Sathya Sai Baba on criticism of others

Sathya Sai Baba said:-
“Criticism of others is a very great sin. Criticism of other is like a great disease… Criticism of others is like cancer. You should free yourself from criticising others. Do not criticise, comment or make remarks about others at any time.”
Prashanthi Nilayam, 21/11/1987 (publ. as pamphlet 2 of the series ‘Advaita Through Seva’, p.10 SSSB & Publ. Trust.)

“Do not ridicule or criticise anyone” p.125 Sanathana Sarathi 5-1999

“None have the right to criticise others” p. 146 Sanathana Sarathi June 1995 and p. 145f Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 28

So did Sathya Sai Baba every criticise others? He railed at critics of others, especially critics of himself. Most notably in his attack on his critics in his Christmas Discourse 2000.  Demonstrating how his words were ignored by his own actions, he made many criticisms of others, including most other gurus, politicians, sham devotees, doubters of his claims and – for example – also those who made profit from health services and hospitals:-

“Addressing these calls of distress, the Sai Baba pointed out that it was not he, but the people of Mumbai themselves who could rise to their own aid. “People here have lots of money. What are they doing with it? Are they serving society with it? No,” he thundered. “The people here only make excellent speeches, but are zeros in practice. We need men willing to make a sacrifice. We are drawing so much from society but not giving anything back to it. People are building hospitals by spending ten crore rupees, only to make a hundred crores out of it. Is this business?” he asked. “ (from The Times Of India – 16th March, 1999)

As a consequence of this central Sai Baba commandment, enforced as rigorously as possible at his ashrams, colleges and other Sai connections, anything that may be said against him or his works is ‘evil’… and evil enough to arouse his ire enough for him to lash out with threats and naming people as bad and even labeling them demons! He would also criticise and/or ridicule others in the interviews, some who were present and others who were not! He very often derided those who he claimed suffered from intellectual pride – while in his discourses he constantly put down and ridiculed scientists, scholars and non-believers in  general.

Insisting that no one has the right to criticise anyone is both misguided, utterly unrealistic and even outright dangerous! If all criticism and condemnation were banned, the law and it courts would have to be abolished! Despotism and/or social anarchy would take over. Besides, advances in scientific and other forms of knowledge – which often come through critical rejection of the false ideas of rigid opponents would be excluded!  Many news media focus on investigating and reporting on negative events, or bad, immoral and criminal affairs. This investigative function is essential to any democracy and the social function of the press as the fourth branch of government so improvements in social and political life would diminish.

Leicester Sathya Sai School sackings

LATEST Sathya Sai School, Leicester, fights to survive  The Sathya Sai school has lodged a legal case against the Sri Sathya Sai Trust UK, who own the school premises and demand the headmistress be removed

As of August 18, the Sathya Sai School in Leicester has been disowned by the Sathya Sai Organisation. This was clearly a (very belated) damage-limitation exercise by the Sathya Sai Organisation which – despite great efforts and much international back and forth – did not succeed in getting the main culprits – i.e. the headmistress (Mrs. Usha Lim) and her husband (Mr. Cheng Ho Lim) dismissed. However, all Sathya Sai Organisation official funding has been withdrawn and this private school is in serious arrears with the rent it owes to the Sathya Sai Organisation, which obeys the orders of its superior authority in Prashanthi Nilayam. It is clear enough that, under the circumstances of a total rejection of the Sathya Sai School, that the Sai Organisation will have no means of enforcing payment – certainly not without an ugly legal fight, which means another loss to the donors who finance the organization. Mr. Pal Dhall (click here) wrote the letter rejecting the Leicester school from the fold of the blessed.

Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2013 To (The Directors of Sathya Sai School, Leicester) Subject: The present status of UK “Sathya Sai School” ” Following the visit of the Delegation to the UK Sathya Sai School in April, a full discussion was held in Prasanthi Nilayam between the members of the Delegation and the Board of Directors of SSSW Foundation. The Delegation came to the conclusion that the UK Sathya Sai School does not comply in a number of ways with the Guidelines of SSSWF for Sathya Sai Schools and ISSEs. Under the circumstances it was decided by the SSSWF and Education Committee to withdraw recognition of this School and not to include the UK Sathya Sai School in the International Register of Sathya Sai Schools. It is inappropriate therefore to continue to hold your School as “Sathya Sai School” on the International Register of Sathya Sai Schools given the history and the circumstances under which the UK School is being operated. I regret we came to this conclusion. Under the circumstances it would be appropriate for you to consider another name for your School. “Sincerely,  Dr Pal Dhall, Chair Education Committee, SSS World Foundation

The Ofsted Commission’s report on this school became more and more negative and the latest can seen in the 2014 report here. However the Ofsted inspectors remained ignorant of the bullying case and sexual harassment cases, which were suppressed through legal threats against the parents of the bullied child etc. by the very rich people who are devotees of Sai Baba, including Dr. Michael Goldstein.

See also: Leicester Sathya Sai School vibuthi fraud 

The drawn-out crisis over the running of the Sathya Sai School in Leicester, the furore over the bullying of a child by the headmistress and sexual harassment by her husband, employed at the Physical Education teacher, involving the social services in Leicester.  This eventually led to the dismissal of two more cult-indoctrinated involved persons; the Head of education committee of SSWF (Sathya Sai World Fund) lost his head(ship) and one of the directors of the Sathya Sai School in Leicester, Dr. Madhavi Majmudar likewise. The following report came to me from a concerned person:-

“Mr Kalyan Ray (The head of the education committee Sri Sathya Sai World Fund) was kicked out of his post and also that egoistic women Dr Madhavi Majmudar from the education committee –the reason being the mess they created by sweeping matters under the carpet and hiding the facts from the whole world, ignoring the complaining parents who ultimately went to the social services to complain against the bullying head teacher Mrs Usha Lim.

All this corruption led the SSWF new head of the education committee, Australian Dr Pal Dhall, and other international delegates to inquire about the happenings in SS School Leicester and interview the school board and parents (April 2013)……..hopefully the head teacher Usha Lim the perpetrator and the school board members will be kicked out for their gross unprofessionalism and irrational conduct.”

Earlier postings about these scandals, including about Dr. Majmudar’s cultist educational agenda are found here:-

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

Leicester Sathya Sai school & Michael Goldstein’s dismissal

Sathya Sai school, Leicester harassment case

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

Love and Light – Sathya Sai Organization UK & Leicester Sai school

 

Sai Baba’s fraud in ‘materializing’ watches

Among the many deceptions involving alleged ‘materializations’ by Sathya Sai baba are a number of accounts concerning watches he gave to devotees in that way:-

1) Hans de Kraker, who lodged an affidavit on how Sathya Sai Baba had sexually abused him and who wrote openly about it all on various web pages and newspaper comments, also told of an interesting incident of outright fraud by Sathya Sai Baba regarding ‘materializations’ as follows:-

“On one of our trips to India I remember bringing so much, we (had) thousands of kilos of overweight. Among the things the group brought were watches. These hundreds of watches were destined to go to the students. Not long after arriving we brought some of the things we had brought to the front door of the Poornachandra, in front of Sai Baba’s house. I very kind gentleman would be from who the offerings came and that Sai Baba was expecting them (especially after the attempt on his life there was a very strict security control).

