Satya Sai Baba Archives

The Blessing Palm That Protected

Everything was unusually quiet; we were speeding towards the City of Kano in Nigeria, late in the night on the 22nd of December 1980. When we were just entering the City, suddenly I saw a crowd standing in the middle of the main road, about 100 metres away. Can they be armed robbers? The Nigerian driver managed to stop. He tried to reverse as fast as possible before we could be seen or trapped but it was too late. The crowd came shouting at us to stop. Then only the news headlines in the morning paper I had bought on the way flashed across my mind. There was widespread disturbance in the city and a number of people had been killed on the previous day.

I told the driver to stop, because running away may cause unpredictable damage to the car and life. I had a picture of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Baba, with the car documents and the passport. I collected them in my hands. The Blessing Palm of Bhagawan appeared to infuse some strength into me. Within seconds we were surrounded by the people who were fully armed.

Two of them, with two heavy iron crowbars, came and stood on either side of the car and brought their instruments to rest on either side of the bonnet making two deep dents on it. An elderly man who came shouting at me with a volley of questions both in Hausa and in English, cooled down when I told him that I had come to receive my wife and children, who were expected to arrive at the Aminu Kano International Airport on the next day. He waved his hands, indicating to the others around the car not to do any further damage.

We were driving slowly only to face another crowd at the junction 75 metres away. They also stopped us in spite of the shouting and waving of hands from those who had allowed us to proceed. This group examined the empty boot of the car thoroughly.

After this, they told us not to proceed on our journey, because they knew that the other groups waiting all along the roads will not permit any car to pass. They advised us to go to the Central Hotel or to the Daula Hotel to spend the night. Since these hotels were also far away from that place, an old man volunteered to take us to a safe place. His fete was painted white. We hesitated to give any answer. Without waiting for any reply from us, he simply pushed the driver to one side and took the wheel. Before we could realise what was happening, he turned the car from the main road and we were moving into the bush through narrow lanes and villages.

Finally the car stopped under a (Margosa/Neem) tree, in front of a Hausa pattern mud house. The man who was driving appeared to be the owner of the house. He got down from the car. Although it was midnight, the area appeared to be fully active and awake. Even children were around the car and were curious to find out more about us.

I took out the licence book with Baba’s picture and started sending an S.O.S. to Bhagawan. In this way I could shut out torturing thoughts presented by the unexpected train of events. Further, I assured my friend (who was highly upset) that Bhagawan Baba was with us and that there was nothing to worry.

The man who went inside the house, brought out two mats and requested us to relax under the tree. We thanked him for the kind gesture and told him to give a place for our driver to sleep somewhere inside.

Soon afterwards, a man came out from one side. He was commanding the respect of all the people present there. He spoke a few words with the owner of the house. Then he came straight to us and said: “You appear to be worried. Would you like to spend the rest of the night at the police station?” We gladly accepted and he offered to take us to the police station. He took the front seat and asked our driver to drive. The crowd that came with him were marching in procession in front of the car and were removing all the obstacles on the path to allow our car to pass.

This procession continued through the bush roads for about a mile and took about 30 minutes. At the police station the man introduced us to the officer in charge who was standing outside with a gun in his hand. We greeted the officer and turned round to thank the man who brought us safely up to that place. But the man was not there; we also never had any chance to meet him again.

The police officer pointed to a human body lying in the darkness at a short distance and said that he had to shoot him only a few minutes back. He was trying to run away inspite of the order to stop and surrender.

Our driver slept in the officer’s room and we managed to relax inside the car till 6.00 a.m. next day. We hurried out early in the morning and were shocked to see burnt cars and charred human bodies, some of which were still burning on the roadside.

The morning papers carried the news of a foreign reporter who was killed by a poisoned arrow on that night. The two dents on the bonnet of my car are there to this day; I treasure them as marks of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s Grace that protected us all through.

Reference

Robert Priddy And RFJ Sandt Whine About ‘Distortions’

Robert Priddy and Reinier van der Sandt have whined considerably (as they often do) about Moreno on their Anti-Baba WordPress blogs. Robert Priddy said:

Robert Priddy: “Moreno went to India seeking God in Sathya Sai Baba. He proclaims that Baba is ‘vishvarupa’ – i.e. an incarnate form of God. He still believes in Sai Baba’s divinity, witnessed by his endless adulatory blogs (despite having believed for years he is a sexual abuser!). Though I formerly considered Sai Baba an avatar with divine qualities, I never hailed him as Father of Jesus – simply reported that he had made that claim. Never have I hailed him as Allah who sent Muhammad [perish the thought! – this is an outright falsification (or at best false memory syndrome on Moreno’s behalf?) Moreno distorts everything. Amusing that he seems not to see that he offends all those alleged millions who still believe Sai Baba is all he claims to be, clearly implying that they are all mentally unsound! Since 2000, they are in denial, though, and many have a cognitive disorder, as Moreno certainly shows he has.”

