From JuSTseekers@hotmail.com
To:  <executive-editor@nytimes>
Date: December 2, 2002

Subject: Sathya Sai Baba is NOT a friend to the world.

Attachment: Public Petition for Official Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba and his Worlwide Organization

Dear Sir,  

The undersigned are writing on behalf of JuST (Just Seekers of Truth), a group of thirty-two concerned citizens who have organised an international petition, so far signed by over 200 persons. We are much concerned by the activities of a famous guru Sathya Sai Baba and his worldwide organisation. There are a number of serious allegations concerning sexual abuse (including minors) and complicity in murders which must be investigated. Such crimes as allegedly are being covered up by the very influential Sathya Sai Baba and the Sathya Sai Organisation are so serious that ignoring the allegations amounts to ignoring dramatic violations of human rights of innocent victims.

We would beg you to pay attention to a public petition for an official investigation of Sathya Sai Baba and the Sathya Sai Organisation signed by many ex-devotees, ex-members and former office-bearers of the Sathya Sai Organisation. This petition can be examined in full at www.petitiononline.com/saibaba (the full text is on the attached file).

We request that you kindly will examine this petition and publicise it as you may see fit with an appeal to Indian authorities for the further investigation of these matters.

We are yours sincerely,  

Just Seekers of Truth justseekers@hotmail.com  

Serguei Badaev: teacher in an independent school in Moscow, 45 years old, member of the Sathya Sai Organisation since 1995 till 2001 (former National Education Coordinator); address: P.O.Box 9, Moscow 125464, Russia; e-mail: badaev57@mtu-net.ru 

Margarita Sanchez Van Dyck: Paseo San Damian s/n Maltaraña Jamay, Jalisco C. P. 47900 Mexico emails@terra.com.mx

(Phd. Social Psychology. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France.- Formerly Professor, ITESO University, Guadalajara, Jal. Mex.  Ex-honorary advisor for the State of Jalisco Human Rights Commission, Jal. Mex.(1997-2001)

Tel: 52 (for Mex) (392) 927 9039) 

Robert Priddy: retired researcher and lecturer in philosophy and sociology, formerly of the University of Oslo, Norway from 1967 to 1987. UK citizen, 65 years old, a founder member and leader for nearly two decades of the Sathya Sai Organisation in Norway.

Address: Agathe Grøndahls  gate, 2B. 0478 Oslo, Norway. Tel: (for Norway) 47 91 51 70  . E-mail rpriddy@online.no 

Barry Pittard:  Retired college teacher, radio broadcaster. Former English lecturer at the college of Sathya Sai Baba in Whitefield. Address 599: Hunchy Road, Hunchy. Queensland. 4555, Australia.  Phone:  06 7 5442 9597 e-mail  bpittard@beachaccess.com.au


Websites: 

Mainly on the allegations of sexual abuse: http://www.exbaba.com and http://www.saiguru.net. And to view at either site the following articles:  "UNESCO CONFERENCE WITHOUT UNESCO"  under 'Articles - Serguei Badaev' 

Shocking inside information told about the murders told by V.K. Narasimhan and the otherwise largely undisclosed nature of the cultish movement and international organisation are documented and analysed extensively at http://home.no.net/rrpriddy/Sai

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Brian Steel"
To: <foreign@nytimes.com>
Subject: For Keith Bradsher, please.
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 07:34:45 +1100


Dear Mr Bradsher:
I read with interest your NYT article on 1 December about President's
Kalam's courtesy visit to Sathya Sai Baba's deemed University in India.

I think you might like to pursue this subject for your readers. There have
been many newsworthy things to broadcast about this guru since different
sorts of serious controversy began to accelerate 2 and a half years ago.

I know you are extremely busy but, if you can, please take a quick look at
the news sections of www.exbaba.com or www.saiguru.net for an idea of the
extent of this much wider and up to date story which awaits your readers. It
involves quite a lot of Americans, and others.

You might also like to do a Google search on a 2000 article by your U.K. Daily Telegraph colleague, Mick Brown, too!

It's all there waiting!

Yours very sincerely,
Brian Steel
(Australia)

From: Barry Pittard
To: executive-editor@nytimes.com ; managing-editor@nytimes.com ; foreign@nytimes.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 7:57 AM
Subject: Re Keith Bradsher/Sathya Sai Baba

 
Dear Senior Staff, NYT.
 
I am prompted by Keith Bradsher's article just published in NYT to send you:  my letter to Baroness Amos, which includes my Open Letter to A.B. Vajpayee.
 
In connection to some security issues related to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, I have recently sent documentation to your Secretary of State, NSA, CIA and other instrumentalities, as well as to the most senior officials in governments, Interpol and Intelligence agencies in a number of other countries, initially those whose citizens travel in significant number to see Sathya Sai Baba in Puttaparthi - US, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Israel, etc. 
 
The Christmas time is the most dangerous time, as many westerners travel to see Sathya Sai Baba at this time.  Furthermore, the vast security panoply which attends the visits of VVIP's such as Indian President, Prime Minister, and countless other dignitaries during various Hindu festivals throughout the year will not be extended at this time.  Moreover, even though many Hindus, Sikkhs and other religionists visit Puttaparthi at Christmas time, there are processions in which only westerners celebrating Christmas are permitted to be a part of.  This has long been the practice, and it isolates the western visitors, ideally setting them up as a terrorist soft target. I should add that, down the years, an increasing number of Sathya Sai Baba's Jewish devotees visit Sathya Sai Baba, and celebrate Chanukah right at this time.
 
I have written about Sathya Sai Baba to NYT and to many other US newspapers, who have done nothing, in marked contradistinction to newpapers such as the Times of London, Daily Telegraph, the Age of Melbourne, India Today, Salon.com, and various Canadian, German, Danish, Swedish and other media (and soon a mass circulation daily in a major country which wants to publish my Open Letter to A.B. Vajpayee among other related matters).  The UNESCO have posted a particularly trenchant Media Advisory critical of Sathya Sai Baba, which I shall send you when I have a few more minutes to spare, along with some other documentation. 
 
I may add that the Danish Broadcasting Company have made and aired a number of times a powerfully indicting documentary exposing Sathya Sai Baba for serial sexual molestation of boys and young men from many countries, including many in the USA (the FBI and State Department have taken these matters very seriously, and have very considerable documentation, including many sworn affidavits from US citizens, and others.  An Argentinian documentary series by leading south American journalist Alejandro Agostinelli has also been made, exposing Sathya Sai Baba. 
 
(Ref. Agent Colleen, FBI Office, Santa Ana, Chicago).  Interpol in many countries (including my own, Australia) also have many documentations of serious criminal allegations against Sathya Sai Baba.  State Department have investigated Sathya Sai Baba, and found our representations justified - ref. Mr John Nays, Consular Staff, American Embassy, New Delhi.  State Department has published a Travel Advisory clearly indicating Sathya Sai Baba but not naming him, November 2001.
 
