UK Sathya Sai Organization’s New Age leadership

One has to wonder why this organization has chosen as its leader a person who exhibits all the signs of an unbridled New Age spirituality, Reverend Rosemary Perry? Probably, having a ‘reverend’ – ordained as an Interfaith Minister –  is seen to help this embattled cult’s credibility as not being overwhelmingly a Hindu-oriented religious sect. However, though one of the central themes of Sathya Sai Baba is that his ‘teaching’ is universal and fits all religions, no mainstream religious bodies or sects have ever sponsored him, nor is his Organization allowed to enter into any joint projects with other religious organizations. However, by the selection to the top leadership position in the UK Organization, their image as adherents of genuinely lunatic fringe thinking is reinforced considerably. This is not actually uncommon among Sathya Sai Baba adherents (see links at bottom of page).

Rosemary Perry makes known her qualifications as a practitioner of numerous of  the most wholly unscientific and fanciful ‘therapies’ and delusional ‘theories’.

She writes on her page with personal details (see here) that she became: “an Analytical Hypnotherapist – my first client was myself! I later trained as a Homoeopath using Radiesthesia (dowsing for crucial ‘Miasms’ on a long black calibrated box). I developed a passion for seeking out ‘Earth Energy Lines’ and ‘Sacred Power Points’ in these enigmatic British Isles”

Comment: Homeopathy is uncertain enough and wholly unproven as effective in any way by any reliable research project, despite what patients think, but dowsing in combination with it is plain irrational self-deception.

“By becoming ordained as an Interfaith Minister I further healed layers of subtle separation between me and my innate, inherent, divinity. In the 1990s I was Co-ordinator for ‘Fountain International’ a worldwide community and global healing network that uses visualisation and meditation to put love and light into focal points round the world.”

Comment: ‘Innate and inherent divinity’ is of course New Age and Sathya Sai Baba propaganda, all pious immaterialism and theological fantasy speculation, After testing this concept through years of spiritual discipline (sadhana) – and then subjecting it to deep philosophical analysis – it is seen as a wholly implausible wishful thinking, based upon unprovable, illogical and irrational master assumptions like “Everything is God” See here.

“I have become quite oriented towards Past Life investigation as a therapeutic tool over the last 10 years and have been surprised at the accuracy of enquiries made via Psychometry (holding someone’s watch or jewellery to ‘read’ the vibrations in it). This method has yielded the most authentic findings and often leads to clairvoyant advice on how to utilise a particular skill developed in a past life that is actually needed for reactivation in life now. My personal astrology entirely supports this sort of career.“[[Note: she is twice divorced, but now “married to a wonderful soulmate of many past life liaisons!]] “I used to think I was a ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’, but I now love the richness and diversity of my pursuits.

Comment: Master of no trades clearly fits the bill very well… because she evidently has no proper professional qualifications of any kind… not even recognised diplomas for most of the alternative medicine she professes:-

I now have a vast array of mixed skills such as therapeutic Past Life exploration, Homoeopathy, Hypnotherapy, official ‘Cutting the Ties That Bind’ facilitator, Clairvoyant Intuitive advice and, now, as an Interfaith Minister: Spiritual Counselling and the writing of tailor-made ceremonies for significant rites of passage (such as funerals/weddings/baby namings etc).”

All this is touchy-feely blather, especially the Phyllis Krystal pseudo-therapy, which reminds of self-hypnosis and self-indoctrination on a Polyanna assumption. Clairvoyant intuitive advice… it gets more and more hare-brained. Perry continues with an absurd prediction:

“The spiritualisation of Politics is possibly the most important undertaking for the early part of the 21st Century. It will happen, soon. It relies on the acknowledgement that we are all connected through consciousness. It will occur through several ways:
– By changing the approach of the National Health Service to early subtle diagnosis of symptoms through existing Complementary Medicine techniques (such as Ayurveda). By changing future generations (VITAL): Implementing values-based education (such as SSEHV or Brahma Kumaris Values educational systems) for both children and parents. “

Comment:  Neither extreme spiritual escapists nor the lunatic fringe have ever yet managed to get a seat in any British constituency. No wonder that she failed twice as a Parliamentary Candidate for the Natural Law Party! Her absurd belief that the National Health Service will spiritualise British politics is a real howler. If her types would be allowed a free rein in it, there would be a gigantic public outcry… as there is already much well-founded criticism of the relatively very small current support for some peripheral pseudo-medicine on prescription. Much Ayurvedic medicine today still includes drinking of ones own urine every morning as a medicine! As Professor Dawkins has pointed out about it, that it is very old is absolutely no guarantee that it can hold water (sic!). See RichardDawkins.net Forum • View topic – Debunking Yoga & Ayurveda!!

I can confidently predict that – misguided as she is – she will never gain a seat in Parliament unless she becomes a far more sober and rational person. “We are all connected through consciousness” has no practical application, no more than we are all connected through air, or water or whatever. This is close to the ultimate in vague imaginings. So President Obama, Bill Gates, Osama bin laden, Sai Baba – and not forgetting Rosemary Perry – are connected through consciousness…. so what, they are all at odds with one another in most fundamental ways.

Why Rosemary Perry flaunts her self-appreciation web page is a wonder… it almost cries out for sensible comment. Moreover, anyone who uncritically supports Sathya Sai Baba, – so widely accused of sexual abuse of young men and children, and who was involved in murder cover-up –  without investigating the facts of the matter should be looked on with great suspicion. Parents who may consider sending their children to the kind of value education she promotes – also a religiously fundamental and ideologically-rigid system are hereby warned. One wonders whether Rosemary Perry has ever heard of ‘duty of care’ and ethical and moral mandatory reporting obligations?

Sathya Sai Baba and the Vedas – part one

Sathya Sai Baba makes the phenomenal claim that he is in reality the Almighty form of the Vedas (i.e. “Vedarupa“) [Sanathana Sarathi July 1974, p. 170]

Sathya Sai Baba is worshipped as the creator of the Vedas

He writes and speaks much about them, that they are the result of sages’ (i.e. rshis) “high spiritual vision” including “body, mind and spirit” and claims that  they reveal “astronomical wonders and science, atom theories, how to acquire supernatural powers”. Their essence is contained, he states, in the Bhagavad Gita and deals with the eterrnal nature of the soul. Further they are supposedly a compenium of medical rituals and details and that chanting them and their mantras with correct pronunciation is essential.

The so-called ‘wisdom’ about the atom, nature and the cosmos is entirely speculative and non-experimental and is wrapped in a kind of  lifestyle philosophy for “discovery of the true self” with the aim of total freedom from all suffering. As to knowledge of the causes of virtually everything in nature and human life – Vedic knowledge was less advanced than that of the early Greeks. It is of course far inferior to the wealth of tried and thoroughly tested knowledge available today. The Vedas are  a body of hymns, mantras and unempirical speculations, mostly based on the sheer belief in Deities so fantastic and unlikely, so ineffectual and so totally invisible and intangible, as to be nothing but fictional fantasy, not even worthy of the title of ‘Science Fiction’. This is indisputable to all qualified, working evolutionary and earth scientists…  upon whom the survival of mankind as we know it is most likely more dependent than those of any other branch of applied human intelligence today.

The Vedas and all the myth-based “wisdom without knowledge” that followed upon them – the Ramayana, the Gita, the Bhagavatha and much more, are utterly failed attempts to understand the earth, the physical universe, or the evolutionary origin of mankind or the psychological, social or medical causes of the ills of humanity.  This is shown by the comparatively immeasurably vast progress in all branches of human knowledge through scientific methods and information and research technologies from which “sages” of the Vedas were totally remote. Just as brief examples, the causes of different weather conditions were believed to be deities, while bacteria, viruses and a host of other causes of medical conditions were completely unguessed at by the “sages”. Nothing in Indian scripture suggests that they had anything approaching a true concept of energy per se – that is, of anything other than diverse forces in nature. The concept of a unifying energy  was first conceived and established by the exact scientific experiments Michael Faraday. No one in known history had any idea of electromagnetism before the 17th Century, which was put on a sound basis by the experiments and equations of James Clerk Maxwell, a crucial step towards Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Creationism is the belief that God exists as the creator of the universe. It is a dire travesty on human intelligence and knowledge in the modern age. Only those ignorant of the sheer breadth and quality of evolutionary science can adopt this merely speculative and unfounded belief. This ignorance envelops Sathya Sai Baba’s world view. It is religious moralism in a very ‘fundamental’ and strictly puritan form… fighting the ‘seven deadly sins’, denigrating the use of the senses  and the discursive intellect and all manner of emotional attachment (other than to the Atma) and not least the benefits of ‘materialism’.

The primitive faith in divine creation of the universe and mankind (without evolution) and consequently in universal supernatural causation [known today known as primitive superstition] suffuses Hindu scripture and literature.   The causes of all natural phenomena were – and are by many today – believed to be deities, including all acts of the human condition in the form of supposed ‘karma’, so religious practices were the only solution to all ills – so generations performed worship of countless idols of deities and implored both worldly and ‘spiritual’ assistance through repeating mantras and holy names and ever more futile and convoluted ritual. This is seen demonstrated in the teachings and daily rituals of Sathya Sai Baba and his followers.

See some of Sai Baba’s many pronouncements on the Vedas

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

Sathya Sai Baba on going slowly blind from “sensual pleasures”

Correcting humanity?

“Today man is putting his senses to misuse and as a result his body is becoming weaker day by day. He shortens his life-span by his unsacred vision and by indulgence in sensual pleasures. Lakhs of light rays in his eyes are being destroyed because of his unsacred vision. That is the reason what man is developing eye defects.” (Sathya Sai Baba, discourse on 5/7/2001 Sanathana Sarathi, August 2001,  p. 226)

 

Comment:  This is the kind of hilarious non-scientific doctrine that students at Sai Baba colleges and ‘university’ have to tolerate. It is so irrational that it could not even qualify as pseudo-science! How many hundreds of thousands of rays of light are being destroyed in people’s eyes, one may ask?

So man shortens his life span? No, there have been vast extensions of human life span made through science and its resultant benefits in recent centuries improvements! Age expectancy has risen progressively in almost all countries in the world, notably excepting Russia since the Soviet State fell and places like Zimbabwe. That man’s body is becoming weaker day by day or his eyes are being destroyed is sheer poppycock! Thatsensual pleasures are the source of physical weakness  – and the root of all evil… is just primitive superstition and base puritan fundamentalism.

 

Bjorn Lomborg writes in his 2001 book “The Sceptical Environmentalist”: “Fewer and fewer people are starving. In 1900 we lived for an average of 30 years; today we live for 67. According to the UN we have reduced poverty more in the last 50 years than we did in the preceding 500, and it has been reduced in practically every country.”So, any shortcomings in world health certainly have quite other causes than unsacred vision!

Interestingly, Sathya Sai Baba has himself admitted that he was blind in one eye for years because of his having an accident with his hair-dryer! I can just see him using his hair-dryer daily.

View a list of a whole range of false and absurd “teachings” – with comments –  by this uneducated villager who claims Divine Omniscience.

 

The secrets of the atom and the mind?

Sathya Sai Baba believes all kinds of fanciful things about atoms, showing that this “perennial wisdom” of the sages is entirely out-of-step with the known facts and milennia behind developments in science, to say the least!

He said (see here):“… the power of the atom is the same in every human being. This atomic power should also be understood to some extent. From our ancient times, we continue worshipping and meditating on a form and we are living life with it. Those also have arisen out of atoms… Kaanaada did very great sadhana.
Finally he said, “There is nothing else at all. I came from the atom. I should merge again in the atom.” This means that, as he didn’t have body attachment; he merged in the atom.”

How can one merge in the atom? Only Kannada knows, it seems? If Sathya Sai Baba knows how, he is not letting on!

“… just don’t forget the nature of the atom. Everything is in the atom. Hence, we should feel that the nature of the atom is within oneself. Our body is (contains) the atom. Mind is atom. Intellect is atom. Chittha is atom. Antahkarana is atom. All are completely atoms. That which is full of atoms is Divinity…” “… there is death for the physical body of man, but the mind has no death. There is no death for the mind at all. Though the man (his body) dies, the feelings that the person felt are imprinted on the mind. The tendencies of so many births and the tendencies from so many actions are printed on this mind.”

The mind is beyond matter so how come that it is formed of atoms, which kind? How come that the mind has atoms and the atoms give life?

It is not possible to say that this mind is ‘like this or that’. Therefore, we should not feel that the mind
will die along with this life (of the physical body). No matter how many births there are, the mind is God. This mind contains atoms. We should not feel that the nature of the mind, which contains atoms, dies.

But why should we ‘feel’ that the body , which really is composed of atoms, dies!

“Truly, what does Guru Purnima mean? It shows the path, the Divine path, to us. ‘Purnima’ means ‘the
sacred radiance of the full moon’. What is the full moon? It is the completely full nature of the mind. The completely full nature of the mind, without any spots at all, is observed as the full moon. When the mind has any spot, it is darkness; it won’t give bliss.”

The moon has many spots, the sun has many spots? What has the full moon to do with the nature of the mind as completely full…  is not the new moon related to the (nearly) empty mind? Figure this out and you will probably earn a dunce’s cap!

“Truly, who are you? You only are God! (Applause) He is the form of an atom. First and foremost,
recognize that Truth”

How to recognise that God is the form of the atom? The hard , ridiculously unfulfillable tasks first, eh?

” Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu also were ones of very great capabilities. They were great scientists. Hiranyakasipu not only went to the moon; he also went to the sun. Not only the sun, he also reached the stars. When he went to star Dhruva and touched it, the earth spun. With that he suffered. Though he was such a great scientist, things should be done only as much as is needed; but if it is in excess, a very big danger will happen.”

Where are their legacies? Great scientists who kept their secrets to themselves, I suppose? Hiranakasipu “reached the stars” – one must ask, which of the countless trillions of stars… surely not all of them? And the temperature at a Star surface is very hot. Our Sun’s is at least 6000 degrees Centigrade! Who really believes that Dhruva caused the earth to spin, and suffered as a result! Hilarious beyond belief!

“Numerous people, unable to bear their sufferings, take their own life. People think, “It is only due to the mind that there is so much suffering, isn’t it so? I will kill this mind.” However, this is a big sin. You are not killing the mind. You feel that your Divinity is like that. We should not have any resolve of suicide. Atma is God. God is Atma. Prahlada said, ‘Don’t have the doubt that, ‘He is in this and not in that’.”

When Sathya Baba says he gives ‘diamonds’ (fakes only) he often says, “Die mind”. How so? Many suicides are surely done to escape the sufferings of body, not to kill the mind.

“Forget the feelings towards worldly objects (materialistic tendencies). All of these are worldly.”

But they full of sacred atoms! To forget them would one not have to be dead, not necessarily only the body but also ones mind which remembers everything somewhere?

The above is just a sample of the deranged mental contortions and empty explanations of which this Omniscient Being is capable, try more in the following?

Sai Baba’s ignorance of physical science.htm

SAI BABA’S ‘DIVINE COSMIC IGNORANCE’ OF ASTRONOMY

SAI BABA CLAIMS TO BE MAGNETIC, THINGS STICK TO HIS HANDS AND FEET!

SAI ON MAGNETISM A tour de force of exhibited ignorance of science

MORE SAI BABA ON MAGNETISM, CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER A howler for scientists

SAI’S MASSIVE IGNORANCE OF PHYSICS AND THE ATOM EXPOSED Not even high school level explanations!

SAI BABA’S TOUTED ‘SAIENCE’ – SHEER CONFUSIONMore fantastic rubbish on one but ignorami can credit

David Attenborough as compared to Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba claims to be a supreme educationalist. One of his ‘teachings’ which he has continually repeated is that “Nature is the best teacher”.  He overlooked the fact that this means even better than himself, the self-proclaimed “Universal Teacher’ who has descended into the body to save humanity from destruction. As to what Mother Nature teaches and how, he is very vague – i.e. only platitudes of the kind ‘the spider taught mankind to weave’ and ‘the crow caws so as to share what it has found with his brethren’.  He even claims that wild animals are essentially gentle  (i.e. “If a person is angry with you, what is the reason? It is only reaction, reflection, and resound of your own feelings. It is only the evil qualities of man that bring about a change in the gentle nature of animals, birds and beasts.” Discourse 22-08-2007 ).

Compare the above romantic gabble with the view of a real expert on nature and also on wild animals – one whose knowledge of nature far surpasses Sathya Sai Baba’s, namely Sir David Attenborough:-

Speaking in the Radio Times, Sir David said that he was also asked why he did not give “credit” to the Lord, Sir David continued: “They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in East Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball.
The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator.”

But Sathya Sai Baba – who claims himself to be the creator of mankind, all the animals and the entire cosmos, also said in his discourse: “Your evil qualities are reflected in the animals…..” and “None of these wild animals causes any harm to man. They will be inimical toward us only when we approach them with the intention of harming them. Otherwise, they will be friendly with us and follow us like pets.”

What would Sir David say if he ever heard Sathya Sai Baba’s extremely simplistic ‘teaching’, one must wonder? Attenborough also said: “It never really occurred to me to believe in God – and I had nothing to rebel against, my parents told me nothing whatsoever. But I do remember looking at my headmaster delivering a sermon, a classicist, extremely clever … and thinking, he can’t really believe all that, can he? How incredible.”

Some extremist ‘Christians’ therefore told him – in most unChristian fashion – to ‘burn in hell’

Sathya Sai Baba followers in education and science

Much is made of Sathya Sai Baba followers who are said to be ‘educationalists’ and  ‘scientists’, and not a few of them – especially the Indians, who are the clear majority in these categories, always add a string of letters after their names. In Sai Baba literature and lectures they are often called ‘prominent’ , but their prominence is invariably limited to Sai Baba circles and not the world scene, where none have high profiles – if any at all.  In short, no world-class or genuinely famous scientists nor any major figure in the humanities or even literature have declared their faith in Sathya Sai Baba. Former science workers who still support him are more likely to adhere to the ideological misconceptions Sathya Sai Baba promotes as ‘Saience’ (to replace ‘science’)  rather than world scientific consensus (such as his main propagandist today, the former physicist G. Venkataraman (see links at foot of page).

Why is there a total absence of scientific or pedagogic discussion – let alone peer reviews – at anything like a professional level in any of the publications by these known followers of Sathya Sai Baba? Why are no references ever made to international educational bodies’ findings or official governmental reports, academic studies, or the work of any known and respected professional pedagogues and educationalists worldwide? Further, why are there virtually no names of scientists or educationalists genuinely well-known and regarded as authorities in their professions outside the circle of Sai Baba devotees? The answer, Sathya Sai Baba is the infallible source of all knowledge and wisdom for all followers and no other information is needed! But his is highly fallible and repeatedly demonstrates crass ignorance of science, history an even religions.

Not one head of any independent University in the world has endorsed Sathya Sai Baba educational ideals or programmes, and – as is well known – a branch of UNESCO withdrew from a planned educational conference under the auspices of Sathya Sai Baba at Puttaparthi once they had investigated what this involved. (See UNESCO’s warning on Sathya Sai Baba here)

Not one Nobel laureate is known to be a follower, as far as can be discovered. Incidentally, Sathya Sai Baba has been forwarded as a candidate for the Nobel Peace prize by the Indian Government, obviously without result, of course. He made clear his  hopes that he would receive it from Dr. Michael Nobel, a grandson of Alfred Nobel, but a person who the Nobel Committee has denounced. See Sathya Sai Baba’s hunger for international recognition

One name formerly brandished by Sai followers was Dr. Bhagavantam, because he was a developer of the Indian atomic bomb, though he is not a noted discoverer in world science. However, even Dr. Bhagavantham  left Sathya Sai Baba after two decades of being one of the guru’s right-hand men. The reasons for his departure have been obfuscated by present followers, but he became critical and went of his own accord years before his death, never to return.

See alsoThe Case of UNESCO’s Missing Media Advisory
UNESCO and Indian Government – Were Up To Tricks
BBC Caught UNESCO Head Bowing To Indian Government

Radio Sai chief  Dr. G. Venkataraman – Sai propagandist,  and cover-up minion

Apologist for Sathya Sai Baba
G. Venkataraman – chief propagandist for ‘God’
Venkataraman – the most gullible physicist alive?
Venkataraman, a victim of emotional blackmail?
Money, Morality and Sai-worshipper Dr. Venkataraman

Sathya Sai Baba and ‘Suka Nadi’ prophecies

saibabaofindia.com and others have publised a list of prophecies allegedly made about Sathya Sai Baba. The following (in black text) is one statement made there:-

“- The advent of this Avatar Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was uniquely prophesied not only in some ancient books of Indian origin but also in books of other lands and religions. It is found that Baba’s horoscope has been extolled in the Indian palmyra “Nadi” scrolls of hundreds of years antiquity, containing prophesies by celebrated sages like Agastha, Brahma, Bhrigu, Buddha, Shuka and Shukra. Since there is said to be remarkable accord amongst the different Nadis interpreted by different and independent readers, we can confidently ascribe genuineness and credibility to those Nadi predictions.”

Nadis

Comments (in purple text) As has been shown earlier here, we can certainly not confidently ascribe genuineness and credibility to the Nadi predictions. “There is said to be remarkable accord” – this is vague hearsay, for no known authoritative sources are ever stated nor documented. There are no photographs detailing any of the of alleged palm leaf texts referring to Sathya Sai Baba. Nowhere is a source to original text preserved, and there are not even direct translations of the alleged text because firstly they have to be selected from a mass of palm leaves on astrological data – most often got by the doubtful method of measuring the shadow of the person involved and noting the time and location (which was surely never done by Narayana Shastri for Sathya Sai Baba) or by having a correct, accurate birth date (and Sathya Sai Baba’s alleged birth date is contradicted by several official public records of his school days – see here). Secondly, these nadi readers have to interpret the very compact Sanskrit text through intuition. They even allow questions about what the text says and they answer as if virtually everything one wishes to know were to be found there!

The various ‘nadis’ are basis for one of the biggest ‘occult’ money-earning scams in India, practiced by Hindu astrologers and ‘shastris’ (i.e. who have reached a certain level in the Sanskrit language). Many hundreds of such palm leaf soothsayers are to be found, but can they all have leaves aged anything from 400 to 5000 years old, as is invariably claimed (though many are but copies). The business of faking copies is also rife. E.V. Narayana Shastri asked Sathya Sai Baba to bless publication of his Suka Nadi prophecies, but he was told ‘no!’. Later he went ahead anyhow and is so far – as far as can be discovered – the only nadi interpreter who has discovered the remarkable predictions about Sathya Sai Baba! Since the supposed ages who wrote such nadis are a few (Suka, Brighu, Kumar) how can it be that the predictions about Sai Baba were so unique that no one else can corroborate them or provide objective evidence of any kind? Is it just a matter of ‘believe what you want’ yet again? Further, considering how rewarding any scientific confirmation would be for their fortune-telling business, none have subjected any palm leaves to independent historical researchers or presented them for scientific examination or even carbon-dating. Not so far as can be discovered. In short, plenty of sound reasons to doubt their authenticity.

G. Venkataraman’s out-dated and fallacious ideas – part two

Let me apologise for the length needed to refute the glib and superficial ideas of Sathya Sai Baba’s chief propagandist and spokesman, former nuclear scientist, Professor G.  Venkataraman, about science and scientists, and also for the relative heaviness of the subject… though it is an important one.
It seems that this retired physicist has fallen for the temptation to take upon himself the mantle of philosopher, without having had the requisite training or having worked analytically on the main philosophies and theologies of the world.  Not only that, he has donned the role of a spiritual adviser working directly on behalf of God Almighty, Creator of the Universe. Why then, I ask myself, was he wearing such a long face and showed such lack of animation when I met him on two occasions together with V.K. Narasimhan in the 1990s.

Sathya Sai Baba, having repeatedly shown himself to be intellectually bankrupt, is defended by his servitor on the grounds that it is only in the heart – not the head – that one can understand God. Such is the view of this propagandist and amateur ‘life philosopher’ Dr. G. Venkarataman, a former physicist who has taken to debunking scientists in favour of  the man he fully believes to be God Incarnate and Creator of the Universe, Sathya Sai Baba.

Venkarataman: “Thanks to this tremendous leap forward in scientific knowledge, all of which has occurred in about fifty short years – and this includes not only physics and astronomy but every scientific discipline all the way to molecular biology – scientists have become very cocky and arrogant.
Comment: What is cockier and more arrogant than Venkataraman’s preaching that Sathya Sai Baba is the Creator of the Entire Universe?’ How would he know? He has to rely entirely on the infinitely cocky, arrogant claim of his benefactor!)

Venkarataman: The current dogma of Science is that a theory of Science might be accepted based on currently known facts but must not be regarded as the eternal truth; there could well be new discoveries that disprove existing theories or limit their scope.
(Comment: This is exactly the rejection of dogma, nothing more or less. Famously, science does not deal in dogmas at all, but in hypotheses which are more or less likely, while  Venkataraman and Sai Baba are dogmatists par excellence.)

Venkarataman: Everything is subservient to logic and must be applicable within the boundaries as stipulated by Science. In particular, the prevailing belief is that Science progresses best by a systematic effort to prove wrong currently accepted hypotheses. Any proposition that refuses to accept these terms and look beyond does not deserve the attention of scientists.
(Comment: Venkataraman’s idea of the philosophy of science is highly distorted. Scientists are continually developing very far-reaching and new hypotheses which, initially, go far beyond systematic effort. But they are not conjured up out of thin air and the superstition of ancient texts and beliefs, for the take their departure from what is already known. The falsification of currently-accepted hypotheses is but one limited aspect of scientific method, which constantly proposes new hypotheses. [Nor is Popper’s thesis is the be-all and end-all of modern philosophy of science].

Venkarataman: That is the way scientists of today operate. Logical analysis is supreme and hypothesis becomes a fact only when tested thoroughly by experiments. The problem surfaces when one starts asking questions that lie beyond the purview of Science as is currently accepted. Are there such things at all that lie beyond Science? Of course there are, like LIFE, for example. Ask a scientist to define life, and you would find he is in trouble straightaway. Yes he would give all kinds of shady and cagey answers but he cannot really answer the question. Some would honestly say, “Listen, I cannot answer that question; it is beyond Science as we currently know it.” Others more arrogant would say, “Well, I cannot answer it now but be assured that one day Science would be able to answer that question. You do not need to invoke God and all that to explain life.”
(Comment: Not so! Biologists define life at all its levels in very exact and reproducible empirical ways. Human life is the subject of study of the historical, social and psychological sciences. Venkataraman ignores this, presumably because he regards ‘life’ is something or other which is detached from the physical realm, the non-physical ‘subject’ of empty speculation and dogma of the priesthoods and misguided metaphysicians who would “invoke God”. Sciences study life, not the supposed ‘afterlife’ on which the Sai Baba doctrine and the dearest hopes of his devotees are fixated.)

Venkataraman: “In short, Science, which is bound by Space and Time, is related to the gross inanimate world. It does not, as it stands, extend to the subtle world to which we have access through our senses.
Comment: Venkataraman is bound by space and time, I think! Or does he claim to travel beyond it ‘astrally’ or by some undisclosed means? Science is far from limited to study of the ”inanimate world”. Biology, psychology, sociology and many, many other disciplines study the animate world and ‘human life’).

Venkataraman: This is particularly evident when one considers Consciousness. Even scientists admit that there is a thing called Consciousness but ask them to define it, and they would throw up their hands.
(Comment: It is a grossly false characterisation of scientists that scientists ‘throw up their hands’ when asked about consciousness. Firstly, modern philosophers have defined and studied consciousness phenomenologically – starting from Brentano, Husserl and Sartre (whose main work ‘Being and Nothingness’ is entirely about the epistemology of consciousness and being). For them, there is no consciousness without an ‘object’ it is directed towards. It cannot reflect on itself without objectifying itself.
As to natural science, it has in recent decades becomes the subject of intensive research in neuro-biology and neuro-psychology, which make use of amazing technologies like magnetic resonance and supercomputing as developed for studying where, how and when experiences arise in the brain as conscious stimuli. A ground-breaking scientist in this field is neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwich of the Maudsley Hospital, Surrey who uses the latest technological marvels to study the brain in unusual states, including meditation and not least after heart failure. He is of the opinion that the evidence indicates that mind and brain are separate, but he goes no further towards positing transcendental experience, other ‘spiritual’ realms or independently existing Super-Consciousness. These are so far matters of mere belief, not verified knowledge.)

Venkataraman: This being the case, scientists, if they have any sense of humility, would recognise their boundaries and limitations and not comment on things they do not know about. When they lose their humility, they become arrogant and arrogance blinds one to basics.
(Comment: With this knife Venkataraman cuts off his own right hand with lacking sense of humility in all his certainties and comments he makes on things he does not know about).

Venkarataman: Consider a biologist. Most biologists would not know much about the theory of relativity although almost everyone would know that it was Einstein who gave that theory. Ask a biologist, “Do you believe in the theory of relativity?” He would promptly say yes, even though he has not studied it and in fact knows practically nothing about it. How come? Because he has faith in Einstein.
(Comment: One knows others through oneself, Venkataraman! Biologists do not ‘believe’ in the theory of relativity because they have faith in Einstein. What primitive prejudices Venkataraman holds! Biologists are scientists and very few will not have a far wider appreciation of the methods and conceptions involved in relativity than most layman – besides which the history of the theory of relativity and its vast success in predicting far-reaching previously undreamt phenomena is known to all who have a basic science education. Even most laymen know a lot about it, and have faith in the world community of scientists – and the consensus of hundreds of thousands of brilliant researchers)

Venkarataman: I am dismissed for having faith in God based on what Adi Shankara has taught and experienced, but it is OK for a biologist to have total faith in relativity without understanding a word of it, just because he has faith in Einstein. I would call this double standards.
(Comment: Adi Shankara was not a scientist, of course, but a speculative theologist. One has either to believe in him or not, there is nothing empirical about his doctrine. It is entirely subjective in concept and practice. That’s the rub!)

Venkarataman: “In the same way, anyone in principle can have the Darshan of the Divine, like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa did; however, if someone wants God to appear before him, then that calls for special effort on the part of that person. It is very much like in experimental science.”
Comment: Not at all like in experimental science. It is more likely a process of self-hypnosis, self-mystification and untestable subjective ‘experiences ‘ or illusions. Venkataraman suggests that he knows this, and that he got God to appear before him. However, I too have seen and met the one he believes to be God – Sathya Sai Baba – many times, but he is no God and no efforts comparable to those of experimental science were required on my part. Venkataraman may instead be trying to imply that he has had a total vision of God as the Cosmos – a vishvarupadarshan or some such fantastic claim, but perhaps he has already shown to be confused and deluded enough to discount such a possibility. I am not saying that it is impossible through intensive self-programming and fanatical concentration to conjure up experiences of deities, devils, saints and Satans, but that it is a capacity of the deranged human mind to be triggered to have many kinds of fantastic experience in the realms of illusion.

Venkarataman: “Most intellectuals, scientists being prominent among them, try to explain all that we see through the “Head” alone but when it comes to God, the “Heart” HAS to come into the picture. The Heart being BEYOND the Mind, the tools of Science will not work; instead, we need the tools of meta-science or meta-physics, if you will. It is at this point that the modern physicist loses patience, makes his sarcastic comments and withdraws with the feeling that those who believe in God need to be pitied rather than censured.”
Partly sarcastic final comment: Venkataraman makes lots of sarcastic comments about scientists, but they merely pity him, no doubt, with reason which is pitying, not thereby heartless. Sarcasm has its function too, even if it is exceptional in not having been created by God, of course! He lays claim to knowing that the HEART is beyond the mind. However, the word ‘heart’ has come to mean much the same as ‘the seat of emotions’. It can be filled with envy, lust and hate (as Sathya Sai Baba so often argues) yet at the same time the Sai dogma is that the Eternal Soul has its seat in the heart which is pure, at the core of which there is akasa, that compassion arises in the heart lotus, that the heart ‘chackra’ must be awakened, and cleansed so that God can enter (but he is also supposed to be there all the time … and so on and so forth. It is all a confused and contradictory manner of speaking, frequently employed in an attempt to denigrate common sense, reason, logic and anything that can be considered as sceptical, agnostic etc. or belonging to the ‘head’. Thus, compassion and love are in no way inspired by our thoughts (the head) or by reason (as in the case of poor old Immanuel Kant and many others). But it is largely a false opposition in terms only, for the thought (head) and emotions (heart) are always intertwined, dialectically related and are often so closely in full agreement as to be unified, even in non-spiritual people (believe it or not). The whole confusion arises from the false dichotomy between the body and the mind (or soul), between the physical cosmos or and the imagined spiritual heavens, hells or whatever. It seems that Prof G. Venkataraman has ‘lost his head’ – or wants to – and is proud of it into the bargain.

Dr.G. Venkataraman – physicist ‘explains’ Sathya Sai Baba

It seems that this retired physicist G. Venkataraman had been tempted to take upon himself the mantle of philosopher, without having had the requisite training or having worked analytically on the main philosophies and theologies of the world.Not only that, he has donned the role of a spiritual adviser working directly on behalf of God Almighty, Creator of the Universe. Why then, I ask myself, was he wearing such a long face and showed such lack of animation when I met him on two occasions together with V.K. Narasimhan.

Prof. G. Venkataraman wrote a article called ‘God, the Avathar and the Intellectual’ (see www.saibaba.ws/articles2/god_avathar_intellectual.htm) in which he juxtaposes photos of Einstein, Stephen Hawking with Sathya Sai Baba, Mahatma Gandhi, Adi Shankara, Ramana Maharshi, Shirdi Baba, Lord Rama and the Scottish self-styled ‘religious expert’ writer Bill Aitken. This tabloidal hodge-podge is supposed to be an intelligent article… but it tries to justify – by photographic and general association – the flights of fancy of an under-educated villager like Sathya Sai Baba with the greatest scientists of the modern era (excluding Bill Aitken, an itinerant travel writer published only in India). Einstein and Hawking would most assuredly never have supported the ’teachings’ of any of these solipsistic speculators like Maharshi and Shankara, or deities like Rama, let alone miracle men like Shirdi Sai Baba and the would-be usurper of his local fame and sleight-of-hand merchant, Sathya Sai Baba. So much for Venkataraman’s pathetic idea of what constitutes ‘intellectuality’!
A simple thought experiment for Venkataraman, who believes in ‘eternal entities’ of various kinds. Does the word ‘green’ refer to greenness independent of anything that is or can be thought of as green – or be called green? In other words, is there an universal green, an absolute, eternal ‘green’? The same goes for love… can it exist independently of any instance of a feeling or act which may be rightly called ‘loving’? To say it can is to believe in the independent, non-physical existence of universals. If one thinks so, then one is surely green as a philosopher – still in the era of Plato, and – as a physicist – one is in denial of the very basis of all physics, the principle of the universal conservation of energy.

Venkataraman writes:- Ananthamurthy, I must admit, does not cast aspersions nor sling mud. But he does not hesitate to question, disapprove and dismiss without any semblance, I regret to say, of deep analysis. This of course is quite typical of many intellectuals when it comes to Spiritual matters. Before I come to intellectuals and the problems many of them have in accepting God, I should mention that Ananthamurthy, while dismissing Swami, does not appear to reject Spirituality. On the contrary, he accepts and admires a host of evolved souls like Kabir, Basava, Tukaram, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharishi. However, he is not sure where to fit in Swami in all this. He is aware that people flock to Swami in hundreds of thousands but dismisses all that with the remark, “But that magnetism is not spiritual”. He adds, “Spiritualism requires a kind of mind like Jiddu Krishnamurthy. I could argue with him. With Sai Baba, either you believe him or you don’t.”
These days, most intellectuals tend to be agnostic at best and atheist at worst; often it is the latter. Dazzled by the achievements of man in so many dimensions, they are unable to accept God because they are confronted with so many questions for which they do not have answers.
Comment: Contrariwise, Venkataraman is dazzled by Sathya Sai Baba’s deceits and legerdemain into believing there are so many questions which he cannot answer, but Sai Baba can! Atheists like Dawkins are not dazzled, but dazzling in their intellectual achievements (in genetics the popular book ‘The Selfish Gene’ is beyond the grasp of amateur philosopher Venkataraman, let alone Dawkins’ far, far more technical and empirical scientific papers.

Venkarataman: “Having said this, I must point out that there have been and there still are many intellectuals [possibly a minority] who do believe in God, scientists included. Einstein was a famous example. He freely acknowledged that he believed in a Superior Being although his God was not One who sat in judgment, inflicted punishment and all that.”
Comment: Most definitely a minority and a very small one, according to all surveys in recent decades.

Venkarataman: “Talking of scientists, I must not forget to mention late Abdus Salam of Pakistan, who won the Nobel Prize for his incisive work on electro-weak unification. …. A Westerner once asked Salam, “How come you, a scientist, believe in God?” Salam gave a terse reply, “Science is all about the outer world. God is all about the Inner world. Where is the contradiction?”

Comment: The contradiction which escaped the Nobel Prize winner is known to practically all other Nobel Prize winners, it lies in the total rejection of science of any inner world independent of physical causation. Such an ‘inner world’ is simply composed of speculation, the store of mental engrammata including figments of the imagination, misconceptions, false beliefs, superstitions and more. It is all of the same epistemological status as Robert M Price pointed out in ‘Christ A Fiction’: “You ask me how I know he lives?” asks the revival chorus. “He lives within my heart.” Exactly! A figment.

Venkataraman states that he likes best the definition of God given by Gandhi: “Gandhi said, “He is no God who merely satisfies the intellect. God to be God must rule the Heart and transforms the senses. He is LOVE.” Now I ask you. Does not this definition fit Swami like a glove?”
Comment: Sathya Sai Baba certainly is no God who can satisfy the intellect, for a start. His supposed ‘Love’ is in question, as there are many who have been deeply offended by him, who have been swindled of larges sums of money by him, who have worked tirelessly for him for decades but been as if ‘cast into the outer darkness’ by him! He has called his critics ‘demons’ and worse. Is THAT love and compassion?
Many of his followers’ hearts are far from being ‘ruled’ by him, let alone his critics and the rest of the world. He does not transform anyone’s sense but deceives the senses with legerdemain and cause many people to misinterpret the evidence of their senses to a high degree.
Venkataraman quotes the young Sai Baba speaking before the Raja of Venkatagiri from around 1950:-

Swami explained: “The saints and sages you are referring to are humans who were in the process of evolving towards God. I, on the other hand, am God come down in human form – that is the difference.”
Comment: This is what Venkataraman believes totally, and everything else is made to fit this Procrustean bed – that Sathya Sai baba is infallible! Some physicist Venkataraman is.

See also Indian Nuclear Scientist Now Sai Baba’s Global Radio Chief These days Sai Baba’s chief international propagandist (via Sai Global Harmony and WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service) and deputy head of the immensely wealthy and influential world Sathya Sai Organization, Dr G. Venkataraman, was a top Indian nuclear scientist.

G. Venkataraman – Chief propagandist for ‘God’ G. Venkataraman is keen to imprint on his readers that, in studying anything about science, they are observing “The Glory of God”. This is, of course, an assumption and is not even a testable hypothesis, being a vague (undefined and indefinite) conception which is entirely non-operational.

Apologist for Sathya Sai Baba The only top Sai official who has ever even mentioned the many allegations against Sai Baba – and then only after a period of six years or more had gone by – is Dr. G. Venkataraman. He has shown his true colours, however, in having written a document full of cover-up and false statements aiming […]

The most gullible physicist alive? Dr. G. Venkataraman writes in Part 4 of his 7-part series entitled “In Quest of Infinity” on his Radio Sai website “You know, when I think about it all, I am simply wonder struck. On one side of it is God who has created the Universe in which all these wonderful things happen.

Dr Venkataraman, a victim of emotional blackmail? One of the many former devotees with whom I correspond privately has commented to me that “Dr.G. Venkataraman lost all his scruples.” Also that he “had a harrowing experience when he lost his son and that is the main reason he is with Sathya Sai Baba who kind of gave him emotional support

APOLOGIST FOR SATHYA SAI BABA

The only top Sai official who has ever even mentioned the many allegations against Sai Baba – and then only after a period of six years or more had gone by – is Dr. G. Venkataraman. He has shown his true colours, however, in having written a document full of cover-up and false statements aiming to refute the countless allegations against Sai Baba, which has been refuted in its entirety point by point with full documentation (see here).