Fist and foremost, let us take a look at Gerald Joe Moreno’s actual words (emphasis added):

Gerald Joe Moreno: “Robert Priddy (a caustic critic and defamer of Sathya Sai Baba who once hailed the Guru as God Incarnate and thereby the Father who sent Jesus, Allah who sent Muhammad and the Creator of the Universe)…” (Reference)

Moreno did not claim that Robert Priddy explicitly stated that Sathya Sai Baba was Allah in human form. Since Robert Priddy accepted Sathya Sai Baba as an Avatar (i.e., God incarnate in human form), he thereby accepted Sathya Sai Baba to be the Father who sent Jesus, Allah who sent Muhammad and the Creator of the Universe.

As a matter of fact, Robert Priddy wrote in his former Pro-Sai book that Sathya Sai Baba’s advent was prophesied thousands of years ago in the Mahabharata and Old Testament!

Moreno does not believe that Sai Devotees are “mentally unsound”. Robert Priddy has argued (repeatedly) that Sai Devotees are mentally unsound, brainwashed, suffer from mental disorders and belong to the “lunatic fringe” seen in cults, ashrams and religious movements. In Robert Priddy’s criticism of Moreno, he again accused many Sai Devotees as having a “cognitive disorder”. Since Robert Priddy believes all these things about Sai Devotees, Moreno correctly pointed out that Robert Priddy must have suffered from the same mental unsoundness, brainwashing, mental disorder, cognitive disorder and lunacy when he was a Sai Devotee for 17-26 years!

For example, Robert Priddy argued that dreams of Sathya Sai Baba are “usually considered to be symptoms of some form of mental ‘illness’ in many countries”. Since Robert Priddy claimed he had over 300 dreams of Sathya Sai Baba, he thereby conceded that he displayed “symptoms of some form of mental ‘illness’” when he was a Sai Devotee. Since Robert Priddy claimed he had (and continues to have) dreams of Sathya Sai Baba after becoming an Ex-Devotee, he apparently still displays “symptoms of some form of mental ‘illness’”.

Amusing, the only person who came forward to defend Robert Priddy was Reinier van der Sandt, a man who openly boasted about viewing child pornography and having a pornography addiction that settingcaptivesfree.com help him overcome!

Robert Priddy Guilty Of Distortions

In Robert Priddy’s response, he said, “Moreno went to India seeking God in Sathya Sai Baba. He proclaims that Baba is ‘vishvarupa’ – i.e. an incarnate form of God”. Moreno did not go to India seeking God in Sathya Sai Baba, nor did Moreno ever claim that Sathya Sai Baba is “vishvarupa”! Gerald Joe Moreno is the webmaster for the vishvarupa.com domain, which has pictures of numerous Saints, Sages and Religious Art. Robert Priddy cannot source his comments (i.e., distortions) with any factual citations because Moreno never (ever) claimed that he went to India seeking God in Sathya Sai Baba or that he believed Sathya Sai Baba to be “vishvarupa”. For Robert Priddy’s information, “vishvarupa” is not “an incarnate form of God”. To the contrary, “vishvarupa” is a Universal or Cosmic spiritual vision that contains and consumes all forms in creation.

Needless to say, Robert Priddy has a long and established history of distortions, lies, defamations and libels.

• Robert C. Priddy is a laughable pervert who had the audacity to fabricate sexual molestation claims against Gerald Joe Moreno.
• Robert C. Priddy is a laughable con-artist who published fraudulent screencaps against Gerald Joe Moreno and adamantly refuses to vindicate his claims by publishing full screencaps to Moreno’s vishvarupa.com domain.
• Robert C. Priddy is a laughable stooge who attributed his own computer’s IP to Gerald Joe Moreno.
• Robert C. Priddy is in perpetual denial and publicly defends his laughable SheilaWaring Lie even though other critics have distanced themselves from that controversy.
• Robert Priddy is a laughable LSD Advocate who even cited a Pro-Drug Forum intended for Drug Users to defend his LSD-induced hallucinations.
• The list goes on and on.

Of course, none of these things are surprising considering that Robert Priddy is an LSD Advocate who is thoroughly obsessed with genital oilings and who relishes projecting his homoerotic fantasies onto Moreno. Robert Priddy is allied with Bisexual & Psychic Trance Medium Conny Larsson and Child Porn Purveyor RFJ Sandt. Robert Priddy is also a staunch promoter of New Age Advocate & Reincarnator Alan Kazlev and Guru & UFO Promoter Timothy Conway (who actually believes that Sathya Sai Baba may have molested alleged victims like aliens are alleged to do through abductions!).

