Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed

Exposing major deceits by guru Sathya Sai Baba in India, incl. murders cover-up & widely alleged sexual abuse

Archive for April, 2014

Leicester Sathya Sai School vibuthi fraud

Posted by robertpriddy on April 29, 2014

Sathya Sai so-called 'holy vibuthi' alleged to have been manifested at the Leicetser Sathya Sai School as if to exonerate the accused headmistress and her husband of serious abuses.

PHOTOS FROM LEICESTER SATHYA SAI SCHOOL OF ALLEGED ‘VIBUTI MANIFESTATION’ AFTER MAJOR SCANDAL HIT HEAD TEACHERS (Mrs. Usha Lim & husband Mr. Cheng Ho Lim)´

The Leicester Sathya Sai School lost its accreditation as a Sai Baba institution after a major scandal of child abuse and sexual harassment of a female teacher was investigated, firstly by Leicester social services, subsequently by various ‘officials’ of the Sathya Sai Organisation in Uk and also by the overarching International Sai Baba authorities in India.

During the investigation, after legal threats were made against the accusers by very rich Sathya Sai followers, the photos on the right here were sent to me. These were taken by some staff member of the Sathya Sai School, the alleged ‘miraculous manifestation’ of vibuthi (supposed ‘hold Sai Baba ash, sent from him beyond the grave!) were, of course, known about by all involved in the school and no doubt were sent to various ‘official’ bodies in the Sathya Sai Organisation, intending to prove that  Sai Baba gave his (posthumous) blessing to the school as led by Headmistress Mrs. Usha Lim (accused of child abusive harassment) and her husband, Mr. Cheng Ho Lim, who was accused of sexual harassment of a female staff member. Evidently, these accusations were accepted as true by those officials in the Sathya Sai Organisation who banned the school from using the name of Sathya Sai Baba. The school’s funding from the UK SS Organisation was cut off, but a private source – a very rich Indian businessman who still believes that Sai Baba was a holy person with miraculous powers etc.,- took over the financial support, and the school blatantly continues to use the name ‘Sathya Sai’ in its title. 

The miracle of ‘spontaneous manifestation’ of ash (vibuthi) on images as a sign of blessing by Sai Baba (self-proclaimed Creator of the Universe and much else besides) is fully believed in by all his remaining  followers, despite all the evidence, both considerable evidence, testimony and filmed sleight-of-hand. So, in a cynical attempt to ‘prove innocence’ (and so avoid exposure) to parents and staff, and not least to all the Sai ‘officials’ who also believe fanatically in the miraculous nature of vibuthi manifestations and to cover-up the abuses, the headmistress and accomplices evidently faked these ‘holy manifestations’. Such vibuthi fraud has been very common among Sai followers and many another who would muscle in on the super-lucrative miracle cult, and Sai Baba frequently used to denounce all manner of imitators of his miracles, of which there were (and still are) many (see example also here). Devotees of Sai Baba always east the ash supposedly ‘sent’ by Sai Baba, trusting in its genuineness and never considering it could contain impurities or other than entirely beneficial substances. Whether the ash at the Leicester school was distributed to children to eat is not known, but was most likely. The entire matter involving miracles and the cult around them being promoted in a U.K. school requires proper investigation by the Ofsted Commission or its eventual replacement schools’ inspection authorities, and not least by health and safety authorities.

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.

Leicester Sai School sackings

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

Vibuthi ash analysed by scientists

Video of Sai Baba vibuthi analysis at Munich University by Dr. Jurgen Evers

 

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Death of Sathya Sai Baba – 3rd anniversary?

Posted by robertpriddy on April 23, 2014

Click to see sourceOne of the countless questions that has never been answered about Sathya Sai Baba is exactly when and of what he actually died. In the months before he died Sathya Sai Baba was very sick man, and had suffered tremendous weight loss, some reporting he weighed as little as 28 or 30 kilos. No explanation of why this was so or why his one major organ after another failed was ever given and a bogus (i.e. ‘cardio-respiratory failure’ is not a legal cause) death certificate was issued, while Dr Safaya who issued it resigned thereafter citing ‘irregularities’). The obvious suspicion to those who know of his countless sexual abuses is that he died of AIDS.

There are many other reasons to suspect a massive cover-up took place (not least – see scan on right) – and even that he was murdered (according to an ex Minister). Invitations to politicians, transport arrangements and a large security presence were all arranged well before his death was announced!  Evidently he had been kept on life-support so his death could take place (i.e. disconnection) conveniently on Easter Sunday, suggesting to some Christians that he was an embodiment of Christ! Despite all efforts from the Sai Central Trust, the Sai-endorsing media and political leaders, these issues have been impossible to hide entirely.

The BBC announced Sai Baba’s death, adding that he was accused of fraudulent miracle tricks and sexual abuses (which he of course had 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 had 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. In a desperate attempt to offset this pivotal fact, Sai officialdom put out the bogus theory that he had calculated his age in lunar years, not solar years. However, the calculations to support this were wrong, besides which he had never reckoned in lunar years on any previous occasion.

Besides all this, the birth date he claimed was most probably wrong by several years, chosen to fit with auspicious signs.

