Full publicity by Sathya Sai Baba about 'His' good works
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On 11/8/2001, Sathya Sai Baba (SSB) held a discourse (published in Sanathana Sarathi, September 2001) where he detailed the running costs of the two hospitals, the colleges etc. and how much investment is needed to cover these. This sum - amounting to the interest from 600 crores of rupees (about $150 mill), is perhaps surprisingly little. Half the interest goes to the Bangalore hospital, 2/6th to the Puttaparthi hospital and 1/6th to all the educational institutions together. Sai Baba asks rhetorically, "Wherefrom does it all come?" And adds so self-deprecatingly, "However, I am giving it" (p. 264). This means he does have the money to give, and it is well-known that it is unearned income given to him as donations! It is also used for his direct benefit... many apartments, cars, chartered airplanes and yet more massive and costly birthday celebrations etc.

In a discourse, Sai Baba announced that he had received news that 600 crores of rupees (ca. $150 mill.) from a person in the US with whom he had no direct contact. This covered all expenses then incurred, so what about the other massive donations, often $100 million and more that have even been announced now and again? The kind of figures Hari Sampath worked out as an estimate of the entire Sai holdings to be at least $45 billion around 2000 yet - though appearing to be done in a quite rational way - it seems too incredible as an estimate. However, since all information everything about the Sai empire, including the secrets of its vast wealth and the many sources from which it comes, is protected by the courts and government, one certainly wonders where it all goes! Since 2000, donations from foreigners will have dropped off, except for the legacies certainly made by many rich elderly devotees - foreign and Indian - as they have died off.

Self-promotion on a large scale

In his infamous discourse on Christmas Day, 2000, hypocritically entitled "Overcome Jealousy With Love" in Prashanthi Nilayam temple, he abandoned love and attacks critics to damn them as demons, as well as wilfully making untrue and wholly unsubstantiated allegations about critics taking money to write about him. This was repeated in another form by him on March 7, 2007: ... "So I don't lose anything by their false propaganda. ... It would be far better if they follow Sathya Sai Baba instead and set an ideal to the rest of the world. I have no desires or ambition. Here is no trace of jealousy"
Speaking of 12,000 heart operations performed at the Puttaparthi hospital, he boasts, "I leave it to your imagination to appreciate who is responsible for saving so many lives." (p. 262)

Could Sai Baba mean the donors, the doctors, all the selfless hospital workers? He prefers one to imagine that this could not happen unless he somehow does it all! If he is saying it is all due to his ‘miraculous aid’, then why does he bother with the hospitals? The actual health workers and other staff whoare known to work voluntarily or for a very small remuneration are those who are actually responsible for saving any lives that saved. Not to forget the US multi-millionaire Isaac Tigrett, who donated the entire first Puttaparthi ‘super-specialty hospital’ plus all its equipment.

More to the point is who chooses the accepted candidates for treatment (for, in a country with crying needs like India there must be very many who cannot be accommodated?). It is known that numerous devotees, including visitors from abroad, have been accorded operations there. I have met devotees from abroad who applied through their local branches of the Sathya Sai Organization… and were accepted. I leave it to your imagination as to why this is so in a hospital that was supposedly dedicated to the truly poor and needy. The donors have no way of knowing the patient lists, nor therefore whether their money is being used for the reasons it was collected, or rather largely for promotion of the cult and its adherents.

It is striking how Sai Baba in discourse after discourse publicizes and praises himself in a way which one will be hard put to find elsewhere. He goes on, for the n`th time, “I have no personal desires or selfishness in Me at all. I have not asked anybody for help. Will anybody simply give hundreds of crores for the mere asking? None.” Does Sai Baba – who says he knows absolutely everything – not even know that there have been thousands of huge benefactors of mankind who have not been asked, and who have behaved with modesty – giving full credit to all those involved without whom their part would not have been possible?

Examples of vast donations to charitable works are plenty: they stretch from Robert Owen to Rockefeller, Washington Carver to Guggenheim, Warren Buffet, Getty, George Soros, Imran Khan and Bill Gates (a mere $33 billion given by him and Buffet so far)! Why would ‘God Incarnate – Creator of the Universe’ need to harp on about his own excellence, selfless purity, what he is giving (as if he was a big donor in the scheme of things? Why does he hardly ever mention all the others who contribute selflessly in various ways, not only though his (corrupt) Trust but all around the globe? Persons he no doubt regards as ‘ordinary unenlightened’ people (eg. Bob Geldoff, Warren Buffet, Imran Khan and countless other less famous figures in almost every country of the world) leading big charitable projects or relief work without making any such fuss about themselves.

Along with his self-praise comes repeated talk of his supposedly being unaffected by praise or blame! “All that I do has a great ideal for humanity.” Does this include his having stood by without lifting a finger while his officials persuaded the police to shoot young men armed only with knives in cold blood? But, though he would not answer any questions the press put to him about this, he says, “There is nothing hidden in My actions”. (p. 266). The fact is, that almost everything is very systematically and carefully hidden from all but a few… excepting what can be seen when he gives his daily darshan walkabouts of around 1 hour per day, and discourses on special days. His person is guarded by cordons of servitors, security people who are mostly undercover.

Sathya Sai Baba regards himself as a major donor to Indian society… yet he has never earned a penny of the billions donated, which he claims are not even his! He always wants to eat his cake and still have it. In a speech in Oct 1999, he explained:- “To date I have never desired anything. I have not touched even a single paisa of anyone. Things come to Me on their own unasked whenever the necessity arises. I have never stretched My hand before anybody from My childhood till now and this will be the norm in the future also. I feel happy in giving and not in receiving.” His every single need is met by others, and I – and many others – know from personal experiences that he does “stretch out his hand for donations”. He pretends to materialize diamonds and other objects which he gives away. They are not genuine, and he even pretended to materialize watches donated to him by a UK Sathya Sai Organization group visiting his ashram. The recipients are almost always deluded into believing him, and they in turn donate real money, huge amounts of time and energy… this is indeed a scam of massive proportions.

Persons Sai Baba no doubt regards as ‘ordinary unenlightened’ people ( and countless other less famous figures in almost every country of the world) are major philanthropists leading  charitable projects or relief work without making any such fuss about themselves. Yet in his Christmas Discourse 2000 he also said: “There are many millionaires in this world who are so mean and narrow-minded that they set their dogs on the persons, who beg for alms at their doorstep. It is shameful to consider them as human beings. These persons are unable to do even a thousandth of what Sathya Sai Baba is doing for society, but shamelessly indulge in false allegations.” Though there are no doubt millionaires who squander their money on themselves or selfish projects, his reckless and general accusation shows how disturbed he is when his boasts of purity and selfless poverty are shown to be empty. There are countless millionaire philanthropists and donors in the world, of whom some are listed on Wikipedia here.


Self-promotion takes a high ride

When donors gave sufficient money to the water project, they were publicly named and thanked on Baba's 70th birthday, the list included only those who had given over a very high amount (1 crore of rupees), without mention of any or all others who were not so rich but had also contributed. Along with his self-praise comes repeated talk of his supposedly being unaffected by praise or blame!

Of course, the hospital donor was Isaac Tigrett who made his money with the Hard Rock Cafe chain [which always served meat and alcohol under the Sai slogan "Love all, Serve all"!]. These latter are forbidden by Sathya Sai Baba, but he was happy to accept the proceeds, of which a large proportion was pocketed by officials in his ashram and/or Trust Fund.)
See/hear the testimony of a friend of his, David Bailey The exchange rate was around Rupees 30.- to the US $ in 1991, which would make the sum about $33 million. However, Tigrett told Bailey he gave $49 million, but only $34 million went to the hospital!