The ‘Abode of Peace’ ashram- the murder victims

V.J. Ram (aka Janakiram) was a senior Indian CID officer who received the President’s Police Medal for having solved many difficult cases. His book on ‘The Godmen of India’ is extremely revealing, especially as regards the long history of criminal incidents connected to Sathya Sai Baba and his coterie. His sensational book is about several ‘godmen’ in India into whom he has investigated and found to be bogus and surrounded by criminal allegations with much circumstantial evidence to uphold them.

See Top bureaucrats, high rank police officers formed security wing for Sai Baba

See also BBC Interview (plus video clip) on the cold-blooded murders in Sai Baba’s apartment with V.P.B. Nair, Former Home Secretary of Andhra Pradesh State

Overview – the 1993 bedroom murders and follow-up Further to this The 1993 murder episode graphically explained Murders in the Prashanthi temple – reflections 1 On how I came to learn of the murders in the bedroom of Sai Baba, and how – despite misgivings – I rationalized the matter for some years until I was awoken to the realities by V.K. Narasimhan’s private confidences. Also: Murders in the Prashanthi temple – reflections 2   ‘The Godmen of India’ can be ordered here – click

Avoidance of vital issues, like sex, AIDS by ‘Universal teacher’

The taboo subject of ‘sex’
While promoting himself as the ‘Universal teacher; Sathya Sai Baba avoids the issue of human sexuality almost totally.  This is very revealing as no sensible advice is given by him on one of mankind’s most basic needs and drives – other than in a few words to preach chastity, also praising this as best within marriage. He has never discoursed on human sexuality. Nor does he answer any central questions which bear on sexuality. There is nothing whatever ‘spiritual’ about avoiding the issues connected with sexuality. The sexual impulse is the source of so many personal, social and other problems in the world, and is one which a liberated person should be able to address in an enlightening way, especially if that person were actually ‘omniscient’, which Sathya Sai Baba has repeatedly claimed he is in discourses and in countless statements in interviews.  Instead he occasional nearly broaches the issue by preaching monastic and sex-repressive ideals of a fundamentalist religious kind. This is more Catholic than any recent Pope (misguided and obscurantist indoctrinators as they are), reminding more of an extreme hypocritical Victorianism.  All this is a parody  of spiritual guidance to mankind by this ‘Divine Know-all!

Satya Sai Baba’s secrecy and his attitude that strongly suggests guilt and shame feelings about sexuality means that questions about sex and important matters like birth control, condoms, AIDS, homosexuality and lesbianism and other sex-related issues are evidently far too sensitive for this widely accused homosexual abuser of young men and boys! By contrast, a far more enlightened educative approach towards unavoidable and irrepressible human sexuality has changed the world and is increasingly adopted is by a growing majority in most modern countries. The Sufi mystic and famous poet Rumi, to whom Sai Baba has referred as a spiritual saint, regarded sexual desires in youth as ‘letting one’s feathers grow out’, without which dangerous problems can be caused later. (The Essential Rumi, p. 64).

That Sai Baba cannot touch on sex discussion strongly suggests that his real views would awaken astonishment and would cause many to fall away from his movement and might also draw more attention to his own very widely testified sexual proclivities and preferences. He lists lust as one of the seven or cardinal sins, without explaining what kind of lust even, though he always claims to have no bodily desires.

Sathya Sai Baba talks about sexual desires to young men in secrecy the privacy of his inner ‘private’ interview room, admonishing them for contact with girls and masturbation . This is reportedly the introduction to oiling of their lower stomachs and genitals, and subsequently – according to numerous testimonies – to outright sexual advances and practices. Many factual and convincing accounts by a wide variety of young men indicate clearly that Sathya Sai Baba has tried to change them into homosexuals for his own gratification! It has also emerged that Sai Baba jokes with very close confidantes like Col. Joga Rao about sex, who was given to telling constant barrack room dirty stories, which I learned from V.K. Narasimhan who complained how he had to put up with them when forced to share a room with Joga Rao!

In India 2.3 million persons are known currently to be living with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) which causes AIDS by damaging the immune system cells until the immune system can no longer fight off other infections that it would usually be able to prevent. It takes an average of 10 years to develop AIDS from HIV infection.  The shame attacked to this (and all sexual illnesses and to sexual deviance in Indian culture) means that the  hidden figure of AIDS and HIV sufferers may be considerably higher. The authorities in power, many of whom worship Sai Baba, long argued that it would be offensive to speak to people about sex and AIDS, condoms etc., but experience by independent organisations show this to be wrong. Many leaders still hold puritan and repressive views on sex, sex information and education and as a class the also remain out of touch with the population – their sufferings and needs – from whom the live as far as possible in physical and social isolation.

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PLEASE SEE THE SAI PETITION AND DECIDE WHETHER TO SIGN IT

Falsehood and infamy – Sathya Sai Baba

“There are some jealous and petty minds who do false and imaginary propaganda. I take no note of this”

but Sai Baba noted that he does notice… just there!
He sees the need to combat what he knowing lies is ‘imaginary propaganda’ and so he must have been moved to notice it to respond like this! All can see that Sai Baba badly wants to limit the damage to his movement and especially to foreign donations.

“In the single family of humankind, where is the room for jealousy or hatred? These are all imaginary.”
I suppose Baba means among Arabs, terrorists, the most jingoistic Americans perhaps? He is still offering the pseudo-philosophy of ‘whatever you imagine, is true for you’. This may be an effective way of influencing those who can’t face the staring facts… and so choose to follow that old, old trick of mental enslavement, ‘The guru is never wrong, doubt only yourself!’

A frequently repeated complaint by Sathya Sai Baba, parroted by devotees, is that he has through the years been charged with unfair and undocumented accusations of many kinds. Both by sceptics and disaffected followers. These latter he fatuously claims were ‘dissatisfied’ or disappointed by unfulfilled expectations as to getting his, Sai Baba’s attention. Not so at all – not a few of these apostates could never wish to see him, [let along touch him, after what they have learned about him]. Sai devotees call the critics ‘disgruntled’, when many are righteously disgusted and disillusioned by having found him out for what he is – a major deceiver and an impure person, according to over 30 young mens’ testimonies of sexual molestation by him.

His cowed defensiveness towards all who have left him is seen when he churns out his usual illogical defence against criticisms:
“Stones are thrown only on fruit-bearing trees. Similarly, good people receive brickbats.” (Sanathana Sarathi September 2002, p. 267)

But some people who do very bad things receive more brickbats and deserve them! Sai Baba overlooks that the ‘bad men’ of whom he himself sometimes speaks (mainly in interviews) also sometimes receive brickbats. He is certainly a case in point!

In Sanathana Sarathi (11-92, p. 261) we read, “The minds of the so-called devotees are turned in the wrong direction. If their desires are fulfilled, they praise Me. But, once a desire is not realised they go to the extent of even reviling me. Even while they are attempting to understand Me, they harbour doubts from head to foot. Some even leave me, when their worldly desires are not fulfilled.” He also took the transparent precaution of warning devotees that he will have to separate “the grain from the chaff”, as if it were his own plan that devotees who cease to believe or accept him are rejected by him firstly! So he is not at all so powerful as he claims and maybe actually sometimes imagines.

One cannot but note that such precautionary smokescreens are most convenient for those who know they have something to hide. Much that will not stand the light of day has already come to light and his reputation is fading as the word spreads. No follower has not heard some of the reasons, however much they run away mentally from the facts (and knowing more such facts). This is the very nature of longer term mindless ‘surrender’ and blind servility and sacrifice to a God-figure whom they hope upon hope may help them out and deliver them from whatever bad may be to come.

Sathya Sai Baba defends himself by saying he predicted this all along. He KNEW he would be found out eventually because of the sheer scale and depravity of the abuses of which he stands accused and from which he hides from prosecution behind his many devotee judges and Prime Ministers.

Sai Baba loses his cool and lies blatantly about his critics!

See the entire infamous and unforgiving Christmas Day 2000 Discourse here.

The present writer was unable, for obvious reasons, to sustain faith in Sai Baba’s statements or many of his much-blazoned activities. I have come to know that he is by no means infallible, nor is it remotely possible that he all that he claims to be. He seems to possess so-called paranormal powers, which many others have done (and often people of a non-spiritual nature). Further, he has dark sides of which even some very frequent interviewees have no knowledge. Though I have never myself noticed sexual behaviour on his part, the evidence from many countries through decades has piled up to an extent where abuse cannot seriously be denied.

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Gerald Moreno’s false claim about porn site postings

Gerald Moreno has tried to blacken my character in innumerable ways, all without the slightest substance. However, among his dirty tricks is to claim that I posted on a porn site to get my site listed! Of course I never would not ever did post anything on any porno site. Moreno claims to know this… he could not defend it legally, nor dozens of other direct wilful and highly defamatory untruths he has leveled against me.

See quotes from independent M. Alan Kazlev’s site, as follows:-

[Moreno]
Priddy’s material on porn sites:
Seekinsider.com is a pay-per-click search engine. You cannot just link your site on them. You have to pay for it. Priddy payed to have his site listed there under the category: “World Wide Sex Com – World Wide Sex Directory – World Wide Sex” (look at the title on the very top of the page and some of the content on the page).

So what? Anyone can list anyone else’s site on these sort of porn sites. Why would Priddy – a qualified academic – post a link to his public website on a porn site? On the other hand, this seems like just the thing one of his defamers would do in order to try to smear him.

Gerald Moreno has posted nothing of any substance or documented evidence to show that his endless hair-splitting ‘rebuttals’ of all critics’ testimonies and documentation are more than empty words to divert attention from the countless unpleasant facts about Sathya Sai Baba and Moreno’s attempts to defend him.

He denies he was subjected to the sexual molestation – which was clearly  ‘grooming’ for possible sex through invasive oiling “of the lower stomach” and which he has himself described on his website and discussed with Basava Premanand. Moreno has most extraordinarily also – defended Sai Baba while believing him to be a sexual abuser. Since he is so incensed about those who claim this was illegal and abusive, why does he not sue anyone? He also claims against his better knowledge that I have threatened to sue him, which he cannot prove as it is not true. If I should, he threatens to counter sue immediately (using anal images to press home his point!). The fact is, he knows all too well he has no case in any court in the world. I would not waste the time and outlay with such a patently obvious case of a liar and inflamed hate merchant whose tricks are transparent to all but the most indoctrinated and truth-blind devotees of Sathya Sai Baba. After several years of abuse from Moreno, I finally exposed some of his endless untruthfulness and contrived half-truths on the Internet.

Having no way to get at me with anything true or factual, Moreno has even reported that I am accused of sexual relations with Sai Baba, which is the height of absurdity as he certainly knows! I was never alone with Sai Baba as my wife always accompanied me in every single contact we had when I was 50 years old! The same dirty trick was used by the blinded Sai supporter Bon Giovanni on a public website against me, posting an anonymous letter packed with lies about me being a sexual abuser of visiting Sai students, which were easily refuted by me. This is the nature of the response to me and others who have simply referred all the testimonies of sexual abuse by many former young male followers of Sai Baba.

See also thorough examination of Moreno’s dirty work here

See a summary of Gerald Joe Moreno’s many baseless claims about me and other critics here

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You can see a selected list of prominent signers of the Petition here.

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

Sathya Sai Baba – Good and Evil

In a public discourse in January 1995 (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol.28 new ed., p.1), Sathya Sai Baba said: “The good and evil in the world are expressions of Divine consciousness. Man should not be misled by these expressions. Behind all the various actions of the actors, the Divine Director is at work.”