See also: Sathya Sai Baba’s death – no miracles

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Sathya Sai Baba remembered – April 24

Posted by robertpriddy on April 21, 2014

THEN AND NOW

THEN AND NOW

Seeing the degenerated physical condition of Sathya Sai Baba on his last birthday, no one can fail to see that he was showed signs of aged decrepitude and that he was not healthy, which his series of major organ failures proved beyond doubt (i.e. heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and almost certain brain-death). Despite all his boasts about never declining until his 96th year and continued perfect health, his hangdog face belied it all. It is instructive to compare this self-proclaimed omnipotent ‘God-avatar’ with the normal and entirely modest Queen Elizabeth, who is now 88 years old and is a picture of health and bright intelligence. Sathya Sai Baba cried openly in public on his 85th birthday celebration (he was 84 by normal reckoning). That was because – for the first time ever apparently – a speaker addressed him as “Sri, Sri Sri, Sathya Sai” (see wmv video here). Can one imagine the Queen of England breaking down publicly in self-piteous tears, especially when lauded by someone?

Though Sai Baba fatuously claimed “The whole world loves me” he was very far from being the massively respected world figure, known to everyone, that Queen Elizabeth indisputably is. Sai Baba informed his followers that he was in line for the Nobel Peace Prize, which he neither received nor ever remotely qualified for (see documentation here). Sai Baba’s coterie tried hard to attract British royals to visit Sai Baba, including Prince Charles. Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York) did in fact visit Prashanthi Nilayam, while Sai Baba devotees in UK tried to hi-jack a Duke of Edinburgh award for him, and managed to get the Queen to visit a Sathya Sai school in Harrow. In short, Sai Baba’s fame was not enough, and in not refuting these things, he evidently wanted to hitch himself to the most famous family in the world too!

Here are some of Sai Baba’s self-promotional claims and predictions:
In the days ahead, the whole world will be obliged to come to Prashanthi Nilayam” (p. 320 Sanathana Sarathi December 1991)
The whole world loves me and I love all” (see in discourse here)
The whole world will be transformed into Sathya Sai Organisation and Sathya Sai will be installed in the hearts of one and all.” (Sanathana Sarathi, January 1999 – page 16)
You are going to witness the divine glory of Swami unfolding in the days to come. He will attract the whole world. There won’t be place for people to stand even. You can see it for yourself, what a great change has occurred during the last one month! All are getting attracted to Swami.” Discourse 16 March 2003.
Very soon, the entire world will be united. In fact, after 28 years, the world itself will become “Bharat”. Everyone will call themself a Bharatiya (one imbued with godliness — Bhagavat rathas). No one will refer to themself as belonging to this state or that state, this region or that region.” (Divine Discourse, Nov 23, 1978 – see here)
“In fact, there is no trace of hatred or enmity in Me at any time. I love all. That is why everyone loves Me.” (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 36, p 86 Discourse 06/05/2003) “… nobody is against me. Everyone loves and none hates me.” (p. 262) ( That last is not true for a start as there are plenty who express otherwise on the Internet)

Queen Elizabeth ‘manipulated’ by omnipresent Sathya Sai Baba?

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Healing and protection promises by Sai Baba avatar

Posted by robertpriddy on April 19, 2014

Sathya Sai Baba pretended that he looked after the well-being of all his devotees most carefully. Indeed, much of the huge and mainly amateurish ‘literature’ praising Sai Baba contains stories of miraculous healings – including of incurable diseases – attributed by devotees to his intervention. There is, however, no scientific evidence presented by any of the claimants that such cures were effected by him, as is often the case with alleged ‘distant’ or miraculous healings, and, strangely enough, not even by doctors who confirm these claims. Only in a very few cases would the writer admit that the effect was temporary or inexplicably did not occur… whereupon a simple (or sometimes convoluted) explanatory rationalisation of the failing would be made by the author. When the avatar’s promised healing did not occur, statements about it were looked down upon and so were seldom accepted by any pro-Sai publishers.

Yet, when one talked freely to people, one heard quite other information. I met many persons and also read many testimonies from dissidents (in the petition and by e-mails to critics) detailing failed promises of healing by Sai Baba.  The famous newspaperman and editor, V.K. Narasimhan, who followed his wife to live in the ashram in 1980, V.K. Narasimhan, startled and shocked me once by saying that he had never seen a single genuine cure by Sathya Sai Baba in all the years he had been living close to him! Narasimhan himself was told his eye was cured with vibuthi ‘made’ on the spot for him, but within two days he has lost it completely. While he was the editor of Sai Baba’s journal Sanathana Sarathi, he avoided publishing claims of healing by Sai Baba, he also failed to report his own negative experiences, being dependent upon the Sai Baba’s ashram by that time.

Sai Baba’s made many personal promises to people in interviews. It was known that what he said and did in interviews was supposed to be kept strictly private. But intense curiosity and gossip almost always prevailed (something on which he apparently cynically reckoned). Numerous books and articles about him told how he had promised persons by saying “I shall protect you“; “I will build an iron wall around you!” “Cancer cancelled!” and “I give you liberation, you will not have to take on another body!” Other standard sentences of assurance he repeated was, “I give you a long life, healthy life, happy life!“, another “I will look after everything” (Unasked, he made both of these promises explicitly to me – yet I can hardly be said to have a particularly healthy life since then, having had to retire from work from my 50th year).

