“Miracles” are the bait: Sathya Sai Baba claims to perform countless major miracles, even that he could change “sky into earth and earth into sky”. Believe this if one can. He says “miracles are my visiting cards”, and indeed they are the bait which – if swallowed – hooks many so-called ‘spiritual seekers’ who wish to penetrate beyond the limits of ordinary perception. His attraction works not least through his apparently inexplicable manifestations of objects despite the fact that much of it is now known to take place by sleight of hand. Further, it is widely claimed to be the spontaneous appearance of traditionally holy substances (ash, nectar, kum kum, turmeric powder, milk etc.) on many pictures of himself in distant parts of the globe.
Sathya Sai Baba has charmed royalty, statesmen, and many politicians, plus rich and famous persons from many countries, to whom he gives pride of place before all other followers whenever they visit his ashram. Thus, he has influenced many followers to believe that he will become (some even believe he already is) the de facto ruler of the whole world! This is remarkable to anyone with knowledge of the world and religious cults… to believe such a thing is certainly nothing but to be badly deluded, if only due to ignorance of Sai Baba’s own published words, which demonstrate fully to any educated, independent person the ignorance and inconsistency that runs throughout his ‘teachings’.
If one is to credit the ‘incredible’ stories about his childhood and youth, many things supposedly set him apart from most spiritual leaders and gurus. The most primitive superstitions held in his poor peasant family and their village were supposedly disregarded by him from an early age. His insistence on vegetarianism from earliest childhood despite a meat-eating family is taken as an example of his ‘divine childhood enlightenment’. However, he has reaffirmed traditional superstitions on a grant scale in many ways and in many discourses since he became an adult! He preaches as literal truth most of the myths of Indian scripture and legend! (i.e. evil ogres, giant men, air vehicles, ancient moon travel, miraculous powers of sages and in idols of worship such as statues and Shiva lingams, plus much more in that mythological vein). Likewise his unperturbed behaviour when tortured by the magician after being thought to have become possessed by some entity (the marks of deep cuts on top of his head are still visible sometimes).
Through his apparently inexplicable manifestations of objects, even though much of it is now known to take place by sleight of hand, he has exerted great attraction on so-called ‘spiritual seekers’ who wish to penetrate beyond the limits of ordinary perception. His attraction also works through what is widely claimed to be the spontaneous appearance of traditionally holy substances (ash, nectar, kum kum, turmeric powder, milk etc.) on many pictures of himself in distant parts of the globe. He has charmed royalty, statesmen, and many politicians, plus rich and famous persons from many countries, to whom he gives pride of place before all other followers whenever they visit his ashram. Thus, he has influenced many followers to believe that he will become (some even believe he already is) the de facto ruler of the whole world! This is remarkable to anyone with knowledge of the world and religious cults… to believe such a thing is certainly nothing but to be badly deluded, if only due to ignorance of Sai Baba’s own published words, which demonstrate fully to any educated, independent person the ignorance and inconsistency that runs throughout his ‘teachings’.
There are hundreds of accounts of individual experiences of Sai Baba’s alleged ‘healing’ of all kinds of ailments and other ‘miraculous’ interventions. How much of this is over-positive interpretation, wishful imaginings (such as to raise one’s ‘spiritual status’ in the eyes of oneself and/or others) is an open question. Testimonies, of which there are a large number – including about 400 books in English – are weighted strongly in favour of Sai Baba having para-normal powers of thought transference, healing, manifestations of objects and many other inexplicable phenomena. See the definitive bibliography of Sai literature by academic Brian Steel. These he speaks of as being true, divine miracles. However, testimonies that show the limitations of these powers, that question the authenticity of the many excessive accounts or which expose fakery, have been relatively few, though these are increasing via the Internet. It is surely largely due to the fact that, until this technology existed, Sai Baba had virtual control of nearly all information about himself. He has long had mastery over whom he will allow into his proximity, guarded as he is by a very large number of servitors and security men.
Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed 