Sai Baba set a standard for honesty in exams?

Sathya Sai Baba often related how he had cheated at school, writing the entire papers of two student who were his closest friends. Read Sai Baba’s account of his cheating here or a full account in Sathya Sai Speaks here This shows that Sai Baba, hailed by PMs and Presidents as a supreme preceptor for educating Indians, was a part of the problem and a bad example.

The Daily Telegraph’s Colin Freeman reported on March 21st about Indian parents who climbed five-storeys of a school building to hand crib sheets to their children as they sat exams as follows:-

“Education officials in India’s eastern Bihar state have launched an inquiry after photos of the parents and relations perched precariously outside a four-storey school’s windows were published on the internet. Some were trying to hand in answer sheets folded into paper planes. Should we shoot them?” asked Prashant Kumar Shahi, Bihar’s education minister. speaking at a news conference after television news channels aired the incriminating photo.

The pictures, which were widely circulated online, highlighted the growing problem of cheating in exams as ambitious Indian parents push their children to excel in the country’s highly competitive education system. Pupils face tremendous pressure at 10th and 12th grades because they must pass the exams to continue their education.”

Though this seems shocking to the uninitiated, it has been a most common practice of numerous parents in many Indian colleges and also universities to beg, cheat, bribe and threatened educational authorities if their offspring does not achieve high marks.  It is widely known and published that higher castes regarded almost automatic passes for their sons and daughters as the duty of the teachers/examiners (usually of the same caste) and bribery was extremely common.  Forged documents were often found, and we could sometimes even see they were photocopies with the titles and other details changed (by amateurish inserts).This I know as I was on a board at the University of Oslo for assessing the qualifications of foreign students where the administration was in doubt about their genuineness. A few Indian students tried subtly to bribe me to pass them in the logic and philosophy entrance examination at University of Oslo, which I both set and was and evaluated. The flaunting of letters after one’s name in India is well-known and often of absurd nature… and one should always be ready, if need be, to question the claims of Indian aspirants and even apparently fully accredited Ph.D’s.

See another account of this incident by Sai Baba here

On the 1993 murders – Conny Larsson’s experience

The former long-term close devotee of Sathya Sai Baba (over 50 interviews) and active leader of his Organization in Sweden became one of his most active critics after 2000. Among many other revealing facts, he wrote about the 1993 executions in Sai Baba’s quarters:-

When I was in Puttaparthi in 1998, before I left Sai Baba, I happened to speak to a previous student of Sathya Sai Baba whose mother had a Sai-paraphernalia shop with rings and photos and all that stuff. Since I had always shopped there, I was invited to an evening of conversation with the family. The family then told me everything about the public version of the supposed assassination conspiracy against Sai Baba not being true at all.

They told that the former students who had intruded on Sai Baba had done it for two reasons. There was disagreement between the various families in Puttaparthi about the finances and the Sai Trust. The trust had given assurances and some had received advantages, others not. All had wanted to enrich themselves from the fund or the ashram monies that they could embezzle. That was the first reason they intruded on Sai Baba. There was never a question of an assault or the like because they had thought that they had so much on their side that they could pressure Sai Baba, this being the second reason. This was that all the older students were aware about what went on with Sai Baba and boys.

The older boys had long observed this but had not done anything about it, but they now thought that they could use this as blackmail to provide their families with more prominent positions. The family (i.e. Puttaparthi shop owners) had previously been deeply devoted but now remained there only purely on financial grounds. That they dared to talk to me in particular was because I had – earlier in 1996 – expressed strong dissatisfaction to them with the whole way the ashram was going, and especially also in the Swedish movement.

They did not know what happened later in the room with the police other than what was rumoured but they did not themselves believe a word of the ashram’s official version and even less so the police version, because all the Puttaparthi police were, as they put it, ‘bound hand and foot’.
Their version concerning the boys on the veranda was from press reports in India. Which papers I no longer recall. A policeman from the Puttaparthi police station I had met earlier had told me more or less what the family did. He said that the students were quite simply executed and that all the placement of knives and everything in the photographs were set out to fit the case and make it look like an attack. He also said that he did not at all believe that the knives belonged to the students. When I visited to meet him later he was no longer there, they had transferred all who had been there during that period, saying “they have all been assigned other duties in new districts”. Naturally, I never saw that policeman again.

