Men and Godmen

G Ramakrishna

India, like many other countries, has produced luminaries of great repute. They have blazed the path of their successors. The illumination that they have provided has been a beacon of light for many a pathfinder. 

Every age has its own 'prophets' who, through their identification with the struggling people and consciousness for a change, have worked along the path of emancipation of the people. They have professed that there is no shortcut to salvation either of the individual or of the people as a whole. The rigours and the challenges must be faced before one realizes the pleasing and glorious objective.

The arduousness of the path and the dreamy quality of the mind might, however, occasionally make one averse to facing the challenges vigorously and boldly. This may lead to different forms of escapism and romanticism. Subjectivism and susceptibility to hallucinations also flow from this. Illusory notions of godmen are one of the manifestations of this irrational outlook.

Wittingly or otherwise, both the alleged godmen and their votaries bring fine grist to the huge mill of the exploitative machinery and perpetuate the evils of the class system. The tragic aspect of it all is that they persuade others to believe that any disgusting phenomenon could be sold as wholesome provide that the garb of spiritualism is used to mask the ugliness of the said phenomenon. The monopoly press and their proprietors are only too gleeful when they find some stuff which answers to this need.

The above observation is relevant in the context of the recent publication of a series of articles by the agents and spokesmen of an alleged godman in our country. It is interesting to note that India has the unique distinction of being infested with the maximum number of these godmen. Not to be accused of discrimination on the basis of sex, we have a good sprinkling of godwomen also. Whether these godmen and godwomen are also good men and women is beside the point, for they have declared in no uncertain terms that any such analysis of their personalities is only foolhardy, and only the arrogant attempt it.

After the Bangalore University initiated a programme of investigating the alleged miracles performed by some godmen who, incidentally, abound in the State of Karnataka, there has been a wild fire raging on behalf of one of hem, namely Sai Baba. The Brindavan, where the Baba lives while in Bangalore, is the abode where congregations of demonstrative and dubious natures take place. It is blessed with the presence of the divine Baba and those who like to bask in the sunshine of the Baba’s presence. Quite harmless as far as that. But the tall claims and the stunting of the sharp weapon of the people’s struggles that are planned and executed there from make us apprehensive.

The coterie which gathers around the Baba consists of heavily paid scientists of the country, who learn their science at the fee of the Baba, ignoring the fundamentals they might have learnt earlier (and also oblivious of the fact that they are being paid out of the public exchequer), top executives of the administration, a few public servants called Ministers, retired and serving educationists, and the mentors of all these, namely, the enterprising industrialists, monopolists, landlords, stooges who serve the imperialist machinations, and the immediate henchmen of all these. That is the real danger of the godman called Baba, although the devotees of the Baba may not recognize this ramification.

Nor do the innocent investigators of the alleged miracles of the Baba seem to recognize this. The manner in which the superstructure is being fortified for making the base of the most heinous variety of exploitation in our country stable at least for the time being is several times forgotten by even some well-meaning critics of the Baba and his ism which is ardently publicized by such stalwarts like Dr. V.K.Gokak, former Vice-Chancellor of the Bangalore University.

Dr. Gokak is an oxford product, eminent professor of English, Ex-director of the Central Institute of English, reputed literary critic and also a poet, exponent of Aurobindo, admirer of Coleridge, and ever so many other things. But he is now best describved as the disciple of the Baba. All his scholarship is utilized to ‘justify the way of the Baba to man’.

His second in this role is Dr. S.Bhagavantam, formerly connected with India’s Defence in an important capacity. A few other incumbents of the Indian Institute of Science holding very responsible positions are close to the Baba brotherhood.

Baba has devotees from the most unexpected quarters like, to wit, the editor of a Bombay weekly, R.K.Karania who has declared that salvation for the world is possible only through the good offices of the Baba. This editor is in the distinguished company of the “reputed” parliamentarian, industrialist and keyman of the Express group of newspapers, namely Sri Ramnath Goenka, who himself wrote a letter in the Indian Express pointing out the glory of the Baba and followed it up with a series of “scholarly” and “original” articles by Dr. Gokak, Dr. Bhagavantham and a host of other. A neat certificate from Goenka must be enough to accept the credibility of the Baba!

The Bangalore University launches a campaign and immediately the Goenka-KK Birla press launches a counter-campaign. Draw your own conclusions, and if you cannot explain the role of the Bombay weekly, Blitiz, (not of the Jain group, though) it is your headache. The Indian Express came out with a series of four articles by Gokak, and then Bhagavantham wrote on the scientific explorations into the lore of the Baba. And now Gokak has come out with a book on the Baba already reviewed with enthusiasm in the Baba press.

This hyper-activity is rather intriguing and, thus, it may be interesting to analyze the thesis presented so copiously by Gokak in what he might rightly consider to be his masterpiece. His breath-taking discoveries about the Baba, his analysis of spiritualism, his thoroughgoing master of the sciences and the social sciences whose total embodiment the Baba is, the immaculate ethics that Baba stand for and that Gokak understands, and other details are all worthy of the greatest attention if not also of the least acceptance.

It is rather strange that all these crusades should have become necessary for the Baba – a godman – simply because some man called the bluff abut the god! He needed the Gokaks, the Bhagavanthams and the Goenkas to defend himself. How could the Bombay editor Karanjia remain on the sidelines when so many worthies were battling for saving the honour of god alimighty?

Gokak avers that this godman called Sai Baba is an irresolvable enigma for any sincere analyzer. His countenance displays unfathomable expression climaxed by the aura created by the hair on his head. What Gokak seems to forge to tell us is what there might be or not be in the head of the Baba. But that need not be doubted at all because the Baba himself reads the letters addressed to him., no matter what language it is written in. Why the Baba should read them instead of simply divining the whole thing which would be so much more simple, we do not quite know.

The Baba also replies to the letters himself; provided presumably, that they are not about his alleged miracles as the letter of the Bangalore University which went unreplied, was. The present author’s letter about the affairs of the Sai Baba college remained unreplied, too. But that was theree fyears ago when the college had it whims unregulated. The problem must have been solved in the meeting the Baba reportedly hold to discuss matters relating to the college and hospital that the Baba runs.

It is a mild surprise that the godman cannot communicate his decisions or will in the best interests of the institutions without holding committee meetings in the afternoon like mundane mortals. It is unfortunate that some meetings of this kind should have proved abortive considering the way the institutions are run in some respects.

Gokak also give us a glimpse of the daily routine of the Baba. The itinerary reads like that of a philanthropic playback singer of the film world, which the Baba would have been if the illusions of godhood had been dispensed with.

The mission of life that the Baba has set for himself is “to uphold Dharma and the law, restore India to her former glory of spirit, and bring the world back to the message of Sprit” as Gokak puts it. The first part of it was also the life’s mission of the venerable M.S.Golwalkar who has left others to accomplish the task unfinished by him, and among them the total revolutionary Sri Jayaprakash Narayan.

Developing aversion towards the present because it involves hardship, to overcome which one has to fight collectively, is one avenue of escapism; it also serves the purpose of rationalizing the present as irredeemable, in which case the best compromise is acceptance of the situation as it presents itself. This is the philosophy which has chained the people of this country through the ages and the Baba and his cronies are the contemporary instruments of this ignoble philosophy which is given a fine coloring to hide its wretchedness. From this to the romanticisation of poverty and its causes is not a long road.

