Sathya Sai Baba Age, Family, Biography, Controversies, Facts & More

Bio
Real Name	Sathya Narayana Raju
Profession	Indian Guru, Cult leader and Philanthropist
Personal Life
Date of Birth	23 November 1926
Birth Place	Puttaparthi, Madras Presidency, British India
Date of Death	24 April 2011
Place of Death	Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, India
Age (at the time of death)	84 Years
Death Cause	Respiration-Related Problems
Zodiac sign/Sun sign	Taurus
Signature
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Puttaparthi, Chennai
School	A Higher Secondary School, Bukkapatnam, Puttaparthi
Educational Qualification	Dropped Out from School
Family	Father- Pedda Venkama Raju Mother- Easwaramma Brothers- Ratnakaram Sesham Raju (1921–1984), Janakirammiah (1930–2003) Sisters- Parvathamma (1928–1998), Venakamma (1923–1993)
Religion	Hinduism
Address	Prashanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi
Controversies	• In April 1976, Hosur Narasimhaiah, the vice-chancellor of Bangalore University challenged him through publicised letters to perform his miracles under scientific conditions that Sai rejected. • On 6 June 1993, the police shot four persons who killed two and injured another two devotees in Sathya Sai Baba’s bedroom in Puttaparthi ashram, Prashanti Nilayam. • In 2002, the national television and radio broadcast company of Denmark presented an interview with Alaya Rahm a former devotee of his organization who alleged him for sexual abuse. In the same year, BBC also described him as fraud through a documentary ''The Secret Swami.'' • Former followers of Sathya Sai Baba allegedly put allegation on him for indulgence in sexual abuses and pedophilia. • There is also an allegation against him for misappropriation of funds (approximately Rs 40,000 crore) in Sathya Sai Baba trust. Trustees also found 98 kg of gold, 307-kilogram silver articles, and Rs 11.5 crore cash in his private room after his death. • In 2017, Elise Dallemagne a Belgian tourist found dead on the beach of an island in Thailand. According to the Bangkok Post, authorities, media and investigation, it was a cult-induced suicide resultant from Sathya Sai Baba's Thai branch.
Girls, Affairs and More
Marital Status	Unmarried

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sathya Sai Baba

• He claims himself as the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi and believes in the impersonal feature of God. According to him, anyone can communicate with God by turning inward and aim of everyone’s life is to merge into the existence of God.    

• He is well known for his famous quote “Love All, Serve All. Help Ever, Hurt Never.”

• His powers of bilocation, omnipotence, resurrections, omniscience, clairvoyance, and miraculous healings are considered to be divine by his followers but critics give them the name of conjuring tricks only.

• According to sources, he has over 100 million followers over 178 countries and his Sathya Sai Organisation (established in the 1960s) has over 1,200 branches with many ashramas, auditoriums, hospitals, schools, clinical centers, and drinking water projects in more than 160 countries.

• From childhood, he was spiritually inclined and was popularly known as “Brahmajnani’ (knower of the Brahman) among his companions.

• He was well talented having the skills of devotional music, dance, and drama. 

• His family used to eat meat but he always liked to eat vegetarian food.

• Since childhood, he could materialize objects like food, flowers, and sweets, etc, from the air.

• During school days, he was compassionate to his classmates and never hesitated to help the poor companions. He even made a bhajan group to turn their attention towards God.

• One day his teacher was dictating the students to write down something but Sai was not writing. When the teacher asked him the reason, he said that he knew that lesson already.

• On 23 May 1940, Sai was materializing the flowers and candies to distribute them to all. On seeing this, his father asked him about his identity and he proclaimed himself Sai whom should be worshipped on every Thursday. 

• One day, when someone asked him to prove his identity as Sai Baba, he took some jasmine flowers and threw them on the floor but they got arranged to make the form of words ”Sai Baba.”

• On 20 October 1940, he declared himself an Avatar (spiritual incarnation) of the Shiva-Sakthi in the lineage of Bharadwaja (an ancient Indian saint) and left home for the spiritual regeneration of humanity. 

