FLIGHTS OF FANCY?
May 11, 2019
Muddenahalli are currently advertising a statement which Swami made during His Mahashivarathri discourse in 2007, as proof that He is now speaking through Madhusudan. In this discourse, Swami simply said that He would undertake a world tour shortly. Attached is an article which points out the shortcomings of their theory, as well as the huge amount of evidence that Swami had no intention of traveling around the world in the Sathya Sai Avatar. It also exposes the fact that while flying around the world asking for money, Madhusudan is making Swami look like a hypocrite.
While claiming that Sai devotees who visit His Mahasamadhi in Puttaparthi are not even looking for Baba, Madhusudan Naidu also claimed that Sathya Sai Baba has 'retired from His job' at Puttaparthi, and is now free to travel the world:
But now, those who come, they don’t expect to see Me in Puttaparthi, they are happy seeing Mahasamadhi. They are happy doing pranaams there and going back, and they are not looking for Me at all. So now I am free to travel wherever I want. I am retired from that job and now I am free. Now I have come wherever I was called.
Madhusudan Naidu, Japan, 15 March 2015,
http://reconnectsrisathyasai.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/the-question-and-answer-session-at-tokyo.html
Madhusudan also seeks to give the impression that Sathya Sai Baba has retired from other things, such as His lifelong commitment to Truth, His repeated commitment that He would never leave Puttaparthi under any circumstances, His commitment to unity of thought, word and deed through upholding His own teachings, His repeated commitment to setting India in order before traveling around the world and His oft-repeated lifelong commitment that He would never ever cheapen Himself by asking anyone for money, under any circumstances.
Madhusudan and his followers are also using one single, solitary, short statement made by Sathya Sai Baba at Mahashivarathri 2007 in order to justify his flying to other countries to gather donations:
I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.
SSS 40.5: 16 February 2007, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume40/sss40-05.pdf
While Sathya Sai Baba did say that He would undertake a world tour, He did not say specifically when, nor did He make plans for this to happen as He did every other time He was intending to undertake a tour. So what did Baba mean by undertaking a world tour? We have to remember that Baba was not just the physical body we saw in Puttaparthi and He was not limited to only traveling the way we do. On previous occasions when devotees asked Baba when He would visit their country, He would sometimes ask in reply, "Do I need a plane to come to your country?”
For example, the following event happened at Mahashivarathri in 1962. After bringing out the lingam, Baba stayed seated, seemingly stiff and unresponsive for 55 minutes, having 'left His body' as He used to do in those days. Those around Him thought that He must have gone to the rescue of a devotee in danger. After 50 minutes people were getting anxious and some devotees were in tears. Finally, after 55 minutes Baba seemed to regain awareness of His surroundings:
Fifty five ... Ah ... a slight movement of the fingers ... of the left hand! The hand came down ... I broke into tears ... His eyes opened ... He saw! He smiled! Fear and doubt vanished shamefacedly from the gathering. Baba rose ... the fateful minutes were over!
Baba went into the Nilayam, and when some of us, including Dr. Bhagavantham followed Him, He said that He had gone on a Manasa-sanchara (mind tour), round the World!
He went in order to give signs in every home or hall where Sivarathri was celebrated that hour, that the Lord is here, that His Grace is available in plenty for all who need it, and pray for it, with pure and sincere faith.
SSSun Vol 3, pp. 228-229, http://www.vahini.org/downloads/sathyamsivamsundaram-III.html#delta-delight
While Madhusudan and his followers have taken one statement where Sathya Sai Baba said that He would go on a world tour, they do not mention the multiple instances where Sathya Sai Baba explained that He would not travel to other countries until He had finished His work of renewing India. In 1974, Dr Samuel Sandweiss asked Baba when He would come to America:
"When will you come to America?" I asked.
"Before one can go out to others he has to put his own home in order," He replied,
"and some gurus have given the Indian holy man a questionable reputation."
Dr Samuel Sandweiss, Sai Baba The Holy Man and the Psychiatrist, p.231
Baba said the same thing to Dr John Hislop when he asked the same question in an interview prior to 1977:
Hislop: Swami, please excuse this question, but it is in everyone's mind. Will Swami come to America soon?
SAI: Baba will delay until a further base is built in America . However, I can go informally anytime. The devotee need only call me and I will appear at once. Swami has his work to renew India. This must be finished before he is willing to do the same in a foreign country. People generally go to a foreign country with a desire of some sort. Baba has no desire. Of course foreign individuals come to Baba.
CWBSSSB p.50, or http://media.radiosai.org/journals/Vol_03/10OCT01/conversation.htm
This was a consistent answer from Baba - that He would first put India right before traveling to other countries. Twenty-four years after Dr Sandweiss asked his question, Baba was still giving the same reply:
Questioner: Do you have any plans to visit foreign nations and spread your message?
Swami: No. Where there is sugar, the ants come there; the sugar does not go chasing after the ants. My first task is to clean up our own country first, then go to other countries.
Interview with the Times of India, 11 August 1998, quoted in Sathya Sai the Supreme Master, p.270, or https://m.facebook.com/SaiCentre/photos/a.77737568903.74606.6624363903/10153735128038904/
Dr Choudhary Voleti once asked Sathya Sai Baba when He would come to America. Baba made it clear that He would not travel and used the analogy of ants coming to sugar, rather than sugar going to the ants. He also spoke to Dr Voleti about those who collect money in the name of spirituality:
Once, a group of devotees from the US approached Dr. Choudhary Voleti (former director of SSSIHMS and ardent devotee of Bhagawan) and asked him, "Sir, when you go to Parthi, can you please ask Swami when He will come and visit America?" So Dr. Voleti agreed and, in his next trip to Prasanthi Nilayam, asked Swami in the veranda, "Swami, when will you visit America?" he asked. Swami immediately smiled and replied, "Choudhary, ants always gather around sugar. Sugar never goes to the ants!" The message was loud and clear. He attracts all of us to Him and brings us all to His Lotus Feet.
So Dr. Voleti conveyed this message to that group of American devotees who had prompted him to ask that question. But they were not satisfied; they once again convinced him to try asking Swami the same question yet again. So in Dr. Voleti's next trip to Parthi, he asked Swami once again, "Swami, when are you going to visit the US?" Swami this time smilingly answered, "Why should I go there? You have lots of $50 and $100 gurus with you there." Dr. Voleti was puzzled hearing this statement, and was wondering what Swami was referring to. So he just brushed that statement aside and returned to the US.
One day, his local Balaji temple was conducting a special yagna which Dr. Voleti had himself been instrumental in organizing. A so-called "guru" was presiding over that yagna. On the commencing day of the homam, one of the main organizers approaches Dr. Voleti and says, "Sir, before you sit down, kindly give us $52." So Dr. Voleti goes to the hundi to give the requested donation, and then proceeds to the site of the yagna. As he approaches, this so-called "guru" announces, "Only yajumanis (donors) who have donated $50 can sit close to this yagna. Everyone else must sit back!"
The moment this was said, Swami's words - "You have enough $50 and $100 dollar gurus in the US!"- rang in Dr. Voleti's ears. The message then came very clearly: Swami was not one to mix with frauds and cheap businessmen who go around asking for money in the name of religion and spirituality. He was here to give and not take and therefore was not to be associated with them!
