Response Series, Part Seven
Posted: Barry Pittard.
Date:
Tuesday August 11, 2003
Email:
bpittard@beachaccess.com.au
Note: A
long letter from an SSB devotee named Seema is the basis for this
series, in which the one devotee's letter is readily seen to reflect
many points scattered throughout many devotee letters received by SSB
Exposé
activists.
Soon to
come: responses by highly qualified therapists from different
countries, including an Indian, who have read Seema's letter.
They have a keen interest in the psychological in-denial response of
those blind to their religious teacher's and his (so-called divine)
Sathya Sai Organisation's failings.
Seema's
words are in red.
When and
only when you have a deep, deep and underlying love for God it's only
then he reveals his beauty to you, little words cannot describe that
feeling.
Again, you presume to know the heart of
others – people you know nothing about?
Among other beauties is the beauty of the
innocence of the young, and none must be permitted to outrage it.
Another beauty is the beauty of service on behalf of those who often
cannot defend themselves. They must be defended. We are entitled to
speak out. It is typical of authoritarian cults to deny this basic
human right.
Listen Robert round up all the little
story telling homos and get every single one of them to pay for lie
detector tests by the best you have in Australia and then see the
results before your very eyes.
You are
speaking to Barry, not Robert. Whichever former devotee activist you
speak to you will find that we have done our homework. The devotees
who berate us have not. We have vast evidence, and have gone to
considerable lengths to present it to our police, governments and the
quality media. Typically, and with great intellectual and moral
irresponsibility, devotees sidestep issue after issue. Leaders shield
the rank and file from the allegations. The authoritarianism
and cover-up from the very top are to be seen in Indulal Shah’s
directive (September 18, 2001) to high office-bearers in the Sai
Organisation that discussion of allegations against Sai Baba appearing
on the Internet and elsewhere be banned in Sathya Sai Baba centres
worldwide. This, Seema, is antidemocratic, and further defines the
Sathya Sai Organisation as a cult.
Your use
of the language of slurs further betrays your homophobia. Rather than
arriving at the truth via an open mind, and an open heart, you react
from defensiveness.
The proof
that you have is some words from a hundred or so people, if that many.
From where do you pluck this figure? It
is actually much higher than that, and keeps growing as we intensify
the Sathya Sai Baba Exposé.
The proof
that I have are the words of an Avatar, countless miraculous personal
experiences and millions of people whose lives have changed very
positively by directly applying the teachings of Sai Baba in their
daily lives.
Many former devotees have had “countless
miraculous personal experiences.” This does not mean that we should
ignore the overwhelming evidence of the presence of a very dark side.
A correct use of intelligence is to hold in mind irreconcilables,
contraries, contradictions and not be swayed to one side or the other
by bias. There is everything wrong with his preaching in public what
he violates in private.
If I take my little ones anywhere, they
are never without me for one second …
As for my children. Why will I allow them to
be molested? Do I sound like a fool to you?
You sound like you may be wise with your
own children. I question whether you are being wise about other
peoples' children. Perhaps you will know - since you have mentioned
exploring
http://www.exbaba.com - serious questions about Sathya Sai Baba
have been raised (quite apart from parents and their children) by
several distinguished authorities.
Have you read the UNESCO Media Advisory?
See this and the astute comments by Serguei Badaev, the former and
(until he dared to suggest that the allegations should be discussed
openly) very highly regarded leader of the Sathya Sai Organisation in
Russia:
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/articles/unescoconf.html#Baba
On September 9, and again on the
15th, UNESCO posted a Media Advisory, which cited lack of consultation
by the Institute of Sathya Sai Education; the improper 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." Glen Meloy, others and I were privy to the correspondence, and
we know that UNESCO moved only after first obtaining reports from the
French National Police (the Sureté).
Have you read the US State Department
Travel Advisory (‘India - Consular Information Sheet,’ November 23,
2001)?
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/shortnews/warning.html
Did you know that (after the most
exacting investigations) three Vice-Chancellors (University of
Manchester, UK, University of Flinders, and University of Adelaide)
have prohibited Sathya Sai functions within their walls, as have heads
of several other institutions in the UK such as University College of
London, Downey House public school, and Lord Wandsworth College?
That at Glastonbury, the Catholic bishop
banned from its premises the well-known Ramala Centre, founded by
high-profile Sai devotees David Jevons and his wife?
That the Sai School in Hartford,
Connecticut, USA, although fully sanctioned to commence operation, was
closed by the intervention of several well-informed citizens who
petitioned for its closure?
That in Denmark, the municipal
authorities rescinded the six million US dollar sale to Sathya Sai
Baba interests of the famous castle Arresødal in Copenhagen, which was
to have been used as a Sai international school?
That in the British House of Commons,
questions about Sathya Sai Baba have been raised of Prime Minister
Tony Blair? We have, via Tony Colman MP, a written assurance by Mr
Blair that he will not meet with Sathya Sai Baba, and assurances to
the British Parliament that he will require the relevant government
officials to investigate the allegations as they relate to British
citizens.
That World leading media have carefully
and responsibly researched the issue? Dishonestly ignoring this clear
fact, Indulal Shah, the world convener of the Sathya Sai Organisation,
sent a circular (September 18, 2001) to leaders of the world Sathya
Sai Organisation. Making a huge generalisation, and appealing to
populist media prejudice, he inveighed against the media, saying that
it has “a strong propensity for sensationalism. A whiff of scandal
always helps their sales and therefore they do not even pause to
verify the truth." Again, as in your own case, we see a steering away
from confronting the facts being presented, and filling the atmosphere
with smoke.
As one who was often closely involved, I
can tell you that the media we have contacted went to great lengths to
verify our veracity. They also gave your teacher’s leaders and other
Sai devotees ample opportunity to put their side of the story. In a
manner all too clear to the intelligent reader, the Sai devotees were
evasive and slanderously dismissive of former testimony, attributing
to us, without knowledge of the facts, the worst motives.
…if my
children complain to me for any reason, I go directly to the source of
the problem.
In relation to SSB, if this is not
foolish, then I wonder what is. When leaders, like the head of an
official Sai centre I used to attend at Amamor in South Eastern
Queensland (Conny Simms) asked him about the allegations, SSB relied,
"Swami is pure." The source of the problem is the offender. Do you
mean to tell me that you would go to an offender and expect an honest
answer? If we suspect sexual molestation has occurred, then we must go
to the source of the allegations accompanied by those such as the
police, a lawyer, a magistrate or judge and jury, and ensure that a
child is availed of the services of an experienced sexual abuse
counselor.
But here is a typical example (I can give
others) of the contempt for fair and reasonable processes of the law
exhibited by Indulal Shah. Questioned by the press concerning the 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 - 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, 1993).