Sri Sathya Sai International Organization

Sri Sathya Sai Baba in His Grace formed the Sri International Organization (SSSIO) in the 1960s. In the following years Sai Centers began to be established around the world. Simultaneously, and unrelated to the growth of the SSSIO, the attention of the media in the USA became focused on cult-like behavior of a few other groups. As a result, the word cult gained a very negative meaning (although earlier, cult meant religious practice or worship and the rites, ceremonies, and practices of a religion, as well as an unorthodox or spurious religion).

Rest assured, dear reader, that the SSSIO is not a cult in that negative sense of the word! Below, we give information that will help explain the differences between a cult and the SSSIO. The information is drawn from two books on cults: Mindbending: Brainwashing, Cults, and Deprogramming in the '80's (by Lowell Streiker, Doubleday, New York, 1984) and Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America (by J. Melton, Garland Publishing, New York, 1986).

This material is a slight revision of an article that appeared in The Sathya Sai Newsletter, USA.

Streiker indicates that a real cult will lack the following characteristics:

• Genuine concern for members' welfare,
• Appreciation of constructive criticism from non-believers, and
• Active encouragement of dialogue between members and outside world.

Beyond that, there are nine major characteristics of cults, as listed below. With each characteristic, we show through excerpts from quotes from Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba that the SSSIO does not have these characteristics. The citation for quotes, SSSS, refers to volumes of Sri Sathya Sai Speaks.

1. Primary cult activities are fund raising and recruiting new members.

I do not like your going about collecting funds or raising donations. (SSSS VIII)

Fund collection is as much opposed to this movement as fire is to water. (SSSS XI)

Enough for us if there remain one or two members where practice and preaching are correct and sincere. Quality is accepted; quantity is of no consequence. (SSSS XI)

I do not need any publicity. (SSSS IV, 23, p. 140)

Do not imagine that your task is to propagate Baba and speak of Baba and his message. (SSSS XIII)

2. Cult members are encouraged to cut off communication with family and friends. They are isolated from the outside world and any reality testing it could provide.

Your primary task is to discharge your duty. This does not mean renouncing worldly life or your obligations to your family. (SSSS XXV)

Use the opportunities confronting you as a householder to develop detachment and self sacrifice. (SSSS IV)

Don't keep yourself apart, working on your own salvation through meditation; move among your sisters looking for opportunities to help ... (SSSS X)

3. Cult members hand over possessions and earnings and become totally dependent on group.

Whoever may ask, even if they say that I have authorized them, do not give even a single paisa(penny). (SSSS X)

Where money is asked and offered, I have no place. (SSSS V)

Do not lean on others; live on your own earnings, your own resources. (SSSS XII)

4. The cult enforces demands by peer pressure, embarrassment, and even violence.

Humility and tolerance must characterize the behavior of Sai devotees. (SSSS XIII)

Start the day with Love. Live the day with Love. Fill the day with Love. Spend the day with Love. End the day with Love. This is the way to God. (SSSS IX)

Non-violence includes not causing hurt even by a word, look, or gesture. (SSSS XIV)

5. The cult is the only possessor of truth --others are unsaved and hostile to truth.

Do not develop fanaticism or sectarianism. (SSSS VII)

All religions call upon the one, omnipresent God. (SSSS XIV)

Diversity of religion and faith is conducive to the welfare of mankind. (SSSS XI)

Finding fault with another's faith casts a slur on yours. (SSSS VII)

You have to teach the equal validity of all faiths. (SSSS XIV)

6. The cult feels above the law --the ends justify means of lying, stealing, defrauding.

Dharma (right action) is essentially social morality. (SSSS XII)

Dharma (right action) includes morality, truth, virtue, love, and a host of other qualities that uphold communities of man and the individual. (SSSS VIII)

Care of the country is as important as care of the body. (SSSS IX)

7. The cult may be apocalyptic --members will be the only survivors of a world catastrophe.

Do not be upset at calamities; take them as acts of grace. (SSSS VI)

No disaster is immanent for the world. Over the vast globe, there may be some mishaps here and there, from time to time. (SSSS XXIV)

8. The cult is based on the teachings of an authoritarian, corrupt leader who is the sole source of what the group believes and of rules for daily behavior.

The scriptures lay down the lines along which man has to direct his thoughts and activities. Sincere adherence to those laws and limitations alone can guarantee wisdom. (SSSS XII)

I have not come to set afoot a new cult. (SSSS VIII)

Seek out chances to study and substantiate the basic similarities in all religions. (SSSS XI)

The Vedas are the foundation of Indian culture. (SSSS XV)

Truth, right action, peace, and love are the four pillars of the eternal wisdom. (SSSS XLII)

9. The cult exists for its own material survival and makes false promises to help society.

The organization is exclusively for spiritual development. (SSSS IX)

Service to man is the best form of worship. (SSSS VIII)

Organizations bearing my name must render service to the helpless, sick, distressed, illiterate, needy. (SSSS VIII)