Allegations concerning SSB
and how his devotees tend to relate to them
by Serguei Badaev
September 2005
(1)
Since about 2000 a wide range of critical materials about Sathya Sai Baba (SSB) has been accumulated on the Internet (see for example, a review “In the Shadow of Sathya Sai Baba [1], and the personal web sites of Robert Priddy [2] and Brian Steel [3]). A significant portion of those materials are written as research papers, some of them meet academic standards. SSB’s critics have discussed a number of topics: false materialisations (which are supported by some video records), uninvestigated murders in SSB’s bedroom in 1993, SSB’s claims of being a full Divine incarnation (i.e. Purna Avatar), etc. The topic which induces the most acute discussions is SSB’s sexual relationships with his young male devotees.
(2)
The first important event in SSB exposing process was, probably, publication of Tal Brooke’s book “The Avatar of Night” in 1970’s. One may believe that Tal Brooke’s case is an isolated mishap, an exception to the rule. But the Internet postings, and a much larger number of private communications to former devotees in different parts of the world, show that the stories like Tal Brooke’s and even worse ones are, unfortunately, numerous. That refutes one of the arguments of SSB’s supporters who often claim that all the criticism comes from a ‘handful of disgruntled people’ who lacked SSB’s attention. But among SSB critics there are people who were very close to him, had a lot of interviews and gifts, and quite often held high positions in the Sathya Sai Organisation (SSO). Nor does it do any credit to those Sai devotees who cast a slur on Brooke, with a false logic that goes: he is an evangelical Christian therefore his testimony counts for nothing. Whereas, the truth is that the allegations come from individuals from a variety of cultural backgrounds, including Hindu and Muslim.
(3)
An essential fact is that the criticism comes mostly from ex-followers of SSB. Though it is clear that a Christian attitude to SSB cannot be but critical of him, there is not much criticism on Christian web sites and SSB is just one among other numerous Indian gurus mentioned there. The very fact that SSB openly claims himself as an incarnation of Christian God-the-Father and claims that he sent Jesus to our world, makes him a heretical character in the eyes of many Christians. Criticism from charismatic movements is also scarce. All those facts refute another argument of SSB’s supporters - that allegations may be a result of jealousy and the struggle for influence from the religious groups and movements numerous in southern India (like Kalki Avatar, Satchitananda Ganapathi Swami, Amritanandamayi, etc.).
(4) This article focuses on differences in SSB’s followers’ attitude towards the allegations concerning sexual molestations. The key question can be formulated as follows: has SSB had any sexual relationships with his young male devotees and if so, what is their meaning?
(5)
Apart from those who have never heard of the allegations, there are basically two types of SSB’s followers with regard to that negative information. On the one hand there are those who believe that those abuses have never existed. They try to believe that the negative information about SSB is nothing but rumours and hearsay which are allowed to circulate by SSB only in order to test all devotees for their faith in Bhagavan Baba and, after all, to separate husk from grain. On the other hand there are those who assume that those relationships do exist but they try to rationalise them in some specific spiritual way. And these two types will never come to terms. Neither the SSO nor SSB have made any efforts to clarify the situation for the followers so far.
(6)
Those who do not believe the allegations to be true can find indirect confirmation to their position in SSB’s discourses (see especially Christmas discourse 2000) where he spoke strongly against lies and calumny against him, or in an official letter of Mr Vajpayee (then Prime Minister of India) where he called all allegations against SSB “wild, reckless and concocted”. They can find a great support for themselves in a speculation that in SSB presence a person’s consciousness alters so dramatically that one cannot say for sure whether something really happened or was a sort of a hallucination or day-dreaming. An example of this sort of explanation or rationalisation we can see in a Danish documentary “Seduced” in an interview with a Danish follower of SSB, Prof. Peter Pruzan.
(7)
However a significant number of SSB’s followers have either first-hand experiences or testimonies from the people they cannot but believe. They cannot deny existence of those relationships without neglecting their common sense. They should not abandon their duties as citizens who need to respect principles of accountability and their duties under the law. So the problem of understanding and interpretation arises for them. If those actions of SSB are the result of sexual desires, that is of human nature, then SSB is not God at all and not an enlightened person free from worldly desires, quite irrespective of the question of whether or not miracles and good works associated with him are real or not. Then his conduct can be qualified as homosexual promiscuity and indiscriminate homosexual activity and sexual abuse of minors. It is even far from what homosexual love is reported to be. In that case everything collapses: faith, hope, aspirations. In that case one faces a terrible and cynical fraud.
(8)
Here is an example of such a crisis from
public testimonies of a Russian SSB devotee (“R”). He stated that SSB as the
Avatar and the Divine Master was
very dear to him. SSB transformed all his life. All the positive changes that
had taken place in him for the several previous years he related to him
personally, to his support and his spiritual guidance. When he came to know
about all that negative information, he was absolutely shocked. A big wave of
doubts arose in him. All his life was at risk of destruction. Then he decided to
analyze the situation. In his mind he put on one plate of a scale all positive
things that SSB had given to him. On the other plate he put all the negative
information about SSB with all resulting consequences. After that, he came to a
solution – he decided to be faithful to SSB and remove all the negative
information from his mind. He was not going to claim that all that information
was false. But he was not going to investigate it either, he was going just to
ignore it and rely upon his own personal experience with SSB.
