ANANTAPUR: The mahasamadhi of Sri Satya Sai Baba was thrown open for public viewing on Friday amid pandits chanting scriptures and devotess singing bhajans at at Prashanti Nilayam in Puttaparthy.
The darshan commenced after two hours of special rituals and a brief meeting in which select devotees of Baba and students of the educational institutions run by Sai Baba trust recalled their experiences and association with Baba in emotion choked voices. The first to have darshan was Meenakshamma, mother of trust member R J Ratnakar and relative of Sai Baba. She was followed by other devotees. The formal inauguration of the mahasamadhi, which was completed two days ago, took place without much fanfare. No VVIPs were present except for minister Geetha Reddy, local MLA P Raghunatha Reddy, Baba devotee and former TTD chairman DK Adikesavulu Naidu. Officials including collector V Durga Doss, DIG Charu Sinha and others were present. All five Satya Sai Central trust members - Justice P N Bhagavathi, Indulal Shaw, V Srinivasan, SV Giri and RJ Ratnakar - and management council member Naganand were present.
Curiously, Satyajit, the personal attendant of Sai Baba was seen sitting alone in a corner with a blank look on his face.
“The Maha Samadhi is located in the middle of the front semi-circular porch of the temple at the southern end of Sai Kulwanth Hall in Prasanthi Nilayam, exactly at the place where Satya Sai used to sit for giving darshan to his devotees,’’ a press release issued by the Trust said. The Maha Samadhi is a rectangular pure marble edifice of 21 ft long and 12 ft wide structure, the release added.