Response Series, Part Three
Posted: Barry
Pittard, Australia, Saturday,
August 2, 2003
Email:
bpittard@beachaccess.com.au
Note: A long letter from an SSB
devotee named Seema is the basis for this series of excerpts, in
which the one devotee's letter is readily seen to reflect many
points scattered throughout many devotee letters received by SSB
Exposé
activists.
Seema's remarks are in red.
I have seen people sit at the feet of great men for so long and
not even an inkling of a transformation took place within them. Does
that mean the Guru is bad? So what does it mean Barry?
This guru being
bad (if not bad in some other aspects of his life) means that, in the
face of compelling and extensive evidence, Sathya Sai Baba is a serial
sexual molester of young males, and implicated in scandals such as the
cover-up of the June 1993 police executions in his bedroom at
Puttaparthi, and indeed many terrible anomalies. On the executions,
see Robert Priddy's probings:
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/articles/shambles.html
and
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/moremurders.htm
It means that Sathya
Sai Baba has forfeited any claim to be a divine personage, in the way
that we attribute supreme qualities to Christ, Buddha, and other great
spiritual masters. Questioned by the press concerning the June 1993
police killings, where the evidence overwhelmingly shows that Sai Baba
stood by, having all the time and the absolute authority to act, but
did nothing to stop the slayings, the world convener of the Sathya Sai
Organisation Indulal Shah is reported as saying, "the matter is purely
internal and we do not wish to have any law enforcement agency
investigating into it" (The Hindu, June 10, 993). Are
your guru (who says we should all obey the law) and his ashram above
the Law? Does this mean that Puttaparthi should be some sort of
medieval fiefdom - unanswerable to the laws that govern the rest of
India?
It means that I do
not trust that there is a conjunction between Sathya Sai Baba's words
and deeds. I am satisfied that he preaches brahmacharya but
does not practise it; that he preaches fearlessness, truthfulness and
so on and does not practise them. I trust that you will (I mean -
carefully, and frankly challenging your own presuppositions) read the
analyses of Brian Steel - see his website
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/index.html ,
Serguei Badaev, Alexandra Nagel and others - see
http://www.exbaba.com
and
http://www.saiguru.net
- on topics such as the plethora of outright contradictions,
unfulfilled predictions, awesome clangers that SSB has committed,
scams with the sales of apartments, lack of financial accountability,
and more ...
The fact that you use
the intellectually dishonest resort of argumentum ad hominem
against Robert Priddy suggests that you have not carefully gone
through the critical literature that he and others are, with such vast
effort and without being paid a cent, generating.
It means that I know first hand that SSB lies in calling former
devotee dissenters "cawing crows," "demons," and thousands of
"Judases," extensively boasting his accomplishments (actually, they
are those of his devotees), and attributing to those who dare to
question him jealousy and reception of money as our motivators, and
invoking a terrible karmic future for us.
It means that I see his absence of Christ like, Buddha like love,
compassion and forbearance. In his introductory to his Christmas 2000
discourse, he says, "Forbearance is the real beauty in this sacred
land of Bharat (India)." Yet throughout this very condemnatory
discourse, there is no hint of his practising what he has 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.
The so-called Christmas discourse does
not suggest a
Christ-like forgiveness. Not in the least does it breathe a Christmas
spirit of cheer. In a supposedly Christmas speech, the supposed
Father of Jesus Christ does not radiate wishes of Peace and Goodwill
to all mankind.