But the story does not even end here. Again this group of American devotees pestered Dr. Voleti to try Swami once again and ask Him the same question that he had already asked Swami two times previously. So Dr. Voleti once again returned to Parthi, sat in the veranda, and for a third time asked, "Swami, when are You visiting America?" Swami this time laughed and said, "But Choudhary, I am already there in the US!" Dr. Voleti was even more confused with this answer. What did Swami mean by He being already there? So he just kept quiet and once again brushed it aside.
Two days later, there was some function and prasadam was being distributed. As part of that prasadam, each devotee in the veranda received a beautiful pocket-sized picture of Swami. As soon as Swami came out of the interview room, all of those seated in the veranda began stretching out their hands, holding the picture of Swami they had received in the hopes that Swami would sign each of them. So each devotee was trying to stretch their picture out more than the other, and Dr. Voleti was no exception. Being rather tall, he had somewhat of a competitive advantage so to speak against the rest. But Swami had His own lesson to teach. Swami noticed Dr. Voleti stretching his picture out and remarked, “Choudhary, you have 2 pictures of Me in every room in your house at America. Why do you want this one to be signed?”
At that moment, Dr. Voleti realized, truly Swami was with him in America. How else could He know such a personal detail? Indeed, Swami proved Himself to be with Dr. Voleti and with each of us, whether we live in Parthi or in the United States.
How beautifully Swami taught each of us through Dr. Voleti such profound lessons! First: He attracts us all to Him, being the Supreme Magnet, the sugar of all sweetness. Second: He is in no way comparable to those who claim to be gurus and Swamis and yet travel across the globe begging for money…He is the eternal Sadguru and Jagadguru, come to grant us all the highest gift of liberation. And finally third: He need not come all the way to the US, for He is already here and everywhere, in the hearts of each one who calls out to Him with faith and surrender.
Let us not merely install Him as pictures in our rooms, but let us firmly install Him in our hearts. Swami used to say of the Gopikas, “Krishna was imprinted on their hearts, just like a picture is imprinted on a piece of paper.” May we too imprint Him in our hearts just like that so that we can see Him, hear Him, feel Him, enjoy Him, and experience the bliss of complete oneness with Him. May Swami bless each of us with the grace to practice these lessons in our daily lives. Jai Sai Ram!
https://www.facebook.com/notes/karan-dewan/when-will-swami-visit-america-an-experience-by-dr-voleti/626748267657309/?hc_ref=ARQhoQHzha81A0NozMUTVZGVPYP9WEAlQWvUcYho9ykOEpYz20_7hM5qOg_Xk88o6_8&fref=gs&dti=252014961876161&hc_location=group
Another statement by Baba during Buddha Purnima 2005 has been used by Madhusudan and his supporters to justify their visits to Sri Lanka:
Very soon I will visit Sri Lanka and bestow eternal bliss on all of you (thunderous applause). In the present situation, it is difficult for Me to walk. However, difficulty is only for the body. It comes and goes. I do not care for such physical constraints. I will certainly come to your country very soon and fulfil your long cherished dream. Right from a child to an old man, devotees in Sri Lanka think of Swami always. Your prayers and penance will certainly find fulfilment very soon.
SSS 38.12: 23 May 2005, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume38/sss38-12.pdf
Yet the next day Sathya Sai Baba told His translator, Professor K Anil Kumar, that devotees would have to come and visit Him in Prashanti Nilayam, that He would not go to them. Baba again used the analogy of the sugar and the ants that He had been saying since the 1970's:
Once, Swami said to a group of devotees "I will come to Sri Lanka". It was Buddha Purnima. He said "I will visit Sri Lanka."
(Ail Kumar thought) I am also a selfish man. If He goes to Sri Lanka, I can follow Him, because I will have a chance to translate His talks. Next day I asked "Swami, when are they taking You to Sri Lanka?"
Baba said, "Taking Me? Nobody on Earth can take Me! All have to come under the umbrella, under the shade of Sathya Sai in Prasanthi Nilayam. Nobody can take Me! The whole world must come here. I am not that type of a guru to go around everywhere. Here is jaggery or sugar. All ants come to jaggery or sugar, but sugar won't go to the ants! All My devotees come to Me: I am the sugar, this is Prasanthi Nilayam.
Talk by Professor K Anil Kumar, Indonesia, October 2011 quoted in Divine Vibrations, p.78
Why would Baba say that He is coming to Sri Lanka and then say later that He would not? We have to remember that Baba said that whatever He speaks is truth. Since He has said that He will visit Sri Lanka, this will definitely happen. But He also said that His timing is not the same as ours. Since He also said that all have to come to Him in Prashanti Nilayam, it may mean that His visit to Sri Lanka will happen in His incarnation as Prema Sai Baba.
This method of speaking about things He would do in His next incarnation is consistent with what Baba did while at Shirdi. Shirdi Sai Baba would also talk about things that would happen only in His incarnation as Sathya Sai Baba. Shirdi Sai Baba used to sing a song asking 'playful Rama' to bring sacks of 'udi' or vibhuthi. Shirdi Sai did not give out sacks of udi, nor did Rama. Baba was singing about His own future incarnation, Sathya Sai Baba:
Sai Baba often sang a song on the Udi, a song, which has become immortal, since He sang it "RamatheRaam! Raam! Aayoji, aayoji! UdiaonkigoniaLaayoji, laayoji!" (O, playful Rama, come, come! sacks of Udi, bring, bring.) Who is the Rama that is called upon by Sai Baba to bring sacks of Udi? Rama of the Ramayana did not distribute Udi as a mark of His Grace. Udi was Baba's own special gift, His unique means of alleviating man's physical and mental ills. So, it is a call into the future; for, Baba at Shirdi did not stack the Udi and carry bags of it. It is a peep into the present time, when we find Baba moving between long lanes of men and women with a bag or basket of Udi packets and placing a few in the outstretched palms of hundreds and thousands, in towns and villages all over the land!
SSSun Vol 2, pp.149-150, http://www.vahini.org/downloads/sathyamsivamsundaram-II.html#incrediblestill
Also, in 1997 and again in 2000, Sathya Sai Baba gave discourses in which He said that He would not travel to other countries. This seems to lend credence to the idea that He intends for this to happen in His incarnation as Prema Sai Baba:
For the past 60 years, the overseas devotees have been requesting Swami to come to their respective countries. On many occasions, they brought special planes. Even now they have chalked many programs for Swami to go round the world. But I have no such intentions. What is not in Bharat is not anywhere else. Therefore, Swami has decided not to go to any foreign land.
Divine Discourse on 16 October 1999, Sanathana Sarathi May 2000, p.150
Many people invite me often to visit other countries. I do not like to go abroad before setting this country right and transforming its citizens. Many people go abroad begging for money. Many also resort to begging in the name of Svaami. Svaami has absolutely no selfish motive. You must serve your mother country first.
SSS 30.16: 18 July 1997, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume30/sss30-16.pdf
Yet Madhusudan and his entourage now claim that Sathya Sai Baba travels the world with them in an invisible subtle body. They claim that during these tours, Madhusudan's subtle body version of Sai Baba asks them to found trusts and foundations which then ask for money in Baba’s name, thus contradicting Baba's own teachings. Madhusudan Naidu has also said that before Sathya Sai Baba's subtle body can be invited to a country, Mr B. N. Narasimhamurthy's permission must also be obtained:
Question: Swami, would you like to visit us in Chihuahua, Mexico?
Swami: Next year. I am very happy to come to Mexico. You must take Narasimha Murthy’s permission, too!
Madhusudan Naidu, Encinitas, 20 June 2015
This seems strange as Sathya Sai Baba never required anyone else's permission to travel or do anything during His lifetime. When Baba travelled to Africa in 1968, He not only did it without seeking permission, He went there despite the fact that many didn’t want Him to go! When Baba announced the hospitals and water projects, He didn't ask for permission. When He began building schools and colleges there were some who objected that it was not the job of an Avatar to do this. Yet He never sought permission and simply did what He knew to be right. Why would Baba now need the permission of one of His own devotees before making a decision?
Sathya Sai Baba said repeatedly that He would not travel to other countries until He had reformed India, a mission which is still unfinished. What did Baba say about those who travel abroad gathering donations in His name?
There are some people who are doing business in the Name of Sai. They are cheating others, pretending to be devotees of Sai. I do not approve of such behaviour. They are not devotees at all. They are going to different parts of the country and also abroad to make money in the name of Sai. It is a big crime. I do not ask for even a single paisa from others. I never approve of such business. Whoever it may be, if somebody approaches you with such a crass motive, tell him to get out at once. Do not allow business to enter the field of spirituality. Swami never solicits donations from anybody, nor does He have agents for propagating His Message. I do not have any association whatsoever with these deceitful persons.
SSS 35.11: 22 July 2002, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume35/sss35-11.pdf
It is also worth noting that when Baba spoke in this same discourse about people misusing His name to earn money, He specifically mentioned that this was happening in countries which Madhusudan now regularly travels to:
One may do what one likes for the maintenance of one’s family, but nobody should do business using Sai’s name. Unfortunately, such activity is on the increase. In many villages, we find people misusing Sai’s name for their selfish gains. This is happening even in many other countries like America, England, Japan, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia. Do not associate yourself with such wicked people. Keep your hearts pure and sacred. Otherwise, you are equal to a living corpse. Such people should not be respected. Better you perform their obituary rites!
SSS 35.11: 22 July 2002, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume35/sss35-11.pdf
It is clear from history, as well as Sathya Sai Baba’s own statements on multiple occasions, made over a period of decades, that He did not intend to travel around the world in His incarnation as Sathya Sai.
It is even more clear that He deplored the actions of those who travel around the world asking for donations in His name. Baba Himself labeled this behaviour as a crime and said that those who do this are not devotees at all. He instructed His devotees not to associate themselves with people who do this, calling these donation seekers ‘wicked people.’
Through His warnings to us that He would never ask for money, Baba lovingly ensured that no Sai devotee who listened to His teachings would ever be deceived into handing over money to those who ask for donations in His name.
Yet Madhusudan Naidu and his supporters claim that now Baba Himself is using Madhusudan to travel around the world and ask for money. Below are a few of the websites for the many trusts and foundations started at Madhusudan’s request. It is evident that all of these are asking for money.
Ananda Trust Croatia - http://ananda-trust.org/en/donations
Ananda Cares Malaysia - https://anandacares.org/family-sponsorship/
Divine Will Foundation USA - https://www.divinewillfoundation.com/participate
Each One Educate One - https://eachoneeducateone.org/contribute/
Joy Villages Nigeria - https://www.joyvillages.org/get-involved/
Prasanthi Bala Mandira Trust - http://www.pbmt.org/Trustees (note that B N Narasimhamurthy was the founding trustee. Madhusudan is now a trustee as well).
Sai Prema Fiji - http://saipremafiji.com/international-advisory-board/ Note that Narasimhamurthy, Madhusudan, Tigrett and Sreenivas are all on the advisory board for this and other trusts such as the Divine Will Foundation. This trust sends out letters to businesses in Fiji each year, asking each business for twenty thousand dollar donations.
Sri Sathya Sai Annapurna Trust – India - https://annapoorna.org.in/annapoorna-contribution/
Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani - https://srisathyasaisanjeevani.org/get-involved/
Sri Sathya Sai Saraswathi Education Trust - http://www.sssset.org/ (Founded by B N Narasimhamurthy. Obtains donations through the Prasanthi Bala Mandira Trust which is currently under investigation by the government of Karnataka).
Sri Sathya Sai Divine Trust - http://www.girlseducationacademy.org.au/donate.html - All donations are sent to the Prashanti Bala Mandira Trust, which, as noted above, is run by Narasimhamurthy and Madhusudan Naidu.
Sri Sathya Sai Annapoorna Trust - http://contribute.annapoorna.org.in/
Sai Global Mission USA - http://saiglobalmission.org/donate.php
H2H foundation: https://www.h2h.foundation/
Jyothi Corp: https://www.jyothicorp.org/
By claiming that Sathya Sai Baba is now traveling around the world asking for money, along with the other words and actions they attribute to Baba’s invisible ‘subtle body,’ the Muddenahalli cult make Sathya Sai Baba out to be both a liar and a hypocrite.
They claim that Sathya Sai Baba was forced by illness to leave His body, even though Baba said that illness could not even approach Him unless He willed it. They claim that because Baba was forced by illness to leave His body, He has gone back on His own statement on multiple occasions that He would never speak through anyone, that He has no need to use mediums and that He does not act like a ghost or evil spirit by possessing people. Madhusudan and his followers claim Sathya Sai Baba has falsified His repeated promises to never leave Puttaparthi under any circumstances and is now staying in Muddenahalli. They claim that Sathya Sai Baba is living in Muddenahalli in a subtle body, even though this falsifies Sathya Sai Baba’s own statements that the subtle body disintegrates after death and it is the causal body which survives.
They claim that Sathya Sai Baba failed to complete His mission before being forced by illness to leave His body, again falsifying the words of Baba Himself, who said that Avatars only leave their bodies when they have completed their mission. Baba Himself said in 2006 that He had completed His mission, however this hasn’t stopped Madhusudan from denigrating his own guru, by claiming that Baba only completed 20% of His Mission during the time He was in the body, nor has it prevented him from promoting himself by claiming that Baba is using him to complete 80% of His mission.
Sathya Sai Baba taught that all are one. He taught that there is no high and low, since all are one. He spent His life striving to promote loving unity amongst His devotees in the organisations which He founded and get rid of our ideas of difference, of being better or worse than others. Through His teachings and His organisations, Baba sought to promote unity in humanity. However, Madhusudan claims that his followers are higher, purer and more spiritually evolved than those who don’t believe Madhusudan’s claims because they trust the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba. He belittles those who disbelieve him because they choose to trust Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings, claiming that they are like people who leave a film during the intermission. He says that those who only trust Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings will only ever know half of the truth about Him, while Madhusudan’s followers will know the whole truth. Madhusudan claims that those who choose to trust Sathya Sai Baba over himself are stuck in their minds, that they are like drunkards, that they lack humility, that they think they already know everything, are fearful of sharing Baba and are untruthful.
Through these teachings and others, it is clear that in his few short years as Baba’s claimed ‘communicator,’ Madhusudan has done his very best to sow discord, disunity and division. By doing this while claiming it is Sathya Sai Baba who is making these divisive statements, Madhusudan paints Sathya Sai Baba as a hypocrite.
The service activities undertaken by the Muddenahalli group are used to justify their claims that Sathya Sai Baba is speaking through Madhusudan. Madhusudan’s followers are very fond of holding up their service projects as proof of Baba’s presence. But projects are proof of donors, not divinity.