‘Medical diagnoses’ Sai Baba sometimes made were never properly documented except in most general terms. One apparent (but undocumented) exception apparently was the case of Phyllis Krystal: “Baba then launched into a detailed diagnosis of my physical problems which Dr. Bhagavantam translated from Telugu into English. Baba spoke very fast and used complex medical terms which neither of us was able to comprehend and which I would not have been able to spell even if I had tried to take notes…” (Krystal, ibid., p. 37) However, from his frequent laughably absurd statements about health, eyesight, bodily functions, it is clear that Sai Baba knew no modern medicine. So he would have bluffed with some kind of pseudo-medical jargon he had picked up. He would also often speak unclearly so people could not be sure what he had said, and asking him to repeat a thing would not go down well, or would simply make him shift attention to someone else.

In ‘The Findings‘ by the former very close devotee David Bailey, we read: “I have not seen him do a genuine healing on anybody in all my time of being close to him, and having had innumerable interviews. I have seen him tell people to stand up, and get out of wheel chairs, but the effect is not lasting. He generally ignores the sick and frail ones, giving out as reason, their karma.The Australian “pink twins” continue to use wheel chairs, in spite of Sai Baba’s claims of healing them and their claims of being healed. A sad case for me is Maynard Ferguson. Over three years of deterioration in his hearing; during several interviews with him and his wife, he, his wife and myself asked – pleaded with Swami, to heal him. Every time, he promised to do so, but now Maynard is very deaf and has to rely on two powerful hearing aids to help him. As a fellow musician I know what this must mean to him in his heart.
Once Faye and I had an interview in the company of an elderly, rather frail Indian gentleman who used to sit on the verandah near me. He asked Sai Baba for help for his failing health. Swami, behind his back shrugged his shoulders at us, saying in what we both thought was a rather an unfeeling aside “And what can I do? Cancer. Too far gone, too far gone.”

Faye has had her own experience of him giving health advice she trustingly followed, which nearly caused permanent damage to her, before she at last resorted to western medical treatment for her complaint. Faye Bailey wrote in the introduction to ‘The Findings’: “David has spent long hours and many months, talking to people all over the world, whilst unravelling this tangled skein of years of deceit accumulated around the said “divinity incarnate”, but he is not alone in this. Courageous people on every continent are banding together to expose the monumental spiritual fraud which has been perpetrated for the personal gain of a select group, headed by Sai Baba. The German coordinator whom I visited in the super specialty hospital after he’d had a stroke, was eventually taken back to the verandah, but Swami did not heal him. The elderly man has gone back to Germany, and some two years later is little improved.” (Note: The German Sathya Sai Organization leader and Central Coordinator in Europe was Mr. Bernhard Gruber, who I knew well and who recovered partly and temporarily from his stroke – as so many usually do anyhow – before dying not long thereafter.)

Close Sai devotees who were utterly abandoned to their medical fates by Sathya Sai Baba included top favourite US devotee, Dr. John Hislop, who died of brain cancer years earlier than Sai Baba has said he would. Another favourite Sai Baba author – Mrs. Joy Thomas – was told she had no cancer, but died of it within a matter of a few months. A long-serving Head of Prashanthi Nilayam ashram, Y. V. Kutumb Rao, died of massive incurable cancer, died 29/3/1989. Sai Baba’s ‘official biographer’ and close devotee through decades, N. Kasturi, suffered 6 weeks intense lung pain before dying. Kasturi’s replacement, my close friend V.K. Narasimhan, who served him for 20 years, developed water on the lungs and, receiving no care for it, had to leave the ashram, whereupon he suffered a long choking death.

A young American friend I met at the ashram, Michael Oliver, and his two US friends (both killed outright) were crushed by falling dome in Eternal Heritage Museum in 1992. Michael suffered 11 hours hell in taxi to Bangalore with 9 fractures and broken cranium before tearing off his life support system and dying en route. (See a full account here).

As to divine protection, the King and Queen of Nepal were devotees who visited and were blessed by Sai Baba in April 1999, were shot down by their son in a horrific bloodbath in June 2001.  How can one rationalize as ‘His Grace’ the horror gone through which the King and Queen of Nepal – close devotees who visited Sathya Sai Baba? Both shot down and killed by their son along with others in a regular bloodbath! I knew several other Sai devotees who died terrible deaths among Sai devotees, even within the group I led. Dozens more awful deaths among close servitors and devotees, too many to list here, are known to former devotees.

EXCERPT FROM THE TESTIMONY OF NORBERIU AIELDO written November 30, 2002.

My third trip, made in September 1994, it was beautiful because this time Sai Baba called my group. At one point I asked him if he wanted to help me… …He replied that I had problems in the abdomen. and his hand went around his stomach, and he told me that it was very difficult, but if he wanted anything could (and I believe it seriously). “Ok” he said. “you gift of healing.

Beaming with joy. I asked the interpreter if I understood that he meant the recovery from this terrible and incurable disease. The interpreter asked confirmation of what Sai Baba. and he said “yes”. We left the room and in front of everyone. I asked him a gift and he materialized a ring with his picture on it.

I continued to be his devotee for years to come, in fact, a year later, I returned to India in September 1995. he called us and did not approach either, however I still believe that I would be healed, and so I went on for another five years. Time has passed, my faith has wavered and my illness has only gotten worse. Norberto Aiello.

by: Fabio De Gregorio to: webmaster@exbaba.it Posted: Monday. April 25, 2011 – at 00:22

His friend Fabio De Gregorio wrote on April 25, 2011 (to exbaba.it):-

“This is to tell you that Norberto Aiello. of which I was lucky enough to be a good friend, died May 16, 2008. I visited him once or twice a week. I can confirm that, fatefully, his physical condition began to deteriorate just from when he had the promise of miraculous healing by Sai Baba. On his return from that trip. in fact, began to need ventilator with oxygen and then her condition worsened gradually. Norberto much regretted the fact that so many other people with physical problems continue to fall victim of the treacherous games snake oil salesman of Sai Baba.”

Dozens more of awful deaths among close servitors and devotees, too many to list here, are known to former devotees and these continue to this day in the case of almost lifelong and some most self-sacrificing foreign devotees who still believed in him.

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Leave a Comment »

Freedom vs. corporate control of the Indian press

Posted by robertpriddy on April 17, 2014

Press-freedom vs. controlThe Indian press, with a very few notable exceptions, was increasingly censorious about any of the negative facts about Sathya Sai Baba, especially from the 1980s onwards. Documented facts and critical testimonies and opinions were repeatedly ignored when sent by critics of Sai Baba to the editors of The Times of India, The Hindu and other major newspapers. It later emerged that Sai Baba interests had financial and editorial investments in some of these newspapers. Much of the press is owned or affiliated to political parties, and these have also supported – and still endorse – the mythology about Sai Baba – the self-declared creator of the universe etc. As the following indicates, the press in India is largely a product of political lobbying of political and corporate owners’ propaganda.

In his recent article in Caravan magazine, Parthasarathy explored the political ownership of media during the past few years. “Owning a news entity has become a practical necessity for political parties in India,” Parthasarathy told the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Compared to many Asian countries, there is a great deal of freedom to report in India,” writer and lawyer Suhrith Parthasarathy told CPJ. “But there is the issue of political control of the Indian media which begs the question of how truly free are journalists.”

“Freedom of the press,” the acerbic journalist AJ Liebling once wrote, “is limited to those who own one.” Today, this freedom increasingly resides with regional parties across India, which—taking a cue from the DMK—now treat television news media as vital political instruments. Even the largely toothless Telecom Regulatory Authority of India says there is an “increasing trend of influence of political parties/politicians in the media sector.”  Opponents of regulating ownership believe such policies are a form of indirect censorship. “Freedom of speech is not restricted to individuals: the Constitution offers the same freedom to corporate houses.” 

The Caravan also notes:- “Like Sun and Kalaignar, all of these channels have a tendency to serve not as sources of reliable information, but as unabashed propagandists. Where the party that controls the channels are in power, they operate more as a fourth branch of government than a fourth estate. Unfortunately, our constitution has been interpreted—wrongly—in a manner that supports this state of affairs.   “According to Business Standard, nearly 60 percent of cable distribution systems are owned or otherwise controlled by politicians, who frequently curtail the broadcasting of rival stations. Political control of television news is part of a broader discussion on press ownership. As the media critic Sevanti Ninan pointed out in a recent article in Mint, a majority of media companies in India are unlisted, and often owned by surrogates. Most politicians control their stakes through front companies. “

Writing in The Huffington Post, Sumit Galhotra concluded: “Although India is heralded as the promised land of journalism, with more than 80,000 print publications and close to 400 news channels–at a time when the media industry elsewhere faces shrinkage and uncertainty–recent events underscore that the huge number of outlets do not guarantee widespread independent coverage in the world’s largest democracy.”

Comment received:-

chrisdokter
chrisdokter.wordpress.comx


Being a democracy, having a multitude of media outlets, all of it does not guarantee real freedom of the press, as can be seen by the steep decline of the US (dropped from 32 to 46) and, to a lesser degree, the UK (dropped from 29 to 33).

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | 2 Comments »

‘Evil forces’ undermining a religious organisation?

Posted by robertpriddy on April 15, 2014

from Sathya Sai Speaks Volume 10, p. 234. Discourse 22-11-1970

from Sathya Sai Speaks Volume 10, p. 234. Discourse 22-11-1970

In 2003, the Secretary of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Prasanthi Nilayam, issued the following: “I would again like to stress that to achieve the goals that our organization stands for and respect the commitment that we made adhering to it as associate members, it is essential to focus our thoughts and our time, unilaterally on our Divine Master Sathya Sai Baba, avoiding all distractions and diversions proposed by imitators taking on the attitudes, clothes, and gestures of the Master and who are presented as his peers.

Anyone who takes the trouble to read the discourses of Sathya Sai Baba, or who has been involved within his Organisation, will know that he made tremendous efforts to publicise his own name and to try to protect his own reputation from the incursions of others. He was well aware of the many who tried to claim he had given them special powers, or who simply copied him and his methods in detail. Through his acolytes and retainers, he exercised strict authoritarian control on his organisation and what its members could say or express in public – a rigorous thought control whereby devotees were discouraged from thinking for themselves, but were fed with his pre-packaged “thoughts”. All that the perfect devotees should do was adopt these and make them their own.

