Sai Baba's Karma & Retribution

A veteran of the Sai Exposé from it's earliest days, Hari Sampath, has provided this report and his own reflections on Sai Baba's current situation:

Sathya Sai Baba's extremely negative karma accumulated for long has been slowly catching up with him and approaching fruition. The countless victims of this fraud, victims of false promises, sexual abuse, cheating, deception and every known act of Adharma had been put to physical , mental, emotional and spiritual misery for a lifetime, and the combined effect of these people's misery is certainly recoiling back on the collosal fraud Sai Baba.

Most people will remember that in the early days in the 1940's an old saintly man was brought to sb by his disciples. This man was considered a Guru locally, and had 2 stumps for his legs and was carried around by his disciples. Sai Baba publicly scolded him for that and instead of expressing even basic human sympathy, chided him for being a burden on his disciples by being dependent on them to be carried around. Now the wheel has come a full cycle and the poor, accursed wretched soul Sai Baba himself is being carried, wheeled around, and dependent on his personal staff for even performing basic physical functions.

So many thousands of people , promised "divine cures" and stuck to wheelchairs etc , having been cheated by this fraud and even abandoning conventional medical treatment for disabilities like Dorothy/Pink Twins among many others, people without physical vision, hearing, paralysis, mental ill health, and so many other types of physical disabilites, had been cheated deliberately by this false messiah of deception, and Sai Baba's karma has caught up.

Now he is reduced to a gibbering, senile, drooling, old fool, in a pathetic condition in full view of the world. He is dependent on his staff even for eating food, going to the toilet etc, what a cruel fate he has invited upon himself. His situation is so pathetic that he has asked his devotees to pray for him and also conduct healing yagnas etc.

The hand that promised to lift a "range of mountains" can't even cut a cake now or wear his dress properly when it slips !

The feet that promised to walk across the skies is unable to even hobble across the hall for a few feet !

While I do feel somewhat sorry for this pathetic condition, I also realise he has inflicted many many times more on innocent sincere seekers of God, who trusted him and were promised solace from all problems, only to be cruelly cheated for the most selfish of reasons by Sai Baba. At least God has been kind in dealing with Sai Baba in that there are people to attend to him and he has material comforts, but then these folks are also doing so so that they may share the loot gathered over years and for their own selfish ends.

Its got to a point that even the SSO officials and gangsters are sick of waiting on him hand and foot, and apart from the outward civil behavior in public, I know that in private they are quite rude to Sai Baba knowing he is an exhausted incapable senile old man, and also he had been putting many of these officials through his spiritual/divine bullying for years, now they are happy to get back at him. I believe these personal staff sometimes don't even respond promptly to Sai Baba asking to go to the toilet, resulting in even bed wetting at times. How terrible and sad. Just like an old, aged senile relative being barely tolerated because of his bank balance and hopes of being remembered in the will and legacy.

These people are just hoping Sai Baba dies soon, but I don't think he will die soon, because afterall the god of death is Dharmaraja or Yama, who himself wouldn't want to come anywhere near sb soon to put him out of his misery, such an extreme case of adharma is Sai Baba.

I in fact feel that Sai Baba's misery has just started and after losing his legs and one hand, soon he will lose his hearing, speech, eyesight and mental sanity, one by one, and his misery will be shown to the whole world, and he will be exposed for what he truly is : the retribution for a lifetime of massive fraud, debauchery, trickery and self seeking, for name and fame as God, resulting in an old age drooling, gibbering, legless, blind, speechless, paralysed and broken, and humiliated old wretch.

His life will indeed be a message to humankind. And it will end only when God finally acts mercifully to put him out of his misery.

It was not said lightly that "he whom the Gods want to destroy, they make him mad first", and we would see this too.

Hari Sampath

Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!

Sai Baba's Tattvavada Troubles 2

While reviewing Sai Baba's Tattvavada Troubles, I realised that I could undertake a little more in-depth clarification of some of the pertinent issues and explain why this is of significant importance for devotees of Sai Baba.

