Sathya Sai Baba Exposé: An
Update
Date: 09-30-03
Document date:
Thursday, September 25, 2003
By: Barry
Pittard, Australia.
Email:
bpittard@beachaccess.com.au
Copied from:
http://www.saiguru.net/english/news/030925exposeupdate.htm
The three articles published by
the international magazine Nexus, September-October
1999, on accusations against Sathya Sai Baba, India's most
famous guru, were seminal. These alleged his serial sexual
molestation of young males from different countries, and other
acute betrayals of spiritual trust.
Independently of extensive investigations by
former devotees, Nexus publisher-editor Duncan Roads
tested many Sai Baba-related sources. He writes, "I personally
interviewed victims and parents. I used to be a believer and I
denied these accounts as fiction, UNTIL I INVESTIGATED THEM."
(Email to me, Sunday, June 15, 2003 12:15 AM, posted
http://www.exbaba.com,
June 16, "News,”). As we advanced our own worldwide
investigations and campaign of exposure, Duncan Roads’s
confirmation of the integrity of the evidence, and printing of
the articles, was certainly a morale-boost.
Sathya Sai Baba's dissenters are
often those who were closely, and for many years, connected
with his organisation’s vast-scale, worldwide devotional,
educational and social work. From May 1999, former devotee
activists - such as retired management consultant Glen Meloy
(above all), USA, and software engineer Hari Sampath, now
India/at the time green card-USA - led hard-won campaigns to
bring the facts to international attention via the media,
governments, police, sexual abuse authorities, etc.
Clearly losing his nerve in
response to our intense government, police, media and internet
pressure, Sathya Sai Baba’s discourse on Christmas Day 2000
did far from celebrate Christmas themes, such as wishing
‘peace and goodwill to all men.’ The Times of India,
December 26, 2000 headlined: Sai Baba Lashes Out at His
Detractors. He called his dissenters “cawing crows,” “demons,”
and thousands of “Judases.” He extensively boasted his social
works (actually, they are overwhelmingly those of his
devotees). Jealousy and reception of money motivated us, he
said. Very terrible is the karmic future he evoked for us:
"Betrayal of God is the worst of all betrayals. It will not be
atoned no matter how many births are experienced!"
In his chanted introduction to the discourse,
he says, "Forbearance is the real beauty in this sacred land
of Bharat (India)." Throughout, there was no hint of his
practising
what he has so often preached at other times: "We should help
even those who have harmed us. This is the vow of Sai. No
matter if some people criticise or ridicule Me (sic), I will
always look at them with kindness." (Sanathana Sarathi
June 2002). Not that we have harmed him, for he has harmed
himself by refusing to face the allegations in a law-abiding
way. Nothing suggested a Christ-like forgiveness. To question
his claims to Godhood is to be forever damned.
Well before formal Exposé activities, which are
mainly those of former followers of Sathya Sai Baba, the late
Dr Abraham T. Kovoor, the Sri Lankan Rationalist who lived in
India for many years, mounted public challenges to Sathya Sai
Baba. So have member organisations of the International
Humanist and Ethical Union,
http://www.iheu.org,
which has NGO Special Consultative status with the United
Nations as well as the Council of Europe. India’s most
renowned rationalist and former Vice Chancellor of the
University of Bangalore, South India, Dr. H. Narasimhaiah, a
scientist, set up a twelve-member academic committee "to
investigate rationally and scientifically miracles and any
other verifiable superstitions." However, Sathya Sai Baba
refused to co-operate. Some IHEU member organisations wish to
stage an international conference on Sathya Sai Baba in a
leading city of the world. Its Executive Director Babu
Gogineni has emailed me, Thursday, 6 March 2003 7:45 AM,
“Officers of the London-based IHEU have many times voiced
their concern at the impunity with which Sathya Sai Baba
operates, untouched by the Indian criminal justice system. It
considers the allegations of paedophilia against him as
gravely as it considers similar accusations against the
Catholic and other clergy in the West.” He says that one of
the IHEU’s concerns is the personal danger to its activists
from fanatical followers of the guru, especially in India.