Although Robert Priddy whines about Sai Devotees and their alleged “cognitive disorders”, Robert Priddy does not say one word about his friends and allies who suffer from the same faults! So who exactly is guilty of a “cognitive disorder” if not Robert Priddy?

Dubious Claims About Sai Devotee V.K. Narasimhan

Kevin Shepherd (registrant for the citizeninitiative.com website) displayed remedial researching abilities when he claimed that Joe Moreno gave “inadequate information” about the Sai Devotee V.K. Narasimhan on his blog.

Needless to say, Moreno wrote a detailed article about V.K. Narasimhan on his official website. Apparently Mr. K. Shepherd did not care to research Moreno’s official website and failed to locate the search function clearly visible on the main-index and side-menu pages. View The Results For “V.K. Narasimhan” Using Moreno’s Search Function. All Kevin Shepherd had to do was type in V.K. Narasimhan’s name into the search box and click on “Go” or “Search This Site”.

Although it is true that V.K. Narasimhan was a friend to Robert Priddy during Priddy’s devotee years, there is little doubt that VKN would have severed his friendship with Robert Priddy when Priddy became an ex-devotee. It certainly appears that Robert Priddy fabricated or embellished information about VK Narasimhan to further his venomous campaigns against Sai Baba. This is not far-fetched considering Robert Priddy’s fully documented lies about Moreno and others. The Vishvarupa.com Webpage Profiling Robert Priddy provides concise information about him that proves he is not credible and that he blatantly lies about others unapologetically. Robert Priddy even had the audacity to openly libel Gerald Joe Moreno with fraudulent sexual molestation claims (Ref). Kevin Shepherd ignores these fully documented articles and instead links to Anti-Sai websites while ignoring any information that counters his Anti-Sai rhetoric.

Click Here to view an article that VK Narasimhan wrote in praise of Sathya Sai Baba in Sanathana Sarathi, Special Issue – November 1999 (about 3 months before his death) proving that VKN was devoted to Sathya Sai Baba to his death. The first paragraph reads:

“There are certain periods in the history of mankind when the mortal beings of this earth witness epoch-making divine events with their own eyes. By far the most astounding event of this century is the Advent of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.”

VKN also referred to Sathya Sai Baba throughout his article as “Bhagavan” (i.e., “God”), an “Avatar” (i.e., “Incarnation of God”) and being “divine” or possessing “divinity”. These published comments are objective and verifiable and wholly refute Robert Priddy’s highly questionable claims about V.K. Narasimhan. Robert Priddy’s attributions to V.K. Narasimhan are subjective and non-verifiable hearsay. Although Kevin Shepherd attempts to portray himself as a serious researcher in the Sai Controversy, he readily discarded objective facts with unverifiable hearsay and then had the audacity to claim that Robert Priddy’s hearsay trumped VK Narasimhan’s own words! Moreno would rather rely on V.K. Narasimhan’s verifiable words than on Robert Priddy’s unverifiable hearsay.

Kevin Shepherd also stated without proof that V.K. Narasimhan (a Sai Devotee he never knew, met or saw) was “known to have entertained extensive doubts, his habitual cynicism tempered by his dependence upon ashram amenities”. Moreno personally observed V.K. Narasimhan interact with Sathya Sai Baba (as have many thousands of other people) and VKN always exhibited great reverence and devotion to Sathya Sai Baba. V.K. Narasimhan’s reputation was such that (had he chosen) he could have easily lived in any of India’s numerous ashrams. He chose to stay with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba for 30 years to his death. V.K. Narasimhan also had the opportunity to live with his son in Madras, but he chose to live at Puttaparthi instead. These are facts, whereas Shepherd and Priddy’s hearsay and speculations are not. Kevin Shepherd’s position about V.K. Narasimhan (a Sai Devotee he never knew, met or saw) undermines his self-professed integrity and highlights his bias and unsupported viewpoints.

Even in VK Narasimhan’s Private Correspondence With Robert Priddy, VKN never said one word opposing Sathya Sai Baba. To the contrary, VKN praised and eulogized Sathya Sai Baba as “Bhagavan” (i.e., “God”) and typically ended his letters with “Yours in Sai Seva”.

To Date: Robert Priddy has yet to produce a single hand-written or signed letter from VKN that expressed the slightest criticism of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. This is in irrefutable fact that strongly argues that Robert Priddy’s attributions to VKN are fraudulent and dishonest.