Here is a man who can’t handle two things at once: scientific reservation of judgement with its proof requirements and total and entirely uncritical belief in his living God-guru… so he chooses the latter.> I met Venkataraman for an hour or so in the presence of V.K. Narasimhan (18-10-1998, in VKN’s apartment at Prashanthi West 5 together with Mr. Anand, then just installed as Editor of Sanathana Sarathi). When he said anything I must say I did not find it other than bland, which is borne out for me by his writings… commonplace and imprecise, lacking the stamp of deeper insight or personal experience. No doubt Dr. Venkataraman was brought to identify himself as Hindu from the cradle, where it is not uncommon that zealous faith – but also superstition and fear – are deeply imbued and which evidently tend to take on extra strength nearer to the funeral pyre. Venkataraman unquestioningly believed in what Sai Baba had told VKN when he said he was worried about the world situation “You fool, you did not create it, so why worry about it – there is someone in charge!” I had already had my doubts as to such vast claims reinforced by VKN for years by then… who wouldn’t? The answer is, all those who have programmed themselves to accept all he says, whatever the evidence. Before the major allegations against Sathya Sai Baba had not been made by the favourite devotee David Bailey, it was still possible  – due to the tight secrecy around the matter – to entertain the belief that Sai Baba was pure and in possession of nothing but good powers and designs as he always claimed. No longer, however, for anyone with an open mind, an active conscience and the courage of conviction to investigate!

It is reported by a string of former followers that it is common knowledge among many leading followers (Sai VIPs) that the sexual allegations have substance. Col. Joga Rao – who was Sai’s closest servitor for many a year did not even believe in Sai Baba’s miracles… so Venkataraman, who knew him well, must either live in an isolated make-believe world or be hiding what he really knows.See also:

G. Venkataraman’s out-dated and fallacious ideas – part two Propagating Sai Baba’s anti-scientific views, Dr. G. Venkataraman – former physicist – attacks science and scientists in general for the usual sins that religionists hold them to be committing. These I refute at some length, as called for.

See four-part article ‘The Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed’ refutation of Dr. G. Venkataraman’s mendacious and confused attack on Sai dissidents

Dictator Idi Amin – Sai Baba’s warm recollections The gullible ex-scientist Dr. G. Venkataraman enthuses over Sai Baba’s relations with most gruesome dictator Idi Amin, with crocodiles and more!

Dr Venkataraman, a victim of emotional blackmail?

Atomic physics Venkataraman-Puttaparthi style. Deeply intriguing

G. VENKATARAMAN – CHIEF PROPAGANDIST FOR ‘GOD’

Ex-nuclear physicist Dr. G. Venkataraman is keen to imprint on his readers that, in studying anything about science, they are observing “The Glory of God”. This is, of course, an assumption and is not even a testable hypothesis, being a vague (undefined and indefinite) conception which is entirely non-operational.  It is wrong to write about science from the viewpoint of a “true believer” in Sathya Sai Baba as God the Creator Incarnate, as Venkataraman does.

Dr. Venkataraman takes after Sathya Sai Baba and all others who try to convince through ‘sham reasoning’. Philosopher C.S. Peirce explained this as “pseudo-inquiry aimed not at finding the truth but at making a case for some conclusion immovably believed in advance”.  Trying to foreshorten science to fit onto the Procrustean bed of religious belief, forcing personal and subjective interpretations onto scientific facts and theories – while presenting oneself as ‘a scientist’ while one is writing mainly as a believer is to disqualify oneself completely as a serious thinker.  When the patina of well-known scientific facts is stripped off, only preaching what Sai Baba has claimed remains. 

Science and Belief in God To accept Sathya Sai Baba as a universal teacher also means accepting ‘Creationism’ (see here ), That is a totally discredited quasi-theory, banned from education by a 1987 Supreme Court ruling. Venkataraman’s attempt to misuse science to support his belief in God does not befit anyone who truly bends to the scientific spirit. Among the millions of scientists today, believers in a God creator and regulator of the universe are in a minority which is gradually decreasing.  As Professor Dawkins, a world-famous scientist as a foremost geneticist and evolutionary scientist and also as a non-believer in religion, has pointed out in his super bestseller The God Delusion – hardly any truly notable scientists today believe in God. (read his 1’st chapter here http://richarddawkins.net/godDelusion#firstChapter ). Dawkins writes: “The only website I could find that claimed to list ‘Nobel-Prize-winning Scientific Christians’ came up with six, out of a total of several hundred scientific Nobelists” [The God Delusion paperback –  page 126].  Another interesting research shows how scientists in general are far less religious than average [ http://www.livescience.com/history/070629_religious_scientists.html ].

Einstein was not a religious believer in God
Venkataraman has promoted many famous scientists in his popularistic series (see my previous blog here) – as if this thereby lends credence to his main contention: to believe in God. Religionists – especially Sai followers in their endless hagiographies – try their utmost to allege that many scientists are believers, particularly referring to the incomparable Albert Einstein. However, Einstein wrote: “It was of course a lie when you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly” (see here). “The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve.” [Albert Einstein in a letter to Beatrice Frohlich, December 17, 1952; Einstein Archive 59-797; from Alice Calaprice, ed., The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton, : Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 217. ] Einstein used the word God occasionally but never in the religious sense or as a Creator [as in ‘God does not play dice’- an analogy for causal determinism, in which Einstein did believe].
SEE ALSO

Dr. G. Venkataraman’s delusions and cynical cover up
Donations to Sathya Sai Central Trust misused by/for directors etc.
Slander by Dr. G. Venkataraman & Joe Moreno
Atomic physics Puttaparthi style. Deeply intriguing

 

Dr. G. VENKATARAMAN – THE MOST GULLIBLE PHYSICIST ALIVE?

Dr. G. Venkataraman writes in Part 4 of his 7-part series entitled “In Quest of Infinity” on his Radio Sai website “You know, when I think about it all, I am simply wonder struck. On one side of it is God who has created the Universe in which all these wonderful things happen. On the other side, there He is in human form in Parthi, going about as if He is not aware of any of the mysteries in the Universe” View excerpt scanned from that page (click here to view the scan and comments) Source page on radio-sai

Dr. G. Venkataraman reviews at length developments in our scientific knowledge of the cosmos… though nothing scientific that is not found in hundreds of books and other media. Venkataraman was a physicist working for the Indian government’s nuclear programme. However, he has copied his information on astronomy from other scientific authorities. Yet he does not once attribute anything he reports to its originators or to other scientific sources! He has even plagiarised text from such as the  Dennis Dutton website, without any mention.

