Sathya Sai Baba in The Guardian

The Guardian, UK, is one of the world’s most respected newspapers due to its careful investigation and serious, level-headed reporting. It does not fear taking a critical approach where deemed necessary, as its reports in the past on Sathya Sai Baba bear witness. This is also the case with the latest article, from which the more vital parts are copied here below, with some comments interspersed:-

Sathya Sai Baba was unusual among India’s grotesquely obese multitude of god-men. He was born in southern India in 1926. At the age of 14, according to his army of hagiographers, he had an epiphany: declaring himself a reincarnation of the 19th-century Marathi Sufi savant Sai Baba, he dropped his given name, Sathyanarayana Raju, and began calling himself Sathya Sai Baba…

…Sathya Sai Baba, stationed in distant Puttaparthi, away from the spiritual bazaars of Varanasi and Rishikesh, attracted only a small segment of the hippies who travelled to India. Almost all of them had heard about him from others, and virtually none of them knew what he looked like.

Unlike the Sufi Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Babai’s message was banal: there was an emphasis on vegetarianism, love and peace, but no radical insights into the condition of humanity. Nor was he in the business of converting people. Instead, in a novel touch, he urged his followers to be good practitioners of their own faith. But what made him distinct was his uniquely arresting appearance: the flowing saffron robes, the tiny body, and the woollen hair, resembling a topiary bush, that sat above his childlike face. His intellectual limitations were more than compensated for by thaumaturgy, his principal strength, and he cultivated his devotees with impressive gifts conjured from the air. Until the 1990s, Sathya Sai Baba’s influence rarely extended beyond his circle of followers. Within his own home state of Andhra Pradesh, he was rubbished as a charlatan by the charismatic and wildly popular film star-turned-politician NT Rama Rao. But when PV Narasimha Rao, a fellow Andhrite, became prime minister in 1991, it consecrated Sathya Sai Baba’s position as the most powerful god-man in India.

There are riveting accounts by devotees of encounters with Sathya Sai Baba. One westerner records being handed a “freshly glazed” photograph, produced in the swami’s palm as if by magic, with the address of his ashram on the back. “You’ve been asking for my address,” Sathya Sai Baba tells him. “Here it is. Keep it in your wallet.” There are numerous tales of patients beings healed by the swami’s sacred ash. In one of the more fantastic tales, the swami is approached by a terminally ill woman; her only hope of survival is a treatment that is available exclusively in Japan, but she does not have the means to travel. The swami smiles, points to a door and asks her to open it. She does. On the other side is Japan. (See some of the amusing comments below)

Sathya Sai Baba preferred earthly modes of transport for himself, travelling in a Rolls-Royce gifted to him by a wealthy devotee. The Sufi Sai Baba had lived in a dilapidated mosque; his supposed reincarnation’s “humble” ashram was a veritable palace. For a man claiming to be god, Sathya Sai Baba was oddly enthusiastic about science; perhaps it had something to do with his own mastery of the laws of physics. He collected vast sums of money to build super-speciality hospitals – although no one bothered to ask him why, as god, he would not make hospitals redundant by eradicating disease altogether.

To Sathya Sai Baba’s great credit, he condemned the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992 and, despite blandishments by the Hindu right, always refused to endorse their project. But proximity to power brought its own benefits. In 1993, four men entered the swami’s bedroom carrying knives; they were confronted by the police guard, overwhelmed, sealed up in a room, and then shot dead. The then home secretary of Andhra Pradesh described the killings as “cold blooded murder“. But investigations never followed.

Comment: It was Narasimha Rao and his Home Minister, S.B. Chavan (a long-time devotee of SB) who handled the major cover-up of the murders in Sathya Sa Baba’s bedroom of four of his ex-students, eventually quashing by government order the CBI investigation that was instituted because of the Puttapatthi police corruption and falsification of all evidence. A petition against Sai Baba to the Supreme Court was also rejected out of hand (see here) The Sai Central Trust and ashram authorities did everything they could, along with the police, to confuse every aspect of the entire episode. The government caused investigators to be transferred when they were getting too close to the truth… namely, that the police execution of the four young men was a result of blackmail by Sai Baba’s minions, especially his younger brother, Janakiramiah. This information leaked out to me from my very good friend, the close editorial servant of Sai Baba, once-famous journalist V.K. Narasimhan – see here.

Reports of sexual misconduct were similarly ignored. At least two young men accused the swami of putting his penis in their mouths. In 2001, India’s first Hindu nationalist prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, circulated a letter on his official notepaper condemning the allegations as “concocted“.

Comment: The Prime Minister’s letter was also signed by ex-High Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati  now about to take over the running of the multi-billion dollar Sathya Sai Central Trust. Bhagwati has exposed himself in a remarkable interview with the Times of India as a mere puppet for Sai Baba in ALL his actions(see Ex-Chief Justice of India: Sathya Sai Baba “dictated my every single judgement”). The whitewash was based ENTIRELY on devotional belief, because challenges were mounted under the Right to Information Act to see what investigation or evidence collection has been undertaken, but there was nothing whatever! The BBC documentary ‘The Secret Swami’ interviewed numerous victims of Sai Baba’s sexual abuse, presenting the testimony of two only due to editorial (not legal) considerations.

Ultimately, Sathya Sai Baba’s protracted struggle to avert death demonstrated that, even as a human, he was merely ordinary. After a lifetime of self-elevating sermons on his own divinity, he feared what lay beyond life – and he feared it so severely that he ceased to be concerned by the gulf it opened up between image and reality. God spent his final days on a life-support system.

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Among some of the hilarious comments made on the Guardian article about ‘one of the more fantastic tales’ were the following:-

SeculR 6 May 2011 2:40PM Why did he spend billions to build canals for miles when he could have done that in a sleight of hand? And where did he get that amount of money from? It’s that door again. He just opened it and this time there was a bank vault the other side … knockout!

SeculR 6 May 2011 12:30PM Are we all certain that this man has died? There is always the possibility that he might have gone to the bathroom one night, opened the wrong door and found himself in Japan … or anywhere for that matter. Still, let’s hope he has his mobile with him, so that he can phone home.

conifer 6 May 2011 1:16PM As long as he doesn’t find a door to come back through we’re okay.

TheSmokingMan 6 May 2011 4:04PM – conifer – 6 May 2011 12:16PM:- If he’d pointed at the door on the other side, they could have had a Chinese. They were running a dim Sum special too!!!

SeculR 6 May 2011 4:59PM Maybe he was busy financing another canal that day, got a bit distracted and missed the other door.

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SATHYA SAI BABA BBC DOCUMENTARY ‘THE SECRET SWAMI’ SHOWCASED [MAJOR EXPOSURE!]

WORLD EXPOSÉ OF SEXUAL ABUSE BY SATHYA SAI BABA

SAI BABA EXPOSED – by CONNY LARSSON

BLOG SITE- CALL FOR MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION OF SATHYA SAI BABA

RESEARCH INTO SATHYA SAI BABA PUBLICATIONS AND CLAIMS MADE

DR, JOHN HISLOP LETTERS ON SAI SEX COVER-UP

SATHYA SAI STORIES, MYTHS AND DECEITS

THE SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION EXAMINED

DEFECTING SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION OFFICE-BEARERS AND PROMINENT DEVOTEES

PHOTO SET 3 – SAI BABA’S LUXURY RESIDENCES

A SELECTION OF SATHYA SAI BABA’S DIVINE TEACHINGS – ‘SAIENCE’

DR. G. VENKATARAMAN’S COVER-UP AND DECEIT EXPOSED

SAI BABA, NON-VIOLENCE & INDIA’S ATOM BOMBS

ON ‘MIRACULOUS HEALING’ OR CURES BY FAITH (IN SAI BABA

Concerning the question of touching male genitals by Sathya Sai Baba

Extraordinary rationalisations of Sathya Sai Baba’s reported sexual activities

Sathya Sai Baba buried alive?

LATEST – THE END IS NIGH?

The latest of a series of increasingly worried – but more realistic – reports seems that the great myth about Sai Baba living into his 90s, as he has predicted – so “I can finish My Task” is about to be blown apart.

FURTHER:  (April 20) “Speaking to Deccan Herald, Ananthpur District Collector Janardhan Reddy, admitting that the police have been put on an alert, said: “I have been regularly interacting with the doctors and they have expressed concerns over his condition. We are getting ready for any eventuality.”

Previously, the developing narrative about Sathya Sai Baba, in his critical condition of ‘living death’, took an incomprehensible grotesque twist. Several major Indian news outlets – like Indian Express, and India Today – consider this newsworthy enough to publish.

That anyone can seriously even suggest that anyone should be buried ALIVE is so outrageous that one has to say “only in India” could this occur. Yet the history of Indian ‘saints’, ‘godmen’ and other supposed holies apparently does actually recognize the value of such an event – the wilful interment of a living person by his own followers. As zeenews.com explains ““Sajeeva Samadhi” is the practice of burying enlightened souls while they are still alive. The report about his Samadhi gains credence as members of the Sathya Sai Central Trust held a meeting today to discuss the Trust’s affairs in the wake of the Baba’s deteriorating health.” Knowing the clandestine and deceiving methods of the Sathya Sai Central Trust and most ashram officials, no possibility can be excluded.

What could be the possible motive of such a crime? One thought that springs to mind is that Sathya Sai Baba may already have expired and this is a way of disposing of the body while pretending he lives on. Rather far-fetched, but most of the Sai Baba story is like that. The background of all inventions by Sai Baba officials and followers are the demands of the guru that his every word must be fulfilled and his self-declared identity as God the incarnate Deity of all deities (any yet more extravagant statements) must be believed by all who wish the boons he may or may not give in an imagined afterlife. To have to admit that this self-proclaimed God Incarnate died of organ failure without being conscious would be a death-blow to the aspiration of many of his institutions, which rely on massive donations for their continuance. It is a matter of jobs and business too… the local areas around the ashrams have flourished while foreigners with fat purses have flocked to see the ‘living embodiment’. Could perhaps some think it would be best to entomb him before the government demand an autopsy on him or something, then he can continueue to inspire as some kind of once-living god idol who can then ‘speak from the grave’ to devotees and heal the unhealthy (as Sai Shirdi Baba supposedly does, accumulating vast funds from supplicants to this day)

The text of an article printed in two on-line news outlets

All this is impossible to sustain, for he has stated he would lift a range of mountains and fly unaided through the air (among many other preposterous things), yet devotees try to sustain some vestiges of his credibility, a most important issue being when he will die. He has predicted on two documented occasions that he will die aged 93, and on other likewise that he will live to be 96 (one must allow for the Indian method or reckoning age from inception, not birth – i.e. ca. one year different to the standard western way). But then he is almost certainly on his deathbed already. So to bury him alive, it has been mooted in the press, would mean he could live in his grave until the time of his predictions!It would be held that he had ‘ascended’, thereby reaching the state of mahasamadhi (in which it is believed one becomes unified with God). However, he has all along claimed that he was always entirely one with God at all times! Figure that those who have time to waste!

Fantastic as this will all seem to all but the deeply indoctrinated followers (and there are millions of such), no such wild speculation has ever crossed my mind, despite my knowing from 18 years leadership in the Sathya Sai Organization, how broad and deep is the truly lunatic fringe around the guru. As I have suggested earlier, some mythology, some ‘famous last words’ or the like would be invented to cover-up the fact that Sathya Sai Baba is now a dumb, semi-conscious ‘basket case’ whose life is on a thread without any of the powers or divine healing or miracle accomplishments so many have claimed he must possess. The preposterous ‘sanjeeva samadhi’ ploy illustrates the nature of much of the sick-minded doctrine with its weird speculations and simplistic Pollyanna moralizing that Sai Baba has used to attract most of his following.

Miracle in Puttaparthi? As to the much sought-after miracles to surround his death, one has already been produced in a handy location (Puttaparthi) – by what means no one can investigate (it stopped fairly soon). It has apparently brought crowds of devotees to thankful tears in their ‘sackcloth and ashes prayer’ routines… crowding the shop-owners’ locale to the point that police has to deploy. One can confidently expect more of the same kind of thing from now onwards.. and for many a long year to come!

India Today took up the story, as follows:-

For those who are unable to make head nor tail of this kind of belief and phenomena, see

My investigations of the same ‘nectar-oozing’ phenomena

Sai Baba amrita (nectar) at Srirangapatna orphanage

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Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
See also Devotee attacks on the Sai petition and petitioners

Sathya Sai Baba followers censor all critical comments they can

Most of the comments I made on a YouTube video which had been posted by a convinced Sai Baba devotee (username ‘godisone15) were selectively removed by him (or her), no doubt because they document the errors in his/her statements from Sathya Sai Baba’s own journal, which he always read and approved in those days (a fact I ascertained from both of its former long-term editors – firstly from Professor N. Kasturi and later from V.K. Narasimhan).

This is just another of countless instances where all remotely negative information about Sathya Sai Baba is excluded from every single promotional web page about him. The Sathya Sai Organization are very systematic in removing all content they possibly can – and without comment or trace where possible – of all the massive criticism that has been leveled at him and his officials through the decades, especially since the many sex allegations were documented and spread to the public by Internet in 1999-2000 and onwards. Sathya Sai Baba’s indoctrinated believers all follow a code of strict internal secrecy, non-accountability and avoidance of any fruitful discussion or debate… and they have the nerve to call this and all their cover-ups ‘dharma’!

The alleged miracles at the orphanage of Halagappa at Sri Ranga Patnam, near Mysore, are discussed in detail on this blogsite (Sai amrita – nectar of the Gods or sugar & tea rose water?)

See also on this blogsite:-
Sai Baba amrita (nectar) at Srirangapatna orphanage
Manufacture of Sathya Sai Baba amrit (nectar)

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Gross fraudulence: Gerald Moreno tries to ridicule Robert Priddy

On Gerald Moreno’s countless hundreds of anti-Priddy websites, blogs and comments, few show such patently manipulated (i.e. falsified) screen captures than the one shown below. [Yet he took care to accuse me – also falsely – of fraudulent screen-caps, which were actually made from Google caches, which differ from the original site in details, and which I have reduced in size to save space, and in which not a single word of his was altered]

Exposing The Anti-Sai Activist: Robert Priddy

Laurens Van Der Post – The Night Of The New Moon:

Just how gullible was Robert Priddy when he was a Sai Devotee for 17-26 years?
Comment: firstly, Moreno tries to make an issue of how long I was a Sai follower (he has written page up and page down to develop this petty theme of my supposed ‘deception’. Such niggling is how Moreno tries to ‘prove’ a lack of integrity of my entire character. The fact is, there are many degrees of commitment involved. I first heard of Sathya Sai Baba in 1954. I learned more about him in 1971. Around 1978 I became interested in Shirdi Sai Baba (though with considerable reservations as to the claims about him). Only in 1983 did Sathya Sai Baba enter my awareness strongly enough to say I became a would-be follower (not all are equally definitive, not all accept everything uncritically.. as in my case). I was the de facto leader (i.e. organizer and leader of all events in the Oslo group) and in Norway from 1983, the pro forma centre leader from 1985 until about 1996-7 and the national leader throughout until 2000. All that explain the variations in dates, which Moreno pettily tries to make into a big issue. Moreno continues (black bold text):-

The answer is very gullible. For example, Robert Priddy published (in his book “Source Of The Dream”) the following scans to Laurens Van Der Post’s “The Night Of The New Moon” book-cover and claimed that one could easily discern the form of Sathya Sai Baba in them.

The manipulated (falsified) scan on Gerald Moreno’s website made as yet another reprehensible but vain attempt to ridicule Priddy

Notice how Robert Priddy enhanced the color on the edited scan and had to carefully shape Baba’s hair from the clouds?

Comment: This is really gross of Moreno! I never enhanced anything, the photos were processed by professional publishers before being put in my book. I reproduce – below the falsified image Moreno posted -, the exact replica of the photos which appear identically in three editions of my book “Source of the Dream” (Sun-Sky Publications, Samuel Weiser Inc. and a Portuguese edition), without a jot of enhancement. The cut-out version was to help readers discern what attracted our attention (in the unusual situation where it came to our notice). Instead, Moreno darkened the images and made one dise different in contrast to the other so as to be able to claim he could not see Sai Baba (in either image!). Where he got the image from with the Penguin logo on I can only guess, I never published such an image myself. Moreno continues:-

I looked long and hard at the images and cannot see Sathya Sai Baba in them. I suppose if one were desperate enough, one could see Sathya Sai Baba in the clouds (no matter how vague the perception). However, these scans show how gullible, naive and “backward intellectually” Robert Priddy was when he was a Sai Devotee.

About the alleged form of Sathya Sai Baba on the book-cover, Robert Priddy said:
“A second leela, which we felt was a form of recognition by Baba for our carrying out regular study of his teachings, occurred similarly one evening when we plodded on with our reading, even though we were very tired. My eye was suddenly drawn to the form of Sathya Sai in the clouds of an evening sky on the front cover of a book that I had recently read. The book is a deeply spiritual account of the life and death in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp by Laurens van der Post, titled Night of the Moon. It is curious, too, that the night of the new moon is known in India as the night of Shiva. The figure of Sai, leaning forward as if to dispense vibuthi, can be figured out from the background.” (Source Of The Dream, ‘The Universal World Teacher’, pg 212) Robert Priddy was one of those gullible, naive, “ignorami”, “backward intellectually” and “ignorant peasants” when he was a Sai Devotee for 17 years…

COMMENT: Now ever inconsistent Moreno himself decides that I was a devotee for 17 years… which is basically correct, as I only reckoned myself such from 1983 until 2000. “Ignorant peasant” and an “ignorami” hardly describes me, considering that I was the top philosophy graduate at the University of Oslo and lectured in social science and philosophy (tenured) for most of my professional life before I went to India. If that qualifies me as an ‘ignorant peasant’ and ‘backward intellectually’ readers must decide. Note that Moreno leaves out the word ‘new’ in the title “Night of the New Moon”, which is a significant point (a lapse or intentional distortion?)

In that time when the truth about Sai Baba has hardly emerged in public and only a very few came to learn the astonishing and depressing facts, I was in the company of hundreds of Ph.Ds – mostly Indian but not all – and dozens of pro-Sai writers and a great number of other educated devotees who related very similar experiences of ‘seeing’ the form of Sai Baba in many things (which indeed he insists every devotee should always strive to visualize and see everywhere and in everything!). My friend – Sai Baba’s distinguished editor –  V.K. Narasimhan showed the form of Sai Baba’s head on a bowl of cream to many devotees who visited his apartment. There are many images showing Sai Baba’s form in many other objects, such as in ritual fires. (See a supposed ‘appearance’ of Sai Baba in a ritual homa fire at Prashanthi Nilayam) Dr. Jack Hawley enthused in his book about seeing Sai Baba before him, Sandweiss, Hislop, Murphet, Krystal… all regarded this an important phenomenon. Sai Baba himself has given the teaching (see at foot of blog for source references).
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Moreno, however, claimed he saw Sai Baba in the flesh in New Mexico… and took it for a miracle straight off.

I was not so gullible or naive either, as I rejected a whole lot of the stories I heard, and was privately most amused by many of the beliefs of a large number of truly uncritical and mindless devotees. The fact is, I was systematically deceiv

ed by Sathya Sai Baba and his entire cadre and most of his following, as many people around the world were. I am no longer deceived, but far too many still are, and especially Gerald Moreno, who tries to ridicule me further:-

(Priddy) … who believed in Avatars, lilas, divine manifestations, gnomes, trolls, fairies, possessing demons, elves, UFOs, extra-terrestials, leprechauns and elementals.

Comment: I believed for some years that Sai Baba most likely was an avatars – as he so rigidly claim and which millions still believe (unfortunately). That belief is a requirement of all members of the Sathya Sai Organization. As to earth spirits, I wrote: “There is a great wealth of testimonial evidence from the whole of the world and history that belief or faith – involving intense emotional or mental preoccupation of some kind – can open the experience of visions, apparitions and apparently miraculous phenomena.” I did not positively affirm their existence, but the likelihood that they may exists as science has not been able (or even tried) to explain them. But Moreno wants it to be quite otherwise. See my article on ‘elementals’ and why modern science has begun to provide experimentally-based explanations of these phenomena. Note that Moreno believes in miracles… and many other doubtful phenomena (which I do not and never have – such as crystals, kundalini, healing mandalas etc.)  He is very cagey about everything else he believes as he knows that to make this public would be very embarrassing. Moreno continues to undercut the beliefs of virtually all Sai devotees (most of which he promotes wildly on his blog ‘Love, Light and Spirituality.. and under the name ‘sathyasaibaba’ too). But he has at least prompted me to explain my former experiences in greater detail, as I otherwise would have neglected to do.

Robert Priddy is bitter and vindictive because he fully documented his own gullible, naive, brainwashed and non-intelligent devotee behavior in his Pro-Sai book for the world to see! What’s even more funny is how Robert Priddy bashes Sai Devotees for acting and believing in the very same manner he did when he was a Sai Devotee. Laughable!

How Moreno overplays his eternally weak hand. I am exposing the gullibility of Sai devotees only now, who should know better after the many revelations of the facts they will not or cannot face. Moreno promotes the VIP devotee and author Howard Murphet (see here), who goes far further that I ever did in the matter of extra-normal spirit influences – including discarnate spirits of ‘ascended masters’ and what have you. But Moreno attacks only dissidents, not Sai Baba favourites.  I did not act as most devotees do at darshan, constantly pressing forward, wanting sweets, blessings and material trinkets… I believed mainly only in the power of doing what good service one can, advancing human understanding and that spirituality is only a private experience between oneself and ‘the divine’, but not something to be paraded and off-handedly boasted about as so many I met did. I always tried to inform the public in as reflected a way as I could in the circumstances (i.e. while being the victim of what is mostly a massive fraud) and my book was one of the very most restrained in praise – compared to the hundreds of besotted panegyrics still on sale about Sai Baba.  Rather than “bashing” Sai devotees for being gullible, naive and brainwashed (and most were far more so than I ever was), I have shown from a very wide range of documentation that – in addition to the huge mass of evidence of his sexual abuses and involvements in dark matters – most of Sai Baba’s belief system – once penetrated (which is far from easy to achieve in that environment) is either direct and cynical deception by SSB and his diverse minions, or wild inventions so as to try to extract some holy interpretation, blessing or personal advantages from this typical Indian guru-hysteria phenomenon.

An e-mail friend wrote this to me about Moreno’s above-quoted page:-
“Didn’t  JM defend the 2007 Moon claims against your and BP’s criticisms? He seems to want to have his cake and eat it – again! A riposte on the gullibility angle might hit his Achilles heel Number 317 (- i.e. he has so

many) Does he condone gullibility in all other devotees except you?” (identity not given so Moreno can’t attack him too, as he surely would!) Gerald Moreno went into peculiar mental contortions to try to deflect criticism from – and defend – the moon miracle Sathya Sai Baba predicted, but which never happened (due to cloud coverage!). Sai Baba proclaimed he would appear on the moon later one evening… thousands flocked to the Sai airport and were totally disappointed. Laughable?

Sai Baba bending in this way is what inspired me to see his form on the Laurens van der Post cover.

Source references; See God in each form for 3 days: divine results 300 Sanathana Sarathi  Nov. 1993
Lovers of God see God everywhere p. 254 Sanathana Sarathi  Oct. 1991 & p.252 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 24
See God in a stone, don’t change a stone to God 180 Geetha-Vahini
See God in everyone you meet/in everything Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 8
Self-seeking students & teachers today 233 Sanathana Sarathi Sept. 1988 & p.162 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 21
Self-surrender is to see God in everything always p.148 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 15
Lovers of God see God everywhere 254 Sanathana Sarathi: p.252 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 24
Meaning of human life only to use it to see God: p.122 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 3

Not strange therefore that so many who still believe in God – and especially in Sathya Sai Baba – see his ‘divine form’ in objects. Perhaps Moreno has too little real devotion to his would-be God? However, it is a function of the brain to see human features in all and any kinds of materials and things, only when one believes they have spiritual significance does it become dodgy.. but one has to be liberated from all notions of supernatural miraculous phenomena to appreciate that.