Since Sathya Sai Baba has often proclaimed for himself that divine directorship, this good or evil is an expression of Sathya Sai Baba’ divine consciousness? This is virtually a tacit admission by Sai Baba that he does things humans regard as evil. He has also said:
“The ‘bad’ too is in fact ‘good’ in reverse. It serves to teach what has to be avoided. It would not be ‘bad’ for all time; it is ever short-lived. Neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’ can be pronounced as ‘absolutely unrelieved’ states. Knowledge (vidya) reveals and makes clear that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are only the reactions caused by the failings and feelings of the mind of man.” (Vidya Vahini, p. 22.)

This is a far-reaching assertion, one which can lead to the total confusion of values with anti-values and vice-versa. when acting in the real world. As the divine director, therefore, could not

This implies that the self-proclaimed “embodied Divinity” can just as well do evil as good, since it makes no difference ‘ultimately’ and from his viewpoint. This makes a complete mockery of most of his other statements about how he, the avatar, is only pure love, enacts nothing but good, that everything is good from God’s viewpoint and so on. If good and bad are “only failings and feelings of the mind of man” then what Sai Baba promotes as the five universal human values at the core of religion are utterly superfluous. He also says those values are divine in origin, which means they are not what the world regards to be human values. In either case he claims them to be subjective failings and feelings.

Why have a good example? The avatar, who usurps Mahatma Gandhi’s immortal words (as inscribed on the base of his statue in Old Delhi Gandhi Museum) to claim ‘My Life is My Message’  sets himself up as the prime example of righteousness and goodness. He holds that he exceeds all human beings in purity, selfless desirelessness and truthfulness. Yet he reveals that this is all a fraud… he recognises neither good nor bad as having any relevance in reality.

What is perhaps most shocking about the evidence that has emerged about Sathya Sai Baba ‘s active involvement in unjust and illegal matters, from the murders’ cover-up to the weighty evidence of his homosexual and pedophile activities, is the huge gap this opens between his words and reported actions. There is no other word but wilful deception on a grand scale for these discrepancies.

That a self-proclaimed holy avatar can condone the unjust repression of truth and justice and even allegedly carry out sexual acts of a sort that the Pope at long last openly and forcible condemned as evil requires a thoroughgoing reevaluation by followers of what this person actually represents.

Sai Baba has said, for example, “God assumes a role in the dharma of the world in human form. He has to behave as a human being only. This should be clearly understood by all.” (Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 26 new ed. p. 229f).
Does this indicate that he has to have human failings too? Well, if his role is not one of the purest dharma (i.e. ‘uprightness’), then the answer must be a resounding ‘No!’ How can serious self-contradictions, lies, broken promises, cover-up, and complete unaccountability be reconciled to dharma?

Anyone who holds, therefore, that Sathya Sai Baba can carry out any kind of sexually-oriented interference or direct abuse on boys and young men against their expectations and despite their wishes without it affecting his purity or his truthfulness is also in denial of Sathya Sai Baba ‘s own words, as well as common sense and ordinary decency as these are understood in civilized and morally-enlightened society. Such is a most terrible perversion of spirituality! There are those in the Sai movement who accept him as a sexual abuser.

Sathya Sai Baba and the Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama bows deeply

The Dalai Lama is known world-wide for his courage and often illumining and largely acceptable teachings, but above all for his life, which is truly a message of non-violence and standing for the truth and what is right. His righteous (dharmic) life has been in strict adherence to non-violence, seen in all he has done since his inauguration, and through the tremendously difficult decades through which it has been incumbent on him to try to protect and better his people. He makes himself as accessible as possible to people without them having to kow-tow, while he is open to questions, answers directly and frankly and in intelligible, accurate ways. If one bows to him, he returns the bow and bows more deeply! It would be fitting for Sai Baba to bow to the Dalai Lama, but he bows to no one… he is too high and mighty for that! Yet some of his most deluded followers – like N. Kasturi and V. Balu – once wrote about him as having great humility!

How does Sathya Sai Baba compare with the Dalai Lama?
Sai Baba purposely keeps everyone waiting, many of them almost endlessly, whoever they are. He hardly ever gives a straight answer to any honest question, if any at all, and he is known to everyone without exception not to be able to stand the slightest bit of criticism from anyone. Yet he full of criticism of others – in general in many of his discourses but also personally in interviews where he regularly ridicules people to get laughs. The only person in recent decades who could sometimes question him at all freely was my very good friend, V.K. Narasimhan…who helped Sai Baba by editing out the gaffes from the recorded discourses! Due to his reputation and contacts, Narasimhan was an intermediary bringing many top Indian politicians he had long known to the ashram by endorsing Sai Baba as a social reformer. Sathya Sai Baba is certainly not revered and respected worldwide by the vast numbers of people and governments as is the Dalai Lama.

Sai authorities desperate to get Dalai Lama to endorse Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba is certainly not revered and respected worldwide by the vast numbers of people and governments as is the Dalai Lama, nor is he known to most of the world, like the Dalai Lama.  Sai Baba supporters have tried to create the illusion that the Dalai Lama somehow endorses Sai Baba (which he NEVER has done), simply because he once  gave a lecture at the Sathya Sai International Centre in Delhi (Jan. 3, 2004), where he generously mentioned Sai Baba just once as follows:“I am happy to see that Sathya Sai Baba has said that his mission is not to convert people to other traditions. He would like a Buddhist to be a better Buddhist, a Muslim to be a better Muslim and a Hindu to be a better Hindu." That was all!  The Director of the Centre where the Dalai Lama spoke, Dr. Karan Singh, coupled the names of Dalai Lama and Sathya Sai Baba in his address. However, the Dalai Lama emphasised that those of the Buddhist faith’ should stick to Buddhism, and Muslims to their faith, both of which religions firmly and totally reject the possibility of anyone being God Incarnate. Mahayana Buddhism rejects the existence of a God Creator.  This seems one good reason why – in his self-proclaimed Godhood as World Saviour and Avatar – Sai Baba has never so much as mentioned the Dalai Lama!

Sai Baba sweepingly berates just about everyone in the world at regular intervals from his platform but the Dalai Lama never uses such language, even about the despotic and mendacious Chinese government.

