The "Sai Krishna" Picture Imbroglio PART TWO
The next part of this story occurred when I had left the organisation of Sai Baba and also given up my adoration and worship of him. Funny how the tables turn when you are on the other side; there seems to be an immediate air of distrust, suspiciousness, and plain ol' hostility. This type of treatment may be par for the course in material organisations, but to receive it from people who are supposedly of a spiritual bent of mind is a shock to the system. Even with all their wacky beliefs you'd think that Sai devotees would show some concern/compassion/sympathy for former members of the "Sai Family" who have fallen away by the wayside, but no, you are guilty of the biggest sin on earth.
Alas, I digress and so on we go. When I brought up this issue of the 'Sai Krishna' photos in the Yahoo forums as an example of how the Puttaparthi photo labs are in the business of creating faked pictures now and again, I was rudely asked to provide proof by a certain adherent named Lisa De Witt (hereafter referred to as 'LDW'):
Fair enough, so I simply recounted my story about the discussion that had transpired on the Sai Unity group and how I had proven this so-called miracle to be nothing but a cheap fraud. I also recounted the accompanying story of "Luther Christ" from Australia, informing LDW that she could see all of these evidences in the archives of Sai Unity. Surprisingly, she retorted:
Erm, I had just informed LDW that the "proof" was to be found in the archives of Sai Unity. Moreover, since I happened to know that LDW was actually a lazy individual who needed all information on a plate, I took the responsibility of looking up the exact posts on the Sai Unity group and posting them all so that everyone could see the relevant exchanges. In retrospect, I wish that I had downloaded those particular postings instead of just posting links to them, considering that Sai Unity is now offline and none of the Internet Archive engines seem to have kept cached copies of the necessary postings. In any case, however, at the time it was real and true that the messages at hand could be seen by all and sundry.
Even more surprisingly, LDW retorted:
Alas, I digress and so on we go. When I brought up this issue of the 'Sai Krishna' photos in the Yahoo forums as an example of how the Puttaparthi photo labs are in the business of creating faked pictures now and again, I was rudely asked to provide proof by a certain adherent named Lisa De Witt (hereafter referred to as 'LDW'):
Where's the proof? You guys always talk a lot of crap but you NEVER have any actual evidence to back it up. It's ALL talk.
Fair enough, so I simply recounted my story about the discussion that had transpired on the Sai Unity group and how I had proven this so-called miracle to be nothing but a cheap fraud. I also recounted the accompanying story of "Luther Christ" from Australia, informing LDW that she could see all of these evidences in the archives of Sai Unity. Surprisingly, she retorted:
Still talk and NO proof.
Erm, I had just informed LDW that the "proof" was to be found in the archives of Sai Unity. Moreover, since I happened to know that LDW was actually a lazy individual who needed all information on a plate, I took the responsibility of looking up the exact posts on the Sai Unity group and posting them all so that everyone could see the relevant exchanges. In retrospect, I wish that I had downloaded those particular postings instead of just posting links to them, considering that Sai Unity is now offline and none of the Internet Archive engines seem to have kept cached copies of the necessary postings. In any case, however, at the time it was real and true that the messages at hand could be seen by all and sundry.
Even more surprisingly, LDW retorted:
Unless you can put the photos side by side so people can see for themselves it is NOT proof.
Duhhhh. At the time of writing, Yahoo discussion groups do not allow messages to have their attachments saved. This means that if somebody in a discussion group wishes to post a picture to the group members, only the members at the time of posting will receive the picture; the picture is not available for download at a later date.
However, at the time this discussion was taking place, Yahoo Groups did allow attachments to be saved and thus we can see how absurd LDW's contention is, considering that I had already provided direct links to the postings at hand which contained the necessary pictures to download. All LDW had to do was see the postings, download the attached pictures and then view them side-by-side for herself to see the obvious fraud. Oddly, this simple process proved to be too difficult for her to carry out.
An apparent reason for LDW's distrust was apparently because of a similar "photo fraud" reported by Hari Sampath regarding a photo claiming to have captured Sai Baba amongst clouds (which may require a dedicated blog to discuss!) was doubtful, according to her:
Let's keep in mind that I had just (twice!) mentioned that the material was available as well as providing the direct links to the posts at hand, which had the photos attached for anyone to download and see for themselves. Even if there was a reason to be suspicious based on similar issues with photographic fakes, this was completely unwarranted here considering that the pictures in question were freely available. Not just in postings, but on the Web too!
In any case I figured that I had better respond to LDW's claim of manipulation, and I simply related that these exchanges had taken place while I was still a Sai devotee discussing the issue with fellow devotees. As a devotee, I had nothing to lose by pointing out this photographic fraud. To have the fraud confirmed by a fellow devotee after I sent him a copy of the original ISKCON photo proved that other people had recognised it, even if some of them tried to justify it with a "Swami wills everything" explanation. I also pointed out that since fellow Sai devotees had seen both the pictures and admitted that the "Sai Krishna" picture was a fake after considering the evidence, this put LDW's own claim into doubt since she claimed not to believe anything without evidence.
One has to wonder why she failed to see what her fellow devotees could see in the plain and clear light of day.
Part Three.
However, at the time this discussion was taking place, Yahoo Groups did allow attachments to be saved and thus we can see how absurd LDW's contention is, considering that I had already provided direct links to the postings at hand which contained the necessary pictures to download. All LDW had to do was see the postings, download the attached pictures and then view them side-by-side for herself to see the obvious fraud. Oddly, this simple process proved to be too difficult for her to carry out.
An apparent reason for LDW's distrust was apparently because of a similar "photo fraud" reported by Hari Sampath regarding a photo claiming to have captured Sai Baba amongst clouds (which may require a dedicated blog to discuss!) was doubtful, according to her:
I don't belive [sic] anythig [sic] unless I see evidence. And esecially [sic] here since I've seen such manipulation on your side myself.
Let's keep in mind that I had just (twice!) mentioned that the material was available as well as providing the direct links to the posts at hand, which had the photos attached for anyone to download and see for themselves. Even if there was a reason to be suspicious based on similar issues with photographic fakes, this was completely unwarranted here considering that the pictures in question were freely available. Not just in postings, but on the Web too!
In any case I figured that I had better respond to LDW's claim of manipulation, and I simply related that these exchanges had taken place while I was still a Sai devotee discussing the issue with fellow devotees. As a devotee, I had nothing to lose by pointing out this photographic fraud. To have the fraud confirmed by a fellow devotee after I sent him a copy of the original ISKCON photo proved that other people had recognised it, even if some of them tried to justify it with a "Swami wills everything" explanation. I also pointed out that since fellow Sai devotees had seen both the pictures and admitted that the "Sai Krishna" picture was a fake after considering the evidence, this put LDW's own claim into doubt since she claimed not to believe anything without evidence.
One has to wonder why she failed to see what her fellow devotees could see in the plain and clear light of day.
Part Three.
Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!
posted by Swami Saiexposedananda at
04:26
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