Shirdi Sai stated “I am not God”, while Sathya misrepresented him

Shirdi Sai uttered “I am NOT God but a humble servant of God”.
Allah Malik.

This statement runs totally counter to the claim by Sathya Sai Baba that Sai Baba of Shirdi was an avatar of God, the first in a trio of which Sathya Sai Baba claimed to be the second and most powerful. Anyone who has read the Sri Sai Satcharita or read the relevant literature on Shirdi Sai Baba will know that he never proclaimed himself as God, but lived most parsimoniously as a true sannyasin (renunciate) in an old open temple as a beggar and servant of the community, reportedly giving away everything that was donated for the purpose to him before the end of each day. In short, totally unlike Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi who has lived in a series of palatial apartments – fortresses defended by devices and armed security men – and pretended never to accept anything from anyone (even though dozens of followers have reported that he did –  and even asked outright for money – as in my case and of others I knew well!). After his death when his fortress was opened, a vast array of gold, silver, jewels, currency and a huge stock of other valuables down to and including dried fruit and biscuits, had been hoarded there by him and hidden away in caches making it difficult to locate everything!

The differences between Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai (born Sathya Narayana Raju) are so many and crucial that the claims of Sathya Baba are clearly false. He knew of Shirdi Baba, as did many others throughout India, from his early years, and he took over the name and pretended to be a reincarnation of him. This was a sure way of gaining prominence, considering the gullibility of hyper-religious villagers and also much of the middle class too. There are many around India today who claim to be reincarnations of the same Godheads as did Sathya, and many of them are doing very well on the back of it! To study the differences, as well as the less striking similarities, take a look at th works of Marianne warren or Kevin R.D. Shepherd, both of whom address the comparisons. UNRAVELLING THE ENIGMA– SHIRDI SAI BABA – IN THE LIGHT OF SUFISM by Marianne Warren  and THE ‘SAI BABA MOVEMENT by Kevin R.D. Shepherd

See also:Shirdi Sai Baba and Sathya Sai Baba
Shirdi Sai much more popular than Sathya Sai – statistics

Sai Baba on judging gurus’ genuineness

“The only test anyone can apply to a guru, of whatever kind, is whether his words are in harmony with his deeds. Gurus are to be judged by how words are put in practice.” (Sathya Sai Baba) Conversations… p. 18 new

Sathya Sai Baba repeatedly gave a ‘guarantee’ of liberation from the wheel of life (i.e. no more rebirths or ‘Moksha’) to all who saw a lingam emerge from his mouth at Shivarathri (most recently at Shivarathri 1999 when the scandals about his sex abuses broke and he had to turn the declining visitor numbers around  (see scans of his discourse excerpts and explanations here). His close US follower, Dr. John Hislop saw the lingam emerge on several occasions. When Hislop suggested it could be a boon to be reborn with Prema Sai, Sai Baba had contradicted him (in his usual definitive manner) to say it is definitely not so! (See (Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Sathya Sai Baba by Dr. John Hislop. 1996 revised extended edition, p. 227) 
Nonetheless, two other close servitors who also often saw the lingam emerge, Prof. N. Kasturi and his closest attendant Swami Karunyananda (both now deceased), were both told they would be with Prema Sai in their next incarnations (and can you believe that?). But a boon is most certainly not how Baba has often and forcefully described rebirth … which he holds to be the greatest tragedy that can befall anyone, to have to emerge from the womb in painful ignorance of our nature and so to cry ‘Koham? (‘Who am I?)! So much for that guru’s promises.

The above is one of countless false promises and prophesies made by Sathya Sai Baba, which have been documented from his own words and reported actions most thoroughly by dissident ex-followers. To see a fair amount of them, go to PREDICTIONS and PROMISES MADE BY SATHYA SAI BABA .

The following is another example of how Sathya Sai Baba sets the rumour mill grinding without having to stand forth openly himself:- “Wilma Bronkey was the featured presenter at the South Central Regional Conference held in Texas, 1999. One of her talks centered on the fact that Sathya Sai Baba had told a group of them in an interview the following basic story: The WHOLE world would be at peace within two years–a definite noticeable condition on the planet! I personally heard this talk and saw James Redmond tape her talk. It lasted over half an hour in length. This talk was heard by many hundreds of devotees. What a legacy of broken promises!”
Dennis J. Hanisch (this was his message 31953 on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sathyasaibaba2 – removed along with thousands of early postings by Yahoo apparently for reasons of webspace).
Yet another example: broken promise to young man to make him his airline pilot

Has the Sathya Sai movement ground to a halt?

Since Sathya Sai Baba’s death under most suspicious circumstances, the chief medical causes which never having been documented (AIDS?) by any death certificate or due process –  and not least since the dismal failure of one of Sai Baba’s most trumpeted prophesies, that he would live until he was in his 90s – the institutions he left behind  – and especially the  Sathya Sai Organization –  are evidently labouring under a huge publicity problem. Add to that the furore over the massive hoards of gold, currency and goods galore hidden everywhere in his rooms and inside his avatar-sized bed (5 by 5 metres!), and the rationalization problem faced by supporters is too much for most of them… which is surely why there is no news to be found any about the ashrams, colleges, organization and what have you. Not that there was ever really any much news due to the secrecy and censorship within which everything was cocooned, leaving his propagandists on official and unofficial websites and Radio Sai with little more to show than the thin fare of repeated repetitive discourses, repeats of unconfirmed miracle stories, photos from bygone years, outworn bhajans, bizarre wallpapers and other completely uninteresting kitch.

The unfortunates who find themselves in an organization which supported an unconvicted but widely accused sex abuser and criminal murder accomplice as well as a provenly bogus prophet – and many of them were good people with the best of intentions (including my wife and I before 2000) may still be continuing whatever service work they were engaged in, but my bet is that the majority of them who still hang onto a belief in Sai Baba because of his outward message of love and service will no longer kow-tow to the VIPs who ran the outfit like a pseudo-bureaucratic and top-down private and secret organization. Earlier, the stream of attacks and mostly anonymous (cowardly) invective directed against myself and other well-informed dissidents confirmed that our message was getting out and was a serious threat to the deniers and head-in-sand dependents of Sai Baba. These have now dwindled to a trickle, which again indicates that the fanatics are on the back foot and the enthusiasm has lost any real basis with the demise of their Great Pretender… pretender to the throne of the Universe, no less! Still, those who want to believe will continue to do so, with or without what passes as evidence for them. The rest of humanity will let any seeds of propaganda they came across fall by the wayside, we can be entirely certain of that!

Though we who wanted to learn the unsullied truth about all things connected to our former allegiance have been charged with wanting to become famous ourselves on the back of the World Avatar! It would have been far easier and less challenging for us to sit back and say nothing, as a majority of those former fanatics now with egg on their faces have chosen to do. We gave up the quiet life in the interests of defense of the vulnerable, the weak, the dispossessed and the deceived, the sexually and spiritually abused and the families of the murdered victims. The cure for the divine impostor syndrome is not to give up the work, but to focus on it.

