Conny Larsson's story
Conny Larsson was very close to Sai Baba. Today he runs a home for young abusers and criminals near Valdemarsvik, a small town on the coast of the Baltic Sea in Sweden.(Photo Sai Baba and Conny Larsson.)
Conny's contact with Sai Baba started when Conny tried to commit suicide in Sri Lanka in 1978. He intended to drown himself in the ocean. Then Sai Baba emerged from a small hut on the shore and came walking towards Conny in the water.
- He called me out of the water and told me to go to India.
- I went to his ashram in Puttaparthi. There Sai Baba walked up to me and said: "So you have arrived now!" I said I came from Sweden. "No", he said, "you come from Sri Lanka." Later I was invited to Sai Baba for talks almost every day. He kissed my cheek and was physically very close to me. That didn't worry me; even in Sweden we sometimes do like that. But then he touched my trousers between my legs and started to massage my penis. "Don't be afraid!" he said, "this is a divine touch." He took out my penis and touched it, and I touched his penis. He explained this with that my kundalini was to be changed.
- Because he was God and had saved my life I let it happen. I became a kind of favourite to him. I had frequent private talks with Sai Baba.
- We were always very close physically. He never came that close to women. He is interested in boys and men from the age of 8 up to 30. When you become 30, you are no longer interesting.
Conny Larsson became one of the movement's spiritual leaders in Sweden. In 1983 there were rumours that Sai Baba was cheating with his materializations and that he had sexual relations with young boys. Conny couldn't believe that this was true.
- But in 1986 I finally understood that he was doing the same things to other boys that he had done to me many years ago. I got to know the boys and asked them questions. They all told me the same story. The swami hade oral sex with them of whome many very heterosexual. The explanation was always that he was going to change their kundalini. - You wonder whether women don't have the kundalini power.
Conny also became a witness to Sai Baba's cheating with materializations.
- I decided never to tell anybody about this. I thought he tested my faith in him.
Conny felt worse and worse by what he found out. Sai Baba was the center of Conny's whole life since a long time.
- In January 1999 I got in touch with a Swedish boy, who had had six interviews with the swami. I noticed that the boy was shaken. He told me about the same things that had happened to me. It was about masturbation - the swami opened the boy's trousers and started to masturbate him - but no penetration. The boy withdrew but the swami insisted. Then the boy turned to a medical doctor and asked for help, but because of his age the doctor had never been exposed to the swami's improper advances, so he told the boy that he must have misunderstood the situation.
- During the last interview the boy had with the swami, the boy's mother was present. She had come to bring her two sons home with her. I saw how Sai Baba took out things from behind the cushion and then "manifested" them "miraculously". Then everything crashed for me. The boy left the ashram completely broken-hearted. According to the latest information from India the shop is found where Sai Baba buys the things he materializes. It's a shop in Hyderabad.
Some of us who have received gold things and diamonds from Sai Baba, have had them examined by experts and have been told that they are all junk pieces and not gold; diamonds were stained glass.
In Sweden the Gimle school, which was based on Sai Baba's philosophy, has been closed because of Baba's sexual actions. And Conny Larsson has stopped a movie about his life, in which Sai Baba's importance to him is the core. But the movement in Sweden continues as if nothing has happened, and it is still participating in tours to Sai Baba's ashram in Puttaparthi.
Conny points out that there are leaders in the movement who have known for a long time what the swami does with boys and young men. They say it is "divine". There are also leaders who know about the cheating with miracles and protect him. There are strong interests behind Sai Baba and his reputation to be an avatar.
What effects have these unveilings had on Conny? He says that he has had to change his concept of God.
- Now I believe in God inside me and in all human beings.
He adds:
- I feel tired and have compassion with all of them who have believed in Sai Baba and have been duped. But at the same time I wish to thank all the Sai friends for our moments together at satsangs, camps and courses, where we generated love and truth in spite of the illusion we in good faith all lived in. Once more: Thanks to everyone!
Annastina Vrethammar's opinion
Sai Baba has been a man of great importance to Annastina Vrethammar. After the sad unveilings about the swami she says that what is told about the swami doesn't fit in with his reputation of being an avatar. Today there are many questions around his person. Therefore she has decided not to reprint her latest book and not to publish a new book she has written.But Annastina does not think that all the miracles around Sai Baba are bogus. There are obvious facts about his miracles. He has for example miraculously shown himself to different people and helped them, she says. And she thinks that Sai Baba's philosophy is of high quality.
Sai Baba tells us he is God, but at the same time he teaches that we are all divine beings and that God is in everything, everywhere, Annastina points out.
Jan Erik Sigdell about Sai Baba
- There is a book that pretends to unveil Sai Baba's hidden life. Its title is "Lord of the Air" and it is written by Tal Brooke (Lion Publishing, Herts, Berkhamsted 1976). I found it in Bangalore when it was newly published and bought a copy, which some years later I could not find in my library. Its disappearence was enigmatic, since I use to maintain a good order in my library. The book may have been stolen by some visitor. I tried to find it again some years later, in order to buy a new copy, but it was impossible. However, a Christian library in Bangalore had the book, and I got it copied there.I am neither for or against Sai Baba, since I think I cannot judge him. No doubt he can materialize, because I have seen that myself. But I must admit that the question came up in me: from where has he got his power? Is it really "from above"? I have no answer to that question.
In his book Tal Brooke tells his story. He was a devotee for a long time, until he had a shocking experience. He writes that Sai Baba opened his trousers and took out his penis. After that he got in contact with other boys, who had had similar experiences. One of them said that Sai Baba masturbated him and took his sperm in his own handkerchief, which he put in his pocket.
Conny Larsson furthest back left.
More information:
Sathya Shree Sai Baba: critical views
Swedish text
www.sokaren.se/INDEX135.HTML