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Bhagwan
Satyasai Baba |
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Sathya Sai Baba
(born Sathya Narayana Raju with the family name
Ratnakaram, November 23, 1926 or October 4,
1929) is a controversial South Indian guru
described as a godman and miracle worker, who
has millions of followers. According to the
Sathya Sai Organisation, there are an estimated
1,200 Sathya Sai Baba Centers in 130 countries
world-wide. Sathyanarayana was born into a poor
agrarian family in the then remote village of
Puttaparthi, located in Anantapur district,
Andhra Pradesh. In the 1940s he proclaimed to be
the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba and
subsequently took the fakir's name. He expounds
that he is an avatar (incarnation) of Shiva and
Shakti and an embodiment of love with divine
attributes such as omnipresence, omniscience and
omnipotence.He is observed to manifest vibuthi
(holy ash) and small objects(rings, necklaces
and watches) out of nothing daily. He explains
the phenomenon through divine creation, but
refused to have his materializations
investigated under experimental conditions. His
followers report many, sometimes spectacular,
miracles of various kinds which they attribute
to Baba. |
He preaches a
foundation of five basic values: Truth, Right
Conduct, Peace, Love and Non-violence. He teaches
the unity of all major world religions and says that
they all lead to God. Critics, including skeptic
Basava Premanand and the former follower Welsh
pianist David Bailey, claim that these
materializations are done by sleight of hand and say
that this can be verified with videos available on
the internet. Most vehement criticism since the year
2000 are the allegations of inappropriate sexual
relations with young men. Followers and proponents,
consider the evidence of wrongdoing against Sathya
Sai Baba to be insufficient, misrepresented or
outdated. His followers and the organizations that
he has founded are involved in many service projects
around the world, for example, free education in
schools, free healthcare provided through
state-of-the-art hospitals near Baba's main ashram
and in Bangalore and water projects serving
thousands in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and
Tamil Nadu. In Puttaparthi, the place where Baba was
born and still lives, originally a small village,
one can now find a university, Chaitanya Jyoti
(World Religions Museum), planetarium, a railway
station, a super specialty hospital and more. High
ranking Indian politicians, like the current
president Dr. Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh (then
the finance minister), and Atal Vajpayee (then
the prime minister) have been official guests at the
ashram in Puttaparthi.
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