Charisma of ‘Divine Incarnation’, Sathya Sai Baba

Charisma with either humility or pride Those who qualify as charismatic figures most often consider themselves to be great in some sense, though there are those who humbly claim that ‘greatness was thrust upon them’. The Beatles, who largely had their feet on the ground and did not imagine they were great geniuses, exemplify this charisma-with-humility. What may be designated as good and well-meaning charismatics are those who kept within the bounds of the law and did not glorify themselves. For example, such persons as Winston Churchill, who famously said, “I have never accepted what many people have kindly said, namely that I inspired the nation.  It was a nation and race dwelling all round that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.” Likewise John F. Kennedy, who was virtually worshipped as a sound American and whose murder traumatised many in the USA and worldwide. Further, Nelson Mandela became a most charismatic figure due to his personal qualities and resulting political and social achievements, but without self promotion or laying weight on his fame or becoming authoritarian and self-justifying. The Dalai Lama is an example of humility to the world.

Yet those with charisma who were rather the opposite include many famous dictators and supposed or would-be spiritual personages, holy gurus and self-appointed ‘god-avatars’. Such leaders thus often develop strong egocentric traits and not seldom also delusions of grandeur which can be so strong as to amount to a Messiah- or Jehovah-Complex. Countless names could be listed, but a few known self-glorifying religious charismatics who had fanatical followings and developed excessive such self-delusions and even megalomania  in recent times include (to pick out but a few) include Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the reverend Dr. Moon, Sathya Sai Baba, and Mata Amritanandamayi. In the secular sphere one must list Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Kim Il Sung, Colonel Gadaffi (to name but a few of the very worst). It is a defining hallmark of all these above-named and many another certain charismatic leader to be promoted as above and beyond normal frailties and acting and speaking accordingly.

Another feature charismatic is to pretend to unusual strength, whether physical or, more usually, mental-emotional and psychological strength. Imperturbability, uncommon tenacity of purpose and self-faith combined with decisiveness in action are the image aspired to. Whenever facts tend to contradict such claims, rationalisation and appeal to extenuating circumstances or laying blame at the doors of others gives the game away, but not the the already well-inducted follower who is always keen to accept such excuses. A contemporary example of the show of physical strength is Vladimir Putin, whose wide range of male macho activities have been filmed and propagated to boost his image (also because he is a rather short man).

One of the defining differences between greatness and self-invented delusions of grandeur has hardly been better expressed than as follows:- “Greatness is a transitory experience.  It is never consistent.  It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind.  The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in.  He must reflect what is projected upon him.  And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic.  This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions.  The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself.  Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.” Frank Herbert, from ‘Dune’ p. 100.

Charisma obviously often leads to fame and to worldly power, but it is different from either, though often closely related. One can of course be famous (or infamous) just for becoming widely known without having any following. Sai Baba repeatedly attacked those who had any desire for ‘name and fame’ in most scathing ways, but in all he said and did there is a very clear message that it was his name and fame that were of the greatest importance. To protect his name he produced constant self-propaganda in his discourses, as well as disinformation, false witness, major bribery, and murders. His attempts to convince his followers that he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize showed how desperate he was for the world fame that eluded him. He was never offered or received a single international award for his supposed services to mankind, which he claimed to exceed those of anyone else by ‘a thousandfold’.

 Charisma does not necessarily imply a personality cult, as one can see from many fortunate and admirable examples, but it did so to the highest degree thinkable in Sai Baba’s case; every item he touched was revered as holy and to be allowed to lie flat and kiss his bare feet was a blessing striven after, often quite hysterically. Sai Baba represented himself as identical to – a living re-embodiment of – the greatest God king heroes of Indian mythology Vishnu, Rama, and Krishna. He claimed also to embody Shiva-Parvati and other divines, including the Maharastran revered as a saint, Sai Baba of Shirdi, whose name he also usurped. Though others in India have long laid claim to being Rama’s or Krishna’s reincarnation, none have asserted themselves as the Deity of all Deities to such a degree, so often and for so long, nor have any had the same success. His earliest supporters in his home village, Puttaparthi, spread his name and miracle stories they had heard about him through the decades until a few excited foreign visitors wrote all these stories in English books and the gradual flow of visitors worldwide (and their wealth) grew and grew as the apparatus for inducting them into the seemingly-innocuous cult expanded and took on major propaganda proportions. Much of the perceived charisma of Sai Baba arose from only a relative few being able to meet him briefly in ‘interviews’ run strictly on his own conditions.

It is seen in many cases that discrepancies between word and deed, belief and reality, grow as charismatics’ social, financial or political power increases. The figurative ‘iron hand concealed in a velvet glove’ is then seldom far away. He went through transformations towards increasing dictatorial behaviour and his excessive claims increased and failed more noticeably to match up to reality (though his deeply indoctrinated devotee following could not allow themselves to notice such). His control of followers became more distant and stringent until a major killing spree in his temple complex occurred to which he was present while executions of four of his devotees were planned by his staff in conference with him and the local police (which were controlled by them). whereupon major security was later introduced with armed guards, and much expensive professional undercover surveillance to protect him (under the excuse that it was to protect his devotees). The history of diverse attempts to bring him to court and CBI investigation prove that he enjoyed blanket state protection from prosecution by the legal and political elites. He certainly managed to raise himself above the law and beyond any kind of public accountability for anything he did or said. Control of who could enter his presence was extremely careful and vetting was always carried out through his officials and office-bearers. This is a trait common to many charismatics who rise to an unassailable position, not to allow interviews except to persons under their spell. To avoid open debate is a self-protective and mind-control measure, and Sai Baba’s own education was so poor that he refused the Indian traditional form of scriptural debate challenge, such as when called upon in a letter from Sri Prabhupada.

Sai Baba’s wholly excessive claims increased and so failed more noticeably to match up to reality (though his devotees’ deep indoctrination could not allow themselves to notice such). Claims about transforming India to lead the entire world and bringing about world peace within a brief period were soon shown to be entirely baseless, and remain unfulfilled decades later. The institutions built up around him over which he ruled dictatorially, and likewise his international Sathya Sai Organisation, became what sociologists describe as ‘total institutions’, that is, self-contained islands isolated from society at large and run according to their own arbitrary rules. Having become surrounded by a court of true believers, sycophants and person who saw their fortune in him, Sai Baba became more and more divorced from society at large and sources of information about it and the world. That ‘divine insularity’ set stronger and stronger limitations on his outlook and many incidents demonstrated how he gradually lost control of his fiefdom, which was infiltrated by cliques and clandestine groups with quite other goals than those he propounded, especially regarding the control of funds and the minimal use of money in service work. As he became senile he became like a marionette in the hands of those who wielded the real power in the ashram.

Self-promoting charismatics invent or borrow a lineage from past heroes. They capitalise on chaotic and anarchic situation such as economic depression and extremes of insecurity so as to forward their agendas, promises of a bright future, re-establishing the greatness of their nation – in short, just what the populace wants to hear. As one prime example, Hitler presented himself as the regenerator of the Germanic heroes Herman (who defeated the Romans), Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa, diverse Arian warlords and even deities of Norse mythology. He promised a Germanic utopia, the thousand year Reich – and found in the Jews a scapegoat for the ills of his compatriots. Such movements require strong symbols of a pseudo-mystical or religious nature. The Nazis used the Arian mystical symbol, the swastika.

Though Sathya Sai Baba was not intentionally a political leader but claimed to embody the gods of ancient India, he certainly promised the brightest of futures for India though his ‘dispensation’ – the regeneration of holiness, the Vedas, the ‘universal value teaching’ (sanathana dharma) and repeatedly stated that India would rise again to its former greatness as a moral preceptor which would eventually redeem the world from the evils of the age (the dark and fearful Kali Yuga) and shortly introduce a ‘Golden Age’. Among the many mystical symbols he used to that purpose were to seem to materialise healing ‘holy ash’ (vibuti) and ‘nectar of the gods’ (amrita) among many other religious substances and a wide variety of small ‘holy’ items, the constant use of hand signs or mudras, being mystical symbols like the ‘abhaya hasta‘ (divine blessing to remove all fear).

Also see The charismatic appeal of Sai Baba  and   Sathya Sai Baba’s charismatic look

Prashanthi Nilayam and environs struggle to attract visitors

IBNLive reports:-
The Sathya Sai Central Trust hope to attract visitors again by installing a ‘mahasamadhi’. The demise of Sri Sathya Sai Baba is an irreparable loss to Puttaparthi, which used to attract a large number of devotees from all parts of the country and abroad when Baba was alive. The volume of business activity in the pilgrim town has come down after the demise of Sathya Sai Baba. The number of foreign devotees visiting Puttaparti has also declined.  The real estate business is the worst affected as the value of land has slumped. The situation is likely to be changed after the construction of Mahasamadhi.
The Central Trust which faced several allegations after the demise of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, is striving to win the faith of devotees by proving that all the charges made against it are baseless.

They would, wouldn’t they! Trouble is, once one had begun to cover-up and deceive, it becomes harder and harder as more and more deceptions and lies are spun to justify the earlier ones… the whole thing has already become a huge network of propaganda, disinformation, secrecy and cover-up of all corruption, embezzlement and other untoward and crimes. This has been documented on a large scale already here, and by Barry Pittard, and many others.

See the new YouTube video by an experienced psychotherapist in Canada asks question and sets about looking for answers.

Tal Brooke – Avatar of Night excerpts

Original edition of ‘Avatar of Night’

The following are excerpts from Tal Brooke’s book “Lord of the air”. Tal Brooke first published his main whistle-blowing book on Sathya Sai Baba under the title ‘Avatar of Night – The Hidden Side of Sai Baba’. in 198,  Tamang Paperbacks ISBN 0-7069-1483-X)  It was apparently the first  published account of Sai Baba’s sexual molestation .The Sai Baba forces in India bought up every copy as soon as possible to destroy them, so it became unavailable. It has since been republished. The book covers Brooke’s involvement with Sathya Sai Baba as one of the earliest western devotees who came very close to Sai Baba. He tells of the many months of involvement with his supposed enlightened master on into a dark spirituality and psycho-physical exhaustion from the psychological stress induced by the master combined with malnutrition from the cheap food in Sai Baba’s canteens.

The pivotal fact about Tal Brooke’s disaffection is that it took place before he became converted in any way to Christianity. Despite this, he has been attacked widely by defenders of Sathya Sai Baba as being a “Christian fundamentalist”. That is, however, entirely irrelevant to his actual experiences at the time and his account of those event, even though he later interpreted the former events to some degree in terms of Christian beliefs.

Excerpts”Lord of the Air” by Tal Brooke, who first published his main whistle-blowing book on Sathya Sai Baba under the title ‘Avatar of Night – The Hidden Side of Sai Baba’. in 1982, Tamang Paperbacks ISBN 0-7069-1483-X)  It was apparently the first English account published on Sai Baba’s sexual molestation. The Sai Baba forces in India bought up every copy as soon as possible to destroy them, so it became unavailable. It has since been republished under various titles.

The account covers Brooke’s involvement with Sathya Sai Baba as one of the earliest western devotees who came very close to Sai Baba. He tells of the many months of involvement with his supposed enlightened master on into a dark spirituality and psycho-physical exhaustion from the psychological stress induced by the master combined with malnutrition from the cheap food in Sai Baba’s canteens.

from chapter 7, pages 103 to 105
[Tal Brooke is in interview with Sai Baba] However as I stood before Baba this time, I was far less satisfied about myself. Whether it was my increasing alienation from Herman and Gill or such elementary crimes as oversleeping that morning, I wasn’t sure. I felt vulnerable.
[Baba asks] “What do you want?” This was my second magic wish. “Baba, I can’t stand the evil in myself. Help me get rid or it and other obstacles. Anything that holds me back.” “Yes, Yes” “Baba, I really want victory this time, too many failures in the past. I want to be certain.”
In patient understanding, Baba abstracted over my sins. “Too many bad thoughts, impure sanskaras (traits from past lives). Mind running around like a monkey. Thoughts of material things, anger, ego, jealousy, hate, quarreling, and thoughts of girls. Not good.” He wrinkled his face in disgust, in such a caricature of the usual expression, I wondered if the wavelength of the original thought impulse from overmind to avatar had mutated in transit.
Baba mounted the lower step again, as he had done the last interview. He wrapped his arms about me, hugged tightly, while I pondered. This pondering soon turned into critical reflection where my very survival under Baba was at stake. I was being thrown a “test” I was not sure I could handle. My mind was forced to suddenly make hair-pin turns.
If the hallmark of this session with Baba was my own impurity, then I was presently under a spiritual magnifying glass as never seen before. And any kind of unexpected key could squeeze open a new skeleton closet. Baba’s hug grew tighter. Then that subterranean spider of a thought crept out of some dark abyss. I almost repelled it before I fully sensed it, if that were possible. Nevertheless it got through in an icy quiet, and speculated deep things — notice how his [Baba’s] breathing has become a pant, deeper, more intensified. Feel his pelvis twisting. Why does he need to twist his pelvis. Especially in the region of the loins. Accidental? No, not for one who is that conscious. I doubt a detail slips by him. Then, is this some strange divine passion that only the initiates encounter at the higher stages, and could that be some kind of…well…nonspecific pan-sexuality, or bisexuality…or…or…am I twisting something that is innately pure into something that it is not, due to my own suspicions and evils? Yet Baba’s pelvis kept nudging and twisting from my abdomen on down. Not hard but gently, almost as though it had the nerve endings of a hand.
Yet if Baba were healing me or opening skeleton closets, it was not without some risk — and you only take risks with things you value. Then I feared  that Baba might perceive my edginess — not that he shouldn’t know if he is omniscient, but he might choose to dwell on it. And my high sin would be the primal insult to God, blasphemy in the most profound sense. The penalty for which might be expulsion from his presence. Yet, could he in love test me beyond my capacities, knowing I would stumble?
I felt an electric flash of self-conscious anxiety as Baba broke the hug. He held me back and looked penetratingly into my eyes, asking, “What’s wrong, you do not like it?” Then I knew that I could not possibly bail out now, or call his cards, for I would hang in space with insufficient evidence to satisfy me either way. And I would go through life without a way of ever knowing for sure who or what he really was, with the perennial question, “What about his miracle?” hanging in mind. And certainly a hug was not as bad a cliffhanger as the least of the initiatory rites of the Himalayan nights of the rishis, or the heat yogas at Lhasa, and probably it all panned out as angels’ dreams anyway.
“No, Baba, I like it very much. Great gift, great privilege.”
“You are not pulling hard. Very weak hug. You do not like to hug?”
“Baba,” I justified, hoping I had some ground left not to back out, “I was afraid to hug too tightly, maybe some discomfort for you.”
“No, Rowdie. [Tal Brooke’s nickname given by Baba]” In an instant we were embracing again until he was satisfied. I really locked in, giving almost a chest-crushing squeeze. His pelvis moved far less, still it moved. I wished I could just shoot the whole area with Novocain and forget about it. […]
Baba looked content, and I felt relieved, if not on the brink of a new breakthrough in understanding. The curtains opened and eyes glistened back from the dark corners of the room in ravenous wonder. It had been a long interview. […]

from chapter 8, pages 125 to 132
[The author is now troubled about whether to stay in India or not; he is now in a group interview with Sai Baba] Just as we were about to get up and leave, he looked at me in the eye and asked, “Private interview? You have questions?” And I did, because I was starting to panic about where to go.
The dark velvet drapes shut behind me and Baba looked searchingly into my eyes. “What do you want?” The question came with the force of a psychic whammy. On a high precipice of choice, I automatically went through several gear shiftings of awareness.
The problem of staying in India had now disappeared. The priorities were suddenly totally different. […] Something helped me talk. “Baba, I offer you my life as a son, as a servant, for your direction, to have completely and do whatever you will.” As though a covenant had been made, “I am also your property, sir. I am also your servant,” Baba replied.
Still nosing up a waterfall like a Canadian salmon, my quest cannot end until the full tribute is consummated. I must acknowledge my deepening faith. “No, Baba. You are Mahapurusha, the Lord of the Universe, within that body. You can’t fool me. I am your property, your servant. I am you. I want to be an Arjuna, Lord.”
We embraced automatically, his wiry cloud of hair surrounding my face. I wondered what kind of deep soul cleansing was going on. Then huge force surged from Baba to me, almost visibly sparking. “Guru kripa, shakti paat, power purification,” I thought.
I stood hugging that same unreachable Messiah who stood atop the pagoda, whom tens of thousands came to see, who often wept, just for a glimpse of or a touch, or a smile. A still, musing voice entered my head. It spoke of great things in the table of fortune. A prince is being crowned into life and glory, a once and future king.
Baba broke the embrace and held me back. “Do you want a wife?” […] “Baba, I don’t need to get married, do I?” “No, Rowdie, there is no male or female. In the end, there is only God.” Baba reached out to embrace me again, pulling me strongly. The musing voice pondered Baba’s comment, “There is no male or female.” […] Now the musing voice likened the embrace with Baba to the meeting of God, and God, breaking the wall of maya to merge.
Baba’s nudging pelvis stopped. Then suddenly a hand unzipped my fly, with the facile smoothness of turning a doorknob, and went into my pants, as though it knew the location of each stitch of cloth and each zipper step. Then, like an adder returning home at dusk, the hand burrowed into the mouth of my underpants. I froze, a lump in my throat.
If Truth required these kinds of impossible labyrinths, I had already made my vow to see it through. Some day I would see the overview one way or another. I stood my ground, and tried not to noticeably flinch hoping this touching would end soon. My mind now raced trying to go up the escalator of possibilities of what was really going on. […]
Baba’s hips continued to shift again as he squeezed an unresponsive organ that had about as much interest in rising up as it desired a bath in liquid helium. It was frozen out, and not even a legion of nude Middle Western belly dancers could thaw it out at this point.
[At this point the author starts narrating about his piercing intimate warfare between two kind of thoughts inside him: the rational and battling one, looking at what was going on with cold, lucid and merciless eyes; and the devotional one, which was wanting to further and totally surrender to Baba. The first one was seeing the thing as what it was seeming to be, e.g. Baba satisfying his homosexual lust using the context of a spiritual master/disciple relationship; consequently, Tal would have had to leave Baba. The second one was instead seeing the thing as some kind of misunderstood purification, or as a test, or as something that Tal could not comprehend, since his spiritual level was far distant from Baba’s level, and that only for this reason was seeming a bad thing; consequently, Tal would have had to surrender totally to Baba. Finally this last one was Tal’s choice on that moment.]
The balance tips faster; of course — blasphemous accusations fading — lust contradicts Baba’s nature. Therefore it does not exist in him. He cannot sin, because it is not in him to do so. Blind faith, a new generalized optimism enters the horizon. The verdict — Baba is innocent.[…]
My legs continued to shake nervously. I had not responded to Baba. Baba removed his hand from my pants and zipped my fly. The entire dilemma had lasted about half a minute. And I had not responded. It wasn’t so bad, I thought, echoing those first words after once bravely receiving my first hypodermic injection as a very small child. This moment I would lock in an inner vault deep in my mind not to be opened for a year and half.
Smiling proudly, slightly flushed, Baba said, “Very happy. Go now.” He waved with familial informality. […] “Oh, Baba. Do you want me to go to Whitefield?” […] “Of course sir, of course. You stay with me in Whitefield. You are near and dear.” […] “Go tomorrow. Then come to Whitefield, Brindavanam. Then many interviews and lessons in sadhana for all foreigners. I will train you.”