Sathya Sai Baba was a master of guile and understood better than any contemporaries how to present himself and his ‘Mission’ so that it would have maximum appeal, claiming that the collection of money or soliciting donations were forbidden, that not a single penny (‘paisa’) was ever wasted by him or his various institutions. He proposed many voluntary social works (which his followers should do to gain blessing and spiritual benefits) and promised to clean out corruption and wrongdoing in India and eventually in the whole world… Nonetheless funds were collected on a huge scale, often in thankful return for ‘miraculous manifestations’ of objects that seemed to be most valuable (but were almost worthless). The huge sums expended on social works, including clean water projects and museums celebrating himself, were eventually actually solicited by him, and there was massive wastage, graft, outright embezzlement and swindle by entrepreneurs and others involved.

His claiming to perform countless unique miracles (many shown to be bogus) to attract the gullible was one of his cleverest means to fame, none of which he would perform for independent investigators (of course!). See SAI DECEPTIONS FRAUD, LEGERDEMAIN, RUMOUR-SPREADING AND LIES BY SATHYA SAI BABA

 

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Baba Satya Sai film portrays Sai Baba’s mother

Posted by robertpriddy on April 13, 2014

 

The lower part of the image contains data from another source than Times of India

The lower part of the image in bold text is from another source than Times of India

It would now appear that the coming release of the film ‘Baba Sathya Sai’ is to be in Telugu. Whether it will be shown on any circuit in English is doubtful, since it seems to be advertised as freely downloadable.

EashwarammaThe appearance of Jayapradha is so far removed from that of the figure she is to portray, Sai Baba’s mother Eashwaramma, as to be a laughable caricature. The film will certainly create another set of false perceptions of Sai Baba, and the true story will be clinically cleaned-up beyond all recognition to those who met him, knew about him, worked in his organisation and discovered his diverse criminal activities for which he was saved from prosecution by a series of Indian Prime Minister and President devotees.

Eashwaramma's_house

If there are to be any scenes showing of Eashwaramma’s circumstances  when she was rejected by her husband for a mistress, then one can be sure they will not show the grinding poverty in which she lived with very little help from her rich and famous son. See
Easwaramma – the chosen mother in poverty, scorned by her husband!

Other aspects of her life as a poor, ignorant villager and oppressed female are kept well under the carpet, but have been recorded properly for those who dare to learn about it. Not to mention  the greatest cover-up in modern India, the criminal activities and deceits of her in famous son.

‘Baba Satya Sai’ film demotes the swami to a ‘Demigod’

Two Sai Baba films to compete against BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’?

Sai Baba exposé film wins docu. award in US

 

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

A prospective Indian Prime Minister, Yadav, is a disgraceful male chauvinist

Posted by robertpriddy on April 12, 2014

What on earth could be worse than sexual politics in India? The media reports:
Yadav
“In an election speech on Thursday, Mulayam Singh Yadav, head of the Socialist Party (SP), which runs the state government in Uttar Pradesh, said if he became prime minister he would scrap a recently introduced law that fixed the death penalty for rapists.”Boys will be boys. Following a girl-boy fight, the girl complains she was raped,” he said in the city of Moradabad.
Mr Yadav’s comments sparked outcry from women’s rights campaigners and commentators, as well as his political opponents. They were also denounced, though not that vocally, by the ruling Congress party, which had been long allied in the federal government with the SP in a ruling coalition. Referring to a case in Mumbai where three men were sentenced to death for two gang-rapes, Mr Yadav claimed the men should not face the death penalty as it was not uncommon “for boys to make mistakes.”

So Yadav aligns himself with the view of the disgusting Asaram Bapu, who spoke of the horrendous Mumbai gang rapists (and all but one was a boy) on death row as “brothers”. Fortunately there ar those who speak out firmly against this super-chauvinism, including his own son: “Mr Azmi’s comments sparked further outcry, including a denunciation from his son, Farhan Azmi, who is contesting a seat in the city of Mumbai. “I believe a rapist should be hanged a hundred times,” he said. “I have five sisters and everyone in my family believes the same.”

That such a statement could be made without immediate disgrace and banishment from political life just shows how India had never faced up to the widespread seriously perverted sexual mores… a country which was found by a major governmental research report together with UNICEF investigating 12,000 children that 53 per cent had been sexually abused. Now a major political figure is actually encouraging such abuses! Millions have lost their childhood due to the laxity in lawmaking, especially the sexual abuse of boys by males, and a number of Prime Ministers and Presidents have actually condoned this by turning a bling eye to serial sex abusers and pedophiles like the guru they worshipped, Sathya Sai Baba, protecting his from prosecution to try to retain their own ill-invested prestige.
see the whole report in its systematic detail at http://www.wcd.nic.in/childabuse.pdf (If unavailable in future, click here)

Comment:-

chrisdokter.wordpress.com

The only thing worse than sexual politics in India is sexual practice in India, as your report so clearly indicates, Robert. The violence against women seems to be near unstoppable as long as this democratic nation keeps getting run by male chauvinists. And even then, to change a society in its deep rooted beliefs is hard enough. It took western countries more than a century to reach some equality between men and women, and we are not nearly finished ourselves, given e.g. the appalling figures concerning domestic abuse, lover boys and forced prostitution, but Indian society and police and court officials seem hell-bent on remaining backwards, and in support of male perpetrators, godmen or not.
Just two months ago, another terrible example of the failing justice system in India hit the news (only briefly, though, and without follow-up!) nationwide, when a young victim of guru rape was shot dead upon entering the court house in Mathura, where she was to give evidence against her alleged attacker, Vrindavan godman Govindanand Teerath, see this NDTV footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SEL2lOLAzI

 

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Asaram Bapu case still in abeyance on April 9, 2004?

Posted by robertpriddy on April 9, 2014


Presumably because Asaram Bapu is still hospitalised, there has been no news on his case available anywhere for weeks. One would hope that this is not a politically-influenced abeyance, which is not beyond the realm of possibility, knowing how the Indian political elite condones and has protected unconvicted criminals like Sathya Sai Baba and many another. Despite the protestations of his innocence by a  numerous of his band of followers (though it has surely vastly decreased), the circumstantial evidence that has accumulated around the case is alone sufficient to show that he and his son are far from being saintly persons, by any stretch of the sane imagination. According to India Today, a City Commissioner of Police, Rakesh Asthana, told reporters, “The scrutiny of documents recovered during the raid has established that wealth of Asaram’s ashrams in the form of bank accounts and other investments including shares, debentures and government bonds (excluding land) is valued at Rs.9,000-Rs.10,000 crore. The value of land has not been included in the assessment of Rs.10,000 crore,” he said, adding the figures can escalate as there are many more documents still to be retrieved.” (Note: 10,000 crore of rupees = 100 billion rupees = ca $ US 1.6 billion) Police raids at one of Asaram’s properties in Ahmedabad few months ago, unearthed thousands of documents detailing his financial transactions which was brought to the city in more than 40 big bags. In Gujarat, they hold land at 45 places in 10 districts. Also, they own land at 33 places across eight districts in four states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, the CP said.

CLICK ON IMG. TO SEE WHOLE POST

CLICK ON IMG. TO SEE WHOLE POST

That such persons could accumulate the gigantic wealth (without earning it from productive work) is itself a massive indictment of the entire judiciary and corrupt socio-religious culture involved.  Asaram and son are prime examples of the very widespread corrupt super-rich guru culture of India, which is like a plague on the innocent but all too gullible and religiously indoctrinated population.

The scanned excerpt from Frontline below here shows that awareness of the destructiveness of this guru culture of India and its poverty-stricken millions is at least on the agenda sufficiently for much mainstream media, at long last, to allow such critical comments.

See also links to a full range of Asaram Bapu crimes and events at Asaram Bapu news and exposures

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Leave a Comment »

Malaysian reactions to a revealing BBC documentary

Posted by robertpriddy on April 7, 2014

E-mails from the prominent Malaysian lawyer, Hariram Jayaram, registered the effect of the BBC World documentary ‘The Secret Swami’ in Malaysia, where it ws shown in September 2004.

September 21 Dear Robert Already, the private viewing of the authorised copy of the Secret Swami is sending shock waves. The anti-SSB cult network of the 1980s is being revived. I am not playing a leadership role. There are a reasonable number of younger people to handle this. One of them was a former student of Puttaparthi and victim. SSB (note: Sathya Sai Baba)  is not a great figure among the Indian community of Malaysia. The Chinese are fooled by him into thinking that they will prosper materially by being his devotee. But the BBC broadcast will make a substantial number of them come to their senses. Congratulations! Regards,Hariram

September 28, 2004
Dear Robert Yes, I saw Secret Swami at prime time i.e. at 8.10 pm on Saturday, September 25, 2004. It was shown 3 times. The programme was shortened to 50 minutes. I suppose that this was inevitable because of the time constraints BBC was placed in. The scenes omitted from the 10 minutes do not matter. The word has spread. Many I meet say that they have seen the documentary. Others are borrowing from me the authorised copy. Not only the Indian community is conscious as it has always been (except for the dud Jegathesan), the Chinese community is also becoming aware.
I will pass on your message to the SSB victim with whom I am in contact. To be fair to him, his name should be kept confidential. It is worth doing this because he is doing his part quietly and effectively to expose SSB. I will go through the article on the Chinese community.  It is possible to make a dent because the Malaysian Chinese who are Buddhists or Christians have suspicions about SSB. I did not find anything substantially wrong with the two VCDs you sent to me. Well done once again.
Regards, Hariram

Overview of the main contents of THE SECRET SWAMI documentary can be studied here See source e-mail of the above excerpts here. Earlier e-mails from Jayaram have already appeared in previous postings here and here – here and here      Concerning the Sai Baba cult in Malaysia’s attempts to enrol Chinese into their organisation, a research work has been written as follows:-

