of the Craxi family and the blessings the Italian Prime Minister received fro Sathya Sai Baba were reported in his official journal Sanathana Sarathi (p. 273 November 1986). Craxi arrived with his wife and a small entourage and heavily armed security guards in a helicopter, which landed in the ashram grounds. The ladies were wearing very short skirts, stiletto heels and heavy lipstick make-up, which caused alarm among the Sai officials and servitors who were involved (such dress is regarded in an extremely derogatory light among Sai Baba followers). All ashram visitors and residents were excluded from the area while the visit took place. Sathya Sai Baba expressed dislike of the weapons carried, saying it was unnecessary, and when they laid them down, he gave vibuti (‘holy ash’) to the security men, who were somewhat perplexed by it.
In the interview Bettino Craxi asked Sai Baba about what the future held for him and was reportedly told that there were persons close to him one whom he could not rely. (What a wise – but entirely obvious- comment to an Italian politician in the thick of a corrupt system!). In 1993, B. Craxi was charged with murder of a journalist and major corruption and he resigned as Socialist party leader. Bettino Craxi died as a criminal in exile in Tunis, fleeing a conviction in Italy of about 18 years in prison plus multi-million dollar fines.

Wikipedia’s article on Craxi’s massive corruption and crime states: “A huge crowd assembled in front of the building and when Craxi finally went out, he was met with thousands of coins tossed at him. The outraged people intoned: “Bettino! Do you want even these?!”. This episode is remembered with agony, anger and scandal within the Italian political class, and with pride and long-lost joy by a majority of the common citizens.”
Bettino Craxi’s brother, Mr. Antonio Craxi, was the top leader of the Sathya Sai Organization in Europe (and Italy) for a number of years until he was replaced in the late 1980s by Pietro Marena of Divignano, near Milan. VKN expressed shock at the most hateful and vicious personal slanders he had ever heard (he told me)  by A. Craxi towards Pietro Marena and others (see scans of my notes recorded at the time) It was said to me by persons who knew the Craxi family well that Antonio had made a large donation to Sathya Sai Baba of money gained through the Mafia, which he wanted to offload to be forgiven his sins.

Mr. Antonio Craxi wore a ring supposed to be a ‘green diamond’ given by Sathya Sai Baba His wife has expressed her belief that Sai Baba rings with green stones are “power rings”. (This is very similar to ‘Lord of the Rings’ stuff taken literally). Many leading persons in India and the Organization were given what they were told by Sai Baba are green and white “diamond” rings, green and white in colour. Well, he gave me one (no doubt because I had promised what for me was a major donation) at Christmas 1986. I wore it for many years, but there was no power involved, though I suppose one could have used it to gain undue influence or ‘power’ over devotees who had no similar ‘blessings’ from this supposed God Incarnate with all powers in his hand, as he repeatedly claimed. Besides, the supposed ‘diamonds’  are fakes – synthetic stones (see proof here),  Antonio Craxi was not enabled by it to stay in his position of status in the Sathya Sai Organization, nor to help his brother, Bettino Craxi, from total disgrace and exile.

http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srsaibaba.html#sex

“Notable among Baba’s international inner circle are Guilio Andreotti, former Prime Minister of Italy, currently on trial for murder of a journalist, former Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, sentenced to 5 1/2 years of imprisonment for corruption and Princess Poihlavi, sister of the former Shah of Iran, caught in Switzerland in 1962 for carrying heroin.

Howard Murphet on the ‘Man of Miracles’

Howard Murphet was once a budding Theosophist, also a devotee biographer of Madame Blavatshy and other discredited theosophists before he stumbled further along his spiritual path until he ended up with Sathya Sai Baba.  After a few years he wrote a book in a popular and sensational style called “Sai Baba, Man of Miracles”. This book was one of the main reasons for non-Indians to be drawn to visit this self-proclaimed God Incarnate, avatar of the age and much more, whose miracles were supposed to be hooks to attract people.

As with everyone who gets to gets at all close Sathya Sai Baba, he has to be  put down in some way in front of other interviewees, and Murphet was often referred to as “Murphet, not Perfect”… not perhaps the most ingenious pun from the Director of the Cosmos! But it raises a laugh and such things keep people in their place. Indeed, not that Murphet ever presumed to admit the slightest critical thought or questioning word to enter any of his many published eulogies of  Sathya Sai Baba and his miracles.