Only a few weeks later, I encounter a student, who proudly tells me that his watch was materialised by Sai Baba! He was as happy as I was astounded. And again I decided to stuff the thoughts I had away, saying to myself that it was great that this boy was so happy and that the philosophy was what was important and not where this watch came from. I decided that which was instilled in this boy through this gift was going to help him in life to be the person that he aspired to be. In that same period a friend approached an another person of our group from Europe who had received that same watch. He had asked my friend why he got that watch…” (http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/6/de_Kraker.html)

2) Another example of the kind of fraud that was exposed by Sam Dalal and Abraham Kovoor concerning a Seiko watch (see BEGONE GODMEN! ENCOUNTERS WITH SPIRITUAL FRAUDS by Dr. Abraham T.Kovoor. (First Jaico Impression 1976, Published by: Jaico Press Pvt. Ltd., 121 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bombay, Chapter 3)

Alleged ‘gold watch’ which Sai Baba pretended to ‘materialise’ before Alaya Rahm which failed and its gold coating flaked off.

3) Alaya Rahm, who told on the BBC film ‘The Secret Swami’ about how he was sexually abused by Sai Baba, was also given various trinkets from Sai Baba including a gold watch. After some time the watch failed and gold flaked, as can be seen on the photo from the film.

4) Ex-Sai student Meenakshi Srikanth posted the following on his website in 2000. “A CRITICAL SITE ABOUT SAI BABA”
“In another occasion, a singer had come to Brindavan and we were inside the mandir listening to him sing. Swami wanted to give him a watch and it was in readiness beneath his left thigh in the sofa on which he was sitting. I was sitting in the third row from Swami and was keeping a ‘close’ watch. The song got over and Swami shifted in his seat a slight bit and the watch was now in his left hand. He bent forward and moved the watch to his right hand. I saw this and looked up and saw that Swami was watching me! I turned red but so did Swami! He started shifting around a lot, asked one of the students to change the direction of the table fan and when the audience was looking away put the watch back into his left hand. Now, the student who was changing the fan was a nervous wreck with everyone watching him and whatever happened, there were sparks flying out of the socket! Soon a few other students went there to set it alright. By now the watch had gone back to below the thigh. That singer never got it that day (I really felt sorry for him). The next day morning, in the darshan line, Swami came near me and opened his right palm before my eyes and said, “Hmm..Namasivayah! (He called me this since I used to give talks in Tamil and started all my talks with “Namasivayah vaazhga! Naadhan thaaL vaazhga!”), n’thu ennannav ninaichaachu! raathiri ennannav swapnam kandaachu! paarthukk! Num illa! Doubting Thomas! Doubting Thomas!”. I wish I could have asked him to open the left palm then since, I knew he had something there! Well, now this seems funny, but at that time I got very scared and wrote a very apologetic letter to him!”

5) An article presented by skeptic Basava Premanand on behalf of a former student of Sai Baba who had to remain anonymous due to danger to his life. Besides many damning and facts and highly credible details, it contains the following account of some of Sai Baba’s sleight-of-hand trickery:-

“If you are a little observant and not blind with emotion and pseudo-spirituality, you can make a few simple observations. Lets take the creation of Vibhuti. Most of the seniour hostel teachers know about how it is done but keep mum. As soon as Babaji comes out keep observing his left hand, it will be closed. In the hand are about 5-6 small balls of vibhuti which are made with the help of water or a mild gum and dried. This is done by Babaji personally upstairs. As soon as Babaji comes out of the interview room, immediately he takes a letter and holds it in the left hand which is now kept upwards, hence the balls do not fall. Now while talking he deftly shifts one ball to the right hand, faces the palm down and rotates the palm, the vibhuti ball is always kept between the 1st and the 2nd fingers; while giving the vibhuti he simply crushes the ball and gives it to the waiting Birthday Boy. Some students have actually found these vibhuti balls which fell down accidentally from Babaji’s hands. People like Mr. Khayaldas are well aware of how vibhuti is created and by experience they even know when and where Babaji will do so. Another place to observe is in front of Vinayaka, near the arch, just between the ladies and gents. Here Babaji almost always passes a bunch of letters to his right hand along with a ball ofvibhuti. Experienced boys and old hostel staff members have dubbed his acts as “Changing the baton”. Now Babaji immediately ‘creates’ vibhuti for some VIP’s who are sitting there, this is very significant because a large number of people observe this ‘miracle’. You too can observe all this if you sit with a level head and sharp eyes and notice Babaji’s hand movements closely. Sometimes if you are lucky you can actually see the vibhuti ball being transferred to the right hand for creation. Creations inside the interview room are of different type. If you are sharp you would have noticed that Babaji does not allow anybody in the interview room immediately after selecting a particular batch. He goes inside alone and spends some time before calling the group. If by chance some ignorant person happens to go in following Babaji, he is invariably almost literally pushed out by Babaji or pulled out by the obese Mr. Khayaldas, who knows what Babaji is doing inside. Actually Babaji spends a few minutes in keeping the things to be “materialized” ready; these are kept in various places, behind cushion, sometimes behind the curtain or on window sills of inner room or the sofa etc. These items such as chains, rings, lockets, Talismans, even sweets and watches are later picked up and ‘created’ with a motion of hand in front of preconditioned and almost awe-struck and hypnotized devotees.

Those flashy golden Parker pens and Papermates which you see in the pockets of Intuition Boys are kept in neatly stacked boxes in upstairs rooms of mandir. If you are an Intuition Boy you may as well find same if you are chosen to work upstairs’, if you are observant, not emotional. The watches are made by normal human beings from all over the world. These watches too are kept in their hundreds in upstairs rooms. These are usually presented in bulk by wealthy devotees. Lockets, rings etc. are made of various types and sizes and these are generally supplied by two people, one is Chettiar’s (the fat man from Madurai on Wheelchair) son-in-law, and the other is a dark, balding furitive looking man with specks, always tucking a small bag in his right armpit, he is Mr. Aswathnarayana from Ananatapur.” see full article here

DEATH OF SATHYA SAI BABA, 24-4-2011

Sathya Sai Baba died after multiple organ failures, aged 84 (being in his 85th year). On this 2nd anniversary (so-called 2nd samadhi) I summarise some of the deceptions surrounding his illness, death and the aftermath. The BBC announced his death, but added that he was accused of fraudulent miracle tricks and sexual abuses (which he of course denied). This is an epitaph that will always follow him and, as researchers and historians collect and study the evidence, the accusations and the reason Sai Baba avoided prosecution will become evident and a permanent part of his otherwise largely bogus ‘story’.

His own demise was wrongly predicted by him, he did not live into his 90s as he prophesied on numerous occasions (stating several different ages at different times too!). This event confounded all the devotees who blindly believed his words and in his divinity.

