The 
          Guardian newspaper, UK. questions The Duke of Edinburgh Award 
          - an award made out by subterfuge in the name of Sathya 
          Sai Baba
The rest of the world can only view with hilarity an absurd spectacle - that of these devotees of this self-proclaimed God Creator of the Universe, Sathya Sai who pretends he is the Father who sent Jesus etc. etc., eagerly seeking for their guru the endorsement (and blessings?) of the Duke of Edinburgh through getting a certificate from his award scheme for youth!
        Sai Baba Youth UK  was a minor local project by a few youth in London who received 
        a certificate for the awards at a Buckingham Palace garden party. This 
        kind of award has been made to countless thousands of participants around 
        the world. A news story which appeared on the official International 
        Sai Organisation website exaggerated the significance of this small 
        local award at length, even claiming that it was made to Sathya Sai 
        Baba himself. 
            
        Sathya Sai Baba has been credibly accused by many young men from around 
        the world for decades of sexual abuses. Sai Baba's alleged role in the 
        murder of four of his young male followers in his own bedroom on June 
        6, 1993 was never cleared up since the Central Bureau of Investigation's 
        case was quashed by the Sai-devoted government of the day (see the BBC's 
        'The Secret Swami' documentary). 
The Duke of Edinburgh 
          Award executive, Peter Westgarth, reportedly stated that this is just 
          another "religion accused of paedophilia" and that young people 
          (many from a North London Sai-oriented school) "choose" to 
          visit Sai Baba, but their devotee parents and more Sai Baba indoctrination 
          at school have surely conditioned most of them. His comparison of this 
          secretive cult to harmless "Church Lads" is tendentious and 
          his failure to take proper action when warned about this cult makes 
          The Duke of Edinburgh appear to be endorsing a charlatan guru. A vital 
          issue in the current faith debate is raised: Should extreme fundamentalist 
          'Godmen' and unaccountable cults be given any oxygen by British institutions? 
            
          The rest of the world can only view with hilarity an absurd spectacle 
          - that of these devotees of this self-proclaimed God Creator of the 
          Universe, Sathya Sai Baba, who pretends he is the Father who sent Jesus 
          etc. etc., eagerly seeking for their guru the endorsement (and blessings?) 
          of the Duke of Edinburgh through getting a certificate from his award 
          scheme for youth! 
            
          Only one unfortunate myth is perpetuated in the Guardian article: that 
          the number of Sai followers is an 'estimated 30 million. However, having 
          been a leader within the organisation 18 years with privileged access 
          to internal memoranda, I can state authoritatively that there is absolutely 
          no public statistical information of any kind available which gives 
          anywhere near this figure; it is simply the inflated propagandising 
          of Sai Baba and his officials who, already in the 1960s, made it the 
          official line that he had 60 million followers! Even 600 million has 
          since been claimed by some! I would reckon the total to be between 10 
          and 15 million through all the 65 or so years he has been a guru.
The Guardian article has 
          been referenced by several websites around the world, including Wikipedia 
          and /'wiki news', The 
            Taipei Times and The 
              Kuwait Times http://www.kuwaittimes.net/analysis.asp?dismode=article&artid=794040449 (removed URL)
              See also: "A 
                Holy Furore Rages in Britain", (Link 
				not available anymore? Click here!); 
                  also the website of the cult expert Rick 
            Ross and on diverse bulletin boards and blogs.
            Wikipedia's 'wiki 
                    news' also carries this information
and see here Cybernoon - Superstition, a crutch
              
          Robert Priddy, Oslo, Norway. 9/12/06
          (Retired lecturer in philosophy, University of Oslo. Former national 
          leader (resigned) of the Sathya Sai Organisation in Norway, 1986-2000) 
          
                  An irrational attempt 
                    by a pro-Sai fanatic on the Internet to make The Guardian's Staff Reporter, 
                    Paul Lewis, appear to have been subjective and biased has been throughly refuted.
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