Call for Media and Government Investigation of Sat Case for independent third party investigation of globally big guru, Sai Baba Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 220 0 92 3172

Articles from Call for Media and Government Investigation of Sat

William Aitken Fails on Prof. E. Haraldsson and Dr K. Osis 2008-02-08 13:58:43 As promised, I shall take some further looks at the work of Brian Steel. See my articles:  A Host of Sai Baba Hagiographers William Aitken’s Sai Baba Book Major Flaws Says Scholar Sai Baba Researchers’ Huge Debt To Scholar Brian D. Steel In this blogging and some upcoming ones, I shall be looking at Brian Steel’s article: Bill Aitken and Sathya Sai Baba. A Writer’s Dilemma,  on Aitken’s book, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. A Life (New Delhi, Penguin Books India, 2004. Paperback edition, 2006).   Aitken speaks of his book as a counterweight to “excesses of hagiography”. Steel’s textual analysis, however, reveals beyond any dispute that the book is strongly, despite its claims to the contrary, hagiographical. It isolates “headline grabbing” and superficial views contra Sai Baba, while ignoring the large body of serious criticism by former devotees and other critics that has been taken seriously by many third parties. For example, s ...

A Host of Sai Baba Hagiographers 2008-02-02 22:24:06 In the heyday of Sathya Sai Baba’s mission, some devotee writers with various professional backgrounds influenced many, particularly his more educated followers. These included Professor N. Kasturi, Howard Murphet, Dr John Hislop, Dr Samuel Sandweiss, Ra. Ganapati, Dr Satya Pal Ruhela, V, Balu, Shukuntala Balu, Robert Lowenburg, etc. Where Hagiography Fails Ethically The name of William ‘Bill’ Aitken has now to be added to the list of these hagiographical writers on Sai Baba. In coming days I shall be looking at Bill Aitken and Sathya Sai Baba. A Writer’s Dilemma, by the Australian scholar Brian Steel  writing on Aitken’s book, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. A Life (New Delhi, Penguin Books India, 2004. Paperback edition, 2006). The Blind Misleading of Blind Yearning The willingness of those searching, often with a great and aching longing, for peace of mind can conceal from their readers, even well-educated ones, just how hagiographic these works really are.  The ...

UK Law Lords’ Landmark Ruling On Sex Abuse 2008-01-31 15:40:51 Breaking 400 years of precedents, Great Britain’s law Lords have ruled that it possible for those alleging sexual abuse to take legal action even years later. One wonders whether the Manmohan Singh Government in India has the will or the capability of making such major changes in India. Certainly, it has made a beginning with its major study of child abuse in India. See my articles: Child Abuse. Landmark Indian Government Study. Abuse of Indian children ‘common’ and Child Abuse in India. Will Minister Renuka Chowdhury Act? and Dr Naresh Bhatia. Silenced Now In Indian Child Abuse Scourge Whilst it is true - as activists (see below) make a point of urging - that such legal remedies are far too often the province of those who can afford it, nonetheless the existence of strong laws surrounding sexual abuse can help to influence further social reform. There has to be a strong constellation of responses. It is the case that, for example, many Nazi war criminals escaped the reach ...

Sathya Sai Baba Fails To Materialize Top Tennis Match 2008-01-22 18:13:56 What? No one for Sai Baba tennis? Anyone for a contractual obligation? Well, there was player turnup, except for the authority’s last-second cancellation because there was no Sai Baba turnup. The shocked reaction of one of the players interviewed (see Hindustan Times report below) carries its own moral force. In more recent times, Sai Baba’s behaviour - whether it concerns his appearance or non-appearance - has become ever more erratic. Opulent ’spirituality’ at Puttaparthi But Where Has Sai Baba Gone? The latest episode concerns his cancellation of a tennis tournament by top players from India and the Philippines. This was one of two scheduled matches, one of which was to have taken place at the so-called ’spiritual’ guru’s incredibly opulent ashram at Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, South India. See, Champion Tennis At Top Indian Guru’s Ashram A typical bizarre case was last October 4, when there was a rush by thousands of devotees avid to ...

William Aitken’s Sai Baba Book. Major Flaws Says Scholar 2008-01-19 17:09:31 The following are some quotes from Brian Steel’s article Bill Aitken and Sathya Sai Baba. A Writer’s Dilemma. Retired Spanish language expert and lexicographer from one of Australia’s top universities, Steel critically assesses a book by William McKay ‘Bill’ Aitken: Sri Sathya Sai Baba. A Life (New Delhi, Penguin Books India, 2004. Paperback edition, 2006). ‘Bill’ Aitken Aitken’s Methodology Badly Flawed, Says Steel Quotes: Aitken’s style of reporting often shows a judgemental bias in favour of Sathya Sai Baba, somewhat akin to the devotee’s habit of rationalising any doubt or inconvenient information about the guru. Nowhere is this clearer than in the few pages where he makes an attempt to explain away SSB’s clearly documented errors and exaggerations (pp.131-136) This biography contains other errors and omissions which suggest that Aitken was over-selective in his sampling of the vast hagiographical literatur ...