Why I didn’t write it in the first place? Due to my editor having weeded out almost all of it saying ” you have to kill your darlings”, and I had to comply with to get the book published. Also that is the reason why I had to write my new book on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, since the editor deleted almost all except for one account. Also my memory has recovered more or less now since my healing from the trauma has been going on all the time since I published the book Behind the Mask of the Clown.

Everything has become much clearer to me now that I have got some distance from it all and so I once again put out what I remember on the web. However, I can’t remember the name of the family and I am actually very glad I can’t, since I know in what a threatening place they have to live. The boy was also very disappointed since Baba had promised him some photo job in the ashram but later assigned that to some other boy. He never admitted having himself being sexually abused but meant that many had that experience among his student friends. I found it too hard to believe at that time and in fact I didn’t want to. I went to him after my experience in 1999 to tell him about it, but the family seemed to be scared for some reason and so did other also some of the westerners in the ashram. Especially that millionaire lady that was the donor to the Swedish Sai school. I do not remember her name. Britt-Marie Andén, who was the director of the school, would know her name. That lady hardly dared to go out from her room any longer. Only when Baba had darshan did she dare to come out. When she saw me one day she screamed at me, ‘Don’t speak to me, don’t speak to me, they will see me and report to security.’ I was absolutely flabbergasted and couldn’t believe my ears since we had always been talking easily outside and within the ashram before. Something had really changed inside the ashram. I was more than happy to leave it for the last time.

Conny Larsson’s full Sai Baba web site see here
COMMENT BY eileenweed@gmail.com

“I actually got my first taste of the extensive ashram spy network way back in the mid-1980s, when I had started to help an ill Indian lady with small errands. Within weeks, one of the top Seva Dal ladies who sat at the Darshan compound entrance called me over and started scolding me for associating with Indians, mentioned the exact days and times I went to her room to help! Us ‘permanents’ knew very well we were being watched at all times and our activities reported. Why did the ashram do it? Having a LOT to hide, of course! Maybe that is why they so drastically controlled the number of days devotees could stay in the ashram!”

Asaram Bapu bid to use ministers

According to firstpost.com, Possibly in a bid to whitewash his image, Asaram Bapu’s supporters have put Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh on the cover of the self-proclaimed saint’s magazine. This does no honor to Jaitley and Singh, who had praised the pedophile.

At oneindia.com we can read as shown in the scan shown here. The Home Minister and the Finance Minister of the Indian government are supporters of a proven criminal usurper of government land and an extreme male chauvinist who infamously blamed the girl raped on the Delhi bus for the incident!  This once again illustrates perfectly how the Indian political elite –  including Hindu Nationalist Narendra Modi and Co. – is immersed in sick religious fantasies and protects gurus who are known sex abusers and murder accomplices. That Sathya Sai Baba has been praised to the skies and totally protected by a series of Indian Prime Ministers and Presidents up to the present will live on in infamy, since Sai Baba’s crimes and the governmental and judiciary’s cover-up are internationally known and will go down in history.

See ASARAM BAPU Full News Dossier.

Muddenahalli manifestation of Sathya Sai Baba

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE TEXT

The lengths which the entrapment into belief in Sathya Sai Baba’s countless empty claims, false predictions and many other deceptions went is seen in the hysteria of those who are now claiming that he has returned to give discourses and darshan through one of one of his students residing at Muddenahalli (a Sai temple and college located roughly between Puttaparthi and Bangalore). See report on right from http://www.deccanchronicle.com/150307/nation-current-affairs/article/karnataka-ashram-rivals-puttaparthi

When Sai Baba died under ignominious and unpredicted circumstances, some devotees swore they knew he would reincarnate within a day, others in a week or so, others in some months time. All who remain in the cult believe he will reincarnate as Prema Sai and grow up in anonymity, as he had said, until he matured. As expected by the savvy, Prema Sais would begin to appear here and there (some few had already claimed to be him) and his nephew Ratnakara – who managed to usurp the entire wealth and property of Sai Baba – himself soon hinted that he was Prema Sai, but dropped the claim quickly, being accused of murder threats, violent acts and numerous other ‘non-prema’ activities!  Now, those who can’t wait are reportedly flocking from Puttaparthi and elsewhere to see and hear a former Sai Baba MBA student  (a 23-year old gold medallist, and it is now been testified how his ‘form boys’ qualified for that award). 

