The following is an excerpt from the Sathya Sai Baba discussion page on Wikipedia, which is of wide interest. It is by Brian Steel, whose other recent comments on the parlous state of affairs on Wikipedia’s Sathya Sai Baba page (given lower down) are also very pertinent.
Love is My Form, Volume 1 (2000). A Glimpse
One of the major revelations in Love is My Form, supported by school register photostats, was that Sathya Narayana Raju did not declare himself to be the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba in 1940 (aged nearly 14), as he and his Organisation have claimed for over 60 years, but in 1943 (presumably aged 16-plus if the 1926 birth date is correct). The chronology established by the team of local researchers unfolds thus:
Sathya Narayana probably spent the school years 1935-1936 to1939 or 1940 in the Elementary School in Puttaparthi (see pp. 40-41). The 1940-1941 school year was spent, not on his Mission as the legend would have us believe, but at distant Kamalapuram Elementary School where his elder brother was teaching. On pp. 68-69 we are shown a Transfer Certificate from Kamalapuram School to Bukkapatnam, which indicates attendance in the First Form in Kamalapuram, from 11 June 1940 to 22 April 1941. He joined Bukkapatnam in Jukt 1941 and left on 6 April 1942 (see p.69 and pp. 128-9).
There follows a gap of many months until Sathya resurfaces in Uravakonda (140 km northwest of Puttaparthi) at his elder brother’s house in early 1943 and finally enrols in the Secondary School on 1 July 1943 (pp. 132-3), after the reported traumatic “scorpion” incident. He left that school a few months later, presumably following his Declaration of Mission. A summary of his school career is given on pp.128-9 of LIMF.
Neither Sathya Sai Baba nor the Sathya Sai Organisation have ever commented on this glaring biographical error.
There is much more relevant information for those who care to read the book, which only deals with the first 24 years of Sathya Sai Baba’s life. As I have pointed out previously, the following 5 or 6 planned volumes in the LIMF biographical series were abruptly cancelled a year or so after the publication of this first volume.
What should particularly interest readers of these pages (and Wikipedia admins even more), is the astonishing total neglect of such a basic and reputable source of information (these references and much more). Detailed references to LIMF have been available on the Internet for at least 7 years and yet no one involved with the Wikipedia article on Sathya Sai Baba has followed them up.
So maybe it is time to stop wasting time on futile (and sometimes solipsistic?) argument over trivia, and incessant partisan edit wars. Surely what is sorely needed, as I have indicated several times previously, is for editors to get down to some serious study of this and other neglected sources of published information on Sathya Sai Baba. If this is not done, there can be no hope of producing a reliable and balanced account of the career, controversial claims (yes, controversial) and achievements of Sathya Sai Baba in this encyclopedia. Ombudswiki (talk) 11:01, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
Comment: Ombudswiki is Steel’s chosen Wikipedia User name, but on his Wikipedia User Page he openly declares his identity and makes a comment:
Hi! My name is Brian Steel. What is yours?
The present system of anonymous User Names is a serious flaw in the Wikipedia system. In a small minority of controversial Wikipedia articles, this system has been deliberately abused, to the extent that malicious or frivolous contributors are able to wreak havoc and waste decent contributors’ time and energy on unnecessary edit wars (and often on protracted Arb. Com. Proceedings to try to rectify matters), sometimes in the cause of propaganda – or just for fun.
With its collective technical and technological expertise, why cannot the present Wikipedia hierarchy find some way of thwarting such cowardly abusers, for example, by demanding, as a condition for further participation in Wikipedia, proof of identity from conspicuous troublemakers and trolls, or from those suspected as running sock puppet identities?
Comment: There is a very good reason for Ombudswiki’s call for those who remain anonymous to declare themselves. Sathya Sai devotees very often hide behind anonymous user names – especially when they try to enter comments on this blogsite, and in hundreds of cases of e-mail (often hate mails) which are received by some of us. Gerald Joe Moreno – using the anonymous username SSS108 was one of the most virulent attackers of dissidents who have spoken out about Sai Baba, accused a Wiki administrator of using a ‘sock puppet’ identity. He was then immediately banned, and this was followed up by an indefinite ban on him and others by a board of Wiki administrators.
Now there are several unidentified persons virulently pushing their subjective Point of View on Sai Baba (some of their usernames are Sbs108 and Radiantenergy) but not daring to come forth as persons with nothing to hide. No surprise that there is a debate within Wikipedia about allowing anonymity to continue, since all the pseudo-information of vandals and POV pushers would then be far less of a hindrance to serious editing.
Incidentally, I (Robert Priddy) also have a username on Wikipedia, ProEdits, where I do not hide my true identity.
Note: Brian Steel’s web pages concentrate on examining the many claims of Sathya Sai Baba, based entirely on sound documentation. He has also compiled the most extensive bibliography on Sathya Sai Baba related publication in English available anywhere.
Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed 