Sathya Sai Baba’s death and ‘mahasamadhi’

In their understandable desperation to believe in the divinity of Sathya Sai Baba, countless hysterical Indian followers – not least the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and other ‘luminaries’ are deathly silent about the fact that Sathya Sai Baba’s death was totally unlike those India has previously required of its holy men and women when they supposedly ‘leave the body by free will’ and allegedly “merge with the infinite”. (i.e. when they die, in sensible parlance). Not only did Sai Baba become more and more haggard and catatonic looking at least from his 85th birthday onwards, but he died because of multiple organ failure after being disconnected from his life support system. Nothing yogic, nothing saintly, nothing remotely holy or divine about that!

Nor did he die when he predicted he would, despite all the diverse attempts to recalculate his age according to lunar (rather than calendar or solar) years. The results the various ‘Vedic experts’ produce differ from one another and also differ from the two different times of death Sai Baba is documented as having stated. Rationalizations of the clownish ‘mental gymnastic’ sort – including affronts to simple arithmetic – are concocted to mislead the despondent believer back into the faith of the fold. The official Sai website reckoned SB was 94.4 lunar years old at death, which is way off the 93 or the 96 years of age he predicted in his various published discourses! The official disinformation is propelled by the matter of big money… the more who doubt or leave Sai Baba, the less that will flow into the huge coffers. This will mean the closure of many of the projects  that devotees have developed in the name of Sai Baba, who loved to take ALL the credit for all of it, which he just sat on his wheelchair and spouted moralizing words repeatedly all his adult life). It reportedly will also affect many schools that hijacked the name so as to siphon off donations from foreign devotees (see Times of India here).

Looking at the physical condition of Sathya Sai Baba on his last birthday (that was, incidentally, blazoned everywhere as his 85th year, no less!) one can see that he is nowhere near matching up to his repeated boasts that he would never show signs of age, that he would always be healthy. If multiple organ failure – heart, lungs, kidneys and liver – amounts to good health in any shape or form or his depressed hangdog face to youthful appearance then I could be a hoary Ayurvedic medicine man… and with brass knobs on too! Queen Elizabeth is an 85-year old picture of health and a massively respected world figure, known to everyone. Not so Sathya Sai Baba, who not only boasted he was in line for the Nobel Peace Prize (which he never got nor ever remotely qualified for it) but made massive unfulfilled claims:-

“In the days ahead, the whole world will be obliged to come to Prashanthi Nilayam” (p. 320 Sanathana Sarathi December 1991)
“The whole world will be transformed into Sathya Sai Organisation and Sathya Sai will be installed in the hearts of one and all.” (Sanathana Sarathi, January 1999 – page 16)
“You are going to witness the divine glory of Swami unfolding in the days to come. He will attract the whole world. There won’t be place for people to stand even. You can see it for yourself, what a great change has occurred during the last one month! All are getting attracted to Swami.” Discourse 16 March 2003.
“Very soon, the entire world will be united. In fact, after 28 years, the world itself will become “Bharat”. Everyone will call themself a Bharatiya (one imbued with godliness — Bhagavat rathas). No one will refer to themself as belonging to this state or that state, this region or that region.” 
“In fact, there is no trace of hatred or enmity in Me at any time. I love all. That is why everyone loves Me.” (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 36, p- 86 Discourse 06/05/2003) “… nobody is against me. Everyone loves and none hates me.” (p. 262)  That is not true for a start as there are plenty who express otherwise on the Internet!

THIS AGAIN SHOWS THE FALSE PREDICTION AND INORDINATE BOASTING ABOUT HIMSELF. AND HOW THE MIGHTY HAS FALLEN!

The Golden Age of Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba has declared that He will usher in a new era of Love, Peace, Righteousness, and Truth. This “Golden Age,” as He calls it, is destined to begin soon with an event (or series of events) that will draw world attention to His Divinity.
Sai Baba has several times jumped the gun and heralded in “The Golden Age” of mankind. He supposes himself to be the precursor of such an age, and – as often documented – it will begin by his reforming India completely first, then the rest of the world. Sai Baba has told people on occasion that a great shift in human consciousness will come – he did so before the millennium (but nothing happened, not even the millennium bug – thereafter Twin Towers and the war on terror began).

Professor Paul Holbach has written of the predicted Golden Age of Sai Baba here:-

“This is a great chance. Be confident that you will all be liberated. Know that you are saved. Many hesitate to believe that things will improve, that life will be happy for all and full of joy, and that the golden age will recur. Let me assure you that this dharmaswarupa, that this divine body, has not come in vain. It will succeed in averting the crisis that has come upon humanity. “( from  speech 23 Nov. 1968)

“Mankind can and will be saved.” (Christmas Message, 1986)
“I have come to inscribe a golden chapter in the history of humanity.” (12th May 1968 see)
Sai has come … to achieve the supreme task of uplifting the entire mankind, as one family through the bond of brotherhood… ” (1999)
Thus, his mission seems to be a “salvation mission” for ALL MANKIND, no one excluded; the world in its globality would have to be saved and raised to an upper level. And he started promising this almost in 1947… and SB clearly has not fulfilled any of his forecastings and promises. Anyway, like already elsewhere, SB starts to take distances from himself; first he builds the “castle in air” of the “Golden Age”, then he says:
“The Golden Age is the creation of man, not of God.” (1987)
“The transition from that unhappy state to the state of bliss cannot be achieved overnight, but the changes have begun and the seeds are sown. Man is living at the dawn of a Golden Age and he himself will determine the timing of the transition by his own acts and thoughts. ” (1988)
“The time has indeed come for a great awakening, when the days of ignorance and illusion are replaced by a new Golden Age. That Golden Age is here now, just waiting for man to move into it and find the peace that has eluded him all this time.” (1988)

We also read Sai Baba’s own “Revelations” in line with such fundamentalists as the Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and diverse other god-bothering sects and cults of the “Flee the wrath to come” persuasion:-
“The day of awakening is here and the day of reckoning, or weeding out, is not far away. The cleansing of the world will take place and only those awakened souls will be left to experience life in the divine state. Others will fall by the wayside, left behind and lost in a world of illusion and darkness.” (Christmas (II) [1987],” SMFYM, II, 1988, 63 see here)

“Suffering and misery are the inescapable acts of the cosmic drama. God does not decree these calamities but man invites them by way of retribution for his own evil deeds. This is corrective punishment which induces mankind to give up the wrong path and return to the right path so that he may experience the godlike condition of sat-chit-ananda — that is, an existence of wisdom and bliss.” (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985, 245.)

In January 1992, a long-term US devotee, Connie Shaw, was at an interview with SB where she asked:-

Connie: Then what about the Golden Age (of Peace and Plenty which will last for a thousand years) – when will that actually be here?

Baba (Predictably, heh-heh): The Golden Age must begin in each person’s heart. Then only can we have peace on earth. Each must start now to make the Golden Age in his heart.

Connie: But Swami, we’re all doing the best we can in that (department) now. I mean when will (all of) humanity agree “This is the Golden Age – here, now…?

Baba: In five years. 2007. By then. All must do (their part).”

Sai Baba’s boast to Dr. John Hislop that India is the locomotive that will pull the world to rights due to its spiritual and moral superiority has, of course, most dismally failed to appear. That his students would occupy positions of power long since and thus change society has also proved to be sonorously hollow words.

To view Sathya Sai Baba’s words on the Golden Age (see here, and here)

Sathya Sai Baba makes it up as he goes along

See also the previous posting here on the golden age and the lunatic fringe

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Sai Baba amrita (nectar) at Srirangapatna orphanage

When first I met Halagappa he told me his life story in 1985, I was the only visitor and he spent hours talking. At the time I was willing to trust devotees’ honesty, but I soon learned much greater circumspection. Halagappa’s uncle took him to Shirdi Sai Baba, who hit him on the head, he claimed. He said he complained to his uncle who told him he was a fool, that it was a blessing which would cure him. He said his uncle asked Shirdi Sai to look after his nephew in future, and Shirdi Sai agreed. This was also claimed in the Shirdi Sai literature about quite another person. Much later I worked out the dates. Shirdi Sai died in 1918, but when Halagappa told me this in 1985, he was about my age (then 50) and could not possibly have been 70 or more years old as he would have had to be had he ever med Shirdi Sai Baba. So he exposed himself to me as a liar. He did tell me how Sathya Sai Baba exposed him as the baggage thief he was and made him go to Mysore to start doing service looking after homeless children. He began to solicit donations for the temple based on reputed ‘materializations’ from a locked Sai Baba had once given him. He even added sugar to vibuti (dried cow dung called ‘holy ash’ in India) to make it more acceptable. He threw out his first wife and took a young women instead, and so Sathya Sai Baba never visited him or spoke to him again.

Before I went to the Srirangapatna place (still known appropriately as ‘The Thief’s Temple’) I had tasted amrit (so-called ‘nectar’ associated with the gods or Devas) The Danish youth who gave it to me and directed me to Halagappa said its unusual taste was ‘tea rose’, something I forgot until after I was disaffected and suddenly kept smelling amrit, until I realised it was from tea rose soap I had washed my hands with. Tea rose essence is extremely strong – has long been made in India – and a few drops will give a liter of sugar water a very heady perfume. A drop or jasmine or sandalwood essence might sometimes be used as well.

Halagappa was already receiving large donations, later including mine too, but the young orphans there were in rags and had no books or other visible goods. His young wife, however, wore diamonds and gold. Local neighbours informed a Western journalist I know well that Halagappa was prostituting the boys and girls there. He had agreements with taxi chauffeurs in Bangalore who brought many Sai Baba visitors and those of unlimited blind faith who are always seeking excitement and miracles to his ‘temple’.

However, few take seriously Sai Baba’s well-known warning:  “in Mysore state there are some who distribute amrith, vibhuuthi and other articles announcing that they are showering from their pictures at their places… Devotees should keep far away from such places and persons” (Sathya Sai Speaks vol. 10, p. 186). His journal has twice warned about the Mysore orphanage and money collection. Halagappa is still a thief, only on a far grander scale.

Sathya Sai Baba said further: “In Mysore State there are some who distribute amrith, vibuthi (holy ash) … they do this free for some weeks, and later, they start begging for money, like any common mendicant! This is a sin…” [Sathya Sai Speaks Vol 11. p. 146]. The office at Prashanthi told me Halagappa has never been authorised by them or Sai Baba to collect funds!

Sathya Sai Speaks Vol 10 – p 186f refers to the orphanage near Mysore:: “Some happenings in Mysore and Madras are to be drastically condemned… I never allot in this manner, nor do I hand over my powers to anyone…” and “They could carry a begging bowl and go from door to door; that at least will save them from a life of deceit and sacrilege.” This describes Halagappa well.

In Sai Baba’s official journal, Sanathana Sarathi, Feb. 1988, p. 51 we read:-

“THE WARNING , AGAIN  We have received enquiries from overseas devotees as to whether they can make donations to organisations in India carrying Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s name and claiming to run an orphanage at Srirangapatman (in Karnataka)… etc. Recognised Sathya Sai Organizations are not permitted to solicit donations from any source. (etc.) THE EDITOR

Gullible devotees pretend to know that the amrit and vibuthi there are miraculous. They have no proof because Halagappa could easily get an objective evaluation by scientists, but it is NOT in his interests! It is based on belief, auto-suggestion and strong longing to see miracles, their having completely lost any investigative spirit and become incapable of truly critical questioning where Sai Baba and all related phenomena are concerned.

Read a fuller account of the supposed miracle with photos – and the faking involved – here.

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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

Dictator Idi Amin – Sai Baba’s warm recollections

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

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

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

Swami’s Christmas Discourse 2006

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The ‘Divine mystery’ of Sathya Sai Baba

Sai Baba maintainef his ‘mystery’ by avoiding giving straightforward answers

Sai Baba was a practiced master at seeming to answer a question or tell something while expressing it so ambiguously or obliquely that it amounted to saying as good as nothing. Every now and again he suddenly broke off mid-sentence and turned his attention to something else or another person. The disappointed person soon contrived an explanation, for this omniscient God had to be telling something deep and subtle through this behaviour. There is much talk about how to understand in a positive light things that it would be glaringly evident to independent persons are avoidance or manipulations by Sai Baba. I have to admit that I was taken in for a long time by some of his clever comments and half-spoken sentences…

I too spent much time searching to explain his words and acts. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack, and the results were seldom too convincing when I did find any. I even wrote articles in his journal Sanathana Sarathi at the behest of its editor (V.K. Narasimhan), all precisely to try to clear up some of his vague or contradictory statements. I now conclude that he mostly avoided really telling anything when he might have been trapped into an easily unproven answer, meanwhile leaving the devotee at least an illusion of having the attention of God Himself and a response the meaning of which would make itself known in good time. Those he talked to (very seldom more than one or two sentences) were told by yet blinder followers that they should be pleased, even grateful, for this divine blessing! Many were overwhelmed with gratitude for this audience which it was said by all devotees to be something one had striven towards through many previous lives packed with good actions! Many people want to believe such things and the more difficult their lives are, the more they apparently do. In the ashrams one believed in ‘thinking with the heart, not the head’. No one seems to realise that the heart (i.e. the emotions and irrational impulses) can deceive as much or even more than the head. The so-called ‘heart’ can be filled with feelings of inferiority, intense unfulfilled longing for love and further, bitterness and hate. Not exactly an infallible inner guru to rely on blindly in the face of common sense and informed reason, as most gurus like Sai Baba insist it is!

There is no doubt that the subjective experiences of interviews were felt as very good by most people (though not all, for some were told off strictly too). One can read hundreds of accounts that use superlatives beyond all reason. I can now see myself as misled and so ‘naively guilty’ of a much too one-sided and gold-tinted account of interviews in my book (‘Source of the Dream’). Therefore I choose to describe my summary of Sathya Sai Baba interviewees from the cool clarity of my eventual disillusion with them.

After attending several interviews they tended to become an anticlimax to persons who  still had a mind of their own, because so little could really be learned about anything from Sathya Sai Baba. He just reeled off his usual imprecise spiritual directions and followed – with few variations – a set of routines he had practised and perfected through thousands of interviews. Sometimes it was like a routine he entered, regardless of who was present. But this is certainly not how one’s first interviews seemed! Interviewees were often so worked up after months or years of his ‘Wait! Wait!’ instruction – and who can count what sacrifices and efforts many have made – and were mega-relieved to have ‘won’ an interview (as if they were pools’ winners). In interviews, many behaved as if in a daze, there was often a sense of staring, hypnotic happiness. Especially ladies, mostly having been constantly starved for the slightest attention at darshan, often gave themselves over to an orgy of gushing words about it afterwards, like ‘blissed out’, ‘spaced out by divine love’ and ‘eternal moments of realisation’. All of this reminds of some psycho-social orgasmic release of pent-up doubts and worries in surrendering to the delightful conviction, ‘So I am really one of God’s chosen children after all’. This conviction was always insecure, however, and Sathya Sai Baba would shake it time and again with his famous hypothetical ‘tests of faith’, i.e. his indifference, his neglect and much more besides until death… of that one could invariably be convinced and confident, at least!

From about 10 hours altogether in the various interview rooms with Sai Baba and from hearing and reading at least 100 accounts of interviews from other devotees (often noted in papers they circulate or in articles and books) and after countless hours of private discussion with Sai Baba’s translator at many interviews, V.K. Narasimhan, it is fair to say that Sai Baba seldom responded openly and frankly to what the questioner really wanted to know, but turned the question back at the questioner or spun the matter around somehow. If he didn’t reply (rather than, as often, turn to another person instead) what he said was frequently elliptical and off the point. He treated all questions or comments which he did not like in what my elderly contact, Prof. Erlendur Haraldsson, characterised to me very fittingly as follows:
“I recall when Karlis Osis and I had our first encounter with Sai Baba we both felt that he, apart from his great charisma, was a great prima donna, with a tremendous ego, and also kind of a Napoleon, with a ruler’s mind and tactics. Boasting, and illusions about one’s true characteristics is a part of such a psychological makeup, and in Sai Baba this is to a psychopathological degree unless one assumes the split-personality model to explain him, which I find tempting.”

