IN THE SHADOW OF SATHYA SAI BABA
Overview of critical materials
(December 2002)
This information has been compiled by members of the Just Seekers of Truth (JuST) group.
It is not a complete overview of exposé materials. Rather it presents a scope and diversity of information
and can be used to help one navigate through the very extensive available exposé materials.
Corrections and suggested additions are welcome (Send to saiguru@saiguru.net)
(1) The most important web sites with critical materials (regularly updated):
www.saiguru.net (English, Spanish, Russian)
www.exbaba.com (English, Dutch)
http://home.no.net.anir/Sai/norsk.htm (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish)
Important materials are also presented on the personal sites of Robert Priddy.
“Sathya Sai Baba – the enigma reconsidered”
Brian Steel. "Sathya Sai Baba: God or Guru?" and
"The Guru from Puttaparthi. An Alternative View of Sathya Sai Baba."
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/index.html
and the exposé sites:
www.snowcrest.net/sunrise (English)
www.sathyasaivictims.com (English)
www.sekty.dominikanie.pl/ (Polish)
www.exbaba.it (Italian)
www.exbaba.de (German)
www.saibabaexpose.com (Danish, Swedish)
(2) Pioneering Critical Work on the Internet
1) Previous to 2000
a) B.Premanand
b) Dale Beyerstein (1992)
c) Paul Holbach
http://www.geocities.com/p_holbach/index.htm
2) Recent: "The Findings"
"The Findings" was a major series of serious allegations against SB (mainly in
connection with sexual abuse and fake miracles) posted on the Internet in
May 2000. Compiled by David and Faye Bailey, prominent followers of SB
for many years, “The Findings” were the first collection of allegations against
SB posted on the Internet in May 2000. Although many consider these materials
insubstantially documented, and somewhat inaccurate, they they made a major
impact on many devotees and gave fresh impetus to research about SB and
increasing public awareness of the negative sides of SB and his organisation.
www.saiguru.net/english/personal_exp/01findings.htm
(3) Omniscience and Omnipotence (resp. all-knowingness and all-powerfulness)
Officially published texts of SB's discourses contain a lot of discrepancies, conflicting statements
and contradictions. They seriously discredit SB's claim of being all-knowing or all-powerful.
B. Steel. Omniscience and Truth
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Omnitruth.htm
B. Steel. SB and Christianity. Some Observations.
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Jesus1.htm
B. Steel. Sathya Sai Baba. Man of Many Stories.
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/storyman.htm
S. Badaev. An Enlarged List of Discrepancies in Sai Baba’s Words.
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/35discrepancies.htm
R. Priddy. V.K. Narasimhan - a legacy.
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/VKN.htm
(4) The Myths:
a) Claims of Divinity (of being the Purna Avatar) are not supported
by the emerging evidence. See especially Section 3 above, and:
B. Steel. Sai Baba's Claims of Divinity. Avatar and Triple Avatar
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Claimsnew.htm
B. Steel. SB's Claims to be the Reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba.
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/Shirdiessay.htm
B. Steel. 18 Basic Myths about Sathya Sai Baba.
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/18myths.htm
b) The Packaging and Promotion of SB
B. Steel. The Packaging of Sathya Sai Baba's Discourses (and related issues)
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/
(5) False materialisations and fake precious stones
Many witnesses attest that, whatever may be said of his ability to materialise objects,
he often uses sleight of hand, faking materialisations. Many video materials confirm
this duplicity, including footage intended to depict Sai Baba in a favorable light.
Increasingly, professionally assayed materials, which Sai Baba has pretended to materialise
as precious stones (diamonds, emeralds, etc.), reveal the objects to be fake.
D. Bailey. The Findings www.saiguru.net/english/personal_exp/01findings.htm
(6) Biographical data
Many details of childhood and early period of SB's activity cannot be independently confirmed.
However there is evidence (mostly new) which questions a lot of officially accepted data
concerning SB's biography (e.g. date of declaration of his mission, date of birth, etc.
and conflicting accounts of other 'miraculous' and other events in his early years).
B. Steel. Early Stories about SB. Variations on Themes.
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/stories1.htm
B. Steel. The University Chancellor and His Schoolboy Stories.
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/storieschancellor.htm
B. Steel. Some Photographic Evidence and More Questions.
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/sbphotos1.htm
S. K. Dadlani. Sai Baba: Shiva or Sadhaka?
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/48sbshivsadh.htm
(7) The sexual molestation/abuse of young men and minors
Such allegations are hard to prove due to their privacy. Some specialists on sexual abuse
of the young believe that the quality and quantity of direct complaints from victims
and other indirect evidence more than warrant the most serious attention and investigation.
Tal Brooke. (Book) "The Avatar of Night" Millennial Edition -
End Run Publishing 1442A Walnut St. No. 387 Berkeley, CA. 94709
ISBN:1-930045-00-X - Copyright 1990 & 1999 by Tal Brooke.
A. Nagel. Guru Accused.
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/02guruaccused.htm
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/articles/Paper 'A Guru accused'.html
A. Nagel. Sai Baba as Shiva Shakti
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/02shivashakti.htm
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/articles/Paper 'Shiva-Shakti'.html
R. Priddy. Unnatural Events in his bedroom - by Sai Baba.
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/31evidence.htm
"Seduced" (Transcript of Danish TV Documentary on Sai Baba, sent 30 Jan 2002)
www.saiguru.net/english/media/013002seduced.htm
(8) Murders in June 1993
Uninvestigated murders in 1993 in Prashanthi Nilayam are a crying injustice,
a violation of laws and basic human rights by SB and his organisation.
R. Priddy. Shocking revelations from V.K. Narasimhan.
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/VKN1.htm
R. Priddy. The Murders in Sai Baba’s Private Quarters
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/Murders.htm
R. Priddy. More on the 1993 murders cover up.
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/moremurders.htm
R. Priddy. How the 1993 murders returned to haunt us.
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/22shambles.htm
B. Premanand. Book - "Murders in Sai Baba's Bedroom" (Sub-title: 'Who murdered the six?
A critical analsysis of the records') 843 pages. Published by B. Premanand
11/17 Chettipalayam Rd., Podanur - 641 023 (Tamilnadu) India, 2001.
(9) Mission of restoring and uplifting India
In spite of numerous SB's promises to restore moral and spiritual authority of India,
the country is still suffering from many terrible social and political problems.
S. Badaev. Sai Baba’s Mission: Words and Facts.
www.saiguru.net/english/conclusions/commentaries-Serguei.htm
S. Badaev. To See With Open Eyes.
www.saiguru.net/english/personal_exp/61tosee.htm
(10) Sathya Sai Organisation
The SSO claims to be a model and an example of a spiritual organisation aimed
at selfless service. In fact it is a huge bureaucratic machine with tight censorship,
and authoritarian management. Unaccountability, undemocratic management,
secrecy and injustice result in critical attitudes towards it from many SB followers.
S. Badaev. Sathya Sai Organisation (One organisation with two charters).
www.saiguru.net/english/sai_org/08SSorgcharters.htm
S. Badaev. Ten Questions About Sai Organisation.
www.saiguru.net/english/sai_org/09questions.htm
S. Badaev. Sathya Sai Organisation. Divine Tool or Side Effect?
www.saiguru.net/english/sai_org/divinetool.htm
R. Priddy. The problematical Charter's history.
http://home.no.net.anir/Sai/saiorg.htm
R. Priddy. The secretive and authoritarian Sathya Sai Organisation
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/Orglite.htm
B. Steel. Chapter 7 of SSB: God or Guru?
11) Charity projects
It is extremely difficult to estimate the effectiveness of charity projects run by SB
as no data are published about them. However, with the actual agenda of
encouraging donations, SB and the SSO intensively advertise such projects
as the super-speciality hospitals and water supply scheme.
R. Priddy. The Sathya Sai Org.’s self-advertisement and publicity.
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/saiorg/Adv.htm
S. Badaev. SB's Super Speciality Hospitals as Two-faced Projects.
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/60hospitals.htm
R. Priddy. On the International Sathya Sai Organisation.
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/saiorg.htm
R. Priddy. Wasteful buildings and other projects.
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/english.html
(12) Donations, financial accountability, embezzlements, misuse of funds,
fraud, and related irregularities in the Sathya Sai Central Trust and ashrams.
R. Priddy. The Multi-billion dollar question.
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/59mbdquestion.htm
S. Badaev. Can We Trust the Central Trust?
www.saiguru.net/english/sai_org/centraltrust.htm
R. Priddy. Surveillance, Security, Secrecy
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/Secrecy.htm
(13) Educational programme
Despite the fact that an educational programme (so called "Education in Human Values"
and the newly formed ‘Educare Foundation’ programme) is considered by the SSO as a
very important activity, its professional level remains rather low. Though it has been conducted
in many countries by the SSO since 1965, it has not gained any international recognition so far.
S. Badaev. UNESCO conference without UNESCO.
www.saiguru.net/english/sai_org/unescoconf.htm
R. Priddy. Sai Educare as an educational institution under the shadow of pederasty.
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/english.html
R. Priddy. Sai Educare and fundamentalistic, doctrinaire teachings.
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/EduFund.htm
(14) Positive misinformation, excessive claims, false promises,
wrong predictions and plagiarism by SB and/or his Organisation.
R. Priddy. The most
excessive claims ever made?
http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/Excess.htm
R. Priddy. False promises of health and protection.
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/53falsepromises.htm
R. Priddy. SB’s exaggerations: ‘The Numbers Game’.
www.saiguru.net/english/sai_org/exaggerations.htm
R. Priddy. Inflated statistics.
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/english.html
D. Hanisch and E. Hartgering. Sai Baba's Borrowed Wisdom
www.saiguru.net/english/articles/16plagiarism.htm
B. Steel (diverse instances in his web pages)
http://bdsteel.tripod.com/index.html
(15) Worldwide reaction
Because of compromising information about SB and his organisation the
State Department of the U.S.A. issued an official warning for American
tourists visiting Andhra Pradesh in South India.
http://travel.state.gov/india.html
The British Parliament discussed possible risk for British young people visiting SB's ashrams
in India.(Letter re. Sai Baba from British PM Tony Blair to M.P. Tony Colman)
www.saiguru.net/english/news/ukwarns.htm
UNESCO (Paris) along with the University of Flinders, Australia, withdrew from participation
in an international educational conference held in September 2000 in Prashanthi Nilayam.
http://www.unesco.org/education/highlights/media_advisory.htm
(16) Public petition
A group of former followers of SB - the JuST (Just Seekers of Truth) group -
initiated an international public petition against SB and the SSO appealing
to the fair investigation of numerous allegations. So far over Three hundred
people from all over the world have signed the JuST Petition. Many of them
were long-term followers of SB and held important positions in the SSO.
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/saibaba/petition.html
(Information and feedback regarding the petition and the JuST group: www.saiguru.net )
(17) Main publications in mass media
Newspapers:
December 22, 2002. "Crackdown on
'Preying' Cults", Sunday Mirror, UK.
www.saiguru.net/english/news/022812sundmirror.htm
February 2002 "Divine Sin" by Alejandro Agostinelli
Gatopardo Magazine – Colombia
www.saiguru.net/english/media/020201divine_sin.htm
August 27, 2001. 3
Articles in the London Times
"Suicide, sex and the guru" by Dominic
Kennedy
www.saiguru.net/english/media/010827sexguru.htm
"I sought peace and couldn't find it"
by Michael Dynes in Durban and Dominic Kennedy
www.saiguru.net/english/media/010827soughtpeace.htm
"Three die after putting faith in guru" by Dominic Kennedy
www.saiguru.net/english/media/010827threedie.htm
February 27, 2001. "Holy Man? Sex Abuser? Both?" Vancouver Sun, Canada. www.saiguru.net/english/media/010227vancouver.htm
December 19, 2000. "The Man Believers Think Is God", Ottawa Citizen, Canada www.saiguru.net/english/media/011219ottawa.htm
December 4, 2000. "Faith and Controversy", India Today, India
www.saiguru.net/english/media/001204india.htm
October 28, 2000. "Divine Downfall", Daily Telegraph, UK
www.saiguru.net/english/media/0001028divine.htm
TV programmes:
Zona de Investigación, TV Azul, Argentina "The Sinful God" Aug 5 and 12, 2001
www.saiguru.net/english/news/010819azultv.htm
“Forført” (’Seduced’) Shown 30-1-2002 on National TV & Radio broadcaster DR (Dansk Radio).
www.saiguru.net/english/media/013002seduced.htm