Further, the glib talk of the restoration of the glory of the past may sound nauseating to all students of history because of its being contrary to the laws of development of society, its civilization and culture. But Gokak and his likes need not bestow any attention to all these things, intoxicated with the godman consciousness as they are. And, thus, he resorts to the poetic flights of fancy when he declares with a flourish that in the Baba “one can find the healing touch of the Christ and the heart-easing speech of the Buddha”. We have no right to accuse Gokak of being a realist anyway.

The learned Dr. Gokak proceeds to point out that “the uniqueness of Baba lies in the fact that he did not have to practice any penance or achieve any Siddhi or realization in this life. He was born with them”. Like the Baba, possibly the disciples of the Baba are also born disciples!

How can they then acquire any new trait? Siddhis are hindrance to the development in the path of the achievement of Kaivalys (liberation) according to the author of the Yoga Sutras, whether the Siddhis are inborn or acquired. The right spiritual mould is also blunted with the manifestation of the Siddhis and if they are employed.

The Baba must have been fascinated by the Siddhis overmuch in order to sacrifice the higher spiritual path! If you claim that he is also the highest spiritual giant in spite of, or because of, the Siddhis, then it must be said that the Baba is caught in a bundle of contradictions in the traditional view.

All the same, the Baba is reputed as having performed the most astounding medical feats which are inexplicable in the background of the medical knowledge that we possess. Some skeptics might say that it is incredible more than being inexplicable.

In this connection, one could refer to the evidence tendered by a certain lad in the Bombay weekly which is giving publicity to the Baba. The lady “proved” that the Baba is divine in content by saying that her husband, a devotee of the Baba, was saved from getting killed in an accident by the will of the Baba. The said gentleman was to have traveled by some bus which later met with an accident. Lo and behold, the will of the Baba had intervened and the man had not traveled by that bus at all. Thus the man was saved. The lady visited the spot of the accident and found that the driver and other in the bus had been very badly injured.

The crucial question to prove the divinity of the Baba is not whether X was saved or not; the question is, why was the accident itself not averted? What a monstrous partiality of the godman if the saves his acquaintance and abandons the other one, a worker!

Such accidents take place only now; god did not ordain that such accidents should take place even now, say, in our villages which have yet to witness that change towards mechanization. God did not allow anyone to be killed in such accidents before the machine was invented by man. Man thus seems to be the ordainer of himself. And yet the Baba must be credited with the saving of some life. The incident really proves nothing about the Baba.

Added to that, the products of the alleged miracles of the Baba doled out as gifts to the coteries of his are not unknown or novel products. He gives, to wit, the Swiss Watches. The interesting part of it is that the disciples of the lower classes invariably get only ash; those of the higher classes may get gold rings, wrist watches, and images for worship. There is unfortunately no instances of the Baba having presented a meal as a miracle-products gift to anyone.

Dr. Gokak asserts that these gifts are made by the Baba only for drawing the disciples to the world of Spirit. What did Sri Ramakrishna present as gifts to draw other to the path of the spirit?

In this connection, we may refer to a rather reveling story. Adjacent to the Baba’s hermitage in Bangalore is a factory which makes ice-cream. The Baba gets his supply of ice cream from here. The erstwhile President of the Employees’ Union who dies in a tragic accident in May 1976, Comrade Gopi, once made a hold suggestion: “Why does the Baba take the ice-cream made by us, the workers? Let him come here and we shall give him all the raw materials used in the making of the ice-cream Let him then make his own cream. If he cannot make it with all the raw materials, what are the chances of his making without them? If he cannot make even ice cream with his much talked about miracles, are not the worker more skilful and useful?” The Baba, let us hope, will some day accept the challenge which is only a suggestion.

But Dr. Gokak is not given to this kind of a rational outlook. For him the colorful sentences of his are the last word. It seems to be forgotten that big imposing sentences by themselves do no not become convincing, in spite of Dr. Gokak. Hence his statement that “he (the Baba) can sport and prattle away like an innocent child and at the same time, be a more shrewd judge of men and events than any statesman or diplomat” remain unsubstantiated and unsubstantiable.

Gokak adds that the Baba is self-effacing and thus advised an American to wait for ten years before writing the biography of the Baba lest haste make for unpleasantness later on. It is surprising that the Baba did not tender the same advice to the Bombay editor or to Gokak. The latter has come out with a biography of the Baba with top speed after the controversy about the godman assumed a sizable proportion. Presumably, it was thought desirable to do so in order to somother “the vicious attack” on the godman!

The self-effacing Baba rose to the level of any ordinary being only the other day when he openly declared in a meeting in Lalbagh, Bangalore, that the moon does not blush if the dogs bark at it. He was referring to his moonness to justify his pride, and he is self-effacing, according to Gokak.

This world must, however, suffer the godman for a long time yet to come. Because he has decided to live on till the age of 96. He will be decaled to be 96 on the day of his death, we may guess. In any case, it means that his commitment to play the role of the saviour during the twentieth century is irreversible.

We no longer need be haunted with thoughts of the annihilation of the world consequent to a nuclear holocaust, because the world, we are assured, will be there for the Baba to save it. Even détente is unnecessary concept considering that the Baba is there to save us. Baba believes in planning also as may be deduced from the fact that he has plans to take birth in a village in the Manya district of Karnataka after his death at 96. Whether this plan will end up the way the plans of the “socialist republic of India” have is anybody’s guess.

The painful thing for us is that the godman should also think only in terms of the small world of Karnataka for taking birth in order to save humanity. What an ugly limit to the manifold scope of the godman! Why not go to America to take birth because most of the person whom the Baba is now “saving” come from that land? Or is it that it is predestine that he must “save” them by being in Karnataka?

“Saving” means “serving the interests”, if there is any confusion in anybody. We are indeed flattered here in Karnataka. Every saviour comes to us first. Dom Moraes is presently here to serve us. We are assured of the continued presence of the Baba. Only those Krishna-cultists have gone to West Bengal first. The Bangla border must have attracted them; but later they may also go over here.

Baba is an incarnation, Gokak tells us. What might that be now? Gokak explained it avidly and vividly to an American newspaperman in 1974. Poor mortals like us cannot understand such intricate matters even if we know some English. The wonder of wonders that Gokak sreports reltes to the dropping of ash from photograph of the Baba in America also. Why is there so much marveling about the ash? Is ash such a rare commodity to marvel at in this world? You can collect a sack of it from any railway station in this country on any day of your choice!

Not so the alchemy providing the Baba’s cure for the incurable diseases. He cures such diseases with dynamism of love. If in Charles Bradlaugh’s tradition, we are to tell the godman: “I can’t believe; strike me dead if you dare”, the dynamically loving Baba in his mercy will only quip like the Christ: “Forgive them, my Lord; they know not what they say”. What a refreshing thing to know. And yet the Baba became furious and called names only recently when it was put to him that his claims might have to be investigated before being accepted.

The tenor of Dr. Gokak’s thesis being now familiar to us, we may run through his second and subsequent articles on the Baba with greater ease. To listen to the singing of the Bab is “to experience the process of a social revolution in progress before our eyes and in our very ears”. “The divine ashes the Baba gives is an austere symbol of what he wishes to suggest”.

