In 2010 the situation for Sathya Sai people in Russia was highlighted by the usual crises about imitators of Sathya Sai Baba and the problems with breakers of the Organization’s stringent censorship rules. That there are only 100 members (70% probably inactive!) in the huge city of Moscow tells its own story… and this was well before Sathya Sai Baba was known to have fallen seriously ill, been kept going with drugs before his internal organs collapsed and he took to his deathbed!
There are many signs that the initiated can read that a somewhat parallel kind of internal collapse is going on to some extent in Sai Centres all around the world, especially since Sai Baba’s ignominious death in an unconscious state by disconnection from his life support years before he predicted! None dare to air their grievances in public for those who leave the organization have all reason to expect harassment and those who remain fear exclusion from membership and all meetings… plus all the (insubstantial) promises of possible liberation, a better life after ‘rebirth’ and suchlike pipe dreams. Now that the Indian hotshots rule the roost, things can only get worse – especially for foreign devotees – and the non-transparency, authoritarian top-down treatment of members and unaccountability on donated money can only be expected to worsen
News about the Sathya Sai Organization Centre, Moscow
An annual members meeting took place recently on a Sunday in Moscow Sai centre. One person who attended it posted some news on the Russian Sai Baba forum.
(1) There are about 100 registered members of Moscow Sai Centre. Many of them have not attended the centre activities for a long time. That is why it is going to be a re-registration process to define active members. It is expected that about 30% will prove to be real members after all.
(2) Those office bearers who went to St Petersburg to see a false guru claiming Sai Baba speaks through him etc., in July despite an official warning in Sanathanana Sarathi in the May 2002 issue and repeated later in the same journal and in an internal Sathya Sai Organization letter. They lost their offices and Sai teachers and teacher instructors have been banned from teaching.
(3) Ravi Shankar Polisetty (a former doctor in Sai general hospital in Puttaparthi who graduated from some medical institute in Belorussia) who is living in Moscow now is forbidden to deliver public speeches in the Moscow Sai centre as he is not a member of the Organisation. He has had to stop his lectures on the Ramayana despite the fact that he is a very famous devotee. A special permission has been requested for him but still there has been no reply from the authorities.
(4) The fire ritual (Arathi) has been completely stopped in the centre though it is very popular.
This news caused a lively discussion on the Russian Sai Baba forum. Many people expressed their disappointment in the SSO. The SSO Coordinator for Russia and Eastern Europe, Steen Piculell (read about him here!) attended the latest all-Russia Satsang. Piculell’s attention was drawn to the fact that 4 persons have been chairpersons in Moscow Sai Centre since the time of its inception and none had attended the centre since. Steen answered that the Russian National coordinator had told him it was because of their personal problems. Of course, he knew well that the reason was in each case the discovery of the truth about Sathya Sai Baba! Steen is a totally indoctrinated follower who lies freely in order to cover over all untoward events!
In view of this infinitiesimal branch of the cult in Moscow, it is strange indeed that the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to India, Mr. Alexander M. Kadakin, wrote a letter of condolence (only in English, no Russian version posted!) allegedly on behalf of “thousands of Russians” – but more likely posted because he liked Sai Baba and could misuse his position to support him, as is almost always the case in India and Russia.
Read a summary covering the Sathya Sai Organization here
A very full analysis of the Organization and its closed and unaccountable nature
Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed 