Whatever became of Sathya Sai Baba?

The recent farce in Kodaikanal where Sai Baba’s ghostly ‘subtle form’ was announced as being present by the masterful Isaac Burton Tigrett – ‘the man in black’ – is latched on by all those who intensely wish that it is true and try to prove to themselves that Sai Baba is not dead and gone entirely, but lives on as the Omnipresent God. Some try to force this view on us dissidents (as a certain self-appointed ‘scholar’ Waris Faridi, so unadvisedly did in an e-mail to me). Nothing quite so ridiculous has happened in the world of cults for ages… and it makes a laughing-stock.

About a year after the unexpected (by devotees) death of Sathya Sai Baba, he had not returned but still fervid worshippers insisted that he would appear in a massive load of comments on the Huffington Post article of which an excerpt is shown below. One might think ‘faith never dies’ but it evidently just fades away. The remnants are found among a sorry gang of lost persons who were so unscrupulously deceived by Sai Baba and the mini-empire of beneficiaries and cover-up propagandists that surrounded him, and who still try to keep lies alive through bogus claims, anonymous reports of his mysterious appearances or ‘leelas‘ (divine jokes) and suchlike. However, the ‘official’ Sai Prasanthi officials reject Tigrett’s claims, as they have done before concerning other of his self-promotional stories about how he was chosen to deliver Sai Baba’s ‘Living Testament’. BTW, Sai Baba believed in ghosts and told stories about how his mother appeared to him and some boys one night in his bedroom apartment. (See one here)

Here is an excerpt from the Huffington Post article with a few of the over 800 comments added on:-

That Sathya Sai Baba claimed all these things, as well as that he was the Father who sent Jesus to the world is indisputable, as it is thoroughly documented in many of his discourses and books about him. See for a start this scan from his biographer N. Kasturi’s book ‘Loving God’ and then read on down to see the unsurpassed self-glorification he preached about his ‘descent to save humanity’.

In another highly amusing parallel case to that of Sai Baba, The Independent (among other outlets) has a top front page article entitled:- Is Guru Ashutosh Maharaj dead or just meditating? Indian holy man with a £100m legacy This kind of stand-off between the mortuary and devotees is not at all uncommon in India, where the gullible religious believers make up the majority of the Hindus.