Muddenahalli’sservice activities imitate those of Sathya Sai Baba, but they deviate from his teachings in a few very crucial ways. First, they are initiated under the direction of power-hungry leaders. While the innocent devotees who are caught up in them may be sincere, these projects are initiated with an eye for publicity and promoted with overt self-aggrandizement in view. As a result, their projects are heavily publicised in the media, via their social media accounts and those of their followers, via their websites, their YouTube channel, newsletters and magazines, etc. The fact that they claim to act under the direction of Sathya Sai Baba portrays Baba as being a hypocrite, since He said that service should be selfless, that it should not seek publicity, that it should be done silently and seek no reward of any kind. Baba also said that service performed for self-aggrandizement, competition or ostentation actually pollute the sacred sadhana of service:
All acts of service are not equally sanctifying or uniform in the benefits they confer. When service is undertaken by power-hungry people, or under compulsion or by imitative urges, it results in more harm than good. Self-aggrandizement or competition or ostentation are motives that will pollute the sacred Sadhana of Service. The candidate for this Sadhana has to avoid Ahamkara (egotism), Adambara (exhibitionism) and Abhimana (favouritism).
SSS 19.25: 21 November 1986, http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume19/sss19-25.pdf
The sixth quality is SarvarambhaParithyaagi (renunciation of all undertakings). This means that there should be no ostentation or showing off in any undertaking by a devotee. Unless ostentation is given up, egoism will not leave. The ego must be eliminated to purify the heart. No good deed can be done without purity in the heart. It is through sacred deeds that the heart is purified.
Ostentation is a demonic quality. It encourages egoism and megalomania. One should seek to acquire a good name through selfless service alone. It should be done with humility and sincerity. One who aspires to become a national leader must first know how to render service. He should not seek office or position. The Sai Organisations have been set up for rendering service and not to establish official positions. Selfless service should be done out of a sense of duty.
SSS 23.31: 20 November 1990, http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume23/sss23-31.pdf
Since these activities pollute the sadhana of service, they are also polluting those who engage in those service projects, whether they are aware of it or not.
Madhusudan’s claimed devotion to Baba and self-implied status as a pure soul has also not prevented Madhusudan from belittling his own guru, the Avatar of the Age, Sathya Sai Baba, as only being a teacher of primary school level spirituality and denigrating His abode at Puttaparthi as only being like a primary school. Nor has Madhusudan’s much publicised humility prevented him from claiming both that he is teaching high school level spirituality and that Muddenahalli is a spiritual high school. For the record, Sathya Sai Baba said that from age 60 He was teaching Advaita (non-dualism) since His devotees had already crossed the primary and high school levels. It seems this is something Madhusudan may be unaware of.
Clinging desperately to one short statement in which Baba said that He would undertake a world tour, Madhusudan and his followers claim that Sathya Sai Baba is now traveling the world while speaking through Madhusudan. They conveniently ignore the many times when Sathya Sai Baba said that He would not travel to other countries until he had put India in order.
These flights around the world are paid for by devotees in different countries, falsifying Baba’s repeated statements that He only gave, never took. During these flights around the world, Madhusudan claims that Sathya Sai Baba is asking for money, falsifying Baba’s repeated statements that He would never ask for money under any circumstances, that whatever He needed for His Avataric Mission came from within only. Baba also said that whenever He decided on a project, the required funds came automatically, without any need for the kind of fund-raising campaigns which Muddenahalli indulges in.
When I decide on a project, the wherewithal for accomplishing has to be spontaneously available without any fund raising campaign. My will has the power to concretise my plan.
SSS 18.25: 23 November 1985, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume18/sss18-25.pdf
I have not stretched My hand before anyone till date for any kind of help. If there is anyone in this vast concourse of devotees in this hall whom I had approached for money, they may rise and point out to Me. There is none, surely. Whatever I need in My Avataric Mission comes from within only.
SSS 41.18: 23 November 2008, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume41/sss41-18.pdf
Baba also said that there are many generous people around the world and that if he did ask for money, then there would be a shower of money. However, Baba said that He didn’t want to become cheap by asking for money.
There are many men of sacrifice in this world. But I did not ask anyone. If only I ask, there will be a shower of money. But I do not like to become cheap by asking.
SSS 32 pt 2.2: 28July 1999, http://www.saidarshan.org/baba/docs/d990728.html
And by claiming that Sathya Sai Baba is flying around the world and asking for money, Muddenahalli do to Baba exactly what Baba said He didn’t want - they cheapen Him, making him out to be just one more in the long line of money-hungry preachers whom the world has seen too many of already.
This agenda to make money from Sathya Sai Baba has been there right since the beginning. In his very first speech in 2014, Madhusudan praised a number people for donating land or money – Tigrett, Ram Shetty, Narasimha Murthy, Sreenivas and Kishore. Thus, Madhusudan set the standard of the kind of devotees he desired – the wealthy or influential. Then he confirmed that this is what he was looking for, by blasphemously implying that Sathya Sai Baba and His mission were dependent on the donations of rich men, claiming that without them, Baba’s Mission would have failed:
Because of such people only, Bhagawan’s mission is continuing, otherwise it would have stopped long, long ago.
Madhusudan Naidu, Kodaikanal, 13 May 2014,
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/el-despertar-sai/XgUrvKDMsm0
Sathya Sai Baba condemned the behaviour of Gurus who accumulate wealth by publicly praising their followers in the way Madhusudan is doing:
Some gurus have so much love, even toward their pupils. When aspirants go to them asking for guidance, they praise them to the skies, exaggerate their attainments, and grant them titles(!), which are paraded by the unfortunate victims. In this way, the disciples are burdened by additional handicaps to spiritual advance. The gurus want money for various purposes, so they always have an eye on the purses of the disciples. They try to draw out the money by grants of titles or by public praise or by promise of public recognition — all worldly baits, which are derogatory to the principle of non-attachment that they teach and stand for.
Let the Gurus condemn the accumulation of wealth and blame them for the misuse they are making of it; let them be unsparing in their condemnation; that is the sign of the Guru who knows his mission. On the other hand such Gurus ignore and tolerate evil in the would-be donors, because they are afraid any condemnation will dry up their source of income. Thus, they ruin the disciples by desisting from giving them the drastic drug they need, urgently, for their spiritual health. It has become a tragic comedy this hunt for moneyed disciples who can be fleeced. It has been developed by some sanyaasis (ascetics) into a fine art. The time has come to expose and punish such saadhus (noble souls) and that will be one task in the Dharmasthaapana (establishment of righteousness) for which I have come. The brokers that these Gurus have scattered over the country have also to be broken.
SSS 1.31: 29 September 1960, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume01/sss01-31.pdf
Yet, through his claims that it is Sathya Sai Baba speaking through him, Madhusudan has made Baba out to be a hypocrite who is doing exactly what He condemned other gurus for doing.
For all of those who are devoted to Sathya Sai Baba, it is important to remember that He long ago warned us that there would be those who set up institutions in His name while seeking fame and fortune. He said that they would not care for truth and righteousness and would engage in actions which He didn't authorise:
Talking of names, let me mention this too. Some persons who do not care for truth or righteousness might adopt the name Sathya Sai, raise institutions in that name; they crave only the outer shell of fame and fortune; but you must know that they are unconnected with Me and are engaged in acts which I have not authorised.
SSS 12.9: 24 March 1973, http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume12/sss12-09.pdf
Looking at the many discrepancies between the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba and the claims of Madhusudan Naidu, who will you trust? Sathya Sai Baba, or the person who now flies around the world contradicting Baba while claiming to speak for Him?
But now, those who come, they don’t expect to see Me in Puttaparthi, they are happy seeing Mahasamadhi. They are happy doing pranaams there and going back, and they are not looking for Me at all. So now I am free to travel wherever I want. I am retired from that job and now I am free. Now I have come wherever I was called.
Madhusudan Naidu, Japan, 15 March 2015,
http://reconnectsrisathyasai.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/the-question-and-answer-session-at-tokyo.html
Madhusudan also seeks to give the impression that Sathya Sai Baba has retired from other things, such as His lifelong commitment to Truth, His repeated commitment that He would never leave Puttaparthi under any circumstances, His commitment to unity of thought, word and deed through upholding His own teachings, His repeated commitment to setting India in order before traveling around the world and His oft-repeated lifelong commitment that He would never ever cheapen Himself by asking anyone for money, under any circumstances.
Madhusudan and his followers are also using one single, solitary, short statement made by Sathya Sai Baba at Mahashivarathri 2007 in order to justify his flying to other countries to gather donations:
I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly.
SSS 40.5: 16 February 2007, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume40/sss40-05.pdf
While Sathya Sai Baba did say that He would undertake a world tour, He did not say specifically when, nor did He make plans for this to happen as He did every other time He was intending to undertake a tour. So what did Baba mean by undertaking a world tour? We have to remember that Baba was not just the physical body we saw in Puttaparthi and He was not limited to only traveling the way we do. On previous occasions when devotees asked Baba when He would visit their country, He would sometimes ask in reply, "Do I need a plane to come to your country?”
For example, the following event happened at Mahashivarathri in 1962. After bringing out the lingam, Baba stayed seated, seemingly stiff and unresponsive for 55 minutes, having 'left His body' as He used to do in those days. Those around Him thought that He must have gone to the rescue of a devotee in danger. After 50 minutes people were getting anxious and some devotees were in tears. Finally, after 55 minutes Baba seemed to regain awareness of His surroundings:
Fifty five ... Ah ... a slight movement of the fingers ... of the left hand! The hand came down ... I broke into tears ... His eyes opened ... He saw! He smiled! Fear and doubt vanished shamefacedly from the gathering. Baba rose ... the fateful minutes were over!
Baba went into the Nilayam, and when some of us, including Dr. Bhagavantham followed Him, He said that He had gone on a Manasa-sanchara (mind tour), round the World!
He went in order to give signs in every home or hall where Sivarathri was celebrated that hour, that the Lord is here, that His Grace is available in plenty for all who need it, and pray for it, with pure and sincere faith.
SSSun Vol 3, pp. 228-229, http://www.vahini.org/downloads/sathyamsivamsundaram-III.html#delta-delight
While Madhusudan and his followers have taken one statement where Sathya Sai Baba said that He would go on a world tour, they do not mention the multiple instances where Sathya Sai Baba explained that He would not travel to other countries until He had finished His work of renewing India. In 1974, Dr Samuel Sandweiss asked Baba when He would come to America:
"When will you come to America?" I asked.
"Before one can go out to others he has to put his own home in order," He replied,
"and some gurus have given the Indian holy man a questionable reputation."
Dr Samuel Sandweiss, Sai Baba The Holy Man and the Psychiatrist, p.231
Baba said the same thing to Dr John Hislop when he asked the same question in an interview prior to 1977:
Hislop: Swami, please excuse this question, but it is in everyone's mind. Will Swami come to America soon?
SAI: Baba will delay until a further base is built in America . However, I can go informally anytime. The devotee need only call me and I will appear at once. Swami has his work to renew India. This must be finished before he is willing to do the same in a foreign country. People generally go to a foreign country with a desire of some sort. Baba has no desire. Of course foreign individuals come to Baba.
CWBSSSB p.50, or http://media.radiosai.org/journals/Vol_03/10OCT01/conversation.htm
This was a consistent answer from Baba - that He would first put India right before traveling to other countries. Twenty-four years after Dr Sandweiss asked his question, Baba was still giving the same reply:
Questioner: Do you have any plans to visit foreign nations and spread your message?
Swami: No. Where there is sugar, the ants come there; the sugar does not go chasing after the ants. My first task is to clean up our own country first, then go to other countries.
Interview with the Times of India, 11 August 1998, quoted in Sathya Sai the Supreme Master, p.270, or https://m.facebook.com/SaiCentre/photos/a.77737568903.74606.6624363903/10153735128038904/
Dr Choudhary Voleti once asked Sathya Sai Baba when He would come to America. Baba made it clear that He would not travel and used the analogy of ants coming to sugar, rather than sugar going to the ants. He also spoke to Dr Voleti about those who collect money in the name of spirituality:
Once, a group of devotees from the US approached Dr. Choudhary Voleti (former director of SSSIHMS and ardent devotee of Bhagawan) and asked him, "Sir, when you go to Parthi, can you please ask Swami when He will come and visit America?" So Dr. Voleti agreed and, in his next trip to Prasanthi Nilayam, asked Swami in the veranda, "Swami, when will you visit America?" he asked. Swami immediately smiled and replied, "Choudhary, ants always gather around sugar. Sugar never goes to the ants!" The message was loud and clear. He attracts all of us to Him and brings us all to His Lotus Feet.
So Dr. Voleti conveyed this message to that group of American devotees who had prompted him to ask that question. But they were not satisfied; they once again convinced him to try asking Swami the same question yet again. So in Dr. Voleti's next trip to Parthi, he asked Swami once again, "Swami, when are you going to visit the US?" Swami this time smilingly answered, "Why should I go there? You have lots of $50 and $100 gurus with you there." Dr. Voleti was puzzled hearing this statement, and was wondering what Swami was referring to. So he just brushed that statement aside and returned to the US.
One day, his local Balaji temple was conducting a special yagna which Dr. Voleti had himself been instrumental in organizing. A so-called "guru" was presiding over that yagna. On the commencing day of the homam, one of the main organizers approaches Dr. Voleti and says, "Sir, before you sit down, kindly give us $52." So Dr. Voleti goes to the hundi to give the requested donation, and then proceeds to the site of the yagna. As he approaches, this so-called "guru" announces, "Only yajumanis (donors) who have donated $50 can sit close to this yagna. Everyone else must sit back!"
The moment this was said, Swami's words - "You have enough $50 and $100 dollar gurus in the US!"- rang in Dr. Voleti's ears. The message then came very clearly: Swami was not one to mix with frauds and cheap businessmen who go around asking for money in the name of religion and spirituality. He was here to give and not take and therefore was not to be associated with them!
But the story does not even end here. Again this group of American devotees pestered Dr. Voleti to try Swami once again and ask Him the same question that he had already asked Swami two times previously. So Dr. Voleti once again returned to Parthi, sat in the veranda, and for a third time asked, "Swami, when are You visiting America?" Swami this time laughed and said, "But Choudhary, I am already there in the US!" Dr. Voleti was even more confused with this answer. What did Swami mean by He being already there? So he just kept quiet and once again brushed it aside.
