An Annotated Bibliography for Research on Sathya Sai Baba,
in Three Parts.   

(For the Introduction to the 3 Bibliographies, see Here.)

Part 3

A Bibliography of Apologetic Writing about Sathya Sai Baba.
Presenting Sathya Sai Baba to the World

Brian Steel   December 2007 (updated April 2008)

Copyright ©   2007    Brian Steel

Contents

Introduction
A few observations about the hundreds of books about Sathya Sai Baba
Discourses

Section 1.   Sathya Sai Baba’s Teachings

1. Direct Teachings via Sathya Sai Baba’s Translated and Edited Telugu Discourses
2. Promoting the Sathya Sai Baba Story via Lectures and Electronic Means: Audiocassettes, Videotapes, Internet and Radio
2a. Spokespersons
3. Reference Works on Sathya Sai Baba’s Teachings
4. Study Circles and Discussion Groups
5. Bhajans
6. The Sathya Sai Organisation and Service / Seva
7. A Selection of Books about Shirdi Sai Baba

Section 2.
Sathya Sai Baba as seen and interpreted by his Devotees and Others

1. Major Accounts, especially of the Early Years
2. Selected Later Accounts
3. Privately Revealed Messages and Teaching

Section 3.   Applied Teachings

1. Education  
2. Comparative Religion
3. Hindu Interpretations

Section 4.   Devotee-Centred Books and Activities

1. Information on Other Activities Allegedly Associated with Sathya Sai Baba
2. Prophecies

Section 5.   A Selection of Indian Media Articles

Section 6. New Factors for Researchers to Consider

1. Recent Publications and New Promotional Media
2. Public Responses by Sathya Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Organisation Officials, Devotees and Others to Criticism of Sathya Sai Baba and the Sathya Sai Organisation
3. Which Sai Baba Movement? A Writer’s Dilemma

Endnote

Introduction

The bulk of Part 3 of the Sathya Sai Baba Bibliography describes the accumulation of literature and ancillary information carriers which existed between 1943 and 2000, a period of uninterrupted growth of the SSB Mission. From the year 2000, important new factors emerged. These and the fundamental changes they brought to the propagation of Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings are briefly outlined in Section 6.

This selection of books, magazines, articles, audiocassettes, videotapes and (more recently) DVDs, deal with the scope of Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings and Mission, his impact on devotees and their interaction with him, including their attempts to apply his teachings in daily life and to promote their belief in his Divine claims. Such reports and many others have been highly effective in facilitating the spread of Sathya Sai Baba’s ideas, actions, lectures and teachings to a very wide audience in India and in many other countries.

Although this Part of the SSB Bibliography may be of use and interest to devotees and hagiographers, it has been compiled to provide researchers and other curious ‘outsiders’ with a judicious selection from the mountain of SSB literature which has accumulated over sixty years. This may facilitate a quicker appreciation of the evolving nature and worldwide expansion of the SSB Mission during that period. With some cross-referencing, if necessary, from Part 2, researchers will discover the process by which contributions by both SSB (especially through his translated and edited Discourses) and his devotees have produced their unquestioning acceptance of him not only as their spiritual guru but also as the Divine Avatar that he has always claimed to be.

Note: Many of the items listed have been selected from a Bibliography I prepared while still a devotee and during the extended research for my two hagiographical studies of Sathya Sai Baba. The amended annotations here are consistent with several years of subsequent research.

A few observations about the hundreds of books about Sathya Sai Baba

The Sathya Sai Baba literature is a unique and important phenomenon. The colossal amount of works produced by SSB himself, his associates and devotees (a total of over 600 in English when I stopped counting in 2000) is a clear mark of the unique worship offered to the guru by his devotees. Two of its special features are its apologist character and its relatively limited accessibility to non-devotees because much of this literature is published outside mainstream publishing outlets (i.e. by the official Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publishing Trust and, in many cases, self-published by individual devotees). The second disadvantage is being rapidly reduced by the mass of materials being made available on Sathya Sai Organisation and other unofficial websites since 2000.

The international book publishing trade is a commercial enterprise and as such uses tried and trusted commercial methods to ensure success and profit. In the process of selection and publication rigorous standards are usually applied and only those books which are considered to stand a chance of either commercial success or public approval are accepted for publication. The publishers’ expert staff and the authors then work together over a period of time, which usually varies between six months and two years, to make sure that the content and the presentation of the material is up to the required standards and that due recognition has been given to work consulted and quoted, with appropriate bibliographical references. This is precisely where a large part of the huge Sathya Sai Baba literature is different. Those books published by the official Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust (SSSBPT) do not seem to be published with profit in mind (although this may well be a minor factor because of the enormous volume of sales in SSO Centres all over the world, in spite of their extremely low retail price – often $2 or less, even when shipped overseas).

Many books written by individual devotees of Sathya Sai Baba appear to be inspired by a rapturous desire to extol their Avatar-guru (often by making or repeating exaggerated or unsupported claims, especially those that ‘prove’ SSB’s claimed   Divinity – a feature commented on by a small number of the academic researchers listed in Part 1 of this Bibliography). Since they consider themselves to be devotees of God on Earth, they not unnaturally feel an overwhelming need to share what they feel to be privileged personal and spiritual experiences with other devotees and non-devotees, to spread Sathya Sai Baba’s message to the whole world. Many – perhaps most – of these books deal so intensely with personal experiences and thoughts about Sathya Sai Baba that they would not appeal to the general reading public and would not sell. But the majority of the devotee writers, who usually have little or no experience of publishing, have no interest in profit – merely the desire to extol their Avatar-guru. They are frequently willing to ‘self-publish’ or to publish with very low rates of remuneration from the publisher. (Indeed, ashram gossip suggests that some writers have had to pay substantial amounts in India for the privilege of having their Sathya Sai Baba book published, without receiving any royalties.)

Because of this voluntary and amateur status (and often also with the small proportion of professional writers who produce books about Sathya Sai Baba) content is often extremely self-indulgent (rather like publishing very personal diaries). More significantly from a research point of view, basic standards of reporting and referencing are often not adhered to, especially for many of the events, alleged miracles and conversations reported. Until very recently, even the SSSBPT did not follow normal publishing procedure by printing the year of publication of the large number of books which it issues. Sometimes official editors have also neglected to follow usual reporting practice by failing to indicate those sections of Sathya Sai Baba’s translated Discourses which were summaries, leaving devotees to assume that they are reading SSB’s actual words when this was not the case. In the SSB literature in general (whether published by the SSSBPT, commercial publishers or self-published), quotes, hearsay and gossip are often mingled, and allegations and unsupported assertions (especially of implausible miracles) are frequently presented as facts. A huge and very popular compendium of “ Sathya Sai Baba’s words” (listed below under Reference Works) is, basically, a computer-assisted jumble of quotations from SSB and from many other written sources (which are not clearly identified in the end Bibliography).

Discourses

On the older of the official Sathya Sai Baba sites (www.sathyasai.org), and more recently on www.sssbpt.org, the full contents of the first 30 volumes of Sathya Sai Speaks are available for downloading in .pdf form. Many subsequent Discourses (since 1997) have also been posted. An unofficial site for Discourses was www.eaisai.com/baba (now www.saidarshan.com).

For a period of just over two years (1999 until mid-2002), ‘Premsai’ (an ashram-based volunteer devotee group of multilingual translators who preferred Sathya Sai Baba’s spontaneous Telugu style to the official edited versions) ran a large website (www.internety.com/Premsai) in several languages. This site offered a treasure trove of rare and revealing literal translations of Sathya Sai Baba’s Telugu Discourses. These were made available in several languages by the devotee-translators between the end of 2000 and mid-2002, when the translations were abruptly discontinued (quite possibly at the behest of associates of Sathya Sai Baba following substantial critical Internet discussion of the multiple discrepancies between the literal and the official translations). (That discussion is still available online to researchers and others for study.) For a time most of the Premsai website material remained available for study, comparison and research on “The Wayback Machine” at http://web.archive.org/web/20030216111817/www.internety.com/premsai/ but it is no longer to be found there.
However, the English versions of the literal Premsai Discourse translations are still on display.  

Section 1

Sathya Sai Baba's Teachings

1. Direct Teachings via Sathya Sai Baba’s translated and edited Telugu Discourses

These are very many in number and form the public basis of his teachings. For decades, Sathya Sai Baba has given a long public Discourse in Telugu (with a simultaneous English interpretation) on all major festival days. From the audiotape (or videotape) recordings made by the Sathya Sai Organisation, the Discourses are translated and edited into many languages and then printed in the monthly subscription magazine Sanathana Sarathi and in the annual volumes of Sathya Sai Speaks, both published by the Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust of Prasanthi Nilayam. All these publications are widely circulated for sale in overseas SSO Centres. Since approximately 1999, when the SSO began to multiply and diversify its Internet offerings, the edited English versions of the Telugu Discourses have been made available for downloading from the Internet (there is now a Search facility as well) and from one or two unofficial sites. The official SSB sites offer a full set of back volumes of Sathya Sai Speaks as .pdf documents. The translated and edited versions of new Discourses are usually posted on these Internet sites within a few days of their delivery. Nowadays, old Discourses are frequently broadcast on another recent SSO outlet, Radio Sai Global Harmony.

Sathya Sai Speaks Series
The first series was compiled from the speeches ofSathya Sai Baba from 1953 to 1982, mainly by N. Kasturi. A New Series of Discourses is now being published (Vols XVI-XXXV so far).
There are at least two different editions in India and one in U.S.A. for the first eleven   volumes (which were edited by Kasturi). See under Gries for an Index to Vols. I-XI of the American Editions. See also Steel (1997), under ‘Sathya Sai Speaks’ (pp. 228-239) for a Concordance by volume and chapter between the Revised Enlarged Indian edition and the American edition of Volumes I to XI.

Videos (Archival Note):
Many video recordings were made of Sathya Sai Baba’s Discourses. (Other audiotapes and videotapes were made of lectures and discussions by prominent devotees. See sub-section 2 below.) Most recordings, including those listed below, were produced by James Redmond and marketed by the Video Education Company, formerly of Texas and Arizona. They were bought by devotees and SSO Centres, where they may still be located. The Video Education Company ceased to make SSB videos in about 2000 and finally closed its doors in 2003 to undertake other film work.

November 19, 1990: Service
November 20, 1990: Gaining God's Love
November 22, 1990: Education
November 23, 1990: The Motherland
November 24, 1990: The Biggest Miracle
April, 1991: Talk to Westerners (Kodaikanal)
November 22, 1991: Ideal Lives
November 23, 1991: Winning the Lord's Grace
?1992 Discourse: Importance of a Name
March 3, 1992: Discourse on Bhajans
November 22, 1992: Discourse
November 23, 1992: Discourse
February 19, 1993: Shivaratri
February 20, 1993: Shivaratri (with English sub-titles)
November 20, 1993: Discourse
November 23, 1993: Discourse
December 25, 1993: Christmas Discourse
November 22, 1994: Discourse
November 23, 1994: Discourse
July 8, 1995: Discourse
July 11, 1995: Discourse
July 12, 1995: Discourse
November 18, 1995: Water Project Discourse
November 19, 1995: Women's Day
November 20, 1995: Discourse on E.H.V.
November 21, 1995: Discourse
November 22, 1995: Discourse
November 23, 1995: 70th Birthday Discourse
February 17, 1996: Discourse
February 18, 1996: Discourse
July 29, 1996: Discourse
July 30, 1996: Discourse
November 19, 1996: Ladies Day Discourse
November 21, 1996: Discourse
November 22, 1996: Discourse
November 23, 1996: Birthday Discourse
December 25, 1996: Christmas Discourse
March 7, 1997: Discourse
March 8, 1997: Discourse
July 16, 1997: Discourse
July 17, 1997: Discourse
July 19, 1997: Discourse
July 20, 1997: Discourse
September 22, 1997: Sacrifice
September 23, 1997: Human Values
December 25, 1997: Faith
December 25, 1998: Sacrifice and Surrender
November 18, 1999: Discourse
November 19, 1999: Discourse
November 21, 1999: Discourse
November 22, 1999: Discourse
November 23, 1999: 74 th Birthday Discourse
December 25, 1999: Christmas Discourse
July 16, 2000: Guru Purnima Discourse

Summer Showers Series

Compiled from edited translations of discourses given by SSB during the summer courses on Indian Culture and Spirituality at Brindavan (Whitefield), 1972-1979, 1990, 1993 and 1996 (and perhaps later years).