To persons who have not been involved with Sai Baba and his followers – or know many of the countless wiles and subtle mind manipulations on which most Indian guru traditions depend – the extent of their manipulations of people’s minds and lives and the heights of credulity achieved are hard to credit. Nonetheless, money is now flowing into the coffers of those behind this, who include Dr. Narasimha Murthy, former warden of Brindavan College and accused purveyor of student boys to Sai Baba’s bedrooms.

See also:- Souljourns: Narasimha Murthy’s secret of Prema Sai
Deep schism between two major core factions in the Sathya Sai movement
Narasimha Murthy’s imprudent interview & consequences

 

 

Fear of Sathya Sai Baba

HIDDEN FEAR OF SATHYA SAI BABA

Since his death in 2011, many who have hung on to their faith in him – and even some who left him – suffer from fear of his wrath and punishment. This is made clear also by comments and attack mails against myself and other proponents of the exposé, telling us what terrible karma we are to face in the next life. Fortunately, we are totally impervious to these ideas, but – knowing full well the range of what most followers believe and the power over the mind of their long-term indoctrination, so difficult to overcome – we are aware of the situation of all those ‘lost souls’ who are emotionally and otherwise trapped in their dependency on him.

Many devotees of his held him in awe, but – more than that – feared him personally. There is plenty of written evidence by followers showing this. And the murders of 1993 in his own apartment in his own private fiefdom increased this fear without any shadow of a doubt. The fear is seldom talked about but could at times be seen in faces of those often in contact with Sathya Sai Baba. One can simply imagine the effect on those under his control, especially his students. Sathya Sai Baba has told that his close servitors have three chances of obeying him when he tells them something. If not, terrible consequences can follow, which he has said to persons I knew well. As in the case of Baba’s driver for two decades, who burned himself to death in the Hillview Stadium after failing to follow Sathya Sai Baba ‘s warning to drive more slowly and then killing a pedestrian! One did not have to circulate for long among Sai devotees to know the general paranoia or come across the aura of unexpressed fear around questions of what one can and cannot say and do. 

Sathya Sai Baba’s refusal to explain anything other than what pleased himself made it difficult to have confidence in many of the statements he made on whatever subject, quite apart from what concerns the ‘unseen’ world of spiritual realities. His demand was that the devotee have implicit and wholly unquestioning trust in him, all his works and anything he uttered. If it failed to make sense or is not in accordance with observable fact or other statements of his, this had to be put down to our human ignorance. It is therefore not entirely wrong to say we could not properly understand him! He held that virtually everyone alive is ego-laden, sense-attached and impure, who really know just about nothing of significance about anything! But we do know with demonstrable certainty that Sathya Sai Baba got his facts wrong time and again, and laughably so! And he was, by all appearances, unaware what a storm the world would raise against pedophilia, probably because it is common, silently condoned but not (yet) talked about openly in the region where he grew up. A long-standing suspicion seems justified, namely that this kind of homosexual exploitation of boys in India is very widespread and is tacitly accepted in many segments of society – not only in backward parts like the Andhra Pradesh villages of the Puttaparthi region. This is the result of the wall-to-wall culture of hypoctical puritanism and repressive censorship against all sexual deviance in most of India. 

Sathya Sai Baba kept everyone in their places, mostly at a distance, and especially women. Sai Baba’s invisible rewards and imagined ‘divine blessings’ were said both by him and others to exceed the mental and emotional punishment he meted out, as he did especially rigorously to those who accepted positions of trust then supposedly let him down even in slight ways. It is merely a matter of belief, convincing oneself that it was for one’s own good, otherwise there is only depression ahead, or to reject everything (too big a step for his dependents). The recipe for aspirants to the graces he said he could bestow was total obedience and subjection to his will and all that he required but seldom explained sufficiently. This went entirely against any open society for genuinely self-aware persons who may act in confidence and with responsibility.

Sai Baba’s imperious and down-looking attitude did not exactly make for a feeling of overflowing divine acceptance and love, which he was ever talking up as being his entire nature etc. Though true believing devotees only told of his love, charm, smiles, benevolence, kind words if few and far between) they seldom mentioned how he used visible signs of disinterest, rejection, anger and even sheer rage, which was something to see, even at a distance. He could smile and be charming in words, but genuine love is shown only in action. What did he mostly do? Stroll about looking distant and often as strict as a near-unapproachable headmaster who would never abide to be gainsaid or crossed in the least way? This manner itself invites private anxiety. He certainly set up considerable barriers to knowing him and thereby also to loving him except in wishful imagination, for how can anyonereally love what they do not know? This feeling is not confined to relatively peripheral persons such as I, for it was quite evident at times even between Baba and some of his most trusted office-bearers. He scared the wits out of Prof. Kasturi with a enraged and reportedly terrifying lion-like expression without any explicable ground other than to cow him totally, it certainly appears.

