Sathya Sai Schools: Leicester, Puttaparthi, Gothenburg etc. up-date 27/11/12

Breaking news: Dr. Michael Goldstein, who was trying to cover over the entire matter at Leicester Sathya Sai school has already been replaced as Chairman of the Sri Sathya Sai World Foundation by a certain Gary Beltz. In short, the rule of man picked  by the self-proclaimed omnipotent God Incarnate to lead the International Sai Organisation was overruled by the Prashanthi Council. The official announcement gives no reason whatever, but it is widely known that it is due to the Leicester Sathya Sai school scandal. it is said Goldstein had to resign because of his high-handed and bullying attitude and his going against other hotshots in the Indian Sri Sathya Sai World Foundation and Prashanthi Council (of which Dr. Narendranath Reddy is a Chairman). The school board of the Sathya Sai School, Leicester, have reportedly had to step down, which included director Dr. Madhavi Majudar. More news later on this subject.
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Dr. Michael Goldstein for better or worse

Previously we wrote:-

I am assured by a concerned informant that he has heard  “…from the actual complainants the parents of SS School. These news are 100% true and not made up. The headteacher Usha Lim has reported couple of parents to the police, so things are getting a bit touchy here.” “The drama unfolds  even after all the complaints against headteacher Usha Lim and reporting her to the social services by the parents.  She is still there, thanks to Dr. Michael Goldstein who is the ‘godfather’ supported by Kalyan Ray, while the chair of school directors Dr Madhavi Majmudar and her stooges just obeys their masters.  Parents who had the courage to complain the headteacher to the social services are now in a vulnerable position to face the bullying headteacher Usha Lim.”

So much for the “Love and Light” policy the teachers are supposed to promote! BTW, ‘love’ is not something expressed by sexual advances to a lady half one’s age. The latest development is that: “Vibhuti” powder started appearing all over the school and some superstitious cult members believed this weird  incident and truly believed that their “GOD” has done this to protect the Lims.”

One must realize that probably most of the parents of the pupils at the Sathya Sai school are believers in Sai Baba and his alleged miraculous powers, which involve the appearance of ‘holy ash’ on pictures and elsewhere to ‘prove’ his Omnipresence. It is very convenient to the Lims that this should appear just now, since no such thing has been seen at that school in all the years it has been open. The public will probably not buy this obvious cultist deception and perhaps someone should report the allegedly ‘spontaneous’ appearance of this otherwise unknown very fine ash substance around the school to the local health and safety authorities for chemical analysis and evaluation as to how it got there and whether it can cause allergies or other problems. 

A further comment on developments made on this blog site (see August 8, 2012 at 10:52 am)

Mrs. Usha Lim, head teacher accused of bullying harassment of child under her care

Mr. Cheng Ho Lim, PE instructor at Leicester Sathya Sai School who is accused of sexual harassment

“News of sexual harassment in Sathya Sai School – I have come to know through parents of this school that the headteacher’s husband (Mr Cheng Hoe Lim) who is a PE instructor in the school is being accused of sexual harassment by a female staff member. All this going on in this school with a Sathya Sai name is revolting. Parents have already lodged a complaint against Mrs Usha LIm the headteacher of bullying and physical punishment to students. Dr Michael Goldstein and Kalyan Ray along with Dr Madhavi Majmudar (chair of school directors) are doing their best to hide this news from the rest of the world. Nice human values they teach eh????” Smith Rajeswar.

Sathya Sai School Leicester abuse complaints:  “The headteacher is accused of bullying, emotional abuse, physical punishment of children. Parents complained to the social services who conducted an inquiry which proved true. Even sexual abuse is heard of. The top officials at Puttaparthy etc. are busy protecting their names and the headteacher’s. This is a shame that this is happening in a school having sai baba name attached to it.” (S. Rajeshwar , who is an ex-Cambridge University graduate working  in London).

