When he was still quite young, an Indian boy, Sathyanarayana Raju, claimed to be the reincarnation of a well known nineteenth century Muslim miracle-worker known as 'Sai Baba', who passed away in 1918. So insistent was this boy that he was this saint reincarnated that he became known locally as Sai Baba, and to differentiate between the two Sai Babas, became known as Sathya Sai Baba. Over the intervening decades an extensive corpus of material had accrued from statements made by Sathya Sai Baba relating to this earlier figure. These two, the nineteenth century Indian saint of Maharashtra and the current Swami residing in his ashram in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh both bear the name 'Sai Baba', and the two have become inextricably linked in the minds of many of Sathya Sai Baba's devotees. However, this linkage is not apparently the case with devotees of Shirdi Baba either in Shirdi itself or throughout northern India, many of whom are violently opposed to the reincarnatory claim of Sathya Sai. So this is a one-sided connection, as Shirdi Sai Baba never anticipated any future incarnation of his own. Indeed, he intimated that he would have no physical successor, and furthermore that he would be subtly present after death to help his devotees. This attitude is commonly accepted in western India, where both the essence and healing powers of a Sufi saint are felt to remain and be active in his dargah or tomb, even after the passage of hundreds of years. This theme will be explored further in the chapter on the Shirdi Sai claim.

Sathya Sai Baba, however, has constantly invoked the name of the earlier saint Shirdi Sai Baba from age thirteen or fourteen onwards. According to the official biography, it was in 1940 when he first made the announcement that he was the reincarnation of this saint, being born in 1926, eight years after Shirdi Baba passed away in 1918. These dates are now in dispute as will be discussed in a later chapter. However, Sathyanarayana Raju took the name 'Sai Baba' adding it to his own, forming his now familiar and famous title, Sathya Sai Baba.

On the other hand, much of what Sathya Sai Baba has stated about his reincarnation of Shirdi Baba cannot be independently verified, so this material has to be classed as hagiography and indeed takes on a mythical or even puranic quality. Thus, for my thesis, I excluded all of the material which originated from Sathya Sai Baba, although it is sometimes difficult to distinguish what is original and which part is Sathya Sai Baba's version of, for example, the parentage and birth of Sai Baba of Shirdi. So much of the later Swami's version has become integrated into the accepted hagiography, and is then endlessly repeated in the secondary literature. Since there is a certain amount of material still extant on the Maharashtrian saint, I decided to concentrate on writing about this saint alone, and exclude unverifiable claims made by Sathya Sai Baba. In addition, it is very difficult and even libelous to write critically of someone who is still alive. My book, Unravelling the Enigma - Shirdi Sai Baba in the Light of Sufism, therefore, contains only a short chapter called 'The Sathya Sai Baba Connection', which briefly outlines a few salient points.

Although one sees the familiar figure of Sai Baba of Shirdi with one leg crossed over the other, all over Maharashtra in taxicabs, auto-rickshaws, wayside shrines, pavement artists' drawings, small altars in stalls and shops and many other places, in fact my initial interest in the Maharashtrian Sai Baba sprang solely from my interest in the contemporary Swami Sathya Sai Baba. This claim of reincarnation was a fascinating piece of information to me - for someone not only to know who he was in his previous life, but apparently to remember it all. However in this case the reincarnation of the Shirdi saint as Sathya Sai Baba was more amazing as he claimed that he did not have to perform any sadhanas or spiritual practices in this present life, even as a child, in order to reclaim his powers acquired in the Shirdi form. He declared that he was an avatar and came with full divine powers. Further, he announced at a later time that Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi was the first part of a triple incarnation being the descent of God in human form. Such a claim is totally unprecedented in the extensive literature on reincarnation. According to Sathya Sai Baba, he himself is the second part and a third incarnation forming the triple avatar is to be called Prema Sai, who will be born in 2030, eight years after the death of Sathya Sai. The broad scope of this vision is so breathtaking, and the claim of such a magnitude that one cannot conceive of anyone making such a spectacular claim unless it was true. Certainly millions of Sathya Sai devotees think so. In later chapters these claims will be put under the microscope to see if they stand up to detailed scrutiny.

In the circumstances described above, it is surprising to find that there is no mention in the Shirdi Sai literature of an avataric mission. The Maharashtrian saint does not appear to have been aware of a future triple avatar, and in fact he personally never described himself in these terms, although his Hindu devotees occasionally termed him an avatar, but more as a mark of their esteem, than a literal designation. If this was a God-inspired, God-planned descent into three physical incarnations spanning 250 years as claimed by Sathya Sai Baba, one might expect some awareness of the fact from Shirdi Sai himself. But the sage makes no reference to such a mission or role. This is but one of many discrepancies and anomalies between the extant literature on Shirdi Baba and the way he is described by Sathya Sai Baba. Sathya Sai Baba goes further, claiming that Shirdi Baba was the incarnation of Shiva, that he himself is an incarnation of Shiva-Shakti and that Prema Sai, the third and future incarnation, would be Shakti alone. This would be a magnificent idea if it had fitted, but Shirdi Sai was a Muslim mystic who showed no awareness of his cosmic powers as Lord Shiva of the Hindu tradition. No wonder then that Sathya Sai Baba has emphasized the Hindu characteristics of Shirdi Sai Baba, bestowing on him a Hindu birth, and other Hindu features. One of the most glaring errors I discovered is that in a full-length painting of Sai Baba of Shirdi in the Prasanthi Nilayam mandir, he is depicted as wearing an orange full length robe. This is a color that only Hindu sadhus would wear, but Sai Baba of Shirdi was a Muslim. Muslim faqirs would only ever wear white, and extant photographs of him confirm this to be true. I will expand on these and other discrepancies in a later chapter.

The idea for a second book incorporating what Sathya Sai Baba had said about Shirdi Sai Baba, was therefore rattling around in my head so to speak, around 1999-2000, when devastating news came in the form of revelations made available on the Internet. In April 2000, these revelations were published under the innocuous title of "The Findings". The Findings were a collection of stories, affidavits, letters etc., compiled by David and Faye Bailey from ex-devotees, and revealed various hitherto unknown or hidden aspects of Sathya Sai Baba's behavior and practices that were fraudulent and sexually explicit. There were strong allegations of homosexual pedophilia. These revelations brought an instant response from myself and my husband, as well as many others around the world, to distance ourselves as soon as possible from the Swami. We had been volunteers in various aspects of the organization, but dropped these activities immediately. Few could credit that Swami who had repeatedly declared his Divinity could be involved in these dreadful acts, but evidence soon mounted. The content of The Findings and subsequent revelations is the subject of this present book.

This book therefore is not the work I originally intended to write. As a result of all the investigations, research, allegations and revelations, I present this document as objectively as possible, as a warning to those who may discover the literature on Sathya Sai Baba and all the extraordinary claims, and are tempted to believe it.
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