Black magic is a primitive
superstition which is firmly supported by the self-proclaimed avatar,
Sathya Sai Baba. Seeing he and his ‘teachings’ are worshipped by
Supreme Court judges, Prime Ministers and Presidents of India, is it
any wonder that this country cannot
remove the dreadful ignorance of so many of its citizens, as is documented
here? See for example Sai Baba’s statements in his published discourses
from his series ‘Sathya Sai Speaks’ as follows:
Of course,
there is magic in the world both white and black; but, the manifestation
of Divine Power must not be interpreted as magic. Can the crow’s egg
and the cuckoo’s egg be identified as belonging to one class? Sathya
Sai Baba - Vol 10. p. 261 (click to view)
All kinds
of silly stories were circulated when I was ill! Some people feared
that when I went to the South recently, some black magic was inflicted
upon Me and that the stroke was the consequence. Let Me tell you that
nothing evil can affect Me. Nothing. Sathya Sai Baba - Vol 3. p. 93
(click to view)
In the
above we see that Sathya Sai Baba sustains dangerous false beliefs which
in India can and do cause the worst kind of social ills, including many
horrific murders of suspected witches. The influence of Sathya Sai Baba
in India is also very considerable among the poor as well as ruling
classes. Many of his utterances provide persistent and strong support
for base superstitions - like the evil eye, black magic and many other
proven false beliefs. One superstitious practice of his is the strict
observation of (supposedly!) auspicious and inauspicious times of the
day for traveling or starting new projects! His reinforcements to superstitious
belief speak for themselves - at least to those who are not given to
believing anything that suits their fancy or whatever they are told
by this self-instated ‘omniscient’ Incarnation of Godhood. I have
presented independent documentation by and the Mumbai High Court
of some of the current consequences of these primitive forms of ignorance
in Indian Skeptic earlier.
Sathya
Sai Baba is one of those many ignorami who sustain and spread false
beliefs about the powers of black magicians and witches (i.e. female
black magicians). He is on record in various books by devotees of having
told followers that they have been attacked by black magicians, and
that he has saved them from black magic! See some examples of many,
as follows:
The writer
of the single most popular book about Sathya Sai Baba, ‘Man of Miracles’,
Howard Murphet writes a long, involved account of how the Norwegian
Alf Tidemann-Johannessen in 1962 fell foul of black magic and was ‘saved’
from it by Sathya Sai Baba. Alf Tidemann-Johannessen was a magnate with
a shipping firm in Bombay, and unscrupulous competitors “engaged a
black magician to work against him” (p.165). “But Alf’s lawyer
in Bombay, who was working on the company’s problems, soon caught
a whiff of the black magic. He had known similar cases before” A Parsi
priest was consulted and Alf reportedly stated to
Murphet: “By many strange methods he began piloting me and my
business through the troubled waters stirred up by the black magician.”
The magician was identified as an “evil-eyed
old Indian who, by clever ruses, had gained admittance to his private
office”and Alf confronted him. The black magician then decided to
work for Alf, “... if the latter paid him reasonably well. He would
see to it that all Alf’s enemies were completely annihilated. ‘Black
magicians are very powerful,’ he announced, and added meaningly, ‘they
can even kill a child in its mother’s womb.’ Alf had just received
a cable that very morning from Norway informing him that his wife had
lost her child in its seventh month. This must be more than coincidence,he
thought” (p. 165)Years later, in 1966 he came into contact with Sai
Baba of Shirdi and soon after, Sathya Sai Baba. He wanted to sell his
business in Bombay. Murphet reports that
Sai Baba said: “I will help you find a reliable buyer and
obtain a good price.” and also “Do you remember the black magician?
I helped you then.” (p. 169) This again confirms that Sathya Sai Baba
actually believes in blackmagic!
It would
not have seemed such a tremendous blessing and help if the 7-month old
foetus was killed, in the womb as Alf thought, by black magic! However,
some years later, Alf Tidemann-Johanessen caused a stir for the members
of the Norwegian Sai centre, informing a member that he had been swindled
by Sathya Sai Baba who he knew to be a fraud and a bad person! He had
provided a helicopter to Sai Baba for him to give darshan from the air
one of his birthday celebrations, which can be seen on one of the Richard
Bock films. He was even writing a book against Sai Baba, which fact
disturbed Sai followers in Norway. He left Sai Baba completely some
time before 1984. We in the Oslo group - then all unable to accept the
slightest criticism of Sai Baba - decided that he must himself be a
‘bad man’ and he was not contacted again! So much for misplaced
faith in a Swami!
Howard
Murphet has written many fanciful things which have contributed vastly
to the popularity of Sathya Sai Baba, but few of them surpass his confused
and speculative account of how Sathya Sai Baba’s legs were (apparently!)
paralysed by a black magician. This is in his book “Sai Baba Avatar
- a new journey into power and glory” According to Murphet, a yogi
(whose name and location are not revealed) with strong hypnotic powers
which, among other things, he used to seduce women, told a young American
that he “could dominate a pupils’ mind and will absolutely - given
time. A pupil so completely dominated could be sent out to murder anyone
the tantrist desired out of the way. The American added it was known
to several in the ashram that one pupil was being trained, conditioned
and overshadowed by the tantrist for the purpose of killing Sai Baba.