Sathya Sai Baba hides in fear while the Dalai Lama does not: The Dalai Lama has real humility and enormous courage – putting himself in the front line – without protection from any troops or gunmen of his own  – against one of the worst regimes in history. By comparison, Sai Baba has had 20 full-time plain-clothes security people since about 1994 (costing well over Rs. 200,000 a month by now. And who do you think pays?). These spies mingle undercover in the crowds. V.K. Narasimhan gave me the facts about this already in 1996. Is this for the sake of the devotees or Sai Baba? It is no more for devotees than are the metal detectors, the intensive body searches of men and women going to view Sai Baba (darshan) or the fact that Sai Baba hides daily and at night in a fortress-built apartment palace. He is guarded by additional Israel-trained commandos visibly armed with automatic weapons, he travels in a bomb-proof vehicle. No one can get into Sai Baba’s presence with the tiniest of items that could conceivably be used as any kind of weapon. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama has convincingly lived non-violence in all he does (not just in constant torrents of repetitive words as does Sai Baba) and has never had to conceal himself nearby in a room in his own ashram while four close attendants were assassinated with his tacit and later public approval, or condone subsequent cover-ups and quashing of all legal redress to the victims’ families.

Sai Baba claims that his word is absolute law in all things – whose will is always done by mega-obsequious officials in the ashram – would not even risk answering any questions about the murders, (just reread Sai Baba’s devious, insubstantial Gurupurnima discourse in 1993 about related details!). Also this “ever-tranquil, totally unaffected” Sai Baba dropped his guard and showed everyone his hidden hand in his Xmas 2000 discourse… namely, that by damning his critics to constant rebirths in many shameful lives, he is not compassionate or loving of everyone (as he has always claimed before and since, even of his detractors). More recently, he has damned various Indian newspaper editors to the same fate. Has the Dalai Lama ever damned or threatened anyone like that? The answer is a resounding ‘No!’

The Dalai Lama, however, is never patronising nor does he harangue the whole world for being impure and under the sway of inhuman and demonic forces, as does Sai Baba constantly. Sai Baba talks down to people from a position of claimed eminence. He constantly points to his own works and service and hardly ever attributes any credit to anyone else, boasting most embarrassingly about his achievements: i.e. none do 1000th of what he does, he announced at Christmas 2000. Others do all the work and provide the funds for all to which he so selflessly lends ‘His Precious Name’. He celebrates himself and his birthdays like no other event, claiming it is the devotees who want it. But the fact is, known to those who speak with frank ashramites, that almost only he thrives on it; most residents dread it. It is Sai Baba’s annual super self-praise event at Prashanti Nilayam, where he rides on in his bizarre silver-encrusted motorised chariot-cum-jeep. All that matters is numbers and show!

See 16 points of comparison between the Dalai Lama and Sathya Sai Baba

Above I compared the words and actions of Sathya Sai Baba with those of the Dalai Lama, showing how there was a world of difference between the dharma practised by the Dalai Lama and the deceptive words and action of Sai Baba. I also noted that the Dalai Lama had never endorsed Sathya Sai Baba in anything he had said. However, Chris Dokter pointed out in a comment on that blog, that this was not entirely true:-

Chris Dokter of The Netherlands commented.:-
“Alas, Robert, though I heartily agree with the gist of your post, I think it cannot go unmentioned here that the Dalai Lama DID in fact give some sort of endorsement to Sathya Sai Baba in the end. Posthumously, on April 25 2011, he issued an official message of condolence, which was published in the Tibetan Sun e.g. (See this link: http://www.tibetsun.com/archive/2011/04/25/dalai-lama-mourns-passing-away-of-sai-baba/), and also on the Dalai Lama’s homepage. It attracted international attention. This is what was stated by the Dalai Lama: “I am saddened by the passing away of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the respected spiritual leader. I would like to convey my condolences and prayers to all the followers, devotees and admirers of the late spiritual leader.”
I must say I was quite taken aback by this message.”

Robert replied:-
Hi Chris! Thanks for the correction. I did not know that. It is extremely disappointing… surely the Dalai Lama knew Sai Baba’s megalomaniacal claims (Creator of the Universe etc. ad. inf.) and would surely NEVER be able to support them, being a Buddhist. I suspect that, dependent as the Dalai Lama and his community in India are on the authorities, he may have been pressured into the statement one way or another. He never said anything like that once throughout the life of Sathya Sai Baba… which fact I consider speaks louder than words, really.

Chris Dokter  replied: “I agree with your take on it, Robert. Still, I wish the Dalai Lama would have refrained from any comment on SB ‘kicking the bucket’. More, I would have liked to have seen a moral, if controversial stance of him if he felt compelled to comment at all.”

Kristina Jure commented: Having read the comment posted by Chrisdokter, I would like to share my experience with Buddhists. In 2009 January I have visited one of the biggest Buddhist monasteries in India in Karnataka. There are 5000 monks in this city of monastic buildings with the residence for Dalai Lama and I was accomodated as a tourist by one small community inside the monastery and given the translator to walk around and take pictures, also invited to watch the debates and their rituals and rites. The most impressive experience for me as the former devotee of SSB was the way they reacted to my message that I actually came to them from Prashanthi Nilayam. They started smiling at each other and I could feel they felt sorry for me. I’ve asked the translator whether Buddhists believe that Swami is the creator of the Universe and he replied with the smile that “certainly not”. Nobody in fact believed him at all. And this official statement made by Dalai Lama could be interpreted as his compassion to those who were in suffering, but not as his official acknowledgment of the self-styled avatar, I assume. The reaction of all the monks to the messages by SSB was quite ironic, I should say, and their position was formed by Dalai Lama himself because they were practising absolute respect and obedience to him.

