Indians mourn the death of Hindu religious leader
Source: Agencies |
April 26, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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THOUSANDS of mourners in India streamed past the glass casket of Sathya Sai Baba yesterday for a final look at the Hindu religious leader revered by millions around the world for his miracles but derided by others as a fraud.
The 84-year-old's death on Sunday after a nearly a month in a hospital has led to an outpouring of grief from his followers, including top Indian politicians, movie stars, athletes and industrialists, who remembered him as a pious person who worked selflessly to help others with the billions of dollars donated to his charitable trust.
Hundreds of volunteers - men dressed in white trousers and shirts with blue scarves and women in saris and yellow scarves - guided mourners in an orderly line around Sai Baba's casket, which was lying inside his headquarters in the southern town of Puttaparti and was surrounded by marigolds and other flowers.
A life-sized portrait of the guru stood over the coffin. Sai Baba's body will be on display through today, and hundreds of thousands are expected to travel to his spiritual center to pay their respects before his state funeral tomorrow 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 halo of wild, frizzy 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 vilification campaigns.
Born November 23, 1926, as Sathyanarayana Raju, he was said as a child to display a tendency toward spirituality and unusual intelligence, which he expressed through music, dance and writing poetry and plays. Sai Baba was never married and had no children.
The 84-year-old's death on Sunday after a nearly a month in a hospital has led to an outpouring of grief from his followers, including top Indian politicians, movie stars, athletes and industrialists, who remembered him as a pious person who worked selflessly to help others with the billions of dollars donated to his charitable trust.
Hundreds of volunteers - men dressed in white trousers and shirts with blue scarves and women in saris and yellow scarves - guided mourners in an orderly line around Sai Baba's casket, which was lying inside his headquarters in the southern town of Puttaparti and was surrounded by marigolds and other flowers.
A life-sized portrait of the guru stood over the coffin. Sai Baba's body will be on display through today, and hundreds of thousands are expected to travel to his spiritual center to pay their respects before his state funeral tomorrow 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 halo of wild, frizzy 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 vilification campaigns.
Born November 23, 1926, as Sathyanarayana Raju, he was said as a child to display a tendency toward spirituality and unusual intelligence, which he expressed through music, dance and writing poetry and plays. Sai Baba was never married and had no children.
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