Posted by robertpriddy on November 22, 2008
Year after year, Sathya Sai Baba insists on have a huge birthday celebration for himself. Of course, his devotees support this, because for them he is God Incarnate and his will must be done. Sathya Sai Baba could easily stop the costly birthday celebration, but - as residents at Prashanthi Nilayam have often expressed to me (not least his close servitor and editor V.K. Narasimhan) - they are not at all keen on the disturbances and demands this makes on them - the unruly crowds and the huge infection dust clouds they throw up, all of which makes daily life almost intolerable for them for days on end. V.K. Narasimhan told me that really, only Sathya Sai Baba revels in these gaudy celebrations.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Through the decades from when I first became a follower of Sai Baba, the tinsel and pomp increased and the money lavished on the annual event mounted out of all proportion to anything that could be achieved. Western devotees often complained about this waste and pomp, such as at Organization meetings, but nothing could be done about it. The organization is ruled from the top according to Sai Baba’s directives with an iron hand - democratic feedback is not tolerated. Many left the organization for these reasons.
The round number birthdays (50, 60, 70, 80 years) considered more important and auspicious became bigger and bigger ‘tamashas’ with helicopters, coloured moving illuminations stretching the length of Puttaparthi, rock music and three free meals a day for all comers (not especially for the poor). Take into account the energy consumed for this celebration - on the biggest event (70th birthday) the public relations office published the figures for visitors from abroad (foreigners and especially visitors from the Indian diaspora abroad) as 18,000. That was the peak for foreign visitors, since when non-Indian foreigners have turned their backs on him in increasing numbers (for reasons known to everyone). The number of airline flights to and fro India alone would have eaten enough money to feed all the beggars in India for a long period! Instead it was lavished to promote Sathya Sai Baba.
This year he has virtually combined the once-annual three-day yajna rituals, and the Golden Chariot procession (formerly only for the ‘paduka’-worship ceremonies) in the run up to the birthday. It is not likely that this is done with any economy of energy or resources in mind - but rather a way to try to raise his flagging profile somewhat. The main effort is to impress impressionable Indians - not least villagers - with the luxuriant show and flaunted opulence. Yet Indian newspapers are scared to remark on the hypocrisy in all this - that a supposed avatar of Vishnu wastes so much on his own aggrandizement.
Posted in Cults, Gurus, India, Propaganda, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: Prashanthi Nilayam, Sathya Sai Baba birthday | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 21, 2008
Sai Baba with his ritual priests - saving the world?
See how the current situation in India with its calamitous dollar-a-day poverty and vast and heinous social injustices demonstrates the utter failure of Sathya Sai Baba’s boast that he has come to set Indian right and then save the rest of the countries of the world - in short humanity itself! His famous assertion, made in the 1960s to Dr. John Hislop, that India is the engine that alone is capable of drawing all other countries after it towards a moral world is among the very least convincing of Sathya Sai Baba’s many wild prophesies. It smacks strongly of a chauvinistic nationalism that might be characterised ‘Indien Uber Alles’. Absurdly enough, Sai Baba blames the current decline in India and the world as based wholly on the decline in the practices of sacred rituals (yagnas and yagas) as being the main cause of all the troubles of humanity!
Things in India are getting worse for the masses - who are yet further away from the conveniences that the top castes enjoy. Suicides of farmers in the thousands, unable to make ends meet. No social security or health care available to the vast majority - that means 800 million people. This (despite Sathya Sai Baba’s devotee-financed hospitals which seem to cater mostly for his devotees from India and abroad. Meanwhile he celebrates himself with the most lavish use of funds at every occasion, especially his birthdays and through museums devoted to his supposed “glory”.
Take for example the following very recent ceremony where Sathya Sai Baba lorded it over all in a vastly ostentatious Golden Chariot (yet with his invalid chair on it) oversaw the ritual offerings of butter, gemstones etc. (yagnas) to the Gods (who are superfluous since he is all of them rolled into one, if his constant boasts are to be believed). The sickeningly absurd statements made about are exemplified by the following:-
Sai Baba yajna 17 Nov. 2008
“Going by the Hindu scripture, a human being crossing 83 years in his physical frame is a remarkably significant occasion. This occasion comes with a greater import when he is supposedly sighting the moon the 1000th time during his physical sojourn. For the mortals it entails a greater significance. But, how does it signify, when it comes to The One who is credited with the onus of entire creation? An answer to this would come when Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the Lord walking on two feet is crossing this humanly attributed mile stone, as His physical frame is touching the 83rd year of His glorious sojourn on planet earth.”
See ‘Rich and Poor In India’
Posted in Cults, Gurus, India, Propaganda, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: Sai Baba birthday, Indian poverty, dollar-a-day | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 20, 2008
Among various attempts by Sathya Sai Baba, his organization etc. to get him international recognition and awards, are two most embarassing incidents, embarrassing for a person who claims to be the Omnipotent Creator of the Universe and MUCH MORE TOO! These incidents were:-
1) Sai Baba’ own announcement that the man who awards the Nobel Peace prize was visiting him! (See extensive coverage of this below here)
2) The failed attempt to sneak a Duke of Edinburgh Award for Sathya Sai Baba - much publicised by his chief propagandist Dr. G. Venkataraman see here.
Sai Baba used a known imposter to pretend he’d get a Nobel Peace Prize!
Sathya Sai Baba ill-concealed desire to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was backed by Prime Minister Vajpayee’s Indian Government! The hope for this was strongly hinted at by the Sai Baba himself, saying: in his 18 November 2001 Discourse “They are giving the Nobel Prize to many people. The man who gives the Nobel Prize is coming here on the 22nd November. The ones who will show this to the whole world, TV people, are all coming here on the 22nd.” How could Sanathana Sarathi publish such embarassing ignorance? Doubtless because the editors do not yet realise to what extent Sathya Sai Baba has - due to his own words and actions - become notorious in wider world, not famous.
The Times of India reported (24-11-2001) making massive factual errors: “Dr Michael Nobel, Head of the Nobel Institution and Director, Worldspace, told the Times of India, the things that Baba has done is simply amazing and this channel will spread his message to the world. He said there would be an explosion of his teachings. I am confident it will have a lasting impact. Dr Nobel said the channel now offers the reach to take his message to billions in the world.”
The imposter “Dr. Michael Nobel”
Michael Nobel is neither the son nor the grandson of Alfred Nobel but is his great grandnephew. He is not the Head of the Nobel Institution - was actually an executive of a foreign company contracted by the Sathya Sai Organization to set up the ‘Sai Global Harmony’ satellite radio station! In short - he was in the pay of Sai Baba. More than that, he has been rejected as an imposter by the genuine Swedish Nobel Foundation (see Wikipedia) quote: “Michael Nobel was born as Michael Oleinikoff. Michael’s father Sven Oleinikoff changed to his mother’s maiden name Nobel, and subsequently, so did Michael. Michael has (as of June 2008) not abide by the advice of the Nobel foundation and the Nobel family head, but continues his efforts to establish a new prize in his own (taken) name. Furthermore, on the 10th of October, 2008, Michael Nobel gave a talk, where transcripts of his speech falsely attributes him to be representing the “Nobel Peace Foundation”.
But despite this billions of the world population remain in blissful ignorance of Sathya Sai Baba and his message today, as can be seen by the virtual total lack of coverage in current serious - or even popular - media [outside India, where Sai devotees actually rule the country]. Dr. Michael Nobel is involved with the administration of an appeal body supported by some Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. to collect funds for peace purposes. This is in no way connected to any Nobel Prize-giving Committee. Dr. Michael Nobel and the organization he promotes received a hard rap over the knuckles as follows: “…the organizers received a disturbing fax from The Nobel Foundation in Sweden. It advised them that Mr. Nobel had been voted out as head of the Nobel Family Society at a meeting in August of 2006 “mainly because of his unauthorized activities and involvements in the name of the Nobel Family Society.” And it threatened legal action against those involved in creating “The Dr. Michael Nobel Award”, as Mr. Nobel had indicated it was to be named.” (The Nobel Prize that Wasn’t – New York Times)
No ‘man gives the Nobel Prize’ - only the Norwegian Nobel committee does
The Nobel Peace Prize award is the sole preserve of the Norwegian Government. Famously, the cosmopolitan Alfred Nobel would not trust his countrymen (the Swedish authorities) with such a task and ensured that a Peace Prize Committee was to be elected by the Norwegian Government, their decision being final. Norwegian professors of philosophy are the only persons allowed to forward a candidate (apart from national States). The Norwegian Committee have been informed privately about the dark sides of Sathya Sai Baba and his shady involvements, and the 1 hour Danish documentary ‘Seduced’ about Sathya Sai Baba’s fraudulence and the sex abuse allegations was shown three times on prime time on Norwegian National Television (NRK).
The moral standing of anyone who may receive the Peace Prize must be beyond suspicion and crispy clean to a degree which Sathya Sai Baba is most certainly not (involved in murders and their cover-up, widely accused of sexual abuse of young men and minors. Further, how could the Norwegian Nobel Committee award it to anyone who supports those of the Indian Government who vastly increase militarism in their arms race with Pakistan and China and are developing their nuclear arsenal? Sathya Sai Baba’s patronage during 20 years in his ashram of the ‘father’ of India’s atomic bomb (Dr. Bhagavantam, deceased) and his warm personal and public support with the designer of the latest nuclear delivery missiles are disqualifying facts in themselves.
(See Sai Baba’s discourse about Dr. M. Nobel here)
Posted in Cults, Famous people, Guru Cult, Indian Government, Personality Cult, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, arms race, nuclear weapons | Tagged: Dr. Michael Nobel, Duke of Edinburgh Award, Nobel Peace Prize | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 19, 2008
Sathya Sai Baba preaches - but never really teaches - because his ideas are too vague, over-generalised and often in conflict with fact and proved theory. In common with other sects and cults in other religions, he relies most heavily on countless abstractions which are woven into a traditional dogma to try to make people believe in many things which are sheer superstition, speculation and have no counterpart in real life. This is using the power of the belief in otherworldly realms (the existence of which is unproven and doubtful in the extreme) to try to control people - a most unrealistic way to try to solve the world’s conflict problems (which conflicts no religion so far seems ever to have solved, but which they have often caused and aggravated). Like many universal religious and also political abstractions, these ideas lend themselves to authoritarian agendas to obtain social control and manipulative power and turn out to function as subtle ways as a means of control and manipulation in religious or ’spiritual’ sects and cults..
TWO KEY RELIGIOUS IDEAS CRITICALLY EXAMINED
Love, love, love… meaning what exactly? The concept of eternal, unconditional love… a dream!
Read what is wrong with the impracticable and delusory idea of ‘love’ as ‘eternal’ in Sathya Sai Baba’s “teachings”
The idea of Unity (as in unity with all beings, God etc.) is highly misleading when used to set up behavioural ideals from which to measure, judge (and denigrate) the unique individual and the diversity of life.
Read what religious ideas of ‘unity’ are misused as constantly preached by Sathya Sai Baba’s in simplistic and unworkable otherworldly ways.
Posted in Gurus, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, Spirituality, World religions | Tagged: Love, Eternal love, Oneness, Unity | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 18, 2008
Time for Indian Government leaders to take to their senses:
The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and his Minister for Home Affairs (Shivraj Patil) are known devotees of Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, who they visit and show the utmost respect. A man who has for decades repeatedly claimed he is God Incarnate (which is illegal in India anyhow), Sathya Sai Baba clearly stated (or example) on the BBC film ‘The Secret Swami’ that he created 3-ton golden lingam (size and shape of an egg) within his stomach and regurgitated it (though it was clearly seen to be a faked show and the lingam was then placed on a flimsy table without it collapsing!). Is it not time for these supposedly educated people to begin to examine the many facts about the ignorance and deceptions of this imposter “Creator of the Universe”? While this preposterous unspoken embarrassment to intelligent Indians and visiting statesmen from non-Hindu countries persists, how can its leaders really be taken by the world to be seriously responsible people?
Click to enlarge
Nothing can absolve Sathya Sai Baba from having been involved in the gruesome murder incidents in his bedroom apartment in June 1993, where he fled his apartment and stood nearby and never intervened to save the four who were executed by the blackmailed police. None of the six murders were ever cleared up because his followers, then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Home Minister S.B. Chavan quashed the CBI investigation when it began to near a result (See here).
Neither this - nor many substantial sex allegations against Sathya Sai Baba - stopped the Indian Government under A.B. Vajpayee - a long-term devotee himself - from proposing him for the Nobel Peace Prize! Such wishful ignorance of international standards of judgement is near incredible by a Prime Minister who defended Sai Baba without have made the slightest investigation of the massive evidence (as proven by B. Premanand’s tortuous correspondence with the dissembling authorities see Premanand challenges Vajpayee to come clean.
The practice of human values and the moral standing of anyone who is seriously considered for the Nobel peace Prize must be impeccable, and it is laughable that Sathya Sai Baba actually believed he would get it, as he made totally ill-informed claims that a certain Dr. Nobel was the many who gave it out was visiting him (he is the great grandson of Alfred Nobel and has no role in any Nobel Prizes whatever! See here)
Sathya Sai Baba (mostly passively) supports the vastly increasing militarism and nuclear arsenal of the Indian Government through patronising the designer of atomic weapons (Dr. Bhagavantam, deceased) and hobnobbing in most friendly fashion in public with the designer of the latest nuclear delivery missiles.
Shivraj Patil is a regular visitor to Sathya Sai Baba - see for example here
See short video clip (1MB) of Sathya Sai Baba explaining the three ton lingam!
Posted in Gurus, Heavy News Insider, Indian Government, Miracles, Personality Cult, Puttaparthi, Sathya Sai Baba, nuclear weapons | Tagged: Dr. Bhagavantam, Manmohan Singh, S.B. Chavan, Shivraj Patil, Vajpayee | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 17, 2008
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“In the days ahead, the whole world will be obliged to come to Prashanthi Nilayam”
(p. 320 Sanathana Sarathi December 1991)
Sathya Sai Baba’s bombastic boast that the “whole world” will be “obliged” to visit his ashram in Puttaparthi (i.e. because of himself) is obviously totally invalid. It is only correct to say that some individuals from most countries of the world have visited… and now the visitors from abroad have dropped off most considerably (the reasons being obvious). Considerably more of the world visitors to Indian gurus nowadays go to such venues as Ravi Shankar’s ‘Art of Living’ centre, or the ashram of Amma the ‘Hugging Mother’.
The Sathya Sai Airport cannot accommodate the whole world even were it to stand for 100 years… it has long been a failed airport and is up for sale with sweetener inducements like free land for property development, but there are no buyers after a year on the market. Sathya Sai Baba cannot even buck the market! It was built at great expense to the Indian taxpayer in 1990 through the intervention of a Government official (Civil Aviation Secretary) and long-term Sai devotee, Mr. M.K. Kaw, was unused for years - then very little used (for visiting devotees) until the present.
There has indeed been a ‘divine downfall’ since 1999. This decline or “Divine Downfall” (to use the title of author and journalist Mick Brown’s Telegraph article) continues despite hundreds of Sai-propaganda web pages numerous sites, blogs, constant world-wide radio broadcasts via Sai Global Harmony and WorldSpace International Satellite Radio Service.
Before the world-wide furore about Sathya Sai Baba’s genital oilings and sexual abuses broke on the Internet in 1999, many prominent newspapers around the world carried articles about what a holy man Sathya Sai Baba was. If his devotees were gullible it was because they were being so thoroughly and cleverly deceived. The even the Observer and the Times had once carried two-page spreads heralding him in such terms as “one of the most impressive holy men of the age”. After airing of the BBC documentary ‘The Secret Swami, both papers became nothing but highly critical of him. Indian newspapers were - but still are - among the worst offenders in this pro-Sai propaganda. True, he once had prominent visitors from many countries - Presidents and Prime Ministers (Italy, Fiji, Mauritius, Nepal, Sri Lanka) - and from several European royal families (including the Duchess of York Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson) and from the ruling elites of several nations of the world. UNESCO even arranged to partake officially in an Educational Conference in his ashram, but dropped it like a hot potato when they investigated the sex abuse allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, after contacting some of the alleging victims.
Since UNESCO made their statement of withdrawal and its reasons public, no United Nations organization has had anything to do with him, despite major and signally unsuccessful efforts by his representatives in the Indian government and among mega-rich and/or influential supporters in the USA (eg. Dr. Michael Goldstein, Dr. William Harvey etc.)