How did Sai Baba actually die? The medical report states cardio-respiratory failure. Now that is very vague medical terminology, but what caused this breathing and heart failure? This happens if one is taken off vital life support. So was he kept until he could be pushed? However, the date fitted in extremely and suspiciously well with all the massive planning of the authorities for a big screen send-off, new helicopter pads for VIPs all preparing to descend on the actual death day which was yet unannounced! As I actually predicted in my blog on April 13th (day before his announced death), his death would most likely be announced on the day that it is widely believed (imaginatively) that Jesus was resurrected – Easter Sunday. Those in power around him most likely kept him on life support – despite earlier brain death – so they could disconnect him on just that day for obvious symbolic reasons, to identify him with Jesus!

A legally invalid ‘death certificate’ was issued by Dr. Safaya here (The Case of the Missing Death Certificate)  after which A Dr. Safaya resigned his post due referring to undue pressures that had been put upon him! In fact, failure of the heart and respiration are not a sufficient or legally valid description of the cause of death. When anyone dies, both the heart and the breathing fail. That Sai Baba had lost weight (reportedly was only 28 lbs.) and suffered multiple organ failures is consistent with what most of his victims suspect, that he died of AIDS, hence the mighty cover-up of all details of his hospitalization, duration and nature of his illness and what a proper account would reveal. A major counter-claim to the information from the Trust and its members was bravely made by a former Minister (Nagireddy) stating that Sai Baba had been badly maltreated, drugged, starved and had cried for help from devotees when he was being ‘taken away’ to his own hospital by his murky ‘minders’ and ‘servitors’. See Sai officials’ secret collusion over the death of Sathya Sai Baba

One of my correspondents mailed me this perceptive comment: “Now after his death the inner circle will do all their best to protect his image of an avatar or at least a saint as it is a vital factor for the future donations and pilgrims attraction. On the other hand, it is a good point for journalists and historians to focus on SSB as he was with all his stuff. This is an opportunity for critical voices to be heard.”
There is much that many people know but dared not speak about in public; the murders ordered by Sai Baba according to an eye-witness to the grisly night of carnage, the countless sexual abuses of students known through our contacts but of which only a relative handful have dared write about and then mostly anonymously (due to murder fears, harassment of many kinds etc. As time goes by, more and more evidence and testimony comes forth… and sexually abused Indian students can be expected largely to take at least a generation before they can come to terms with their being violated enough to speak out. The Hare Krishna and massive Catholic Church sex scandals – to take just two examples – illustrated many such time lapses. In India, the pressure of shame is still on against almost all sex abuse whistle blowers (but not if the accused are foreigners).

Hilarious damage-limitation attempts: What we may call the ‘lunar delusion’ was soon invented to try to explain away (only one of) Sai Baba’s several different false predictions of his age at death. The Sathya Sai Organization – both centrally and in various countries – claim that he calculated his life span in lunar years, not solar (calendar) years. They juggle with various figures and lunar month lengths and try to get his age up to over 90, but none of the calculations agree with their assumption of lunar years. That he gave various conflicting predictions of his death from around 92 to over 96 is, of course, ignored by them. Sai Baba said in a published discourse in 1960 he would live for 59 more years and again in 1961 he would live for 58 more years. Do the arithmetic and see that even lunar years will not rebut his alleged 2011 death date prediction!

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinducalendar we read:-
When a new moon occurs before sunrise on a day, that day is said to be the first day of the lunar month. So it is evident that the end of the lunar month will coincide with a new moon. A lunar month has 29 or 30 days (according to the movement of the moon).”

By definition, a year is the time it takes for the earth to circumnambulate the sun, not for the moon to do likewise (it simply follows the earth around). A “lunar year” is a mere contrivance, firstly because ‘a year’ means the solar cycle of 365 days, which is greater than the number of days it takes for the moon to encircle the earth in on calendar year. So it makes no sense whatever to divide by 12 the total number of ‘lunar’ months in a life time, (as the shastris do) so as to try to ‘prove’ a different number of ‘years’. The hard fact that Sathya Sai Baba lived for only solar/calendar 84 years, and that he always reckoned in calendar years in every documented word (despite desperate posthumous claims that he told other things in private).

The ‘lunar year’ is a most uncommon measure never used in any Sai literature at all… not until after his death. The concept a non-starter The calculations the Hindu shastris presented do not agree with the actual dates anyhow with their own obscure calculations based on their ancient calendars and outdated astrological ideas. See a more detailed analysis of the lunar year confusion
In The Telegraph U.K. ‘Sathya Sai Baba’s death triggers fight for his £5.5 billion empire’ the journalist who interviewed us noted the following:-

… former devotee Barry Pittard said Sai Baba was a dangerous confidence trickster who should (not) (ed. correction) have been allowed to have anything to do with children.“For the worst victims of his depredations, the victims of murder and maiming and people being beaten by his officers and families being broken up and the boys, some of them very young, their sufferings have been very great.”And former Sai organisation teacher Robert Priddy, who helped set up the teacher training model, said most people teaching the programme were unqualified to do so.“The aim of embedding ‘spiritual’ values in children was heavily imprinted with indoctrinating them to believe in Sai Baba’s divinity and doctrine,” he warned.

Death in ignominy despite enormous medical resources used Sathya Sai Baba was a broken man by the time they took him away to his own super-specialty hospital while he cried out to devotees to help him! Of course he was unable to cure himself, as most devotees fully expected! This time it was all too real an illness, not a play-act from which he could appear to cure himself! At his previous birthday (the 85th by Indian reckoning when he was 84 years old) he was like a wooden idol, expressionless and mostly completely silent and rigid. He broke down in tears when a speaker called him ‘Sri, Sri, Sri Sathya Sai’! (see video clip download 3.9 mbs http://www.exbaba.com/videos/crying_baba_231110.wmv or to download quicktime movie shortened clip 9Mbs click here) He proved that he could not live up to his own ideal. He died without the having had the ability to speak at all for weeks, let alone laugh… so believers in him should judge him by his end according to his own words in the quotation scanned here:-

The resurrection that did not happen but is still expected! However, he has died and no resurrection is reported! Still, one should not be surprised if some fantasy peddlers claim to have seen him risen and in the flesh… there are plenty of lunatics among the indoctrinated and deluded believers in his self-proclaimed divinity and even his most bizarre and beyond all credibility miracles!

Take the story that The Times of India put out as an example of ‘fringe lunacy’! How could a major newspaper spread such preposterous rumours (under the cover of ‘reporting’) as “Baba said he would return stronger”? Answer: because it pulls in a mass of desperately hoping devotee readers and sells the paper very well. It may be also partly due to the shadow of Justice Bhagwati – a corrupt Supreme Court ex-judge who is involved with the Times of India and has for decades been a Sai Baba official too Here is the Times of India’s report:-

PUTTAPARTHI: Did Sathya Sai Baba have premonition 10 years ago that he would fall seriously ill? Yes, claim his followers. According to them, Sai Baba had predicted in 2000 that he would be indisposed for 40 days but would come back strong to give darshan to his devotees. This was revealed in a book ‘Tapovanam — Bhagawan Sri Sathya Saibaba Satcharitra Nityaparaya-nam’ in which the author Jandhyala Venkateswara Sastry has written an essay on Baba’s ill-health. Sai Baba had told his students at his Sai Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal in 2000: ”Though most of my disciples fall at my feet, they don’t know my real value. A time would come when I would vanish and take a walk across the skies. During that phase, my body would face serious health problems and devotees would be desperately praying for my recovery.” Devotees in total denial are many, and a book is even published (Sai Kingdom Come) arguing that Sai Baba will return.