This comment was made on this blog site about public complaints investigated by the social services in Leicester about the head teacher (Usha Lim) of the Sathya Sai School in Leicester, UK, which is run by Indian supporters of the cult of the self-proclaimed God Incarnate avatar, Sathya Sai Baba – deceased Deity of all Deities (etc. etc).  The outcome of this allegation of sexual crime is not yet confirmed by any public source. The headteacher is Mrs. Usha Lim (see inset image)

Sathya Sai Baba schools, colleges, educational programmes and his university have frequently been under clouds of suspicion for misrepresentation, false claims and sex abuses and some have had to close down. Some of the reasons are illustrated by the following cases:-

The large Indian diaspora in Leicester has a lot of Sai Baba supporters even now, after his ignominious death and much more scandal besides. Prominent devotees have made this place something of a UK haven for remaining true believers. One of the directors on the board of the Sathya Sai School of Leciester is Dr. M. Majumudar, whose pedagogical standards are far below the UK norm, according to her own published articles. See more on the Sathya Sai School in Leicester here.

Gimle Sai Baba School, Gothenberg, closed down in 2000 due to sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba. The leader Britt-Marie Andén discovered that her son had been sexually molested by Sathya Sai Baba, whereupon she investigated among other sex abuse claimants in Sweden and found that she must close the school forthwith.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Education scrutinised a Sai school’s underhand method for getting government funding  The Tokoroa Arorangi Sai school and a Sai school in Murupara were under suspicion of false representation.

Projected Sathya Sai College in Copenhagen forcibly withdrawn due to public anger The Danish national television programme about Sathya Sai Baba called ‘Seduced’ interviewed the mayor of Fredriksberg in Copenhagen, who related that the then recent acquisition with US money of a famous castle in Copenhagen called Arresødal had been made though the Sathya Sai Organization concealed vital facts about their organization and intentions. A former accountant of the Sai Organization in Denmark – my good friend Eddie Helshøi – reported to me the amount was US $6 million, donated by US Sai leaders to a Danish group led by Mr. Thorbjørn Meyer. The plan was to convert the castle into a Sai Baba type school which, in everything but name, would have been based firmly on Sathya Sai Baba’s main teachings, with Sai devotees as key staff, directed and controlled by completely committed Sathya Sai Baba believers. The local mayor was very critical of the sale of this cultural treasure to a group who had been so deceptive about their true nature and plans. The local populace gave various forms of expression to their strong dislike of having as neighbours what they realised, after the Danish documentary ‘Seduced’ is a cultist religious sect, so the project had to be dropped completely by the Danish Sathya Sai Organization.

Sathya Sai School in West Hartford, Connecticut: Elena Hartgering – who is a licensed professional counselor who works with with victims of sexual abuse and incest wrote (2002): My husband and I were serving on committees organizing the Sathya Sai School in West Hartford, CT and the Sathya Sai summer camp in Woodstock, CT. I have also been a workshop facilitator at the regional retreats, and numerous meditation retreats held in our region. Both of us have been officers in our local Sai Center several times; I was vice-president before my resignation in July, 2000. Dr. Goldstein and other officials in the organization are suppressing information, and attacking former devotees who have testified against Sai Baba. There is, for example, a letter from a woman in California which was sent to all Center presidents. In our center it was suppressed by the president and devotions coordinator because they were told to do so by the regional president. In the US freedom of speech and access to information are rights protected by law. This material cannot be suppressed. People will eventually find out as we did and then feel doubly betrayed; first by Sai, and then by the organization and our fellow devotees. Sai devotees resent the organization being labeled a cult, yet these are clearly cult practices and mind control techniques.”

UNESCO Withdrew from SB Education Conference UNESCO Media Advisory: Paris, September 15 – UNESCO has decided it will no longer sponsor nor take part in a conference it had been due to co-organize with the Institute of Sathya Sai Education (ISSE, Thailand) and The Flinders University Institute of International Education (Australia), in Puttaparthi, India, from September 25 to 29. The decision means UNESCO is no longer associated in any way ­ through sponsorship, organization or participation of any kind ­ with the conference on Strengthening Values Education: Innovative Approaches to Teacher Education for Peace and International Understanding.

