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India's Fake "Godmen": Sai Baba, The Biggest Fraud of Them All

by RAHUL SINGH

 

 

The recently departed Sathya Sai Baba was probably the most successful "godman" of them all - at least fiscally, having built a colossal empire estimated at a mind-boggling Rs 40,000 crore (US $10 billion), most of it foolishly forked out by credulous Indian devotees.

The first person to expose Sai Baba was the late Sri Lankan rationalist Abraham Kovoor. He decided to look into the Baba's famous claim that when the Japanese head of the Seiko watch company visited him, he had "materialised" a Seiko watch, the only specimen of which lay in a Tokyo vault.

Kovoor wrote to the company, asking for details. The company wrote back that nobody from the company had visited Sai Baba and that no such specimen of a watch existed in a Tokyo vault. The story had been cooked up by one of Sai Baba's advisers!

When Kovoor published his findings, there was a deafening silence from the Sai Baba camp. Kovoor's seminal book, Begone Godmen, is essential reading for those who still believe in these fakes and liars.

In the 1970s, Kovoor undertook "miracle exposure" tours of the country, during which he demonstrated, with the help of magicians, exactly how our "godmen" performed their "miracles". I was at one such demonstration on the Bombay University campus, where the magician accompanying him showed, to everybody's glee and amazement, how light bulbs could be chewed and swallowed, objects could materialise "from thin air", and a person could walk barefoot unharmed on burning embers - all of which are standard fare for magicians and have rational explanations.

There was also a simple trick to the framed pictures of Sai Baba shedding vibhuti (holy ash). The pictures' framers would use aluminum frames and dab a mercuric chloride solution on them. Upon coming into contact with moisture, a chemical reaction would occur and grey ash fell. Vibhuti!

Kovoor also conclusively exposed astrologers. When the so-called science of astrology was born hundreds of years ago, he reasoned, the concept of light taking time to travel was unknown. In other words, the planets, thousands of miles away and moving at great speed, were not where the eye sees them. Since astrologers insist on knowing the precise time of birth and the position of planets, their predictions, therefore, had to be wholly wrong and their "science" completely bogus.

After Kovoor died in 1978, Basava Premanand (who died in 2009) took up the fight. He, too, went after the redoubtable Sai Baba. Since the baba claimed to materialise objects of gold, Premanand filed a writ petition against him in the Andhra Pradesh High Court under Section 11 of the Gold Control Act, which mandates permission from the gold control administrator for manufacturing gold! Of course, nothing came of the petition, given Sai Baba's enormous political clout, but the point was made.

The trouble is, despite the damning exposes of Kovoor and Premanand, too many Indians will keep believing that Ganesh idols can drink milk and that a natural ice formation is the lingam of Lord Shiva and to be worshipped as such. And ministers will continue to consult astrologers before taking momentous decisions, superstitious women will add a letter to their names (Shobhaa, Jayalalithaa), and swamis will merrily consort with women who have infertile or impotent husbands - while Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi genuflect before the body of Sai Saba (Would Jawaharlal Nehru have done that? Never!), thereby lending respectability to irrationality and quackery.

 

[Courtesy: Outlook]

May 5, 2011

Conversation about this article

1: H.Singh (United States), May 05, 2011, 3:40 PM.

Good article.

2: Raj (Canada), May 06, 2011, 12:00 AM.

Well, there are many videos on Youtube showing how Sai Baba tricked ordinary folks. When such "godmen" have followings, it attracts politicians to them so they can take advantage and get elected. This "evil axis" is evident in Sikhs too. Going back to Sai Baba, I know a person who spent many years getting education at one of Sai Baba's colleges, mentioned that he doesn't approve his (the baba's) "usage" of young boys.

3: Priya (United Kingdom), May 06, 2011, 8:01 AM.

Good article.

4: Didar Singh Mankoo (Brisbane, Australia), May 09, 2011, 10:07 AM.

When I was living in the U.K., I remember the BBC did a programme about this Fake. The Cameras clearly showed him cheating, yet his followers seemed to turn a blind eye to his antics. I never liked the guy. He was an out and out FRAUD. Hopefully he will get his just desserts where he has gone.

5: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), May 13, 2011, 5:47 PM.

Religion and superstition were rejected by Guru Nanak who reminds us that it is the quickest way to fool people and make money. Tribalism and following false prophets is easy. Truthful Living is difficult ... but the only route to God.

6: Vaibhav (Pune, India), August 31, 2013, 5:22 AM.

Just to prove your point, here is a link of a youtube video that talks about these self proclaimed God Men http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqf2yshxODA

7: Tapas Karmakar (India), September 16, 2013, 2:33 AM.

I think that Satya Sai Baba is one of the prime examples of the fake 'godmen' that plague India. He has cheated -- and stuffed his pockets -- not only the Indian public but also people around the world.

8: Evan Kumar (Boston, Massachusetts, USA), November 19, 2014, 10:38 PM.

I agree there are lots of "fake" godmen in and from India, all hiding behind religious skirts. Unfortunately many people, in search of a "True" Guru end up choosing these fake "babas".

9: Shadaan (Canada), September 09, 2015, 3:07 PM.

If you morally objected to murder, rape, slavery, misogyny, genocide, incest, human and animal sacrifice, then how could you possibly claim that the Geeta, the Bible, the Quran or the Torah is your moral compass? No wonder we have so many crooks and cheats.

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