VIEW EXCERPT TRANSCRIPTS AND LINKS TO SHORT VIDEO CLIPS FROM THE BBC TV DOCUMENTARY ‘THE SECRET SWAMI‘:-
See a documented chronicle of events with press reports etc. from Sai Baba’s hospitalization until funeral and its aftermath. 
See also  ‘Holy Man or Hoax?’

Rolf Harris, Sai Baba follower, arrested on sex abuse allegation

UPDATE JULY 4 2014.
Rolf Harris could not lie his way out of prison sentence

Dana Gillespie and Rolf Harris perform devotional song to the ‘one god’ (i.e. who in their view was embodied in Sathya Sai Baba)

Rolf Harris C.B.E., celebrated Australian entertainer, is accused of sexual abuse, though he strongly denies the allegations which led to his arrest. He was arrested in November 2012 and again last month by Operation Yewtree Police (UK) and bailed until May, pending further inquiries. His name was published by The Sun yesterday, which led the BBC to withdraw all programmes in which he is involved. Rolf Harris is one of a few public persons in Britain who became a follower of the self-proclaimed God Avatar Sathya Sai baba. He performed with a Sai devotee blues singer, Dana Gillespie, singing “There is only one god” etc. (see image)

To read more, click on British Police Re-Arrest Rolf Harris In Operation Yewtree Pedophilia Hunt

See also Rolf Harris, Prince Charles and Sai Baba the paedo guru

Sai Touch Tablet: or “indulging in wrong activities”?

The cash-strapped Sathya Sai Trust and Co. have ventured into the computer tablet promotion business – which goes directly against Sathya Sai Baba’s clearly expressed warning to his followers!
“Swami has nothing to do with internet. Not only now, even in the future also you should not indulge in such wrong activities.” see http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume32/sss32p2-08.pdf

The tablet is not manufactured by any Sai Baba institution, of course, but an agreement has obviously been made with the makers to sell a version of the tablet (BSNL Tablet Penta T-Pad 701C – a 7-inch Android tablet – selling independently from Rs 3,500). If you fork out another Rs 1,000.- then you also get some already-published materials such as:
“…close to 1GB of audio content which is a good sample of the variety of programmes offered by Radio Sai. There are also four videos and over a hundred beautiful photographs of Bhagawan.  You can connect to the various streams of Radio Sai, watch Radio Sai videos online and also watch the Live Video Webcast of programmes from Prasanthi Nilayam. Though the highlight of the product is the special Radio Sai customization, it can perform all functionalities of a regular Tablet.

One somehow cannot quite see many Sai Baba devotees falling over one another to buy this Sai tablet, with all the Radio Sai with repetitions of repetitions of long redundant and now most boring discourses at an exta Rs. 1,000.- The first question would be, ‘is it worth it?’. The second might be, ‘Consider it a donation to the (corrupt unaccountable) Sai Trust!’ 

Not exactly prescient, Sathya Sai Baba! Unless his much-promised ‘Golden Age’ arrives and we go back to the quill and the abacus of ancient Bharath?He was confused about computers: he began by disparaging them, and also the Internet, then he opened a Sai computer center at Prashanthi, and then took full advantage of the Internet with his massive centrally-funded propaganda machine! See Sai Baba rubbished, then embraced computers

Our native source in Prashanthi Nilayam reports

Our source who lives in Puttaparthi and has formerly been living from providing services to ashram visitors, has fallen on hard times like so many there. We are informed that the ashram was really, really empty for a year and a half after Sai Baba’s death. All the Round Buildings and other buildings are mostly empty. Our source tells that very few foreigners come nowadays, but in recent months groups of pilgrims on the temple circuit, from local Andhra villages, come one day and leave the next. It is a big thing in India: tourist buses of pilgrims are carted to various holy spots for several days or a couple of weeks, one place after the other, and the pilgrims then forever have bragging rights of visiting the holy hot spots. The Seva Dals are still coming as scheduled from various states in India but in fewer numbers. Most shops are shut down but a few remain open for the Indian tourist visitors, while the airport has been non-functioning since Sai Baba’s funeral. All construction inside the ashram has ceased completely. None of the former close contacts of this person, including several very rich US VIPs, have been back or made any contact (though they would know what extremely hard times their former helper has fallen upon). Dr. Michael Goldstein visited twice briefly after the funeral, before he was given the boot by the new powers-that-be in the post-Sai set-up.

The much-trumpeted Rayalaseema Water Project, which suffered from embezzlement, construction failures and bad infrastructure from the start, then began to fail generally due to a huge drop in the ground water level (unseen by the ‘Omniscient God’?) seems to have broken down yet further, despite the AP government’s efforts to administer and improve it.
In these dry summer months, the ground water table is going yet lower and lower. Due to this, there is a shortage of drinking water all around. Puttaparthi was to be the chief beneficiary of the scheme, which has reportedly failed in innumerable villages it was supposed to supply.

Families without water are given one bucket a day by those few who have bore wells with enough water supply. Almost every building in Parthi has their own bore well – but they have GONE DRY! In Parthi village in 2005, on ‘Gopuram Road’ right behind the South Indian Canteen, out of the entire street of at least 14 buildings of 3-4 stories each, only TWO of the buildings had working bore wells.  Digging deeper was cost-prohibitive to their means, and even so there was no guarantee that the hard rock underneath would produce any more water supply. Though most bore wells were dug to similar depths, it is all the luck of the draw who had water in their area and who didn’t. The more bore wells in the area, of course, the less water for others.In that year, every one or two months the whole street would be caked in a layer of soot as some building or the other would decide to bear the expense and dig their bore well deeper (either on our street or one of the surrounding streets). Days later, one would often hear the sad story of how no water came, though the bore well had been dug much deeper.

Water tankers are now the main source of water, not least for agricultural and livestock purposes.

see also Water projects in Rayalaseema and for Chennai – Sathya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Help ever, hurt never’

‘Help ever, Hurt never’ – yet the Murders in Prashanthi Nilayam were agreed by Sathya Sai Baba!