Chris Dokter  replied: Dear Kristina Jure. Though I agree the Dalai Lama’s statement can be seen as compassionate towards all those who were grief stricken, I am still troubled by the very fact that he chose to comment at all. I personally have little doubt the Dalai Lama would have laughed at the silly claims by Sai Baba, but it remains a fact that his message was published widely, and was on the whole interpreted as a supportive message by the international press, the Indian media and the SSB Organisation.
Compassion is good. Nothing wrong with it. But timing is everything when you are a public figure. And compassion with followers is one thing. But why did the Dalai Lama not openly show his compassion for all the victims of Sai Baba even once, the ex-followers? Does not compassion need courage in order to be balanced and not give offence? Or do you think the Dalai Lama was wholly ignorant of all the scandal and politics surrounding Sathya Sai Baba during the last decades?

Robert comments: It remains to be said that the comparisons I made between DL and SB stand well. In Gandhi’s own words (used on his tomb as his epitaph), namely “My Life in My Message” (later misappropriated by Sathya Sai Baba for himself and without acknowledgement) the Dalai Lama stands forth as exemplary, while Sathya Sai Baba’s actions and words were quite another story! The Dalai Lama respected the dead and, no doubt, the feelings of loss of SB devotees by his brief greeting, and – humble as he is – he was evidently no better informed about Sathya Sai Baba’s real life than are the majority of his remaining supporters, which includes the current Prime Minister and President and so on.

Sathya Sai Baba – the spirit of Christmas

Sathya Sai Baba with Father Christmas and young boys

The true spirit of Christmas is almost universally recognised as celebration of the birth of a man who taught compassion and unconditional forgiveness, who even forgave those who crucified him with the words ‘they know not what they do’. This is the spirit which Sathya Sai Baba firmly tramped underfoot in his Christmas Day Discourse of 2000 – on the very day of celebration of a historical figure of true compassion. Sai Baba thereby fully negated the very essence of his own ‘teaching’ on compassion and his claims total purity, human perfection, freedom from all desires, total divinity etc. His vehement attack told enough about him and his aims and nothing whatever about his accusers. A person is rightly to be judged by both words and actions…Sai Baba has always pretended that he was so even-minded and beyond praise and blame that he never reacted to either, yet he rants about his critics are “not human beings at all”. He compounded his antipathy with dire threats to them as being “thousands of Judases” who will suffer lifetimes of disgrace for their sins in accusing him for his behaviour! He harangued his audience:- “These types of publicity are shameless. Truly they are not human beings at all. The ones who put obstacles in the way of all sacred works are demons, not human beings. The determined vow of Sai will never change, even if demons like this may be all over the world. (Swami bangs his fist decisively on the table to emphasize His point. The audience applauds for long.)” Mendacious attack: Flaunting his anger at being criticised by beating his lectern, issuing condemnations of his former followers and telling outright lies about those who accuse him of sexual abusing them, Sathya Sai Baba demonstrated in action how little faith one can have in his ‘teaching’ on never criticizing anyone, loving all and never diverging from the truth. He said those who accused him did so for money, which is a patent untruth. Neither he, nor his crony Indulal Shah who also promoted this lie, mentioned even a shred of evidence for their wilful libels, nor has any emerged since then. The aim was of course to ensure that devotees (who must believe everything he says to be God’s word) would ignore the many very credible accusers. He  also falsely claimed that ex-devotees were offered bribes to write stories against him. Of course there is no scrap of evidence of this, and there is no shadow of doubt that it was a calculated lie to confuse, cow and hang on to his devotees. He said:- “From the feet to the hair on the head, Sathya Sai Baba is doing service without any selfishness. Can’t even these people with brains understand this? Why are they doing this propaganda? Even this bad propaganda is for money. All these bad thoughts are for money only. Even these bad thoughts are for money only… … Switzerland, America, Japan, Germany, China, Russia – our children have entered in all directions. Some foreigners are trying to bribe them. They are saying, “See, foolish ones! I will give this much money. I will give so many dollars. I will give this many pounds. You write and give some stories against Sathya Sai Baba.” (Guru Purnima Discourse of 2002) Bribery is widely reported to be one of Sathya Sai Baba’s methods to silence the victims of his homosexual abuses, as proved by the courageously outspoken Alaya Rahm, one of Sai Baba’s favourites for a long period. He did not, however, manage to silence Alaya with the bribes he gave him.  (see this on the BBC documentary ‘The Secret Swami’ – a summary showcase with transcripts and short video clips) In a later discourse he proclaimed that there is not even a spark of divinity in his critics, adding:-“… a hard-hearted person cannot be called a spark of Divinity; he is verily a demon.” (p. 323, Sanathana Sarathi, November 2002). This is a total contradiction to his constant previous claims that there is a spark of Divinity in every living being (actually sometimes even in all matter, as I quote: “All beings are sparks of the Eternal Divinity” (page 101 from his Discourses in Kodaikanal 1998). Why did Sathya Sai Baba descend to such spiritual depths? One can reasonably conclude that the fall-off in donations due to the world-wide publicity about his accusers and their descriptions of his behaviour was surely one of the main causes of his bending to the wishes of his worried cronies and financial dependents to try to punish his accusers with lies. He has also said:- rants on…“These types of publicity are shameless. Truly they are not human beings at all. The ones who put obstacles in the way of all sacred works are demons, not human beings. The determined vow of Sai will never change, even if demons like this may be all over the world. (Swami bangs his fist decisively on the table to emphasize His point. The audience applauds for long.)” (Guru Purnima Discourse of 2002) See the hypocrisy in denouncing people in public with an angry face, and later saying:– “There is no trace of anger or hatred in Me and hence everyone loves Me” (Sanathana Sarathi September 2002, page 257f) He would like to imagine that the many victims of his abuses of faith and worse love him? Not to mention the ca. 5 billion  people who have doubtless no idea who he is or claims to be, having heard nothing about him?

read the crux of the Xmas Discourse 2000 here

Sathya Sai Baba bedroom guests and a ghost story

One can hardly believe the ghost stories Sathya Sai Baba tells, or even that he tells them – showing his belief in ghosts… but he does, as is proved by a scan of part of one of his June 1998 discourses. There he recounts how 3 boys sleeping in his bedroom were visited by the ghost of Easwaramma, the mother of Sai…with comments. Click here to read The Ghost of Easwaramma and Sai Baba’s bedroom boys – direct from a discourse in 1998

see also V.K. Narasimhan on boys in Sathya Sai Baba’s sleeping apartment and the ghost story Scan of recorded notes (1998) about the two boys in Sai Baba’s sleeping apartment.

