From David and Faye Bailey’s ‘THE FINDINGS’ located
at:
http://www.npi-news.dk/page152.htm
From : INDIA
Website :
http://www.myfreeoffice.com/saibabaexposed/student1.html
Subject : SATHYA SAI BABA : THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Posted on soc.culture.tamil by ex-student Meenakshi Srikanth in 1993 after some students tried to
kill Sai Baba but failed.
Meenakshi writes
:
- The
following is a chronicle of my experiences in the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of
Higher Learning (Whitefield branch). You have my word about the truth of this
article, which has no intention to pass judgment about the personality under
consideration. Meenakshi warns that the information may shock.
THE GOOD: An excellent orator in Telegu; does not have a
radically new philosophy; effectively preaches age old values. Many followers
attempt to practice the ideals; and there are numerous charity programmes
organised in his name.
THE BAD: How does he get his following? ‘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. I was stunned. I had not seen anything like that before. I was not
a devotee when I joined the college (my father asked me to), so this was
something that 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 smiled cryptically. It was not
long before 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 vibhuti
and another produced a ring. Then they told me all.
The simplicity of this is going to baffle you, so be
prepared for the gullibility of the common man.
Swami produces things out of ‘thin air’ by turning
his right palm to face the ground while rotating it (parallel to the ground) a
few times. He then makes a sudden upward motion (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 letter or his flowing robe.
Don’t look at his smiling face or his overflowing
hair. Look at his left hand: clutched in his hand with (mostly) the middle
finger, ring finger and the little finger is whatever he is going to give out
that session. Vibhuti pellets (those of you who have seen him give out vibhuti
will recollect that he makes a powdering action with his fingers when he is
actually delivering), rings or whatever. Just keep looking at his 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 gets transferred to between his fingers in the
right hand. This would be visible too (if you are looking for it). Very soon
thereafter, the ‘materialisation’ takes place.
Right, so you think this method is so stupid 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 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 and have VIPs fall at my feet.
I have seen these things happen hundreds of times. I
have received vibhuti, laddu and such myself. In our hostel there was a coterie
(select group) who knew about all these tricks. We used to have a ball of a
time in darshan line and then share the hilarious experiences after the show
was over.
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 transferred 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 stretched out 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.
On another occasion, a singer had come to Brindavan
and we were listening to him. 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 three rows from Swami and watching him closely. The song over, Swami
shifted a bit on his seat and the watch was now in his left hand. He bent
forward and moved the watch to his right hand. I saw this, then looked up and
saw Swami was watching me. I turned red but so did Swami! He started shifting
around a lot and asked one of the students to change the direction of the table
fan and when the audience was looking away, put the watch back in 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! Other students set it right, but by now the watch had gone back
below the thigh. The singer never got it that day (I really felt sorry for
him).
The next morning in darshan line Swami came near me
and opening his empty right palm, called me a ‘Doubting Thomas’. I wished I
could have asked him to open the left palm, since I knew he had something
there.
Now, this seems funny but I got very scared and wrote
a very apologetic letter to him.
There are a couple of other tricks he does. During
Dussehra he does a vibhuti abhishek of Shirdi Sai Baba. He gets a pot, turns it
upside down to show it empty, then puts his hand inside and vibhuti starts
flowing out. Even a goat with a rational mind would figure out what he is
doing. Take a pot, fill it with vibhuti and solidify it with some water and let
it stand. Until you disturb it, nothing will fall out.
Another thing he used to do was materialise linga. He
does this by regurgitation (yes!). He makes motions as if he is trying to get
it out of his stomach 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 (secret police?)
who stand by him and pass him white hand kerchiefs on which he would eventually
place the linga.
In one of these the linga will come and all he has to
do is to take it close to his mouth and make a motion as if the linga had just
dropped into the kerchief. I have not seen this myself (he no longer does it)
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 know this and live a
life of forced devotion and false pretence. They have to, for if they don’t
life can get very unpleasant. The parents 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 truly pitiable. They
live a constant Jeckyll and Hyde life from which there is no reprieve. But the
lives of some students are more horrible.
THE UGLY: This I have not had personal experience with (thank
holy heavens for that!) but it 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 about which everybody knew but none 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 (not normally
allowed) as and when they like, and behave specially. The wardens and 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 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 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 recognised his devotion etc - this boy, let’s call
him Nandan, always had 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 a
flow of choice words of slang. Nandan often used to get covers (envelopes) from
Swami in public and sometimes he would be asked to open one. It would contain
crisp hundred rupee notes.
(David’s note: I have seen this happen many times).
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 thirty years and their very lives had 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 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 another boy, Kumar (say), who was called
for interview 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 on his face as he spoke. “Swami asked me if I had stomach ache? I
said 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 stomach ache?’ I don’t know why but I said
yes. Swami then 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
meanings, pattings on the cheek, pinching students.
He had the horrible habit of putting his hand inside
the shirt pocket and pinching the chest.
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, 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 Ramana (say), was high on the hit list when
he smartly realised this and moved out of sight by not attending bhajans or
hiding in the back rows. That was the time I was on 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 five times a year) things were far worse in numbers. I heard that many
students there 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, whether advisable
or not. I always said it should be done if only to make them realise about this
ugly part.