The utterly scandalous way the murders in Prashanthi Nilayam – the fiefdom Sathya Sai Baba ruled over completely – were covered up to the highest level of government needs to be held before the public repeatedly. If ever empty words were uttered, Sai Baba’s ‘help ever, hurt never’ qualify fully. It is known to many devotees and all dissidents that Sathya Sai Baba was deeply implicated in the murder of four of his devotees in his bedroom in June 1993 after a stand-off between the Puttaparthi police and the four intruders while decisions were made on what to do about them. The foremost India skeptic of the time, Basava Premanand, compiled a huge mass of documentations and evidence, both hard and circumstantial. A very compressed summary of some of his main points extracted from his various writings follows:-

“My writ petition in High Court etc., was only for a CBI enquiry and not to a court where I have to present witnesses and prove the case. Murders are police cases and it is the responsibility of the police to investigate and arrest the culprits and produce them in the court along with witnesses. The newspaper items were submitted – not as a proof – but to show how agitated the people were because of the destruction of the evidence by the police and the silence by Sathya Sai Baba and the followers who were present at the time of the murders. Every newspaper in India published about the murders, although the Sathya Sai Baba official magazine Sanathana Sarathi was remarkably silent.

The A.P. state government, the central government, central excise and customs department, the law enforcement department, state CB- CID, C.B.I, CVC, Courts all know what is happening in Sai Baba’s Empire. they can act only on specific orders from the state and central government. This is proved by the State Government closing this murder case on RDO’s report suppressing the CB-CID report by throwing it in cold storage. About the information on the agencies and the government I am not interested as these are about them and GM can refer to them in his speculations about them. That the governments did not take any action against me strongly supports my statements published in the book ‘Murders in Sai Baba’s Bed Room’.

First of all N.Radhakrishna and Sai Kumar Mahajan cannot be stabbed by the alleged assailants at 10.30 PM because they were in the super specialty hospital and reportedly died there at 9.50 and 9.45 pm. (I do not accept that N.Radhakrishna and Sai Kumar Mahajan died at 9:50 PM and 9:45 PM respectively. I only pointed out the Inquest Reports) [[ I deny the FIR that Radhakrishna and Sai Kumar Mahajan were stabbed in the Sathya Sai Baba’s residence after 10.30PM. I have accepted that Radhakrishna and Sai Mahajan died because of poison. I accepted that the 4 assailants entered the mandir at about 10.30 PM based on the receipt of the telegram at 10.05 PM. The proof of the telegram received by Suresh Santharam Prabhu is in the register in the telegraph office. The newspaper reports of this filed in the writ petition have not been refuted by the court nor by the advocates of Sathya Sai Baba in the case, nor were any affidavits filed to that effect! When the alleged assailants entering Sathya Sai Baba residence at about 10.30 they cannot stab the aides in the residence as they were in SSH at that time – dead already by 9.50 PM and 9.45 PM, according to the doctors. Sathya Sai Baba got it covered up. The Inquest Report does not state anything about the two other aides receiving treatment at the same time as Radhakrishna and Mahajan. No one had verified that Bhat and Patley were in the hospital undergoing treatment. Even in the FIR only mentions: “it is further learnt that all the four injured were shifted to SSH. I found all doors of Mandir were bolted from inside.” If all the doors of the mandir were bolted from inside, it is not explained how the 4 aides were shifted to SSH.]]

Sathya Sai Baba’s Guru Pournima Discourse cannot all be taken on face value, as it was given 27 days after the murders. There was criticism in the newspapers as to how the 4 aides were stabbed at 10.30 PM when they were in SSH, the time given by SSH doctors for Radhakrishna’s death.
But what about Sai Kumar’s death time, which he did not mention?
The question is how and why potassium cyanide, syringes and needles were found in the western side of the mandir at the door which leads up to Sai Baba’s dining room.

What I have mentioned in Reference 4 moreover was that N. Radhakrishana and Sai Kumar Mahajan’s bodies would have been sent to the super specialty hospital to be cremated in the electric crematorium, so that they would disappear from the earth. This is supported by the fact that the alarm system was activated only at 10:30 PM and not earlier when the 4 injured aides were taken to the hospital”

“The murder of the 4 alleged assailants also would have been a secret if their bodies were cremated in the electric crematorium. But because they activated the alarm the devotees gathered around the Sai Baba residence. So the police help was sought to get out of the murders by a story explained in the F.I.R to rescue Sai Baba. It is this alarm which forced Sai Baba to rush out of the place of crime so that he would not have been accused of murders.”

A discourse was given by Sathya Sai Baba in which he talks about N. Radhakrishna offering him buttermilk. The story told by him was published by Sri Sathya Sai Publication Society (Vol.1 Page 366 in the book see also here). Baba took a small sip and let N. Radhakrishna drink the rest. According to Sathya Sai this happened at 7:30pm. However, Sathya Sai doesn’t explicitly state that Sai Kumar Mahajan drank any. Did not Radhakrishna go out at 7.30 pm and was not Sai Kumar Mahajan was with Sathya Sai Baba in his bedroom? When Radha Krishna knows that Sathya Sai Baba does not drink buttermilk in the evening why did he offer butter milk to Sathya Sai Baba? Was he afraid that the cooks had mixed the poison in the buttermilk? Or was it to prove that the butter milk did not contain poison that Sathya Sai Baba sipped a little? This story was told by Sathya Sai Baba to his audience – that the poison was not in the butter milk. The people around Sathya Sai Baba in his mandir have remained silent. If Sathya Sai Baba was innocent what was the necessity for the coterie to remain silent?

The time of 10.30 PM – 10.45 PM was when the 4 alleged assailants entered the Sathya Sai Baba mandir.

On 9.6.1993 Indian Express (Vol II page 55 of my book) informed that several attempts to gain access to the F.I.R filed in the case were also thwarted by the officers and their subordinates. I have not accepted that the F.I.R was true anywhere but there is other information collected in my book.

When the post mortem reports on the 4 alleged assailants very clearly states that they died of shock and haemorrhage due to fire arm injuries about 12 to 36 hours prior to autopsy and all injuries are ante-mortem only, why in the case of N.Radhakrishna and Sai Kumar Mahajan was it stated the deceased would appear to have died of shock and hemorrhage as the result of multiple injuries? The doctor did not specifically state that the injuries were ante-mortem because he suspected that the injuries were post mortem. I have not mentioned this anywhere in the references because the post mortem reports do not specifically state that the injuries were ante-mortem, it must mean that the injuries were ante-mortem.

“The opinion in the post-mortem reports of the two aides of Sai Baba states vaguely (Vol I page 347,349) that the 4 deceased would appear to have died to shock & hemorrhage on a result of multiple injuries. This proves that the two aides died not of stab injuries. It is not the inquest report but the post-mortem and forensic report which explains how they died. The mandal magistrate was not there at the place of occurrence as a witness to state that both the deaths were due to stabbing

The Inquest Report on Sai Kumar Mahajan stated:
1) “White cotton full shirt with blood smears; on right side below shirt is torn
2) white pyjama is with blood stains
3) drawer with blood stain”.

The Inquest report and Post Mortem Certificates will not mention about poisoning. The explosives were not found before the murder when, as per protocol, the police had to fully search the Prasanthi Nilayam premises as political VIP’s were visiting.