Vahini Series

Translated Extracts from SSB’s Discourses, on Hindu topics like the Bhagavata, Dharma, the Upanishads, etc. Published by Sri Sathya Sai Baba Books and Publications Trust of Prasanthi Nilayam and (by arrangement) by the Sathya Sai Baba Book Center of America:

For Children

Sathya Sai Baba, Chinna Katha, 2 vols. (Stories and Parables for Children). Quoted from the Divine Discourses, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications, 1988.
Sathya Sai Baba, Stories for Children, 2 vols, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, [n.d].
Kurzweil, B., Satvic Stories, Puttaparthi, Sai Towers, 1995.

This section introduces a fundamental aspect of the promotion of Sathya Sai Baba which has hitherto received very little public attention. In addition to the hundreds of books, articles and pamphlets written about Sathya Sai Baba (to be commented on in detail in Sections 2 to 7), many other sources of secondary information about SSB are available to devotees. These add to the amount of time and energy spent by many devotees (whether in the ashrams or elsewhere) in finding out and talking (as well as speculating and gossipping) about SSB. All of these supplementary sources of information constitute an important part of the communications between Sathya Sai Baba and his devotees and have been highly influential in spreading news of the teachings and the alleged miracles throughout the development of his Mission, particularly outside India. Such inputs from a large number of third parties more than compensate for any lack of direct impact caused by SSB’s major use of Telugu in his public appearances and Discourses (or for his unwillingness to undertake foreign travel).

Soon after Westerners began to discover Sathya Sai Baba in the 1960s, personal videos and documentary films began to be produced and marketed or passed round. Richard Bock was a well known maker of films on spiritual and religious themes. The best known of these is probably the 1970s bestselling video Christ in Kashmir. The Hidden Years , also known asThe Lost Years of Jesus.

The following early videos on SSB by Bock, and many others, are available for download as streaming videos from the Radio Sai website, www.saicast.org:
Aura of Divinity
His Life is His Message
The Endless Stream
Truth is My Name.

Aura of Divinity  
Richard Bock’s popular video on the 1960s and 1970s has now reincarnated as a DVD. It includes video clips of Sathya Sai Baba and the ashram, parts of Discourses and translations by Kasturi and more references to the alleged ancient prophecies.
Some samples of Kasturi’s translations:
“There was no one to know who I am until I created the world at my pleasure with one word.
Immediately, mountains rose up and the rivers started running …”
“The mission of the present Avatar is to make everyone realise that since the same God or divinity resides in everyone, people should respect and love each other …”
“Finally, Prema Sai, the third Avatar, shall preach the message that not only does God reside in everyone but everyone himself is God.”
“In all this Universe there is no other planet that has human life or a similar life form … All [forms of] life may aspire to human birth but only through the birth may God be realised. The purpose of this incarnation is to unite all mankind into one family for the establishment   of the Divinity, the atmic reality in every man or woman, which is the basis on which the entire Cosmic design rests. Once this is realised   …. the common divine heritage will become apparent.”

Sathya Sai Baba in the Light of Prophecy
This New Age style documentary by Richard Bock contains some of SSB’s bold statements about his Mission (for example, “I have taken this form of my own free will.” “I can cure, save, even resurrect people”) and also offers the researcher a lengthy assertion of the unconvincing collection of alleged prophecies of SSB’s birth or Advent (in Indian scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, Muhammad, Nostradamus, etc.) These prophecies, propagated by associates, devotees and other writers, and unquestioningly accepted and passed on by devotees for nearly 30 years have made such a substantial contribution to the Sathya Sai Baba story that in the year 2000 exhibits illustrating many of them were enshrined as part of the official life story of SSB in the Chaitanya Jyoti memorial Museum in Puttaparthi. (See also: http://bdsteel.tripod.com/More/indmmtrans.htm)
These alleged prophecies appear to have originated not from SSB himself but from enthusiastic associates, writers and devotees. Worthy of special attention in this film is the lengthy detail on the alleged 300 prophecies by Muhammad. The introduction to this material is characteristically vague: 700 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, his followers assembled 12 books of Hadiths – defined here as his Discourses. Among them, it is said, were the 300 characteristics.

Other film makers have also contributed a number of videotapes. Some examples:
Swami’s Mission, Professor N. Kasturi, Christmas 1984.
Two in One: Glimpses of Divine Mission and Shirdi Darshan (Hindi Commentary).
Christmas Days at Prasanthi Nilayam (Peter Rae, 1992)
For the Glory of the Universal Love, (Atilio Spinello)
God Lives in India ( Holland)
Prasanthi Nilayam, Christmas 1992 (Torrensville, South Australia, P.G.Video, 1993)
Pure Love (Peter Rae, 1994)
Sai Baba and His Children (U.K)
Sai Baba. God on Earth ( London, Golden Age Production)
Sai Gayatri
Sathya Sai Baba. His Message and His Works
Sathya Sai Baba – The Inner Voice ( Denmark)
The Way to Baba (Hartley Film Institute, U.S.A.)
Who is Sai Baba? (Victor Tognola, Switzerland)

 2a. Spokespersons

For over two decades before the advent of the Internet, much of what devotees learned about Sathya Sai Baba came to them not only through hagiographical books and articles but from the mouths of other devotees. Associates of Sathya Sai Baba, officials of the Sathya Sai Organisation (and of the newer executive Prasanthi Council)   and those devotees and devotee-writers who become prominent (usually by being favoured by SSB’s attention), as well as local SSO Centre officials in India and abroad acquire various levels of authority as official or unofficial spokespersons and “witnesses” as they enthusiastically propagate their experience and understanding of Sathya Sai Baba and his teachings to those less favoured and, in overseas countries, to many others who have never been (or may never go) to the ashram. These representatives of SSB lecture to groups of devotees on the basis of their experience and impressions of what it is like to be close to him (for example in interviews) and what he says and does (or allegedly does) as well as views on the deeper significance of all this. Since1970, ‘celebrity devotees’ have been travelling from one SSO Centre to another, to national and regional conferences and gatherings, sometimes to different countries, giving lectures and talks, and answering devotees’ insatiable questions about SSB, stimulating even more talk and speculation about the much-discussed guru.

The pecking order is, roughly:
– close SSO associates of SSB (both ex officio and by proximity to SSB, like Kasturi, Hislop, Goldstein and Kumar);
– a handful of prominent overseas SSO office holders, like Jagadeesan and Jumsai;
– voluntary spokespersons (and usually also writers) with special access to SSB (Murphet, Sandweiss, Rao, Krystal, Bailey, etc.);
– New Age oriented writers and practitioners (Mason, Tigrett, Ralli, Jevons, Shaw, etc.
– other devotee writers;
– other devotees.

The best known of these official and unofficial spokespersons, who usually lecture in English, are listed below. In most cases they have also written books or articles about Sathya Sai Baba. Their contribution to the success of the worldwide Sathya Sai Baba Mission is incalculable.

In India:
Professor Kasturi, Dr. Bhagavantam, Professor Gokak, Indulal Shah, and more recently, Ratan Lal, Anil Kumar, Dr Bhatia, and Dr G.Venkataraman. (Most of these have also been Sathya Sai Baba’s interpreters in public meetings.)

International:
Indra Devi, John Hislop, Howard Murphet, Dr. Samuel Sandweiss, Phyllis Krystal, Isaac Tigrett, Dr. Michael Goldstein, Dr. Gadhia, J. Jagadeesan, Dr Art Ong Jumsai, Lucas Ralli, Peggy Mason, David Bailey, David Jevons, Connie Shaw and Ryuko Hira. (Half of the above are Americans.)
Note: Two of the celebrity devotees listed above were to became critics of SSB in 2000.

In the 1990s, James Redmond (The Video Education Co.) was permitted to produce and sell a large number of promotional videocassettes. Many of these were centred around the sort of spokespersons described above and were eagerly bought and passed around or shown in Sathya Sai Centres by foreign devotees. For example:
David Bailey, Toronto, December 1996.
David Bailey, Russia, 1995.
Dr N.K.Bhatia of the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences. How he came to Swami, 1993.
Dr. Fanibunda: Blueprint, Practical Spirituality.
Golden Chariot and Paduka Festival.
Dr Jack Hislop at the 17th North and South Central Region Sai Conference, Missouri, May 1994.
The Hospital Video. The Beginning of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences.. nterview with Dr. B. S. Goel.

To give an idea of the range, content and effect on devotees of these electronic sources of ‘inside’ information and insights about Sathya Sai Baba, comments on a few selected audiotapes and videotapes are presented below. Common themes of these addresses by spokespersons are exhortations to follow SSB’s teachings by being good and doing good (seva), strong affirmations of SSB’s Avataric presence and Divine powers (especially the alleged materialisations and healings or rescues) and( especially for ‘Western’devotees)   esoteric topics of a New Age kind. References to recent visits to the ashram (including the latest personal interview contacts with SSB, ashram stories and rumours) are also possible (and expected) ingredients.

Dr Samuel Sandweiss

For over thirty years, Dr Sandweiss, an American psychiatrist, has been an immensely important devotee writer, lecturer and spokesperson. He enjoys great prestige within devotee circles for his public advocacy of Sathya Sai Baba’s Divinity and his teachings which is expressed sincerely and passionately and with self-deprecating humour. Many thousands of devotees (possibly hundreds of thousands) have read his two major books (or translations of them) and many overseas devotees must have listened to his live or recorded lectures or seen videos of them.

In the Foreword to Sandweiss’s first book, Dr. V. K. Gokak gives his symbolic interpretation of Sandweiss’s conversion to faith in Sathya Sai Baba with this analogy: “Dr Sandweiss’s own experiences with Baba are not only interesting but fairly typical. He is first rendered unsettled and “unmade” and then remade in the light of spirit. The “monkey mind” crumbles gradually and gives up its struggle and is replaced by a genuine sensitiveness and receptivity.” (The Holy Man …, p. 9)

An audiotape was made of his lecture at the Northern California SSO Retreat in September 1989. Sandweiss’s qualities as a spokesperson for SSB are evident in this powerful discourse. He unquestioningly accepts all of SSB’s claims and   makes frequent matter of fact references to SSB’s Divinity and paranormal powers. Following a sceptical beginning to the relationship in 1972, Sandweiss was powerfully impressed by witnessing spectacular materialisations (for example of Shiva lingams on Mahasivaratri Day) and by discovering writers’ accounts of   other amazing miracles (including the two major ‘resurrections’ recorded in the early SSB literature, which have been refuted by researchers like Haraldsson). For Sandweiss, SSB knows all languages. He is also amazed that SSB has time for talking about trivia to him when he has to “look after” five billion other people.

As with many other devotees’ claims, Sandweiss’s interpretations of what SSB says are often open to doubt, especially if one takes into account the sceptical theory of stage clairvoyants using the techniques of ‘cold-reading’. Some of SSB’s typical small talk, in English, could very well fit in with this theory. Where Sandweiss assumes Omniscience from enigmatic or teasing reactions by SSB, others might postulate evasiveness or SSB’s   misunderstanding of English. Nevertheless, for devotees, Sandweiss is a simpatico teller of the sort of SSB stories that they long for and listen to in rapturous admiration.

Sandweiss’s impressive enthusiasm for SSB and his teachings remains boundless and, at a critical time for SSB, he has recently published a third book in 2003 (see Section 6).

Isaac Tigrett
(This material was gleaned from his videotaped guest lectures to Sathya Sai Baba devotees, mainly in 1991 and 1993)

Already a celebrity in his twenties as a millionaire businessman, frequenter of pop music idols and their lifestyle (“the heroes of our time”), Tigrett officially entered the SSB annals in about 1990. The son of a wealthy Tennessee businessman, boyhood friend of Al Gore, in touch with his psychic side since the age of  thirteen, with a tragic boyhood behind him, Tigrett launched his business career in 1960 (in his twenties) with the acquisition of the Hard Rock Café in London (with a partner, whom he does not mention). It was a roaring success, attracting the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other showbiz and celebrity figures. Other branches in other countries were to follow. On a hunch, Tigrett acquired the film rights for the esoteric book The Secret Life of Plants when the book was on the verge of failure. The book and the film proved to be very successful. Tigrett  then researched all over the world for a film on parapsychology and went to India to investigate. There he heard about SSB. On a 1973 (or 1974) visit Sathya Sai Baba gave him vibhuti at darshan, but then proceeded to ignore him on his many trips (an average of two per year, each of two weeks or a month’s duration) for many years. Finally he was granted an interview in 1985. Nevertheless, when he had first received the vibhuti from Swami, he had already felt his life beginning to change. In his Hard Rock cafés he posted pictures of Sathya Sai Baba, and notices with one of the guru’s exhortations: “Love all. Serve all”.

            With that background and his considerable personal charisma, his dramatic story of   spectacularly miraculous rescues by Sathya Sai Baba in the 1970s (from a mountain car crash and from a drug-induced epileptic fit) Tigrett’s addresses to SSB devotee gatherings in America in the 1990s were like nectar to his audiences. Equally inspiring were his anecdotes about:
   providing $54 million to build the Super Specialty Hospital (from half of the proceeds of the sale of his share of the Hard Rock Café chain in the late 1980s);
   his appointment by SSB to oversee the whole building project in one year (bypassing SSB’s usual Indian building supervisor);
   his meeting with Professor Keith Critchlow and the design of the hospital according to principles of sacred geometry and its rapid completion in spite of Indian bureaucracy.

These public addresses (some captured on video and audio) must rank among the most impressive ever heard by groups of people with an almost insatiable appetite to hear more proofs of SSB’s Divine powers.

With those credentials Tigrett was already a devotee hero but in one of his talks, given in the early 1990s, he added the following mind-boggling story: After he disposed of his Hard Rock Café holdings, SSB told him to go to California to study meditation with New Age guru (as well as devotee and spokesperson) Phyllis Krystal. According to Tigrett (in one of his talks), Krystal and he were personally taught by SSB to travel astrally and 400 tapes   were made of their regular four-hour sessions. On one of these special trips SSB allegedly took them up to a high level and showed them the great black cloud of   “thought-forms” blanketing the Soviet Union. They were, said Tigrett, encouraged by SSB to puncture the cloud in many spots with long needles. (Shortly afterwards, as we now know, the Soviet Union disintegrated.)

The sensation which this revelation caused in American SSB circles is easy to imagine but the sequel for devotees was disappointing. In a later public lecture, when Tigrett was inevitably asked for more information by eager devotees (especially interested in the release of the 400 tapes, or a book on the topic), he declined to speak about the subject, explaining that SSB had asked him not to mention it because it would “confuse” people and (in response to yet another question) that SSB had not given permission for the tapes to be transcribed. (Other apocryphal devotee accounts mention Phyllis Krystal rebuking Tigrett but, as far as I am aware, she has not made any public statements to this effect.)

Anil Kumar

Kumar met Sathya Sai Baba in 1970 and was selected by him to talk at local Sathya Sai Organisation centres and in the ashram in 1978. He has performed this duty even since, especially on Sundays and Festivals. From 1989 to 1995 he was Principal of SSB’s Whitefield College. In 1995 he was transferred to Prasanthi Nilayam to give talks and to interpret SSB’s Discourses as well as to work in the Biochemistry Department of SSB’s University.
He is an excellent public speaker in English and combines the earnestness of a traditional preacher with the entertainment value of a crowd-pleasing, self-disparaging court jester particularly when he uses a Sathya Sai Baba-Kumar comic dialogue format. This allows him to be humorous, mimicking and even cheeky at times, in the sure knowledge that he will be tolerated like a favorite son. This clowning aspect is reminiscent of the late Professor Kasturi.
Kumar has become a great favourite with ashram audiences and has toured overseas Centres as well. Since 2001 he has had websites which feature his talks (printed, plus audio and video versions). In 2001-2003 he was associated with the multilingual devotee website www.internety.com. As on that former site, his texts on his latest personal website (www.saiwisdom.com) are offered in nine languages.

The objective observer will at times find Kumar’s unquestioning acceptance and repetition of some of Sathya Sai Baba’s idiosyncratic stories sycophantic and ill-judged, as in the case of SSB’s preposterous (and surely best unrepeated) story that he obtained his driving licence at the age of nine and drove to Madras in four and a half hours instead of the normally required eight hours. But Kumar takes this ‘joke’ even further:

“Swami went on speaking about His experiences. “Anil Kumar, for 15 years I drove my car, do you know that?” “Ah, Swami, is that so? Very nice.” “And in those days, because it was war time, petrol was not available. Only one gallon was supplied per month. That gallon was not enough for Me because I moved up and down every day.” “Ah, Swami, then what did You do?”
“I would ask one servant boy, by the name of Subanna: “Subanna, yes, come on! Draw water out of the well there. Come on, pour it out there.” And that water was transformed into petrol! That water only I used, not the government supplied petrol!” “Ah!” (originally from   www.internety.com, 10 March 2002) (Acceptance and enjoyment of such material is a common characteristic of Sathya Sai Baba’s devotees.)

Two influential UK spokespersons who have written (books or newsletters) and given many lectures about Sathya Sai Baba are the late Peggy Mason (a New Age personality and writer) and David Jevons (another well known “New Ager”).

Jevons with his wife, Ann, founded and ran the New Age Ramala House in Glastonbury (UK) for twenty years, establishing a Sathya Sai Centre there, visiting India frequently with groups of devotees and marketing a Ramala New Age Newsletter. They moved to Canada a few years ago and remain active in SSB spheres. (See www.ramalacentre.com/newsletter09_01_.htm)

Many British devotees have heard an audiotape of their contributions to an Inter-Faith meeting in UK in 1995. In his lecture (‘Are you taking life seriously?’), David Jevons preaches about SSB’s teachings, and describes the details of interviews with him, even interpreting SSB’s intensely searching stare as meaning ‘Are you taking life seriously?’ In addition, and in common with all SSB’s spokespersons, Jevons clearly and confidently asserts his special Divinity (“the Lord of the Universe is here”, “… Swami is everything so   he is Krishna, he is the Cosmic Christ. Yes, he is everything.” ) Jevons and his wife had recently asked Sathya Sai Baba if it was true that Jesus Christ would come again and he relays SSB’s nonchalant reply: “at this time, if the Father is here, why send the Son?”

Jevons refers more than once to the “ashram stories” (that special devotee grapevine), in particular those passed on by the older Indian residents (the privileged ‘verandah men’) to whom “Swami very often says much more” (than to visitors). In particular Jevons has this tasty morsel to offer his audience regarding the present 6 billion population of this planet and the prospect of this doubling:
“One of the things he is supposed to have said is that, on Earth, only 25% of the souls are human” … “The others are of another form, mainly from the animal kingdom”. He continues in New Age mode with an interesting analogy: “We are told that human evolution takes as long as a silk scarf pulled backwards and forwards across Mount Everest to wear it down to sea level” before adding the explanation that the reason all these forms are in a hurry to be born on Earth is because of SSB’s special presence (“greater than Krishna, greater than Rama”) and the promise of a dawning Golden Age – which is commonly predicted by both New Agers and SSB.

The following speaker on this tape reports on a trip to Puttaparthi and visits to the Hospital and the University and conversations with SSB’s associates. She introduces, fleetingly, a topic that crops up occasionally in the SSB literature: an assertion (with no evidence or references) of SSB’s vastly superior scientific knowledge. At the university she “was told” that SSB gives lectures to the students on “new concepts of maths and astrophysics”, so new that “even the lecturers sit there flabbergasted about what is being given.”

After a few brief remarks by Anne Jevons, mainly about her ex-pilot husband and their two special children, who are used to speaking to, and arguing with (the son) or dreaming about SSB, comes the Q. and A. session of the meeting, presented by Peggy Mason and Lucas Ralli (the famous receiver of SSB messages). The audience seems to wish to stay with the New Age topics and asks Peggy (who is very interested in UFOs and entities from other planets) to comment. As most of her audience is well aware, she has written about this in her 1980s book on SSB (on p. 21, she says). Peggy tells her attentive listeners that when she asked Sathya Sai Baba whether UFOs were real and whether they have come to help us, SSB allegedly replied in the affirmative, adding “and they [the UFO passengers] have much to do.” Warming to the subject, Peggy adds a few more references to UFOs before Lucas Ralli intervenes to quote Kasturi, as recorded in the video Aura of the Divine. Translating a Discourse of SSB, Kasturi says: “In all the Universe, there is no other planet that has human life or a similar life form.” Peggy rounds off the session reminding everyone about the many books which deal with ‘entities’ who have visited Earth.

On another audiocassette, Sir George Trevelyan, the venerable New Age guru of the 70s and 80s in UK, gives a speech on the occasion of Sathya Sai Baba’s 60 th birthday in1985. In an eloquent and spell-binding oration to devotees and others, he links SSB’s indisputable Divine arrival and presence with the other good New Age developments taking shape over the globe. He also warns that some will be chosen and others will be rejected. Like other spokespersons, Sir George’s claims about SSB are quite categorical but his style is quite idiosyncratic. Twice during his speech he uses the same rhetorical device. Commenting on Sathya Sai Baba’s claim to be all forms of the Divinity, he slowly enunciates, “Either this claim is arrogant nonsense, [pause] or it is true. [Pause] And WE know it is TRUE.”

Those are characteristic glimpses of the frequent exchanges of information which take place within the Sathya Sai Baba Movement via the “lecture circuit”.

As a single representative of another influential group of shapers of public opinion who endorse Sathya Sai Baba, including New Age writers and practitioners, I offer just one, for its intrinsic interest and, as in the case of Isaac Tigrett, its celebrity appeal:
Roberts, Paul William, Empire of the Soul. Some Journeys in India, New York, Riverhead Books, 1998. (See especially pp. 24-44, 63-64, 124-5 and 285-298.)
Roberts is a deeply spiritual person and an ex-academic, with a background of years of study in India and an expert knowledge of Sanskrit. In his 1998 book about India, this seasoned intellectual writer finally confessed to a long-standing but private devotion to Sathya Sai Baba kept secret since 1974, which was reconfirmed on a return visit in 1992, leading to his effusive but belated public endorsement of SSB’s Divinity.

Among the pages Roberts writes about his first stay of several months in SSB’s ashram in 1974-1975, there are many perceptive comments and well-observed descriptions of ashram life and inhabitants. He admits to being especially impressed by SSB’s knowledge of science. The following statements are also of interest, particularly since they echo statements already quoted above by other spokespersons.
 “I once heard someone ask Baba if he was Christ. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘I’m the One who sent him.’” (p. 32)
Of SSB’s intriguing habit of wiggling his fingers in the air, with palm upward, while walking round during darshan, Roberts comments, “Someone told me later that this was how he rewrote destiny” (p. 33).
By offering these powerful claims without comment, Roberts appears to be accepting them and offering them to the reader as true, thereby endorsing them.

Paradoxically, later in this same book of travels in India, Roberts strongly criticises the guru Osho (Rajneesh) for statements which his own allegedly Divine guru, Sathya Sai Baba, has also repeatedly made: “You are God, I am God, we are all God.”
(Anecdotally, even after being made aware of “Exposé” writing in 2002 and choosing to ignore it (and two years later rejecting it, in private correspondence), Roberts’s professional Canadian website continued to feature several photographs of him with Sathya Sai Baba until about 2005, by which time he was fully engaged with the Iraq question.)

3. Reference Works on Sathya Sai Baba's Teachings

Gries, David and Elaine, An Index of Sathya Sai Speaks, Vols. I-XI, Tustin, Sathya Sai Book Center of America, 1993. Compiled by a prominent American devotee who is an academic computer expert, this Index is useful for searching for quotations on specific topics in the American Edition of Sathya Sai Speaks, Vols. I-XI and XV. For those who possess the Revised Indian Editions, there is a Concordance in Steel (1997), pp. 228-239. (See below)

www.sssbpt.org , which lists all of SSB’s published Discourses online, also offers a Search facility.

Leslie-Chaden, Charlene, A Compendium of the Teachings of Sathya Sai Baba, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers, 1997. A huge 740-page computer-derived selection of quotations from Sathya Sai Baba and some of his commentators and anthologists on more than a thousand topics. It is often unclear which quotations are directly from (the edited translations) of SSB’s Discourses and which are from the writings of devotees. The amateur attempt at an end Bibliography is embarrassing in such an ambitious project, but is symptomatic of a general lack of care by devotee writers in presenting references for what they claim (names and dates, in particular).

Priddy, Robert, Back to the Source Sai Index, http://metasci.tripod.com
Archival Note: Worth mentioning as a devotee act of seva, although it is no longer directly available on the Internet. A prodigious and generous labour of love which lists topics alphabetically and offers 18,600 lines of detailed references taken from SSB’s Discourses and official compilations of his teachings. It was up to date to the beginning of the year 2000.

Steel, Brian (ed.), The Sathya Sai Baba Compendium. A Guide to the First Seventy Years, York Beach, Samuel Weiser, 1997. Another devotee act of seva – parts of which I now disown. An alphabetical reference work on 300 topics (many of a factual background nature, for non-Hindus) relating to the life and teachings of Sathya Sai Baba as presented by him and his major commentators in English.
Note: For a fuller listing of mainly hagiographical work on Sathya Sai Baba up to 2000, see also this other  Bibliography.

Youngs, Homer S., Translations by Baba, Tustin, California, Sathya Sai Book Center of America, 1975. A useful early reference book, in need of expansion and updating. The translation definitions are taken from the edited English translations of SSB's Discourses.

4. Study Circles and Discussion Groups

Roof, Jonathan, Pathways to God. A Study Guide to the Teachings of Sathya Sai Baba, Faber, Virginia, Leela Press, 1991. A painstakingly assembled selection from 27 subject areas, with comments, questions and many references to Sathya Sai Baba’s Discourses for the intense weekly study group sessions which are recommended by the Sathya Sai Organisation to extract the full value of SSB’s teachings, word by word, rather like the French scholarly exercise of explication de texte.

QUIZ on the Divine Life and Message of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Prasanthi Nilayam, SSSBPT, [n.d.]. An officially published Q. and A. ‘catechism’ booklet about Sathya Sai Baba, labelled as “intended only for fact-finding reading”. It offers many bits of the official story of SSB for rote learning and presents as facts many of the unsupported assertions made by or about Sathya Sai Baba, including some of the wholly unconvincing alleged prophecies of Sathya Sai Baba’s Advent by historical figures like Jesus, Muhammad and Nostradamus (assertions repeated in the Sathya Sai Baba literature and in the official Chaitanya Jyoti Museum in Prasanthi Nilayam).

Sample questions:
What were the mysterious intimations of the impending Divine Incarnation? (Part I, Q8)
What was the first divine power that Baba showed in the school? (Part I, Q 23)
What is the significance of the date 21-5-1940? (Part I, Q39) [This date is disputed.]
When and where did Baba declare that He is the Avathaar of the Age? (Part I, Q 44)
[The answer to this is also in dispute.]
What is the meaning of Sai Baba? (Part II, Q 1) [The expected meaning is “Divine Mother and Father”, which is not what Shirdi scholars or devotees believe.]
When did Baba declare that he is Shivashakthi in human form? (Part II, Q 5)
Give the meaning of the following: Man [and others] (Part III, Q 19)
[The expected Answer, in accordance with a Discourse habit of SSB’s: Man = Maya / Aathma / Nirvana, etc.]
What are the prophecies made on the advent of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba? (Part V, Q 1)
This is followed by an answer page of nine alleged prophecies, including 4 palmleaf predictions and others allegedly by Mohammed, Nostradamus and Pope John XXII. [XXIII?] (“A small barefoot man of dark skin, in the red robe, will eventually take over the Vatican.”)
What is the revelation made by Harold [= Frank] Baranowski of the University of Arizona, who had developed the Science of Auronomy by means of his Kirlian photography?   (Part V, Q 2)

5. Bhajans

Access to bhajans sung by SSB are available on the official websites, including Radio Sai. There are also many printed compilations of bhajans (mainly in Sanskrit but also in other languages), especially those published by SSO Centres in many countries. For example:
Bhajanamaala, 2nd ed., ed. D.Witerajne, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, 1995.

6. The Sathya Sai Organisation and Service / Seva
See the official websites listed at the beginning of this Part of the Bibliography.

7. A Selection of Books about Shirdi Sai Baba

Bharvani, A.D. and Malhotra, V., Shirdi Sai and Satya Sai are One and the Same, Bombay, Sai Sahitya Samiti, 1983.

Gunaji, Nagesh Vasudev, Sri Sai Satcharita. The Wonderful Life and Teachings of Shri Sai Baba, Shirdi, Shri Sai Sansthan, 1982. [15th ed. 1991] [Adapted from the Marathi original by Hemadpant]

Hemadpant [=Anna Saheb Dabholkar], Shri Sai Sacharita Shirdi, Shirdi Sai Sansthan, [n.d.].

Kakade, R.T., Shirdi to Puttaparthi, 6th ed., Hyderabad, Ira Publications, 1993 [1st ed. 1985]   Translated into eleven Indian languages.

Kamath, M.V., and V.B. Kher, Sai Baba of Shirdi. A Unique Saint, 2nd. ed., Bombay, Jaico, 1991.

Osborne, Arthur, The Incredible Sai Baba. The Life and Miracles of a Modern-day Saint, Bombay, Orient Longman, 1957.

Parthasarathy, Rangaswami, God Who Walked on Earth. The Life and Times of Shirdi Sai Baba, New Delhi, Sterling, 1996.

Ravindran, V., Sathya Sai Baba. Incarnations, Philosophy and Teachings, New Delhi, Vikas, 1996.

Rigopoulos, Antonio, The Life and Teachings of Sai Baba of Shirdi, New York, State University of New York Press, 1993. [See Part 1 of this Bibliography.]

Ruhela, S. P.
1994a: The Sai Trinity. Shirdi Sai, Sathya Sai, Prema Sai Incarnations, New Delhi, Vikas.
1994b: What Researchers Say on Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, Faridabad, Sai Age Publications.
1994c: Sri Shirdi Sai Baba. The Universal Master, New Delhi, Stirling.
1998a: Divine Grace of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, New Delhi, Diamond Pocket Books.
1998b: Shirdi Sai Baba Speaks to Yogi Spencer in His Vision, New Delhi, Vikas.

Sahukar, Mani, Sai Baba. The Saint of Shirdi, 3rd ed., Bombay, Somaiya Publications, 1983. [1971]

Shepherd, Kevin R.D.   (See Part 1 of these Bibliographies)
1986: Gurus Rediscovered: Biographies of Sai Baba of Shirdi and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori, Cambridge, Anthropographia Publications, 1986.
2005: Investigating the Sai Baba Movement. A Clarification of Misrepresented Saints and Opportunism, Dorset, Citizen Initiative.
This is a revised and extended version of the author’s 1986 work (Gurus Rediscovered …), which dealt with Sai Baba of Shirdi and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori. It contains criticisms of Sathya Sai Baba.

Sholapurkar, G. R., Footprints at Shirdi and Puttaparthi, 2nd ed., Delhi, Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan, 1989.

Warren, Marianne, Unravelling the Enigma. Shirdi Sai Baba in the Light of Sufism, New Delhi, Sterling, 1999. Revised edition, 2004. [See Part 1 of this Bibliography.]
            This briefly disputes Sathya Sai Baba’s reincarnation claim.

Section 2

Sathya Sai Baba as seen and interpreted by his devotees and others

The large number of published accounts are predominantly hagiographical, and often repetitive. The following item, although produced by a research team of devotees in the year 2000, introduced much new textual and photographic evidence about Sathya Sai Baba’s childhood and the early years of his Mission. A large format volume of 600 pages, it supersedes the simplistic Kasturi account of this early period and is essential to any serious research on Sathya Sai Baba. Hitherto, in spite of some attention and debate about it on the Internet, its existence has been largely ignored, especially by academic writers. (Subsequently, the six further advertised volumes, for which research was well under way, have not been published, which is much to be regretted.)

Padmanaban, R. (ed.), Love is My Form, Vol 1, The Advent (1926-1950), Bangalore, Sai Towers Publishing, 2000. (See also Part 2 of these Bibliographies.)
This vital work is referred to in this bibliography and in my other research as LIMF.

1. Major Accounts, especially of the Early Years

In this first section are presented the most influential accounts of devotees’ discovery and interaction with Sathya Sai Baba. Most of the authors listed were privileged to have very close personal contact with (and attention from) him; other authors interviewed early   devotees. After the early 1980s, close contact with SSB, apart from the tiny minority who were granted a personal interview with him, became a physical impossibility or statistically unlikely. Since his debilitating illnesses from 2003 on, Sathya Sai Baba has become increasingly less mobile during darshans, so the personal darshan and interview contacts between devotees and SSB have been greatly reduced. In the past decade, a few of Sathya Sai Baba’s very early local devotees have published their memoirs, which add interesting detail about the early years to the mainly secondary or tertiary accounts written by so many others.

The earliest accounts (still to be traced and researched)

Kondappa, V. C., Sri Sayeeshuni Charitra [in Telugu]: ‘The Life Story of Lord Sai’], Dharmavaram, [n.p.],1944. See LIMF, pp. 199 and 203 and for a review by R. Padmanaban, http://puttaparthi.info/parthi/saibaba/faces/faces1.asp. Or at: www.saibaba.ws/articles/kondappa.htm    
An English version has recently been published by Sai Towers Publishing. Unfortunately, I have not been able to see a copy.
According to LIMF, there is a Foreword by another of SSB’s teachers, B. C. Subbannachar. Although both of these men had been his teachers in Bukkapatnam [in 1941-42], they apparently visited SSB after the [1943] “Sai Baba” Declarations (so, possibly in early 1944) and he gave them information and, allegedly, a vision of Shirdi Sai Baba, which convinced them of his Divinity. The book appeared later in 1944, in the form of a poem. LIMF adds that Kasturi “had leant heavily on material in this book for his biography, Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram.” (LIMF, 199)]
Here is the promotional statement by Sai Towers Publishing:
“V.C. Kondappa was a school teacher at Bukkapatnam Higher Elementary school. Little Sathyanarayana Raju was his student! It was Kondappa’s great fortune to hear the story of Shirdi Sai as narrated by Sathya Sai, one night, in Puttaparthi and he received Darshan of the Shirdi form. Kondappa recorded this narration by Sathya Sai in the original Telugu and got it published in 1944. It was the first ever book published on Sathya Sai Baba. Read this thrilling narrative in its first English Translation! Originally published as Telugu Poem, this translation provides a prose narrative and prayers.”   http://puttaparthi.info/shopping/. Sai Towers Publishing [Seen 22 October 07]

Other early books referred to in LIMF (with images of the book covers only):
Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba Gari Jeevita Sangrahamu [in Telugu], 1947. (LIMF, p. 361)
Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba Avarhalin Jeevidha Charitram [in Tamil], 1948. (LIMF, p. 415)

“Balapattabi visits Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba reluctantly. In a soul-transforming meeting however, the businessman turns His ardent devotee. This was in 1944. In those days Baba moved freely with His devotees, delighting them with His breath-taking miracles, tantalizing them with always a new facet of His exuberant Divinity. Balapattabi, in His close company, participates in this early phase of Baba’s mission of Love. Baba’s grace helps Balapattabi, to square up to life, overcome temptation, surmount trouble. His Divine intervention takes over to avert a crisis. Even if it is resurrecting Balapattabi’s daughter, but does not condone a folly until the lesson is learnt….. Balapattabi lives the agony and the ecstasy of devotion. His story will fascinate, inspire and mellow you.”  (http://puttaparthi.info/shopping/  from the SaiTowers Publishing Catalogue – seen 22 October 2007)

Balu, Shakuntala, Living Divinity, London, Sawbridge, 1984.

