Not a ‘smear campaign’ against Sathya Sai Baba

It is claimed by some current devotees or defenders of Sathya Sai Baba that I and Barry Pittard are running a huge “smear campaign” against them. This characterisation of our work is unjustified, because – were it genuinely a smear campaign – it could be contested by Sathya Sai Baba legally. That he has not done, which indicates that he knows full well – and his many advisors are also no doubt aware – that I have taken much care not to post a single statement which can be legally proved to be libel.The cover-up in India to the highest levels of all his alleged sexual abuses and murder involvement is indisputable, as I have also campaigned to make the world aware, not least here.

What I have done is primarily to reproduce available evidence – writings, testimonies, published materials from the world media – and commented on it in the light of statements made by himself and his various officials and defenders. I have promoted the writings of scores of disaffected followers who have published their experiences both on the Internet and sometimes elsewhere. Note that I am a member of the 32-strong JuST group, which includes many professionals who call for public investigation of Sai Baba and his organization. The JuST group have invited the Prashanthi Council – Sai Baba’s policy-making body – to respond to their concerns, but are met with total silence. This also shows that they are unaccountable to public opinion and have the nature of a closed and secretive cult.

I have also related my own experiences through 18 years as the top  office-bearer in his Organization in Norway and a frequent visitor to his ashrams. This I have done entirely truthfully – so they cannot be disproved by any honest means – and stated my opinions of him based on my personal knowledge of him and I have reported what has been told about him by some very close servitors. Much of this is documented in my very voluminous daily diaries from the time of my nine visits, of which I have scanned a selection, and which exist as evidence from a time when I was still a follower of Sathya Sai Baba and believed in the main what he said (if not everything, for there were his more incredible claims and incorrect statements).

There is, however a massive  smear campaign directed against me, Barry Pittard and every single critic of Sathya Sai Baba by the foremost Internet defender of Sathya Sai Baba, his organization and all persons positively connected with him. This is the work of the Las Cruces, New `Mexico resident, Gerald Moreno, of no known profession or qualifications other than a huge propensity for denial of facts, obsessive attempts to insult and assassinate the characters of all against whom he takes exception. That we have not held him legally accountable is primarily due to the waste of time, energy and money it would involve to give such attention to this nonentity, whose campaign is easily seen by anyone of independent mind or common sense to be a self-defeating exercise. For example, he defends the convicted rapist and murderer, Swami Premananda of Tiruvannamalai, and defended Sai Baba for some years while actually believing him to be a sexual abuser (he had his own sexual molestation incident with Sai Baba, about which he is in deep denial, admitting being confused and sexually inhibited afterward by his own explanation). Moreno’s efforts only serve to increase the controversy about Sathya Sai Baba and make sure we are active in exposing Sathya Sai Baba further so as not to be swamped out by positive propaganda and smears.

See also Smear Campaign against critics of Sathya Sai Baba

and <A Formal Open Appeal to the ‘Prashanthi Council‘

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Dr. G. Venkataraman, propagandist in the limelight

Presentation of new free car to G. Venkataraman

Dr. G. Venkataraman, a physicist, formerly employed in India’s nuclear bomb programme community, became a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba when he suffered major depression after the loss of his son. Being one of the few somewhat notable scientists in the following, he was duly made Vice-Chancellor of Sai Baba’s university at Puttaparthi. He is now on the central body ruling Sai matter, the Prashanthi Council, and is 2nd-in-command of the International Sathya Sai Organization. As head of Sai Global Harmony which broadcasts Sai propaganda en masse via WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service, 24/7 to a number of countries. The agenda of this multi-billion dollar mini-empire involves penetration of the world and infiltrations of all official bodies, governments, UN organizations and so on. The entire set-up has virtually all of the distinguishing features of a clandestinely-managed religious cult. They exploit the liberal world’s tolerance under freedom of religion legislation, though they operate in a completely top-down, no feedback, autocratic and censoring cult.

