SATHYA SAI BABA AND THE DALAI LAMA

How did Sathya Sai Baba compare with the Dalai Lama? The Dalai Lama is known world-wide for his moral courage and often illumining and largely acceptable teachings, but above all for his life, which is truly a message

of non-violence and standing for the truth and what is right. His righteous (dharmic) life has been in strict adherence to non-violence, seen in all he has done since his inauguration, and through the tremendously difficult decades through which it has been incumbent on him to try to protect and better his people. He was a most worthy and humble Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Sathya Sai Baba, on the other hand, virtually boasted that it would go to himself, but it never did or could, considering his reputation and claims. Sathya Sai Baba was definitely not revered and respected worldwide by the vast numbers of people and governments as is the Dalai Lama, nor is he nearly so well-known to most of the world. While Sai Baba claimed to be God in Human Form, the Dalai Lama is revered as a bodhivsattva (i.e. a reborn holy person), but has himself never promoted the claim. He even gave an interview to Playboy Magazine in the 1970s where he disarmingly said he was 'just an ordinary person'. Hardly a 'holier than thou' preaching hypocrite!

"Why fear when I am here?" is a much-flaunted statement of Sathya Sai Baba, but the Dalai Lama makes no such megalomaniac and unfulfilled claims. He has never been heard to boast that his actions have helped saved so many Tibetans from total cultural elimination. Sai Baba sweepingly berates just about everyone in the world at regular intervals from his platform, but the Dalai Lama never uses such language, even about the despotic Chinese invaders of his country. He is amazingly open to dialogue with them (despite their black lies) and has no ill-will against China are the Chinese, having gone against violent demonstrations and asserted that China should have a successful Olympic Games.

The Dalai Lama has always made himself as accessible as possible to people without them having to kowtow, (though his Tibetan Buddhist followers often choose to).  If one bows to him, he returns the bow more deeply. He is open to all kinds of questioners, answers directly and frankly and in intelligible, accurate and respectful words! He circulates among all people without discrimination, and treats the humblest peasants as his equals. He necessarily seeks to meet and influence world politicians, but no one can claim that it is for his own fame or name (except the lying Chinese leadership), but because he is the main hope for protecting the people and culture of Tibet. He gives talks all around the world in public places, where he fields questions in from anyone under the cameras of the media (as Sathya Sai Baba NEVER does, for fear of embarrassment - no doubt). Sai Baba is unapproachable unless he invites it, while the Dalai Lama is quite otherwise in attitude, as can also be seen in his whole bearing.

It would have been fitting for Sathya Sai Baba to bow to the Dalai Lama, but he bowed to no absolutely one... he was far too high and mighty for that! Yet some of Sai Baba's most deluded followers - like N. Kasturi and V. Balu - once wrote about him as having great humility! They were totally taken in by his show and calculated charm. Sathya Sai Baba blessed life-size golden statues of himself and costly museums to glorify himself as the God above all others, while the buildings his devotees finance and run as hospitals have his images and words blazoned all over the place. The Dalai Lama blows no such trumpets for himself, not allows such a fuss to be made of himself. Unlike him, Sai Baba was entirely imperious - as could be seen at times in his facial expressions. He always gave precedence and blessings to all royalty, top politicians, stars of sport and music, famous persons and above all - very rich people - whatever crimes some of them committed, and he even entertained various known criminals who visited him. Meanwhile, all those thousands of volunteers who worked selflessly to boost his name and works, both in India and from many countries in the West, were relegated to inferior places. One may ask why... the answer is obvious, the desire to grasp as much personal fame, power and protection as he can. He was besotted with the idea of his own world fame. His being unapproachable by all by those who waited for endless hours, days and weeks until he picked them out as acceptable was known to all. Everyone was well aware that he would never stand the slightest bit of criticism from anyone (with the exception of his favourite editor, V.K. Narasimhan and possibly some of his former very closest servitors - but ONLY in private). He usually responded mostly to questions which could enhance him, and then usually but superficially and patronizingly. Those who dared to put a real question - if not simply ignored by him - often received devious answers, usually quite vague and open to several possible meanings. Yet he full of criticism of others - in general in many of his discourses. He would often joke at the questioner's expense so as to earn a laugh from the interview group or he put-down the questioner by making fun of the question or the person or referring to their personality (eg. famously "you have a mad monkey mind!"; "you fight with your husband/wife all the time" and much more like that). Nothing like the bowing humility and straightforward interchanges of the Dalai Lama!

"We will never solve our problems simply by instituting new laws and regulations. Ultimately, the source of our problems lies at the level of the individual. If people lack moral values and integrity, no system of laws and regulations will be adequate. So long as people give priority to material values, then injustice, inequity, intolerance and greed — all the outward manifestations of neglect of inner values — will persist.” Dalai Lama

However, this is a very one-sided statement, since almost the entire educated world is aware that individuals are themselves very largely a product of their society and that law is essential in the development of civilization and any well-ordered and secure life. This is a form of naivety nurtured by scriptures and moral theologies, which have for millennia been shown to be incapable of solving "our problems".

The Dalai Lama has real and enormous courage, putting himself in the front line for decades and traveling the globe almost without protection, let alone from gunmen and soldiers, though he is now generally protected by foreign governments' security forces almost wherever he goes, one of the most repressive major regimes in the world having made itself his sworn enemy. By comparison, Sai Baba was protected by weapons-bearing soldiers and had 20 full-time plain-clothes security people since about 1994 - soon costing well over Rs. 200,000 a month, after the infamous murders in his apartment, even though he claimed he was not a target. And who do you think pays? V.K. Narasimhan gave me the facts about this already in 1996 saying it was absurd to claim the security was for the sake of the devotees. These spies mingle undercover in the crowds. One such was known to me - Sanjay Chibber - seen in his wheelchair in a photo here:-  

While at the 70th birthday, someone I knew was present when a plainclothes Indian drew a gun and threatened a crowd which he considered to be trespassing where not allowed. He was wrong, and was reported to the authorities but nothing whatever was done about him. No one could get into Sai Baba's presence with the tiniest of items that could conceivably be used as some kind of weapon - not even a pen or computer diskette. Was all these this for the sake of the devotees or Sai Baba? It was no more for devotees than are the metal detectors, the intensive body searches of men (and for ladies often intrusive) who went to view Sai Baba on his daily walkabout (darshan).  or the fact that Sai Baba hid daily and at night in a fortress-built locked apartment palace. He was guarded by additional Israel-trained commandos - sometimes visibly armed with automatic weapons, and he travelled in a bomb-proof vehicle. Though he promised many person he was about to visit their countries in person, he never dared to leave Indian after his one visit abroad (to visit Idi Amin in Uganda!).  

Non-violence and fear of violence: The Dalai Lama has convincingly lived non-violence in all he does since he was forced out of his homeland in the 1950s (not just in constant torrents of repetitive words as does Sai Baba). Sathya Sai Baba spewed out torrents of repetitive preaching about non-violence yet actively covered up the murders in his bedroom in 1993 and got the entire case quashed by his devotees in the Government of Narasimha Rao and then Home Minister S.B. Chavan, denying all legal redress to the victims' families. Unlike Sathya Sai Baba, the Dalai Lama has never had to conceal himself nearby in a room in his own ashram while four close attendants were assassinated with his tacit approval and later outright public statements that their deaths came because they did not heed his warnings the very evening they occurred! (see in his discourse some weeks later).

Is it any wonder that the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize instead of Sathya Sai Baba, whose candidature was actually put forward to Oslo by the Indian Government (not many people know that!). Sathya Sai devotees have claimed that the son of Alfred Nobel supported Sai Baba for the Peace Prize, but his son is long dead. They were actually referring to he has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the award, which is a 100% Norwegian preserve. Yet Sathya Sai Baba actually said "They are giving the Nobel Prize to many people. The man who gives the Nobel Prize is coming here on the 22nd November. The ones who will show this to the whole world, TV people, are all coming here on the 22nd." It was Dr. Nobel who went there because he had a contract from the Sathya Sai Organization to set up the 'Sai Global Harmony' satellite radio station!. He has absolutely no say whatever in the Nobel Peace Prize Committee - all are Norwegian politicians only. Even The Times of India reported this claim and reproduced propaganda about billions coming to know the teachings of Sai Baba via TV. It has certainly NOT happened at all. The Norwegian committee were warned in advance by the Danish film 'Seduced' (see video clips/transcript) in which Sathya Sai Baba is credibly accused of fraud and sexual abuses by several persons, including the actor Conny Larsson (famous throughout Sweden), which was aired on Norwegian National Broadcasting (NRK) three time at top peak viewing hours.

Sai Baba was involved in condone subsequent cover-ups and quashing of all legal redress to the victims' families. Sai Baba claimed that his word was the absolute law in all things and - once spoken - would inevitably come to pass. Yet his will was always done by mega-obsequious officials in the ashram. Also this "ever-tranquil, totally unaffected" Sai Baba dropped his guard and showed everyone his hidden hand in his Xmas 2000 discourse namely, that by damning his critics to constant rebirths in many shameful lives, he was not compassionate or loving of everyone (as he had until then always claimed even of his detractors). The Dalai Lama, by contrast, has never damned or threatened anyone. Sai Baba would not even risk answering any questions about the murders, so he damned certain pressmen in Andhra Pradesh who wanted to get to the facts. Also in a later discourse, he heavily attacked the Indian press as spreading slander about him (when someone was arrested with a pistol at his Whitefield ashram). One never hears the Dalai Lama speak of the press in such a manner.

The Dalai Lama, however, is never patronizing nor does he harangue the whole world for being impure and under the sway of inhuman and demonic forces, as did Sai Baba constantly. He never used such slurs, even when he is often asked to respond to the outright lies and libels of the Chinese authorities or speak of the terrible tortures and deaths his people are undergoing. Sai Baba talked down to people from a position of claimed eminence, figuratively, he spoke on them from a great height. He constantly pointed out his as his own works and service while hardly ever giving any credit to those who actually did everything instead of him. His boasting about his achievements - that no one did one thousandth of the good work he did (Christmas 2000 discourse) was most embarrassing, but not to his blind and self-indoctrinated devotees. Others did all the work and provided the funds for all to which he so selflessly lent 'His Precious Name'. He celebrated himself and his birthdays like no other event, claiming it is the devotees who want it. But the fact is, known to those who speak with frank ashramites, that almost only he thrives on it; most residents dreaded it. It was Sai Baba's annual super self-praise event at Prashanti Nilayam, where he rode on his bizarre silver-encrusted motorized chariot-cum-jeep. All that mattered was numbers and show! Entirely unlike this, the Dalai Lama is never heard to promote his own huge and untiring efforts to help his people and anyone else who wants compassion. His tremendous services are entirely without fanfare and are done with total selflessness. While Sathya Sai Baba celebrates himself and his every birthdays like no other event in the calendar, the Dalai Lama has never to my knowledge promoted his own birthday. The Dalai Lama never rode in a solid golden chariot or the like.