A close devotee from 1976 until her death, the late Mrs. Balu (a journalist) shares her close observations on Sathya Sai Baba and her interviews with other devotees, particularly concerning miracles. She also offers descriptions and explanations of Hindu ceremonies in Prasanthi Nilayam and Brindavan.

Balu, V., The Glory of Puttaparthi ..., Rev ed., Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1990.
This introduction to Sathya Sai Baba is widely read in India. Of more general interest are the interviews with some of SSB’s students and a chapter on his humour. Mr Balu, an artist, is still a high-profile devotee of Sathya Sai Baba.

Balu, V. and Balu, Shakuntala, Divine Glory, Bangalore, S.B.Publications, 1985.
This book consists of separate parts by Mr Balu and the late Mrs Balu, of Bangalore. Both parts are full of detailed observations, particularly concerning miracles and worship. In their many interviews of Indian devotees, they report extra detail on Sathya Sai Baba’s early miracles, updating the accounts of Purnaiya and Kasturi.

Baskin, Diana, Divine Memories of Sathya Sai Baba, San Diego, Birth Day, 1990.
The American writer and her mother were especially close to Sathya Sai Baba in the 1970s and 1980s. Baskin offers a very personal account of her spiritual path and her relationship with Sathya Sai Baba during this time.

Bhagavantam, S.
[1976]: ‘Sai Baba. The Inexplicable and Inscrutable’, in Karanjia, R.K., God Lives in India, Puttaparthi, Saindra, 1994, Appendix, pp. 81-90. [Originally published in the 4 September 1976 issue of Blitz]
            Dr Bhagavantam, a retired distinguished scientist and close associate of Sathya Sai Baba, asserts his belief in SSB’s extraordinary powers and his special qualities in communicating with devotees.
1995: ‘Lord of Miracles’, in Ruhela, S.P., Sai Baba and His Message, pp. 228-235.
            Dr Bhagavantam speaks admiringly of Sathya Sai Baba and relates the story of the materialisation of a small copy of the Bhagavad Gita from the sands of the Chitravati river which secured his belief in SSB’s powers in the late1950s. He became one of SSB’s close associates and interpreters for 15-20 years.
Note: The following passage from an article in The Week on 20 June 1993 (quoted by S. P. Ruhela) reflects an unconfirmed old ashram rumour: “Bhagavantam … denounced the godman as a fake towards the end of his life. He never went public with the reasons for his disillusionment with the   Baba, but cut the godman out of his life completely.” (Ruhela, 1997: 112) There are similar unconfirmed rumours about Professor V. K. Gokak.

Devamma, N. Lakshmi , Bhaktodhaaraka Sri Sathya Sai, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, [n.d.] [The English translation of a much earlier Telugu original] A short hagiographic memoir by a school teacher who met Sathya Sai Baba in 1952, became a close devotee and taught in one of his schools. Contains sepia photos, one of which is of particular interest to SSB chroniclers.

Devi, Sharada    See Pedda Bottu

Haraldsson, Erlendur   (See also Parts 1 and 2 of this Bibliography)
1987: ‘Miracles Are My Visiting Cards’. An Investigative Report on the Psychic Phenomena Associated with Sathya Sai Baba, London, Century Paperbacks. (Also marketed for sale in India only by Prasanthi Publications of New Delhi.) [See Part 1 for fuller comment.]
One of the best known general books on Sathya Sai Baba, by a non-devotee visiting parapsychologist. The book is often erroneously regarded and quoted by devotees as a scientific endorsement of Sathya Sai Baba’s materialisations.
1996: Modern Miracles, Norwalk, CT, Hastings House. [The slightly enlarged edition]
The latter has the same content as the new Indian edition listed as the following item here: personal communication.
1997: ‘Miracles are my Visiting Cards.’ An Investigative Report on the Psychic Phenomena Associated with Sathya Sai Baba, New Delhi, Prashanti.
Although wrongly dated 1987, this revision has two extra chapters, one of quotations on SSB’s Teachings (in answer to complaints from readers and Sathya Sai Baba himself), and the other on the subject of a 1992 materialisation controversy also dealt with in the scientific paper listed in Part 1: Haraldsson and Wiseman: ‘Reactions to and an Assessment of a Videotape on Sathya Sai Baba’, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, April 1995, 60, pp. 203 - 213.
The following anonymous ‘review’ reflects how highly Haraldsson’s study is regarded in Indian devotee circles:
            “Modern Miracles has merits of unique proportions. Although miraculous phenomena occurring in connection with religious leaders have been reported throughout history, Haralds presentation is a first of its kind. The study is based upon firsthand observation of a scientist and is supported by his careful interrogation of witnesses. It describes paranormal phenomena of extraordinary variety and strength attributed to one of the most remarkable men of the century. India, the land of guru worship, abounds with holy men who are often called ‘babas.’ Sathya Sai Baba is a unique individual – a kind of genius towering over the whole landscape. He sees his mission as primarily devoted to the spiritual and moral renewal of India — extricating his country from its present confusions. Baba’s powerful influence, however, touches the whole fabric of Indian life, be it social justice, political problems, or the educational system. The meek and the downtrodden, as well as the powerful and the mighty, flock around him in never-ending crowds streaming through his ashram. I was present when a person holding one of the highest elected offices in India, escorted by a three-star general, approached him. They both got down on the floor and touched Baba’s feet with their bare foreheads. Thankfully, there is a new book on Sathya Sai Baba which goes a long way to determine the relative authenticity of his miracles... Undoubtedly, Haraldsson’s study is the most balanced book ever written on the miraculous work of Sathya Sai Baba... I highly recommend Miracles Are My Visiting Cards.” http://puttaparthi.info/shopping/shp/bookdetail.asp?itemid=B2384   (page 7 of Catalogue of Sai Towers Publishing)

Hislop, John
Prior to becoming a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba, Hislop had worked in an executive position for the 1960s celebrity guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. As well as being a founder of the Sathya Sai Organisation in USA, Hislop was its leader for many years. Because of this key position, his total devotion, and his specially privileged access to SSB, recounted in his books, Hislop was one of SSB’s most influential overseas spokespersons and a popular lecturer in SSO Centres in many countries during the years of overseas expansion of the SSO from 1970 until his death in 1995. His books, which deal with his long conversations with SSBand other experiences (including some alleged miracles), have been widely read, studied and quoted by devotees, in many languages.
1978: Conversations with Sathya Sai Baba, San Diego, Birth Day.
Hislop was one of the first Westerners to write about Sathya Sai Baba’s life and work. These 52 Question and Answer conversations between SSB and Dr. Hislop were recorded (the first two on a tape recorder, the rest in note form following the conversation) between 1968 and 1978. At least some of the conversations seem to have taken place with an interpreter present. The conversations range over a wide variety and depth of spiritual topics. The book is still closely studied by many devotees.
Note: There is a revised and enlarged edition published c1996 by the Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust of Prasanthi Nilayam: Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. This later edition contains, in addition to the 150 pages of the American edition, the 22 conversations included in Hislop’s 1985 book, listed below, as well as three additional conversations and a posthumous eight-page insert containing six letters from Hislop.
1985: My Baba and I, San Diego, Birth Day.
For perhaps hundreds of thousands of readers, this has been one of the principal introductory books on Sathya Sai Baba. It has been translated into many languages. The title was chosen by Sathya Sai Baba himself and the book deals with Hislop’s prolonged and intimate experiences of SSB’s teachings, some miracles (most notably that of the famous Crucifix allegedly materialised for Hislop by SSB from wood reconstituted from the True Cross on Mahasivaratri Day, 1973). The experiences are followed by 22 supplementary conversations (January 1978-October 1984), and a treasure trove of letters from SSB to Hislop (as well as a few from Hislop to SSB) written between 1969 and 1983, during the important formative years of the American Sathya Sai Organization, of which Hislop was such a prominent figure.
1997: Seeking Divinity, Tustin, CA, Sathya Sai Society of America.
A posthumous collection of some of Dr. Hislop’s non-scripted talks and lectures, mainly at San Diego in 1986 and 1994 and in New Zealand in1993 and 1994.]

Jagadeesan J. [also known as J. Jegathesan]
1978: Journey to God. The Malaysian Experience, Kuala Lumpur, [n.p.]
1981: Sai Baba and the World. (Journey to God, Part 2), Kuala Lumpur, [n.p.]
1989: The Journey Within. (Journey to God, Part 3), Kuala Lumpur, [n.p.]

            The vigorous activities of this close and highly influential Malaysian devotee (since 1976) and prominent leader of the Malaysian Sathya Sai Organisation have resulted in the publication of many books and a great deal of public popular talks to devotees in Malaysia and overseas. Jagadeesan was an early advocate of vernacular worship of Sathya Sai Baba in the language of the devotee. Volume 2 of his series contains photographs of vibhuti said to have been materialised in puja rooms of many devotees.

“Kannamma”   See under Ramamurthy

Karanjia, R.K.
1976: ‘Sun not Troubled by Glow-worms: Baba’, Blitz, Bombay, 31 July, p. 24.
‘Interview given by Sri Sathya Sai Baba to R.K.Karanjia’, Blitz, Bombay,
September 1976. [Reprinted in Samuel H. Sandweiss, Spirit and the Mind, pp. 235-258.]
‘God is an Indian’, Blitz, 11 Sept. 1976, pp.1, 12-13.
‘Service to Mankind Through Three wings of Sri Sathya Sai Organization’, Blitz, 30 October,   1976.
1994: God Lives in India, Puttaparthi, Saindra. [The 1976 Blitz articles and other shorter ones from the same year]
The well-known investigative Indian journalist and magazine editor allegedly went to interview Sathya Sai Baba to unmask him but came away charmed and a devotee. The re-published articles are especially useful as Sathya Sai Baba has not been in the habit of giving one-to-one interviews of this length and depth to journalists or non-devotees.

Kasturi, N[arayan]
1961-1980: Sathyam Sivam Sundaram. The Life of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, 4 vols., Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications. [2nd American Printing, 1988.]
[The first volume was originally published as The Life of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.]
            The first detailed hagiographical and eulogistic account of Sathya Sai Baba’s early life and his Mission until the late 1970s by his close Indian devotee, assistant, interpreter and editor. Professor Kasturi retired from academic life in 1954 and stayed with SSB until his death in 1987. His work has been quoted or used in most of the accounts which followed and   his is still probably the most widely read biography of Sathya Sai Baba. Its contents are also usually quoted unquestioningly as ‘Gospel’. (Now, by courtesy of a zealous devotee, downloadable from http://bababooks.org)
1982: Loving God. Eighty Five Years under the Watchful Eye of THE LORD, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications, 1982.
The late Professor Kasturi’s autobiography.
1984: Easwaramma. The Chosen Mother, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications.
Another hagiographical account, of the life of the person sometimes referred to as Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘earthly mother’, by one who met her in the latter part of her life.

Krystal, Phyllis , Sai Baba – The Ultimate Experience, Los Angeles, Aura Books, 1985. [Reprinted by Samuel Weiser in 1994]
Another prominent American devotee and unofficial spokesperson for Sathya Sai Baba. Her bestselling devotee book describes her extraordinary experiences with SSB in the 1970s and 1980s. As a psychotherapist and author (inspired by Sathya Sai Baba’s personal teachings), Mrs Krystal has been very successful and as a promoter of SSB’s teachings she has travelled indefatigably to Sathya Sai Organisation Centres all over the world.

