Sathya Sai Baba (born Sathyanarayana Raju; 23 November 1926 – 24 April 2011) was an Indian guru, a spiritual leader, and philanthropist.
Sai Baba's purported materialisations of vibhuti (holy
ash) and other small objects such as rings, necklaces, and watches, were considered
by his devotees as signs of his divinity. Innumerable reports of miraculous healings, resurrection, clairvoyance, bilocation
have been attributed to Sai Baba by devotees.
The Sathya Sai Organisation, founded by Sai Baba
"to enable its members to undertake service activities as a means to
spiritual advancement", has over 1,200 Sathya Sai Centres (branches)
in 126 countries. Through this organisation, Sai Baba established a
network of free hospitals, clinics, drinking water projects, auditoriums, ashrams and
schools.
Almost everything known about Sai Baba's early life stems
from the hagiography that grew around him, narratives that hold special
meaning to his devotees and are considered by them to be evidence of his divine
nature. According to these sources, Sathya Narayana Raju was born to
Meesaraganda Eashwaramma and Peddavenkama Raju Ratnakaram in the village
of Puttaparthi, to a Raju family, in what was the Madras Presidency of British
India. His birth, which his mother Eashwaramma asserted was by miraculous
conception, was also said to be heralded by miracles.
Sai Baba's siblings included elder brother Ratnakaram
Seshama Raju (1911–1985), sisters Venkamma (1918–1993) and Parvathamma
(1920–1998), and younger brother Janakiramaiah (1931–2003).
As a child, he was described as "unusually
intelligent" and charitable, though not necessarily academically inclined,
as his interests were of a more spiritual nature. He was uncommonly
talented in devotional music, dance and drama. From a young age, he was
alleged to have been capable of materialising objects such as food and sweets
out of thin air.
On 8 March 1940, while living with his elder brother
Seshama Raju in Uravakonda, a small town near Puttaparthi, 14 year old
Sathya was apparently stung by a scorpion. He lost consciousness for
several hours and in the next few days underwent a noticeable change in
behaviour. There were "symptoms of laughing and weeping, eloquence
and silence." It is claimed that then "he began to
sing Sanskrit verses, a language of which it is alleged he had no
prior knowledge." Doctors concluded his behaviour to
be hysteria. Concerned, his parents brought Sathya back home to
Puttaparthi and took him to many priests, doctors and exorcists. One of
the exorcists at Kadiri, a town near Puttaparthi, went to the extent of
torturing him with the aim of curing him; Sathya seemingly kept calm
throughout the torture.
On 23 May 1940, Sathya called household members and
reportedly materialised sugar candy (prasad) and flowers for
them. His father became furious at seeing this, thinking his son
was bewitched. He took a stick and threatened to beat him if Sathya did
not reveal who he really was, the young Sathya responded calmly and firmly
"I am Sai Baba", a reference to Sai Baba of Shirdi. This
was the first time he proclaimed himself to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of
Shirdi—a saint who became famous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
in Maharashtra and had died eight years before Sathya was born.
In 1944, a mandir for Sai
Baba's devotees was built near the village of Puttaparthi. It is now
referred to as the "old mandir". The construction of Prashanthi
Nilayam, the current ashram, began in 1948 and was completed in 1950. In
1954, Sai Baba established a small free general hospital in the village of
Puttaparthi. He won fame for mystical powers and the ability to heal. In
1957 Sai Baba went on a North Indian temple tour.
In 1963, it was asserted that Sai Baba suffered a stroke
and four severe heart attacks, which left him paralysed on one side. These
events culminated in an event where he apparently healed himself in front of
the thousands of people gathered in Prashanthi Nilayam who were then praying
for his recovery.
On recovering, Sai Baba announced that he would one day
next be reborn as an incarnation named Prema Sai Baba in the
neighbouring state of Karnataka. He stated, "I am Shiva-Sakthi,
born in the gotra (lineage) of Bharadwaja, according to a boon
won by that sage from Siva and Sakthi. Siva was born in the
gotra of that sage as Sai Baba of Shirdi; Shiva and Sakthi have incarnated as
Myself in his gotra now; Sakthi alone will incarnate as the third Sai (Prema
Sai Baba) in the same gotra in Mandya district of Karnataka
State." He stated he would be born again eight years after his death.
He died at the age of 84.
In 1968, he established Dharmakshetra or the Sathyam
Mandir in Mumbai. In 1973, he established the Shivam Mandir
in Hyderabad. On 19 January 1981, in Chennai, he inaugurated the
Sundaram Mandir.
