"A CRITICAL SITE ABOUT SAI BABA"

"THE FINDINGS"

by Faye & David Bailey

WARNING: this page contains material of sexual and explicit nature, which could hurt the sensibility of those reading here, and particularly the sensibility of those having faith in Sai Baba. This as a due warning: please refrain from reading this page, if you get hurted by this arguments, or if as a Sai Baba devoted person you couldn't bear this story.

Questo documento e' stato redatto da Faye e David Bailey, i quali sono stati per anni devoti molto vicini a Sai Baba. Faye e' l'editore di un periodico spirituale, "The Quarterly Spiritual Magazine", mentre David e' stato autore di alcuni libri su Sai Baba, tra i quali "Viaggio verso l'amore" che e' stato tradotto anche in italiano.

"The Findings" e' la raccolta delle tristi scoperte fatte da loro, e da altre persone, riguardo Sai Baba. Queste scoperte li hanno portati ad abbandonare definitivamente Sai Baba, e a darsi da fare per far conoscere questi fatti alle altre persone. "The Findings" e' il risultato di questo loro sforzo.

Nota: "The Findings" e' un documento piuttosto esteso. Se preferite leggerlo offline, cliccate qui sotto per scaricarlo. Il file e' in formato ZIP, contenente il documento in formato Word.

The Findings

Introduzione

The Findings are something that both David and I never thought or knew existed, and although neither of us could have ever even imagined that one day we would be compiling them, the unthinkable has happened.

The following is the spelling out of a situation that exists with Sai Baba. Sadly, it is extremely negative, and will possibly shock and distress you greatly as it did us, when we found ourselves in the incredible position of being presented with information  we could not ignore. Once David accepted that something was very, very wrong, he began his own research. He has been very thorough, meanwhile hoping and praying every moment that the things he was uncovering were untrue. These  findings are the last thing we both would ever have wanted.

However, they exist. We ask only that you read them all before forming any judgement.

Apart from our separate personal experiences, there are also included experiences of others, chosen from many such, which are an integral part of unveiling this huge, illusory global scam - the biggest hoax in the God business. A veritable mountain of information is now available, far more than I can possibly place before you. My task is to report the findings I do offer accurately, while presenting a cross section of untenable behaviour, lies uncovered and magic exposed. David has spent long hours and many months, talking to people all over the world, whilst unravelling this tangled skein of years of deceit accumulated around the said ‘divinity incarnate’, but he is not alone in this. Courageous people on every continent are banding together to expose the monumental spiritual fraud which has been perpetrated for the personal gain of a select group, headed by Sai Baba.

Disillusioned people of every rank and file who have also found what lies behind the facade - including ex-students of the Sai colleges, judges, doctors, government ministers in Europe, the Americas, Australia and beyond - are in agreement that it is now time to share their findings. There are hundreds of personal accounts which tear the veil from the ‘avatar’. I give only a few. Due to verbosity from some of the contributors, I have edited the information, but not altered its context. Contributors have given permission to be quoted and identified. The accounts that follow are merely a fraction of those available, all describing a situation that has been functional for many years. This is an opportunity to become aware of it, thus moving into a position enabling  informed choice, rather than one coming from ignorance.

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I begin with my personal revelations. Those who read David’s and my books (written before our discoveries and since removed from sale by us), know our history. How devoted we were to Sai Baba, to the point of each marrying the other, even though we were strangers from opposite sides of the world. How we travelled the world speaking of the wonder of him.

So, what happened to change everything?

When the dark side of Sai Baba began to be revealed to David, at first I refused to listen, unable to bear hearing anything negative about my beloved ‘avatar of the age’. This unhappy state of affairs continued for six months, until on our next visit to India, I had my own validation of David’s findings.  Can you imagine how it felt as I began to see beyond the veil? For years I had enjoyed the privilege of being called to the interview room and had spent every moment there, focused only on Swami’s face; until David suggested that I shift my attention to his hands. Watching rings, watches and other trinkets being palmed, or pulled out from the side of chair cushions, and seeing vibhuti tablets held between fingers before being crushed and ‘manifest’ was a horrifying revelation, a personal catastrophe for me. I had given up my life, my marriage, husband, children, home, career and homeland because of my love for Sai Baba - only to find trickery at the epicenter of all I held dear.

During subsequent interviews, increasingly aghast as I watched the same things happen again and again, I kept silently pleading ‘Why? Why do it ??’ This illusionist activity totally destroyed my trust in one whom I expected to practise the truth he preached. But magician’s tricks were the very least of it. As time passed, and people began sharing their own experiences and findings with us, my world of divine-guru centred spirituality came crashing down.

Whilst still at the ashram, the worst thing for me - as a mother of sons - occurred when a young man, a college student, came to our room, to plead with David. ‘Please Sir, do something to stop him sexually abusing us’ (!). These sons of devotees, unable to bear their untenable position of being unwilling participants in a paedophile situation any longer, yet unable to share this with their parents because they would be disbelieved, placed their trust in David; a trust which had built over his five years as a visiting professor of music to the Sai college.

Later that night the same young man returned to our room in great distress, to implore David not to reveal his name, saying that he feared expulsion from the college, and even worse than that, for his personal safety, if it were to be found out that he had spoken of these things. David was able to reassure him that he didn’t know his name, therefore could not, and would not, ever identify him. But this interaction and shocking revelation was merely the tip of an iceberg of sickening information, an iceberg that was to batter then sink our years of blind devotion.

Becoming increasingly cognisant of Sai Baba’s sexual activity involving violation of basic human rights with the children (as young as seven years old) under his care, and the growing list of one deceit after another in activities stemming from him, brought awareness of the depth of our own emotional investment. Awareness also, of the devastation these discoveries wrought in us. We were placed in an untenable situation; unable to risk creating similar chaos in other spiritual seekers of like investment. The only course was to say little and move away, which caused a furore of angry and untrue rumours about us to proliferate.

Last year, David felt it appropriate to share his findings when personally questioned, but the dilemma of whether to speak or not tested me sorely. I felt keenly the responsibility of holding this negative knowledge; recognising that silence made me part of the conspiracy, but kept  praying that given time, somehow, all of it would be satisfactorily explained away. It was not to be.

Over the past eighteen months we have become privy to so many serious, and horrific allegations, and so much damning information sent from disillusioned ex-devotees from all over the world (in particular, from ex-students of Sai Baba’s male colleges) which supported our own findings, that it is now impossible to remain silent.

As editor of a magazine that has as its mandate the seeking of truth, I have no option but to fulfil my responsibility to that mandate. My decision to do so, follows much personal anguish, and earnest prayer, and I have been given the necessary support and courage by my inner guidance and outer, true friends.

It is not the doctrine of Sai Baba that is being scrutinised, but his practices within it - not the message, but the messenger. His message is for the most part, one of universal verities, even though his teachings have been found to have many contradictions, misquotes and proven anomalies.

The allegations I have gathered to record here, are in regard to the global scam he perpetrates. His chicanery, illusion, fraud, embezzlement, implication with murders, ongoing paedophile activities and the almost impenetrable fortress of lies creating his ‘divinity’. The weight of detailed descriptive testimony regarding his participation in sexual activity with willing - and unwilling partners (both students and visiting foreigners), discounting the widely distributed justification of ‘kundalini raising’. The super speciality hospital and water project being shown to be paper tigers, with apparent embezzlement of money, organ theft and unfulfilled hydration promises.

There are known investigations at governmental level world wide. The Sai school has been closed in Sweden. A veritable volcano is about to erupt, due to the disquiet of many, many people. The Internet has had a major role in this. The mass of experience and evidence being presented there is hard, thrusting, knife edged; and backed by courageous ex-devotees prepared to put their names to such statements for the good of all. David has personally contacted many of the contributors, and listened as they verbally verified and further described their own experiences.

Sadly, there is no way this letter can be gently worded.

The truth that THIS SITUATION EXISTS will stand. It will stand, whether it is believed or not.

I fully appreciate the grief and awful sense of loss reading these revelations may bring to you. David and I have experienced it and we know how terrible it can be.  I send you my love and empathy.

                                                                                                                Faye Bailey. Editor

                                                                                            The Quarterly

From: UNITED KINGDOM

Source: David Bailey

Subject: PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

I have written this because so many rumours (often completely untrue) have spread about Faye and myself, as to why we moved away from Sai Baba. I know that what you are going to read here may cause you deep distress. The situation I am about to reveal, is certainly not something we could ever have imagined possible.

I only ask you to read it all, while accepting that these are my personal experiences. I share with you my truth. No more, no less.

There have been many sleepless nights as I grappled with the task of  what to do and how to cope with this indisputable factual information, in the light of my  responsibility to the many, many people who read my books and heard me speak.

The following findings are a result of  my heart-aching research, over a period of three years’

Vibhuti

During darshan, Sai Baba carries vibhuti in tablet form between the third and fourth fingers of his right hand, with spare tablets in the hand holding up his robe. He crushes a tablet when required, and transfers tablets during the taking of letters. I have watched this happen innumerable times. Once on the mandir porch he dropped a tablet in front of me, and told a member of the Trust to “Eat it Quickly!”

Tablet-palming can be clearly seen on many videos, if slowed down to frame-by-frame viewing, including in our wedding day interview video, used at the beginning of  “God lives in India”  This video has been removed from sale by the Trust.

Australian television, in it’s programme ’60 MINUTES’ (their equivalent of ‘PANORAMA’)  showed how these ‘B grade’ conjuring tricks are done.

Vibhuti tablets explain why vibhuti distribution runs out in the interview room before everyone has had some.

All powder vibhuti is produced by roasting cow dung with sandal wood, and manufactured vibhuti bought elsewhere, is then double sieved by ladies of the ashram seva dal, before being packaged for interview room distribution.

Use of vibhuti on open wounds consistently causes infection in them; a fact commented by Faye to me when she was called to deal with people having these infections in the ashram.

Jewellery etc

All are worthless trinkets. Some are bought in Puttaparthi village, but mainly they come from Bangalore and Hyderabad. I made it my business to meet one of the jewellers concerned and have this information verified.

I was told by Sai Baba and also by members of his inner circle, that my ‘materialised’ ring with it’s huge stone was a sixty-four faceted diamond of great commercial value. After leaving the ashram in December 1998, I damaged one of the clasps on the ring and took it to a jeweller in southern India, many hundreds of kilometers away. This stranger immediately recognised it as a ‘Sai Baba’ ring. He told me that the metal it was made of was not gold, also that the stone was a valueless zircon, and under it there was a piece of silver paper to make the zircon glitter, which was why the back of the ring was solid. He informed me that these hard backed rings are especially made for Sai Baba. As he took the stone out to repair the damaged clasp, sure enough, a piece of silver paper fell out, and the stone thus revealed was seen to be a zircon.

The then Sai organisation co-ordinator of Ireland was with Faye and me at the time, and another lady who had a Baba ring in which a face (attributed to Baba because of the black head of hair round a small ‘face’), could be seen. The jeweller showed us how these are made. A piece of coloured glass has a small piece of silver paper behind it so that at certain angles it reflects the colour of one’s own face. This is surrounded by a circular ring of black enamel to give the impression of hair. He lifted the stone out of the ring and proved this also, was so. The Irish co-ordinator took photos of the rings. On his return to Ireland, he resigned and left the organisation.

When Sai Baba decides to give someone a robe in the interview room, he does so as a cover to get further trinkets from his store in the back room. More than a few times Faye and I have heard the sound of a drawer being opened and the tinkle of metallic things being moved. He returns with them hidden under the robe (and we have watched him transferring trinkets from under the robe on his lap to his right hand - it’s just so obvious when you look) before waving his hand while faking a materialisation. His velvet chair contains objects hidden in the sides. We have seen them there and then observed his sleight of hand as he brings them out of hiding.

But, well before I was aware of these things, I began to have some doubts about the authenticity of Sai Baba’s claims of divine manifestation. During my second interview, one of the first things I noticed which bothered me was that someone asked him to repair a broken chain on a japamala, and another had lost a stone from a ring. He did nothing at the time, but said “No, no, I will change for new one tomorrow”.  I found this very perplexing. Why, if he could create anything at will, which is what I had been told, did he not blow on these things and repair them then? I now know why. He cannot.

Healing

I have not seen him do a genuine healing on anybody in all my time of being close to him, and having had innumerable interviews. I have seen him tell people to stand up, and get out of wheel chairs, but the effect is not lasting. He generally ignores the sick and frail ones, giving out as reason, their karma.

The Australian ‘pink twins’ continue to use wheel chairs, in spite of Sai Baba’s claims of healing them and their claims of being healed. A sad case for me is Maynard Ferguson. Over three years of deterioration in his hearing; during several interviews with him and his wife, he, his wife and myself asked - pleaded with Swami, to heal him. Every time, he promised to do so, but now Maynard is very deaf and has to rely on two powerful hearing aids to help him. As a fellow musician I know what this must mean to him in his heart.

Once Faye and I had an interview in the company of an elderly, rather frail Indian gentleman who used to sit on the verandah near me. He asked Sai Baba for help for his failing health. Swami, behind his back shrugged his shoulders at us, saying in what we both thought was a rather an unfeeling aside  ‘And what can I do? Cancer. Too far gone, too far gone.’

Faye has had her own experience of him giving health advice she trustingly followed, which nearly caused permanent damage to her, before she at last resorted to western medical treatment for her complaint.

The German co-ordinator whom I visited in the super speciality hospital after he’d had a stroke, was eventually taken back to the verandah, but Swami did not heal him. The elderly man has gone back to Germany, and some two years later is little improved.

I believe any healing claimed by Sai Baba is in fact, a personal inner healing activated by the person himself or herself.

Miscellaneous musings

The mandir ceiling is now covered in gold leaf. I was shown a piece of this gold leaf which had fallen from the ceiling. I ask myself, ‘Why, in a country of such appalling poverty, does he allow this escalating show of opulence to occur? The mandir at my last count had one hundred and sixty-seven chandeliers instead of the original thirty-six. What on earth for? Sai Baba now has several luxury cars supposedly ‘gifted’ by rich devotees. Why is more than one necessary? This is reminiscent of other cult leaders such as Rajneesh.

I know Sai Baba doesn’t live only on rice and chappattis as he claims. His evening meal consists of six to eight different dishes prepared for him every night, and Faye and I have shared the ‘left overs’ several times, having gone with someone to collect the remains of the meal from his rooms. He claimed to Faye that he ‘Drinks no tea, no coffee. Only hot water’ - yet has drunk coffee with me.

During the preparation of the 1997 Christmas Day students’ programme, I was in interview with the students, and we were discussing with Swami, the music and story of Jesus’ birth which the boys were going to present.  When ‘We Three Kings from Orient are...’ was mentioned, Sai Baba directed that this song not be sung, saying ‘No, no, no! There were no kings. They did not exist.’ Yet in his January 1996 discourse he said ‘When Christ was born, three kings came to see the infant.’

It is claimed by a few people that different lights can be seen around Sai Baba.

Everybody has an aura, which one can learn to see. There is a book by Mark Smith for example, called ‘Auras - See them in 60 Seconds’. The existence of this light does not confirm divinity. There’s only been a handful of people around the world who claim to have seen Sai Baba’s aura. Anyone who has made this claim to me, has been an ardent devotee.

I have been shown photographs with unrecognisable light shapes on them, and been told by the presenter that these represent Sai Baba, Krisha, Gopis and others. What would be the point of divinity appearing in this indistinguishable way? And what proof can it be of the said divinity? According to Kodak laboratories, light emissions on photographs are caused by intermittent camera malfunction and/or film idiosyncrasy, and the most common emission colours are orange and white.

The  Super Speciality Hospital

I know that one wing has never been opened, supposedly through lack of funds.

Yet, we are told that  just one of the many donations given for the building  was US$ 49,000,000.00 (forty-nine million US dollars!).

This converts to approximately ST£ 30,000,000.00 (thirty million pounds sterling!)

Names of many other large benefactors are listed in the hospital reception area, making the funds donated for this complex absolutely mind boggling.

In relative terms money can buy five times in India what it can here.

I question what happens to these huge amounts of donated money.

A doctor I sat near on the mandir porch, who works in this hospital, told me never to let anyone I cared about go there as the sanitation is disgusting and the lack of aseptic technique, appalling. This allegation has been repeated numerous times in correspondence we have received, by people who have seen through the hospital.

The Renal department is now also closed.

There is bad publicity regarding allegations of theft of a kidney and subsequent current legal action being taken in India. (see page 28).

In 1997 Australian national television ‘60 Minutes’ critically investigated the super speciality hospital, and Sai Baba’s claims of divinity. Details for obtaining this video are as follows:

          ‘God Botherers Segment’ - Ex: 60 Minutes   Tx: 24/8/97

                              9 Network Australia

                               Archives Division

                               4 Cleg street

                               Artarmon NSW 2064         Tel:  + 9439 4500   Fax: + 9906 4415

                               AUSTRALIA

The Water Project

It has been claimed that all seven hundred and fifty villages in the Sai Baba Water Project are now receiving water. This I believed until I was shown a Telegu newspaper with a front page feature article showing photos of villages with no water, broken pipes, no pipes, pipes and no tanks, and many with nothing at all. The headlines translated, read

        ‘SAI BABA WHERE’S OUR WATER? YOU’VE CHEATED US AGAIN!’.

I went to some of these villages within the project radius and found for myself that the report was correct. My questioning local businessmen in the area revealed some interesting information. General opinion concurred that the project had been set up because the ashram had many problems with it’s own insufficient well supply; one of which was constantly recurring gastric disturbances, particularly with foreign devotees.

Request for permission to lay a water pipeline to the ashram fell on govt.’s deaf ears, the response being that unless villages along the proposed line could also be supplied, permission would be withheld. Hence the huge global fund raising, which also perplexed me - having been indoctrinated with the ‘no fund raising’ policies given out by Sai Baba.  Within twelve months an effective pipeline to the ashram and a selection of villages was established, and then the work stopped. At my consternation at being of told this scandalous situation, the village elders simply shrugged their shoulders saying “What can we do?”

Financial Problems

As Faye and I travelled around the world, speaking to Sai Baba groups, after almost every meeting people would  come to us asking for help because of the financial trickery they had experienced at the ashram. In particular, over giving many thousands of pounds, dollars, marks or whatever for a unit there, and never getting one, let alone being given a receipt for the money. Then, when eventually disheartened, they attempted to retrieve their money, they were told there were no records of the transaction. We heard this story many times.

It is a common practice at retreats and meetings, for new devotees to be told that Sai Baba does not need donations.

This happened at Downe House Public School (nr. Newbury), where a series of weekend retreats were held during school holidays. However, when the new devotees had been to more than one weekend, they were taken aside individually and given a bank account number at the Bank of India in Andhra Pradesh, to which donations can be sent.

On some occasions, with particularly gullible targets, a printed paragraph was given - to be inserted into a will for donations to be made. Such people were also told that sending money to the Sathya Sai Medical Trust in India was inheritance tax effective, as the Indian Trust is a registered charity in the United Kingdom. This of course is untrue. Such donations do not attract inheritance tax relief. The above allegation of fraud is supported by a statement from a lawyer and others who were personally involved.

Not surprisingly, Downe House has since banned any further Sai Organisation meetings on it’s premises.

Personal problems

We spoke to people who had written dozens of letters over serious personal situations and had had no response, and no change in the situation. Desperate and despondent, these people turned to us as their last hope, asking us to intercede for them with Sai Baba, whom they believed was omnipotent (but not, seemingly omniscient).

Sexual problems

Concerned mothers, and young men of various ages would ask to speak to me in confidence about intimate incidents they had had with Swami. They told me about alleged sexual activity, each story replicating the previous one. Swami would take these young men and boys into the private interview room alone with him, then insist that they take their trousers down and he would massage them, often masturbating them, and/or insisting on oral sex and sometimes collecting their semen in his handkerchief.

This left me speechless! I knew of the book written by Tal Brook in the 70’s called ‘Lord of the Air’ where he detailed the sexual harassment he had undergone with Sai Baba, but this book had always been dismissed by long established devotees as a collection of mischief making lies told by an angry young man. And yet Faye’s own son had been kissed repeatedly on his cheeks and the corners of his mouth when alone in the inner room with Sai Baba, and also sexually touched. And when it was obvious to Sai Baba that this behaviour was unwelcome, he began berating the young man in subsequent interviews with Faye, calling him ‘Mad dog! Hard hearted!’ and so on. At the time this seemed incongruous; it was only after we began travelling the world that the inconceivable and incomprehensible began to make itself clear.

When I asked various co-ordinators about these many disturbing incidents reported to me in our travels, I was told that Swami was ‘raising kundalini’. I questioned this in my mind. If he was capable of doing anything, why did he have to physically touch the boys, especially when they were unwilling? And what about when he had them actively engage in sex to him? It seems that an ongoing, serious and untenable infringement of basic human rights is being scurrilously perpetrated, in the name of ‘divinity’.

I didn’t ever hear any stories about girls having their kundalini raised in this way.

On my last visit to Puttaparthi, a male student came and asked me for help, on behalf of some of his fellow students, because they were desperately in need of someone to stop Swami sexually abusing them. I was told how Sai Baba had for years been demanding that these particular boys have oral sex, and group sex for his pleasure. Their details matched what I had already been told so many times round the world. I asked him if this was an acceptable practice in India, and his look of horror as he denied it, spoke volumes.

Then he asked me a question I couldn’t answer.

                ‘Sir, why do you think ex-students tried to kill him in ’93 ...?’ (!!!)

I turned to several long time devotees on the verandah for explanation of these nefarious activities, and worried them with questions and suppositions until in the end they realised that I had found the truth, and then admitted that these things do happen; and then  - agreed with each other that it was for his pleasure and nothing to do with kundalini raising.

Different national co-ordinators I spoke to, both in India and after we returned home, continued for a time, to deny that it happens. But when it became obvious that I was not going to leave this issue alone, a couple of them telephoned me to say that yes I was correct and they had known of this for years. ‘But he is God, and God can do anything he likes.’ (!!!)

Early in 1999 a young Swedish man returned from a visit to the ashram and made a full statement to his co-ordinating committee about his sexual experiences with Swami during six interviews. Within hours of this revelation, one of the top officials of Sweden’s Sai organisation was on our doorstep, asking why we had left Sai Baba. He and his wife, both really lovely people, were absolutely devastated to hear the young man’s story confirmed. After saying brokenly ‘I cannot be part of this’ he went outside and sat on the steps in our front garden and sobbed his heart out. He had been a devotee for more than twenty years, and his wife had written two books on Sai Baba and another was already at the point of being printed.