See also:- Sathya Sai Organization no longer fit for purpose
Sathya Sai is fast becoming yesterday’s news
Sai Baba’s Distance and Unapproachability – a reminder

Barry Pittard: incisive exposure of Sathya Sai Baba and company

Please see the new page I have posted today on Barry Pittard’s invaluable work for over a decade on the SSB exposé (link here)

Conny Larsson’s popular books, film and video interviews

Conny Larsson is a well-known figure in Sweden, as a former actor of stage and screen, as a most successful therapist for hardened drug addicted youth and criminals, and more recently as the author of two dramatic and very popular autobiographical books exposing Sathya Sai Baba and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He has been interviewed on many radio and television shows in Scandinavia and in Danish-produced film National TV documentary ‘Seduced’ exposing Sai Baba (see video clips as linked below. He has also appeared on Argentinian TV, and at Anti-cult conferences in Europe to denounce Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuses and many deceptions and covered-up crimes.

See Conny Larsson’s ‘Behind the Mask of the Clown’ reviewed in which he recounts in searingly honest detail the events that befell him and how he finally freed himself from the indoctrinated delusions about Sathya Sai Baba

and also see review of The Beatles, Maharishi and I  in which he recounts his time as a devotee and private secretary to Maharishi, as well as how he became a Sai Baba devotee, with fresh insights about that and his liberation process.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD VIDEO CLIP 565Kb. View in Windows Media (wmv)1 Mb

CLICK ON IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD BRIEF VIDEO 3.9 Mb. Click for Windows Media Player wmv 4Mbs

CLICK ON IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD BRIEF VIDEO 2.9 MB. Click for Windows Media Player wmv 4Mbs

Conny Larsson explains how he was seriously sexually molested by Sathya Sai Baba, as can be seen in three short video clips.

Conny Larsson’s Swedish and English blogsite http://connyfolkeeugenlarsson.wordpress.com/
and also  WELCOME TO CONNY LARSSON’S HOME PAGE

Conny Larsson has rebutted the statements that were attributed falsely to him by a journalist and feasted upon by a pernicious Sai webtroll, Gerald Moreno. Moreno’s extremism in attacking Conny Larson viciously on dozens of blogs and websites shows his near-pathological denial of the many true and infamous facts about the person he admires and supports above all, Sathya Sai Baba is extraordinary while he – with incredible inconsistency – also has rejects his main claims stated he is omniscient, omnipotent and an avatar’ and more besides). Larsson’s explanation of the attack is found here.

Narendra Nayak: award-winning humanist with secular values

PROFESSOR NARENDRA NAYAK

Narendra Nayak works full-time as a propagator of the scientific spirit and an exposer of religious and pseudo-scientific myths, diverse Indian superstition and guru fraud – especially alleged miracles. He is constantly on the move throughout India visiting branches of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, of which he is the National President. Under its umbrella are several scores of rationalist, humanist and atheist groups in India. For this work he received this year a top award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Since he retired from his university post in 2011 to devote himself to the national rationalist effort he has been making unprecedented progress in training potential future leaders of his organization – not only in schools and colleges but with organizing rationalists, skeptics, free-thinkers, secularists and atheists who are becoming public speakers, researchers, and public demonstrators of fraudulent guru methods. He is also the head of the Indian Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

His services are in such great demand from across the subcontinent that he is seldom at home for long. His remit also occasionally includes countries around the world, either in personal visits, talks and demonstrations or in the shape of appearances on international TV and other media. Among the many programs are his demonstrations of fraud on the Discovery Channel, and Is It Real? by National Geographic, The Secret Swami by the BBC and dozens of Indian channels (originally from Mangalore,he  fortunately speaks nine languages). He was inspired by his predecessor, founder of the Indian Scepti, Basava Premanand, whose own efforts earned him a national award.Premanand was a major whistle-blower on Sathya Sai Baba’s involvement in sexual abuse, murders, bogus miracles and many other deceptions of the public.

A postgraduate in Medical biochemistry, Narendra Nayak was an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the Centre for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore until the 25th November 2006 when he quit the job to continue full-time his work in the field of the rationalist movement. He is the founder of Dakshina Kannada Rationalist Association and has been its Secretary since 1976.

Professor Narendra Nayak: leading light of Indian rationalism

Recently Narendra Nayak visited Oslo to attend the annual Humanists’ International Conference here. To his surprise, he was given the Distinuished Service to Humanism Award for exceptional contributions to the work of IHEU. On that occasion we also met and had valuable and interesting discussions, not least about the massive fraud and deception for which Sathya Sai Baba and his people stood and still stand.

Of Professor Narendra Nayak, the International Humanist and Ethical Union website states:-
“He is today India’s most active anti-superstition activist, fighting the magical conception of the world, and building a grassroots movement.

He speaks nine languages and can lecture in all of them, which is what he has been doing across the length and breadth of India for several years, and especially since he took voluntary retirement from his well paid job as a Professor of Bio Chemistry at a Medical College in Mangalore.

He resigned from his job because of the call of duty: the mantle of promoting Rationalism fell on him as the indomitable but ageing Premanand asked him to step in. And he has been true to Premanand’s vision and commitment: he has conducted at least 3000 miracle-exposure and science popularization shows, and trained several hundred activists. He addresses gatherings in villages and in town halls; he speaks at important high-level workshops on science.

He travels so much by train that his close collaborator Babu Gogineni has recommended that he should pay rent to the Indian railways rather than to his landlord in Mangalore where he is also quite well known as a consumer rights activist.

His public sessions are aimed at educating people of all ages, starting from children to professionals. The sessions are also entertaining and make spectacular visuals: National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel and Australia’s Channel 9 have all showcased his work.

As a life-long teacher he has been sharing his knowledge with others: he is a national level resource person for the National Council for Science and Technology and played an important role in the Children’s Science Congresses in India.

Millions in India have seen him on TV performing psychic surgery, materializing objects from nowhere, and challenging Godmen in India and Nepal to demonstrate a miracle. He has offered a million rupees to anyone who can demonstrate a miracle. His million rupees seem to be safe!

He is President of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations which is now growing from strength to strength. He has been closely associated with IHEU in all the recent initiatives in the Indian subcontinent, participating and supporting.

It gives IHEU great pleasure to give Professor Narendra Nayak the 2011 Distinguished Service to Humanism Award.”

• See also:- Miracles of Sudhamani : Essay by Narendra Nayak
• Rationalists expose quack : Essay by Narendra Nayak
• Indian Rationalists Expose Another Quack : Essay by Narendra Nayak
• Fake astrologer falls into rationalists’ trap : Report in Deccan Herald
• http://www.ourkarnataka.com/narendranayak/  :Articles by Narendra Nayak

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Nayak Narendra Nayak in Wikipedia

Sathya Sai Baba and the unpalatable truth

“Speak truth, speak pleasantly and do not speak unpalatable truth” (Sanathana Sarathi October 2003, p. 296).

Almost every statement of any import will be “unpalatable” to someone on the planet, so this extremely vague advice – if religiously followed (as Sai devotees are required to so) would lead to hardly anyone telling anything. Many Sai Baba devotees try hard to follow this dictum, even to the extent that they do not refer to Sai Baba’s death on Wikipedia. Death as applied to him is clearly “unpalatable” to them. This is defended by certain Wikipedia administrators, for example  the very biased pro-guru administrator Rumiton who energetically finds niggling arguments to exclude as much of the “unpalatable truth” as he can get away with – like rejecting statement of the obvious fact that Sai Baba was a “controversial figure“! Which he overwhelmingly was – see here).

