Sai Baba cult: a look behind the façade

Did Sathya Sai Baba really transform people? Sathya Sai Baba said (to the editor of his journal, V.K. Narasimhan) that one thing he cannot do is make people be good. So the question as to whether Sai devotees undergo more sound or permanent self-transformation than usual at any ‘religious conversion’ or other types of life-altering event is worth pursuing.

These people are almost never looked at critically by anyone who is allowed to remain within the movement because of the vague but absolute Sai ‘commandment’ ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ and ‘see only the good in everyone’. These are self-defeating practices in real life and – taken too seriously – lead towards such states as undue self-love and self-hate, loss of proper touch with other people and the world. One problem is that the virtual impossibility of this sweeping decree in real life, for most of us who are not in some cocoon are faced with things we must – if we follow our consciences bravely – criticise, condemn (though we may choose not to speak out) and act firmly against. This was reflected in the selfish actions of many leaders in the Sathya Sai  organisation, their sheer unwillingness or inability to interact openly and fairly with other people. Following Sai Baba’s instruction, they made rules to stop members from any co-operation with other voluntary movements, even those having equally good or better aims and stronger records of public service. It came out too in innumerable squabbles, let-downs, broken promises and all the detritus of life that persists in all Sai groups I knew about through 18 years and which I have repeatedly been told about from followers from many countries. These matters were even brought up sometimes in mild forms at Sai conferences by speakers (a few of whom dared to deplore the standards of Sai devotees). Those trying to share the fact with ‘their brothers’ (and sometimes even their sisters too) were side-lined at all meetings or excluded outright. This indicated that genuine transformations into good devotees were considerably fewer and lesser than it was constantly made out to be by self-promoting eager beavers and zealots! Further, if one were to judge by the sheer venom in mails from diverse, mostly anonymous Sai ‘devotees’ that I and other critics of Sathya Sai Baba have received, one can wonder how much this movement was a refuge for what Sai Baba calls ‘bad men’ and worse.

Sai Baba’s reported vastly loving nature As to the ‘amazing compassionate love’ and so on that Sathya Sai Baba drummed into people as being his chief quality and which was thereafter said to emanate from him, I have heard many talk about it, but it always seemed so doubtful because the feeling was so evidently self-generated by the person describing it. It was hard for a mature person with much life experience of others, as I was in my 50th year, to detect anything like real love from Sai Baba. He could smile very charmingly, seem to show much flattering interest in people when it suited him.. It was easy – after waiting possibly for months or years – for the wonder-struck aspirant to take his first friendly glance at them as an outpouring of divine love, for by that time many have been reduced by his ignoring them for so long to a feeling of self-doubt, and the relief of his notice would come as a huge boost. In their hagiographic books, many devotees’ descriptions of their trial emphasise this first, all-transforming look. (see Sathya Sai Baba’s charismatic look) Looking back in a balanced reflective mood, I recall that I never simply felt real warmth from him – even in long interviews or private interviews… nor in several hundred darshans. Attention, smiles, soft words (but also grating ones) yes, but caring actions towards many sufferers of awful conditions or towards people in emotional crises, little or nothing. He would make people in wheelchairs stand up and stagger into the interview room on his arm, but they soon had to get their wheelchairs back (which were even taken away directly and donated to others). In mostly failing to follow his promises and flattery up at all, while accepting worship and donations, Sai Baba had the hallmark of the classic psychopath, Most psychopaths have great abilities to make others feel love for them… there are many famous examples of admired charmers who have been exposed and have fallen from their pedestals., 

Sai Baba’s claimed that he tested devotees’ faith in him, such as through ‘sending them hardships’, through withholding his grace and leaving them to face their crises and sufferings. Such tests are described by many writers, and some have told me of the wholly unreasonable ‘tests’ they have had to face. The majority of followers were mostly ignored for obvious logistical reasons, but it was said that this showed one was not ready or was undergoing a ‘test of faith’.  In addition, there were many inexplicably untoward things that happened in his sphere, of which Sai Baba could always say (if anyone dared ask), that these were tests of faith. See some of these described here. 

Poor verbal communication skills: I have observed at a series of interviews how Sathya Sai Baba was most definitely not very insightful or full of genuine understanding when talking to people even, in my experience, because he invariably answered obliquely or even failed to understand what he was being asked. Most of what he said weree phrases heard many times by many others, whether nice or nasty ones (i.e. I have heard him tell various clients: “you argue a lot”, “you fight your wife/husband”; “you have a (mad) monkey-mind”; “you’re a mad girl; crazy man”; “I will see you”; “you are (very) depressed”; “where is your husband/wife/daughter/son?”;”when did you come”; “when are you leaving?”; “Very happy”, “I will find you a husband” “he is a bad man” plus many a well-worn set piece from the Sai phrasebook. Meanwhile, all this was interpreted by devotees in terms of his great cosmic pretensions and was twisted and turned in the hope of getting some clue as it its hidden ‘divine’ meaning or auspicious import. A sad scenario! This became an obsession among the more frequent interviewees, while those who got little or no interviews did just the same with many ordinary daily events in their lives… attributing them to Sathya Sai Baba ‘s hidden influence and stretching their own credibility far beyond what could possibly be true or even could accord with what Sathya Sai Baba had taught many times. Few devotees indeed actually studied his writings and discourses in any depth or breadth.

Cheap trinkets as panaceas Among Sai Baba’s wide range of devices and expedients to gain devotees and keep those who were useful and wealthy, he would give some tangible ‘blessing’, perhaps some privileges or even a free room at his ashram, or supposedly manifest some trinket that seemed very valuable – but was very seldom better than a paiste gemstones set in a silver or sometimes gold ring or other trinket. He might ask a person to  give a lecture to his students or to speak in his auditorium, (inevitably taken naively as a blessing and sign of one’s own spiritual maturity and goodness).  ‘Oh such divine love’, many would emote, but I couldn’t detect it.. His big bag of tricks was a useful fall-back for reconciling those followers he had continually disappointed, as so many eventually confided to me that they were because they learned almost nothing in interviews and got no real response to their concerns to help.Trickery is hardly genuine love, I’d say… and I have established beyond all possible doubt that the ‘green diamond’ he claimed to materialise and gave me was an almost worthless fake with silver paper behind the stone to enhance its brilliance! Even when he did listen a bit to someone, I have often seen SB brush the questioner’s concerns aside with some quip (to raise a laugh), some irrelevant answer or some facial expression that tells one nothing (and tells he gives nothing). Was all this love, then? To pretend it is anything special, one must become an emotional chameleon, or some mentally boneless contortionist. It is truly remarkable how many people achieved this!

Healing as a sign of love? The many alleged miraculous healings claimed by – or for – by Sai Baba cannot ever be satisfactorily proven as being miracles or his doing. Improvements that take place (or may temporarily seem to do so) can be due entirely to other causes. It is known how placebos can work wonders, and how the person’s emotional state can have huge effects on health, with frequent turnaround triggered by anything from strokes of very good luck to sudden infatuation or requited love.  The intense desire for release from pain and suffering – prayed about constantly – can have strong effects when one suddenly gets convinced that God is caring, and this may seem to be proved by being granted at long last a meeting with “God Incarnate Himself’. Compare this undoubted phenomenon to other sects like the evangelicals, the Jehovah Witnesses, the Pentecostals and hundreds similar where ‘miraculous healings’ are supposedly regular occurrences (though often temporary highs after which a relapse soon follows) and are attributed to whoever is seen as the instruments of God (Jesus, Allah etc.). Add to this ‘healing’ by shamans in many cultures in the world, the powerful trance effects of African and voodoo ‘witchcraft healers’. All this shows how little importance need be attached to the person involved, or to which ‘ishta’, ‘ikon’ ‘idol’ or ‘healer’ one appeals. One can project one’s energies towards anyone and even any object regarded as powerful – it appears – and through such a catalyst, genuine results can sometimes occur. It is in this non-miraculous context that I see Sathya Sai Baba ‘s alleged ‘miracles of healing’, along with all healings that are attributed to people of both the profane and sacred sort.

The whole construction of a ‘spiritual dispensation’ by the all-powerful ‘avatar of the age’, so widely claimed yet reported by so many and so credibly to be built on the sands of sexual abuse will most certainly topple over like a tower struck by lightning in the glare of considered opinion. Much of Sai Baba’s carefully guarded reputation is already ruined long since… a comical tragedy of errors and misplaced trust.

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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

Study of Sathya Sai Baba’s Miracles

An on-line web paper (by Ted Powell) is adapted from the  book “Sai Baba’s Miracles: an overview” by Dale Beyerstein. The extensive paper has considerable food for thought for any intelligent, educated person who is interested in Sathya Sai Baba. It is found at the BC Society for Skeptical Inquiry website here

Sai Baba is an example of a God-Man: a man who claims to be a god. While God-Men are abundant in Asia, Sai Baba has been very successful in not only attracting followers in that continent, but also in the rest of the world. The contents of this papers are as follows (click on links):-

* The Purpose of This Study
*    Background Information About Sai Baba
*    Claims Made About Sathya Sai Baba
2. Sai Baba: Omniscient and Omnipotent?
3. Did Sai Baba Resurrect Someone From The Dead?
4. Does Sai Baba have telepathy
5. Accounts of materializing objects
6. Sundry Miracles
7. Healing
8. Fulfilment of prophecy
9. Bibliography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,bliss,wisdom
Men,women,celibacy

Divine incarnation

Healing & Youthfulness

Shirdi and Sathya

Suka Nadi prophecies

saibabaofindia.com at panic stations

Since I first posted an excerpt from the Convocation discourse Sathya Sai Baba gave on 22-11-2008, the web site saibabaofindia eventually removed the offending parts. I pointed this out and gave the URL which was no longer active. Now they have evidently tried damage limitation and have reposted the offending part
(see http://www.saibabaofindia.com/sai_baba_83rd_birthday-update-photos-23rdnov2008.htm).
It is well worth reading, as it should remove any last vestige of belief in even the most lunatic devotees that Sathya Sai Baba is omniscient, or that he even has any idea of what is going on all around him In India beyond the extremely tightly-garded fiefdom in which he is rolled around in his wheelchair nowadays.