Leela, M.L.,Lokanatha Sai, Chennai, Sri Sathya Sai Mandali Trust, [1995].
An important but belated account of the early years of Sathya Sai Baba’s Mission (the   1940s and 1950s) by an academic botanist who met SSB as a young girl and whose family enjoyed very close contact with him on their ashram stays and his visits to Madras. The author offers new descriptions of daily life with the young and adored guru and of miracles witnessed during these visits. (One or two dates offered are erroneous.)

Levin, H.
1985: Good Chances, 2nd ed., Prasanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers [republished] 1996 1st ed. Tustin.
This account deals with the Arcadian days of the early 1970s in SSB’s ashrams when foreign devotees had begun to visit. A very interesting account of the author’s months of very close daily contact with Swami in the summer of 1970 and in 1971, along with a small group of other young Americans and westerners, including Tal Brooke – see Part 2.
1996: Heart to Heart, Prasanthi Nilayam Sai Towers, 1996.
The author’s continuing experiences during many visits to the ashram up to 1986 and his observations as a devotee with close access to SSB. The book was published ten years after the first volume. It contains this interesting quotation:
Levin: “Doesn’t Swami know the difference between a photostat and a forgery?”
Kasturi: “How can he know that? He’s only from a village.” (H. Levin, 1996b, 54)

LIMF and Love is My Form (2000)    See under Padmanaban, below.

 Lowenberg, R.
1983: At the Feet of Sai, Bombay, India Book House.
1983: The Heart of Sai, Bombay, India Book House.
1985: The Grace of Sai, Bombay, India Book House.
Three simple and highly popular accounts by a South African devotee which include many interviews with people who claim to have experienced SSB’s miracles.]

Mason, Peggy and Ron Laing, Sathya Sai Baba. Embodiment of Love, London, Sawbridge, 1982. [3rd ed., Bath, Gateway Books]
The experiences of an elderly British “New Age” couple, who found favour with Sathya Sai Baba in the 1960s, plied him with questions, often on popular esoteric New Age themes like life on other planets, UFOs, etc., and eagerly reported their conversations with him. Their contagious enthusiasm and proselytising was highly effective in the promotion and running of the British Sathya Sai Baba Organisation. The book is pure hagiography and makes many dubious or unsubstantiated claims which have been repeated by other writers.   An egregious example the latter is Peggy Mason’s early propagation of the myth that Sathya Sai Baba is the predicted Muslim Mehdi Moud, or Mahdi.

Murphet, Howard
1971: Sai Baba: Man of Miracles, London and New Delhi.
[Reprinted by Samuel Weiser, York Beach, 1973 and subsequently]
Until very recently, a large number of other devotees’ accounts (including those of many Indian writers) of discovering Sathya Sai Baba have mentioned their serendipitous introduction to SSB’s name on finding or being given a copy of Howard Murphet's seminal 1971 book, Sai Baba. Man of Miracles. What most impressed and attracted them was his account of SSB’s miracles. The book has been reprinted many times and translated into many other languages. In his 40 years of total devotion to SSB, Murphet, the doyen of non-Indian writers on SSB (deceased in 2004, aged 97) produced seven books on his guru and was the centre of attention in many overseas SSB Centres. His SSB books benefit from his previous writing experience (he was in his late 50s when he met SSB) and his diligent research methods but they are also heavily influenced by his solid unquestioning faith in SSB’s Divinity and his total love for Sathya Sai Baba.
Man of Miracles was the first important original account of SSB’s life and teachings to reach the West. It was the result of four years of visits to the ashram (1966-1970) with his wife Iris. At that time the ashram had a mere 700 Indian residents and a few western visitors. Devotees (like the Murphets and the Hislops) were housed in a furnished guest house. From the ensuing very close daily contact with Sathya Sai Baba, Murphet crafts a fascinating account of SSB’s life, charisma, alleged miracles, and teachings and introduces Western readers to some basic Hindu concepts and terminology. Murphet’s reporting of early miracles relies heavily on the work of Kasturi, Purnaiya and other early devotees but he also breaks new ground by presenting contemporary devotee experiences gleaned from patient interviewing.
1977: Sai Baba Avatar. A New Journey into Power and Glory, San Diego, Birth Day, 1977.
Based particularly on an extended stay in Sathya Sai Baba’s ashrams in 1974, this is an attempt at a deeper analysis of SSB’s life, work and significance. Also many new miracle stories are recorded.
1982: Sai Baba. Invitation to Glory, Delhi, MacMillan, 1983.
[Republished in USA in 1993 as Walking the Path with Sai Baba, York Beach, Samuel Weiser.]
A more extensive and scholarly but eminently readable introduction to Sathya Sai Baba and the spiritual path, with less emphasis on the miracles. Murphet attempts to define SSB’s place in the history of the world and offers links between his teachings and those of other religions.
Before his death in 2004 at the age of 97, Murphet published four other similar books, all extolling the love and powers of his beloved Divine guru.
(Keen Internet surfers will notice that such is the drawing power of Murphet’s first book that a daring devotee has made it available online, regardless of copyright considerations: http://sai_baba_2001.tripod.com/manofmiracles)

Padmanaban, R. et al , Love is My Form. Vol. 1 The Advent (1926-1950). Prasanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers, 2000. (Repeated from Part 2 of this Bibliography) [Often referred to as LIMF]
Written by a team of devotees headed by a phenomenally successful Puttaparthi publisher of Sathya Sai Baba books (and ex-photographer of SSB), this is certainly not a book critical of Sathya Sai Baba . It was intended to be the first of a series of definitive biographies of SSB and although basically hagiographical (and derivative of Kasturi’s work), it is also well researched and contains some essential new information about Sathya Sai Baba, including photocopies and a wealth of old photographs. Some of this new material (including the photographs) contradicts or challenges official data, especially when taken in conjunction with other scraps of evidence available in the memoirs of early devotees of SSB and one or two other writers. Examples of these   important new insights are: 1990s recorded interviews with (aged) early devotees; the years of Sathya Sai Baba ’s schooling; the date of the two Declarations of Sathya Sai Baba’s Mission before leaving school in Uravakonda (whwhich turns out to be 1943, not 1940), the dating of some early photographs of SSB, local knowledge about Shirdi Sai Baba in the 1940s and a few other details from the remote early years of Sathya Sai Baba ’s Mission for which Kasturi’s first volume had hitherto been the main flimsy source (and much-quoted ‘Gospel’).

In spite of its archival importance, the book has so far received scant attention from academics, critics and devotees. (Some of the latter, aware of the new information, voiced disapproval of the volume in the ashram as soon as it was published. A recent SSB apologist and propagandist has tried to discredit the volume on the spurious grounds that it is a ‘commercial’ publication with a scandalously high price.) This ambitious project to publish five more volumes of this biographical series (one per decade of the guru’s life), which was well advanced, was abruptly abandoned a year or two after the publication of this sole volume, to the incalculable detriment of independent research.
Here is part of the original release note from Sai Towers in October 2000:
“Sai Towers Publishing proudly announces the release of the much awaited book ‘The Advent’, the first volume in the series, ‘LOVE IS MY FORM – A Biographical series of Sri Sathya Sai Baba’.
“Sri Sathya Sai Baba has been the most talked about avatar of the age – and perhaps the most photographed. Here is the unfolding of glorious odyssey, picking up photographs, letters and other documents along the way to relate the most enchanting life story of Baba.   In the first twenty five years, of the life, that the book studies, a group of eminent researchers stitch together recorded history and documented interviews of contemporaries narrating landmark events   and personal experiences to make the book a rare publication.”
The following details are taken from a Sai Towers advertisement for the LIMF series:
“Currently, research is progressing on the following volumes. To share the Divine Graciousness we offer you, our esteemed customers, a unique scheme.
Work on each volume is proceeding rapidly.
Tentative Dates of Release:
Vol 2 (1951 - 1960) - 23/11/2002
Vol 3 (1961 - 1970) - 23/11/2003
Vol 4 (1971 - 1980) - 23/11/2004
Vol 5 (1981 - 1990) - 23/11/2005
Vol 6 (1991 - 2000) - 23/11/2006”

Pedda Bottu (also S(h)arada Devi and Peddabottu Galisharadevi )
‘My Reminiscences of Shirdi Sai’, in Sathya Sai, The Avatar of Love, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, [c1985], pp. 23-29.
From Shirdi Sai to Sathya Sai, Prasanthi Nilayam, ?1985. [Translated from the Telugu original, Sriya Charitra, 1985] [See Love is My Form, pp. 155-156]
Born in 1888, this ex-devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba claims that Shirdi Sai Baba confided to her in 1917 (a year before his death) that he would appear again in “Andhra with the same name of Sai Baba but in another Avatar” and she would meet him. She alleges that she finally met and recognised SSB in 1940, in Uravakonda, when he was 14 and she was 52. She became a devotee and after her retirement to the ashram in 1958, she was known as Shirdi Ma. (See Marianne Warren, Unravelling the Enigma … p. 373.)
(These bare ‘facts’ raise immediate problems since, as the book Love is My Form makes clear, Sathya Sai Baba was not in his final school in Uravakonda until 1943, when he would have been 16 or 17, assuming he was born in 1926. Also, when SSB was born, Puttaparthi was still part of Mysore State.)

Polisetti, Konnamma , ‘Memories of an Old Devotee’, in Sathya Sai. The Avatar of Love, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, [c1985], pp. 57-60. Interesting biographical details, in an official compilation of tributes. The author, then aged 92, remembers meeting Sathya Sai Baba when he was “about nine years old”. She refers to his early worship of Shirdi Sai and gives the following information about Subbamma, the young Sathya’s virtual foster mother from his infancy:
“Karnam Subbama looked after Swami as her own ‘Bidda’ or baby. …” Then in a reference to his early experiences as a guru [after his Declarations, therefore in late 1943 or early 1944, when he lived in Subbamma’s home for a period], “In those days when local people did not believe in Swami, Karanam Subbamma looked after Swami as her baby and her God.”
“Swami’s schedule in those days was as follows: He would get up early …, have his bath and ablutions, eat his tiffin made for Him by His foster mother Karanam Subbamma and then start talking to visitors who had gone over to the village for the darshan. … He was 18 years old at this time.”
A further time clue is offered by the fact that Konnamma used to cook for him in the ‘Patha Mandiram’ [built in 1945] “the old mandir now converted as Kalyana Mantapam.” (pp. 58-59)

Purnaiya, Nagamani , The Divine Leelas of Sri Satya Sai Baba, Bangalore, House of Seva, 1976. [4th ed., Puttaparthi, Sai Towers, 1995] A very early Indian devotee writes simple accounts of life with Sathya Sai Baba in the first phase of his Mission, i.e. from the 1950s on. Mainly a series of brief accounts of his early miracles, many of which she claims to have witnessed. Unfortunately, no dates are given.

Ramamurthy, Karunamba (or “Kannamma”), Sri Sathya Sai Anandadayi.Journey with Sai, Prasanthi Nilayam, SSSBPT, 2002. [3 rd ed. 2004] Another early devotee who first met Sathya Sai Baba with her husband in 1946. Her mother was also a devotee. As with Vijayakumari and one or two other early devotees, SSB’s contacts with the whole family were very close and caring. This belated work is based on “Kannamma’s” diaries (up to 1970) and includes details of conversations with SSB.

Reddy, A. Adivi, Uniqueness of Swami and His Teachings, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications, 1995. Another long-standing and close devotee presents his hagiography.

