Often asked to preach at Prashanthi Nilayam and from many other rostrums to a captive devotee audience, his pompous humility was to the fore before Sathya Sai Baba. Constrained in all respects to stick within the doctrine of Sai Baba, he could never inspire anyone with an original thought. nor even a hint of humour or personal insight. His flat-footed content of of ever-repeated maxims and constant old-fashioned moralization was conscientiously re-cycled parrotry of the more vague and simplistic 'teachings' of Sathya Sai Baba. He dragged on with this at various pseudo-events engineered in India by the now notorious Sathya Sai Central Trust. Let us look at some of the claims and motivations evident in what Dr. Goldstein has written and said to get some measure of the man.
1) The BBC hidden camera revealed in the BBC documentary, 'The Secret Swami', how he set a strikingly bad leadership example to devotees by a finger-pointing harangue against the young lady presenter, Tanya Datta, if ever there was one. He evidently had forgotten Sai Baba's dictum to "always speak sweetly and softly" and instead used one of Sathya Sai Baba's own trite finger-pointing advice, namely, 'do not point out others' faults' because when one points a finger, the other three point back at oneself! (Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume 1, p 205). Tanya Datta asked him in a civil way about his reliance on the word of Sai Baba (i.e. the widely accused sex abuser) saying:- "Why don't you have thorough investigations, instead of just asking one question to one person?" Goldstein replied evasively that it was impossible for him - in his heart - to believe that Sai Baba was a sexual abuser, accompanied by down-putting finger-pointing body language. He asked Sai Baba about the allegations but got as the only reply 'Swami is pure'. His humble acceptance of Sai Baba's denial without any further ado was soon rewarded. Shortly thereafter Sai Baba held a public discourse praising Goldstein to the skies. With solemn and ill-concealed pride at what he called the greatest day of his life, Goldstein asked whether it had all been captured on video! From then on he let down every abused young person by an assiduous cover-up of all questions of sex abuse by US and other devotees or their families, and ceased to reply to letters to him as head of the Organization when they required an investigation. He also hid everything possible about Sathya Sai Baba's evident complicity in the brutal murders in his apartment while he stood by and his younger brother and officials negotiated the killing by the police by blackmailing them.
Though his subsequent threat to sue the BBC was and empty gesture (they had complete legal protection and sex abuse affidavits), he issued a directive enforcing a complete black-out of all connections between Sai organization members and the media, everything having to be reported to him as international chairman.
2) Goldstein's abject servility: Goldstein had been duped, indoctrinated and "tested to destruction" to see if he would do just anything for swami, regardless of any other concerns whatever. Sathya Sai Baba kept everyone totally under his masterful thumb, especially the VIPs including the International Chairman of his organization, as seen clearly from from the following account by a very devoted lady known as Divya who lived for years with Sai Baba's sister, Venkamma:-
Sai Baba taught that his love for them meant he had to give them hard lessions 'to help reduce their egos'. Yet he was simply bullying and humiliating Dr. Goldstein him in public as if to say 'See I can do this to anyone'! But he also had to make some small show of affection, he knew that! That was typical of psychopaths' manipulation of people! Nevertheless, Goldstein accepted his own debasement repeatedly and willingly, evidently because it seemed to show all how much close attention he got and thus how good and important a devotee he was. In short, an ego boost and endorsement overall! At huge expense Goldstein constantly strutted around the world with his autocratic self-importance, despite having made a prime fool of himself on the BBC's Secret Swami.
3) The Goldsteins fantasized that Sai Baba saved their lives Goldstein and his wife Gloria survived one of the most terrible hijackings - by Abu Nidal of Pan_AM_Flight_73 at Karachi - 5/9/1986. They were among the ca. 200 passengers (out of 360) who survived without injury. Goldstein wrote a highly subjective account in Sanathana Sarathi journal (November 1986 see left-hand box below). There he related how his wife had "raised her hands together to pray and said aloud OM SAI RAM five times with a dignity and calmness that were incongruous with the situation" (i.e. having had a machine gun pointed at her). He continued "The terrorist was disconcerted for an instant. Then he said 'Hands up; move back". Goldstein made it seem that this stopped the terrorist using his weapon and instead ordering passenger to move back down the plane. However, during the mere 'instant' the super-hardened Abu Nidal terrorist probably thought, 'what kind of idiot is this?' He no doubt was simply following a common plan with his gang on how to deal with passengers. Goldstein prayed to Swami many times during the 17 hours of the ordeal - "always the same prayer: Lord, intercede in this tragedy". Notwithstanding these prayers (and doubtless other to other Gods by many terrified passengers) the terrorists shot people and eventually caused a dreadful mayhem in which it was reported that 20 people were killed and up to 150 injured. Despite this, Goldstein suggests that the Lord did intervene (presumably only because he and his wife were not killed when they jumped onto the escape chute and ran. No doubt he later figured that "Sai Baba protects his devotees" -(even if somewhat belatedly after 17 long hours of prayers, which were no doubt 'a good test of faith in Swami'). Moreover, his compassionate Lord apparently let 'the devil take the hindmost' for their karma he did not deign to alter... what sickening illogic!
Goldstein then chose to make a doctrinal point (for devotee readers) about detachment and fear: "From my contemplation of Swami's words and my prayers to him, I derived detachment. Instead of being controlled by my own fear, I became a witness to it. This enable me to think clearly and act effectively. Actually, in such life-death situations, the mind of most normal people become clear-headed, and detached, concentrated on survival. One wonders, what effective action did Goldstein take? There has been no mention I can discover of anything other than escaping amid exploding grenades and machine-gun fire as fast as he damn well could when the chute unfolded? By stark contrast, a stewardess, Neerja Bhanot, had shown real detached presence of mind plus personal courage and decided to hide all American passports under a seat and the rest were dumped down a trash chute. In so doing she made possible the saving of the Goldstein's American lives; then, when the plane's power ran out and only emergency lighting remained, the terrorists threw a grenade so she promptly opened one of the escape chutes before laying down her own life in protecting with her body three children from bullets! She was most clearly the hero of the episode and the saviour of many lives, and no invisible deity or any trumped-up Swami can compete with that! Wonder what the Goldsteins were up to during all that, still silently praying? Apart from the Goldsteins, not a single survivor is known even to have imagined that they were alive due to Sai Baba's will! Devotees will easily say they were ignorant and unlucky not to be blessed with the truth of God's presence in human form. These speculative dreams obviously made not a jot of difference to the outcome, other than further to entrap Goldstein's into passing the test of total subservience to the narcissistic will of a psychopathic pederast and accomplice to murder who escaped being convicted through power and money.
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ON GOLDSTEIN'S FIRST ACCOUNT - 1986
Author Brian Steel has compared various versions of the event by Goldstein with the public record
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BRIAN STEEL'S OVERVIEW OF SB's ERRORS
Sai Baba's discourse account of the incident on his birthday in 2004. Sai Baba enters the realm of incorrect guesswork, purposeful fantasy and the usual self-glorifying propaganda.
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Sathya Sai Baba revealed, yet again, his total ignorance of facts The former follower who published a comprehensive biographical tome on Sai Baba, Brian Steel, points out: "...although SSB claims to have used his Divine intervention on behalf of the Goldsteins, his recent version of the events (editorial note: on Radio Sai in 2004) in which he alleges he was intimately, and miraculously, involved diverges significantly from the public record, and also, alas, from Dr Goldstein's own public recollection of the terrible events." Further, "In his 23 November Birthday Discourse (as translated and edited by the SSO), SSB gave his version of this story, telling how he had intervened to save the lives of the Goldsteins. Without dwelling here on the self-promotional angle of this 18-year old story, the basic truth that must be admitted is that, once again, SSB has made very basic factual errors in an event in which he claims he was divinely, omnipotently and omnisciently involved. These errors are easily verifiable not only in media and other accounts of the happenings but also in Dr Goldstein's lecture to a Vancouver group of devotees in May 2001)."
Indeed, the errors in Sai Baba's account are glaring and major! The whole story was also embroidered in widely reported additional information given by Goldstein to US VIPs Rita and Robert Bruce (and others) who told me he said that Sai Baba had taken Goldstein in his car to the Hillview Stadium etc. and had said to him "I will not be seeing you again". Goldstein had begged and cried until Sai Baba eventually said he would, after all see him again. This was supposedly to show that Sai Baba knew all about what was to come, though it was vague and could have been said for other reasons. Some months later when Goldstein visited PN again, Sai Baba claimed to have saved him and that it had actually been his karma to be killed in that incident! One must therefore ask, if the man he made top leader of his International organization should have died a most inauspicious death (as such killings are, according to Sai Baba) surely that person would not be fit to lead the organization created by alleged God Incarnate on Earth, the Avatar of the Age. Goldstein wove all this together without any real evidence, of course, always having believed Sai Baba anyhow knew everything bar nil, and subsequently stating on BBC that he believed "...Sri Sathya Sai Baba IS Jesus Christ, Sri Sathya Sai Baba IS Buddha, Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the Founder of all the world's religions" - which would thereby include Mohammed too! The cultist indoctrination of such preposterous nonsense speaks volumes about the sub-intellectual, thrusting business-oriented, gullible doctor that Goldstein proves himself to be. (Yet he claimed that he could see whether a boy had been abused by looking in his eyes... and added that he is "a consummate professional"!) Much more could be said about him both contra and even partly pro, of course, and not least that he thought he was acting correctly and helping serve others in his tireless public activities and Sai-inspired tirades during endless expensive visits to Sai Baba and all over the globe. But many wrongs never can add up to a right!
In 2012 there emerged revelations of sexual abuse, harassment and bullying of pupils etc. at the Sathya Sai School in Leicester, UK. In accordance with his well-known cover-up policy of anything whatever to do with Sai Baba, Michael Goldstein was quick to defend the head teacher Usha Lim and her husband Cheng Hoe Lim, who were the accused.
See Wikipedia on Pan Am Flight 73 for the accepted public account of the incident.
Goldstein's most inadvisable bullying of Tanya Datta and the BBC producer can be viewed in short video clips (with transcript). Also his break of faith with Al Rahm's whose son were sexually abused when he fell victim to Sai Baba's flattery trap.
Complete sequence about Michael Goldstein's non-investigation and how Sai Baba fooled him (mov small 2.30 MB,wmv small 10 MB, mov large 7.10 MB, wmv large
Goldstein's zealotry and pig-headed insensitivity to relations who lost their loved ones in disaster, such as the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers is truly disgusting. Read 9/11 Twin Towers attack and Sathya Sai Baba’s claimed intervention!
A vague and second-hand account of the hi-jacking was also posted by some devotee, which illustrates how distorted and vague all facts become by such credulous and inaccurate believers: An experience of Dr. Goldstein
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