The explosives were not found even in the 1st search on June 7th, but later. It has been claimed by persons attempting to cover-up and obfuscate the facts that “the inquest failed to specifically say that Radhakrishna’s pants had blood on them”.
The white shirt and banian were full of blood; the trouser did not have even blood smears or blood stains.
The death time given in the inquest report is the time given by the Super Speciality Hospital. Read No.III (Vol. Page 342)

I know very well the Doctors who conducted post mortem. (I did not call him as a material witness for expert testimony because my writ petition was for a CBI enquiry. The higher courts are not the places to bring witnesses.) We have members who are forensic experts: the CCMB and Dr.P.M. Bhargava the founder Director of CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) are our life members. There are others like Dr.M.W.Pandit, who is also a life member, and who proved in the court against Swami Premananda of Trichinopoly that our method was far superior to the methods in use in England. I had met all the three doctors. My letters dated 7.1.1994 in vol I page 81 state that I have met them in a meeting whose terms remain confidential.

As disproof of what some badly uninformed and unqualified commentators from abroad have asserted, the police have nowhere stated that the four alleged assailants confronted the devotees in the Mandir at 9:30 pm. This report on the investigation on the telegram (received by Suresh Santharam Prabhu who was murdered the same night) was published in Mathrubhumi after checking with the records of the Telecommunications department of Puttaparthi. Justice Balakrishna Erady a trustee of the Sathya Sai Baba central Trust is a Director of Mathrubhumi. More than this, this newspaper’s owners are strong Sathya Sai Baba devotees. This report on the telegram was published along with an article by Justice Balakrishna Erady about what happened on 6.6.1993. If the telegram news was false, it is all too likely that Justice Erady, being a director would have taken action against the reporter of Mathrubhumi and the person who has accepted Sathya Sai Baba as god incarnate.

The C.I.D investigations revealed that the police tampered with and destroyed evidence and lied about it.

Basava Premanand – Editor, Indian Skeptic (see http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/31/index.html)

Read a documented overview of the 1993 ashram murders by Robert Priddy

Sai Baba temple in Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad bombing?

In February 2013 there was another bomb blast at ‘the’ Sai Baba temple in Hyderabad, killing 16 persons and injuring 114. The original bomb plan would have see an estimated 50 deaths. It was claimed that it was the Student Islamist Movement of India that carried out the outrage, but not confirmed since no further information is found on-line as to any results of investigations. The news outlets simply stated it was a ‘Sai Baba’ temple, but do not specify whether this was Shirdi or Sathya. It so happens it was a Shirdi Sai Baba temple. The media evidently assume that Shirdi Sai Baba is the one which crowds visit and is known to all so they did not need to specify this? If Islamists are so opposed to Shirdi Sai Baba, who was a Muslim (though clearly not a strictly fundamentalist one), they would be more so towards Sathya Sai Baba, who was primarily a Hindu, and a Hindu nationalist to boot.

Original plan was to bomb Sai Baba temple in Dilsukhnagar A major lead that has emerged in Thursday’s Hyderabad twin blasts investigations — in which 16 people were killed and 114 injured . “The original plan was to carry out an attack at the Sai Baba temple; and had this been executed we would have seen over 50 deaths. As per the information available the plan was to plant three bombs at the temple area. However, due to the visit to the temple by the commissioner, security was high and there was heavy police presence. This made the group change its plan at the last minute and plant the bomb on bicycles away from the temple area,” a NIA source says.
Hyderabad blasts: 60 hours of CCTV footage crucial to case
Hyd blasts: Ammonium nitrate procured locally, say cops
Dilsukh Nagar’s second tryst with terror  That blast was blamed on the Students Islamic Movement of India, which was allegedly taking revenge after it was banned by the Union government. The case was handled by the Andhra Pradesh crime investigation department. During the course of the investigations the police found that members of the SIMI  had coordinated with some Lashkar-e-Tayiba officials, namely Syed Aziz and Mohd Azam, and carried out that attack.

Independent report on the 1993 murders in Sai Baba’s rooms reconsidered

In light of the eyewitness testimony by Eileen Weed (‘Divya’) that she has posted the Internet in 2012, the confusion about the killing of the four devotees who knifed two attendants to death in a fight to stop them intruding, the report by a co-student of one of the four murdered devotees emphasises the facts that the ashram most successfully suppressed in the aftermath of the horrendous night of 6 June, 1993. One fact which was reported at the time, but which great efforts were made to conceal, was that the four who were later shot by police, had actually been caught by a mob of villagers and students, were bound up and beaten to death with sticks.

Van:Glycine Cytogenetics, University of Illinois  (GlycineUI@UIUC)
Onderwerp:Real story of attempt to kill Satya Saibaba     Original Format Discussions:soc.culture.tamil Datum:1993-08-10 11:44:49 PST

Following is a brief description of the recent incident that took place in Puttaparti (Sri Satya Saibaba’s Asram): (no offense intended to the followers of Satya Saibaba) Probably many of you know that there was an incident on 6th of June, 1993 in Putaparti (SRI SATYA SAIBABA’S ASRAM) where few men were alleged to have attempted to assassinate Saibaba. At least 4 men were killed (by police firing) that night and 2 other murders were committed some time earlier at `Saibaba’s Asram’. The police in their first investigation report (FIR) sated that they had to shoot the 4 men that night (6th June) only for self-protection. However, the pictures taken by several news paper reporters clearly indicate (described in EENADU and ANDHRA JYOTHI – daily news papers) otherwise – the 4 men were killed by extensive physical beating (by wooden sticks and other kinds of manhandling) prior to the police shooting as evident from the position of bodies, blood stains, twisted and broken limbs, etc.

During this process two other men (Mr. Boyapati Raveendra Babu and Mr. Santaram Prabhu) who were alleged to be part of a gang, with the 4 men killed, in conspiring to kill Saibaba that night, went out to get some cigarettes at a stall nearby. While they were out side, they heard several rounds of firing (police) and tried to get back inside (Saibaba’s living quarters) to see what happened. By then, all the premises of Saibaba’s living quarters were closed and no one was allowed to get in. Raveendra and Prabhu (the two men out side) were friends of the 4 men killed inside and they were all part of night security crew of the Asram.

These six people, being part of night security team, were aware of several clandestine operations that go on in the Asram. Raveendra (one of the men out side) says that he was actually a prime witness of two murders that took place several days before this incident. The organizers of Saibaba’s all financial management and day-to-day activities (committee members of `Stya Sai Trust’) seem to know that these six men were aware of their operations and planned to get rid of them that night. Raveenda and Prabhu who went out side, after hearing the firing and trying to get back in, soon learnt that four men were killed and that they were also targets of the killing that night. After realizing this they fled and stayed under-ground for over a month.

SOME BACKGROUND: Raveendra Babu (one of the accused) was my class-mate during under-graduation in India and a very good friend. I also know his father and mother. About 10 years ego his father and mother sold what ever property they had and joined Saibaba’s Asram and became devotees of Sri Satya Saibaba. Raveendra Babu finished his Bsc (Agriculture) in 1980 and worked in seed companies for few years. Finally, a couple of years ego he also joined Saibaba’s Asram and started living there. I visited India two times during 1987 and 1988 and met him several times. He was the same guy I knew during my undergraduate studies and a couple of years after that — “he was religious and a man of high moral and ethical standards”. His parents are some of the nicest people I know.

