Thousands line up for last glimpse of Indian guru

[April 25, 2011]  PUTTAPARTI, India (AP) -- Thousands of mourners on Monday paid their last respects to Sathya Sai Baba, an Indian religious leader revered by millions for spiritual and healing powers but dismissed by some as a charlatan who passed off magic tricks as miracles.

Sathya Sai Baba died at 84 on Sunday after nearly one month in a hospital, triggering an outpouring of grief from his followers who included Indian politicians, movie stars, athletes and industrialists.

Most remembered Sai Baba as a pious person who worked selflessly to help others with the billions of dollars donated to his charitable trust. Sai Baba was an instantly recognizable figure in India with a halo-like frizzy dark hair and ochre robes, the color of holiness in India.

His photographs adorned millions of homes, dashboards of cars and lockets worn by devotees around the world, including non-Indians. Many made annual pilgrimages to his ashram.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the country would remember Sai Baba as someone who "inspired millions to lead a moral and meaningful life."

On Monday, hundreds of volunteers -- the men dressed in white trousers and shirts with blue scarves and the women in saris and yellow scarves -- guided mourners in an orderly line around Sai Baba's body, lying in a glass casket inside his headquarters in Puttaparti, a town in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh where he was born.

The casket was surrounded by marigolds and other flowers and a life-sized portrait of the guru stood over it.

Sai Baba's body will be on display through Tuesday, and hundreds of thousands are expected to travel to his spiritual center to pay their respects before his state funeral Wednesday morning.

Police, heavily deployed since Sai Baba was hospitalized on March 28, controlled road traffic and crowds in Puttaparti.

Sai Baba had a huge following, with spiritual centers, or ashrams, in more than 126 countries. He was said to perform miracles, conjuring jewelry, Rolex watches and "vibhuti" -- a sacred ash that his followers applied to their foreheads -- from his hair.

But rationalist critics led campaigns against him, calling him a charlatan and his miracles fake. Several news reports alleged that he sexually abused devotees -- accusations he denied as smear campaigns.

The allegations and criticism did not reduce the intense devotion that he invoked among his followers, who praised his charity work, including running educational institutions and starting development projects. Many credited him with supernatural powers that could cure even terminal illnesses.

Born Nov. 23, 1926, as Sathyanarayana Raju, he was said to display a tendency toward spirituality from childhood and possess an unusual intelligence, which he expressed through music, dance and writing poetry and plays.

In 1940, he declared himself a reincarnation of another Hindu holy man called the Sai Baba of Shirdi, a town in western Maharashtra state, who died in 1918.

Health problems over recent years had forced Sai Baba to cut down on public appearances. He survived a stroke and a series of heart attacks in 1963. In 2005, he began using a wheelchair, and a year later he fractured his hip when a student fell from a stool onto him.

Sai Baba was never married and had no children.

[Associated Press; By AIJAZ RAHI]

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