I have always held that Sai Baba's devotees are largely uneducated about the fundamentals of Vedantic philosophy and of the vast body of knowledge that exists in regards to spirituality. Of course, this is not a fault per se on their part but I rather think that simple reliance on Sai Baba's teachings and a blind belief that they represent the sum total of Vedantic philosophy is extremely foolish. As such, it would be of considerable benefit for Sai devotees to familiarise themselves with the very basics of philosophy if only to increase the scope of their education. It may very well involve breakdowns and renewals, but all for the better.

In the days of yore, young students would be sent to gurukulas (residential boarding schools) and be taught under the instruction of a guru for several years, in which they would learn the classics of Vedanta dialectics and gain some kind of qualification before attempting to speak on any subject. It befuddles me completely when I see Sai devotees discussing lofty spiritual issues with no clear indication of their qualifications on the subject. Needless to say, the reasoning they display in such discussion tends to reveal that they don't know what they are talking about. It may no longer be necessary for such long-winded processes such as attending gurukulas but the very minimum I would expect is for someone to have some basic understanding of the fundamental precepts of each school of Vedanta before attempting to speak on other elaborate issues.

In any case with all this talk of "poorna" avatars and the like, it is interesting to see that Sai Baba himself is largely responsible for the emphasis on this subject, stating that the hallmark of a poorna avatar lies in his possessing sixteen particular qualities (kalas). The first time I read of this idea was in Dr. Samuel Sandweiss' first book, 'Holy Man and the Psychiatrist', and he didn't seem very clear on what these sixteen qualities were. In fact, not very many of the Sai devotees I spoke to were very sure about it. I distinctly remember being asked about it even in Sai Baba's ashram on my first trip there, so it seems they don't know either! I eventually found an unclear mention from Sai Baba himself:

“Now again, amongst the descending Avatars, there are POORNA AVATARS. Poorna Avatars are the Masters of the sixteen kalas. The fifteen kalas are : The five Karmendriyas or working organs which have to do with talking, taking, walking, rejecting (exertion) and eating. The five Jnanendriyas or sense organs: hearing, touch, sight, taste, smell, and Panch Mahabhootas or the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, space. The 16^th Kala: the all - knowing Paramatma (the Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent aspect)." - John S. Hislop, 'Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba'.

In any case, it is repeatedly mentioned in Sai literature that a poorna avatar is defined by the possession of all sixteen kalas, though how one may determine this in the case of Sai Baba remains unknown. However in the light of how this concept is seen within the Dvaita Vedanta philosophy it is safe to say that it would be treated derisively at best. The late Dr. B.N.K. Sharma was a devout Dvaitin and a scholarly academic who undertook valuable research in the subject and produced works of a superior quality in the field of Vedantic philosophy. I recently spotted his brief discussion of this subject in his famous work, 'Philosophy of Sri Madhvacharya':

"The Supreme Lord of all creation remains wrapped up in His glory and bliss at a time when the entire universe is in a state of nebulous chaos (Rig Veda 10.129.2-3). Later, He puts on a multiplicity of forms to evolve the universe through different stages. These forms, though innumerable, are nevertheless identical with one another, save for their numerical distinction. The first in the order of divine manifestations is the quarternion of Vasudeva, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Sankarsana, popularly known as the Catur-Vyuha, credited with redemptive, creative, sustaining and destructive functions.

"The Supreme further differentiates itself into ten (familiar avatars) or twelve, hundred, thousand and so on ... But there is one important different that in Madhva's view, these various manifestations are absolutely on a par with one another. There is no gradation among them in respect of powers or potentialities. Madhva is vehemently opposed to the idea of making any invidious distinctions among these manifestations of God or putting some on a higher pedestal than others. There is no room for 'svagatabheda' (internal difference) in the Supreme (neha nanasti kincana). It is the same Infinite in every manifestation ... To Madhva all avatars are of equal merit and status. There is no question of degree of fullness among them, no 'partial' and 'complete' avataras. He takes his uncompromising stand on the authority of the Upanisads and Pancaratric texts ... He has thus no partiality or preference for any particular avatar of God and treats all of them as equal in rank, attributes and powers". - 'Philosophy of Sri Madhvacharya', p. 353-355.