As the dark hates the light that overpowers it, the black magician hated
Baba who frustrated many of his designs.” (from Chapter 9 - ‘The
Lord’s Legs’). Murphet connects this yogi’s murder plans - without
evidence or cogent reasoning of any kind - to the paralysis of Sathya
Sai Baba’s legs! According to Murphet, Sai Baba eventually decided
to cure himself of this paralysis as he allegedly once did when he cured
a week-long paralysis of the left side of his body.” All this is accepted
by Murphet as Gospel, as usual in his case, without a hint of critical
thinking or questioning of any of it.
One particular
demon was most adamant. No blows or threats would make it budge. Watching
Swami from a distance, with hearts filled with pity, we would curse
the demon. Obviously, it was a stubborn demon. It would go on shouting
and heaping abuses. Swami looked fatigued after all that beating. Lifting
her up by the hair, Swami swung her round and flung her to a distance
as if she were a ball. Her body hit the wall and came back and fell
at his feet. Speechless with terror, we clung to the wall. She had a
very sturdy build. How was He able to lift that weight? Didn’t He
(as Krishna) in the bygone days, lift up the Govardhan mountain on His
little finger? We were all intensely watching Swami. His body was drenched
in Sweat. He was sweating profusely. His eyes were bloodshot and looked
terrible. Holding her by the hair again, He shouted “Will you leave
at least now? Have you learned your lesson?” “Alas! Enough! Don’t
beat me anymore. I will go away. I won’t come back again.” Saying
these words, quivering and shaking, the demon ran away. From the centre
of the woman’s head, Swami forcibly plucked out a few hairs. There
was a sharp thorn-like formation under those hairs. Swami beckoned to
the husband of the woman and showed it to him and said something to
him in a low tone. He then gave the order for her to be escorted
inside. Swami was panting for breath. His face still looked fierce.
When we were peeping at Him from a corner, He smiled at us. That was
enough. Immediately, we swarmed around Him. Meanwhile, the woman’s
husband came out, and Swami told him, “It is not only a case of being
possessed by a demon. Someone cast an evil spell on her. “Black magic
was used and a magician was hired to do all sorts of pujas to make her
lose her wits. There is no need for fear now”. The husband fell weeping
at Swami’s feet. Later, Swami created a talisman and, inserting into
that the hairs He plucked. He closed it, and tied it around the woman’s
neck. To our question, “Do demons really exist, Swami?” He gave
the reply, “Yes! Those who committed suicide, those killed in accidents,
those who met with an untimely death, all these will be roaming around
like ghosts. A demon cannot go near someone who is strong. It goes near
the weak and makes fools of them like this. Sometimes, a man remarries
when the first wife dies. The first wife, who died with desires unfulfilled,
‘possesses’ the mind of the second wife and tortures her like this.
Sometimes, where a lot of property is involved would-be heirs, to get
that property, hire magicians to make the owner of the property go mad.
There are many reasons like this”. He drove away demons this way,
physically, only for one year. Later, He just used to give vibhuti prasadam
and, with that, send the demons away. (Anyatha Saranam Nasthi - Other
than you refuge there is none by Smt. Vijayakumari, Chennai 1999, p.
40-1)
The episode
of the paralysis of his legs is also recorded - amid the usual gushing
and vastly exaggerated comments - by Diane Baskin in her self-enhancing
and Sai-praising book ‘Divine Memories of Sathya Sai Baba’ (pps
108-110), which abounds in photos of herself with Sai Baba. Baskin wrote:
“Our servants told us that one of the many rumours circulating was
that swami had been poisoned, but the explanation that Swami gave was
never made public. Swami said that some very powerful yogis were testing
Him to determine if He really was the Avatar. They were sending Him,
what best could be compared to currents of very high voltage, enough
to kill a human being instantly. He could not return the energy force
to them because they would die; thus He accepted it, adding that ultimately
these yogis - by this act of His - would become His devotees. After
one week, Swami miraculously threw off the paralysis as He had always
done with any illness that beset Him.”
Vague hearsay and
the obviously embroidered account - with spiritual ‘high voltages’
that could kill a person instantly, with ‘very powerful yogis’ who
have, of course, never appeared on the scene as his devotees, speculation
of his miraculous ‘throwing off’ of paralysis - is quite typical
of hundred of accounts in books by devotees who seek his blessings.
As to self-healing, with him now staggering around on a collapsed hip
joint which he cannot cure, and evidently suffering from disorientation
and senile symptoms to conceal which cause the ashram staff great difficulties,
one can draw one’s own conclusions!
In
yet another highly overdone hagiographic account ‘Lokanatha Sai’
by M.N. Leela, [signed in 1995 by Sathya Sai Baba and thus authenticated]
we find the following account which again proves that has been spreading
superstitions about black magic: “Swami called my mother and others
separately and said that a black magician had done havoc to my father:
on that Friday when my father went early morning with bailiff and removed
his shed put in our land at Guindy. He also said. “Dig the spot where
you find broken pots and remove the remains of goat and chicken etc
and throw them off. Now he is fully recovered, but the aim of the sorcerer
Is to drive him mad and ultimately kill him.” (p. 151) See scan of
the excerpt and cover etc. on
page 14.
What is
important to realise is that all these accounts are published and approved
by Sai Baba’s own press - even signed by him -. This can only add
to the superstition about black magic which Sai Baba promotes. His promises
to protect devotees from such powers are also a clever means of creating
a strong dependency and thus underlying anxiety - for if one questions
him on this, then the implication is that he may withdraw his protection
due to lack of faith! This is a key to the ‘guru trap’. Sathya Sai
Baba is widely known to instill fear by various such subtle means in
most of his followers, as anyone who knows many of them well can attest.
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