To some, however, he suggests through gold! The meaning obviously is that some will go to dust and other will wallow in the ill-gotten wealth. A millionaire was once presented with a gold ring to admonish him. “To those who have, more shall be given”. “Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Love and Power are abstractions and one does not know where to find them”, say Gokak. One may hope that they may not be found in the Baba also.

But the ingenuity of the Baba is simply maddening. He “created for a biologist, an image of the missing link”. Whose prototype was that? Such mischievous questions cannot be encouraged. Baba “uses water as petrol and transforms particles of sand into a beautiful golden image”. There are those amongst us who use petrol as water and they are the nearest disciples of the Baba. With Baba to assist us, there is no longer any sense in going in for Indo-Soviet collaboration to improve our oil potential through further explorations. Instead, we must sign an Indo-Sai pact and do away with the rigs because the Baba believes only in ragas.

Baba has made a tree in his orchard the receptacle of fruits of all kinds. The merchants of Bangalore being fools, they still write to Kashmir and obtain them to sell here. Baba  is an economist par excellence and he know the solution for solving the problems of our economy. Only he will not do it as some of us do not allow him to do it the way he choses.

Let us quote Gokak at some length as it unmasks the Baba and his masquerading disciples once and for all: “Baba has spelt out his own version of the social sciences. His version is not the socialism of under-payment. It is rather an economics based on love – putting the rich on his guard and making him realize, in his bones, that he is the trustee, and not the owner of his wealth. A trusteeship based on love is the foundation on which the science of economics should be reared”. The cat is out of the nasty bag now. All Babaism ultimately is to justify the way of capitalism to the suffering of oppressed people!

The oppressed also want to make the exploiters realize in their bones that exploitation will not be tolerated and will be done away with. One-third of the world has already made its erstwhile exploiters realize this concretely. Even the Gandhian economists have more or less stopped talking about the trusteeship theory. Baba is certainly not the first to come up with the profound theory of trusteeship, His beguiling trick will not work as those of other have failed in the past.

The oppressing classes have always advised the oppressed to abjure the class war and Gokak is now playing that role on behalf of the Baba in the name of spiritualism, godhood of the man called Baba, and other such deceptive stratagems. Nobody will be taken in by these clever but disgusting tricks. Status quoism is more prevalent in the Baba than in any other brand of politicians. And that is the gist of Babaism.

The spokesman of the Baba, namely Dr. Gokak, must be thanked profusely for frankly admitting what lies behind all the intriguing designs of the Baba. Saying that the Baba is the best medicine-man, sociologist, psychologist, philosopher and what have you, will be so much of nonsense when we know that all these and other disciplines have evolved through the ages and will continue in the centuries to come.

Knowledge at any given state of history is incomplete and imperfect and that is why there is the quest to expand the vista of knowledge and thereby acquire greater freedom for mankind. This is what stimulates man to ever new adventures in the sphere of knowledge. If there are a few questions or even thousand of them for which we do no know the answers today, we need not jump to the conclusion that the answers will never be fund. Past history is an indication of the way future history will shape itself.

The earthquake in China has proved beyond any doubt that in a planned society relief measure are better designed than in an unplanned society. The future society will be increasingly of that fashion. Knowledge will be the strongest weapon in the hands of man to civilize himself and rise to a higher level. That is what no Baba will or can accomplish. That is what man collectively achieves.

Dr. Gokak obviously does not want this to be recognized. For him the wisdom of the Baba is the beginning and the end. Hypothesis is never the substitute for correct knowledge. The stalwarts who take the Baba as their ultimate guide have taken the hypothesis for the ultimate truth and that is precisely where they are wrong and also dishonest to the precepts of Science. A few barren articles in the Goenka press or even in a Bombay weekly by men however reputed they be, will not make any difference to this incontrovertible phenomenon.

The cloak of spiritualism for swindling the gullible masses has been stained with blood in the past and it is too late in the day for the Baba and Gokaks to use it again. Man’s destiny is more glamorous and inviting and he shall not stop short of reaching that enchanting and just state.

This essay, first published three decades back (Main Stream, October 23, 1976), though outdated in certain respects, continues to be relevant in India today, when all sorts of godmen and godwomen have a field day swindling the gullible people.  This essay was later reproduced (page 162 – 174) in “Living Marx” published by Ma-Le Prakashana, Bangalore.

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Satya Sai Baba Miracle: Producing Shiva Linga from the Mouth

B Premanand

On the night of Shivarathri, while the devotees are engaged in singing bhajans, Satya Sai Baba goes into labour. He squirms with pain, his right hand pressing on his stomach, heart and neck. While wiping the tears sweat and saliva with a towel, he suddenly "gives birth" to an oval gold or stone linga from his mouth.

Experiment: 68

Efect: Shiva Linga emerging from the mouth.

Props: An oval stone, one bath towel, ell starched, and a flower-pot.

Sai Baba regurgitating Shiva Lingam
Courtesy: http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com

Method: The oval stone is hidden inside the towel and placed in the flower vase as a decoration. While the right hand presses your body to the sound of groans, you take the towel and start wiping the sweat and tears. When your hand reaches your neck, saliva flows from your mouth. Under the pretence of wiping the saliva, the towel is applied to the mouth. The oval stone is placed half inside your mouth and when you lower the towel, it appears as if the oval stone is emerging from your mouth. Satya Sai Baba bas stopped performing this trick also after we demonstrated it in Anantapur, and made fun of him about his homosexuality as narrated by Tal Brooke in his book "Lord of the Air".

Experiment: 69

Effect: Turning Stone into Sugar Candy.

Satya Sal Baba, while walking on the river bank of Chitravati, asked Dr. Bhagavantam, a physicist, to pick up a stone and give it to him. The scientist did so. Then Satya Sal Baba put it into his mouth 3l1d asked him to eat it. It was sugar candy.

Props: White stone, Palmyra candy or sugar candy.

Method:  Palm a piece of the candy. Ask someone to pick up a small stone which you point out to him and give it to you. Take the stone in your fingers and while moving transfer the candy to your fingers while palming the stone. Put it in the mouth of the volunteer and ask him to eat it. It will be sugar candy.

Experiment: 70

Effect:  Producing a copious flow of water from a small vessel.

After washing the feet of Satya Sai Baba, that water is filled in a gold pot and distributed to thousands of the devotees. It looks as if endless quantity of water is flowing from the vessel.

Props: Special pot and water.

Method: Fill the vessel with water. With your thumb close the hole on the neck of the vessel and slowly pour it out until it is empty. Put it down with the mouth up and remove the thumb. Water in the outer pot fills into the inner pot. Again reverse it with the thumb on the hole. Water flows out. In the same way you can repeatedly pour out water to small quantities until the water in the vessel is almost empty.

This vessel is devised by using the following two-scientific principles.

Experiment: 71

Effect: Water does not fall from a glass when covered by a paper and inverted

Props: One glass tumbler, water, and a thick paper to cover the mouth of the glass.

Method: Water in a glass is covered with a thick paper. When turned over neither the paper nor the water falls down. This is due to atmospheric pressure exerted on the paper.

Experiment: 72

Effect: Water does not spill out from a narrow-necked bottle when it is inverted.

Props: A soft drink bottle, a plastic insertion to make the neck narrower, and water.

Method: Turn over the soft drink bottle of water and show the water falling out. Then move your hand over the neck of the bottle stealthily putting the plastic insertion into the nock and reverse. Water will not fall down. Then, put a match stick through the hole of the plastic insertion which will float in the water.

This is based on the scientific principle “equal quantity of air has to enter the bottle to disperse equal quantity of water”. Due to the narrow neck when it is sealed by the water, air cannot enter the bottle to disperse water.

Reproduced with permission from Indian CSICOP.  For other articles from Science Versus Miracles we have already published please click here (http://www.carvaka4india.com/search/label/Science%20versus%20Miracles) 

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Producing Vibhuti on Satya Sai Baba's Photographs 'miraculously'!

B Premanand

Satya Sai Baba's paternal uncle (father's younger brother, Chinna Venkappa Raju) was a magician and it was he who taught him magic tricks. The first trick which Satya Sai Baba performed at his school was to take out pencils, rubber, sweets etc., from an empty bag and surprise his class-fellows and teachers. Then since he did not have the idea of acting as an avatar of god, he explained these tricks as done by nature gods like other magicians. The fact that one needs a bag to produce things is because it is a trick bag. He also collected double value for these materials from his class-mates.

Experiment - 58

Effect: Creating things out of an empty bag.

Props:  Trick-bag and the objects you want to produce.

Method: Hide the objects you want to produce in the second part of the bag and close it. Then show the bag to the audience by pulling out the inside to prove that it is empty. Then chant incantations, while pulling the centre partition to the other side and start producing things.

Experiment - 59

Effect:  Throwing flowers on the ground which forms into letters "Sai Baba".

The second trick which Satya Sai Baba demonstrated was to throw a bas­ket of Jasmine flowers on the floor which formed into the Telugu letters "Sai Baba" to prove that he was the incarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba. The humour of this is that while Shirdi Sai Saba knew only Marathi and Hindi, Satya Sai Baba knows only Telugu. So he could manifest only Telugu words.

Props: Colourless adhesive, a brush, Jasmine flowers and a fan. 

Method: Prior to the show, draw the words on the floor or carpet with the adhesive. Put on the fan and throw Jasmine flowers on that part. The Jasmine will stick to the adhesive and form the words. The other flowers get blown aside by the fan.

Experiment - 60

Effect: Creating necklace from no where. (Satya Sai Baba moves his empty hands in a circle and produces necklaces.)

Props: Necklace.

Method: Keep the necklace under the armpit inside the sleeves. Show the hand empty, move the hands in a circle two or three times, just hold the fingers towards the palm and release the necklace from the arm-pit. It will fall into your palm and thus enable you to produce it.

Experiment - 61

Effect:  Producing lockets, talismans, medals, rings etc.

Props: Lockets, talismans, medals, rings etc., which you can palm.

Method: Palm them before hand, wave your hand in circles and produce them as you produce vibhuti.

Experiment - 62

Effect: Producing Akshata (coloured rice). [Satya Sai Baba waves his hands in circles and sprinkles the rice on the head of the devotee]

Props: Coloured rice and thumb tip; paraffin wax.

Method: Place the thumb tip with rice on your thumb, circle your hands two or three times, release the thumb tip to your palm and sprinkle the rice on the head of the volunteer.

Another Method: Melt paraffin wax and soak the rice in it and take out and dry. Make a ball of this rice and because of wax coating it will stick together.

Palm it and after circling the hand two or three times bring the ball to your fingers and crush it and sprinkle it on the head of the volunteer.

Experiment - 63

Effect: Flower petals transformed into lockets, toffee etc.

Props: Flower petals, lockets, toffee etc.

Method: Cover the materials to be produced with flower petals. As if throwing the flower petals, also throw the materials hidden among the flower petals.

Experiment - 64

Effect: Nectar, honey, oil, etc., flowing from the photographs of Satya Sai Baba in the homes of his devotees.

Props: A bottle with one of the liquids, a framed photograph, a mantap, tube connection from the bottle to the frame with a tap.

Method: The bottle with honey, nectar or oil etc., is hidden in the frame or mantap with a tube at the back of the framed photo leading to the front of the glass. When the tap is opened, honey, nectar, oil etc., flows down the glass.

To expose this miracle, watch carefully to see how much honey is forming and falling into the plate kept below the photograph and find out if it is just some honey etc., poured on the glass. If honey is flowing down from the pho­tograph, remove the photograph from its place and you can find the source of the flow.

Experiment – 65

Effect: Holy Ash forming on the photographs of Satya Sai Baba in the home of his devotees. Vibhuti is seen formed on framed photographs.

Props: Perfumed vibhuti, framed photograph, Kanji water (rice water) fresh water and a plate.

Method: Make a dough of vibhuti in Kanji water (starch water from rice porridge - Congee) and spray it on the glass of the photo. Allow it to dry. Once it is dried repeat this once again, spraying the vibhuti on the first coat. Allow it to dry.

When a fan is working, the ash on the photographs sprayed with water flies in the air which makes people believe that ash is forming on the photo and falling down. Also keep some dry vibhuti below to make people believe that it is the ash that is forming and falling.

            .

To examine whether vibhuti is really forming on the glass of the framed photograph, remove the portion of the ash which has already formed on the photograph and you will see that it does not form again on the scraped portion.

Experiment – 66

Effect: Producing larger objects from sand.

Satya Sai Baba has created an 18" gold Krislma idol and a Bhagavad Gita book from sand. He goes near the river bank, selects a place, and sits there with his devotees in a circle around him. He makes a heap of sand, puts his hand inside the sand and brings out objects which are impossible to palm.

Props: The object which you want to produce.

Method: Hide an object in the sand well in advance and mark the place. Walk about as if you are searching for a place to sit and in the end select the marked spot. Make a small mound of sand and insert your hand in it and take out the hidden object as if you have created it

Experiment – 67

Effect: Holy ash from an empty wooden vessel.

On Shivarathri day Satya Sai Baba takes a wooden vessel containing vibhuti and empties it on the head of the Shirdi Sai Baba statue. After showing it empty, he puts his hand through the neck of the vessel and out flows vibhuti for several min­utes. He first uses his right hand, then the left hand, and again the right hand.

Props: A vessel with a big belly and a neck through which the hand can pass easily. Vibhuti, water and a bottle which can also pass through the neck. A robe with double sleeves and some thread or rubber bands

Method:  Mix the vibhuti in water into a dough and fill it in the vessel. Press it with the bottle so that the dough adheres to the sides of the vessel and the centre portion is empty. Allow it to dry. Fill the centre portion with dry vibhuti and tie them with a thread or rubber band so that it does not fall out.

Show the vessel with vibhuti. Turn it over and let the vibhuti fall on the idol or statue. Show it empty. Now hold the vessel with mouth up, put your right arm into the vessel, at the same time releasing the vibhuti from the sleeve into the vessel. Turn the vessel slowly and allow the vibhuti to fall out through your hand. When the flow stops, remove your arm and show the vessel is empty. Now hold the top up and put your left hand in, releasing the vibhuti hidden in the left sleeve. Then turn the vessel over and let the vibhuti slowly fall through your left hand until it is empty. Now remove your left hand, insert your right hand and slowly scrape the vibhuti placed on the sides of the vessel. Thus you can create more vibhuti than the vessel appears to hold .

Since it is very easy to expose this trick, Satya Sai Baba stopped producing vibhuti from a vessel in 1978.      

