SATHYA SAI BABA - ON 'ALL THE GOOD HE DOES'
Due to the disaffection forced on me by facts, I became increasingly sceptical about the nature and extent of the good supposedly done by Sathya Sai Baba . This is not surprising. It culminates not least after long experience and observations in Sai circles through nearly two decades.
One's good works - however great they may or may not be - can prove simply nothing about grave crimes of which one stands accused. It is best to clear one's name in frank and open investigation, at least - if innocent! Sathya Sai Baba 's attempts to avoid real scrutiny have long since been built into his teachings. One oft-quoted example of this is his words, "Examine yourself and leave me to myself" and many huge claims of the kind: "My truth is inexplicable, unfathomable. I am beyond the reach of the most intensive inquiry, the most meticulous measurement. There is nothing I do not see..." ( p.131, J. Hislop, My Baba and I. San Diego, 1985)
Further to help avert attention from himself, Sathya Sai Baba holds out rewards to those who have implicit faith in all he says and does, but only in an invisible world of unknown and unknowable future imaginings. In this way, he has long been able to ward off examination by his followers of what he is and does here and now!
He claims that his life is his message, and we are able to examine that, at any rate! The requirement to follow a nation's laws is on of the 10 points listed in the Sathya Sai Organisation's Charter to which all members must agree and follow. Why does Sathya Sai Baba avoid this at all costs? Is not the answer transparently clear? Sathya Sai Baba claims that he acts only for his devotees' sake?
So why can't he do this in submitting to investigations and clearing up all possible doubts? The most obvious answer is that he wanted to protect himself from what would have come to light. Why did he run off when his two attendants were being stabbed to death? Why did he not intervene when those responsible were executed one by one in cold blood on his younger brother's intervention? Is all this a way to re-establish eternal values (Sanathana dharma)?
Do followers of Sathya Sai Baba change for the better? Writings by and about Sathya Sai Baba are full of constantly repeated talk of 'self-transformation. (I have read the entire extant literature, not only all available texts recording what Sai Baba has said in public twice thoroughly, but over 300 other books, pamphlets and many more articles in English). The disparity between the 'great changes' most books describe and what one encounters in practice in all Sai circles eventually led me to conclude that most of the talk of personal transformation on a mass scale and 'bringing people to God' is mostly either self-hypnotic conviction, self-enhancing belief or pure and simple personal propaganda. I unfortunately was also drawn into supporting these claims in my book about my experiences with Sathya Sai Baba , attributing things to his imagined influence and desired 'spiritual guidance' (which never really came) that either simply occurred or which I in fact brought about myself. Not that I have made such large claims of 'self-transformation', for I had already believed and acted upon the values and precepts that the good and sensible parts of Sathya Sai Baba teachings convey. Not that I am claiming to be near perfect or a saint... but Sathya Sai Baba underrates most people in his condemnations and harangues against almost everyone anyhow. He seems to judge everyone in the world as like the populace around him in India. I was once too keen to give any credit I could to Sai Baba, because I then had faith in his authenticity and that his actions were completely good and selfless. I saw him as a focus in truth and goodness, an exceptional ally. At the age of 66, after learning more than I wished at the time, I knew without doubt that this does not to apply to many of his actions. One learns that one has been deeply deceived! So I now work to help people avoid his snares.
People do change when they 'convert' to a new belief, but it seldom implies deep or real personality changes - beliefs about things and behavioural patterns can alter, yes, but the latter tend to remain very largely as before, I have noticed. The process of (often quite sudden) rejection of one's past identifications and acceptance of a new package is a very interesting psychological phenomena about which little has been researched in any systematic ways with long-term follow-up. In my experience, Sai devotees have not convinced me that much of their transformation is very substantial. I am aware that these matters cannot be estimated other than simple observation, life experience and intelligent investigations.
In all seriousness, the good allegedly done by Sathya Sai Baba to devotees is overwhelmingly based on anecdotal evidence, which is notoriously subjective, personally slanted towards idealistic ideas and desires, and involves all kinds of wishful hopes, wanting to make the best out of things, 'see only the good' and rosy self-evaluations. I have seen a cross-section of those who make such claims and have found most of them to be a mixed bag… many are in one way or another disturbed socially, emotionally or mentally from the outset. Many who have real sufferings hardly ever report getting much real attention or any direct, important help from Sathya Sai Baba , for often it is imagined help without any credible influence from Sathya Sai Baba . The stories of miraculous aid supposedly from Sathya Sai Baba are many, but literally none are properly researched or documented in any public, serious fashion, many get exaggerated over time beyond recognition, some are almost certainly 'planted' by interests around Sathya Sai Baba and also in interviews by Sathya Sai Baba himself (SSB never sets the record straight, confirms or denies the fabulous or false in public... nor denies the most absurd fables. And why do you think?) Of course, there are many invalids who return year after year without being cured, and there are many more who come and leave disappointed.
