Refuting Deceptive 'News' About Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba Released On Anti-Sai Websites
DECEMBER 2006
A Visual Guide:
- The Article Is True Or Mostly True And Seems Sincere.
- The Article Has Truths And Untruths And Seems Insincere.
- The Article Is False And Has No Proof To Support It.
- The Article Is Fluff, Filler Stuff, Not Relevant.
SATHYA SAI BABA NEWS (With Updates And Comments):
- Sai Baba, President Kalam, the Indian nuclear deterrent and defence budgets
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/shortnews/babaonnuclearweapons.html
Comment: This is an amusing and fanatic article by Robert Priddy in which he attempted to blame Sathya Sai Baba for India's budget on nuclear weapons. Gee, I didn't know Baba was directly involved in planning India's defence budget. Priddy said:
"So how does this fit with his maxims like "Help Ever, Hurt Never', 'Serve All, Love All'? What happened to Sathya Sai's much-touted 'human value' of non-violence (ahimsa), in this ever more militaristic State? "Why Fear When I Am Here" when India increases its defence budget by leaps and bounds (28% in 2003, 17% in 2004 and 10% in 2005) to ca. 830 billion rupees ($19 billion) in 2005."
Needless to say, Priddy then shot himself in the foot when he referenced several quotes in which Baba spoke against nulcear weapons! Does the absurdity ever end? As a matter of fact, Priddy quoted Baba as saying the following about nuclear weapons:
"Atomic weapons should be given up. Prime minister Narasimha Rao has been pleading for the abolition of atomic weapons. I agree with him. Bharat's most powerful weapon is Dharma-astra. Let us adhere to Dharma. That will protect us...What folly is this! When there are millions in the country who lack food, clothing and shelter, the provision of these necessities is the most urgent task and not the manufacturing of atom bombs. Of what use are bombs when you cannot feed the people? Crores are being wasted on armaments. I cannot agree to such wastage...The atom bomb will only recoil with all its deadly potentialities on the very nations that trust in it. You know th story of Bhasmasura, how he won the gods the deadly boon by which he could turn to ashes all the things and beings upon which he placed his hand! In an unguarded moment, he placed his hand on his own head and the boon proved to be a bomb that finished him...He gloats over his apparent success in harnessing nuclear energy; yet, he lives as a moral dwarf...The culture that has to be protected by the bomb cannot claim prema as one of the pillars on which it is erected. Bhaarath is a land where since millenia people have been praying for and toiling for the peace and happiness of entire humanity. They never prayed for success in the wicked race for wholesale slaughter."
Priddy cannot cite, however, one single quote where Sathya Sai Baba advocated or approved the proliferation of nuclear arms. Just because the President of India visits Baba, Priddy poorly attempted to infer guilt through association and poorly attempted to argue that Baba is directly involved in India's defence budget. Sounds like Mr Priddles is hopelessly desperate these days.
- CNN-IBN TV interviews: "Debate - Sai Baba a Godsend?"
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/shortnews/cnnsaibabagodsend.html
Comment: This article is about a recent discussion had on India 360 (an Indian news channel) about Sathya Sai Baba. Sushil Kumar Shinde (former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, former Governor of Andrah Pradesh and current Union Power Minister) and Sanal Edamaruku (President of the Indian Rationalist Association and an Atheist and Skeptic) were the pro/con voices in the discussion. This news program was very conservative in their coverage of Satya Sai Baba and rightly asked if he was India's most enduring saint.
Despite many detractors and criminal allegations (which have never been proven in any way or supported with any convincing circumstantial evidence), Sathya Sai Baba remains a very popular and well-respected saint whose "magnificent growing movement" cuts across age, economic, racial and religious barriers. India 360 also pointed out that many powerful politicians, high officials, ministers, top jurists, service chiefs, IS officers, VIPs and the President of India are all followers of Sathya Sai Baba. Can a "fraud" and a "charlatan" fool so many people?
Sanal Edamaruku completely dismissed (and failed to discuss) the numerous miracles and manifestations attributed to Sathya Sai Baba that are said to occur all around the world, many thousands of miles away from Baba's physical form. Edamaruku exclusively focused on the manifestations that come solely from Sathya Sai Baba's hands and said that these things can be duplicated by magicians.
Here are some quotes from the program:
Ambika Soni (Tourism Minister): "Personalities like him who creates so much hope in the ordinary person, human being, is something we should respect."
Manohar Joshi (MP Shiv Sena): "Sathya Sai Baba has been doing a lot of good social work and his money, whatever is given to him by the devotees, is always spent in the interest of people. Therefore he is a different saint than others."