He stated, 5 days before all hell broke loose in Mumbai:-

” India is the only place where people are not worried about any attacks. In America , Germany and other countries, they cannot eat well or sleep well. There is fear of bombs always in those countries. But in India , there is no fear of bombs. India will never have any such attacks”

The sheer absurdity of this may need to be spelled out for thoseSai baba followers – as in the Indian government and anywhere else who are in a state of shocked denial. Who can eat well, most Indians or most US and German citizens? But that India does not fear nor has any such attacks is the best stuff and nonsense Sai Baba has served up for quite some time! See here

It seems clear that saibabaofindia acted in haste – both in posting the above text, and then again in belated haste when withdrawing it, and then again hastily replacing it after I pointed out this cover-up. That is, unless they withdrew it expecting I would point this out, then sneaked it back on to try to discredit my report.

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

 

Sathya Sai Baba bi-location

Another prophecy from the ‘Suka Nadi’ palm leaf scrolls about Sathya Sai Baba is listed by saibabaofindia.com:-

· He will show Himself in many places simultaneously, though He will actually be in one place and there will be many divine acts and manifestations.

COMMENT: The ability to bi-locate has been claimed for other spiritual figures, such as  the famous Catholic Pater Pio of Pietrelcina, Italy (1887-1968, now Saint Pio of Pietrelcina). Parapsychologist Prof. Erlendur Haraldsson tried to investigate these highly controversial claims of Sathya Sai Baba’s bi-location but, though he could not substantiate them, he lent them some credence even by presenting the claims which could not be tested in any way. All accounts he obtained were anecdotal and/or hearsay, some being very meagre, others more detailed. Haraldsson classified such reports as ‘apparitions’ as in para-psychological  terminology, many of which have been recorded by para-psychologists (over 10% of questioned persons in general are supposed on statistical grounds to have such an experience at least once in their lifetime).

My views on such miraculous accounts are based on much questioning  of devotees (mostly Indians) through two decades. When reporting their experiences, inaccuracies, exaggerations, vagueness, sloppy observation, unquestioning reliance on hearsay and the zeal to convince others are all too common. These most extraordinary claims of Sathya Sai Baba having appeared in his physical person in two places at once would need most extraordinary evidence to be taken seriously, but such is completely lacking.

In dreams, visions and apparent ‘visitations’, the form of a distant person may well appear to people. Another likely explanation of perceived ‘visitations’ by Sathya Sai Baba can be the same as those now considered to have been causative of experiences of incubi, witches, the devil, spirit bodies, persons returned from the dead, UFO abductions and many other apparently waking phenomena. Sleep paralysis combined with a vivid dream while the mind experiences a waking state causes dream contents to be perceived as real and physical. This condition has recently been understood much better by neurologists and is quite common, often being connected with the various causes and kinds of narcolepsy.  Another prophecy made was:-

· He will have the power to die whenever He wants.

COMMENT: Actually, virtually everyone has the power to end their own lives whenever they wish – it’s called suicide. If Sathya Sai Baba ends his own life by his own will, whatever means used, then this must surely rank as suicide too in a moral and a legal sense. That matter apart, he has given at least two totally incompatible predictions of when he has chosen to the “leave the body”, (in published discourses) in particular either at age 92/3 or at 96. (See here)

Sai Baba as ‘Love, Bliss and Wisdom Personified’

The  prophecies about Sathya Sai Baba (as listed on the saibabaofindia website claimed to be from the Suka Nadi palm leaves) also include the following;-

· He will be PREMASWAROOPA, ANANDASWAROOPA, AND JNANASWAROOPA. (Personification of Love, Bliss and Wisdom)

COMMENT: That he is no personification of pure love is seen in his lectern-thumping, hate-packed and directly untruthful Christmas Discourse, 2000 and, of course, in the profuse allegations of sexual abuse, child abuse and proof of murder cover-up. As to Bliss, he has become stone-faced and morose-looking most of the time, except occasionally when he smiles for the cameras. Students reported on the Convocation address 22-10-2008, as follows:-
“Swami made it clear that He has no enemies. Every one loves Him. Many people may have some misunderstandings about Me but it is only their IMAGINATION.. I have no enemies.. I love all. I am always smiling. Many people think how can I keep smiling? I don’t like castoroil faces.. When you all are happy, I will be happy.”

Apart from his stupendous presumption that ‘everyone’ loves him – when he is not known at all to the majority of humanity, this shows how he has to put on a brave face and is unhappy when his devotes are, as they so often seem to be when begging for his intervention and much more. He himself says he “puts up” a smiling countenance in a discourse in October 2008:-
“The students… …wonder how Swami is able to put up such a smiling countenance (my emphasis) in the midst of great criticism and how Swami could put up such great patience!”.