What we would not accept as a valid or relevant answer from other people, many devotees would immediately accept as profound since it came from the one they believed to be omniscient. For example, when asked by a friend of mine from Copenhagen why it was that Jehova (i.e. God, i.e. Sai Baba) had not told the Jews about reincarnation, but asserted the contrary via the Bible. Sathya Sai Baba simply did not understand the question and asked to have it explained. (A divine joke that he can’t understand? I think not!). My Jewish friend said that the question was about reincarnation and intended to specify, but – without waiting to hear the actual question again – Baba replied brusquely, and in so many words, “Oh! Reincarnation! You cannot understand it. Do not try to think about it. It is like the seed and the fruit.” I saw that this answer was just a brush off, but afterward my friend claimed that it was a perfect answer! His view was that, because the question was one that his Jewish wife considered very important, Baba was telling that they should rather concentrate on other more important things. This is not untypical of Baba’s way of answering questions.

Sai Baba frequently replied so obliquely that no intelligible sense could be made of his words, or he changed the subject unexpectedly, or brushed it aside. The person concerned often took whatever came as a significant teaching or even a spiritual directive. This is also typical of evasive deceivers hoping to maintain others’ false perceptions, or to avoid being unmasked or incriminating themselves. In short, whatever Sai Baba replied, or however he avoided replying, was taken by devotees as a profoundly meaningful matter! If what he said seemed plainly mistaken, based on a misunderstanding or factually wrong, the devotee wouldl twist and turn the words in every possible way and relate them to all manner of events past present, dreams, imagined things and so on until some kind of sense could be derived from the words… however unsatisfactorily. This was also the case when he did not reply or was gruff, or gave the brush off. It became a subject of constant meditation or worry, self-examination and self-doubt. I  witnessed this on many occasions. What hardly ever seemed to occur to the poor person who was struggling with these challenges was that Sathya Sai Baba might be wrong, might not know what he was talking about, bluffing or may simply have been inadequately equipped to deal with the question. Only after realising that Sai Baba was not at all what he claimed to be does all this gradually become as apparent as the sun in daylight!

See also how Sai devotees are induced into the cult of systematic rationalization through re-interpreting Sathya Sai Baba’s words and vague statements

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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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Sathya Sai Baba seen on the moon?

Some deluded devotees who do not understand the first thing about the difference between and causes of objective and subjective experiences keep on sending out unsolicited e-mails about this non-event, which has discredited Sathya Sai Baba among all people with a modicum of real intelligence and properly established knowledge, as follows:-

the unsolicited e-mail – and the image accompanying it. Anyone can see that the image was superimposed using  a graphic programme,

This kind of absurdity was supported by several major Sathya Sai Baba sites like saibabaofindia.com and Puttaparthilive.com, which posted the following:-

October 26th 7:00 pm – Swami’s divine darshan in Moon

Many devotees from all over the world have written to us about Swami’s Divine darshan in Moon. We have received emails from devotees in many parts of India, United States and United Kingdom etc. We ourselves saw the Divine darshan of Swami in the moon for the last few nights. We were waiting for some pictures from devotees because our camera’s are not that powerful.

That the image was a construction and the report a fake report made by zealous promoters of Sai baba is supported by the fact that the original of this post was removed both from the Puttaparthi news site and the blog of which a capture is shown above (made before removal). Nor is the material available on the web wayback archive machine. In short, a big embarrassment to the Sai people which had to be eradicated as soon as possible. The basis for all this frenzied fantasy is the fact that the moon’s darker part bears some resemblance of Sai Baba’s afro frizz, but nothing more.

Interestingly, Sathya Sai Baba’s pet physicist and promoter – Dr. G. Venkataram – and would-be astronomical writer (a plagiarist) has remained completely silent on the most embarrassing issue! But then he has stated outright that he believes that Sathya Sai Baba is the Creator of the Universe, nothing less! What kind of a ‘scientist’ can be so deluded?

Several other devotees have made bogus images of SaI Baba appearing on the moon. Among these is that of Darpan Rane, who superimposed Sai Baba’s face on an image of the moon, which was posted by the blind believers who run saibabaofindia.com. Later Darpan Rane admitted that he had created the image… meaning it to represent what he (thought) he saw in fact earlier.

Concocted image which easily deceived countless followers of Sai Baba. Darpan Pane wrote: ….. THE APPEARANCE OF BHAGAWAN’S BUST IMAGE ON MOON LAST NIGHT’S SKY: SAI RAM EVERYBODY!”WHILE I AM HAPPY SHARE WITH YOU OF THE APPEARANCE OF BHAGWAN’S BUST IMAGE ON MOON LAST NIGHT’S SKY (VISAKHAPATNAM, INDIA),

See also:-Deceiving ‘devotee’ makes bogus image of Sai in the Moon
Sai Baba To Be Seen In Moon? But Where Was Moon?
Sai Baba Fails To Grant Great Moon Vision. Endangers Crowds
Sai Baba Fails To Appear In Moon, IANS Reports
‘Moon Mission of Sathya Sai Baba’. Re Merinews Article
May You Look At The Moon And See Santa In It
Sathya Sai Baba’s Failed Moon Miracle Under Heavy Cloud

Is Sai Baba’s Moon Madness waning still further

Why build moon rockets when Sai Baba has mantras?

More Sathya Sai Baba Moon Madness

Sai Baba’s mystic Moon Region ‘Chandraloka’ and related ideas
Sai Baba on the Moon videos
Long-awaited photo of Sai Baba in the moon
Sai Baba on the Moon – photo for his birthday?

Hundreds see Sai Baba on the moon

Sai Baba appearances on the moon

More Sathya Sai Baba Moon Madness

Sathya Sai Baba seen on the moon?
Oops! Apparently Sai Baba DID appear on the moon?
Sai Baba postpones moon buggy ride

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Interview with Sathya Sai Baba – 2002

Sathya Sai Baba gave an interview to Russian ladies. It is mostly the same in content as thousands of interviews, the same words to the same questions. The same superficial and flawed answers, but this time introducing a couple of new howlers of the kind only Sai Baba can manage in all seriousness. Why the website saibabaofindia.com posts such rubbish would be a mystery, but evidently those responsible do not realise the absurdity:-

See the following on-line information:
Cancer in Wild Animals
Cancer also occurs in wild animals. Some well documented examples of cancer in wild animals include facial tumors in Tasmanian devils, fibropapillomatosis in sea turtles, and genital carcinoma in sea lions. (See here)

There are research programmes around the world into animal cancer, such as: Research program on cancer in animals and birds at Cornell University
The Secretary of Agriculture shall conduct a program of basic research on cancer in animals and birds at appropriate facilities within the Department of Agriculture or by grants to other qualified research facilities.

Many wild animals suffer from tuberculosis too, like rhinos and wild boars etc. but Sai Baba is unaware of the fact! See here

“Fish is therefore gets poisoned” writes the pidgin Sai-students of saibabaofindia.com. Sai Baba concludes that, because there is marine pollution (from bombs?), fish is not good. One may perhaps ask, “All fish, swami?” and “Are all the oceans so polluted?”