• After leaving home, he moved to a house of the lady named Subbamma in Puttaparthi where people started coming to see him.

• Subbamma gifted him a thatched hut nearby her house and he shifted there to receive his growing devotees.

• In 1950, he moved to Prasanthi Nilayam temple to expand his mission.

• According to Sai, the purpose of human life is to realize the divinity within man, that can be attained by selfless services to others, devotional practices, and leading a moral life based on highest spiritual values like nonviolence, right conduct, love, truth, and peace, etc.

• In 1954, he established a general hospital in Puttaparthi and won the fame for having the mystical power of healing.

• During the 1960s, he founded The Sathya Sai Organisation with the name of “Sri Sathya Sai Seva Samithi.” The main purpose of this organization was to help a person to realize his inner divinity. 

• Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust releases a monthly magazine named Sanathana Sarthi (Eternal Charioteer). 

• In 1963, it was asserted that he got paralyzed on one side due to four severe heart attacks and he recovered himself in front of the thousands of people in Prashanthi Nilayam.

• In order to exhibit his idea of ”service to man is the service to God,” he started the projects like free hospitals, schools, free housing projects, and disaster relief operations, etc. 

• His main spiritual centers in India are “Sathyam” in Mumbai (1968), “Shivam” in Hyderabad (1973), and “Sundaram” in Chennai (1981).

• On 15 June 1981, he founded the Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School in Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Giri complex, Prasanthi Nilayam (Puttaparthi). It is one of the top 10 CBSE schools in India. 

• Under his Educare programme, there are many schools in different countries like Australia, Zambia, Mexico,  Peru, the United Kingdom, and others.

• He established Sri Sathya Sai University in 1981 that runs the campuses at Prasanthi Nilayam (for men), Ananthapur (for women), Muddenahalli (for men), and Brindavan (for men).  

• In March 1995, he started a water project to provide drinking water to 1.2 million people in Rayalaseema ( Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh).

• On 22 November 1991, Narasimha Rao former prime minister of India, inaugurated Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Puttaparthi having talented medical specialists, 300-bed, five intensive care units, eleven surgical theatres, two cardiac catheterization laboratories, and many other free medical facilities. 

• On 23 November 1999, a postal cover and stamp were released by the Indian Government in recognition of his services. 

• To help poor people, he founded a super-specialty hospital in Bangalore in 2001. It provides free medical care to more than 250,000 patients. 

• Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust controls many general hospitals, mobile dispensaries and conducts medical camps in rural and backward areas of India.

• In 2003, his hip was fractured in an accident after which he started using a wheelchair. 

• According to a Canadian newspaper ”The Vancouver Sun,” he asked his followers to refrain from the internet and suggested them to follow the ‘innernet.’

• He commenced drinking water projects like Sathya Sai Ganga Canal in 2004, the Medak district project (benefiting 450,000 people), the Mahbubnagar district project (benefiting 350,000 people), Telugu-Ganga project in Chennai and many others.

• In 2009, Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organization built 699 houses for two million Odisha flood-affected victims.

• Apart from universities and hospitals, there are also Sanathana Samskruti or Eternal Heritage Museum and the Chaitanya Jyoti museum (winner of several international awards for its architectural design)  in Puttaparthi. 

• On 24 April 2011, he was died due to the respiration-related problems in Sri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital at Prashantigram, Puttaparthi and was buried with honor on 27 April 2011. Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Indian Congress president Sonia Gandhi, current prime minister of India Narendra Modi with other political leaders and many famous personalities were present on this occasion. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Dalai Lama also offered their condolences on his demise.

• On 2 September 2012, one of his followers Satyajit Salian released a will of Sai Baba; in which Sai declared that his relatives or others had no authority over the Sathya Sai Trust assets which was under his supervision for public charitable purposes.
• He stated before his death that he would take birth again after eight years of his death (96 years) but he died at the age of 84. According to his followers, the forecasted date was based on the Hindu calendar.

• In 2002, the BBC produced a documentary ”The Secret Swami,” in which Mark Roche (a former devotee) and the critic Basava Premanand claimed him as sexual abuser and fraud.