Sai Baba claimed that his every word about the future must necessarily come true. However, this has been shown to be completely wrong in dozens of instances. One small example, according to a 1984 book by very close devotees, Sathya Sai Baba said that “In this body I will not become old or infirm as in my old body.”[27]  Balu, Shakuntala (1981. Living Divinity. London: Sawbridge, pp. 40. ISBN 0907555004).That he became old and infirm is a known fact -firstly, he suffered numerous bone breakages (his arm, not least) and – reported by various media in India, became garbled in his speech. He had lost the sight in one eye, suffered twice from a broken hip, which became a chronic illness after the second time, consigning him to a wheelchair permanently. His mental and physical degeneration was seen most vividly on his last birthday celebration (at which he cried in public). That was 5 months before his death following upon malnutrition, huge weight loss and massive organ failures. All this is “unpalatable” for Wikipedia’s Wackpedian administrator. There is a long entry refuting the critics of Sai Baba, but the critics are represented only briefly by a very watered-down few points which are purposely not properly documented by links (removed by Sai devotees). This ought to be put right by those who are properly informed and know how to edit Wikipedia pages!

Also highly unpalatable to followers in denial is the following must read blog: Sathya Sai Baba Made Huge Science and History Mistakes

Sathya Sai Baba a highly controversial and contentious figure

Many devotees of Sathya Sai Baba deny that he was a subject of controversy. They are either very ill-informed about the many issues concerning him – as the Sai organization always does all in its power to ensure they are – or else they wilfully deny this against better knowledge, such as on the Sathya Sai Baba Wikipedia discussion pages, which have long been a complete parody on any kind of objectivity due to major intervention by Sai Baba devotees to remove all possible negative facts.

However, critical articles have been written at least since the 1970s in India, such as by the famous Professor Narasimhaiah of Bangalore University and diverse others, notably Basava Premanand, Vir Sanghvi, Abraham Kovoor, and Professor Narendra Nayak. Many international newspapers from UK, USA, Canada, Australia and other countries have carried critical articles about Sathya Sai Baba (as can be seen here)

Further, after the death of Sathya Sai Baba (24/4/2011) many newspapers carried reminders of the controversies involving murder, sex abuse and sleight-of-hand ‘miracles’ and a number of them repeated the following phrase in their reports and obituaries: “Sai Baba was also mired in controversies, with several news reports about allegations of sexual abuse and fake miracles”. Here are some other international newspapers etc. which used the word controversy or controversial about Sathya Sai Baba.

The Economist “Sathya Sai Baba (Satyanarayana Raju), one of India’s most controversial gurus, died on April 24th” (See here)

India Today “As India’s most enduring god-man enters his 75th year, his spirituality rests uneasily with controversy.” (See here)

The Guardian “But though revered by millions around the world as a living god, he was a controversial figure, criticized by some as a fraud protected by political influence. His later years were dogged by allegations of sexual abuse.” (See here)

The Telegraph “Sathya Sai Baba, who died yesterday, probably aged 84, was India’s most famous, and most controversial, Swami or holy man, and one of the most enigmatic and remarkable religious figures of the last century” (See here)

The BBC “To his devotees, Sai Baba was an avatar, an incarnation of God in human form, who appeared on Earth to preach his inspirational message in one of India’s poorest corners.To his critics, he was a fraudster dogged for years by controversial allegations of sexual abuse yet protected from prosecution by virtue of his powerful political sway” (See here)

Time “He was also accused of faking miracles and of being a sexual predator.” (See here)

CBS News “Sai Baba was also mired in controversies, with several news reports about allegations of sexual abuse and fake miracles.” (See here)

The New York Times “Rationalist critics led campaigns against him, calling him a charlatan and his miracles fake. And several news reports accused him of sexually abusing followers, accusations that he denied, and for which he was never charged.” (See here)

Indian Express “From ordinary believers to the President of India, his clout spread far and wide but controversy also followed Puttaparthi Sathya Sai Baba all along” (See here)

The Los Angeles Times  “After declaring himself the reincarnation of a Hindu saint in 1940 he built a loyal following, including politicians, and celebrities, despite allegations of sexual abuse” (see here)

The Statesman, Calcutta: NEW DELHI, Nov 12. — “Godmen and controversies have always gone hand in hand. Rajnish, Sai Baba, Dhiren Brahmachari and Chandraswami. And now the Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswati, who was projected by the erstwhile NDA regime as the honest broker in the Ayodhya tangle.  The most controversial of the lot were of course Rajnish and Satya Sai Baba.”

The Hindu  ‘The phenomenon of Satya Sai Baba: A Sinning God?’  by Pushpa M. Bhargava. Let us examine his above claims and actions one by one. There is not a shred of evidence of rebirth; the very idea of rebirth goes against all of science… As regards his being a reincarnation of God, the only proof he provided was that of performing miracles or miraculous acts. The fact is that he never performed a miracle… As regards the miraculous cures he claimed to have performed, we never heard of his failure… Sai Baba’s unusual accomplishment was to recruit such a large number of the rich and the powerful, politicians and bureaucrats, law-makers, law-keepers, and law dispensers, amongst his followers. Perhaps this is more of a reflection on his followers than him! ” (See here)

Argentinian TV Sai Baba: A Sinning God?  A TV Programme sent in 2000, presented by A. Agnostelli. A header was: “This is one of the most venerated and controversial men on the planet”. (See here) (and here)

St Albert Gazette (Canada) “Sai Baba was also mired in controversies, with several news reports about allegations of sexual abuse and fake miracles. A 2004, a BBC television program called the “Secret Swami” featured interviews with at least two American male devotees who claimed the guru had fondled their genitals and exposed himself to them while claiming it was part of a healing ritual. (See here)

About.com – Hinduism “Sathya Sai Baba “Despite the myriad controversies surrounding him, Sathya Sai Baba remained a popular Guru throughout his life with a huge number of followers around the world” (See here)

See also:- Sathya Sai Baba’s Deterioration: Long Mental and Physical Slide Into Chaos

Sathya Sai Baba down the rabbit hole

Sathya Sai Baba promoted a veritable inverted Wonderland which he said could only be entered by those blessed by God (i.e. himself, the Incarnate Creator of the Universe, (see documentation). This spiritual wonderland is where his devotees will get liberation from the wheel of existences’ (or moksha). This fabled paradisal haven for ‘liberated souls’  – a realm of eternal bliss, consciousness and being – he never described in any intelligible way! Where it is (can’t be in space-time) is anyone’s guess… as likely as not it is down a rabbit hole as through a looking glass’, or where devotees go – blinded like rabbits in a headlight –  into a dark night to become one with a non-existent God in oblivion.

However, ‘down here in the real world’, where thankfully Sai Baba no longer can strut his stuff, he claimed to have created its earthly semblance, calling it ‘The Abode of Supreme Peace” (Prashanthi Nilayam). It is a Disney-coloured extravaganza of buildings, temples, museums, colleges, VIP palace-like buildings and an opulent hospital. A make-believe place, and to help in making such a belief is to erect a tinsel-gilded cage of doctrine, taboos, rules, restrictions and commandments around oneself. Followers willingly resigned most of their personal freedom and autonomous will,  and ignored their own minds, concentrating on ‘the heart but not the head’, and ceasing to interact intelligently and openly with the wider world of human learning and experience.