Journal of Contemporary Religion
Publisher: Carfax Publishing Company, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
Issue: Volume 15, Number 1 / January 1, 2000
Creating Divine Unity: Chinese Recruitment in the Sathya Sai Baba Movement of Malaysia by Alexandra KentThis paper examines Chinese participation in a neo-Hindu movement in Malaysia. The data, gathered in Kuala Lumpur 1995-1997, are examined with regard to their ethnic and political implications and in relation to the historical as well as the contemporary social features of Malaysia. The paper explores the way in which the Indian-dominated leadership of the Malaysian Sai Baba organisation attempts to include Chinese worshippers: while aiming to overcome ethnic boundaries, there is a tendency to reproduce them. Chinese inclusion plays a significant role in the organisation’s attempt to establish a multi-ethnic and non-sectarian profile for the movement. Such a profile is relevant for the leadership’s pursuit of moral legitimacy in a country where ethnicity and religion are inextricably linked to politics.
SEE ALSO Ambiguity and the Modern Order: the Sathya Sai Baba Movement in Malaysia    Author: Alexandra Kent   Doctoral dissertation at the Department of Social Anthropology Göteborg University — Box 700, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden
Abstract This study examines the Malaysian following of the contemporary Indian godman Sathya Sai Baba, a neo-Hindu guru famed for his miracle-working. This religious innovation has broad appeal among non-Malays, but attempts to formalise and control it have evolved within a middle-class subsection of the Indian community. My concern here is to examine its special and ambiguous formula for addressing the totalitarianism and intolerance of Malaysian modernity as it is wielded by the Malay-dominated government.The dissertation presents a background firstly of the Indian community in Malaysia, secondly of the guru, Sathya Sai Baba and his ambiguous symbolism and rhetoric and thirdly, of the Sai Baba organisation in Malaysia. The final four chapters, chapters four-seven, present ethnography through which the peculiar ambivalence of the élite Indian following is explored. The first of these contrasts the rationalistic visage of the Sai Baba organisation’s public service events with the non-rational formulations used in its private celebrations. The second and third ethnographic chapters discuss how the male, middle-class Indian leadership of the organisation attempts to control both spiritual power, in the form of healing, and mundane power within the community. The final chapter deals with the participation of Sai Baba followers in the working-class Tamil festival of Thaipusam. Together, the ethnographic chapters illuminate how the organisation, on the one hand, rhetorically aligns itself to state-sponsored, bourgeois ideology and professes tolerance and ecumenism. On the other hand, the ethnography reveals its concerns with ethnic, class and gender ordering within the Sai Baba community and with the establishment of Hindu supremacy. The culturally besieged élite minority that controls the Sai Baba organisation appears to be torn between subversion and subservience towards the government and its assurance of the ascendancy of Malay culture.The final chapter closes with a concluding section in which it is proposed that religious innovations based in miracles and ambiguity may address some of the profoundly felt disjunctions between lived experience, in all its complexity, and the standardising powers of an imposed modern order.

 

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Leave a Comment »

Tiny bible believed to have ‘appeared’ from nowhere

Posted by robertpriddy on April 4, 2014

Fraud caught on film when Sai Baba pretended to ‘materialise’ a tiny Bible in 1996 Baba suddenly produced the “small Bible” (as it came to be known) and told a story about its medieval origins (1530). Sai Baba claimed that scholars started investigating the validity of the statements made by Jesus Christ. In ca 1530 AD in Britain, they collected all knowledge that existed prior to one thousand five hundred and thirty years. All that was compiled in one book in England. Russians made it into a small tiny book, he said. Then he waved his hand and showed the tiny bible. But he was caught out by the film camera:-

Download and watch the video clip from Christmas, 1996 in which Baba suddenly produced the tiny bible (called a “small Bible” by his propagandists). Firstly see the excerpt which begins with him picking up a hankerchief (but it must contain the tiny bible to be ‘materialised) for it is visible as a white patch in his right hand just before the clip ends. http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/video/mini-bible-fraud.mov The end bit is shown very briefly again here. http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/video/microbibleclip.mov
The series of frames in which the object is partly visible before he ‘produces’ it is shown below
Watch the full length wmv. video clip from At Christmas, 1996 little bible During his Christmas discourse in 1996 Baba suddenly produced the “small Bible” and told a story about its medieval origins (1530). Sai Baba claimed that scholars started investigating the validity of the statements made by Jesus Christ. In ca- 1530 AD in Britain, they collected all knowledge that existed prior to one thousand five hundred and thirty years. All that was compiled in one book in England. Russians made it into a small tiny book. The selfsame tiny bible is found for sale on-line from various outlets. It contains the New Testament and has the same golden cross on a white cover as Sai Baba holds up above!

mini-bible

Brian Steel discovered one day long afterwards was that copies of an identical work, the miniature so-called Good News New Testament, have been on sale in India for many years. I bought one from a Sai Baba Centre in Australia for $2.50. It looks exactly the same as the one held aloft by Baba in the ashram photos. The same white tiny bible with a golden cross on the cover  (New Testament only) as shown above is on-sale online from many sources.