See also Sathya Sai Baba and Absurdity – Revealed in His Officials’ Documents

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Kasturi and VKN manipulated and suborned

Sathya Sai Baba has sometimes put on the appearance of a ‘raging lion’ against people who he perceived as a threat to himself. In his ‘official biography’ of Sai Baba (in Sathyam , Sivam, Sundaram Vol. 1), Prof.N. Kasturi reported accounts he had heard of the young Sai Baba terrifying some fractious villagers when he was but a teenager by raging and growling like the ‘lion-man avatar’ Narasimha. This is taken as evidence by many of ever-uncritical devotees that he truly is the avatar who was all the other avatars in the Indian pantheon, as he has actually claimed himself too! I once saw him with a raging lion-like face one day when he was looking at some people on the veranda. Sathya Sai Baba had raged lion-like at his confidante, Prof. N. Kasturi, when he had returned from a tour of North India holding talks about Sai Baba upon which Baba himself had sent him. There is no doubt that Kasturi was literally terrified by him then, as he openly told a small group of us this in the old lecture room in South Prashanthi in 1985. That was real intimidation… and for a relative bagatelle which Sai Baba would not even explain to him. Kasturi vividly evoked the fear he had felt and his extreme anguish for weeks, sitting outside the compound which he was banned from entering. There was no reason he could understand.

Eventually after weeks of his suffering, when many others had asked SB to relent, he spoke to Kasturi in most disapproving tones, telling him that he now thought himself a big man who condescended to “give interviews” like himself. The fact was that his hosts had been flooded with requests to meet Kasturi in private, and they had set up times for them to meet him in a private chat. Kasturi, who was grateful for the special hospitality he was receiving. had gone along with this and their pre-planned schedule… ostensibly out of a sense of duty. THAT alone was his great sin! Sai Baba told him very angrily that it was only He who gave interviews! What remained of Kasturi’s will was thereafter as if castrated (pun) and he went more like a lamb than ever. One can read a watered-down account by Kasturi in his autobiographical book ‘Loving God’.

This is a manipulative technique well known as typical of psychopaths/sociopaths and narcissistic power-brokers… a clever way to cow followers and keep them totally in line… through naked fear after initial charm and praise! Then finally becoming charming and forgiving again… Already totally trapped and dependent on his guru for everything, Kasturi rationalized the “punishment” away as being a necessary process to soften him and rid him of ego! This is how one turns black into white – daring not to say ‘boo’ to a goose while hoping credulously that it will lay the golden egg – and continues one’s own self-deception through weakness of character.

The same kind of “punishment’ – though less severe, was meted out to V.K. Narasimhan in 1980 when he had taken over the editing of Sanathana Sarathi from Prof. Kasturi. He made what Sai Baba chose to consider a very grave mistake, and he was sacked as editor immediately and the aging and failing Prof. Kasturi had to take over the reins again for a long while. Narasimhan had published an announcement which he had been pressed to do by the top Sai official in Europe, Antonio Craxi (brother of the later Prime Minister of Italy, who ended as a convicted criminal fleeing justice). It announced that all copyright for Sathya Sai Baba books in English was in the hands of Craxi, the egocentric and domineering leader of the Sathya Sai Organization in Italy. This had been challenged by the Central Council of the Sathya Sai Baba Organisation. Narasimhan had been assured that this was legally in force already by Craxi, but Sai Baba took the opportunity to put VKN through his mill and he was made to suffer at a distance… for about a year!

That he was not punished as severely as Kasturi is easily explainable… in the first place he was a very important pawn for Sai Baba since he was respected very widely in India and knew personally most of the leading figures, including college friends such as the then-President of India. Sathya Sai Baba could not afford to lose Narasimhan for such reasons, including his great editorial skills and willingness to promote Sai Baba’s social projects (above all). However, he was not a believer in Sai Baba’s miracles or in his having healed anyone. He had spent his life as a journalist and told me he was not that naive. He shocked my by denying Sai Baba’s claims of omnipotence/omniscience and avatarhood.  His reticence compared to his predecessor Kasturi can be seen from his entire written output – he was very far from those sentimental and gushing panegyrics and gaping wonder of Kasturi and all the other pro-Sai authors, for that matter. He had many doubts and these he voiced to people according to how far he felt he could trust them. So a too strong reprimand would probably have caused him to move away from the ashram, where he first came primarily because of his very Sai-devoted wife’s insistence. After the 1993 murder in SB’s bedroom, VKN was virtually forced – through repeated demands by Sai Baba – to give false witness about the Central Trust. Only his son, editor of The Tribune – was willing to publish VKN’s whitewash of the Trust, though VKN knew fully that this was untrue, as he also told me it had been corrupted. He also began to learn definitively of the blackmail by Sai Baba’s younger brother and others into executing four devotees, and the first-hand of the criminal cover-up by Prime Minister Vajpayee’s right-hand man S.B. Chavan together with Sai Baba’s brother, he grew more and more negative towards the ashram. Later he told me how Sai Baba could not account to him at all satisfactorily for the facts of the murders – click here. He became an unwilling accomplice to the cover-up, for to have spoken out would have been a very huge risk for him, so strong were the opposing forces.

VKN was blind to his own real importance to SB in his role as an endorser of Sai Baba to the rich and famous and would now and again say “I have no idea why Swami is so nice to me”. After he was taken back into favour, he was called by SB to many interviews and constantly attended SB’s meetings with students and selected groups of VIPs. During weeks I was with him, he was called almost every day by Swami – sometimes twice a day.

Sai Baba failed to heal his eye when it got infected after an operation Sai Baba had arranged for him and told him would go well. He only moved away from the ashram in the last weeks when he was dying in much long-lasting pain from water-filled lungs etc.

See also http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/16/Narasimhan_RobertPriddy.htm

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Yaani Drucker’s hypocrisy about academic qualifications & enlightenment

Yaani Drucker made some comments on my blogs. Most of them are so deluded that I can’t be bothered to reply. But two of them required a reply, I though, because of her false and unchecked assumptions about me and the hypocrisy that drips from her… a suppose ‘enlightened soul’! She has taken up with another person who is not only deluded but very nasty and will stop at nothing to try to destroy the character of others… Gerald Moreno.
Here are her comments:yaani9@yahoo.com

75.219.205.160
2010/05/24 at 3:29 pm

Dear Dr. Priddy,

I find it interesting that you stake so much value in the fact that you have earned a PhD.

Sometimes too much information can get in the way of enlightenment. I do not know any PhD’s who have attained, do you? I do know that Ramakrishna, illiterate, Ramana Maharshi, barely literate, and Nisargadatta, also barely literate, all attained. The obvious conclusion is that scholarly learning more probably leads to arrogance, which gets in the way of enlightenment.

I would suggest to stop idenitifying with yourself as any label and come with wholly empty hands unto your chosen form of deity, or formless… this will bring you quickly to your enlightenment.

The greatest service we can render to the planet is to wake up to the truth of who we are, for in that we expose ego as an impostor for all mankind.

That is why at the moment of my enlightenment I was told, Your aura has just exploded to infinity and you are shooting off sparks of love and joy to all humanity. It is a gift to all humanity to wake up, for we are all one.

Enlightenment is the greatest expression of selfless love. And everyone qualifies – you don’t have to have a PhD, to go for your enlightenment. You just have to be willing to be wrong about everything you taught yourself thus far, probably a tall order for a PhD, thus we don’t see any enlightened Drs.

Have a sweet day.

Yaani failed to recall that her husband, who is a Ph.D. has claimed to be self-realised, like herself. My reply to her was uncompromising, as follows (some typos corrected here):-

Yaani, Enlightenment is not just a sudden personal version of sat-chit-ananda. Your pretentious preaching at me I find laughable and also repulsive. I experienced infinity, intense sweet bliss and paranormal intuition of minds and much more when I was 26. Doctorates meant nothing to me – and never have, not have professorates (Note: Norwegian version of ‘professorships’). I never used any academic title in any of my many articles in Sanathana Sarathi, published books and articles – nor in India where Sai followers have to have letters after their names (Narasimhan once inserted tiles ‘Doctor’ and ‘Professor’ on his own guesswork – neither of which titles I have ever myself used – and so I had him cease to do!). I virtually only took my degrees with a family to support (Continental Magister degree), despite great scepticism about philosophy, psychology and science. (I wrote widely, deeply critically on these subjects in that vein too. From all you write it is perfectly evident to me that you are ensconced in a strong ego, and that you have most certainly not got anywhere near the maximum enlightenment possible. I note you also inform about having taken a BA in psychology… why so? And your husband promoted himself vastly as a Professor and scientist – but he has no academic record that can be found. I only set my record straight once because of attacks by Moreno and de Witt!! You should be deeply ashamed of your support to him (dogs barking, indeed. How unoriginal). You were caught far more deeply in the Sai cult than I, and you cannot liberate yourself or face up to reality (which is patently not in your solipsistic cloud-cuckoo land of bogus ‘oneness’).

