4
4
0
0
1
1
.
.
I
I
N
N
T
T
R
R
O
O
D
D
U
U
C
C
T
T
I
I
O
O
N
N
T
T
O
O
A
A
N
N
I
I
N
N
C
C
A
A
R
R
N
N
A
A
T
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I
I
O
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N
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dition to sexual abuse, Sathya Sai Baba is associated with false propaganda and
misuse of finances in some of his community service and educational projects
11
,
and medical malpractice and organ-theft in his charitable hospitals
12
. There are
even some claims that he was party to an alleged execution by police of a group of
four would-be-assassins (former Sai-students) who fought their way into his bed-
room in 1993—killing two of his personal attendants in the process
13
.
There is no space for me to go into much detail—the curious will find no dearth
of such on the internet
14
—but I will digress a little to discuss some of the issues
here. Hugh Urban (2003b:248), one of the few academics writing on Sathya Sai
Baba today, cites a case that presents a potential parallel to my situation:
a number of respected South Asianists and historians of religions have become de-
voted members of the Siddha Yoga movement. In 1997, several of them collabo-
rated to publish a major volume on Siddha theology and practice…. Yet any reader
of this text is immediately struck by its rather incredible omissions and silences… [in
respect to] the intense controversy and scandal surrounding Siddha Yoga.
As a scholar and a devotee, I ought at least to say something of the controversies
surrounding Sathya Sai Baba. Some of them, in any case, intersect with my cho-
sen focus upon his religious persona
15
. And, for what it is worth, I can give my in-
formed opinion that, whilst they sometimes seem to raise genuine concerns, they
are certainly not as straightforward as most of his detractors make out.
2006]). Nevertheless, when he began his enquiries into the allegations of sexual-abuse against
Sathya Sai Baba, he did so believing them to be true, but overstated by Sathya Sai Baba’s critics. He
now believes them to be false, and, if the recent appearance of his other major websites
http://www.vishwarupa.com and http://www.sai-fi.net are anything to go by, he is well on his way
to becoming a Sai-devotee once more.
11
See, e.g., http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/shortnews/conclusions.html [3-8-2006]
12
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/articles/p_holbach/eng/kidn_e.htm [30-7-2006]
13
See, e.g., http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/MurderReview.htm [3-8-2006]
14
Gerald Moreno gives a good list of pro-Sai websites at: http://www.sai-fi.net/baba/contro
versy_allegations/ [3-8-2006], and Exbaba.com gives a comprehensive list of anti-Sai websites at:
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/links.html [3-8-2006]. NB Of the few published books
that might be thought relevant here, I would note that Hugh Urban (2003a:74) sees an excessively
‘caustic critique’ in some of the would-be-scholarly sceptical criticisms of Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘mira-
cles’, and I would note something similar in the work of “independent researcher” Kevin Shepherd
(2005:269ff.), who decries Sathya Sai Baba as, for example, a ‘heartless paedophile’, ‘the embodi-
ment of constant lies’, and dismisses some typical Hindu exoteric ritual events in his cult as ‘ignoble’
and ‘repulsive’. Shepherd (2005:viii, 4) even goes to the extent of excoriating SUNY Press for pub-
lishing a book on Shirdi Sai Baba that portrays Sathya Sai Baba’s comments on this figure as ‘infor-
mative’, and whose author sought Sathya Sai Baba’s blessings.
15
A number of sexual abuse accusations against Sathya Sai Baba are entwined with claims that “he”
is anatomically androgynous, and this, as internet activist and ex-Sathya Sai Baba devotee Alexandra
Nagel notes, is sometimes explicitly connected by him with traditional Hindu mythological ideas,
some of which have strong erotic connotations. I will say more on this later (see pp.278ff.).
1
1
.
.
2
2
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n
d
d
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4
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1
The last of the above-listed allegations is a case in point. It is perhaps the most
serious of the charges against Sathya Sai Baba—but, when taken in context, proves
to be less extraordinary than might otherwise seem to be the case. ‘Police killings’
were evidently not uncommon in Andhra Pradesh at the time of the incident in
question. Patricia Gossman (1992:1-3) of ‘Human Rights Watch’ writes that ‘secu-
rity forces have murdered hundreds of peasants and tribal villagers’:
the victims have first been detained in police custody and then subsequently re-
ported by the authorities as having been killed in an encounter with the security
forces. In almost all such reported “encounters”, the detainees have actually been
murdered by the police. Security legislation has increased the likelihood of such
abuses by authorizing the security forces to shoot to kill and by protecting them
from prosecution for human rights violations.
This would fit some descriptions of the events at Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram, which
describe how the suspects were first detained (by Sathya Sai Baba’s followers),
then executed under cover of the claim that police were acting in self-defence
16
.
Also problematic are claims that many “miracles” attributed to Sathya Sai Baba
(running the gamut from “resurrection of the dead” to “materialization” of Swiss
watches) are simple fakes. Dale Beyerstein (1994)—a prominent academic skeptic
with whom anti-Sai internet activists have aligned themselves—collects some typi-
cal ‘claims made about Sai Baba’s psychic powers’ (by Sathya Sai Baba and others),
and gives a good common-sense summary and analysis of these, concluding:
“extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof”. The proponents of Sai Baba sim-
ply have not met this standard. …I have examined the best evidence put forward,
and found it unconvincing. …my magician colleagues have pointed out visible evi-
dence of sleight of hand passed off as genuine paranormal power.
This is indeed, if argument-by-adage is in order, “evidence of absence”, rather than
mere “absence of evidence”, but—as Beyerstein himself acknowledges—it does not
amount to proof.
Unfortunately, the type of evidence that would constitute proof—clinical data
on Sathya Sai Baba’s purported powers—is unlikely to be forthcoming. Beginning
in 1972, two prominent parapsychologists, Erlendur Haraldsson and Karlis Osis
undertook almost a dozen in-depth investigations of Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘miracles’
over the course of a decade
17
. Haraldsson (1997:222,39) writes: ‘in spite of a lon-
16
Cf. http://home.hetnet.nl/%7Eexbaba/engels/articles/whomurdered.html#7.%20Who%20Murd
ered%20the%20Four%20alleged%20Assailants? [3-8-2006]
17
Haraldsson (1997), p.65. NB For more references, see pp.416ff. below. Beyerstein’s account,
cited above, is similarly of note in this regard, and Jeffrey Goldman (1996) also apparently discusses