Ruhela, S.P. (See also Parts 1 and 2.)
1994: The Sai Trinity. Shirdi Sai, Sathya Sai, Prema Sai Incarnations, New Delhi, Vikas. This useful pocket information book, dealing with information on the three alleged incarnations of Sathya Sai Baba, contains a Bibliography on Sri Shirdi Sai Baba (pages 105-110) and a Bibliography of 193 books and articles on SSB, pages 111-128. [A revised edition was published in 2000 by   Vikas ( New Delhi).]
1995: Sai Baba and His Message, rev. ed., New Delhi, Vikas. [See also Part 1 for details of the 1976 original version.]
Two versions of the early research efforts of a committed Indian devotee (of both Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai) and Professor of Sociology who was to become the most prolific of all writers about Sathya Sai Baba. This edited volume contains contributions by several other writers, including the late Dr. Gokak, Dr. B. S. Goel and Dr S. Sandweiss. The revised 1995 edition does not include the original chapters by Charles J. S. White, B. S. Goel, Elsie Cowan or M. Balse.

Sandweiss, Samuel H.
1975: SAI BABA. The Holy Man ... and the Psychiatrist, San Diego, Birth Day.
An early and close American devotee (1972-), one of the half-dozen best known devotee writers and lecturers on Sathya Sai Baba. Dr. Sandweiss, a psychiatrist, gives enthusiastic details of his first close experiences with SSB (including many conversations) and of the profound impact on his personal and professional life (partly in the form of letters to his wife). Very readable and highly influential in the spreading of SSB’s fame, claims and Gospel.
1985: Spirit and the Mind, San Diego, Birth Day. Aimed at a more restricted professional readership of health professionals, this   serious work has been widely read by educated devotees. In it, Sandweiss presents his view of spiritual reality, particularly in healing. He harnesses this to propounding the need for healing professionals, notably psychiatrists, psychologists and other therapists, to take into account the spiritual dimension of their patients. He also stresses the universal importance of the spiritual teachings of SSB.

Sarin, V.I.K., Face to Face with God, 3rd rev. ed., Prasanthi Nilayam, Saindra, 1995. [1st ed., 1993]
A lengthy account by a distinguished Indian journalist whose association with Sathya Sai Baba goes back to 1971. The detailed description of a large number of miracles, both early and recent, takes up the major part of the book (pages 61-278).

Sathya Sai. The Avatar of Love, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, [n.d.] [c1985]. An official compilation of tributes, probably for Sathya Sai Baba’s 60th Birthday. It contains interesting information on SSB’s early Mission. See especially under Pedda and Polisetti, above.

Schulman, Arnold, Baba, New York, Viking Press, 1971. (See Part 2 for a fuller description)
An interesting and basically favourable early account of two visits in the late 1960s by a successful American screenwriter. Schulman, who (pace Wikipedia) did not become a devotee, contributes a few independent observations which have special interest for the researcher. In spite of the author's proven writing ability, the prestige of the New York publishing house and the clever interweaving of his own account with the story of another visiting devotee, the book does not seem to have been reprinted and is therefore difficult to obtain but it is well worth tracking down in libraries and secondhand bookshops. There are also some early photographs by John Worldie. (Of anecdotal interest is the fact that Schulman’s book was published in the same year as Howard Murphet’s first book.)

Shah, Indulal
1980: Sixteen Spiritual Summers, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust. Essays on the spiritual path with Sathya Sai Baba in the 1960s and 1970s by an early, very close and highly influential devotee and associate of SSB (1965-). Mr. Shah has served at the head of the Sathya Sai Organisation (which he was instrumental in setting up 40 years ago) for many years and until 2003 was the Chairman of the SSO World Council.

Sholapurkar, G. R., Footprints at Shirdi and Puttaparthi, 2nd ed., Delhi, Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan, 1989. This is a comparative study of Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai. It also has a special   bibliographical and biographical interest for researchers because of the author’s section on SSB’s “Main Biographers and Devotees” (pp. 93- 134). Sholapurkar adds a footnote to his description of Dr Bhagavantam’s service with SSB to announce that this eminent retired physicist, who had become one of SSB’s closest and most valued associates, mentors and spokespersons in the formative years of the Mission, had just left the ashram, depressed by deaths in the family, and was leading a reclusive life in Hyderabad (p. 104).

Vijayakumari, Smt. , Anyatha Saranam Nasthi. Other than You Refuge is There None, Chennai, [n.p.], 1999. [Available from Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust] This recently self-published 400 page work is a novel addition to early eye-witness accounts of Sathya Sai Baba’s Mission. In the mid 1940s, as a little girl, the authoress, Smt. Vijayakumari (whose later married name was Mrs Hemchand), and her family, from Kuppam, became very close devotees, spending long periods of time in the ashram in close daily contact with SSB. In this account (translated from Telugu), she offers original details and descriptions of SSB’s character and Mission during the 1940s and 1950s which helpfully supplement those given by Purnaiya, Kasturi and other devotees, occasionally to the point of differing from the official record.
For instance, she and her diary are also featured in E. Haraldsson’s careful investigation of the alleged ‘resurrection’ of her father (Radhakrishna) in 1953. Her account here basically corroborates Haraldsson’s conclusion that there was no evidence of the father's death, although there was possibly some privately administered form of healing intervention by Sathya Sai Baba on a very sick or dying man. Unfortunately (a common obstacle in research on the SSB literature), dates and accurate references are few and far between. Some interesting older photographs are also offered.

Viswana(n)dha Rao, T., Fifty Years at the Lotus Feet. Garland of Experiences, Hyderabad, Sree Prasanthi Publication Trust, [n.d.]. Quoted in footnotes in LIMF   (p. 224). Another rare work by an eye-witness of the early years of Sathya Sai Baba’s Mission. According to LIMF (p. 203), SSB visited this young man with V. C. Kondappa (q.v.) in the summer of 1944. Not yet seen, and only one faint trace found on the Google Search Engine.

2. Selected Later Accounts

Of the flood of several hundred accounts of personal experiences and eulogies of Sathya Sai Baba, I have selected a few which may be of interest to researchers. The ones by Bailey and Bhatia are particularly interesting because both writers were favourites of Sathya Sai Baba in the 1990s and therefore enjoyed great popularity with devotees but they subsequently left the ashram and spoke out critically about him.

Bailey, D., Journey to Love, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers, 1996. An engaging and entertaining story of a gifted, corpulent and humorous British concert pianist’s meteoric rise to close contact and favour with Sathya Sai Baba in 1994 and 1995. Within 18 months of discovering SSB and totally surrendering to him, Bailey was rewarded by SSB’s loving attention and favours, in return for organising and directing musical concerts at Puttaparthi and speaking to very large audiences from time to time. Sathya Sai Baba also found Bailey a devotee wife, Faye, and over two or three years the two of them made tours of overseas SSO Centres giving lectures. There is also a second devotee book by David and another by Faye. They both left the ashram at the end of 1998 and caused great consternation among devotees when they revealed their controversial Findings in early 2000.

Bashiruddin, Zeba, ‘Truth of a Prophecy’, in Sanathana Sarathi, November, 1990, 298-300. [See also Part 1] Strong support by a Sufi Muslim teacher and devotee of Sathya Sai Baba for a widely accepted but unconvincing, illogical, and possibly blasphemous, prophecy that Sathya Sai Baba is the promised Muslim Mahdi.

Bhatia, Dr. Naresh, The Dreams and Realities Face to Face with God, Prasanthi Nilayam, [n.p.], 1994. An astonishing and widely read story of close devotion and attachment to Sathya Sai Baba by the doctor who for several years was in charge of the Blood Bank at SSB’s Super Speciality Hospital. In recounting his experiences, including miracles witnessed and many mystical visions of Baba, Dr Bhatia’s stated purpose is for readers to “get a glimpse of the majesty and glory of the Divine.” In fact, the depth of Bhatia’s faith in and devotion to Sathya Sai Baba is expressed, time after time, in the strongest of terms. He left the ashram under a cloud in 1999 and, in spite of allegations made in the Findings, attempts to persuade him to give full details of his side of the story have apparently been unsuccessful.

Chaitanya Jyoti. The Millennium Museum depicting the Message and Mission of Sri Sathya Sai Avatar, Prasanthi Nilayam, SSSO, 2001. (Repeated from Part 2) This illustrated (official) guide to the lavish museum opened in 2000 as an official statement on and commemoration of the life and ‘Divine’ mission of Sathya Sai Baba   presents an extraordinary collection of both fact and unsubstantiated or discredited claims, including many flimsy assertions propagated by devotees which have entered the mythology surrounding Sathya Sai Baba (like the various alleged prophecies of his Advent by many celebrities and other sources, from Jesus to Edgar Cayce, including Muhammad and Nostradamus). Some of the illustrations in the book are of exhibits obviously aimed at a relatively uneducated audience but they also point to the strongly promotional, proselytising and memorial purpose of the Museum.

Rao, M. N.
“De mortuis, nihil nisi bonum.” However, in any honest report it has to be recorded that this highly educated and distinguished Indian Public Servant, who spent many retirement years in Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram, is an egregious example of those devotees whose intense devotion to SSB and his perceived Divinity inspires them to write excessively hagiographical works containing misleading statements, half truths and dubious allegations.
Nevertheless, the following three books by Dr. Rao, if read with care, offer some useful new data because of his status within the ashram and his access to SSB himself:
1985: Sri Sathya Sai Baba. A Story of God as Man, Prasanthi Nilayam, [n.p.]
[Largely superseded by his 1995 book.]
1995 God and His Gospel, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers. A major broadly-based account of Indian spirituality, saints and SSB.
1998: You Are GOD, Prashanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers, 1998. This offers much standard data on Sathya Sai Baba and Puttaparthi and some useful information on the development of the Sathya Sai Organisation as well as biographical information on some prominent SSB devotees from different countries. Many of its pages may prove to be heavy-going for non-Hindu readers. Rao also shows a reluctance to offer dates and references for his material and displays glaring omissions and a regrettable bias when describing prominent ‘Western’ SSB writers and celebrity devotees.

Rodriguez, Birgitte, Glimpses of the Divine. Working with the Teachings of Sai Baba, York Beach, Samuel Weiser, 1993. A seasoned spiritual searcher who, after a long journey, found Sathya Sai Baba in 1981 and became a resident at Prasanthi Nilayam. She offers the benefit of her deep spiritual insights in this well written book.

Selby, Richard, Path of the Pilgrim, Prashanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers, 1999. A sensitive and well written contemporary account of the author's path to Sathya Sai Baba, his visit to Prasanthi Nilayam, the first darshans, his impressions and SSB’s impact on him.

Shah, I.,Spiritual Blueprints of My Journey, Bombay, Sarla Charity Trust, 1993. The continuation of the author’s adulatory account of this prominent Sathya Sai Organisation leader’s experiences with Sathya Sai Baba since 1965.

Steel, Brian
1999: The Powers of Sathya Sai Baba, Delhi, B.R. Publishing Corporation. A thoroughly over-enthusiastic and unquestioning attempt to extract from most of the available Sathya Sai Baba literature in English a classification of the full variety, extent and chronology of SSB’s reported special powers, devotees’ reactions to them and their cumulative effect during the decades of his Mission. (Mea culpa.) Of some interest is the fact that my hagiography also points out that some of the early spectacular types of miracles were discontinued in later years (like the alleged surgical interventions, SSB’s trances, and, for 20 years from 1977, the Shiva Lingam materialisations on Mahasivaratri Day). Also singled out for comment are a few hard-to-believe stories (like the alleged origins of the ‘Mehdi Moud prophecy’), devotees’ love of gossip, and, in addition, one or two more serious   discrepancies which continue to be repeated by devotees and writers (like the alleged ‘resurrections’, clearly discredited in Haraldsson’s widely – but not closely – read book) because they have not been officially rectified or disowned by the Sathya Sai Organisation. The book was completed in mid-1998. For the relevant personal sequel, see my statement of disclosure of agenda at the beginning of Part 1 of this Bibliography, or my web page investigations about Sathya Sai Baba.

Thomas, Joy, Life is a Game. Play It, Tustin, Sathya Sai Book Center of America, 1989. This and four other similar titles are by a very popular American writer on Sathya Sai Baba experiences, miracles, teachings and spiritual themes.