I took my university education having a family to support (Continental-style – Norwegian Magistergrad degree), despite my great scepticism about philosophy, psychology and science at that time due to personal experiences of many kinds – and in half a dozen previous kinds of employment world-wide. (I wrote widely, deeply critically on these subjects in that vein too. Do a little research. From all you write it is perfectly evident to me that you are ensconced in a strong ego, and that you have most certainly not got anywhere near the maximum enlightenment possible. In fact your ideas about it are largely deluded and immature. It requires a thorough knowledge of many things concerning humanity, the origins of religion, deep psychology (in practice), and not just some subjective experience which once blew your mind.

I do not intend to continue any correspondence with you because I have seen how hypocritically you treated Barry Pittard. I have no help to offer you either, but you sorely need it. I am not moved by mere sweet words, as I recognise they conflict with the main body of how you react to others. I am not dear to you, you do not know me – I am a real person, not some abstraction of the kind you deal in. I do have very sweet days with my family, friends and existence, without your wishes or help. One often reaps what one has sown (not always though!)
Robert Priddy

Yaanidrucker also commented:- 2010/05/23 at 6:02 pm

Dear Dr. Priddy,

You are a PhD, correct? And by your definition of a cult, you got caught in one. Now your definition and mine differ, therefore I do not think you were so stupid as to get stuck in a cult, however you do. I find that very interesting, despite your complete faith in those PhD who lead the world, who breath that rarified air of enlightened knowledge, that is so superior to the rest of us peons.

I am neither a Ph.D nor a Professor, though I was a professor in the wider general sense, a university lecturer. I have a Ph.D. equivalent – 7 years university studies and thesis, dissertation etc.). Many people have given me these titles, and I have always responded asking them not to do so, I prefer to rely on what I actually write and stand for, not on titles. So Yaani is completely mistaken about my self-evaluations, and she never even met me. She seems to have a problem about knowledge and learning… even though she has announced that she took a BA in psychology herself. As to peons… well, she regards humanity in its virtual entirety as trapped with their egos… while she thinks she is enlightened beyond all measure? What an egocentric self-appraisal!

Yaani evidently has no idea of how I view and define cults in accordance with world experts on this subject. She could benefit from reading about them! Her view is that only a group one cannot leave is a cult. That is very simplistic. One can even leave the most oppressive cults, but it is the harassment afterwards that is the defining quality. Such as her confidante Moreno’s constant harassment of all Sathya Sai Baba ex-cult members. The Sathya Sai cult is not as extreme in the sense that some are, not unless you are in India and confront them (Basava Premanand was burgled three times (see BBC report) and suffered attempts on his life from Sai Baba goondas (i.e. killer thugs). He was convinced from his evidence that his son and helper was murdered in a Bangalore hospital too! Numerous Indian students have been murdered at the ashrams, and also a considerable number of Westerners, while other Western visitors have ‘disappeared’ from the ashram and have never been traced. Indian ex-students in fear of their livelihoods and even their lives still write to me (for they know I can be trusted, unlike continuing devotees). But for the majority it is admittedly a very subtle kind of cult, relying on voluntary donations (after deep indoctrination). Sai Baba gives people almost worthless rings (claiming they are diamond rings), fake watches, all manner of trinkets – and he gets huger donations in return out of thankfulness – but the donors were thoroughly deceived!

See The Nature of Cults examined

Jaani Drucker – wild claims not supported by her actions

Jaani [or Yaani] Drucker, who claims to be fully spiritually enlightened – has responded to points made by Barry Pittard in his wordpress blogs, but with obvious ill-humour.  She has a website in which she has publicly expressed the same line that she took in writing to Barry Pittard, such as:-

“Anyone who has an ego, which everyone has except those who have attained enlightenment,  is in a state of denial, denial about the truth of who they are, and that includes most professionals. Just because someone has a PhD does not make him/her an expert in what is or is not enlightenment …”

This is no mean claim. Around six billion people have egos, no doubt and tens of thousands of Ph.Ds possess a vast collective knowledge about human reactions and the ego in all its forms. But Jaani knows the world population is in denial! What kind of delusion is that? ‘Not having an ego’ is a very vague phrase – it can mean anything from being in total amnesia, a vegetative state to – in the spiritual belief Jaani defends  – being totally immersed in what she characterises as her “omnipotent” self-consciousness and beyond any worldly influences. Such a person is called a jnani (i.e. one who knows it all). Not Jaani, though! A jnani has no desires or interests in the world, according to the doctrine. Yet Jaani’s interest in self-promotion on the Internet and elsewhere – and her expressed desire not to be criticized, her strong reactions to difficult questions which she actually fails to confront properly – not least her very prickly ego attacks on Pittard – are all disqualifiers for anything at all like “realization”. Barry Pittard is engaging in fair questioning of her extremely remarkable claims, not – as she falsely claims. He is not running a ‘smear campaign’ against her or Sathya Sai Baba. Pittard. Admittedly, he is a stringent critic of Sathya Sai Baba and the vast cover-ups around him, but that is on many and firm documented grounds, including over a score of signed testimonies that he sexually abused young men – including underage boys. Very many other instances are reported by others – including by his own officials – as being molested by oiling of the genitals. Jaani calls this huge documentation, also by the BBC and Danish televison, as ‘rumour’! I am sure she knows far better than that, not least from her husband who has told Aime Levy about it himself. She is definitely in denial about that, for a start! Yet Jaani states her precious belief: –
“… I credit Sai Baba for my enlightenment, and it is in part because He was instrumental in my awakening that I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is who He claims to be”.

Such ‘certainty beyond a shadow of a doubt’ is not knowledge, and it puts itself far ‘beyond doubt’ in that it is vulnerable to doubt, being merely subjective belief, and the more so the more strongly held. On Pittard’s blogsite, he has responded to Jaani Drucker’s self-projective points, and in detail. Her responses were unsatisfactorily evasive and soon she reacted by refusing to discuss with him unless he withdrew his writing about her. She then wrote to him that, as a result of his writings, some persons told her they would as a result not now attend her workshop on ‘ego’. She writes that he was “impeding her heartful offering toward a better world”. She makes the unenlightened assumption that Barry Pittard does not contribute his work with at least the same good intentions. She started out with a good deal of love and light, but her tone increasingly implies she is looking for a showdown – and to put down those who disagree with her, so she should not be so offended when someone takes her up on it. She quoted in an e-mail to her supporter, the web troll Gerald Moreno, that critics of Sai Baba are as “Dogs barking at the moon”, then denied vehemently in a mail to Pittard that she had ever called anyone a dog. A fine point that!

Jaani Drucker then tries to bargain: “I wonder whether you would consider removing your discrediting and unkind words? If so, perhaps there would be the possibility of an honest debate. Until then you demonstrate that you have already drawn your conclusion, that I am a dangerous energy that you need to protect others from, etc.” Jaani is very forthright with rash over-interpretations and prejudicial jumping to conclusions of his words and putting into Pittard’s mouth that she is a “dangerous energy”. Having written in a very polite and decent way throughout, Pittard should not remove anything. His postings are responsible contributions to a discussion (which Jaani originally invited all to join), being clearly made out of a sense of public duty (not, a Jaani suggested in that worn-out Sai-speak ‘to derive joy from criticising’). Moreover, for those who would backtrack or cover their tracks, Google’s moving finger writes on, and, “having writ, moves on”… once posted it is forever in the public sphere somewhere for good or ill.

