Indian devotees carrying a portrait of the Sai Baba and offering prayers during a candlelight vigil held for his speedy recovery in Puttaparthi on Wednesday night. Doctors yesterday expressed optimism about his recovery. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
NEW DELHI: Orders prohibiting large assemblies of people are in place in Puttaparthi, the town in southern Andhra Pradesh state whose most famous resident, Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, is on a ventilator, fighting for his life.Devotees across India, and indeed the world, exchange hourly messages on the health of India's most respected man of God. Some are in tears. Others are desperately praying.
Less than a week after they gathered in friends' homes to watch the World Cup cricket finals, thousands are huddled together in prayer in cities such as Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore, cities of the Deccan where the 84-year-old Baba has his strongest following. Many are convinced that he would live on until 96, as the Baba had himself predicted.
'We want Baba to cure himself,' says Mr B. K. Basudev, district chief of the Sathya Sai Organisation in Pune. 'No one can bear the thought of life without him.'
The Sai Baba has recovered from a heart attack and strokes before. Indeed, his doctors yesterday said he was responding well to treatment and they were optimistic about his recovery.
But, regardless of whether he survives this spell of bad health, one thing is clear: the ochre-robed swami, famous for producing holy ash and gold rings for his devotees out of thin air, does not have time on his side. His heart is weak and his kidneys not functioning fully.
How will the world judge him when the inevitable happens?
Will the controversies surrounding his 'miracles' take centre stage all over again? Will old allegations of abuse resurface? Will he be seen as an opportunistic godman or a true figure of divinity, a person who has spent the vast and enormous wealth gifted him by devotees for the common good?
'The first time I came in contact with him, I got an electric feeling about him that has lasted to this day,' says Mr V. K. Khanna, a senior government official who became a devotee after attending a summer camp run by the Baba's followers back in 1979. 'The controversies do not matter. What counts is the good work he has done for millions of people and the peace of mind he has given them in life.'
But then controversies have always followed the Baba.
Born Sathyanarayana Raju in the hamlet of Puttaparthi - the village has, thanks to him, grown into a large town with its own airport and speciality hospitals - a scorpion bite he got when he was 13 is said to have transformed his life.
He lost consciousness for several hours. After he came to, he performed his first miracle - conjuring objects out of thin air - and proclaimed himself the avatar of an earlier Sai Baba from Shirdi, in next-door Maharashtra state.
His following grew, first in southern India, then across the country and soon, the world. Those who have sought his blessings include at least three presidents of India, several prime ministers and chief ministers. Key notables in South-east Asia too are said to have reached out to him. His disciples include atomic scientists and top surgeons. Famously home- bound, the Baba is said to have travelled overseas just once, to Uganda.
Yet, his worldwide following is said to be in the millions.
Among the more controversial foreign devotees attracted by the Baba's message of universal truth, love and compassion was a fast-rising priest in the Vatican hierarchy Don Mario Mazzoleni.
Diagnosed with a terminal illness, the priest turned up in Puttaparthi more out of curiosity than a desire to seek help. Cured a few months later, he wrote a book in tribute to the Baba's teachings, called A Catholic Priest Meets Sai Baba.
Sai Baba does not ask his followers to give up their original religions even as they place their trust in his divinity. Nevertheless, the priest was excommunicated for daring to suggest an alternate truth.
Some years later, the former priest died in Puttaparthi after a heart attack. His dying statement in 2001 had this to say: 'If you have not understood the immense value of that which is glittering before you, make haste to discover it, for the time of the Avatar is limited.'
A decade on, that time is surely nearer than it was before.
To be sure, the Baba has his sceptics. Much of the adverse notice has rested on his miracles, particularly the way he materialises holy ash and gold trinkets. Some who have gone to him have come away amused that the sweets he pulls out of the air have local brand names on them.
The Indian Rationalist Association has attacked him ceaselessly, hosting videos on their website that seem to suggest that the miracles are nothing but old-fashioned sleight of hand.
'He is primarily a miracle monger,' says Mr Sanal Edamaruku, president of the association. 'Instead of holy ash I wish he had produced rice and water for the poor out of thin air. I have no objection to his philanthropy but I wish he had done it as a sincere individual and not as someone claiming godhood.'
The whispers of sexual abuse in his camp also have refused to die down.
Throughout all this, his following has been unaffected. Instead, people have taken note of the immense good he has done, from world-class schools and hospitals run by Sri Sathya Sai Foundation and his efforts to bring water to parched Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, and Chennai.
Furthermore, in a nation where many godmen have tried to parlay their religious influence to play politics, the Sai Baba has scrupulously kept away from anything that smells of a partisan cause.
One question bothering devotees is what happens to the vast Sai Baba foundation ultimately. Various arms of the estate are controlled by different people, among them a retired chief justice of India and a former permanent secretary to the government. One of the Baba's nephews, Mr J. Ratnakar, was recently inducted into the high councils. It is a safe bet that the Andhra Pradesh government will take over the Baba's empire eventually.
But for the 50,000 people gathered in Puttaparthi, and countless more around the world, the question has little relevance. To them, the Sai Baba is incandescent.
velloor@sph.com.sg