Sri Madhvacharya is traditionally believed to be an incarnation 0f the deity Vayu in much the same way as Sri Sankaracharya (the founder of a rival school, Advaita Vedanta) is believed to be an incarnation of Shiva, though it would surprise me greatly if any Sai devotees knew this fact. Equally interesting is that Madhvacharya quotes a well-known verse from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (5.1) in support of his contention of 'equal' avatars, a verse that is known very well to Sai devotees and is frequently quoted in discourses by Sai Baba himself:

pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṁ pūrnāt pūrṇamudacyate |
pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate ||

"The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance."

Though this translation was chosen in order to provide a broader meaning, the specific import of this terse statement relates to the innate 'completeness' of anything that emanates from the Complete Whole, in this case God. In other words, avatars are not regarded as "smaller portions" of the Supreme Lord, they are fully "complete" in themselves and are as complete as the Supreme Lord.

This in turn provides more and more evidence to support my contention that Sai Baba devotees are essentially uneducated about all of these things. In spite of repeating such mantras frequently, they appear to have little knowledge of the meaning of the same (despite Sai Baba's repeated urgings to chant with full knowledge of meanings!) or of their significance in dialectical positionings within Vedantic exegesis. I even wonder if Sai Baba himself knows the meaning of what he chants and tells others to chant; if he did or if he paid more attention to Vedanta dialectics he wouldn't make spurious claims to "full" avatarhood or even that his brand of spiritual teaching is all-inclusive! After all, how can Sai Baba claim anything "special" about his status when his claim doesn't even exist in the Dvaita Vedanta religious paradigm? :-)

Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!

Sai Baba's Tattvavada Troubles

In discussing the premise of poorna avatars and how they relate to the Sai Baba schematic paradigm, it might be interesting to briefly discuss the concept for those who are unfamiliar with it: Hindu theology holds that incarnations of God appear on earth at critical moments when there is a serious threat to the natural order and divine intervention is necessary to avert the threat or destroy it completely. There have been many such incarnations (called 'avatars') throughout human history, which has led to ten of them being listed as the prominent and known as the Dashavatars. Of these ten, Rama and Krishna are perhaps the most popular deities in the Hindu pantheon and are known as 'poorna' avatars (also, 'purna avatars'), the reason being that they are believed to have fully displayed the fullness of power of God's glory during their incarnate mission. Poorna means 'full' or 'complete'.

One may wonder why there is a distinction between all the avatars. A popular answer is given is that other avatars advented for a particular purpose, and when that purpose was achieved they returned to their abodes. A good example of this would be Matsya, an incarnation of Vishnu who appeared as a fish to protect the endangered scriptures when the world was suffering devastating floods. The lives of Rama and Krishna were in sharp contrast to Matsya and others in which they lived full humanlike lives from apparent "birth" to "passing" (Hindu theology holds that avatars are never "born" and never "die", they simply appear to do so). And in so doing, Rama and Krishna performed natural miracles and feats that bespoke of the full glory of God, things that other avatars did not do during their own advents.

For the sake of brevity, I am being deliberately superficial and shallow in describing these concepts, as we would not want to unnecessarily enlarge this article. In any case I suppose that the general ideas about poorna avatars are now clear.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Sai Baba also claims to be a poorna avatar. Of course, nothing else would be appropriate enough to describe his great magnificence. :-) Sai Baba's 'poorna' status is supposed to be exemplified via the sensational nature of his "astounding miracles", welfare works, all-inclusive spiritual teachings, and the like. After all, wouldn't GOD be perfectly capable of transmitting new holy teachings for the benefit of the world, which explain absolutely everything?

