Sathya Sai Baba's exaggerations of follower numbers and ashram visitors

SB's exaggerations of numbers:

Excerpt from

ON THE INTERNATIONAL SATHYA SAI ORGANISATION

A participant observational analysis of its structure, management & functions

By Robert C. Priddy

formerly researched at The Institute of Social Studies, Oslo,

lectured in philosophy 1968-85 and sociology 1970-76, University of Oslo, Norway.

http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/saiorg/

See YouTube video of the author explaining how the 'numbers game' works

********************

The ex-editor-in-chief, V.K. Narasimhan (VKN), was a truth-seeker both of worldly facts and spiritual insight, with a critical sense and high standards, certainly not given to naive judgements, hasty conclusions, or exaggerated reports. As I got to know him in various situations, I came to regard his perceptions as very largely credible, not least because - despite all the good sense in many of SB's activities, he always harboured doubts about SB's more extravagant assertions. Though he seldom mentioned it in public, it was he who pointed out to me that SB repeatedly exaggerates figures wildly. On the 70th birthday SB had predicted that there would be 3 to 4 million visitors, said VKN beforehand.

The ashram engineer, Mr. Ashoka, told a Norwegian engineer (whom I knew well and who was planning an ashram water project) that he calculated that, at any one time, the entire accommodation facilities of the ashram and Puttaparthi in (1995) were less than 50,000 persons. About 250,000 maximum can occupy the Hillview Stadium, where the entire crowd was present at the main ceremony. The ashram was as empty. Even when largish areas with tents and outside camps are accounted for, the figure of 500,000 persons is reckoned to be much greater than had been present in the area on the Birthday. An American friend, Robert Bruce, who I have known for years, was told by SB in a brief interview after the celebrations that there had been 3 million persons present! Others reported similar statements by SB. (Some, unable to make SB's figures add up, argued that - "since Swami is never wrong" - this perhaps was intended to include disembodied souls visiting God!). To this, VKN replied, "Swami always multiplies these numbers by ten." He was well placed to know, if anyone was! In the preceeding year to the 1995 birthday bonanza, SB had told one interview group that there would be 7,000 Japanese there, but in fact the registered number was 75! A group from New Zealand led by Mr. Arthur Hillcoat were informed by SB that he wanted 5,000 service workers from their country present in 1996 at the Birthday. (I then heard Mr. Hillcoat also tell that Baba told them that radiation pollution from French nuclear tests would cause great havoc, ecological destruction and deaths in N.Z. and other places thousands of miles distant. This has evidently not occurred as far can be judged). However, the largest overseas delegation, that of the USA, was only 750 persons. The ashram accommodation office, which handles the passports of every foreign visitor, stated after the birthday event that there were at total of 8,000 delegates from 137 countries, but omitted the fact that every single visitor from abroad present, whether believer or not, was given delegate status. I shared a room with others, one of whom had never even had been to darshan once! This exaggeration is but one instance among many others. This was no isolated case of such multiplication by SB, for VKN told me all important birthday attendance figures had been hugely overblown. He reckoned as an absolute maximum 400,000 at the 60th birthday, when millions were also said to have been present, but the engineer's estimates made even this far too many.

Another incident among several others was when, in 1990, Dr. Samuel Sandweiss had tried to interest 120 Russians to come to Prashanthi, only 12 had actually planned to come, though even they did not all arrive. The 12 Russians (on an official State visit) who had wanted to come were stopped in Delhi because they would not accept the ordinary tourist visas they were offered, for - being invited delegates to an Indian psychiatric conference - they were expecting official treatment instead. However, after hearing of the 12 psychiatrists from Sandweiss in the interview room, Swami himself announced on the porch outside to students and others that 120 Russians were coming to see him. VKN heard Dr. Sandweiss tell SB of his mistake, and SB became very angry with him and told him to leave the ashram immediately and return to the USA. This was hushed up by all who heard it, as is usually done by those who are 'in the know'.

There are a number of round figures constantly repeated. The supposed 6,000 villages, then the 60,000 villages. The 6 million devotees of SB in the 1970s, now said to be 'around 60 million'. Perhaps dividing by ten would be a wise rule of thumb? Repeated visits to the ashrams during 16 years never gave me the sense that this was a movement with several millions, I saw many, many of the same faces over and again, and seldom counted more than 4 thousand persons on normal darshan days, even in the 1990s.
-------

Remark: The official (Sanathana Sarathi) photo of the 70th birthday crowd in the Hillview Stadium which contained virtually everyone in the entire area at the time it was taken (I left early and saw how few were left in Puttaparthi and the ashram). If one compares this to a photo of this year with two million pilgrims at Mecca, (eg. such as was distributed by Reuters around 20/2/02), one appreciates that the Pranshanthi crowd is around 1/10 of that number.