GURU IS DEAD ;LONG LIVE GURU

AUM.
GURU IS DEAD: LONG LIVE GURU
By Chitranjan Sawant
The mortal man from Puttaparthi became an international celebrity as one who possessed super-natural powers. Known to his large number of devotees as Sri Satya Sai Baba, the individual gained a reputation of one who possessed healing powers. The sick and wounded, the broken hearted men and women who had suffered at the hands of fellow men or were victims of natural calamities flocked to him in droves from all over. It was not for nothing. His ever present smile and a gentle pat on the back gave the required healing touch. The beneficiaries of his healing touch spread the word of his super-natural powers far and wide. His own sleigh of hand brought out a Rolex watch or a bhabhoot, puja ash, for the devotees who stood askance for days. The meek man from an interior Andhra village who had walked the dusty roads to park himself at Puttaparthy as a teenager was now the Miracle man.
His devotees treated him as BHAGWAN or as a God. The detractors say rubbish. If he could not live or die as per his wish, what kind of a godman was he? He was just a mortal man like anyone else.
NO MUNDANE FAMILY
THE BABA WAS LONESOME. HE HAD NO WOMAN THAT HE COULD CALL HIS WEDDED WIFE. Devotees would call a reference to the godman having had or not having had sex, a sacrelige. The question is quite pertinent, though. When he left his village in Andhra Pradesh as a teenager to have a look at the world at large, he was not known to have had a liaison with the opposite sex. The question of having same sex relationship just did not arise.
Thereafter he was drawn to a life of spiritualism and lifted his body and soul to a higher plane where sex became meaningless. As he gained higher position as a Guru, his life was an open book. The devotees could read any page. All pages reflected a clean and healthy life befitting a Guru who had gained eminence.
Notwithstanding his higher status in spiritualism and a large following of devotees all over the world, Shri Satya Sai Baba was as forlorn as ever and had no personal experience of what the birds and bees did. Indeed it goes to his credit that he remained above board till he breathed his last.
PHILANTHROPIST WAS HE
Sai baba did for the common man what the government of the state or at the centre could never dream of. Building super-speciality hospitals, providing perennial sources of drinking water, feeding the poor and needy and providing higher education to the neglected sections of the human society was always on the top of his agenda. Sai baba's plans were not on paper only but took off the drawing board stage and were executed on the ground. Sai Baba himself died in a super-speciality hospital that was built for free treatment of the poor. There was no discrimination whatsoever in registering medical or surgical or any type of cases and providing absolutely free diagnosis, medical or surgical treatment. No wonder, the common man called him God who had taken an avatar to serve the poor and the needy.
I shall not be naive to say that the life of Sai Baba was free from blemish. In the initial days of ascendancy on the ladder of becoming a godman, he would make objects like Rolex watches, jewellery, Bhabhoot or puja ash materialise out of nowhere. His detractors called it just a sleigh of hand like that of many magicians .Another criticism levied at the Baba's door was that he presented the Rolex watches to foreigners and bhabhoot to the poor Indians. It may be said in his defence that he could not have presented more Rolex watches than the company produced in Switzerland. One may safely say that Sai Baba was generous to a fault and just gave away to the poor what he could lay his hands on at the given time.
Puttaparthy, the small dusty place that he chose to live in and grant Darshan to devotees became a tourist resort in due course of time. It was duly beautified and made green. The cricket ground, the hospital, the educational institutions, the shopping centre were a class apart. These compared favourably with similar places in developed societies in the western world.
The devotees who hailed from developed countries were given more comfort than the devotees who hailed from the developing countries. The devotees did make mild complaints against this discrimination but the devotion displayed by them drowned complaints of this nature.
The teenager who came barefooted and empty handed rose to the highest rung of the spiritual ladder and became a god man. Now he is gone forever. Millions of men and women who became a part of his following are now forlorn. People from all walks of life are now on their way to Puttaparthy to attend the funeral and grieve for the Guru. His physical presence will be missed by the devotees but his spiritual ideas will continue to inspire the meek and the broken hearted and encourage them to rise again to fulfil the role assigned by Param Pita Parmatma. As the mortal remains of Satya Shri Sai Baba are consigned to the care of Mother Earth, we raise our hats, bow our heads in a reverent salute to the Miracle Man who was loved and respected by millions of men.
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