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Sathya Sai Baba: gold from body in ‘lingam’

Frames from BBC's 'The Secret Swami' showing Sai Baba sleight of hand

According to Sathya Sai Baba’s translator ‘Professor’ Anil Kumar, Sai Baba said that his collapse at the Shivarthri festival in 2004 was due to the three tonnes of weight of the golden lingam he claimed emerged from his body (see here – also view how the BBC camera showed that no lingam actually emerged). Probably the fatuous blind believer Anil Kumar mistranslated Sai Baba’s words… for the Sanathana Sarathi printed version of Sai Baba discourses in which he claims that the weight of the gold in the human body – and in the gold lingams he produces – was ‘three tolas’. This is equivalent to the weight of three original silver Indian rupees of 11.4 grams each. So Sai Baba’s lingam of three tolas would weigh just over 34 grams.

Further, Sai Baba said in his discourse after the Shivarathri lingodbhava two years previously (13/3/2002) “(Showing the golden Linga to the devotees, Swami said). “As you can all see, this Linga is rather bigger in size. There is a meaning behind this. This is five Tolas in weight. [one Tola is 11.66 grams. 5 Tolas = about 60.0 grams]Every human being possesses five Tolas of gold essence known as Hiranyagarbha… Gold represents energy in man and is the cause of his radiance. The gold content within each body is this size only. It is gold essence in the body that makes the eyes see, ears hear etc.“ (Sanathana Sarathi – April 2002, p. 127)

Firstly, the human body cannot possibly contain so much gold! In Wikipedia we find that the amount of gold in the human body is vanishingly tiny:-

Element	Percent of Atoms	Atoms

Gold

0.00000030

2 x 1019

Further: “only salts and radioisotopes of gold are of pharmacological value, as elemental (metallic) gold is inert to all chemicals it encounters inside the body” (see here)

Sai Baba’s fantastic account of the imaginary ‘Hiranyagarbha’ and how it ‘represents’ energy [but also ”makes the eyes see, ears hear etc.”] is beyond all reason and science. It is a primitive Vedic superstition, which led to the use of gold as an ayurvedic ‘medicine’. It is used in ayurvedic clinics even today, despite modern scientific knowledge of all the properties of gold in all its different forms on the human body as having very little effect except some reduction of some arthritic inflammation. In short, another myth perpetrated by Sathya Sai Baba with his ignorance of science and belief in ancient mythology as superior even to modern knowledge! Click here to see a continuation of this discussion.

Sathya Sai Baba ‘leelas’

I have encountered many devotees of Sathya Sai Baba who get doubts about what he says, what he expects them to do, what is good for them and so on… then decide to ‘ask Swami himself’. But, since they almost never can’t get to ask him in person, they use some other method for deriving his answer. One common practice is to draw one of three prepared papers left on the shrine. One will have the word ‘yes’, another ‘no’ and a third ‘wait’. Some just spin coins or roll dice! Special coins (Umi and Tumi) are even on sale at some Sai shops for this purpose.

Or the uncertain devotee may set up some other precondition of getting his answer like, “If I see a dog wagging its tail today when I go shopping, then Baba’s answer is ‘yes’. (They usually fail to consider that not seeing  it must therefore mean ‘no’!).” If the person’s idea is realised, then this event becomes a ‘graceful leela of the Lord’ (his play with his creation) and is taken as further evidence of Sathya Sai Baba’s self-proclaimed omnipresence. If the desired result is not forthcoming, then one can always forget it and have another try with something else. I have witnessed many people at the Sai Baba ashrams and in his organization  making the most absurd assumptions and conclusions in this way.

Flipping open a volume of Sathya Sai Baba’s discourses (like ‘asking the Bible’) is a typical method. Whether one sticks to the first sentence one sees, or chooses another which lends itself better to a somewhat relevant meaning, probably depends on the level of desperation of the seeker.

Those who get ‘the right answers’ are often unaware that this kind of phenomenon is by no means restricted to one name and form. It is a very common occurrence, and often works well when there has been greater investment of emotional and mental energy behind the question. In this way one may even  enter communication with spirits of the dead, or aliens on an UFO, or the Director of the CIA… and get wonderful answers. As to religionists who communicate with God… well, that is the ultimate example! There are even those who base their life decisions on a throw of the dice. In all these kinds of case, coincidences that occur become meaningful messages from the beyond and whichever entity one may believe in.

The psychologist C.G. Jung, who experienced many  ‘strange coincidences’ and investigated the question deeply, naming these effects ‘synchronicities’. He reckoned that they have to do with the power of projection of subconscious energies and that there is somehow a ‘collective unconscious’ whereby thoughts and symbols are processed and transmitted between minds across time and space. So far most of Jung’s ideas have not been scientifically tested, though a vast plethora of speculative thought has developed around his theory. It seems extremely unlikely that they are the work of what many – along with Jung – believe to be discarnate ‘elementals’. These include deities, earth spirits, djinns, ‘fairies’, demons, succubi, demons, mischievous spirits and the whole range of identities these forces have been given in different cultures and ages and represent powers that seem to exist without being embodied). There is, of course, no guarantee of goodness (let alone divinity) being attached to any such phenomena. It is an area fraught with deceits, delusions, self-deceptions, fraud. Such is life in many a guru cult…

Properly investigated explanations of these ‘meaningful coincidences’ may come in time. I have always followed developments in this area and, as neuroscience successfully delves deeper into the brain’s vast creativity, the re-creation of many psychic states and experiences through stimulating areas of the brain are showing that one may even have so-called ‘after-death’ experiences that way… or experience a range of hallucinatory states of mind, and even enjoy ‘mystical bliss’ and apparent paranormal perceptions.

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http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma

This page is for the benefit of those who used to visit my former website about Sathya Sai Baba and may be looking for titles that were present there. The page is now regenerated and re-linked

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE PAGE OF HOME.NO.NET/anir/Sai/enigma

More evidence against Sathya Sai Baba

There is no shortage of circumstantial and other evidence about Sathya Sai Baba’s obscene practices’   – here from a posting made by a student on Yahoo groups (here) in reply to some follower. He was one of the lucky ones because his closest relatives abandoned Sathya Sai Baba – while many students can’t even get their blind believing parents to believe them about the sex abuses! He also notes how absurd stories were swallowed whole by the Sai-praising hagiographer Howard Murphet etc.!

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

Guru claims Sai Baba paid $1 million to retrieve pictures

An Indian guru, Sekarji (Chandrasekhar Balasubramanian) considers Sathya Sai Baba was already a sexual molester and a faker of miracles long ago. Here is an e-mail he sent to exbaba.com.

