Final farewell to Sathya Sai Baba..

Sachin Tendulkar in tears over Sai Baba's body

                                                                

Sathya Sai Baba's body to be kept for two days

     The body of spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba, who died on Sunday morning, will be kept at Prashanti Nilayam - his ashram in this pilgrim town - for two days to enable devotees to have a "last darshan".

According to the statement released by Sathya Sai Central Trust, the body will be kept at Sai Kulwant Hall at 6 pm on Sunday. The body will lie there on Monday and Tuesday.

The trust is silent about the last rites but it is likely to be performed on Wednesday at Prashanti Nilayam with full state honours. The trust has appealed to devotees not to rush to the hospital and have a last glimpse of Baba in an orderly manner.

  It was at Prashanti Nilayam that Baba has been giving darshan and blessing his devotees for over four decades.

   Sai Baba, whom his devotees worshipped as god, was suffering from multi-organ dysfunction. He breathed his last at the Sathya Sai super-speciality hospital, where he was admitted on March 28 with cardiac problems. He was 85.

Spiritual guru to miracle man: Sathya Sai's life

           One of India's most famous spiritual leaders, who counted a worldwide following of millions including top diplomats, sports icons and film stars, led a life dedicated to philanthropy marred by the occasional controversies.

Sathya Sai, or Sathya Sai Baba, as he was fondly known among followers, passed away at the intensive care unit of a hospital funded by his organisation in the town of Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh where thousands of devotees gathered to pay their last respects. He was 85.

Sathya Sai, whose devotees believe him to be an incarnation of God in human form, has a following believed to be over six millions in India and abroad.

Regarded as the god man of the god men, Sathya Sai, led a life full of claimed miracles for over 70 years. He was also a spiritual leader, educator, and philanthropist.

   Sathya Sai was born in 1926 into an ordinary family at Puttapathi village in Andhra Pradesh. He was named Sathyanarayana. As a child he was unusually intelligent and showed no interest in worldly things. He was a writer of poetry. When he was just 14 years old, Sathyanarayana announced that he was a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi.

Hagiography has it that at a very early age he was bit by a poisonous scorpion, following which he started to show unusual powers such as reciting Sanskrit verses of which he had no knowledge of.

Prime Ministers, Presidents, Kings, Ambassadors and celebrities from every walk of life thronged his Aashram in Puttaparthi seeking his blessings for over 50 years. He founded over 1500 Sathya Sai Centres in 114 countries across the globe. He was visited by record number of heads of states during his life time.

Sathya Sai proclaimed himself as divinity and claimed miracles such as producing sacred ash or 'vibhuti', vermillion, fruits, precious gems and gold items from thin air at the time of his visitations with his followers.

He also claims to have brought back to life two persons from the dead apart from curing fatal diseases and disability in followers. His Aashram at Puttaparthi became a famous religious centre within just 20 years.

Sceptics and rationalists considered his miracles nothing more than parlour tricks. Retired Icelandic psychology professor Erlendur Haraldsson wrote that he did not get Sathya Sai's permission to study him under controlled circumstances. In 1976, Dr H Narasimhaiah, a physicist and then vice chancellor of Bangalore University, founded and chaired a committee "to rationally and scientifically investigate miracles and other verifiable superstitions".

He wrote to Sathya Sai to allow him to study the guru's purported miracles under scientific conditions but was refused audience.

Another rationalist Abraham Thomas Kovoor who campaigned to expose as frauds various Indian and Sri Lankan "god-men", believed that the Sathya Sai performed his 'vibhuti' through sleight of hand. Noteworthy is also the effort of Indian magician P C Sorkar Junior who was critical of the gurus "miracles."

Sathya Sai gained immense popularity among the people of southern India for many philanthropic endeavours such as world class speciality heart hospitals, free water schemes to cities, towns and villages and educational institutions.

The celebrities who 'follow' Sathya Sai

               Former prime ministers, presidents, actors and politicians – the fan following of god man Sathya Sai runs into several columns of the world's who's who.

The man who claims to have performed several miracles including bringing two dead men back to life, counts top businessmen and even the country's cricketers among his followers.

In 1968, when Sathya Sai made his first and only trip overseas to Uganda he met with dictator Idi Amin. But the late military leader and President of Uganda was one of a long list of celebrities who sought audience with him everyday, mostly at his native Andhra village of Puttaparthi where he lived

      In a letter made public in December 2001, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Chief Justice of Supreme Court PN Bhagawati, former former chairperson of Rajya Sabha Najma Heptullah and former Union Minister Shivraj Patil expressed "pain and anguish" at alleged attempts by the media to tarnish Sathya Sai's image.

     The allegations by the media followed criticisms by rationalists of the godman's claims of divinity and his refusal to undergo scientific scrutiny of his materializing inanimate objects out of thin air.

     Among his noted followers are actor Amitabh Bachchan, cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, politicians Shivraj Patil, Ashok Chavan, S M Krishna, M K Stalin and Chandrababu Naidu.

    In 2001, when the digital radio network Radio Sai Global Harmony was launched through the World Space Organization, Dr Michael Oleinikof Nobel, a distant relative to Alfred Nobel, said it would spread Sathya Sai's message of global harmony. He was a patron of the radio network.

Who is Sri Sathya Sai Baba ???