Barry Pittard can be seen to have written in a very polite and decent way throughout – though frank and making strong points in the discussion. That is what she cannot abide, being questioned radically, so she avoids answering the really sensitive points, complaining instead. These reactions show her to be disturbed by any criticism, no doubt she wants to carry on but escape the consequences of her support for Sathya Sai Baba in all things, and simply brush aside critical comments as not founded in her supposed ‘Truth’.

In an effort to counteract Barry Pittard’s highly relevant questions, Jaani first decided to cut off communication, then tried to appeal to Barry Pittard to reverse his position on the basis of the universal brotherhood/sisterhood of mankind. Noble as that sentiment may be as an ideal – and even though all humans are genetically related – it is not a principle for suppressing discussion, well-meant criticism and even argument between “brothers and sisters”. In my view cult members are more like very distant cousins to me – I feel no brotherhood as regards their ideology and denial of many facts, though I would accept that they could well have good intentions. Intention and action do not always concur, however… and frank and open truthfulness from the Druckers on the sexual abuse issue would be welcome… but they evidently discriminate against those “brothers” who are no longer in the so-called ‘Sai family’. Not least it would help assuage the feelings of the offended persons whom they know to be speaking the truth about their awful experiences. It would also be fair to many of us who we have all reason based on massive, impelling testimony to accept they were so treated by Sai Baba… and not least also for his own sexual satisfaction!

Jaani refers to the perceived greatness of her husband (in some circles). His supposed greatness is – as he admits – entirely due to his having been taken close th Sai Baba, that he and she are ‘just ordinary people’ etc. I would still add a few moderating thoughts. When first I heard him hold forth as a lecturer at Prashanthi Nilayam in January, 1985, he was known for having been saved from a plane crash by a supposed miracle of Sai Baba. He had been made into a kind of idol by some US devotees. I found a solemn-faced propagator of Sai Baba’s more simplistic and myth-packed doctrine for young students (as contained in Drucker’s book reproducing talks by Sai Baba to his students which, since Drucker does not know Telugu, was translated for him by another). Drucker held with Sai Baba that he was himself Rama, Krishna and other divine figures… and their teaching is his. During Christmas 1986, Drucker informed the crowd at a choir practice that Sai Baba had said that all of the devotees who had been with Rama were present in reincarnations at his 60th birthday, including the ‘monkey-god’ Hanuman (not least therefore, some people thought Drucker might have been told he was Hanuman. What a craze-inducing place Prashanthi Nilayam is!).

Whatever the case, Al Drucker seemed very devout and puritan, and with his Talmudic background he saw Prashanthi Nilayam as the New Jerusalem. He spent decades living almost exclusively at Sai Baba ashrams, where any new ideas are most unwelcome unless they concur and support those which are ‘politically correct’ in Sathya Sai Baba’s view. In the role of local ‘greatness’ that no doubt partly was forced upon him, various people I knew there nonetheless saw Al Drucker as too bossy and I could not observe that he was a helpful server of struggling visitors, for he had the role of an important personage, which rested mainly on his proximity to Sai Baba since the late 1970s. (Add to that the fact that he had once temporarily been employed in some kind of scientific role by NASA, before he joined Esalen and left the scientific attitude firmly behind him). He was seen by most devotees much as a go-between to God Incarnate, a recipient of miracle blessings and one who maybe knew some of the secrets not shared with ordinary joes! He did amuse me, however, when he somewhat patronisingly mismanaged certain events (eg. the Christmas choir) so badly as to have some of us laughing amid all the gushing piety.

The jealousy which plagues all the Sai ashrams (as I observed and indeed Sai Baba himself roundly railed about) was strong against Al Drucker. I heard diverse complaints about him and some Indian VIPs expressed Schadenfreude when he was excommunicated. Most unacceptable!

The Ways of the Mind – on the issue by a Swedish psychologist
Strawberry Fields Forever? plus comments on Jaani & advaitic doctrine
Reply To Claimer of Enlightenment (Yaani Drucker Correspondence) Part 2
Barry Pittard Replies To Sathya Sai Center Rape Survivor’s Note To Him
Dangerous to Rationalize Rape. A major Sathya Sai Baba Follower’s Example

Will the Real Professor Alvin Drucker Be Upstanding? Professor Alvin Drucker has not spoken out yet, will he stand up and be a true man? Reliable sources testify to what Drucker knew about sexual abuses.
Reply To Claimer of Spiritual Enlightenment (Yaani Drucker Correspondence) Part 1
Reply To Claimer of Enlightenment (Yaani Drucker Correspondance) Part 2
Reply To Claimer of Enlightenment (Jaani Drucker Correspondance) Part 3
Reply To Claimer of Spiritual Enlightenment (Yaani Drucker Correspondence) Part 4
Reply To Claimer of Spiritual Enlightenment (Yaani Drucker Correspondence) Part 5
Reply To Claimer of Spiritual Enlightenment (Yaani Drucker Correspondence) Part 6

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See Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and his Worldwide Organization
(Spanish version PETICIÓNPÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES

Projecting one’s whole autonomy onto Sathya Sai Baba

All Sathya Sai Baba followers who visit his ashrams have always had to queue, sit and wait almost endlessly before he appears – let alone before they get the chance of an interview, which almost no one does any longer due to his invalidism. Many pray and wait for years on end for the ‘Lord and Master’, and ‘spiritual seekers’ who travel across continents are all constantly hope for some form of personal attention, eye contact, some words… then more and more of the same. All this is shared by all followers, excluding very important persons, such as heads of state, royalty or the super rich and famous, who mostly get comparative red carpet treatment.

Sathya Sai Baba used to walk about very slowly, making gestures (which many people took as personal messages to them!) and when he looked even in a person’s general direction, they took this as a blessing! Not a few report how waves of happiness, bliss, even ecstasy floods through them, tears come to their eyes. If he smiles at them or takes a letter from them, it seems to them that they at last have confirmation of being personally acceptable to God himself. In most cases, these emotions are the culmination of a very long period of approaching through meditation on him, prayers to him, letters sent (often with the writer’s most private thoughts ‘in advance’) after much reading of books which all praise him beyond the clouds, videos which seem to prove he is a divinity, hearing miracle and amazing healing stories galore, and making diverse efforts to live according to his directions, do everything in his name.

Many followers sacrifice much time and money, put up with all manner of difficulties and disappointments on the way, meanwhile meeting many other persons telling of wonderful (subjective) experiences seen through their own faith. But by then they have already become highly open to suggestion (becoming what are called ‘good hypnotic subjects’). Despite this, or precisely because of it, various persons have been surprised, as was I, upon first observing him show himself (i.e. “give his holy darshan“) because. he seemed just too ordinary. But then, one already ‘knows’ that it could just not be true…has he not told them not to be deceived by his short stature, for in reality he holds the entire universe in his hands?

Longing and Yearning are ‘projective’: The intensity developed by followers’ desires and beliefs amount to psychological projections. Projection is a very complex process with many aspects and can vary in strength, scope and content. Nonetheless it is a common occurrence among followers of all idols, especially those who have created an aura of holiness or wisdom around themselves, by whatever means.  Even one small apparent paranormal event – taken as the longed-for Sai leela or small miracle – is enough to set one  self-reinforcing ones indoctrination to last for life! This may take the form of statement like the following which was sent to me by a colleague at some stage as an illustration of how mental projection words in those who have invested much time and energy without noticeable attention from Sathya Sai Baba:

 

“I vividly recall looking at his form with utter peace and no thoughts. He stopped and turned and gave me this amazing smile, piercing me with his eyes and I felt this incredible warmth enter me. “What did he do that for,” I thought, on that day three years ago. Today, the penny dropped. Thought has to stop.” by Sai Baba devotee Christopher (Chris) Parnell – Australian Sathya Sai Organization

The dropping penny – after first awakening new thoughts – evidently causes thought to deteriorate – and that is precisely the programme Sai Baba sets out – overcome one’s thoughts through mantras, prayer, bhajan singing and meditation. Kill the mind – supposedly letting mindless ‘universal consciousness’ take over!  I have observed through many years observing others how their minds tend to drift without incisiveness or efforts at improvement, getting ever more uncritical and unreliable. Impressionable persons who have been actively indoctrinating (or ‘brain-washing’) themselves for a long time within the cocoon of beliefs and mostly within the circle of other believers… especially in the otherworldly and unrealistic ashram mental environment where all one’s wildest hopes may (but most likely will not) come true.

