From:
(Meenakshi Srikanth)
Prologue :
This article is not in defence of what the students tried to do (attempt to
kill Baba) recently. I do not know anything about the incident other than what
I read in misc.news.southasia. Those students might have been motivated by
things other than in this article to do what they did. The following is a
chronicle of my experiences in Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higer Learning.
These happened a good 4 years ago. But not much has changed, can change in this
place. Strong reader discretion is advised. If you are a strong devotee of Baba
Please desist from reading further. You have my word about the truth of this
article and nothing further. All flames will be nuked (Tsk, tsk, Mixed
metaphor, Scotty!)
Introduction :
This is a brief intro to Baba. Those who know about him may skip this. Sathya
Narayana was born in Puttaparthi, a remote village in AP border(with
Karnataka), 65 years ago. Legend has it that, he left home when he was eleven,
proclaiming that he has a mission to fulfill in life. He declared himself the
incarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba (who had attained samadhi in late 1910's).
Today
he commands an international devotional gathering that has more than a million
people from all over the world in it. In India, the list includes P.V.Narasimha
Rao, S.D.Sharma, Venkataraman, Chandrashekar CMs of AP, Karnataka, Maharashtra
and Madhya Pradesh, Singers S.Janaki, P.Susheela, M.S.Subbulaxmi, artiste
Lalgudi Jayaraman, Sportsmen Gavaskar, Shastri, Kapil Dev and a host of other
illuminaries.
He
runs the autonomous university, Sri Sathya Sai Inst. of Higher learning and the
hospital Sri Sathya Sai Super specialities hospital. He has residential
'mandirs' in Ooty(Sathyam), Hyderabad(Shivam), Madras(Sundaram), Bombay and
most importantly, Bangalore (Brindavan). A word about SSSIHL: SSSIHL runs in
three places: HQ in Puttaparthi(Boys only), a branch in Whitefield, Bangalore
(Boys only) and a branch in Anantapur (Girls only). Courses are offered in
Arts, Science and Commerce and the instritute offers Bachelors, Masters and
Doctorate degrees. There is also an MBA program. There are no professional
courses(though there was a plan for a medical program).
I
studied in the Whitefield branch. The college in Whitefield is a small
structure of three important buildings. The college is at the west end of the
campus and across a football field, in the center, is our hostel and in the
east end is the Bungalow-cum-Mandir where Swami stays whenever he comes to
Bangalore ( about 5-7 times a year).
Sathya Sai Baba: The good
Sathya Sai Baba is an excellent orator in Telugu and his speeches can be truely
inspiring and motivating. He does not have a radically new philosophy or a
style of religion. He preaches the age-old values of dharma, ahimsa, prema,
sathya and shanthi (the five pillars of human values, as he calls them).
However, he does them in so effective a way, that his devotees, at least most
of them, make a sincere attempt to follow the ideals and practice them in real
life. It is this that makes the numerous charity programs and social activities
organised by the Sathya Sai Organisations so popular and well attended.
'Seva
Dals', as these organisations are called, are admirable units run by selfless
and motivated individuals who do a lot of very good social work like organising
medical camps for impoverished people(I have visited many of these and they are
run in clean surroundings, by well qualified people and reach the poorest among
the poor who come flocking there), food camps, adopting villages etc. There is
very little propaganda element in all these activities. There is just a
solitary decorated portrait of Swami in the center of the activities but other
than this, no preaching goes on to those who are being served.
The
Institute that is being run by Swami is entirely free. There is no tuition fee
charged from any of the students at any level. I hear that the Hospital that
was recently(two years ago) opened is also free for the patients. I am not able
to think of anything else that is important to write here. I want the reader to
just carry the impression that the women and men who are sincerely devoted to
Swami have their lives transformed. You will understand this if you visit the
house of any devotee.
I
have often been impressed by the quietness, serenity, religious purity and
solemnity that I found there. I have found that most of these people talk
softly, do not get angry easily and have a very peaceful life. If you go to
Prashanthi nilayam (Puttaparthi), you will find the whole place to be like
this. I will quote an incident that happened. In the mandir complex in
Puttaparthi, one is not supposed to smoke. Once, a sevadal member saw a person
smoking and went and requested him not to. The person got irritated and asked,
"What will you do if I just continue smoking?". To this the sevadal
member quietly replied, "I will just keep on asking you not to smoke till
you stop". It is truely amazing how a single person can cause such a
transformation in so many minds.
Sathya Sai Baba : The bad
To those of you who jumped into this section straightaway - please go and read
the above section and then come to this. * It is not the intention of this
article to pass any judgement about the personality under consideration. I will
leave it to the reader to analyse the good and the bad in forming her/his own
conclusion. One may wonder as to how Swami has such a huge following (I gather
that among all religious leaders, sans probably the Pope, Sathya Sai Baba is
the one with the biggest following in the world). The answer is a single word:
Miracles. The unbelievable happens as a day-to-day affair in Puttaparthi or
Bangalore or wherever Swami happens to be on a given day. A mere circling of a
palm and out comes, vibhuthi(sacred ash), watches, rings, necklaces, pendants
and what not. He does this almost everyday and recipients of his bounty include
common devotees in the darshan line and the VIP devotees in the interview
rooms. In this section, I shall tell you how he does all these. He claims he is
the God incarnate of the Kaliyuga ("Yuga Avathara...Sai Rama.." goes
one of the bhajans). When this claim is coupled with his daily routines of
materializations, it gives a staggering image of a super-human personality to
which people fall a ready prey.
Before
I tell you about these, a few words about the routine of Swami on a normal day
would be needed. Swami wakes up at around 5:30am and gets ready for darshan
which starts around 8:00am. We students gather outside his mandir (in the
driveway) at about 7:45 am. He comes outside, talks to some of us, to some
other VIPs who might have come (On a fine morning during the Reliance cup '87,
the whole Indian Cricket Team (except Srikkanth :-( ) had come!) and proceeds
to the place where the public are assembled. As a routine, he collects letters
from his devotees, names newborn babies, blesses new couples etc. Then at
around 9:15, he comes back and goes inside the mandir. After this, the
interviews start. During his rounds, he would have (arbitrarily) selected from
among the devotees a select few who would be given interviews on that day. He
provides counsels to these people till about 11:30am. Again in the evening, the
same thing happens (no interviews in the evening). After darshan, we have
bhajans inside the mandir and occasionally Swami gives an address. Sometimes,
some students give talks.
Miracles.
A few days after I joined the college, during darshan time, Swami was casually
talking about the power of meditation or some such thing when all of a sudden
he waved his hands in the air and produced a pendant containing a beautiful
picture of Lord Muruga as in Pazhani. I was stunned. I had not seen anything
like that before. I was not a devotee when I joined the college (I joined
because my father asked me to) but this was something which really shook me. I
went back to the hostel and waxed eloquent about the power of Swami to some of
my seniors. They nodded sagely and gave a cryptic smile. It was not very long
when some of them called me aside and said, " Don't start believing all
this stuff. It does not take much to become a devotee but it takes a lot to
come out of it". Saying this, one of them waved his hand and produced
vibhuthi and another produced a ring. Then they told me all.
The
simplicity of this thing is going to baffle you. So, be prepared for an
exposition of gullibility of the common man. Swami produces things out of 'thin
air' by turning his right palm facing the ground and rotating it (parallel to
the ground) a few times. He then makes a sudden motion upwards (as if he is plucking
a low lying fruit) and gives out whatever he has produced. The mechanism of
doing this is simple. When he comes out of the mandir, his left hand will be
holding a kerchief or a letter or his flowing robe. Don't look at his smiling
face or his swirling right hand or his overflowing hair. Look at his left hand:
clutched in the palm with (mostly) the middle finger, ring finger and the
little finger is whatever he is going to give out that session. Vibhuthi
pellets (those of you who have seen him give out vibhuthi will recollect that
he makes a powdering action with his fingers when he is actually delivering),
rings or whatever. Just keep looking at this hand. There will be a time when a
devotee will fall at his feet or when he will lean forward. At that time the
stuff would get transfered to between the fingers in his right hand. This would
be visible too (if you are looking for it). Very soon thereafter, the
'materialization' would take place.
Right,
so you think this method is so stoooopid that even a goat would have found it
out by now. Let me tell you something, just practice this a few times. And try
it out on your friends. You will be surprised by their surprise. I can do this
easily now and have fooled many of my friends. Only I don't call myself god or
have VIPs fall at my feet.
I
have seen these things happen hundreds of times. I have received vibhuti, laddu
and stuff like these myself. In our hostel there was a coterie who knew about
all these tricks. We used to have a ball of a time in the darshan line and used
to share the hilarious experiences after the show is over. A couple of
experiences would be in place. Once, Swami was out of the mandir and was
collecting letters. He had a small silver pendant in his hand which we had all
seen when he had gone past us in the line. He had transfered it to his right
hand and was just waiting for someone to give it to, when a devotee from a back
row extended a letter.
Swami
bent forward and out stretched his right palm to receive it. It was a fine
Bangalore morning, the sun was out and the pendant in his hand was gleaming for
all to see! We went black and blue for a second and suppressing a
threatening-to-explode laugh, looked away. Swami went ahead, unperturbed, and
gave the pendant to some important looking guy down the line. We were talking
about this for a whole week and even thought of writing a letter to Swami
asking him to be more careful.
In
another occasion, a singer had come to Brindavan and we were inside the mandir
listening to him sing. Swami wanted to give him a watch and it was in readiness
beneath his left thigh in the sofa on which he was sitting. I was sitting in
the third row from Swami and was keeping a 'close' watch. The song got over and
Swami shifted in his seat a slight bit and the watch was now in his left hand.
He bent forward and moved the watch to his right hand. I saw this and looked up
and saw that Swami was watching me! I turned red but so did Swami! He started
shifting around a lot, asked one of the students to change the direction of the
table fan and when the audience was looking away put the watch back into his
left hand. Now, the student who was changing the fan was a nervous wreck with
everyone watching him and whatever happened, there were sparks flying out of
the socket! Soon a few other students went there to set it alright. By now the
watch had gone back to below the thigh. That singer never got it that day (I
really felt sorry for him).
The
next day morning, in the darshan line, Swami came near me and opened his right
palm before my eyes and said, "Hmm ...Namasivayah! ( He called me this
since I used to give talks in Tamil and started all my talks with
"Namasivayah vaazhga! Naadhan thaaL vaazhga!"), nEthu ennannavO
ninaichaachu! raathiri ennannavO swapnam kandaachu! paarthukkO! oNNum illa!
Doubting Thomas! Doubting Thomas!". I wish I could have asked him to open
the left palm then since, I knew he had something there! Well, now this seems
funny, but at that time I got very scared and wrote a very apologetic letter to
him!
There
are a couple of other standard tricks that he does. During Dussehra, he does a
Vibhuthi abhishek of Shirdi Sai Baba. He gets a small pot and turns it upside
down and shows there is nothing in it. After this, he puts his hands inside the
pot and vibhuthi starts flowing out. Even a goat with a rational mind would
figure out what he is doing. Take a pot, fill it with vibuthi and solidify it
with some water and let it stand. Till you disturb it, nothing will fall out.
Another thing that he used to do was materialize linga. He does this by
regurgitation (yes!). He makes motions as if he is trying to get it out of his
nabhi and soon enough, has it out of his mouth. You will find plenty of these
if you visit the museum in Puttaparthi. The way he does this is also simple.
There is always a queue of trusted lieutenants(sp?) who stand beside him and
pass him white hand kerchiefs on which he would eventually place the linga that
'comes out'. In one of these kerchiefs, the linga itself will come and all he
has to do is to take it close to his mouth and make a motion as if the linga
just dropped into the kerchief. I have not seen this myself(he no longer does
this) but I have seen videos of this. My point is, once you have proved that
one of his miracles is magic, the rest don't need any proof.
Some
students in the college always know these and live a life of forced devotion
and false pretense. They have to, for if they don't life can get very
unpleasant. The parents of most of these students are very ardent devotees
whose lives have been defined by their devotion to Swami. It would be
impossible to convince them that Swami is not what they think he is but only a
cheap charlatan doing popular tricks. The lives of these students are truely
pitiable. They live a constant Jeckyll and Hyde life from which there is no
reprieve. But lives of some students are more horrible.
Originally,
I had divided this article into two parts - the first part about things in
which I had a first-hand experience and the second part about things in which I
do not have first-hand experience. But the first part got so big that I decided
to post it in two parts. So this is the part about which I do not have any
personal experience (thank holy heavens for that!) This article is more sensitive
than the previous two. I would advise extreme reader discretion before
proceeding ahead. Do not read ahead if you have anything to do with Sathya Sai
Baba.
DO NOT FLAME ME.
You have been warned.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba: The ugly
Yes, I do not have personal experiences in these. But I know what I am going to
write is 100% true because I have heard first-hand accounts of these bizarre
things. I have looked at enough circumstantial evidences along with these
witness' accounts that I have no hesitation in telling that the following is
true.
How
do I start telling this to you, gentle reader? In my very first few days in our
hostel, I had the distinct impression that something ugly was going on in the hostel
about which everone knew but no one wanted to talk. Whenever Swami came to
Bangalore, there always used to be a few students who got interviews every
other day. These students were often referred to as those who are 'in form' (a
cricket analogy) with Swami. These students were among the most privileged in
the hostel. They could go outside the hostel (a student is allowed to go
outside the hostel only during vacations) as and when they like and behave
specially. The wardens and the lecturers used to consult them before anything
significant was done in the hostel. These students kept within themselves for
most of the time.
I
was preoccupied with my own troubles and did not keep any close look at these,
though I was curious. When I got to know about Swami from my seniors, they
asked me if I noticed anything strange about the hostel. I told them. They
smiled and asked me to keep an open eye, promising that they would tell me all
about it soon. It did not take me very long to find out what was different about
these students. They were all gay. Now, kindly bring down those raised
eyebrows, my dear reader. All the indications, body languages, special jokes
about husband and wives etc were there and it did not take a sleuth's effort to
divine what was going on. I told about this to my seniors and the fact they
told me was startling to say the least. Many of these students were made gay
('sodomized' would be an unrefined word) by Swami, who himself is a gay.
I
did not believe it when they told me this. But not long after, I heard the
experiences as narrated by the students who had undergone the trauma
themselves. Now, it so happened that a couple of these students were Tamils
with whom I became friendly quite soon. One of them used to tell me harrowing
stories. When Swami was in Brindavan, he used to get the call for interview at
least once in three days. Whereas a student when he gets an interview is
usually so elated and pleased that Swami has recognized his devotion etc. this
boy, lets call him Nandan, always have a grim face as he walked into the
bungalow. He never attended classes those days in which he got an interview. I
have often seen him show marks in his chest and chin and say things like,
"innikku kadichtaarudaa!", followed by a flow of choice words of
slang. Nandan often used to get covers from Swami in public and sometimes he
would be asked to open it. It would contain crisp hundred rupee notes. There is
another word for giving money for such acts.
Nandan
was helpless. He could not go home and complain. His family and parents were
devotees for 30 years and their very lives have been defined around Baba.
Nandan since he knew the world has been knowing Swami and none else as god. He
was first initiated into doing this by Swami when he was in school. Swami told
him that he (Swami) was the only purusha in the world and the whole world was
his wife. Nandan was asked to think of himself as Radha devoted to the Krishna.
Nandan's whole attitude towards life is now irrevocably changed.
There
was this another guy, Kumar(say), who was called for interview for the first
time. He was so elated. That afternoon, a bunch of us went up to him (he was
our junior) and asked him what happened. He had a blissful look in his face
when he said this. "Swami asked me if I had Stomach ache. I said that by
Swami's grace I don't. Swami laughed and said 'why do you have to hide it from
me? tell me do you have a stomach ache?'. I don't know why but I said yes.
Swami said he will cure it and produced Sandalwood oil from thin air and rubbed
it on my stomach and below. I will never forget the experience".
We
did not need such proofs, however. It was always obvious. Jokes with double
meaning (yes!), pattings on the cheek, pinching students (He had the horrible
habit of putting the hand inside the shirt pocket and pinching the chest) and
such crap. Students who entered this quicksand of destruction, whether
willingly or otherwise, lead an unspeakable life. Devoted students held them in
awe and the students who knew the 'stuff' either despised them or pitied them.
And they had no recourse.
There
were students who went dangerously close to such a fate and escaped. My friend,
Ramanan(say), was high in the hit list when, he smartly realised this and moved
out of sight by not attending Bhajans or hiding in the back rows etc. That was
a time when I was in the hit list too, but our guardian angels intervened in
the form of a summer vacation. Towards the end of my stay in the place, the
disease was only spreading. I was in Bangalore. In Puttaparthi (where we used
to go some 5 times a year) things were far worse in numbers. I have heard that
one out of every 10 students are gay either directly by the big man or
transitively. The atmosphere, an all-boys place with zero outer-world exposure
for a prolonged period during adolescence is only conducive to such a thing.
This,
in my opinion, is the ugliest part of Swami. We used to divulge the information
about Swami to our juniors ('baptisation') and many times have had, among
ourselves, whether it is advisable or not. I had always said that it should be
done if only to make them realise about this ugly part.
Epilogue :
Writing this whole series, even the last part, was incredibly easy since all
the incidents are so indelibly impressed in my mind. Not that I want to look
back to it. Apart from this aspect we had a great time, great fun in Bangalore.
More the restrictions, more the fun in breaking them :-). I made some of my
best friends in Bangalore. Suffice to say, it was an experience of a lifetime.
M.Srikanth