Murphet is nothing if not full of incredulity with fantasy stories, such as when he enthuses about the battle between Light and Dark forces since the “at least the age of Rama”. He pronounces that “World War I was really a forerunner of the next war involving almost the whole of the world and known as World War II…”
How interesting, not many people know that. Murphet also states authoritatively that “The young Avatar, Sathya Sai Baba, was twenty years old when this war ended. His spiritual power had no doubt helped in the victory of the forces of Light.” This is more like hysterics that history. But there is more to come:

“Sri Aurobindo…  stated during the war that if the Axis forces of tyranny and darkness won the war, the divine plan would be set back by a thousand years. So he himself played a powerful part to ensure that victory went to the Allied forces of individual, democratic freedom.” Aurobindo took Hitler literally about the Thousand year Reich, it seems. Murphet also uncritically repeated how Aurobindo meditated hard and managed to change Hitler’s mind so he attacked Russia at the wrong time, so losing the war! Well, not many historians know that, for certain!

Such credulity hardly strengthens Murphet’s  credibility with educated persons, no more does his unquestioning acceptance of hearsay about miracles which he published without more than cursory questioning. He has plenty more like it when he relates other personal experiences around Sai Baba which his mind span into the shape of proofs of transcendental powers in his guru. His writings are confined within the ‘received wisdom’ that controls the minds of the converted.

Murphet also wrote some highly imaginative ideas about Gorbachev. Some while after he came to power, Murphet was at an interview, but did not dare ask Sai Baba about Gorbie. Instead he wrote: “A mental question is as good as a verbal one to Swami. His eyes gave me the affirmative answer but all his lips said was, “Gorbachev is a good man.” I knew then that he had played some wonderful, powerful tune on the akashic strings that had manoeuvred circumstance and brought about the great change.” (ital. above are mine)

In one book, Murphet thought that a speck of light on a photo of ‘the avatar’ he took was caused by his miraculous leela (i.e. divine miraculous sport). Anyone who knows a bit about photography in India knows that such spots occur often on developed prints, the cause most likely being heat during the developing process. Murphet asked Sathya Sai Baba if it as his leela, and for once Sai Baba said it was due to a flaw in the photography.

Read more Murphet imperfections

Pro-Murphet propaganda stuff is found at (see http://www.saibabaofindia.com/howard_murphet_lights_of_home.html)

Ignorance is bliss in Sai Baba’s ‘teaching’

If he knows so much, why does Sai Baba not clear all doubts?  Why does the self-professed omniscient Avatar not make known fully and clearly everything about his mission and answer every type of valid question and doubt that arises?

Sathya Sai Baba gives various reasons for his not engaging publicly in explanations about his claimed wisdom and powers. He disdains arguments that appeal to and satisfy the logical and scientific mind.  He looks down on all scientific understanding as an expression of intellectual pride or gross materialism and derides all but religious scholars as ‘learned fools’.

He claims to minister primarily to those who have humility, this being one reason for the birthplace of the avatar he claims to be being in India. He claims to know the very secrets of all creation, of birth, life and death but is unwilling to adopt the premises of reason and logic to explain them and make them clear enough to be more than speculative talk.

He makes evident that he does not wish or intend to stimulate ‘worldly’  intelligence, which he puts down as mere desires of the “restless” and curious mind. Sathya Sai Baba is no philosopher in any sense that makes sense, for he is a proselytizer of faith versus knowledge on all occasions, primarily faith in God – and not least in himself as such. He does not teach but preaches. He propounds the glories of  “mindless divine consciousness” which he holds is superior in every way to mental activity, scientific and intellectual understanding. Yet he also insists that it is achievable only by a tiny handful among the billions of humanity!  This ideal has been held up by numerous mystics, gurus and claimants to divinity in the past, overwhelmingly in India, where a vast under-educated mass of the population is brought up to believe in these miasmas from the cradle.