Dr Venkataraman is tantamount to being Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘minister of propaganda’. All but the very topmost officials of the Sathya Sai Organization are permitted to comment on any issues concerning Sathya Sai Baba and his Organization. G. Venkataraman is such a top official, who nonetheless writes as little as possible about the world-wide controversy about his Lord and Master (who he considers to be the actual Creator of the Entire Universe – and he is supposed to be a scientific physicist!) He has even promoted Sathya Sai Baba’s blessings and endorsement visits to the former dictator of Uganda Idi Amin, who reportedly wept with tears of devotion at Sai Baba’s feet.

Venkataraman has made much of a civil lawsuit against the directors of the Sathya Sai Society of America in the USA because it was eventually dismissed by the plaintiff. This is taken as a victory exonerating Sathya Sai Baba, while in fact it was a botched litigation where the judge of the Orange County Court did not allow Sathya Sai Baba to be sued from the USA, requiring it be done in India. Further, there was no responsible, registered Sathya Sai Organization in the USA, but only a Society with a charitable status, run as a Sai Baba bookshop, so the case became non-viable with no one to prosecute. This did not stop Venkataraman and his supporter and befriender, Gerald Joe Moreno, making a mountain of victory out of a molehill of a self-dismissed lawsuit! Adding insult to injury, Venkataraman virtually crowed over this, entirely ignoring that the plaintiff – Alaya Rahm – is but one of many young men throughout the world who accuse Sathya Sai Baba of sexually molesting them. Venkataraman never shows the slightest compassion or willingness to confront facts… he claims he has never found a student who says he was abused. However, no one in their right senses while still in India – where students have been murdered in cold blood in Sai Baba’s bedroom – would trust such information to this totally blind and uncaring devotee of Sai Baba as Lord of the Cosmos that they had been sexually violated by him…for the consequences could well be too terrible to contemplate. Venkataraman behaved as if a dissenter is a figure for derision, as does his on-line supporter Gerald Joe Moreno without any compunction or moral values. (Venkataraman has never distanced himself in any way from Moreno, which speaks volumes about his attitude. In his official position he could almost effortlessly silence this totally ant-spiritual cyber terrorist!)

The article ‘The Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed’ was co-authored by Robert Priddy and Barry Pittard. It responds to Dr G. Venkataraman attempts to whitewash Sathya Sai Baba by techniques of decontextualisation, misrepresentation and general opinionated pseudo-spiritual claims.

See Sathya Sai Baba, dictator Idi Amin and Dr. G. Venkataraman

See four-part article ‘The Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed’
Donations to Sathya Sai Central Trust misused by/for directors etc.
Apologist for Sathya Sai Baba
G. Venkataraman – chief propagandist for ‘God’
Venkataraman – the most gullible physicist alive?
Venkataraman, a victim of emotional blackmail?
Money, Morality and Sai-worshipper Dr. Venkataraman
The Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory
Atomic physics Venkataraman-Puttaparthi style. Deeply intriguing

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Sai Baba: Glaring Publicity yet Silence on Critical Issues

Sathya Sai Baba imposes silence about himself as far as possible

In earlier years, many Sai Baba devotees strictly followed his advice not to engage in publicity for him. He claimed his success was ensured without the need for any publicity whatever, and he banned all such. All that has now changed! Meanwhile, he continued to blare out in discourses (relayed in print, film and other media) pronouncements of his own marvellous deeds as exceeding anything ever done by anyone on earth. Eventually, his leaders took his own lead and began lavish publicity events around the world. When the scandals broke onto the Internet in 2000, he pronounced in 2000 that no followers should use the Internet. Sai Baba’s thus made a divine faux pas, (though he always claims omniscience and omnipotence) because a very large number of insubordinate devotees soon ignored this edict, as well as his early complaints that computers would ruin human intellect etc. ) He has since accepted and financed websites and radio stations on a large scale as a necessary supplement to his propaganda machine.

