Dictator Idi Amin – Sai Baba’s warm recollections

In a discourse he held on Christmas Day (25/12/2006) Sathya Sai Baba recounted his visit to East Africa – including Uganda – in 1968. During this he spoke most affirmatively about the brutal despot and Dictator Idi Amin (and this on Christmas Day of all days of the year!). Idi Amin was a self-admitted murderer who had at least five wives and 23 children (plus hundreds of ‘lady friends’), who fed enemies to crocodiles, reportedly kept some of his victims in his deep freezer, and – according to persistent reports of his staff who escaped – even tasted human flesh!
Sai Baba’s praises of Amin were eagerly promoted on the worldwide broadcasts of propagandistic Radio Sai and on the Sai Baba official website by his main propagandist, Dr. G. Venkataraman (also former contributor to India’s nuclear bomb ‘himsa technology’), who thus also evidently accepts that Idi Amin was a Sai-devotee of some stature! His lack of judgement matches that of his ailing Lord God, the evidently failing Sai Baba. That was too much even from a myth-deluded and truth-challenged ‘scientist’ who avoids all important criticisms to his cover-up and has never dared tell anything he knows of Sai Baba’s well-known private doings and the many reliable allegations about them. Perhaps he admires Idi Amin for his lead in such censorship and cover-up? Here is what he wrote about Sai Baba’s fond reminiscences in his 2006 Xmas Day discourse:-

COMMENT: Note how the besotted writer (no doubt Dr. G. Venkataraman, who decides on all publicity matters anyhow) of the above claims that not only people but the animals (wild) of Africa are “devoted to Swami”. Sathya Sai Baba has encouraged this codswallop in line with his original claim to be the creator of the Universe. “They raised their trunks in veneration and paid obeisance to Swami” we are told. But how did the writer know what the elephants were thinking? Well, the animals would have to worship their creator, wouldn’t they? It is laughable in the extreme.

The enthusiasm about the “moment of moments” when Sai Baba “related how Mr. Idi Amin was very fond of him” – and how Sai Baba gave him double daily doses of darsan!” Amin’s devotion “melted the heart of Swami” (I ask you – or was it mutual flattery?) – yes, this most horrific of ghastly rapists, torturers, killers, the sweet-hearted Idi Amin had to be given the blessing of another day’s stay from Swami! Sai gave apples to the crocodiles which were too”captivated by the divine darsan” even to eat the apples. Probably crocs to not like or eat apples – but now, Amin knew their tastes better than that. He gave them human flesh!
Sai Baba propounded that there is no feeling of hatred in these animal (which is reasonable as they are predators naturally) but – and this is another ‘moment of moments’ in Sathya Sai Baba’s down-putting of his fellow-men and -women, therefore “The noble qualities in these animals are not even to be found in human being”! All this is sheer comedy, but it has a very sinister message if you stop to think about it

Swami’s Christmas Discourse 2006

“Some years ago, when I went on a tour to East Africa, several Africans came to Me for darshan. Each one of them prayed, “Swami! Please spend some time with us”. There were a few hundred children among them. All of them had their vision glued to My form. You know the then President of Uganda, Mr. Idi Amin. He was a military officer. He was young and very energetic then. He was tall and hefty. He had a number of wives. He was very fond of Swami. He used to have the darshan of Swami both in the morning and evening. I was very short before that giant. The sight of Me beside him was like the view of a deer by the side of a camel. People were surprised at his love and devotion towards Swami. He was well educated and was the President of his country, Uganda. He was known for his stern nature. Such a person shed tears when I started on My return journey. He told Me, “Swami! I have never shed tears since my birth. Today, I am very sad and have a feeling of separation because Swami is leaving us.” He covered his face with a handkerchief so that others may not notice his feelings. His hands were very strong. He held My hands firmly, expressing thanks for My visit. He also prostrated before Me. He held My feet so tightly that it became difficult for Me later to climb the ladder for boarding the aeroplane. At the time of My departure, he pleaded with Me “Swami, I will surely come to have Your darshan shortly. Otherwise, You please visit our country again. I cannot bear the separation from You.”
The situation in Uganda then was such that he could not leave the country. During My stay in Uganda, he planned to host a dinner for Me in his house. He therefore came to the house of Dr. Patel to personally enquire about the arrangements to be made in this regard. He collected all information as to how to organise the dinner, what should be the menu, who are to be invited as guests, etc. He arranged for brand new utensils for cooking various dishes. He also arranged for new tumblers for the guests. Finally, when I visited his palace for the dinner, all his wives stood in rows on either side and greeted Me with veneration. He introduced them to Me, one by one. I stayed in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The last day was Guru Purnima, an important occasion for Sai devotees. I had earlier promised to return to Bombay by that date. But, the Africans did not allow Me. They fell at My feet and prayed: “Bhagawan! Please spend this holy day with us”, with tears in their eyes. In answer to their prayers I stayed back to spend Guru Purnima with them.”

