In Noordhollands Dagblad, Saturday December 9th,
2000.
By Arthur de Mijttenaere
In the series 'The Turn around' people are
interviewed from the province Noord-Holland whose life got a new turn. Today
story seven: Stijn Riemersma. For twenty years she believed deeply in the
miracle man Sai Baba, whom she now rejects, and she spends time, energy and
money to defame this man.
Name: Stijn Riemersma
Age: 58
City: Broek in Waterland (village near Amsterdam)
The Turn around
Reading The Findings by the British David
Bailey who tells about fraud and Sai Baba’s sexual misuse with young boys. For
Stijn Riemersma after twenty years of believing deeply in Sai Baba, is now
convinced that the avatar (divine master) is a child molester, who misuses his
power to satisfy his sexual needs. Looking back she recognizes his deception.
“But when you belief in miracles, you are not that critical; it was a kind of
brain washing. Yet, Stijn Riemersma feels the pain of having lost her
faith.“ The thing I want most is to
still believe in Sai Baba”.
Stijn Riemersma chooses her words carefully, is not
at all strange and very down to earth. Her clothing and the interior in her beautiful
authentic farmhouse in Broek in Waterland are an example of Dutch soberness and
thoroughness. Why did this 58 year recently retired business woman consider the
Indian guru Sai Baba for twenty years to be her Savior?
Already in 1972 Riemersma became interested in the
Indian guru after reading the book ‘Sai Baba Man of Miracles’, followed by the
book ‘Sai Baba, the Holy Man and the Psychiatrist’ ten years later. Both books
were about miracles the Indian guru performed in India. Miracles like curing
the sick and healing the lame. An interest in the Indian avatar was born. And
what Sai Baba preached harmoniously fit in with the beliefs of her Dutch
reformed religion. “The teachings of Sai Baba are a combination based on the
ten commandments in the Bible and the ideas in the Bhagavad Gita, the holy book
of the Hindus. "Love each other and love God above all, a teaching that
appealed to me, and still does," she simply explains.
Savior
Riemersma attended
meetings of Sai Baba devotees in Utrecht. Sai Baba became world famous
outside India in the seventies, with hundreds of thousands of followers in the
West. With an iron discipline she went to these gatherings of twenty to 25
people. "We didn’t do anything wrong at these meetings. We all had the
idea: we have found our Savior."
When they looked at her strangely in the 'small town
community' Broek in Waterland because of her Baba-beliefs, it didn’t bother
her. "You feel a bit better with Baba, and you know you have to follow
your own path." The teachings of Baba were not radical. "He was not
like the Bhagwan who advocated free
abortion, free euthanasia and free sex. Such extreme points of view are not
mine. Sai Baba pretended to be different. He said: "come to me with empty
hands and I will fill them with love."
Dependence
For her life the faith in the Avatar was something
she needed to depend on. A source in the search for the good life seen from a
more peaceful angle. Just like hundreds
of thousands of other Westerners, Riemersma visited India several times, to be
near the presence of the benefactor.
In the village Puttaparthi in South-India, the ashram
(community with a spiritual leader) Prasanthi Nilayam - the residence Abode of
Peace – she often saw the guru perform. His orange robe, mirrors the highest
state of being. He is according to his teachings God in human form. These
darshans (divine encounters) take place
twice a day She, as well as other five to six thousand attendees at the temple
court, had to draw a number, hoping to get a place with a good view at the
Avatar. She traveled six times to India. Every time she hoped deeply for an
interview, a personal meeting with Baba, but this happy occasion never crossed
her path.
What is the secret that a small man in India can
mesmerize such masses of people? Riemersma searches for an answer. "We
were moved and happy when we saw him. A tiny man who had obtained the highest
degree in divinity. Charisma? Radiance? No doubt he has that. But it also was a
form of brainwashing, of mass psychosis."
The darshans consisted of two-thirds visitors from
abroad, who could count on a warm interest of their guru. He walked among the
crowds and always spent more time on the men's side compared to the women’s
side.
Especially young men got personal interviews. Looking
backwards Riemersma realizes why: "Naturally this was obvious. But then I
didn’t know." A chosen young man from Purmerend who had a private
interview with Sai Baba, didn’t want to tell anything about it in his group.
Sai Baba had told him not to tell any one. "It heightened the mystery. Due
to this fact, this man became like a
guru to our group. We looked up to him. Of all things, he had spoken
with the Savior. Yet now I suspect that this young man was molested, and out of
feelings of shame kept his mouth shut."
During personal interviews Sai Baba performs his
magical abilities, like materializing (creating something out of nothing)
watches and gemstones. "Some said that he just pulls those things from
underneath a pillow of his velvet chair. But this would not diminish our faith,
because 'Sai Baba would do it to test our faith". Furthermore Riemersma,
along with many others, stumbled into
buying a small apartment in the Holland-Switzerland house in the ashram, for
thousands of guilders. At first it was presented as if she would be allowed to
stay for six months per year, but later
it became clear that it was only six weeks. During the last decades, the Sai
Baba village has grown into a flourishing community, with a profitable
religious industry. The village functions as a lucrative enterprise for Sai
Baba and his Organisation, schools,
universities and many shops selling cheap merchandise about the Avatar.
Change of faith
In October of 1999, Riemersma visited the Indian guru
for the last time. In March of the year 2000, in one stroke, the turn around
took place. Through the mail, she ordered (out of curiosity)the report The
Findings, by ex devotees David Bailey
and his wife, from UK, both of whom had been well known members in the
religious community, and who had been matched and married by Sai Baba himself.
As a musical teacher in the schools of the guru, Bailey came to know the
shocking truth about Sai Baba: the truth that he very often misused his young
male devotees. The holy man, now 75 years of age, appeared to be a Peadophile,
who in an unrestricted way abused his power to obtain his sexual pleasures from
young adolescents. Bailey considered it his duty to make this known worldwide,
and took distance from the guru. By means of the publication of The Findings
the eyes of many Baba-devotees have been opened. Also for Stijn Riemersma, who
after reading halfway the forty pages of the report, literally dropped her
belief. The evidence was conclusive. "From these factual stories, legal
documents and sworn statements, I could not close my eyes." For twenty
years she was a devout believer, but in one stroke this was over. She
emotionally lost the ground under her feet; the huge shock changed her life, and put her in a grieving process
that still continues.
“Together with my husband, who never had been
attracted to this guru, I took down all pictures of Baba in our house, and
destroyed them.” On the internet (among others at the site www.exbaba.nl)
dozens of the anti-Baba testimonies are to be found. “These are stories of
devotees from Denmark, England, and the United States, who have been abused by him.
It happened in a fixed pattern. During a private interview, he asked the guys
to drop their pants, upon which he massaged their pubic hair and penis with
oil. If they passed the test well, they were allowed to come again. In the
second session the boys had to perform oral sex with him. Whereupon, they
weren’t supposed to talk, the godhead told them.” Even though stories about Sai
Baba’s pedophilia had circulated before, Riemersma ignored them. Naive, she now
believes. “These were always stories of a single journalist. In the testimonies
of Bailey it is about a whole list of young men, or older ones who have been
abused by him years ago.” The pedophelic power game of Sai Baba is very
deceitful. Everything that God does is for sure always good? At least, that is
how parents raise their children. Therefore, the children can hardly protest.
“Completely overruled and upset, they don’t understand what is happening to
them by a holy man!”
Her faith melted away through the stories about
peadophilia. Riemersma has turned around completely from being a devoted member
to an anti Sai Baba-activist. She now is a spokeswoman for the Dutch action committee
against the guru. She, when needed, gives interviews, writes letters about the
truth concerning Sai Baba, and spends time and money to defame the practices of
this man. With some success, because the following of the Indian guru last year
has diminished. Of approximately 2800
subscribers to the Dutch Sai Baba Newsletter, 800 cancelled their subscription, partly because Riemersma
distributed The Findings in the Netherlands. When others lose their faith,
Riemersma tries to help them. She always uses the same argument. “I advise: God
has stayed the same. But over the years we have created the wrong image.” Riemersma
doesn’t blame the regular devotees of Baba, she repeatedly emphasizes. "It
is not so that the members are part of it. But the top of the Baba organisation
does know, and justify his pedophile behavior, with the false argument that one
cannot understand why God is doing such a thing. I am convinced of this.” What
hurts her above all is the fact that the Central Committee of Sai Baba-Netherlands
(circa 5000 members) does not want to talk with her because they believe her to
be jealous because ‘she never had a personal interview with him’. "Huge
nonsense", according to Riemersma. “I always tell them that once you know
someone abuses his children, your relationship with him changes. Whether he is
your neighbor, or Sai Baba."
Devotees repeat the argument Sai Baba once used
himself when he was accused of pedophilia: namely that his body is pure and
therefore it does not need sex. Or they say that Sai Baba treats the boys this
way to help them overcome their sexual problems. “In their words: Sai Baba is
God; if Sai Baba does these things, it has to be alright.” In a sect you can be
blind and deaf to everything.