PUTTAPARTHI: Amid muted internal controversy, work relating to the construction of Satya Sai Baba’s Mahasamadhi began on May 27 with board member R J Ratnakar—considered the most influential of all the trustees—and state Industries Minister J Geetha Reddy, an ardent devotee of the late godman giving it the go ahead at a simple ceremony here.
The work will be completed in six weeks and the Mahasamadhi will be ready for darshan by the next Guru Poornima in July. A marble statue of Sathya Sai Baba with the Abhaya Hastam in a sitting posture at Mahasamadhi will bless the devotees. It will be inaugurated on Baba’s 86th birth anniversary on November 23.
“Asarvadharma emblem on the samadhi will incorporate the tenets of all faiths,” says a source in Sathya Sai Trust. The marble statue of Sathya Sai Baba will be made with a Rs 30-lakh donation announced by cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.
Interestingly, most members of the Sri Sai Trust were absent for this important event, thus once again raising doubts that the differences among the trust members are still not settled. It is an open secret that several members of Trust are still at loggerheads with Ratnakar, who calls all the shots in the affairs of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust.
This is the first major event that has taken place in Puttaparthi Nilayam after the demise of Sathya Sai Baba on April 24.
The turnout of devotees at Puttaparthi has dwindled after Baba’s death. Trust members are making efforts to regain their confidence by arranging giant screens on which Baba’s sermons are played. This arrangement will be done in Kulwanth hall, where the spiritual leader used to sit. Regular prayers continued as usual and devotees still keep coming to offer prayers at Sathya Sai Baba’s samadhi. The trust is confident of worshippers visiting the Prashanthi Nilayam in big numbers like when Baba was alive. “After the completion of the Mahasamadhi, I hope the number of devotees will increase,” notes a Trust source.