He has repeatedly insisted that he has not come in order to institute a new religion or set of beliefs. though he has also admitted to a ‘Sai religion’ and permitted the use of this term. He has announced repeatedly that his alleged ‘divine task’ is the regeneration of the first and most perennial philosophy, the Vedas. In regenerating them, he aims for the recreation on a huge scale of the practices and the way of life that would embody the alleged “Vedic truths”. In this and his constant harping on the past glories of a lost age of ‘Bharat’ – one for which there is no scrap of historical evidence – he literally wishes to put the clock back to a deeply superstitious and unknowledgeable era where democracy, human rights, equality before the law, social  justice,  and freedom from oppression were unknown. He speaks about ‘human values’ as God-given absolutes set in stone by, which is an oxymoron. He does not explain where the anti-values which correspond to the good ones came from except from the ‘evil’ in so many human hearts. That is the level of education he expresses.

The mystery of Sathya Sai Baba

Sai Baba said:-
1) no one can understand him or his mystery, not if all humanity combines in the effort for thousands of years.
2) that God can be known by anyone who follows his advice perfectly, practices sadhana and attains self-realisation, because God is in the heart and everyone is God.

Logically, both cannot be true, yet  both can be false. Either he can be known or he can’t – not both! And only if God exists at all, which is most unlikely!

Further, Sai Baba  said that:
1) Good and ill seen in others is only one’s own reflection   – and
2) What is outside is a rough reflection of what is within. Therefore, one can never know anyone else, only oneself.

This can only be logically false, added to which it is wholly unreasonable and contradicts everything tangible and factual sensible that people experience throughout life.
It is part of one of the most alienated pseudo-philosophies and otherworldly delusional theologies ever developed…

If Sai Baba had been God the Creator, as he repeatedly claimed, he would have had to be able to do better than contradict himself continually. He should have been able to explain many things which he simply could not.

Sathya Sai Baba even claimed: “I am the Doer of everything”. The ultimate narcissism, the final megalomania and delusion of grandeur!

Read direct quotations of some of Sathya Sai Baba’s most excessive claims

See also Sai Baba on freedom and fate

Stories of miraculous visions, by Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba recycled the following story from the Maha bharatha twice, different and conflicting versions! First time, it was presented as a factual account: here is a short resumé of most of this tale:-

Vimana

“The cowherd Maaladhaasa who was determined to see the Lord and prayed to the “black Lord riding on a white bird”. Due to his fasting and prayer, the Lord did at last appear to him, but as an old Brahmin, but he was not black and there was no bird. So the cowherd asked the Brahmin to come next day again so he could get the village pandit to say whether he was the Lord himself. The pandit laughed and the whole village turned out next day to see this Brahmin, but only the cowherd Maaladhaasa could see him. He was ridiculed…

Sai Baba then continues with his tedious story here: “At last, he got so enraged they he walked up to the old Brahmin and gave him a whacking blow on the cheek, saying “Why don’t you show yourself to all?” That blow changed the entire scene. Krishna appeared in resplendent robes, smiling face, captivating form and the white bird. As the astounded villagers were recovering from the amazement, the heavenly chariot (Vimaana), floated down from the sky and Krishna asked Maaladhaasa to sit inside it. Then, with the Lord by his side, Maadlahaasa rose up and soon was out of sight.” (Faith that made the lord manifest (cowherd story) (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol 7, pps 7f)

So the reader is supposed to take this to heart as a lesson… The point intended by it is, that Sathya Sai Baba is that same Lord, and is very hard to recognise, so we should all recognise this and be astonished and gob-smacked like those villagers… the implication is that those who do not recognise Sai Baba as God Incarnate are even less smart than those villagers were!

The second version, delivered by Sathya Sai Baba later told it to his students in 1984, this time as a story, It is found in the US servile follower Al Drucker’s book  “Discourses on the Bhagavad Gita” (p. 32 first ed.) in the sixth discourse. Later, Al Drucker did not follow Sai Baba’s demand to remain unmarried and he was banned from the ashrams and the Organization! A poor boy who was a cowherd boy was informed ( by some pundit called Harikathadas) that Lord Vishnu was traditionally represented thus: “dark/complexioned, wore a traditional white mark on his forehead, and rode on a white eagle“. In typical Indian fashion, the boy puts himself through self-punishing prayer and ‘penances’ in order to obtain the vision of Lord Vishnu. In the end, of course, he gets his wish.