Despite all the talk about his universal love and benevolence, many came to realise that appearances were not to be trusted, that he was a master at charismatic charm and used all opportunities to entrap people by sudden friendliness after he had made them wait with no responses for months and years, even decades! This is a known technique of psychopaths, the charm then the anger, then the charm again, a pull-push-pull relationship creating uncertainty and self-doubt in their victims, making them the more dependent on any favour that came their way at last. Sai Baba explained this for devotees by saying it was simply done to correct people, as a schoolmaster uses the stick to correct youth. He rather fitted the bill as an angry and jealous God, definitely someone who abided absolutely no questioning or contradiction. Many a tyrant did the same and also claimed to be gods. Like him, most despots commission social works and institutions in their own names and to their own glory, though they are always paid for and carried out by others. Without making other comparisons, the Emperors of Rome, of the Inca Imperium, and even rulers in African States in recent decades have assumed the mantle of gods, but Sai Baba’s divine claims surpassed all of them. 

All this set standards and examples. In the Sai movement, both foreign and Indian VIPs appeared seriously po-faced much of the time and were unduly tight-lipped about all remotely sensitive matters having to do with Baba, his organisation or other works. They always had to be in the right, one coild not question anything that was decided by whoever decided. Members were even sometimes expelled without any explanation, as in the case of the Moscow centre’s president, who allowed discussion of the sexual allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, and on two different occasion members of groups I took there were blackballed permanently. The personal qualities of most top leaders in the Sai movement made for a social and mental-emotional gap between Sai officials and ‘ordinary’ hard-working followers, with a very few honourable exceptions. This had the effect of consolidating an inner circle who are subservient to the International Chairman and the Central Trust and observe the ‘muerta‘ – a kind of international jet-set elite who invited one another around the world to hold forth – often mainly to regurgitate or repackage Sai Baba aphorisms – and who evidently conferred to hush up anything which might affect their own positions in Baba’s favour and within the organisation that bore his name. 

All this is the basis for the many cover-ups. The 1993 murders and the many pedophile accounts involving Sai Baba (some going back decades), have been kept from the main body of devotees for so long through this organised deception. However, the growing recognition in the world for the duty of mandatory reporting of known cases of sexual interference or abuse – a legal requirement in many countries – may yet even eventually bring forth court actions and large compensation claims against leading Sai office-bearers who can be demonstrated to have failed in this reporting duty, as it has already at last done in the Catholic Church in so many countries. All Sai officials would be very well advised to “sweep their hearths and keep their houses clean” on this count from now on, for the information is presently freely available to every one of them.

When fear is felt but cannot be expressed it is all the more effective. Once the fears can be confronted without the possibility of retribution – such as by removing oneself from their source both physically, socially and emotionally – it becomes evident that, as F.D. Rooseveldt put it “there is nothing to fear but fear itself”.

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Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Sai Baba hoarded riches!

Gethin Chamberlain wrote in The Telegraph on how Sathya Sai Baba’s hoarded riches raised doubts over charitable works, having contacted me for reliable documentation of many facts. Some excerpts from his article follow:-

“The Indian guru Sai Baba’s life seemed to have it all: sex, money and religion. A lifetime of claiming to be the incarnation of God had brought him a £5.5 billion fortune and a worldwide following…”It also brought accusations that he molested his young acolytes and used cheap trickery to perform his miracles.”

