Leading by example: Sri Sathya Sai Baba
On November 26, 1926, a remote village in the district of Anantpur in the Indian state of Andra Pradesh witnessed the advent of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba who was known to the world as Swami, Sai Baba, Bhagavan or Sri Sathya Sai. This village – Puttaparthy inhabited by poor, illiterate but pious people was chosen to be blessed by the Holy Avathar, as a need of the Kali age.
In no time, the word about the advent of this miraculous child spread across India as none other than the re-incarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdhi, a well- known holy personality. People flocked to Puttaparthy to get his blessings. The child who exhibited certain unique, divine characteristics is associated with an important public statement made by him, “The purpose of my advent is not to change your religious beliefs, dharmic values or the good qualities. Expand the little attention you pay for your religion much more, and develop a world of people who are endowed with noble spiritual values.”
He rendered exemplary service to mankind, while urging each and every human being to lead a spiritual life and utilise the human life granted, to render service to mankind in order to seek eternal bliss. His message was his life. These qualities were able to draw lakhs of devotees belonging to various religious denominations, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian or Muslim from all parts of the world to eagerly seek his vision and valuable advice.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba is considered a ‘whole’ divine avatar who preached non violence, truth, selflessness and human values to the world, by example. “Love all – Serve all” “Help ever – Hurt never” was the essence and the base of all his teachings until he left his mortal coil, last year. He reiterated that even if someone is a scholar in Dharma, or exhibits his devotion to God or Buddha to the rest of the world, every action is useless unless he is truthful to his Atmic conscience, or else he is on a journey towards a deep precipice. There are many instances where he explained amicably the importance of moulding one’s life according to the religion he believes in. Become a better Buddhist if you are a Buddhist, become a better Christian if you are a Christian, and become a better Hindu or a Muslim if you are either a Hindu or a Muslim.
The fervent hope of anyone living, who has lived or is yet unborn is to attain liberation from the sufferings of Sansara (the cycle of birth and death). All religions and religious leaders were born and will be born to guide man to attain this goal. Sansara can be defined as a cycle that binds our Atma(Inner Self) to it by different names and forms as a result of our attachment to the world or worldliness. Developing the quality of destroying the ego will enable us to focus on the superconscious state in us which in turn will result in the goal of severing the chain of Sansara.
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba guided people to shed ego and acquire spiritual wealth in order to realise the ability to start the journey towards eternal bliss. He said that service with unconditional love is a powerful and speedy vehicle which helps you to achieve that goal. The ongoing magnificent service projects by his followers adapted in their countries are in keeping with the projects and programmes introduced by him in creating a harmonious society where people will understand and respect each other, and uphold human values.
Establishing three super speciality hospitals, primary and secondary schools, institutes of higher learning (universities) which are run absolutely free, drinking water projects, providing food to the needy are some of the examples of ‘practice before you preach’. More than 45,000 surgical operations are carried out annually in his hospitals, in ophthalmology, cardiology, urology and neurology. These hospitals are known worldwide by the medical specialists as “A heart without a bill”. Patients are treated irrespective of their race, religion, caste or skin colour, rich and poor alike. There is only unconditional divine “love”.
One of the Sri Sathya Sai water projects is the largest and the longest, built by a private organisation in the world. That is the 4500 kilometre-long drinking water project to Chennai from the Krishna River. Poor people who had to walk miles in search of pure drinking water are being blessed by water at their own doorsteps by the mercy of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
Still there are many ignorant of the vision and mission of Sai Baba. He is the spiritual leader of the era respected by the most number of heads of states, loved by the greatest number of devotees, followers and fans of different religions. Today, there are many popular and powerful figures in the world who have been able to comprehend the truth that he espouses and dedicate themselves to carry forward his mission.
In this month which marks the 87th anniversary of his birth, various service programmes will take place all over the world as well as in some remote villages in Sri Lanka.
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