From Sekharji 06-28-2002 08:43 PM ET (US)

Today, there are so many Extortionists, that SSB is letting most of them go on telling stories without the reward for silence. It seems that the money supply is now getting low. So now, there are a whole lot of exDevotees attacking each Other to achieve the status as being the last One standing for SSB to deal with. There are even Imposters planted to help confuse and frighten the whistleblowers.

I enforce My claim for the previous statements to You in the following way. There is a Swamiji named ‘Kaleshwara’ somewhere near Banglore. He was a young Boy when SSB molested Him. He, however, brought a camera and took pictures of the activites without SSB knowing. Later, He extorted SSB and got $1 million dollars to start His own ashram. Go to Him in Banglore, and privately ask. He is quite open and honest about the whole matter. He may still even show You the pictures as He did to many Others.
Sekharji

It should perhaps be added that I do not in any way endorse this or any other self-professed guru, but however misguided he may be or not, what he tells must be taken into account, no reason why it is not true. In fact, there are many reasons why one can consider it to be fact. A major impostor of the kind Sekharji mentions must surely include the former Sai College teacher  Murali Krishna Yachendra, – a trusted agent for the Sai authorities being also a relation of the Sai-devotee Raja of Venkatagiri. Yachendra’s major attempt via e-mails (see some here) to sabotage and derail the exposé which continued persisted through months of contacts between him and Basava Premanand and Barry Pittard. He altogether failed to deceive them, and they could present full proof of his major deceits, countless outright lies and falsifications of documents. See Major sabotage by Sai college teacher averted, including murder threats against Basava Premanand

The South Indian police were informed and a petition lodged, but the Sai authorities have so much power there that the petition has never so for reached court.  The evidence can be studied on-line to some extent, though the entire catalogue is only available so far in a book published in India by Basava Premanand entitled ‘Sabotage by Murali Krishna Yachendra’  (available for US$10.- with airmail fee included – from 11/7 Chettipalayam Road, Podnadur – 641 023. Tamilnadu, India)

Yachendra is endorsed by the Sai-defender and character assassinator Gerald Moreno of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and defended him throughout in the face of the extremely damaging evidence. Yachendra claimed knowledge of massive sex exploits, murder plans and embezzlements by Sai Baba and his institutions or hired assassains, promising documentation in full. Sai Baba offered huge cash payment to anyone who would murder Premanand? M.K. Yachendra stated in an e-mail 3.1.2005 in March 1998 “before one of my students very eyes Sathya Sai Baba offered someone Rs. 10,00,OOO/- to eliminate Mr. Premanand”.

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PLEASE SEE THE SAI PETITION AND DECIDE WHETHER TO SIGN IT

Sai Baba claims embarrass officials – who cover them up

The Sathya Sai Baba official website [www.sathyasaiorg] has recently been weeded of some of the main propaganda that it formerly contained. Among what were long considered the very most important items were four ‘key’ discourses given by Sai Baba where he makes his mega-claims about himself. For decades these have been seen by his officials and followers as the avatar’s most impelling announcements.

However, the Sai authorities have evidently gradually realised that the sheer megalomania of those claims are not acceptable to the world public, for the exceed what any reasonable non-indoctrinated person can believe. Therefore they have been brushed under the carpet, though all followers doubtless still believe in them, otherwise they would have to deny the truth of his entire avataric mission. Here is a facsimile of the main body of the official web page – removed from http://www.sathyasai.org/discour/content.htm (but still archived here)

Discourses by  Sathya Sai Baba

International Sai Organization

back to Intl Sai Org page

Four important discourses by Sri Sathya Sai Baba: Shiva Shakthi (6 July 1963). Swami heals himself from an 8-day stroke and announces his third incarnation as Prema Sai eight years after he leaves this body.    The revelation (17 May 1968). The last part of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s discourse at the “World Conference of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organizations” in Bombay, 17 May 1968. Sai Baba states plainly and directly that he has come as an incarnation of God to restore righteousness (dharma).    Forty-Third birthday discourse (23 November 1968). Swami speaks about His being the Avatar and proclaims his mission on earth: the establishment of righteousness.  Who is Sai? (9 June 1974). Sai Baba talks about God, the Religion of Love, and His Avatar-hood. He explains why he materializes rings, etc., and gives them to people, and he explains what “Sai Baba” means. Discourses are copyrighted by the Sri Sathya Sai Books & Publications Trust., Prasanthi Nilayam, India, with all the rights that pertain thereto.

It may well be said that the work of those determined that the full facts about Sathya Sai Baba – not just the positive ones – should be known [and including the massive and absurd claims he has made] is the cause of the great caution and increased censorship and cover-up by all officials of his various institutions!
See the Sai Organization’s attempts at ‘Downgrading Divinity’ by Brian Steel
See also a Wikiquote summary of some of his most enormous claims about himself and his missions here and The strong toning down is recorded and discussed in Brian Steels’ Downgrading Divinity
and also at http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/doss2claims.htm

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The beguiling half-truth, backbone of deceivers

The inexpressible ‘Truth’ of which Sathya Sai Baba ever talks – which he says is both eternal and not graspable by any human mind (excluding his supposedly Divine mind) – is of such a transcendent and metaphysical nature that he admits it cannot even be expressed. Yet he constantly tells us he is telling us what it is!  Such ‘truth’ which cannot be expressed should rather be consigned to silence (as Wittgenstein opined). It is like an eternal night in which all cows are black. Moreover, this ‘Truth’ which Sai Baba expresses for his own different purposes (in assuming himself to be God) constantly flies in the face of facts actually serves to hide the whole truth and not lest that of the truth of the great chain being. So much for his name ‘Sathya’ (i.e. ‘Truth’) – it evidently refers to an empty abstraction in his case!

The supposed ‘truth’ Sai Baba preaches is not of this world, he insists, which is merely a fleeting phenomenon, a passing cloud! We can certainly say it is of no value or any help at all to any genuine seeker, for has the nature of a mirage which draws the thirst spiritual seeker on into a more and more barren desert. Many end up longing for ‘release’ from the consequent emptiness of their own lives (i.e. even death).

