Sai Baba exposed by Ex–Central Coordinator of Sathya Sai Organisation, Australia

[Guest guest]

TERRY GALLAGHER'S TESTIMONY

Ex–Central Coordinator of Sathya Sai Organisation, Australia.

(Source: Terry Gallagher's letter to Faye and David Bailey, The

Quarterly, UK,)

 

What began as a wonderful spiritual journey ended with total

disbelief and bitter disappointment when we found out the truth.

Perhaps I should start at the beginning with a brief account of that

journey. After reading a book called Man of Miracles, I set off for

India (and Puttaparthi) with my wife and three young daughters, in

an organised group for Christmas 1983.

 

What we found when we arrived in India was something I had been

searching for all my life: the most beautiful, peaceful atmosphere,

with wonderful people searching for their own spiritual truth,

living in a community whose whole objective was that of improving

self-awareness and achieving self-realisation through the teachings

of a living guru—Sai Baba.

 

Adjacent to the ashram, and provided free of cost to the students,

was a primary school for boys and girls, and various colleges for

boys where spiritual teachings were incorporated into the normal

academic disciplines.

 

We were all very impressed and motivated towards learning as much as

possible about what Sai Baba had to teach us.

 

The celebration of Christmas came and went, after which our family

was called for an interview with Sai Baba. As a result of this

interview and what appeared at the time to be the most perfect

environment for students and devotees to advance their spiritual

lives, I made a substantial donation to the Central Trust to help

them fund their educational programs.

 

Upon leaving the interview, I was told by Sai Baba that I should sit

on the verandah of the mandir in future, with students from the

colleges and other devotees. As it turned out, this gave me the

opportunity to meet people and observe events very closely that I

otherwise might not have had the opportunity to do.

 

We all had mixed feelings when we had to leave the ashram and return

to Australia—sad in having to leave, and joy in what we had

experienced. We returned to the ashram again in 1985 for one month;

and then in 1986 we stayed for seven months, at which time our

daughters attended Sai Baba's school.

 

It was during this time that I began to observe things that made me

question what I had experienced on previous visits. Having a

scientific background, I began to observe a set routine that Sai

Baba followed each morning and evening during darshan and, in

particular, how he materialised vibhuti (holy ash).

 

I will never forget the look of anguish on Sai Baba's face when he

came onto the verandah of the mandir early one morning and dropped

two vibhuti pellets in front of me as he attempted to accept a rose

from a college student. There was no vibhuti materialisation during

darshan that morning!

 

In the months that followed, I observed how he transferred these

vibhuti pellets from one hand to the other, using the letters he

collects from devotees to disguise his movements. In the many

interviews that followed, I also observed more than thirty instances

of rings, " diamonds " , japamalas, vibhuti containers, etc., all being

produced by sleight of hand and deception.

 

At first I kept this information to myself. I reasoned that if this

was what made people come to see Sai Baba, resulting in their

becoming more spiritual, what harm could it do? Eventually I told my

wife and children, who also saw through this " materialisation "

trickery. It was the observations and information that followed on

from these initial findings that concerned me most, especially those

relating to students being sexually interfered with in grotesque

ways by Sai Baba.

 

We returned to the ashram several times during the following years,

making further observations and having these confirmed by college

students and long-term devotees living at the ashram. During this

time, I was the Central Coordinator for three years for the Sathya

Sai Organisation in Australia.

 

It wasn't until 1993, following the [6 June] assassination attempt

on Sai Baba, resulting in the murder of four college students and

two assistants in the mandir, that we made our last visit to India.

The purpose of this visit was to find the reason why former students

of Sai Baba's college would want to kill him, particularly when they

had been given a free education!

 

The eyewitness accounts were horrific! After bursting into the

mandir, four students found themselves trapped upstairs where Sai

Baba was staying. Each was interrogated by police, then one at a

time they were executed. The stench of death was everywhere.

 

I made further inquiries about Sai Baba having sexual relations with

college boys and male students—some of these as young as seven

years of age—and whether this was the reason for former students

wanting to kill him. I was told, to my horror, that this was an

acceptable Indian practice!

 

I felt sick, and just wanted to take my family and leave the ashram

and India as quickly as possible.

 

Before we did, we were all called for interview with Sai Baba, and

we told him what we had experienced and been told.

 

Sai Baba made no comment on our accusations and was only anxious to

know who had told us these details, requesting us to tell him

several times! Having had dozens of interviews over the years, this

was the most stressful and uncomfortable interview our family had

ever experienced.

 

Sai Baba was tense and agitated, and his body language told us all

that what we had found out about him was the truth! We left the

interview and returned to Australia.

 

The following years were very difficult spiritually; we concentrated

on all the positive aspects we had experienced over the past ten

years and found this comforting.

 

When we attempted to tell others about our experiences and the truth

about Sai Baba, no one would believe us, except those who had also

had similar experiences—and mostly fear prevents them from

telling others.

 

It has only been in the past twelve months that former students and

devotees of Sai Baba have begun communicating with each other,

confirming experiences to be true and supporting each other

spiritually and emotionally when necessary.

 

I now know the truth about Sai Baba and sincerely pray that others,

too, will follow both their logic and intuition and also find the

truth.

 

Terry Gallagher

Ex–Central Coordinator of Sathya Sai Organisation, Australia.

(Source: Terry Gallagher's letter to Faye and David Bailey, The

Quarterly, UK,)