B. Premanand, of TV "Guru Buster’s" fame, and
fellow Indian Rationalists, among other gutsy actions, tried
and failed to expose Sathya Sai Baba in court. Sri Premanand
has formed a Committee for Scientific Investigation into
Claims of the Paranormal (CSICP). He mounted a court action in
Sathya Sai Baba’s state of Andhra Pradesh, in which the High
Court Judge Anjaneyulu, known to be Sai Baba’s devotee, ruled
that the law requiring a license to produce gold does not
apply to Sathya Sai Baba, who, he determined, materialises his
gold from a divine realm:
http://www.indian-skeptic.org/html/saigold.htm. B.
Premanand has published a searing, erudite 800-page book on
the 1993 police executions, Murders in Sai Baba’s Bedroom,
B. Premanand. 11/7 Chettipalayam Road, Podanur. 641 023 Tamil
Nadu, India. See also Robert Priddy’s writings on this topic
mentioned later in the present article.
In 1970, Tal Brooke published "Lord
of the Air," which was banned in India and subsequently
re-written and published as "Avatar of Night."
Paperback: 400 pages. End Run Publishing; December 15, 1999.
ISBN: 193004500X. During the fourteen months he lived close to
him, Sathya Sai Baba conferred on him, as he was later to do
with David Bailey (q.v.), a rare closeness – rather too close
for comfort, it would seem. It was too easy for both Western
and Hindu Indian Sai devotees to allude to his adoption of a
born-again Christian faith, and to pass off his accounts of
Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual escapades as those of a jaundiced,
badmouthing fool. (I used to think of him in these terms,
too). In actual fact, Tal Brooke is author of nine books and
is listed in Marquis Who's Who in the World (Volumes 12
& 13), Contemporary Authors (Vol. 93-96), and The
International Who's Who of Authors. The famous English
intellectual Malcolm Muggeridge highly praised his work. Glen
Meloy (q.v.) has correctly identified Tal Brooke as the
‘original whistle-blower.’ In fact, he has shared vital, as
yet unpublished information with Glen Meloy and me, and
undertaken to reveal it at a time when it will have maximum
impact.
In the mid to late nineties, almost a lone
voice, the Italian Paul Holbach, in his second language
English, provided the first, consecutive, incisive questioning
of Sathya Sai Baba. He withdrew his website, took to other
preoccupations but permitted the larger part archived at the
Exbaba website:
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/articles/p_holbach/eng/main_e.htm
Devoted to Sathya Sai Baba for
twenty-five years, I spent a few years around him and for two
years taught English literature at all levels in a voluntary
capacity (1978-79) at his college in Whitefield, via
Bangalore, the first of several large boys' colleges Sathya
Sai Baba founded. Along with a large network of those formerly
associated with his work, and as a matter of simplest
conscience, I now assist with exposure activities.
Unless the phenomena are
powerfully challenged, Sathya Sai Baba is all too likely to
pass into history hailed as a world teacher and savior. His
devotees are legion in all the top Indian power structures.
Slavishly, they, and millions of Indians, sink at his feet,
declaring him a national treasure - the greatest divine
incarnation ever - and believe him when he says that he will
save the entire world, with India leading the rest of us.
Heavily armed state and federal police forces and his own
security and intelligence force, some of them specially
trained in Israel and the USA guard him with a protection
tighter than a drum. Why would they not? In the form of
foreign currency, he brings billions into India, and his
organisation sets up projects that Indian governments of all
persuasions have frequently failed to implement.
Powerful incentives to belief
are the ostensible miracles. But not all such phenomena
related to him - such as sacred ash (vibhuthi) that pours from
his venerated photos and other apparently miraculously
manifesting objects - submit to rational explanation, no
matter how grimly rationalist antagonists persist in
superficial analyses. These phenomena occur worldwide in
devotees’ homes and other venues. I have had a great many such
experiences, and opine that rationalistic analyses, in this,
although not in other directions, fall short. But dogmatism
from both believers and rationalists only hinders rational
exploration of such phenomena.
The Indian power structure,
including most sections of the media, constantly obstructs
legal and other efforts by the Exposé, with the honorable
exception of India Today and Vijayavihaaram, the
latter with its unique and brave Editor, Ramana Murthy.
Several of us, including those with excellent credentials,
have written to the Indian President, Prime Minister and
hundreds of parliamentarians, embassies, high commissions, and
media. Reflecting shamefully on their country, they remain
mute, showing rank irresponsibility and failure of courtesy.
Some Indians who could help a lot do not, being afraid to
offend the status quo. They fear falling out of favor with
family, friends, workplace, and so on. You would not think it
was the land of the Freedom Fighters, nor of the Vedas, which,
as the brave Swami Vivekananda said, ring out with the notion
of fearlessness.
Indeed, the instrument of the
subpoena may need to be used in cases such as that of Dr
Naresh Bhatia, former head of the Blood Transfusion Unit at
Sathya Sai Baba’s multi-million dollar Super Specialty
hospital at Puttaparthi. Dr Bhatia has given us accounts of
his own homosexual liaisons with Sathya Sai Baba, and of his
eventual protest at Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual abuse of his
college boys, including a young boy in 7th Standard
(not, as is sometimes misreported, a seven years old boy). In
discussions in his own New Delhi home with Stephen Carthew
(q.v.), he has clarified the issue of the boy’s age, and has
said (including in emails to me) that he still regards Sathya
Sai Baba as his guru. (As Swami Chidananda, the institutional
successor of the famous Sivananda of Rishikesh once told me,
when I sought his guidance after an Australian woman had come
to me distressed at hearing rumours of homosexual practices by
Sathya Sai Baba, there is a long Indian tradition of surrender
to one’s spiritual guru, even when serious flaws are
discovered). Spiritual?! Privately, Dr Bhatia relates that he
does not rescind on his earlier accounts but will not repeat
them because of concern for the safety of those involved. We
also understand that he has, in exchange for the release of
his possessions, entered into an agreement with the
Puttaparthi ashram authorities to remain silent. What
fearlessness!
In India, paedophilia is a still
far more tabooed topic than it is in Western countries. Nor
would boys involved in such a scandal look too good in the
arranged marriage sphere. However, a few courageous Indians
work to expose Sathya Sai Baba. This input is crucial, as it
is important for activists to lead the action within the
culture that they understand best. Hindus active in the
Exposé, such as the Tamil-Australian former devotee Jeyendran
Soma, a civil engineer, feel that Sathya Sai Baba profoundly
misrepresents and defames Hinduism, even while seeming to
extol it. They point to the contradictions and muddles that he
makes with the Hindu scriptures, many of which bungles can be
shown to have been quietly removed by his translators. These
Hindu men and women, assisted by distinguished scholars, are
now taking these matters to the leading Hindu councils in the
world. Smallish but very determined groups campaign to reveal
the many accusations against him.
We are now much further advanced, with two
extensive general websites,
http://www.exbaba.com
(Dutch, English and Italian) and
http://www.saiguru.net
(English, Spanish, Russian, and Polish). A widely
representative Sai Baba Exposé group, Just Seekers of Truth (JuST),
uses a professional public Petition website,
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/saibaba/petition.html.
You too can sign it.
Welcome is the emergence of critical, prolific
scholarly writers with their own Sai Baba Exposé websites:
see, Robert Priddy (Norway),
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma
and Brian Steel (Australia)
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/index.html. For an
overview of critical materials, you may consult, In the Shadow
of Sathya Sai Baba at:
http://www.saiguru.net/english/last_updates/shadowindex.htm.
Under "Studies" on the
http://www.exbaba.com
site, there is a navigator to: "'Important studies from
critical authors since 'The Findings.'"
The ‘findings’ referred to were those of
husband and wife David (UK) and Faye Bailey (Australia),
formerly two exceptionally prominent devotees, both authors of
strongly selling books on Sathya Sai Baba, who ceased their
devotion as they kept discovering compelling evidence for
sexual molestation and major fraudulence of various kinds. An
English concert pianist, David Bailey taught music at Sathya
Sai Baba’s university at Puttaparthi, and made frequent trips
there from 1994, and was a popular keynote speaker at official
Sai devotee gatherings round the world. I think that ‘The
Findings’ would profit from very rigorous documentation and
witnessing of sources, such as the Hyderabad jeweler said to
provide objects that Sathya Sai Baba ‘materialises.’ See also,
‘Personal Experiences of David Bailey,’
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/witnesses/david.html
Among penetrating contributions are those of
Alexandra Nagel (Holland) and Serguei Badaev (Russia). The
latter has, for example, documented glaring failures in
financial accountability within the Sathya Sai Organisation.
He was President of the Moscow Sathya Sai Centre, National
Sathya Sai Education in Human Values Coordinator and Deputy
Chairman of the Central Council of Russian-speaking countries.
A formidable ex pro-Sai polemicist is Sanjay Dadlani, a UK
university student in computer sciences, who changed sides,
and now conducts a former devotee discussion board,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaiBabaExposed (Non-members
must go to this web address and the other Yahoo group
addresses, mentioned below, to join up). One of Sanjay
Dadlani’s concerns is the prospect of Sathya Sai Baba making
(as he has promised) a move to the world stage. The concern is
not misplaced. Already on air is a 24-hr digital radio
broadcasting station, inaugurated by Sai Baba on November 23rd,
2001 on the day of his 76th birthday.
http://www.sathyasai.org/radio/radio.html.
According to a Sai Sathya Organisation prospectus, it is
beamed at India and neighboring countries, Africa, Japan,
Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, and non-northern
parts of Europe, with plans to cover South America this year,
and then the USA.
Also useful, amid somewhat moderated sparks
flying, is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sathyasaibabadiscussionclub.
A rather ‘heavy’ and crowded board is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sathyasaibaba2/messages.
Participation in these fora may sometimes be a more accurate,
if melancholy, reflection of one’s IQ than Stanford-Binet
tests. Sadly, a site well run by Anthony Thomas, Quick Topic,
was repeatedly spammed and destroyed by Sathya Sai Baba
followers untypical of those very decent devotees most of us
have known down the years. Its archives can still be accessed
at:
http://www.quicktopic.com/8/H/qYarJBpGLW7G6. A
similar fate attended the website of a sensitive young woman,
Keenan Cheney, who for the sake of her own psychological
wellbeing withdrew from the persistent outpourings of
pro-Sathya Sai Baba vitriol, a concoction some of his devotees
regularly offer us to drink. Also pivotal to our effort are
highly qualified and respected sexual abuse professionals well
apprised by Sai Baba's victims and their families.
Not the slightest evidence
exists of any attempt by him or his organisation to curb the
many and incredibly hateful activities of certain Sathya Sai
Baba devotees in their attacks on us. With the extremely rare,
immature exceptions – with whom most of us will not allign our
efforts with – former devotees have comported themselves
throughout with great forbearance. Since Sathya Sai Baba has
forbidden his devotees to view the allegations on the
Internet, we have no means of seeing his devotees
well-represented in any discussion.
Much of Sathya Sai Baba’s
fraudulence has been exposed. For example, videos shot by
well-known devotees show him, on careful analysis, faking
materialisations. The Sai Baba-appointed US videographer James
Redmond’s vast video footage is a prime case. Some devotees
have acknowledged seeing Sai Baba cheat, but say that it is
his test of their faith. However, it may be a mistake to
miscalculate strong evidence for some of the supra-rational
phenomena. These often convince otherwise rational human
beings that humanity is in the presence of a great spiritual
benefactor. If he makes a move to charismatically charm the
world, and the powerful appearance of miracles continues,
whatever be its causation, we need to ensure that civil
reality and law triumph over the thirst for the miraculous. We
need to ensure that national police forces have plentiful
sworn affidavits, so that they can be fully equipped with
arrest warrants in any country with its own victims where he
may decide to travel.
A common response to the three Nexus
articles was that they had the 'ring of truth.' One of the
authors was Dr Terry Gallagher, an agricultural scientist, and
formerly highly respected leader of the Australian Sathya Sai
Organisation. Some comments of his are at:
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/witnesses/terry.html.
Dr Gallagher’s efforts to properly investigate the
allegations of sexual molestation had been, long previous to
the Nexus article, heavily suppressed by T. Sri
Ramanathan, the head of the Sathya Sai Organisation of
Australia and Papua New Guinea. Dr Gallagher resigned on the
basis of high principle, as have many others since, the world
over. He also told me that he had, all in vain, extensively
presented evidence for sexual molestation to Valmai
Worthington, of Queensland, Australia. She is a prominent
organiser of many groups (young males included) who visit
Sathya Sai Baba (I was in one of them, leaving Brisbane,
Australia November 14, 1997). Indeed, I have compelling
evidence that in a Worthington-led group a young man (known to
me) had his genitals touched by him, and an exceptionally
credible eyewitness is able to attest to this fact under oath.
One of the Australians with
direct personal accounts of sexual molestation by Sathya Sai
Baba is Hans de Kraker, a graphic arts business consultant,
who formerly managed the Westerner’s canteen a Puttaparthi.
He relates to me that he reported his experience to one of
the foremost leaders in the Australian Organisation, Dr Sara
Pavan, a senior Sydney anaesthetist, who, he says, did not
give him a proper hearing and said that it is better "not to
speak of such things."
In thus totally disregarding the
complaints by parents, boys and young men about sexual
molestation, many officers of the Sathya Sai Organisation
derelict their duty of care at both the individual and
Organisation levels.
Another highly respected leader, Stephen
Carthew, a documentary filmmaker, formerly the Spiritual
Co-coordinator for South Australia, shortly after the Nexus
article, submitted that the allegations be discussed by the
rank and file. After speaking to a number of families who
accessed him to alarming first-hand reports of sexual
molestation by Sathya Sai Baba, he too was deeply shaken, and
called a formal meeting of devotees in Adelaide. Summarily, T.
Sri Ramanathan, a retired, ex-Sri Lankan commercial lawyer who
now works for the Law faculties of both the University of
Sydney and the University of New South Wales, cast him out.
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/letters/carthew.html.
On Mother’s Day 1999, Stephen Carthew had also dared to
suggest to a South Australian Sathya Sai Organisation’s
ladies' group – who, he tells me, warmly endorsed his speech -
that the Organisation was highly male chauvinistic. Worldwide,
other courageous and truthful individuals have received the
same draconian treatment. For a similar bloody-minded casting
out of a former top leader of the Russian Sai Organisation,
see Serguei Badaev's report,
http://saiguru.net/english/articles/10disqualification.htm.
As of Tuesday noon Eastern Australian Standard
Time, September 2, 2003, the Petition signatories number 470.
(There is the encouraging sign of an increasing number of
Indian names beginning to appear, giving India as their
country). These include former devotees from many countries.
Some of them had spent well over two decades closely involved
in Sai Baba's work. Some held key positions. It outlines
allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, notably those relating to
serial sexual abuse of minors and young men and Sai Baba's
complicity in police executions in his private apartments at
Puttaparthi on June 6, 1993. It calls for a properly
constituted official enquiry and pressure by governments
around the world. See Robert Priddy's "Faith-shaking events -
the 1993 murders,"
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/VKN1.htm. For
other Priddy contributions on the police killings, see also:
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/ExtraMurders.htm
and
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/Murders.htm.
His
page at
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/moremurders.htm
has texts of
transcripts from Indian newspapers in 1993/4.
