Hislop makes the absurd
and unsupportable claim that Sai Baba is
"always surrounded by people, and
everything he does is under intense scrutiny".
But Hislop knew better than this. Firstly,
no one have ever been able to - nor can now - scrutinise what
Sai Baba does in his private interview room - a fact known to
every devotee. There is a curtain he draws, and also doors which
he closes firmly at times. Secondly, only those boys who share
his bedroom (proven by various printed accounts, plus Sai Baba's
own published statements in his monthly journal Sanathana
Sarathi - June 1998, pps 142-3 or ) can 'scrutinise' what he
does between the time he retires and gets up. Thirdly, no one
can follow Sai Baba wherever he goes, even his closest adult
servitors are told when they are wanted and when not. Therefore
John Hislop is seen to have been an active part of the cover-up
of Sai Baba's secret activities.
In accordance with this Sai Org.
cult of secrecy, the transactions of the Sathya Sai Central
Trust are closed to all observers (including donors) and are
conducted in secret and without minutes being presented, if
indeed they are even kept. The Trust has proved to be totally
unaccountable to the inquiries of journalists (during their
investigations after the 1993 murders in Sai Baba's bedroom) or
to the public at large, including devotees. The same applies to
the two private Sai hospitals, where even the patient registers
are kept secret.
The claims SB made to
Hislop that
"... false allegations are reduced to
ashes by My Divinity". He would
claim the allegations are false, every abuser would. But the
many allegations persist and the issue is far from closed. The
massive record of sex abuse allegations for decades and the
exposure of his many documented lies, deceits and frauds
(including many reported and even filmed 'faked materialisation'
of vibuthi, watches, 'diamonds' etc.) is still accumulating and
is copiously available to forewarn everyone who may be inducted
into this increasingly secretive and closed-off personality
cult. All who are not self-programmed 'true believers' can see
at once that SB's preaching and practice are all too often
completely at odds. On various occasions Sai Baba has proclaimed
that the whole world loves him, yet Hislop tells of recent
assassination and kidnap attempts against him. Such threats to
Sai Baba have continued since then, necessitating a massive
24-hour security presence of armed guards and undercover agents
in his ashrams. SB is hardly becoming
"a more and more worldwide personality",
despite the truly massive propaganda efforts for him on the
Internet and a barrage of clinically-whitewashed public
meetings. His former fame is being surpassed by his present
infamy.
One sentence in the above is
particularly revealing of the head-in-the-sand policy of Hislop
and most Sai devotees:- "Those Sai
devotees who have direct knowledge of Him or faith equivalent to
such knowledge are not a problem." and continues "for they quite
properly run away". Yes, to "run
away" is the only answer they have. But certain devotees who
have been very close to Sai Baba have not run (eg. David Bailey
- over 100 interviews, the Rahm family, Conny Larsson - constant
interviews over decades, and at least a dozen others close to SB
and central in his organisation for very long periods). As to
those who had established enough faith in him to have written
books and profuse articles in his monthly journal Sanathana
Sarathi (including myself), the list of such defectors who
have seen through the entire hall of mirrors is also ever
growing longer. Many are still contacting exposé activists, but
for a range of differing reasons most wish to remain anonymous
and their names are therefore never published. For example, we
have received a very credible report of more very cynical
killings by security forces at the ashram last October (two
foreign ladies) and one Indian student in SB's Poornachandra
rooms necessitating his new apartment. This is no mere rumour,
since our source on this information has been checked and is
most definitely genuine, but the facts are currently under
investigation (by non-Indian agencies) and cannot yet be
substantiated by us.
Hislop saw the Sai Org.'s problem as being
"those who are not well acquainted with
Swami and who are wavering their their minds about the series
(of) allegations against him."
Indeed, but - completely unlike the present extremely censorious
leadership - Hislop actually suggested:
"Those people should have someone
available with whom they can talk out their doubts."Though
the aim of such talks was clearly to remove those doubts (by
hook or by crook), but NOT by examination of the testimony or
gathering evidence, Hislop would himself now qualify for
'instant silent excommunication' from the Sai Org. by the
standards of the present International Chairman and his minions
like the European Central Coordinator, Thorbjørn Meyer,
who removed from office the President of the Moscow Centre
(Serguei Badaev) directly after he had
allowed a mild discussion on those very doubts.
One wholly correct assertion Hislop
made was: "Letters are likely to
"escape" and float in every direction without control."
Yes, indeed... they do and have done so!
Hislop wanted to kill all investigation by avoiding any
documentation of his clamp-down activities and in camera
"consumated conversations".
That is why Dr. Michael Goldstein never commits any such
considerations to paper, but he did not reckon with the BBC
using
a hidden camera to interview him to get his real opinion
for their documentary. The tragic fact
behind all this is the blind-faith Sai devotees' powerful
dependency on an external figure due to unsatisfied personal
needs and a sense of meaninglessness without it. As Goldstein
expressed his utter dependency of Sai Baba after making over 60
visits to India from the USA by 1993: "Swamy gives a purpose to
our life and meaning to our life. A life without purpose is
demeaning." (Guru Purnima talk, July 1993 at Prashanthi).