“On that day, they wished to take photos with Me. I told them that they might silently pray in their hearts so that their request would be fulfilled. To their joy, each one of them found a photo with Swami standing beside them. The devotion of Africans is indescribable. Even now, I feel very happy when I think of their devotion. My next visit was to the country of Tanzania. There also, everyone who came to have My darshan felt very happy. Ladies and gents came in large numbers to welcome Me, wearing their traditional dresses. They danced in ecstasy on seeing Me. On the day of departure, just before the plane took off, all of them stood in front of the aircraft and pleaded with Me, “Swami! You should not go from here. You must be here only.” How can I accede to their request? I had to leave. The pilots and other officers in the airport counselled them saying, “You should not obstruct Swami’s aircraft like this. This is not good.” They then moved away. I was observing all this from the window of the aircraft. Finally, when the plane started to take off, many of them nearly fainted in grief. That scene was fresh in My memory till I reached Bombay.”

“During that trip, I visited three countries – Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. They are all neighbouring countries. I was very happy and felt deeply touched at the devotion of African people. During My return journey, the aircraft was filled to the brim with the articles gifted by the African devotees. What are those gifts any way? They brought all sorts of articles like dinner sets and tea sets in gold colour. They are still with Me. We are making use of them while hosting high dignitaries like Prime Ministers and Governors.”
 

http:/lwww.sssbpt.org/Pages/Prasanthi_Nilayam[Christma52006_Discourse.html

Rumours about Sai Baba’s intervention to delay expulsion of Asians from Uganda rebutted.
Idi Amin acting on God\s orders… his guru Sai Baba?

Sathya Sai Baba, Dr. V. Venkataraman and Idi Amin apparently make good bedfellows, according to the arm appreciation of Amin by Sai Baba in a Christmas Day discourse, as reported eagerly by Venkataraman. This was indicated by a photographic image made of the happy threesome, which was not a fake, but a construction to bring home the relationship, as was made clear when it was posted. See this image and the controversy it cause at The last King of Scotland – God’s orders and Sai Baba The Spirit of Christmas  

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Super-Rich Indian Gurus who don’t deliver what they promise

Billionaire Non-delivering ‘Spiritual gurus’ The ‘many-billion dollar question’ is not really so much how Sai Baba has generated such huge coffers, for this is almost ‘par for the course’ for Swamis, gurus and temples in India. Tirupathi is reckoned to be the most fabulous as to wealth, and the Puri Temple of Jagannath is not far behind. Sathya Sai Baba may still not have become top of the ‘national treasure’ pile yet. The self-entitled ‘Baghwan’ Sri Rajneesh (aka Osho) had vast sums before he was indicted by the US Government on so many criminal charges that he had to sell of cheaply his 84 tax-evasion Rolls Royces to a second-hand car dealer in Texas and flee justice, yet he still could lord it over most Indians financially when he settled in Pune. The sect of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is likewise in the money beyond any accounting, his people even having taken over an African state’s economy more or less! [One may pause to wonder whether all this – with the massed chanting of mantras etc. – has stopped drug taking, urban violence, terrorism and brought about peaceful communities and a better world, as the Maharishi has many times guaranteed it would? I’d say no more than Sathya Sai Baba’s promises that India would be transformed by now (due to his 1960s students’ taking over important positions) and become the moral and spiritual engine of the world in a Golden Age (which is long overdue after repeated but unacknowledged ‘postponements’ .

No, the question without a price tag is still why Sathya Sai Baba, who vociferously disdains ownership and filthy lucre, should be one of the richest persons and biggest property owners in that land of such poverties and sufferings? That he claims to own nothing is just a front for the gullible and his trusting followers, for it is a mere technicality. It is the Sathya Sai Central Trust and he rules over it totally, even signing every cheque, so he has stated himself in 1993. The tax-free charitable Central Trust remains essentially behind closed doors, no minutes revealed and no accountability for the expenditure. Is it’s wealth being properly used? Or squandered on too great a scale to build yet more temples and white elephant ‘spiritual museums’, all clearly designed and decorated so as to trumpet the name and fame of Sai Baba himself. Questions as to the misuse of funds expended in building an isolated Super-Speciality Hospital is cogently discussed in Serguei Badaev’s overview of the Sai Baba Super Speciality Hospitals’ wastefulness. If this had not been so, the answer would have been clear and acceptable.