Uban, S. S., The Gurus of India, New Delhi, Sterling, 1978. [London,. Fine Books, 1977] Of the retired Major-General’s account of a twenty year search (with a kind Foreword from the Dalai Lama, who is the subject of one of the longer chapters), the entries on Shirdi and Sathya Sai are very peripheral ‘fillers’, typical of secondhand reporting.
Without actually visiting Sathya Sai Baba, the author is impressed by reports of his miracles (including “the surgical operations he performs using astrological instruments”). The general echoes SSB’s defence of such public displays as necessary “to attract the crowd”.

3. Privately Revealed Messages and Teachings

This is a productive and very popular sub-genre of Sathya Sai Baba devotee literature.
Many devotees believe themselves to be blessed with the privilege of receiving communications directly from Sathya Sai Baba , especially in the form of revelations during meditation and dreams. A few claim to have received whole Discourses in this way or to have had visionary Dialogues with SSB, which they then write down and share with other devotees.
Given their special nature, some of the following accounts of visions and dreams may also be of interest to parapsychologists and other students of spirituality.

Aditya, S.
1996: Sathya Sai’s Amrita Varshini, 2nd ed., Prasanthi Nilayam Sai Towers. [1st ed., 1992]
The author report direct messages from Sathya Sai Baba and 10 detailed visionary conversations and discussions with him.
1997: Sathya Sai’s Anugraha Varshini, Prasanthi Nilayam Sai Towers. More of the same.

Bailey, Elvie , Messages from my Dear Friend Sai Baba, Adelaide, Sathya Sai Baba Organisation of South Australia, 1989. [1997: Prasanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers.]

Kumari, J. , Sai Baba: My Beloved Mother, Hyderabad, Tumuluru, 1996. The author claims to have had conversations with Sathya Sai Baba through meditation in the period 1974-1978.

Little Heart , Unique Graciousness, rev. ed., Prasanthi Nilayam, Saindra, 1994. Mystical visions and conversations reported by an elderly English lady who claims to have been Radha’s brother in a previous incarnation.

Lunshof, Geesje , Inner Dialogue with Sai Baba, Delhi, B.R. Publishing Corporation, 1999. 62 question and answer sessions carried out in guided writing. A second book of these dialogues has been published in Dutch.

Penn, Charles , My Beloved. The Love and Teaching of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Baba Books and Publications Trust, [1981]. The lengthy messages include the very well-known exhortation beginning ‘Your Mission has begun’, from 1979. This message is now circulated among devotees as if it had emanated directly from a Discourse by Sathya Sai Baba.

 Ralli, Lucas
1985: Sai Messages for You and Me, London, Vrindavanum Books.
1987: Sai Messages for You and Me, Vol II, London, Vrindavanum Books.
1990: Sai Messages for You and Me, Vol III, London, [n.p.].
1993: Sai Messages for You and Me, Vol IV, Madras (Chennai), [n.p.].
Mr. Ralli assures his readers that the messages were confirmed by Sathya Sai Baba , who also gave him permission to publish them.

Ramnath, V.,Waiting for Baba, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers, 1996. A devotee since 1972, Mr Ramnath claims to have frequent dream interviews with Sathya Sai Baba.

Riddell, Carol
?1994: To Transcend the Ego. Divine Messages Received from Sathya Sai Baba
(1991-1992).
?1998: Gifts of Divine Love. Messages from Sathya Sai Baba. Both English texts are available on the Internet at: www.users.bigpond.com/carolrid/index.html or: www.onelist.com/files/.

Sakunthala, Sai Ma , My Loving Son Sathya Sai, Madras, Ganesh and Co., 1994. A 62-page booklet by a popular Madras healer who claims visionary advice from Sathya Sai Baba.The book contains colour photos of vibhuti which has allegedly materialised on photos and statues in her puja room.

St. John, Gloria, Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down. Becoming a Devotee of Sathya Sai Baba, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers, 1997. This includes descriptions of the writer's visions of Sathya Sai Baba.

Usha, S.,Sai Sandesh. Messages from the Inner Sai, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sai Towers, 1995.

Section 3

Applied Teachings

1. Education

Bal Vikas, Bombay, Sri Sathya Sai Bal Vikas. [A monthly magazine]

Burrows, Loraine (ed.), Sathya Sai Education in Human Values, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, [n.d.].

Global Overview of Sri Sathya Sai Education www.sathyasai.org/education/globaloverview/globaloverview.html “The book 'Global Overview of Sri Sathya Sai Education', distributed at Guru Purnima 2007, can now be downloaded in pdf form. This book is the result of a year’s work by the Education Committee of the Sri Sathya Sai World Foundation, with help from devotees throughout the world.”

Gokak, V. K. (ed): A Value Orientation to Our System of Education, New Delhi, M. Gulab Singh & Sons, (1973).

Gokak, V. K. and S. R. Rohidekar (eds), Teachers' Handbook for the Courses in Human Values, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications, [n.d.].

Ruhela, Satya Pal
1994 (ed.): The Educational Theory of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Faridabad, Sai Age Publications. Half of the chapters are analyses and essays by Ruhela and other educationists; the other half consists of Discourses by SSB.
1996: (ed.), Sai System of Education and World Crisis, New Delhi, MD Publications. Nine essays on Sathya Sai Baba’s educational theory and nine chapters of SSB's Discourses dealing with educational topics.

Sampath, S., Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. An Experiment in Integral Education. Placing Human Values at the Forefront, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, 1991.

2. Comparative Religion

Bashiruddin, Zeba
1988: Sai Baba. Mercy to the Worlds. (A Muslim View), Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning.
1993: Sai Baba and the Muslim Mind, Anantapur, [n.p.].
1998: Sai Baba and Sufism. (Journey of Love), Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. This short book is available online:   http://sss.vn.ua/sbs.htm.

Karim, C. A., Islam. The Sai Perspective, Sai Towers Publishing, [n.d.] This short book is available online at : http://sss.vn.ua/islam_sp.htm. For a short description of its contents, see www.lerwill-life.org.uk/spirit/islamrethought.htm.

Mazzoleni, Don Mario,A Catholic Priest Meets Sai Baba, Faber, Virginia, Leela, 1994. [Translated from the Italian: Un sacerdote incontra Sai Baba, Milano, Armenia Editore, 1991]
Based on the difficult experiences of a Catholic priest who became a devotee during the 1980s, the book was written primarily to educate fellow Catholics and priests about the divinity of Sathya Sai Baba and the perceived strong parallels between him and Jesus Christ. It is also a chronicle of   the author’s continuing spiritual progress under SSB’s influence. Father   Mazzoleni was eventually excommunicated for continuing his apologetic activities on SSB’s behalf. The book became a bestseller in several languages.

Phipps, Peter:
1994: Sathya Sai Baba and Jesus Christ. A Gospel for the Golden Age, Sathya Sai Publications of New Zealand, Auckland.
1997: Greater than You Know. Sathya Sai Baba, Jesus Christ and Christianity, Auckland, Sathya Sai Publications of New Zealand, 1997.
Both of these books present a great deal of evidence, comparisons and arguments in an endeavour to prove to Christians (particularly Protestants) the need to begin to accept Sathya Sai Baba as the long-awaited Messiah.

Samarasinghe, Nandini, The Transcendental Truth. A Buddhist Perspective of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Prasanthi Nilayam, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust, 1997. [1st ed., 1995]
A comparative description of the teachings of Buddha and Sathya Sai Baba.

3. Hindu Interpretations

Balasingham, C.,Sai Baba and the Hindu Theory of Evolution, Delhi, MacMillan India, 1974.
            In this slim 70 page book, the author sets out to investigate two questions concerning Sathya Sai Baba, apparently taking for granted that the miracles are miracles and that SSB is God: “What has Hindu philosophy to say about these miracles?” (p. vii). And “How can a man be God?”

Fanibunda, Eruch B., Vision of the Divine, Bombay, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications, 1976.
With experiences going back to 1970 and very close contact with Sathya Sai Baba, Dr Fanibunda, a Parsi devotee, presents a very personal and vivid early account. Although this erudite book was aimed principally at an educated Indian readership, with the expansion of devotee numbers throughout the world, it has been widely read in other countries also. For foreign devotees, it is particularly helpful on matters of Hindu worship (like the Gayatri Mantra and Lingams). Fanibunda, who was an accomplished amateur magician in his younger days, is on record as stating that he never detected any sleight-of-hand in SSB’s materialisations. He also endorses the Walter Cowan ‘resurrection’ claim (p.10). Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Divine claims, he has no doubt: “In the whole recorded history of mankind, there have been only two Pooorna Avatars. One was Krishna and the other is Sathya Sai Baba. This Truth is of such a magnitude that it is worthy of proclaiming from every housetop in the world” (p. 13).

Ganapati, Ra.Baba: Satya Sai, Parts I and II, Madras, Divya Vidya Trust, 1984-1985. Adapted from an earlier version in Tamil, these two thick volumes recount (from many sources) details of Sathya Sai Baba’s early alleged leelas and miracles. The author is an ascetic and a scholar but his attitude is cloyingly eulogistic. Nevertheless, there are many interesting clues to be gleaned by the attentive reader, especially when Ganapati discusses SSB’s ‘deliberate mistakes’ and the concept of Kshobhana.

Goel, B.S., Third Eye and Kundalini, Kurukshetra, Third Eye Foundation of India, 1985. One of Sathya Sai Baba’s eccentric professional devotees, Goel, a psychoanalyst, wrote two erudite books about SSB, of which this is one. He eventually set up his own ashram in the Himalayas. Both the books, the Kundalini theme and the ashram were reportedly popular with Westerners.

Gokak, V. K.
1983: Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The Man and the Avatar. An Interpretation, New Delhi, Abhinav, 1983 [1st ed., 1975].
An important sophisticated account by a distinguished retired Indian educationist (and ex-Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University) who became a devotee in about 1971. Included is a discussion of Sathya Sai Baba’s views on education. Professor Gokak became a close associate of and spokesperson for Sathya Sai Baba for several years and represented him as his ambassador on a tour of the United States in 1974 (when American devotees believed that SSB would later come to visit them). He sometimes acted as interpreter between SSB and foreign visitors (like Hislop). (According to some ashram rumours, he left the ashram toward the end of his life. His son is now the Vice-Chancellor of Sathya Sai Baba’s university.)
1996: In Defence of Jesus Christ and Other Avatars, Delhi, B. R. Publishing Corporation.[1st ed., 1979] A sophisticated 60-page defence of Sathya Sai Baba against criticisms by the Indian Rationalists, Tal Brooke (referred to obliquely), disgruntled Christians and missionaries. Gokak reveals deep-seated and well known Indian resentments of Westerners’ basic failure to understand Indian mysticism. (In view of the topic, the following quotation on p. 5 seems incongruous: “No saint or godman advertises to the world about his powers and siddhis.”)

Kulkarni, S. D.,Shri Sathya Sai. The Fount of Vedic Culture, Bombay, Sri Bhagawana Vedavyasa Itihasa Samsodhana Mandir, 1992.

Menon, Jaishree D.
1990a: Our Sai Beyond Miracles, Prasanthi Nilayam, [n.p.].
1990b: Self Realization, Mangalore, [n.p.] [= Part 2]
1991: Sai Consciousness (Freedom), Prasanthi Nilayam [n.p.] [=Part 3] An ex-student of Sathya Sai Baba’s College, Mrs. Menon presents complex essays about her guru from an intellectual Hindu viewpoint. Very intense.

Ruhela, S.P.,Sri Sathya Sai as Kalki Avatar, Delhi, BR Publishing Corporation, 1996. The special claim suggested in the title should be noted and followed up.

Shemesh, Jack, When God Walks the Earth, Bangalore, [n.p.], 1992.

4. Business Management

Haksar, Ajit, Sai Baba. Manager Divine, [n.p],[n.p.], [n.d.]. A short introductory book on Business Management in India.

Hawley, Jack, Reawakening the Spirit in Work. The Power of Dharmic Management, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler, 1993.