Closing more and more in on itself as
a rigorously self-protective cult, Sai VIPs are no longer allowed
to discuss unrest, conflict or criticisms even within the ranks
of the Sai Organisation and no one is supposed to go on the Internet
to read anything critical of Sai Baba, let alone give press interviews
(ref. Goldstein's 'very important' internal circular warning none
to give media interviews, not least because of his own unintended
revelations on the recent BBC documentary that will be going out
world-wide). A further tightening of the censorship screws and
a stepping up of propaganda efforts is underway. The most telling
proof of this is the warning mail Dr. Michael Goldstein sent to
office-bearers in the Sathya Sai Organisation, which was mistakenly
leaked to a bulletin board by a naive member (see the mail at
bottom of this page).
Other efforts within the movement are
underway to counteract the UNESCO advisory against Sai Baba (happily,
it is nevertheless still on-line, click
here). A posting by Dr. G. Venkataraman in Puttaparthi on
a pro-Sai website consists of blatant misinformation about UNESCO,
as well as testifying that Sai devotees within that organisation
have worked very hard to get the web page removed. However, UNESCO
were questioned repeatedly by the BBC and they would not back
up a single word of Venkataraman's in public and fortunately they
also deny any association whatsoever with Sai Baba. This issue
will be exposed more fully in due course.
In the Sai movement, especially at Prashanthi
Nilayam and Brindavan, all that is thought, spoken or done is
supposed to be praise of the Great Example. This reminds in more
ways than one of other personality cults in places like North
Korea, China and the USSR. The great majority of followers are
kept completely in the dark about what Sathya Sai Baba does about 90% of the
time, and he is accountable to no one. His close servitors are
sworn to secrecy under threats of 'excommunication' and of much
worse, to befall them soon or in the next life. The confusion,
discontent and growing doubts that seethe throughout the Sai movement
is all rationalised away as ' testing people', 'a process of burning
off the dross of the ego', 'grinding down your ego to make a diamond
of you' and numerous other such cynical ploys.
Sai devotees have to give all credit
for what (they think) is good to Sathya Sai Baba, while all blame is laid
at other people's doors (and by Sathya Sai Baba not least at their own). Yet
they meanwhile hold Sathya Sai Baba to be the omnipresent and omnipotent doer
of all things.What pathetic confusion! Sathya Sai Baba is even frequently
said by devotees to 'run and rule the whole world'. As to the
Sathya Sai organisation, it can hardly even qualify as an instrument
of this omnipotent will, secretive, unaccountable, authoritarian,
time-wasting and often largely existing mainly on paper as it
is. I am in the good company of many others with experience of
it who would hate to see it running anything of importance, so
full it is of deaf, manipulative leaders and deluded persons who
prefer not to know the truth which is virtually glaring them in
the face. In reality, the whole undertaking has turned more and
more to function as a means of funneling money to the SS Central
Trust in India.
Further, Sai devotees are told and believe
that persons who expose Sathya Sai Baba are really his unwitting instruments,
being used by him for some unknown and God-inscrutable end. This
is backed up by his statements that not a blade of grass stirs
without the will of God (meaning himself). Quite absurdly, those
who accuse him of crimes should also be doers of his divine will
too! (one small example: David Bailey was told this about his
whistle-blowing in a vituperous e-mail circulated by a rich Australian
donor woman, Millie Phillips). However, none of those who have
spoken out originally wanted to expose Sai Baba, not until the
facts had impressed themselves so deeply and were so blatantly
obvious to us that we had no option but to renounce him, his claims
and his works. One cannot with self-respect live in bad faith,
pretending things are not what they are, as do devotees who turn
black into white on 'orders from above'.
Sathya Sai Baba advises: "Take all that happens
is a gift from God". But he does not accept criticism of
himself as a gift from God, nor do his followers. He and they
conveniently forget his teaching that we are all God whenever
it suits them. He has reacted against information that is not
to his taste as being 'demonic', 'evil' and coming from persons
who are Judases or are "without even a spark of divinity"
etc., and these ideas are expressed widely by a number of his
selected representatives. Doing this is commonly known as hypocrisy.
There is a threshold which devotees
cross when they have visited and seen Sathya Sai Baba and taken the step of
believing he is God, because he insists that one should then put
all doubts about him aside forever. In short, he extracts a silent
vow from many people in this way, to put a sealed lid on themselves
once and for all, though he also warns elsewhere that one should
not take vows (he very often contradicts himself like that, when
it suits him). His teaching about himself and all that follows
from it is presented by him as a 'take it or leave it' offer,
and it demands that one accepts it all - with him as the Godhead
- or not at all. As soon as one accepts this - that his words
are the ultimate truth of everything given by himself as the highest
divinity of all time - then there is no way left open then to
question or undermine any part of it. The teaching is such, however,
that it is literally impossible to follow its inconsistencies,
so personal confusion ensues, double-standards, hypocrisy, convenient
neglect of unwanted facts. Anyone who takes the first step relinquishes
the right to know anything better than Sathya Sai Baba or even to have any
opinion about his behaviour or even what he says, other than full
acceptance.
All this also means that, despite much
talk about acceptance of other religions and spiritual teachings,
they are all (implicitly) regarded as wrong wherever they diverge
from Sathya Sai Baba's teaching! All the major religions diverge from Sai
Baba's on many core beliefs. Since they part company on so many
issues, it undermines greatly the its much-trumpeted supposed
'universality', and the result is that relatively very few followers
of other religions actually follow Sathya Sai Baba. Those who do soon find
themselves at odds with their own religion. Religious leaders
from the wide world of religions and sect - apart from some Indian
swamis - are notable by their complete absence. One Roman Catholic
priest of whom a great fuss was made, Mario Mazzoleni, was excommunicated
by the Vatican, and he died early in his life (supposedly receiving
Sai Baba's grace. What grace? (Most devotees otherwise talk of
Sai's grace as healing and saving life).
The Sai movement lacks - almost exclusively
- people of proven intellectual or literary ability (just see
the low standards of the many hagiographic writings), and the
professionals of which the movement boasts so much nearly all
seem to be of the lower calibre when one examines their actual
work. No world figures of acclaimed excellence in the sciences,
scholarship or other demanding fields are among the followers,
though a handful of film stars and TV personalities follow him,
which does not count for much, if anything. The number of politician
followers do not exactly enhance Sai Baba either, especially in
India where they are nearly all corrupt manipulators.
Sathya Sai Baba says he is here as a repairer of
broken locks (i.e hearts) etc. Considering the followers I have
met through many years, I can well believe that the majority fall
into this category, not least those of a number of his VIPs. People
with personal problems are met all the time at his ashrams, where
they take refuge from the world in which their problems often
seem too great for them.
Sathya Sai Baba teaches that those who have faith
in him will eventually get to what he presents as an unearthly
paradise (i.e. 'liberation' from the wheel of life, whatever that
may involve, which no one can possibly say). He has often told
that those who fall away from him will have to be reborn again!
This doctrine is an effective weapon against fearful believers
and those confused and disturbed by the way Sathya Sai Baba has turned out
to be, especially Hindus who cannot free themselves from the near-automatic
worship of supposed spiritual gurus and dread the awful karmic
retribution they are told it brings down on them. Sathya Sai Baba has sometimes
put on the appearance of a 'raging lion' to keep those he least
wished to lose firmly in line... most notably Prof. N. Kasturi,
who told many in the lectures he gave that he was threatened thus
for weeks by Sathya Sai Baba at one time for no reason he could understand,
and that he was literally terrified by him. It was all typically
explained away as a necessary process to soften Kasturi and rid
him of ego! Sathya Sai Baba is not above threatening great earth catastrophes,
as has been reported by many persons whom he has told such things
in interviews, and which has been liberally documented. The underlying
message is that only by following Sathya Sai Baba can one be saved the sufferings
of catastrophe. This is a well-known technique of cults to lock
their followers in to the fold, and today seen most openly in
the Seventh Day Adventists and various extreme modern and 'New
Age' cults.
Sathya Sai Baba has said we cannot fathom him and
says we should leave him to himself. Instead we should examine
ourselves. Very convenient, and a way to try to fend off scrutiny
of his activities, doubtless. It works excellently with devotees...
they are scared to read the massed evidence against him, for it
is too crushing. He puts himself beyond any accountability to
anyone, of course... as God the Father, Deity of Deities. Believe
it if you don't care anything for anyone! Devotees have to admit
that they can't understand him, because he will say one thing
and do the opposite, say the opposite... and no one dare say 'boo'.
His statements and predictions
which prove to be wrong are seen as a part of his 'divine
play', for no one can know whether many things he says refer to
this world or the next or sky blue pink cloud-cuckoo land! He
is said to have a completely different understanding of time to
mortals - what are years to us can be as an hour to him... so
how can one make sense of this divine mystery! This is how the
credulous Dr. John Hislop reacted when Sathya Sai Baba told him not to publish
his book 'My Baba and I' for 10 years, but then was told to do
so only two years later. When he reminded Sathya Sai Baba of this, the reply
was '10 years have already passed.' Sathya Sai Baba can say whatever he likes,
it makes no difference... anything can be 'explained' by the follower
who has achieved the sought-after status of 'blind believer'.
Sai Baba's discrepancies, glaring inconsistencies and even brazen
lies become less and less important to such a person. If need
be, they even set out to defend them by all means at their disposal...
Taking too much of what Sathya Sai Baba claims literally
has enormous mental, emotional and other consequences... and madness
in one form or another is then just around the corner. I have
seen more people in psychosis at his ashrams than anywhere else.
No devotee can live up to the impossible demands of Sai Baba on
others (not practiced by him), for some remaining common sense
seems to preserve most of them from the worst excesses of the
self-conflicting teaching. Yet the more it is taken to heart,
the more energy is sucked out of a person as they abandon more
of their autonomy and responsibility as independent beings. There
are of course no completely egoless devotees, as Sathya Sai Baba is always
demanding his followers to be (while ever telling them that they
are no good as devotees), because a healthy well-balanced ego
(not to be confused with egoism or selfishness) is a basic requirement
of a decent life and interaction within the world.