This discrepancy between ‘stories’ is not at all uncommon in Sai Baba’s rambling and boring repeated tales of fictitious events in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavatam. These writings are poetic fiction based on legend, penned centuries after the e. The famous elderly editor of his journal, the retired journalist V.K. Narasimhan, told me how Sathya Sai Baba changes stories he retells and makes many errors and mixes  up things in his ‘discourses’ – all of which Narasimhan edited out, or even changed to save Baba from ridicule! However, nothing will save Sai Baba’s bogus imaginative claims from the ridicule of any serious, recognised historian.

See also

• SAI BABA PROMOTES AND THRIVES ON RUMOURS
• SAI BABA AS MASTER OF DELUSION
• SAI BABA SOOTHSAYER – FAILED PROPHESIES AND PREDICTIONS
• SAI BABA MIRACLE STORIES
• RUMOUR AND DELUSION SPREAD BY SAI VIPS
• SAI BABA PROPHESIES AND RUMOURS ABOUT ISLAM
• INCREDIBLE TALES OF ANCIENT CAVES IN THE HIMALAYAS
• SEE THE PUBLIC PETITION FOR INVESTIGATION OF SATHYA SAI BABA ETC.
  

Good thoughts from India – re Sai Baba

I received a comment approving my efforts from a blogger, on whose interesting  blog I also then put a comment (see blog with comment here).  He has chosen the pen-name ‘nitwit nastik’ and thus, as an agnostic, he also differs from so many self-important religious believers in my experience (and they are very many) in being able to use refreshing self-ironic pen-name about his standpoint. One can see from his  writings that that he is far from being any nitwit, but an articulate and thoughtful person. He sent me the following reply, which he allows me to post herewith:-

“Thanks Robert for your comment. I am not sure if I am representative of the India of the future because people like me who challenge religious claims are few and far between in India. Most Indians are discouraged from challenging religion and most still don’t have access to internet and are not aware or open to of the vast amounts of knowledge/research available on the internet. The brainwashing of young children and the religious indoctrination at schools are also a major problem (although I am myself a living testimony that such things do not work all the time).

India still isn’t the place where independent thought is encouraged as it is done in a lot of western countries, although I must admit that the situation seems to be improving a bit. You are also right in saying that it might be years or centuries before we can cast off the shackles of organized religion, if at all. There needs to be a political will to uphold and enforce the freedoms guaranteed by our constitutions, the critical mass needed amongst children and youth to give this movement some momentum (as they are the ones most prone to religious indoctrination) and of course the money to support the free-thought/rationalist movement and counter the propaganda machine of believers. I firmly believe that all humans are born with a logical faculty which are discouraged by parents,society or by religious authorities, which leads to blindness in matters of religion. Probably, the only way this vicious cycle can be broken is by showing people reason and logic, patiently and compassionately (tough things to live by when attacked continuously by the religious right) and not through repressive tactics like in China, where repressive tactics have failed to curb religious belief.

Anyway thanks again for your comment. I will definitely visit your site on satya sai baba. Btw I didn’t know that you had written books on Satya Sai Baba so I would like to commend your efforts in bringing the activities of the charlatan to the fore and exposing the fraud that he is.

Sathya Sai Baba’s literal stories from scripture

COUNTLESS INDIAN ‘GOD-MEN’ AND GURUS HAVE PRONOUNCED THAT THEY ARE  INCARNATIONS OF DEITIES LIKE KRISHNA, RAMA AND MANY OTHERS… BUT SATHYA SAI BABA HAS EXCEEDED THEM ALL IN INCREDIBLE CLAIMS!

Sathya Sai Baba always speaks as if most of the events described in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata incl. Bhagavad Gita, and the Srimad Bhagavatha actually happened. He sometimes actually insists that they did:-

1) he was himself Krishna and was 84 years old at time of Mahabharata war (Summer Showers at Brindavan 1978, page 58)
2)he knows this since he was himself Krishna  – aged 84 years when the war took place that the Mahabharata war occurred in 3138 BC. (Summer Roses on the Blue Mountains 1976. p. 85f)
that as Krishna he once did the miracles described in scripture, including multi-location of his body in a simultaneous dance with six thousand cowgirls (gopis)! (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 26, pps. 27-29)
4) that the Ramayana described historical facts, for he once was also Lord Rama and defeated  demons, flew in mantra-powered ‘airplanes’ (Pushpak), banished his own wife, killed the demon Ravana, etc.