However, an Indian lady devotee in Norway with connections to some of Sathya Sai Baba’s inner circle sent out an e-mail (see here) telling how she had learned that he sits and cries most of the day. Strangely enough, a very similar account was given to me by a US lady devotee of long standing from Hawaii called Kanta Devi. She had long known Prof. V.K. Gokak well – one of the closest servitors at that time. Gokak was visiting Sai Baba daily in his Trayee Brindavan apartment where he sat suffering a hairline fracture in the hip joint (after his first accident in his bathroom after slipping on the soap). He told Kanta Devi, who he knew very well, that Sai Baba sat in an armchair all day and was very depressed, shedding bitter tears each time Gokak visited him. Kanta Devi was very concerned about this and asked my wife and I how it could be explained. Of course, blind devotees would have said that “it is all Swami’s divine play which no one can understand”. Indeed, as soon as one throws away the last vestige of judgement and common sense, nothing Sai Baba says or does can be understood, as it is just play and has meanings he alone knows. This is the depths to which renunciation of an independent mind can bring anyone who is not very careful.

Bogus Prophecies about Sathya Sai Baba

Prophecies which Sai devotees claim were made before Sathya Sai Baba’s birth and even back to the time of the sage Brighu (around 3000BC) have been circulated around the world in books and web pages. No prophesy, however, which names him as such became public until AFTER the points mentioned in it were very well known in India at least. The first such major claim was the prophesies of the Suka Nadi presented by long-term devotee Narayana Shastri of Bangalore.  No independent historian or author (i.e. no one who is not a blind devotee) has published any information or named reliable sources which show any prophecy specifically naming Sathya Sai Baba, nor have non-devotees supported these massive claims.  That in itself is sufficient to refute these as being post factum contrivances.

Much has been made by Sai followers of the alleged reference to him in the Bible’s Book of Revelations. Hardly any part of the Bible has been subject to more spin and prediction than that book, and the attempt to make it a prophecy about Sai Baba is really absurd as there is only the thinnest of associations to hang the claim on (that he will have a sword of truth, for example – but there are countless claimants to having that sword). Likewise the attempt to fit Nostradamus’ obscure and vague Latin writings to the Procrustean bed of Sai Baba’s “advent’. Edward Cayce is also recruited to this end, but it is all too transparently obfuscated towards the end of proving that Sai Baba is what he claims (in his unsurpassed megalomania).

In short, we are faced with a mythology evidently invented after the fact to justify Sathya Sai Baba’s claims, expressing only devotion in trying to promote Sai Baba and those aspects of his teaching which have some common appeal. Such attempt always fail in the long run, though the unquestioning believers can be fooled for a long time.

Reported prophecies of the coming of Sathya Sai Baba as avatar and what have you have been collected and published by numerous devotees in articles, books, web pages etc, such as by T. Wolke of the Netherlands, Krishna Nandan Sinha  (in “Sai Baba, the Rose Fire Of Heaven”) and on saibabaofindia.com. They have been spread as propaganda for many years and in many countries in different languages.  The fairly complete set I shall post from here in a series of blog – on the posting at  saibabaofindia.com. The prophecies are in brown text, my comments in black:-

“Sri Maha Vishnu’s tenth incarnation is that of Kalki. He will be born towards the end of the Kali age, the age replete with all kind of vice and godlessness. Dharma will limp only on one foot. Even that will gradually vanish.

At this time Sri Maha Vishnu will incarnate in the world as Kalki Deva, assuming black complexion. The wicked will perish and Dharma will regain its supremacy ushering in a new age.”

(Predicted by Sri Pandrimalai Swamigal : taken from the book Dasavatara, by Shri S. Ramakrishna, Bharathi Vidya Bhavan).

There are enough other claimants for the title of the reincarnation of Vishnu as Kalki Avatar. The most prominent currently having a wide foreign following isKalki Bhagavan, or Sri Kalki Avatar of Bangalore, advertising himself as ‘The Living Avatar’.

In a futile attempt to ‘prove’ that Sathya Sai Baba is Kalki, his 60th birthday chariot was drawn by four white horses, as Kalki is predicted to have along with him.

“- Dr. E.V.Sastri, a prominent member of the Indian Astro Occult Research Association, New Delhi, during the course of his research, found out ‘Nandi Grantham’ available in Tamil Nadu, which had all the indications about Sathya Sai Baba’s horoscope written by a famous erudite Pundit, some five hundred years ago. It was written on a piece of palm leaf of the size 36 centimeters long and 2 ½ cms broad. It reads : ‘The person to whom this horoscope relates and whose name is Sathyanarayana Raju will renounce the world in his boyhood, will start schools and hospitals, will publish books for the upliftment of the World, will spend every day of his whole lifetime for the establishment of Dharma, which is his ideal and objective’. It is further mentioned that, “He will be an Avatar amongst the Avatars”. (Taken from the book ” ‘The Grace of Sai’ by R.Lowenberg).