Does Sathya Sai Baba really transform people? Sathya Sai Baba has said (to V.K. Narasimhan) that one thing he cannot do is make people be good. So the question as to whether Sai devotees undergo more sound or permanent self-transformation than usual at any 'religious conversion' or other types of life-altering event is worth pursuing. These people are almost never looked at critically by anyone who is allowed to remain within the movement because of the vague but absolute Sai 'commandment' 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' and 'see only the good in everyone'. These are self-defeating practices in real life and - taken too seriously - lead towards such states as undue self-love and self-hate, loss of proper touch with other people and the world. One problem is that the virtual impossibility of this sweeping decree in real life, for most of us who are not in some cocoon are faced with things we must - if we follow our consciences bravely - criticise, condemn (though we may choose not to speak out) and to act against. This is reflected in the selfish actions of many leaders in the Sai movement, the sheer inability to interact openly and fairly with other people or with voluntary movements having equally good or better aims. It comes out too in innumerable squabbles, let-downs, broken promises and all the detritus of life that persists in all Sai groups I know about and which I have repeatedly been told about from followers from many countries. These matters are even brought up sometimes at Sai conferences by speakers (some who deplore the standards of Sai devotees) trying to share the facts with 'their brothers' (and sometimes even their sisters too). This indicates that genuine transformations into good devotees are considerably less than is made out to be! Further, if one were to judge by the sheer venom in mails from diverse, always-hiding Sai 'devotees' that I and other critics of Sathya Sai Baba have received, one can wonder how much this movement is a refuge for what Sathya Sai Baba calls 'bad men' and worse.
As to the 'amazing compassionate love' and so on that Sathya Sai Baba is said to emanate and dispense, I have heard many talk about it, but it always seems so doubtful because the feeling is generated by the person describing it more than I can detect anything from Sathya Sai Baba . Actually, I never simply felt real warmth from him - even in long interviews or private interviews... nor in several hundred darshans. Attention, smiles, soft words etc. yes, but I noticed how his undoubted ability to charm and give the appearances of being caring and loving (mostly without actually doing anything) are used very cleverly by him to attract followers (and especially likely donors).
I have also observed how Sathya Sai Baba is most definitely not very insightful or full of genuine understanding when talking to people even, in my experience, because he invariably answers obliquely or even fails to understand what he is being asked. Most of what he says are phrases heard many times by many others, whether nice or nasty ones (i.e. I have heard him tell various clients: "you argue a lot", "you fight your wife/husband"; "you have a (mad) monkey-mind"; "you're a mad girl; crazy man"; "I will see you"; "you are (very) depressed"; "where is your husband/wife/daughter/son?";"when did you come"; "when are you leaving?"; "Very happy" and many another well-known Sai phrasebook-like saying. Meanwhile, all this is interpreted in terms of his great cosmic pretensions and is twisted and turned in the hope of getting some clue as it its 'divine' meaning or import. This becomes an obsession among the more frequent interviewees, while those who get little or no interviews do just the same with daily events in their lives... attributing them to Sathya Sai Baba 's hidden influence and stretching their own credibility far beyond what could possibly be so or even can accord with what Sathya Sai Baba has taught many times! A sad scenario!
SSB has a fall-back to use when people seem disappointed (as so many eventually confide they were some time after interviews, because they learned almost nothing and got no real response that helped them). It is to give some trinket - whether perhaps manifested - or more likely palmed! Oh such love, they all say! But I can't see it. Trickery is hardly genuine love, I'd say... and I have established beyond all conceivable doubt that the 'green diamond' he claimed to materialise and gave me was an almost worthless fake with silver paper behind it! Even when Sathya Sai Baba does listen a bit to someone, I have often seen him brush the questioner or the concerns aside with some quip or some facial expression that tells one nothing (except that it tells he then gives nothing). Is all this love, then? To pretend it is anything special or at best anything more than usual among people, one must doubtless become a complete human chameleon, or a 'mental 'boneless wonder' contortionist'. It is truly remarkable how many people achieve this!
The alleged healings by Sathya Sai Baba cannot ever be satisfactorily proven. It is only natural to compare this undoubted phenomenon to the same in other sects like the evangelicals, the Jehovah Witnesses, the Pentecostals and hundreds like them where 'miraculous healings' are supposedly regular occurrences and are attributed to whoever is seen as the instruments of God (Jesus, Allah etc.) - and add to this African healers and Latin American voodoo, shamans around the world etc. etc. All this shows how little importance need be attached to the person involved, or to which 'ishta', 'ikon' (idol?) one appeals. One can project one's energies towards anyone and even anything - it appears - and genuine results can be achieved in some cases. It is in this context I see Sathya Sai Baba 's alleged 'miracles of healing', along with all healings that are attributed to people of both the profane and sacred sort.
The whole construction of a 'spiritual dispensation', so widely claimed to be built on the sands of sexual abuse and being an accomplice to cold-blooded executions (i.e. involvement in the cover up, at least) will most certainly topple over like a tower struck by lightning in the glare of any future world opinion.
Sathya Sai Baba - Good and Evil: In a public discourse in January 1995 (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol.28 new ed., p.1), Sathya Sai Baba said: "The good and evil in the world are expressions of Divine consciousness. Man should not be misled by these expressions. Behind all the various actions of the actors, the Divine Director is at work."
How is this to be understood? Since Sathya Sai Baba has often proclaimed for himself that divine directorship, are we to take it that whatever this avatar does - good or evil - is merely an expression of divine consciousness? Sathya Sai Baba has also said:
"The 'bad' too is in fact 'good' in reverse. It serves to teach what has to be avoided. It would not be 'bad' for all time; it is ever short-lived. Neither 'good' nor 'bad' can be pronounced as 'absolutely unrelieved' states. Knowledge (vidya) reveals and makes clear that 'good' and 'bad' are only the reactions caused by the failings and feelings of the mind of man." (Vidya Vahini, p. 22.)
Philosophically seen, this is a far-reaching assertion, and it is also one that can easily lead to the total confusion of values with anti-values and vice-versa when acting in the real world. As the divine director, therefore, could not an embodied avatar just as well do evil as good, since it makes no difference 'ultimately' and from the Divine viewpoint?
If this is what Sathya Sai Baba means and intends, then it would make a complete mockery of most of his other statements about how he, the avatar, is only pure, expresses nothing but love, is without desires and so on. Therefore, one almost has to conclude that - even from an imagined Divine viewpoint - it makes a lot of difference whether any human being, including the avatar, actually does good or evil (these being judged as such according to the five universal human values which are presented as being at the core of Sai teachings). The avatar, who claims 'My Life is My Message' and sets himself up as the prime example of righteousness and goodness, must exceed all human beings in purity, selfless desirelessness and truthfulness.
What is perhaps most shocking about the evidence that has emerged about Sathya Sai Baba 's active involvement in unjust and illegal matters, from the murders' cover-up to the weighty evidence of his homosexual and pedophile activities, is the huge gap this opens between his words and reported actions. There is no other word but wilful deception on a grand scale for these discrepancies. That a self-proclaimed holy avatar can condone the unjust repression of truth and justice and even allegedly carry out sexual acts of a sort that the Pope has recently - if only for the first time - openly and forcible condemned as evil requires a thoroughgoing reevaluation by followers of what this person actually stands for.SSB has said, for example, "God assumes a role in the dharma of the world in human form. He has to behave as a human being only. This should be clearly understood by all." (Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 26 new ed. p. 229f).
Does this indicate that he has to have human failings too? Well, if his role is not one of the purest dharma, then the answer must be a resounding 'No!' How can serious self-contradictions, lies, broken promises, cover-up, and complete unaccountability be reconciled to dharma?Anyone who holds, therefore, that Sathya Sai Baba can carry out any kind of sexually-oriented interference or direct abuse on boys and young men against their expectations and despite their wishes without it affecting his purity or his truthfulness is also in denial of Sathya Sai Baba 's own words, as well as common sense and ordinary decency as these are understood in civilized and morally-enlightened society. Such is a most terrible perversion of spirituality!
Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization ( or Spanish version PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)