 

Proof that Sathya Sai Baba unambiguously asserts the literal truth of these scriptural ‘stories’ is seen in the following published conversation:

Sometimes Swami speaks of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata as if they were historical, and sometimes as if they were to be taken as representative of every individual’s inner conflicts, virtues, bad qualities etc. Are these events and people historical fact?”
>Sai “Yes they are a record of historical people and incidents… Rama was a real person and an Avathar. And Dasaratha was His father. Krishna was real and the events of His Avathara were real. Rama’s life, over the ages, has been altered and distorted somewhat, and Swami’s story of Rama will be a classic through several Yugas.” (Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba by Dr. John Hislop – new ed. p. 129 old ed. p. 155)

See more Sathya Sai Baba stories and myths presented as real events

>Sathya Sai Baba and Islam

>Sathya Sai Baba’s reputation – Rama or Ravana?
Analysis of Sai Baba’s claims to have been Krishna – weeping saris etc.

No endorsement of President Obama by Sathya Sai Baba

It was notable that Sathya Sai Baba never uttered the slightest support for Barack Obama, even after he was elected. There was also no endorsement of Sathya Sai Baba by President Barack Obama either! The inauguration of the most powerful person in the world was NOT the inauguration of Sathya Sai Baba as ‘King of the World’ as prophesied by the spurious palm leaves and astrological contrivances of Shastri Narayana of Bangalore, which were all taken up strongly by many of his selected representatives and dedicated followers.

Barack Obama realistically said in his inaugural speech that American faces an uncertain future, but that Americans’ efforts could shape it… for the US and also the world.

Contrariwise, the self-professed ‘omniscient’ Sathya Sai Baba claims that the future is determined – by himself (as Creator and Ruler of the Universe) – and that it is India that will shape the world’s future.  (see scan of statement about India as the ‘first carriage’)

In an interview, Obama said: “I’m a big believer in tolerance. I think that religion at it’s best comes with a big dose of doubt. I’m suspicious of too much certainty in the pursuit of understanding just because I think people are limited in their understanding.
I think that, particularly as somebody who’s now in the public realm and is a student of what brings people together and what drives them apart, there’s an enormous amount of damage done around the world in the name of religion and certainty.”

This  latter is diametrically opposed to Sathya Sai Baba’s dogma, which is a preaching of certainty above all, and which considers doubt weakness and ungodly. At his inauguration, for the first time in US history, the invocation given by Pastor Rich Warren, referred (positively) to non-believers: “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness,” said the nations’ 44th president. “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.”

On the propaganda  website saibabaofindia it is stated “Swami’s photo is with President elect Barak Obama”  See also on this here). Apropos, in his Obama-approved invocation Warren’s  words included: “I humbly ask this,” he said, “in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (Hay-soos), who taught us to pray.” At Hotline On Call the commentator notes:” In invoking the name of Jesus in four languages, Warren’s message is that Jesus is his God but also the God of many, no matter race or nationality.”

So Warren and Obama certainly do not recognise Sathya Sai Baba as being God, or in any other manner! President Obama visited India in 2010, but his name was never mentioned in connection with Sai Baba then, and he did not, of course, visit him. Nor did Obama send any form of condolence whatever when Sai Baba died and was buried. This puts paid to any fantasies that Obama recognised Sai Baba in any way.

Sathya Sai Baba Miracles, truth and misconceptions

Dr. Acharya Yogeesh of the Hindu-Jain ashram was very negative about Sathya Sai Baba’s miracle claims, such as the production of ‘holy ash’ (vibuthi). He is a fairly standard type guru and is not very convincing when he tells that one can “never trust anyone”  except oneself. In fact, he did not forward  any new counter evidence to speak of but he holds that Sathya Sai Baba ‘miracles’ are no different from the tricks done on the streets by performers. On the other hand, he said “…and when I was visiting his ashram one time, I met his family. I think they belong to that category (i.e. street performers) so he is learning those tricks. They are not miracles, they are tricks.” (see YouTube here)

Legerdemain and deception by Sai Baba is a fact
That Sathya Sai Baba uses sleight-of-hand tricks is established beyond any reasonable doubt and this is seen on numerous videos, and it is attested by numerous former followers that he fetches rings, watches and other objects from behind himself on his chair.. and even by some current followers too! Whether all his very many reported miracles are merely tricks, or over-zealous interpretations, or have other causes is still an open question, despite what Yogeesh says.