UNESCO’s withdrawal was prompted by several factors. Certain decisions were taken by the ISSE without consultation, such as plans to hold some of the sessions at the Ashram of the Sathya Sai movement in Puttaparthi, and the inclusion of some speakers in the conference programme without their previous consent. Furthermore, the Organization is deeply concerned about widely-reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been levelled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba. Whilst it is not for UNESCO to pronounce itself in this regard, the Organization restates its firm moral and practical commitment to combating the sexual exploitation of children, in application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires States to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and violence. (See http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/10/UNESCO.htm and the advisory on the wayback archive machine at http://web.archive.org/web/20031003020809/http://www.unesco.org/education/highlights/media_advisory.htm)

Sathya Sai University, Puttaparthi  The methods, nature and standards of education on which Sai schools model themselves are set in Puttaparthi and Brindavan by the Sathya Sai education institutions. Unfortunately these are appallingly traditional in outlook with out-dated rules, constant moral preaching and rote learning without investigative freedom or individual uncensored research. Testimony by an ex-Sai University student shows just how the system works -see  ‘Life at Sathya Sai University’ by Kartik Vaddadi

More incisive and revealing accounts of the sexual abuse culture at the Sai colleges and University have been sent to me by a number of former students – some who remain in India and dare not reveal their identities to the public (only to me)… this in view of the fact that some of their friends and acquaintances were shot down in cold blood in Sai Baba’s apartment by the police while he stood by! Read such striking accounts here ‘Dramatic testimony from ex-student at Prashanthi Nilayam also Evidence piles up on male sex abuse by Sathya Sai Baba and teachers also Strong Sai Baba sex abuse testimony from ex-’form boy’ also Sathya Sai College: ex-student tells of awful culture there

Sathya Sai schools have been set up here and there around the world by the more devoted cult members. Many of them have done so no doubt with the best of intentions, but without the information concerning the nature of Sai Baba schools and colleges in India and in the indoctrinated belief that there is something more holy about the work than in other schools – that it will help renew society and promote positive values and ‘spirituality’.This makes it the more saddening that they remain so fundamentally misinformed and refuse to re-examine their own beliefs in any serious way or to study the evidence against them properly. Unfortunately, leading members of the Sathya Sai Organization have – on Sai Baba’s own example – systematically tried to cover up many failing of Sai Baba and especially his institutions… including murders at his ashram (even in his apartment) and his unpunished sexual abuses of young men through decades – especially of his schoolboys, students and foreign visitors. Many devotees nevertheless know of his sexual molestations but – in their utter dependency on him and their beliefs and hopes – rationalize everything however bad as a divine blessing from SB or a payback for bad karma from a previous life and other such absurdities. Many of the young students abused by Sai Baba through the years – his favourites – became teachers at his schools and colleges, and a number of them have travelled to other countries to spread Sai Baba’s (simplistic and very one-sided and inadequate) ideas about education!

Read this important summary of the status of THE CHILD’S DIGNITY AND INDIAN EDUCATION in law and practice.

Sai Baba’s unasked for and unwanted molestations of the genitalia of young men – especially his students – oiling and rubbing them, was openly admitted even by his defenders involved in leading the ‘Educare programme’ – a shocking fact since handling of genitalia without prior agreement even by a doctor – is an offence under the law and even in India. This was confirmed under intense media pressure – and only after many years of keeping it a secret – by several leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization, not least in Denmark and the Central Coordinator in Europe, Mr. Thorbjørn Meyer and his close associate Director Jørgen Trygved (On National Danish TV News), have supported this form of molestation of young men and minors. Meyer wrote to me that it is “the age old Indian oil ceremony”. There is absolutely no justification for it, however, and it is neither ‘religiously’ nor ‘spiritually’ significant’, as some claim. No such ‘age-old ceremony’ can be documented anywhere (not surprisingly), and several experts on Hinduism have denied that any such practice is traditionally condoned. (Further documentation concerning ‘genital oiling’ can be viewed at http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/11/dane.htm

See also Revealing e-mail correspondance between Madhavi Majmudar and Serguei Badaev

Sathya Sai Baba cult-biased and Hindu-biassed religious conceptions of morals in ‘Human Values in Education‘ – exemplified by Dr. M. Majmudar

See the UNSECO Media Advisory warning against Sathya Sai Baba due to sexual abuse allegations and the Notice of Withdrawal by UNESCO from an educational conference in Puttaparthi
http://web.archive.org/web/20031003020809/http://www.unesco.org/education/highlights/media_advisory.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20001207234100/www.unescobkk.org/news/aceid-withdrawal.htm