The Abode of Supreme Peace amounted to the Abode of Supremely Peaceful Sai Baba, nothing more or less. So what was living at this ‘Abode of Supreme Peace’ like? Firstly no outward peace prevailed there, for not only were the milling crowds of undisciplined devotees constantly pushing for privileges and best places, but it was often an auditory hell – with blaring distorting loudspeakers and building racket by day, howling packs of warring pi-dogs by night. Due to a primitive open sewerage pit, large areas of the ashram stank to High Heaven (as the saying so aptly associates it). With a few honourable exceptions, the staff were mostly conceited small Napoleons (as if having ‘arrived spiritually’) who ordered their inferiors about (i.e. visitors), while making all kinds of hindrance and difficulty for normal living, remaining open to corruption for privileges and embezzlement wherever possible.

The supreme peace was interrupted most rudely at times, such as when young male devotees were murdered in his apartment in 1993! He fled away and orchestrated their cold-blooded murder, carried out by blackmailing the police. (See eye-witness account Night of the Murders)

Sathya Sai was occasionally yet less predictable and more imperious than Alice’s ‘Red Queen’, ruling students and servitors with an iron fist when he saw fit and ‘testing’ whether followers faith in him was sufficient through inexplicable statements, errant behaviour, and unacceptable acts (see one small example. Prince Gopal – here). Even the Red Queen, however, was not accused of major sexual abuses on young men and boys.

The ashrams were visited by many disturbed people, who were often dealt with in draconian ways, and no more peculiar collection of true believers could probably be found anywhere.  March hares and mad hatters abounded, no less dormice (the slothful and unhelpful residents who hoped for salvation just by being there). There were any amount of battling Tweedledum and Tweeledee egos and strange inhabitants and hangers-on around Sai Baba, of whom there were an unusually large percentage even compared to most other large personality cults.

In that fantasy-full environment people talked of yet stranger things than pink string, ceiling wax and whether cows have wings… because Sai Baba himself told them that he had magnetic feet which pulled the entire earth towards him – because the earth loved him! He actually also vouchsafed to his audience in a discourse that the whole of him was magnetic, literally – that things stuck to his body! (See here)

In October 2007, numerous reports claimed Baba ‘gave darshan on the moon’ as he had announced he would that evening. However, the sky was overclouded and the event had to be called off. That received much coverage in the Indian press and on Sai-promotional websites, though it was also debunked on various Indian news outlets like Sulekha.com and DNA India. (http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-puttaprthi-sai-baba-misses-date-with-miracle-1125805).

In Wonderland, the fewest visitors got straight or frank answers from Sai Baba – and least of all from the officials. Finding out what actually happened behind closed doors was impossible except to those very few who get the chance to learn deeply buried facts in one unexpected way or another and worked hard to investigate. Even apart from the continual cover-up by all his officials and institutions of all untoward incidents, it was extremely difficult for those who have been inculcated into the whole divergency and disconnentedness of the Sai Baba belief system to do what Alice did in ‘Through the Looking Glass’, namely, discover that it is all really a house of cards and knock it down!

Bon Giovanni refuted firmly by Afshin ‘Said’ Khorramshahgol

Though this mail is not recent, it explains very well many of the misconceptions about Sathya Sai Baba and his sexual abuses of boys and young men and illustrates the psychological mechanism of intense denial, as witnessed in the confused and deluded ideas of Bon Giovanni, who presents himself as a ‘Sai Critic’ so as to try to confuse those searching for the facts about Sathya Sai Baba’s deceptions. Said Khorramshahgol is one of the most articulate of those sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba, and his accounts are well worth reading if one has any doubt tht SB actually abuses to satisfy his own desires! His main testimony is found here

Sathya Sai Baba and Spiritual Molestation–a critique by Said

Author: Said Publisher: The NEURAL SURFER Publication date: June 1997

E-mail David Christopher Lane directly at dlane@weber.ucsd.edu

From: Said Khorramshahgol
To: “‘dlane@weber.ucsd.edu'”
Subject: Response to Bon
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 08:39:58 -0700

Hello Professor Lane, the following is another response to Bon’s response to my first posting.
Regards,
Afshin.

As to not confuse the readers between Bon’s writings and my own, Bon’s writings will be inside double parenthesis. 20

((These can manifest as suffering, especially when addressing specifics. That may explain why the fellows offer but few specifics,
then usually embroider the facts with hyperbole, resulting in their frequent assumptions.))

I would like everyone to see what I have based my based my opinion of Raju – aka Sai Baba, his last name – so that they can choose if they are facts or assumptions as Bon claims. They are the following:
1. I have seen three movies with some very clear, close shots of Baba cheating on “materializations” of “holy” ash, a necklace, and either another necklace or a rings, I don’t remember which one.
2. I have had Raju touch my testicle some five or six times. He has hugged me while touching me. He has breathed hard and made sexual noises. So, I have concluded that he was touching me in a sexual way.
3. Raju has directed me to touch his testicle by taking my hand and rubbing it against his testicle. Further, he made loud sexual noises.
So, I have come to the conclusion that he was sexually aroused and enjoying it.

I would like Bon to answer the following:
1. If Raju was healing something in my testicle, why did he hug me? Why did he have to hug me to do so?
2. If Raju was healing something in my testicle, why did he make sexual noises?
3. If Raju was healing something in my testicle, why did he breathe harder?
4. Why did Raju have me touch his testicle?20
5. If Raju was trying to perhaps teach me something or whatever other answer you have come up with, why did Raju make sexual noises while he directed me to touch him?
6. Can you point out what assumptions I have made?
7. Can you point out how I have embroidered the facts with hyperbole?

((Those who have met Sai may however differ or agree with Said or with me, but surely those who at least read Sai’s teachings, instead of only the comments by men like me or Said, might recall that Swami again and again advises folks to build their lives and their faiths NOT ON HIS PERSON, >NOT ON STORIES ABOUT HIM, GOOD OR BAD, but rather on their own experience, and to use that resulting basis of direct experience to develop keen attention, and with that to develop unbiased insight.))

It might not be wise to listen to others views at times, but you can’t generalize and say you should never listen to other’s views regarding someone else. So, Raju, the all knowing, is wrong when it comes to this point. You are thinking based on your faith in Raju. You have accepted that he is God and you are thinking that each person has a different experience and belief regarding Raju, a belief which is strong within Raju’s followers. So, as a result you are saying no one should judge Raju based on anyone else’s experiences solely based on your belief that he is God and his teachings are the Truth. But to me and to a major majority of people he is just a human being and not what you think he is. We, as logical human beings can listen to other people’s experiences regarding Raju. To everyone who is not a Raju follower, it becomes more clear that Raju is a homosexual and a charlatan if two people have the same experiences with him. Try all you want to convince them to forget our experiences, but we, they won’t be able to forget about similar accusations of sexual abuse, specially if they have kids.
I just wanted to give you a report of how we think down here.

Apparently you are too high and your mind too twisted and you need us to clear how logical thinking can be. And also, doesn’t Raju say that the character of the guru is important. I have read his teachings regarding the characteristics of a guru. He mentions many things about recognizing the qualities of the character of the guru. So, why does Raju and you not want others to examine the character of Raju? I will tell everyone why you and Raju want people to go there and see Raju up close. It is about Raju wanting people to be mesmerized with the idea of seeing miracles and seeing the source of these miracles and wanting to talk to him, etc. In the next few paragraphs I will explain how a person feels and why they feel that way when they go to see Raju the first time.

