218 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
218 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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| File Name : SAIBABA.ASC | Online Date : 06/10/95 |
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| Contributed by : InterNet | Dir Category : UNCLASS |
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| From : KeelyNet BBS | DataLine : (214) 324-3501 |
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| A FREE Alternative Sciences BBS sponsored by Vanguard Sciences |
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| KeelyNet * PO BOX 870716 * Mesquite, Texas * USA * 75187 |
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| Voice/FAX : (214) 324-8741 InterNet - keelynet@ix.netcom.com |
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| WWW Mirror - http://www.eskimo.com/~billb |
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The following text seeks to dispel some of the many negative claims regarding
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the Indian holy man, Sai Baba. If you get an opportunity to see some of the
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video tapes made of him, take it, they are intriguing at the least.
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Keep in mind that energy can be slowed to mass and vice versa. If aether is
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omnipresent in varying densities, then it could be concentrated and slowed by
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sustained mental force to aggregate into a mentally produced physical pattern.
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Mind over matter is a reality and an everyday occurrence, proved by the very
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fact that you can move your arms or legs from a single thought. Why could
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this mental force not be extensible to control energy or external mass? Just
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keep this in mind when you are exposed to some of the phenomena claimed to be
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produced by Sai Baba.............................>>> Jerry/Sysop/KeelyNet
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220 114108 <ROx-UlX.bongiovanni@delphi.com> article
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Path: ix.netcom.com!noc.netcom.net!simtel!news.kei.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!
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uhog.mit.edu!sgiblab!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!news2.near.net!news.
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delphi.com!usenet
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From: Bon_Giovanni EarthSpirit.org <bongiovanni@delphi.com>
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Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
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Subject: Re: Info on Sai Baba?
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Date: Tue, 30 May 95 05:55:27 -0500
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Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice)
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Lines: 170
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Message-ID: <ROx-UlX.bongiovanni@delphi.com>
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References: <3q2js0$61v@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
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NNTP-Posting-Host: bos1f.delphi.com
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X-To: COLLinda <collinda@aol.com>
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____ __ ___ ____ __ _ _
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/ ___) / \ ( )| __ \ / \ | \ / |
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\___ \ | () | | | | / | () | | \\// |
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(____/ |_||_|(___)|_|\_\ |_||_| |_|\/|_|
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Though its colour be not deep and its smell
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be faint, use this flower in thy service and
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pluck it while there is time.
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- Tagore
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Intuition is fun. I happened to scan this newsgroup tonight, and am delighted
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to find this subject heading. (I rarely come across the name Sai Baba on the
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Net.) I offer thanks to Linda Nelson, Atanu Dey, and Gerald Huber for
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establishing this thread about him. They have made straight the way, allowing
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me a rare opportunity to talk about him on this newsgroup. Thanks to Linda
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who asked for data about Sai Baba; to Atanu who suggested me as a contact
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[thanks, Atanu!]; and to Gerald who reposted two reprints about the Baba.
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Linda implied it was somewhat difficult to obtain data about Sathya Sai Baba.
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If she likes, I can help out with places to find data on him, starting with
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Lexis/Nexis (1 800 543 6862), and the public library of most major cities.
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Finding the data is not a problem: the hard part is finding UNbiased info
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about him. That may be because the Swami requests his friends not to publicise
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him, nor evangelize in any wise, nor even praise him in public, and never to
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defend him. He suggests folks who appreciate him do well to simply not
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discuss him with the curious or with doubters - and as a result most of what
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one hears about him is from those who are curious or critical of him.
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Wherever I hear him discussed, I strive to discern who has facts and who posts
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fancy. Thus from long observation, I've noticed that hyperbole runs loud in
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both camps, pro and con, and if I join a conversation, I try to discern, point
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out, and offer what is fact distinct from fancy. (There are some
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conversations ya know that consist of no fact, no sincere inquiry, and those I
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usually do not attend.) Linda seems quite sincere in her quest, and two
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gentlemen have joined her, so I speak up now. I hope all agree that
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discerning fact from fancy is best when illuminating, but not fiery. I trust
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that all readers are eager to learn and share what's real without toasting
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anyone for it.
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Getting real, I've found that most folks who exaggerate about the Baba,
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praising or panning, are those who haven't met him. I also find that more
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often than not, the loudest critics, as a rule, have never talked privately
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with him.
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For example, Atanu Dey suggested at soc.culture.indian that a bullet in the
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head was the best thing for the Baba; in discussion with him I discovered Dey
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had never met the man, but apparently Atanu thought shooting him an apt hello.
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Later at alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, Dey advised his trigger finger itched
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because he had heard the Baba was a faggot. Soon after our conversation ended
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as Dey withdrew from both newsgroups.
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Atanu is not alone in his disgust with the Baba he has not met. Among
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published critics there are precious few who have ever even seen Sathya Sai
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Baba, fewer still who have met with him privately, or even at close quarters,
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and among those few, Tal Brooke, a born-again Christian author, is best known.
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Before he was saved, praise God, Tal lived in India in the Swami's isolated
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ashram, and speaks of his direct experience with the Baba at length in three
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novel exposes' (as well as on Christian tv shows like TBN and the 700 Club).
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His is by far the most exact critique about the Swami, and his statements
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deserve the attention of any who long for a first-hand report that is scathing
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in its denunciations, allegations, and observations.
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Tal reveals that not only is the Baba a sinister homosexual child molester,
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but also Satan incarnate. Tal says so again and again, and is convinced of
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that because, says Tal, the fellow does do miracles, raises the dead and so
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on, but only as Beelzebub, only as the Dark One, The Anti-Christ.
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Tal says he himself was once the chief and best disciple of the Baba, the man
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chosen to be the new Saint Paul who would preach Sai-inanity to the west. Tal
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does not say he left the Baba, very angry, when he was not so chosen, but five
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of the people with him at the time do say so.
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In his book Tal says he left only because Jesus came and saved him. Apparently
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Tal had not been listening when the Swami repeatedly said (and still says) he
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wants no Pauls, no evangelists, no preachers, none, zip. But at least Tal
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speaks of his own experience, as he recalls it. Almost every other critic in
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print bases his or her views instead on nothing but hearsay and rumour. Few
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detail any direct experience of their own, no documented facts, nor dates, nor
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witnesses, nor proof.
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That is why I say hyperbole seems to show up in both sides of the discussion
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regarding the Baba. For example, in her post, Linda suggested that Sai
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"claims 50 million devotees worldwide." That sounds to me like hyperbole.
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Where did Linda hear that? It's no small number of persons, and I wonder where
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those 50 millions hang out. I urge Linda to reveal the source of exactly
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where the Baba made that `claim'.
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(Did she hear him say that via a cassette, or a film, or a novel, or a
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newspaper, a tv show, or in person- how?) Where did she hear him say
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it?
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I ask for specifics because I find rumour and innuendo tend to vanish when due
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specificity is applied. (I am not saying Linda is exaggerating; I am asking
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for specifics, only. If she is right I will add the data accordingly; if she
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is in error, all can learn from that as well.)
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Linda advises that as far as she can find out, the Swami does little more than
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perform elementary prestidigitation, producing candy and trinkets out of thin
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air while the gullible watch in admiration. Gerald concurs, saying `exactly.'
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How do they know? Again I ask Linda (and Gerald) to be exact in detailing
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their data. How do they know what he does, and how do they know the folks who
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see him are so naive as to believe he is really doing miracles? There are
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certainly tricksters about, (David Copperfield is quite entertaining,) and
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there are gullible folks as well, but I ask for specifics from Linda and
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Gerald so I can determine clearly if I am in some wise now being tricked or
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taken for gullible myself.
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Both Linda, and Gerald, are asked to please offer some facts. The more
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specificity, the better.
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To that end is perhaps why Gerald posted two chestnuts: one somewhat over-
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served article from Dale Beyerstein, (an article which is not by Dale at all;
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it is a verbatim quote from a book by John Hislop, a man yet alive by the way
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and still writing books) and the other the threadbare reprint of excerpted
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minutes from a suit of B. Premanand, entitled `Satya Sai Baba and the Gold
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Control Act' which was laughed out of court and the Indian newspapers some
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many years back. (The story told by the taxmen who went to search the house of
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the Baba is far more entertaining than the lawsuit.)
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Another interesting read just about the same year as the lawsuit is from
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BLITZ, the Indian equivalent of the National Enquirer. The editor of that rag
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blasted the Baba on the front pages for months; issue after issue he ran
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various challenges and exposees. He finally went to meet the man himself, to
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show the Swami up as a con man. He was called in by the Baba for an interview,
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and on his return, the editor wrote in detail of his experiences with the
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Baba, again on the front page, and again for many issues. This time however,
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the reports were not a challenge to the Baba, but to the readers. The
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headlines went something like:
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GOD IS AN INDIAN.
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HIS NAME IS SATHYA SAI BABA.
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GO AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!
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BLITZ always specialized in weird headlines.
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Should Linda, or any reader wish to find precise data on the Swami, be advised
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there is thus far no central body keeping all published accounts, but finding
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material is not all that difficult, for in the matter of Sathya Sai Baba, a 70
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year old man living yet in the village of his birth, there are now more than
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three hundred books, nearly two thousand major press articles, 67 films,
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several governmentally funded television shows (UK, Japan, Netherlands,
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Thailand), and a lot of talk.
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I know cuz I've come across all those in the past 22 years, and surely there
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must be much more. Of the records I have studied first hand, there are some
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dozen which are critical to a point of hostility. Of those, only one is
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written by an eyewitness who spent more than a short time with the Baba. The
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rest are, to my mind, interesting speculations, but hardly scientific studies,
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rarely even sincere investigations. There are also a great many books and
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articles that are mostly hagiographic hyperbole.
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I have investigated the Swami closely, and watched him at first hand over many
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years in varied conditions and environments. I nose what I nose. In that
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state of mind, I have no desire to prove anything to you, nor to disprove
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anything. I am just speaking my peace here, and moving on. Should you wish
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further discussion regarding the person or teaching of Sri Sathya Sai Baba,
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you are welcome to attend soc.culture.indian in the thread entitled
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SANDEHA NIVARINI SATHYA SAI BABA DISSOLVING DOUBTS
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All best wishes
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*+*
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One odd thing that I would like explained to me.....several days ago, I went
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to see a movie that was preceded by the new 'Gumby' movie. As I sat through
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the closing credits, the following appeared on the screen;
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Dedicated to
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Sathya Sai Baba
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Love All; Serve All
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I thought it a very peculiar thing to be attached to a movie about Gumby and
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now find this file on the InterNet. Is this the Celestine Prophecy at work or
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simply coincidence? It's not everyday you hear or read something about Sai
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Baba in 'normal' circles.......................................>>> Jerry
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