In March 1995, Sai Baba started a project to provide
drinking water to 1.2 million people in the drought-prone Rayalaseema region in
the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. In April 1999 he
inaugurated the Ananda Nilayam Mandir in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
In 2001 he established another free super-speciality
hospital in Bangalore to benefit the poor.
On 28 March 2011, Sai Baba was admitted to the Sri
Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital at Prashantigram at Puttaparthi,
following respiration-related problems. After nearly a month of
hospitalisation, during which his condition progressively deteriorated, Sai
Baba died on Sunday, 24 April at 7:40 IST, aged 84.
His body lay in state for two days and was buried with
full state honours on 27 April 2011. An estimated 500,000 people attended
the burial, among them the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia
Gandhi, then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi (India's Present
Prime Minister), as well as other political leaders and prominent figures.
Sai Baba's death triggered an outpouring of grief from
followers who included Indian politicians, movie stars, athletes and industrialists. Most
remembered him as a pious, selfless person who worked to help others with
the billions of dollars donated to his charitable trust.
Political leaders who offered their condolences included
the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sri Lankan
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Dalai Lama. The
Hindu newspaper reported that "Sri Sathya Sai Baba's propagation
of spiritualism and preaching of Hindu philosophy never came in the way of his
commitment to secular beliefs.
The Government of Karnataka declared 25 and 26
April as days of mourning and Andhra Pradesh declared 25, 26, and 27
April as days of mourning.
Sathya Sai Organisation:
The Sathya Sai Organisation (or Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organization)
was founded in the 1960s by Sai Baba. The first Sai Centres were started
in India under the name of the "Sri Sathya Sai Seva Samithi". The
Sathya Sai Organisation originated "to enable its members to undertake
service activities as a means to spiritual advancement." The official
mission of the Sathya Sai Organization is "to help its members realize the
innate divinity within".
The Sathya Sai Organisation publishes an official monthly
magazine named Sanathana Sarathi, published by the Sri Sathya Sai
Books and Publications Trust. The English translation of the word
Sanathana Sarathi means 'Eternal Charioteer'.]
Sai Baba stated that the main objective of the Sathya Sai
Organisation "is to help man recognize the divinity that is inherent in
him. So, your duty is to emphasize the One, to experience the One in all you do
or speak. Do not give any importance to differences of religion or sect or
status or colour. Have the feeling of one-ness permeate every act of yours.
Only those who do so have a place in this Organization; the rest can
withdraw."
The Sathya Sai Organisation reports that there are an
estimated 1,200 Sathya Sai Baba Centres in 114 countries. However, the
number of active Sai Baba followers is hard to determine. Estimates vary
from 6 million up to nearly 100 million. In India itself, Sai Baba
drew followers predominantly from the upper-middle-class, the urban
sections of society who have the "most wealth, education and exposure to
Western ideas."
Sai Baba founded a large number of schools and colleges,
hospitals, and other charitable institutions in India and abroad.
Institutions, Projects and Other
Works:
Educational Institutions
Sai Baba's educational institutions aim to impart
character education along with excellence in academics with emphasis on human
values and ethics.
Sri Sathya Sai
Institute of Higher Learning
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (Deemed to be
University), established in 1981, called Sri Sathya Sai University for some
years, of which Sai Baba was the Chancellor, has four campuses, one at Puttaparthi for
men, one at Whitefield, Bangalore for men, one at Anantapur for
women, and one at Muddenahalli for men.
Sri Sathya Sai
Higher Secondary School
The Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School was founded by
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba on 15 June 1981 in 'Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Giri'
complex of Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi. This is a boarding school with
separate hostel for boys and girls. The school caters to classes I to XII of
the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi [CBSE]. For 2014, it
was ranked in the top 10 CBSE schools of India.
Others
Sathya Sai Baba chaired the Sri Sathya Sai loka Seva
institutions, Alike and Muddenahalli Karnataka from Madiyal Narayana
Bhat, Currently it is headed by U Gangadhar Bhat. In addition, a Sathya
Sai Baba University and Medical School also a hospital and research institute
are being constructed on over 200 acres (0.81 km2). Baba said
that the campus will be modelled after Puttaparthi and will infuse spirituality
with academics.
Hospitals and medical care
The Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust runs several general
hospitals, two speciality hospitals, eye hospitals and mobile dispensaries
and conducts medical camps in rural and slum areas in India.
Sri Sathya Sai
General Hospital, Whitefield
The Sri Sathya Sai General Hospital, Whitefield was
opened in Whitefield, Bangalore, in 1977 and provides complex surgery, food and
medicines free of cost. The hospital has treated over 2 million patients.
