A
LETTER FROM SHIRLEY PIKE,
EX-PRESIDENT OF THE
May 28, 2000
Dear brothers, sisters,
and officers of the North Central Region and the Central Council,
It is with great pain and
sadness that I am writing to you today. One
week ago, I resigned as president of the North Central Region, giving verbal
notification to the National Coordinator, William Harvey, Ph.D.
Serving the North Central Region’s centers, study groups, and
individual devotees has been one of the most joyful and fulfilling experiences
of my life. Never have I had the
privilege of knowing so many wonderful, loving, giving, and spiritually
dedicated people. I thank all of
you for your gracious and kind support of me as we worked together for our
spiritual growth and development.
The reason for my
resignation will probably dismay and shock many of you.
A few of weeks ago I received information from a fellow long-time devotee
of a e-mail she had received concerning acts of pedophilia by Sathya Sai Baba. I
had the e-mail forwarded to me and I personally investigated the information
contained in that e-mail. I spoke personally to various individuals who had
first hand experience with inappropriate behavior by Sai Baba. These individuals
are respectable, credible, intelligent and have no axes to grind of any sort. I
came away from these conversations believing these individuals and have
therefore resigned and am sending you this letter. I am in the midst of a
personal grieving process, involving all the typical stages of grief, including
shock, denial, bargaining, profound sadness, despair, and acceptance.
I am grieving because I believe that Sathya Sai Baba is a charlatan, who
has used the power gained by the love and reverence of his followers and the
truth of ancient Vedic Doctrines and Scriptures to sexually molest boys and
young men from about the ages of eight to thirty.
It is these allegations of unspeakable, abhorrent sexual molestation that
force me to write this letter to you.
I have personally investigated these allegations and spoken with several
people who have either had direct personal sexual experiences or who know
someone very well, i.e. an immediate family member, who has been abused.
Two of these individuals are former regional officers, who have resigned
their posts and whom I have known for many years. I trust them, know them to have exemplary character and
believe they would not lie. Further,
they have nothing to gain and everything to lose by coming forward with their
experiences. These experiences
include numerous accounts of Sai Baba rubbing male genitals with oil, mutual
masturbation, mutual oral sexual gratification, and even anal intercourse by Sai
Baba. As a child psychologist who
is familiar with the emotional devastation that sexual abuse causes its victims
and the classic patterns of abuse, I found these accounts and the individuals’
reactions, to my horror, highly credible.
As a school psychologist,
I am a mandatory reporter. This
means that under Iowa law I am required to report any allegation or well founded
suspicion to the authorities. If
Sai Baba were a mere trickster fleecing people for their money, I would prefer
to go quietly into the night, preserve my friendships with devotees, and not
disrupt the faith of others. But,
as an officer who has promoted Sathya Sai Baba as an avatar, I have both a moral
and a legal obligation to warn all of the members and officers in this region
and the national leaders that any male between approximately the ages of eight
and thirty is potentially at risk for sexual molestation should they go to India
to see Sathya Sai Baba and have a private interview.
I do not expect anyone to
take what I am saying at face value. If
you wish to investigate on your own as I have done, then feel free to contact me
and I will provide you with the information to reach those who have had direct
experiences and you can make your own determination. Please begin by looking at “The Findings (in this website).
My heart goes out to one
and all and my love for you remains steadfast.
I will miss your good company more than you can know.
May God bless you and keep you, and give you peace.
Shirley Pike