These so-called ‘nadis’ (claimed to have been written thousands of years ago by sages like Brighu, Kumar and others) are one of the biggest ‘occult’ money-earning scams in India on a level with Hindu astrology. At least hundreds of readers of palm leaf manuscripts (‘nadi’ ) are to be found. Narayana Shastri was told by Sathya Sai Baba personally NOT to publish his claims, but he went ahead anyhow.

Another well-known palm leaf (‘nadi’) reader, Kantilal G. Pandya of Bombay, whose prophesies very seldom come to pass, was promoted by the Sai-deluded author Phyllis Krystal, until she realised that she had been duped and denounced him. Sathya Sai Baba endorsed that nadi reader and sent numerous devotees I know there to have their fortunes told. In the interests of investigation, my wife and I went to see him, though we were sceptical about the weird and wonderful claims made for these palm leaves. His predictions for our lives have very signally failed to come to pass and most have already been unproven by events!).

The above ‘prophecy’ would have been easy to construct by a Sai follower. The ‘shastri’ from  Bangalore who wrote it indeed had long been a keen follower, besides making his living from these ‘readings’ of sages’ prophesies!

There is not a scrap of evidence that this prophecy is other than sheer propaganda by a zealous devotee who intends to promote Sai Baba by any means possible. Ther is no scan of the alleged palm leaf in question, nowhere is the original text preserved, and there is not even a direct translation of the alleged text. These soothsayers like Narayana Shastri work mostly on intuition when they give readings for individuals, just as many astrologer, palmists, Tarot readers, and others who make their living by such doubtful methods do.

More information about the occasional accuracy of some nadis, however, is provided to my by Barry Pittard, who had a great interest in the nadis, and visited a number centres representing different nadi traditions. He later corresponded with many who had also been to them and still others, for example academics from East and West, keenly interested in nadi shastra. He has written this note for me:

Barry Pittard On Nadi Shastra
“Like Sathya Sai Baba himself, the nadis (and I confine myself to those in the hands of the small few owners whom I do not think are rogues) require complex discussion – one which I have, these days, scarce time, purpose or inclination to pursue. I will state simply my view that careful investigation throws up some challenges to those of rational bent. Necessarily, one would rule out discussion with those who already have their mind made up either way.

The sheer specificity of information relating to a subject who, in one of the traditions, submits a thumb-print is difficult, if not impossible, to refute – particularly in the case where the investigator sets up a number of empirical screens against being duped, such as going to separate nadi centres and ruling out any chance that e.g., one has been subtly ‘milked’ for information which is then spuriously played back to one, or that a hotel or stooges etc., may have got one’s biographical details and, in cahoots with a nadi reader, provided the information surreptitiously.

Even here, the references that await one in the reading refer (including by name and by other specific details) to, e.g., other family members, situations and even some references to abstruse detail to other individuals in one’s life. It can be a bit like coming into possession of a secret government file opened up under a Freedom of Information submission. I do not know how such a feat is achieved in the case of nadi centres which use the thumb-print method such as in South India largely in the State of Tamil Nadu, but found through exceptionally extensive enquiries via interview of subjects that something – whatever its nature – extraordinary is the case. What, however, and in my intensive and prolonged enquiries, I did find was that the predictions bore no such high correlation. In short, stunning accuracy of identification of subjects and considerable question about the success of the predictions. Of course, it should be made clear that attempts to follow up rigorously on outcomes of predictions was, necessarily, often ruled out by the consideration that the fulfilment times had not been reached. However, as I was able to determine in my own various readings and those of an array of other subjects – and so far as I was able to get some data from serious investigators – there are real problems in regard to accuracy of fulfilment. Yet again, the situation remindful of Sathya Sai Baba:  things to be said affirmatively and things decidedly not, and still other things too difficult to decide.”

For a rather comprehensive examination see PROPHECIES ABOUT SATHYA SAI BABA AS GOD AVATAR, MIRACLE MAKER AND SAVIOUR OF MANKIND

Sathya Sai Baba’s divine foresight on terrorism

One might ask whether the discredited Union Minister of Home Affairs, Shivraj Patil, – who believes in the self-proclaimed Omniscient Sathya Sai Baba – was lulled into inaction and failed to take any possible attacks or bombs seriously because of the assurances of Sai Baba? No wonder the Indian populace want to see the back of these incompetants! Let us hope that there are others who can do the job better and save ordinary Indians from such horrific massacres.

In a classic case of almost instant failure of prophesy, Sathya Sai Baba stated only a week ago in his discourse:-

“India is the only place where people are not worried about any attacks.  In America , Germany and other countries, they cant eat well or sleep well. There is fear of bombs always in those countries. But in India, there is no fear of bombs. India will never have any such attacks.”

What an ill-considered uninformed remark – that the US and Germany etc. can”t sleep or eat well due to fear of attacks! Besides, the populations there and throughout Europe eat far better than in India in any case and they have far more leisure to sleep than 800 million Indians. They also know they have far superior security from terrorism than Indians.

Sai Baba’s bombastic pronouncement has apparently been kept out of the official Sai Baba web pages – it is far too damaging for their totally one-sided propaganda and misinformation  (http://www.sssbpt.org/Pages /83-birthday/convocation_DD_22112008.htm), However, the fanatical pro-Sai website ‘saibabaofindia’ reported it. Perhaps they will soon remove it too… when they realise that their blind belief has played them foul? So just in case, see the screen capture of the relevant page on saibabaofindia
(as so far still found at http://www.saibabaofindia.com/sai_baba_83rd_birthday-update-photos-23rdnov2008.htm)

The blooper was also posted on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saibabaofindia/message/14926

As to there never being any fear of bombs in India, that is a massive mistake! So far out of touch is Sathya Sai Baba, surrounded by his gunmen and guards in his fortress ashram.  Shivraj Patil and his forerunners have presided over a long series of bomb attacks and terrible massacres of Hindus and Muslims by each other. The fear is tangible in many places, especially in Mumbai these days, of course.

There is nothing remarkable in Sathya Sai Baba making failed prophesies and predictions – he is constantly doing it! There is a regular cornucopia of false predictions, broken promises, and absurd claims of his importance to the world. (See here)

See also my last posting here:-
Shivraj Patil – Sai Baba worshipper – resigns

Further documentation of Sathya Sai Baba’s statement from sai students’ Yahoo posting is found here

Satya Sai’s Prashanthi Nilayam harassing Westerners

A report from a person living in Puttaparthi who has become a non-devotee via a most reliable source known to me (both wish to remain incognito for obvious reasons) says that Westerners are not visiting as before. They are being hounded out, and Visa authorities, the local and the national governments are helping in this and in making  it very hard for Westerners to visit. They are not welcome at the Prashanthi Nilayam ashram and are treated as peasants.

Prashanthi Nilayam ashram

This tendency has always been noticeable and getting stronger as the years went by – especially among many of the Seva Dal volunteers who lord it over visitors. Since the news of widespread allegations of sexual abuse broke world-wide on the Internet about Sathya Sai Baba from 2000 onwards – with the increasing critical examination of his many bogus claims, failed prophesies, deceptions and superstitious and often absurd ‘teachings’, more and more Western visitors have been having a tougher and tougher time. Meanwhile, the same old Sai-VIPs in the Sathya Sai Organization remain there until they die off.

Russia’s war on Georgia and Sathya Sai’s predictions

At http://www.saibaba.ws/reports/connieshaw.htm one can read an account of Connie Shaw’s 31’st visit to Sathya Sai Baba and an interview in January 2002. She starts by saying…

“There were several unique features to our most recent trip to Sai Baba’s Puttaparthi, India ashram (number 31, but who’s counting?)”.

Connie Shaw, Sai Baba devotee

Comment: Who’s counting? Evidently Connie Shaw is! Thirty one wasteful holiday flights from and back to the USA is one thing, but it confirms that Connie Shaw is a total true blind believer, as the entire account also shows. However, what is most interesting is Sai Baba’s failed prediction of global peace and the Golden Age from 2007: Referring to herself in the third person, Connie Shaw wrote:-

“Connie asked Baba in the rear room, “Swami, NO JOKING NOW…
how much longer will the war last? Really, NO JOKING!”

Baba: Really, no joking (He made some invisible writing in the air) …
five years more. In 2007 there will be no more war. Peace on earth.”

Connie: Five more years?! Then really, truly the war will be over?”

Baba: Yes, you will see.

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).”-

Comment: If you believe in Sathya Sai Baba as an omniscient Godhead who knows every detail of past, present and future – as he often has claimed – then you may have some small problem with the above account, now that 2008 is here and international war continues in Afghanistan and now also in Russia’s horrific invasion of Georgia in response to it’s attack on separatists in part of its sovereign territory, namely South Ossetia.One may also point to several major civil wars, such as in Dafur, Indonesia and diverse smaller warring conflicts in African states.

As to the Golden Age and transformation of human consciousness etc. it has been heralded for decades by Sathya Sai Baba but, when failing to occur, has repeatedly been promised for a new and later date. Rita and Robert Bruce were told by him about practically instant transformation of people’s consciousness after his 80th anniversary But that anniversary was celebrated in 2006! Now we have outright war between nations and still major conflicts displacing millions within nations. What kind of transformation is that?

The following example shows how Sathya Sai Baba sets the rumour mill grinding without having to stand forth openly himself:- “Wilma Bronkey was the featured presenter at the South Central Regional Conference held in Texas, 1999. One of her talks centered on the fact that Sathya Sai Baba had told a group of them in an interview the following basic story: The WHOLE world would be at peace within two years–a definite noticeable condition on the planet! I personally heard this talk and saw James Redmond tape her talk. It lasted over half an hour in length. This talk was heard by many hundreds of devotees. What a legacy of broken promises!” Dennis J. Hanisch (this was his message 31953 on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sathyasaibaba2 – removed along with thousands of early postings by Yahoo apparently for reasons of web space).