Two days later, there was some function and prasadam was being distributed. As part of that prasadam, each devotee in the veranda received a beautiful pocket-sized picture of Swami. As soon as Swami came out of the interview room, all of those seated in the veranda began stretching out their hands, holding the picture of Swami they had received in the hopes that Swami would sign each of them. So each devotee was trying to stretch their picture out more than the other, and Dr. Voleti was no exception. Being rather tall, he had somewhat of a competitive advantage so to speak against the rest. But Swami had His own lesson to teach. Swami noticed Dr. Voleti stretching his picture out and remarked, “Choudhary, you have 2 pictures of Me in every room in your house at America. Why do you want this one to be signed?”
At that moment, Dr. Voleti realized, truly Swami was with him in America. How else could He know such a personal detail? Indeed, Swami proved Himself to be with Dr. Voleti and with each of us, whether we live in Parthi or in the United States.
How beautifully Swami taught each of us through Dr. Voleti such profound lessons! First: He attracts us all to Him, being the Supreme Magnet, the sugar of all sweetness. Second: He is in no way comparable to those who claim to be gurus and Swamis and yet travel across the globe begging for money…He is the eternal Sadguru and Jagadguru, come to grant us all the highest gift of liberation. And finally third: He need not come all the way to the US, for He is already here and everywhere, in the hearts of each one who calls out to Him with faith and surrender.
Let us not merely install Him as pictures in our rooms, but let us firmly install Him in our hearts. Swami used to say of the Gopikas, “Krishna was imprinted on their hearts, just like a picture is imprinted on a piece of paper.” May we too imprint Him in our hearts just like that so that we can see Him, hear Him, feel Him, enjoy Him, and experience the bliss of complete oneness with Him. May Swami bless each of us with the grace to practice these lessons in our daily lives. Jai Sai Ram!
https://www.facebook.com/notes/karan-dewan/when-will-swami-visit-america-an-experience-by-dr-voleti/626748267657309/?hc_ref=ARQhoQHzha81A0NozMUTVZGVPYP9WEAlQWvUcYho9ykOEpYz20_7hM5qOg_Xk88o6_8&fref=gs&dti=252014961876161&hc_location=group
Another statement by Baba during Buddha Purnima 2005 has been used by Madhusudan and his supporters to justify their visits to Sri Lanka:
Very soon I will visit Sri Lanka and bestow eternal bliss on all of you (thunderous applause). In the present situation, it is difficult for Me to walk. However, difficulty is only for the body. It comes and goes. I do not care for such physical constraints. I will certainly come to your country very soon and fulfil your long cherished dream. Right from a child to an old man, devotees in Sri Lanka think of Swami always. Your prayers and penance will certainly find fulfilment very soon.
SSS 38.12: 23 May 2005, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume38/sss38-12.pdf
Yet the next day Sathya Sai Baba told His translator, Professor K Anil Kumar, that devotees would have to come and visit Him in Prashanti Nilayam, that He would not go to them. Baba again used the analogy of the sugar and the ants that He had been saying since the 1970's:
Once, Swami said to a group of devotees "I will come to Sri Lanka". It was Buddha Purnima. He said "I will visit Sri Lanka."
(Ail Kumar thought) I am also a selfish man. If He goes to Sri Lanka, I can follow Him, because I will have a chance to translate His talks. Next day I asked "Swami, when are they taking You to Sri Lanka?"
Baba said, "Taking Me? Nobody on Earth can take Me! All have to come under the umbrella, under the shade of Sathya Sai in Prasanthi Nilayam. Nobody can take Me! The whole world must come here. I am not that type of a guru to go around everywhere. Here is jaggery or sugar. All ants come to jaggery or sugar, but sugar won't go to the ants! All My devotees come to Me: I am the sugar, this is Prasanthi Nilayam.
Talk by Professor K Anil Kumar, Indonesia, October 2011 quoted in Divine Vibrations, p.78
Why would Baba say that He is coming to Sri Lanka and then say later that He would not? We have to remember that Baba said that whatever He speaks is truth. Since He has said that He will visit Sri Lanka, this will definitely happen. But He also said that His timing is not the same as ours. Since He also said that all have to come to Him in Prashanti Nilayam, it may mean that His visit to Sri Lanka will happen in His incarnation as Prema Sai Baba.
This method of speaking about things He would do in His next incarnation is consistent with what Baba did while at Shirdi. Shirdi Sai Baba would also talk about things that would happen only in His incarnation as Sathya Sai Baba. Shirdi Sai Baba used to sing a song asking 'playful Rama' to bring sacks of 'udi' or vibhuthi. Shirdi Sai did not give out sacks of udi, nor did Rama. Baba was singing about His own future incarnation, Sathya Sai Baba:
Sai Baba often sang a song on the Udi, a song, which has become immortal, since He sang it "RamatheRaam! Raam! Aayoji, aayoji! UdiaonkigoniaLaayoji, laayoji!" (O, playful Rama, come, come! sacks of Udi, bring, bring.) Who is the Rama that is called upon by Sai Baba to bring sacks of Udi? Rama of the Ramayana did not distribute Udi as a mark of His Grace. Udi was Baba's own special gift, His unique means of alleviating man's physical and mental ills. So, it is a call into the future; for, Baba at Shirdi did not stack the Udi and carry bags of it. It is a peep into the present time, when we find Baba moving between long lanes of men and women with a bag or basket of Udi packets and placing a few in the outstretched palms of hundreds and thousands, in towns and villages all over the land!
SSSun Vol 2, pp.149-150, http://www.vahini.org/downloads/sathyamsivamsundaram-II.html#incrediblestill
Also, in 1997 and again in 2000, Sathya Sai Baba gave discourses in which He said that He would not travel to other countries. This seems to lend credence to the idea that He intends for this to happen in His incarnation as Prema Sai Baba:
For the past 60 years, the overseas devotees have been requesting Swami to come to their respective countries. On many occasions, they brought special planes. Even now they have chalked many programs for Swami to go round the world. But I have no such intentions. What is not in Bharat is not anywhere else. Therefore, Swami has decided not to go to any foreign land.
Divine Discourse on 16 October 1999, Sanathana Sarathi May 2000, p.150
Many people invite me often to visit other countries. I do not like to go abroad before setting this country right and transforming its citizens. Many people go abroad begging for money. Many also resort to begging in the name of Svaami. Svaami has absolutely no selfish motive. You must serve your mother country first.
SSS 30.16: 18 July 1997, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume30/sss30-16.pdf
Yet Madhusudan and his entourage now claim that Sathya Sai Baba travels the world with them in an invisible subtle body. They claim that during these tours, Madhusudan's subtle body version of Sai Baba asks them to found trusts and foundations which then ask for money in Baba’s name, thus contradicting Baba's own teachings. Madhusudan Naidu has also said that before Sathya Sai Baba's subtle body can be invited to a country, Mr B. N. Narasimhamurthy's permission must also be obtained:
Question: Swami, would you like to visit us in Chihuahua, Mexico?
Swami: Next year. I am very happy to come to Mexico. You must take Narasimha Murthy’s permission, too!
