Sathya Sai Baba

1926 - 2011

The Way Forward

Author – Professor A. Anantharaman

Prof. A. Anantharaman has been the CEO of a number of multinational companies in India and abroad and has taught in several Business Schools. Currently, he is Professor at the School of Business Management of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. In addition, he also functions as the media Coordinator of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust.

Who can comprehend him ?

No one can comprehend my glory, wherever he is and whatever his method of enquiry and however long his attempt!”

Thus wrote to his brother in May 1947. Millions that came to see him and the thousands who came to serve him feel the same way.

The limited can not comprehend the unlimited, nor do the wayward understand the stable.

Explain Divinity in scientific terms ?

Albert Einstein, the famous scientist replied that it would be difficult. It would be like explaining Beethoven’s ninth symphony in form of an air pressure curve.

For different people there were different beginnings and different promptings.

Paul Brunton came to India to find a master. He was told, “Pray every day to God that he will lead to you to the man in whom he is at present incarnated”. He Prayed and his search led him to Sathya Sai Baba.

Howard Murphet, whose books on Baba were the first to reach the western world, was searching for 16 years, till one day, The Vibhuti smell emanating from the falling leaves at the theosophical Society’s Adyar Gardens at Chennai, sent him to Baba.

For different people there were different beginnings and different promptings

Kasturi, Baba’s Biographer, heard the call even as he was crossing the backwaters of Ernakulam to go to Mysore. The Impact of Baba’s discourses was so profoundly positive.

For different people there were different beginnings and different promptings

Author too heard the call …

Like countless others, I too heard the call. Faith : All roads lead to same hilltop. Service : “Hands that are holier than the lips that pray” echoing the words of Rabindernath Tagore, “Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground where the path maker is breaking stones. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soill”

“ His talk they find cooling, not freezing. Warming, not scorching; raining, not ragging; Healing the ailing and hearts bewailing; Soothing, not searing, totally tonic; Balm’ing and calming; bettering not frittering, Impelling inquiry, compelling assent, Dispelling dejection, repulsing reluctance, Infusing faith, fusing fissions, defusing revenge, Imposing no doctrine, composing dogma feuds, Informing so charming never harming, disarming Sifting the responding, lifting the despondent, Sound wave spreading Love, speedier than light

In Kasturi Words…

As you hear his words you quietly resolve To take a step in pilgrim road … Unfold your wings, explore the sky And seek regions beyond your ken. He is welcoming all who are thirsting and starving, Or limping and groaning or climbing and sliding, Raising the stooping, bracing the drooping! He opens the eyes and strengthens the limb Awakening the sleeping, the sitting to stand, The standing to walk. The walking to march, The marching to reach, The reaching to merge“

In Kasturi Words…

Author Prof. A.Anantraman …

Hearing the call, I too came to serve and share 30 years of corporate and academic experience in the west with the management students at Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. But little did I realise that a day would come when I will be drawn into the vortex of what happened in the aftermath of the Maha Samadhi.

Aftermath of the Maha Samadhi …

After 24 this year, we suddenly found ourselves in a world where we had to deal with issues, which we never had to face before. Suddenly we heard words like stakeholders.

Not being just a spiritual organisation, but a service organization with multi-campus educational institutions, multi-location hospitals and performing serving organisations, we needed to engage with these stakeholders. We needed a new dynamics to deal with them. And media was an important channel in the engagement.

Aftermath of the Maha Samadhi - some of the print and electronic media were all over us

A wag once said, “Harmony seldom makes a headline”. In the days immediately succeeding the transition, some of the print and electronic media were all over us. They had no regard even for grieving. By weaving innuendos, half-truths and downright lies cleverly, they sought to present a picture of mystery, deceit and suspense.

Innuendos, Waspish …

Part of the suspense came from the media’s reported assessment of what they called “Baba’s wealth”. Various figures from 1,000 crores to 5,000 crores were touted. We tried explaining to them that the facetiously reported wealth consisted predominantly of equipment, facilities and real estate used for hospitals, schools and collages were all services were offered free of cost.

Forte …

There as per classic finance theories, which tell you that the value of future cash flow, these assets had no value. As they do not produce an income. But understanding simple finance did not appear to be the forte of the members of our Fourth Estate.

Much was also made of the articles and cash that were inventoried. I was present at most of these inventories. They were mostly articles of worship

Devotees offerings to there Guru and God

That the ashram used in several festivals, offered by devotees to one whom they considered their Guru and God. Right next to one particular such item of value I also found an old ragdoll given by a devotee. But were simply accepted with the same love with which they were given. Both had the same value for Baba.