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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

(Spanish version PETICIÓNPÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES)

Global disaster predicted – or not?

At Ootacamund in Karnataka in the 1970s, Sathya Sai Baba is reported by various Indian devotee parents of eighteen (very frightened) students there as having made a large number of predictions about a coming global catastrophe. These predictions were similar in several respects to those made by Edgar Cayce and numerous others since. The globe as it may appear has been presented as something like the illustration shows:-

One list made after the allegedly coming events, which were widely and sometimes insistently claimed by some ashramites to actually have been made to their sons (some of whom were crying and fearful when they told their parents), were circulated constantly for over a decade or more without Sathya Sai Baba having stopped the mill or refuted a single word. (If he did not know about the anxiety created, then he lied about being omniscience). If he did know, then it was convenient for him… the anxiety to urge people to secure themselves places at the ashrams with donations etc. to be safe from the catastrophe.

Only when the hysteria reached potentially damaging proportions (for his name and credibility) after his officials had repeatedly asked him to comment – in early 1991 – did Sathya Sai Baba eventually deny the catastrophe predictions he had allegedly made. Why would he have made them to young students? One likely hypothesis is that it was one of his oft-reported ways of cowing them so they would fear to speak out about such matters as the constant genital molestations which are so widely reported, even confirmed and defended by a series of leading office-bearers in his Organisation. There are numerous documented examples of his acting so as to create fear in his officials, students and other followers. One can read the full prophesies here and see a scan of the paper most circulated for 15 years here.

The claims that the predictions actually came from Sathya Sai Baba are reinforced by the fact of his other similar predictions in public, as noted above. These new ‘warnings’ also served to induce people to ‘buy into’ the ashrams where they assume they will be under divine protection from any such dangers (but get no property rights or guarantees whatever in return).

See also Sai Baba – mankind to blame for every natural disaster
Sai Baba predicted pole shift and world airline stoppage which did not occur
Sathya Sai Baba promotes and thrives on rumours

Prophesy about Sai Baba both bogus and failed

The Sai Baba propaganda and misinformation machine continues to make much of a prophesy said to be found “In an ancient Arabic book by name “Mehdi Moud” in which the prophesies made by Prophet Mohammed were recorded many centuries ago, it was mentioned that God Himself would descend on earth in human form…” (quoted from saibabaofindia.com website)

See what the saibaba of india web site states on-line… or read this excerpt:- “His hair will be profuse [etc. etc.. .]” and  “He will live for 95 years on earth. In the last twenty years of His life time He will be the king of the whole world but at that time (A.D. 2000) only two-thirds of the world will believe Him. Muslims will only recognise Him nine years before His passing away from the world”.

However, the said book is not known or shown to exist anywhere and the translation recognised by the Sai ashram (and quoted in the Chaitanya Jyothi Sai Baba Museum) is a faked translation of Persian prophetic texts as shown there!! Worse yet, the prophesy is ALREADY shown to be false, because Sathya Sai Baba has definitely NOT been recognised as “King of the World” since year 2000 and nobody except a lunatic believes that two-thirds of the world population believed in him from year 2000!

The fake Mohammed prophesy is but one of at least a dozen false or baseless statements constantly propagated by official Sai Baba cadres, and his Sathya Sai Organization and numerous pro-Sai web sites. These include repeated claims of anything from 60 million to 600 million followers and of a regeneration project for 6000 villages in India from 1984, which was a total fiasco and was never realised. But still these falsehoods are repeated by those who should know better. Much more excessive claims are made by Sai Baba himself, of course (see Sai Baba Pronouncements on himself). Utterly ridiculous self-enhancing megalomania surpassing that of any other would-be God Almighty since history began!

Who is Sai Baba and what is Robert Priddy’s agenda?

Anyone who reads a fair selection of my webpages about Sathya Sai Baba may ask why I am so concentrated on exposing his faults, lies, deceptions, failed promises and prophesies, and on bringing forth the allegations against him for widespread sexual abuses, murder complicity and cover-up.
So why do I no longer – as once I did – praise him, promote his teachings or enthuse about any good works he has done? (More to the point, his followers’ works done in his name)

The simple answer is that I discovered what a huge abuse of faith he perpetrates on his followers. I was taken in until I learned despite all my hopes and wishes that he is involved in lies, crime and major deception. Therefore I cannot recommend his in ANY way, whatever else he may have done, good or indifferent. Moreover, I have a duty to make known what I have learned that only few others who dare speak out know to be true, to protect the vulnerable and provide the information for those who do not wish to fall into any of his traps. My duty is partly also indicated by the fact that I have believed in him (mistakenly) and worked for 18 years to forward his ‘mission’, not least through writings many articles and a book supporting him and leading one of his ‘spiritual centres’, all of which has led too many persons into his clutches.

