Miracles of Satya Sai Baba

This article was published in Asian Tribune on May 4, 2011.

Ratnakaram Satya Narayana Raju – known to many as Satya Sai baba

Ratnakaram Satya Narayana Raju – known to many as Satya Sai baba – has been credited with a variety of miracles. In fact, he is known, across the world, for his ability to produce objects, apparently, from thin air, healing incurable” diseases as well as rescuing of his devotees while in distress. His numerous biographies written in various languages are chocked with such tales. While some with conflicting versions of the allegedly same “miracle”. That he can materialize gold from thin air has been accepted – even – by the judiciary.
Satya Sai’s career as a miracle monger began at a very young age. There are tales with tall claims like “when he was born the musical instruments in his house started playing, a snake was found sheltering him”. As a school boy he was supposedly producing sweets and, supposedly, from empty bags.

When he was growing up he declared himself to be an avatar of the deceased Sai baba of Shirdi; another legend hailed for his miracles. Of course this has been vehemently denied by the management of the temple dedicated to this Baba at Shirdi. It is also said that on the only one occasion when Satya Sai tried to visit this temple he was denied entry. Was this because they found their business threatened? Well, you never know.

Satya Sai’s most notable “miracles”, or rather their narratives by different hagiographers, have been analyzed by dale Bayerstein in his book Sai Babas Miracles: An Overview. In the age of computers it is pretty difficult to get away with such tall claims of miracles and after his video footage came in for scrutiny a number of them have been totally exposed.
His signature miracle has been the production of Vibhuti or sacred ash from thin air! The palm held downwards is rotated in a clock wise circular movement and lo, ‘holy ash’ miraculously appears on his palm. This is applied to the forehead and also poured into the palm of the lucky devotees! The modus operandi clearly shows an odd understanding of human psychology! The palm is held facing downwards gigging rise to the impression that it is empty. The devotees always see ash as a powder and are convinced that it would fall out when the palm is held so. No one imagines that it is in the form of a pellet! The palm is rotated so that the movements of the fingers powdering the pellet are not perceived. He carries such pellets in his left hand and transfers them to the right when needed to perform this so called ‘miracle’. This so called miracle has been much publicized with people clamoring for this ash which is supposed to have all sorts of miraculous powers! The fact is that this ash is bought in large quantities from a supplier in Palani, Tamilnadu. It is made into small pellets and ‘materialized’ as already explained above. It is also sold in small packets at a huge profit in plastic pouches with Satya Sai’s photo on them. This has been the subject of many eulogies from people starting from ordinary devotees to specialist doctors. Some doctors have even claimed that their patients have been cured by it! Of course no evidence of any randomized control trials! It is a matter of faith.
Ressurection of the dead is yet another miracle ascribed to him. One such was supposed to have happened nearly 40 years ago at a hotel in Chennai. Walter Cohan was supposed to have died and then resurrected by him. When the intrepid rationalist investigator late Basava Premanand investigated the whole thing, it turned out that nothing like that happened. One guest by that time had a mild heart attack and was hospitalized for that and had an uneventful recovery. This was testified by the Doctor who treated him in the hotel and also the authorities of the hospital where he had been admitted. So, the whole thing turned out to be a cock and bull story fabricated to give a Jesus Christ like aura to him. Any way now that he is dead we got to watch if he’s going to resurrect himself!

His conversion of water into petrol may be striking too many in the age where petrol prices are sky rocketing. There are many conflicting versions of this rather beguiling tale. They vary from him saying may the water get converted into petrol, dipping his fingers into the container of water to asking the tank of the car be filled with water and it running on that.
He has been challenged to do that to water which we would present before him and there has been no response to it so far. The explanations for it vary from the driver removing a can of petrol from the boot and saying it is water to adding a little water raising the small layer of petrol at the bottom of the tank which could make the car run for a few kilometers. This too is to take him to the level of Jesus who had supposedly converted water into wine at the wedding feast at Caana, supposedly his first ‘miracle’.
Then there are various miracles of materializing trinkets. While some say that he first materialized a ring that was loose and he blew on that and made it the right size! His seat for his Darshans (public appearances) was a cushioned one under which small things like watches and rings could be hidden – easily. The one which totally exposed him happened in 1993 or so when he attempted to perform such a miracle in the presence of TV cameras. At that time there was only one TV channel in India- the state controlled Doordarshan. It had 9 o’clock news which was watched by the whole country. He wanted to perform a ‘miracle’ which would snub us rationalists and project his greatness all over the country. He was supposed to produce a golden chain from ‘thin air’ and put it around the neck of the architect who had designed the hall at the function to declare it open. On the dais were the then Prime minister of India PV Narasimha Rao, then home minister, the chief minister of Karnataka and many other VIPs. He materialized this chain and presented it to the recipient and all this was duly recorded by the TV cameras. But, when replayed the tape showed that the so called miracle was performed it showed him surreptitiously taking the chain from under a memento from an aide! The footage was not aired! But, it was leaked and that was solid evidence about his miraculous powers! He was exposed as a third rate prestidigitator! The footage was deleted but the copies doing their rounds and on the internet has totally, and continues to, exposed him. There are many more such instances where the footage was available but this was the really convincing one and all because of his vanity.
On Shivaratri day (a Hindu festival to celebrate the birth day or rather the night of birth of Shiva) he used to perform a few miracles like producing Vibhuti from a supposedly empty pot, regurgitation of a Shiva lingam, water from an empty jug etc. The more famous one among these was the production of the egg shaped Shiva lingams supposedly from his stomach. That was true in the initial stage when he actually used the regurgitate the lingams which he had swallowed a trick which many circus artistes perform regularly. But after he had an appendectomy at Goa, he was in no position to do it again. So, he used to conceal these in towels make facial contortions and then spit them out. That got exposed when the video footage clearly exposed this dirty trick. But, his devotees used to believe that there was a lot of gold inside the body of this man which used to manifest itself as this! In 2004 this trick was done for the last time or rather he tried it for the last time. At that time BBC was filming him and that was because a documentary called “Sai Baba Seduced Me” was being broadcast by the Denmark TV which showed him in very bad light with direct accusation by a victim about his pedophilia. BBC had promised him that they would tell the truth about him and, hence, the permission. The exertion of trying to produce the lingam proved too much for him, he vomited some bile and collapsed. The devotees however claimed that the gold which used to emerge in the solid form was coming out in the liquid state this time! He was rushed off the stage and then a few lingams were brought and shown as if they were the ones which had emerged! The endless supply of water from an apparently empty pot was another magic trick with a hollow two chambered pot commonly used by countless street magicians. But, the gullibility of his devotees seems to have no bounds – they seemed happy deceiving themselves.
One of the most documented miracles is that of the Seiko watch episode. It was said by his devotee Dr. Bhagavantam, an eminent physicist and the scientific advisor to the president of India, in a periodical from Kerala that the proprietor of the famous Seiko watch company from Japan had been to India on a visit and went to Puttaparthi. The miracle man is said to have surprised him by waving his hand in the air and producing a brand new Seiko watch! Of course, that was a common happening. But, this was a unique one. This was a prototype which had been made and only one such was available and had been kept under lock in a safe so that the rivals could not get at it! He was so much surprised by this it was said, he rushed back immediately to Japan opened his safe and discovered that the watch had disappeared! That showed the miraculous power of this man to bring objects from any where to his hands! But, Kovoor got the address of he company from the Japanese embassy and wrote to them. Pat comes the reply “the incident had never happened” they even stated that “it was a total fabrication”. When Kovoor sent a copy of this letter to the newspaper which had carried the write up, Bhagawantam denied that he had written it! Any way he fell out with this man and later on became an ex-devotee!

The entire gamuts of miracles of this man are nothing but fabrications and lies. The whole empire of he has build is upon these false foundations. There is no justification for his so called charitable work which is a facade to cover these false hoods under the pretext that ends justify the means. Besides these fraudulent so called miracles there are very serious allegations of pedophilia, murders and cheating against this man.
His death does not condone these or the praises heaped upon him by the various cricketers, film stars and politicians. The common man has been totally cheated by the shenanigans of this man by hiding them behind his so called charitable pursuits which are actually a smoke screen for these dubious activities. Those who dare question have ruthlessly eliminated and as some suspect, the miracle monger himself has been eliminated by a coterie around him. Now it looks like he had been riding a tiger and unable to get off that and it has now finished him off!

Debashis
General Secretary, Rationalists’ and Humanists’ Forum of India

Our guests columnist Debashis is a well known rationalist from India. He is the General secretary of Rationalists’ and Humanists’ Forum of India. . He has been featured in many television programs including the one on physical feats by the Discovery Channel, Is It Real? by National Geographic, The Secret Swami by the BBC and many others.

Courtsey: Asian Tribune