Coming back to the story — about thirty days after fleeing from Puttaparti, Raveendra and Prabhu surrendered to Nagpur police on July 7th and revealed the real story of who is mainly involved in killing the four men on 6th of June. According to Raveendra and Prabhu the main hand in all this was that of Saibaba’s brother Mr. Janaki Ramaiah and some of his men (Saibaba him self not included). It seems that the entire show at Putaparti is run by these men (Satya Sai Trustees) and that Saibaba himself is just a baba who chooses to ignore all these operations. According to news papers Saibaba himself stated that “it (the incident that night) was simply a friction between two gangs and not an attempt to kill him”. However, police (of Ananthapur) did not pursue the investigation in that direction. Police (and Satya Sai Trustees) are accusing Raveendra and Prabhu of attempting to murder Saibaba. According to Raveendra and Prabhu – Ananthpur police and also several Congress leaders were actually working for the Saibaba Trust Committee members. This is the main reason (according to several news paper reporters, Raveendra and Prabhu) why the police did some major cover-up operation in this incident (and several other unexplained disappearances of people before). There seem to be some big-time misappropriation of trust funds by the committee members. After hearing to all this, if I were a donor of funds to the Satya Sai Trust (Fund) – I would certainly take a hard look at how the money is being appropriated! Especially, the money sent from abroad ($$) in the form of cash or travellers checks are reported to be misused (directly going in to the pockets of the organizers!).
The organizers seem to have been making outrageous statements openly – such as: It is they who made Satya Sai a “Baba” and that they can even kill Satya Saibaba himself and still run the show (keep getting funds, etc.) just with his tomb.

According to EENADU news paper the Satya Sai Central Trust Committee comprises of: The Chairman – Saibaba, Secretary – Narayanan, Members – Aarevi Janaki Ramaiah (baba’s younger brother), K. R. Prasad, Indulal Shaw, Srinivas, Bangalore Rajamata, Justice P.S. Bhagavati, Justice Balakrishna Raj, Administrator – Colnal Jogi Rao. The trust has an estimated assets of over Rs. 2,000 crores.

On 7th of July, Raveendra and Prabhu were arrested and were charged with attempt of murdering Saibaba. Raveendra and Prabhu still seem to have a good deal of respect for Saibaba. They state that they simply want to expose the people behind all the wrongdoings and that they never had any intentions or reasons to harm Saibaba himself. Andhra Pradesh Civil Rights Association, OPDR, IFTU, ICF, Arunodaya, PDSU, PUCL, Chaitanya Mahila Sangham, AISF, and several other social and student organizations were planning to organize a meeting in support of Raveendra and Prabhu in Vijayawada on 25th of July – I don’t have any further news about this meeting! Raveendra and Prabhu’s case was being conducted in Penugonda. According to the latest news (July 13th) Raveendra and Prabhu were in Judicial custody.

I have several news paper (only Telugu) cuttings. If any of you are interested please write to my following E-mail address: (please include your postal address) krishnak@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu

(Note) Unfortunately  the author of the above is no longer contactable at the above mail address) The materials were first published on ExBaba.com
See also Sai Baba and brother ordered planned murder of devotees, 1993

See comment by Vitaliy Gordienko questioning the account:-
“Interesting material indeed. But seems strange that students (4 who is dead and 2 who’s survived) claimed have no intentions against SB directly. It is really possible to suggest that with such claims they just wanted to escape terrible prosecution. As it known, some of them (if not all) were close to SB before, which means – under sexual usage and with full knowledge about cheating and other fraud going on. After all – Could they really have no intentions against sb personally? Strange…”

Reply from Robert:-
The background for their attempt to see Sai baba (which all agree they intended, whatever else) was that the organiser of the whole episode, Vijay Prabhu, who was not in the temple grounds when the knife fight took place was the security chief of Prashanthi Nilyam. He attested later that he the aim was to inform Sai Baba about the financial corruption and many bad things done by the clique around SB which virtually ruled the ashram, including Radhakrishna who was his valet and closest servitor at that time. Prabhu was excluded by Radhakrishnan and his gang from even meeting SB and he believed fully that SB had given him signs (in answer to his mental questions, I suppose) that he should carry out his plan. As to the others involved, it is reported that at least Mahajan was being sexually abused and so each of them would have also had different motives, though it was told by boy relatives who were allowed in the crime scene – to SB’s sister and Eileen Weed on the night of the murders – that the intruders had no intention of harming Sai Baba. Sai Baba actually contradicted his younger brother and others who claimed it was an attempt on his life, saying that no such thing was intended.

My Life is My Message & Sai Baba

The words ‘My life is my message’ are very well-known in India and are inscribed on Mahatma Gandhi’s tomb. Sathya Sai Baba expropriated them for himself, as is seen from this:-
“Once, while Gandhi’s train was pulling slowly out of the station, a reporter ran up to him and asked him breathlessly for a message to take back to his people. Gandhi’s reply was a hurried line scrawled on a scrap of paper: “My life is my message. It is a message which does not require the vast stage of world politics, but can be put into practice here and now, in the midst of daily life.” (p. 140 in “Gandhi, The Man, The story of His Transformation” by Eknath Easwaram, US, 1997, Nilgiri Press)

Better to practice silence and appear wise than to give discourses and prove you are not. (In view of the many thousands of  Sathya Sai Baba’s self-enhancing discourses, what became of  “Silence is the language of the realised”?). Sai Baba was a master at presenting himself  as infinitely perfect, loving, compassionate, pure, chaste, harmless, and being beyond all human understanding for thousands of years. He basked in praise and worship of himself in every shape and form, spoke of himself as if he were yet more self-sacrificing than any propertyless sannysin, yet lived the life of Riley lacking absolutely nothing he desired without doing any actual work (other than walking about to be admired, holding endless self-praising interviews, discourses and performing formal rituals etc.  Never an admission of the slightest imperfection, and of course not of any of his countless mistakes, broken promises, lies, failure, deceptions (or sexual abuses and murder involvement). All of this detracts greatly from any good he may have done that was not only in his own best interests. The following quotes bear on his actual words and actions, constituting the actual message of his life:-

“O what a goodly outside falsehood hath! ” Shakespeare (from ‘The Merchant of Venice) A most pertinent comment on the cunning deceptions of Sai Baba’s ideology and the wall-to-wall propaganda and disinformation as promoted by his cordon of self-interested corrupt profiteers and wrong-doers.

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.” Matthew 6:2.  Sai Baba’s inordinate boasting about his selfless service exceeding anyone else’s by a factor of a thousand. In short, calling himself anything good he could think of.

“Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom.” Herbert Spencer. If the Sai Baba cult is easily seen to be the virtual acme of hero-worship… and self-denigrating servility by his coterie of myrmidons, lackeys and retainers.

