In 1994 devotees could visit a private home some hundred meters from the gates of the ashram in Kadugodi where the family had a number of Sai Baba photos with vibuthi and kum kum. They claimed these substances appeared spontaneously, as so many others have done likewise. After visiting the house a second time to check on the allegations by some Brindavan Seva Dal ladies that these were falsified, we were convinced that the vibuti was not even as authentic as the kind one can buy at the ashrams in large packets, but that it was simply ground-up chalk. The way it was spread on the pictures indicated it most likely was done by hand. Meanwhile, the red kum kum powder on the Shirdi Sai image is cheap and everywhere available in India.
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No one knows how many people have concocted these kinds of supposed manifestation on images of Sai Baba, not least since persons who might have investigated critically would have avoided being intrusive, spiritual seeking visitors being unwilling to create a scene of any kind. Some vibuthi from images (at the ‘Thief’s Temple’ in Sri Ranga Patnam was analysed by electrospectrographic analysis by Dr. Jürgen Evers of Munich University and was found to be powdered quartz. See this in a video clip (mov format). See also Italian scientific investigation of Sai Baba vibuti http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/29/Vibuthi_analysis/Analysis_of_Sathya_Sai_Baba%20_vibuthi.htm (English translation). Analyses of yet other samples by the Danish government’s Veterinary and Food Administration head scientist Erik Dahm found a number of minerals, the main content being calcium (chalk) and they were unable to show any extraordinary thing that has special healing properties. (see transcript from ‘Seduced’ documentary).
The couple shown above were mainly trying to sell a variety of rukrakshas and japamalas (rosaries). They had printed up many pages with their price list, and they could send by overseas mail on receipt of a bank order. The lady shown wanted us to promise to tell all our contacts and send them there. They claimed that the various prices (which were very considerable) reflected the relative potency of each rosary based on the number of times they had recited the holy name with each of them. The value of the various japamalas had to be taken on trust (no possibility of knowing if they had been used as stated, of course). The rudrakshas of numerous kinds were priced according to their alleged rarity, and the number of ‘faces’ – from 1 to 12. Apparently all of these could be bought from them, and they had (see scan of 2 pages below). To believe that these seeds have miraculous properties – because of their symbolic association with the god Shiva – is of course an absurdity, yet not only Hindus but also some Westerners fall for this!
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