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Sathya Sai Baba Dead Today Sunday, 24th April 2010 at 7:40 am Indian Time.
doctors attending on him said on Sunday and he breathed his last at 7:30 am on Sunday. He was on intermittent hemodialysis and on assisted respiration until Saturday evening at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medial Sciences at Puttaparthi.
Sathya Sai Baba, సత్య సాయిబాబా , sʌθjə sɑːɪ bɑːbɑː called Himself the God is in Critical position in Hospital, His Condition is near dead. He Done the Miracles in all his life and called himself a mirror face of Sai Baba. Can he do one more Miracle and save his Life. Millions of Devotees in all over the World and in India Praying for him. Sai Baba devotees held special bhajans and prayers for his health.

About Satya Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba (Telugu: సత్య సాయిబాబా IPA: [sʌθjə sɑːɪ bɑːbɑː]; born as Sathyanarayana Raju on 23 November 1926 is a popular Indian guru, spiritual figure and educator. He is described by his devotees as an Avatar, godman, spiritual teacher and miracle worker. The apparent materializing of vibuthi (holy ash) and small objects such as rings, necklaces and watches by Sathya Sai Baba has been a source of both fame and controversy – skeptics consider these simple conjuring tricks, while devotees consider them evidence of divinity. Sathya Sai Baba has claimed to be the reincarnation of the great spiritual guru, Sai Baba of Shirdi, whose teachings were an eclectic blend of Hindu and Muslim beliefs.

Sathya Sai Baba and his organizations support a variety of free educational institutions, hospitals, and other charitable works in India and abroad. The number of active Sathya Sai Baba adherents was estimated in 1999 to be around 6 million, although followers’ estimations are far higher. Since there are no formal ties of membership, the actual figure may never be known. The Sathya Sai Organization reports that there are an estimated 1,200 Sathya Sai Baba Centers in 114 countries worldwide.In India itself, Sai Baba draws followers from predominantly upper-middle-class, urban sections of society who have the “most wealth, education and exposure to Western ideas.” A cultural icon in his home country, Sai Baba has attracted presidents and prime ministers from India and beyond who have become his devotees; in 2002, he claimed to have followers in 178 countries.

Sathyanarayana Raju was born to Eswaramma and Peddavenkama Raju Ratnakaram in the village of Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, India. Almost everything known about his life stems from the hagiography that has grown around him, the presentation of narratives that hold special meaning to his devotees and are considered evidence of his divine nature.

His birth, which his mother Eswaramma asserted was by miraculous conception, was also said to be heralded by miracles. As a child, he was described as “unusually intelligent” and charitable. He was exceptionally talented in drama, music, dance and writing, and was an avid composer of poems and plays. He was said to be capable of materialising objects such as food and sweets out of thin air.

On 8 March 1940, while living with his elder brother Seshama Raju in Uravakonda, Sathya was apparently stung by a scorpion. He lost consciousness for several hours. Within the next few days there was a noticeable change in Sathya’s behavior. There were “symptoms of laughing and weeping, eloquence and silence.” “He began to sing Sanskrit verses, a language of which he had no prior knowledge.” Doctors believed his behavior to be hysteria. His parents brought Sathya home to Puttaparthi.Concerned, they took him to many priests, “doctors” and exorcists.

On 23 May 1940, Sathya called household members and materialized sugar candy and other items. His father became furious upon seeing this, thinking his son was bewitched. He took a stick and asked him who he was. To this Sathya announced calmly and firmly “I am Sai Baba,” a reference to Sai Baba of Shirdi. He proclaimed himself to be a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi—a saint who became famous in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Maharashtra, and who had died eight years before Sathya was born.

Later that year, Sathya Sai Baba declared that he had no worldly relationship with anyone, and around this time, devotees began to gather to him. In 1940, Sathya Sai Baba began to travel to Madras and elsewhere in South India and soon had a large regional following.

In 1944, a mandir (temple) for Sathya Sai Baba’s devotees was built near the village. It is now referred to as the old mandir. The construction of Prashanthi Nilayam, the current ashram, began in 1948 and after 2 years, was completed in 1950. In 1957 Sathya Sai Baba went on a North Indian temple tour. In 1954, Sathya Sai Baba established a small free General Hospital in the village of Puttaparthi.

In 1963, Sathya Sai Baba suffered a stroke and four severe heart attacks. It is believed by some that he healed himself of these, and on recovering announced that he would be reborn as Prema Sai Baba in the state of Karnataka. He stated, “I am Siva-Sakthi, born in the gothra (lineage) of Bharadwaja, according to a boon won by that sage from Siva and Sakthi. Siva was born in the gothra of that sage as Sai Baba of Shirdi; Siva and Sakthi have incarnated as Myself in his gothra now; Sakthi alone will incarnate as the third Sai (Prema Sai Baba) in the same gothra in Mandya district of Karnataka State.”

