BRIGHT SIDE OF BABA

An Individual should be assessed dialectically. Both the dark and the bright sides of the individual's personality should be brought to light. The dark side of Baba, that is cheating the public by tricks of a magician is exposed in the previous posts of this blog which are video clips from the youtube. Now it is time look at the bright side of Baba.

            After gaining popularity through trickery the Baba stopped performing the ‘miracles' and turned his attention to philanthropic and public service activities in a big way. The Sathya Sai Central Trust, set up in 1972 to run the ashram, executed a major Water Supply Project for Anantapur district. It also generously funded the ‘Sathya Sai Ganga Canal,' meant to supply Krishna water to Chennai through what was then called the Telugu Ganga canal. The Sathya Sai institutions including the Institute of Higher Medical Services (SSSIHMS) and the Institute of Learning have turned models for quality healthcare and provision of education free of cost to meritorious students. The Rs. 300-crore SSSIHMS at Prashantigram and a similar 330-bed super speciality hospital at Whitefield near Bangalore run by the Central Trust stand as testimony to the efforts of Sai Baba to make advanced medicare affordable to the common man. Sai Baba's propagation of spiritualism and preaching of Hindu philosophy never came in the way of his commitment to secular beliefs.

            When the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid controversy was at its peak in the 1990s, Sai Baba refused to buckle under pressure from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to issue a public statement favouring the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya. VHP president Ashok Singhal made at least two trips to Puttaparthi in this endeavour but failed to extract any assurance from Sai Baba. He chose to remain neutral. The spiritual leader's credentials are attributed by his devotees to his conviction that he was a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi, whose teachings were an eclectic blend of Hindu and Muslim beliefs.

            The Baba had among his flock worldwide a large number of Muslim and Christian devotees. He told them that they need not give up their religion or their respective beliefs.

            Outside the fold of the devout, people will remember Sai Baba for his contribution to providing water to drought-prone areas, besides his services in education and medicare. He funded a Rs. 300-crore project for supplying drinking water to 750 fluoride-hit villages in Anantapur district and introduced protected water schemes in Medak, Mahbubnagar, Chittoor and the two Godavari districts covering hundreds of villages.