With regard to the police killings at Puttaparthi in 1993, which many journalists and researchers are sure that Sathya Sai Baba was deeply implicated in, and which was covered up by the Central, State, local and Puttaparthi authorities:  I suggest that, among your other resources, you contact the Journalists Union of Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, south India, which became concerned when Sathya Sai Baba evaded their probings, and even admonished them publicly when they levelled normative, eminently fair and reasonable questions to him over the incident.
 
Please consult the websites, which contain contributions from victims and the many dissenting voices from an astonishing range of social and cultural backgrounds who were formerly associated closely with Sathya Sai Baba:  www.saiguru.net   www.exbaba.nl . There is also a Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization at: http://www.petitiononline.com/saibaba/petition.html , which I include in the documentation I submit to you.  Many former leaders of Sathya Sai Baba's organisation have resigned, not least those who have, very carefully and properly, investigated the some of the most serious allegations at first hand, particularly the vast serial sexual molestation of boys and young men from many countries round the world.
 
I am pressed at the moment and can contribute further information when I have time.  My phone number is:  61 7 5478 8549, and you are welcome to call me.  I am an experienced radio broadcaster, researcher, writer, teacher and social worker.  I lectured for two years at Sathya Sai Baba's college at Whitefield, via Bangalore, south India.  This was the first of Sathya Sai Baba's vast and exeedingly well endowed educational institutions.  I also had a twenty-five year old connection with him, which I severed in 1999, after making extensive worldwide investigations, often at first hand, into the allegations facing Sathya Sai Baba.
 
Faithfully, Barry Pittard, Australia.
 
 
 
From: Pittard, Barry
To: Information Section
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 8:44 AM
Subject: To Baroness Amos, re Open Letter to A.B. Vajpayee

 
Please kindly forward to Baroness Amos, and notify me of the successful passage of this communication.  Thank you, Barry Pittard.
 
To:  Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Great Britain.
 
Dear Baroness Amos,
 
Copies of my Open Letter to A.B. Vajpayee will also go to the P.M. and Deputy P.M. - and a great many others.  I invite you all to read it in the light of other documentation that has been sent to you.
 
I request that you, Madam, do all that you can to ensure a reactivation of British Government interest in finding a means of warning U.K. boys and young men who may travel to Sathya Sai Baba's ashram at Puttaparthi. 
 
I point out that the U.S. State Department has done as much for U.S. travellers, even despite the absence of a court conviction of Sathya Sai Baba in India, although (disapointingly) they felt constrained to leave his name out of the Travel Warning, though including telltale details. 
 
I trust Her Majesty's Government can dare to advance an iota of the State Department effort.
 
It would really be a way of properly noting the nearly fifty British MP's who have signed the Petition calling for action regarding Sathya Sai Baba, details of which are found at: House of Commons website Early Day Motion 886.
 
A few of us have put up another type of Petition on the Internet, and it details what we feel are the most pressing key issues in the attempt to bring official investigation of the worldwide allegations levelled against Sathya Sai Baba.  You can find our Petition at:
 
 
I shall be asking some leading British parliamentarians and other influential British citizens to attempt to find out whether the otherwise promising passage of this Motion was halted because of pressure from the Indian government, whose leader, A.B. Vajpayee, is highly partial to Sathya Sai Baba. 
 
The Motion 886 and other moves to officially alert the British public to the great many and responsibly made allegations of large-scale, serial sexual molestation by Sathya Sai Baba of boys and young men from many countries, including the U.K., (not to mention many other terrible allegations) has suffered a fate difficult to explain.  
 
Unless indeed explanation is to be sought, for example, in relation to certain transactions between the Blair and Vajpayee governments.  My exeedingly well informed Indian friends assure me that Mr Vajpayee came to great Britain determined to ask Mr Blair to assist in curbing the growing parliamentary attention being given to Sathya Sai Baba. Hard on the heels of their meeting, we note that the Blair Government's interest in the Petition, and other efforts to throw light on the allegations against Sathya Sai Baba suffered sudden demise!  Too sudden to allow our easy belief that all this was mere co-incidence.
 
The course of our efforts on behalf of the very many victims of Sathya Sai Baba may, indeed, rest in your own hands, Baroness Amos, revealing that you do indeed deeply care for justice over expediency.
 
Faithfully, Barry Pittard
 

Open Letter to Prime Minister of India, Hon. A.B. Vajpayee,

 

 

By Barry Pittard, Australia, former Lecturer, Sri Sathya Sai College of the Arts, Science and Commerce, Whitefield, Karnataka.

 

Sir,

 

Along with P.N. Bhagawati, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, and Ranganath Mishra, Chair Person, National Human Rights Commissioner of India and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, you have co-signed a public letter defending Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh.

 

In this letter, you speak of "wild, reckless and concocted allegations made by certain vested interests and people against Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba."

 

I am sixty years old, and a former Lecturer in English for two years at the Sathya Sai college at Whitefield, Karnataka, and a retired Australian College teacher.  I am now active in co-ordinating the efforts of many former devotees worldwide who allege serious, long-sustained moral misconduct by Sathya Sai Baba. As responsible citizens, we have not, other than by you, been accused of wildness, recklessness or concoction.  Many of us have resigned our membership (in some cases of high office) in the world Sathya Sai Organisation.   I was deeply involved in devotion and service to him for twenty-five years, which is not untypical of quite a number of other dissenting former devotees.

 

On the kindest interpretation, your letter suggests that the signatories have made no enquiry into the provenance of the allegations being made against Sathya Sai Baba. It would be an exceptionally easy enquiry to make.  Determining the facts was your, and your Sai devotee colleagues’, ethical and moral duty. Why did you hurl such accusations without giving any substantiation whatever?  Since the overwhelming thrust of the dissent is coming from highly public, very well organised and networked former devotee activists in the exposure of Sathya Sai Baba, your remarks are clearly directed at us.

 

You would instantly find, as have many responsible media, such as the Times of London, Daily Telegraph, British Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Argentinian Azul TV "Zona de Investigación" and Danish Broadcasting Company investigative teams, that those making the allegations against Sathya Sai Baba are many former devotees of unblemished records for integrity.  An integrity that you, P.N. Bhagawati  and Ranganath Mishra  have maligned.   

 

Contrary to your calumnious statement, we have no “vested interests” and come from many countries, professions, trades and cultural backgrounds.  Your joint letter continues, "We unequivocally condemn the baseless and malicious allegations being hurled upon Sathya Sai Baba in certain quarters," and you speak of those who make the allegations as "scurrilous."

 

Prime Minister, I draw your attention to: 

 

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/saibaba/petition.html

 

Here, you will find among the signatories numerous former long-time devotees of Sathya Sai Baba.  Many of them were office bearers and key personnel in his worldwide organisation.  Our number includes founder members, presidents, secretaries, treasurers, activity co-ordinators, ‘bal vikas gurus,’ workshop leaders, etc.  Our activities are not, as you would have it, “scurrilous.” This Petition by the former devotee coalition JuST (Just Seekers of Truth) is being presented to many governments, including your own.  It outlines some key allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, notably relating to serial sexual abuse of minors and young men and complicity in homicides by police at Puttaparthi in 1993, and calls for a properly constituted official enquiry into them at the highest level.  Will you initiate one?  If not, please reveal why not.