Well known columnist asked ?

All these items were inventoried in the presence of independent witnesses so that they could be taken into stock and the items put to use. In fact a well known columnist asked at that time, “Can the political class today lay claim to the kind of honesty that the Padmanabha Dasas and Baba trustees have shown?”

Inform to public, and more importantly our own grieving and confused devotees

Unaccustomed as we were to the ways of the media who appeared, ‘to separate the wheat from the chaff and then ensure that chaff is printed’; this was discipline we had to learn from the scratch. Therefore our first job was to inform to public, and more importantly our own grieving and confused devotees, the facts as they happened simply and honestly.

Thereupon …

Our next step was to ensure continuity. The Mahasamadhi happened at 7.40 am on April 24, 2011. Right from that moment, not a single regimen—from early morning Suprabhatam to evening Arati has been dropped at Prashanti Nilyam. Every function and festival, even from different faiths is being celebrated as before. From down to dusk devotees throng to sing his glory.

Grieving community, desolate at the loss of one who led from the front

They continue to arrive and pray at Maha Samadhi -- from Turkey and Poland, from Punjab and Kerala, from Australia, America and South Africa. Our Hospitals continue their healings. For a grieving community, desolate at the loss of one who led from the front, this is heady performance.

Strategy

The next step was consolidation. The wise men of the Trust, handpicked by Baba, co-opted four more eminent men to give broader scope for leadership and direction. A media office set up for effective communication with for the set up for effective communication with the outside world. New systems and structures, which will cater for the different kind of devotees who will visit the Prashanti Nilyam as a pilgrimage centre, are being evolved.

Strategy

Our Trustees fully realise that they cannot act with the same grandeur as the Founder Trustee. But they will safeguard the assets that they have been asked to hold in trust; and will take and implement decisions that will effectively advance the objectives of the Trust. To ensure this, they have voluntarily signed a code of conduct.

And what of the future?

There will be new Campus of Sri Sathya Sai institute of higher learning, our fourth; at Muddenahalli, Karnataka. There will be new courses at our Anantpur campus. Plans are ready for a multidisciplinary center for advanced research in cutting edge streams of pharmaceutical drug delivery and nano-science. There will be a cath lab and a new MRI facility for the Hospital.

Tactical

Medicare programmed will be expanded to include more hospitals, nursing homes, and mobile hospitals. We will intensify our rural service, the village integration programme. Our volunteers across the word will be trained and render help in disaster management. The youth in our 600,000 strong Seva organisation will shortly hold two day retreat to introspect, review and plan review and plan the way forward for the next five years.

Vidya Vahini

And we are rolling out a new initiative, Vidya Vahini that will transform the educational landscape of rural India. A partnership between the Sri Sathya Sai central trust, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and school boards in various states; this innovative national project will take web-based learning to village schools, a first ever attempt anywhere in the world.

He led us from front. Who would we follow now?

All these and may more will be the new initiatives in the way forward.

And how would the physical absence of Baba affect us ? We will be hypocritical if we say that it will not. He was the motivation force. He taught us. He guided us. He led us from front. Who would we follow now?

Who Presided the Convocation ?

The 30th Convocation of the Sai University was held on 22nd November 2011. Baba was the Founder President of the last 29 convocations of the University. We woke up that morning with a deep sense of something missing in or lives. We came to know that newly appointed chancellor Justice P.N.Bhagwati was indisposed and would not been able to attend the function.

Nostalgic Grief ?

No Chancellor, would be present. We were getting ready for a day of nostalgic grief.

Soon the Prashanti Nilyam Campus and Anatpur Campus bands of the institute, in their colorful attire trooped in playing to the slow march tune of ‘Sai Ram Sai Shyam’. The processing of the members of the Academic Council in their colorful robes followed. The Registrar dropped the ceremonial mace at its customary location.

Who is going to lead us?

The Vice Chancellor requested the Chancellor to declare the 30th convocation open.

Suddenly a voice rang out of the public address system : “I declare the convocation open”. It was Baba’s voice! It tugged at our heartstrings.

We got our answer – He will continue to lead us. And He will continue to guide us. All we need is to institutionalise his teaching.

Our lives will be his message

The wound in our heart is too deep. It will not go away. But it will heal and become a scar, And the scar will refresh and regenerate. And provide renewal and continuity.

What then, will be the living legacy, of this loving legend? Our action hereafter will be that legacy. So far, his life was his message. Now our lives will be his message .

And His Mission will go on …

Generation o come, people will scarcely believe that such a one as this, ever walked the earth…

And His Mission will go on …