Powerful projection reinforcements: Projecting all kinds of desires and ones best imaginings onto Sathya Sai Baba and his circle, one produces a self-conversion by oneself. These circumstances are known to be conducive to sudden healing and many other extra-normal effects, but these always prove to be partial and temporary… the enthusiasm wears off after the famous ‘honeymoon’ period is past. Such phenomena are well known, far from being limited to Sai Baba or other Indian gurus – consider Billy Graham, Lourdes. Pastor Moon and literally thousands of other personality cults. One develops a partly delusional world-view and can then become easily manipulated by powerful forms of suggestion of the kind otherwise called ‘hypnotic’. These can cause considerable distortions of sensory perception, even though one does not enter an actual sleep-like trance (viz. Derren Brown). The intensity of the ‘projection’ makes likely not only changes in outlook, but a new sense of purpose and energy. All one needed was a catalyst (a relevant  object or person to project onto in the specific case), and that is how idol-worship and personality cults work.

More on mental-emotional projection and Sai Baba’s methods of using it to come.

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Swami ‘Paramahamsa’ Nityananda scandal

Swami Nityananda, caught trying to cover up the sex video evidence all can see.

See latest blog on this guru here

Swami Paramahamsa Nithyananda – alias Rajasekaran, a native of Tiruvannamalai was caught on video in compromising situations with Tamil  actress Ranjitha and another woman. Serious complaints to the police were lodged by various persons, including Kannada actor Praveen and his ‘second-in-command; Lenin. Since then he has withdrawn into indeterminate spiritual seclusion’ and his main ashram has ceased to function. This case pales by comparison with those of Pope Benedict or Sathya Sai Baba, but it has awakened more Indian media suspicion of Indian gurus than any comparable event. So much so that a film ‘God and Sex’ on Nityananda’s life is to be made by director Ram Gopal Varma.

Zeenews.com reported (23-3-2010): “Tamil Nadu police who had registered cases under various sections, including rape, against Nityananda, transferred them to the police in Ramanagar, as the Ashram falls under it.” The Times of India reported that: “There will be no stay on investigation. Let me go through those papers,” the judge observed when the counsel for the petitioner pleaded for interim order of stay on the proceedings apprehending arrest following the filing of the FIR.”

Kamini Jaiswal, a senior Supreme Court lawyer , who has fought a case against Sathya Sai Baba (see here), blames blind followers for such incidents. “It is shocking to see that well educated people are followers of such godmen,” she said. (Source CNN-IBN)

Swami Nithyananda is notable for the degree of pathetic denial and self-contradictory ‘explanations’, for example:-

“Swamiji has said that the video is a morphed one and blames one of his inmates Premananda alias Lenin Karuppan, for the morphing of his face with the idea of defaming him. It is said that Swamiji tried to stop the airing of the video footage but a civil court did not grant any stay.” (Source)

“Yes, I am in the video. And I am not running away from the law. I was in a trance when the video was shot. Give me a chance to explain myself” Swami said. (Source)

Then about the video he told that they are only the experiments with Tamil actress Ranjita.(Source)

SEE Is Heat Too Much For Swami Nityananda, Under Fire By Sex Abuse Allegations?

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Yaani Drucker: ‘The Ego’ misunderstood and the doctrine of self-nihilation

During my 18 years as a leader in the Sathya Sai Organization I tried to strike the balance between the excessive pronouncements and impossible requirements of Sai Baba on correct behaviour and the crying needs of fellow devotees – some weak or often disturbed persons – who sought help and succour from the organization (which was supposed to be the extension of Sai Baba’s world mission). The contradictions between the teachings and the rules, the manipulation and jockeying for position by the VIP leaders plus the paradoxes between Sai Baba’s own words and actions were eventually too much to manage and finally broke the back of all the best – most active and generous – people in our organization here and many in other countries. Once the true facts about Sai Baba emerged from 2000 onwards, all of these left in disgust and as wiser people. The doctrine behind it all looked more and more shabby and divorced from reality.

One crucial anomaly in all ‘spiritual’ doctrines which aim to remove the individualised self in favour of the imaginary One Divine Self is that they require far too much concentration on one’s own salvation…i.e. on and for oneself. The paradox is that, to rid oneself of self (or ‘ego’ understood as the seat of selfishness), one has to cultivate oneself, examine oneself, improve oneself and concentrate overwhelmingly on one’s own practices (‘spiritual sadhana‘). This ‘sadhana‘ can include doing good service to others, but one engages in it primarily out of motivation for one’s own future imagined good… ‘liberation’ from the world and its cares in some unknown realm of being filled with consciousness and bliss. To rationalize the necessity of this selfish pursuit of one’s own ultimate interests, it is said that it is best for all humanity that people become self-realized, it will eventually introduce an age of Truth and goodness etc. (even though they will have died and are out of contact with the world forever – which further gives rise to ideas of otherworldly contacts, communications with spirits and the dead, ghosts or whatever you want to have to rest assured).

To overcome the ego by such doctrines, one must think of oneself as not oneself but as being God omnipotent (and also omnipresent and omniscient as a result). This is tough if one finds does not posses these qualities at all! However, plenty of self-styled ‘Masters’ claim to do so (perhaps the Druckers too?)! It may all done with the very best of intentions, [however misguided] – but definitely not by all who do it to earn a fortune, power and everything they can get! This ambiguous ”self-cultivation’ is nothing short of narcissism, or seeing oneself only in the mirror of one’s self-enhancing thoughts. Most persons with some professional experience of psychotherapies naturally regard this as an ‘escape mechanism’ or ‘denial of reality’, to flee the world in wishful thinking. It is well-known, too, how reality has its own way of impinging – even brutally smashing the hall of self-distorting mirrors – sooner or later. Common sense and proper information show how anyone can be threatened by debilitating illness, by senile loss of memory or dementia, accidents causing strokes and other brain damage. What then of one’s imagined ‘self-omnipotence’? We see many indubitable signs of the reduction to incoherence and absurdity in the self-proclaimed omnipotent, omniscient Divinity – Sathya Sai Baba, the ultimate narcissist, as I and others (see here) have documented from his own words in many web pages.

In the zealous atmosphere where most followers are trapped in very subtle indoctrination and a largely self-programmed belief structure, no inquiring mind can survive untroubled for very long. Either one goes along with the rationalization process which operates at full steam throughout the Sai movement or one questions more and more when disturbed by observable and reported events. Living there is mentally stifling – and intellectually unfruitful. This is not least so in the colleges, which was one of the hardest tests I had to face – one shared by my friend V.K. Narasimhan. I did my best to seek answers to remove doubts and then to raise questions that might lead further, but the doctrine of Sai Baba is set in stone as God-ordained, perfect and beyond any human criticism or even proper understanding (he claims). Unfortunately my efforts in many Sanathana articles to explain away anomalies were embraced readily by those starved of explanations of worrying events and answers to conflicting or wild Sai Baba statements … eventually I had to say no to Narasimhan’s pressing requests for yet more articles.