((That [experiencing Raju first hand] is the basis for sadhana, or spiritual discipline. Experience like that you see does example how understanding itself is best realized while *living* a teaching, not dwelling in imaginary states or assumed relationships))

Bon, there are two kinds of experiences, inner and outer. The outer is also important, even in cases such as studying Raju. Outer experiences can be even good for your spirituality, don’t you agree? It can even save you from fraud teachers who can ruin your life, don’t you agree?
I am sure you agree, and so how can you ask non-devotees to go and see Raju without considering my side of the story? If I am right about Raju, then their lives are ruined, agree? I am sure you agree, so how can you make such a suggestion? I know how you make a suggestion like
that, you are high and your mind is twisted, you don’t think logically as we do down here. You base your reasoning on your faith. You think that what Raju says is the Truth and most beneficial – as Raju devotees believe. So, your logical mind which would tell you “what if I am wrong and Raju is a fake” does not function. All your reasoning is shadowed by your faith, I am not saying you don’t have reasoning. Reasoning is a
sequence of if…then…else statements. But your if statement starts with the supposition that Raju is God. Can you undrestand? I would like to tell everyone how one feels when one goes to see Raju for the first time and why you feel as such. Imagine being told that someone has many millions of follower, he has risen the dead, many times, he can read your mind, tell of your past, your future, AND HE PERFORMS MIRACLES DAILY by creating holy ash, which is supposed to heal the sick and help those in need. Wouldn’t your mind boggle over that?
Even if you are very skeptical at first, after hearing about his many miracles for a while or hearing them from a couple of people, you might agree to check it out for yourself. You have also been told that this person not only claims to be God, he also claims that you are God. The effect this kind of statement has is shown by the following:
When he says you are also God in order to calm your mind over his claim to be God; the claim that you are also God, also makes you feel like there must be something I don’t understand about his philosophy, how can he and I be God? So, you leave it alone for the time being.
So you go to see Raju. You are very excited because this person is supposed to be a very special person indeed – the great miracles that you have been told comes to your mind. This is apparent in many books about “experiences” of people when they met Raju for the first time. I have read many stories where the people are thinking about so many different things while they are going to see him. You get excited and you can’t help it. This kind of excitement can be very soothing just like a spiritual experience and ecstasy. Also, you are very excited because you are waiting for that very first time that you will see a miracle. This is also evident in “experiences” of people who went to see Raju for the first time. Many write about looking for that first miracle. So your mind is boggling over the prospects of perhaps meeting a holy person who can do great miracles. Another thing is that on the first trip, if not everyone, a major majority of people want Raju to notice them and be so very kind to them. These people could be pure skeptics, but they feel that way anyhow. So, you also want a great deal of attention from Raju. You go there, and Raju doesn’t pay any attention to you for a while. This is also what many devotees have claimed or written in their books. After a week or two of waiting for Raju to notice you, you are becoming very upset and at the same time more excited. After living within thousands of devotees and constantly being told of Raju’s miracles, you are getting very excited – after all it could be true that he is doing miracles, that he is God – and you want him to notice you more. Another thing that could be nice is for you to talk to Raju face to face, which is only possible in an interview. You ask for it and you want it so bad. And finally, one day Baba looks at you or starts to notice you or talks to you. You feel like you are in heaven. Truly, you feel in a kind of spiritual ecstasy.
You know why because anytime, anyone wants something so bad and they get it, they get very happy. In your situation, while the thought that Raju might be God is in the back of your head-and most probably it has strengthened after two weeks of waiting and conversing with Raju devotees –, this feeling of happiness gets a kind of spirituality in your high. You will say and I have “WOW, this person who might be God-and whom I wanted so much to notice me-has finally noticed me!” If you observe your emotions and thoughts while you are there then you will see it for yourself. Unfortunately, the high and the ever increasing and intensifying idea that Raju might be God and the fact that we really would love to see God face to face makes it hard to face our real emotions and makes it hard to think about it logically. Wouldn’t it be great to see God face to face – specially after you have been there for two weeks and the idea that he might be God is getting stronger day by day? This is the feeling that Bon wants you to get. I, as a devotee, used to tell everyone that to see Raju is to love Raju, for this very reason. All Raju devotees think that way, because we used to talk about the first meetings with Baba, the first time he looked at us, etc. Bon is a pervert, he doesn’t want you to go there to examine Raju, he wants you to go there and get high and illogical. I am sure Jed would agree with me on this. Bon is a liar. So now you know Bon’s intentions and his personality. Every Raju devotee believes that their first visit to Raju is their best. That is because the first time they go there, they want to see miracles and Raju palys mind games with them by not paying attention to them for a while, etc. All that I have said above applies to the first trip. The next trips become more normal. In the second and consequent trips you feels very high for the first week – after all you are going to see your God, someone you are dedicating your life to, and someone whom you love – and then wears off.

((However, those who wish to examine Sai for character flaws may certainly do so if they find that beneficial, but surely might do well then to at least go and see him directly, so as to fully examine their day to day lives and his day to day life, both in outer appearance as well as in regard to his teaching, to see if that has value or not.))

My reasons why you feel the way you do when you go to see Raju explains why Bon is asking everyone to go and see Baba without trying to examine Raju for character flaws. Bon wants everyone to go there and get high and not deal with Raju’s character. Isn’t it better to also test the character of someone who says he is God? Shouldn’t that be the first step in your research on Raju and his claim to be God? I would appreciate it if someone else, a third party could respond to this question.

((Instead, if they do as Said suggests, if one instead pays attention to stories, or to movies, or to hearsay or imaginings, as he himself brags that he has done, one gets no actual experience, no understanding, and no insight. Rather one gets what Said has: ‘opinion’ which is frankly more bias than anything else, but opinion which masks itself as if “objective fact”.))

Well, your opinions are facts, but mine have no ground, they are just opinions, right? Your logic there is as twisted as it has been throughout this reply. Also, Bon’s problem here is that he puts too much emphasis on the plays of his mind. Within the Raju devotees, it is very popular to “get within” and experience things within. All the “bad” emotions are destroyed, all “good” emotions are placed there, if possible, all thoughts and emotions are not only watched but are directed, so instead of letting your thoughts and emotions to come out, you suppress all thoughts and emotions and only try to have “good” emotions and thoughts. In this process, you have to deal with so many difficulties and you gain experience as to how to control your thoughts and emotions, if you are strong enough. This can be seen as spiritual to those who follow that path. And these are the experiences which Bon speaks of. When I first became a Raju follower, I used to read and hear of getting within, after a while, I was so involved with controlling my thoughts and emotions, I was constantly, by the second, by the thought watched and tried to control my thoughts and emotions. Before I knew it, I was only aware of my thoughts and emotions, I had gone within. But suppressing all thoughts and emotions is not true spirituality. It will just make all the suppressed thoughts stronger and they keep coming back. True spirituality is supposed to be constant, not fighting all thoughts. So, Bon is living within himself fighting emotions and thoughts and he feels good for overcoming some – although they come back later – and he feels bad for losing. For him this is a reality and a spiritual path of “cleansing”. All else is non reality, the outside world is non-reality as they have been told by Raju. So, movies that show Raju cheat are not important, what is important is that they are fanatically trying to fight their thoughts and emotions and that is important and that is reality. It is hard for me to explain it to you. Unless you have lived this kind of life, you wouldn’t understand. I tried my best to explain it to all and show where Bon is coming from. I welcome all those who have lived this kind of life and understand, to respond.

