Wonderful that former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee's family is planning to have a Sai bhajan; AIP Mr. Nimish Pandya should invite state presidents NOT ORDER them

Last updated on 26-Aug-2018

Given below is a comment I made on recent post of Mr. V.R. Ganti, https://www.facebook.com/notes/vr-ganti/is-aip-with-his-deputy-politicising-sai-org-is-aip-trying-compete-with-c-sriniva/10213054773988676/ :

Former Prime Minister of India, late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a committed devotee of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and contributed greatly to India's development and growth. As a resident of India and an Indian citizen I am deeply grateful to Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his dedicated service to the nation, which benefited millions of Indians including me.

Shri Vajpayee also publicly repudiated Western media led attacks on our beloved and revered Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. As a Sathya Sai devotee, I am deeply grateful to Shri Vajpayee for that.

A Sai bhajan being held at Shri Vajpayee's residence is a wonderful occassion for Sathya Sai devotees to pray for Shri Vajpayee's soul (mind/subtle body) and also to pray to Bhagavan to give courage and strength to the family of Shri Vajpayee who cared for him for so many years, to bear with this great loss. It is a matter of happiness to me that Shri Vajpayee's family has planned a Sai bhajan.

I don't think it is inappropriate for Shri Nimish Pandya to invite, I repeat, invite, state orgn. heads of India or their representatives to attend the bhajan. After all, it is a great honour for the Sathya Sai organization to be invited to attend a Sai bhajan at the residence of former PM Vajpayee. Interested state Sathya Sai orgn. heads of India being given an opportunity to attend the bhajan as a way to show respect, love and gratitude of the Sathya Sai orgn. to Shri Vajpayee for his committed support over decades to the Sathya Sai movement, I think is very appropriate.

What I am uncomfortable with is the "order" of Shri Nimish Pandya to do that. In this context I must also mention that I was very disturbed to come to know of how displeased the recently removed state president of Maharashtra, Shri Ramesh Sawant, has been with the reported dictatorial behaviour of Shri Nimish Pandya. In my nearly decade long association with Sathya Sai Seva Orgn. Maharashtra (Dombivli samithi) from around 1993 to 2002, including six stints of Prasanthi Seva, it was Ramesh Sawant sir who was at the forefront of Maharashtra Sathya Sai orgn. work in Maharashtra and in Prasanthi Nilayam. Ramesh Sawant sir was loving and accessible. I am very grateful to Ramesh Sawant sir for his leadership of Maharashtra Sathya Sai orgn. Shri Nimish Pandya was ***never*** in the forefront for such service activities. But he used to be associated with the drama program of Asadhi Ekadasi in Prasanthi Nilayam and would get verandah seating.

That Mr. Nimish Pandya reportedly dismissed or ousted Shri Ramesh Sawant as the Maharashtra Sathya Sai orgn. head is very disturbing news to me. Mr. Pandya may be a good orator but in terms of Sathya Sai orgn. Maharashtra leadership and service commitment he does not come anywhere close to Ramesh Sawant sir.

After Sathya Sai Mahasamadhi in April 2011, I was direct witness to horrible level of power craze in Prasanthi Nilayam system. Fear of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba pulling powermongers up was gone! Power craze had come to the fore. A favourite mantra used by some powermongers was that it was time for youth to be given control of Prasanthi Nilayam system. So immature youth got into positions of power and indulged in massive abuse of power. They used their power to humiliate elders and boss over them. The result was that many elders simply quit Prasanthi Nilayam system and Prasanthi Nilayam system got considerably weakened at a time when it was already under assault and poaching from Muddenahalli group even though Muddenahalli group had not gone public then (before May 2014).

And the weird thing was that these youth in positions of power were controlled by elders who were old people! So the "give power to youth" mantra seemed to me to be a convenient way for some old people in power to push their youth followers (sycophants) into positions of power, thereby consolidating the power of these old people and marginalizing other old people who had previously been in positions of power in PN system!

Such things were possible in Prasanthi Nilayam system in the first year or two after Mahasamadhi due to lack of transparency and accountability in the management of Prasanthi Nilayam system. Everything was supposed to be confidential! And decisions of the power-crazy bosses were supposed to be Swami's will!

Now I get the feeling that All India President, Mr. Nimish Pandya is using a similar non-transparent and non-accountable management style, and cornering power for himself and his cronies.

Mr. Nimish Pandya should NOT be allowed to become a dictatorial ruler who orders around everybody in the Sathya Sai organization including state presidents of the Sathya Sai organization. Decision making should involve a level of consensus among top office bearers of Sathya Sai organization.

Otherwise there will be an exodus of people of integrity from Sathya Sai organization leaving behind only sycophants who will unquestioningly follow the orders of Mr. Nimish Pandya, which will be very unfortunate for the Sathya Sai movement. Of course, some of the people from this potential exodus may end up joining Muddenahalli group, to make things worse for Sathya Sai movement.