Sathya Saibaba Leaves Behind Millions of Grief-Stricken Disciples, Institutions And Social Welfare Projects That Will Continue to Benefit Humanity For Several Decades To Come
G Arun Kumar | TNN
Hyderabad: It is difficult to imagine that Puttaparthi was once a sleepy village called Gollapalli. But that was many decades ago, before a precocious teenager known for magically fishing out goodies from his bag like sweets, pens, watches and chains declared at 14 that he was a reincarnation of Shirdi Saibaba. The date of the proclamation was October 20, 1940. Now, 71 years later on a sweltering Sunday afternoon, a Puttaparthi boasting of superspeciality hospital, schools and colleges grieved much like the rest of the nation, the passing away of the person it owes its identity to— the 14-year-old, who was born here as R Satyanarayana Raju and who passed away at 85 as one of the country’s most popular godman, Sathya Saibaba.
Sathya Saibaba’s 28-day battle in hospital had devotees praying for a miraculous recovery, their belief rooted in the many miracles Baba was credited for during his lifetime. From creating ash or even gold from thin air to miraculously pulling out cancer from a devotee’s body (a much reported event in the case of a devotee named Rosy) Saibaba’s popularity soared swiftly, the miracles helping establish his divine identity among devotees.
Within four years of making his declaration that he was Shirdi Saibaba’s reincarnation, he embarked on a spiritual journey that would in the years to come become bigger, greater and even controversial at times. By 1950, he had earned himself devotees, committing their lives to serving the godman. Among them was Sakamma of Karnataka who significantly funded the construction of Prasanthi Nilayam for her ‘living’ God.
But then, Puttaparthi shaped up with Saibaba’s increasing popularity, his spiritual enterprise turning the village into a town with metro facilities. Born on November 23, 1926, Saibaba was the fourth child of Eswaramma and Ratnakaram Peddavenkama Raju, Saibaba fulfilled the wish of his mother when he decided to provide free medical care to the poor, particularly women and children, education and drinking water, thus revealing his humane side.
Saibaba never really ventured out of Puttaparthi for long. He lived in Yajur mandir and gave darshans in Sai Kulwant Hall, which has a capacity of 4,000. During the summer months, he stayed in the massive Brindavan ashram in Kadugodi, Whitefield, Bangalore. Occasionally, he visited Sai Shruti Ashram in Kodaikanal.
And while he reached out to millions of devotees across 188 countries, Saibaba never travelled to the West. The West came to him, as did other material comforts. He owned BMWs, Rolls Royces and Toyotas (all No. 9999).
Nevertheless, the Afro-haired Baba was either known for his divine powers of producing Shiva lingams, statues of deities, sugar candy, gems, strings, herbs and amritam out of nowhere, or for his charitable work as he announced welfare schemes on his birthday every year. Of course, he was also known for his list of devotees.
Baba’s list of devotees read like a who’s who from politics, business, entertainment, judiciary and sports field. Almost all the Presidents, Prime Ministers, Union ministers, governors, judges and chief ministers besides foreigners were his devotees and kept visiting his Prasanthi Nilayam regularly. One of his first VIP followers was former AP chief minister Marri Channa Reddy. When Saibaba was 37, Channa Reddy, then minister for planning, inaugurated a school in Puttaparthi and remained a frequent guest at Saibaba’s abode.
Then there were devotees who aided significantly in boosting Saibaba’s popularity the world over or turned into interesting case studies themselves as they gave up their material life to serve Baba and work for his trust. Among them included Indulal Shah, trust member and chartered accountant from Mumbai who set up Sathya Sai international oranisations, bhajan mandirs, health centres and schools. Today, the Trust has 1,200 such centres world over with a combined membership of 10 million. Then there is Hard Rock Cafe founder Issac Tigrett Burton. The American is said to have sold his stake in Hard Rock Cafe and donated his life’s savings for the construction of the superspeciality hospital at Puttaparthi. When Saibaba announced that he wanted to set up a super-speciality hospital in 1991, donations poured in from all quarters and the entire sum of Rs 300 crore could be raised. This facilitated the construction of the hospital in 80 acres in a record time of 11 months, says Saibaba’s nephew M Shankar Raju, who admits that the hospital was the brainchild of Burton.
But Saibaba, over the years, had only become too familiar with such generous donations. An American named Gold donated Rs 600 crore to the Trust six years ago, sources say, adding that an NRI donated Rs 50 crore for the indoor stadium in 2009, while an Indonesian devotee gave Rs 50 crore for the music college last year. And last year, when the Trust came out with Vidya Vahini, a street school project, Ratan Tata announced TCS would provide software, laptops, food, clothing and teaching faculty for the project.
If controversies such as murders of six young men in the ashram 18 years ago or foreign media reports on child sexual abuse did rear their head, the reverential voices of devotees seemed to drown them. Take for instance, the experience of Leonardo Pablo Gutter of Buenos Aires, Argentina, when he first met Saibaba. “Waves of energy and bliss rose from my feet to head. I felt ‘ananda’ that I was looking for in my spiritual quest.” Or Puttaparthi Urban Development Authority (Puda) former chairman Kota Satyanarayna’s recollection of dark clouds clearing up when Baba gave darshan.
“He dissected difficult problems in a simple form and explained them with apt examples chosen from daily life of common people. His spiritual teachings are simple to understand and easy to practice,” says ardent devotee D S N Murthy, former professor, Andhra University even as veteran actress Jamuna shares, “His numerous service projects — be it free hospitals, free schools and colleges, free drinking water schemes — stand testimony to his compassion for the less privileged.”
But some allege that Saibaba, who was likened to God by many including Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, was effectively above the law, a powerful and protected person backed by heads of the state and even the judiciary. “Not only did he enjoy enormous clout with the powers that be, but also sat over a wealth of donations,” a former disciple not wanting to be named alleges. Besides, there are allegations of some 200 societies fleecing people by collecting money on his name.
Nevertheless, his devotees remind that Saibaba always exhorted them to follow the five tenets of satya, dharma, shanti, prema and ahimsa. John Hislop, author and former president of American Sathya Sai Organization, wrote in his book that Saibaba did not have Osho’s flamboyant lifestyle, but remained rooted to Indian culture. Baba, a non-Brahmin of Backward (Bhattraju) Caste, had dropped out of school after Class IX, but devotees claim he could converse in Italian, German, Russian and French.
For now, on the minds of most people is the future of Sathya Sai empire, said to be worth anywhere between Rs 40,000-Rs 50,000 lakh crore. The Sathya Sai Central Trust manages medical and degree colleges, schools, Sadhana Trust of publications, Eswaramma Women’s Welfare Trust, Seva organisations, superspeciality hospitals in Puttaparthi and Bangalore, general hospitals, eye hospitals and drinking water schemes in Anantapur, Medak, Mahbubnagar, East and West Godavari districts and Chennai. In Puttaparthi itself, there is a massive Sathya Sai University complex, Chaitanya Jyoti museum, a planetarium, an indoor stadium, an outdoor Hill-view stadium, a general hospital, a music college, an airport, apart from the superspeciality hospital and Prasanthi Nilayam.
He healed himself of a heart attack he suffered in 1963 but lost the 28-day battle for his life in the April of 2011. But death did not come before his another prediction— that his next avatar would be in the form of ‘Prema Sai’ who would be born near Mysore.
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