Myths Promoted by the Organisation
By Hari Sampath
Date: 07-18-00From: http://www.sathyasaivictims.com/lie_Hari_myths.htm
I had heard all the myths in my earlier years as a "devotee" of Sai Baba. In my later years, I was a volunteer and had the opportunity to work in the Ashram intelligence and security wing. This put me in contact with a lot of senior volunteers and Ashram residents who had been around for long. By talking to them about the specific circumstances of the so-called miracles I was able to find out what had exactly happened in all of the above cases.
In this context I wish to inform everyone about a few things that the Ashram intelligence does. As stories of Sai Baba's miracles are really huge in numbers, there have been several instances where some people had tried to make money by "arranging" Sai Baba "miracles" and saying that by worshipping in this house or that, all problems will be solved and it is Sai Baba who has appointed this "agent" etc. This is rather common in the southern states of India.
The Ashram intelligence had developed a mechanism by which they investigate the source of these "miracles" and check out the motives of the persons behind them. This is also done to prevent Sai Baba from being associated with any "miracles" that may possibly be exposed as fraud at a later date, and give Sai Baba bad publicity. Of course, the original intention of the Ashram intelligence wing is to protect the "genuineness" of Sai Baba's "miracles", and prevent unscrupulous elements from "using" Sai Baba's name. Most of the people involved with intelligence and security at the Ashram really believe in Sai Baba's divinity and so they act like this. In fact this setup exists specifically on Sai Baba's orders, and I have personally investigated so many "miracles" myself.
But what is most important is, during these processes of investigation, I have come across so many "genuine miracles", attested and approved of by Sai Baba , that I know personally to be totally mistaken cases, and often deliberately "arranged" by the inner coterie themselves.
Naturally, in these instances, I could not take it up to the higher authorities in the Sai Baba org, as they themselves were guilty of arranging "miracles" and Sai Baba himself is perfectly aware of all this. There are hundreds of "famous miracles" that I had personally verified to be cases of MISTAKE by the people experiencing them, and actively promoted by the Sai Baba org , and also several more "miracles" that are a result of misinformation spread by over enthusiastic devotees, who do not even bother to check facts properly.
The Sai Org's strategy is very clear on how to approach this.
1. If some outsider is trying to "use" Sai Baba's name to make money, they simply ask the intelligence wing to investigate, and confirm it and put out a notice in Sanathana Sarathi, or make general announcements. This also gives the impression of other "miracles" approved by Sai Baba as being genuine.
2. If it is case of mistaken "miracles" spread by over enthusiastic devotees, then the Ashram intelligence reports it as such, and the Org officials "allow" it to stay and circulate, thereby gaining "good publicity" for Sai Baba's "miracles" , while at the same time the Org can always dissociate from the stories if they were seen to be mistaken cases by the devotees and public later.
3. In the case of a "miracle" that was arranged by the Org itself, and usually this is done very carefully by trusted inner coterie members and targeted at wealthy western devotees or someone working on a book, if the Intelligence wing happens to uncover this, the instructions were to simply turn away and not talk to anyone about it. The explanation always was "Sai Baba is God and we cannot understand all these things, so ignore it".
I am sure that all of you would be able to relate to the manner in which the Sai Baba org controls things, as you yourself may have seen examples of all the above things, somewhere, sometime.