Reproduced with permission from Indian CSICOP.  For other articles from Science Versus Miracles we have already published please click here (http://www.carvaka4india.com/search/label/Science%20versus%20Miracles) 

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Abraham Kovoor’s Case Diary: Apparitions

Abraham Kovoor

In an article on Sai Baba Dr. T. Nallainathan, President of the Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba Manram, wrote in the Tamil daily Thinakaran (4.11.1966) thus:-

“A yogi is capable of leaving his physical body in one place and appearing in a distant place in his spiritual body. It was like this that Bhagavan appeared before the Rajah of Chingoli at Chingoli while his physical body was at the same time at Shirdi ... In April 1965 the 40-year-old Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba appeared before me in person in Colombo and blessed me. Simultaneously he was going from town to town in Andhra Pradesh giving sermons. Both of us spent 45 minutes together in an office in Colombo. There he spoke in Sinhala to the Sinhalese officers. He had never learned the Sinhala language at anytime ... While at Madras I saw Sai Baba getting a golden image of Vishnu by simply waving his hand in the air, and presenting it to Professor T.M. Mahadeva”.

In this long article Dr. Nallainathan also wrote about apparitions claimed to have been seen by the late Madanle Blavatsky, Col Olcott and their colleagues at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society at Adyar.

There are three possibilities in the apparition story of Dr. Nallainathan. They are:-

1. It is objectively real based on facts.
2. It is subjectively true though not real, being the hallucinatory experience of a mentally deranged person.
3. It is an utter falsehood. 

For verificational purpose we called for information about the name and loca­tion of the office where Baba appeared to Dr. Nallainathan, and the identity of the officers who held conversation in Sinhala with Baba, through the columns of the Ceylon Daily News and the Times of Ceylon. But there was no response from any one. This helped us to discard the first category. It was not based on facts.

All our efforts to get some information about this from Dr. Nallainathan hiimself also failed. He simply refused to speak on the subject. Thus we are forced to rule out the second category also. It is not based on fancy even! There is only one conclusion!

Now let us turn our attention to the claims of apparitions by the founder of the Theosophical Society.

Madame Blavatsky

In 1884 Madame Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society visited England and gave to the principal workers of the Society for Psychical Research evidence that some Theosophists in India had produced apparitions of other .people, and that telekinetic phenomena such as are said to happen in the pres­ence of physical mediums, had also been occurring there.

Mr. Richard Hodgson was sent out to India by the S.P.R. to investigate it on the spot. He returned to England after his investigations with a most damaging report concluding thus:-

"I finally had no doubt whatsoever that the phenomena connected with the Theo­sophical Society were part of a huge fraudulent system worked by Madame Blavatsky with the assistance of Coulombs and several other confederates, and that not a single genuine phenomenon could be found among them all". (Proc. S.P.R. Vol. III, Page 210)

Sprague de Camp, one of the world's leading authorities on the occult and pseudo-scientific cultists, in his book 'Lost Continents' writes, “The greatest of modern oc­cultists, the successor of Simon Magus and Cagliostro, was Helena P. Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy. . . She was a fat middle-aged Russian woman living in New York City. She was the estranged wife of a Russian general, and had been succes­sively the mistress of a Slovenian singer, an English businessman, a Russian baron, and a merchant from the Caucasus living in Philadelphia, and had made her living as a circus bareback rider, a professional pianist, a businesswoman, a sweet-shop worker, and a spiritualist medium. Altogether she had led a pretty lively career, though in later years she undertook to gild refined gold and paint the lily by inventing an even more remarkable past wherein she was a persecuted virgin who traveled the wide world in search of occult wisdom.

“Mme Blavatsky took as her occult partner Henry Steele Olcott, a shrewd Ameri­can Lawyer who left wife and sons to live with her. Theosophy really got started when the pair moved to India, where Mme Blavatsky learned to combine her considerable knowledge of Western magic and occultism with a wide and inaccurate smattering of East Indian philosophy and mythology. She led a fascinating and turbulent existence, and kept a hold on sizeable body of followers even after she had been exposed in many chicaneries.

“In 1882 she was dazzling a pair of well-connected Anglo-Indian dupes, the newspaper editor Arnold P. Sinnett and the government official Alan Octavian Hume, by delivering letters she said were written by her “Master” Koot Hoomi, but which, as handwriting analysis later showed, she wrote herself." (Lost Continents, Page 54)

Dr. Nallainathan says that he saw Sai Baba producing a golden image of Vishnu from the air and presenting it to Prof. Mahadevan. How sensible it would have been on the part of the learned doctor to have written about this miracle after conducting a thorough investigation as Richard Hodgson did in the case of Blavatsky's claims! Has Dr. Nallainathan or anyone else searched Baba's body and dress before he performed the alleged miracle?

Has not Dr. Nallainathan seen the doyen of magic in this country Great Mudaliyar Amarasekera producing various articles including live animals from nowhere?

If Mudaliyar Amarasekera also can come down to the level of Sai Baba and fraudulently claim that he is able to produce these articles by his divine powers, we are sure there will be many gullible like Dr. Nallainathan and Mr. C. Balasmgham to believe it.

Our challenge to Sai Baba offering any amount up to Rs.25000 if he can miracu­lously produce articles immediately after his body and dress are searched by us is still in force. We request Dr. Nallainathan, Mr. C. Balasingham and other devotees of Sat Baba to persuade their god incarnate to face this test and prove that he is not a juggler.

Courtesy: Exposing Paranormal Claims - Abrahama Kovoor, Published by B. Premanand, Indian CSICOP, Podannur; Date of Publication: 15-3-2000. For other essays by Abraham Kovoor available on our website www.carvaka4india.com, please click here.

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Walking on Water

B Premanand

In the history of miracles Jesus Christ is said to have walked on water without any props. In 1968 Hata Yogi L.S. Rao, with the connivance of Blitz Weekly, set out to fool a gullible public. Week after week articles published by R.K. Karanjia, told of the supernatural powers of this Hata Yogi. Finally it was announced that, he would walk on water without getting his feet wet. This was advertised as a billion dollar yogic TRICK. Tickets to watch this feat in Bombay one evening were sold in black, and fifty special planes were chartered with camera teams from all over the world to record the yogic walking. The demonstration was inaugurated by Gulzarilal Nanda, the then President of the All India Sadhu Samaj as well as Home Minister in Indira Gandhi's government. Hatayogi showed some tricks like inserting a thread in one nostri I and taking it out through the other, eating glass, walking on fire, and drinking acid: The tank was shown empty under the powerful lights focused on it. After filling it with water, Hatayogi lighted a ganja beedi, approached the tank and prayed while putting one foot in the tank. When his second foot touched the water, he sank like a stone. He was pulled out and explained his failure to the audience. "Last night I fell in my toilet and sprained my leg that is why I cannot walk on water. Our scientists have failed thousands of times to go to moon, but I have failed only this once. When I am cured of this sprain I will walk on water."

RK Karnjia, editor of Blitz

What really happened was that earlier he had challenged Satya Sai Baba to drink cobra venom which he himself would bring because Satya Sai Baba had claimed to be the avatar of Shiva. They were competitors-not in Hata Yoga but in smuggling. Satya Sai Baba sent his goondas three days before the demonstration and destroyed the water tank Hata Yogi had built in cement. There was no time for a new cement tank to be built again. So a metal tank was ordered. But Hatayogi could not divulge the trick behind his feat. He had asked the manufacturers to put two parallel rails length-wise to strengthen the tank. But they had put cross rails also. Thus the ramp which was to rise when water was filled in the tank could not move. Instead of cancelling the walk, he simply put his feet inside the water and went down. But the public was very angry and wanted the ticket money refunded. Hatayogi had to sell all his properties in Bombay to repay the money. He later settled in Bangalore. When Dr. A.T. Kovoor visited Bangalore in 1977 I managed to get Hatayogi to reveal to Dr. Kovoor his trick of walking on water.

The question is why should a person who can walk on water need a special tank to be built? He could have simply walked on the sea at Chowpatty beach. He could have walked on the back-waters of Bombay, or on any river and tank in the area. No human can walk on water unless he is supported by a bridge. For a miracle, the bridge should be invisible. In 1949, I saw a godman walk on the Ganges with two invisible metal ropes under the water. So Hatayogi's plan was to walk on a glass sheet which would rise to the surface when the tank was filled. But agents of Satya Sai Baba had destroyed the cement tank three days before the demonstration. There was therefore no time to build a fresh cement tank. So a metal tank was made by a firm which was so constructed that the glass sheet could not rise when water was filled in the tank. 

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Creating Holy Ash – Sai Baba Style

Experiment – 1

Effect: Creating Holy Ash – Sai Baba Style

Props: Perfumed Vibhui, starch water extracted from cooked rice, a plate to make the pellets with vibhuti.

Method: The perfumed ash is mixed in the starch water and made into small pellets and dried. This pellet is hidden between the thumb and the index finger. One has to learn to keep the hand relaxed without keeping the fingers stiff.

One must also be able to use the fingers and hands to say “namaste”, shake hands, drink coffee and eat or even write while keeping the pellet hidden from sight. The circle the hand, palm down, and in a swift movement bring down the pellet to the finger tips, crush it to smooth powder, and let it fall into the hands of the volunteer.

Now, if the godman or avatar is not using the same sleight of hand method of the magician, why does he refuse investigatin? Should he not prove beyond doubt that this method is not a sleight of hand trick? What is he afraid of? Exposure? Only when it is proved under fraud proof conditions, using methods of science, that his powers are beyond science or human comprehension can his claims be accepted. Godmen must first prove that they are not using the sleight of hand method.

To expose this trick when the person is moving his hand in circles and at the same time when he brings the pellet to his fingers of crushing, jus slap the hand so that the pellet falls down and he is exposed.

Never in the history of miracles have godmen ever produced anything without the movement of the hands and the body. Therefore, if they are really materializing any object, they ought first to show their palm is empty without moving the hand or the body and materialize something on that empty palm held without moving. No one can materialize anything on their empty palm in this manner. If they can, they should agree to the investigation of their claims under fraud-proof conditions since we are confronted here by a mystery.

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Science Versus Miracles

B. Premanand

Premanand’s popular book, “Science versus Miracles”, has not been available for some time now. Since Premanand himself was the distributor of the books he published and since he did not make any specific arrangement to reprint and distribute the books he brought out under Indian Skeptic logo, after his death there was noone to carry on the job. 

“Science versus Miracles” was and continues to be a handy manual for those activists who want to debunk the so called “miracles” performed by Indian godmen. Since Premanand’s death we have received a number of queries about the availability of this book with us or in bookstores. We have already uploaded the pdf version of the book at a file sharing website. To make the book more accessible online, we will now be, over a period of time, publishing sections  book (slightly edited by us) in html format on our blog.

Some of the experiments given in the book are not directly related to any the so-called miracles genrally performed by godmen or women. These sections will not be uploaded on to our blog.

The Preface written by Dr PM Bhargava, former director of CCMB, Hyderabad will be uploaded at a later stage. An interview with Premanand, which forms part of the book, will also be uploaded later.

Chapter - I

Every Indian citizen has the right to believe in god, or not to believe in god. This right is restricted by the understanding that individual belief and its practice must not harm the beliefs or practices of others. Every religion conceives god as Perfect, Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent, and as Creator, Protector and Destroyer of the Universe. While this belief in god is a philosophy of life, religions exploit the beliefs of the people.

Image Courtesy : Atheist Nexus

India has the four finest philosophies of the world, Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita, Advaita, and Nastikatva. Dvaita philosophy is for those of fearful mind who need an idol of god – a visual object – which they believe will protect them. Vishishtadvaita is for those who are a bit more evolved and who do not need visual objects to give them strength and courage. They can mentally visualize a supernatural being, who can help them in times of need. The third philosophy, Advaita, is for those who have courage and are fearless n the conviction they themselves are god – Aham Brahma Asmi. When such a believer starts his life’s journey with this attitude he finally discovers that he has his own limitations. Then we have Nastikatva and Humanism, where a man knows his limitations, but works for human progress through rational approach to problems.

Belief in God is not a problem for humanity. It is religion which creates dissidence between the people, destroying the peace and harmony of a society and thus hampering the progress of humanity.

What is harmful is that a few persons claim to be incarnations of god or all the gods put together. Having attained siddhis (Supernatural Powers) through meditation or practice of Kundalini Yoga, or claiming to be possessed by gods and goddesses, they publicize their miraculous powers of creating something from nothing, and the Ashta Siddhis (eight supernatural yogic powers) and thus exploit credulous people.

A miracle is a phenomenon that seems unexplainable by the laws of nature. So it is held to be supernatural in origin, or ascribed to be an “act of god”.

Supernatural implies existence outside the natural world, especially not attributable to natural forces or attributed to the immediate exercise of divine power.

A mystery is an unexplained natural phenomenon abut which we do not have any explanation yet.

Much of the natural phenomena which people originally thought to be miracles or acts of god, have now been explained as natural laws and so are no more miracles, but mysteries.

Creation means producing something out of nothing. Manufacture means producing something using raw materials.

When there is nothing called nothing, nothing can be produced or created out of nothing. For making anything there should be raw material or mater.

The theory of conservation states that mass and energy are the two sides of the same coin and they can nether be created nor destroyed. But godmen claim that they can create anything from nothing.

The theory of relativity teaches us that mass is transformed into energy and vice versa, and what ever changes we see is the outcome of one transforming into the other through physical and chemical reactions. These are not destruction or creation. But godmen claim that they can bring about a transformation of one of the other through their mental or psychic powers.

Therefore the claims of godmen that they can create anything from nothing and transform one to the other through mental power are opposed to these laws. If the claims of the godmen are false, then godmen should be prosecuted for cheating the credulous public in order to exploit them. Or, if they are true, the education department should stop teaching the theory of conservation and relativity to students.

Let us examine the claims of godmen that they can created anything from nothing: Whatever they have produced so far are things which are already thre in our universe. They are things which they can hide in their hands or on their person. What they cannot hide in their hands or body are produced out of empty vessels, boxes etc, or form beneath their robes, earth or from sand. They have not created a space ship, an airplane, a train, motor vehicles, bicycles or buildings, because such things cannot be hidden. Though they are using the results of science, no godman has so far invented anything, from a pin to spaceship.

The first question put to them is if they can create anything from nothing why do they not come forward for investigation of their claims under fraud-proof conditions. They answer that their miracles are beyond human comprehension and therefore beyond the method of science, so they cannot allow themselves to be investigated. One of our Supreme Court Justices, VR Krishna Iyer argued thus: “How could you question Jesus Christ about whether he is the son of god?” You have to believe the claim or reject it. In religion and god, there is no questioning; one has to have implicit faith.

Bu what is this faith? The definition given to the word ‘faith’ is: “Something which you have not experienced”.

Yet these godmen are human beings, born the same way we are all born, live and die. If these supernatural powers are indeed beyond human comprehension, how have they come to posses these powers? And if they have acquired these powers, or if these powers are their inborn qualities, how can they be beyond human comprehension?

Suppose we accept, for the sake of argument, that these self-professed avatars or godmen may have supernatural powers. But when another person duplicates an act of creating object from nothing in the same way, surely they have a moral obligation to demonstrate that their method is not that of an ordinary magician who uses sleight of hand, chemicals, mechanical apparatus and body science to produce the same effect. Surely they are liable to investigation as proof their claims to godhead. It is only after they allow investigation and prove beyond doubt their acts are not tricks, that their claims to powers beyond science and human comprehension can be accepted.

Sleight of Hand

Sleight of hand means the skill of performing tricks or feats so quickly that the manner of execution cannot be observed. It is for this reason that the hands and body are moved. The movement hides from the sight of the onlookers the conjuring act of creating objects, making object to appear, disappear, or transforming one into another.

Hand Movement Conceals Finger Movements

Let us study the movement of a highly influential godman calling himself “Satya Sai Baba”, who has followers among the bureaucracy, law enforcements departments, revenue and customs departments, judiciary, state and central ministries, and among the elite and the influential. He claims to create anything from nothing, transform things from one to another, cure incurable diseases, resurrect the dead, and posses all powers so far unimagined by human beings. He claims them to be his inborn nature or power and describes himself as a personification of all the gods put together’ “Sarva Daivatva Swaroopa”!

Satya Sai Bbay claims he can WILL things into existence. What he actually does is moving his hands as a magician to ‘materialize’ objects like holy ash, god, diamonds, currency, idols etc. As for creating vibhuti (holy ash) his followers ask: ‘Can holy ash, which is in powder form, be held in a turned down palm waved in circles? Is it not proof enough that he really creates it?”

A magician also produces holy ash the same way this self-proclaimed avatar produces it. He moves his hand, palm down, circling two or three times, and in a flash holy ash appears to drop from his finger tips. This is the same quality and even has the same perfume because it is purchased from the same shop where this godman also gets his supply.

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Premanand – A Life in Search of Miracles

This interview with Premanand (17 February 1930 - 4 October 2009) was published in Bangalore Skeptic (an ezine now defunct)  in its July 2008 issue. In memory of this great skeptic and human being, we reproduce the interview here as it is not available online elsewhere.

I met Premanand in May 2008 at Podannur and later at his sister’s residence in Bangalore, where he was undergoing chemotherapy.  In this freewheeling interview, conducted partly in English and mostly in Malayalam, Premanand speaks on various topics – his initial search for spirituality, his conversion to atheism, Dr Abraham Kovoor the rationalist, Puttaparthy Saibaba the godman …

- Manoj

Search for Spiritual Insight!

When I was a student at Kozhikode (Calicut) in Kerala, I took part in the Indian independence movement. I was just 12 years old then. To avoid the wrath of rulers, the school authorities expelled me from the school, thus ending my formal education. My father, however, took care to educate me at home by keeping a private tutor.

As a teenager, I read extensively on yoga, spirituality, and other topics on religion. The fact that my father was a theosophist also might be one of the reasons for my adolescent interests in these subjects. In 1947, at the age of 17, I left home to learn yoga and to gain other occult knowledge. As I was leaving home my father gave me ten rupees so that I could send a telegram to him in case I wanted to go back home and be picked up.  I never felt the need to spend the amount. Moreover, I was eager to follow Swami Ramdas who in his book “In Search of God” said that he had toured India without any money and god helped him everywhere. I also had similar experiences when I was helped by people wherever I went. There is an important difference: while Swami Ramdas gave credit to a non-entity called god, I give credit to the real people who helped me.

In Rushikesh

During my travel I visited the ashrams of various Hindu sannyasins and gurus throughout India.

Once I spent about six months at Rushikesh at the ashram of Swami Shivananda alias Dr. Kuppuswamy Iyer of the ‘Divine Life Society’. One Balakrishna Menon was then one of the senior inmates of the ashram. He, in his later avatar, traveled widely throughout India and abroad giving religious discourses on ‘Gita’ and was known as Swami Chinmayananda. One of Swami Shivananda’s pet topics was Kundalini and by raising which, he told us, anybody could get rid of any diseases. Paradoxically, Swami Shivananda himself was suffering from diabetes and other chronic ailments. When I asked him how he himself was not free from those ailments, he said that he could easily get rid of those diseases if he really wanted to. But since those diseases were due to, according to him, his past sins he wanted to endure rather than recover from them! I, of course, was not convinced.

Later, in 1949, I spent about five months at the ashram of Swami Narayanananda, the guru of the yoga expert BKS Iyengar, at Rushikesh itself. Here I had my first encounter with what could be called a ‘miracle’. Narayanananda once showed us a blank sheet of paper and drew, in double-line, the Sanskrit letter “Om”. When he touched it with a burning piece of wood, it seared the paper precisely between the lines forming the Sanskrit letter “Om”, leaving the remaining part of the paper intact! He explained that anyone could do it by chanting “Om” for one hundred thousand times. I attempted to replicate it. I chanted “Om” as many number of times as he had claimed and followed his instructions scrupulously. But nothing happened – the letter “Om” refused to appear on my paper! This naturally aroused my curiosity and I decided to find out the truth behind it. One day I peeped into Narayanananda’s room and there he was, writing the letter “Om” on a sheet of paper using some chemicals! Once dried, the writing would become invisible and he would show it to us as a blank sheet though it in fact was not!

Narayanananda had a habit of, like other Sannyasins, advising us on the importance of celibacy (brahmacharya) to attain spiritual insights. He had written a few books on this topic. He sprinkled his text with plenty of words borrowed indiscriminately from sciences, thus giving an impression that he had approached the subject scientifically. But it was in fact all nonsense. Every morning I used to go to the nearby river to have my bath. One morning when I returned to the ashram, having forgotten to take my soap, I found Narayanananda in a sexually compromising position with the landlady of the building where the ashram was located. This showed me that his (and others of his ilk) talk of brhamacarya was only hogwash. I soon left the ashram.

My experience with sannyasins and yogis taught me that the yoga and other tantric knowledge imparted by these self-delusionary swamis, gurus, and tantrics had no scientific basis. I soon returned home rather than wasting more time with these godmen. However, I continued to read books on these subjects and also tried to find out the truth behind miracles. I never tried to publicize my findings as I was doing all these for my own knowledge.

Arrival of Abraham Kovoor

All these changed in 1969, when I met Abraham Kovoor who was in India with his “Miracle Exposure” campaign. When he came to Coimbatore at the invitation of Advocate Kasturi, he took time to visit my home at Podanur. After seeing my collection of books and other records on miracles and other occult subjects, Kovoor asked me to take up the cause of exposing the spiritual fraudsters.