He emphasises the “extraordinary saga which has been playing out since his death in April, a story of hidden treasure troves, of mountains of gold and diamonds, of missing millions, all set against a backdrop of a struggle for control of his empire.” In his prime, the diminutive holy man with the bright orange robes and huge afro haircut could count kings and presidents among his friends, and the likes of Sarah Ferguson among the admirers of his home-spun, “love all, serve all” philosophy.” “The cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who gave £40,000 for a statue of the guru, and a myriad of Indian politicians and Bollywood stars claimed inspiration from his message of putting service above self.“

“The edifice began to crumble when members of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, which runs the ashram, a religious centre, decided that speculation about what might be inside the guru’s private chambers was getting out of hand. The rooms had lain apparently untouched since the 84-year-old spiritual leader was taken ill in March. The Trust decided to open the rooms, but with caution: the police were kept at a distance and the media were locked out. A select group assembled, including the controversial figure of Satyajit, Sai Baba’s carer, apparently the only person who could penetrate the chambers’ elaborate security. They took the lift to the first floor, opened the door and stepped inside. What they found made even the wildest rumours seem tame: stacked around the room were piles of gold, diamonds and cash. Cashiers with counting machines were summoned and reported that the haul included £1.6 million in rupees, 98 kg of gold and 307 kg of silver. The Trust denied any previous knowledge of the hoard, said it had immediately paid tax on its value, and denied any impropriety.

“If the Trust hoped that would satisfy the millions of devoted followers who had sent money from around the world in the belief it would be used to spread Sai Baba’s teaching or help educate the poor and treat the sick, it was mistaken. The love and compassion of which he preached gave way to rumours of more treasure hidden away around the sprawling building, of false ceilings and further underground hoards. Meanwhile Sai Baba’s niece, Chetana Raju, claimed she had received death threats for complaining about the search.

Suspicion began to grow that vast sums had already been smuggled out. Three days later, police stopped a car carrying Trust members near the border with a neighbouring state – and found the equivalent of £50,000 in cash inside. The Trust first denied any connection with the money, then claimed it had been donated by devotees to pay for a memorial.” “Some blame trust members, while a few are asking, ‘Why did Swami have to keep so much gold and cash? Didn’t Swami always say he never accepted gifts?’ Who to believe or what to believe?”

Even Sai Baba’s most vociferous critics are taken aback by speed with which the empire is unravelling. “Even a couple of months ago, what has now happened was still unimaginable,” said Robert Priddy, the Sai Baba organisation’s former Norwegian leader.  Mr Priddy was once a believer but lost his faith as the allegations of sexual abuse which dogged Sai Baba’s final decades began to mount – though not before himself donating a total of £13,500. “Devotees around India have at last begun to raise many questions and demand answers about the riches of Sai Baba and other gurus,” he said. “There have been protest demonstrations. It is a remarkable turnaround.”  “But India is not short of gurus and the fear in Puttaparthi is that those seeking enlightenment will now turn their attentions to other, more vital, sages.

“For former devotees like Robert Priddy, all this is simply proof that they were right to walk away when they did. “I feel satisfied that his death 10 years before his own prediction and under such inauspicious circumstances further vindicated my views on the falsity of his claims of omnipotence and divinity,” he said.”

Forgive and Forget – Sai Baba

“I forget but never forgive’ because there’s a whole lot of people on the other side of the House of Commons whom I hate, but I can’t remember why.”
(Clement Freud – former British MP)

Sathya Sai Baba called upon people simplistically to ‘forgive and forget’, without any illuminative or intelligent further explanation. Yet, as usual, he also preached a somewhat incompatible view, as the scanned texts from his authenticated writings show:-

The idea that good actions should deserve rewards – and bad ones punishments – is very deep-rooted in us. So much so that religions have held for millennia that divine justice operates on everyone, in one way or another. This, of course, is a matter of belief or speculation, not a testable theory, for no divine agency can be located or investigated. Besides, there are countless examples of people who commit many and great crimes who live out their lives quite comfortably and do not suffer anything that could be considered ‘punishment that fits the crimes’.

Forgiveness in action is demonstrated most strikingly in the lives of various great persons, and sometimes it has been effective for the perpetrator and also for the forgiver. But that is far from being the rule. it is a remarkably naive and impractical to forgive (as well as forget) crimes and outrages when the perpetrator will neither apologise not change behaviour and desist from the offences. Simply showing remorse through recognition and admission of culpability is not much to ask, not unless positively changed behaviour on the behalf of the offender is also required. Forgiving someone for an evil act – whether against oneself or, what is always easier, against another – unfortunately but obviously does not guarantee an improvement in those forgiven. It is not itself efficient as a preventative to further crime. The two much-quoted Biblical dicta clash: “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is confronted by Jesus’ advice to “turn the other cheek” when struck, and to do so repeatedly. These black-or-white alternatives are simplistic, without the nuances required by the many forms conflicts take and also the variety of possibilities of their solution that may be found.