 

These are the facts:  Coming from various parts of the world (including India), minors, young men and their families have alleged various forms of sexual molestation by Sathya Sai Baba.  Some men and women then in positions of trust and responsibility in the Sathya Sai organization carefully investigated the allegations both with the victims and their families. They, along with highly qualified, experienced sexual abuse counsellors are fully satisfied of the truth of the allegations. Unlike key prominent world leaders in the Sathya Sai Organisation (who are well apprised of the facts), some of us have painstakingly documented the considerable evidence, released it to governments at the highest level (including your own Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani), and to law enforcement agencies such as CBI New Delhi, FBI, Interpol, Scotland Yard, French National Police, German Chief Prosecutor’s Office, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Australian Federal Police. 

 

Although others and I made representations to the then Director CBI New Delhi, Dr. R.K. Raghavan, your own national police force has not acted upon submissions made by responsible citizens of your own and other countries.  Yet, the allegations have been treated with the highest seriousness by top officials in various countries, including the U.S. Ambassador to India (then Richard Celeste) and a dozen or so other senior U.S. State Department officials, and, in close association with them, the FBI.  However, they and other foreign ministries tell us that they are hampered by inaction by the Indian authorities. Such inaction amounts to complicity in the abuse. 

 

Can the INDIA TODAY cover article have escaped your attention or that of your or senior officers and colleagues?  Did UNESCO's Media Advisory - well reported in India  - elude your attention?  It announced its withdrawal from a high-level education conference at Puttaparti in September 2000, giving several reasons for its grave displeasure, including the many serious allegations against Sathya Sai Baba.

 

The slightest investigation by you or your departmental officers would have revealed the ethical and moral status of our great many submissions - many of which are extensively available on the Internet.  These have resulted in highly researched articles in very responsible media in countries such as U.S.A. (SALON.COM), U.K. (TIMES OF LONDON, DAILY TELEGRAPH), Denmark (BT), Sweden (SOKAREN), Holland (TROUW), Germany (BILD, FOCUS), India (INDIA TODAY), Australia (THE AGE), Canada (OTTAWA CITIZEN, TORONTO STAR, VANCOUVER SUN)…. Also, the BBC, ABC, and TV companies as mentioned above.   

 

In regard to the 1993 killings at Puttaparthi, I direct your attention to the information supplied by Robert Priddy, which you can find under the subheading:  Faith-shaking events - the 1993 murders,” at http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/VKN1.htm    Mr Priddy, a retired lecturer on philosophy and social science, the University of Oslo, Norway, has written searchingly of the startling revelations made to him by a friend very dear to both him and me, your great and often fearless former Indian newspaper editor, the late V.K. Narasimhan, who had unique access to Sathya Sai Baba.  This and other evidence acutely question the role, for example, of former Home Minister S. B. Chavan, and indicate that he vitally assisted Puttaparthi ‘damage control.’  It suggests that Sathya Sai Baba, his brother Janaki Ramaiah, and his officials and the local, State and Centre police and government authorities have acted in an exceedingly questionable, suspicious manner. Those who have studied the facts know too well the many irregularities and abundant evasions by authorities, and, it would seem clear, criminal suppression of the facts. 

 

Will you, Sir, as leader of the world’s largest democracy countenance the travesty of secularism reported in The Hindu, 10-6-1993:  “When press persons met Mr. Indulal Shah, chief functionary of the Sri Sathya Sai World Trust, he said, ‘the matter is purely internal and we do not wish to have any law enforcement agency investigating into it.’”  Is Puttaparthi a medieval fiefdom, above the reach of the law of India?

 

As you know, a great many people in all ranks of the Indian armed forces, police, judiciary, diplomatic corps, commerce, and so on, regard Sathya Sai Baba as God incarnate.  Unless you and your government act on behalf of truthfulness and justice, how well will Sathya Sai Baba’s inevitable national and international unmasking reflect upon your country?  Your own reputation is at risk here. Your deliberate failure to act causes obvious and legitimate questions to be asked about whether votes and donations to you and your party are your real considerations.

 

I note that you and the co-signatories refer to Sathya Sai Baba as ‘Bhagawan.’ Surely, this is to affirm your acceptance of his own self-styled Godhood, since he has often proclaimed himself the fullest Avatar of all time, the one who has incarnated to save the entire world in his own lifetime, of which fact you certainly cannot be unaware.  No supra-phenomenal manifestation related to Sathya Sai Baba  - on however great and widespread a scale  - could exculpate him or any religious teacher from terrible offences against boys and young men, or complicity in police killings and resultant cover-ups. 

 

I shall make this letter extensively available to the Indian and international media, Foreign Ministries around the world, heads of law enforcement agencies, and on the Internet.  I now request that you:

 

  1. Publicly withdraw and apologise for your remarks made in your joint letter, which profoundly disservice and dishonour those many decent former devotees of Sathya Sai Baba who, sometimes under great sacrifice and stress, labour constantly to bring the allegations against Sathya Sai Baba to the attention of governments, law enforcement agencies, and general public.

 

  1. Institute proper and official investigation into these allegations.

 

 

Barry Pittard, Australia.  bpittard@beachaccess.com.au

 

Additional Material.

 

A NEW ZEALAND BARRISTER ANALYSES POLICE EVIDENCE

Warren C. Pyke LLN (Hons.) LLM (VUW), Barrister, New Zealand  3-3-1993

 

I COMMENT ON THE Remand Report of the Superintendent of Police, CID Cuddapah. Assuming that his findings have not been materially contradicted, which is the position as I understand it, his report clearly calls for a thorough and impartial inquiry into the deaths in Sai Baba’s room. Any one of the following grounds would be sufficient in my opinion, but combined the case for such an inquiry is overwhelming.

a)      The contradictory eye-witness evidence of V. Jagadish, contradictory that is to the local Police Officer’s statements – the fact that he observed the broken door before the police arrived and was possibly the last independent witness to speak to the deceased makes his evidence significant and most material;

b)      The contradictory eye-witness evidence of D. Peddireddy, contradictory that is to the local Police Officer’s statements – he says that he broke the wooden plank that was holding the door and saw the deceased in the room after he did so, once again this is most significant material and corroborates the evidence of Jagadish;

c)      The absence of injury to the CI and the nature of the minor injuries to the other Police Constables is inconsistent with their story of a struggle and their need to open fire, but is not inconsistent (I deliberately use a double negative here) with the account of Jagadish and Peddireddy;

d)      The position of the deceased after death is inconsistent with the Police version but consistent with them still being in the room after the door was broken, as observed by Jagadish and Peddireddy;

e)      The nature of the gunshot wounds to the deceased are entirely inconsistent with the Police Officer’s claim of self-defence but are entirely consistent with a very close range discharge;

f)        The fact that the bodies were moved is sufficient to warrant an inquiry as this clearly shows that the crime scene was deliberately altered after the fact;

g)      The absence of possession by the deceased of the alleged knives after death strongly suggests that they posed no threat to the Officers, although it cannot be ruled out that the knives were dropped in the alleged melee;

h)      The evidence about when the shots were heard: independent and reputable witnesses, Balachandra, Sahani, Vatsava all say 1 a.m., which is consistent with the post mortem report as to time of death; this contradicts the Police evidence by a full 1 ½ hours (11.30 p.m. cf 1 a.m.): this cannot be explained by any suggested error in the post mortem;

i)        The number of rounds discharged and the position of the bullets after firing show that some firing was not directed at a specific target. Given the police assertion of self-defence which, if believed, would suggest that the firing would have been carefully aimed so as to avoid shooting their fellow officers (given the confined space), the Police evidence as to the nature of their firing is incredible.