Futhermore, it is amusing that despite Robert Priddy and Kevin Shepherd’s constant bashing of Sai Devotees as liars, belonging to a cult, being brainwashed, etc., they constantly praise and cite VKN (an ardent Sai Devotee to his death) as a credible, intelligent and honest man on their behalf.

Hypocrisy, pure and simple.

How Does God’s Insurance Office Work?

In the Gita, the Lord says that from time to time when righteousness is on the decline He incarnates. Swami has added that He has come to save scriptural knowledge and to protect devotees of the Lord. This raises the question: ‘Who exactly is a devotee of the Lord?’ Operationally, any one who has devotion for the Lord might be described as a devotee. However, as we all know, there are all kinds of devotees; in fact, five thousand years ago, Krishna identified four major categories.

They are:

1. those who come to the Lord because they want their personal problems solved,
2. those who want the Lord to grant them wealth and prosperity,
3. those who would like the Lord to guide them in acquiring Wisdom, and finally
4. those who want nothing whatsoever and are content to enjoy Bliss immersed in God.

This was the classification given five thousand years ago and it still holds. The question now is: Which of these categories of devotees is eligible for protection? This in turn raises another question as to what exactly we mean by protection. But meanwhile, it is useful for us to note that Lord Krishna has said that He relates to devotees the very same way they relate to Him. Swami has amplified this with the remark that to a child He is a child; to a man He is a man, and so on. In other words, Swami is to us, what we think Him to be.

What has all this got to do with God’s protection? We are coming to that. Let us start with the question, whom does God protect? He certainly responds to prayers and offers His protection in some measure, but only to the extent we are eligible. Devotees often forget this aspect of eligibility and imagine God to be something like a slot machine. We pray and God has to respond – that is the way people think God should operate. Is that correct? Let us take the slot machine. When we insert a coin into a slot machine and press the button, the machine delivers a chocolate bar or whatever. But when the stock of the goodies is over, even if one inserts a coin, one would get nothing. The same is true of God’s Grace. When one has limited credit and that credit runs out, then prayers will not provide the protection one prays for. So it boils down to how to build up a good credit.

Lord Krishna and Sathya Sai Baba have made one thing very clear. God’s insurance office is open 24/7 and is accessible in all parts of the world from the North Pole to the South Pole. But if one wants comprehensive coverage, and God does have that plan, then one has to make proper payment of premium. And what exactly is the premium? Sathya Sai Baba has indicated that. Basically, it consists of two words: Aushadam and Pathyam. Aushadam means medicine and Pathyam means diet restrictions. Swami says that when one goes to a doctor with an illness like stomach upset, for example, the doctor prescribes medicines and also diet restrictions; the same is true of the Divine Doctor, says Swami.

What exactly does Sathya Sai Baba mean by these two words? Swami has explained that also. He says that the medicine is the constant chanting of the Name. OK, but what about the Pathyam or so-called diet restrictions? Swami says the Pathyam is TOTAL obedience of Swami’s commands.

We would now like to make some comments about the latter. From time to time, we get reports that Sai devotees in some place or the other, are actively playing host to a person, sometimes male and sometimes female, who claims that Swami has sent him or her, creates vibhuti or whatever, and ends up collecting money, of course, for some cause authorised by Swami – that is what the self-appointed agent says. This sort of thing seems to happen in all parts of the world the East to the West.

Times without number, Satya Sai Baba has declared openly in so many Discourses that He has no middlemen. Times without number, Sanathana Sarathi has published warnings about specific persons going round claiming to act for and on behalf of Swami. The Organisation too has sent circulars asking Centres and Office Bearers to stay clear of such self-appointed ‘messengers’. And yet, people seem to be drawn to such ‘messengers’. Not only that, devotees invite them to Sai Centres, make them sit on Swami’s Chair and even offer Aarathi to them.

Jesus once said, ‘Why call ye me Lord, when thou does’t not follow what I say?’ One can similarly ask: What is the meaning of we calling Swami God and all that, when we are bent on ignoring His emphatic declaration that He has no middle persons.

If this were an isolated phenomenon, we would not write about it. But we are constantly getting reports about such people from all over. That such people exist should not surprise us; the world is full of who would like to take advantage of the gullible. But what we find astonishing is that people who claim to be devotees of Sathya Sai Baba insist on violating His command.

People are free to follow whom they want, but they should be aware of the consequences. In the Gita, Krishna makes it very clear that those who follow the manes go to the manes; those who follow the deities, go the deities; but those who follow Him, go only to Him. Could anything be clearer? Think about it!

With Love and Regards,
“Heart2Heart”
RadioSai e-Journal Team
In Sai Service