Excerpts of proposed sources for the Wikipedia article Sathya Sai Baba to help contributors.
Babb Redemptive encounters: SSB's miracles
Lawrence A. Babb, Redemptive Encounters: Three Modern Styles in the Hindu Tradition, (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society, chapter Sathya Sai Baba’s miracles, published by Waveland press 2000 (original publisher is by Oxford University Press 1987) ISBN 577661532
"The strict fact of his personal biography and manner of life are buried beneath layer upon layer of hagiography. (see esp. the works of Kasturi; also Gokak 1975). As far as I am aware no objective account of Sathya Sai Baba’s life has been written by anyone close to him. Indeed such an account may be an inherent impossibility: it unlikely that anyone who is allowed in to his inner circles would want to write in such a vein.
Thus Sathya Sai Baba himself cannot be the actual subject of an account of his cult. For now, so supposedly ‘real’ Sathya Sai Baba’ can be anymore real than an imagined character in fiction.", page 160
"Attendees tend to be well dressed and obviously affluent, and I suspect that in some circles these events carry a certain social cachet. The main event is the singing of devotional songs, most of which are overtly addressed to Sathya Sai Baba himself. A book containing suitable bhajans is owned by many devotees. The singing is followed by a period of silent meditation, and then arati is performed in the usual fashion before the altar. Devotees receive prashad as they leave" (Babb 170)
"Sathya Sai Baba is, among other things, a teacher.He teaches how to achieve kaivalyam i.e.salvation. He is a frequent giver of discourses, now compiled in several volumes. He usually speaks in Telugu, and before a Hindi-speaking audience an interpreter is required. One of his most characteristic rhetorical devices is the ad hoc (and often false) etymology. For example, he has stated that Hindu means `one who is nonviolent' by the combination of hinsa (violence) and dur (distant)." page 171
• ^ Babb, Lawrence Redemptive Encounters page 179 "frequently appears in devotee's dreams, and because he is believed to appear in dreams only when he wills it, every dream of him is a kind of miraculous communication" page 179
"...for Sathya Sai Baba's followers everything that occurs does so by his ordainment. They speak of this constantly, even in connection with what may seem to be the most trivial events; nothing happens that he does not will....Their world is something like an enchanted garden. This is a point on which it is difficult to be ethnographically precise, but it is real enough. It emerges mainly in the tone...An informant reported an altercation with someone while staying at Baba's ashram; immediately upon leaving the room his eye lighted on a sign with some slogan about the evils of anger. Another informant reports longing for a guava, having seen a few unimpressive specimens for sale while on a motor trip. When her car halted, a man suddenly appeared by its side with two plump and juicy ones, which he sold her for eight annas. This, of course, was Baba himself. Another informant tells of how she was frightened by the dark clouds surrounding an aircraft in which she was descending for a landing at Nagpur. But then, just as the thought of Baba flashed through her mind, the plane passed through a momentary shaft of sunlight." Lawrence Babb, Redemptive Encounters, pp. 198-199.Babb Sathya Sai Baba's Magic
Babb, Lawrence A. Sathya Sai Baba's Magic in Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jul., 1983), pp. 116–124
BBC Secret Swami
BBC This_World_(television_programme) The Secret Swami 17th June 2004 transcript
Bowen The Sathya Sai Baba Community in Bradford: Its origins and development, religious beliefs and practices
- Bowen, David The Sathya Sai Baba Community in Bradford: Its origins and development, religious beliefs and practices . Leeds: University Press. (1988)
- Appendix 2 The Teachings of Sathya Sai Baba , page 345 "Baba's teachings is to be understood in the context of Hindu-theologies of identity or non-difference, Advaita Vedanta. For criticism of Baba 's advaitic views, see Mangalwadi 1977: 153, 163"
Brown Divine Downfall
- Brown, Mick Divine downfall 28 Oct. 2000 available online: "Whether he is divine, 'a demented demonic force', as Glen Meloy now describes him, or simply the most accomplished fakir and confidence trickster, Sai Baba has said nothing publicly about the allegations laid against him."