       From ordinary believers to the President of India, his clout spread far and wide but controversy also followed Puttaparthi Sathya Sai Baba all along.
      India had, and has, several godmen but none could match his name and fame. In fact, Sathya Sai Baba's influence had no barriers as his millions of followers spanned the globe.
        Top-ranking politicians including prime ministers, Union ministers, governors, chief ministers, filmstars, sportspersons, industrialists and virtually the 'who's who' of the country rank among the high-profile devotees of the Baba.

       Born into an ordinary family as Sathyanarayana Raju in the sleepy Puttaparthi village in the dry Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, on November 23, 1926, he was to later become Sathya Sai Baba, the reincarnation of the saintly Sai Baba of Shirdi.

        Now, Puttaparthi - which metamorphosed into a self-contained city - finds itself on the international map, thanks to the large number of the Baba's foreign devotees who visit Prasanthi Nilayam day in and day out. It boasts of an exclusive airport where chartered flights, carrying Baba's devotees from different parts of the globe, land.
        As a child, Sathyanarayana Raju was described as "unusually intelligent" and charitable. His talents were in drama, music, dance and writing, and he was an avid composer of poems and plays. He was also known as a singer, having released several CDs of bhajans.
       It was on October 20, 1940 at the age of 14 that Sathyanarayana Raju declared himself as the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi.
      Sathya Sai Baba invariably referred to Shirdi Sai Baba as "my previous body" whenever he spoke about him.
      Sathya Sai Baba became famous for his magic tricks by producing objects from thin air. But he was reviled by critics and rationalists who campaigned against him with magic shows.
      Frequently, reports alleging scandals in his ashram appeared. Questions were also raised over sexual preferences but they were dismissed by him and his followers as vilification by his detractors or those who had fallen out with him.
       On June 6, 1993, an attempt was allegedly made on his life by his close aides. Six inmates of Prasanthi Nilayam were killed right inside the Baba's bedroom. All of them were part of the "inner circle" of Baba. His personal assistant Radha Krishna Menon was among those killed in the incident.
  

Facts of the case still remain a mystery.
       In 1944, a small temple was built for Sathya Sai Baba's devotees at Puttaparthi and in 1950 a sprawling ashram popularly called the 'Prasanthi Nilayam' was built, making it his permanent abode.
      His divine preaching apart, Sathya Sai Baba pioneered many social service activities beginning with a tiny general hospital at Puttaparthi which has now transformed into the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, a 220-bedded super-speciality hospital.
       Another super-speciality 333-bedded SSIHMS was established at Whitefield on the outskirts of Bangalore, where the Baba's summer abode Brindavan also stands.
       The Sathya Sai Central Trust manages all the service activities and also runs the Sathya Sai University (formerly Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning) at Puttaparthi.
        Besides, the trust also runs many schools and dispensaries in different states while it has also completed large water supply projects in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
        Volunteers from the Sathya Sai Seva Organisation are always found in the forefront carrying out relief and rehabilitation work during natural calamities not only in AP but also in other states.
          Sathya Sai Baba established three primary mandirs (spiritual centres) in India - Dharmakshetra in Mumbai, Shivam in Hyderabad and Sundaram in Chennai.
    Besides, there are Sathya Sai centres located in over 114 countries in the world.
      In 1957, Sathya Sai Baba went on a temple tour of north India and made his only overseas trip to Uganda in June 1968.
     In 1963, Sathya Sai Baba suffered a stroke and four severe heart attacks but survived.
       Since 2005, Baba used a wheelchair and his failing health forced him to make fewer public appearances. In 2006 he suffered a fractured hip when a student standing on an iron stool slipped and both the boy and the stool fell on Baba. He gave darshan from a car or his porte chair. 

Sri Sathya Sai Baba dies in Puttaparthi

       Spiritual leader Sri Sathya Sai Baba died at the Sathya Sai super speciality hospital at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district today.
       Doctors said he died at 7.40 am of cardio-respiratory failure. The 84-year-old was admitted to hospital on March 28 with breathing and heart problems.
         His condition since Thursday morning had been described as "very critical" by doctors attending to him. Most of his organs were not responding to treatment. The condition of his liver and his low blood pressure were causing concern, they had said.
      As doctors announced his death, they appealed to people to be calm and not rush to hospital. Security has been tightened in the area. All roads leading to the hospital have been blocked and shops have been ordered to close at Puttaparthi

       Godman to some, miracle-man to others and revered as God by lakhs of his followers, Sathya Sai Baba had the rich, famous and powerful from the world of politics, business, films and sport flocking to his doorstep in Puttaparthi, the small Andhra Pradesh village that he made internationally famous. 

          Born on 23 November 1926 in a modest family in Puttaparthi, Satyanarayana Raju declared himself a reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba at the age of 14. From then on his devotees and admirers only grew in numbers over the years.
           Though a few controversies did cast shadows on Sai Baba's image and critics have been skeptical about claims that he would produce holy ash, golden rings and mementoes from thin air, Sathya Sai Baba also earned respect for setting up world-class educational and health institutions and also for charitable work like drinking water projects for four semi-arid districts of Andhra Pradesh and in Chennai. The institutions and properties that he built are estimated to be worth over Rs. 27,000 crore.
        After a hip fracture in 2006, Sathya Sai Baba was confined to a wheel chair and gave darshan from his car or a portable chair.