The Westerner with the absolutely most privileged access to the family of Sathya Sai Baba, who lived for years in Prashanthi Nilayam with his sister Venkamma and tended her on her deathbed, 'Divya' (Eileen Weed) has told what she knew about Sai Baba's mother, Easwaramma. Her information shows how the glorified presentation of the fate of this poor woman was falsified. Known as the Chosen Mother, Eashwaramma had died in 1972 “ long before Divya came to India. Divya has written:

"I only know stories the family told me. Such as, how much she suffered disgrace when her husband Pedda Venkappa Raju left her to live with his concubine!  Easwaramma had to deal with Sai Baba joking about her sister (the concubine) and sending her the same silk saris he sent Easwaramma! Easwaramma had to suffer a lot of tragedy when her children underwent troubles, too. Like when her daughter Venkamma's baby daughter died only 10 days after being born, and how her other daughter Parvatamma accidentally dropped her newborn son and he died several days later, from head injuries."

In the most comprehensive biography of Sathya Sai Baba and family ('Love is My Form') we read:-
"Kondama Raju's younger sister, Venkata Subbamma, married Meesaraganda Subba Raju of Kolimigundla, a village in the Koilkuntla Taluk of Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh, then ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad. They had six children - three sons and three daughters. Their eldest daughter was Easwaramma."

SATHYA SAI BABA'S FAMILY TREE
He was son after his mother's seven previous pregnancies

This indicates:- Kondama Raju's younger sister married Subba Raju, which makes the two of them brothers-in-law. The birth of Easwaramma as the offspring of Subba makes her Kondama Raju's niece. Her subsequent marriage to Pedda Venkama (Kondama's son) means that the two of them were cousins.
Many Indians from the Andra Pradesh region, has written expressing the fact that it is acceptableto marry one's cousin, and that very common place and even encouraged. Though maybe widespread even today,this is widely considered abhorrent. As a supposed 'omnipotent creator/avatar of God', Sathya Sai Baba should surely have chosen a better family in which to take birth?

Abortive pregnancies or Sathya Sai Baba's missing sisters?

Ãsa Samsioe, a Swedish psychologist and ex-follower, wrote about Eashwaramma's abortive pregnancies and his "missing sisters"
In 'Love is My Form' we read "After Pedda Venkama Raju and Eashwaramma were blessed with a son and two daughters - Seshama Raju, Venkamma and Parvathamma - Eashwaramma suffered four miscarriages. The family attributed these to evil planetary influences and consequently performed the Graha Santhi ritual (designed to pacify the planets). When Easwaramma entered her eight pregnancy her mother in law vowed a series of Sathyanarayana pujas in order to be blessed with a grandson, N Kasturi wrote in his book about Sathya Sai Baba´s mother 'Easwaramma the chosen mother'. (p 20)
"Easwaramma, Mother Most Blessed God for a son! Like Krishna for Devaki, Sathya was Easwaramma's eighth child. Where are then the other four children?"

We know that Sathya Sai Baba had only three older siblings, when he was born. Easwaramma´s oldest child was Sathya Sai Baba´s brother Seshama Raju, who was succeeded by two sisters Venkamma and Parvathamma.
According to the 'official biographer' named by Sai Baba, N. Kasturi, Easwaramma had four abortive pregnancies in a series, after the birth of her second daughter and before she gave birth to Sathya Sai Baba. (p 19) In 'Sathyam Sivam Sundaram', part I, p 5, by the same author, you can read: Some years passed and Easwaramma longed for another son. She prayed to the village gods and observed Sathyanarayana Puja and kept a number of vows, which were rigorous and needed vigil and abstention from food.
Easwaramma even exposed herself to different hardships to get her wish for a son come true. Why not just pray for a healthy child, who was alive, after all those abortive pregnancies? And what was wrong with Easwaramma before she gave birth to Sathya Sai Baba?

Why did four daughters fail to live? Female infanticide?

In the last few years there have been some writing about the son preference in India and its effect on the sex ratios. In the French journal L'Express from August 2003, there is for example a reportage named Inde ''Le pays qui ne veut pas de filles." (India The country which doesn't want daughters).
The roots of son preference in India lie in deeply entrenched social, cultural and economic discrimination against women and girls. A daughter is considered to be an economic liability to her parents because of the heavy dowry payment demanded by the groom's family. There is also the high cost of the wedding, which is generally the responsibility of the bride's family to bear. And after the marriage the daughters may have little continuing contact with their natal family.

There is an old Indian locution which compares the bringing up of daughters with the tending of a sapling planted in the neighbour's garden. The birth of a son is perceived as an opportunity for upward mobility, while the birth of a daughter is believed to result in downward economic mobility. Sons are expected to support their parents in old age and are therefore viewed as a source of social security. Also in strict Hindu tradition salvation in the afterlife can only be achieved if a son lights his parents funeral pyre.

As the infant mortality rates tend to be high for both Indian boys and girls, parents tend to produce numerous offspring in the hope that at least two sons will survive to adulthood.
According to UNICEF India is œthe kingdom of the invisible daughters and there are approximately about 40 millions missing females. These females ought to have been present in India if the sex ratios were on par with the world. Natural populations tend to have more females than males. According to L´Express there are 1050 females per 1000 males in Europe, but according to Census of India 2001, there are only 933 females per 1000 males in India. But what happens to all those missing females, then? They are murdered at birth, mistreated or never allowed to be born.

There are no good data on the number of cases of female infanticide in India, but recent research has shown that female infanticide has been practised in rural Tamil Nadu (the neighbor province of Andhra Pradesh) unnoticed by outsiders for many decades. Besides Andhra Pradesh is among those nine provinces in a study, which are known for high rates of sex-selective abortions.

The villages in which female infanticide occur tend to be remote with less educated population than villages with no cases of female infanticide. They are located in a hilly and more isolated part of the block and cut off from outside influences. Sabu M George writes. Seems to be a good description of Puttaparthi!
If I am right in those suspicions of mine, it isn't hard to imagine the enormous psychological impact that those potential tragic events then would have had on Sathya Sai Baba! What will happen to a little boy who has to compensate his poor mother for the death of perhaps as many as four girl children? Would it be compensation enough if he became God the Father Himself? That's a cut above the family members original high hopes of his joining the prestigious government service. Who has never heard or read that Sathya Sai Baba, who always boasts about his human values (which he doesn't practice himself), is concerned with the treatment of girls and women in his own Bharath? On the contrary he is stuck to the male chauvinistic view of women, which is responsible for those 40 millions missing females.

Get some idea of the nature of Sai Baba's close family through a look at the mentality and values of his elder sister Venkamma here
 Note also that the so-called "Holy Mother of the Divine Avatar". Eashwaramma was deserted by her husband and left with nothing but a tiny shack to live in (and even Sai baba did not do anything to relieve that). Her husband lived in Puttaparthi with his mistress all the while!) See  Easwaramma “ the chosen mother in poverty, scorned by her husband!