 

Given the matters outlined in the Remand Report, the failure to further investigate and prosecute the Police Officers involved is a shame and a disgrace to the law enforcement body responsible and to the judiciary who have consistently failed to intervene. No self-respecting and principled law enforcement body or judicial system would tolerate such a situation. In the case of multiple murders, there can be no justification for ignoring.

 

Warren C. Pyke, (4th Floor, NZI Building, Garden Place, Hamilton, New Zealand)


From Elena Hartgering, U.S.A

Dear Friends,

Below is my letter to the NYT editor sent this a.m.  I am also giving permission for you to post it on the various web sites.

 

Love and blessings, Elena

 

Dear Editor,

 

I was shocked to read Keith Bradsher’s article, A Friend in India To All The World (New York Times, December 1, 2002).  It is obvious Mr. Bradsher failed to research Sathya Sai Baba’s background, otherwise he would not have written such a one sided article. While it is true Baba is a self proclaimed holy man who purportedly performs miracles, teaches respect for all religions and non-violence, and has attracted followers from around the world, there is also a dark side. Based on cred ible testimony from former students and ex-devotees around the world, Baba has demonstrated himself to be a trickster, charlatan and worse, a same-sex serial pedophile.

 

If Keith Bradsher had done his homework he would have discovered articles to this effect in the Times of London; the Daily Telegraph [London]; the Age [Melbourne, Australia]; India Today and Salon.com. Danish Broadcasting aired a powerfully indicting documentary exposing Sathya Sai Baba for serial sexual molestation of boys and young men from many countries, including the USA.  An Argentinean documentary by leading South American journalist Alejandro Agostinelli exposing Sai Baba has also aired in that country. Finally, below is a press release issued by UNESCO in September, 2000 disassociating itself from Sai Baba:

 

UNESCO WITHDRAWS FROM CONFERENCE

Paris, September 15 - UNESCO has decided it will no longer sponsor nor take part in a conference it had been due to co-organize with the Institute of Sathya Sai Education (ISSE, Thailand) and The Flinders University Institute of International Education (Australia), in Puttaparthi, India, from September 25 to 29. The decision means UNESCO is no longer associated in any way through sponsorship, organization or participation of any kind with the conference on Strengthening Values Education: Innovative Approaches to Teacher Education for Peace and International Understanding.

 

UNESCO's withdrawal was prompted by several factors. Certain decisions were taken by the ISSE without consultation, such as plans to hold some of the sessions at the Ashram of the Sathya Sai movement in Puttaparthi, and the inclusion of some speakers in the conference program without their previous consent. Furthermore, the Organization is deeply concerned about widely-reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been levelled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba. Whilst it is not for UNESCO to pronounce itself in this regard, the Organization restates its firm moral and practical commitment to combating the sexual exploitation of children, in application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires States to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and violence.

 

There are a number of testimonies from individuals from around the world on the Internet that supports the allegations against Sai Baba.  I am a licensed psychotherapist who has treated many victims of sexual abuse. I find the testimonials of Sai Baba’s victims credible and consistent with the literature on the subject. There are former devotees world-wide trying to enlist the help of the press to expose Sai Baba and the organization that supports him.

 

In addition, Brasher’s article failed to mention Baba has stated repeatedly he is God incarnate. His devotees believe him, thus they worship him as a “divine” being and obey his command to subject their will to his “divine” will. Although donations are not solicited publicly, [and it is against Indian law to solicit donations at ashrams] many wealthy devotees have been privately encouraged by the Baba organization to donate money, which financed the buildings described by Bradsher, along with the tremendous growth of the ashram’s physical facilities. It is this type of cult thinking and behavior that allows parents to surrender their young sons during eagerly sought personal “interviews” with Sai Baba, too often for his sexual gratification.

 

Your article has now been picked up by other newspapers. Its favorable content serves to legitimize this cult and puts innocent children at risk. I believe you have an absolute obligation to conduct an independent investigation and print a more balanced article about Sai Baba.

 

 Elena A. Hartgering

 

From Serguei Badaev, Russia

Dear All,
Just to inform you, this is a copy of my letter to the New York Times.
With Love and Peace,
Serguei Badaev
-----------------------------------------------

Dear NYT,

I am writing to you as a former Russian devotee of Sathya Sai Baba whodiscovered a dark side of this Indian guru and self-proclaimed God. I was in the Sai movement from 1995 till 2001 and was deeply shocked when many things I trusted turned to be a carefully planned propaganda based on extensive exaggerations, lies and cover-ups. The most shocking event for me was the truth about the univestigated murders in Sathya Sai Baba's rooms in 1993 when 6 people were killed.

Now I am a member of an international group "JuST" which is seeking to bring Sathya Sai Baba to justice. That is why I would like to attract your attention that Ben Bradsher's article "A Friend in India to All the World" (December 1) gives a very biased picture of the real situation around Sathya Sai Baba. I am sorry to think that ever growing controversy in regard to Sathya Sai Baba has not found place on the pages of NYT that has lead to the lack of objectivity. Unfortunately, Ben Bradsher's article "A Friend in India to All the World" (I hope without any intention from the author) has given support to serious human rights violation and criminal activities conducted by Sai Baba and his worldwide organisation.

I am an author of a number of analytical papers highlighting a dark side of Sathya Sai Baba which you can find on www.saiguru.net and www.exbaba.com.
These two multi-language sites present a lot of information which leaves no doubt about seriousness of allegations against Sathya Sai Baba. I also
recommend you to visit an international petition wich appeals to an impartial investigation of Sathya Sai Baba (http://www.petitiononline.com/saibaba/petition.html). There you can see more than 200 signatures. It is a lot if you take into account that most of them are not outsiders but former followers of Sai Baba and even office
bearers of his organisation.

As a Russian who witnessed of the Communist regime of misinformation and propaganda in the Soviet Union I appeal to your respected newspaper to make
any possible efforts to restore truth and to contribute to justice.

Yours faithfully,
Serguei Badaev (Moscow, Russia)

From Dave Lyons, USA

Dear Executive Editor, Managing Editor, and Foreign Office of the New York Times:

      By way of introduction I am the founding president of the SSB Center of Greater New Orleans, from March, 1995 to April, 2000. I first heard of SSB in April, 1981 and became a devotee shortly after. On the positive side, these long years of devotion was, for me, a spiritual transformation--for which I will be forever grateful.

     In April of 2000 I received, by request, a 41-page document from Great Britain (THE FINDINGS) giving chapter and verse of pedophilia, molestation, rape, and consential homosexual sex by Sathya Sai Baba. I was in shock the entire day I read this document. Then I made two telephone calls to different states, spoke to two long-time friends and fellow devotees. The stories they told me about their sons having been molested and forced into sexual acts by Sathya Sai Baba was devastating, shocking, and beyond belief. For a couple of days I was in a daze. Then I called an office bearers meeting, and two days later I shared my knowledge with all the devotees of the New Orleans Center. None of them had any questions, all of them walked out without saying a word, and that was the end of my leadership as president of the Center, and my resignation from the Organization.

    I then wrote letters to the two Co-Coordinators of USA: Dr. Michael Goldstein and Dr. William Harvey. Neither had the courtesy to answer my letter--and I knew both on a personal level. About three months later I joined a support group, which is worldwide in its composition, our initial chief aim being a warning to all parents going to India, and specifically to SSB's ashram at Puttaparthi, to never allow their young sons to be alone in the interview room with this shameful sexual pervert who calls himself God. That chief aim has expanded to see Sathya Sai Baba stand trial for sexual perversion with minors, from dozens of countries, and for murder at his ashram in 1993.
None of them had any questions, all of them walked out without saying a word, and that was the end of my leadership as president of the Center, and my resignation from the Organization.

    Dear New York Times: these allegations (facts for me and hundreds of former devotees) you may access at many web sites, the petition and other data and documents sent ot you by Barry Pittard and others clearly in your grasp. You owe it to yourselves and to your integrity to hear and publish both sides of this story. I will be happy to speak to you by telephone, or email, or however. I hope you will follow up on what the former devotees are reporting.

Dave Lyons
504-943-5407
New Orleans, La. 70119

More from Barry Pittard, Australia

To:  Executive Editor.  Managing Editor. Foreign Editor, New York Times.
 
Please also copy to:  Mr Ben Bradsher
 
Referring to your staff writer Mr Ben Bradsher's article of Dec 1., A Friend in India to All the World, I send to each of you this letter of mine addressed to my former student at Sathya Sai Baba's college at Whitefield, via Bangalore, Karnataka, south India.  It has been on the Internet at various locations for some two and a half years.
 
I am now an international co-ordinator in an effort to bring the great many allegations of serious crimes by Sathya Sai Baba and his accomplices to many governments, law enforcement agencies, media, etc.
 
The report written by Mr Bradsher reveals profound lack of knowledge - or else acknowledgement, if he happens to know - of three years of vast effort by former followers of Sathya Sai Baba to bring him to justice.  It does not reveal that many leading world media have produced well-reseached articles and other media that highly question the moral, ethical and legal status of Sathya Sai Baba.  Most terribly, it disservices the great many victims and families in many countries, who have had their lives shattered by the person Mr Bradsher or your subbers have so erroneously termed A Friend in India to All the World
 
I hearwith give you full permission to use anything I send to you - unless, of course, it specifically notes confidentiality, not for distribution unless cleared with me.
 
As I have been closely connected with this work for almost three years, and possess relevant databases and contact permissions with a good many victims and witnesses, I ask that you contact me on:  61 7 5478 8549.
 
(Webmaster's note:  Barry has asked that a paragraph be omitted from this posting.  It refers to a major breakthough in the Exposure of sathya sai baba, which certainly should not get into the hands of the sathya sai organisation.  Barry notes:  "It is a precious gift and should not be opened until the due date ...")
 
I shall leave it to my friend Mr Lionel Fernandez to forward details of the Argentinian tv documentary which also exposes Sathya Sai Baba.  Both documentaries are made with very high standards of journalistic integrity.
 
 
Faithfully,  Barry Pittard, Australia

TO MY DEAR FORMER WHITEFIELD COLLEGE STUDENTS,

I taught you English for two years in 1978-79.  These were wonderful experiences.

More recently, Sathya Sai Baba, founder of Whitefield College outside Bangalore, south India, is being accused of large scale sexual abuse of boys and young men of many countries.

Whether through my own naiveté or lack of experience as a teacher, I was ignorant of any immoral sexual harassment perpetrated upon you or your classmates by Sathya Sai Baba. I am sad that I did not know of any actual or potential abuses, and only strong, sustained action to stop any further abuses by him will alleviate this sadness.  The evidence very strongly indicates that he continues these abuses. 

As I reflect on those years I spent with you at the Whitefield College, I wonder:

Did you then yourself feel that whole families, even communities, would have disbelieved and scorned you had you spoken out?

Were you concerned that your education, career and marriage prospects would fail if you spoke out?

Was it impossible for you to reconcile your beliefs with your
knowledge or suspicion that the one you believed to be "God" was a sexual abuser? Did some of you think that God would manifest in the guise of a molester of children and young men?

Did you secretly despise what was, it seems, happening to your beautiful, tender, and trusting innocence  - yet did not know how to stop it? 

Several of us, as former, long-time devotees, are now global co-ordinators in response to the alleged abuses.  Increasing numbers of Indian and overseas persons have shared with us what they swear to be their direct experiences of sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba.  They tell us that they found the experience most abhorrent, confusing and even traumatic.

Many of the descriptions, in shocking graphic detail, are heartrending to hear in person or on the phone, and to read in their affidavits and other testimonies.  Expert psychologists and police have shown us how experienced sexual abusers operate the world over. The same patterns occur in countless worldwide reports that allege sexual misconduct by Sathya Sai Baba.

I was not able to stand up on behalf of what seems to have been your horribly betrayed innocence back in those days.  However, I will - both openly and privately - do my best to represent that innocence now, and on an international scale.

I trust we will assist each other to uphold Truth, Right Conduct, Peace and Love. (These are such easy words to say!  Yet, work and courage are required to uphold them). We co-ordinators are quiet about issues such as numbers and whereabouts of alleged victims or witnesses. On websites and elsewhere, defenders of Sathya Sai Baba and his assistants deride us for not producing credible witnesses. Time will most decidedly tell!

The real reason for our silence is the protection of those persons (or their families) by whom the allegations are being made. Outstanding professional abuse counsellors, Interpol, foreign ministries, legal and other consultants are closely assisting our efforts. With ever-increasing strength, former devotees from many countries will present to the world, and the law courts, extremely powerful evidence of terrible abuse of spiritual power. Abuse by one who seemed to be of the calibre of a Sri Krishna or Sri Rama or Jesus or Buddha.  Yet, none of these illustrious spiritual leaders were ever suspected or accused of any such dreadful crimes against male minors and young men. 

Beloved former students, some of you and I actually were present during ineffably beautiful miraculous experiences that the rational mind will never comprehend.  That is on the side of Light. It has promoted transformation. However, we are only whole persons when, fearlessly, we can look unflinchingly into the Darkness as well.  This brings the greater transformation.

I welcome you, on a strictly private basis, to please contact me.  Any information that you can provide concerning sexual or any other abuses by Sathya Sai Baba will be appreciated.  It is our duty as citizens to ensure that sexual abuse and other crimes are made accountable.  No matter what abilities a rare, super phenomenal, charismatic individual may possess, let us be sure:  God will never manifest as a vast scale, serial sexual abuser of boys and young men.

 Barry Pittard (Australia) 
Email: bpittard@beachaccess.com.au   
Phone:  61 7 5478 8549.  
Address:  599 Hunchy Road, Hunchy. Queensland. 4555.  Australia.

TO:  Managing Editor.  Executive Editor.  Foreign Editor. New York Times
 
Please copy to Ben Bradsher.
 
 
As time permits, I submit further of my material re Sathya Sai Baba. Not least, see below, may you be interested in an Indian response to my letter from:  Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in New Delhi, Maja Daruwala, to whom Professor Margaret Reynolds President, United Nations Association of Australia had referred me.
 
I shall separately send you yet another Indian response - the extraordinarily high poll rating of 92% of respondents in a The Newspaper Today, Page 1., SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 01, 2001,  who voted that Sai Baba should be investigated by the Centre (that is,  the Federal Government of India).  You may access this at: home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/shortnews/ India%20News%20-%20The%20Newspaper%20Today.htm   This result may have been influenced a previous recent cover story of ten or so pages which we strongly campaigned for and got in India Today.  This magazine goes to millions of readers in India and beyond, and is published in eleven languages.  You can contact Vijay Tapa, one of India's senior journalists, who led the story for India Today.  The Board and legal advisors of India Today were privy to copies of affidavits from many victims of Sathya Sai Baba sexual molestation.  (One point to make is that many more victims, worldwide, have emerged, including some who give every indication of an especially strong, courageous and fighting spirit).
 
Faithfully, Barry Pittard
 

 

Letter from Barry Pittard to the

President of the UN Association of Australia

From: Pittard, Barry

To: margaret.reynolds@bigpond.com

Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 2:48 PM

Subject: Seeking a Human Rights path, re Sathya Sai Baba

To:  Professor Margaret Reynolds, President, United Nations Association of Australia.

Dear Margaret,

In addition to my Open Letter to the Indian Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, which I sent you earlier today, I include some further salient documents, which state some key allegations against Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, India.  Before anything else, it is worthwhile looking at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/saibaba/petition.html

which some colleagues and I have written, and gets, I think, to the much of the kernel of the matter.

The UNESCO Media Advisory which a small group of us obtained after some hard campaigning is included below or found on:

http://web.archive.org/web/20001017142401/http://www.unesco.org/education/highlights/media_advisory.htm

I shall grant the importance of getting a conviction of Sathya Sai Baba in India.  However, we have vast difficulty in this regard because of endemic corruption obtaining there, especially in the case of one so uniquely powerful and influential as Sathya Sai Baba, whom extraordinary numbers in the highest power echelons regard as God fully incarnate and here to save the world.

I have taken a brief look at some of the U.N. Human Rights polity about signatories, designated as 'state parties.'  To be sure, India appears not to be a signatory in one area where I thought we may be able to pursue Sathya Sai Baba.  However, for all I know, perhaps India may be going to become a signatory, and I don't want to be ignorant of such an occurrence, and any moves towards it, if our case were to be served by such changes. 

I really need to be in touch with someone who knows the U.N. Human Rights policy area and practice with a sharp sense of what is static and what is changing in UN HR polity in ways that may plausibly serve our case.  If there are any less obvious but still viable ways to pursue a HR path to pursue Sathya Sai Baba then I certainly wish to know about them.

One possibility that has occurred to me is that, whatever may be the case in other areas, it may be possible to get the U.N. to ensure that the seriousness of the worldwide allegations against Sathya Sai Baba is sheeted home to U.N. officials from India and other countries who continue to support, visit, worship as the Avatar or as a saviour, meet for worship at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and in some cases publicly extol Sathya Sai Baba.  I wonder if there are ways of doing this.

I shall be glad to have your insights and assistance,

Barry Pittard, Queensland, Australia.  Phone:  07 5442 9597 


Media Advisory

UNESCO WITHDRAWS FROM CONFERENCE

Paris, September 15 - UNESCO has decided it will no longer sponsor nor take part in a conference it had been due to co-organize with the Institute of Sathya Sai Education (ISSE, Thailand) and The Flinders University Institute of International Education (Australia), in Puttaparthi, India, from September 25 to 29. The decision means UNESCO is no longer associated in any way – through sponsorship, organization or participation of any kind – with the conference on Strengthening Values Education: Innovative Approaches to Teacher Education for Peace and International Understanding.

UNESCO’s withdrawal was prompted by several factors. Certain decisions were taken by the ISSE without consultation, such as plans to hold some of the sessions at the Ashram of the Sathya Sai movement in Puttaparthi, and the inclusion of some speakers in the conference program without their previous consent. Furthermore, the Organization is deeply concerned about widely-reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been leveled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba. Whilst it is not for UNESCO to pronounce itself in this regard, the Organization restates its firm moral and practical commitment to combating the sexual exploitation of children, in application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires States to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and violence.


aAnswer from Margaret Reynolds,

President of the UN Association, Australia

----- Original Message -----

From: Margaret Reynolds

To: Pittard, Barry

Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2002 6:20 PM

Subject: Re: Seeking a Human Rights path, re Sathya Sai Baba

Dear Barry,

Thank you for your representations.

I have forwarded them to the secretariat of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in Delhi for action.

With thanks

Margaret

 

Reply from Barry Pittard to Margaret Reynolds,

President of the UN Association, Australia

Some delicate passages have been omitted...

----- Original Message -----

From: Pittard, Barry

To: Margaret Reynolds

Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 3:02 PM

Subject: Re: RE: Seeking a Human Rights path, re Sathya Sai Baba

Dear Margaret,

Thanks so much for forwarding to the Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in New Delhi, Maja Daruwala

Maja has it right: 

I think it is all probably true; certainly the stuff about the murders and the subsequent investigation is also true. What to do about it I don’t know. He has a huge following; the criminal justice system runs on the signals from ruling politicians and the ruling classes many of whom are Sai B worshippers. Even left to itself it is pretty defunct. I am sure there are plenty of people with Sai B who are feathering their nests and worse; I am not sure he is not one of them himself. But his philanthropy is legend and why not the money he is gifted daily is also legend and also unaccounted for from what I know – so its hard to think of going up against the guy but the media could be alerted especially if there were an investigative story abroad the wires and the television would pick it up.

Maja

Margaret, please link me with some very well-informed creative U.N. thinkers, and feel welcome to remain in the loop.

Best Regards,

Barry Pittard

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From: Andries Krugers Dagneau
The Netherlans

From: Andries Krugers Dagneaux

To: executive-editor@nytimes.com ; managing-editor@nytimes.com ; foreign@nytimes.com

Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 6:24 AM

Subject: To Staff NYT & Keith Bradsher, regarding the Dec 1st article 'A Friend in India to All the World', Sathya Sai Baba & Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

 Dear Sir,

 With great interest I have read your article printed on Dec. 1st  ‘A Friend in India to All the World’ about the Indian president  Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam who recently visited the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba.

You forget to mention the important fact that this ‘holy’ man Sathya Sai Baba is very controversial. Many followers have become ex-followers since the year 2000 because of well documented allegations about sexual abuse of young men and boys and killings (in 1993). As is known from the literature about cults and religious groups like Jehovah Witnesses (see e.g. David V. Barrett’s ‘The New Believers’),  ardent followers only suddenly become ‘apostates’ and stop their involvement with a religious organization when they have the feeling that they have no option left. This alone is a strong indication that the allegations are true.

Here is a  well researched on line article that gives a good overview about these allegations i.e. Ms A. Nagel’s article ‘A Guru Accused’ http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/articles/Paper%20'A%20Guru%20Accused'.html

Personally I became an ex-follower in 2001. Here is my story that describes how and why I became an-ex follower called ‘Calumny’ Confirmed. ‘ http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/witnesses/andries.html Note that the men that I mention in my story who have been inappropriately sexually approached by Sathya Sai Baba are an addition to the list that Ms A. Nagel mentions in her article ‘A Guru Accused’.

More articles and news can be found at http://www.exbaba.com

The reason why I consider it so important that the NYT mentions these allegations is mainly because I don’t want new people put faith in SSB because I know unfortunately from experience that it is a devastating experience when one has to find out after many years of total trust and intense devotion that your guru was not worth this devotion at all. This is also the reason why I appeared on Dutch TV on Nov. 11th on the station SBS6, in a program called Tabloid during prime time. I was interviewed in this TV program about the allegations and the harm that is done to ardent followers who fell into Sathya Sai Baba’s trap.

Besides there is an unresolved question why Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and other high ranking Indian politicians continue to visit Sathya Sai Baba now that he has been exposed as not so holy beyond reasonable doubt. For me personally this is a mystery, except when these politicians are themselves ardent followers, which seems to be the case for prime minister A.B. Vajpayee only.

I would be happy if you could soon follow up on this article including mentioning the allegations of former devotees which depict Sathya Sai Baba unfortunately not as a friend and not so holy after all.

In the article you wrote that Sathya Sai Baba is  'Famous for seldom saying much in public even to his followers'. This is not true. Some of his public speeches that have noted down can be seen on http://www.sathyasai.org/search/default.htm

Please do contact me if you need more information.

Your Sincerely,

 Andries Krugers Dagneaux

Hogevecht 8

1102 HA Amsterdam Zuidoost

the Netherlands

phone +31 20 691 33 55

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Senior Executives, New York Times
Please also copy to Keith Bradsher; and Barry Bearak, NYT Asia Bureau Chief
 
Sunday 8 December, 2002
 
In addition to other materials relating to Sathya Sai Baba, who your journalist Keith Bradsher totally and uncritically lauded in his article NYT, December 1, I copy below the Australian scholar Brian Steel's posting today, Sunday December 8, entitled "18 Basic Myths About Sathya Sai Baba."  To you and your research staff, I commend the various resources he refers to by URL, as well as to Mr Steel's points.
 
Formerly, for two years, I lectured in English at Sathya Sai Baba's college, Whitefield, via Bangalore, Karnataka, south India, and am now an international coordinator in the effort to demonstrate the unsalutory facts about Sathya Sai Baba.  I am happy to assist in arranging, on an understandably confidential basis, contact between NYT and those victims or their families prepared to share their experiences once assured of a sensitive, professional hearing.  I would also have you speak with a number of highly qualified sexual abuse professionals who have close knowledge of the cases.
 
I wish you to contact me, so that we can find the best way forward.  As I see it, NYT has simply let in a story (even though one by an award winning journalist of the caliber of Keith Bradsher) which you, incomprehensibly, did not cross-check.
 
This does great injustice to the many victims, and their families and supporters worldwide, of Sathya Sai Baba's serial sexual molestation of boys and young men.  It does not consider  substantive allegations of other grand crimes, such as complicity in a series of police killings in 1993 at Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, south India, where Sathya Sai Baba has his main ashram, the most famous in India.
 
Whether you will admit error or not, I do expect the New York Times to take every decent step to listen to the dissenting voices.  These include not only the victims but many, from various countries including the US, who formerly held key roles in the Sathya Sai Organisation, and who, after extensive, first hand investigation of the allegations, resigned from Sathya Sai Baba's organisation on a matter of high ethical and moral principle. 
 
If, for one moment, you had done a search on Sathya Sai Baba's name, you would have discovered that UNESCO had serious concerns about both the sexual abuse allegations and unsatisfactory dealings with UNESCO by Sathya Sai Baba conference organisers, of which UNESCO was to be a part, and withdrew, on principal, along with Flinders University, Australia: www.saiguru.net/english/sai_org/unescoconf.htm
 

You would have found that the US State Department posted an official warning for American tourists visiting Andhra Pradesh in South India, pointing to Sathya Sai Baba in all but his name:  http://travel.state.gov/india.html

 

You would have found concern expressed in the British Parliament for the prospect young people who may visit Sai Baba.  Note Prime Minister Tony Blair's reassurance to Member of Parliament Tony Colman) www.saiguru.net/english/news/ukwarns.htm 

 

You would have seen the three articles by Dominic Kennedy and team in the London Times:

www.saiguru.net/english/media/010827sexguru.htm

www.saiguru.net/english/media/010827soughtpeace.htm

www.saiguru.net/english/media/010827threedie.htm

 

You would have found articles by the Vancouver Sun,  www.saiguru.net/english/media/010227vancouver.htm , by the Ottawa Citizen www.saiguru.net/english/media/011219ottawa.htm  , a cover story of several pages by India Today, India www.saiguru.net/english/media/001204india.htm , a Daily Telegraph story  (UK):  www.saiguru.net/english/media/0001028divine.htm 

 

You would have seen that, like Mick Brown of the Daily Telegraph, Michelle Goldberg of Salon.com travelled vast distances to research the story, he to the US, she to India.  http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2001/07/25/baba/index.htm

 

Not to mention a great deal of other testimony.  You would also have found the JuST (Just Seekers After Truth) Petition, in which so many former devotees, whose integrity was never, all down the years, assailed by Sai Baba devotees, until we voiced sincere dissent and compassionate concern at the plethora of allegations from boys and young men, as well as other tragic anomalies:  http://www.PetitionOnline.com/saibaba/petition.html

 
Quite likely, Keith Bradsher and the New York Times had no prior knowledge of the also laudatory article on Sathya Sai Baba that appeared in the International Herald Tribune on December 3.  So hard upon!  Yet it seems clear to me that both newspapers have been made the plaything of Sathya Sai Baba's Puttaparthi propaganda machine, which is swinging into action to control the damage from the countless resignations from the Sathya Sai Organisation, and the exposure efforts of dedicated former devotees on many websites, and in major world media, such as the Times of London, Daily Telegraph, and radio and tv broadcasters such as the British Broadcasting Corporation: http://www.sathyasaivictims.com/news_BBC_transcript.htm ,
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Danish Broadcasting Company:

www.saiguru.net/english/media/013002seduced.htm

and TV Azul, Argentina 

 www.saiguru.net/english/news/010819azultv.htm

 
The dissenting former followers of Sathya Sai Baba come from a great many social, cultural, and educational backgrounds.  Some have been Sai Baba's close followers for up to thirty years (in my own case twenty-five).  Any of our wider communities can vouchsafe for our responsible citizenship.
 
The action of the New York Times would obscure integrity itself by an extraordinary failure to check the bona fides of India's most controversial religious figure, who has himself publicly slandered his dissenters, saying that they are "Judases," are being bribed to speak out against him, are "cawing crows," and so on.  It does not edify that the Indian Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee (along with other high profile Indian devotees) who publicly worships Sathya Sai Baba, calling him Bhagavan (God) echoes the same sentiments.
 
Days have now gone by since the Bradsher article, and our fast response to it in sending you considerable documentation from countries around the world.  Already, many former Sathya Sai Baba followers are writing to me,  saying, e.g., "the NYT remains silent."  There is sadness and sometimes cynicism at this.
 
I and increasingly many others have done our best to alert you.  Yet you have not responded.  I now ask you to reply to this email, as well as to act in a publicly responsible manner.
 
Faithfully, Barry Pittard, Australia

18 BASIC MYTHS ABOUT THE GURU SATHYA SAI BABA (AND MUCH MORE)

Document date: 12-07-02

From: Brian Steel

Email: ompukalani@hotmail.com

Website: http://bdsteel.tripod.com/index.html

Copyright © Brian Steel 2002

Sathya Sai Baba is India's most publicised living guru. In addition to over 600 books and articles in English alone, the official websites of his Sathya Sai Organisation, and innumerable unofficial devotee websites have sung his praises as an Omniscient and Omnipotent Avatar, miracle-maker, and public benefactor. In recent years, a growing number of dissenting views and serious allegations (some echoing earlier critical writings which failed to have any appreciable impact on devotees' opinions) have been appearing on the Internet, in the international print media, and in television documentaries. Some of these findings have converted the undoubtedly charismatic guru Sathya Sai Baba into a highly controversial public figure. These new revelations, analyses, allegations, and findings are multiplying.

The following critical websites (together with their LINKS) are cautiously recommended to discerning seekers of counterbalance to the mass of uniformly hagiographical information offered by the Sathya Sai Organisation, devotee Web groups, and books and articles by devotees and naive outsiders.


Some of the above sources as well as my own lengthy and intensive research (as a devotee and now as an ex-devotee) have gradually convinced me that there is already a compelling body of evidence to indicate that the following common beliefs and assertions about Sathya Sai Baba, which are fundamental to the persona which he, the SSO, spokespersons, writers, and devotees have projected to the world for several decades, are NOT supported by the facts. (It is also my opinion that such evidence will continue to grow as more and more objective researchers examine the evidence and refuse to be distracted by the smokescreens of obfuscation and denial instinctively thrown up by the SSO and unconditional devotees.)


The 18 Basic Myths about the guru Sathya Sai Baba are:

1. That he is the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba.

2. That he is a Purna Avatar.

3. That he is Omnipotent.

4. That he is Omniscient.

5. That he is Omnipresent.

6. That his birth followed an Immaculate Conception.

7. That the birth of the claimed trio of Sai Avatars into the family of his ancestors was a boon granted by Siva and Shakti.

8. That his advent was prophesied by Jesus Christ, Muhammad, the Book of Revelations, Nostradamus, inter alia, and announced on 24 November 1926 by Sri Aurobindo.

9. That he will reincarnate again after 2022 as Prema Sai.

10. That he made his two Declarations and began his official Mission in 1940.

(IF he made the Declarations, as is possible, there is documentary evidence to show that it would have been in 1943.)

11. That he was engaged full time on his Mission in the years 1941, 1942 and 1943 (rather than still at school for most of that period).

12. That he resurrected the dead bodies of Radha Krishna and Walter Cowan. (He may have had a healing influence in a near-death experience by these two men).

13. That he is able to speak all languages fluently.

14. That the printed version of his Discourses (which is his principal form of communication with devotees in many languages) is a faithful and close translation of what he actually says in Telugu. (I remind readers that public access to LITERAL translations of his Telugu Discourses has been curtailed since July 2002.)

15. That he always tells the truth.

16. That he never sleeps.

17. That he does not feel or show anger or strong emotion.

18. That he is fully cognizant of the activities and functioning of the Sathya Sai Organisation.


Does all this matter? Only if you are interested in the truth.

Note:

I welcome correspondence from people who have taken the trouble to examine the extensive body of evidence referred to at the beginning of this statement and who wish to point out factual errors in the sections of the counter-evidence for which I am responsible.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

----- Original Message -----
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
To: executive-editor@nytimes.com
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 9:27 AM
Subject: Dec 1 article on Sai Baba of India

 

To the Editor:

By now you have probably heard from various sources about the scandals that are attached to the "spiritual" figure of Sai Baba of India. It is somewhat understandable that at this time of international strife and inter-religious tensions that you would choose to feature a man of God who represents the unity of all faiths.  And yes, in theory this is what Sai Baba has stood for.

However, during the past several years testimonials have come to light about his  sexual conduct with devotees which allege pedophilia.  I personally have heard and read of these from victims who have been terribly traumatized by the "guru" who purported to be God himself- molesting  and rationalizing it as God's intervention for the person's benefit.

I am a professional state licensed mental health counselor, and my husband is a practicing medical doctor.  We are committed to reporting sexual crimes when they occur.  This is a legal imperative.  Yet there are American doctors (psychiatrists, and internists) who full well know of these  abberent practices and they keep silent; infact, they are still involved in taking groups of young people to visit this guru in India.  They too justify Sai Baba's sexual molestations as the will of God.

What a terrible injustice it is to laud such a man.  Bringing such crimes to light in India has proven  frustrating because of the political power Sai Baba wields in that country.  Newspapers in other countries have printed articles giving the victims point of view.   What about the New York Times?  Isn't it dedicated to researching the truth of a story?  We do expect  another more accurate story after you research the sad facts made public by the expose of Sai Baba.

Yours truly,
Barbara Shocket
Sarasota, Florida
 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________