On 29 June 1968, Sathya Sai Baba made his first and only trip overseas, to Uganda. During a discourse in Nairobi, Sathya Sai Baba stated, “I have come to light the lamp of Love in your hearts, to see that it shines day by day with added luster. I have not come on behalf of any exclusive religion. I have not come on a mission of publicity for a sect or creed or cause, nor have I come to collect followers for a doctrine. I have no plan to attract disciples or devotees into my fold or any fold. I have come to tell you of this unitary faith, this spiritual principle, this path of Love, this virtue of Love, this duty of Love, this obligation of Love.” In 1968, he established Dharmakshetra or Sathyam Mandir in Mumbai.

In 1973, he established Shivam Mandir in Hyderabad. On 19 January 1981, in Chennai he inaugurated the Sundaram Mandir.In March 1995 he started the water project to provide drinking water to 1.2 million people in the drought-prone Rayalaseema region in Anantapur.In 2001 Sathya Sai Baba established another free Super Speciality hospital in Bangalore to benefit the poor. In April 1999 he inaugurated the Ananda Nilayam Mandir in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

Since 2005, Sathya Sai Baba has used a wheelchair and his failing health has 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 boy and stool fell on Sathya Sai Baba. He gives darshan now from a car or his porte chair.

Sathya Sai Baba’s assertion of divine status is expressed in the first person; he states it boldly and repeatedly. “I am beyond the reach of the most intensive enquiry and the most meticulous measurement. Only those who have recognized my love and experienced that love can assert that they have glimpsed my reality. Do not attempt to know me through the external eyes.”

He is also known as a singer, having released several CDs of bhajans (devotional songs).

It was reported that Satya Sai Baba was admitted to the super-specialty hospital at Prashantigram at Puttaparthi on March 28, 2011 following respiration-related problems. As per the April 5th, 2011 evening bulletin reported in the Times Of India “Sai Baba continues to be in a stable condition. All other vital parameters are normal and satisfactory. He is under constant watch of a panel of experts. However, he continues to be on ventilator”. This was released by the doctors at the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS). It was also reported that he is responding to CRRT and that his heart beat and BP have improved and continues to be on continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT).
Beliefs and practices of devotees
Main article: Sathya Sai Baba movement
For more details on this topic, see Bibliography of Sathya Sai Baba.

Sathya Sai Baba has said that his followers do not need to give up their original religion, saying “My objective is the establishment of sanatana dharma, which believes in one God as propitiated by the founders of all religions. So none has to give up his religion or deity.”

Internationally, Sathya Sai Baba devotees gather daily or weekly on Sundays (and/or Thursdays) for group devotional singing (bhajans),prayer, spiritual meditation, service to the community (Seva),and to participate in “Education in Human Values” (SSEHV) known as “Bal Vikas” (meaning Blossoming of the Child), that can also be described as Sai Sunday School.

A primary aspect of Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings is the spiritual benefit of darshan for his students. At that time, Sai Baba may interact with people, accept letters, materialize and distribute vibhuti (sacred ash) or call groups or individuals for interviews. Devotees consider it a great privilege to have an interview and sometimes a single person, group or family will be invited for a private interview.

There is no published formal doctrine or set of rules for the Sai Baba movement.

Puttaparthi, where Sathya Sai Baba was born and still lives, was originally a small remote South Indian village in Andhra Pradesh. Now there is an extensive university complex, a specialty hospital, Chaitanya Jyoti (a world-religions museum that has won several international awards for design, a Planetarium, a railway station, a hill-view stadium, an administrative building, an airport, an indoor sports stadium and more.High ranking Indian politicians, like the former President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Andhra Pradesh former Chief Minister Konijeti Rosaiah and Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa have been official guests at the ashram in Puttaparthi. On Sathya Sai Baba’s 80th birthday celebration, it was reported that well over a million people attended, including 13,000 delegates from India and 180 other countries.

Sathya Sai Baba resides much of the time in his main ashram called Prashanthi Nilayam (Abode of Highest Peace) at Puttaparthi. In the hot summer he leaves for his other ashram, called Brindavan, in Kadugodi, Whitefield, a town on the outskirts of Bangalore. Occasionally he visits his Sai Shruti ashram in Kodaikanal.