(( …. I have based my views only on my own experience and study, not on guesses, stories, movies, or hearsay.))

Can you please share some of these experiences with us. Ever since the first time I talked to you, you keep telling me and everyone else that your faith comes from inner experiences and that nothing else matters. Please share some of your experiences with us so that perhaps some of us will be able to benefit from them. If your experiences are strong
enough to keep you a devotee after semi-accepting that Raju cheats on his miracles, then it must be strong enough to at least change someone else’s mind. If you can save one person’s life by taking them to Raju, then your life has been worthwhile, so please share your experiences with us.

((That means for him it was a cult, but it is my direct experience that there is nothing “real” about Said’s claims, nothing cultlike in Sai’s organization-even though there may certainly be cult-followers like Said around, as there are in any large spiritual organization.))

Why should people believe you that Raju’s organization is not a cult? You haven’t given them any proof. I have at least told them of my “opinion”, or “imaginations” as you call them, namely three movies which they can watch. What have you given as proof that Raju is not a cult master? All you have said is my experiences are that he is God and you expect all to believe that first of all you are saying the truth and second of all your experiences are not a play of your imaginations. Give proof Bon and stop telling us we have opinions and imaginations until you yourself give some proof.

((However, one may of course deduce based on hearsay and appearances, instead of direct observation and experience. Frankly I think Said examples that rather clearly, and so hope you will use his example to avoid such calamity.))

Bon, I was a devotee of Raju for three years and I had seven interviews and many private ones both with my group and Raju, with me and Raju and also, once he called me in with another group of people for a private interview. I have had many direct observations and experience. More than you have. I just remembered something. Once even Raju kissed me on the cheek while he was hugging me, has he done that to you? Has he ever played with your dick? Has he ever hugged you? He hugged me at least 5 times. As you see, I have had experiences and I found out that under the cake, there was a large pile of shit in the bucket, which examplifies what people will find in Raju. And you are right, I hope that people will take my example to avoid such calamity, I really hope so.

((Do you think Swami is only what Said, or I, (or Lane, or you) think him to be? ))

Your opinion above is nothing but twisted thinking based on faith. As an ex-Raju devotee I know what you are thinking. It is the belief of Raju followers that Raju is beyond all people’s comprehension and so Bon says “Do you think _____ is only what Said, or I, (or Lane, or you) think him to be?” It is their belief that no one can understand Raju’s
reality since a finite mind cannot understand the infinite. They also believe that Raju and his actions are a mystery to all as is written in a book by Hislop, a devotee of Raju. So, if Raju’s personality and his actions are a mystery, why should we go and see him since you, who have been with Raju for twenty or more years believe that he is a mystery? 20 Here I am going to explain to all as to why Raju followers find him a mystery. For example, Raju tells a devotee something. The devotee starts thinking why did Raju tell me this? Could it be that he loves me? Could it be that he saw something in me and he wants to change it?
Could it be that he saw something in my future which is threatening to my life? As a devotee of Raju I used to think this was and so did my Raju friends. We used to talk about this sometimes. So, with all these questions, Raju’s intentions remain a mystery as he also stays a mystery. Also, this kind of thinking made me feel that Baba might be killing a bird with one stone. Could there be more than one answer to the above questions? If so, then Raju is operating in many different levels as is also believed by Raju followers. So, as you see, this kind of faith is all based on their ignorace. If Bon disagrees, let him give at least two instances of his experiences which proved to him that Raju operates on different levels.

((Students who persevere do find that one way Swami teaches is to bring doubts *forward*, INTO EXPERIENCE, so they can be examined. Bringing doubts to light is part of his job as a TEACHER, as even Jed and Said example, albeit grudgingly. Why Jed and Said chose to not examine their doubts so much as to instead apparently deduce instead Sai was at fault, is what Lane’s page serves to focus on, if one wishes. Of course David’s page also offers the chance to mindlessly gloat over gossip, if one wishes that. ))

You are suggesting that after seeing three movies that expose Raju’s “miracles” as frauds, and after being molested by him, I should have fought all doubts and held on to faith? Isn’t that what the followers of the raping guru did? So, since they fought their doubts and found the “truth” about why their guru raped those women – they came to
believe that the guru who had no sexual desires or feelings, was out to release the sexual energy of those women who were suppressing them; this way they could concentrate on their spiritual exercises – then are you suggesting that they are more spiritual people now? Also, are you suggesting that the guru is always pure and we have to se all shit and overcome doubts? As you see your reasoning works as I have said. It goes as “Raju is God, then he is pure and couldn’t have lied about his powers, couldn’t have molested those kids. His intentions are always pure. So, these doubts are unfounded and should be destroyed and replaced by faith.” BY KILLING DOUBT, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO MAKE Raju A GOD OR PURE.

((No one charged them any fees or dues, and no one made them go into interview, or stay, or leave– yet they blame Sai as if he somehow tricked them.))

We didn’t go to India or interviews on our own accord, we were brain washed.

((They seem convinced a teacher can act only as they wish, poor fellows. No wonder then they are furious with Sai Baba, for he fits no mould whatsoever.))

If Raju doesn’t fit the mould of a teacher, a pure person, or God, then most probably he is not a teacher, a pure person or God! Also, please read my account, explained above, of how Raju’s devotees believe that Raju is a man of mystery and why they think that Raju does not fit anyone’s understanding. It will give you a lot of insight in Bon’s twisted thought patterns as expressed in his above statement. Thanks for your time. Please e-mail me with any info, questions or suggestions. Thank you.

Regards,
Afshin.

E-mail The Neural Surfer directly at dlane@weber.ucsd.edu

SAID ALSO REFUTES THE FANATICAL GERALD JOE MORENO HERE
PLEASE NOT ALSO THAT BON GIOVANNI HARASSES OTHERS ON THE INTERNET – SEE HERE http://www.scindrkl.tk/sai-bababon-giovanni-harassment

Sathya Sai Baba fundamental(ist) confusion about goodness

“According to Moore, the mistake of thinking that goodness is some natural property of things,
such as their capacity to produce pleasure.” The Cambridge Encyclopedia

Sathya Sai Baba commits this fallacy of confusing ‘is’ and ‘ought’ or facts and values time and again. This is a throwback to the less sophisticated attitude in religiously-dominated society where values are actually treated as facts (for example, thinking that e. ‘Thou shalt not kill is a fact”). Because of this confused doctrine, Sathya Sai Baba is guilty of the fallacy of  anthropomorphism, which is attributing a human personality or character traits to impersonal entities. In his views on nature it runs entirely wild.

Sai Baba applied mental, psychological or spiritual qualities of human being to animals and even objects. (note: trees that provide shade, exemplar crows, peaceable lions, devotional dogs, spiders, ‘weeping saris’ and much more – even Bhoomidev as Mother Earth (‘who’ reacts karmically against human sins with earthquakes, tsunamis, withholding rain, droughts etc.) Sathya Sai Baba’s cheapest aphorism is ‘Nature is the best teacher’. This has the ring of a bad ‘penny proverb and is typical of his deeply flawed imaginings about animals and nature.
See ´Tsunami anniversary – Sathya Sai Baba’s opinion on it

Nature as the best teacher – Sai as a bad one  Simplistic ideas about human intelligence and the nature of animals.

