Those who see the evil in Baba see their own inner reality as in a
mirror
Would anyone see evil in him if he had nothing
to hide, and if he and the top leaders in his organisation were not
involved in profound cover-up, and increasingly damage control? Is
there any scrap of difference between the cover-up of many other
institutions who have hidden the extensive occurrence of sexual
abuse among clergy and the profound refusal of the Sathya Sai
Organisation to respond to the many allegations by members around
the world of his sexual molestation of boys and young men?
Pro-Sathya Sai Baba
activists repeatedly sidestep issues and evidence that we present.
Out of the great wealth of material posted on former devotee
websites, they often clearly have read no more than bits and pieces.
They jump to erratic conclusions. The see evil in us. They hurl
insults. They Sai Slur. Any reasonably honest, intelligent person
can see the integrity that informs the general former devotee
websites:
ex-baba/engels/ and
http://www.saiguru.net/,
and the websites of notable former devotees and academics such as
Robert Priddy (Norway):
http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/enigma and Brian Steel (Australia):
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/index.html. That Sathya Sai Baba
devotees engage with former devotees at all is curious, for their
guru has told them to shun the Internet.
Dr Terry Gallagher,
an agricultural research scientist, was a highly respected Spiritual
Coordinator of the Australian Sai Organisation. At considerable
personal effort, he investigated the allegations against Sai Baba of
male sexual molestation, including talking to a number of Sai Baba's
college boys, and even confronted Sathya Sai Baba with the issue. He
has told me that his efforts to properly investigate the allegations
of sexual molestation had been, long previous to the seminal
September-October 1999 Nexus article, suppressed by T.
Ramanathan. His was one of the three articles in the same Issue of
that magazine, along with those of Hans de Kraker (Australia) and
Jens and Gurprit Sethi (Germany). In conscience, Dr Gallagher
resigned - as have many office-bearers and rank-and-file members
since, the world over. (A number of former devotees around the
world are preparing a long, long list, and foresee producing it when
the time is right). Some related comments by Dr Gallagher are at:
ex-baba/engels/witnesses/terry.html.
Another highly
respected leader was Stephen Carthew, a South Australian documentary
film maker and a former South Australian Spiritual Coordinator.
Shortly after the Nexus article, he called a meeting of
devotees in Adelaide so that the allegations in the article, and
from beyond it, could be made known and discussed openly by the
Sathya Sai Organisation. He told the meeting that he had already by
this time "spoken to three parents who have sons who have been asked
to give gross sexual favours to Swami. These people are quite sane
and quite clear that these events have happened to their sons." He
told the meeting that "any organisation that denies the process of
investigation of the alleged misconduct of one of its leaders is an
organisation that falls quickly into the category of 'irregular' or
even 'cult like.'" Typical of his oft-noted authoritarianism,
Ramanathan cast him out. See:
ex-baba/engels/letters/carthew.html.
Worldwide, other courageous and truthful individuals received the
same draconian treatment. For a similar bloody-minded ejecting of a
former top leader of the Russian Sathya Sai Organisation, see
Serguei Badaev's report:
http://saiguru.net/english/articles/10disqualification.htm.