Alexandra H.M. Nagel
Email:
xnagel@yahoo.com
For at least a year, especially on the
Internet, the Indian guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba has been accused of major
misdeeds. Most accusations are not new to many devotees. However, stories that
in the past were rejected as unimportant gossip are by many no longer denied.
Quite a few devotees have become ex-devotees in the last 15 months or so.
Nevertheless, many others keep their faith in their Swami, regardless of how
difficult that may be at times.
In order to gain a broader, meaningful understanding of
Sai Baba and the accusations, it is necessary that people outside the
(ex-)devotee community, join the investigation(s). Currently, the perspectives
of devotees and former devotees differ too much to come to an agreement on how
to deal with the matter.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba, a famous Indian
guru, is known by many through his appearance – five feet in height, a
voluminous hair-do – and his materialisations. Out of thin air he seems to
create vibuthi, (‘sacred ash’), rings, watches,
necklaces. “Miracles are my visiting cards,” is his often quoted explanation for
these phenomena.
Sai Baba resides most of the time in his
ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam (‘Abode of Peace’), 150 km northeast of Bangalore,
initially built between 1948-1950 and since greatly extended. Over the years,
the surrounding village has grown into a flourishing town, with an airstrip,
museum, music academy, canteens and buildings for the many devotees who make
their pilgrimage to Baba to receive
his
darshan, (‘seeing a great person and
receive his or her blessing’). A second ashram is Brindavan in Whitefield, 20 km
north-west of Bangalore. A third temporary residence is in Kodaikanal, at an
altitude of 2,100 meters, 120 km north-east of Madurai.
It is said that his followers number up
to 50 million, or even more, and are spread over 2,650 centres and groups in 165
countries (Figure 1), even though he has travelled abroad only once, in 1968, to
Uganda. According to his principal biographer, Narayan Kasturi, Sai Baba began
his mission in 1940 at the age of 14.
One of the issues known to be of importance to Sai Baba is
education. Approximately 75 boys’ & girls’ schools in India and abroad carrying
his name have been founded, and there are Sai Baba colleges and universities run
by the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. Healthcare is another issue
promoted in Sai Baba’s name. With the support of donations two Super Specialty
Hospitals have been built and give free medical treatment. Fresh water projects
are a third type of large initiatives taken by his organisation to help those in
need.
His teachings can be summarised in a few
of words, epitomising five human values: truth, right conduct, peace, love and
non-violence. These words, or the icons of five major religions on earth, are
imprinted on the leaves of the lotus symbol of the organisation (Figure 2). Sai
Baba says he has not incarnated to start a new religion, but is here for all
religions, and he has come to guide mankind out of the Kali Yuga era, in which
humanity is living at this time. This period is characterised by decay,
betrayal, and selfishness. He, Sai Baba, claims to be a living example of
unselfish love and service, whose purpose is to help mankind to find its way to
a new golden era where our consciousness is lifted to a higher level, to a
closer connection with God and selflessness. Love is the fuel for our spiritual
evolution. In other words, Sai Baba is a guru for everyone who is drawn to him,
independent of his or her religion. According to many of his devotees, he is the
embodiment of the long expected second Messiah; he is the new Maitreya, Buddha,
or Krishna. According to himself he is a divine incarnation, God in human form,
an
avatar.
Seen from the perspective of all his good
deeds, and the inspiration people receive through him, it is of no surprise that
over the years hundreds of books have been written and many videos made about
Sai Baba.[1] Also several academic studies have surveyed
diverse aspects of the holy man and his devotees. The miraculous
‘materialisations’, for instance, have been thoroughly investigated by Erlendur
Haraldsson; social research has been carried out in England (Donald Taylor),
India (Lawrence Babb), Malaysia (Raymond Lee) and Trinidad (Morton Klass); an
in-depth study on Sai Baba’s claim to be an incarnation of Shiva has been
conducted by Deborah Swallow.[2] All of these
show intriguing, yet sometimes puzzling insights into the amazing godman Sri
Sathya Sai Baba and the people inspired by him. It leads George Chryssides in Exploring New Religions to remark:
It is
perhaps surprising that Sai Baba attracts so little attention from anti-cult
organisations, since the movement possesses a considerable number of
characteristics that are associated with the notion of ‘cult’ in its
sociological senses. (…) Sai Baba’s relative immunity from criticism has no
doubt been due in part to the fact that (…) Sai Baba has never been involved in
any sexual or financial scandal, but has lived true to his teachings. The only
major controversy generated by the movement relates to the miracles themselves.
Sai Baba has been criticised by the Indian Rationalist Association as one of
India’s many spurious miracle workers, preying on the superstition of an
inadequately educated Indian population.[3]
However, the purpose of this paper is to
present an alternative picture because there is more than only the ‘major
controversy relating to the miracles’ Chryssides has observed. Disturbing data
has been surfacing for at least 30 years, but mainly last year, the year 2000,
when especially due to the Internet, troubling stories and experiences have been
revealed. And even this might just be the tip of the iceberg.