Sathya Sai Baba’s Greatest Achievements

Sathya Sai Baba is hailed by many devotees and others – not least politicians and leaders in India – for great social achievements. This is not surprising by comparison with the continued desolation of India’s poor and suffering masses in that the leaders show themselves incapable and outright unwilling to give any priority to the terrible social and economic degradations.  Apart from the fact that Sathya Sai Baba has promised far, far more than his followers have achieved, let us look at his main track record after about 8 decades:-

THE MUCH VAUNTED RAYALASEEMA WATER PROJECT

Sathya Sai Baba’s most vaunted achievement is to have obtained donations for two large water projects, one of which is in part a fiasco (http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/13/Sathya_Sai_water_projects.html due to a sudden fall in the water table, embezzlement by contractors, unfinished work and inefficiency). However, these Sai water projects do not compare in size or cost with the truly huge water projects carried out by the authorities in the same region (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu). The running of the Rayalaseema water project had to be handed over to the Andhra Pradesh State government due to maintenance problems etc. All this is a rather poor showing for an omnipotent avatar whose mission is no less than to transform humanity, is it not? Among the many e-mails I have exchanged with Professor Erlendur Haraldsson, I replied to a query from him:
“ I have been in touch with a retired Professor of Hydrology in AP State whose intelligent website I found on the net and who has since answered my e-mail questions about the famous Rayalaseema water project. It is quite a fiasco, apparently due to 1) Baba wanting the whole thing done in 8 months, which allowed no proper planning and meant that sub-contractors had to be engaged (all of whom it seems were corrupt and did not do their work properly, use proper materials etc. 2) the State gov’t have sabotaged the project so as to be able to go on getting their share of the drought compensation from the central gov’t – which money is then used mostly for the administrators and others who have their big cut before the actual people who suffer drought get a pittance in compensation.

Erlendur Haraldsson wrote back: “My response: the usual Indian mess!”

TWO PRIVATE HOSPITALS

Two private and secretive hospitals bearing the name of Sathya Sai Baba have been financed by rich donor devotees, one in Puttaparthi and one in Bangalore. Doctor devotees from India and other countries work there either for a low salary or voluntarily. Sai devotees from abroad and well-to-do Indians report having been treated there, so it serves them and not only –as claimed – poor Indians. The principle of selection of those treated is kept secret and the institutions are unaccountable to the public in a way that is possible in India, but not in any modern Western countries. Sathya Sai Baba has himself proclaimed that his hospital will serve people from the whole world! There are allegedly no charges for mediacal treatment, though some foreign devotees report having been presented with considerable bills. Being entirely private the accounts, admission lists and other information about these hospitals are closed to all independent public scrutiny, being prepared by Sai Baba followers, who never dare report anything untoward and must cover-up all failures. One would have sorely hoped for a much more enlightened, democratic and open system from a presumptive God Almighty who claims he will rule the world one day!

COLLEGES AND A UNIVERSITY

Sathya Sai Baba has started a number of colleges and one Institute of Higher Studies. These provide education on the strength of donations [mostly from abroad] – in most cases without fees. There is a strict selection process to the colleges, evidently favouring mostly the offspring of Sai Baba devotees, especially of high officials and professionals. This institution had to labour for decades under the title ‘Deemed University’ for it was simply not up to scratch, until continued pressure by his some of many devotees in top government apparently caused it to be officially given university status. Indian universities vary enormously in educational standards, research and expertise and there is no way the Sai Baba institutions can match modern higher education of top intellectual and scientific standards. The general method of education is certainly not pedagogically modern (see here), being traditional and based on learning the syllabus but not questioning or being stimulated to any kind of critical thinking and with spiritual moralism spread throughout. It is conducted amid much communal prayer, bhajan singing and superstitious Hindu religious teaching. Some of the professors I met hold views which are completely uninformed as to modern science and thought (literally believing in the stories of Srimad Bhagavatham, for example). The doctrine of creationism – as opposed to scientifically-accepted evolutionism – is constantly reiterated both by Sai Baba and his teachers. Some of the visiting foreign ‘professors’, I knew from the organization and did not find anything they said in lectures or in private conversation to exhibit broad knowledge or deep insights, rather the contrary, because they were ever parroting Sai Baba’s own aphorisms and views.

To see the doctrinaire nature and traditional level of proto-religious education involved, one can look at the backbone of Sathya Sai Baba’s so-called ‘spiritual education’ package known as ‘Education in Human Values’ or also ‘Educare’, the practice of which which requires no professional qualifications of any kind, but simply devotion to Sai Baba.

Most of the schools and colleges now bearing the Sai Baba name were originally started, built and run by others, who later sought his endorsement and support because of his clout with local and national politicians. The children of a number of long-term foreign devotees attended these colleges, though many were also withdrawn (from the US, Greece, Malaysia etc.) due to the sexual molestations from Sathya Sai Baba alleged by them to their parents and others.

See also http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/16/VKN_colleges+.html

Sathya Sai miracle of transformation of India?