Here comes the crunch: Dvaita Vedanta is one of the three major philosophical schools of Hindu theology, the other two being Vishishtadvaita Vedanta and Advaita Vedanta. Whereas seekers of Eastern spirituality are likely to have heard of or be influenced by Advaita above all, Dvaita (also known as Tattvavada) has an increasing reputation for having formed its conclusions on a strong basis of sound reasoning, admirable rigorousness and textual clarity. In other words, Dvaita followers have extremely good reasons for believing the way they do, and Dvaita holds that there is no such thing as poorna avatars. :-)

The reason for this is rather simple: Since avatars are descents of one deity, Vishnu, it naturally follows that they are all emanations of his and would naturally possess all of his potencies. In theory, it is possible for Matsya and other "minor" avatars to exhibit and fully display all the astounding powers of God displayed by the 'poornas' like Rama and Krishna, and the reason for why they didn't do so is really because there was no call to do so. Otherwise it is regarded that each and every incarnation of Vishnu is possessed of 'full' and 'complete' power and are thus equal to each other. There is no gradation among the incarnations of Vishnu as they are all him.

Not everyone will agree with this, but there you have it: the viewpoint of Dvaita Vedanta on this subject. This leads us to the natural consequence that Sathya Sai Baba's claims to 'poorna' avatarhood will have no credibility among the followers of Dvaita Vedanta and they are not likely to brook such nonsense either.

At the very least, this is a perfect example of how Sathya Sai Baba's divine and supposedly all-inclusive teachings are incompatible with Dvaita Vedanta philosophy. :-) One of the Baba's oft-quoted platitudes urges Hindus to be better Hindus, Christians to be better Christians, Muslims to be better Muslims, and so on. This will not apply for the Dvaita Vedantin, as Sai Baba's meaningless witterings about 'poorna' avatars will hold no weight with such people. After all, how can Sai Baba claim anything "special" about his status when his claim doesn't even exist in their religious paradigm? :-)

--

For further discussion of these issues, please see Sai Baba's Tattvavada Troubles 2.

Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!

Sai Baba - A Pointless Guru?

I caught this extract from MotherTalkers.Com:

Years ago I was involved with a man who was a guru-phile. He was always looking for God in human form, someone to worship and stand in the presence of. Someone to set up little altars for. I didn't share his psychology; my cynicism is like a mothball around the neck, keeping me guru-free. For awhile my boyfriend glommed onto Sai Baba, a goofy orange-robed guru with a 'fro who performed miracles. His miracles--like making great quantities of ash billow out of an empty urn--didn't seem useful to me. If God were to manifest as a human, surely he wouldn't waste his time performing lame magic tricks. Like, who needs ash?

Indeed. Who needs ash?!

Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!

Sai Baba Slammed By Newsweek

Although I just said I'm too busy for these matters, I found this gem that is too good to pass up. Enjoy!

Samuel H. Sandweiss, M.D. published his first book about his experiences with Sathya Sai Baba, entitled: 'Sai Baba: The Holy Man and the Psychiatrist'. It has since remained a favourite in Sai literature and a staple product in the Baba's own ashram bookshop. Apart from a graphic description of the Baba's fraudulent miracles personally witnessed and rationalised by Sandweiss, I noticed an observation near the end of the book about how Sandweiss spotted a photo of Sai Baba in Newsweek magazine. Well actually, it was a photo of a yogi, and a picture of Sai Baba just happened to be in the corner of that yogi-picture. Sandweiss chuckled to himself as he mused over that extent of the Baba's media exposure to the West, and how he believed it was all in the Baba's hands.

That was in 1976.

It took until April 2007 for Sai Baba to earn a mention in Newsweek, and which is still generally a passing mention and not a public and positive article about him. Rather, a recent article entitled 'The God Debate' features a discussion between atheist Sam Harris and Christian pastor Rick Warren. You can guess what they argued about - the existence of God. Quite a profound subject for some people where you wouldn't normally expect someone like Sai Baba to get a look-in. But there he is, mentioned right there smack-dab in the middle of the debate, in a key point by Harris about the authenticity of Jesus Christ's miracles:

Harris: Now, there are many testimonials about miracles, every bit as amazing as the miracles of Jesus, in other literature of the world's religions. Even contemporary miracles. There are millions of people who believe that Sathya Sai Baba, the south Indian guru, was born of a virgin, has raised the dead and materializes objects. I mean, you can watch some of his miracles on YouTube. Prepare to be underwhelmed. He's a stage magician. As a Christian, you can say Sathya Sai Baba's miracle stories are not interesting, let's not pay attention to them, but if you set them within the prescientific religious milieu of the first-century Roman Empire, suddenly miracle stories become especially compelling.

Oh dear. Yet another major media source lambasts Sai Baba's extremely poor and pathetic magic show as an excercise in futility and showbusiness. And this time the humiliation is greater as it didn't even require a dedicated article to make the point. What is only necessary to observe is how Sai Baba's "miracles" are now openly derided and mocked as uninteresting and stage-managed, things we have been saying all along. It's about time the world was informed about the Baba's cheap parlour tricks through responsible news media like Newsweek inasmuch as serious allegations of child sexual abuse perpetrated by him are now being documented for posterity in college textbooks.

Isn't it time that the old goat takes the hint and buzzes off? He can ride off into the sunset on his wheelchair, incoherently muttering some inchoate and senescent ramblings before looking back, displaying two fingers to the camera before breaking into maniacal giggles.

Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!

The "Sandweiss Principle"

For those who don't know who he is, Samuel H. Sandweiss, M.D., is a practising psychiatrist from San Diego, USA, who is also an author of two popular books about Sai Baba. Much of his fame arises from the fact that he has been close to Sai Baba since 1972 and has many tales to tell as a result. Incidentally his first book, 'Sai Baba: The Holy Man and the Psychiatrist', was the first book that I ever read about Sai Baba. I even told Sandweiss as much when I met him in the summer of 1997 in Sai Baba's ashram, to which he shyly appreciated my complimentary remarks.

But one thing had been nagging me in the back of my mind ever since I read the text; how could a person such as Sandweiss, a practising psychiatrist who knows so much about the innermost workings of the mind, buy into the notion of being "spiritually tested". I am currently a Psychology student and it boggles my mind to think that such an elementary occurrence could be taken as evidence of a higher reality.

Excuse my waffling, without delay I'll show you what I'm referring to. Describing the events of a private interview with Sai Baba and a few others, Sandweiss writes as follows:

"Jeff said that he had received a mantra from Indra Devi and wanted to know the correct way of saying it. Baba agreed to help. I knew that in advising people to repeat the name of God, Baba frequently instructs them to use a japamala, a religious necklace with 108 beads, similar to a rosary ... I said to myself, 'Ah ha! I bet Baba is going to create a japamala for Jeff.' As I watched him, he brought out from behind his back in his left hand what indeed appeared to be a japamala. He continued speaking to Jeff and it seemed to me that nobody else was looking at his left hand, that I was the only one who noticed it. My mind began to work.
"'Could it be that Baba is really just a cheap magician, who hides objects behind his back all the time - so forgetful that he takes this necklace from behind his back now and plays with it in front of my nose? ... What a stupid thought!' But even as my mind attempted to argue away its own doubt, I could feel my heart sinking. No, I would not let him trick me into thinking he is just a bad magician. He continued to talk to us, smiling blissfully, and I continued to watch his left hand carefully.
"Back it went behind his back, then out in front again, and I just knew he was going to give the japamala to Jeff as if he had materialized it. Then all of a sudden he made the familiar circular gesture with the right hand and there appeared in it a beautiful japamala - but quite different to the one in his left hand. The one I had seen in his left hand was gone. I was stupefied by this turn of events. My doubting was certainly not new. It raises its ugly head whenever I'm beginning to take pride in my faith, beginning to believe that it is solid and unshakeable. A fog of confusion comes over me; I know that Baba is destroying me, and I feel almost helpless before this reaction ...
"After this kind of demonstration, I've learned to say to myself, 'Sam, don't fall for any of those tricks, and don't be destroyed. Just expect nothing, want nothing and demand nothing.' I left the interview full of smiles rather than suspicions or hurt feelings, and Baba said we would be called back in another day or so for additional private interviews." - p. 137-139

Sandweiss describes this experience in the context of a chapter discussing Sai Baba's deliberate ignoring of him in order to effect the apparent destruction of his ego and mind, as well as subscribing to the concept of being "spiritually tested" to see if his faith in Sai Baba is whole. But in fairness to Sandweiss he is not the only one who thinks this way, they all do. Each and every one of Sai Baba's devotees affirm the experience of being tested and which they jocularly refer to as being placed in the "repair shop".

I don't need to state here that Sai Baba's suspicious behaviour in regards to materialisations have been observed by many other people; he has even been caught cheating on film. In light of my own discoveries, I have to wonder about the level of sanity and intelligence in these people, how do you figure direct observation of a fraudulent miracle and subsequent rationalisation of it, explicitly going against his own better judgement and instincts about poorly performed magic tricks? It seems to me that the one of the most basic principles of psychology, rationale, is not being applied here. Frankly I'm dumbfounded that a psychiatrist would even allow himself to think in this manner, exposing the depths of his own need to believe in Sai Baba.

It's no wonder that the (past and present) leaders of the International Sai Organisation deliberately ignore and dismiss reports of Sai Baba's fraudulence, child sex abuse, homosexual pedophilia relations and involvement in murders; many of them have been trained by Sai Baba himself according to the "Sandweiss Principle": Repress and kill your doubts and instincts; Become an automaton - Baba is God no matter what.

Sad.

Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!

A Bracelet Story

I'd like to relate an incident about one of Sai Baba's materialisations. I was personally present when this happened in an interview that took place on the morning of Sunday, 31st January 1993, at Prashanti Nilayam. I've related this story several times here and there, but I'd like to keep a record here for posterity.

During said interview, Sai Baba materialised a copper bracelet for a male devotee, of whose country of origin I am unsure. Much has also been said about Sai Baba's capability for materialisation of various objects. I cannot say for sure whether this was a genuine materialisation of a reach-behind-the-cushion event as I was too much in awe of his presence to observe properly, so for the sake of argument we will refer to it here as a 'materialisation'. However, what happened next took place in full view of the interview room.

For some reason, this bracelet did not fit around the recipient's wrist. Sai Baba was desperately trying to squeeze it onto the recipient's wrist and made several attempts to enlarge it by pulling the open ends apart in order to make it wider, but to no avail. The room was in silence as everyone waited for Sai Baba to finish his ritual of benediction.

Finally, Sai Baba gave up and dismissively threw it into the devotee's lap and carried on with the interview by talking to other people. I can admit to being guilty of having the devotee mentality and interpreting this entire incident as a 'leela', even though I was quite surprised at watching all of this take place.

As I walked along with my group the next morning to darshan, we happened to meet that fellow again as he sat with a couple of his group members on the steps leading to the Poornachandra hall. Somebody observed how he was wearing his copper bracelet on a string around his neck, and we all laughed at Sai Baba's leela of being "incapable" of changing the bracelet's size and continued to discuss the other events of the interview. I have no idea where this devotee is now, nor do I know if he is still in possession of the bracelet. Goodness alone knows if he still wears it on a string around his neck!

For all the stories we hear about rings and watches being a perfect fit; for all the stories we hear about them not being a perfect fit but were subsequently resized by Sai Baba's blowing on them; for all the stories we hear (from Sai Baba, incidentally) of how he has "magic spirits" from "Sai Stores" working for him and providing him with all these trinkets, here is at least one story that highlights his complete incapability of changing a bracelet size even by manual handling. Not to mention the fact of how this was witnessed by an entire room full of devotees. Let this story go on the record to serve as a curious example of Sai Baba's materialising capabilities.

Copyright © Sai Baba EXPOSED! 2005-2007. Discuss this post!