Testimony from a mother

 

From a_sparrow27 (a mother) on:

Sathya Sai Baba Discussion Club, message 515, 518, 520, 690,708, 721 and 1385:

http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/sathyasaibabadiscussionclub

Date:  10/18/00 8:32 p.m.

Phoenixboy, the fact is that SB HAS claimed that he is celibate (he did so in a discourse he gave less than a year ago), he HAS said that he has no desires, and he HAS said that he has complete control of the senses. Doesn't honesty mean anything? Also, though some of the trysts may be consensual, others are not. Another point, SB is very puritanical when it comes to hetero relationships; constantly berating the boys at his school to not even look at girls. My son spent some time there one summer and the rule was, if girls walked by, the boys had to turn and face the wall so they wouldn't see them. Doesn't that seem a teeny bit hypocritical? According to one of the testimonies from a hetero young man, SB told him to leave his wife and then proceeded to harass him for sex.

Look, I know 2 devotees who told me that they would kill themselves if SB told them to (Oh, Jonestown; here we come!), so of course many people will agree to have sex with him if he demands it as they are so immersed in believing he is divine and has an altruistic reason for everything he does.

We are not talking about an ordinary man here... a musician, businessman, priest, schoolteacher... but someone who clearly is abusing his power and position of authority for he knows few will deny him his wishes.

Message 518

Date: 10/19/00 10:56 p.m.

GG ... I am very circumspect about believing rumors. My reason is, I wouldn't like it if someone believed something about me that was untrue, exaggerated, distorted, or taken out of context, so I want to give others that same respect. But, after hearing and reading many, many stories containing the same particulars (oral sex, masturbation, etc) year after year ... and coming from all parts of the world ... I have sadly concluded that, unless there is a huge, clever, highly orchestrated, world-wide plot to discredit SB, there must be quite a bit of truth in them. What hit home was receiving a letter from a woman whom I had never met, but with whom I share mutual acquaintances, whose young son was ordered by SB to have sexual relations with him. The woman included a photocopy of the entries from the boy's journal describing these incidents.

You assume SB is beyond the gunas and the need for sex, but you do not know it. I used to think so too, which was one reason I originally doubted the stories.

I do believe he materializes things and can do other marvelous and mysterious feats as well. These things are beyond our understanding and the understanding of contemporary science, but that doesn't mean that he's an incarnation of divinity, or even an honorable and moral man. It is simply not logical to draw that conclusion.

We never know something for certain unless we witness it ourselves. I don't even know for sure that men have walked on the Moon or that World War II was fought. I've heard about these events and read about them, so I assume they happened, but hey, I could be wrong. When you hear the same story over and over from many sources, it's pretty safe to believe that it's true.

Message 520

Date: 10/21/00 12:35 a.m.

Phoenixboy ... this is begging the question. We ARE all divine, but not all actions are divine. Sex is a wonderful part of life and almost all of us think about it, talk about it, and do it. The issue is not sex; the issues are exploitation, hypocrisy, and dishonesty. I paid careful attention to SB's teachings during the 9 years I followed him and he comes across as being very morally strict and prudish. He repeatedly uses the word "lust" to describe attractions between men and women. He tells the boys in his school not to even look at girls. He doesn't allow men and women (even married couples) to sit together at darshan or even hold hands while they're walking along in the ashram. He claims to be celebate.

We are not angry that he is a sexual being like the rest of us; we are angry that we have been lied to. Many of us are angry that we have tried so hard to walk the talk of someone who doesn't walk his own talk. We are angry that he has hurt people. He has misrepresented himself and that is is wrong, wrong, wrong.

We would like to see him exposed, not because we hate him, but because he is causing harm. Should people have just sat there when Hitler was trying to take over the world and said: "It's not nice to criticize other people; nobody's perfect"? Where would we be now?

Just love yourself and the world around you, Phoenixboy; but know this: people who indulge in criminal behavior need to be stopped. At the very least other people need to be warned about them. That's all. We're not putting SB down for the fun of it or to make ourselves feel superior.

Good Night.

Message 690

Date: 11/1/00 12:44 p.m.

Hinda ...

I'm glad you brought this up. Lotsa people think things aren't bad as long as they're happening to someone else.

I am an ex-d. I'm also the mom of several children of both sexes. The youngest is a teenager and the rest are grown up. The thing that hit me right away when I first heard about this stuff was how angry I would be if it were one of my kids, esp in the vulnerable pre-teen or early teen years. That's what did it for this bird!

Message 708

Date: 11/2/00 10:45 a.m.

"Anointing" genitals is nothing. That's no more than something a dr. might do, if dr's knew such things to have therapeutic value. People are upset about the blatant sex acts, the therapeutic value of which benefits only SB.

Message 721

Date: 11/2/00 5:26 p.m.

Hi DK ... I wouldn't want the messenger to be killed; only for people to know that he's making a mockery of his message. What we learned from SB we could have learned from any one of a number of teachers, dead or alive. SB is very attractive, he has a kind of show business appeal, so people who might not have paid attention to less charismatic religious leaders perked up their ears and opened their eyes when they discovered him. Then personality worship; idolatry, set in. I was guilty of it myself. And SB encourages it. Let's just remove him from the pedestal and cherish what we learned.

You haven't been convinced of the real bonafide sex acts. I have, because we received the now famous letter from the 15 yr. old boy and his mom. These two people are known to me as we share several acquaintances with them. These acquaintances (at least one of whom is still with the org.) say that they are honest and reliable. Have you ever thought how humiliating and shameful it is for most teenage boys to have to reveal something like this? They wouldn't make it up for no reason. Also you must have read the accounts of Conny Larson and others. What would they have to gain?

 

Message 1385

Date: 12/6/00 11:22 p.m.

Dear Maverickdreamer ...

Thank you.

My husband and I were devotees for 9 years. We knew of sb for approximately 10 years before we became his followers. All along I had heard rumors, but just attributed them to misunderstandings, distortions, exaggerations, cultural differences (i.e., men hold hands in India and it doesn't mean anything; in the US it's considered peculiar), or people just wanting to be downright mean. So, I just swept it all under a rug.

Late last summer my husband, who was president of the local center, received a letter from the mother of a 15 yr. old kid who had been molested. Included was a photo copy of the entries from his diary where he described the events that had taken place in the private interview room in explicit detail. We were sickened. We knew we could never go back to feeling the way we had toward sb. At first it was such a lonely, scary thing. We were just glad that we had each other. We didn't know whom to talk to. We didn't want to upset other people, but didn't want to aid and abet by being silent, either. We found Keenan's site and I read everything. My healing came from finding out as much as was on there so that I wouldn't be tempted to think, "Maybe he's not that bad; maybe the boy invented it"; that sort of thing. I had to go 180 degrees from where I'd been before for the sake of my sanity.

After a while I found my voice and started talking to people I had known at the center. They survive. I just tell them what I believe and refer them to saibabaguru.com. If they want to look, they can. That's all I can do. Many of them just say that they have no interest in seeing anything like that. They're happier not knowing.

Different theories pop into my mind about what this is all about. It would take too much time and space to go into them all here, but no, I don't think sb is an ordinary man. I think he has tremendous occult powers, very likely fueled by the energy of his devotees (especially the sexual energy of the boys and young men). That's my #1 theory.

... Sparrow