Sathya Sai Baba established three primary mandirs (spiritual centres) in India. The first mandir, founded in Mumbai in 1968, is referred to as either “Dharmakshetra” or “Sathyam”. The second centre, established in Hyderabad in 1973, is referred to as “Shivam”. The third centre, inaugurated on 19 January 1981 in Chennai, is referred to as “Sundaram”.

Miracles
Devotees say they have observed Sathya Sai Baba manifesting vibuthi (holy ash), and sometimes food and “small objects” such as rings, necklaces and watches. In some books, magazines, filmed interviews and articles, Sathya Sai Baba’s followers report miracles of various kinds that they attribute to him. The first ever record of Baba’s miracles by a foreigner was made by Howard Murphet in his book, Sai Baba – Man Of Miracles. Devotees have said that objects have appeared spontaneously in connection with pictures and altars of Sathya Sai Baba. Sathya Sai Baba’s devotees believe that he relieves his devotees by transferring their pain to himself.

Internationally, devotees report that vibuthi, kumkum, turmeric powder, holy water, Shiva lingams, statues of deities (brass and gold), sugar candy, fruits, herbs, amrita (a fragrant, nectar-like honey), gems, colored string, writings in ash and various other substances spontaneously manifest and materialize on the walls, furniture, pictures and altars of Sathya Sai Baba.

The retired Icelandic psychology professor Erlendur Haraldsson wrote that he did not get Sathya Sai Baba’s permission to study him under controlled circumstances, but that he investigated the guru’s alleged miracles and manifestations through interviews with devotees and ex-devotees. Some of the reported miracles included levitation (both indoors and outdoors), bilocation, physical disappearances, changing granite into sugar candy, changing water into another drink, changing water into gasoline, producing objects on demand, changing the color of his gown while wearing it, multiplying food, healing acute and chronic diseases, appearing in visions and dreams, making different fruits appear on any tree hanging from actual stems, controlling the weather, physically transforming into various deities and physically emitting brilliant light. Haraldsson wrote that the largest allegedly materialized object that he saw was a mangalsutra necklace, 32 inches long, 16 inches long on each side.[95] Haraldsson wrote that some miracles attributed to Sathya Sai Baba resemble the ones described in the New Testament, but that although healings certainly figure in Sai Baba’s reputation, his impression is that healings do not play as prominent a role in Sathya Sai Baba’s activities as in those of Jesus.

Sathya Sai Baba has explained the phenomenon of manifestation as being an act of divine creation, but refused to have his materializations investigated under experimental conditions. In a 1974 discourse, he stated, “The optical sense cannot visualize the truth. It gives only false and fogged information. For example, there are many who observe my actions and start declaring that my nature is such and such.”

In April 1976, Dr. H. Narasimhaiah, a physicist, rationalist and then vice chancellor of Bangalore University, founded and chaired a committee “to rationally and scientifically investigate miracles and other verifiable superstitions”. Narasimhaiah wrote Sathya Sai Baba three letters that were widely publicized, in which he publicly challenged Baba to perform his miracles under controlled conditions.Sathya Sai Baba said that he ignored Narasimhaiah’s challenge because he felt his approach was improper. Sathya Sai Baba further said about the Narasimhaiah committee, “Science must confine its inquiry only to things belonging to the human senses, while spiritualism transcends the senses. If you want to understand the nature of spiritual power you can do so only through the path of spirituality and not science. What science has been able to unravel is merely a fraction of the cosmic phenomena …”Narasimhaiah’s committee was dissolved in August 1977.

According to Erlendur Haraldsson, the formal challenge from the committee came to a dead end because of the negative attitude of the committee, and perhaps because of all the fanfare surrounding it. Narasimhaiah held the fact that Sathya Sai Baba ignored his letters to be one of several indications that his miracles are fraudulent.As a result of this episode, a public debate raged for several months in Indian newspapers.

Sathya Sai Baba says of “miracles”, “those who profess to have understood me, the scholars, the yogis, the pundits, the jnanis, all of them are aware only of the least important, the casual external manifestation of an infinitesimal part of that power, namely, the “miracles”! This has been the case in all ages. People may be very near (physically) to the Avathar, but they live out their lives unaware of their fortune; they exaggerate the role of miracles, which are as trivial, when compared to my glory and majesty, as a mosquito is in size and strength to the elephant upon which it squats. Therefore, when you speak about these ‘miracles,’ I laugh within myself out of pity that you allow yourself so easily to lose the precious awareness of my reality.”

Satya Sai claimed to be a reincarnation of Shirdi Sai and predicted a life of 96 years for himself, Sathya Sai Baba pronounced many years ago that his next avatar would be in form of “Prema Sai” in Mandya district of Karnataka