The putative fact remains, Sai Baba’s monies are also used for gaining influence and political power, and without any visible beneficial effects on politics or politicians. The current state of political dishonesty, disinterest for the poor of India, and scams at all levels in India suggest nothing is changing, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer (certainly relative to each other and to the basic cost of living). Sathya Sai’s much heralded “Divine Plan” for changing India – promised to be soon even in the 1960s to Dr. J. Hislop in the well-known interviews he published is not a fact, but a vehicle of falsehoods and foolishly placed faith. See also ‘How far is it to dharma?‘ Ask devotees about it all and they will tell you “Baba has divinely good plans that no one but He can fathom. We are all but puny minds, how can we possibly know?” That is a great conversation stopper to end on!

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Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya (or Satya) Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

 

India – God-driven or God-forsaken?

The words “God Lives in India” have been bandied about by numerous people, always referring to Sathya Sai Baba (who has proclaimed himself as God, Deity of All Deities). It is a film title, a song title, a book title and so on. Sai Baba has stated that God never incarnates as the Full Avatar anywhere else but in India and then only after many thousands of years, and now he has come as a triple incarnation in this disastrous Kali Age so as to save humanity. The implication – drawn firmly by Sathya Sai Baba himself, is that India is the only world culture to which God would deign to ‘descend’ because it is the ‘most spiritual’ and is the only country in which all genuine and full incarnations of God have ever incarnated (from Vishnu on through Krishna, Rama etc. etc.).

This kind of ‘God claim’ may make many Indians – even its lowly peasants – proud of their country – which possibility is not ignored by vote-hungry politicians and their supporters. It also underpins the absurd extreme nationalism of the Indian rulers, as witnessed in the utterly childish daily face-offs supported by the authorities for decades at the border vis-a-vis Pakistan, just for a start. Meanwhile, much of the callous and grasping ruling class are content to allow huge parts of all cities to be vast and growing slums, and the dwellers are treated by police and the law if they had no rights (which is often the case legally). Consequently, the mafias are often their only remaining line of defense against summary eviction.

In support of a rising New India, with genuine equality rather than bogus spirituality!I write this blog not least in support of the majority population of India, that is, the dispossessed majority of over 600 million of its inhabitants who lack social justice and even have no real equality before the law, being entrapped within a corrupt system, – and I do NOT to support the many corrupted and self-seeking ruling politicians and privileged castes. That India is a land of “the direst calamities” is a fact pointed out even by Sathya Sai Baba (from his insulated luxury fortress-palaces and the benefits of his money-laden tax-free Sathya Sai Central Trust). Sathya Sai Baba’s still far too neglected ‘backyard’ is a ‘flawed democracy’ (as a ‘Times’ of India editorial names it – see here) from which Sai Baba recently stated that he is minded to travel on tour abroad, breaking his oft-repeated promise to clean things up in India before setting foot anywhere else! Such are most of the promises he makes and the otherworldly and moralistic ‘spirituality’ he mostly promotes!

Is [traditional] India a spiritual country?
Judging by the state of human rights and its decadent social practices, corrupt political decision-making and huge injustices and inequalities, India is not a spiritual country at all. It is also plagued by the old guard’s vast militaristic spending, far from Gandhi’s peaceful ideals.  ‘Spirituality’ is meaningless it it is not practiced in daily living and embedded in a society’s practices and practical values in real life. India is rather an overwhelmingly religiously superstitious country in which the goodwill and relative ignorance and powerlessness of the lowly is exploited to the extreme though widespread political and business corruption. This is part of India’s traditional caste-ridden way of life! The violent and consistent suppression of minorities, Muslims, Dalits, indigenous native populations, hiras, bonded labourers, and many other minorities is sustained by callous impassivity and top-down corruption in much of the police, judiciary and governing bodies. Indian leaders, in the main (with a minority of honourable and courageous exceptions), have the most hardened consciences towards the gigantic number of poor and suffering and their crying needs (over 40% being officially regarded by UNO as living below the poverty line). The gap between India’s rich and poor is mind-boggling!

As to ‘spirituality’, while India’s millions are worshipful and passive, this is also a land of frequent communal carnage (eg. Hindus vs. Muslims) and bomb blasts galore, massive female infanticide, religious killings (of Christians), extreme beggary, horrific mutilations of babies to make them into beggars (as ‘rat children’, ‘spidermen’, diverse amputees) major human organ theft, literal ‘witch-hunts’ and black magic killings, physical and sexual child abuse on a massive scale, millions of children labouring under dreadful condition, and enormous health problems, utter discrimination against widows and many more ills that no truly democratic country wouldcountenance. The seriousness is still very widely denied by Indian politicians, despite many and constant international studies and warnings. Even worse, most of the sufferers are treated as total outcasts by most Indian communities (AIDs, lepers. polio sufferers and many other diseases largely eradicated elsewhere), not least because of the heartless ideas so widely held there about divine retribution as ‘karma’ for sins in past lives. Above all, Sathya Sai Baba has never confronted any of these issues or spoken up to defend the victims or attack the perpetrators!