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.
The death of Sathya Sai Baba was wrongly predicted by him, he did not live into his 90s as he prophesies on numerous occasions! Yet another false boast, and one which confounds all the devotees who blindly believed his words and in his divinity. He died a sick man, in more sense than one! The BBC has announced his death, but adds that he has been accused of fraudulent miracle tricks and sexual abuses. This is an epitaph that will always follow him and, as researchers and historians collect and study the evidence, the accusations and the reason Sai Baba avoided prosecution will become evident and a permanent part of his otherwise largely bogus ‘story’
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 Satyanarayana 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.
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, Satya 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 Satya 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.