He went home to resign his position from something he had given years of his life and his love to, and she cancelled her book and withdrew the others from the market. Within days there was public confirmation - that these things I had spoken about through the year to a small number of serious seekers of truth - were indeed happening to others as well.

Soon after, the Sai school in Sweden closed.

Due to this courageous young man’s statement, the unmentionable began being mentioned, then mentioned increasingly loudly, by increasing numbers of young men. The Swedish publicity began a flurry of exposures. Swedish film star Conny Larsson revealed his own experiences, which are included in this fact file. Our phone ran hot with young men from all over Europe sharing their pain.

One teenager rang from France and confided that he had wanted to commit suicide ever since his own experience of sexual harassment, as he couldn’t live with the thought that he must be gay. He said he was very relieved to hear that there were other victims.

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The Education in Human Values system was developed by Dr. Gokak, at one time a member of Sai Baba’s professorial board. Sai Baba has not written any part of this system. Dr. Gokak left Sai Baba some years ago.

Schools and colleges.

I was led to believe that the schools and colleges in Puttaparthi and Whitefield had been set up to give free education to local children. This is not the case. Last year the fees at the lower grade schools were 20,000 rupees per child for one year, plus books, plus uniform plus accommodation if required.

The village school is government run, and as are all village schools throughout India, and is free - parents pay only for books and uniform.

Assuming that the college boys I taught were local lads, I was amazed at their learning capacity, until I discovered that these boys were brought in from all over India and had to pass  very strict entrance exams, needing 85-90% pass marks. As one of the tutors said to me -

                    “Sai Baba takes only the best. They’d have to try, to fail”.

One of my concerns with these lads, was that they had no career officer to guide them as to where they may find a job, and they would return after leaving college and ask me for advice about how to get employment. This occurred regularly over the five years I interacted with them.

Peggy Mason

Peggy, a professional journalist who wrote for spiritual magazines, went  to see Sai Baba with her husband Ron Laing and had a number of interviews during their short stay. Both she and Ron were enchanted with Swami (as indeed I was at first), and this one visit was the basis for their subsequent writings.

In December 1997 on our way to Gatwick airport to leave for India, we collected a letter written to Swami by Peggy.

I gave the letter to him during the next afternoon darshan.

The following morning I received a fax to say that Peggy had died.

A few days later I had an interview in the company of the editor of the Sanathana Sarathi, and he told Swami that Faye was now editor of Peggy Mason’s magazine….

SB : “Yes, yes. It’s in very good hands, now make it go! How is Peggy Mason?”

Me : “She has merged with you”.

SB : “Yes. She lives near you in England?”

Me : “She  lived eighty miles from me, but she died a few days ago Swami. She is with you!”

SB : “Yes, yes, her husband was a good man. When you go home, give my regards to her”.

Me : “She is dead Swami. Dead! She has merged with you!’”

SB : “Give her my love when you get back to England”.

Me : “I cannot Swami, because she is DEAD!”

SB : “Oh ?? Oh.....”

In another interview a few days later, (this time with Faye) Swami seemed very confused and spoke randomly without making coherent sense for a minute or so, and ended by telling all in the room that Peggy Mason had played the trumpet very well during the Christmas celebrations just completed in the ashram. He was not making a joke and we were both nonplussed and very disturbed, and everyone else there also looked puzzled and somewhat concerned about these ramblings, as they had all heard Maynard Ferguson play trumpet on Christmas day.

On two occasions he called us into the private interview room and questioned me intently about someone in the outer room. Then after we had both returned to the outer room he repeated everything I had just told him, no more, no less, while implying he was getting the information by ‘tuning in’.

This possibly explains why he thought I was American in the first instance, even referring to me in his discourse as American. Perhaps someone had given him incorrect data...?

My greatest difficulty at this time, was finding someone other than Faye, to talk to about all these disturbing findings. Everyone I knew from the west had had much less interactive experience with Swami than I had. During my  six years of being devoted to him I had had over one hundred close encounters in the way of interviews and work sessions, and been very involved with him during my times of teaching the students in the male college.

For most devotees, a visit to the ashram means sitting in the darshan lines looking on, wishing and hoping for interaction, whilst listening to the stories others tell. This is very different to being ‘in there’ - seeing how things work behind the scenes.

I had to find someone who had had the same level of experience as I had.

I began to look for Terry Gallagher, an Australian whom, I heard, had been close to Swami before my time. Terry had been Central Coordiantor for the Sai organisation in Australia for three years, and had been given very preferential treatment from Sai Baba for a number of years. I traced him to Kiama in New South Wales, Australia.

I knew he had left the ashram vowing never to return, and I wanted to know why? I soon found out. Terry had discovered the unmentionable inner workings of Sai Baba as I had now done. Exactly the same... but more. Terry left, never to return after the assassination attempt by ex-students in 1993. I wanted to know what Terry knew. I soon did. (Terry’s own experiences - page 14)

Is this why there are so few really ‘long standing’ western followers around? Do those who get close, get too close and discover that the mighty ‘Wizard of Oz’ is just a little magician? In this case, a little magician who is also a paedophile?

Do they then discern that ‘God wouldn’t do that’ and leave?

Premanand, another with a very close connection to Sai Baba some years before Terry’s time, had also discovered the truth behind the facade and left. Premanand now shares his findings on Internet.

Phenomena

There are many instances of vibhuti etc appearing on pictures around the world. Very often in homes and temples where non-stop bhajans are sung, which may well have something to do with the appearance of this phenomena. Generally speaking, we in the west know so little about mind power and the power of vibration. However some of these appearances of vibhuti are fake, and can be created by chemical means.

Some would appear to be genuine, but my research in this area leads me to determine that the appearance of phenomena does not automatically mean it comes from Swami, or has any divine connection whatsoever. Whilst in India Faye and I saw many examples of phenomena. Enough to know that the ability to do phenomena does not make one divine.

My suspicions once aroused about Swami’s divinity, gave me no peace.

Things I blindly accepted because I had been told they were so, did not stand up in the light of close scrutiny. Even the men in power around him, although they act out a role of subservient adoration when in front of Sai Baba, play a different part away from him. On occasions I was with members of the inner circle, Mr Rao for example, in the main office. Once, I had been sent by Swami for something and the reply he gave me ended with the words “Swami doesn’t know what he is talking about” (!) Yet they perpetrate the idea that he knows everything.

Over this questioning span of many months I have had my share of indoctrination procedure from those in high places. While at the ashram, my very first queries brought intense social interaction from an Indian inner circle member who, unknown and uninvited, visited Faye and me in our unit after almost every darshan for a week, to tell us of the many wonders of Swami’s miraculous powers. Only later did we understand why he did this.

Once back home, when rumours were beginning to fly about our defection from the fold, I received several phone calls from long standing devotees from the VIP lines, telling me that I had a problem. I had to decide if Sai Baba was God or not. If he was God, then he could do everything he wanted to anyone, sexually, fraudulently, drugs, trickery etc, but of course if I did not accept him as God, then I had my own view of morals, and the laws of my land to follow.

For me there was no choice to make.

I know there are instances worldwide of people going to Prashanthi, and coming back with a new lease of life, but so do people who visit the many other gurus in India, or Mother Meera, or Lourdes, and so on. My investigations into mind power find simple explanations for this.

If even only a handful of people sit quietly together to do Yoga meditation, circle work, or just to meditate, they expect and often get a lovely atmosphere, and sometimes, healing happens.

Imagine the energy that might be generated by hundreds of people sitting quietly focused for an hour or two in darshan. Amongst these are probably some natural or trained psychics, and natural or trained healers, as well as many people sitting still and focused for a lengthy period, perhaps for the first time in their lives. Different experiences are bound to occur. Nothing to do with Sai Baba.

I think the ‘love-connection’ people experience is simply one connecting with one’s Self.

When one gets involved with Sai Baba, a very subtle brain washing commences. Sitting for hours in darshan is one of these. When one sees all around with hands in prayer position, one naturally follows suite. Once attached and involved, common sense and logic progressively disappears, until one reaches the point of attributing every small act of living to Sai Baba.

Where to now?

No more gurus for me.

Once more, for me the true connection with God is inside me.

No more giving my power away.

To sit still quietly and talk to God within, I find gets real answers.

To accept who I am in this life, and to do my best with my gifts, knowing that I am part of the Great Picture, is enough.

Conclusion

If I take any other subject  I look at the pros and cons fearlessly.

For example where I shop : Is the price good? Do they sell what I want?

Or perhaps : Is this car what I really want? How many miles to the gallon? Insurance cost, deterioration, repair bills?

Or :  Is this double glazing well made? etc etc.

I choose from being presented the true facts. The car sales man was not knowingly waiting there for me, to give me an experience I needed for my life. I gave myself the experience by deciding to go that showroom.

I consider this attitude should also be applied to spiritual subjects.

I spent a lot of time believing what I was told by others - that this was a great test for me, and Swami was doing it to give me an experience.

From my conversations and observations with Swami I know for myself that this is not the case. I gave myself the experience, by listening to very well meaning people when I first heard about Swami, who in their turn had not done any research into the truth, but just believed others.

There are fantastic stories going round about Sai Baba’s supposed powers, but in five years searching I have not found one to be genuine. Always secondhand information. People repeat these stories in good faith and then say ‘I know this was so’, but how can they know? They were not there.

The above is first hand information.

From: AUSTRALIA

Source: Terry Gallagher - a letter to the Baileys.

Subject:    DISILLUSION

Dear Faye and David,

When speaking to you recently I was so pleased to hear about your decision not to mention or publish anything further about Sai Baba in your Quarterly Spiritual Digest.

The information you have uncovered about Sai Baba, I have also found out from personal experience to be true.

What began as a wonderful spiritual journey ended with total disbelief and bitter disappointment when we found out the truth.

Perhaps I should start at the beginning with a brief account of that journey.

After reading a book called ‘Man of Miracles’ I set off for India (and Puttaparthi) with my wife and three young daughters, in an organised group for Christmas 1983.

What we found when we arrived in India was something I had been searching for all my life. The most beautiful, peaceful atmosphere, with wonderful people searching for their own spiritual truth, living in a community whose whole objective was that of improving self-awareness and achieving self-realisation, through the teachings of a living guru - Sai Baba.

Adjacent to the ashram and provided free of cost to the students was a primary school for boys and girls, and various colleges for boys, where spiritual teachings were incoporated into the normal academic disciplines.

We were all very impressed and motivated towards learning as much as possible about what Sai Baba had to teach us.

The celebration of Christmas came and went, after which our family was called for an interview with Sai Baba. As a result of this interview and what appeared at the time to be the most perfect environment for students and devotees to advance their spiritual lives, I made a substantial donation to the Central Trust to help them fund their educational programmes.

Upon leaving the interview I was told by Sai Baba that I should sit on the verandah of the Mandir in future, with students from the colleges and other devotees.

As it turned out this gave me the opportunity to meet people and observe events very closely, that I otherwise may not have had the opportunity to do.

