Later Uli is reported as saying:-
Suicide by a young German Steckenreuter
who was sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba
It is occasionally most difficult to track down the facts about sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba because all were shrouded in secrecy as far as the ashrams, the organisation, its officials and devotees, and every detail suggesting sexual abuse by Sai baba were censored out of any manuscript or publication possible. However, another horrendous account has revealed how a young favourite of SB, a German youth called Uli Steckenreuter, was not only sexually abused by Sai Baba, but also took his own life years later in 1982.
My concerns about Sathya Sal Baba
from the web site of TIMOTHY CONWAY PhD, former President of the San Franscisco Sathya Sai Centre
http://www.enIightened-spirituaIity.org/Sathya_Sai_Baba_my_concerns.htmI
"Now, the list certainly does not end here with this set of publicly identified sources. There are well overa dozen more male youth, names fully or partially known to us, who have not yet come forward publicly to tell their stories of sexual contact, though they have certainly at some length told their stories privately to trusted family members or friends, including telling the stories to ex-devotees who were longtime center officers or national officers in the SSB Organization, as well as to certain public media personnel.
Again, these male experiencers’ names and identities are known to critics of SSB (and to many devotees), but, for the sake of privacy and confidentiality, we are simply NOT at liberty to divulge their full names here. Several names have actually already been leaked into print, but I am not comfortable mentioning their names here because they have not publicly come forth on their own. I can perhaps mention one young man here, since he passed away many years ago: Uli/Ulli Steckenreuter (spelling?), a German man in his early twenties, well-known to many SSB devotees in the late 1970s, who was found dead, hanging from the ceiling (a likely suicide), in Bangalore in 1981 after earlier telling Don Heath (the late founder of the San Francisco SSB Center) of at least one incident in the late 1970s in which Baba wanted Uli to perform oral sex on him. As for the many other males in this set, some of them are in the public limelight (one is a multiple-award-winning actor) or else have positions in family or community making them vulnerable to unwanted attention if their names are exposed.
In 2006, a recorder of alleged miracles and wonders of Sathya Sai Baba, Malcolm Tillis, wrote about his interview with Joachim Peters (52 years old) and his son Uli Steckenreuter (24 years old) in 2006. It was evident that the extremely embarassing facts on sex and a young man's suicide have been covered over, but one can further deduce that Uli was molested by Sai Baba from the strong hints in two excerpts from the eulogy Tillis concocted:-
Tillis wrote:-
"In the morning — Baba for some reason hasn’t appeared for the usual darshan — so I am introduced to Joachim, mellow, polite, polished; and Uli, much younger, much jokier and less polished. We laugh a lot about our unofficial Interviewing permissiveness — I presume they usually live quiet, unexcitable lives. As far as they are concerned, they couldn’t care less about checking their Interviews: they know, I suppose, they are going to tell me nothing but positive printable stuff.
I must say, some aspects of The Guru Protection Syndrome one sometimes meets in Ashrams can be tiresome. I had, however, to come all the way here to Puttaparthi though to hear about a scandalous book recently published about Sathya Sai Baba, so I do see that poor Sir is right to be cautious. (And little did I imagine that this was but the start of much controvertial speculation as to Baba’s sexual activities)."
Later Uli is reported as saying:-
"Then I was very sick, stomach trouble and depressed, and about to leave and look for another saint. I was sitting at darshan really down physically and mentally: Baba came out but I thought: Well, you are God — I can’t go to a doctor because you can cure me if you want to in an instant.
He looked at me — in the area of my stomach — and said: Go in! and he gave me an Interview.
From then on for a year he gave me so much attention, talked to me, made me feel I was close to him. He made me this locket I wear — even the chain, at that first Interview, and said:
You have pain — I’ll take it away — you want to talk to me this evening?
I was so happy, but all day long I was also confused by this sudden love. In the evening he said: How are you now?
I said: A little confused. Confused?
He said, if you are confused I won’t talk to you.
He started to walk away.
I yelled out: It’s much better now, so he came back saying:
Don’t be confused, be happy!
From then on he has given me many Interviews and made me this special ring.
JOACHIM: You should tell how he wanted to get you married.
ULI: Baba was marrying an American couple, blessed them, made them rings and showered them with rice — brown rice — coming out of his fingers. After he had given them a talk on what marriage means, he turned to me saying: Now you are going to get married. I cried: Baba, no, no! I don’t want to get married — I really don’t want to. He said: I am going to marry you to God!"
THREE DIED AFTER PUTTING THEIR FAITH IN GURU "The Times has learnt that three Britons have apparently taken their lives after placing hope in India's most popular holy man. One of them had complained of being repeatedly sexually molested by Sai Baba at his ashram in Puttaparthi near Bangalore. Michael Pender, an HIV-positive student, was found dead at a London hostel after taking alcohol and painkillers. He had already tried to commit suicide at the holy man's headquarters. Aran Edwards hanged himself at home in Cardiff after joining a Sai Baba support group and being encouraged to write to the guru to solve his psychological problems. Mr Edwards sent a flurry of anxious letters but was devastated after receiving no replies and being told that the guru did not read his mail. Andrew Richardson, a South Africa-born British national, jumped off a building in India shortly after visiting Sai Baba's ashram."
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