Sai devotee websites and bulletin boards are even more censorious and unquestioning than the Sai discussion groups, and no genuine thinking or the mildest hint of criticism is ever voiced. This further testifies to the fear of public scrutiny. Only after six years of silence did the official Sai apparatus – falsely imagining that they had won in a US court case – take the chance of dealing with the allegations in an article posted on the official Radio Sai website by the second-in-command of the Prashanthi Council,  Dr. G. Venkataraman, the mendacious propagandist. He has since been answered very thoroughly and fully rebutted with complete documentation. See also the true statement of the facts about the lawsuit of Alaya Rahm by the International Just Group, the Rahm family and their lawyer, which clearly shows that Dr. G. Venkataraman has made a concerted bid – in his posting on the official Prashanthi Nilayam website – to deceive the public as to what occurred. He claims that no students to whom he has talked have any knowledge of sexual abuses by Sai Baba, which is exactly what one would expect considering that fully-signed up blind believer Venkataraman would tell Sai Baba who alleged what… That could have drastic consequences for any student who spoke out, and even a virtual death sentence (murders of students have been widely documented). Students at Sai Baba’s colleges have contacted me and told me just that… and none are unaware of the dangers involved in speaking to Venkataraman or identifying themselves in public in any way (unless they are securely and permanently outside India).

Any candid study of Sathya Sai Baba and his environment would need to look at the serious alleged crimes and not least at the almost endless string of wholly absurd and false claims made by this Baba about himself.

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The Gerald Joe Moreno dossier – part 1

Gerald Joe Moreno runs a massive defamation and arrant disinformation campaign on the Internet, where he acts as the point man for defending Sathya Sai Baba, his largely clandestine and authoritarian Organization and many more or less affiliated devotees and supporters. Strong circumstantial evidence indicates that he is in close touch with Sathya Sai Organization leaders, especially in the USA. Nonetheless, his extreme harassment activities are a great liability for the Sathya Sai Organization because they demonstrate its strongly cultist nature. In not denouncing his constant harassment of former respected devotees, despite challenges to them from the JuST group of former devotees, the Prashanthi Council and all Sai Baba officials will not denounce these most ‘unspiritual’ activities. Through the prominence on Google achieved by Moreno’s innumerable blogs and web pages across countless Sai-related keywords, his fanatical attacks have increasingly become a cultist millstone about the neck of Sai Baba and his movement, whether they condone it or not. In the blazoning of total denial of every criticism of this presumed perfect God, they serve to keep the fact of major dissent to the fore. He claims to be a defender of ‘free speech’ but he does all he can to deny this right to dissidents by harassment, attempts to remove their web pages etc.

Such defenders of Sai Baba willing to write numerous untruths and use a wide range of dirty tricks against critics are evidently condoned by the Sathya Sai Organization, where they are not also directly fed with materials for it. Gerald Moreno’s constant character assassination attempts on all critics of Sathya Sai Baba, parodying them in irrelevant and adolescent ways, and relentlessly web stalking them and any family members, associates, and any of their friends whose names he can discover – is a cultist hate campaign of massive dimensions virtually without parallel on the Internet today. The dossier of all these hate mails and postings is mounting up and will eventually be posted for the world to see.

Joe Moreno is not a devotee but is the main defender of all Sathya Sai matters The major and unrepentant infringer of copyright – countless photos of critics and texts of mine – rails at length about ONE SINGLE photo which he for some reason is rather desperate to hide away.

The foremost of this last category by far is Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘front man’ on the Internet, Gerald Joe Moreno, the sheer volume of whose inflammatory attacks, libels and denigrations fire the controversy over Sathya Sai Baba and all involved. Moreno’s keyword-packed pages often overshadow – in Google and other page ranking engines – most of the web pages of the many Sathya Sai Organization web sites. The overall impression the public receives is of a cult, officially sticking to nothing but 100% positive propaganda and the unofficially condoning and – through semi-official websites – supporting negative attacks and character assassination attempts on critics of Sathya Sai Baba. Both the unresponsive organization and their aggressive defenders excel in being devoid of any self-criticism, self-reflective attitudes, or evaluation of the facts involved in the burning issue… Sathya Sai Baba’s widely demonstrated fraudulence and deception.

Further details are to follow later….

