Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi once again gave the go-ahead for as massive and costly a celebration of his own alleged 81'st Birthday. As stated by others, the date 23rd November was doubtless selected for reasons of enhancing his alleged Divinity. This is partly because of Sri Aurobindo's famous declaration in the following: "November 24, 1926, was the descent of Krishna into the physical. A power infallible shall lead the thought. In earthly hearts kindle the Immortal's Fire, even the multitude shall hear the voice." [Why there is one day discrepancy is inexplicable, unless it was the result of a printed inaccuracy so typical of inexact Indian Sai-devotee reports and writings] However, in those days, the British administrative system alone recorded births and deaths accurately: See the official record that shows Sathya Sai Baba (Sathyanarayana Raju) was actually born on October 4 1929). Therefore, he is three years younger than he claims!

The usual hype was spread throughout the unreliable, unchecked reports of most of the Indian media. However, CNN-IBN forwarded two entirely different estimates - "His devotees number, some say, 6 - 10 million", but also in another report presented a devotee stating "He has around 100 million followers" [and that there were "millions" at the recent 81st birthday celebration]. Compare this with the recent report in The Guardian of November 4, 2006, noted "an estimated 30 million followers worldwide"(see CNN-IBN web captures below). However, all the costly efforts were not enough to bring the number of visitors to the million mark. Even the presence of the Harlem Globetrotters (for decades much more famous than Sai Baba) exhibiting their basketball skills, and the usual (donation-financed) handouts of free food and goodies to countless poor villagers who came by train for free. The Hillview Stadium where the celebrations were held has an absolute maximum 'sardine capacity' of less than 1/2 million. The ashram cannot house anywhere near half a million even with large additional tent areas outside Puttaparthi, as were erected for the 70th birthday. The photos of crowds in Puttaparthi and surroundings are literally dwarfed by the three million crowds photographed and filmed on world media at Mecca in recent years. Even the Christmas and New Year celebrations at St. Peters' Square in the Vatican attract crowds which visibly far exceed anything seen around Sai Baba, and these are usually rated at between one and two million only.

What is truly remarkable about this 'magical' playing around with numbers is that every other report from the media operates with a wholly different "estimate"... and never is any remotely reliable basis quoted, for there simply exist none. Compare for example CNN-IBN's report on this propaganda with the recent report in The Guardian:-

Meanwhile, the most reliable estimate being given by the independent website 'Adherents.com' click here to view the results for Sathya Sai Baba - this being more reliable than most sources because it does at least list some of the underlying reported figures of members and so forth.

The on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia's estimate of Sai followers reflects the vast divergence of opinion on the numbers:-,

Compare the above with The UK Telegraph article which "estimated" quite another number:

Sathya Sai Baba stated in early 1968 that his miraculous manifestations were occurring in 'millions of homes' to Dr. John Hislop (see 'Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba' ISBN 81-7208-049-2) :-

So what is the origin of the most inflated numbers? [other than the well-known game "Think of two numbers, multiply the one by the other, add some zeroes... etc."]
One part of the answer is also that the Sathya Sai Organisation has for decades already reported in many of its pamphlets, films, books and articles that the number of devotees worldwide is 60 million. This figured remained unchanged by most Sai Organisation sources for close on 15/20 years, even despite the evident increase in numbers of visitors to his ashrams over that period!

How did the Sai officials dream up this particular estimated number? [It is worthy of note that the Sai Organization has also falsely maintained since the 1980s that Sai Baba has organised values education, improved hygiene and temple renewal plus more in six hundred selected villages, later expanded to six thousand villages! See for example: http://asianannals.ctsnetjournals.org/content/vol7/issue3/cover.shtml

The CNN-IBN network reproduced the statement of a Sai devotee (i.e. NOT a neutral witness) on the number of visitors to the "80th" birthday   Whether this means last year's or this year's is unclear, he is now 80 years old but is in his 81st year. In either case it's all a matter of wishful thinking anyhow. The capacity of the stadium where it takes place is not even half a million. One can see how this question has been handled by Sai and his officials in the past click (link below)!

An example of the dissemination of bogus figures and non-existant facts by the Sai Org. The myth about rural uplift of 6000 villages began with an attempt by Indulal Shah of an ambitious programme - with a 3-day free junket trip to the ashram for 6000 villagers who were to be the leaders of this project. Already by the time of the above report in The Beacon [1985] the number was reduced to 4,000! It all soon withered away, but is still consistently reported in Sai propaganda as if it were up and running! In this Sai officials imitate Sai Baba's constant exaggeration of numbers, as if this increased his self-declared Divine status.

Presumably on this kind of basis (along with other inflated numbers given by Sai Baba in private interviews and reported by his former close servitor and editor - V.K. Narasimhan), devotees - believing every word as the literal truth as usual - began to speculate over how many followers one may claim worldwide. The jump from 60 to 100 million increase the original number due to the passage of years and doubling or more of visitors to Sai Baba since those days. But therefore very cautious, isn't it? Well, notwithstanding all that, some devotees have (incautiously) posted the claim that Sai Baba has six hundred million devotees! However, no one can explain who would qualify to be a follower, a devotee or an adherent of Sai Baba. Extraordinarily, he has often said he can see not one single devotee among the crowds, telling everone off for not being genuine!

See also The Poet President and the Creator of the Universe [http://indianrationalists.blogspot.com/2006/12/president-p-j-abdul-kalam-and-satya.html]

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