As Kramer and Alstead have put it in ‘The Guru Papers’: “The scientific method is rejected in favour of revelation, belief and otherworldly projections and hopes, and one is trained to construct and maintain a view of reality which fits the mould set by the guru. This is self-conditioning to a truth which one accepts as unchallengeable. This stagnant model of truth lies at the root of most authoritarianism.

Claims of omniscience and knowing every details about everything abound in Sathya Sai Baba’s own published discourses and in the ‘positive propaganda machine’, to which all his institutions are geared up. The result is that rumours fly all the faster and the one incredible positive story and fanciful invention after the other becomes as if factual to many devotees just because they are left to flourish, are never refuted by Sai Baba or his staff… except in the most embarrassing or unavoidable extreme circumstances. Sai Baba actually condones and even loves the rumour mill, as long as it is about his miraculous acts and omniscient and total divine power. Left alone untruth festers. Well-investigated, undeniable ‘negative’ facts need to be brought into the light of day.

Observant persons find official versions of events full of convenient omissions and editing out of doubtful and untoward statements which were nevertheless recorded in the verbatim tapes. Much of what is written make it hard to tell what comes from Sai Baba and what is merely an editor or reporter’s interpretation. Many of the leaders and officials who wish to impose their own views or manipulate people for their personal reasons take advantage of lack of clarity to impose their own advice. In such circumstances, distinguishing with precision the exact nuances of Sai Baba’s doctrines and other utterances is sometime difficult. Add to this the confusion that has arisen about his ‘teaching’ and works from the many distorted interpretations made by devotees who wish to get kudos through praising him beyond all reason and other hagiographic accounts that diverge in a wide variety of ways from the authenticated (though edited) discourse. How to interpret his living message, which he says is his life, is yet more difficult when his daily activities are so carefully cloaked and what he actually does is hard to distinguish from what occurs close to him as a result of what is said to be his orders or wishes. Above all, there is the much more challenging problem of reconciling an increasingly large number of Sai Baba’s words with one another and further, with his known his actions, as demonstrated widely on these postings.

Sai Baba has warned followers not to enter into arguments with others about spiritual matters or about his nature and mission. This also works to clamp-down on intelligent discussion, the exchange of correct information – besides being a way of controlling it and keeping facts under wraps. He always minimises the importance of facts as ‘worldly matters’ , and of scientific or scholarly investigation as mere passing phenomena. He emphasizes personal self-investigation and self-improvement, but this is done mainly on an inner level through self-examination and – more importantly – through repeating his name and visualising him, prayer and inner worship! Educated people throughout the world today rightly often expect open debate with a free exchange of opinions and frank critical evaluations. No one can live in a complete social vacuum solely with one’s own thoughts… not even a hermit, not Sai Baba either, for all carry with them the culture and the handed-down ideas and memories of others that nurtured them.

It is not exactly pleasant to mention most unpleasant facts, but since the full truth about Sathya Sai Baba is almost certain to come out, be evaluated properly, and eventually spread wherever his name is heard, some upstanding people have to contribute to this before all can be swept firmly under the carpet of time. Former devotees who have given many years of their lives in selfless service – who were accepted as leaders, teachers and authors in Sai Baba’s institutions have taken on this task as a bounden public duty of conscience. We have come to know what we once never believed could be possible, and we therefore investigated most thoroughly before realising the truth of many allegations and concealed facts about Sathya Sai Baba. I am reminded of Sai Baba’s words when inaugurating the Venkatagiri Girls’ High School many years ago, “Speak the truth always, for falsehood is the result of cowardice” (Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram by N. Kasturi Vol. I. p.79). His present mendacity and despicable hypocrisy in covering up his misdeeds belies his words as mere lip service.

However many efforts are made to cover up significant facts, they will not succeed in the long run, especially if or when the Sai Baba mission really sometimes should become known about very widely. Penetrating investigations are already being made about many hitherto concealed matters and those who are beginning to speak out find that they have a forum and an exposé movement to support them. If, as Sai Baba insists, the truth will ultimately raise Sai Baba’s public reputation, why does he not correct the one-sided propaganda of his followers, dispel the countless ‘positive’ rumours and excessive miracle stories that circulate through the Sai movement and instead offer a balanced presentation of facts?

See on truth as a human value here

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Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organizatione answer conceivably be anything but ‘there is far too much that will not stand the light of day’?

BBC: “The Secret Swami” – some brief transcripts with video clips

SATHYA SAI BABA ‘THE SECRET SWAMI’

PHOTO & VIDEO GALLERY

SATHYA SAI BABA IN EXCEPTIONAL FILM SHOTS. FILMED IN 2004 AT SHIVARATHRI

VIEW THESE EXCERPT TRANSCRIPTS AND VIDEO CLIPS FROM

THE BBC TV DOCUMENTARY ‘THE SECRET SWAMI‘:

THIS DOCUMENTARY CAN BE BOUGHT DIRECT FROM THE BBC MARKETING DEPT.
AS A VHS VIDEO. FOR A FRANCHISE TO SHOW IT ON INDEPENDENT TV STATIONS,  CONTACT THE BBC.

1) SATHYA SAI BABA’S ‘PRODUCTION’ OF THE GOLDEN LINGAM

2) HIS COLLAPSE AFTER THE STRAIN & HIS EXPLANATION AFTERWARDS

3) DR. MICHAEL GOLDSTEIN DISCUSSES THE SEX ABUSE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SAI BABA

4) DR. MICHAEL GOLDSTEIN STATES THE SAI ORGANISATION’S FAITH ABOUT SAI BABA

5) ISAAC TIGRETT DISCUSSES THE SEX ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SAI BABA

6) INDIAN EX-MINISTER OF EDUCATION, M.M. JOSHI, ON THE SEX ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SAI BABA

7) INTERVIEW WITH THE EX-HOME SECRETARY OF ANDRHA PRADESH

8) VERY CLOSE DEVOTEES TESTIFY – SAI BABA’S SEX ABUSE AND DIRE THREATS ETC.

9) SOME CLOSE BEDFELLOWS OF SATHYA SAI BABA

Ignorance and religious mind control

The following passage is a most interesting and actual comparison…

From Richard Dawkin's new book's first page

… with acknowledgements to one of the most brilliant, knowledgeable evolutionary scientists and a civil and courageous person – defender of the rights of children not to be indoctrinated religiously. Of course, it is Richard Dawkins, whose new book everyone – especially anyone who believes in creationism – ought to read to get some very convincing real knowledge and rise above the ignorance of mere belief.
SEE THE VIDEO INTRODUCTION ‘THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: The Evidence for Evolution’ The highly-anticipated new book from the bestselling author of The God Delusion!