Sathya Sai Baba has proclaimed that he will clean up India’s problems before tackling those of the rest of the world. What has he achieved in that respect? There are still vast problems of social inequality, racial discrimination, poverty, health, child labour, child prostitution, debt slavery, violent religious conflict and ecological deprivation. There is low public unaccountability and constant major failures in law enforcement. Above all corruption is still virtually systemic in India. The rise in the Indian economy has only benefit ted the 800 million agricultural population and city slum dwellers peripherally at best. (as one example, half of Mumbai’s more than 17-million population are slum dwellers).
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Sathya Sai Baba, HIV and AIDS
One of the many crucial problems India has is HIV-AIDS and its consequences, such as loss of breadwinners in a family and orphaning of children. However, Sathya Sai Baba has a view which is more puritanically Catholic than both the former and the present Pope, and he has influenced India’s leaders who are his devotees into concentrating on telling people to abstain from sex as a policy against HIV and AIDS – in short, a totally unrealistic and traditional head-in-the-sand ignorance.

In India the population of actual AIDS sufferers in India some years ago was estimated incorrectly as over 5 million persons. However, the current estimate is 2.5 million, almost 50% of that figure. The reduced figure is due to improved methodology in assessing who suffers from AIDS (not due to cures, while a reduction can have partly be influenced by the great numbers of deaths from AIDS). The problem of establishing the numbers of AIDS sufferers and predictions of future developments are considerable for various reasons, including prurience (see here)

The authorities in power, many of whom worship Sai Baba, argue that it would be offensive to speak to people about sex and AIDS, condoms etc., but experience by independent organisations show this to be wrong. Leaders are simply out of touch with the population, from whom the live as far as possible in physical and social isolation.

That Sai Baba cannot touch on sex discussion is revealing! It strongly suggests that his real views would awaken astonishment and would cause many to fall away from his movement and might also draw more attention to his own very widely testified sexual proclivities and preferences. He lists lust as one of the seven or cardinal sins, without explaining what kind of lust even, though he always claims to have no bodily desires. However, many factual and convincing accounts by a wide variety of young men indicate clearly that Sathya Sai Baba has tried to change them into homosexuals for his own gratification. In India, the government researchers – together with Save the Children and UNICEF – have revealed the huge extent of sexual physical abuses in a prestigious study the extent of sexual abuse of girls and boys in India

Sathya Sai Baba never speaks up on India’s worst sufferings: One of mankind’s most basic needs and drives is virtually unmentionable by the supposed ‘world universal teacher’! Avoiding subjects like condoms, AIDS and other sex-related issues like a pestilence (except in the privacy of the inner interview room with young men or with his very closest confidantes), he has one or twice spoken in public that the best for everyone is abstention from sexual behaviour (and of course ‘Love, love, love!!). His real views, if more widely known, would awaken astonishment and most people would have to leave his movement (unless they were to act as hypocrites). He does not want to draw ANY attention to himself where sex – especially gay sex – is involved. He lists lust as one of the seven sins, without explaining what kind of lust! He always claims to have no bodily desires, so how does he force himself to eat, sleep or whatever else he does? However, many factual and convincing accounts by a wide variety of young men indicate clearly that he has tried to change young men into homosexuals and for his own gratification!

What a parody of “spiritual guidance to mankind”! What is ‘spiritual’ about totally avoiding the issues connected with sexuality? Usually it is prurience. very often caused by guilty secrets! In contrast to Sathya Sai Baba shyness in addressing sexuality strongly suggests guilt and shame feelings about sexuality. The great Sufi mystic and famous poet, Rumi, regarded sexual desires in youth as ‘letting one’s feathers grow out’, without which dangerous problems can be caused later. (The Essential Rumi, p. 64). This is enlightened attitude is favoured by an increasing majority in most modern countries nowadays, especially young people. As for Sathya Sai Baba’s deranged and megalomaniac claim that the whole world will be in his organisation, it seems the most unlikely future scenario possible.

See also The full, long history of Sathya Sai Baba sex allegations and testimonies
On the officially accepted oiling of young male genitals by Sathya Sai Baba

Sai Baba promised Rs. 100,000 to orphan parents

Sathya Sai Baba quotation from Sanathana Sarathi

Sathya Sai Baba said: “I came across a tragic incident in a newspaper. It was about an uneducated and helpless mother and her three children. They were in such a pathetic state of poverty that the mother had to starve herself in order to feed her children. As their situation worsened, she took to the extreme step of committing suicide after poisoning her children. It’s a shame on the Bharatiyas! Can we Bharatiyas be so stone-hearted and cruel as to allow such a painful event to take place?”
This was from his discourse (11/8/2001), whereupon he made a major promise (see image with quotation). It seems he is completely ignorant of how things really are on his own doorstep – but then he is always surrounded by a large protective entourage and a court of yea-sayers who can’t tell him anything because they all want HIM to tell them good things!

He claims nothing he does is hidden. Where then are the accounts? How many mothers of fatherless children has he donated this large sum to? One can be sure it would be blazoned around by him in a discourse (he wouldn’t want to HIDE anything!). There are enough orphans from AIDS alone to bankrupt not only the entire Sathya Sai Baba mini-imperium, but probably the government as well. But maybe Sai baba considered that none of these countless thousands are “deserving”?? If they have no father OR mother, then they don’t qualify, it seems.

Considering the number of orphans in India, anyone can tell that Sai Baba’s boast must be hypocrisy? In 2002, the World Bank estimated that India is facing an accelerating threat from HIV which greatly impacts the social fabric, especially though the unprecedented number of orphans left with little or no adult protection.

from a Harvard study on AIDS and orphans in India

It is quite extraordinary that is evidently in blissful ignorance of the constantly prevailing conditions of massive poverty, malnutrition and hunger in India. Right now the situation with rising prices, not only of food, makes things far worse than ever too”

Sathya Sai does not know the basic facts about his own country. Yet he entertains and blesses all his nation’s corrupt and nest-feathering politicians as soon as they pop up at his ashrams. According to UN statistics, there are 20 million child labourers in sweatshops and mines who get no education. Indian government extrapolations of this 1981 data place the current number of child labourers at between seventeen and twenty million (Human Rights Watch 1996, 122). This extrapolation seems highly unlikely as: “The Official National Sample Survey of 1983 [of India] reports 17.4 million child labourers, while a study . . . sponsored by the Labour Ministry, concluded that the child-labour force was 44 million” (Weiner 1991, 20-21). UNICEF “cites figures ranging from seventy-five to ninety million child laborers under the age of fourteen” (Human Rights Watch 1996, 122).