According to Sai Baba’s traditional deism, only an all-powerful God can forgive sins and remove or alleviate the otherwise inevitable reactions called ‘karmic’. However, typically, he also preached the modified view where we can modify our karma by good actions etc. To support the latter, he said that divinity is (also) within us – at least to some degree – so that we create our own karma for good or ill. Forgiving others would bring good returns, not doing so would bring the contrary. However, that undermines the main tenet of the strict and modified karma dogma, for then it is ourselves and not any universal agency or divine law that rewards or punishes and we alone create our personal destiny and our choices decide what is ‘wiped off the slate’.

The world has a rich enough supply of do-gooders, proselytisers who proclaim that one must simply and immediately forgive and forget every wrong done against us. But the problem in reality lies in our finding the resources to forgive within oneself. However well-intentioned preachers of forgiveness may be, their dictum ignores inescapable facts of life, and further overlooks the ways in which it is in their belief all regulated by God’s law. Without considering such measures as reaching mutual understanding and agreements on when and how forgiveness can benefit everyone, success in forgiving and forgetting will surely be quite limited.

The ultimate travesty of Indian spirituality?

Recently the Indian government filed charges against ‘the guru of bling’  –  Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh – in connection with the alleged forced castration of 400 of his followers. Allegedly many of his male devotees were told that this ultimate scrotal sacrifice was a necessary step before they could ever get ‘realization of God’. The guru denies the charges, inviting authorities to ‘behead him’ if the claims were proved true.

The UK newspaper The Independent summarised this latest scandal in the world of Indian guru cults:-

“Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, an Indian pop-star and telepreacher with a reported wealth of more than $50 million, is being investigated after he allegedly manipulated around 400 men to get their testicles removed – according to India Today.

Singh – who has more than 87,000 Twitter followers but is not a follower of anyone – describes himself on a social media bio as a “spiritual Saint/philanthropist/versatile singer/allrounder sportsperson/film director/art director/music director/script writer/lyricist/autobiographer/DOP”.
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/spiritual-leader-allegedly-manipulated-400-men-into-removing-testicles-to-be-closer-to-god-10078095.html)

One of his former followers who underwent castration seven years ago – named Hans Raj Chauhan – is one of the few to break the silence to speak out against him and the group. The Central Bureau of Investigation has started looking into claims dating back as far back as 2000 in preparation of charges of grievous bodily harm. However many followers are believed to be in fear of speaking out. The alleged castrations were said to be mainly carried out at a hospital run by the DSS in Singh’s ancestral village Gurusar Modia, in the Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan. 

The DSS also owns factories, markets, farms, restaurants, hotels and runs schools and orphanages, according to Latterly Magazine.”

Ex-devotee on depression as result of following Sai Baba

In an earlier blog I wrote about an egocentric millionaire follower of Sai Baba (Jack Scher- deceased) who had so to speak ‘bought into’ a verandah place by setting up a publishing co. for Sai books in the US called ‘Leela Press’, I was contacted by a Sri Lankan lady, who wrote that she was, though Sai Baba’s indoctrination, unable to think freely for a long time, until she regained her freedom due to realising much about the great fraud involved. 

We corresponded further and she told me how much of her close family remained Sai Baba devotees and about the difficulties this caused her. I have cut out private details and cloak her identity for obvious reasons. Some excerpts from her mails can be of help to others in similar position.

Dear Robert
Thanks for your reply.  I feel passionately about this subject as I was born into the Sai movement and my parents are still ardent followers.  Thanks very much for the work you are doing.  I look at your website on a daily basis and it provides me with a great deal of comfort and helps me deal with the fact that my parents insist upon being devotees despite everything that has come out about the sai baba movement.

Thanks again, P

I replied: Dear P,
Thanks for your kind reply. It is tremendously difficult situation when families are divided by Sai Baba in this way. Through the years I have been contacted by a number of people who are similarly affected. The Principal of (***** a top EU) University’s wife became a devotee and – since he was a physicist – they could not see eye to eye. But she decided to demand half of the entire family fortune so she could donate it to these criminals in Puttaparthi. I did my best to advise him about how to handle the issue, but in vain.
I lost all nearly all my many Sai friends, but fortunately the ones I respected most here in Norway have all long since rejected SB. It even took my wife longer than I to come properly to terms with the matter after I came off the fence.
Best wishes, Robert

Dear Robert,
(A close relative) … taught me the sceptical method which later helped me in getting away from the Sai movement.  Now when I talk to him about science or scepticism, he just does not seem to understand or does not want to understand. 

I married a man who was not in the Sai movement though at the time we married I was in the Sai movement.  I saw how free he was as well as his cheerfulness when compared to those in the sai movement.  I tried to get him involved but he wisely stayed away although he did not try to influence my faith.  I was determined to convert him and looked up books in order to prove that Sai Baba was divine.  After reading several books and especially Richard Dawkins “The god delusion” I came to the awareness that it was I who was mistaken and not my husband.  I have now developed an allergy to all things religious that even my husband regrets that I have lost my faith.  I have been reading feminist books which have helped me a lot.  I especially enjoyed your article on ladies day. I am very glad to have had this email from you.
Thanks again. P.

Dear Robert,

I am interested in the search for the truth about the way the world works.  If you would like to use any of the things I write in order to write an article while covering the tracks so as not to hurt (those close to her) I am only too happy to give my consent. 

I am obsessed with this matter and try to read up everything I can on cults and mind control so that I can have a better understanding of what has happened to me as well as ideas on getting over it to lead a normal and good life.  You are very brave in sticking your neck out and fighting out against this powerful group which numbers the president and prime minister of India among its followers.   Loyalty to the group counts for a lot in Eastern culture and for a while you could not find a more loyal follower than me.  However, the thing that finally clinched it for me was my deep depression while I was in the movement and constant suicidal thoughts.  I could not figure out why I was so depressed when everything in my life was going so well.  I had a husband who was kind and a good provider.  We had no significant financial difficulties – just run of the mill how to pay the mortgage and bills – but we managed.  We had two beautiful children.  Then why the deep self-hatred and depression?  I knew that I must absolutely live – I had two small children who depended on their mum being around.  I started reading everything I could on depression and though some things helped most of the relief proved temporary.

Then I came across “Feeling good”  by David D Burns and finally after reading through the book and doing some of the exercises, my mood began to lift and I started feeling the way I should most of the time.The thing that most struck me was the fact that the author said that depression is caused by the feeling that everything good that happens to me is caused by an outside agency ( external) and everything bad that happens to me is because it is my own fault. If I could reverse this thought – If by following reason I could see that good things happened because of my own goodness ( at least partly) and sometimes bad things happen and it is not my fault – then my depression had some chance of going away. This is not what you are taught by Sai literature, is it? Everything good happens because of Babs’s grace.  If anything bad happens it is your own fault or it is karma ( fault in a previous life).  The teaching was making me depressed and helpless. The entire teaching revolves around making a person as emotionally vulnerable and helpless as possible. When I now think of my needless suffering, I feel angry at this fraud.  Please keep up the fight and the good work. By the way although (close relative) is an ardent devotee, we never got so much as an interview.

Dear P.
I am well aware of the problem as I had many very unusual experiences with Sai Baba. None of those can exonerate him from the crimes I am totally convinced he has committed. You got out of the depression by your own efforts, and threw off the overwhelming indoctrination to which all who become followers subject themselves. What you write now is straightforwardly convincing, and it has a distinct style different from any I can manage. You bear out fully ‘the position I have written about in my series on Personal Disempowerment oin worshipping gurus exemplified by the Sai Baba cult. (http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/5/dis1.htm).

Ladies I knew in the Oslo centre which I led were also depressed a lot during our time in the Sai Baba organisation due to the limitless expectations that no one could fulfil! After 11 years working on this task, I still find it worthwhile because of the feedback, but also not least because it has been a liberating and most educative experience as to human nature, not least our deeper fallibility. At the start of the exposé work I was very concerned that I might suffer – even be killed – and used a pen name for some weeks.  As I proceeded I saw through more and more of the threatening sides of Sai Baba’s words and – because I already knew three persons who had been sexually abused but had not told me before – I saw that Sai Baba and all his minions were literally extremely anxious that the huge can of worms would be opened completely if they even tried to counteract me in public. They dared not face an open legal proceeding… it would have destroyed the illusion on a major media scale. So I then pushed the boundaries, confident that they would never hit back at me (not least since I am protected in Norway, where their lies could make no progress in a court here).

With warm regards, Robert