India 360 ended their program with the following quote from Sathya Sai Baba: "It's only the fruit bearing tree that people throw stones at."
Needless to say, Anti-Sai Activists selectively quoted portions of the broadcast that contained negative information and casually dismissed everything else.
- The Sai Baba executions and cover-up revisited
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/shortnews/saibabamurderattempt.html
Comment: This is an old reference (dating back 10 years to 1996) about GS Radhakrishna's article in the "Sunday" magazine that discussed the Police Shootings That Occurred At Baba's Ashram On June 6th 1993.
Fast forward 13 years and Sathya Sai Baba has never been implicated with the events that transpired on that day. Anti-Sai Activists thrive on conspiracy theories and this article was just one of many that relied on unproven speculations to cast a negative light on Sathya Sai Baba.
Anti-Sai Activists are extremists who ceaselessly try to associate Sathya Sai Baba with "executions". In fact, the police claimed self-defence against four assailants who brutally and ruthlessly murdered two of Sathya Sai Baba's aides in cold-blood with knives. They also seriously injured two others. These assailants were not helpless or innocent people as Anti-Sai Activists ceaselessly try to portray them as. They were cold-blooded murderers and I would like to see any Anti-Sai Activist disarm four people with knives (who already killed and were not afraid to kill again) without a gun. Police claimed that these armed and deadly assailants attacked them and a couple of officers sustained knife injuries.
- Devotees' fear of public association with Sathya Sai Baba
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/shortnews/saibabamurderattempt.html
Comment: This is yet another article written by the hopelessly obsessed defamer of Sathya Sai Baba, Robert Priddy. Like an automaton brainlessly spewing the same outdated and monotoned rhetoric against Sai Baba, Priddy is now claiming that devotees "fear" being publicly associated with Sathya Sai Baba because they don't give their full names or contact details on bulletin boards or on the exbaba guestbook. As if ex-devotees do give their full names and contact details on discussion boards and guestbooks (they most certainly do not).
What Priddy failed to tell everyone is that those who do use their real names and emails are investigated by the ExBaba clan and their employers, friends and family are all contacted and e-bombed with complaints that the person in question is associating himself with a "serial pedophile", etc. I have been able to directly confirm 3 such instances of this vindictive behavior. Don't expect Priddy to give both sides of the story. He never does.
Reinier Van Der Sandt (Priddy's good friend) used numerous fake names (including my name) on the SSB2 Yahoo Group for years. He finally admitted that he used all these fake names after I indisputably exposed him with direct proof obtained from his IP. View Reinier's Admission For Yourself (which he subsequently deleted).
Sanjay Dadlani uses numerous online names and he does not divulge (and never has) his name and contact details on any of his 20 blogs/groups. Nor has Sanjay revealed his name or contact details on any of his posts attacking Sathya Sai Baba. As a matter of fact, Sanjay was recently exposed on Wikipedia for attempting to portray himself as a "neutral" editor (under a fake name) who was not involved in the Sai Debate. Unfortunately, Sanjay made 2 small mistakes that directly linked him to the Sai Controversy and was promptly exposed. Funny enough, Priddy created an anonymous page attacking me on one of his websites and to this day he still has not signed it with his name. Priddy does not give his current address, phone number and contact details on his own website. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Out of the current voices in the Anti-Sai Movement, only Reinier Van Der Sandt and Barry Pittard have divulged their full contact details. Robert Priddy, Andries Krugers Dagneaux, Brian Steel, Alan Kazlev, Alexandra Nagel, Conny Larsson, Dave Lyons, Serguei Badaev, Anthony Tony O'Clery, Barbara Dent, Said Afshin Khorramshahgol and Sanjay Dadlani have not divulged their full contact details. Therefore, Priddy wasted a lot of time and energy writing his rambling article. Priddy shot himself in the foot and succeeded only in pointing out his hypocrisy, absurdity and double-standards.
Paranoid Priddy ranted about anonymous devotees emailing critics with foul language and using cloaked IP's, etc. (which Anti-Sai's have done with me also: Ref). Priddy wholly dismissed (and continues to selective ignore) Sanjay Dadlani or Tony O'Clery's foul and vile language on the internet. Priddy rambled about numerous others things as well (all equally petty and inconsequential). Priddy attempted to justify his lies by claiming that only those who willfully deceive are "liars". What do you call a person who states untruths and when confronted with his untruths refuses to correct or retract those untruths? Any person who refuses to correct or retract his/her untruths is guilty of willfully and purposely perpetuating his/her untruths, hence tellings lies. Click Here to view some of Robert Priddy's utterly baseless and paranoid lies.