All wild animals gentle, but for man’s influence (said Sai Baba) An  inane account of his encounter with wild animals in East Africa by Sathya Sai Baba delivered to an adult audience 22-8-2007. His increasingly senile Divine wisdom poured out. Apparently devotees sat agape while learning that elephants liked bananas and wanted more…  Sai Baba never mentions dinosaurs, but we must assume that – since they were animals too – he would have thought them peaceful and harmonious, since there were no human beings then to ‘pervert’ them!

In his discourse of 6^th May 2000, Sathya Sai Baba said.– “Why does water scarcity arise? When there is a decline in Sathya (Truth) and Dharma (Righteousness), the level of water in the earth also declines. As compassion and love have diminished in human heart, water has become scarce. This problem is not due divine fury as some people may imagine. It is because of the rise in evil qualities in man. If people strictly adhere to the path of truth and righteousness, there will never be water scarcity.” (Sanathana Sarathi, v.43, June 2000, #6, p.165) Sathya Sai Baba explains water scarcity cause.

 Good and evil – the dual teaching of SSB shows the basis in his teachings of his confused and confusing ‘teaching’ on the true nature of good and evil, neither of which he also contradictorily says really exist!

Dematerialization by Sathya Sai Baba?

 To the left is an excerpt from a once-popular biographical book about Sathya Sai Baba. The story reported there itself was unsourced and undocumented, the date was not given and the ‘songstress’ remains unnamed (as is usually the case with these miracle reports). Various lady singers have performed for Sathya Sai Baba, including the famous Subbalakshmi and troupe, who is seen receiving such a trinket from Sathya Sai Baba on a film by Richard Bock. It may or may not be her whose husband tried to test the necklace.

Here we see a typical double scam. Firstly Sathya Sai Baba presents an object that is doubtless almost valueless (by sleight of hand, most likely), then he produced an identical copy of it to confuse Raja Reddy and others, so that he can make it seem that it is extremely unwise to get any of his gifts valued! Just so that he is not thought to be too harsh, however, the unconfirmable additional part of the story is invented whereby an anonymous husband asks for forgiveness for an anonymous wife and Sathya Sai Baba relents.

CLICK TO ZOOM IN      SCAN of account by Professor N. Kasturi of a supposed miracle, from his autobiography ‘Loving God’

The same kind of claim was made by Prof. N. Kasturi in his autobiography ‘Loving God’ . The Norwegian magnate, Alf Tidemann-Johannessen, had lost a ring Sathya Sai Baba had given him. According to Kasturi, Sathya Sai Baba produced the selfsame ring which had fallen off Tidemann-Johannesens’ finger into deep water when boarding a vessel, saying that it had fallen into his hands. (See the text scanned on the right) Actually most of the rings Sathya Sai Baba produces with enamel pictures of himself on are clones of one another with few different types of setting). Later, Alf Tidemann-Johannessen – well known to several Oslo Sai Centre members – defected from Sathya Sai Baba around 1979, calling him a cheat and a thief… and was never seen at Sathya Sai Baba’s ashrams again.  He lived until 2001. These facts have been kept well hidden by the Sathya Sai Baba minions.

Sathya Sai Baba has now and again arranged in one way and another for similar stories to circulate with the result that, during my 20 years of contact with believing Sai followers, I never once heard of anyone who took any supposedly valuable trinket for evaluation… not until David Bailey reported that he had got his “diamond ring” opened by the jeweller in Hyderabad who explained its relative worthlessness and told that he supplied such items to buyers himself.

However, in my case, the alleged “green diamond” ring which I got examined by an undisputed authority on diamonds (Queen Margarethe of Denmark’s jeweller) turned out to be an almost worthless synthetic sapphire stone. The ring and stone are still in my possession and the stone is the absolutely identical one I wore for 14 years. I defied Sathya Sai Baba calling on him to apport it away, dematerialise it or whatever. It is still intact and he obviously could do nothing about it! 

SATHYA SAI BABA ‘GREEN DIAMOND’ & GOLD RING FOR SALE!

I am quite willing to sell under public scrutiny that allegedly “utterly invaluable” green diamond ring which Sathya Sai Baba “materialised” for me at Christmas 1986. It is very clearly photographed with a macro lens as shown in my published book Source of the Dream from 1994, republished in 1998 and 2000. I reckon a sum equivalent to what I have donated to Sathya Sai Baba through the years would be o.k. In today’s money that would be ca. £30,000.- Very cheap at the price to anyone with the conviction of their belief in Sathya Sai Baba’s holy actions, but ONLY for a believer! None seem to be eager, though…

Please note: A mistake in attribution was made in previous posting where it was stated: “Alf Tidemann-Johannessen – One of the first Norwegian devotees in the 1960s, described at length in Kasturi’s official biography of SSB”. It was, however, in his own autobiography that Kasturi wrote about Tidemann.

General M.L. Chibber on leadership (Sai Baba’s ‘mahavakyas’)

General Chibber, author of book on leadership which suffers for many errors and amateurish ideas

In his book Sai Baba’s Mahavakya on Leadership, Education in Human Values (M&M International Publishers, New Delhi, 1994) the ex-Indian army officer, Lieutenant- General M.L. Chibber, who resided in Prashanthi Nilayam as a close devotee of Sathya Sai Baba, wrote some of the most backward-looking, uninformed and incompetent views on matters relating to leadership. His model, Sathya Sai Baba’s diverse ideas, is parroted and further interpreted in a typically traditional proto-military top-down and no-questions-asked fashion. 

Chibber holds that determination and persistence are wholly superior to any talent or skill, and character is 90% of leadership, while knowledge rates only 10% (p.79)! Chibber praises the supposed selfless excellence of the generals of the German General Staff during WWII, apparently blind to the fact that the same High Command simply carried out the orders of a violent murderer and megalomaniac, Adolf Hitler and itself also committed war crimes on a huge scale, quite independently of the SS. For the considerable percentage of the Indian populace who are still evidently badly misinformed about the 2nd WW and fascism see War Crimes and the Wehrmacht 

Endorsing the German Wehrmacht staff of the 2nd World War years as a model of objectivity and determination is completely absurd, of course, since the Wehrmacht soon became nothing but an obedient tool for one of the worst fanatical war criminals in history, forced into subservience to the SS, the Nazi Party and even the Gestapo. Chibber’s book was much blessed by Baba, not least with a foreword and an afterword, was followed up by a world tour by Chibber giving what he called ‘workshops on leadership’. This undertaking was apparently also blessed by Sai Baba.Ex-army man Chibber projected a quasi-military mentality of the sort known to be operative in Sai Baba colleges, ashrams and the Sai Organization. The workshops were based on his much-flawed tract, which is full of vague ideas superficially discussed, numerous glaring factual errors, a host of unsubstantiated statements and not least misspelled names of famous men etc.. The book also contains a largely ambiguous and amateurish questionnaire on leadership qualities (pps.74-9) applied willy-nilly by Chibber and his wife to participants. The questionnaire was allegedly issued by Harvard University Business School, which was doubtful due to it being such a poorly constructed questionnaire, with repetition of contents and many ambiguous terms and phrases (non-starters in any questionnaire which would reflect actual attitudes). General Chibber defends a retrogressive tradition of leadership, as exemplified more by military organization rather than valid human values. However, Chibber wants to extend his interpretation of Sai Baba’s ideas on leadership to every area of social life, evidently not excluding religious organization (as his activity in the Sathya Sai Organization proves). Some of his statements are most unbalanced and lacking in intellectual perception and clear articulation. His book is an attempt to extend those modern forms of pseudo-leadership culture to the Sathya Sai Organization (which incidentally already had long been a super-authoritarian and top-down closed sect). One of his neighbours in Prashanthi Nilayam at the time of writing was Mr. Ratan Lal, a better educated person, who Chibber was ever getting to correct his writings, until Chibber gave up as being too hopeless a task for such amateurish work). This was told me by a good friend, Anne-Irene, who worked helping Ratan Lal with his own sub-standard writings at that time!).

