Sai Baba buried with state honours
Hundreds of thousands of devotees gathered yesterday for the funeral
of Sathya Sai Baba. Sai Baba was buried in keeping with customs accorded
to Hindu holy men. Sai Baba who died of multiple organ failure on Sunday
aged 85, was interred under the podium where he gave many teachings, in
the main hall of his ashram in the southern town of Puttaparthi.
Television screens erected around the town showed live footage of the
event for the vast crowds of followers who had converged on Puttaparthi
in recent days.
Since his death, Sai Baba's body has lain inside a transparent casket
on view to grieving devotees including poor villagers, foreign pilgrims
and cricket stars such as Sachin Tendulkar.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, leader of
the ruling Congress party, visited the ashram to pay their last
respects. The funeral was witnessed by 15,000 invited guests, relatives,
members of the Sai Baba Trust and faculty members from the many
educational institutions funded by the trust. Sai Baba was given a gun
salute and state honours before his body was prepared for burial by
priests dressed in saffron robes who anointed him with oil and flowers.
As the chanting of sacred texts filled the air, his body was lowered
into the ground behind a curtain. The burial spot in the hall will be
marked by a gold-plated statue of Sai Baba in a standing posture with
his right hand raised. The spiritual leader, credited with supernatural
powers by his millions of followers in India and abroad, used donations
to build an empire of free hospitals, schools, clinics, prayer centres
and other properties and assets. AFP
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