That Sathya Sai Baba has ‘religiously’ avoided any genuine scientific controls or submitted to test or questions by independent researchers is a well-known fact. Naturally, all open-minded people would ask why he cannot allow such investigations of his ‘miracles’ – or of anything else to do with him – when these matters are so controversial. He insists on blind belief and no investigation of himself whatever! That should be sufficient to show that he is deeply involved in deception, but there is massive documentation from hundreds of persons that he is a deceiver and this is a unscrupulous abuser of people’s trust and faith

Sathya Sai Baba did grow up in a family of village performers and act with them

The grandfather of Sai Baba was a performer, as Prof. Kasturi – made clear in Volume 1 of the official biography of Sai Baba (Satyam,Sivam, Sundaram) and he taught the family who also often performed in villages around the area. Judging by the constant references to their involvement in village plays and wandering musical groups by Kasturi, it seems to have been their main employment. He wrote: “Because the brothers and the father were all extremely interested in the village operas on the legendary histories of India, and since plays were very often rehearsed at home…” and “He could sing all the songs rehearsed at home for the village operas and mystery plays.“

What is meant by “village operas” and “mystery plays” one may guess, most likely Kasturi’s way of making what were itinerant “street performances” seem nobler, for nothing he wrote about his Lord and master was ever less than exorbitant praise and poetic euology. They were “open air” performances, as Kasturi also makes clear. Though the emphasis is put heavily on the religious nature of all this – and that proceeds were distributed to the poor and so forth – no secret is made of money being collected. Further, one notable incident Kasturi records proves that not all Sathya’s performances had any religious content.  One suspects there were other such too. Sathya Sai copied and improved on the gymnastic feats of “…a girl dancer whose stage name was Rishyendramani, who performed a series of gymnastic dances with music. Her highlight was a dance in which she kept time to the music while balancing a bottle on her head” “Sathya’s sisters dressed him as Rishyendraman, complete with hair-do and personal decoration…” and so on.

This incident indicates that much of what went one was described by Kasturi on the basis of hearsay (he was never there at the time) and his blind devotion to Sathya Sai Baba, and that much less savoury was omitted. This  is also proven by the account of the young Sathya given by his contemporary, Smt Vijayamma, herself a blind devotee yet who writes a far less one-sided account of Sathya Sai Baba’s personality and activities from her own experience. See review of ‘Other than You Refuge I have None’ and a very revealing account from that book

Sathya Sai Baba followers in education and science

Much is made of Sathya Sai Baba followers who are said to be ‘educationalists’ and  ‘scientists’, and not a few of them – especially the Indians, who are the clear majority in these categories, always add a string of letters after their names. In Sai Baba literature and lectures they are often called ‘prominent’ , but their prominence is invariably limited to Sai Baba circles and not the world scene, where none have high profiles – if any at all.  In short, no world-class or genuinely famous scientists nor any major figure in the humanities or even literature have declared their faith in Sathya Sai Baba. Former science workers who still support him are more likely to adhere to the ideological misconceptions Sathya Sai Baba promotes as ‘Saience’ (to replace ‘science’)  rather than world scientific consensus (such as his main propagandist today, the former physicist G. Venkataraman (see links at foot of page).

Why is there a total absence of scientific or pedagogic discussion – let alone peer reviews – at anything like a professional level in any of the publications by these known followers of Sathya Sai Baba? Why are no references ever made to international educational bodies’ findings or official governmental reports, academic studies, or the work of any known and respected professional pedagogues and educationalists worldwide? Further, why are there virtually no names of scientists or educationalists genuinely well-known and regarded as authorities in their professions outside the circle of Sai Baba devotees? The answer, Sathya Sai Baba is the infallible source of all knowledge and wisdom for all followers and no other information is needed! But his is highly fallible and repeatedly demonstrates crass ignorance of science, history an even religions.