Madhusudan Naidu, Encinitas, 20 June 2015
This seems strange as Sathya Sai Baba never required anyone else's permission to travel or do anything during His lifetime. When Baba travelled to Africa in 1968, He not only did it without seeking permission, He went there despite the fact that many didn’t want Him to go! When Baba announced the hospitals and water projects, He didn't ask for permission. When He began building schools and colleges there were some who objected that it was not the job of an Avatar to do this. Yet He never sought permission and simply did what He knew to be right. Why would Baba now need the permission of one of His own devotees before making a decision?
Sathya Sai Baba said repeatedly that He would not travel to other countries until He had reformed India, a mission which is still unfinished. What did Baba say about those who travel abroad gathering donations in His name?
There are some people who are doing business in the Name of Sai. They are cheating others, pretending to be devotees of Sai. I do not approve of such behaviour. They are not devotees at all. They are going to different parts of the country and also abroad to make money in the name of Sai. It is a big crime. I do not ask for even a single paisa from others. I never approve of such business. Whoever it may be, if somebody approaches you with such a crass motive, tell him to get out at once. Do not allow business to enter the field of spirituality. Swami never solicits donations from anybody, nor does He have agents for propagating His Message. I do not have any association whatsoever with these deceitful persons.
SSS 35.11: 22 July 2002, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume35/sss35-11.pdf
It is also worth noting that when Baba spoke in this same discourse about people misusing His name to earn money, He specifically mentioned that this was happening in countries which Madhusudan now regularly travels to:
One may do what one likes for the maintenance of one’s family, but nobody should do business using Sai’s name. Unfortunately, such activity is on the increase. In many villages, we find people misusing Sai’s name for their selfish gains. This is happening even in many other countries like America, England, Japan, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia. Do not associate yourself with such wicked people. Keep your hearts pure and sacred. Otherwise, you are equal to a living corpse. Such people should not be respected. Better you perform their obituary rites!
SSS 35.11: 22 July 2002, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume35/sss35-11.pdf
It is clear from history, as well as Sathya Sai Baba’s own statements on multiple occasions, made over a period of decades, that He did not intend to travel around the world in His incarnation as Sathya Sai.
It is even more clear that He deplored the actions of those who travel around the world asking for donations in His name. Baba Himself labeled this behaviour as a crime and said that those who do this are not devotees at all. He instructed His devotees not to associate themselves with people who do this, calling these donation seekers ‘wicked people.’
Through His warnings to us that He would never ask for money, Baba lovingly ensured that no Sai devotee who listened to His teachings would ever be deceived into handing over money to those who ask for donations in His name.
Yet Madhusudan Naidu and his supporters claim that now Baba Himself is using Madhusudan to travel around the world and ask for money. Below are a few of the websites for the many trusts and foundations started at Madhusudan’s request. It is evident that all of these are asking for money.
Ananda Trust Croatia - http://ananda-trust.org/en/donations
Ananda Cares Malaysia - https://anandacares.org/family-sponsorship/
Divine Will Foundation USA - https://www.divinewillfoundation.com/participate
Each One Educate One - https://eachoneeducateone.org/contribute/
Joy Villages Nigeria - https://www.joyvillages.org/get-involved/
Prasanthi Bala Mandira Trust - http://www.pbmt.org/Trustees (note that B N Narasimhamurthy was the founding trustee. Madhusudan is now a trustee as well).
Sai Prema Fiji - http://saipremafiji.com/international-advisory-board/ Note that Narasimhamurthy, Madhusudan, Tigrett and Sreenivas are all on the advisory board for this and other trusts such as the Divine Will Foundation. This trust sends out letters to businesses in Fiji each year, asking each business for twenty thousand dollar donations.
Sri Sathya Sai Annapurna Trust – India - https://annapoorna.org.in/annapoorna-contribution/
Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani - https://srisathyasaisanjeevani.org/get-involved/
Sri Sathya Sai Saraswathi Education Trust - http://www.sssset.org/ (Founded by B N Narasimhamurthy. Obtains donations through the Prasanthi Bala Mandira Trust which is currently under investigation by the government of Karnataka).
Sri Sathya Sai Divine Trust - http://www.girlseducationacademy.org.au/donate.html - All donations are sent to the Prashanti Bala Mandira Trust, which, as noted above, is run by Narasimhamurthy and Madhusudan Naidu.
Sri Sathya Sai Annapoorna Trust - http://contribute.annapoorna.org.in/
Sai Global Mission USA - http://saiglobalmission.org/donate.php
H2H foundation: https://www.h2h.foundation/
Jyothi Corp: https://www.jyothicorp.org/
By claiming that Sathya Sai Baba is now traveling around the world asking for money, along with the other words and actions they attribute to Baba’s invisible ‘subtle body,’ the Muddenahalli cult make Sathya Sai Baba out to be both a liar and a hypocrite.
They claim that Sathya Sai Baba was forced by illness to leave His body, even though Baba said that illness could not even approach Him unless He willed it. They claim that because Baba was forced by illness to leave His body, He has gone back on His own statement on multiple occasions that He would never speak through anyone, that He has no need to use mediums and that He does not act like a ghost or evil spirit by possessing people. Madhusudan and his followers claim Sathya Sai Baba has falsified His repeated promises to never leave Puttaparthi under any circumstances and is now staying in Muddenahalli. They claim that Sathya Sai Baba is living in Muddenahalli in a subtle body, even though this falsifies Sathya Sai Baba’s own statements that the subtle body disintegrates after death and it is the causal body which survives.
They claim that Sathya Sai Baba failed to complete His mission before being forced by illness to leave His body, again falsifying the words of Baba Himself, who said that Avatars only leave their bodies when they have completed their mission. Baba Himself said in 2006 that He had completed His mission, however this hasn’t stopped Madhusudan from denigrating his own guru, by claiming that Baba only completed 20% of His Mission during the time He was in the body, nor has it prevented him from promoting himself by claiming that Baba is using him to complete 80% of His mission.
Sathya Sai Baba taught that all are one. He taught that there is no high and low, since all are one. He spent His life striving to promote loving unity amongst His devotees in the organisations which He founded and get rid of our ideas of difference, of being better or worse than others. Through His teachings and His organisations, Baba sought to promote unity in humanity. However, Madhusudan claims that his followers are higher, purer and more spiritually evolved than those who don’t believe Madhusudan’s claims because they trust the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba. He belittles those who disbelieve him because they choose to trust Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings, claiming that they are like people who leave a film during the intermission. He says that those who only trust Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings will only ever know half of the truth about Him, while Madhusudan’s followers will know the whole truth. Madhusudan claims that those who choose to trust Sathya Sai Baba over himself are stuck in their minds, that they are like drunkards, that they lack humility, that they think they already know everything, are fearful of sharing Baba and are untruthful.
Through these teachings and others, it is clear that in his few short years as Baba’s claimed ‘communicator,’ Madhusudan has done his very best to sow discord, disunity and division. By doing this while claiming it is Sathya Sai Baba who is making these divisive statements, Madhusudan paints Sathya Sai Baba as a hypocrite.
The service activities undertaken by the Muddenahalli group are used to justify their claims that Sathya Sai Baba is speaking through Madhusudan. Madhusudan’s followers are very fond of holding up their service projects as proof of Baba’s presence. But projects are proof of donors, not divinity.
Muddenahalli’sservice activities imitate those of Sathya Sai Baba, but they deviate from his teachings in a few very crucial ways. First, they are initiated under the direction of power-hungry leaders. While the innocent devotees who are caught up in them may be sincere, these projects are initiated with an eye for publicity and promoted with overt self-aggrandizement in view. As a result, their projects are heavily publicised in the media, via their social media accounts and those of their followers, via their websites, their YouTube channel, newsletters and magazines, etc. The fact that they claim to act under the direction of Sathya Sai Baba portrays Baba as being a hypocrite, since He said that service should be selfless, that it should not seek publicity, that it should be done silently and seek no reward of any kind. Baba also said that service performed for self-aggrandizement, competition or ostentation actually pollute the sacred sadhana of service:
All acts of service are not equally sanctifying or uniform in the benefits they confer. When service is undertaken by power-hungry people, or under compulsion or by imitative urges, it results in more harm than good. Self-aggrandizement or competition or ostentation are motives that will pollute the sacred Sadhana of Service. The candidate for this Sadhana has to avoid Ahamkara (egotism), Adambara (exhibitionism) and Abhimana (favouritism).
SSS 19.25: 21 November 1986, http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume19/sss19-25.pdf
The sixth quality is SarvarambhaParithyaagi (renunciation of all undertakings). This means that there should be no ostentation or showing off in any undertaking by a devotee. Unless ostentation is given up, egoism will not leave. The ego must be eliminated to purify the heart. No good deed can be done without purity in the heart. It is through sacred deeds that the heart is purified.
Ostentation is a demonic quality. It encourages egoism and megalomania. One should seek to acquire a good name through selfless service alone. It should be done with humility and sincerity. One who aspires to become a national leader must first know how to render service. He should not seek office or position. The Sai Organisations have been set up for rendering service and not to establish official positions. Selfless service should be done out of a sense of duty.
SSS 23.31: 20 November 1990, http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume23/sss23-31.pdf
Since these activities pollute the sadhana of service, they are also polluting those who engage in those service projects, whether they are aware of it or not.
Madhusudan’s claimed devotion to Baba and self-implied status as a pure soul has also not prevented Madhusudan from belittling his own guru, the Avatar of the Age, Sathya Sai Baba, as only being a teacher of primary school level spirituality and denigrating His abode at Puttaparthi as only being like a primary school. Nor has Madhusudan’s much publicised humility prevented him from claiming both that he is teaching high school level spirituality and that Muddenahalli is a spiritual high school. For the record, Sathya Sai Baba said that from age 60 He was teaching Advaita (non-dualism) since His devotees had already crossed the primary and high school levels. It seems this is something Madhusudan may be unaware of.
Clinging desperately to one short statement in which Baba said that He would undertake a world tour, Madhusudan and his followers claim that Sathya Sai Baba is now traveling the world while speaking through Madhusudan. They conveniently ignore the many times when Sathya Sai Baba said that He would not travel to other countries until he had put India in order.
These flights around the world are paid for by devotees in different countries, falsifying Baba’s repeated statements that He only gave, never took. During these flights around the world, Madhusudan claims that Sathya Sai Baba is asking for money, falsifying Baba’s repeated statements that He would never ask for money under any circumstances, that whatever He needed for His Avataric Mission came from within only. Baba also said that whenever He decided on a project, the required funds came automatically, without any need for the kind of fund-raising campaigns which Muddenahalli indulges in.
When I decide on a project, the wherewithal for accomplishing has to be spontaneously available without any fund raising campaign. My will has the power to concretise my plan.
SSS 18.25: 23 November 1985, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume18/sss18-25.pdf
I have not stretched My hand before anyone till date for any kind of help. If there is anyone in this vast concourse of devotees in this hall whom I had approached for money, they may rise and point out to Me. There is none, surely. Whatever I need in My Avataric Mission comes from within only.
SSS 41.18: 23 November 2008, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume41/sss41-18.pdf
Baba also said that there are many generous people around the world and that if he did ask for money, then there would be a shower of money. However, Baba said that He didn’t want to become cheap by asking for money.
There are many men of sacrifice in this world. But I did not ask anyone. If only I ask, there will be a shower of money. But I do not like to become cheap by asking.
SSS 32 pt 2.2: 28July 1999, http://www.saidarshan.org/baba/docs/d990728.html
And by claiming that Sathya Sai Baba is flying around the world and asking for money, Muddenahalli do to Baba exactly what Baba said He didn’t want - they cheapen Him, making him out to be just one more in the long line of money-hungry preachers whom the world has seen too many of already.
This agenda to make money from Sathya Sai Baba has been there right since the beginning. In his very first speech in 2014, Madhusudan praised a number people for donating land or money – Tigrett, Ram Shetty, Narasimha Murthy, Sreenivas and Kishore. Thus, Madhusudan set the standard of the kind of devotees he desired – the wealthy or influential. Then he confirmed that this is what he was looking for, by blasphemously implying that Sathya Sai Baba and His mission were dependent on the donations of rich men, claiming that without them, Baba’s Mission would have failed:
Because of such people only, Bhagawan’s mission is continuing, otherwise it would have stopped long, long ago.
Madhusudan Naidu, Kodaikanal, 13 May 2014,
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/el-despertar-sai/XgUrvKDMsm0
Sathya Sai Baba condemned the behaviour of Gurus who accumulate wealth by publicly praising their followers in the way Madhusudan is doing:
Some gurus have so much love, even toward their pupils. When aspirants go to them asking for guidance, they praise them to the skies, exaggerate their attainments, and grant them titles(!), which are paraded by the unfortunate victims. In this way, the disciples are burdened by additional handicaps to spiritual advance. The gurus want money for various purposes, so they always have an eye on the purses of the disciples. They try to draw out the money by grants of titles or by public praise or by promise of public recognition — all worldly baits, which are derogatory to the principle of non-attachment that they teach and stand for.
Let the Gurus condemn the accumulation of wealth and blame them for the misuse they are making of it; let them be unsparing in their condemnation; that is the sign of the Guru who knows his mission. On the other hand such Gurus ignore and tolerate evil in the would-be donors, because they are afraid any condemnation will dry up their source of income. Thus, they ruin the disciples by desisting from giving them the drastic drug they need, urgently, for their spiritual health. It has become a tragic comedy this hunt for moneyed disciples who can be fleeced. It has been developed by some sanyaasis (ascetics) into a fine art. The time has come to expose and punish such saadhus (noble souls) and that will be one task in the Dharmasthaapana (establishment of righteousness) for which I have come. The brokers that these Gurus have scattered over the country have also to be broken.
SSS 1.31: 29 September 1960, http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume01/sss01-31.pdf
Yet, through his claims that it is Sathya Sai Baba speaking through him, Madhusudan has made Baba out to be a hypocrite who is doing exactly what He condemned other gurus for doing.
For all of those who are devoted to Sathya Sai Baba, it is important to remember that He long ago warned us that there would be those who set up institutions in His name while seeking fame and fortune. He said that they would not care for truth and righteousness and would engage in actions which He didn't authorise:
Talking of names, let me mention this too. Some persons who do not care for truth or righteousness might adopt the name Sathya Sai, raise institutions in that name; they crave only the outer shell of fame and fortune; but you must know that they are unconnected with Me and are engaged in acts which I have not authorised.
SSS 12.9: 24 March 1973, http://sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume12/sss12-09.pdf
Looking at the many discrepancies between the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba and the claims of Madhusudan Naidu, who will you trust? Sathya Sai Baba, or the person who now flies around the world contradicting Baba while claiming to speak for Him?
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