The information collected for this paper
is the outcome of research from a variety of sources: books and articles,
frequent surfing on the Internet from June 2000 till February 2001, and
communications with several former devotees, some of whom are very active in
their efforts to bring this unknown side of Sai Baba to light. The Internet
developments are covered in another paper.[4]
In an
order of increasing seriousness a series of different accusations levelled at
Sathya Sai Baba are presented. This is followed by a description of how devotees
and ex-devotees look upon and deal with these issues. There must still be many
devotees all over the world ignorant of some of the serious accusations, but
those who do know them and still retain their faith in the guru have a different
perspective on them compared to the views held by relatively recent ex-devotees.
The
critical comments and accusations concerning Sai Baba have come from two angles:
the sceptic-rationalists – as Chryssides noticed – and the (ex-)devotees. The
first focus primarily on Sai Baba’s paranormal, psychic and supernatural claims,
the second on a variety of issues.
·
unkept promises
After his retirement of the foreign
service in foreign European countries, in 1970 Mr N.C. Gunpuley donated seven
acres of land to Sathya Sai Baba. He desired to serve the sick and poor in his
own country, and Sai Baba had promised to take over the charitable dispensary
and the property to build a 30-bed hospital on the property. For five years, Mr
Gunpuley experienced a long series of disappointments and frustration. Sai Baba
“neither kept his promises, nor showed any concern for the sick and the poor”,
and at one point he even wanted to build huts for the foreign devotees instead.[5]
A similar reported case is that of the
family Premanand. In September 1969, Dr P.B. Menon of the Sri Sathya Sai Trust
visited the 100 acres Shri Shaila Estate in Kerala. This belonged to the family
Premanand, who intended to donate the property to an organisation that would use
it for starting colleges, homes for the handicapped, or institutions for
scientific research. Mr Menon agreed to study the offer of taking over the land
for starting a college, but the final decision was in the hands of Sathya Sai
Baba. Over the months developments led to trust that the matter would settle,
but on January 24th 1970 it emerged that Sai Baba had cancelled all
Kerala programmes, implying that the Sai Trust would not accept the gift. When
Premanand senior went to Sai Baba a week later, Sai Baba said to him that he
knew nothing about the Shri Shaila Estate. This was strange since Sai Baba had
seen three albums of photographs, and had invited the family to visit him to
settle the donation officially. In spite of the fact that in March 1975 90 acres
were handed over to the Trust and eventually a Sathya Sai college got
established on the property, ever since the cancellation of the promise in 1970,
the two brothers Basava and Dayanand Premanand have been extremely critical
regarding Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s (mis-)deeds.[6]
·
unproven paranormal claims
The late Dr Abraham T. Kovoor from India
was a rationalist by conviction and, it is said, in 1972 at the age of 74
awarded a doctor degree for research done in the field of parapsychology by the
private Minnesota Institute of Philosophy.[7] In the
mid-70s, he was instrumental in getting the Narasimhaiah Committee to attempt to
investigate Sai Baba’s miracles under controlled conditions. Neither the
Committee nor Kovoor himself were ever given permission to do such research,
which led them to issuing public questions like ‘Why does Sai Baba never create
a large object like a pumpkin?’[8]
Although Erlendur Haraldsson, unlike
Kovoor and the Committee, was welcomed in the ashram and had interviews with Sai
Baba, he had no real opportunities for controlled observations, and after years
of research could neither prove nor disprove with certainty Sai Baba’s
supernatural claims. Dale Beyerstein, a sceptic philosopher from Canada,
undertook a different approach. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, he collected
texts referring to Sai Baba’s claims of being omnipotent and omniscient, of
having resurrected two persons from death, performing paranormal healings,
materialising small objects, and fulfilling ancient prophecies. Beyerstein’s
conclusion: The stories of a person promoting such claims need extraordinary
proof, a standard that simply has not been met.[9]
·
sleight of hand
In 1992, the late professor of
Psychology, Piet Vroon, of the Netherlands, was invited to join a television
crew that had permission to film in the ashram for a documentary on Sathya Sai
Baba. Vroon observed (from a distance, with the aid of binoculars) Sai Baba’s
‘materialisations’ of vibuthi to be acts of sleight of hand, and he wrote
fiercely about it in some of his weekly columns in a Dutch national newspaper.[10]
Two years later, a video appeared
containing a fragment of an Indian TV news item allegedly showing how Sai Baba
had not ‘created’ a golden necklace, but performed a trick. This charge was
believed by many, although Professor Haraldsson was not convinced.[11] Nowadays on the
Internet a few videos of ‘Sai materialisations’ are available; allowing people
to judge whether at least in some of these particular cases sleight of hand has
been involved.[12] In addition,
there are some persons claiming to be able to perform the same miracles,[13] but, more
disturbingly, there are confessions of former Sai Baba students explaining for
instance how some of them, acting on instructions, prepare Sai Baba’s chair in
the interview room by ‘planting’ jewellery and trinkets.[14]
·
murders
On June 6th, 1993 four former
Sai students, E.K. Suresh Kumar (28), N. Jagannathan, Suresh Prabhu (37?) and K.