Outright plagiarism by a man given many Indian awards. This shows a lot about the system in India and how dishonest academics benefit from it. Both text and an image at http://media.radiosai.org/journals/Vol_05/01MAY07/04-SFI.htm were ‘lifted’ from denisdutton.com/einstein_eddington.htm by Prof. G. Venkataraman, without acknowledgement. He also took the following images, all  without acknowledgement:- ‘The Big Bang’ image from science.hq.nasa.gov/universe/science/bang.html ‘An Expanding Universe’ from http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/Phys-SNAP-dark-energy.html ‘The Periodic Table of Elements’ is from http://www.scientificpsychic.com/health/chemistry.html (on which he has even imposed the logo of Radio Sai! ‘The Chandra Telescope’ images come from starbulletin.com/2000/01/14/news/story1.html and from http://whyfiles.org/223orbital_astro/images/chandradiag.jpg The images of white dwarfs are falsely sub-titled “www.radio sai” but they are taken  from http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/Images/science/hubble_m4wd.jpg He uses copyright images from the Anglo-Australian Observatory at http://astro.ic.ac.uk/Research/Stellar/images/aat050.jpg

This failure to cite any references in articles on science or academic subjects is regarded as dilettantism by scientists and scholars. The innocent and uneducated may well believe that Venkataraman  discovered such things himself, when he is simply promoting himself as if he were an authoritative researcher. This marks him out as bogus. In addition to this absence of basic scholarly standards, he has a pretentious main agenda. He presumes to inform us of 1) The Cosmic origin of man.  2) Man’s Cosmic connections. 3) Man’s Cosmic responsibilities, and 4) Man’s Cosmic Destiny, no less!
These (contra-feminist) titles alone reveal that he is setting himself up as some kind of ‘spiritual mouthpiece’, misusing science as a mere tool in an attempt to inculcate religious belief – preferably  faith in his Lord and Master, Sathya Sai Baba, as the Incarnation of God Almighty in this Age.

Venkataraman posts his various lessons and lectures on the website he directs, and he receives no peer comment, let alone criticism, from within the Sai Baba movement, and such is not permitted at all! At the Sathya Sai educational institutions – where servile respect for elders and what they teach is an unbroken rule, no teacher or student would ever are to put a critical question to Sai-luminaries.  Protected from any critical debate and intellectual inquiry in the passive circle of co-admirers of Sathya Sai Baba, Venkataraman is able – with his Lord and Master holding the chain behind him – figuratively to bark down anyone in his vicinity who might dare to question his undigested and highly doubtful views. However, the wider world of genuine research and discussion – where excellence arises from rigorous peer review and disputation – will not be impressed in the least.

Dr. Venkataraman writes – as if he knows directly and authoritatively – of God and his existence etc. (actually – he really thinks he knows God personally as Sathya Sai Baba!) All the signs of pseudo-philosophy on a wholly belief-driven agenda are there, for he only parrots Sathya Sai Baba’s beliefs and propaganda without any critical thought whatever, even when they are wholly preposterous and in conflict with the most established scientific and historical fact (see overview here).

Evidently, far too much now depends on it for him, evidently – prestige and pelf, employment and perks. Sai Baba is his God and patron, and Venkataraman is his beneficiary (having received from Sai Baba an expensive new Japanese car paid for by funds donated by well-meaning followers who thought the money would go to raise the poor instead! (such as myself, alas, having once contributed enough to buy a number of cars). Venkataraman did not refuse to accept the brand new Japanese vehicle as a personal gift from his Lord (who says he has no money or property anyhow) and so becomes yet more of a  consumer than before…  one who immorally accepts what amounts to a bribe for allegiance paid for by money donated for the good of the poor, unhealthy and uneducated! Under Sathya Sai Baba’s direction, he willingly compromised himself. [Four other Sai-VIP’s accepted identical free cars].

See also

Dr.G. Venkataraman – physicist ‘explains’ Sathya Sai Baba Dr. G. Venkataraman rambles on denigrating scientists and science and promoting Sathya Sai Baba – as God descended to earth – and his most spurious speculations (‘teachings’) about an invisible beyond.

G. Venkataraman’s out-dated and fallacious ideas – part two  Propagating Sai Baba’s anti-scientific views, Dr. G. Venkataraman – former physicist – attacks science and scientists in general for the usual sins that religionists hold them to be committing. These I refute at some length, as called for.

See four-part article ‘The Sathya Sai Organization’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed’ refutation of Dr. G. Venkataraman’s mendacious and confused attack on Sai dissidents

Dictator Idi Amin – Sai Baba’s warm recollections The gullible ex-scientist Dr. G. Venkataraman enthuses over Sai Baba’s relations with most gruesome dictator Idi Amin, with crocodiles and more!

Dr Venkataraman, a victim of emotional blackmail?

Apologist for Sathya Sai Baba

Atomic physics Venkataraman-Puttaparthi style. Deeply intriguing

Dr. G. Venkataraman’s delusions and cynical cover up

Money, Morality and Sai-worshipper Dr. Venkataraman

Dr. G.  Venkataraman writes a lot about scientific discoveries in his series on the heart-to-heart website which he runs in connection with Radio Sai, but he writes from the standpoint of a religious believer and preacher of morality. There is therefore not much head-to-head communication in it, and – though he reproduces information of a popular scientific kind well enough, the bias is quite a-scientific in spirit. Take for example, his article “4 M’s – MAN, MONEY, MYTH AND MORALITY By Prof. G. Venkataraman“.
He firstly dwells on how science has affected technology – simple, well-known high school level stuff.  Economists who were his audience must have been bored stiff with a patronising lecture on such elementary events in the rise of industrial technology known well enough to any educated person.However, he summed up the whole thrust of his lecture as follows: “My central point was that when man goes avidly in quest of wealth, he quickly loses discrimination and begins to swallow all kinds of myths. This results in man abandoning scruples, if not wholly, at least in substantial measure, and in turn that leads to disaster. In other words, my pitch was that nobody, economists included, can afford to ignore Morality in the larger scheme of things.”
What’s the point, one wonders… it is unclear whether he means that they should not invest in exploitative companies, or rather abandon economic realities and the profit motive and wealth creation generally? It’s anyone’s guess.

The pot calling the kettle black! 

Venkataraman has lost all his scruples about sexual abuse allegations and murder cover-up by Sai Baba, he is comfortable with all of it! (See here!) So morality is certainly ignored in his scheme of things, at any rate. He also tells what everyone knows anyhow, how scientists made the atomic bomb and states, “Overnight, scientists lost their innocence and became putty in the hands of those who had money to throw.” Well, G. Venkataraman is one of those very persons, for – like his more accomplished former colleague Dr. Bhagavantam – he worked for the Indian government on developing atomics which backed up India’s nuclear capacity! Now he is preaching against this… and he is one of the guilty!

His agenda is definitely unscientific, for it is religious moralising, as is clear from his words here: “Swami puts it all neatly and crisply. He says we must first have Love for God followed by a fear of sin. If these two are present, then Morality in Society would automatically follow.”

This has been preached for centuries in the Christian world (love and love of God have been a Judeo-Christian concept altogether until very recent centuries) but now we are told by Sai Baba that the world is ever more imbued with evil in this Age of Kali! This is really simplistic empty talk which provides no practical solution to the vast world problems with which science and economy are struggling to cope. Add to this that Venkataraman has swallowed quite other types of myth than consumerism; those connected with Sathya Sai Baba – which are of a megalomaniacal sort! More on the issue of Venkataraman’s  compromised position coming soon