- Brown, Mick Divine downfall 28 Oct. 2000 available online: "When the Telegraph Magazine contacted K Chakravarthi, secretary of the Puttaparthi ashram, he said, 'We have no time for these matters. I have nothing to say' and terminated the call.'...Sai Baba's principal English translator, Anil Kumar, was more forthcoming. Every great religious teacher, he said, had faced criticism in their lifetime. Such allegations had been levelled at Sai Baba since childhood, 'but with every criticism he becomes more and more triumphant'. Kumar said he considered the controversy 'all part of divine plan. It's a paddy field with husks around the rice. Eventually all the unwanted parts will go to leave the true substance inside.'"
- Brown, Mick; Divine Downfall in The Telegraph UK Newspaper (28 Oct. 2000): "The guru Sai Baba has left India only once, yet his devotees across the world are estimated at up to 50 million.";
"In April, Glen Meloy - a retired management consultant and a prominent Californian devotee of some 26 years standing - received a letter from an American woman who had read The Findings on the Internet. Her 15-year-old son, she said, had also been abused. Included in the letter was a four-page statement from the boy himself alleging multiple sexual abuse."
- Brown, Mick Divine Downfall article in The Telegraph UK Newspaper UK (28 Oct. 2000): "There has been a rash of defections from Sai Baba groups throughout the West. In Sweden the central group has closed down, and so too has a school based on the Human Education Values programme devised by educationalists at the Puttaparthi college."
- Brown, Mick Divine Downfall in The Telegraph 28 October 2000
"The Findings is a chronicle of shattered illusions."
- Brown, Mick Divine Downfall in The Telegraph 28 October 2000
"In recent months, an extraordinary storm of allegations have appeared - spurred by a document called The Findings Originally published in document form, The Findings quickly found its way on to the internet, where it has become the catalyst for a raging cyberspace debate about whether Sai Baba is truly divine or, as one disenchanted former devotee describes him, 'a dangerous paedophile'."
- Brown, Mick Divine Downfall in The Telegraph 28 October 2000: "It contains allegations of fakery, con-trickery and financial irregularities in the funding of the hospital and over a Sai Baba project to supply water to villages around the ashram, which is habitually trumpeted as evidence of his munificence."
Brown Spiritual Tourist
Brown Mick, The Spiritual Tourist, Ch: The Miracle In North London, pp. 29-30, 1998 ISBN 1-58234-034-X
"I had no idea what to make of the pictures. To have applied the vibuthi to the glass would have been possible, perhaps, although I could not imagine how. The vibuthi was too evenly distributed to have been applied with a brush or sponge. The pictures did not seem to me to have been tampered with in any way. Rather, the vibuthi seemed to have grown on the surface of the glass, just as Mr. Patel said it had. Even if placing vibuthi on the glass might have just about been possible, to have placed it between the picture and the frame, as was the case with some of the portriats, seemed to me to be too complicated and troublesome. It seemed preposterous to imagine Mr Patel and his family bent over frames and sheets of glass, fiddling with ash and screwdrivers. Anyway, why would anyone contrive such a spectacle? There was no apparent profit or gain to be had from it for Mr Patel. A large sign near the pictures urged visitors not to give money, but to 'leave only your troubles'".
"What other motive could he have had? It had, if anything, caused him considerable personal inconvience. His house was no longer his own. He entertained a constant stream of visitors and enquiries; he was required to maintain the shrine in proper order. He had long ago abandoned any thoughts of installing a snooker-table as he had originally planned. Besides, Mr Patel did not strike me as a man capable of deceit. His manner was humble, self-effacing, patently sincere. 'I am deeply blessed,' he said. Even questioning his account of the miracle I felt mean-spirited, a prisoner of rationalist thought. Perhaps it was better simply to accept it for what Mr Patel said it was, for what it seemed to be - the sparkle of holy ash enlivening the dreary suburb of Wealdstone. I walked away from Mr Patel's house with my head reeling, Austin at my side. His face still wore the same absorbed half-smile I had noticed when he was sitting in the ante-room." "'So what did you think?' I asked."
"He walked along in silence for some moments, mulling it over. 'Well, if it's not a miracle,' he said at last, 'it's a wonderful fairy tale.'" "I told friends about the vibuthi-covered portriats; they looked at me in a bemused, eyebrow-arching sort of way. It couldn't be true, because such things
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