Sathya Sai Baba Leaves Behind 40,000 Cr.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba , whose message of love, peace and humility, resonated with millions of people including politicians, dictators, businessmen and cricketers, breathed his last on Sunday. He was 85.

Baba, as he was popularly called, was in poor health for the past one month and died after multiple-organ failure, doctors at his home town, Puttaparthi, about four hours east of Bangalore, said.

Sai Baba leaves behind an enormous spiritual legacy, a wide network of charitable institutions, hospitals, schools, colleges, which some estimate to be worth about Rs 40,000 crore, and a void in the hearts of many people who consider him to be a living god.

"My family and I are deeply shocked to hear that Baba is not going to be with us physically to guide us....Baba brought all of us belief, an understanding of right and wrong and taught us to live peacefully with every being," KV Kamath, non-executive chairman of ICICI Bank , and one of India's most powerful bankers, said.

"I pay my tributes to Pujya Satya Sai Baba on his nirvana," Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, tweeted. Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh is expected to visit Puttaparthi on Monday afternoon to pay his last respects.

Thousands of devotees thronged Puttaparthi and the hospital where Baba was being treated on Sunday as news of his death of spread. Police are expecting a huge turnout on Monday and Tuesday. "We are expecting not less than 1-2 lakh people per day and have made arrangements," B Janardhan Reddy, district collector of Anantpur, told ET. The funeral will be held on Wednesday.

Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh's Anantpur district, owes its place in history to Baba, who transformed it from a dusty, poor hamlet and put it on the global tourist map. Today, it is a bustling town with modern colleges, hospitals, good roads, a railway station and an airport. Many people here such as middle-aged Mushtaq Ahmed, owe their well-being to Baba.

A refugee from Kashmir, Mushtaq and a group of about 100 people left the Valley in the early nineties, in search of a new home. "About 100 of us, we found a place here in Puttaparthi. We came to know of the place through newspapers," Mushtaq told ET.

"We ended up settling here after many months of searching," he added. Mushtaq and his group run shops and small businesses in Puttaparthi. "Most of our families are here and we visit the Valley more often these days," he adds. "We grew spiritually and we could feed our families," he says.

The Andhra Pradesh government has declared a three-day mourning while Anantpur will be closed on Wednesday. Sai Baba was born on November 23, 1926, in Puttaparthi, but his spiritual journey actually began 14 years later when he announced to his stunned villagers that he was the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi, who had passed away in 1918.

The story quickly became a legend and Baba acquired god-like status after he started performing miracles which drew enormous number of followers. Controversy ensued when rationalists and scientists questioned the basis of his miracles and his refusal to allow himself to be tested. An incident at his ashram when police killed four intruders into his room and a BBC documentary which alleged widespread incidents of child molestation at his ashram threatened to sully his image.