frame-by-frame The crassness of the would-be deception and the mendacious inventiveness shows to what lengths Sai Baba and co went to deceive the public! Since Sai Baba never allowed anyone to examine the bible he produced, and it was not seen again, it is highly likely that it did not contain any entirely new account, but was just the ordinary New Testament, as it is in the tiny bible on sale which has an identical appearance. Rhe fact that he did NOT materialise the bible is seen quite definitively in a frame-by-frame analysis of the ‘hand-waving’ in the video. This is the kind of evidence that Professor Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson chose to ignore when he revised his book ‘Modern Miracles’ in 2013 where he claimed that Sai Baba had not been caught out in any fraud. But the above is but one of a number of filmed fraudulent ‘materialisations’ Haraldsson pointedly ignored, quite apart from his refusal to follow-up on the published testimony of numerous persons who apprehended Sai Baba in fraud. Comments :-

chrisdokter chrisdokter.wordpress.comx

Quite right, Robert. The fraud by Sai Baba is crass, indeed, and the forgery is crudely done: if you look (and listen!) closely to the footage, you can clearly notice Sai Baba reaching for the table and his handkerchief some 10 seconds prior to the ‘materialization’ and HEAR him pick up or touch something of some weight, a sound that is NEVER heard when SSB reached for the table and/or his hanky on every other occasion during this 1 hour and 31 minute lecture. And yes, shame on scientist Haraldsson for not even considering to review this highly revealing material. But then, it would have utterly refuted Haraldsson’s sustained claim of absence of proof of fraud by Sathya Sai Baba, a thought apparently so unwelcome to the former Icelandic professor, that he rather stuck to his preconceived notions.

eileenweed

Good catch! My goodness, how gullible we were, believing every single word of that fraudster, even though the proof was there before our eyes to see – had we been quick enough to notice! However, even when noticing, our faith would remain intact (as my ‘Letters from India’ clearly shows, time and time again). I had a good friend who is still an ardent devotee,even though she sat right next to his chair in the interview room and SAW him pull a ring from behind the cushion, then pretend to materialize it. “Swami’s little leela” is how she described it. His fame grew only because of people like us, who sung his praises to others and kept quiet regarding all the dubious goings-on that we personally experienced. Thank goodness for Internet now and photo & video proof, that is going very far in shaking awake the brainwashed, and protecting the prospective devotees from developing faith in the first place. Good work, keep it up!

 

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Malasian Lawyer Hariram Jayaram on faked miracle photo etc.

Posted by robertpriddy on April 2, 2014

Mr. Hariram Jayaram of Kuala Lumpur explains how the members of Sai Baba’s cult would not at first accept that he was a homosexual, but they later apparently accepted he was a pedophile!  He also gave some new information about the devotee Dr. S. Bhagavantham (India’s ‘father’ of its atomic bomb) who later left Sai Baba, as follows:- July 26, 2004 (message source) Hariram commiserated with all the harassment I was going through on-line, and told that he had been similarly treated when he became a dissident, including threats of physical harm. He remarked that many who had not been willing to accept that Sathya Sai Baba was a homosexual at the time later understood that he was a pedophile, but that it had not lost faith in him! The July 26 e-mail tells about the Indian nuclear physicist who developed the first Indian atomic weapon, Dr. S. Bhagavantham, who has been a close devotee of Sai Baba. Bhagavantham had not been willing to accept many of the things going on in Sai Baba’s ashrams. For example, he challenged the claims made by a lecturer – Nithyananthan – that a US satellite had detected a light flickering on a particular spot on earth which NASA allegedly identified as Puttaparthi! The students who listened to his lecture together with other members of the public, had a good laugh. Nithyanandan had claimed to have based his lecture on a scientific article. Bhagavantam had asked him to show the article, but the lecturer had been unable to produce a shred of documentary evidence for his claim, but Sai Baba made clear to Bhagavantham that he supported Nithyananthan and so the man should be let off lightly.

Bhagavantham’s son was the Principal of the Puttaparthi College and would have supplied him with facts relating to the rampant homosexual activities of Sai Baba and in the student community, wrote Jayaram. The whole Bhagavantham family opted out of the cult, according to Jayaram, when Professor Gokak was made the head of the SSB institution of higher learning, since Gokak and Bhagavantham were not great friends. At Bhagavantham’s death a few years later no mention was made in the news bulletins in India of his having been a Sai devotee although he was once one of the pillars of the organisation. Jayaram also observed about the BBC documentary, ‘The Secret Swami’, that there is a scene of him in a near state of collapse when trying to bring out the ‘lingam’. Jayaram held he was faking it, being a  master mind in mesmerizing his audience. Being good at histrionics since his boyhood days when he loved to attract crowds through drama and the like – Sai Baba learned how to handle them and had a craving to project his image before them See source e-mail of the above excerpts here. Earlier e-mails from Jayaram have already appeared in previous postings here and here – here and here     to be continued… Comment:-

An Early Example of Sathya Sai Nonsense « Mind your Mind chrisdokter.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/an-

[…] To me, this whole show of so-called evidence of Sai Baba’s universal omnipresence captured in ‘natural phenomena’ (See later examples, e.g. of Sai Baba’s appearance on the moon)  speaks of a desperate predilection of his cult members to see their master’s hand (or face, or feet, or ash) in every single thing. If science is seemingly involved, the miracle gains even more stature and credibility. (For an example of another apparent NASA involvement in a Sai ‘miracle’, read Robert Priddy’s post Malaysian Lawyer Hariram Jayaram on faked miracle photo etc.) […]

Posted in Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »