Sathya Sai Baba on ventilator & dialysis (in Super-specialty Hospital)

Around 1800 GMT today (April 4. 2011) there are media reports () such as on NDTV that Sai Baba’s condition is critical. The grapevine from India conveys to me that his body is not responding to any treatment, and some say he is dead already. One source says he died during heart surgery. All this may well be rumours… but I have predicted that – as Sai officialdom always does – the facts have been glossed over by Dr. Safaya and all the other believers in Sai Baba’s omnipotent powers. Sai Baba’s condition has been critical and doctors have had to ‘fight to save his life’. Whether they are successful or not time will show, but it is a sign, perhaps, in that the vultures are gathering already: the nephew of his deceased younger brother Janakiramiah, one Ratnakara,(TIMES OF INDIA) is according to my informants trying to take control of the Sathya Sai Central Trust and even to ‘step into Sai Baba’s shoes’! The Sathya Sai Central Trust has also reportedly obtained signatures from at least two of Sai Baba’s relatives (Deccan Chronicle). (One usually well-informed contact we have reports that this was possibly under false pretenses. According to his information, they thought they were signing permission for doctors to operate, but the actual wording may also have involved their handing over any rights they may have had to dispose of Sai Baba’s massive financial empire. The truth of this report cannot be guaranteed, but it may help to stimulate any officials who could investigate the matter).

UP-DATE A recent report from various Sai ‘authorities’ is that Sai Baba’s condition has stabilized again and that he is showing sings of some improvement. One must evaluate this on the background of the turmoil surrounding the doctors and officials who have even been attacked by suspicious and fanatical devotees trying forcibly to get immediate access to Sai Baba (who is in intensive care still on a respirator and continuous dialysis!).

Yesterday we could read on Bernama.com: “He continues to be on CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement therapy) system to help functioning of the kidneys. “The vital systems are not adequately responding. The condition of ‘baba’ is critical,” said Dr A. N. Safaya, director of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Puttaparthi.

This shows that one dialysis was not enough, it has to be continuous. So much for all the tricky talk about ‘Sai Baba is better’. The fact is: Sai Baba is worse… if actually still alive. Time will tell.

Another report from NetIndian states: “The doctors’ team was still attending on Sai Baba to save his life, he said.” This is evidently getting closer to the truth. Perhaps the authorities’ policy is to break the news slowly, bit by bit?

See also sify.comHe continues to be on CRRT system to help the functioning of the kidneys,” a health bulletin issued by the Director of the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences said. “The vital systems are not adequately responding. The condition of Baba is critical. The panel of doctors treating him are doing their best to make the system to respond,” it said.

Earlier I wrote here: The improvement in Sathya Sai Baba’s blood analysis and reduced breathing difficulties mean that he is better. But note: NOT entirely better… he has to be kept on a ventilator for breathing difficulties and problems with his sputum. Further, a major fact that was held back has now emerged – he has had to have kidney dialysis too and was suffering from lack of nourishment. Failure to eat proper food is a typical symptom of old age where lack of interest in life and degeneration of the faculties set in. In any case, the days are long gone when Sai Baba would order the doctors away and say that his purity would ensure speedy recovery. He is now powerless and ineffective… rather what Americans call a ‘basket case’ and what Indians call being at ‘the fag-end of his life’.  (and on-going events April 4th show this is all too true)

No doubt the devotee director of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Dr. Safaya and other devotee doctors, put a positive spin on what came out so as not to alarm the many who were praying at the ashram. I suggested that would be done, knowing how censorship of information by his minders is always used and how Sai Baba says always to look at everyone and everything through rose-tinted spectacles. The Sai Baba coterie has always had a very tight control of all factual information – especially much so since the many allegations of wrongdoing emerged on a massive and increasing scale since 1999 when David Bailey first opened the can of worms. Believers in the literally megalomaniac claims by Sai Baba (God Incarnate, Deity of all Deities, Creator of the Universe etc.), as his ashram, hospital and college staff have to be, will always be unable to see the facts relating to him as they really are unless forced to in some cases by emergencies they must face themselves, as in this case. Judging by the current international media, the world at large is relatively unaware of Sathya Sai Baba and his unsurpassed claims of ultimate greatness and superhuman divine powers, or his grip on the minds of the highest leadership in India. Not so in India, where only the most courageous journalists and news media dare ever publish anything negative about this power-broker and his cadre.

It is high time for a reassessment of the claims of Sai Baba, now that his repeated prophecies about his own invulnerability to aging and health problems have exploded, leaving him wheelchair bound, degenerating visibly and even blubbering when praised with the words ‘Sri Sri’ at his own birthday (he has previously decried crying as something one should do under no circumstances – as reported by his VIP devotee Jegathesan see here). One can pity him for his condition, but not for his deceits and abuses.
About rumours – spread widely and wildly by Sai people, though not by most critics, see here.