Coming from many countries,
cultural and educational backgrounds, we increasingly expose
him and his accomplices in major venues. Requiring immense
effort and networking, we precipitated well-researched
articles in the press of many countries. These include:
Australia (The Age), Canada (Ottawa Citizen,
Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun), Denmark (BT), Chile (Gatopardo),
Germany (Bild, Focus), Holland (Trouw),
India (India Today), U.S.A. (Salon.com), U.K. (Times
of London, Daily Telegraph), Sweden (Göteborgsposten),
… National broadcasters have joined in Denmark (on radio news
and talkback, and thrice on TV), Norway ("Seduced" was thrice
shown on national TV on Saturday nights), UK (BBC radio) and
Australia (ABC radio), as well as several installments of
Alejandro Agostinelli’s documentary in Argentina (Azul TV),
and Dutch radio and TV. Under tight wraps are some upcoming,
major media exposures.
On January 30, 2002, Danish
Broadcasting aired Øjvind Kyrø's 54-minute documentary on the
Sai Baba Exposé, "Seduced," with a number of repeats. Major TV
interests in the world have now purchased "Seduced." Millions
more will see it quite soon but the program schedules we wish
to keep from the cunning and increasingly desperate Sathya Sai
Organisation. Promptly, the municipal authorities rescinded
the sale to Sai Baba devotees of the famous castle Arresødal
in Copenhagen, which was to have been used as a ‘Sai
international school.’ Though money is supposed to speak all
languages, the US $6 million did not speak Danish! (On
excellent information, I assert that Bob Bozzani, a high
roller and key Sathya Sai Organisation leader in the USA, Bob
Bozzani, would have difficulty denying that the money came
from him! He, by the way, has been given by Glen Meloy (q.v.)
and others ample evidence of Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual
molestations, and ignored it). "Seduced" brought out a
terrible thirst for several litigation actions against Danish
Broadcasting by Central Co-coordinator for Europe and
Co-coordinator for Russian-speaking countries Thorbjörn Meyer,
and the Danish businessman Jørgen Trygved, who was also
Chairman of the ‘Sai international school’ fund board.
It was a litigious thirst that Danish
Broadcasting, proud of its journalistic professionalism,
refused to cater to, and the courts of Denmark are clearly
unwilling to slake. As of April 9, 2000, right on the heels of
my open and successful activity in getting the University of
Adelaide to cancel the Sai National Conference 2003, the same
thirst has gripped T. Sri Ramanathan in Australia, who has
formally threatened litigation against me, and falsely
declared that I have violated the telecommunications act. http://www.saiaustralia.org.au/release/100.html
(This 'uncopybale' document was
copied into
http://www.exbaba.com.). No matter
that, over the years, Sathya Sai Baba has repeatedly inveighed
strongly against litigation.
After investigating our submissions, the
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Flinders, South
Australia, cancelled his University’s high-powered delegation
which, with UNESCO (Paris), was to co-sponsor an education
conference in human values in September 2000 at Sai Baba's
main ashram, at
Puttaparthi. After our very strenuous submissions, UNESCO
withdrew. On September 9, and again in more detail on the
15th, it posted a Media Advisory:
http://www.unesco.org/education/highlights/media_advisory.htm.
(Link doesn't work
anymore, try:
http://archive.bibalex.org/web/20011031132928/unesco.org/education/highlights/media_advisory.htm
The Advisory cited lack of consultation by the Institute of Sathya Sai Education; the unethical scheduling of some
sessions at his ashram, instead of outside it; and the
inclusion of some delegates without their prior consent. Above
all, it stated, "The Organisation is deeply concerned about
widely reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths
and children that have been leveled at the leader of the
movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba." As Glen Meloy (q.v.),
others and I were privy to the correspondence, we know that
UNESCO moved only after first obtaining reports from the
French National Police (the Sureté).
The US State Department’s ‘India - Consular
Information Sheet,’ November 23, 2001, in a way that
clearly points to Puttaparthi, warns of reports of sexual
abuse of males by the religious teacher there. No doubt for
legal-political reasons, the Travel Advisory avoids naming
Sathya Sai Baba:
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/shortnews/warning.html.
However, via
extensive direct contact, Exposé co-coordinators know exactly
where the State Department and FBI continue to stand, the high
seniority of those officials involved, and what actions they
are able to take should this guru dare to fulfill his
long-time promise to enter the USA.
The Indian Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee,
and three high-profile co-signatories of a public letter say
that our contentions are "wild, reckless and concocted
allegations made by certain vested interests and people
against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba."
http://www.saiguru.net/english/news/020927openletter.htm.
Owing to Exposé leaders informing him well, the British Prime
Minister, Tony Blair, has written a letter assuring the Hon.
Tony Colman MP, that he will not meet Sai Baba,
http://www.saiguru.net/english/news/ukwarns.htm.Strong
national parliamentary action is being prepared in the UK and
Australia.
Within a near-miraculous three days apart, the
New York Times, Nov. 1, 2002
http://www.saiguru.net/english/news/021201nytafriend.htm
and the International Herald Tribune, November 3,
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/articles/taroorsarticle.html
ran completely different, most unbalanced stories
favourable to
Sathya Sai Baba; likely stimulated by his newly re-vamped
propaganda machine. Shashi Tharoor who wrote the IHT story was
formerly chief assistant to the UN head and a former Indian
diplomat. Keith Bradsher was runner up to a Pulitzer Prize in
journalism in 1987. With a lameness suggestive of the
incredible unprofessional sloppiness for which NYT has
recently been so thoroughly exposed, Keith Bradsher, in a five
months’ overdue letter, has written to me, Tuesday, July 01,
2003 10:52 PM: ‘I had done two Internet searches before
writing my story. While I found stories mentioning Sathya Sai
Baba, I did not find any articles then mentioning the
allegations. Last December, following notes from you and
others, I alerted New York and our New Delhi bureau about the
allegations, so we will be aware of them if new evidence
surfaces or Sathya Sai Baba is in the news again.’ Was
Bradsher blind? Anyone neophyte doing the simplest web search
in recent years would have immediately seen references adverse
to Sathya Sai Baba. Despite ignoring for five months the
appeals made by both Sai Baba’s victims and supporters from
around the world, Bradsher expresses no regret, nor show any
desire to make amends for his chronically imbalanced article.
Recently, the American ex-astronaut Dr Brian
O'Leary told us that he had, as a result of documentation
Andries Krugers Dagneaux (Holland) and I had sent him,
cancelled his appearance in Chennai, which would have
highlighted Sathya Sai Baba, and that he was terribly sorry
that his good name has been misused by Sai devotees, and
promptly took action with those concerned, so as to prevent
this attempt to co-opt happening again. See under "News,"http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/directlytonews.html,
posting for Tuesday February 18, 2003.
In the UK, four years ago, the
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester stopped Sathya
Sai Baba sect meetings, as have the authorities of the
University College of London, Downey House public school, and
Lord Wandsworth College. At Glastonbury, acting on
documentation from a very eminent former devotee, the Catholic
bishop banned from its premises the well-known Ramala Centre,
founded by high-profile Sai devotees David Jevons and his
wife.
By warning educational
authorities and municipalities, we are stopping, the setting
up of Sai schools. The Sai School in Hartford, Connecticut,
USA, although fully sanctioned by education authorities to
commence operation, was closed by the intervention of several
activists who petitioned for its closure. So that they can
cancel arrangements, owners of Sathya Sai Baba meeting venues,
such as schools and community organisations, are shown the
abundant evidence. This action constitutes defeat at the hands
of the very communities the Sathya Sai Organisation would wish
(for example, via its stealthy secular Human Values push) to
win unto itself.
A new project is geared to put the facts at the
disposal of renowned immensely influential ‘New-Age’
writers/educators, such as Dr Wayne Dyer, Dr Doreen Virtue, Dr
Phyllis Krystal - and those publishers, bookstores and
associations who promote their work - who write and speak
favorably about Sathya Sai Baba. To note see the early effects
of successful negotiations with the Unity Church, which
extends throughout the world, and which has promoted Dr Dyer’s
books, see:
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/shortnews/barryunity.html.
In Australia, we ensured the cancellation of
the Sai National Conference scheduled at the University of
Adelaide, April 18-25, 2003. The Vice-Chancellor appointed a
senior staff investigator to explore the matter, and within
the month cancelled venue, catering arrangements, and handed
the money back. South Australia’s leading newspaper The
Advertiser, Tuesday February 18, 2003, stated: ‘South
Australian Sai Baba leaders say the allegations are unproven
and plan to continue with the event, vowing to fight the
university's cancellation.’ Sathya Sai conference spokesman
Ken Soman told The Advertiser, `We have an arrangement
with the university and we are paying the student union
$30,000 to cater the event.' Again big Sathya Sai dollars
refused to speak all languages.
http://www.saiguru.net/english/news/030224univadelaidecancels.htm
Yet, for many weeks, the Sai Organisation
maintained its Conference website,
http://www.saiaust.org/speakers.htm
(now withdrawn but fortunately archived on the
http://www.exbaba.com
(here)and
http://www.saiguru.net
websites). None of the invitees agreed to attend as special
guests. Yet for many weeks, the authors mentioned on the
website, T. Sri Ramanathan and Ken Soman, claimed to have
invited the Prime Minister, Premier, Lord Mayor and Roman
Catholic Archbishop. The Lord Mayor told me that he had not in
fact been invited! Michelle Virgo, the Chief Administrator for
the South Australia Premier Mike Rann told me, "We did receive
an invitation. We looked at it and said mm mm, no!" Archbishop
Philip Wilson’s private secretary told me that, in response to
our documentations, "The Archbishop is discussing the matter
with his advisors: the Moderator of the Curia, the Chair of
the Multifaith Group etc." She soon got back and reassured me
that the Archbishop certainly would not accept any invitation
by the Sathya Sai Organisation. The Advertiser also
confirmed refusals of these same individuals to attend the
conference.
In meticulously apprising the
invitees of the allegations, including the offer of access to
victims and their families, we supplied many professional
references, including our highly credentialed sexual abuse
counselors and an internationally eminent legal authority. No
doubt following one of its typical modus operandi, the Sathya
Sai Organisation, used the big names, spuriously, as an
additional drawing card, and to add respectability to the
event. High level patronage would look ‘good’ on subsequent
booklets of the Sathya Sai Organisation, and help it
ingratiate itself further into an unwary Australian community
at large. Why, by the way, did the Sathya Sai Organisation not
have the courtesy to include the Federal Leader of the
Opposition, or distinguished religious leaders besides the
Roman Catholic Archbishop?
In his public discourses, Sathya
Sai Baba makes worsening bloopers – which he simply can’t
hide. We can laugh, or cry, at his capers, even while his
audiences, deserting all commonsense, applaud. In his article
"SB and Christianity. Some Observations," the Australian
Scholar Brian Steel has well exposed Sai Baba's anachronistic
understanding of Judeo-Christian history:
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Jesus1.htm. Some of
Sai Baba's pronouncements noted here are absolute howlers. For
example, "Because of so many groups there, they all attempted
even to harm Jesus. Romans on one side. Catholics on the other
side. Luther on another side. There were so many groups that
went on changing." By "many groups there," he means: at the
time of Christ, which he gives as being 350 years before the
time we understand Jesus to have lived.
Not least, he has made the most garbled,
contradictory and unscientific statements about magnetism.
http://www.saiguru.net/english/articles/56Bmagnetism.htm.
In his public discourse March 13, 2002, he told thousands that
his divine magnetism holds him to the ground, impeding his
feet and hand movements: "So when I put My foot down, the
whole foot stuck to the ground. It is a little hard to lift a
foot that is stuck. Wherever I walk, it sticks there. Whatever
is held, it sticks to My (sic) hand. This magnet is not in
everyone like this. This magnet is so powerful only in
Divinity." Sanjay Dadlani (q.v.) comments: he has worsening
osteoarthritis! (To signify Godhead in their master, the
capitalisation of personal pronouns is rife among Sai devotee
writings).
A headline at the pretended objective
http://geocities.com/the_sai_critic/expose.html, a
key pro-Sai Baba website, boasts "Exposé Is Over." In fact, it
has scarcely begun.
Barry Pittard. Email:
bpittard@beachaccess.com.au