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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