We all had mixed feelings when we had to leave the ashram and return to Australia, sad in having to leave and joy in what we had experienced.

We returned to the ashram again in 1985 for one month, then in 1986 we stayed for seven months, at which time our daughters attended Sai Baba’s school.

It was during this time that I began to observe things that made me question what I had experienced on previous visits. Having a scientific background I began to observe a set routine that Sai Baba followed each morning and evening during darshan, and in particular, how he materialised vibhuti (holy ash).

I will never forget the look of anguish on Sai Baba’s face when he came into the verandah of the Mandir early one morning and dropped two vibhuti pellets in front of me, as he attempted to accept a rose from a college student. There was no vibhuti materialisation during darshan that morning!

In the months that followed I observed how he transferred these vibhuti pellets from one hand to the other, using the letters he collects from devotees to disguise his movements. In the many interviews that followed I also observed more than thirty instances of rings, ‘diamonds’, japamalas, vibhuti containers etc, all being produced by sleight of hand and deception.

At first I kept this information to myself. I reasoned that if this was what made people come to see Sai Baba, resulting in them becoming more spiritual, what harm could it do! Eventually I told my wife and children, who also saw through this ‘materialisation’ trickery.

It was the observations and information that followed on from these initial findings that concerned me most, especially those relating to students being sexually interferred with in grotesque ways by Sai Baba.

We returned to the ashram several times during the following years, making further observations and having these confirmed by college students and long term devotees living at the ashram. During this time I was the central coordinator for three years for the Sathya Sai organisation in Australia.

It wasn’t until 1993, following the assassination attempt on Sai Baba, resulting in the murder of four college students and two assistants in the Mandir, that we made our last visit to India.

The purpose of this visit was to find the reason why former students of Sai Baba’s college would want to kill him, particularly when they had been given a free education!

The eye witness accounts were horrific! After bursting into the Mandir, four students found themselves trapped upstairs where Sai Baba was staying. Each was interrogated by police, then one at a time they were executed!

The stench of death was everywhere.

I made further inquiries about Sai Baba having sexual relations with college boys and male students - some of these as young as seven years of age - and whether this was the reason for former students wanting to kill him. I was told, to my horror, that this was an acceptable Indian practice!

I felt sick, and just wanted to take my family and leave the ashram and India as quickly as possible.

Before we did, we were all called for interview with Sai Baba and we told him what we had experienced and been told.

Sai Baba made no comment on our accusations and was only anxious to know who had told us these details, requesting us to tell him several times! Having had dozens of interviews over the years, this was the most stressful and uncomfortable interview our family had ever experienced.

Sai Baba was tense and agitated and his body language told us all, that what we had found out about him was the truth!

We left the interview and returned to Australia.

The following years were very difficult spiritually, we concentrated on all the positive aspects we had experienced over the past ten years and found this comforting.

When we attempted to tell others about our experiences and the truth about Sai Baba, no one would believe us, except those who also had similar experiences, and mostly - fear prevents them from telling others!

It has only been in the past twelve months that former students and devotees of Sai Baba have begun communicating with each other, confirming experiences to be true and supporting each other spiritually and emotionally when necessary.

I now know the truth about Sai Baba and sincerely pray that others too, perhaps through your magazine, will follow both their logic and intuition to also find the truth.

                                                                                                                Warm regards,

                                                                                                                Terry Gallagher

                                                            Ex- Central Coordinator of Sathya Sai Organisation

From: INDIA

Source: Name withheld at request. (Available for investigation by authority)

Subject: DR BHATIA (HEAD OF SSH BLOOD BANK).  WHY DID HE LEAVE?

Regarding the notice of expulsion of Dr Bhatia in the Sanathana Sarathi magazine, please note:

Three young students from Sai Baba’s junior male college were called for interview. One of them, a seven year old boy student, came out of the private interview room crying.

He continued to cry for two days, and was unable to eat or study.

That evening Dr Bahtia, on duty in the children’s canteen, was asked to find the cause of the child’s distress.

He questioned and then examined the child, and found that he had been sexually penetrated,  via his anus.

The child was taken to Bangalore and re-examined. A second medical opinion confirmed sexual abuse.

Dr Bhatia had been involved in sexual activity with Sai Baba for six years,  believing that he was serving divinity.

He went to Sai Baba:

 - Why do you do this to such a young child when you have all of us adults and the older students to play with?

Sai Baba’s reply:

- Don’t bargain with God!

Soon after, five men went to Dr Bhatia’s home, threatening his life with knives. He made his escape by car, fleeing to Delhi.

Once there Dr Bhatia was unable to practice medicine because he had left all his personal papers behind in Puttaparthi.  He wrote asking for them. They have not yet been released. However, the doctor now practices at a Delhi hospital.

A promisory agreement has been offered from Puttaparthi, that Dr Bhatia’s personal belongings will be released to him on the proviso that:

            he remain mute about the happenings concerning the little boy student

            he does not make any legal claims against the Super Speciality Hospital

            he keeps his sexual relationship with Sai Baba a secret.

A rumour given out for his ‘dismissal’ was that he was caught selling blood, another that he was having an affair within the ashram, and yet another claiming jealousy between departmental heads at the hospital.

I offer this for the sake of truth.

From:  INDIA

Website: http://www.myfreeoffice.com/saibabaexposed/student1.html

Subject:   SATHYA SAI BABA  : THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY.

Posted on soc.culture.tamil by ex-student Meenakshi Srikanth in 1993 after some students tried to kill Sai Baba but failed.

Meenakshi writes:

 - The following is a chronicle of my experiences in the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (Whitefield branch). You have my word about the truth of this article, which has no intention to pass judgment about the personality under consideration. Meenakshi warns that the information may shock.

THE GOOD: An excellent orator in Telegu; does not have a radically new philosophy; effectively preaches age old values. Many followers attempt to practice the ideals; and there are numerous charity programmes organised in his name.

THE BAD: How does he get his following? ‘Miracles’. A few days after I joined the college, during darshan time Swami was casually talking about the power of meditation or some such thing when all of a sudden he waved his hands in the air and produced a pendant containing a beautiful picture of Lord Muruga. I was stunned. I had not seen anything like that before. I was not a devotee when I joined the college (my father asked me to), so this was something that really shook me. I went back to the hostel and waxed eloquent about the power of Swami to some of my seniors.

They nodded sagely and smiled cryptically. It was not long before some of them called me aside and said “Don’t start believing all this stuff. It does not take much to become a devotee, but it takes a lot to come out of it”. Saying this one of them waved his hand and produced vibhuti and another produced a ring. Then they told me all.

The simplicity of this is going to baffle you, so be prepared for the gullibility of the common man.

Swami produces things out of ‘thin air’ by turning his right palm to face the ground while rotating it (parallel to the ground) a few times. He then makes a sudden upward motion (as if he is plucking a low lying fruit) and gives out whatever he has produced. The mechanism of doing this is simple. When he comes out of the mandir, his left hand will be holding a kerchief or letter or his flowing robe.

Don’t look at his smiling face or his overflowing hair. Look at his left hand: clutched in his hand with (mostly) the middle finger, ring finger and the little finger is whatever he is going to give out that session. Vibhuti pellets (those of you who have seen him give out vibhuti will recollect that he makes a powdering action with his fingers when he is actually delivering), rings or whatever. Just keep looking at his hand. There will be a time when a devotee will fall at his feet or when he will lean forward. At that time the stuff gets transferred to between his fingers in the right hand. This would be visible too (if you are looking for it). Very soon thereafter, the ‘materialisation’ takes place.

Right, so you think this method is so stupid that even a goat would have found it out by now. Let me tell you something, just practice this a few times, and try it on your friends. You will be surprised by their surprise. I can do this easily now and have fooled many of my friends. Only I don’t call myself god and have VIPs fall at my feet.

I have seen these things happen hundreds of times. I have received vibhuti, laddu and such myself. In our hostel there was a coterie (select group) who knew about all these tricks. We used to have a ball of a time in darshan line and then share the hilarious experiences after the show was over.

Once, Swami was out of the mandir and was collecting letters. He had a small silver pendant in his hand which we had all seen when he had gone past us in the line. He had transferred it to his right hand and was just waiting for someone to give it to, when a devotee from a back row extended a letter. Swami bent forward and stretched out his right palm to receive it. It was a fine Bangalore morning, the sun was out and the pendant in his hand was gleaming for all to see! We went black and blue for a second and suppressing a threatening-to-explode laugh, looked away. Swami went ahead unperturbed, and gave the pendant to some important looking guy down the line. We were talking about this for a whole week and even thought of writing a letter to Swami asking him to be more careful.

On another occasion, a singer had come to Brindavan and we were listening to him. Swami wanted to give him a watch and it was in readiness beneath his left thigh in the sofa on which he was sitting. I was sitting three rows from Swami and watching him closely. The song over, Swami shifted a bit on his seat and the watch was now in his left hand. He bent forward and moved the watch to his right hand. I saw this, then looked up and saw Swami was watching me. I turned red but so did Swami! He started shifting around a lot and asked one of the students to change the direction of the table fan and when the audience was looking away, put the watch back in his left hand. Now, the student who was changing the fan was a nervous wreck with everyone watching him, and whatever happened, there were sparks flying out of the socket! Other students set it right, but by now the watch had gone back below the thigh. The singer never got it that day (I really felt sorry for him).

The next morning in darshan line Swami came near me and opening his empty right palm, called me a ‘Doubting Thomas’. I wished I could have asked him to open the left palm, since I knew he had something there.

Now, this seems funny but I got very scared and wrote a very apologetic letter to him.

There are a couple of other tricks he does. During Dussehra he does a vibhuti abhishek of Shirdi Sai Baba. He gets a pot, turns it upside down to show it empty, then puts his hand inside and vibhuti starts flowing out. Even a goat with a rational mind would figure out what he is doing. Take a pot, fill it with vibhuti and solidify it with some water and let it stand. Until you disturb it, nothing will fall out.

Another thing he used to do was materialise linga. He does this by regurgitation (yes!). He makes motions as if he is trying to get it out of his stomach and soon enough, has it out of his mouth. You will find plenty of these if you visit the museum in Puttaparthi. The way he does this is also simple. There is always a queue of trusted lieutenants (secret police?) who stand by him and pass him white hand kerchiefs on which he would eventually place the linga.

In one of these the linga will come and all he has to do is to take it close to his mouth and make a motion as if the linga had just dropped into the kerchief. I have not seen this myself (he no longer does it) but I have seen videos of this. My point is, once you have proved that one of his miracles is magic, the rest don’t need any proof.

Some students in the college know this and live a life of forced devotion and false pretence. They have to, for if they don’t life can get very unpleasant. The parents of these students are very ardent devotees, whose lives have been defined by their devotion to Swami. It would be impossible to convince them that Swami is not what they think he is, but only a cheap charlatan doing popular tricks.

The lives of these students are truly pitiable. They live a constant Jeckyll and Hyde life from which there is no reprieve. But the lives of some students are more horrible.

THE UGLY: This I have not had personal experience with (thank holy heavens for that!) but it is 100% true because I have heard first hand accounts of these bizarre things. I have looked at enough circumstantial evidences along with these witness’ accounts that I have no hesitation in telling that the following is true.

How do I start telling this to you, gentle reader? In my very first few days in our hostel, I had the distinct impression that something ugly was going on about which everybody knew but none wanted to talk. Whenever Swami came to Bangalore, there always used to be a few students who got interviews every other day.

These students were often referred to as those who are ‘in form’ (a cricket analogy) with Swami. These students were among the most privileged in the hostel. They could go outside the hostel (not normally allowed) as and when they like, and behave specially. The wardens and lecturers used to consult them before anything significant was done in the hostel. These students kept within themselves for most of the time. I was preoccupied with my own troubles and did not keep any close look at these, though I was curious.

When I got to know about Swami from my seniors, they asked me if I noticed anything strange about the hostel. I told them. They smiled and asked me to keep an open eye, promising they would tell me all about it soon. It did not take me very long to find out what was different about these students. They were all gay. Now, kindly bring down those raised eyebrows my dear reader. All the indications, body languages, special jokes about husband and wives etc were there and it did not take a sleuth’s effort to divine what was going on. I told about this to my seniors and the fact they told me was startling to say the least.

Many of these students were made gay (‘sodomized’ would be an unrefined word) by Swami, who himself is a gay. (!)

I did not believe it when they told me this. But not long after, I heard the experiences as narrated by students who had undergone the trauma themselves. Now, it so happened that a couple of these students were Tamils, with whom I became friendly quite soon.

One of them used to tell me harrowing stories. When Swami was in Brindavan he used to get the call for interview at least once in three days. Whereas a student when he gets an interview is usually so elated and pleased that Swami has recognised his devotion etc - this boy, let’s call him Nandan, always had a grim face as he walked into the bungalow.

He never attended classes those days in which he got an interview. I have often seen him show marks in his chest and chin and say a flow of choice words of slang. Nandan often used to get covers (envelopes) from Swami in public and sometimes he would be asked to open one. It would contain crisp hundred rupee notes.

(David’s note: I have seen this happen many times).

There is another word for giving money for such acts. Nandan was helpless. He could not go home and complain. His family and parents were devotees for thirty years and their very lives had been defined around Baba. Nandan, since he knew the world, has been knowing Swami and none else as God. He was first initiated into doing this when he was in school. Swami told him that he (Swami) was the only purusha in the world and the whole world was his wife. Nandan was asked to think of himself as Radha, devoted to the Krishna.

Nandan’s whole attitude towards life is now irrevocably changed.

There was another boy, Kumar (say), who was called for interview the first time. He was so elated. That afternoon a bunch of us went up to him (he was our junior) and asked him what happened. He had a blissful look on his face as he spoke. “Swami asked me if I had stomach ache? I said by Swami’s grace I don’t. Swami laughed and said ‘Why do you have to hide it from me? Tell me, do you have stomach ache?’ I don’t know why but I said yes. Swami then said he will cure it and produced sandalwood oil from thin air and rubbed it on my stomach and below. I will never forget the experience”. We did not need such proofs however. It was always obvious. Jokes with double meanings, pattings on the cheek, pinching students.

He had the horrible habit of putting his hand inside the shirt pocket and pinching the chest.

Students who entered this quicksand of destruction, whether willingly or otherwise, lead an unspeakable life. Devoted students held them in awe and the students who knew, either despised them or pitied them. And they had no recourse.

There were students who went dangerously close to such a fate and escaped. My friend Ramana (say), was high on the hit list when he smartly realised this and moved out of sight by not attending bhajans or hiding in the back rows. That was the time I was on the hit list too, but our guardian angels intervened in the form of a summer vacation.

Towards the end of my stay in the place, the disease was only spreading. I was in Bangalore. In Puttaparthi (where we used to go some five times a year) things were far worse in numbers. I heard that many students there are gay either directly by the big man or transitively. The atmosphere, an all-boys place with zero outer world exposure for a prolonged period during adolescence, is only conducive to such a thing.

This, in my opinion is the ugliest part of Swami. We used to divulge the information about Swami to our juniors, whether advisable or not. I always said it should be done if only to make them realise about this ugly part.

From: INDIA

Source: ‘delta _ 108’ April 1999 (ex-ashram security)

Subject:  IT’S TIME FOR ACTION

I know a great deal about what is happening in Puttaparthi. I personally know an ex-student who spent eleven months in Sai Baba’s room a few years back. He was sent out of college by Sai Baba when into the first year of his master’s degree, because he got too close and knew too much, and because then he didn’t go along with what Sai Baba wanted.

He told me that the students in Sai Baba’s inner chamber are in charge of all the preparatory activities before darshan and interviews, and have access to all his personal things.

They are asked to open all mail addressed to Sai Baba and most times he allows them to keep the money that is sometimes enclosed, if it is less than Rs5000. It is such common practice.

These students hardly go to classes, and the great Chancellor doesn’t mind at all! Even staff of the college and other officials of the ashram are very deferential to them. They play western music on their stereo systems, that they are allowed to have. Usually there are three or four students living with him at any given time.

The officials of the Trust know something of this nature is going on. They are making hay while the sun shines, and most of them have eaten enough money after coming, to know Sai Baba is hardly divine. The way these close people talk about him is enough to figure out that they are in no way worried about his ‘divinity’, and have scant regard or respect for him, which would not be the case if they had knowledge of any divine power.

From: IRAN / USA

Source: Afshin Khorramshahgol - correspondence to David and Faye Bailey

Subject: MY ACCOUNT RE SAI BABA

Dear Faye and David, Hello.

Here is a brief account of my experiences with Sai Baba. I apologise for the graphic language of this message, but it is the only way to share my experiences.

I travelled to India  three times, from 1991 to 1993. On my first visit to India I was already a devotee of Sai Baba and believed he was God. I had a total of seven private interviews in the first two trips. In the first private interview Sai Baba asked me to undo my pants and drop my underwear. Since I believed he was God I did as he asked. He had already ‘materialised’ oil and he applied it in the area between my penis and anus.

I was told after the interview by some devotees, that this act is done by gurus to their disciples to open a chakra, or source of spiritual energy in the body of the disciple. However I am not sure if this is what in fact Sai Baba had done.

My research since, has not found this initiation ceremony in any Hindu books or scriptures, or among Hindu followers of other gurus.

In every private interview after the ‘initiation’ private interview, Sai Baba asked me to drop my pants and underwear, and he would rub my penis. Once he was rubbing it so hard it was obvious to me that he wanted me to get an erection.

I was busy talking to him about my problems, the problems of my country Iran, and my family’s problems, and I was asking him for his blessing for all of them.

I was not interested in sex or anything, especially with a guy, and so my penis did not grow, now matter how hard Sai Baba tried. Finally, he gave up and threw my penis up and turned away with a very angry face and mumbled something. When he turned back to me, he told me to put my pants on again and the private interview was over.

You may ask why I didn’t stop Sai Baba doing what he was doing if it was so obvious to me that he wanted me to get an erection?

Due to my being brainwashed, I thought I had to throw out this thought as it was another obstacle on my way to reach God. According to Sai Baba, all bad thoughts have to be thrown out immediately and replace with good, pure thoughts - and so I threw out the idea of Sai Baba trying to give me an erection, even though I knew he was.

In another interview, Sai Baba asked me to kneel in front of him while he was standing. He took my head with his right hand and pushed it hard into his stomach. He then took my other hand with his left hand and tried to rub it against his penis.

I did not grab his penis. I just let him direct my hand to his penis, using the outside of my hand, not the palm of my hand. While he was rubbing my hand on his penis, he was moaning sexually.

In the middle of this act, I tried to look up to see his face as I wanted to see his emotions, He didn’t let me. He pushed my head into his stomach harder, and this made me stop my desire to see his face altogether. He finally gave up, realising that I was not interested in grabbing his penis, since I wasn’t willing to use my palm to touch him.

Even this incident didn’t shake my faith in him. That’s how strong is the brainwashing in Sai Baba’s organisation.

In all the private interviews that I had with Sai Baba, he would also hug or kiss me, or ask me to kiss him. I had come to reason with myself that he was touching my penis because he was probably healing me of some disease or handicap. I reasoned to myself that Sai Baba asked me to kiss him, or kissed me because he loved me, and kissing on the cheeks is all right - kissing on the cheeks between men is okay in my country.

It was not until I saw a movie that shows Sai Baba cheating, that my faith in him started to crumble. It was only after I left Sai Baba (six months after seeing that movie) that I realised his real intentions in those private interviews.

I am willing to testify in any court of law or in any gathering about the above experiences.

I have been very active on the internet for the past six years and I have saved numerous people from falling into Sai Baba’s evil trap.

                                                                                                                        Regards, Afshin

From:  MUNICH/GERMANY

Source:  Jens Sethu - A letter to David

Subject: EXPERIENCES OF AN EX-SAI BABA DEVOTEE

Hello David Bailey, I am giving you a thorough account of my traumatic experiences with Sathya Sai Baba and hope that this will help people understand what he is all about. All the details are the truth and can be seen as testimony. I could and would testify to the following in an open court.

I am thirty-five years old and have been interested in spiritual matters since my childhood. For a long time I worshipped Jesus and Padre Pio, then after reading Yogananda’s ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ I turned towards the yogi path.

In October 1988 I became an ardent follower of Sathya Sai Baba, and came to Puttaparthi for the first time in September 1989. Since then I visited Puttaparthi regularly every year and was totally absorbed in the ‘aura’ of Sai Baba. I was fully convinced of his avatarhood and became so devoted that I was thinking and contemplating all the time about him alone.

In 1989 I read ‘Lord of the Air’ by Tal Brooks (a young male USA ex-devotee who wrote of Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of him), but I did not believe, thinking “Tal only wants to decry Baba”. I was just ignoring the facts.

Over the years I had hundreds of darshans but never an interview. In 1993 I became a little suspicious about Sai Baba’s lifestyle and the activities in the ashram. Every year I could see costly new buildings and felt an increasing commercialisation was going on. In 1996 I saw Sai Baba leaving the ashram in an expensive ‘Jaguar’ and other costly cars like ‘Mercedes’ and ‘BMW’ of the big class. But I still believed him to be the Kali avatar of the age.

On 17th January 1996 I got my first interview and he was very kind telling me nice things like “I will give you everything” as he touched and stroked my head. He said “I know you’re not sure about your life and future and so on. Also unhappiness from women. I know, don’t worry. Also you have some bad thoughts, not good”. Then he said “I give you everything according to health, spirituality and life. Everything. I give you infinite love. You and me will become one”. I touched his robe and he put his hand on the top of my head saying “I give you separate interview”.

On 20th January 1996 I got the second interview. Already days before, he had established a strange eye-contact with me indicating the coming interview. My wife and I went to the interview and he acted very disappointed at seeing me together with my wife. He took me alone into the interview room and said “She is diseased and much older than you. Please separate from her”. I was really shocked and replied “She is attached to me”.

I asked him to give her some spiritual instruction, which he readily agreed to do, but he had something else on his mind.

Without asking permission he started kissing me on my lips for some time, and later asked me to open my trousers and ‘materialised’ some oil which he rubbed on the skin above my genitals. I felt very bad about all of this, but accepted, as I fully trusted Sai Baba.

Then he took my wife into the private interview room alone, and told her “Either you separate from the boy or I throw you out of Puttaparthi!”. He appeared wild and furious (my wife told me afterwards) and she shivered all over. When she reappeared in a very short time, looking red faced and very scared, nobody dared ask her what happened in there.

He saw me again some days later in darshan and asked whether I had separated or not. I said “Not yet”. He turned away and shouted so all people could hear “Bad, Bad boy!!!” He was so aggressive and seemed to radiate such an aura of evil that I was really shocked. We immediately left and went to north India for some pilgrimage.

This was a turning point, but after a time I decided to go once more to Sai Baba to clarify the matter. At the end of 1996 I returned to India and got interview on 4th December. In the interview he said “Where are you from?” When I told him I was from Germany, he responded “You are also a Hitler!”. Shocked, I thought to myself “He is not very kind is he?”

Nevertheless, in the private room the greedy old man kissed me again direct and continuously on my lips for about twenty seconds, and gently stroked my back. By now I was certain that something was very wrong.

On 28th December I was again called for interview and he produced a golden ring which didn’t fit well on my finger in spite of his blowing on it. In the private chamber he said “Come” and again kissed me on the lips for some time as before. This time I resisted and he gurgled “Have no fear”. I said “I have no fear”. Then he said “This is a good opportunity, so many waiting for months and will not get”. This baffled me. I’m sure people don’t wait for mouth kisses in Puttaparthi.

Then his mood totally changed and I did have some fear. He commanded me to remove my trousers, unzipped my fly and went with his right hand into my underpants. Sathya Sai Baba the ‘divine’ touched and massaged my genitals unasked. He expected some erection, but this didn’t happen for I didn’t feel any sexual excitement, no lust in the presence of a seventy years old man. I was really disgusted. Then he had the impudence to say “It is very weak, don’t waste energy”. When I looked at him I realised the truth about him and was shocked indeed. Soon afterwards, without another word, he sent me out of the room.

Back in Germany I did intense research on the internet and came across an article from Jed Geyerhahn and was very happy to have found somebody with similar experiences.

As I still had some luggage  in Puttaparthi I returned in November 1999 to collect it, taking with me two internet pages to discuss with some friends there. Unfortunately a lady came into possession of the material and took it to the Puttaparthi police station. Then I went through several interrogations with the police there.

A Mr. Reddy  repeatedly asked from whom I got the material, and what would be the password. I told him India is still a democracy and I can carry whatever material I have with me, but he took no heed of my words. I told him that no password was needed to enter the net and everyone has free access to the material there. He sent me to an e-mail shop, accompanied by a policeman who waited, but the computers connected with Hydrabad are very slow, and therefore I could not enter the website.

Finally the inspector, Mr. Reddy, took my passport away and said “Unless you give me the password and name of the person I declare you guilty and will not allow you to leave Puttaparthi”. He treated me very badly, like a criminal, especially during the last interrogation and I had several witnesses to this incident. All of this because I had been in possession of two pages which I had not even written myself.

He then walked me, my wife and an American friend into the ashram, and once inside the gate, he again asked me the stupid question about the password. At the time I couldn’t understand why he should do so, but today I know he was showing us to some people or trustees whom we could not see or recognise.

I had another appointment on 1st November with the police, which was the day I intended to go to Delhi, but without my passport it would not be possible. On 30th October, late in the evening, two people whom I know and an unknown person came to our unit and one of them warned me that my life was in danger and I should leave immediately.

My wife and I left very early next morning, for Delhi. At Dharmmavaram rail station the police were searching for us, but we entered the train at Anantapur. There is a police station near the platform which we had to pass to enter the train, and the very moment I saw that I told my wife to go into the train separately. My wife heard a group of policemen talking about searching for somebody and caught the words ‘passport, Delhi and telegram’. We were in serious danger but fortunately I was dressed like an Indian, and escaped identification.

So we escaped and reached Delhi, and went immediately to the German Embassy. I got a travel document after telling them of my experience, and the Embassy official said a protest note would be sent to the Indian Government. He told me such an act is illegal and they knew of similar cases.

I want to inform you that at the police station in Puttaparthi the policeman had a bunch of both foreign and Indian passports in a drawer under a table, and once I saw them in his hand. This is just an observation, I don’t know to whom they belonged.

During this frightening time at Puttaparthi  I met an Italian couple we knew there and tried to tell them what had happened to me in interview with Sai Baba. They just closed their eyes and the lady shouted “Be quiet!! Shut up!! Sai Baba is our God, and all the bad stories are not true!!” Then they turned away. These same people had told me many years before that they could never find any peace at the ashram, and couldn’t understand it. But they would not listen to those who know it better. Nobody can possibly imagine how I felt while all of this was happening. I suffered a lot.

I met one ex-soldier from Ruanda who is very tall and handsome. This person has also been sexually molested by Sai Baba and he told me his story. He is married and his Japanese wife is a fanatical Sai Baba supporter. They have one child. He totally depends on her and can see no way to get free from Sai Baba. He has been given many gifts from Sai Baba like rings, bracelet, gold watch. Sai Baba touched his testicles and massaged his genitals at least twice. The gifts look like payment for prostitution, but a prostitute and her customer have a mutual agreement whereas the male devotees  are molested against their will, and they come for a completely different purpose.

Our strong faith in Sai Baba has been misused by the same Baba, through his paedophile behaviour, and this is the most disgraceful thing he could do.

However there are many other irregularities waiting to be clarified. I also want to let you know that Baba was willing to leave Puttaparthi on 28th November 1999 for Bangalore for a heart treatment but he didn’t because of the internet story about it. This is known to me from the police inspector who blamed me for having brought the internet pages to Puttaparthi. I have a good friend in Puttaparthi who is a shop keeper, and he had already told me that in November 1999 Baba had two heart attacks and went for treatment to Bangalore. He also said that most of the people who know about it don’t believe that Sai Baba will survive the next two years.

The Trustees are very concerned and alarmed about the internet.

Further I want to let you know (in case you do not) that Sathya Sai Baba was not born in Puttaparthi but in Karnatakka-Nagepalle village near Puttaparthi. Baba’s mother came from this place and according to tradition she has to deliver the child where she comes from. I know this from a person who was born in Puttaparthi and lives there for over forty years. The villager said it is an open secret, everyone knows it but is fearful to say it. You see, from the very beginning Baba and his followers were lying.

Please study the statement Krishna, a friend of Sai Baba’s youth, made to Erlendur Haraldsson. Never was a devotee so close to Sai Baba for such a long time as Krishna. He spent twenty-four hours a day with Sai Baba for some time. This was almost sixty years ago. Eventually Krishna left Sai Baba and went to Hydrabad. In an interview with Haraldsson, Krishna said that even in those days Sai Baba was more like a politician or chieftain of a feudal system. Krishna also said “Whatever Baba may have, one thing he has not, and this is compassion”.

I hope that this nightmare comes to an end and I hope that by the Grace of the Almighty, all people round the globe may know about the misdeeds of Sai Baba, a mighty demon who came in the guise of a spurious saint, only interested in self-glorification, name and fame.

He is a master - of deception.

Yours sincerely, Jens and Gurprit Sethi

From:  SWEDEN

Source:  Magazine ‘Sokaren’ (The Seeker) - 10th January 2000

Subject: Feature article  - with full front page photograph of Sai Baba

FOR THE SAKE OF TRUTH - CONNIE LARSSON’S STORY THE SWAMI WHO DECEIVED A WHOLE WORLD

Conny Larsson (a Swedish film star) has been very close to Sai Baba. Today Conny runs a home for young abusers and criminals near Valdemarsvik, a small town on the coast of the Baltic Sea in Sweden.

Conny says:

- I went to his ashram in Puttaparthi. There Sai Baba walked up to me and said “So you have arrived now”. Later I was invited to Sai Baba for talks almost every day. He kissed my cheek and was physically very close to me. That didn’t worry me; even in Sweden we sometimes do like that.

- But then he touched my trousers between my legs and started to massage my penis. “Don’t be afraid” he said “This is a divine touch”. He took out my penis and touched it, and I touched his penis. He explained that my kundalini was to be changed.

- Because he was God, I let it happen. I became a kind of favourite to him. I had frequent private talks with Sai Baba.

- We were always very close physically. He never came that close to women. He is interested in boys and men from the age of eight up to thirty.

- When you become thirty you are no longer interesting.

Conny Larsson became one of the movement’s spiritual leaders in Sweden. In 1983 there were rumours that Sai Baba was cheating with his materialisations and that he had sexual relations with young boys. Conny couldn’t believe that this was true.

- But in 1986 I finally understood that he was doing the same things to other boys that he had done to me many years ago. I got to know the boys and asked them questions. They all told me the same story. The swami had oral sex with them, of whom many were heterosexual (sexually attracted to members of the opposite sex). The explanation was always that he was going to change their kundalini.

- You wonder whether women don’t have the kundalini power.

Conny also became witness to Sai Baba’s cheating with materialisations.

- I decided never to tell anybody about this. I thought he tested my faith in him.

Conny felt worse and worse about what he had found out. Sai Baba had been the centre of his whole life for so long.

- In January 1999 I got in touch with a Swedish boy, who had six interviews with the swami. I noticed that the boy was shaken. He told me about the same things that had happened to me. It was about masturbation - the swami opened the boy’s trousers and started to masturbate him. The boy withdrew but the swami insisted. Afterwards the boy turned to a medical doctor for help, but because of his age the doctor had never been exposed to the swami’s improper advances, so he told the boy he must have misunderstood the situation.

- During the last interview the boy had with the swami, the boy’s mother was present. She had come to take her two sons home with her. She said “I saw how Sai Baba took things out from behind the cushion and then ‘manifested’ them ‘miraculously’. Then everything crashed for me”. The boy left the ashram completely broken hearted.

- According to the latest information from India the shop is found where Sai Baba buys the things he ‘materialises’. It’s a shop in Hyderabad.

- Some of us who have received gold things and ‘diamonds’ from Sai Baba have had them examined by experts, and been told they are all junk pieces and not gold; the ‘diamonds’ are zircons and stained glass.

In Sweden the Gimle school, which was grounded in Sai Baba’s philosophy, has been closed because of Baba’s sexual actions. And Conny Larsson has stopped a movie about his life, in which Sai Baba’s importance to him was the core.

Conny points out that there are leaders in the movement who have known for a long time what the swami does with boys and young men. They say it is ‘divine’. There are also leaders who know about the cheating with miracles, and protect him. There are strong interests behind Sai Baba and his reputation to be an avatar.

What effects have these unveilings had on Conny? He says he’s had to change his concept of God.

- Now I believe in God inside me, and in all human beings.

He adds:

- I feel tired, and have compassion for all who have believed in Sai Baba and been duped. But at the same time I wish to thank all the Sai friends for our moments together at satsangs, camps and courses, where we generated love and truth in spite of the illusion we in good faith, all lived in.

Conny Larsson is currently touring many countries at his own expense, presenting his truth about Sai Baba. He is prepared to travel, and speak wherever and whenever he is invited to do so.

From: SWEDEN

Source: A Regional Meeting.

Subject: LETTER TO MEMBERS ABOUT WINDING UP THE SAI ORGANISATION IN SWEDEN

As you know, some of our young boys have testified that Sai Baba has molested them sexually. It is a matter of serious sexual abuse; among other things oral sex.

Furthermore it has turned out, that the materialisation of vibhuti, rings etc is a bluff. It is only usual magic, built of sleight of hand.

Large scale economical frauds and misuse of donated means exisits in Prashanthi Nilayam. There are bad conditions in the hospital and the water project is uncompleted and full of problems.

Statements are supported by serious investigations and personal testimonies, about which can be read on internet.

Scotland Yard and other police organisations are making investigations of other crimes. The information about what is going on is of that kind.

We cannot hide behind the statement ‘we did not know’. All in the Swedish organisation  know.

These are hard words, that hurt us all who have Baba in our hearts. But since in the organisation there have been attempts to cover up, tone down and lessen what has happened and still happens, we consider it necessary to be very clear and unambiguous in the formulation.

Naturally everyone is free to keep having Baba as his/her spiritual guide and personal image of God, in spite of what has come out. But is it possible for the Sai organisation in Sweden to remain?

Our answer is : For decency’s sake, no.

What can we say to the person who comes to the organisation to get information about Baba?

What kind of message will the organisation give on its homesite on internet?

Can one continue to sell books, which we know describe false facts?

What can one tell the person, who has perhaps put his savings on a journey to Baba, and then comes home telling that Baba has molested his son, and they have seen things that make them doubt the authenticity of the materialisations, and they have heard rumours of economical irregularities?

Do we answer with “Well, we already knew. It has been known for years” ???

He, who through ‘advertising’ Baba, entices others into going there or donating money, might have made himself guilty of the crime of encouraging criminality.

So what will the leaders of the organisation say on the day, when the press or police ring the door bell and want to know?

Do they say “Of course we knew, but since we have not personally had anything but good experiences of Baba, we did not feel that we needed to bother” ???

No dear friends, let us instead, through a forceful dissasociation, send the message through the Sai heirarchy to Sai Baba himself.

 -This is what we have learnt and we cannot accept it! Stop the sexual violations immediately, give up the bluff materialisations and get competent and honest persons to run the activities.

If the unsatisfactory state of things stops through voluntary action, it may be possible to save the good parts. Otherwise the activity will sooner or later be broken down more violently through other measures from international police, press, international service organisations etc. Then all the good which exists will disappear along with the evil. And in such a scandal, India as a nation could be damaged.

Through winding up the Sai organisation in Sweden and spreading information about that through a statement to all central coordinators and to other appropriate key persons, we take our responsibility for the persons who have been abused and cheated, and for those who run the risk to be abused and cheated.

This action will likely result in other people in other countries start acting, and taking their responsibility.

We the undersigned, and many more of us, hereby demand that the president of the Sathya Sai Organisation in Sweden calls an extra annual meeting at once, where the decision to discontinue the association can be made in a correct way.

If the meeting comes to the decision that the association should not be discontinued, a restructuring and complementary elections to the coordinating committee has to be made, since some of the members will leave the organisation and whole centres will discontinue. Likewise a new treasurer and a new auditor has to be elected.

This is a tragic process for everybody. But the work on our spiritual growth does not stop with Baba, and some of us have already discussed the forms for continued meetings for ex-devotees, where meditation and study circles, retreats and summer celebrations can be held.

So with, or without Baba, together or in different groups : Life goes on.

From: INDIA

Web site:  http://pc1502.geographie.uni-regensburg.de/html/kidney1.htm

Subject: KIDNEY ROBBERY IN SATHYA SAI BABA’S SUPER SPECIALITY HOSPITAL 12th April 1997

Concerns  the SSH and Mr Balaji (son of Mr Trimakababa Rao) who donated one of his kidneys for his father. After transplant surgery, the transplanted kidney was declared non-functional, due to vascular occulation.

Balaji’s sister then offered one of her kidneys. In the meantime Trimakababa needed dialysis for which Balaji had to pledge their land and assets to the bank, plus take loans from friends.

Then Balaji heard news of a kidney racket in Bangalore, and began to wonder if his father was victim. He took his father home to Latur and a sonograhpy was done on 5/8/95. The transplanted kidney was not visualised, and a subsequent CT Scan of the abdomen done on 7/8/95 had similar finding.

Both scans reported that only the patient’s own diseased kidneys were visualised.

After his father’s death Balaji lodged a complaint with Latur police, who exhumed the body and carried out an autopsy which revealed that no transplant had taken place.

From : NEW ZEALAND

Website: http://messages.clubs.yahoo.com/.../bbs?action=m&tid=sathyasaibaba&sid=12173549&mid=194

Subject: SAI INSTITUTE DOCTORS - COURT ACTION NEWS - Deccan Chronicle 5/11/99

Hydrabad Nov 4, 1999: Justice G Raghu Ram of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday admitted a writ petition seeking initiation of criminal prosecution against the doctors of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi in Anantapur district, alleging malpractices regarding the transplantation of a kidney.

The writ petition has been filed by Balaji Triambak Rao Karavande, who has alleged that the doctors of the institute removed a kidney from his body and did not transplant the same to his father. He informed the court that after this revelation, he lodged a complaint with the Latur (Maharashtra) police, who in time, exhumed his father’s body and conducted a postmortem, which confirmed that no kidney transplant had taken place.

He alleged that the police at Puttaparthi did not register the complaint and he was thrown out of the hospital when he confronted the doctors with the relevant documents.

From: INDIA

Website: http:/www.indian skeptic.de/html/is_v01/1-6-1.htm

Subject: DID SATHYA SAI BABA INFLUENCE THE JUDICIARY IN 1996?

‘Baba said I need not worry about the Supreme Court case as he would see that the case is decided in my favour, and sure enough in the next few days I heard that we had won in the Supreme Court’.

                                                                                           Ghorpade, Ex Maharaja of Sandur.

The said judgement was given on 6/5/1966 by Honorable Justices K.N Wanchoo, J.C Shah and S.M Sikri.

The above statement triggered research into the judiciary process, by investigative journalist B.Premanand, Head of India’s Rationalist (treating reason as the basis of belief and knowledge) Movement. This is detailed in an article on the website given above.

It was found that one of the Hon. Justices met Sai Baba when the case was pending and later the law firm of one of them was appointed lawyers of Ghorpade and his business empire.

From: INDIA

Source: B. Premanand (Head of IRM)

Subject: A  REVIEW OF SAI BABA’S EDUCATION ON MORAL VALUES SYSTEM

Sai Baba’s emphasis is said to be on the development of the moral and human values in students, which are lacking in the present system.

The worth of the educational reforms can be seen only in the way in which such reforms can transform the students admitted in random from different stratas of society, and how education is able to transform them.

It is to be noted that the admissions to Sai Baba’s institutions are on the basis of stiff entrance tests and the final selections are made by Sai Baba himself. Thus only the best students are selected.

As in the case of White Field college (closed for 18 months in 1985 after agitation by students and Kadugodi villagers), if Sai Baba was not able to control the best of those students thus selected and had to close down the college, then there is something wrong with the educational system of Sai Baba.

From: ITALY

Website: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/4972/eng/spec_e3.htm

Subject: OMNIPOTENCE, RESOLUTION OF PROBLEMS & CONTRADICTIONS

There are twenty three pages of critical discussion about the above specific issues. For example, in the section dealing with contradictions.

- In his discourse, when Sai Baba enters into the specific, into the  particular, or into something that is not usual to him, there we note the most clear contrasts and incongruities for an ‘omniscient and omnipotent’ being.

- Two thousand years ago, in a region called Palestine, in the village of Nazareth lived Mary and Joseph. It was winter. (...) It was the night between 24 and 25 December. Mary gave to the light the child between midnight and one. There was not any comfort to make more comfortable that birth.                                                                                                                                                     Christmas 1988 discourse.

But -

- Christmas falls in the month of March, not in December. Since it is very cold in December and people are confined to their homes, they use this time to celebrate Christmas. Actually, Jesus was born in the month of March.

                                                                                                     Christmas 1998 discourse

Also -  (Ed’s note)

- Some say he was born on the 15th September. But, he was born at 3:15am on December 28th, 1980 years ago (the current year was 1979)        SSS Vol XI Chap 3

From: ITALY

Website: h.../bbs?action=m&tid=sathyasaibaba&sid=121733549&mid=12

Subject: SAI BABA ON JESUS

‘(...) In the beginning even Romans were Jews, not Christians. It is only after the advent of Jesus that the term Christians came into use. He (Jesus) said that he was “Persona” meaning that he was the spark of Divine. This has been translated by the British as ‘Person’ which has been termed ‘Purusha’ by Bharatiyas (Indians). Therefore ‘Purusha’ or ‘Persona’ has originated from Roman language.

                                                                                     24th November 1998 discourse.

What could it mean ‘In the beginning even Romans were Jews’ ?

Surely they were not Jewish as an ethnic group, nor by their religion.

Moreover Sai Baba derives the sanskrit word ‘purusha’.

It’s necessary to remark that :

- sanskrit is more ancient than latin, therefore ‘purusha’ cannot derive from ‘persona’

- etymology of ‘persona’ : from the latin persona (= mask, then character), maybe from the greek ‘prosopon’ (=mask) through the estruscan ‘phersu’. The etruscan phersu is perhaps related to Persephone. Among the derivatives : character, personal, personality, personify. An interesting etymology of persona is from ‘per’ and ‘sonare’ (= to sound through) referring to the theatrical wooden mask in which the mouth was made to strengthen the sound of the voice.

From: INDIA

Website: http://psg.com/~ted/bcskeptics/sbmir/contents.html

Subject: STUDY OF SB’S CLAIMS ~

                        OMNISCIENCE

                        OMNIPOTENCE

                        RAISING OF THE DEAD

                        TELEPATHIC KNOWLEDGE

                        MATERIALISATIONS

                        SUNDRY MIRACLES

                        HEALINGS AND RESCUES

                        FULFILLMENT OF ANCIENT PROPHECIES

This is more than one hundred pages of in depth study of Sai Baba’s claims by B. Premanand.

It includes accounts by John Hislop, VK Gokak, V Kanu, Howard Murphet, Mrs Radhakrishna, Dr Haraldsson, Dr Sandweiss, Dr Vaz, Harish Khanna, Dr Krishna Rau, Dr Rajagopalan, David Lane.

Sai Baba’s statements/versus accurate verbatim reporting and/or historical accounts about Winston Churchill, Ramsay Macdonald, Thomas Edison, Einstein, Alexander the Great, Jesus of Nazareth, the New Testament, the dating of Jesus’ birth, dual statements about the star of Bethlehem, the religious practices of Judea, Jesus’ crucifixion, dual statements on Judas Iscariot’s name, Indian classical music, Physical sciences, Patent law, etc., etc., etc.

Pertinent scholars are quoted, and research accounts arguing claims given.

Premanand comments that the point of the section on theology is not to dispute Sai Baba’s divinity, but the evidence he presents for this claim.

He adds that those familiar with the complete passages from which the excerpts are taken, will agree that Sai Baba is referring to the Scriptures to support his claims. The point in including these passages, and the corresponding analysis by scholars is to dispute his accuracy in reading and quoting the Christian Bible; not in his claimed first-hand knowledge of the events reported therein, or his interpretation of biblical passages.

Readers who agree with Sai Baba’s renderings, and disagree with the scholars’ interpretations will no doubt have an explanation for why passages referred to by Sai Baba cannot be located, or why fifty generations of biblical scholars have a different interpretation than Sai Baba of the passages that are there.

The point in presenting this material is merely to show that there are such disagreements.

Editor note : This study is revealing and illuminating.

Site author's note: click here to go reading this study.

From: ITALY

Website: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/4972/eng/sto_e.htm

Subject: JOURNEY TO SB  AND MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

This is a large, comprehensive site recounting the unreal expectations nurtured by the Sai Baba propaganda machine, and the subsequent realisation of their unreality, by a ‘rational and scientific’ Italian called Paul Holbach. Impossible to create a synopsis but well worth reading. It is clearly thought out and profound. Paul’s website deals with other specific issues such as Sai Baba’s inaccuracies in discourse, by giving strong research presentation.

Editor note : David has had a number of telephone conversations with Paul and considers him a serious and clear thinking researcher who has broken through the facade surrounding Sai Baba.

From: INDIA

Source: Dr Abraham T. Kovoor

Subject: DR BHAGAVANTHAM AND SATHYA SAI BABA circa. 1972

I was invited to give a lecture at the Indian Institute of Technology at Guindy. During a conversation before the lecture one of the professors at the institute told me that the majority of youths who take to the study of science and technology do so not because they have any scientific attitude or aptitude, but just because such a course helps them to get lucrative jobs.

And the reason why some of the eminent scientists of India have given up their science, and become devotees of godmen of that country is because they have found that they can make more money by being in collusive devotion to such hoaxers than by continuing scientific pursuits.

A few months ago  the editor of a mass-circulating weekly of India wrote me a letter saying that the Editorial Board of his weekly had decided to publish a symposium on ‘Sathya Sai Baba - Is he an incarnation of God, or a Charlatan?’ and wanted me to be the first contributor to the series.

My article was serialised in three issues. It was then followed by two articles countering my thesis by Dr S Bhagavantham M.Sc, D.Sc, Ph.D, a former scientific adviser to the Government of India.

Dr Bhagavantham started his article by saying that in his youth he was a rationalist like me, but after witnessing some of the miracles of Sai Baba, he had to give up his rationalism. He then began to describe numerous ‘miracles’ said to have been performed by Sai Baba in various places. There was no mention in either of the two articles of anyone having conducted investigations to establish that they were all genuine miracles and not conjurer’s tricks. The two articles appeared to be clear examples of how unscientific even a good scientist can become if he is a victim of religio-manic neurosis or avarice for lucre.

In all the miracle stories mentioned, there was only one that was amenable to investigation. I quote that story below.

Dr Bhagavantham:

- The wonderful experience, some years ago, of a world famous watch manufacturer of Japan, while he was on tour in India, was awe-inspiring. After completing the Seiko series of watches he made a model of a more superior type, and kept it in his safe for further tests. While touring India he paid a visit to Sai Baba’s abode just out of curiousity. On seeing the Japanese gentleman among the devotees Sai Baba materialised a small parcel from the air and gave it to him. On opening the parcel he was astonished to see the same watch that was kept in his safe.

- When he saw along with the watch, the silk ribbon and label with the new name of the watch and the price marked on it, all his doubts about the divine powers of Sai Baba simply melted away. He fell prostrate at Sai Baba’s feet and worshipped him, and since then has been an ardent devotee.

- On his return to Japan, he was shocked to see that the watch he had kept in his safe was not there. What his personal secretary told him was even more startling. The secretary said that a divine-looking person with bushy hair walked into the office one day, opened the safe and walked away with the watch.

Does Dr Bhagavantham, who is the holder of coveted qualifications in science, think that a thesis of this nature  - to prove the miraculous powers of a man - by any scientist, will be accepted by an academic body of scientists if it is not backed by scientific investigations and fool-proof evidence?

As Dr Bhagavantham was reluctant to test the veracity of his godman’s miraculous powers, I decided to do it myself. With this aim in view I wrote the following letter to him:

Colombo-6 11/9/73

Dear Dr Bhagavantham,

I read your story about a Japanese watch manufacturer getting his own watch that was kept in a safe in Japan, materialised in India from air by Sai Baba. My scientific attitude does not permit me to accept this fantastic story as true without verification. My doubt is enhanced by the reported statement by his personal secretary. The first reaction of a responsible secretary when a stranger walks into the office and opens the safe, would be to raise the alarm and to summon the police. As I feel it is unscientific even for a scientist to believe this type of story without verification, I request you to kindly let me know the name and address of this Japanese so that I may verify the truth about it. Your failure to help me to conduct this investigation by withholding this information, will lead me to suspect your sincerity and honesty, and to discard all that you have said about Sathya Sai Baba as utter falsehood, deliberately propagated with ulterior motive and vested interest.

                                                                                                      Yours in search of Truth,

                                                                                                                 Abraham T Kovoor.

When there was no response from Dr Bhagavantham after two months, I decided to pursue the matter myself. The Japanese Embassy in Sri Lanka provided me with the name and address of the proprietor of Seiko, the watch manufacturing firm.

In my letter dated 30/10/73 to Mr Shoji Hattori, president of K Hattori & Co Ltd, the manufacturers of Seiko watches, I reproduced Dr Bhagavantham’s story about the miracle and requested him to provide me with the answers to the following questions

- 1. Did you or any partners of yours visit Sathya Sai Baba of India at any time?

- 2. Did Sai Baba materialise a watch from air and present it to you or your partners?

- 3. Did your personal secretary tell you or any of your partners that a stranger opened the safe and walked away with a watch?

- 4. Are you or any of your partners a devotee of Sai Baba?

For the benefit of numerous innocent devotees of godmen of India I reproduce below Mr Hattori’s reply. This I do with the sincere hope that they will be sensible enough to realise the truth that these charlatans who go about in the garb of holy men, have numerous agents like Dr Bhagavantham everywhere, working in collusion to propagate the huge hoax and profit materially.

SEIKO - JAPAN (address given) 8/11/73

Dear Dr Kovoor,

Thank you for your letter of October 30th. I can appreciate your interest in conducting scientific research of paranormal claims, but I am in no way able to further your knowledge as regards the man mentioned in your letter, Mr Sai Baba. Neither I nor any members of my staff have ever made the acquaintance of this individual. I am sure that these reports are completely unfounded. I must therefore reply in the negative to all four of your questions concerning this incident.

                                                                                                                    Sincerely yours,

                                                                                                                Sgd.  Shoji Hattori,

                                                                                                    President. K Hattori & Co Ltd.

On receipt of this letter I wrote to Dr Bhagavantham, enclosing a photostat copy of Mr Shoji Hattori’s letter, and said

- If Mr Shoji Hattori is not the person concerned in your story, please let me know about it, and provide me with the correct name and address. Absence of any reply from you for this letter also, will confirm my firm belief that you are an agent for Sathya Sai Baba, doing propaganda for him with ulterior motive and vested interest.

                                                                                                      Yours in search of truth,

                                                                                                             Abraham T Kovoor.

Since there has been no reply, it confirms my belief that Dr Bhagavantham is in collusion with Sai Baba.

From: CANADA

Source: Dale Beyerstein, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC Canada

Subject: In reply to a letter sent to him from Dr Elwndur Haraldsson, University of Iceland - October 1985.

(...) I certainly agree with the point you make at the end of your book that in the absence of agreement for controlled testing of claimed paranormal powers, we must make rough and ready judgements analogous (similar in certain respects) with judgements made in court house contexts. Analogous but not identical for obvious reasons.

On these sorts of grounds the evidence seems overwhelming against taking the materialisation claims seriously.

Sai Baba is caught out in self-puffery in so many instances - allowing omniscience claims when his language abilities are only average, and so on. And not only allowing them, but making them himself. And he speaks so loosely in so many ways that his denials that he uses sleight of hand cannot be given any real weight. The overwhelming evidence - given the film analysis, the loose anecdotal nature of the claims etc all point so definitely in this direction.

Moreover the widespread claims of sexual hanky panky and the evidence of association with the gold business - although not conclusive - must be seriously entered into the overall picture.

On the question you asked : ‘Sam Dalal’ is a name given by James Randi. Randi in a phone conversation said that Sai Baba ‘materialised’ a Seiko watch for a Seiko watch company executive visiting India. Sam Dalal asked for the serial number from the executive as I understood it, and got it. The number was then sent back to Japan for tracing. Turns out the number was a watch which was to have been stored in a warehouse not far from the site where the ‘materialisation’ took place.

B. Premanand (IRM) mentions Kasturi deleted the Seiko reference from his book after the investigation.(.....)

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And so this sad document comes to it’s conclusion. For each story listed there are dozens of a similar nature, information concerning every aspect of the Sai Baba cult. Hundreds of pages, revealing the fortress of lies supporting this enormous, global house of cards.

You may choose to believe or disbelieve the above. That is your choice. However, it is now a choice being made from a position of awareness of a situation that exists.

You may still be asking yourself - but ... is he divine?

It is not by what a man says,

that he be judged,

but by what he does.

Paedophile activity ....... the action of divinity??

Magician’s tricks ........ the action of divinity??

Listen to your own still small voice within, before you decide.

 ------------------------------

If you have read thus far, it is possible that you are totally devastated.

The grief any cult’s unveiling causes honest spiritual seekers, is monumental. To find that the path, which took one away from family, friends and loved ones is only a mirage.... To find oneself deceived, betrayed; to have one’s trust broken.... To find the love promised is conditional and those one thought were ‘family’, now turn away with cries of ‘Judas!’....

It’s a devastation of self worth, and seemingly a terrible waste of time. But of course it is not. One thing is self evident. All here on the planet are having experience, and the consequence of experience - especially spiritual experience - is wisdom, and freedom from dependency.

Leaving a cult is like experiencing a death of a loved one. There is a grieving process which will take time. Time to process the feelings of confusion, loss, guilt, disillusionment, anger, and lack of trust engendered.

For a little while I felt very angry, to think my long held love of God the Creator had been exploited in this way - ‘detoured’ as it were, along a pathway that I hadn’t consciously asked for; enticing me into giving my power away to a master of deception.

But this feeling didn’t last for long, I was soon able to accept that the whole experience was one I chose, and my grief and anger - also part of the experience.

In time the negative feelings were replaced with a sense of freedom, and the joy of returning to the real world.

The gift in all of the above, was a profound realisation that for me the ‘age of the guru’ is dead. No longer willing to give my trust to outer teachers, I now at last, follow the message all true spiritual masters have given down the long halls of time - by seeking within, the kingdom of heaven.

In conclusion, I can tell you from our own experience, the pain you suffer will heal. There is life after Sai Baba, and as you claim back your own power, you will be enriched, and find the pathway now illuminated, wonderful.

I wish you a fulfilling and self realising journey.

                                                                                                                            Faye Bailey

Post Script:

Swami  ‘manifested’ a ‘sacred lingam’ for me and told me “It’s power is without limit through time and space!!”

Also, that water run over it would access and then hold the lingam’s great healing power.

For a time, in good faith I shared ‘lingam water’ with people all over the world.

However, I never experienced for myself, or received feedback from others - any positive result from drinking it.

On the contrary, the major feedback was that in fact it quickly went mouldy.

Personal intent that there would be healing experienced, in those who drank this water-of-illusion, was insufficient to empower it beyond a ‘feel good’ factor.

After the Findings, I stopped sending lingam water, and returned the lingam to India.

                                                                                                                                Faye

Every experience of life is an expression of Life.

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