“Great liars are also great magicians”  and  “There is a road to freedom. Its milestones are Obedience, Endeavour, Honesty, Order, Cleanliness, Sobriety, Truthfulness, Sacrifice, and love of the Fatherland.” Adolf Hitler   Sai Baba was also definitely great at lying and also quite a magician at times. Hitler’s rigid ‘milestones’ were all the same as what Sai Baba constantly endorsed, showing himself to be an authoritarian and traditional Hindu nationalist rather than representing “the caste of humanity” and the universal teacher he pretended he was –  and a strict authoritarian puritan in word, though his own deeds spoke otherwise.

“Men willingly believe what they wish.” Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico  What better proof of this is to be found in the desperate rationalizations and fancies of all remaining devotees and supporters of Sai Baba? Now they have to hang onto the belief that Sai Baba will either unexpectedly resurrect himself or will usher in a Golden Age of universal peace and be reborn as Prema Sai  as if it were a foregone certainty. 

“There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.” Tennyson Honest doubt was not allowed in the slightest degree by Sai Baba nor his authoritarian minions – cringing believers who would do anything whatever he said whom he selected to run his affairs.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to believe.”  Laurence J. Peter (1919 – 1988), paraphrasing Sir Walter Scott To deceive people to believe – in his godhood was Sai Baba’s contribution to history… he predicted the whole world would believe, but one can now see that this is ludicrous and far beyond the bounds of possibility.

Sai school did not check teacher credentials

An update on the Bitti Mohanty saga of false identity and forgery

Click on image to go to source. This indicates that Sathya Sai educational institutions do not vet those who apply to teach there at all properly.
Excerpt from the Indian Express – click image to go to source. Once again, the carelessness and depravity of police in India is exposed.

Padnamaskaar or following the truth – by Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba demonstrated continual inconsistencies and discrepancies between word and action. One small example is his sudden decision that ‘touching the (holy?) feet’ (padnamaskaar) was a mistake, one which he had made every day through his life for up to 70 years! However, it was almost directly (a few months) after his pronouncement (see scan from his journal) that he again encouraged it. The images show some of the scores who did padnamaskar on Sai Baba’s last birthday.

A pronouncement by Sai Baba about touching of his feet, which he soon never followed!

Feet-worshippers at Sai Baba’s birthday in 2010

Eileenweed said – April 4, 2013 at 12:26 pm
I was living in Parthi and remember well, the day that the announcement came that sb would no longer be allowing padanamaskar. Most devotees were in depressed turmoil at the change. It is true that it was strictly enforced by the security around him, for some months. His feet were zealously guarded and no one was allowed to touch his feet during darshan or functions. Who knows the reason? Could have just been a painful ingrown toenail he wanted to protect! Or could have been reaction of the negative rumors online at that time. Fact is, after awhile everyone seemed to have forgotten and the feet-touching made a revival and all went on as it did before. We all commented about it amongst ourselves and thought it was a strange reversal but figured, “The Lord has answered our prayers!”

Reply from Robert: It was published on two occasions that the deceased mother, Easwaramma, had ‘visited’ Sai Baba and his bedroom boys (!) in a ghostly form and advised him against trusting devotees, such as at darsan. On one occasion she told him he should not let people touch his feet as they could poison him. On another occasion (as reported in Sanathana Sarathi August 2001, p. 232) he said the following: 

“Early in the morning one day, mother Easwaramma was standing at the door in her usual form. I asked her. ‘Why did you come?‘ She said. ‘Swami. I have come here with a prayer to You. You are omnipresent and omniscient, but You have to control one thing‘! ‘What is that?‘  Swami asked. She said. ‘Devotees and students offer handkerchiefs to You. But, heeding my prayer, please do not receive handkerchiefs from everybody. The times are not good. The handkerchief may be tainted with poisonous stuff.  In the usual course, You use the handkerchief to wipe Your nose and mouth. So, You may receive handkerchief only from those on whom You have confidence and trust as good devotees. Do not accept from all and sundry.’

Some months after this discourse, I was discussing with my long-standing friend and confidante, V.K. Narasimhan, the editor of Sanathana Sarathi, who passed away in March 2000 after long sufferings. While he was alive I had to keep quiet about many things he told me so as to protect him from unscrupulous elements at the ashram, he had jealous enemies there and his personal security could have been at considerable risk.

Aura of Divinity? Frank Baranowski on Sathya Sai Baba

Dr. Frank Baranowski (died 2002) was an American regression therapist, specialized in research on auras, the energy patterns that surround all living beings, and worked at the university of Arizona. He was supposedly an expert in bio-magnetic field radiation photography. He has photographed and interpreted the auras for numerous men and women using the ultra-sensitive Kirlian camera. He saw and met Sathya Sai Baba in the 1970s and claimed he saw a vast aura around him. His perceptions are quoted in the commentary to the Richard Bock film ‘Aura of Divinity’ (1970s 2 parts)

Dr. Baranowski is widely quoted as having written or stated: “Now, I have always been able to see the human aura. The auras around average people extend as much as three to five feet. Auras are composed of every imaginable colour and these colours change as a person’s emotional, physical and mental states change. In general, whenever the colour blue is evident in a person’s aura, it is an indication of deep spirituality; green is a healing color; yellow indicates high intelligence; and red means anger or frustration. The colour pink, which is rarely seen, typifies a person capable of selfless love, and this was the colour that Sathya Sai Baba had around Him. The aura around Sathya Sai Baba went beyond the building reaching thirty or forty feet in all directions. Never having seen any aura like this before, my first reaction was to look for fluorescent lights, which may have been shining on Him. But as I watched, the beautiful pink energy pattern moved as He moved; there was no doubt that this was His aura. I have had the pleasure of meeting such personalities as ex-president Gerald Ford, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, and Pope John Paul II, and I have studied their auras as well as tens of thousands of others, I say this not as a testimonial but as a fact; not one person I have ever seen has an aura to compare to the size and colour of Sathya Sai Baba’s aura. “http://www.srisathyasai.org.in/Pages/Devotees_ Experiences/Transformation_The_Aura.htm

“In 1939, Semyon Kirlian discovered by accident that if an object on a photographic plate is subjected to a high-voltage electric field, an image is created on the plate. The image looks like a colored halo or coronal discharge. This image is said to be a physical manifestation of the spiritual aura or “life force” which allegedly surrounds each living thing. Actually, what is recorded is due to quite natural phenomena such as pressure, electrical grounding, humidity and temperature. Changes in moisture (which may reflect changes in emotions), barometric pressure, and voltage, among other things, will produce different ‘auras’.” http://skepdic.com/kirlian.html In summary, “The human body does, in fact, give off certain radiations, including weak electromagnetic emanations (from the electrical activity of the nerves), chemical emissions (some of which may be detected, for instance, as body odor), sonic waves (from the physical actions within the body), etc. Paranormalists sometimes equate these radiations with the aura (Permutt 1988, 57-58), but they do not represent a single, unified phenomenon, nor have they been shown to have the mystical properties attributed to auras.” Kirlian photography of the human aura has been scientifically discredited as pseudo-science, and has been used in lucrative business in speculative New Age ‘spirituality’ and outright fraud by mountebanks. http://www.csicop.org/si/show/aura_ photography_a_candid_shot/ and http://www.indian-skeptic.org/html/is_v02/2-9-9.htm