“Some people are so mean-minded that they do not want to understand and appreciate the sanctity associated with the activities. Have any of them been able to accomplish even one-thousandth part of what Sai baba is doing? No, no, no! It is only Sathya Sai Baba who has undertaken such noble tasks without a trace of selfishness.” (From Sathya Sai Baba’s Christmas Discourse, 2000)
Does Sai Baba himself have any money to give away unselfishly?
On 11/8/2001, Sathya Sai Baba held a discourse (published in Sanathana Sarathi, September 2001) where he detailed the running costs of the two hospitals, the colleges etc. and how much investment is needed to cover these. This sum – amounting to the interest from 600 crores of rupees (about $120 mill), is perhaps surprisingly little, considering the billions that have been donated to him. Half the interest of this 600 crores goes to the Bangalore hospital, 2/6th to the Puttaparthi hospital and 1/6th to all the educational institutions together. Sai Baba asks rhetorically, “Wherefrom does it all come?” And adds so self-deprecatingly, “However, I am giving it” (p. 264). Does Sai Baba himself have any money to give, then? He has always claimed to be a renunciant who owns nothing. For example, “At a meeting of the Central Trust yesterday, I told the members including Sri Indulal Shah, that I had no interest in property. Do not involve me in any connection with these properties. I do not wish to have any connection with money or property. My only concern is with my devotees. Telling them all this, I signed the papers.“ (1.01.1998, Sanathana Sarathi, Vol. 41, January1998, p. 4).
However, a person who has control over the multi-billion dollar trust in that all his chosen ‘directors’ are beholden to him and – in their faith that he is all-knowing Divinity – dare not contradict him, cannot be said to be without property. He has expressed his gratitude to anyone for the help he personally receives! As usual, Sathya Sai Baba claims “I do not accept anything from anyone” (p. 168). How can he really not receive ANYTHING, just like everyone else alive does? Impossible! He is the recipient of many goods that most Indians regard as unattainable luxuries!
Sai Baba related in this same Krishna birthday discourse that he received news that the same sum, 600 crores of rupees, was coming from a person in the US with whom he had no direct contact. If so, this means it was someone other than the US metals magnate (and big Haliburton investor) James Sinclair, who has also made several donations in the tens of millions… and further, donations of $100 million and more have even been announced in public now and again! Donors to the water project were publicly named before the ca. 300,000 visitors at Baba’s 70th birthday (as a blessing?) The list included only those who had given over a very high amount (1 crore of rupees – over $200,000.-), without mention of any others who were not so rich but had also contributed. James Sinclair was named along with dozens others, including the Indian liquor baron Bangarappa! Unlike Mahatma Gandhi, Sai Baba willingly accepts tainted money. Devotees rationalize this on the lines of ‘God is all-powerful so why can’t he do anything he wishes? Some argue more sensibly that he make bad money good by putting it to better ends… however, this is really only money-laundering and whitewashing. The money goes to increase his interests and standing!
Any near-exact estimate of the entire Sai holdings is impossible to make due to the extremely secretive Sathya Sai Central Trust and other funds over which he has control , but $10 billion would probably be a conservative guess. Calculating on the basis of membership figures and other estimates touted by the Sathya Sai Organisation, another source put the figure at $45 billion sometime after 2000. Since reliable information on everything about the Sai empire is never declared fully and their accounts are protected by the government, including the secrets of the many sources from which donations come (testimonies of deceased devotees, often their entire estates – such as the fortune of the famous film star James Mason, for one. A close relative of a friend of mine was induced to part with £1/4 million in her last will and testament to the Sathya Sai Central Trust when Sai devotees – having already extracted tens of thousands of pounds from her for projects which never materialized – further concentrated on ‘love-bombing’ her in her aged frailty, giving her false hopes of salvation and so on.
No accounts are available to anyone – other than undocumented annual gross sum statements by the authorities, who are often under Sai Baba’s influential thumb – as is well known to insiders -) The Sathya Sai Trust is exempt from taxation, and special freedom from import duties have been granted by his governmental followers. One certainly wonders where it all goes, apart from the opulent luxuries like charter jets, extravagant buildings, apartments and frequent costly festivals and huge ‘birthday bashes’!
Self-promotion takes a high ride
scan excerpt from the infamous Sathya Sai Baba Discourse on Christmas Day hypocritically entitled "Overcome Jealousy With Love" in Prashanthi Nilayam temple in which he abandons love and attacks critics to damn them as demons, as well as wilfully making untrue and wholly unsubstiantiated allegations about critics taking money to write about him. This was repeated in another form by him on March 7, 2007: ... "So I don't lose anything by their false propaganda. ... It would be far better if they follow Sathya Sai Baba instead and set an ideal to the rest of the world. I have no desires or ambition. Here is no trace of jealousy"
Speaking of 12,000 heart operations performed at the Puttaparthi hospital, he boasts, “I leave it to your imagination to appreciate who is responsible for saving so many lives.” (p. 262) Could Sai Baba mean the donors, the doctors, all the selfless hospital workers? He prefers you imagine that this could not happen unless he somehow does it all! If he is saying it is all due to his ‘miraculous aid’, then why does he bother with the hospitals? I am free to “imagine” that the actual health workers and other staff who work voluntarily or for a very small remuneration are those who are actually responsible for saving the lives that are presumably saved. Not to forget the US multi-millionaire Isaac Tigrett, who donated the entire first Puttaparthi ‘super-speciality hospital’ plus all its equipment.
More to the point is who chooses the accepted candidates for treatment (for, in a country with crying needs like India there must be very many who cannot be accommodated?). It is known that numerous devotees, including visitors from abroad, have been accorded operations there. I have met devotees from abroad who applied through their local branches of the Sathya Sai Organization… and were accepted. I leave it to your imagination as to why this is so in a hospital that was supposedly dedicated to the truly poor and needy. The donors have no way of knowing the patient lists, nor therefore whether their money is being used for the reasons it was collected, or rather largely for promotion of the cult and its adherents.
But it is striking how Sai Baba in discourse after discourse publicizes and praises himself in a way which one will be hard put to find elsewhere. He goes on, for the n`th time, “I have no personal desires or selfishness in Me at all. I have not asked anybody for help. Will anybody simply give hundreds of crores for the mere asking? None.” Does Sai Baba – who says he knows absolutely everything – not even know that there have been thousands of huge benefactors of mankind who have not been asked, and who have behaved with modesty – giving full credit to all those involved without whom their part would not have been possible?
Examples of vast donations to charitable works are plenty: they stretch from Robert Owen to Rockefeller, Washington Carver to Guggenheim, Warren Buffet, Getty, George Soros, Imran Khan and Bill Gates – a mere $33 billion given by him so far! Why would ‘God Incarnate – Creator of the Universe’ need to harp on about his own excellence, selfless purity, what he is giving (as if he was a big donor in the scheme of things? Why does he hardly ever mention all the others who contribute selflessly in various ways, not only though his (corrupt) Trust but all around the globe? Persons he no doubt regards as ‘ordinary unenlightened’ people (eg. Bob Geldoff, Warren Buffet, Imran Khan and countless other less famous figures in almost every country of the world) leading big charitable projects or relief work without making any such fuss about themselves.
Along with his self-praise comes repeated talk of his supposedly being unaffected by praise or blame! “All that I do has a great ideal for humanity.” Does this include his having stood by without lifting a finger while his officials persuaded the police to shoot young men armed only with knives in cold blood? But, though he would not answer any questions the press put to him about this, he says, “There is nothing hidden in My actions”. (p. 266. The fact is, that almost everything is very systematically and carefully hidden from all but a few… excepting what can be seen when he gives his daily darshan walkabouts of around 1 hour per day, and discourses on special days. His person is guarded by cordons of servitors, security people who are mostly undercover.
Sathya Sai Baba regards himself as a major donor to Indian society… yet he has never earned a penny of the billions donated, which he claims are not even his! He always wants to eat his cake and still have it. In a speech in Oct 1999, he explained:- “To date I have never desired anything. I have not touched even a single paisa of anyone. Things come to Me on their own unasked whenever the necessity arises. I have never stretched My hand before anybody from My childhood till now and this will be the norm in the future also. I feel happy in giving and not in receiving.” His every single need is met by others, and I – and many others – know from personal experiences that he does “stretch out his hand for donations”. He pretends to materialize diamonds and other objects which he gives away. They are not genuine, and he even pretended to materialize watches donated to him by a UK Sathya Sai Organization group visiting his ashram. The recipients are almost always deluded into believing him, and they in turn donate real money, huge amounts of time and energy… this is indeed a scam of massive proportions.
Persons Sai Baba no doubt regards as ‘ordinary unenlightened’ people ( and countless other less famous figures in almost every country of the world) are major philanthropists leading charitable projects or relief work without making any such fuss about themselves. Yet in his Christmas Discourse 2000 he also said: “There are many millionaires in this world who are so mean and narrow-minded that they set their dogs on the persons, who beg for alms at their doorstep. It is shameful to consider them as human beings. These persons are unable to do even a thousandth of what Sathya Sai Baba is doing for society, but shamelessly indulge in false allegations.” This reckless and general accusation shows how disturbed he is when his boasts of purity and selfless poverty are shown to be empty:-
George Lucas, the director of the Star Wars films, and
Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York and data tycoon, had already promised to donate “a majority” of their wealth.
- Mark Zuckerberg, 26, founder of Facebook.com, thought to be worth almost $7 billion (£4.4 billion), has signed the Giving Pledge, a campaign led by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and Warren Buffett, the financier.
- Dustin Moskovitz, the Facebook co-founder and former room-mate, who is also 26 and has a fortune of about $1.4 billion (£888 million), are among 17 new billionaires to have joined the initiative.
- Prince Karim Aga Khan IV ~ founder[1] and chairman[2] of Aga Khan Development Network which focuses on health, education, culture, rural development, institution-building and promotion of economic development[2].
- Jane Addams ~ co-founder of the Hull House settlement house in Chicago[3]
- Howard Ahmanson, Jr. ~ multi-millionaire philanthropist and financier of the causes of many conservative Christian cultural, religious and political organizations.
- William Allen – founded and endowed many institutions and causes including ‘Schools of Industry’ at Lindfield and Newington Academy for Girls.
- Michael Bloomberg ~ Donations include over USD$300 million to Johns Hopkins University.
- Bono ~ co-founder of Product Red and of the One Campaign for the abolition of AIDS and poverty in Africa.
- Warren Buffett ~ pledged USD$30.7 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Nicholas Murray Butler – president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 1925 to 1945.
- Jan Cameron ~ has stated that she will give away her personal fortune of $300 million, notably to animal rights movement such as the Animal Justice Fund.
- Andrew Carnegie ~ donated money to build over 2500 libraries worldwide. Founder of the Carnegie Foundations, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Carnegie Mellon University.
- Li Ka-shing ~ founder and chairman of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, which focuses on two major areas: capacity empowerment through education and building of a caring society through medical and healthcare related projects. In 2006, Li pledged to donate one-third of his fortune estimated at over USD$10 billion to charity and philanthropic projects throughout the world.
- Michael Jackson ~ has donated more than USD$300 million to various foundations, and founded the Heal the World Foundation and Make a Wish foundation. He is listed in the Guinness World Records for having supported 39 charity organizations either with monetary donations through sponsorships of their projects or by participating in their silent auction. While on tour, he would take time out secretly visiting hospitals, hospices and orphanages. His home Neverland Ranch was opened for underprivileged and disadvantaged kids and their families for free.
- Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury – chairman of the Ragged Schools Union (during the Victorian era).
- Marisol Deluna ~ fashion designer and founder of Deluna By Design, Inc. creates silk scarves and ties for charitable endeavors globally.
- Richard Desmond – President of the Norwood Charity, raised around £14m for charitable causes with the RD Crusaders, helped build the Richard Desmond Children’s Eye Centre part of Moorfields Eye Hospital.
- Walt Disney ~ helped to fund California Institute of the Arts
- Anthony J. Drexel ~ founder of Drexel University
- Maulana Dr. Abdul Sattar Edhi ~ head of the Edhi Foundation in Pakistan.
- Mohamed Al-Fayed ~ founder of The New School at West Heath.
- Chuck Feeney ~ founder of Atlantic Philanthropies.
- Edsel Ford ~ co-founder of the Ford Foundation.
- Henry Ford ~ co-founder of the Ford Foundation.
- Bill Gates ~ co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Melinda Gates ~ co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
- J. Paul Getty ~ funded the construction of the Getty Villa, the original Getty Museum, and donated his art collection to it. Upon his death, left his fortune to the Getty Museum, which eventually expanded to the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
- David Gilmour ~ singer and guitarist of Pink Floyd whom was made CBE for his years of philanthropy and gave $7.5 million from sale of his London home to the homeless charity Crisis
- Edward Harkness ~ Various private colleges and boarding schools; medical facilities; Commonwealth Fund
- Thomas Holloway ~ Victorian patent medicine entrepreneur and founder of Royal Holloway, University of London
- Johns Hopkins ~ founder of the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital
- Amal Hijazi ~ a Lebanese singer, who is known for her philanthropy
- Howard Hughes ~ Aviator, engineer, industrialist and film producer, donated US$1.56billion to various charities including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
- Yusuf Islam (also known as Cat Stevens) ~ founder of Islamic schools, Muslim Aid and Small Kindness.
- Young Jeezy ~ aided in the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, opened his home to many suffering victims and donated funds toward the reconstruction of New Orleans
- Angelina Jolie ~ American Actress,who is well known for her humanitarian world wide and who is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency
- Alicia Keys ~ American singer/songwriter and spokeswoman for Keep A Child Alive.
- George Clooney ~ known for his humanitarian work in aiding the Darfur conflict, organizing Hope for Haiti Now, his involvement in Not On Our Watch and many other organizations and personal tasks to end oppression and world suffering of many types.
- Imran Khan ~ Founder of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust which was behind the first cancer research institution in Pakistan.
- H. F. Lenfest ~ donated $5 million in coherence with Chester County to preserve over 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of land in Newlin Township, Chester County, PA. The land is now owned by Natural Lands Trust.
- Julius Curtis Lewis, Jr. ~ Estimated lifetime donations of USD$130 million to various civic, spiritual; charitable organizations. Many in Savannah, Georgia.
- Juliette Gordon Low ~ Also known as “Daisy”, founded Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912 in Savannah, GA.
- Catherine T. MacArthur ~ co-founder of the MacArthur Foundation.
- John D. MacArthur ~ co-founder of the MacArthur Foundation.
- Chris Martin ~ lead singer of British alternative rock band Coldplay. He is known for supporting the Make Trade Fair campaign. He and his band also contribute 15% of their money to charity.
- Paul Mellon ~ major benefactor of arts and education, and co-founder of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Ailsa Mellon-Bruce ~ co-founder of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Mary Louise Milliken Childs ~ Builder of the Milliken Memorial Community House, the first privately donated community house in America.
- Sunil Bharti Mittal – Set up Bharti Foundation that runs schools for 30,000 underprivileged children in rural India
- Samuel Morley MP ~ founded Morley College, London and endowed other institutions and causes.
- Jamie and Karen Phelps Moyer ~ founded the Moyer Foundation to assist non-profit organizations in raising money for children with serious distresses.
- Sidney Myer ~ Founder of the Iconic Australian Department store chain Myer.
- Petra Němcová ~ Czech supermodel who is the founder of the Happy Hearts Fund
- Paul Newman ~ Founder of Newman’s Own and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for seriously ill children, as well as major donations to other charities.
- Alfred Nobel ~ founder of the Nobel Prizes.
- Legendary country singer Dolly Parton is an advocate for children’s education through her foundation, the Imagination Library, which gives books to children on a regular basis to develop their reading skills before starting school.
- Princess Bernice Pauahi ~ left properties to the education of Hawaiian boys and girls in what is now Kamehameha Schools.
- Linus Pauling ~ donated time and effort and spent personal funds to bring about the worldwide ban on above ground nuclear weapons testing.
- Ronald O. Perelman ~ Largest Revlon stockholder, has donated over $200 million to various causes since 2001, including a $50 million gift to create the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center.
- Dame Shirley Porter ~ Tesco heiress and co-founder of The Porter Foundation, has donated to Tel Aviv University, social welfare facilities and ecological funding, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and others.
- Charles Pratt ~ founder of Pratt Institute.
- Christopher Reeve ~ founder of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
- Werner Reinhart ~ industrialist, philanthropist, music and literature patron
- Donald Rix ~ BC Innovation Council, BC Cancer Agency Foundation, BC Medical Services Foundation, and the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
- Sir David Robinson ~ founder of the Robinson Charitable Trust, and of Robinson College.
- John D. Rockefeller ~ founder of the Rockefeller Foundation and Rockefeller University.
- John D. Rockefeller Jr. – dramatically expanded the Rockefeller Foundation and Rockefeller University. He also bought and then donated the land in Manhattan upon which the United Nations headquarters was built.
- John D. Rockefeller 3rd ~ major third-generation Rockefeller philanthropist and founder of the Asia Society (1956), the Population Council (1952) and a reconstituted Japan Society, he was chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation for twenty years. He established the Rockefeller Public Service Awards in 1958. Among his many other achievements, he was the driving force behind the construction of the landmark Lincoln Center, built between 1959 and 1966, in New York City.
- J.K. Rowling ~ President of One Parent Families, and advocate for social equity.
- Joseph Rowntree – founder of the four Rowntree trusts.
- Enriqueta Augustina Rylands, foundress of the John Rylands Library
- John Rylands
- Shakira ~ founder of Pies Descalzos Foundation.
- Sir Run Run Shaw ~ founder of the Shaw Prize Foundation.
- Gary Sinise ~ co-founder of Operation Iraqi Children.
- George Soros ~ estimated to have donated more than USD$6 billion, often through the Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations.
- Ellen Gates Starr ~ co-founder of Hull House.
- Levi Strauss ~ Gave to many notable foundations of his time. He also gave to many Jewish synagogues and organizations (he was Jewish himself).
- Belinda Stronach – co-founder of Spread the Net
- Mother Teresa ~ founded the Missionaries of Charity. Her work among the poverty-stricken in Calcutta made her one of the world’s most famous people.
- Cornelius Vanderbilt ~ funded Vanderbilt University.
- William Henry Vanderbilt ~ cofounder of the Metropolitan Opera.
- William Wilberforce ~ English politician, headed successful parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade, and later supported the campaign for complete abolition.
- Oprah Winfrey ~ estimated donations above USD$300 million, and founder of Oprah’s Angel Network.
- Steve Wozniak ~ provided all the money, as well as a good amount of on-site technical support, for the technology program for the Los Gatos School district. Co-founder of Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.)
More bizarre goings-on – Sathya Sai Baba family members are believers in the ancient Indian ‘aesthetic art’ of Vaastu Shastra, which is very like the Chinese Feng-shui (better known in the West). Both vaasta and feng-shui involve planning how buildings—often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also dwellings and other structures— are to be arranged according to their esoteric rules as to what is auspicious or inauspicious. It is held that an auspicious siting and disposition of a building creates the best livable and spiritual’ atmosphere. Otherwise, things can go very wrong, as Sai Baba relative believe occurred with Sai Baba’s hospitalization! Of course, this is regarded as mere fancy and/or sheer superstiton by most world architects and empirical scientists.
By Somu 12/26/2009 9:00:00 PM
Srilakshmi well said. The Fake Fraud Magician, Child-Molester SAIBABA should be tried and jailed. Goltis are a ‘Special’ species in India. Total fraudsters in whatever they do. The year 2009 started off with news of Crook Raju of Satyam and his fellow Andhra Gangsters who supported him in his Loot of 20,000 Crores from Satyam. None of these guys has been sentenced yet. It should not surprise anyone as that is the way things work in fraud Hyderabad. And now this Telengana trouble or better put Mayhem. Added is the SEX pervert Congress Governor Tiwari. 2009 can be called as ‘Year of the Goltis’ in the Indian Calendar! 
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