Propaganda alert!
Brian Steel September 2002
Two days ago, with an ineffable feeling of relief, I finished this stage of my
research into the truth, fiction, hype, and enigmas surrounding theIndian guru,
Sathya Sai Baba (definitely NO relation to Sai Baba of Shirdi, except in his own
and his Organisation’s propaganda).
I MAY offer some final observations on my findings in due course (but don’t hold
your breath!). For the time being, I would like to make a very short comment
prompted by my (mixed) Internet experience of the past year and also by an
e-mail I
received yesterday from an obviously educated but equally obviously confused SB
devotee. Having asked me what my
“motive” was in making recent revelations on my website (why hadn’t he bothered
to read my ‘Preface’?), and having offered some rather unoriginal, irrelevant,
and inadequate arguments about SB’s transformational achievements and other
similar red
herrings, he ended with an indirect (but Freudian) crude insult concerning his
rejection of and contempt for gossip, rumour and ranting on the Internet”.
The current massive increase in propaganda on the Internet by the TWO official
websites of the SSO (in addition to several “unofficial” websites and a 24-hour
radio programme which offers the listener 12 hours of SB’s TELUGU Discourses!),
is so ironic (and revealing!) in view of SB’s famous emotional 1999 tantrum
about not having anything to do with the Internet EVER!!). Such expensive
efforts (paid for by donors) may attract the attention of potential devotees
but they will do nothing to prevent objective observers from noticing that the
“gossip, rumour and ranting”, rather than being the response to SB by
“disgruntled” devotees, or agents of “vested interests” (i.e. the Christian
Churches), have in fact been the basis of a large part of the success of SB’s
Mission. I leave it to readers to decide who does the gossiping, the rumour-mongering
and the ranting,
but if they have been reading reports on the Internet in the past year or so,
the answers should be quite clear - but of absolutely no comfort to SB’s
unconditional devotees.