Read also The Sathya Sai White Elephant airport
Mick Brown: Divine Downfall - Sunday Telegraph
UNESCO withdrawal from Sathya Sai Baba’s Educational Conference
More to come on the demise of the international Sai movement in my next blog
Posted in Cults, Famous people, Gurus, Islam, Personality Cult, Religious sex abuse, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: Prashanthi Nilayam, Golden Age, Sathya Sai Airport, M.K. Kaw | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 14, 2008
Sai Baba, the well known Hindu spiritual teacher, who has a following of millions around the world, is facing charges of sexual abuse. The accusers assert that Baba has made many of his male devotees engage in sexual practices with him. Journalist Alejandro Agostinelli investigated the certainty of these charges. by Alejandro Agnostelli
Under the title ‘Divine Sin’, Agnostelli relates the evidence which emerged in Argentina and was presented on two TV programmes by Azul TV. The Latin American Coordinator of the Sathya Sai Organization, plus the US leaders Dr. Michael Goldstein and Dr. William M. Harvey were present as apologists for Sai Baba. They were confronted by Conny Larsson - an alleging victim of sexual abuses by Sai Baba - and others over the sexual abuse of boys young men.
Sathya Sai Baba critics and apologists
The defenders of Sathya Sai Baba made some absurd claims which were never backed up by events - perhaps the chief one of which was that the then US Presidential Candidate, Al Gore, was about to declare his support for Sathya Sai Baba. This would have been MOST unfavourable for him… and he has still not made the slightest mention of Sathya Sai Baba. He must have realised how damaging association with Sai Baba will always be!
It was even claimed that Sathya Sai Baba has assured his devotees that he had protected them from being in the World Trade Centre when the terrorist attack took place! Following this unfounded belief, the US Sathya Sai Organization used all its muscle with prominent figures in St. Louis and Chicago to introduce a Sathya Sai Baba day on September 11. One might think this very significant - that a big city allows a day to be named, but the Mayor’s office told us that over 200 days in St. Louis were official name days for one or another organization. In any case, it was a most untactful, distasteful demonstration . How could these people not realise what an outright provocation this is to the families, friends and co-workers of those who died - who Sathya Sai Baba did not deem worthy to be saved - claiming, as he does, to be God Incarnate with complete omnipotence, ruling over life and death and the Universe he has insistently claimed he created!
See further documentation of the Sathya Sai Organizations’ meeting in St Louis and Dr, Jack Feely’s report on proceedings here
Posted in Guru Cult, Materialization, Personality Cult, Religious sex abuse, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Organization | Tagged: Alejandro Agnostelli, Conny Larsson, Dr. Michael Goldstein, Dr. William Harvey, Leonard Gutter | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 12, 2008
Sathya Sai Baba has claimed that he does not invite anyone to come to see him… however, his published words and frequent invitations in interviews belie this entirely (as do internal Sathya Sai Organization circulars through the years - asking all members of the Organization to attend his major birthday celebrations):-
“Come empty-handed, or what am I to fill them with?” Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 2 p.156 (Answer ‘A pinch of ash, or a laddu, if you’re ‘lucky’)
“Come, examine, experience” Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 4 p. 227 (Comment: But don’t dig too deep or question him in any way)
“If you feel that you too must have the experience or else you will not believe, well, come and experience.” Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 3 p. 198 (Comment: But seek knowledge, facts and tangible truth instead of mere belief) “Why fear when I am here? Come unto Me all ye who suffer!” Baba assures us” (Chapter 17) p. 220 Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram Vol. 3 (see here) (Comment -plenty to fear, as many have learned…. murders and abuses diverse)
Come with empty hands…” p. 123 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 2
“Come without full hands, or how can I fill them” p, 123 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 2
If you believe that you can get anything worthwhile out of a visit, you will surely be sorely disappointed. Sathya Sai Baba has very little contact with the visitors and is mostly wheel-chair bound. You will experience the ananda (bliss) of endless waiting, being ordered about by imperious officials, being closely body searched at every event (men and women), being pushed by uncouth villagers and sitting the distorted and boring repetitive and wandering discourse - most likely. Watch out for thieves of sandals and luggage, pickpockets, and not least the police - who are reportedly much less friendly to foreigners than they even were before.
V.K. Narasimhan told me that, whenever a round number birthday comes round, all the residents dread it. There have regularly been epidemics of dysentry and stomach infections, and large outbreaks of chest and thoat infections due to the dust that is raised (sometimes to the height of several metres).
The conditions in the ashram and Puttaparthi last month are described in some detail and rather objectively by Brian Steel, who visited to see the state of affairs (not to see Sathya Sai Baba!).
Steel visited the gaudy ‘Chaitanya Jyoti’ museum, where he noted the prophesies about the greatness of Sai Baba, including the infamous faked ‘prophesy’ of the Islamic Mehdi Moud coming as Sathya Sai Baba, for whom Muslims are said by this bogus text not to be ready due to the depths of their sin, is exposed very thoroughly - However, he noted that the false Arabic text which he had got professionally translated and found to state quite other things than the ‘translation’ gave, has been surreptitiously removed! This damage limitation is useless really, as what they have falsely claimed is already long since recorded for posterity, and the Sathya Sai Organization has failed to correct many other proven errors of both a major and minor kind. The reputation of Sathya Sai Baba as a truth merchant is in tatters, and so is that of his Organization too. See The “Mehdi Moud” Prophecy Revisited
Recent Research on the Claims of Sathya Sai Baba is found at Steel’s website, where one finds well-researched articles on the Sathya Sai Baba phenomenon. Such as Fuzzy Dates in the Official Biography of Sathya Sai Baba. A Re-examination
Steel’s blogsite also has themes related to Sathya Sai Baba: http://briansteel.wordpress.com/
See also report on major Sathya Sai Birthday celebrations of the past here
Posted in India | 1 Comment »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 9, 2008
Sathya Sai Baba actually repeatedly asked V.K. Narasimhan - against his own will - to write in the press in the defence of the Sathya Sai Central Trust after the corruption allegations, which Narasimhan eventually did despite his own strong misgivings, in The Tribune/Chandigath, of which his son was the editor at that time). Baba said to him several times that he could easily refute the allegations in his previous papers, The Hindu or the Indian Express.
