"The story you kindly
sent me about the avadhuta in Kerala cannot apply here to Sathya
Sai because none of the leaders of the Sathya Sai organization
have ever promoted him as an avadhuta (one who is utterly free
in spirit, beyond all human conventions), but they certainly do
promote him as an avatar, an incarnation of the purest Love, an
embodiment of Truth, Ahimsa, and all other exemplary qualities.
None of the male youth or their parents are ever told that
Sathya Sai is going to go after the lads sexually in private
interviews.
A very simple concern
that many of us former Sathya Sai devotees have is that there
has been no "truth in advertising" in the Sai organization. None
of this would have been such a problem if young males and their
parents were ever told by Center officers or official Sai
literature, "Sathya Sai Baba is an avadhut, a being who behaves
in wild and mysterious ways. If you are an attractive young
male, it is likely that Baba may ask you to fondle or suck on
his male organ, or he may come after your genitals and rub or
suck on them. We do not know why he does this, but growing
numbers of cases have been reported wherein he does this. Baba
himself won't give a reason for this behavior, but we trust
there is a higher purpose in it."
"No such warning has
been given. Instead, there is much secrecy, lying and pressuring
others to keep quiet. I found an old set of correspondences from
Jack Hislop to the Board of Directors of the Sai organization in
the USA, dating from early 1981, wherein Jack basically calls
for a policy of "spin" and coverup to keep a lid on the
allegations of terrible sexual impropriety by Baba with a minor,
a boy of 15 years old. The mother was told that her deeply
traumatized boy was a pathological liar and Jack unconscionably
implemented a policy of suppression and refused to pursue an
honest investigation into what might really be going on. This
has all the features of terribly dysfunctional cult behavior."
It's from Timothy
Conway's lengthy and excellent
A Letter to SSB Devotee "Selena,"' posted on 6 August
2001 at:
http://users.snowcrest.net/sunrise/Dv-tim1.htm
or:
..\..\letters\conway.html