Sathya Sai Baba centenary: People from all over world congregating at Puttaparthi to celebrate

Puttaparthi: "When I come to this Ashram, I feel like I have come back to my home. I'm here for almost a month for Baba's birthday," said Elena from Switzerland, who has come to this spiritual town on the banks of the Chitravathi river, to take part in the birth centenary celebrations of Sathya Sai Baba.

The sentiment is echoed by many devotees and followers of Baba, both from within the country and abroad, who have started congregating in Puttaparthi's Prasanthi Nilayam -- the main ashram and Samadhi Mandir of Sathya Sai Baba -- to take part in the birth centenary celebrations of their spiritual master, from November 13 to 24.

Even 14 years after his death, Sai Baba's universal spiritual teachings and his message of 'Seva' (service), continue to attract people from across the country and the globe to Puttaparthi, which is both the place of his birth and final resting.

While some have come here to take part in the celebrations out of their reverence towards Baba, others are here to perform volunteer service during the mega events.

Once a tiny hamlet, and now headquarters of a district --Puttaparthi-- is decked up with colourful lights, temporary welcome gates at multiple locations, and is buzzing with activities for the centenary birth celebrations, for which devotees from nearly 140 countries are coming together.

After Baba's Maha Samadhi (death) in 2011, the 100th birthday celebration is said to be the biggest event, the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust is organising, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 19.

The number of foreign nationals, who are followers of Baba or have been inspired by him, have already travelled to Puttaparthi, to make it for the centenary celebrations, like Elena.

Dariya, who is from Russia, told PTI, "I am so blessed to be here, because it's really very important, especially for this 100th birthday (of Baba)."

She said, "Every year, I visit this ashram that embodies Sathya Sai Baba. I still come here because it doesn't matter if he is in-body or not -- everything is still happening. I am so happy to meet Babaji, and I hope I will meet Prema Sai (prophesied to be the third and final incarnation of the Sai lineage) someday."

According to Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust managing trustee R J Rathnakar, the number of people visiting Puttaparthi's Prasanthi Nilayam is more when compared to the time when Baba was physically here, which means his mission is moving forward, and that gives faith and confidence.

"Earlier, people would come here and stay for a week, 10 days, a month, or two months, because they wanted to have a word with him, to have an interview. But today, it's like any pilgrimage centre or holy place--they come, have darshan for two or three days, and then move on," he told PTI.

Speaking about the foreign visitors and Baba's international followers, Rathnakar pointed out that while Baba was physically alive, the international community was already here.

"We have organisations in nearly 150 countries. So there is already a set pattern, and Baba's message -- the strength of the message is on its own. It's spreading, and more and more people, by seeing the activities, come, get attracted and join. The 150 countries have a national council, a national council president, their own structure, and all of them come together," he said.

As a large number of devotees from different parts of the country and world are expected to take part in the centenary celebrations, and massive arrangements are being made to provide free food and stay, for which temporary shelters are being set up.

With massive arrangements underway and a large number of devotees starting to arrive, the army of volunteers known as "Sevadal", from various parts of the country and from different walks of life, are also converging to provide their services, like in crowd management, among other things.

Shivaprasad, a retired senior bank manager, said that since 2005, at least once a year, he comes to Puttaparthi for volunteer service as part of Sevadal.

"Wherever I'm allotted service duty, I do it with full satisfaction. Now I have come to provide my service for the centenary celebration....My wife is also with me for the seva, and we want to do it until we can walk and work."

G Venugopal Rao from Hyderabad said he has been coming to Puttaparthi since January 1990, for service and Darshan, and he comes twice or thrice a year.

Recalling that he stayed in Puttaparthi and performed service for 45 days, during the 65th birthday of Baba, he said, "The service now is a centenary service. In view of the centenary birthday, I would like to do service for 30 days. That is why I came here."

Highlighting that Sathya Sai Baba had tied spirituality to community service, managing trustee Rathnakar said, there is a huge volunteer base--like Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation -- and it has almost a million volunteers spread across 500 districts.

"Even today, if you move about in Prasanthi Nilayam, you will see nearly 1,500 Sevadal volunteers, who are with scarves. You would have seen different colour scarves -- they are all coming here on their own and rendering service," he added.