Funny enough, Priddy talked about me without mentioning my name and referred to me as a "slanderer". He said I do not link to Anti-Sai Sites when, in fact, I provide the full url (all you have to do is cut and paste). Although Priddy whined and sniveled about me not directly linking to Anti-Sai Sites, he failed to mention that Anti-Sai Activists (including himself) do not link to my site (nor do they even provide the full url)! Priddy even refused to mention my name! Talk about absurd, wishy-washy and hypocritical finger-pointing! Priddy also said that I have been involved in the controversy for "3 years". As of today, it has been 2 years and 2 months (typical Robert Priddy embellishments and shabby research). Priddy also repeated his blatant untruths about Alaya Rahm's Self Dismissed Court Case, which critics responded to with lies and deception. Click Here To View My Scathing Response About Alaya Rahm's Failed Lawsuit.
And to top it all off, Indian newspapers regularly carry articles about high ranking Indian Officials, famous people and notable individuals who go to Puttaparthi to offer their respects to Sathya Sai Baba. None of these high ranking Indian Officials, famous people or notable individuals are afraid of being publicly associated with Sathya Sai Baba. Even the President of India frequently visits Sathya Sai Baba and he is not embarrassed to publicly express his devotion to him. Leave it to the paranoid, obsessed and over-emotional ex-devotees whose fragile and carefully guarded cultish group attempts to smear Baba by repeating (ad nauseam) their frenzied conspiracy theories, rhetoric and propaganda against him.
Much to Anti-Sai Activist's chagrin, the cold, hard facts speak for themselves:
- Sathya Sai Baba has never been proven to be a "charlatan".
- Sathya Sai Baba has never been convicted of any crime.
- Sathya Sai Baba has never been charged with any crime.
- Sathya Sai Baba has never had even one single complaint lodged against him by any alleged victim, first-hand, in India. As a matter of fact, not even one alleged victim has even tried to file a basic police complaint or court case against Sathya Sai Baba in India (the only place where courts would have jurisdiction over Baba as an individual defendant).
Period.
MAJOR UPDATE: December 20th 2006 Update:
New Article: CONFIRMED: Unesco did remove their archived press release from their website against Sathya Sai Baba after an Indian Ambassador wrote them about the hearsay and unconfirmed allegations leveled against him. Needless to say, if UNESCO had truly confirmed any reports of alleged sexual improprieties against Sathya Sai Baba (as Anti-Sai Activists implied), they would not have removed the press release. They did. The following link contains this new information along with a scan to the actual letter:
- CONFIRMED: Unesco Removed Their Archived Press Release From Their Website
- The Truth About Sathya Sai Baba
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/articles/thetruthaboutsaibaba.html
Comment: On November 25th 2006, Vir Sanghvi (the editorial director for the Hindustan Times) wrote a tabloid-like article against Sathya Sai Baba entitled "The Truth About Sathya Sai Baba". Needless to say, I couldn't allow such a poorly researched article to go without comment. The following link contains my full response:
- The Truth About Vir Sanghvi And His Anti-Sai Bias
- Sai Baba, a deceptive guru
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/articles/saibabadeceptiveguru.html
Comment: This is an old Dutch article (written in 2000 by Koert Van de Velde) that was published by the "Trouw" newspaper and was critical of Sathya Sai Baba. Not sure why Anti-Sai Activists are making mention to this article again. They already have it published on their Anti-Sai Site under articles for the year 2000. I guess they are randomly re-including various links to boost their sagging propaganda-article numbers.
- Sai Baba Caught In British Controversy
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/articles/saibabacaught.html
Comment: Although this article was originally published anonymously by IANS (Indo-Asian News Service), the ExBaba site (attempting to promote Sanjay Kishore Dadlani) sourced the article to his Anti-Sai Blog. Needless to say, this article simply reiterates the information that was published almost 2 months ago in Paul Lewis' The Guardian Article Against Sathya Sai Baba. Nothing more, nothing less.
- "The Secret Swami" BBC World Documentary about Sathya Sai Baba
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/shortnews/secretswamidownload.html
Comment: Don't ask me why, but the ExBaba site is bringing up this issue again. It is an old issue going back to 2004. I guess spamming is keeping Anti-Sai Activist's hope alive these days. They also failed to mention the failed lawsuit that wholly compromises Alaya Rahm's testimony in the Secret Swami documentary:
- Secret Swami: Withheld Facts
-Alaya Rahm's Failed Lawsuit Against The Sathya Sai Baba Society