See also
Open letter to the Prashanthi Council – Michael Goldstein, G. Venkataraman

Formal Appeal to the Prashanthi Council

Sathya Sai Baba Man Gerald Moreno and Fact-Changing

Main overview of Gerald Moreno’s agenda and methods

 

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Slander by Dr. G. Venkataraman & Joe Moreno

Among the many intentional untruths that has been spun and spread about Barry Pittard and myself is the claim that we somehow are behind the entire exposè of Sathya Sai Baba. This may seem so to those who only glance at the mass of expose evidence. Apart from early whistle blowers like Tal Brooke and others who received little or no publicity, the sexual abuse allegations were brought into the public sphere by David and Faye Bailey – very close to Sathya Sai Baba before they were overwhelmed by evidence and set about investigating and writing about it all. As soon as this appeared on the Internet, this caused many to write accounts, including numerous sexual abuse descriptions which were highly credible in detail and background. I refused to look at any of them until other matters had increasingly caused me serious doubts about Sai Baba since 1998 V.K. Narasimhan told me in secret about the 1993 murders and blackmail of the police by Sai Baba’s brother. This  I kept to myself until well after V.K. N. died in 2000 and was safe from any retribution.  I first posted an article about Sai Baba’s alleged sex abuses in October 2001! There was already a mass of information and debate on this on the www.

Dr. G. Venkataraman, Sai Baba defender

Dr. G. Venkarataman – head of Radio Sai and member of Sai Baba’s ruling Prashanthi Council – has lied about me on his misnamed “heart-to-heart” website, where he wrote “Robert Priddy who was one of those who started much of this slander claimed that two Vice Chancellors of Universities in Australia supported the allegations.” This is so far the only claim published against my name by any central Sai official. The distinct activity in the exposure of Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuses began already from about April 1999  with many testimonies and documented facts about Sathya Sai Baba’s alleged sex abuses, fraud, deceptions – I did not start any of that. The two Vice-Chancellors were contacted before my time by Glen Meloy and Barry Pittard, I have only referred their contacts with them. Since then I have spoken out on many issues known to me (not least through Sai Baba’s close servitor, V.K. Narasimhan – also my close friend and confidante).

Subsequently I was contacted by numerous students describing the sexual abuses they have had – and/or their friends – at the hands by Sathya Sai Baba. This they did in strict confidence (because I can be trusted by them – while Venkataraman most certainly cannot, since he condones the infamous murders and disclaims all the reported abuses and more…).  I am not spreading “slander” but documented facts, recorded experiences and my opinions about them. But now one sees that Venkataraman does about me. I provide sound information! Apropos, Moreno promotes and defends Venkataraman on the Internet, and also posts some of Venkataraman’s writings on his blogsite “Sathya Sai Baba  – Love, Light & Spirituality”. Since G. Venkataraman does not take any issue with this at all, it amounts to a collusive partnership.

Likewise, Barry Pittard’s disaffection was not introduced to the network of ex-followers until shortly after October 1999, having read the article of the former head of the Sathya Sai Organization, Terry Gallagher. Gallagher had scrupulously investigated various allegations at first hand and also confronted Sathya Sai Baba himself. For well over a year after this time Barry Pittard activities were largely separate to my own, and I did not have contact with him until yet later – and then 0nly months later again did I have my first contact with Glen Meloy.  We did not coordinate any work even then – I did not involve myself in any joint project until later when wide participation was invited across former devotee networks.

Among the many instances where Moreno extracts some detail from critical writings to interpret and spin it in the worst possible light, never pausing to consider alternate, common sense explanations, is his frenetic barrage of attacks concerning affidavits stating sexual abuse. He capitalised extensively on the error made by some writers including Pittard in repeating Hari Sampath’s claim (supported by his group of helpers) that he had gathered over a hundred affidavits. In fact the genuine mistake was that these were signed accounts of prime witnesses about sexual abuses but also about related matters, only some of which were formal legal affidavits.

Complete rebuttal of Dr. G. Venkataraman’s untruthful tract to refute the exposé of Sai Baba

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Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and his Worldwide Organization
View ex-follower signatures
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