NOTE:
IT WAS NOT UNTIL EARLY 2000 THAT I FIRST LOOKED AT THE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST SATHYA SAI BABA THAT I WAS TOLD HAD APPEARED ON THE INTERNET SINCE 1999. BY MAY 2000, I WAS ABLE TO GET FURTHER IN INVESTIGATING
THE NUMEROUS ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT. AROUND THAT TIME I CIRCULATED THE FOLLOWING TO CIRCULATE TO MY FRIENDS AND FELLOW
DEVOTEES. THIS SHOWS HOW I BEGAN THE PROCESS WITHOUT JUMPING TO
CONCLUSIONS. THE RESULTS I EVENTUALLY OBTAINED PUT THE ISSUE BEYOND ALL POSSIBLE DOUBT
IN MY MIND. HAVING SUBSEQUENTLY COMMUNICATED WITH FORMER FRIENDS WHO HAD BEEN SEXUALLY ABUSED BY SSB (WITHOUT MY KNOWING IT THEN) I EXPRESSED MY CONVICTION ON THE INTERNET AND, BECOMING KNOWN AS A STRONG CRITIC OF SAI BABA AND A RELIABLE DEFENDER
OF ALLEGING VICTIMS, MORE CONVINVING EVIDENCE POURED IN TO ME. THIS IS HAVE THOROUGHLY CHECKED AS TO THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE ORIGINATORS AND THE PLAUSABILITY OF THEIR ACCOUNTS, WHICH AGREE IN COUNTLESS DETAILS WITH ALL I KNEW ABOUT SAI BABA, HIS ASHRAMS, AND MORE.
The Accusations of Sexual Molestation
This page updated the ‘Information’
pages temporarily, while an on-going study was in the process of
completion.
Sai Baba always sets narrow limits in his discourses for
being a good devotee: he teaches that one should never say anything that might
hurt anyone - however true. One should only see, hear and speak good. Criticism and especially back-biting are 'evil' and
'demonic' in his view. This, however, also makes for a very powerful kind of
self-censorship... and is also used as a doctrinal basis for censoring others. I
have appended it because I do not susbscribe to the
belief that all unpleasant facts should be ignored and denied.
Firstly, and at all events, there are many undeniably positive
facts about Sai Baba - a great deal that cannot be written
off or denied about good educational works to which he has stimulated many
other people. Apart from the massive contributions he has instigated in health,
educational and other social areas, his transformative and life-saving effect
on a very large but unknown number of people is a fact, as are his
extra-sensory powers of contact, healing and other phenomena unknown to
science. On the other hand, even the best of people can have hidden flaws. No
amount of good works disprove that bad acts may also take place! Most
seriously, given the truth of the homosexual allegations, Sai Baba's actions no
longer fit what he has repeatedly said about himself as regards his purity,
human perfection, freedom from lust etc. Moreover, he has insisted that the
only way we - with out limited knowledge - can judge any claims of spiritual
leadership, is by comparing words with actions.
Allegations of sexual abuse of young men and boys by Sai
Baba have come from many quarters, at least a dozen cases where homosexual molestation
have been described convincingly, plus a large number of indirectly reported
instances, including eight wholly separate reports of sexually-oriented
behaviour by Baba from people I know and can trust. That many of the
allegations – as published on the internet and in various newspapers - have
been made by persons who have been long at the ashrams, even from active and
hard-working devotees for decades, is undeniable. Throughout the years, various
parents have withdrawn their sons from Baba colleges due to sexual assaults,
Malaysian devotees did son in the 1970s (and the Malaysian Sai movement was in
crisis due to allegations by Malaysian students and parents. Prominent Greek
devotees withdrew their son and left Baba in the 1980s. Since the American, Tal Brooke, first published allegations of this kind, Americans
have independently found cause to withdraw their children from Sai Baba
colleges and leave the ashrams during the last decades of 2000. Many of the accusers
in various countries around the world have been visited by some leading persons
(then in the Sathya Sai Organisation) of impeccable repute and character, who
found no good reason to doubt what they are told.
None of those Sai Baba officials who make the
extraordinarily unwarranted claim to ‘know’ that Sai is not a
molester can substantiate this, of course, for they cannot monitor 90% of his
activities, are not in his rooms at night or in the private interview rooms
where many assaults are described as having occurred. The only have Sai Baba’s
word for it, and it is common knowledge that hardly any
male sexual molester ever admits to his activities. And often conceals them for
years even from a wife or close relatives. Many Sai devotees and nearly all Sai
office-bearers are, moreover, under extremely intense psychological internal
and external group pressures to ignore or reject these accusations out of hand.
It is an all too obvious fact that sexual & similar allegations (some
true, some false, many beyond judgement) are endemic as never before in the
media across much of the world and are levelled at some time against almost
every politician, star as well as many other innocents in society these days.
The most important principle of
'giving the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise', has, however,
itself become more and more doubtful as a valid principle in this specific
case. Obtaining legal proof pro or contra in this case is a most difficult
matter, if not impossible, for a large number of reasons. The extreme
sensitivity of the subject for the victims is well known from countless cases
of abuse worldwide: many takes decades before they can even mention it in
public. Further, Indian students living in India
have to be concerned for their careers and even their personal security if they
speak out. Many death threats have been received from Sai followers by
foreigners who have spoken out. The most serious of these is that Sai Baba has
shown himself to be effectively beyond the law of India
and to exercise indirect but very powerful control of the judiciary,
administration and government as to be able to stop any court cases against
him. Unlike Sai Baba, who is backed by a large organisation, enormous funds and
the Indian P.M. and government generally, his alleged victims have not recourse
to a just hearing of their cases.
It has been demonstrated that there is, at present or for the foreseeable
future, no chance of getting investigation done by any internal source, let
alone an independent court. Sai Baba’s devotees in the judiciary and High
Court recently had the case lodged against Sai Baba thrown out. Sai Baba himself is not publicly
approachable on any such issue and, despite his outwardly positive and loving
attitude to most people, he is known without any doubt to be capable of
reacting very negatively to what displeases him. The investigation of the
cold-blooded execution by police on the orders of own younger brother and
Central Trust member, Janaki Ramiah,
of four devotees in his own living quarters was quashed (when it at length made
progress towards the facts) through the offices of Sai Baba’s devotee politicians
- notably the Home Minister, S.B. Chavan –
without reaction from the Prime Minister or President, who were also his
devotees. Even mentioning or discussing the accusations is evidently frowned
upon, not least by Baba himself, as his discourse against those who seek or
discuss such facts on the Internet shows. Further, though he has compassionate
qualities towards those who worship and obey him he has, in his 2000 public
Christmas discourse, angrily condemned his accusers as Judases who shall have
to live through many future lifetimes in shame. While this proves nothing of
itself, it is neither confidence-building nor indicative of his guiltlessness.
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