Not one head of any independent University in the world has endorsed Sathya Sai Baba educational ideals or programmes, and – as is well known – a branch of UNESCO withdrew from a planned educational conference under the auspices of Sathya Sai Baba at Puttaparthi once they had investigated what this involved. (See UNESCO’s warning on Sathya Sai Baba here)

Not one Nobel laureate is known to be a follower, as far as can be discovered. Incidentally, Sathya Sai Baba has been forwarded as a candidate for the Nobel Peace prize by the Indian Government, obviously without result, of course. He made clear his  hopes that he would receive it from Dr. Michael Nobel, a grandson of Alfred Nobel, but a person who the Nobel Committee has denounced. See Sathya Sai Baba’s hunger for international recognition

One name formerly brandished by Sai followers was Dr. Bhagavantam, because he was a developer of the Indian atomic bomb, though he is not a noted discoverer in world science. However, even Dr. Bhagavantham  left Sathya Sai Baba after two decades of being one of the guru’s right-hand men. The reasons for his departure have been obfuscated by present followers, but he became critical and went of his own accord years before his death, never to return.

See alsoThe Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory
UNESCO and Indian Government – Were Up To Tricks
BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

Radio Sai chief  Dr. G. Venkataraman – Sai propagandist,  and cover-up minion

Apologist for Sathya Sai Baba
G. Venkataraman – chief propagandist for ‘God’
Venkataraman – the most gullible physicist alive?
Venkataraman, a victim of emotional blackmail?
Money, Morality and Sai-worshipper Dr. Venkataraman

Sai Baba films by Richard Bock

On the Richard Bock film, Aura of Divinity, made in the 1970s, the commentator asserts that Sathya Sai Baba has said that he will be reborn as Prema Sai eight years after his leaving the Sathya Sai body. But others (such as former UK Central Coordinator Lucas Ralli -deceased) have since asserted that he has said it would be only one year after his death. He has predicted his own death on several occasions – once that he would live until age 92 or 93, then again that he would live to 96 years. He has also said he can decide when he will ‘leave the body’ and it will depend on his will in the circumstances. So take your pick!

The Hollywood film producer Richard Bock also investigated Mayan, Aztec and Hopi legends, presenting them as predictions of Baba’s advent in his film “Sai Baba – In the Light of Prophecy“. These are most unconvincing, however, for he simply mentions them as source materials without presenting them properly or evaluating them.

This is typical of the major propaganda made by people who should have been professional enough to check their materials properly. But Bock and his wife (both deceased) were completely dedicated to Sathya Sai Baba and liked to live at his ashram regularly, where they owned a small apartment in Roundhouse 1. He was a privileged person at the ashrams, of course, because he made many uncritical films eulogising Sathya Sai Baba, such as ‘The Universal Teacher’ in 3 parts, ‘The Aura of Divinity’ in 2 parts, ‘The Endless Stream’, ‘The Message I Bring’, ‘His Life is His Message’, ‘Truth is My Name’ and others.

See also Sathya Sai prophesied as ‘king of the world’ from 2000
Bogus Prophecies about Sathya Sai Baba
Sai Baba prophecy as the Islamic Saviour ‘Mahdi’?
Predictions. prophecies and promises

Study of Sathya Sai Baba’s Miracles

An on-line web paper (by Ted Powell) is adapted from the  book “Sai Baba’s Miracles: an overview” by Dale Beyerstein. The extensive paper has considerable food for thought for any intelligent, educated person who is interested in Sathya Sai Baba. It is found at the BC Society for Skeptical Inquiry website here

Sai Baba is an example of a God-Man: a man who claims to be a god. While God-Men are abundant in Asia, Sai Baba has been very successful in not only attracting followers in that continent, but also in the rest of the world. The contents of this papers are as follows (click on links):-

* The Purpose of This Study
*    Background Information About Sai Baba
*    Claims Made About Sathya Sai Baba
2. Sai Baba: Omniscient and Omnipotent?
3. Did Sai Baba Resurrect Someone From The Dead?
4. Does Sai Baba have telepathy
5. Accounts of materializing objects
6. Sundry Miracles
7. Healing
8. Fulfilment of prophecy
9. Bibliography