Vishnu come to save the world, as Sai Baba?

For the student boys who sleep in his bedroom, it must be most awesome to be subjected to what many claim he does - the very Lord and Creator of the Universe taking his pleasure with them on the serpent headed bed he had, but which was destroyed in the murders in his bedroom?

The claims made by Sathya Sai Baba as seen in the scan (above right)  amounts to the claim that there is no distinction between himself and the greatest divine incarnations of Hindu mythical scripture. Their tasks are all the same, saving humanity – though the means used and physical incarnations differ.

His constantly repeated belief in the literal truth of myths with which the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are packed – and his usurpation of the identity of all the great figures in those myths – Vishnu, Rama, Krishna, [as well as claiming to have been Jesus’ Father, Kabir and Shirdi Sai Baba] will simply never wash with enlightened humanity. Nor will the religionists of the mainstream religions ever come to consider this remotely likely – for Islam totally denies the possibility of God being incarnate, radical Christians see only Jesus as a Divinity and so forth.

See also Prophecies by and about Sai Baba
Sathya Sai Baba holds the myths of the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Gita to be literally true

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

The International Sathya Sai Organization

“The Sai religion is the harmonious blending, through love, of all religions. Though some followers and other faiths feel that the Sai religion is contrary to theirs, we should not entertain similar feelings. Ours is the totality, the sum. So we should not limit or restrict our vision” (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 10 – p. 283f)

The International Sathya Sai Organization has two faces … one for the public, the other for members. This Janus face has one visage towards the general public and another different one towards its own members. This makes its members get used to a kind of mental ‘double accounting’ according to what they say to insiders or outsiders.

THE PUBLIC FACE Its face towards the world is one of promoting religious tolerance and accepting that anyone can worship what or who they will. It for peace between religions and sects in that reciprocal criticism of the various religion’s different doctrines is to be avoided.

It claims that shared ‘human values’ are at the core of all religions, yet the many differences in religious values are ignored or denied. For example, any human rights which challenge the core values embedded in the different religions are rejected (such as freedom of speech, women’s rights and other challenges to backward religions, sects and cults).

THE PRIVATE FACE The Sathya Sai Organization’s face towards its members is intolerance towards those who can not fully accept Sathya Sai Baba as the avatar, incarnate deity or a being who is perfect and can never be wrong or be criticized. This means that one cannot accept the Christians who believe that ‘only Jesus is the way’, nor and Islam’s total rejection of divine incarnations, nor Mahayana Buddhism’s atheist conceptions.

Members are expected not to inform the public about the extreme tenet of faith members must accept, such as that Sathya Sai Baba’s claim to be God Incarnate, the father who sent Jesus, the Creator of the Universe etc. This applies mainly in Western Sathya Sai organizations where leaders keep a tighter control over members’ publicity for Sathya Sai Baba. (See here)
No criticism – however constructive -of any of Sathya Sai Baba organizations or institutions is permitted, for it is lead by a supposedly infallible Divinity.

See my extensive study and sociological analyses of the Sathya Sai Organization

Sathya Sai prophesied as ‘king of the world’ from 2000

Prophecies supposedly made before Sathya Sai Baba’s birth (as early as sage Brighu around 3000BC) have been promotes as true on a large scale for decades in books and now web pages. None  which name him became public until AFTER the points mentioned in it were very well known in India at least, such as are presented in the alleged Islamic prophecy reproduced below.  The source claimed for it, a volume from a series of apocrypha after Mohammed (incorrectly called “Mehdi Moud” by saibabaofindia.com, for it was supposedly called ‘Ocean of Light”) was originally claimed to have been found in a street market by devotee Irani Ma – has never been traced, yet the Sai Baba museum (Chaitanya Jyoti) also continues to propagate the prophesy. No Muslim scholars or muftis so far approched have ever heard of this volume. All this should be sufficient to rate this prophesy as being a sheer invention. Some devotees will invent anything to obtain some prominence and importance!