Abraham Kovoor

When Kovoor came to India next time for his lecture tour (which also happened to be his last tour of India), I accompanied him most of the time. An interesting episode of that tour happened in Kollam (Quilon) in Kerala. A large crowd of followers of Sai Baba, including Mr. S.K.Nair, the editor of Malayalanadu, a popular Malayalam Weekly now defunct, confronted Dr. Kovoor asking him to guarantee that he would be able to pay one Lakh Indian rupees if they arranged an audience with Sai Baba and showed him a genuine miracle. Since Dr. Kovoor was a Sri Lankan national, they knew that he would not be able to satisfy their demand. I was in Podanur when this incident happened. Dr. Kovoor phoned me up, narrated the incident, and told me that all his efforts of twenty years would go up in flames if they were not confronted headlong. I asked Johnson Iyeroor, a young rationalist activist, to come to Podanur and handed him over a cheque written in favour of Dr. Kovoor for one lakh rupees, supported by a letter from the bank vouching that there was a bank balance of one lakh rupees in my account and that the cheque would be honoured. Dr. Kovoor produced the cheque at a meeting at the office of Janayugam (a daily owned by Communist Party of India) and asked the followers of Sai Baba to come forward. They never turned up!

After the demise of Dr Kovoor in 1978, I decided to devote the rest of my life to spread scientific awareness amongst the Indian people. I have continued his challenge of offering one lakh Indian rupees to any person/s who can demonstrate any psychic, supernatural, or paranormal ability of any kind under fraud-proof conditions.

 

Jappanam Siddhan and the Media Exposure

In the early 1980s one Sri Lankan godman named Jappanam Siddhan (from Jafna) came to Kerala. He broke 101 un-husked coconuts in one sitting smashing them one by one on his forehead without any visible injuries to him. He attributed this ‘miracle’ to his spiritual powers. The local dailies, especially Mathrubumi daily, gave wide publicity to his activities. He was portrayed as a divine man who proved through this miracle the existence of spiritual prowess. The newspapers claimed that the rationalists had no answer to his. I decided to challenge this.

I conducted a series of sessions throughout Kerala demonstrating that there is nothing miraculous about that and it could be done by anybody, even by those without any practice. My team also decided to expose the godman.

We visited Thiruvananthapuram where he was having his show. We had earlier found out that the coconuts used by the godman were extremely tender ones that could be broken easily even by crushing them with ones’ bared hands. We also found out from where the godman was sourcing his supply of coconuts. We made a clandestine arrangement with the supplier and the next day out of the four sacks of coconuts supplied to the godman, only one contained tender ones; the remaining three bags contained mature coconuts with hard shells.  When the godman conducted his performance that day, he obviously could not proceed further than the first bag of tender coconuts. When he realized that somebody had out-cheated him, his imagination found out an escape route. He imputed his failure to his seeing a naked woman in a nearby temple pond where he had gone for his morning ablutions! This ‘unholy sight’ of a naked woman had weakened his spiritual powers, the godman claimed! Despite his claims, the people could see through what actually went wrong. With this expose, Jappanam Siddhan left the shores of Kerala never to come back. This was perhaps the first miracle exposure that gave me wide publicity.

 

Targetting Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi

In 1968 I left Thikkodi (Kerala) and settled at Podanur (Tamil Nadu). I decided to distribute the land inherited from my parents. At the request of K. Kelappan, a Gandhian and Congress stalwart in Kerala, 90 acres of land was given to a trust to start a college complex. When Kelappan later expressed his inability to continue with the project, the land was transferred to Kerala Satya Sai Trust. Though the land was gifted to start a college complex, it was not used for the purpose for which it was given. In fact, no such institution has ever come up on the land till date, even after more than three decades. Aggrieved by this I filed a case against the Kerala Satya Sai Trust for appropriating the land giving false promises. The trust – then headed by a retired Supreme Court judge – retaliated and made me arrested during the infamous Emergency falsely alleging that I was a Naxalite. I spent three days in a police station. It was my moral outrage against this blatant act of misusing my land that first prompted me to investigate Sai Baba.

The fact that Sai Baba cheated others too through his tricks was a motivation to debunk him. He gave Vibhuthi (holy-ash) to his devotees to treat “incurable” diseases and thus made thousands of crores of rupees by exploiting them. On the other hand, he started hospitals to treat his own diseases. When he injured his hip-bones, he was not treated with his Vibhuti but was operated upon in his super-specialty hospital.

 

On Yoga

After astrology, Yoga is perhaps the most pervasive superstition prevalent in India today. Yoga is not an exercise though many people are taking to yoga believing that it is an exercise. When you do exercises, you do not keep your body in a fixed position for a long duration.  On the other hand, when you do yogic asanas (except Surya Namaskar), you keep your body in a stationary position up to twenty minutes. This is not very natural and it may adversely effect the blood circulation in the joints. Almost all the yogis (Aurabindo Ghosh and Flying Swamy, for example) whom I have known died after prolonged paralysis. 

On being an Atheist

Though I was born as a non-theist like everyone else, I was brought up as a believer in god like most people. In my youth, I wanted to experience god the way in which Swami Ramdas described it in his book, “In Search of God”. This took to me to various gurus and their ashrams, as I have already said. Gradually, though, I realized that it was not sensible to believe in a god, who is described as omnipresent, omnipresent, and omniscient by various religions. Had he been so, he would not have created cannibals; he could have created better human beings; he could have made our life better. All the life forms here in this world survive by preying on another life, resulting in extreme hardship and pain to every single living being. This could have been easily avoided had the god been omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.

On Miracle Exposure Campaigns and Workshops

As I said, I started my campaign in the late 1970s and offered to pay one lakh Indian rupees showing any genuine miracle. Many people have, for their own publicity, published in newspapers claiming that they had accepted my challenge. But none of them ever contacted me and accepted my challenge by depositing the earnest money of one thousand rupees.

During the last three decades my associates and I conducted hundreds of science workshops and lectures in various parts of India and abroad giving scientific explanations behind various “miracles”. We trained hundreds of activists who now conduct similar workshops on their own. One of the best programmes of National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) was the Miracle Exposure Workshops it conducted, where I and my students trained more than 3000 activists for Bharat Jan Vignan Jatha which toured more than 50000 villages and explained the truth behind miracles.

Though we are not believers in any supernatural powers, we do not tell the people not to believe. It is for them to decide whether to believe or not. The reason why people believe in supernatural power is that they are unable to solve their problems on their own. Spreading scientific awareness and critical thinking, showing them a way through scientific method to solve their own problems, will make them face the reality with more confidence.

When we explain miracle and expose frauds, it is the duty of the law enforcing authorities – the government, the police, and the judiciary - to initiate criminal action against such fraudsters. We now hear, almost everyday, the arrest of this or that godman somewhere in the country. Had the government done 60 years back what they are doing at present, our country would, by now, have largely been free of these exploiters.

On being diagnosed with cancer

I am not afraid of death. When I was diagnosed with intestinal cancer during a campaign in Mangalore about one and a half years back, I decided to terminate my life if my health worsened as I had no money to go for an expensive surgery and treatment. Before leaving for Podanur, I told my acquaintances that I would not come back if I were not able to sell a piece of my land and get the money necessary for my treatment. As it turned out, I could sell the land and go ahead with the treatment.

Being diagnosed with cancer has not changed my outlook on life. If at all, it makes me to strive more, to be more aggressive with my activities, and spend the remaining part of my life still more fruitfully to strengthen the skeptic community in India.

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