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Allegations against Sathya Sai Baba

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Template:Noncompliant The Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba despite of having millions of followers, he is the subject of many allegations made by his critics, mainly ex-devotees and skeptics, and the subject of intense controversy.

False claims of miracles

One of Sathya Sai Baba's most long-standing critics is the Indian atheist and skeptic Basava Premanand. To date, Premanand has been unable to succeed legally and claims that he was even arrested by the police in Puttaparthi for a demonstration in the village.

In 1976 Dr. H. Narasimhaiah, who was a member of a private miracle committee set to debunk all superstitious religious belief, publicly challenged Sathya Sai Baba to perform his miracles under controlled circumstances, a challenge which Sathya Sai Baba ignored.Template:Fn The controversy that was the consequence of this incident helped make Sathya Sai Baba even more well known in India.Template:Fn Sathya Sai Baba said in one of his rare interviews that he found the attitude of the committee improper.Template:Fn In 1994 another skeptic, Dr. Dale Beyerstein from Canada, published an extensive literature study of Baba's claims, miracles, and clairvoyance in which he wrote as his conclusion that Baba's extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence that Baba did not supply. Template:Fn

Unresolved murders in Baba's private quarters

On 6 June, 1993, six members of the main ashram Prashanthi Nilayam were killed in Sathya Sai Baba's house. Four of them, visiting assailants armed with knives, first killed two house residents and were then shot dead by the police. Initial reports by the police and media provide conflicting views. Two members of the plot escaped and were later arrested and freed. Basava Premanand then went to court accusing the police and the government of destroying evidence. The appeal was dismissed as lacking in evidence.

Sexual abuse

Perhaps the most scandalous accusation by Western ex-members, first voiced in print by Tal Brooke in 1976, is that Sai Baba is a hermaphrodite and that he sexually abuses male followers during private interviews.Template:Fn

In and after the year 2000 the allegations against the guru became more strident, mainly because a Welsh musician, David Bailey, and his wife, Faye Bailey, became ex-followers and then published their experiences and opinions as well as those second- and third-hand tales of other ex-followers in a document called The Findings. This document was soon published on the Internet and an Expose Committee was formed in secret. While in some cases these young men are willing to talk to serious enquirers, to date none have even attempted to move their complaints to a court of law.

Not an avatar of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba

Researchers on Sri Shirdi Sai Baba's life history such as Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja claimed in their magazine SaiBaba that Sathya Sai Baba is not an avatar of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba.

Myth making

School records reveal two different birthdates for Sathya Sai Baba. Kasturi states that the boy was a relatively normal child until he was stung by a scorpion in 1940 , after which he declared that he was a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi. According to Kasturi, he started his mission on 20 October, 1940. The book contains many miracle stories about the Guru. Research by the Australian critic Brian Steel has concluded that the mission did not start on 20 October 1940 but rather began in 1943.Template:Fn

In 1968 the American playwright Arnold Schulman visited the Baba and tried to verify the stories about the guru's youth but heard contradicting stories from the older villagers, as published in his book called Baba. A possible reason for the contradictory stories was probably due to Schulman's account that he needed interpreters to interperet other interpreters, as in the case of his interview with Baba's sister. Schulman concluded that what the translators claimed Baba's sister said may well have been quite different from what she actually said .

Political, governmental and parliamentary responses

The Indian President Abdul Kalam and the former Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visit the ashram and pay respect to Baba. Vajpayee wrote a letter when he was still the PM that is published on the internet, also signed by two former Supreme Court Justices, saying that Sathya Sai Baba is innocent of sexual molestations and that the accusations are concocted and malicious.

In the year 2000 UNESCO withdrew its co-sponsorship of an educational conference at Puttaparthi and stated the reasons, in a press release issued on 15 September, as "Certain decisions were taken by the ISSE without consultation, such as plans to hold some of the sessions at the Ashram of the Sathya Sai movement in Puttaparthi, and the inclusion of some speakers in the conference programme without their previous consent. Furthermore, the Organization is deeply concerned about widely-reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been levelled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba." In the year 2005, Barry Pittard, an anti-SSB activist, criticized the UNESCO for removing the press release from their site .

MP Tony Colman of the Parliament of the United Kingdom asked in 2002 whether a travel warning was appropriate due to the reports of sexual abuse. Since 2002, neither Tony Blair nor the Parliament ever issued a travel warning against Sathya Sai Baba, nor has the British Government released any official statement regarding this matter.

Tom Sackville, a former Home Office Under-Secretary of State and current chairman of the anti-cult organisation Family Action Information and Resource (FAIR), has expressed concern about the alleged indoctrination of children by devotees who volunteer at public schools and propagate the Educare/Education in Human Values teachings and asserted that this should be forbidden by law.

The European Commission answered a question from a member of the European Parliament about no EU funding going to organizations associated with Sathya Sai Baba, due to allegations of sexual abuse. October 1, 2001. The Commission answered that the Sathya Sai Trust never received, and was not receiving, any funding from the European Commission.

A travel advisory by the United States Department of State, in which neither Sathya Sai Baba or other persons are mentioned, warns US citizens traveling to Andhra Pradesh of unconfirmed reports of inappropriate sexual behavior toward young male devotees by a prominent local religious leader.

Debating the allegations

Sathya Sai Baba has said in the Christmas discourse of the year 2000 that people who tell negative stories about him have been bribed or do this out of jealousy because of his fame. Besides, he says that it always been the fate of saints and avatars to be exposed to calumny. Template:Fn Sathya Sai Baba says that his followers should not rely on hearsay found on the Internet but focus instead on the innernet, by which he perhaps means that they should follow their own spiritual practices and leave gossip to gossipers.

Bill Aitken (a Sai Devotee, expert in comparative religion and author of the book "Sathya Sai Baba: A life") stated that Sathya Sai Baba's reputation has only increased despite negative stories being published against the Guru, by rationalists, critics and skeptics, for at least a generation. Aitken contended that critics are so distemperate in their dislike that their vituperation comes across as near comical. Aitken also argued that the BBC's programme, Secret Swami, had an advantage for discrediting Sathya Sai Baba because the Anglican Church would not object to programmes that weaken perceived threats, such as Sai Movement.

See also Beliefs and practices in the Sathya Sai Organisation (major article)

References

  1. Arnold Schulman, "Baba", page 124 ISBN 670-14343-x

Bibliography

  • Beyerstein, Dale Dr. (1994) Sai Baba's miracles: an overview available online
  • Brooke, Tal Avatar of the Night
  • Brown, Mick The Spiritual Tourist (1998) ISBN 1-58234-034-X Bloomsbury Publising
  • Haraldsson, Erlendur PhD Miracles are my visiting cards - An investigative inquiry on Sathya Sai Baba, an Indian mystic with the gift of foresight believed to perform modern miracles (1997 revised and updated edition) ISBN 81-86822-32-1
  • Hislop, John My Baba and I
  • Kasturi, Narayana Sathyam Sivam Sundaran Part I, II, III & IV available online in Microsoft Word format
  • Murphet, Howard Man of Miracles (1971)
  • Padmanaban, R. Love is My Form Sai Towers (October 2000)
  • Premanand, Basava The Murders in Sai Baba's bedroom
  • Sandweiss, Samuel H. The holy man ..... and the psychiatrist (1975)
  • Sathya Sai Baba Many online books
  • Sathya Sai Baba Gita vahini, online book
  • Sathya Sai Baba Rama Katha Rasavahini, translated into English by Narayana Kasturi available online
  • Sathya Sai Baba Sathya Sai Speaks, Volumes I-. Many of these public discourses have been published on the internet Adobe acrobat PDF files
  • Schulman, Arnold Baba (1971) Out of print but available in some public libraries

External links

Official Sathya Sai Websites

Websites of critical former followers, skeptics and other critics

Websites to Devotees and Proponents

  • Allegations against Sathya Sai Baba Examined by Gerald Joe Moreno - A Pro-Sai Site with a very detailed response to Sai Baba critics, with extensive link references.
  • A Clear View A Pro-Sai website by Ram Das Awle that attempts to explain the sexual abuse allegations against Sathya Sai Baba.
  • The Sai Critic A Pro-Sai website that discusses the controversy surrounding Sathya Sai Baba.

Other websites

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