Until 2000 there were few critical articles to be found anywhere and until then his deceptions had much success… nearly all who knew about him and followed him believed his assurances that he is a pure, ever-truthful, faultless, self-sacrificing and not least celibate person. Unfortunately, none of these claims hold water any longer. His image is rightfully now seriously flawed. I applaud this because his negative and untruthful activities and words have been undiscovered and/or overlooked for so long. My task is therefore to demonstrate his untold lies and abuses to the exclusion of anything that can be said in his favour. As to who Sai Baba is, enough is already indicated on this blog and my main critical webpage on Sai Baba to answer that question more than adequately for most people.

Sai Baba and India’s atomic arsenal

Sathya Sai Baba’s hypocrisy is to say one thing, do the opposite

Few issues show Sathya Sai Baba’s hypocritical double-standard more distinctly than his various statements of the past against atomic weapons, while all the time he has been supporting and honouring some of India’s formost militarists. In former days he argued that India needed no nuclear weapon, and made the prophesy that all those nations which rely on these will themselves be turned to ashes! He gave the so-called “father of India’s atomic bomb”, Dr. S. Bhagavantam a foremost place in his entourage, until Bhagavantam left him in the early 1980s! Since then he has repeatedly honoured the instigator of the India-Pakistan nuclear arms race, former Prime Minister Atal Vihari Vajpayee and his party (the Bharatiya Janata Party which revelled in 2000 in the explosion of Indian nuclear devices). Not a word of criticism has Sai Baba made about the vast military spending of this and other governments, nor – of course-  has he criticised India’s production of more atomic weapons and the delivery vehicles. On the contrary, he has embraced the ex-President Kalam at repeated interviews and honoured him very pointedly in public, but this was the man who designed the delivery vehicle for India’s nuclear weapons capable of hitting Pakistan!

Sathya Sai Baba preaches peace and non-violence, so he could hardly have been in favour of nuclear weapons, especially when India was taking a moralistic line against the big nuclear powers (despite having exploded one device already themselves). Now that India is adopting a big power threatening capacity itself with nuclear weapons, he is completely silent! Not only that, he is ever lending moral and propaganda support indiscriminately to Indian governments and their leaders in his discourses. Here we see that Sai Baba’s main agenda is to gain personal power, influence and money regardless of any any moral price. See more detail and documentation here.

>Here are some of Sai Baba’s former statements about atomic weapons. In the first he has talk about the very same difference between preaching and practice evident in his words and actions! That is chutzpa!

But many, many more crores are now being wasted, but the self-proclaimed ‘Omnipotent’ Lord God, worshipped as such by a line of feet-kissing Prime Ministers never says a word about this militarism and misuse of India’s riches, while 200 million have to get by on less than US$ 1/2 per day and 800 million Indians still live on less than $2 a day!

Sathya Sai Baba made it up as he went along

Sathya Sai Baba heralded in “The Golden Age” of mankind and jumped the gun several times. (see The Golden Age (Sathya Yuga)  or here, or  here.) He supposed 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).

Rumours circulated by Sathya Sai Baba at regular intervals of big changes coming (sometimes disasterous ones!) kept devotees in suspense and/or hope for the future, and still does with those in deep denial of his crimes. Remaining devotees are  incapable of looking back across all the failed predictions and direct lies Sai Baba perpetrated over the decades. For example, the New Zealand devotees, Poppy and Arthur Hillcoat, visited Cherepovets Russia in May, 2005. Poppy said she saw Rita and Robert Bruce just before leaving for Russia, and – as reported on the Russian Forum (screen capture above) – was told by them (LITERAL TRANSLATION):

“Yes, exactly they are. At the conference Rita and Robert conducted a one-day workshop of ‘parenting school’ and a workshop on ‘family and marriage’.
I do not remember exact titles. And it was Rita Bruce whom Swami told about practically instant transformation of people’s consciousness after his 80th anniversary.”

(The infamous ‘Hislop letters’ on sexual abuses of young men by Sai Baba were sent to US Sai-VIPs including Robert and Rita Bruce! Both are in total denial of all the facts they have encountered but ignored so as to “keep their faith”) continues to mislead people around the world by repeating truly absurd claims made to her by Sai Baba in the privacy of the interview room.

Sathya Sai Baba had the stick by the wrong end
It is most likely true, as Herbert Marcuse has said, that “A prerequisite of social transformation is the emergence of a new consciousness” But this did not happen as predicted after the 80^th Birthday (of course), nor after his death in 2011. It can only be a gradual process along with diverse social changes, proper economic planning to lift people from poverty, sickness, ignorance and not least also superstitious beliefs and spiritual guru-dependencies. It will surely require very much increased national and also personal ‘green awareness’ and action on the very pressing issues of ecology, over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution of the earth, air and water and climate change (global warming).
Maneka Gandhi,Vandana Shiva, Arundati Roy still remain far too peripheral to Indian policy-making. Sathya Sai Baba’s contribution to raising awareness of ecological issues is minimal and mostly ill-informed – claiming that the inner workings of Divinity are where it all happens – as already noted on this blogsite.

See also Connie Shaw: Sai Baba’s bogus ‘promise of world peace’and golden age discredited

 

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