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The Secret Swami: This World
By Terry Ramsey, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 17.06.049pm, BBC2
Frankly, in my view, anyone who seriously claims they are God is either a charlatan or a cheating south American footballer. And anyone who magics up gold rings and necklaces out of thin air is much more likely to be Paul Daniels than the Almighty.
So it is hard to imagine why people are so keen to fall at the feet of Sai Baba, an unlikely looking guru who is scarcely five feet tall and sports a hairstyle which might have been created by sticking his toe in an electric socket.
But, amazingly, millions of people are devoted to him. Most are in his homeland of India, but he has followers all over the globe, from the humblest village dwellers to Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of the Hard Rock Café chain, who made Sai Baba's mantra, "Love All Serve All" into a company slogan and sent it around the world.
Sai Baba's claims to be a living God may be far-fetched, but his organisation and followers have built hospitals and brought fresh-water supplies to impoverished parts of the globe, so where's the harm?
Let Alaya, a young American man who is one of Sai Baba's former followers, explain about a private meeting he had with the guru while a boy: "He took me aside and put oil on his hands and told me to drop my pants and rubbed my genitalia with the oil. Then he pulled me close and started kissing me hard on the mouth."
And this is just one of the milder allegations of abuse. Sai Baba, it seems, has been doing this sort of thing for years, but no one ever dared question him (Alaya's father, also a devotee, had the same thing happen to him - but thought it was part of the spiritual experience).
This revealing documentary talks to Sai Baba's followers and his critics, including those who claim to have been abused by him - resulting in reporter Tanya Datta asking perhaps the most surreal question you'll hear in a TV interview: "Why would God want to put his penis in your mouth?"
It paints a picture of a man who has been fooling people for a long time. He may not be all-seeing and all-knowing, like his fans believe, but he certainly knows the truth of the phrase "there's one born every minute".