Sai Baba Researchers’ Huge Debt To Scholar Brian D. Steel 2008-01-16 03:48:16 The Australian academic linguist Brian Steel has posted his Research on Sathya Sai Baba and the Sathya Sai Organisation. New Factors for Researchers to Consider, December 2007 Brian D. Steel’s Huge Project Of the ‘New Factors’ section, he notes: “This extensive survey is also an integral section of the third Part of my annotated Bibliography on Sathya Sai Baba”. Far more that offering long lists of sources, the bibliographies include succinct comments in the case of works that Steel deems of special note. His scope is breathtaking. “These three Bibliographies have listed and briefly described three large and diverse corpora of information currently available in December 2007 about the guru Sathya Sai Baba, his 60-year spiritual Mission and his organisation (the Sathya Sai Organisation). By winnowing this enormous mass of varied documentation, researchers should be in a better position to separate fact from fantasy and research from propaganda in ord ...

International Cricket And The Secret Swami 2008-01-13 02:52:31 One of the biggest rows in cricket history has afflicted the present Test series between India and Australia. But what instructiveness might a Test cricket series in Australia have in relation to the call from former Sathya Sai Baba followers in many countries for media and government investigation of their former teacher, who is arguably the most powerful and controversial guru in history? The Sai Baba-India Cricket Nexus  After all, it is not Sathya Sai Baba but Sharad Pawar who promptly threatened to cancel further games in the series.  Pawar is the powerful head of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India). He is also being touted as the next ICC (International Cricket Council president). As well a having been Governor of the State of Maharashtra, he was earlier on a short list of three or four for the Indian prime minstership. (There was another recent high profile candidate who has been pushed hard for by many close to Sai Baba - Shashi Tharoor, for the succession o ...

Champion Tennis At Top Indian Guru’s Ashram 2008-01-01 21:27:15 After Sai Baba’s great white elephant, Hillview stadium, has lain virtually dormant for nearly a decade, another Sai Baba involvement in topline sport has just been announced. In December 1997, it was cricket. In January 2008, it is tennis.  From The Hindu Online. Wednesday, January 2, 2008. India to play two Tests against the Philippines NEW DELHI: India will play two Test matches in tennis against the Philippines on January 12 and 14. The Indian challenge will be led by the National grass court champion Vishnu Vardhan and the National hard court champion Ashutosh Singh. The other member will be Divij Sharan. The Philippines will have a two-member team of Patrick John Tierro and Johnny Arcilla. The Tests, to be played at the Sri Sathya Sai Baba Ashram at Puttaparthi and the DLTA Complex in Delhi, will feature two singles and a doubles each. — Special Correspondent John McEnroe Faces Mafia, But Can He Slam Sai Baba? A brief aside. Great Tennis ace John McEnroe has raised ...

Sai Baba - Miraculous or Disastrous? 2007-12-30 20:46:33 It may not necessarily be fun for religionists and rationalists to find themselves on roughly common ground. Especially when it comes to the topic of Sai Baba’s so-called ‘miracles. The Disaster of the ‘Miraculous’ Many religious people place little or no importance on miracles. For example, the Buddha inveighed against them, viewing preoccupation with them as problematic for one’s spiritual growth. Likewise, Sri Ramakrishna and many spiritual teachers of various paths. No matter what Sai Baba may say about his (alleged) miracles being of the relative importance of a flea to an elephant, large numbers of his devotees are extensively concerned with them. No rationalist will surely cede to a notion of the miraculous, and perhaps even if a shower of them occurred would not be too impressed. His or her likely position would be:  whatever the cause, there will be, if there is not in our present state of scientific knowledge already, a non-theistic, non ...

May You Look At The Moon And See Santa In It 2007-12-24 18:45:07 In the almost magical Christmassy spirit of those who have been merrily following the ‘moon miracle’ issue, I extend two almost Irish blessings: May you look at the Moon and see Santa in it. May the same Moon come down your chimney (if by some miracle you still have one!) Response to Priddy and Pittard Blogsites More seriously, I wish to express thanks for the  (virtually unimaginable number) of visits to http://barrypittard.wordpress.com . The same striking phenomenon is occurring with former head of the Norwegian Sathya Sai Baba Organization, Robert Priddy’s blogsite at: http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com (I note that he, too, has just posted a Christmas message) It is a response that outweighs the (also almost unimaginable) libel, distortion, stalking both on and off the Internet, and other less than spiritual responses by pro Sai Baba antagonists. I would add, however, that apart from certain of his close servitors from several countries who have h ...

Timothy Conway Ph.D - On ‘The Hislop Letters’ 2007-12-18 04:21:05 Before resigning in February 2001 - following his investigation of allegations of Sai Baba’s multi-faceted abuse - Timothy Conway Ph.D had been a respected member of the US Sathya Sai Baba movement (president of the large San Francisco center and a liaison-consultant for Northern California in the early to mid-1980s), as well as a longtime member of Santa Barbara, CA, Sai Center since 1988 (in addition to hosting the local Ammachi satsang and his own spiritual groups). Timothy’s key interest has been comparative East-West spiritual traditions, not just emphasizing intellectual expertise but concerned with actual living of the insights and precepts. An independent scholar with a background in psychology, Timothy is a respected lecturer and author of several outstandingly well-reviewed books (Women of Power And Grace and the forthcoming two-volume India’s Sages and other works). See his well-written and wide-ranging Enlightened Spirituality website for much more, de ...

Renowned Indian Editor VKN. Diary and Letter Scans Reveal 2007-12-02 18:52:38 Robert Priddy, former head of the Sathya Sai Organization in Sweden, and retired academic in Philosophy and Social Sciences at the University of Oslo, Norway, has just released scans of material relating to his close friendship with the famous Indian newspaper Editor, V.K.Narasimhan, who knew him closely for several years. VKN as Narasimhan was affectionately known, with rare courage, stood up to Mrs Indira Gandhi and the Emergency rule she imposed on India, 1975-77. He succeeded Professor P.N. Kasturi as Editor of Sanathana Sarathi, Sai Baba’s official organ, which is distributed worldwide. VKN was well known among those close to Sai Baba as being an almost lone case of one who would regularly and forcefully stand up to him. The committing of this material - a) scanned from the extensive Priddy diaries and notebooks relating specifically and often daily to the time, and b) including exchange of letters between the two men - is valuable. First, it honors an intellectual and mor ...

‘Moon Mission of Sathya Sai Baba’. Re Merinews Article 2007-11-29 19:48:50 Noting that the Indian news service Merinews.com contained an article by Natteri Adigal which gave me a brief mention, I responded. This was, Moon mission of Sathya Sai Baba: Only for the faithful! by Natteri Adigal, Thursday, 29 November 2007. (see link below). I wrote the following in the Comment section, not knowing that only short messages are run, so I shall publish my response here:- Your writer Natteri Adigal states, “Australia-based Barry Pittard, a former devotee and lecturer at Sathya Sai College in Whitefield who has been leading a campaign against the ‘cult’, ridiculed the whole exercise as another gimmick at fooling people”. If they view my article Sai Baba To Be Seen In Moon? But Where Was Moon? Merinews readers will get an accurate version of what I have actually said. (For Link, see below) It is by no means certain that Sai Baba attempted to fool people. Given that - as his core leaders know only too well, and photographic footage and reliable devotee a ...

Bernie Banton Case. Mega Poor Can Fight Mega Rich 2007-11-28 16:42:51 What do many wealthy and powerful so-called spiritual organizations have in common with corporations? Vested Religious Interests Cover up Like Any Other When it comes to profound cover ups and gross desertion of duty of care, groups like the Sathya Sai Organization and the Roman Catholic Church (until the latter was forced to admit liability) act just as the James Hardy company in Australia has acted. With the worst lies, evasions and the utmost lack of compassion and responsibility. But Bernie Banton, increasingly sick with asbestosis, a killer disease of which the James Hardy company had secretly known since the 1930’s, nobly fought - right up until his death two days ago - against the company’s relentless injustice. His spirit of forgiveness also showed that being magnanimous should not be confused with refusal to act in the face of evil. Bernie Banton with working class idol Jimmy Barnes, at the Rights At Work rally, Melbourne Cricket Ground, 2006 Warrior Bernie Banto ...

Challenging Historic Deification 2007-11-23 21:15:38 In an age of Internet libel, stalking and various kinds of abuse against dissenters both on and off the web, it is no small undertaking for individuals to speak about their former affiliation with Sai Baba. Strangely, Non-Campaigners Turn Into Campaigners Not the least of difficulties in speaking out include considerable inexperience in campaigning - such as dealing with the media, Interpol, UNESCO, government ministries and departments, religious, political and civic organizations, etc. - setting up of websites and adjuncts such as an international petition. There are security problems such as hack attacks, attempts at insertion of viruses, trojans, etc. Cultic Abandonment of Reason and Commonsense There have been attempts by Sai Baba’s cult to denigrate and indeed in a number of cases libel former devotees. In their professions, trades and wider communities, those who have left Sai Baba as a matter of highest principle have long been known (and by many Sai devotees thems ...