Sai Baba EXPOSED!

13 December 2005

The "Sai Krishna" Picture Imbroglio PART ONE

While we're all in the Krishna mood, this might be the perfect time to relate an account of an instance of deception that I discovered while still a devotee. Even now that I am no longer a devotee, this still serves to show the vociferous reactions of Sai Baba followers to this affair.

Sometime around the year 2000, I read a post on the (now offline) Sai Unity yahoogroup about a certain Australian devotee, 'Luther Christ', who had visited Puttaparthi sometime in the 1980s, and who took photos of Sai Baba during darshan times. Upon returning to Australia and subsequently developing the photos, he was surprised to find that one of them was a miraculous picture of "Sai Krishna", a photo of Sai Baba as Krishna! This photo was attached with the post for all to see. As usual, several devotees on that forum thanked the poster for allowing them to partake of such grace as well as be in possession of this photo.

The only problem with this story was that I immediately recognised that this photo was a complete fake. It was not just the fact that it was an incredibly poor effort but that the background was similar to a painting of Krishna done by ISKCON artists. Since I have a long background with ISKCON I was able to recognise it immediately. In the "Sai Krishna" version, the blue of Sai Baba's face is markedly different to the blue of the arms and the edges of the photo are rather conveniently blacked out. However, a gopi in the corner can be seen clearly. To double-check, I visited the galleries of various ISKCON-oriented websites as well as look in my old picture collection only to find that my guess was correct: the picture was indeed from ISKCON.

When I was thus armed with indisputable evidence of fraud and voiced these objections on the forum, there appeared to be no real reply except for one particularly long-winded rationalisation as to why we should accept the "Sai Krishna" photo as a genuine miracle. The explanation went something like this: "It is probably Swami's will that those who need to see him this way will see him in that way. We do not need to concern ourselves whether this photo is fake or not." With this type of logic, one can get away with anything under the sun. The devotees did not really seem to care that a fraud had been perpetrated and that they were guilty of blindly swallowing yet another inscrutable leela of Swami's. Perhaps they were too embarrassed to admit it?

Since I had only made claims, I was asked by a more honest devotee in private to prove such claims by supplying him with the original ISKCON picture. This I did, and he promptly declared on the (also now offline) Unity In Diversity yahoogroup that he was in possession of the original picture and that I was able to support my claims of fraud. Even then, there was no real retraction of the picture or the accompanying story from the forum archives by any member or moderator.

Part Two.




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8 Comments:

  • Hi,
    I am Dinakaran. You had posted a couple of comments in my blog.
    You are doing a good job. Keep it up.
    I have an experience where a baba devotee talked about 'divine emails'.
    There is a young chap in my flat who is a staunch devotee of SSB. He is a member of one of the samitis and goes every sunday to bhajans and does lot of service. He is basically a nice chap.
    I once told him about my doubts regarding SSB. He said he would narrate a story. His story went like this. It's in first person.
    "I was disturbed when I first heard about the negative things about Baba. I felt so bad that I didn't go to office that day. I simply lay down and tried to sleep. That evening, some of my collegues, who were also devotees of Baba, came home and said they had all received an anonymous email
    saying, "Dont worry about the stories. Carry on your work".
    My friend did not know who sent the email. When they tried to reply to the email, it bounced. The email was therefore from none other than Baba himself."

    My friend is not an uneducated chap. He now works in a BPO wing of Standard Chartered in Chennai.
    It is surprising how even decent and educated people believe or cook up such stories!

    By Blogger Unknown, at 01 January, 2006 12:55  

  • Hi Dinakaran,

    thanks very much for your comments. Yes it is very surprising how Sai devotees cook up stories in order to rationalise their beliefs.

    I have come across several who say that even if Sai Baba were to be convicted and sent to jail for their crimes, they would still believe that he is God and that the jail sentence is another 'leela'.

    Amazing!

    By Blogger Swami Saiexposedananda, at 02 January, 2006 01:56  

  • Hi Buddy
    Keep up the good work. I never beleived in any swamis any way. If you have faith in you, you don't need any swamy. Sai baba as I know is a fraud and a suspected pedophile.

    Raj

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 08 May, 2008 00:49  

  • I dont believe this SSB.I guess lot of folks who are from Anatapur are cheaters and especially they cheat educated and innocent people for thier own benefits. I had very bad experience people from that place.. All are cheaters.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 22 June, 2008 08:12  

  • I believe all these guys have thier magic(i dont mean real magic) charm on people ..first they please them with thier pleasant behaviour , later once they get confidence of people try to trap them and make them fall prey.

    Even in SSB case do good as well as bad deeds...so they can cover the bad with good deeds...he does little bit good to people in terms of hospitals..education i am not sure how much is real truth..but people believe that this person is doing good for benefit of society not for his own...but at the end of the day..he cheats people..they can go to any length and kill people with help of politicians for the truth shdnt come in public...they are like dons

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 22 June, 2008 08:20  

  • Despite the fact of possible frauds by Sai Baba and his Org, I think that most of the problems regarding his person are not directly related to him, like the case of this "Sai Krishna" picture, for example. Such "devotees" think that they'll be promoting their guru whilst they're truly generating confusion and disbelief. Even if Sai Baba himself and his organization don't have any involvement with illegal activities and frauds, such psychologically problematic "followers" create rumours regarding his person, no doubt. In his last Christmas discourse he told the people there "You should not tell a lie under any circumstances". Such "devotees" clearly don't follow the teachings of their guru. They lie, creating false "miraculous proofs" and are truly acting against their guru.

    Jai Sat-Chit-Ananda

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 01 January, 2010 16:35  

  • What purpose you DO really want from exposing a swami? Does it make you feel "shanti"?? NO..NO..NO..BE GOOD DO GOOD AND SEE GOOD...Think twice!! All of u have done, is it good to do?? If u say so...God, whatever He is, Krishna, Rama, Devi Maa far far away from you. Practice Japa more intense, it will help clean your thought. Sing the glory of God...,,

    By Anonymous Toni, at 13 November, 2010 07:47  

  • Hi all,

    I am Deepuk from Mauritius.
    Who can understand the greatness of GOD? We are arguing on petty things? What do we know about SSB? He had not been here to prove that He is GOD.... Far from that he taught us that we are GOD and the only difference is that he knows this Truth and that we are still searching for it!! Does He need to Prove that he is GOD? The presence of GOD is felt and not proved. So instead of discussing petty matters wasting our time. Let us try at least to try to taste the nectar of divinity and try to look for the TRUTH.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 19 August, 2011 20:56  

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