SATHYA SAI BABA - THE IMPOTENT AVATAR?
There are two approaches to the question 'Does Sathya Sai Baba exercise his will over all major events in the ashram, or are there persons who can do things over which he is powerless?' The first part of this alternative question seems to be answered yes by most residents, especially the less educated ones. Most ashram officials speak as if Sathya Sai Baba was in total control through his directives and interventions. Prof. N. Kasturi expressed this view in many of his writings. Applied to the murders scenario, Sathya Sai Baba becomes fully responsible for the events that took place within his jurisdiction as 'Divine Director' and absolute King-God ruler of the ashram. V.K. Narasimhan was in no doubt, however, that Sathya Sai Baba is powerless to control events, even those within the ashram, even within his own apartments. That is part of why Narasimhan stayed with Sathya Sai Baba despite his many doubts. One example illustrates Sathya Sai Baba 's 'impotence': before the 70th birthday celebrations, Narasimhan had suggested to Sathya Sai Baba that inviting the Indian President to them was unnecessary and only caused major problems with the Black Berets security arrangements that made devotees suffer huge, life-threatening crushes and endless delays. Sathya Sai Baba had replied that he could do nothing, for the President himself decided to visit. Also, Sathya Sai Baba had said to Narasimhan, that "one thing I cannot do is to make a person choose to do good." That is part of the reason why Narasimhan did not reject or leave Sathya Sai Baba when the executions of the four intruding devotees were organised by Sathya Sai Baba 's younger brother! It seemed to Narasimhan that Baba could not even influence his own younger brother! This viewpoint could absolve Sathya Sai Baba from responsibility as accomplice to the murders, being unable to control the actions of those ashram and Sai Central Trust members, as well as his younger brother Janaki Ramiah, in blackmailing the police into shooting in cold blood, one by one, the four trapped and virtually unarmed intruders.
A distorted 'vision of Sai' was sent us in an e-mail from visionsb@tstt.net.tt, as follows, "... see for yourself the enormous control that this being has on the planet"
"Sai Rules the World" One may not believe it, but this is what many devotees I have met actually believe. Because Sathya Sai Baba has put this delusion around in various announcements he has made about the world coming to his feet, the world already becoming one big Sai Organisation and so on. If he were an avatar controlling the planet, how could he be making such a pig's breakfast of the job? India is one of the most truly terrible places on earth for its huge number of children in the slavery of prostitution, unstoppable epidemic of AIDS victims, bonded sweat-shop labour, for its vast number of paupers and illiterates still being driven to city slums for sheer survival. The corruption is enormous and is not diminishing. Sathya Sai Baba can't stop India increasing its warlike attitude and military spending (eg. by 28% this year for its nuclear war capacity alone) or its rulers stashing away in Swiss banks an amount of money at least equal to the country's entire national debt, according to his own statements at a private dinner attended by a friend of mine! There he told this IAS official that he had told the Prime Minister and the President not to make so many super-expensive state visits with huge convoys of vehicles and hundreds of Black Beret commandos wherever they went. But, said SB, they go on doing it and do not listen to me. With population and poverty out of control, AIDS, corruption and poverty ruling large parts of Africa and Asia and so on. The world's wilderness environment and countless species and living resources are disappearing faster and faster, suffering and unnecessary death is as rife as ever, I watched Sathya Sai Baba parading for two decades and I eventually learned from many inside contacts, investigation and analysis that he is far from being in control of almost anything he claims to be.
Worse still, Sathya Sai Baba evidently can't control his own sexual appetites... and anyone who wishes to know the facts should confront Mr. Al Drucker with questions as to what he has told privately about distraught parents of US devotees who visited him in his rooms at Prashanthi told him about their sons' being sexually assaulted by Sathya Sai Baba . Add to that the damning testimony which no one can doubt is genuine given by the Rahm family and Mark Roche on the BBC film 'The Secret Swami'. While boasting that the Central Trust is beyond all suspicion, Sathya Sai Baba was unable to stop the many financial kickbacks and embezzlements that have taken place under his nose by Col. Joga Rao, Mr. Suri, Mr. Narayanan, and various others who he has sacked from the Central Trust or other offices within his outfit some months after his discoure pronouncements. In short, Sai Baba has little or no control over anyone who does not do what he says, even in his own ashrams and not even among the great majority of his blind followers.
How long will Sai Baba last? History is replete with self-proclaimed God Emperors, Divine Avatars, World Saviours, reborn Christs... right up to the present day. Millions still believe that this or that person is wholly and fully God. The various Indian modern avatars or divine saviours include Ramakrishna, Meher Baba and any number of other claimants, each having one or another degree of failure, whether rapidly or less so. In India there are always a surprising number of persons claiming to be avatars... still today.
Add to the above the teaching of Sathya Sai Baba and others that no one can ever aspire to be anything better than servants of the Lord himself (i.e. Sathya Sai Baba !) and to work for him selflessly in total obedience to his all-powerful will. This is a teaching that allows for the complete manipulation of persons to do the will of the guru. No more clever way of taking away people's freedom - making them censor themselves entirely and give up all autonomy and all rights - has ever been devised. It is the subtlest of means of gaining power.
Countless millions of people have, through the ages, grovelled and kow-towed to personages they imagined to be either God in person, or the highest representative of Divinity. One small example, little known nowadays: the Mahdi in Sudan whose followers - imagining themselves invulnerable to Maxim guns - were mown down by the British at Omduran.
Any number of 'Divinities' - whether God-Kings, Pharaohs, Caesars and so on, have come and gone. Claimants to Divinity with multi-million followings are dispersed into the mists of time and almost forgotten but to historians.
We can confidently await the further fall of the highly questionable Sathya Sai Baba, whose adharmic activities have already been exposed to the world. His claims will not hold, he will not lift mountain ranges or fly through the air. He has himself said in published discourses that he would live until age 93, but some devotee author apparently got it wrong aor heard another account from him and wrote 96 and this figure was the one that stuck! Since then SB has also changed his lifespan to 96 years in a discourse he gave in the early 2000s. He has also told one of his closer devotees, Ratan Lal, that no one should dare to report when he will leave the body, for he can - if necessary - change the date at will. So much for his prophesies about himsself! At whatever age he departs this earth, the believers, having been deluded by his many deceptions, including his psychic powers, will find a rationalisation for it, as they do for everything else.
The state of his health is a closely-guarded secret... were it to be known, for example, that he most likely suffers from osteoarthritis, the consequences for many followers would be further to doubt his claims of perfect health as a concomitant of his alleged divinity. The very considerable social environment built up around him and his ashrams and dependent on the flow of donations, the consequences will be serious as his reputation further collapses. However, he is chronically crippled and can only stagger about for a few steps without major aids. Devotees have as if forgotten that he has often denied that his health could ever be affected due to his 'purity, patience and perserverence'. For the poor believers, it is all another of his unintelligible 'lessons', another 'test of their faith' doubtless...
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)