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| Robert Priddy References: |
[1]: Reference one: http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/credo.htm
(Robert Priddy) I was once entirely positive to all and everything having to do with Baba, his ashrams, his representatives, his teachings and - above all - what he says in person. That has changed, though I still do my best to preserve the best of it, it must be without compromising the truth. Unfortunately, every time I have been to Baba's ashrams, (nine long visits since 1984) I have - despite myself and my best hopes - come across more and more suspicious and wrong things around SB, and also some very close in to him too, which have been covered up - including major crimes. These did not then weaken my faith, however, for I used all my powers of rationalisation to explain them to myself and others. But I could not help suspect there were many things we were kept in the dark about too. I watched as many people leapt to conclusions either for or against the claims of Baba, but - though I long bought a large part of the whole expensive package - I still could not but maintain a questioning attitude as events unfolded. I also did my best to like and help all those who he had put in place in the Sai Organisation, which proved not only to be too hard a course to complete for anyone still in their right mind, not only for me, but for almost all the people I liked and respected who went through similar trials with uncivil and unloving people in high places and had a gradual awakening! From a convinced follower and believer in Sai Baba, I became more skeptical of many of his extravagant claims. Then in 1996, my extremely good friend, V.K. Narasimhan told me in secret the key facts behind the murders at the ashram in 1993. This shocked me into investigating further for several years, which led to my much greater disillusionment. Subsequently came the increasing number of independent allegations world-wide of sexual abuse of young men and boys by Sai Baba, who so far remains wholly unaccountable through political and judicial protection in India at the highest levels.
As an ex-participant in the Sai movement, I now find myself to have become an independent observer and now relatively neutral witness of the Sai Baba phenomenon and movement. The process by which I became a follower is fully described in my previous book ‘Source of the Dream’, while the contrary process whereby I became disillusioned about much that I have been led to believe I recount here. In both cases, however, I ascribe the cause of these two processes as much to objective events ‘external’ to myself and beyond my control as I do to the actions of my own understanding and voluntary decisions. There is truth, by which we judge the validity of many worldly facts. The truth is no and cannot be entirely foreign to the facts, I think. Getting at the facts is an unavoidable part of the spiritual search, as I see it... at least, that is part of my way since going on 'blind belief' has never worked for me. Any transcendental or eternal truth, if it bears no meaningful relation to anything here and now, is not worth any further consideration.
Having been brought within the figurative circle of those who have been shown beyond doubt of his extraordinary powers and well-intentioned spiritual teaching, and having been drawn - largely despite myself - into the sphere of Sai Baba and been engaged there for so long, I feel I have to face the challenges to the understanding which now arise in it. I do not wish to do any injustice to anyone, for I seek both facts and truth with what faculties I may possess and must use. Without becoming laughably inconsistent, we cannot to my mind say that God is in everyone and everything, yet hold that only Sai Baba is able to will anything that happens, as many devotees actually say. To my mind, that speaks only of invalid logic, irrational belief and a weak will. What I write, for example, cannot have been predetermined independently of my conscience and will. We all choose how much or little we are willing to learn, grow, rethink, transform ourselves and express our inherent values. Regarding divinity as in everyone (SB holds that everything is divine), we all must be partakers in the scenario and agents of its development... within the limits set by those cosmic laws that govern us all. If everything is to be accepted as a gift from God, whatever it is, it will include this Website. To any who doubt me, I swear by all that is good that what I publish here IS true to the very best of my knowledge, the facts having been investigated as far as I could, and carefully cross-checked. |
[2]: Reference Two: http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma/VKN1.htm
(Robert Priddy) I am impelled by my duty that certain facts should be recorded accurately and truthfully - I am possibly indebted to Sathya SSB for some form of physical healing, and I admit to many paranormal experiences connected with him, not that these have proved fruitful for my life. Unlike the majority of Sai followers, however, any gratitude will not extend to gagging myself about important negative facts at SSB's ashrams, and I have come to know of plenty such, not least from V.K. Narasimhan, including the gravest kinds of criminal behaviour.
The truth cannot harm anyone, as SSB himself is constantly telling us. If one should keep silent when the truth may be hurtful to someone, few if any could ever find it right to say anything in public, seeing that there is hardly a single fact about anything that is not hurtful to someone. Some of what I experienced of SSB's extraordinary and positive powers through many years is undeniable, even after the most rigorous sceptical investigations, and I do not regard him as any ordinary person. After much soul-searching and disturbing discoveries, however, I have simply had to realise that his actions in the worldly and human sphere are not infallible and are not always setting a perfect example for others.
That I wrote a book in which I told my many experiences of him till 1994, gave exaggerated positive accounts of both SSB, his institutions and teachings, and that I praised SSB as the universal world teacher and avatar of God in this age etc., must be put down to the fact that I had at that time not learned what V.K. Narasimhan later told me and I had only just begun to allow myself to realise the extent to which I had been misinformed about many matters. The book, republished in India and still evidently earning money for others, was Source of the Dream (Samuel Weiser Inc.,1998). It was written in open-hearted faith on the premise that SSB was the omniscient, omni-benevolent Godhead. I therefore tended to put the best possible interpretations on all that occurred - however negative - and on all that SSB said to me and others. Any sequel, however, would have to be entitled End of the Dream.
Not least due to my own many written contributions praising SSB, I now consider it an important public duty to correct the overblown, propagandistic image of SSB sustained by his followers, usually based on his own exaggerations and frequent false claims. If some matters not intended for the public leak out here, devotees must surely regard this as being 'all a part of the avatar's plan', according to the dominant ideology in SSB circles. After all, SSB holds that everything that happens is to be taken as a gift from God, so make of this exactly what you will. It is not so well-known to all that the ashram censors and covers up issues in ways comparable to what has been seen in monolithic churches, cults and other totalitarian institutions. |
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I am in no way associated with the Sai Organization, nor do I belong to any Sai Group/Center. I alone decided to make these pages with no external prompting or guidance. All the material on these pages are the sole and original opinions of me, Gèrald Morèno. Copyright 2004: This page may be duplicated and distributed freely, as long as it is done so in its entirety or you may quote from it as long as you provide a link back to this page and you inform me of the site on which it is being placed. Other uses are prohibited. Please feel free to Contact Me to make suggestions or comments. |
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