Incidentally, Narasimhan told me repeatedly, latest in 1998 when Al Drucker partook in the Paduka ceremony there, that he disagreed fundamentally with Al Drucker about the advaitic teaching he professes, having seen it as one of the worst of all ideological influences on the Indian psyche and society. Its pernicious effects were, he insisted, the main cause of the disinterest of so many Indians in worldly conditions and especially in their fellow sufferers’ plight… with their “it is all due to karma, but never mind, the Unitary One God is working out his great design” Really?

My wife makes the following remarks on this subject of ego-removal:

“Those who think of themselves as being one with the divine must necessarily divide the self into two parts – the divine self (atman) and the human ‘incarnation’ (jiva) which is regarded as selfish and ignorant of its divine origin, blinded by illusion (maya) into thinking of itself as a separate being. The fact that the human self is experienced as being the real one doesn’t matter, for the teaching says it is an illusion. This splitting off of part of oneself and denial of one’s real perceptions tends to undermine the whole psyche and personality, and it creates a dependency on the spiritual teacher/master or whoever claims to be able to perceive this ‘Truth’.  Many wish to be perfect, full of bliss and untouched by pain, sorrow or difficulties. In order for that to happen – the doctrine insists – one has to be constantly focused on the divine self and identifying with it. So much better than to have to identify with the human ego-self who makes mistakes, suffers, and is generally far from perfect and blissful…. How nice and convenient to reflect on the divine self, perfect and beyond reproach, and not to have to bother about reflecting on – or be responsible for – one’s human failings!

No wonder that there are so many who have symptoms of suffering from ego-mania in ‘spiritual’ groups, being hardly capable of serious self-reflection, unable to recognise faults they have – and with exaggerated ideas of themselves. So as to keep up this self-image the doctrine of ‘positive thinking’ is applied, for it leaves no room for critical thoughts to disturb their focus on the ‘divine self”… while the actual human self is overlooked or even shunted off as an illusion, a negative disturbance”

My wife put things very aptly!
By extension or inference, the doctrine runs that one should never criticize others either, as their true selves are equally one with the divine and thus beyond reproach. All others are ideally represented as being “brothers and sisters”… whoever they are, whatever they have done or are doing! This is all very well as a wishful dream, but it is not at all in the world all live in! Genuine concern for others as they actually are (not as imagined to be) and normal conscience have no place in that scheme which cannot distinguish between good and bad. Such belief systems would deny other people’s experience of sexual abuse as something bad, because of one’s own denial of the world and human self as real.

It is pitiful really, that this unnatural splitting of oneself in two – the real vs. the unreal self, or the sacred vs. the profane self – is seen as bringing one closer to oneness, not only with the divine self but with all ‘creation’ (or, rather, only with the divine essence of creation, not the time-space universe). This is dualism, of which no consciousness can ever totally be free (there must be consciousness of something). The actual ‘creation’ we live in and perceive is portrayed as illusive, unreal (maya), and only the supposed and unseen, unknowable creator is real. All that kind of thing is existence turned upside-down in fantasy, as often symbolised by the Yggdrasil tree (of Norse mythology) which is inverted and has its roots in the sky – as if it could exist and sustain itself in that way. (Likewise all surreal extras in the form of clouds, cuckoos, green pastures and non-stop hymn-singing ghostly choirs?)

Meanwhile, as my wife heartily agrees, others have to put up with these people who mentally shut off the parts of themselves that don’t fit into their ideas of their ‘divine’ selves, and who then start preaching their (deeply ingrained and soon subconscious) self-deception to others. They think they know the one truth, and cannot and will not modify their thoughts, beliefs or behaviour based on worldly facts or any well-meant input or feedback from others. The most deluded cases – every adult will have come across at least one – believe they know everything, know God or even are God and are fanatically engaged in wanting to bring salvation to everyone for their own good, whether they want it or not. These God-botherers – not leasy Yaani Drucker and her kind – who want to save others from themselves are soon shunned by all people of experience and character because they are truly insufferable.

Relevant articles:-
Reply To Claimer of Enlightenment (Yaani Drucker Correspondence) Part 2
Barry Pittard Replies To Sathya Sai Center Rape Survivor’s Note To Him
Dangerous to Rationalize Rape. A major Sathya Sai Baba Follower’s Example
The Spiritual Search – a philosophical analysis of advaitic solipsism and social narcissism

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PLEASE SEE THE SAI PETITION AND DECIDE WHETHER TO SIGN IT

Why Former Devotees Feel Obliged to Expose Sai Baba

Having for so long contributed to so many people becoming Sathya Sai Baba followers, I cannot escape the sense of duty I have to make known to them – and all comers – what I unavoidably learned about him – his deceptions and widely and firmly alleged crimes – despite all I had accepted and hoped to be true about him.

My promotion of Sai Baba was mainly through running a Sai centre for many years with my wife – and working hard to fulfil all its requirements [without appreciable help from the members or others for most of the 18 years]. It continued through my writings – a positive book (which he accepted) well over a score of articles in his journal or in other official Sai publications. Besides, I devoted 18 years of my life to trying to realise some of the ideals I came to believe that Sathya Sai Baba really stood for (yet no longer can). My nearly two decades in the organization was full of him and his teachings. During that time I practiced his various directions like selfless service and strictly following human values to the best of my abilities.  We visited him on nine occasions and come to know him (5 interviews – plus 5 private interviews total ca. 8-9 hours) and countless darsan contacts. I knew various persons very close to him, and not least because of that I happen to be unusually well placed to expose what I found out about him. In fact, Sathya Sai Baba is the one subject in my later life about which I am most informed, and it is natural that I should not just run away from the matter but instead expose all his countless deceits and alleged crimes. I have a  large catalogue of mails from persons who have been damaged by him, and from families that have been broken up due to his influence, sometimes from very prominent people in the West.

I might have preferred it had I not felt obliged to follow up my exposure of what I came to know about him. I am in no doubt that what I am doing is right in all senses of the word, for I know so many people whose lives have been seriously upset by him, his directives, broken promises, outright lies and taking advantage of them. I have suffered only mildly in comparison with many who write to me. As to those whose faith is challenged by my work in promoting all the testimonies against him etc., they have a choice… to seek the truth at whatever cost to their own feelings and dependency on him, or to continue in an illusion that he is what he claims to be. I am not responsible for any pain they may suffer from realisation of the facts, because I did not do the things I report on… it was Sathya Sai Baba who did wrong, not I. I have not deceived anyone, he most certainly has – and on a massive scale. Those officials who support him in the cover up of everything he does which he not wish should come to light are themselves also responsible for their part in it… As my activity up to now shows, I am fully determined not to allow Sathya Sai baba, his officials, his organization and the politicians and judges who protect him to get away with a total cover-up of all the many allegations of sexual abuse and murder involvement, or to hush up his megalomaniac claims and countless false and ignorant statements… whatever good he may have done or his followers have achieved. The truth shall out!

Footnote: Years of a major slur and libel campaign against me and other critics of SB by Gerald Joe Moreno have caused some of us at long last to respond in some detail to his endless bending of the truth, distorting facts about us and insultingly accusing us of many things which are entirely false.  Because there are so many deceived or deluded followers who know little or nothing other than the stories and propaganda, his many pages are read by some – a tiny proportion of the alleged millions of followers nonetheless. The transparency of his bogus arguments is such that the more who read them, the more seek out our responses, and we are confident that we stand for nothing but the facts and the truth, which will convince those who are not over-indoctrinated. Moreno’s smear and character assassination campaign against dissidents further ensures that the exposé continues with full force, also to expose his dirty tricks.

Barry Pittard, a former lecturer in Sathya Sai Baba’s education establishment and a devotee for 25 years, has recently written a series documenting his leave-taking of Sathya Sai Baba:

Barry Pittard – Leaving the Sathya Sai Baba Cult (Part 1.)- Ex Leaders + Rank-and-File
On Leaving A Powerful Global Cult. Sathya Sai Baba  (Part 2)
On Leaving A Powerful Global Cult. Sathya Sai Baba  (Part 3)

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See Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and his Worldwide Organization
(Spanish version PETICIÓNPÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES