Barry Pittard replies to Saionline writer.
Date: 01-07-02
From: Barry PittardEmail: bpittard@beachaccess.com.au
Dear Saionline,
Would that you had the courage of your convictions and had guts enough to use a real name. So many of us in the Expose of sathya sai baba have come out publicly, no matter the personal difficulty it has caused. Many of the names of his victims from many countries are secret for reasons that any fair and reasonable person will see at once.
In India it is said if you kill the faith of a person it is equal to killing a human being.
You use the word 'faith' in a very undefined way. Doing so leads you into false assumption. If 'faith' is misplaced - and if it manifests as dangerous ignorance - it needs to be corrected. In general, if a child believes that a certain man is Santa Claus, we may agree not to shatter the faith of the small child. However, if we know that the man is a sexual molester parading in the guise of Santa, we shall have to take matters in hand.
You may not be aware that the 'victims' referred in the website have a history of conducting rape, molestation and other sexual crimes or excess sexual habits leading to crude exploitation which they could not control or find relief or assistance from.
A few of us are in touch with a considerable number of victims. They have done none of these with which you would assail them. Furthermore, if you have evidence of any such crimes, you are free to present it to the relevant police authorities, such as Interpol, FBI, Scotland Yard, CBI New Delhi, French Surete, German Chief Prosecutor's Office, Australian Federal Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and others, just as we have done in the case of the crimes of sathya sai baba.
We have had the great privilege - shockingly sad though it is at the same time - to assist his victims in a number of directions, including submission of affidavits and other testimony relating to Sathya Sai Baba's sexual molestation. We have also had extensive dealings in these matters with various national governments and world bodies such as UNESCO.
In his reply to you, Robert Priddy has already addressed the issue of your extreme dishonesty in attempting to slander those who report that sathya sai baba has sexually molested them. I wish simply to add the fact of my utter and inexpressible moral distaste for the way in which you and so many so-called devotees of sathya sai baba have sought to malign the integrity of those involved in his exposure.
Increasingly, the former devotee effort to bring the dreadful facts of his dark side to the light of public attention is strengthened by those severing their ties with him. Some held high office in the sathya sai organisation. All served that aspect of sathya sai baba which represented truth, goodness and beauty - many of us for over two score years. Suddenly, after lives dedicated to serving our families, communities, professions and trades you and your like - not excluding sathya sai baba the proliferator of countless lies, if only you will look honestly at the evidence known to countless devotees - would have it that we are slanderers.
Perhaps that is why websites such as yours, are often encouraged by third-hand parties with little knowledge of the background of actual events.
Quite the contrary. Those of us active in the exposure of sathya sai baba have a great deal of first hand information. Not only at the victim level, but as having spent many years engaged at first hand in the work of sathya sai baba. In my own case, I taught for two years at his Whitefield college, and with the utmost love did my best to serve his cause for over twenty-five years. So many ex-devotees who have cut themselves off from him on the highest moral and ethical grounds have had years of such intensely committed association with him and his works. If you think we are a band of fools and trouble-makers, you and your kin are in for a considerable re-reckoning.
Such ignorant and evil people cause a lot of suffering to innocent by-standers who fall in to their influence.
Among former devotees who are determined to expose the dark side of sathya sai baba, there is the very opposite of ignorance and evil. Some are highly qualified sexual abuse therapists, who have had direct touch with sai baba's victims, and their families and friends. Thank God for their tremendous dedication in being ready to assist at this healing level. The number of ex-devotees coming into the Expose who have high professional qualifications in the caring professions, law, police, media, government, finance and so on will increasingly pose an enormous problem for sai baba and those involved in monumental cover-ups. Be utterly assured of this! We will not go away, but increase, for innocence of the young has been profoundly outraged. It will be protected, and dharma itself will protect the protection.
No one needs to love or worship Sai Baba, but your act has killed the belief in God as a whole.No, our actions have affirmed that sai baba is not the avatar of God. As Glen Meloy once said, 'God will never molest children.'
Faith is suspect if the light of reason and the voice of conscience can kill belief in God so easily as you so manifestly suggest.
Barry Pittard.
Email: bpittard@beachaccess.com.au