Narasimhan said to me that Baba would not listen when he told him that the editors regard Narasimhan as partial and would not publish anything he wrote. Baba insisted, and so Narasimhan sent his contributions, which were duly rejected from those papers. He told me that, though he had written other than he considered to be the truth, he had done ‘his filial duty’ towards Baba. (see here) He freely admitted the difficulty of his position, but felt that overall Sathya Sai Baba did represent some progress in education and health, compared with the increasingly stagnant, ineffectual and corrupt governments that ruled India in recent times.
V.K. Narasimhan and Robert Priddy - 1998
Though Sathya Sai Baba promised him a free hand when he initially became editor of Sanathana Sarathi, he soon found that the limits set upon him were very rigorous. He could not go against Sai Baba - the emperor of Prashanthi Nilayam - and was punished when once he did so. He had to reproduce the glowing accounts of festivals and Sai Baba’s effect on people which had become de rigeur well before his time, and he even penned some himself. He became gradually more and more dependent on life at the ashram in his dotage - his wife being a total devotee who would never leave the ashram - and the attention he received from Sai Baba, his students and visitors gave him a life of popularity after retirement. He told me how he had become trapped there, that he really did not belong and that he doubted many of Sai Baba’s claims. See here
Posted in Cults, Famous people, Guru Cult, Gurus, Propaganda, Puttaparthi, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: V.K. Narasimhan | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 7, 2008
Sathya Sai Baba in very recent times
The person who claims to be God Incarnate, the Father who sent Jesus, the Deity of Deities, he at whose feet every prayer eventually arrives whichever God to whom it is addressed is this unsympathetic individual… who so many worship as the Avatar of the Age, Saviour of Mankind and every other concievable good thing. Does he really look the part? Or has not his appearance begun to reflect his true nature. Who cannot see that he has aged - despite his constantly saying (in earlier years!) that he can never age?
Posted in Cults, Godmen, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: Sai baba photos | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 6, 2008
V.K. Narasimhan with one eye blind
New entry from my scanned diary notes for 1998 at Prashanthi Nilayam posted here, which cover:-
1) On the cesspool near the North blocks which cause horrific nauseating stinks for hours every day plus comments on how the money collected to solve this problem was misappropriated by ashram officials. See here
2) V.K. Narasimhan’s difficulty in working with his one remaining eye and his hope of getting specialist optician help from UK see
3) The return of banned Alvin Drucker to Prashanti, apparently in disguise, for the Paduka (sandal worship) ceremony
4) Narasimhan’s satisfaction at the demotion from Sai’s ‘Grace’ of N. Suri, the rogue Convener of the SSS Books and publications Trust. See here
5) The illness of Damodar Rao (to which he eventually succumbed) and his view on how to punish child sexual abuse
Posted in Cults, Guru Cult, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: Al Drucker, Convener, Damodar Rao, N. Suri, Prashanthi Nilayam, Sathya Sai Book Trust, V.K. Narasimhan | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 5, 2008
There can be a major difference between telling facts truthfully and knowing what is true. A witness who has been unknowingly misled - or who eagerly trusted and believed may tell of an experience most honestly, but this may well still misrepresent the actual states of affairs. Someone can be truthful about their subjective experiences, while these experiences may remain very far from penetrating to the truth of things. Not only may the experience be the result of framed and mind-distorted perceptions but it may conflict with the evidence both of systematic investigation, collective experience, factual knowledge and reason.
In the case of Sathya Sai Baba, very considerable investigation is invariably required to remove or dispel mere appearances, the more so when secrecy is always the order of the day concerning his actual behaviour most of the time. Faced by concerted conscious deception, cover-up and deceit, it is very hard to get to the true state of affairs. For those who have developed the ‘true believer’ and blinkered self-programming and self-denigrating mentality of an emotional and dependent devotee, the task is almost insuperable. It require a figurative ’smashing of the mirror’ of one’s own preconceptions and even a dear part of one’s self-image (i.e. that one could be dcceived so long and so much).
Some examples of the results of this in my own case are seen here
Posted in Cults, Godmen, Guru Cult, Gurus, Mind control, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 4, 2008
V.K. Narasimhan 1998
V.K. Narasimhan told me that Sathya Sai Baba had once, during a discourse, said words to the effect that, if a man’s son did not obey his father (in some matter?) it would be better that his father poison him, These words were printed in the Telugu version, but Narasimhan omitted them from the English version. Baba later explained that there had been a man in the audience who has been suffering terrible guilt because he had actually poisoned his son. Baba had said those words for his benefit only. (See scan of notes recored at the time VKN told me)
Sathya Sai Baba thereby condoned in public for (an overwhelmingly Indian) audience that a many can poison a son who does not obey him! What does this say of his pretensions to the human value of ‘non-violence’ (ahimsa)? Would Mahatma Gandhi have condoned the same… by no means under any circumstances. Once more the hypocrisy is shown! This is the kind of thing a coarse Puttaparthi villager might do… and it surely shows more about Sathya Sai Baba’s low origin better than all his ehortations to others.
Posted in Cults, Gurus, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, Spirituality | Tagged: V.K. Narasimhan | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 4, 2008
V.K. Narasimhan told me that Baba had once, during a discourse, said words to the effect that, if a man’s son did not obey his father (in some matter?) it would be better that his father poison him, These words were printed in the Telugu version, but Narasimhan omitted them from the English version. Sai Baba later explained that there had been a man in the audience who has been suffering terrible guilt because he had actually poisoned his son. Baba had said those words for his benefit only.
V.K. Narasimhan informed me in 1992 that, when Dr. Samuel Sandweiss had tried to interest 120 psychiatrists to come to Prashanthi (please note: the word ‘Russians’ was mistakenly inserted in place of psychictrists in a previous version of this text, but it was apparently Sai Baba who made the mistake of thinking them Russian), only 12 had actually planned to come, though even they did not arrive. (The 12 who wanted to come were stopped in Delhi because they would not accept the ordinary tourist visas they were offered, for - being invited delegates to an Indian psychiatric conference - they were expecting official treatment instead.) However, after hearing of the 120 psychiatrists from Sandweiss in the interview room, Swami Himself announced on the porch outside to students and others that 120 ‘Russians’(?) were coming. Sandweiss told Baba of his mistake, who became very angry indeed and immediately sent Sandweiss packing direct back to the U.S. (Narasimhan himself observed this incident).
Deranged shrink
When the President of the U.S. Sathya Sai Society, Dr. John Hislop, had circulated to top Sai officials in the US the infamous letters concerning the reported male sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba, he asked them to destroy after reading and he wrote: “How I wish this whole matter would drop lifeless and never breathe again!” He also suggested that Dr. Samuel Sandweiss should be asked to ‘describe escape mechanisms’ with a view to explaining away the highly credible allegations of male sexual abuse by Sathya Sai baba he had been informed of from various people. This is like giving a prosecutor the right to take over the defense attorney… because Sandweiss has fully exposed himself as the most partisan and fully self-brainwashed Sai follower as anyone, a ‘true believer’ in massive psychological denial and with many symptom of a serious cognitive disorder which has built up over decades and which he evidently cannot transcend.
Read about the infamous letters here and/or See scans of the Hislop letters here
See also definitive rebuttal by affidavit of uninformed slanderer who claimed the letters are falsifications here
Posted in Cults, Godmen, Gurus, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, Spirituality | Tagged: Dr. John Hislop, Dr. Samuel Sandweiss, Sathya Sai Society | 1 Comment »
Posted by robertpriddy on November 2, 2008
Sathya Sai Baba is reported by Kasturi as having fetched the one-time dacoit, Kumar, from a group of bandits who he surprised in the hills in his younger days. He made Kumar his main gate watchman at Prashanthi Nilayam. Kumar was known as a very offensive person towards all poor Indian visitors, and also to foreigners - for he once locked an American girl in his concrete hut for over 24 hours for infringing some petty rule of the ashram. Kumar was killed in early 1987. Two different accounts of this have circulated.
One account holds that his big toe was bitten off by an enemy who pretended to make up with him, a Shiva priest who asked to take padnamaskaar of him (i.e. touch his feet) while sitting on the bench before the accommodation office. It was said that he was refused entry to the small Sai hospital and died, allegedly of shock, within three days in Bangalore. This is the more credible account, which I heard personally from a Malaysian resident and an Anglo-Indian friend at the time, Alfred Brinnand in Prashanthi just a day or so after the event.
The other account - told me much later - in 1996 - by Mr. V. Ramnath of the Indian Administrative Service, was that Kumar was killed by a cook in the Prashanthi Nilayam Indian canteen who Kumar had been harassing very badly, supposedly with a large kitchen knife in self-defence - Kumar had reportedly assaulted him in the grounds of Baba’s parents’ mausoleum in Puttaparthi.
In both reports, however, the guilty party went straight to Sathya Sai Baba to beg forgiveness. He was given money (either by Sathya Sai Baba himself or by the ashram staff?) and told to leave the ashram and to stay in some village until further notice. The person later returned to the ashram as usual. No one was arrested or charged with the killing. Which account is true, or whether both incidents occurred (perhaps in sequence), is not known to me.
Subsequently, when Kumar’s rooms in the small watchman building just inside the ‘gopuram’ gate was cleared, 50,000 rupees in small denominations were found behind the picture of Baba. This money had been extorted from visitors to the ashram, mostly poor Indians. Kumar was known for aggressive behaviour, using his stick on defenceless visitors and also on beggars etc. and had become a general tyrant, having made a lot of enemies within the ashram and outside.
After this discovery, Baba was visibly furious with the then head of ashram (Kutumb Rao) and his assistant (Chiranjia Rao) when they approached him on the veranda.
Such is life at Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘Abode of Supreme Peace’ (”Prashanthi Nilayam”) - not forgetting the infamous murders in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom on June 6th 1993!
Posted in Crime and Corruption, Cults, Gurus, Personality Cult, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: Prashanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on September 11, 2007
DR. M. GOLDSTEIN MAKES THE MOST TASTELESS AFFRONT TO 9/11 VICTIMS EVER?
In a live TV programme on Zona de Investigacion (Azul TV, Argentina), Dr. Michael Goldstein is reported on by the Argentian journalist and TV director, Agnostelli as follows: Dr. Goldstein “gave some news that left the sweating audience mute: On September 11, the devotees that worked at the Twin Towers and the Pentagon didn’t go to work that day or were late getting to their jobs. ‘Thanks to our beloved Bhagavan,’ pontificated Goldstein, ‘all the New York and Washington devotees are safe.’ I shuddered to think that the public might applaud the news. But nobody did. Baba’s divine powers only benefit those faithful to him, or was this news passed on to avoid more desertions?”
Dr. M. Goldstein - Leonardo Gutter
In the same programme, Leonard Gutter, Central Coordinator of the South American Sathya Sai Organizations, said: “Baba’s love encompasses all: There were 50,000 people working at the Towers and only 3,000 died; then Baba saved 47,000, not only devotees. Each person has his own karma: that was the destiny of those who died there.”
The TV programme’s 1st part is transcribed here.
The sheer callous indecency of these wild conjectures by Dr. Goldstein and Leonardo Gutter towards all those whose dear ones dies in that catastrophe would be hard to surpass. It shows a total lack of judgement and blind faith beyond all reason, not in the least uncommon among Sathya Sai followers and his defenders (as on the Internet). See more about Dr. M. Goldstein here.
The grotesque hard sell of Sathya Sai as connected to 9/11 in the US
Dr. William Harvey, a member of the top policy-making ‘Prashanthi Council’ of the International Sathya Sai Organization spoke at the Sai Public Meeting in St. Louis, September 11, 2005, prematurely - and for no valid calendar reasons - celebrating Sathya Sai Baba’s 80th birthday (11/23) and the announcement of the Mayor that 9/11 is offically Sathya Sai Baba day in St. Louis! (see here) and see the report of Dr. Jack Feely, Regional President, Mid-Central Region US here)
Dr. W.M. Harvey
The report stated: “The program was held at the 1904 World’s Fair Pavilion, a magnificent open-air shelter in the center of Forest Park. The 1300-acre park, considered the “Crown Jewel” of the city, was a picturesque setting worthy of a public program about Sathya Sai Baba, the Divine Crown Jewel of the universe.”The Sai Organization announced at great length its many efforts to get publicity, as in the following short example: “Personal letters of invitation went out to 49 professors of philosophy and theological studies of the major universities and colleges in the area, followed up with telephone message reminders. Press releases went to the major TV and radio stations, along with the major newspapers. Quarter-page ads promoting the meeting were put in a widely distributed spiritually oriented newspaper. That same paper accepted a 700-page article about Sathya Sai Baba and His teachings.”
(Comment: Seven hundred pages seems a bit over the top! It would take 49 philosophy professors to do that job on short notice? But how many attended or supported this scandalous misuse of September 11 to propagandise for an Indian fraud accused of sex abuses and murder cover-up? Ah now, there you have it!). The result has hardly been earth-shaking. Naively and without joking, Dr. Feely informed of the selfless service provided to participants as follows: “ Cold bottled water, served to attendees throughout the program, offered physical comfort that added to the spiritual comfort the speakers’ words provided.”
Further links about the Argentinian TV programme, see here and here
See also this new article at http://barrypittard.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/memories-of-911-discredit-sai-baba-and-his-global-cult/
Posted in Cultism, Cults, Deism, Godmen, Gurus, Miracles, Propaganda, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai, September 11, catastrophe theory | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on January 30, 2008
The Sai Baba propaganda and misinformation machine continues to make much of a prophesy said to be found “In an ancient Arabic book by name “Mehdi Moud” in which the prophesies made by Prophet Mohammed were recorded many centuries ago, it was mentioned that God Himself would descend on earth in human form…” (quoted from saibabaofindia.com website)
See what the saibaba of india web site states on-line… or read this excerpt:- “His hair will be profuse [etc. etc.. .]” and ”He will live for 95 years on earth. In the last twenty years of His life time He will be the king of the whole world but at that time (A.D. 2000) only two-thirds of the world will believe Him. Muslims will only recognise Him nine years before His passing away from the world”.
However, the said book is not known or shown to exist anywhere and the translation recognised by the Sai ashram (and quoted in the Chaitanya Jyothi Sai Baba Museum) is a faked translation of Persian prophetic texts as shown there!! Worse yet, the prophesy is ALREADY shown to be false, because Sathya Sai Baba has definitely NOT been recognised as “King of the World” since year 2000 and nobody except a lunatic believes that two-thirds of the world population believed in him from year 2000!
The fake Mohammed prophesy is but one of at least a dozen false or baseless statements constantly propagated by official Sai Baba cadres, and his Sathya Sai Organization and numerous pro-Sai web sites. These include repeated claims of anything from 60 million to 600 million followers and of a regeneration project for 6000 villages in India from 1984, which was a total fiasco and was never realised. But still these falsehoods are repeated by those who should know better. Much more excessive claims are made by Sai Baba himself, of course (see Sai Baba Pronouncements on himself). Utterly ridiculous self-enhancing megalomania surpassing that of any other would-be God Almighty since history began!
Posted in India, New Age, Prophesy, Sathya Sai, Spirituality, World religions | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on October 26, 2008
D. Michael Goldstein
Dr. M. Goldstein, leader of the International Sathya Sai Organization was mailed by many devotees who wanted answers to questions about the widespread sexual abuses attributed by young men and their families to Sathya Sai Baba. He did not make any reply to anyone. He was therefore caught out by the BBC, which used a hidden camera to bring to the public his view on those allegations, whereby he showed himself to be an ugly bully and a totally incompetent boaster about his intuitive abilities to tell whether anyone had been abused just by looking at them! He even holds a medical degree! Some questions put to him by Barry Pittard, which he dared not mention - let alone answer - were as follows:-
1. Those formerly in excellent standing with your organization have left it?
2. That they had made their own investigations among the families, claiming that their young male family members had given very disturbing accounts of Sathya Sai Baba sexually abusing them?
3. They came to you, Dr Goldstein, in great distress and you dismissed their concerns and failed to act in a way that any ethical organization today would do? (Not to mention that you are a medical doctor)
4. There were extensive cover-ups regarding the June 6, 1993 killings in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom?
5. There have been serious scams over the years in regard to the purchase by devotees of apartments at your guru’s ashram?
6. Your teacher claims not only that all are God but the he is the world saviour who will save the whole world from the direst catastrophes within the span of his own lifetime?
See also the unanswered formal appeal to the Prashanthi Council, chaired by Dr. Michael Goldstein
and Goldstein’s chilling remarks on the 9/11 disaster
Posted in BBC, Cultism, Guru Cult, Gurus, Religious sex abuse, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: Sathya Sai Organization, Dr. M. Goldstein | 1 Comment »
Posted by robertpriddy on October 27, 2008
Boogaards
Wet ash from Sathya Sai Baba’s mouth?
A Dutch friend of mine, now deceased, was Leo Boogaard (formerly National Coordinator of the SSO in the Netherlands,). Once he received vibuthi from the hand of Sathya Sai Baba at darshan at Puttaparthi when I was with him. However, this so-called ‘holy ash’ was literally wet. It slopped into his palm. Her was very surprised by this and showed it to me after darshan (i.e. where the guru shows himself in public). This tends strongly to support the claim made by some magicians who have studied Sathya Sai Baba’s methods, that he also sometimes conceals pellets in his mouth! No follower would even THINK such a thought as ‘blasphemous’ as vibuthi being concealed in his mouth by Sathya Sai Baba, for delivery wet with saliva to a devotee at darshan. I did not even think this until a long while after I had become disaffected and had begun to realise that Sai Baba often uses many techniques that illusionists do.
Leo Boogaard was the Chairman of the Dutch Sathya Sai Organization in 1984, but he was sacked by the Central Coordinator Thorbjorn Meyer because he refused to exclude certain groups of Indian and Sri Lankan devotees from the organization who did not follow Meyer’s strict rules. Meyer replaced him with one of his cronies. Later, when re-election for the post was eventually arranged, Leo was voted in by a large majority against Thorbjørn Meyer’s opposition by Dutch devotees.
Failed Education in Sathya Sai Human Values in Europe
Leo told me on several occasions in the 1990s of the Dutch Organization’s attempts to get a more sensible set of guidelines and teaching methods accepted on Education in Human Values in the Sathya Sai Organization. Meyer wanted to determine everything himself (a man who had no pedagogical qualifications and was a tough manipulator of people), so the self-defeating policy he pursued was retained. Among Meyer’s “achievements” was the signal failure of a projected Sathya Sai College and ‘Educare’ programme under his leadership which was to be at Arresødal Castle in Copenhagen was rejected by a public protest movement! The US financed 6 million dollar project had to be abandoned! Leo Boogaard left the Sathya Sai Organization and later renounced Sathya Sai Baba too.
Some Details of Leo’s life (see also Wikipedia):
Leonardus Eliza Christiaan (Leo) Boogaard Sr. (The Hague, April 22, 1928 - The Hague, July 12, 1999) was a Dutch politician. Boogaard was one from the business (BPM and Shell) derived Ouderenvertegenwoordiger, who as manager also spent years abroad, not least as Personell Officer for Shell in Willemstad, Curacao. He retired in 1984 and in 1994 he was Second Chamber for the General Elderly Association. He chose in 1995 the part of Jet Nijpels when a break in the AOV group came. In the Court he was concerned with foreign affairs, social affairs, agriculture and justice. He had remarkable interest in Eastern philosophy. He left the House in 1996 because of his health.
The failures of Sathya Sai Education in Northern Europe and the reasons are also discussed here.
The Arresdødal School fiasco was reported in the Danish National TV documentary ‘Seduced’, which can be viewed here
See also report on the behaviour of the Danish Sathya Sai Organization leaders, like T. Meyer at the time.
Posted in Gurus, Materialization, Religion, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Organization, healing | Tagged: Education in Human Values, Leo Boogaard, Thorbjørn Meyer, Human values | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on October 28, 2008
Posted in Child abuse, Cults, Godmen, Gurus, Morality, Religious sex abuse, Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba | Tagged: homosexuality, Easwaramma, ghost story | No Comments »
Posted by robertpriddy on October 29, 2008
V.K. Narasimhan recounted several times for me how Sathya Sai Baba told him about the two boys reborn as his dogs. He told V.K.N in detail how he had wilfully deceived the examiners by cheating on the behalf of the two boys. I always made diary notes directly after these conversations and have scanned a number of pages as further documentation of my various assertions. The story with new details about the boys and the dogs as reported by V.K.N. is seen here, with due comments
The cheating on behalf of two boys, Ramesh and Suresh, who used to sit at the same desk as Sathya Sai further shows that he was untruthful even from his earliest days (as is also borne out by many incidents related by Smt. Vijayamma who knew him when he was a young teenager). On that day I also recorded the death of the Danish visitor at the ashram, whose brain cancer Sai Baba did not cure) and other details.
See also an account of Sai Baba’s story in his own words (with scanned documents)
Also on this subject, see Sathya Sai Baba’s Stories, 5 differing Versions of his Schooldays by Brian Steel
The exam cheating story again, involving SSB, Suresh and Ramesh. After the major (alleged) October (1943) Declaration, when Sai Baba was leaving Uravakonda…
Another of Sathya Sai Baba’s version of the story of the two boys is also seen here:-
Click to enlarge
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