William Aitken’s Book Fails to Answer Sai Baba Critics:
Date: 02-21-08
By: Ex Baba admin
his blogsite -
http://barrypittard.wordpress.com/ - Barry Pittard has written
the article
William Aitken’s Book Fails to
Answer Sai Baba Critics:
http://barrypittard.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/william-aitkens-book-fails-to-answer-sai-baba-critics/
He continues his small review series on aspects of Brian
Steel’s impressive opus, specifically Bill Aitken and Sathya
Sai Baba. A Writer’s Dilemma, on William 'Bill' Aitken’s
book, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. A Life (New Delhi, Penguin
Books India, 2004. Paperback edition, 2006). Barry Pittard's
previous articles in this recent series are:
- A Host of Sai Baba
Hagiographers
- William Aitken’s Sai Baba
Book - Major Flaws Says Scholar
- Sai Baba Researchers’ Huge
Debt To Scholar Brian D. Steel
Quotes From Latest Article
"Brian Steel’s approach in this piece is scholarly, but his writing
has long been appreciated by a wider readership. All who are in
search of detailed evidence will find Steel’s meticulous,
painstakingly researched work (from 2001 on) indispensable. It is
vast, and has been groundbreaking from the very first".
"Sathya Sai Baba can be documented by any conscientious reader as
having made contradictory statements and egregious historical and
scientific blunders. These include his remarks on Jesus Christ and
Martin Luther. In the present article and in others, Steel’s
discusses in sharp detail and context some of Sai Baba's many and
extraordinary blunders".
"When I was editing at Sai Towers in Puttaparthi, I saw at first
hand how those such as Professor Anil Kumar and my late friend
V.K.Narasimhan, one of India’s pre-eminent, historic and courageous
newspaper editors, did such doctoring. I had a hand in the process
myself when Sai Baba’s talk about his mother’s ghost would have
raised a few eyebrows if allowed to circulate any further than a
public discourse. The extraordinary blunders are excised before they
get into publications that go worldwide like Sanathana Sarathi and
Spiritual Impressions".