Professor Anil Kumar, Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘left-hand’ man

UPDATE May 2012 – see also PROFESSOR ANIL KUMAR, SATHYA SAI BABA’S LONGTIME INTERPRETER, UNQUESTIONING BELIEVER AND COVER-UP OFFICIAL 

Professor Anil Kumar is one of Sai Baba’s most trusted accomplices. He is a married man, but is also accused most credibly of philandering, and with Sai Baba’s permission too! So much for the morals and human values in Brindavan! I refer to Conny Larsson’s bestseller in Sweden ‘Behind the Mask of the Clown’ in which he exposes Sathya Sai Baba as a serial molestor of males, a deceiver and a practitioner of sleight-of-hand.

In his endless moralising discourses, Sathya Sai Baba sets impossibly high standards as to sexual chastity before marriage and even within marriage, but he condones sleeping around by his personal translator and close servitor! This is hypocrisy, of course… matched only by his own widely reported and testified homosexual promiscuity.

Here is the excerpt in which Larsson describes how his girlfriend ‘Tuula’ Anja Tammelin was seduced into a sex relationship by the sanctimonious ‘devotee’ Professor Anil Kumar! The excerpt is from here

“One day I heard rumors from India that Baba had introduced a new man to Tuula, the Indian Anil Kumar, who was Baba’s own English interpreter at public appearances. But he was married and had children! Tuula said nothing about that in her letters. They breathed resignation and a downright hostility towards those who lived at Puttaparthi or served as teachers within the ashram. She never so much as mentioned the earlier relationship between herself and me. Perhaps there was some bitterness about the way Sai Baba directed our lives? I did not know what to think, but I felt a growing anxiety. Finally I got on a plane to fly down to Puttaparthi to find out how matters stood.

“I found Tuula living in an apartment outside the ashram. The apartment was used as a love nest for her and this new man. I was shaken, but I did not feel I was entitled to have any views on Tuula’s love for Anil, as I had left her behind at Puttaparthi in obedience to Baba’s orders.

Sai Baba had again acted in ways that were not in accord with the five human values. After all, by Indian standards Tuula had been made into a concubine, and that with the blessing of my God.

I could not be so presumptuous as to believe that I could determine what was right or wrong when it came to such a colossus as Sai Baba, who had shown the way to so many thousands of people. More educated persons than I had found a refuge in this incarnation of God, so who was I to sit in judgment on the one who was regarded as the new Messiah of our age. I had to acknowledge and take the consequences of my choice to leave Tuula in favor of the road indicated by Baba.” (by Conny Larsson)

Professor Anil Kumar is one of the least credible of Sathya Sai Baba’s unofficial ‘mouthpieces’ with his lip service to the morals of Sathya Sai Baba and his vast credulity about all of Sathya Sai Baba’s claims and wholly uncritical naive acceptance of Sai Baba’s huge boasts about himself and his own importance.

See also here Anil Kumar, the latest promoter of Sathya Sai Baba

Anil Kumar’s Sunday Satsang at Prashanthi Nilayam

Personal libel as an attempt to avert serious criticism

An age-old trick is to delude and distract – to attack a person and try to assassinate his or her character so as to avert serious and hard-hitting criticism. This ploy has been systematically applied by defenders of Sathya Sai Baba against former devotees who had to become critics, to try to confuse the record: Sai Baba stands accused in a long series of sexual abuse and pedophilia testimonies and in his cover-up of the murders of four young males in his own bedroom while he stood by! Several persistent whistle-blowers and critics have been named by defenders of the indefensible as fascists, Christian fundamentalists, white supremacists, liars, and deceivers. There is not a single figment of truth in any of those accusations – widely and strategically spread throughout the Internet by fanatical and apparently quite mentally-disturbed individuals, but untruths about critics have also been countenanced by officials in the Sathya Sai Organization, whose members have been shown to have been involved. In one prominent instance, a former devotee of high integrity and standing has been accused as being anti-Semitic and a pedophile to boot! This was a last-ditch fanatical attempt to draw attention away from the results of intensive investigations and the results make public by Barry Pittard, who stands on a lifetime’s record of involvement in social justice issues deeply contrary to any forms of discrimination. (Ironically, he has long and strongly urged former devotees not to waste loving energy on retaliating against the offenders). There is not one jot of evidence that he is anti-Semitic, but plenty to the contrary.See his refutation of the allegations here.

As to the pedophile accusation, even the same offender who made that disgusting attempt to make dirt stick had to creep away – with never a word of apology – from his own statements… for he evidently realised that he was in serious jeopardy. Read about this mendacious person’s defamation here

See also the joint statement by former Sathya Sai Organization leaders directed at the Prashanthi Council, which rules over all Sai Baba related matters.

Barry Pittard’s many revelations about Sathya Sai Baba and his organization and their cover-up of crimes and other deceptions and underhand cultist activities are found here

The nature of cults and the Sathya Sai Organization

One may well ask what goes to make a cult. There are of all kinds, from religious to political groupings, from personality idolisers to despotic ruling cults. So as to clarify some of the questions on cultism and its various degrees and characteristics, I have written a paper covering some main issues, click here.

Further, to exemplify a religious personality cult, I have listed documented reasons why the Sathya Sai Organization is a cult, despite the (very weak) claims by devotees (such as Rita Bruce) that it is not a cult.  The Sai hagiographer, Rita Bruce, shows the nature of a cultist true believer in numerous ways, as I demonstrate in ‘A Typical Sai Supporter’ The credulousness and lack of common sense, sound judgement she exhibits well illustrate some of the extreme distorted views held by Sathya Sai followers, not untypical of the kind of deranged world-views of many other cults. Added to this is the dishonesty of partaking wilfully in the cover-up of facts known to her about Sathya Sai Baba’s widely reported sexual abuses and spreading of untruth and rumour.