Sai Baba was born on 23rd November 1926 in Puttaparthi, a remote village in south India. He was given the name Sathyanarayana Raju. On the day following His birth, Sri Aurobindo of Pondicherry is reported to have emerged out of a long meditation and declared the “descent of the supramental Krishna Consciousness into the terrestrial earth-realm.”

As a young boy He had extraordinary compassion for the poor and needy, and thus attracted many beggars to His parents’ home. He formed a bhajan group and led other children in the village in song and drama that highlighted social and moral issues in the village. He insisted on a vegetarian diet. It is not surprising that He gradually earned the appellation Brahmajnani (knower of God) from the innocent villagers.

He publicly declared His mission on 20th October 1940, at the age of 14. He proclaimed to His stunned family: “I am no longer your Sathya, I am Sai … I am going, I no longer belong to you. Maya has gone; my devotees are calling me, my work is waiting.” He declared He was the reincarnation of a holy man, Sai Baba of Shirdi.

The first message that Sai Baba gave mankind was in a bhajan (devotional song) entitled “Manasa Bhajare Guru Charanam Dusthara Bhava Saagara Tharanam,” meaning “Meditate in thy mind on the Feet of the Guru. This can take you across the difficult sea of existence in birth after birth.”

Manase Bhajare Guru Charanam

The next 70 years revealed an extraordinary Avataric mission to raise man’s consciousness. He dedicated Himself to telling man that he is a spark of divinity, and that his only reality is that supreme divine Self within. Sai Baba’s writings and discourses expounded the truths contained in ancient scriptures and provided simple instructions for daily spiritual living.

His Prashanti Nilayam ashram was established on 23rd November 1950, and His monthly magazine, Sanathana Sarathi, was first published in 1958.

Baba’s emphasis and personal example on the importance of serving the poor has inspired thousands of service projects around the world. His schools and hospitals are prototypes of how educational and medical services should uplift and serve mankind.

A non-devotee once wrote of Baba’s unlimited capacity to arouse love wherever He went and in whomsoever He met. Having had the privilege of darshan of Bhagawan, Scottish born Bill Aitken wrote: “After forty years of blessings I have come to regard Sathya Sai as probably the most astounding spiritual being in religious history, not because of what I have read but because of what I continue to feel at his darshan, the intoxicating mood of real selfhood, that most liberating of mortal ecstasies.”

Sai Baba took MahaSamadhi on 24th April 2011. Over the next 3 days, over half a million people came to the ashram to pay their respects to Him.

Baba’s presence continues to be felt by devotees and non-devotees; it provides confirmation that He is beyond time and that He is much more than the name and form we know as Sai Baba. His mission continues through His devotees. It is for this reason that we write about Him in the present tense, knowing that He has gone nowhere.