Professor Dawkins’ description of the ignorant prejudice against which one must fight a rearguard action applied with considerable force to the task of dissident and ex-followers of Sathya Sai Baba. They point out the falsity of many of his self-proclaimed ‘Divine Teachings’ in his public discourses, but also  his fraudulent materializations (filmed plenty of times) and gifts of cheap trinkets he pretends to ‘materialize’ (‘miracles’) and which he often falsely says contain genuine diamonds. Then there is his undoubted involvement in the cover-up of murders in his bedroom in 1993, which he publicly claimed to have known about beforehand!

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

Astonishing Sai Baba miracle report + video clip

E-mail received about major miracle – sender’s name protected

This is a story of the kind that spreads like wildfire among believers… and Sai officials do nothing to halt such rumours and sometimes they are the source of them or of supporting ‘testimony’ A very similar story was circulating in 1994 when I was present at the ashram. An Australian was said to have been sent through a door drawn by Sai Baba on the interview room wall back to his dying wife in Australia… and his luggage arrived there too! Only the most credulous can accept such stories… so I asked V.K. Narasimhan to ask Sai Baba about it, which he did. He came back and said that the only reply was ‘No Comment!’ In other words, no denial whatever, and later he confirmed that the event occurred! A member of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, Mr. Prasad, also spread endorsement of the story through IAS official V. Ramnath (see whole episode recounted here)

Making a story about Mecca is no doubt a vain attempt to engage Muslims in the Sai Baba mythology. There were but two or three known Muslim followers in all the years I visited! Two were employed by Sai Baba (the Sufi Muslim Bashiruddin and a Seva Dal boss), otherwise there are none to be seen there usually. No ladies wearing hijab for a start. Sai Baba seems not to realise that Islam – whether Sunni or Shiite – totally rejects that God can take human form… so that leaves Sai Baba as nothing but a false prophet for them. Besides, Muslims have been libelled in official Sai Baba literature too! (see here)

‘Everything in Prashanthi Nilayam is a Rumour’ according to an Irish devotee filmed there before the sex allegations broke across the Internet in 1999. He tells how the rumor was that Michael Jackson was supposedly to visit Prashanthi Nilayam, but it never happened… also a rumour. brief video clip here (QuickTime movie 400kbs)

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Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
See also Devotee attacks on the Sai petition and petitioners

Lingam regurgitation by street fakir – video clip

In the above very brief streaming video clip (only 312 Kb), you can view the common feat of producing lingam-type stones from the mouth by fakirs and street illusionists. This one was filmed by a German crew I watched filming in 1990 at Brindavan ashram. The German commentary stated that Mustapha, the magician, earns his money as a ‘wonderful artist’ who genuinely brings out a stone from his mouth.

The world-famous stage illusionist, Harry Houdini, performed it, having practiced by swallowing balls attached to a piece of string. Later he would and re-gurgitate them without any aids. Quite large objects can be kept in the stomach or throat for at least several hours. The regurgitation can be stimulated by massage, even by vomit-inducing pharmaceuticals. Sathya Sai Baba was seen to swallow a lot of water before he brought out his lingams (none larger than the illusionist managed).

Sai Baba has always claimed that his lingams are produced in his stomach. They are of all kinds of material, from stone to crystal to gold… which variety alone makes their production in his stomach beyond all likelihood!  The film evidence suggests that he used to regurgitate them from his throat or stomach. More recently, when he gagged for some time, he was seen to cover his mouth with a large towel and only then let it seem to emerge from his mouth.

Due to the massive testimony by many hagiographic writers, combined with film evidence which seemed genuine, I came to believe around 1984 that the lingam productions were most probably real. Doubts about it were never really quite removed, however, and since then I have looked into the matter much more closely. The BBC film ‘The Secret Swami ‘ produced the most compelling filmatic proof of fraud by Sai Baba (see clip here and here).

Sai Baba was losing his foreign followers fast, so In 2000 he produced a golden lingam without warning at Shivaratri and said that everyone who had seen it actually emerging would be ‘liberated’ (not have to be reborn ever again). This attracted all the blind believers again and for several following years brought in much larger crowds than usual at Shivarathri.  To make sure everyone saw it. he even once put it back in his mouth after it ‘came up’ the first time!

Houdini on Regurgitating Objects at Will

“A number of years ago, in London, I watched several performances of one of these chaps who swallowed a hatful of stones, nearly the size of hen’s eggs, and then jumped up and down, to make them rattle in his stomach. I could discover no fake in the performance, and I finally gave him two and six for his secret, which was simple enough. He merely took a dose of powerful physic [emetic–ed.] to clear himself of the stones, and then was ready for the next performance.

During my engagement in 1895 with Welsh Bros. Circus I became quite well acquainted with a [Japanese] of the San Kitchy Akimoto troupe and from him I learned the method of swallowing quite large objects and bringing them up at will. For practice very small potatoes are used at first, to guard against accident; and after one has mastered the art of bringing these up, the size is increased gradually till objects as large as the throat will receive can be swallowed and returned.”

Houdini, Miracle Mongers and their Methods, Coles 1980, (reprint), pp. 160-161.

“In order to produce an effect such as the production of the lingam, all that is required is the swallowing of the lingam ahead of time, and its regurgitation at the appropriate point in the ceremony. Note that the description of Sai Baba’s swallowing of water prior to the regurgitation, and the churning of the stomach muscles both correspond to the standard hatha yoga technique described by Swami Satchidananda.

The reader interested in further information which bears on this might enjoy reading the Chari article referred to above. In it Chari describes a scientifically studied street performer who makes his living doing regurgitations. He is able to swallow as many as 10 live snakes at a time, and regurgitate them in a `reptilian ball with a diameter of about 5 inches’ (Chari, op. cit., p. 168).”

 

See also: Sleight Of Hand. The Sleightness of Sathya Sai Baba (Exposing film clips)
Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘divine magnetism
Sathya Sai Baba: lingam photos-liberation from rebirth
The magnet of Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘lingam’ miracles