Recently one could read the following example of how Sathya Sai Baba sets
the rumour mill grinding without having to stand forth openly himself:-
"Wilma Bronkey was the featured presenter at the South Central
Regional Conference held in Texas, 1999. One of her talks centered
on the fact that Sathya Sai Baba had told a group of them in an interview the
following basic story: The WHOLE world would be at peace within
two years--a definite noticeable condition on the planet! I personally
heard this talk and saw James Redmond tape her talk. It lasted over
half an hour in length. This talk was heard by many hundreds of
devotees. What a legacy of broken promises!" Dennis J. Hanisch
(this was his message 31953 on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sathyasaibaba2 - removed along with thousands of early postings by Yahoo apparently for reasons of webspace).
A former friend
of ours - V. Ramnath of the Indian Administrative Service (the most
prestigious body in India, the Indian Civil Service,'IAS') - told
us in 1994 how the then-head of IAS, a Mr. M., had lost his 7-year
old son and he and his wife had an interview with Sathya Sai Baba, who consoled
them. Then Sathya Sai Baba tapped on the wall of the interview room and a figure
of a white-haired man with a stick appeared. Sathya Sai Baba told that it was
Mr. M. himself as he would be after his retirement when he would
be head of the Prashanthi Nilayam ashram. His retirement was scheduled
for 2000. So far he is not installed. Believers can wait and see,
but experience of such Sathya Sai Baba 'revelations' indicate that they will
be disappointed yet again, just as the young man whom he told to
train as an airline pilot to fly him and who did so, but was then
told succinctly by Sathya Sai Baba with a shrug, 'No plane!' Just another one
of many, many disappointments from "the swami who never disappoints" (a phrase he often uses in interviews).
The discourses of Baba
express his increasing sense of desperation suggesting that his goodness
and divine nature are not receiving the dues of name and fame he expected.
His predictions, made repeatedly through the last 30 years, that the entire
world will soon sit at his feet - though doubtless intended mostly figuratively
- have evidently created expectations that are still very, very far from
being fulfilled... for only a tiny sub-fraction of the world is sufficiently
aware of him and his works to sit up and take enough notice even to investigate
further. Even this is not recognised within the mini-world of Baba's ashrams
and organisation, where talk of Baba as being world famous and accepted
in every remote corner of the earth is commonplace and treated as an a
priori truth. One cannot but be amused. This would be outright laughable
were it not for the fact that they believe there is true meaning in every
word of Sathya Sai Baba, who in various discourses has made some of the most preposterous
claims every dreamt up.
UNCONFIRMABLE
MIRACLES, LEELAS AND 'DISINFORMATION'
The Sai movement feeds greedily
on news of Sai miracles and leelas, while pretending
that these are but unimportant things, because Sathya Sai Baba
insists they are only like his 'visiting cards' and
have no importance. Yet anyone can see that, without
these 'miracles' and 70 years of spreading rumours
about and rumours around them, it is very hard to
conceive that this large movement could have arisen.
That belief in these is the crucial factor
can most easily be seen just by reading the first
300 books published in English about Sathya Sai Baba, where they
are almost always the hook that catches the author.
The most popular early book by H. Murphet was entitled Sai Baba, Man of Miracles. Many other of these
books have 'miracle' or 'leela' in their titles. Only
very few devotees do not in actual fact (despite denials)
lay huge weight on these paranormal 'leelas' or alleged
major miracles.
Alleged major miracles are also
an overwhelmingly central theme in the official biography
by Prof. N. Kasturi and other books authenticated
by the Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust from
its inception. All in all, the great majority of the
described leelas are subjective experiences and, as
such, do not lend themselves to any kind of direct,
objective checking. This problem also affects events
to which several persons were present... their accounts
usually support one another in some things, but vary
considerably in others. Prof. Erlendur Haraldsson
tried to investigate the possible authenticity of
such miracles and leelas. He was only able to register
what people alleged in most cases, but when he could
check records, he discovered a number that were certainly
not supported by evidence, most notably the resurrection
from death that Sathya Sai Baba claimed to have performed on US
multi-millionaire Walter Cowan. The doctors named
denied that Cowan had died or that any death certificate
was issued. No records of such were found, though
Sathya Sai Baba had claimed it had been made out. This was one
of the most sensational and effective pieces of disinformation
ever spread by Sathya Sai Baba.
Sathya Sai Baba seems to outclass even the
KGB at disinformation. He has spoken of such inexplicable
events as a result of his 'maya' (i.e deceptive
appearances), or even as 'his sport'. Whatever the
truth of these phenomena may be, however, he has been
shown here earlier without doubt also to engage widely
in disinformation:
"It
(disinformation) involves the deliberate, calculated
dissemination of equivocal data, partially true,
partially erroneous, in order to conceal something,
to deflect attention in one or another peripheral
or tangential direction. But the best lies are
always embellishments or variations of the truth,
not total fabrications. The most effective disinformation
is always structured around a core of validity."
(from The Messianic Legacy by Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln London 1968)
As is well-known, no kind of scientific
investigation whatever of his alleged powers has ever
been allowed by Sathya Sai Baba. He will not demonstrate them,
but he has been unable to stop filming showing him
most evidently faking materialisations. Having woven
a legend about himself - however many holes there
are in it - Sathya Sai Baba and his collaborators can invent all
kinds of story, the one more fantastic than the other.
It is extremely seldom that Sathya Sai Baba or any of his institutions
or office-bearers in his organisation make public
rebuttals of false claims of miracles or the like.
However, Sathya Sai Baba directs his officials and/or his journal's
editors to challenge and disown those bogus claimants
who are in competition with him for followers and
not least, in drawing off large funds that would otherwise
probably have fallen to Sathya Sai Baba. These refutations have
so far been made in particular against those who lay
claim to sharing powers, such as in materialising
ash, rings, lingams, healing powers, 'divine advice'
etc. ... that is, Sathya Sai Baba's competitors and parasite mystics!
One small example
of another supposed miracle: a Canadian devotee
I met at an educational conference in Prashanthi
Nilayam in 1987 had fallen on hard times and
prayed to Sathya Sai Baba to make it possible for him to
buy a house and perhaps start some educational
project. One day he happened to find out that
he was the lucky winner of a hundred thousand
dollars due to a petrol receipt number which
had been chosen by lottery as the winning number.
This he was certain was Sathya Sai Baba's miracle. Has not
Sathya Sai Baba said "Consider everything as a gift
from God" and 'I always look after my devotees'
etc.? But someone had to win the lottery anyhow
and there is no proof, only subjective conviction,
that there was any specific connection of the
prayer and the event. Again, it is a matter
of imposing belief on events. Of the many positive
things that happen on average to almost everyone
now and again, all those occurring to Sai devotees
will be attributed to Sathya Sai Baba! (Every lottery win,
every successful deal, every recovery from every
illness?). The same kind of good things that
happen to the other 99.99% of people are not
seen in this way by those affected. Meanwhile,
the many bad things that happen to devotees
are not usually put down to Sathya Sai Baba, though some
regard them as 'lessons' from the master which
it is exclusively their job to find out about
and give some meaning (i.e. no guru guidance
here)!
Incidentally, and correctly, Sathya Sai Baba is not in favour
of lotteries anyhow, as the following shows:-
"A lottery attracts money from persons who
are moved by greed; it holds out the attraction
of quick riches and tempts men from the wrong angle.
It will be tainted money... " (Sathya Sai Speaks Vol 1, p. 135)
"I am also against lotteries, where
the lure of getting a big prize, for which one does
not do anything, a prize collected out of other
people's earnings..." (Sathya
Sai Speaks Vol 3, p. 156)
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