His inner struggle as he described it shows how protective mechanisms of mind
can function in such people. We should not blame this behaviour on them because
this is a matter of psychological death or life. One Russian SSB devotee (“TP”)
expressed it even in a more dramatic way. She said: “When I start thinking about
all that negative information, I start dying”. Another good example is an
emotional reaction of one of the administrators of the Russian SSB forum [4],
when he tried to stop the discussion of the allegation by the forum members.
When I suggested paying attention to some facts he said: “I do not need your
facts”. Probably he meant that he judged SSB according to his own experience and
does not need to know what happened to other people. But this position is not
honest because many SSB followers reject the information which does not
correspond to their personal experience concerning SSB but at the same time
indiscriminately accept all unreliable witnesses and hearsays which support
their myth of SSB.
(9)
Such fragmentation of reality, ignoring some of its aspects, is denial or can even be pathological repression. This is well known in psychology and leads to a cognitive dissonance and can produce serious psychological problems. Probably that is why some followers like Ram Das Awle [5] try to interpret that negative information through a distorted perception of what can be some secret tantric rituals, spiritual initiations or specific procedures of healing. As the last argument there is an idea that the actions of enlightened masters like SSB are beyond understanding of ordinary people with narrow and limited minds.
(10)
For some SSB’s followers psychological transfer takes place. They imprint SSB as a figure of a parent. Not surprisingly, they call SSB “mother-Sai”, some even call him “Daddy”. The name “Sai Baba” is interpreted by Sai Baba himself as “Divine mother-father”. Here is the position of one Russian follower (“SB”) who, facing the allegations against SSB, admitted they are quite possibly true. But this did not result in turning away from SSB or analysis of those allegations. He commented his position as follows: “I was perishing and he saved me. He is like a father for me. One should not renounce his parents whatever they are”.
(11)
Another specific example is Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno (see his web site [6]). He focuses on criticizing SSB critics and their writings. Trying to refute allegations against SSB by refuting his critics, he pretends to be impartial, fair and scrupulous. But, unfortunately, his activities bear very unscrupulous fruits. He is eager to notice any tiny “splinter” in the eyes of SSB critics but systematically ignores the “wooden beam” in the eyes of SSB and his defenders. He makes many ad hominem arguments, including serious personal slurs and defamations.
(12)
An outstanding example of an extreme position can be seen in an attitude of one Russian female devotee (“SL”) who lives permanently in Italy. During my talk with her she confessed that she knows very well all about SSB’s sexual conduct and sometimes she talks to young boys before interviews to prepare them for the possible contacts of that sort. She added that her love to SSB is so deep that she would become a young male with great joy if she could have sexual relationships with SSB.
(13)
For the last 3-4 years the topic of SSB has quite often appeared on different Russian-speaking fora. On the forum of SSB’s followers “Sathya Sai Ru” the slightest criticism of SSB is immediately removed by an alert group of administrators. This forum cannot even discuss the question of the SSO because it may cast a shadow on SSB. On many other forums which are not directly connected with SSB, the topic of SSB usually appears as a dilemma: who is SSB? Spiritual Master, Avatar, divine personality or impostor, paedophile and deceiver? All efforts of SSB followers to ignore this dilemma cannot stop the spreading of that double image of SSB. One type of reaction to the sex allegations is to attach the allegers as themselves being homosexual child molesters and paedohiles. This has been done anonymously on the website where Bon Giovanni is the webmaster, also by Gerald Moreno and Lisa de Witt against Reinier van der Sandt (who is the webmaster for ExBaba.com) and other expose activists. Further, on Danish film and TV, accusations have been levelled against Conny Larsson as a paedophile by leaders in the Danish Sathya Sai Organisation under the control of Thorbjorn Meyer. This is a known technique of leading attention away from the original accusations.
(14)
Although many followers believe that SSB’s glory will spread around the globe, it is clear that a black shadow will follow him everywhere. It is clear that SSB has taken his place in the history of New Religious Movements in line with such notorious characters as Osho (aka Rajneesh), Muktananda, Chinmoy, Adi Da, Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters), etc. And among his followers who value honesty you can always find two clear types: those who are too simple-hearted and simple-minded to be concerned about those allegations (they just do not pay any attention to them) and those who are in their search for truth, even though they are eager to be open and frank to people and to the world, carry a heavy burden of inner struggle, taboo and reservation in their souls.
References:
(1) Sathya Sai Baba and his cult - stories, myths and deceits
(2) Navigational aid through expose web pages - In the Shadow of SSB
(3) http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/
(4) http://forum.sathyasai.ru/index.php?action=vtopic&forum=6
(5) Ram Das Awle defense of sexual abuses