Sri Sathya Sai
Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi
The Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences,
Puttaparthi is a 300-bed facility which provides free surgical and medical care
and which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao on 22
November 1991. The hospital was financed and its construction supervised
by Isaac Tigrett, founder of the Hard Rock Cafe and House of Blues.
The hospital is equipped 11 surgical theatres, five
intensive care units, two cardiac catheterisation laboratories, medical and
surgical wards, and a 24-hour emergency unit. "Leading doctors
specialising in the fields of Cardiology, Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery,
Urology, Ophthalmology etc. come from different parts of the World on their own
and render their services free of cost."
The hospital has a unique history of its own. On 23
November 1990, during his birthday discourse, Sri Sathya Sai Baba while talking
about the inability of healthcare access to the poor declared within one year a
tertiary care hospital will come up in the village of Puttaparthi, which will
provide high-end care completely free to all the patients. The hospital was
constructed in a record time of exactly one year and the first cardiothoracic
operations were carried out successfully.
Sri Sathya Sai
Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Whitefield
After the success of the first super speciality hospital,
the Karnataka government offered Sai Baba 53 acres of land to establish another
super speciality hospital in Whitefield.
The Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences,
Whitefield is a 333-bed hospital, which was inaugurated on 19 January 2001
by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The estimated cost of this second
hospital was Rs 2000 million. The hospital has
provided free medical care to over 250,000 patients.
Drinking water supply projects
Anantapur
In November 1995, Sai Baba expressed his concern about
the lack of drinking water in Rayalseema. In March 1995, the Sri Sathya
Sai Central Trust commenced work on a project to supply pure drinking water to
villages in the district of Anantapur. The project was completed in 1996
supplies water to 1.2 million people in about 750 villages in the drought-prone
Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh.
Chennai
The Chennai drinking water project, completed in 2004,
supplies water to Chennai through a rebuilt waterway named "Sathya Sai
Ganga Canal". Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi praised
the Chennai water project and Sai Baba's involvement. Other completed
water projects include the Medak District Project benefiting 450,000
people in 179 villages and the Mahbubnagar District Project
benefiting 350,000 people in 141 villages. In January 2007, the Sri Sathya
Sai Central Trust said it would start a drinking water project in Latur,
Maharashtra.
Telugu-Ganga Project
The Telugu-Ganga project is a water supply scheme
implemented by Andhra Pradesh, India to provide drinking water
to Chennai city in Tamil Nadu. The source of water is the river
Krishna in Andhra Pradesh and the Poondi reservoir near Chennai is the
destination with water planned to be routed through a series of interlinked
canals.
The water initially supplied by the canal was
disappointing, delivering less than 500 million cubic feet (14×106 m3).
In 2002, Sri Sathya Sai Baba announced a scheme of restoration and lining of
the canal; as his own undertaking. With an extensive rebuilding of the canal
and several reservoirs, the project was completed in 2004, when Poondi
reservoir received Krishna water for the first time. The supply of water
to Chennai city in 2006 was 3.7 billion cubic feet (100×106 m3). After
the re-lining and reconstruction, the Kandaleru-Poondi part of the canal was
renamed Sai Ganga.
Odisha
In 2008, two million people in the state of Odisha were
affected by floods. As a relief measure, the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organization
built 699 houses as part of their first phase in 16 villages by March 2009.
Educare
Sai Baba's Educare programme seeks to
found schools throughout the world with the goal of educating children in the
five human values. According to the Sai Educare site, schools have been founded
in 33 countries, including Australia, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Peru. The
Times of Zambia states, "The positive influence of Sathya Sai is
unprecedented in the annals of education in Zambia. Sai Baba's education
ideals as embodied in his human values-based approach in education are an
eye-opener to educationists in Zambia."
In Canada, the Fraser Institute, an independent
Canadian research and educational organisation, ranked the Sathya Sai School of
Canada as one of the top 37 elementary schools in Ontario.
Spiritual media
On 23 November 2001, the digital radio network Radio
Sai Global Harmony was launched through the World Space Organization,
United States. Michael Oleinikof Nobel (distant relative to Alfred Nobel and
one of the patrons for the radio network) said that the radio network would
spread Sai Baba's message of global harmony and peace.
Recognition
A 1999 stamp devoted
to the Sri Sathya Sai Water Supply Project.
On 23 November 1999, the Department of Posts, Government
of India, released a postage stamp and a postal cover in recognition of the
service rendered by Sai Baba in addressing the problem of providing safe
drinking water to the rural masses.