from chapter 24, pages 307 to 319
[After the ending of the previous anecdote, the author got more deeply involved in the life inside the Sai Baba’s inner circle of western devotees. In that situation he lives for long time in a continuous alternating of high and low spirits, good and bad moments, prizes and punishments, “tests of faith”, strange encounters, intimate battles of faith between biblical spiritual point of views (denying Sai Baba), and Sai Baba’s spirituality, which was attracting him down and down again, more deeply involved. Now Tal Brooke is inside his cabin, and his fellow Surya Das is coming.]
It was the evening of June 18. I could hear Surya Das’s steps near the front porch. I was hungry […] but when his form slowly lumbered through the dark porch into the living room light, I knew instantly upon seeing his face as he flung back his shawl headdress that there was a surprise but it had nothing to do with food. The awesome burden of whatever revelation he had flooded his face and I knew it might be unbearable. He stood in the doorway, hand on hip, sighing, slightly shaking his head, the anxious depth in his black eyes carrying a look of silent tormented abandon. […] The only word that he could get out of his mouth was a ponderous “Well…” and I second-guessed the rest with a tone of total certainty, “…I’m not going to believe what you’re about to tell me.”
“Right”
“It’s going to totally blow my mind.”
“Yup.”
“It’s about Sai Baba.”
“You guessed it.”
My heart was beating furiously, my mind somehow in tune enough to be already arming itself. […] Then I told him, “Okay, let’s hear the whole thing from beginning to end, every detail, don’t rush to the crux of the thing without leading up to it.”
“You know the teahouse in Whitefield, the one where a lot of the Anglo-Indian guys hang out?”
“Never been there, but go ahead.”
“Well, I went in there for some tea and ran into some of the guys whom I’ve talked to a number of times. I joined them, and we soon got on the subject of spiritual things. Well, they were sort of half-interested. Then I got on the subject of Baba. They wouldn’t say anything. I kept pressing it and they kept quiet. Finally a guy named Raymond and I went for a walk near the Carrolls’ house. I kept pressing him. He was very quiet. I knew he had something to say, so I got his complete confidence. He asked me to tell nobody, to swear to keep this a secret, that what he was about to tell me only two other guys knew, that not even his friends in the teahouse knew it. Furthermore, he was under an oath to his best friend, Patrick, not to tell a soul. He said he had a sudden feeling of responsibility for my soul, and that was why he was taking the chance, despite his legitimate fear of Baba’s supernatural powers. That unprotected, he or his family might get destroyed, that there have been instances before of local people being under a curse. […]
Anyway, Raymond described me how about two years ago, a few months before you met Baba, Patrick… you know the one, the real good-looking Anglo-Indian with long hair and the sensual look. Yea, the really good-looking, well-built guy who hangs around Whitefield… Okay, well Patrick went to Brindavan one day, and sat among a whole crew of Americans who were just passing through town for a few weeks. Well, Baba thought that Patrick was one of the freaks from the States you know, because of his long hair and light skin. So he invited Patrick in with all the others for the interviews he gave to the Americans.”
“Uh-huh,” I responded with a slow deliberate sigh.
“Well, one day after one of those interviews, Baba kept him over for a private interview.” […] “Well…,” Surya Das said slowly shaking his head. “…Aw man you’re not going to believe this. But I’m gonna have to tell you anyway. At any rate, Baba treated him like he does you, you know, all the special attention beside the chair, addressing things only to him, smiling a lot. When all the others left and Baba got him alone, he did dis usual number of materializing things and telling him his inner secrets, though I don’t know why the devil he didn’t know that Patrick just lived down the road. Well, the next thing that happened was that in one smooth motion, Baba reached down and unzipped Patrick’s fly, and pulled his tool out.” Surya Das stopped for a long pause as though to say, “Okay, are you ready for this next one?”
“Well, when he worked Patrick up… Man I don’t know why the guy just stood there and put up with this crap. In fact when I asked Raymond, all he said was that Patrick was only about 17, horny, perhaps a little naive, and I guess didn’t give a blue jay what the other partner was. Maybe he was curious or just wanted to see that whole weird thing through, or maybe the kid’s a bisexual. Though Raymond told me that Patrick is only interested in girls, and just may have had some what-ya-call liberal curiosity. But at any rate he had an erection all right, and the next thing that happened is really gonna blow your mind. Baba lifted his robe and inserted the thing. That’s right. Maybe he’s got a woman’s organ and a man’s organ down there. Yeah, a hermaphrodite. But he honestly inserted it. Patrick said it felt just like a woman, though it may have just been between his legs.”
[The author then questions that Baba being a hermaphrodite seems to be an improbable thing. Surya Das supposes a supernatural explanation of Baba being male/female, then he says:] “Maybe the guy just transmutes, you know, shift his protoplasm around at will. At any rate, Raymond told me that just at the moment before Patrick was through, Baba pulled him out and collected his semen in a little white handkerchief.
“This is really too much,” I remarked grimly. “Do you think it’s some kind of a lie or hoax?”
“I wish it was, but I get a total feeling that it’s true. The guy just was not lying. It was not a come-on. He was dead serious and scared. He was sticking his neck out. I know people and this guy was telling the truth. At any rate let me continue. Baba collected the stuff, and then told him that the whole world lay in the palm of his hand, and that anything Patrick wanted, he could have. That Baba was planning a special position for him, like Raja Reddy. That Patrick could move in and live there, and be with Baba to spread his mission throughout the world. […] At any rate he [Patrick] stopped going and that was it.”
“Okay,” I announced despondently, “are you ready for this one?”
“I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. After this I could hear just about anything and it couldn’t be any more shocking.”
“By the way, before I go into this, I should tell you that among the guys whom Baba has already ‘purified’ by pulling out the lingam [the lingam is an Hindu phallic symbol], are Wendel, Phil… Yeah, I know he’s married but one day Phil confided this to me. And that’s not all. There was the disciple of Yogi Bhajan, there was also ‘Alpine Schwartz’, the tall dude with the blue ski cap. Yeah, he told Wendel one day at the Whitefield ice-cream stand how Baba […] pulled his drawers down, handled it for a minute presumably to cleanse it of ‘heat’. That’s not all. There was also a guy who only passed through for a few days, and by the way, that’s why. One day Wendel and I were at the Chinese restaurant off Brigade Road, and right at the table next to us were Gordon, the jewel-cutter from Los Angeles, and this guy from U.C.L.A. who I thought was blaspheming Baba. He was talking at full pitch, describing to them how Baba was a ‘homo’, how Baba got him in for one of those private interviews and pulled his fly down, and started to go to town. He said it scared the hell out of him, and he practically ran out from the place with his fly down. Baba chased him to the door calling him panic-stricken as the kid just left. Wendel and I at the time just thought the guy wasn’t mature enough to handle or transcend his own negative projections and cultural hang-ups. But then you’ve got to ask yourself, if Baba’s omniscient, why he does pick people who’re going to misinterpret it and blow the whistle on him?” [Then Tal Brooke starts telling Surya Das his own experience, the one we’ve seen above]
“But there’s another extra side of this,” I added. “There is also an occult aspect about the semen. Check this out. One day I heard Phil’s confession as we were returning to Whitefield on a bus. How Baba did to him what he had done to me. At least none of us even thought about getting up. But what Phil told me, and you know he used to teach astrology at the Six Day School in Frisco, having been into it for over 10 years, is the fact that semen is one of the most potent things used in really heavy occult stuff. The vital essence of life or whatever. Perhaps even Alistair Crowley used it. No doubt that’s why there’s such a heavy emphasis on sex in covens. […] But if semen is invaluable, sperm […] must be the most precious thing that someone who is into sorcery can use.”
A chilly silence filled the air. “Think what kind of unsuspecting gold mine Baba might have in the Veda School lads. Several hundreds kids disciplined severely into celibacy whom Baba uses as a kind of sperm-bank. Even then, Phil told me that he quite frankly suspected that such was the source of Baba’s powers.” […]
The next afternoon Patrick and Raymond did come. Very sobered, less flippant then usual, Patrick’s account followed virtually word-for-word what Surya Das had told me the fateful night before. Then when I told them all my story, they weren’t surprised. I aired my thoughts. “Your account can’t be contrived because if there’s nothing else I know, one thing I do know, and that is that I have personally stood alone before Baba with my pants down to my knees.” All of us would depart, sworn to mutual secrecy till more data came in. Patrick would urge me to remain quiet, perhaps to protect his family, at least from disgrace, at the same time understanding my relentless quest for the truth.
from chapter 25, pages 333-334
[The thing keeps on growing. The author comes to know from Wendel that Sai Baba was knowing (supposedly in a supernatural way, since nobody would have said nothing about those incidents) that he and Surya Das had known of Patrick’s incident, as well as he was knowing Tal Brooke’s rage. Here he explains this:]
Wendel confided, “you know a few hours after you and Surya Das left, Baba arrived and the first thing he did was come up to me and bring me into his quarters down there.” […]
In the privacy of the suite, Baba looked into Wendel’s eyes questioningly. “What is wrong? Have you seen Tal? What does he say? Doubts? Bad faith?” Baba even sounded hurt and jealous. At that point Wendel had told Baba nothing about his knowledge of the terrible incident and our mission to him, evidently quite stunned by Baba’s question. No human being could have told Baba a thing. Yet Wendel asked himself why Baba need questioning him. […]
Then out of the blue, Baba mentioned to Wendel a certain person, a rather pretty lad from Whitefield whom Wendel had perhaps seen a few times and knew of through Surya Das and me. Baba’s words came in rapid, urgent, and even panicky whispers, informing and warning Wendel. Sequences jumped around like a fragmented dream. “Some two years ago, one coming, a Whitefield hippie. Long hair, muscles, American shirt saying ‘love’. Not love, lust. Only interest is girls, not God. Sitting in darshan line, pretending to be an American. Swami knows.” The rest was garbled until the teenager, Patrick, was accused by Baba of spreading damaging rumours. “False lies. Blind jealous reaction after I tell him to go. Now others believing lies. His word over Swami’s!” Perhaps Baba gave Wendel a hug as a remainder of the purity of his love, and then Wendel was dismissed […]
Sathya Sai Baba, the Faithful and the True…?
As we’ve seen in the page related to the Revelation of St. John, SB is considered as the one who into the Revelation is defined “the Faithful and the true”. The same with Sai Baba’s name, Sathya, means Truth, and he consider himself and is considered, among the many various things, as the embodiment of Truth and Righteousness. There’s an interesting anecdote from Tal Brooke’s book “Lord of the Air”:
“[Two American girls devotees of SB, India and Marsha, had a serious problem dating back to before meeting him. They had lost their passports, and had to justify themselves before Indian authorities for six months of staying in India without a visa; besides they were considered persona non grata because they frequented an hashish smuggler. With great surprise to everybody, Sai Baba shows a letter and states that he pleaded their cause in front of the authorities, and that he had someway vouched for them, saying that he had always been with the girls, that was obviously false.] Baba then proceeded to read the letter in Telugu as Nanda faithfully translated every word […] In the background were enthusiastic outbursts that sounded like “… aw gee Baba, that’s incredible.” Which it was! It was a white lie to protect them, and a risk on the part of Baba. A few lines later, Gill […] interrupted Baba midway in a sentence. “Baba, that’s a lie”. It hurt him to say it, and his tone, wounded and bewildered, seemed to say, “Aw, why do you have to make me say this. I don’t like it, but I haven’t any choice”.
[Then there are moments of silence and very strong tension, Baba is about to rebate.] As keenly as I was now watching for it, and as much as I hated to admit, Baba appeared to manifest a human reaction when I had anticipated a transcendental leap into divine equanimity as being most logical. The scroll in Baba’s hands was shuddering visibly, as Baba wound and unwound it “nervously”. His face seemed to twitch, and although he continued to smile compassionately, there seemed to be a contradictory surge of emotion beneath this.
His voice quavered just a bit as he spoke rapid English. “Not a lie,” Baba replied, awed that Gill would say such a thing. “Not a lie! Your mistake, your misunderstanding”.
“But Baba, the fact is that India and Marsha were not with you in Whitefield all that time they were in Darjeeling and lost their passports. Couldn’t ya have done it another way?”
“Small mind, not understanding. God is everywhere, I am everywhere, I brought them to me. Everywhere is in me. Darjeeling . Whitefield. Prashanti Nilayam, is all with me.”
“I know, I know that Baba, but […] the fact remains that you told a lie… India and Marsha were not with you in Whitefield.”
“I wrote this letter out of pure love, divine love. Not a lie, sir. […] Your misunderstanding, unable to see divine love because of jealousy – you want a letter, so when I give extra grace to make a special letter, you are jealous.”
“Now Baba, that isn’t so. I’m not jealous… I had to say it, and if the situation repeated itself a thousand times over, I’d still do the same thing.” [Gill poi continua] “And Baba… the food in the canteen. You’ve told us for months that we must eat satwic food, pure food without spices. Yet the food in the canteen is so hot… I mean full of peppers this big…,” indicating with his fingers, “…that it physically torments me to eat it.”
Baba explained, “For Indian peoples, there is a special nourishment in pepper, source of special energy, vitamins and minerals. You Americans not understanding. Pepper diet the same, all over India.”
“But then Baba, why do you tell us to avoid spicy food […]? Isn’t it the same for everybody?”
“For Indians, it’s all right, but for Americans, it causes wrong desires and wrong thoughts.”
That ended the subject. Gill continued staring at the floor puzzled as Baba laughed understandingly at his ignorance. […] Gill’s outburst turned what was to be a sweet grace-filled interview into something so strident that almost nobody could swallow the ill feeling. And though things had blown over, the memory of the jarring attack hadn’t blown away one iota, nor the tiny imperfections in Baba’s explanations.”

Comment: Evidently, Gill was correct. By saying that spicy food is good for Indians but not for americans, Sai Baba implied that Gill was right, but he didn’t answer the question and he ridiculed him before everyone. Quite a suitable behaviour for an “omniscient God”… here is something on food from Sai Baba:
“As the food, so the mind; as the mind, so the thought; as the thought, so the act. Food is an important factor […] The scriptures classify food as sathwic, rajasic and tamasic and relate these three types to the three mental modes (gunas) of the same names. […] Man boils, fries, melts, mixes and adopts various methods of cooking in order to satisfy the cravings of the tongue, the eye and the nose. As a consequence, the food value of these articles is either reduced or destroyed. […] Food having too much salt or pepper is rajasic and should be avoided; so also too much fat and starch, which are thamasic in their effects on the body.” (Sanathana Sarathi, 1979. Discourse given on Hospital Day, 21 September 1979)
Gill was referring to the over-boiled, spicy soups (thus void of any nourishment) and spicy sambar soup which was often a main dish at Sai Baba’s canteen. Tal Brooke also complained about it, precisely the sort food that Sai Baba warns against! . So Gill’s question was legitimate and Sai Baba was wrong. To ridicule a questioner in front of all is hardly the way God would react to a devotee, one would imagine?
Gill was finally expelled from Prashanti Nilayam ashram, forced to leave Sai Baba’s village. However contradictory, hysterical, arrogant, illiberal and rude Sai Baba is, devotees always explain it away according to the indoctrinated formulae about the victims like ‘too much ego’, ‘bad man’ ‘arrogant doubter’ and so on. Meanwhile, they accept that Sai Baba is as he claims:

• totally pure and compassionate, nothing but love embodied (but a tormentor of those who he wants to keep in line)
• omniscient (but he’s not able to answer judiciously a simple question)
• full of bliss and equaniminity (but reacting hysterically)
• carrier of truth and righteousness (but ready to tell lies for his devotees’ sake)
• good, generous, humble and compassionate (but he expels you if you contradict him).

Conclusion: This behaviour does not at all proclaim a divine “master”, the Supreme God in person? Yet,at Prashanti Nilayam this kind of things is everyday fare from Sai Baba.

Avatar of Night: The Hidden Side of Sai Baba. – BROOKE, TAL … Avatar of Night: The Hidden Side of Sai Baba. BROOKE, TAL . Price: $30.00. ISBN: 0-7069-1483-X. Ghaziabad, India:: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.,, 1982. … http://www.bibliopolis.com/main/books/results.html
Also: Avatar of Night (Berkeley: End Run Publishing, 1999).
Lord of the Air: Tales of a Modern Antichrist (Eugene: Harvest, 1990). ISBN 0-89081-834-7
Sai Baba, Lord of the Air (New Delhi: Vikas, 1979).
Riders of the Cosmic Circuit (Tring: Lion/Sutherland: Albatross Books, 1986).

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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

Hidden Fear of the Avatar – updated

HIDDEN FEAR OF SATHYA SAI BABA

Since his death in 2011, many who have hung on to their faith in him – and even some who left him – suffer from fear of his wrath and punishment. This is made clear also by comments and attack mails against myself and other proponents of the exposé, telling us what terrible karma we are to face in the next life. Fortunately, we are totally impervious to these ideas, but – knowing full well the range of what most followers believe and the power over the mind of their long-term indoctrination, so difficult to overcome – we are aware of the situation of all those ‘lost souls’ who are emotionally and otherwise trapped in their dependency on him.

Many devotees of his held him in awe, but – more than that – feared him personally. There is plenty of written evidence by followers showing this. And the murders of 1993 in his own apartment in his own private fiefdom increased this fear without any shadow of a doubt. The fear is seldom talked about but could at times be seen in faces of those often in contact with Sathya Sai Baba. One can simply imagine the effect on those under his control, especially his students. Sathya Sai Baba has told that his close servitors have three chances of obeying him when he tells them something. If not, terrible consequences can follow, which he has said to persons I knew well. As in the case of Baba’s driver for two decades, who burned himself to death in the Hillview Stadium after failing to follow Sathya Sai Baba ‘s warning to drive more slowly and then killing a pedestrian! One did not have to circulate for long among Sai devotees to know the general paranoia or come across the aura of unexpressed fear around questions of what one can and cannot say and do. 

Sathya Sai Baba’s refusal to explain anything other than what pleased himself made it difficult to have confidence in many of the statements he made on whatever subject, quite apart from what concerns the ‘unseen’ world of spiritual realities. His demand was that the devotee have implicit and wholly unquestioning trust in him, all his works and anything he uttered. If it failed to make sense or is not in accordance with observable fact or other statements of his, this had to be put down to our human ignorance. It is therefore not entirely wrong to say we could not properly understand him! He held that virtually everyone alive is ego-laden, sense-attached and impure, who really know just about nothing of significance about anything! But we do know with demonstrable certainty that Sathya Sai Baba got his facts wrong time and again, and laughably so! And he was, by all appearances, unaware what a storm the world would raise against pedophilia, probably because it is common, silently condoned but not (yet) talked about openly in the region where he grew up. A long-standing suspicion seems justified, namely that this kind of homosexual exploitation of boys in India is very widespread and is tacitly accepted in many segments of society – not only in backward parts like the Andhra Pradesh villages of the Puttaparthi region. This is the result of the wall-to-wall culture of hypoctical puritanism and repressive censorship against all sexual deviance in most of India. 

Sathya Sai Baba kept everyone in their places, mostly at a distance, and especially women. Sai Baba’s invisible rewards and imagined ‘divine blessings’ were said both by him and others to exceed the mental and emotional punishment he meted out, as he did especially rigorously to those who accepted positions of trust then supposedly let him down even in slight ways. It is merely a matter of belief, convincing oneself that it was for one’s own good, otherwise there is only depression ahead, or to reject everything (too big a step for his dependents). The recipe for aspirants to the graces he said he could bestow was total obedience and subjection to his will and all that he required but seldom explained sufficiently. This went entirely against any open society for genuinely self-aware persons who may act in confidence and with responsibility.

Sai Baba’s imperious and down-looking attitude did not exactly make for a feeling of overflowing divine acceptance and love, which he was ever talking up as being his entire nature etc. Though true believing devotees only told of his love, charm, smiles, benevolence, kind words if few and far between) they seldom mentioned how he used visible signs of disinterest, rejection, anger and even sheer rage, which was something to see, even at a distance. He could smile and be charming in words, but genuine love is shown only in action. What did he mostly do? Stroll about looking distant and often as strict as a near-unapproachable headmaster who would never abide to be gainsaid or crossed in the least way? This manner itself invites private anxiety. He certainly set up considerable barriers to knowing him and thereby also to loving him except in wishful imagination, for how can anyonereally love what they do not know? This feeling is not confined to relatively peripheral persons such as I, for it was quite evident at times even between Baba and some of his most trusted office-bearers. He scared the wits out of Prof. Kasturi with a enraged and reportedly terrifying lion-like expression without any explicable ground other than to cow him totally, it certainly appears.

Despite all the talk about his universal love and benevolence, many came to realise that appearances were not to be trusted, that he was a master at charismatic charm and used all opportunities to entrap people by sudden friendliness after he had made them wait with no responses for months and years, even decades! This is a known technique of psychopaths, the charm then the anger, then the charm again, a pull-push-pull relationship creating uncertainty and self-doubt in their victims, making them the more dependent on any favour that came their way at last. Sai Baba explained this for devotees by saying it was simply done to correct people, as a schoolmaster uses the stick to correct youth. He rather fitted the bill as an angry and jealous God, definitely someone who abided absolutely no questioning or contradiction. Many a tyrant did the same and also claimed to be gods. Like him, most despots commission social works and institutions in their own names and to their own glory, though they are always paid for and carried out by others. Without making other comparisons, the Emperors of Rome, of the Inca Imperium, and even rulers in African States in recent decades have assumed the mantle of gods, but Sai Baba’s divine claims surpassed all of them. 

All this set standards and examples. In the Sai movement, both foreign and Indian VIPs appeared seriously po-faced much of the time and were unduly tight-lipped about all remotely sensitive matters having to do with Baba, his organisation or other works. They always had to be in the right, one coild not question anything that was decided by whoever decided. Members were even sometimes expelled without any explanation, as in the case of the Moscow centre’s president, who allowed discussion of the sexual allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, and on two different occasion members of groups I took there were blackballed permanently. The personal qualities of most top leaders in the Sai movement made for a social and mental-emotional gap between Sai officials and ‘ordinary’ hard-working followers, with a very few honourable exceptions. This had the effect of consolidating an inner circle who are subservient to the International Chairman and the Central Trust and observe the ‘muerta‘ – a kind of international jet-set elite who invited one another around the world to hold forth – often mainly to regurgitate or repackage Sai Baba aphorisms – and who evidently conferred to hush up anything which might affect their own positions in Baba’s favour and within the organisation that bore his name. 

All this is the basis for the many cover-ups. The 1993 murders and the many pedophile accounts involving Sai Baba (some going back decades), have been kept from the main body of devotees for so long through this organised deception. However, the growing recognition in the world for the duty of mandatory reporting of known cases of sexual interference or abuse – a legal requirement in many countries – may yet even eventually bring forth court actions and large compensation claims against leading Sai office-bearers who can be demonstrated to have failed in this reporting duty, as it has already at last done in the Catholic Church in so many countries. All Sai officials would be very well advised to “sweep their hearths and keep their houses clean” on this count from now on, for the information is presently freely available to every one of them.

When fear is felt but cannot be expressed it is all the more effective. Once the fears can be confronted without the possibility of retribution – such as by removing oneself from their source both physically, socially and emotionally – it becomes evident that, as F.D. Rooseveldt put it “there is nothing to fear but fear itself”.

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Information on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization

Golden Age of the Avatar – Sai Baba

“Be assured that the Lord has come to save world from calamity.” (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 2, p. 17 – March 1961)

“The meaning of Avataar (Divine Incarnation) is this: to save mankind, God out of His love, comes down to the level of man and arouses the Divine Conscioussness in man.” (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 14, p. 386 – Xmas Eve, 1980)

The Utopian beliefs in a Golden Age, and the literally incredible ‘spiritual’ world transformation by Sai Baba and his followers, is all but a dream, no doubt highly desirable in many respects. Yet it is not easy to abandon such a dream, even when the fabric is irrevocably torn to bits and those who dare look can see through it to the reality it covers up. I write not only from personal experience but also observing many other devotees I knew from my many years of leadership in the Norwegian Sathya Sai organization going through the process and – more often – baulking at it and refusing to look at any of the extremely disturbing evidence.

Sathya Sai Baba capitalises on people’s uncertainty and ignorance of anything to do with real truth by ever reaffirming to people that they are uncertain and ignorant. Sathya Sai Baba has insisted that he alone knows the right timing for everything and acts accordingly. When, in so many instances, he does not keep his word, he puts the blame on the person he made promises to for not having asked from the heart or that something about them was not genuine, or that they were simply not ready or worthy to receive his grace etc. A good headmaster of a school is just in his judgments and equal-handed in his rewards and punishments. An experienced master uses the carrot and backs it up when it fails to work by the stick. Sathya Sai Baba’s visible and invisible rewards (i.e. as promised for the future) are supposed exceed the punishments he is thought eventually to mete out to those who accept positions of trust then seriously let him down. So all his promises have to be taken in the context of this unintelligible cosmic plan which he claims alone to know and effect… and this actually makes them as unreliable in terms of human experience as anything can be. He can’t lose and you can’t win, as long as you accept his vast claims at face value!

The well-known New Zealand devotees (‘VIP’s in Sai circles), Poppy and Arthur Hillcoat, were in Cherepovets (Russia) in May, 2005. Poppy reported that she met Sai VIPs Rita and Robert Bruce before leaving for Russia, and they told her Sai’s latest prediction to them:

“At the conference Rita and Robert conducted a one-day workshop of ‘parenting school’ and a workshop on ‘family and marriage’. I don’t recall exact titles. And it was Rita Bruce whom Swami told about practically instant transformation of people’s consciousness after his 80th anniversary.” Translated report on the Russian Forum – see screen capture of original Russian text below:-

BUT the 80’th anniversary is long past – where is the instant transformation?

Further Sathya Sai Baba quote on his ‘mission’: “... (the) Atma principle assumes a form from time to time for the sake of redeeming the world and establishing righteousness” (Sanathana Sarathi Sept. 1989. p. 229f and Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 22, p. 182).

He makes no secret that it is he himself who embodies the Atma principle in this era and that he is establishing righteousness… but this is strange indeed when he has strayed so much from his own teachings in so many ways, and not least when we consider the condition of Indian crime and corruption which imbues most of the politicians (according to for example, Britain’s leading Indian immigrant, the ‘curry king’ Sir Gulam Noon, MBE. India’s former Election Commissioner P.N. Seshan was even more damning of his own country’s system and includes the judiciary as corrupt and unjust to nearly all citizens).

See also

The Golden Age of Sai Baba

85th Birthday: Golden Age, Prema Sai Baba