Satya Sai Baba himself has never refuted any detail of these predictions but has bolstered them up more or less directly in many ways, both in countless discourses and interviews. Evidently, no follower of his has written a single critical thought about any of them. That is enough to show that this is a blindly gullible and propagandist cult without self-analysis of any serious kind. It will never stand up in the world of genuine historical scholars. The saibabaofindia web site quotes:-

(d) In an ancient Arabic book by name “Mehdi Moud” in which the prophesies made by Prophet Mohammed were recorded many centuries ago, it was mentioned that God Himself would descend on earth in human form with the following signs by which He could be recognised:

“His hair will be profuse. His front teeth will be spaced apart. He will have a mole on His cheek. He will not have beard but will be clean shaven. His clothing will be like flame. He will wear two robes. The colour of His face will sometimes be like copper, sometimes yellow like gold and sometimes like the moon. His legs will be those of a young girl. All the teachings of all the religions of the world will be in His heart from birth. All the science and knowledge of the world from the beginning of time will be in His head. He will give gifts that are light in weight, His devotees will crane their necks to see Him. He will live for 95 years on earth. In the last twenty years of His life time He will be the king of the whole world but at that time (A.D. 2000) only two-thirds of the world will believe Him. Muslims will only recognise Him nine years before His passing away from the world”. (My underlining)

All physical details are more or less recognisable, but all the teachings of all the religions of the world are most certainly not in his heart… he is ignorant of much of the Bible (as has been demonstrated at length)  and had to ask a Jewish devotee Al Drucker whether there was and difference between Judaism and Christianity! He has made only a very few and ver superficial statements about Buddhism and Islam… this is just for a start.

What is rather surprising is how the Sai Baba misinformation machine still continues to exhibit the alleged prophecy of kingship and historically unsurpassed world fame, long after the time having come and gone without him being anything remotely like “king of the whole world”. Now that the prophecy has been shown to be completely false, only the devotee lunatic fringe continues to believe in it. .. or support the massively exorbitant opinion that two-thirds of the world population believed in him from year 2000! If Sathya Sai Baba dies when he predicted he would (aged 92 or 93) then next year we would expect Muslims to flock to Puttaparthi in vast numbers to see their Mahdi. Wait, wait, wait and see!

For more details on separate prophecies, see:-
Bi-location

Love,bliss,wisdom
Men,women,celibacy

Divine incarnation

Healing & Youthfulness

Shirdi and Sathya

Suka Nadi prophecies

The Sathya Sai Baba Balloon Deflated.

“In the days ahead, the whole world will be obliged to come to Prashanthi Nilayam”

(p. 320 Sanathana Sarathi December 1991)

Sathya Sai Baba’s bombastic boast that the “whole world” will be “obliged” to visit his ashram in Puttaparthi (i.e. because of himself) is obviously totally invalid. It is only correct to say that some individuals from most countries of the world have visited… and now the visitors from abroad have dropped off most considerably (the reasons being obvious). Considerably more of the world visitors to Indian gurus nowadays go to such venues as Ravi Shankar’s ‘Art of Living’ centre, or the ashram of Amma the ‘Hugging Mother’.

The Sathya Sai Airport cannot accommodate the whole world even were it to stand for 100 years… it has long been a failed airport and is up for sale with sweetener inducements like free land for property development, but there are no buyers after a year on the market. Sathya Sai Baba cannot even buck the market!  It was built at great expense to the Indian taxpayer in 1990 through the intervention of a Government official (Civil Aviation Secretary) and long-term Sai devotee, Mr. M.K. Kaw, was unused for years – then very little used (for visiting devotees) until the present.

There has indeed been a ‘divine downfall’ since 1999. This decline or “Divine Downfall” (to use the title of author and journalist Mick Brown’s Telegraph article) continues despite hundreds of Sai-propaganda web pages numerous sites, blogs, constant world-wide radio broadcasts via Sai Global Harmony and WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service.

Before the world-wide furore about Sathya Sai Baba’s genital oilings and sexual abuses broke on the Internet in 1999, many prominent newspapers around the world carried articles about what a holy man Sathya Sai Baba was. If his devotees were gullible it was because they were being so thoroughly and cleverly deceived. The even the Observer and the Times had once carried two-page spreads heralding him in such terms as “one of the most impressive holy men of the age”. After airing of the BBC documentary ‘The Secret Swami, both papers became nothing but highly critical of him. Indian newspapers were – but still are – among the worst offenders in this pro-Sai propaganda. True, he once had prominent visitors from many countries – Presidents and Prime Ministers (Italy, Fiji, Mauritius, Nepal, Sri Lanka) – and from several European royal families (including the Duchess of York Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson) and from the ruling elites of several nations of the world. UNESCO even arranged to partake officially in an Educational Conference in his ashram, but dropped it like a hot potato when they investigated the sex abuse allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, after contacting some of the alleging victims.

Since UNESCO made their statement of withdrawal and its reasons public, no United Nations organization has had anything to do with him, despite major and signally unsuccessful efforts by his representatives in the Indian government and among mega-rich and/or influential supporters in the USA (eg. Dr. Michael Goldstein, Dr. William Harvey etc.)

Read also The Sathya Sai White Elephant airport
Mick Brown: Divine Downfall – Sunday Telegraph
UNESCO withdrawal from Sathya Sai Baba’s Educational Conference

Sai Baba as the Islamic Saviour ‘Mahdi’?

Sathya Sai Baba has been heralded as the Islamic messiah, the Mahdi and much has been written to try to prove he is ‘the one’. Indeed, this extremely inauthenticated text is publicised in a faked translation of Persian prophetic texts in Sai Baba’s self-glorifying Chaitanya Jyoti museum at Prashanthi Nilayam. Yet it would be difficult, if not impossible to find Sai Baba accepted as the Mahdi (much less accepted at all) by prominent religious-political Islamic figures, not least those who accept the notion of the foretold appearance of the Mahdi. One report noted that President Ahmadinejad at the U.N. General Assembly on September 26, 2007 again did as he had done the previous year in the same venue; opened his speech by praying to Allah to “hasten the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi….” “the promised one,” the one who “will fill this world with justice and peace.” Wisely, he did not mention the fuller revelation, that the Madhi would come at the end of time and a great apcocalypse would ensue).

The Mahdi claims wrote off Ahmadinejad as a primitive kind of Shiite believer. Yet this belief has been – and still is – widely encountered in the history of the Islamic world, probably as widespread as is that of the Second Coming of Christ and the Judgement Day of the Book of Revelations. Such apocalyptic visions are also part and parcel of Hinduism, and Sathya Sai Baba also dabbled in various apocalyptic scenarios of this type. Here are a few excerpts from reports on Ahmadinejad’s “vision” at the U.N., which is strangely reminiscent and alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah:- “On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say ‘Bismillah Muhammad,’ he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura,” he says. “I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn’t move an eyelid, I’m not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!”

The next, more public venue for Khameini’s mouthpiece was the now-famous Columbia University speech, in which he proclaimed that there was no homosexuality in Iran, courting the helpless laughter of the large and well-educated audience. Ahmadinejad began his talk by praying for Allah to “hasten the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi.” Yet no one, in the ensueing Q & A, bothered to ask him about this! Shi`ism’s self-styled spokesman tried to garner favor with his audience by reminding them that he is an academic himself and still teaches university students. One commentator (see Link below) wrote: “Ahmadi-nezhad broke new theological ground, even within Shia Islam, by claiming that not only would the Mahdi come, but that Allah himself will arrive with Moses and Christ and Muhammad to rule the world.” This was allowed to “pass without investigation, because the moderators were unprepared—or perhaps simply uncomfortable—with it.” From Everybody’s Got Something to Hide, Except for Me and the Mahdi

“He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, as to “pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance.” “People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation,” says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran’s religious center of Qom: “The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific,” he adds. “There is a saying: ‘When the students are ready, the teacher will come.’”  Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil – with striking parallels to biblical accounts of “Armageddon.”” (WorldNetDaily: Iran prepares people for ‘messiah miracles’ )

Comment: The above saying about the teacher’s coming closely reflects what Sathya Sai Baba has stated about himself, that he is the Universal teacher come to save humanity. He is hailed as the Mehdi Mou’d by Zeba Bashiruddin, a Moslem teacher at his women’s college in Anantapur, near to his Puttaparthi ashram, and who he has made efforts to persuade (Shiite) Muslims to accept him. Like Ali Lari (above). Sai Baba has also said: When the soil is ready, the seed appears from somewhere! The Spiritual guru will be alerted and the thirst will get quenched.” (Sathya Sai Baba in Sathya Sai Vahini, p. 97. SSB Books and Publications Trust)

For a most thorough account and researched analysis of the carefully cultivated rumour that Sathya Sai Baba fulfils the requirements of the Islamic prophesy of the coming Mahdi [aka Mehdi Moud] saviour, see Sai Baba as the Islamic messiah, the Mahdi: http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Prophecy.htm and http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/indmmtrans.htm

Also see ‘Followers of Islam maligned by the Sathya Sai Baba movement’:  http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/7/Sathya_Sai_Baba_prophesies_and_rumors_on_Islam.htm. As to some kind of Armageddon, Sai Baba has also leaked many rumours about this. One can see the propaganda about Sai Baba’s world leadership being prophesied in an [alleged] Islamic source here.

Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and his Worldwide Organization
View ex-follower signatures
(Spanish version PETICIÓNPÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES)

Sai Baba’s ‘Religious Universalism’ is based on gross ignorance

Sathya Sai Baba has preached with extreme insistence and constant repetitively that all religions have the same essential, good values. This is very easy to say, but not possible to back up reasonably, let alone prove – especially to the heads of the main religions. The present Pope, for example, leader of over 600 million Catholics, rejects as heretical all religious doctrines which do not accept the primacy of Jesus Christ. Islam rejects Hinduism at a very most basic level – that God cannot incarnate in a human body (as Sathya Sai Baba constantly claims for himself) and cannot be represented in any idol (while Hinduism accepts thousands of deities and idols of all kinds). Judaism awaits a Messiah, but Sathya Sai Baba most evidently does not fulfil their conditions so Judaism does not proclaim him as their Messiah. Buddhism, in the main, rejects the whole idea of a God Creator of the Universe, as Sai Baba claims he is. What Sathya Sai Baba also asserts again and again is that all the religions are ignorant of God, who is unknowable (i.e. himself, as he has repeatedly boasted).

Sathya Sai Baba has claimed that he is the Father who sent Jesus to the earth. But he is ignorant of much about Jesus and his life. How can this be so in one who claims to be omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent? Here is one of his classic blunders – one of many, many – about the Christian religion. The personal name of the betrayer of Jesus is very widely known: Judas. But what was his second name, or the name which singled him out among the many Judas’ of his time? Anyone familiar with the Christian literature knows that he is referred to as Judas Iscariot. Sathya Sai Baba, however, also refers to him as ‘Judas Simon’: “Judas Simon is well known today as the disciple who was treacherous to his spiritual guide and guardian.” Sai Baba stated that “Judas Simon is well known today as the disciple who was treacherous…” Equally important, in Gospel materials, the betrayer of Jesus is referred to simply as ‘Judas’, or as ‘Judas Iscariot’, or as the son of a man named ‘Simon Iscariot’. Actually, ancient materials do not recognize Judas Iscariot as ‘Judas Simon’ any more than people today do. Another disciple of Jesus, however, was named Peter Simon (see for example, Mark 14: 37) and it appears that Sai Baba has confused these names. This was not just a single slip of the [omniscient?] mind, because Sai Baba also stated: “Jesus Christ had twelve foremost disciples. Among the twelve only Judas Simon would injure Jesus, their teacher and spiritual saviour.” [Sai Baba, quoted in An Eastern View of Jesus Christ, p. 111]. The issue of whether Judas actually betrayed Jesus, or simply delivered him to the Romans according to Jesus’ intention (and reent research has shown that such  payment s were a known Roman legal formality and not a bribe at all.  See this:-

William Klassen, “Judas: Betrayer or friend of Jesus,” Fortress Press, (1996).

Sai Baba claims that all religions worship the same God. However, this is also a facile statement… for even the different mainstream religions worship each their own peculiar and theologically-determined ideas of God, and whether any being exists which fits with one or other of these often distinctly different ideas is itself, of course, beyond any proof. That all people worship the same god is just about equivalent to saying that all cows which are black at night are the same cow. However, some see God as creator of the universe, others do not accept God created the universe (Official Catholic doctrine today!) Besides, most Buddhist sects do not accept a God creator, but only a supposedly fully realised human being as a Buddha. Apart from all this, there are thousands of ideas of deities, gods, goddesses and powers worshipped by every variety of tribe, sub-culture, sect and cult. Who can know that this is the same God? Nobody! And certainly not anyone who is ignorant of human history and other cultures than Sai Baba’s own childhood faith, namely, an eclectic hodge-podge, superstitious, multi-deity, idolatrous version of Hinduism. He believes this to be ageless and the true origin and essential truth of all religion. Thus, he has stated: “The Hindu religion knows no growth or decline. It belongs to all countries. It is acceptable to all people.” (Sathya Sai Speaks p. 172, Volume XX11)

Under the tutelage of his history professor, lifelong Ramakrishna devotee and student of English culture, Prof. N. Kasturi, Sathya Sai came to understand that the main religious approach of the West was towards an external God, while the Eastern view seeks the God within oneself. He also learned – quite mistakenly – that all Westerners regard death as that not only of the body, but also the soul (totally wrong, of course, as regards Christian belief). This illustrates how ill-informed he is about other religions than those on his doorstep, and even there he is completely untutored as regards Islam (which he therefore only mentioned in a few brief, vague sentences throughout all his thousands of discourses). Yet he preaches the ‘Sai religion’ as a universal religion, yet it is based primarily on the Hindu ‘Sanathana Dharma’ or way of righteousness. This latter is not at all the basis of Christianity or Islam, though some similarities are obviously found.

GODS OF GODS ABOVE ALL GODS – SATHYA SAI?

Even if you believe only half you hear, you are in deep trouble with the following claims by Sai Baba. Will he go down in history as the Saviour of Mankind from global disaster (as he claims) and human evil? If so, he would necessarily displace Jesus Christ and Christianity, Jehova and Judaism, Buddha and Buddhism, Islam and Allah and Whoever and Whatever? One must certainly hope not – if only for the sake of human rationality and progress in empowering people to improve their lot and that of the world rather than become fixated in prayer to God and his traditional “teachings” about fate and the futility of worldly engagements. His many deceptions – so firmly demonstrated here and elsewhere – and his bogus  “universal religion” are accepted by a long line of Indian Presidents and Prime Ministers – and also by those of today and much of the Indian Government! It is an enigma… for can they truly believe in the following words of Sathya Sai Baba? They must… or else they’d have to view him as a megalomaniac.

“I am all deities in one. You may endeavour your best for thousands of years and have all mankind with you in your search. But you cannot understand My Reality.”US ed. of Kasturi’s Sathyam Sivam Sundaram Vol 3 page 315)

“There was no one to understand Me until I created the whole world”(Official biographer N. Kasthuri’s direct quote in ‘Pathway to Peace’ p. 64.)

Sathya Sai Baba said in 1968: “This is a human form in which every Divine entity, every Divine principle, that is to say, all the names and forms ascribed by man to God, are manifest… You are very fortunate that you have the chance to experiences the bliss of the vision of the form, which is the form of all gods, now, in this life itself.”(Sathya Sai Speaks Volume VIII. page 99f)

“God can do anything. He has all power in the palm of His Hand. My Body, like all other bodies, is a temporary habitation; but, My Power is eternal, all-pervasive, ever-dominant.”Christmas Day Discourse, Bombay 1970. ed. of Kasturi’s Sathyam Sivam Sundaram Vol 3 page 136)

 “On previous occasions when God incarnated on earth, the bliss of recognising Him in the incarnation was vouchsafed only after the physical embodiment had left the world, in spite of plenty of evidences of His Grace. But, ponder a moment on this Sathya Sai Manifestation; in this age of rampant materialism, aggressive disbelief and irreverence, what is it that brings to It the adoration of millions from all over the world? You will be convinced that the basic reason for this is the fact that this is the Supra-worldly Divinity in Human Form.” (Sathya Sai Baba 17/5/1968. Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 8, p 100)

 “If I had come as Narayana with four arms, they would have put me in a circus, charging money for people to see Me. If I had come only as a man, like any other man, who would listen to me? So I had to come in this human form but with more than the human power and wisdom.”(US ed. of Kasturi’s Sathyam Sivam Sundaram -Vol 3 page 309)

Further, on the task of the revival of dharma, he says “… who has to take it up? It was said that I have taken up this Form in answer to the prayers of sadhus (noble souls) and others… I have come, because I felt I had to come. I resolved upon this… This campaign will succeed, it will not fail. The welfare of the world will be ensured through the fostering of the Godly everywhere, and more particularly of these ancient reservoirs of the ancient wisdom of this land.”(Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 3, page 205)

“The Lord is the refuge of all who seek refuge, the saviour of all who have to be saved. He is the Embodiment of Being-Awareness-Bliss (Sat-chit-ananda). He is now at Puttaparthi as the Effulgent Emperor over the region of Truth, Goodness and Beauty.” (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. XIII, p 114)

“When dharma declines or rather, when those who have a duty to regulate their lives according to dharma lose faith in it, then, its restoration cannot be taken up by all and sundry… The Lord has come again on this Mission. He has collected the engineers and contractors and the labour for this purpose. He is not set on the task.”Let me tell you one more thing: Nothing can impede or halt the work of this Avathaara… Formerly when the Govardhanagiri (mountain) was raised aloft by a little boy, the gopis and gopalas realised that Krishna was the Lord. Now, it is not one Govardhanagiri, a whole range will be lifted, you will see!” (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 3, p. 106)

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!