Ashrams and Mandirs
Puttaparthi, where Sai Baba was born and lived, was
originally a small, remote South Indian village in Andhra Pradesh. Now there is
an extensive university complex, a speciality hospital, and two museums:
the Sanathana Samskruti or Eternal Heritage Museum, sometimes
called the Museum of All Religions, and the Chaitanya Jyoti,
devoted exclusively to the life and teachings of Sai Baba; the latter has won
several international awards for its architectural design. There is also a
planetarium, a railway station, a hill-view stadium, an administrative
building, an airport, an indoor sports stadium and more. High-ranking
Indian politicians such as the former president A. P. J. Abdul Kalam,
former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Andhra Pradesh former chief
minister Konijeti Rosaiah and Karnataka chief
minister B. S. Yeddyurappa have been official guests at the ashram in
Puttaparthi. It was reported that well over a million people attended Sai
Baba's 80th birthday celebration, including delegates from India and 180 other
countries.]
Sai Baba resided much of the time in his main ashram, Prashanthi
Nilayam (Abode of Highest Peace), at Puttaparthi. In the summer he
often left for his other ashram, Brindavan, in Kadugodi, Whitefield,
a town on the outskirts of Bangalore. Occasionally he visited his Sai
Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal.
Sathyam, Shivam, Sundaram
Sai Baba established three primary mandirs (spiritual
centres) in India. The first mandir, founded in Mumbai in 1968, is
referred to as either the "Dharmakshetra" or "Sathyam". The
second centre, established in Hyderabad in 1973, is referred to as
"Shivam". The third, inaugurated on 19 January 1981 in Chennai,
is called "Sundaram". The Dharmakshetra was established on the
occasion of the first world conference (of SSSO). Many people from various
of parts of the world attended the conference which was held at Bharatiya vidya
Bhavan campus at versova, Bombay. It consists of various service centers for
devotees like a hospital and eye care center. The educational center consists
of various training centers. As a part of Bal Vikas the technical training is
provided freely to the children from poor backgrounds by the youth wing of the
organization.
Characteristics, beliefs and
practices of devotees
Sai Baba claimed to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of
Shirdi, and his followers considered him to be the Avatar of Shiva. Sai
Baba of Shirdi was known to combine Islamic and Hindu teachings; still Charles
S. J. White, of The American University at Washington D.C., noted of
Sathya Sai Baba in 1972, that "there is no discernible Muslim
influence." Stephanie Tallings, in The Harvard international Review, noted
Sai Baba’s following is drawn from people of all religions, ethnicities, and
social classes. Lawrence A. Babb, of the Amherst College in Massachusetts,
labelled Sai Baba movement as a cult in the 1980s, calling it "deeply and
authentically Hindu..." and noted, " The most striking feature of
this cult, however, is the extremely strong emphasis given to the
miraculous." However, a scholarly review claims Babb misapplies the
word “cult”, responding, "the so-called 'cult' of Satya Sai Baba seems to
possess all such characteristics which are, according to the author, central to
a religious movement." Deborah A. Swallow, of the University of
Cambridge, referred to it as a cult and said that the "ritual and
theology, then, unlike Sai Baba [of Shirdi]'s, is distinctly Hindu in form and
content." But John D. Kelly, a professor of anthropology at the
University of Chicago, wrote about Hindu missions in Fiji that the Sathya Sai
Organization (which is part of the movement) rejected the label Hindu.
According to Kelly, they see their founder as the "living synthesis of the
world's religious traditions" and prefer to be classified as an interfaith movement.
But he observed that Sai Baba mission is a Hindu mission as active as Christian
or Muslim missions. In a 2001 scholarly book Tulasi Srinivas, notes, “The
Sathya Sai global civil religious movement incorporates Hindu and Muslim
practices, Buddhist, Christian, and Zoroastrian influences, and "New
Age"-style rituals and beliefs.’ And in the appendix of the book (p. 349)
lists 10 scholarly authors/researchers in both Europe and America who all refer
to it as a New Religious Movement (NRM).
Sai Baba was known for his quote "Love All, Serve
All. Help Ever, Hurt Never." Internationally, his devotees gather
daily, or weekly on Sundays or Thursdays or both, for devotional songs, prayer, spiritual
meditation, service to the community (Seva), and to participate in "Education
in Human Values" (SSEHV) known as "Bal Vikas"
(Blossoming of the Child).
Followers believed in seeking the spiritual benefit of
Sai Baba's darshan, scheduled for morning and afternoon each day.
Sai Baba would interact with people, accept letters, materialise and
distribute vibhuti (sacred ash) or call groups or individuals for
interviews. Devotees considered it a great privilege to have an interview and
sometimes a single person, group or family was invited for a private interview
for answers to spiritual questions and general guidance.
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