See the following few examples of Chibber’s opus:-.

“It is well-known that in every human activity a leader is needed to guide a group of people.” (Ch. 1: Introduction p.1)
Far too general and imprecise a statement! This is evidently narrowly based on Chibber’s Indian experience, where autocracy and top-down bossing is the rule throughout most of the country. The need for leadership is general, but what kind of leadership is genuinely effective is hotly contested too in many areas of life. Not all human activities by far involve leading groups of people, but there are many who try to impose themselves as leaders of people to form groups that run on pseudo-military or other authoritarian lines, especially in religions and  where supposedly ‘wise’ gurus are involved.  Groups which actually share, co-operate without conflict about aims or means and act only upon general consensus (grass-root ‘democracy’ through stake-holding etc.) would reject Chibber’s views? A better ideal for coherent functioning is to find common purpose through mutual contribution and feedback. Unison in aim and effort of otherwise unequal partners is possible, and in most institutions ‘shared leadership’ through committees, boards, advisory councils, presidia, ombudsmenn and other actors occurs increasingly today.

“Self-interest is the most powerful factor in the life of everyone. No one is dear to another unless there is some gain involved. (p.4)
This claim is too universal and extreme to be true. The word ‘everyone’ should be replaced by ‘someone’ and ‘no one is dear to another’ without gain being involved is extraordinarily crude… only an expression of the value Chibber himself holds.

Chibber in uniform – an expert on leadership?

“Ninety percent of leadership depends on our character.” (p.7)
No measurement like 90% can be made of the role of character, even though a person’s character will affect the kind of leadership and its effectiveness. To illustrate this, how did Stalin, Mao, Hitler succeed so greatly and for so long when they were of extremely bad character with psychopathic personalities? Chibber is largely echoing what Sathya Sai Baba wrongly believed on this matter. Extraordinarily, Chibber includes the brutish and self-centered despot of death ‘Mao Tse Dong’ as a model of leadership along with a long list of others including Zarathustra or Zoroaster. Confucius. Adi Shankara) Galileo, Galilei – Rousseau. Nils Bohr (all of whose names he managed to spell wrongly!)

“Twelve percent of ‘effective management’ is knowledge and eighty-eight percent is dealing appropriately with people.” (p.8))
More badly misplaced concreteness. There simply have been no social scientific methods developed which can reliably measure such vaguely stated imponderables as ‘knowledge’ or ‘dealing appropriately with people’, important though I also believe this to be. Why exactly 12% for the role of knowledge? Knowledge can be more important than just convincing and handling people in very many enterprises.

Quote (p. 39) about the German Army: “Even up to the bitter end of World War II in 1945, it did not lose its cohesive balance, fighting spirit and dedicated efficiency.”
Wrong again, some telling facts are that
1) German forces were demoralised before Moscow when Hitler abandoned them without reinforcement and ‘fight to death’ orders when they were freezing to death

2) the crack force – the 6th Army – was totally demoralised by Stalingrad, when von Paulus even refused to take his own life on Hitler’s orders. There are many other examples of military crisis: Rommel’s enforced suicide, the assassination attempt on Hitler etc. by von Stauffenberg , the C-in-C of Paris’ refusal to demolish on Hitler’s orders, the Gauleiters who ignored central directives to protect their fiefdoms from Allied reprisal, the recruitment of children below 16 yrs. in the forces at the end etc.
Absence of ambition as a criterion for selection to the General Staff is not necessarily the same as selflessness. In short, how can the leadership qualities of the German General Staff be reconciled to the fact that, in most things, they largely slavishly followed the Nazi scum of the earth – Hitler, Himmler and so on (as long as the war went well) and themselves committed war crimes from the start like strafing and bombing civilians, refugees etc.?

On p. 43 Chibber holds that Japan is the ‘most powerful economic nation in the world’. However, no figures support this, for the U.S. economy has always been and still is by far the largest globally, even though Japan has surpassed the U.S. in exports and balance of payment status.

On p.58 Chibber states that determination is the deciding factor in leadership. This is absurd, for sheer determination cannot alone take the place of talent, education and many other human qualities and skills necessary to social organizations. Chibber constantly overstates his case, like an enthusiastic but unreflecting student.

A (superfluous) diagram presents the view that “Habits have to be changed” without specifying further. (p. 122. Figure 8.1) Obviously, there are both effective and fruitless habits, good and bad habits. Not distinguishing which are which is the kind of elementary error in thought or expression that plague Chibber’s presumptious book throughout

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Faith turns night into day, black into white

“For them. life begins with death”
“Which is as if one were to say ”Day begins with night.'”  (from Quo Vadis)

The belief that death can be defeated, that there is a life afterwards, that one may be reborn and all those fondest of imaginings, plays some part in all religions. Such unsupported beliefs are bolstered up by countless other surrounding scriptures, sayings, accounts of supposed miracles and divine interventions, of what seem to be answers to prayers (i.e. the relatively very uncommon fulfillment of a strong desire that comes about). In short, beliefs, once adopted, tend to grow of themselves.  When fed by what are marshalled together rather uncritically as supportive ‘facts’ and experiences, they continue to grow. Otherwise, they tend to subside and fragment. The same goes for doubts. One adopted, they grow and the more so when facts appear to justify them. Doubts can also weaken and disappear if facts and positive experiences arise sufficient to counteract them. The religious believer invariably seeks all that can reinforce belief and inherently tends to ignore and rejects whatever may conflict with the belief, especially radically. Often a belief may help inspire with an apparent meaning to life and strengthen good qualities in oneself and positive action towards the world. When the tinder of such a positive intention are fed by constant supportive ‘spin’ and stories of many others’ subjective experiences (i.e. which no one can control and the fewest can investigate to any reasonable extent), they ignite more faith by reinforcing what one want to believe. Our personal experience – being all that we really know first hand (however delusive or deceptive it may be) can often be interpreted and distorted by a doctrine or ideology.. whiten is what religions are. Personal experience becomes formed by indoctrination and narrowing of one’s scope of information, and is easily overshadowed by false expectations generated by a sect or a cult.

When serious doubts emerge, doubts that could only be ignored with difficulty, however, they too can grow as the facts support them further. But if, when confronted face on and investigated, one’s doubts prove unjustified as mere unsubstantial rumours with no one to testify to them, they would dissipate and fall away. This does not happen with the allegations about Sathya Sai Baba , rather quite to the contrary. In his case, unfortunately, my strongly-held belief in him for many years was gradually weakened, then greatly challenged by indisputable facts that came my way, and my doubts were only reinforced as events, new reports of disturbing facts and deceptions unfold. The off-handed and sometimes demonising way in which Sai Baba reacted to such facts, and especially the denial of them by his followers only serve to strengthen my convictions that I understand the entire pertinent ‘mentality’ of those still having faith in him.
See also Faith and belief vs. Doubt