Sairam (22), went armed with knives to Sai Baba’s chambers. On their way they
stabbed four people, two of them to death: N. Radhakrisha (45), Baba’s personal
assistant and driver, Sai Kumar Mahajan, an MBA student (or lecturer?) who slept
in a room adjacent to Baba’s bedroom. In one scenario
it is said that the four intended to kill Sai Baba, in another they were on
their way to inform him they had received reliable information concerning an
attempt to kidnap him. When the four forced their way into Sai Baba’s bedroom,
and didn’t find Sai Baba there – he had pushed the button of the alarm and gone
into the garage – they locked themselves in. According to the Sai Organisation
officials the former students were shot by the police after interrogation;
according to Hari Sampath, who at the time was a volunteer member of the
intelligence and security section of the ashram, they were stabbed to death by a
crowd of about 60 people, and then shot by the police. Photographs showing
bodies in pools of blood were in many regional newspapers. Until today it is
still unclear what the real motive of the four intruders was; the case was never
officially investigated.[15]
There are other stories dealing with
murder in the ashram. However, they are even less clear cut and even more
mystifying than the 1993 ones.[16]
·
being a homosexual
Sexuality in Sai Baba’s teachings comes
across as a force that takes away a devotee’s focus on his/her spiritual growth,
and ought to be mainly used for pro-creation. Males and females are rigidly
separated in the ashram life, and only married couples are allowed to share
rooms. For a long time – the last few years this has changed – Sai Baba invited
only male devotees for a ‘private interview’, a meeting in which a person is
alone with Sai Baba. He never called in a woman alone, because, as he once
explained, even though he is “above and beyond the Human Attributes”, he has to
regulate “social behaviour” and be “above the slightest tinge of suspicion, or
of small talk”.[17] Rumours, and
more than rumours have come out nonetheless. Not from women, but from men.
The first person to write about this was
the American Tal Brooke, who stayed with Sai Baba for a year and a half during
1970-1971. Sai Baba had hugged him in private interviews, and, with his hand,
tried to get Brooke aroused.[18] Around 1980
there was uproar in Malaysia:
(…) some
members have begun a quiet campaign to discredit Sai Baba after they had
conducted personal investigations of his life-style and behaviour.13 This campaign to expose Sai Baba comprises mainly
taped revelations by several Malaysian Indian students who claimed that they had
been sexually abused by Sai Baba. (…)
Note
13 [referred to in this excerpt]. Two of my informants told me that they had
journeyed to India and had taped interviews with several Malaysian Indians
(males) who claimed that they had been seduced by Sai Baba while studying at one
of the many colleges established by him.[19]
In January 1992, the sexual issue began
to be discussed among devotees in Holland, when the story of Baba’s hugging and
genital fondling Keith Ord (UK) during his private interviews in the Spring of
1990, came out in a national weekly magazine.[20] A group of
American male devotees, under leadership of Roger Delano Hinkins, the founder of
the Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, was invited in for
interview. “The five-minute private ceremony involved “anointing the genitalia
with ‘bachelor oil’”.[21]
Last year, more of this kind of stories
have surfaced. Based on information found on the Internet and in the literature,
a list of at least twenty cases can be compiled[22] (see Table 1)
in which male devotees had to drop their pants, and either their genitals were
‘massaged’ (not always with sexual arousal taking place), or Sai Baba hugged and
fondled them, and even forced them to accept or give oral gratification. The
people investigating these confessions, among them David and Faye Bailey,
authors of The Findings, a document
that compiled a variety of accusations mainly taken from the Internet,[23] were forced to
conclude that this practice of Sai Baba’s must have been taking place for at
least 30 years and been happening to male devotees from many countries.
·
being a paedophile
Similar encounters which (young) men have
had with Sai Baba have also been experienced with minors. Undeniable testimonies
come from a boy aged fifteen, and from ‘Sam Young’, at the time sixteen (see
also Table 1).[24] Even more
alarming is a letter Basava Premanand received in December 1998, written by one
of the students at a Sai Baba school in Puttaparthi. The student explained in
detail how some teachers make sure that the good-looking, young boys (age seven
and up), are in front when coming for darshan. If a boy pleases Sai Baba,
‘Babaji’ offers him an invitation.
This is
the story of life in [the] Sri Sathya Sai Hostel for Boys. (…) The Principal of
the Primary school Mrs. Munni Kaul knows it only too well that her survival
there purely depends on sending in the front good-looking, usually fair and
sometimes girlish boys, because as is well known Baba Ji has a weakness for such
boys. These are the innocent boys you see, who are forced to come in the front,
on some pretext or the other, holding cards, trays etc. This in itself is
nothing serious, but what follow[s] later is.
These
young, good-looking boys who are generally not even in their teens are for some
time closely watched by Babaji. Later some day these small boys are called for
personal interview. What happens to these tiny tots in the interview room is
known to many but all keep mum because their very survival depends on it. These
small boys are taken one by one in the inner interview room behind the curtain
by Babaji. For some time he fondles them and then suddenly he opens their
zippers and pulls down their pants and underpants. Now Babaji massages and
fondles the sex organs of the small boys, who know nothing and take it as some
form of spirituality. Babaji generally hugs and kisses the boys while they are
stark naked, then sends them back. This is in itself a traumatic and sickening
experience for a boy of about 5th of 6th standard. Then there are certain
advantages too, these boys are labelled as FORM BOYS and are kept in the
forefront by the Headmistress, who actually is well aware of the fate of these
young ones. These boys generally get chains, rings and watches from Babaji as
special blessings or in a worldly sense, the ‘payment’ for ‘selling’ their
bodies without their knowledge.[25]
The apparent abuse does not stop at the
primary school. The author of the letter stated that it continues with college
boys. He even mentioned a teacher who, abused himself by Baba, had become
sexually interested in boys as well and got away with his activities. Premanand
– following up on this letter, out of the several on the subject he had received
– sent a registered letter on December 9th, 1998, to the Vice
Chancellor of the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning asking for permission
to investigate the truth concerning the content of the letter. No answer
followed, and Premanand decided to publish the letter in the Indian Skeptic of August 1999. Having
read it in July 2000, ex-devotee David Bailey knew it to be true.[26] He remembered
the teacher referred to, and had always wondered what could take place with
those little ones who entered Sai Baba’s quarters and looked sad and timid when
they emerged.
·
being the devil
On her spiritual quest, Barbara
Szandorowska, a Polish Canadian, travelled worldwide and arrived in Puttaparthi
to become a Sai Baba devotee. One day, in November 1981, a feeling of great
inertia came over her (no drugs were involved). When the sensation in her body
eventually ended, she felt different, even though her image in the mirror looked
the same as always. Then:
Suddenly
an image of Sai Baba’s face loomed in front of me. (…) It was dark and fearsome
and glowed like an ember.
‘Ha, ha, ha,’ he laughed hideously, ‘You’ve surrendered
to the devil!’[27]
The voice
had come from within and Szandorowska understood that Sai Baba was allied with
evil forces. He had revealed himself to her as the devil. She converted to
Christianity and, months later, back in Canada, after an assistant of evangelist
Michael Green, had laid hands on her and said a short prayer, a weight was
lifted from her shoulders. She felt free at last: Christ has authority over
demons and Sai Baba was finally gone.[28]
In a
similar manner Tal Brooke, who was the first to write about Sai Baba’s
homosexual deeds, experienced Sai Baba as an evil entity and turned to
Christianity.[29]
The first type of accusations listed
above is a type well known among devotees. There are many more examples of
Baba’s unkept promises, like interviews or pieces of jewellery that would be
given, or trips he would make to the United States. Devotees didn’t get the
interview, and were given a bracelet instead of a watch, or weren’t given
anything at all. And except for his trip to Africa once, Sai Baba has never
travelled abroad. There are plenty more issues talked about among devotees which
could be labelled as ‘accusations’.[30] At times Sai Baba makes inaccurate or contradictory
statements. He advises a satvic
(balanced, healthy) diet but the canteens in the ashram don’t serve these. No
donations are requested, yet every three months a mailing of the Sri Sai Padhuka
Trust goes out to hundreds of devotees, informing them that those who would like
to can contribute. And why would Sai Baba need a security guard if he is above
all things? Such issues are usually explained away as being part of Sai Baba’s
leela, his ‘divine play’. They contain teachings; the devotees can learn
through them; they are being tested in their faith in Swami. What it finally
comes down to is to trust him, Sai Baba, God incarnated, Love embodied. This is
the core belief of many Baba devotees. All else in the end does not matter to
them.
An identical type of reasoning is used by
devotees for Sai Baba’s unproven paranormal claims and even for the proven
tricks of sleight of hand. Sai Baba is testing. Do the devotees believe (in) him
for his miracles, or for his teachings, the love he radiates, or the personal
relationship each and every devotee can experience with him? Is faith shattered
by trickery and fraud? Often faith has deepened when a devotee, shaken after
having witnessed an action of sleight of hand, has been able to come to terms
with it. Besides, the fact that no definite conclusions could be drawn from the
research carried out by Haraldsson, and even the convincing conclusion of
Beyerstein, do not prove that all miracle stories are untrue. Devotees do have
their own instances of proof that Sai Baba is the one they believe him to be.
There are dreams and mystical visions in which Baba has convincingly appeared;
small piles of vibuthi have been found at places where no one has dropped it.
Also, for many devotees, there have been these incredible coincidences when a
prayer to Swami got answered in some miraculous manner.
The last
type of accusation, that of Sai Baba being the devil, depending on the angle it
is looked upon, is either an easy or a difficult one to judge. Does something
like a devil exist or not?[31] One’s answer to this question colours how one views
Szandorowska’s experience. It might be true that Sai Baba has allied himself
with evil forces (or is the embodiment of Satan), or it might be a psychological
phenomenon that happened in her particular vision. Her belief in Jesus being the
ultimate Saviour may have caused the train of thought that Sai Baba is to be
feared. Believing in some psychological construct may lead to alternative
avenues of explanation. It goes beyond the scope of this article to go further
into this aspect – which leaves us to deal with the homo-paedophile accusations.
It has
been, and still is believed by some devotees, and by the (young) men who
experienced Sai Baba’s massaging, hugging, fondling, etcetera, that through
these very acts Baba has bestowed a favour upon the devotee: purifying or
initiating the devotee. The belief relates to the so called ‘kundalini
explanation’. Stemming from Indian esoteric teachings is the knowledge that each
human body carries within a spiritual energy. Coiled up and dormant, this divine
energy, the kundalini, lies in the first chakra, an energy centre named muladhara, near the base of the spine.
Upon awakening, the kundalini energy moves like a snake upward through the other
chakras until it reaches the sahasrara,
the chakra at the top of the head. At that moment, one experiences
enlightenment. Micro and macro cosmos merge, become one; Godhood is attained. A
guru can initiate the kundalini’s awakening and one method of doing so, for
males, is by touching a particular spot between the testicles and the anus.[32] Some devotees alter this explanation a bit and think
that Sai Baba is helping the devotee to overcome overheated sexual drives, and
maintain easier focused on the spiritual path.
The
kundalini explanation does make sense in the cases where no sexual arousal was
involved. It does not make sense when the massaging of genitals, kissing on the
mouth, and oral contact took place. It is exactly at this point where some
devotees who have tried to understand the private sexual encounters switch from
the devotee’s perspective to the ex-devotee’s. The shock intensifies when
hearing or reading about Sai Baba’s apparent activities with male minors. Once
the shift is made, automatically all other accusations heap up to form piles of
evidence that Sai Baba is a fraud, a crook, a liar, a charlatan, murderer, and
ultimately a homo-paedophile. Sai Baba simply does not seem to live up to his
own teachings.
There
still are many devotees unaware of the evidence that surfaced last year.
According to ex-devotees, such people ought to be warned because they consider
it their duty to prevent more adolescent devotees getting caught in Sai Baba’s
trap. Ex-devotees maintain that the case has to be investigated by the legal
authorities in our society, and Sai Baba has to be brought to court.
Devotees aware of the homo-paedo
accusations are aware in different degrees. Some know by hearsay and do not want
to delve into it further because it is judged as negative energy and they prefer
to focus on the positive. Others go deeper, and criticise much of the exposé
material, at times rightly so. For example, Tal Brooke, a conservative
evangelical Christian, and Basava Premanand, a sceptic rationalist, are so
strong in their convictions that they seem to have pushed themselves to the
extreme and people may not take their points seriously any more. Devotees
looking a bit further merely seem to rationalise the accusations away. Sai Baba
is God, God’s roads are inexplicable, so just keep faith that All is Well and
that it is His Divine Play. Perhaps this is done out of unconscious fear as to
what might psychologically happen if their beloved guru turns out to be a first
rank criminal.
Devotees, having become ex-devotees, have
to cope with tremendous grief, through the psychological loss of Sai Baba, and
emotional hurt, due to what is sometimes viewed as spiritual rape. In addition
to this, there is the fact that some officials of the Sai Organisation have
known about Sai Baba’s sexual ‘misconduct’, but have not informed the devotees.
Why would such information have been ignored, or worse, covered up for decades?
The anger and frustration of these ex-devotees make it difficult for them to
communicate with people still being Sai devotees.
As explained above, the perspectives of
the devotees and ex-devotees are so strongly opposed to one another that it
seems impossible to find a common ground to investigate the accusations within
the Sai Baba movement itself. Since the homo-paedophile accusations are too
serious for society in general to be ignored, it will be absolutely necessary
that a third group of people joins in the debate. Yet, even then problems are to
be anticipated.
Since the belief that Sai Baba is an
avatar, God personified in a human body, is unfamiliar for an outsider, a
non-devotee, it will be difficult for the latter to get an understanding of the
perspective of a Sai devotee. The devotees have motives for their belief, and
these ought to be taken into account as well.
Can Sathya Sai Baba be considered a
fellow human being and be judged accordingly? Will justice be done if only the
accusations are taken into account? Could the hundreds, or thousands, or perhaps
millions of people who have benefited in a variety of ways from his existence,
simply be ignorant and easily fooled spiritual seekers? What is it about this
tiny, orange-robed figure whose message was spread worldwide, that justifies him
getting away with what western society in general condemns as sexual crimes? If
it is some kind of teaching he is bringing mankind, or the individual devotee,
what exactly might this teaching consist of? Should we search for a sociological
or psychological pattern among the victims before filing a complaint? Is Sai
Baba a case of his own, or are there similar cases? (Probably not on his scale,
but comparable nonetheless.) Are we willing to look into the so far
uninvestigated miracle stories, or are we assuming all of them to be fake?
Should we as a society look at ourselves first before crucifying him? Have we as
a society failed so badly to find meaning in our human existence that masses of
people flocked to India to get blessed by some guru? Could this be Sai Baba’s
teaching to humanity? When taking full notice of the accusations against this
Swami, would we as a society be willing to consider such questions, or will we
immediately judge him as a criminal who belongs in jail?
The variety of accusations briefly
mentioned in this paper may come across as unbalanced. Yet they have lingered
within society – mainly among ex-devotees – for quite some time. Now that more
of the sexual encounters with Sai Baba are being confessed more openly by some
men, and because of the increasing upheaval that has arisen from these
disclosures, it seems important to investigate all of the accusations
thoroughly. In order to get an understanding of who or what Sri Sathya Sai Baba
from Puttaparthi is, it will also be important to include the full range of
miracles ascribed to Sai Baba in the voluminous literature.
Acknowledgement
If Basava Premanand had not launched his
Indian Skeptic a lot of the critical
Sai Baba-material might still be floating around isolated. If Tal Brooke had not
introduced his personal sexual encounters with Sai Baba in his Avatar of Night, others having
experienced similar encounters would not have had an anchor reference point.
Even though I do not agree with their conclusions about Sai Baba, I acknowledge
their pioneering efforts in search of the truth.
Thanks to Brian Steel for help with my
English grammar.
Figure 1. Diagram of Sathya Sai Baba Organisation,
worked out for local level in the Netherlands & Belgium (based on information
found on http://www.sathyasai.org, and Op de Hoogte, the newsbulletin for the
registered Sai devotees of the Sai Baba Organisation of the Netherlands, October
2000).
Figure 2a. Logo of the Sathya Sai Baba Organisation
having six different symbols for some major religions in its lotus leaves. In
this particular logo the Hindu Om, Buddhist wheel, Zoroastrian fire, Islamic
crescent and star, Christian cross, and (although not always added in India),
the six-pointed Jewish star of David.
Figure 2b. Logo of the Sathya Sai Baba Organisation
with the names of the five human values in its lotus leaves. Sometimes the
Sanskrit words are used instead of the English ones: sathya for truth, dharma
for right conduct, shanthi for peace,
prema for love and ahimsa for non-violence.
Table 1. List of names of persons whose testimonies
regarding Sai Baba’s sexual advances have been out in the regular media and/or
on the Internet (see for instance http://www.exbaba.com)
|
|
Name |
Country
|
Born
|
Comments
|
|
|
1st hand stories: sexual contact with SaiBaba
|
|||
|
1 |
Tal Brooke |
USA |
1948? |
Stayed in the ashram during
1970-1971 and had several private interviews |
|
2 |
Conny Larsson |
Sweden |
1949 |
Had many private interviews
between 1978-1983 and his three open letters to Sai Baba asking Baba for an
explanation are on Internet
|
|
3 |
Keith Ord |
England |
1966 |
One group interview and two
private interviews in Spring 1990
|
|
4 |
Said Khoramshagol |
Iran/USA |
1972 |
Seven private
interviews in 1991, 1993; info on Internet |
|
5 |
Jens Sethi |
Germany |
1964 |
Private interview in 1996; info
in The Findings
|
|
6 |
Hans de
Kraker |
Australia / Netherlands |
1967 |
Several private interviews in
1996; info in The Findings
|
|
7 |
‘Sam Young’ |
USA |
1979 |
Many private interviews between
1995-1998 |
|
8 |
‘15-year old’ |
USA |
1984 |
Took down precise notes of his
two private interviews in September 1999, which were hand copied, xeroxed
and distributed with an accompanying letter to many devotees in April-May
2000 |
|
|
||||
|
|
2nd hand stories: sexual contact with SB |
|||
|
9 |
Dr N. Bhatia
|
India |
1951 |
Was head of the bloodbank in Sai
Hospital during 1993-1999, and admitted to have had a sexual relationship
with Sai Baba for sixteen years; info in
The Findings
|
|
10 |
Malaysian Indian students |
Malaysia
|
? |
These students must have had
interviews around 1979-1980 |
|
11 |
‘?S’ |
USA
|
1962 |
Attended a Sai Baba school in
Puttaparthi and had interviews between 1977-1980. The American Sai
Organisation was informed about it. |
|
12 |
‘23-year old’ |
Sweden
|
1963 |
Had an interview in 1986 which
was attended by Conny Larsson; committed suicide a few years later; info on
Internet |
|
13 |
Michael Pender |
England |
1967 |
A friend of Keith Ord, who
committed suicide in Jan 1990 after many private interviews between May-Nov
1989; info on Internet[33] |
|
14 |
‘Golden Boy’ X
|
Sweden |
1980? |
Eight private interviews in
December 1998-January 1999, two in June 1999; Conny Larsson went with him;
info on Internet
|
|
15 |
Indian students |
India |
? |
Several letters of a students of
Sai Baba schools in India confess Sai Baba’s sexual abuse
|
|
|
||||
|
|
1st and 2nd hand stories: ‘massage’ of genitals only |
|||
|
16 |
M.T. |
USA |
1972 |
Letter from a concerned mother
about her son’s experiences in a private interview in 1988; info on Internet |
|
17 |
Jed Geyerhahn |
USA |
1973 |
Four private
interviews in 1989; info on Internet |
|
18 |
Matthijs van der Meer
|
Netherlands
|
1970 |
One private interview in 1990;
wrote an article about his quest in 2000
|
|
19 |
David Paul ‘dpmeg’
|
England
|
1961 |
Two private interviews in 1990;
info on Internet
|
|
20 |
Marc-André St-Jean |
Canada
|
1972 |
Three private interviews in
1992; info on Internet
|
|
21 |
John-Roger Hinkins followers |
USA
|
? |
Private interview(s).
|
Notes
[1] Steel, Brian The Sathya Sai Baba Compendium. A Guide to
the First Seventy Years, York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser Inc., 1997. The
following informative, journalistic study is recommended: Brown, Mick The Spiritual
Tourist. A Personal Odyssey Through the Outer Reaches of Belief, London:
Bloomsbury, 1998:25-94.
[2] Babb, Lawrence A. “Sathya Sai Baba’s
Magic”, in Anthropological Quarterly,
56(3), 1983:116-124; Id. “Sathya Sai Baba’s Saintly Play”, in Saints and Virtues, John Stratton Hawley
(ed.), Berkeley, CA: California University Press, 1987:168-186; Haraldsson,
Erlendur Miracles are my Visiting Card. An Investigative Inquiry on Sathya Sai
Baba, an Indian Mystic with the Gift of Foresight Believed to Perform Modern
Miracles, Prasanthi Nilayam, India: Sai Towers Publishing, 1998 (1987); Haraldsson,
Erlendur & Karl Osis “The Appearance and
Disappearance of Objects in the Presence of Sri Sathya Sai Baba”, in The Journal of the American Society for
Psychical Research, 71, 1977:33-43; Klass, Morton Singing with Sai
Baba. The Politics of Revitalization in Trinidad, Boulder: WestView Press,
1991; Lee, Raymond L.M. “Sai
Baba, Salvation and Syncretism: Religious Change in a Hindu Movement in Urban
Malaysia”, in Contributions to Indian
Sociology (NS), 16(1), 1982:125-140; Sharma, Arvind “New Hindu Religious Movements in India” in New Religious Movements and Rapid Social
Change, James A. Beckford (ed.), Unesco: Sage Publications, 1991
(1986):220-239; Swallow, D. A. “Ashes
and Powers: Myth, Rite and Miracle in an Indian God-man’s Cult”, in Modern Asian Studies, 16(1),
1982:123-158; Taylor, Donald
“Charismatic Authority in the Sathya Sai Baba Movement”, in Hinduism in Great Britain, Richard
Burghart (ed.), London, New York: Tavistock Publications, 1987:119-133; Thomas,
Caroline M. “God Men, Myths, Materializations
and the Kalas of Immortality”, in Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 55(816):377-403,
1989.
Although
mainly on Shirdi Sai Baba, of interest is White, Charles S.J. “The Sai Baba Movement: Approaches to the
Study of Indian Saints”, in Journal of
Asian Studies, 31(4), 1972:863-878.
[3] Chryssides George D. Exploring New
Religions, London/New York: Cassell, 1999:179-192, quote on p. 180.
[4] Nagel, Alexandra H.M. “De Neergang van een goeroe door het
internet. Sai Baba, van avatar tot
homo-pedofiel” [The downfall of a guru through the Internet. Sai Baba: from
avatar to homo-paedophile], unpublished paper in Dutch for the course ‘Religious
sociology and psychology: new religious movements’ of the Educational Institute
Theology and Religion studies, University of Amsterdam, January 2001, 35 pages.
In preparation: Id. “For and Against Sathya Sai Baba on the Internet”.
[5] Mangalwadi, Vishal The World of
Gurus, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1977:158. In the same book on page
164, there is a letter to the Editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India, December 28, 1975, which reads:
A suit
was filed in 1973 in the Civil Judge’s Court, Bangalore district, against Sathya
Sai Baba for recovering from him a sum of Rs 94,800. After one year’s litigation
the case was withdrawn on September 1974.
It is to
be noted that Sathya Sai Baba talks of
Dharma
and non-attachment but owns extensive immovable properties in many parts of
India, owns posh cars, lives in style and, as the said court proceedings have
revealed, indulges in business dealings amounting to lakhs of rupees.
[6] Premanand,
Basava Divine Octopus, Podanur, India: B. Premanand, 1977.
[7] According to Gopi N. Mappilapparambil in Premanand,
Basava (ed.) Dr Kovoor Octogenary [sic]
Souvenir, Trichur, Kerala, India: Rationalist Study Corner, 1977:3-4, Kovoor
was born in 1898 in India, and migrated in 1928 to Sri Lanka. The degree of
Doctor of Philosophy was conferred upon Kovoor by the Minnesota Institute of
Philosophy “in recognition of his researches in the field of parapsychology in
which he has demonstrated outstanding competence”.
[8] Karanjia, R.K. “Bhagawan Sri Sathya
Sai Baba’s First Interview Given to a Journalist”, in Blitz News Magazine, September 1976; reprinted in Sandweiss,
Samuel H. Spirit and the Mind, San
Diego: Birthday Publ., 1985:251-253.
Premanand, 1977:93-100.
[9] Beyerstein, Dale Sai Baba’s Miracles. An Overview,
Vancouver: private publication, 1992.
[10]
Nagel, Alexandra H.M. “The Sai-paradox:
tegenstrijdigheden van en rondom Sathya Sai Baba”, in Religieuze Bewegingen in Nederland nr 29, 1994: 123-153; Vroon, Piet “Santa
Claus in India”, in Indian Skeptic
6(4), 1993:8-16.
[11]
Haraldsson, 1998:295-302.
[12] Videos
can be seen on
http://www.sathyasaivicitims.com, www.exbaba.com and
http://members.tripod.com/~dlane5/saidebate.html.
[13] Kovoor and Premanand
could perform similar tricks. See also: Roveta, Mariana “Sai Baba, los detractores hablan de “fraude”.
Cuestionan las materializaciones de objetos y las sanaciones”, in La Maga, Argentina, 8 May 1996:46; Thapa, Vijay Jung et al. “Test of Faith, a God
Accused”, in India Today, 4 December, 2000:42-43.
[14] Bailey, David & Faye The
Findings, Conwy, North Wales: private publication, 2000:15-16, 18-20;
available on
http://www.snowcrest.net/suncrise and
http://www.sathyasaivictims.com.
[15] Nagarajan, T.M. Satya Sai Baba:
Godman or Fraud? Murder at the Ashram, New Delhi: Prime Books, 1993; Premanand, Basava Murders in Sai Baba’s Bedroom, Podanur, India: B. Premanand, 2001,
and Riti, M.D. &
Stanley Theodore “High Intrigue: Deadly Power
Struggle in Puttaparthi”, in The Week,
20 June 1993:25-33. See also Bailey 2000:16, and message # 7786 on
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/sathyasaibabadiscussionclub. The publication by
Premanand is a large compilation of (copied) articles and letters related to Sai
Baba, especially the 1993 murders, published in the Indian Skeptic. The book also contains a few colored pictures of the
ones killed.
[16] See several clippings from Indian
newspapers in Indian Skeptic, 6(4)
August 1993:25-37.
[17] Mc Martin (1982, unpublished) cited by Klass, 1991:104.
[18] Brooke, Tal Avatar of Night.
Special Millennial Edition, Berkeley, California: End Run Publishing, 2000
(1972):111, 136-139.
[19] Lee, 1982:131. The many communications stirred up after the
publication of The Findings (see note
13), revealed that the uproar in Malaysia is related to case number 11 in Table
1.
[20] Nagel, 1994.
[21] McWilliams, Peter Life 102: What
to do When Your Guru Sues You, Los Angeles: Prelude Press, 1994:60. Roger D.
Hinkins changed his first name to John-Roger.
[22] When
reading the material available thoroughly, more cases could be added to the
list. For example, Andén,
Britt-Marie To anyone who may be concerned
about the sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been reported
about Sai Baba, unpublished document dated 24 October 2000, on http://www.exbaba.com, refers to several
more cases than the ‘Golden Boy X’ and the ‘23-year old’ mentioned in Table 1.
In another reprint of Brooke 2000 (namely 1982:391-392), a letter dated 24
January 1980, is added from John Worldie, who wrote to Brooke:
My son just returned from U.K.
with your book. (…) Tal, B…. did the same number to me (…). The ‘test’ he put me
to [included] fondling my dick, taking my valuables, (…). I never could figure
out why he played with my penis so I rationalized it as he was ‘purifying’ me.
[23] See note 4.
[24] Copies of the diary notes of the 15-year old have been distributed to
many devotees to make them aware of Sai Baba’s initiatives during private
interviews. The story of ‘Sam Young’ is to be read in Brown, Mick “Divine Downfall”, in The Daily Telegraph Saturday Magazine, 27
October, 2000.
[25]Anonymous “’Betrayal’ by Sai Baba”, in Indian Skeptic 12(4), 1999:20-28; also
available on http://www.exbaba.com.
[26] Private communication with David Bailey.
[27]
Szandorowski, Barbara Escape from the
Guru, Eastborne, Sussex: MARC, Monarch Publications, 1991:124.
[28] Id., p. 181-182.
[29] Brooke, 2000, and Brooke, Tal Riders of the Cosmic Circuit. Rajneesh, Sai Baba, Muktananda … Gods of
the New Age, Herts, UK: Lion Publishing, 1986.
[30] See among others:
Babb, 1983 and 1987; Klass, 1991:103-104; Steel, Brian The Powers of
Sathya Sai Baba, Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, 1999;139-150; Taylor,
1987:131-133.
[31] Among onthers,
an interesting study is O’Grady,
Joan
The Prince of Darkness, Shaftesbury,
Dorset: Element Books, 1989.
[32] Mookerjee, Ajit Kundalini: the
Arousal of the Inner Energy, London: Thames & Hudson, 1982; Swami Muktananda Kundalini, the Secret of Life, South Fallsburg, New York: SYDA
Foundation, 1994 (1979).
[33] Very recent the story
on the suicide of Michael Pender, combined with the suicide of two other Sai
devotees, namely Aran Edwards and Andrew Richardson, appeared in an English
newspaper: Kennedy, Dominic “Three die after
placing their hope in guru”, and Dynes, Michael & Dominic Kennedy “’I sought peace and couldn’t
find it’”, both in The Times, Monday
August 27, 2001. The same paper carried a third critical article on Sai Baba: Kennedy Dominic “Suicide, sex and the guru”.