Sri Sathya Sai Baba A Life

Born to a poor family in the village of Puttaparthi in southern Andhra Pradesh Sathyanarayan Raju was a bright talented and confident boy whose charitable nature and religiosity belied his tender age. Deeply suspicious of his spiritual precociousness his father made him go through a traumatic exorcism. But the boy already had a devoted band of followers and when he was thirteen announced that he was the Shirdi Sai Baba reborn. Today Sri Sathya Sai Baba has an estimated thirty million followers worldwide. Acclaimed travel writer and self-described `spiritual nomad' Bill Aitken tells us why so many-royalty wealthy industrialists influential politicians as well as the poor-flock to Puttaparthi. Sai Baba's message he reveals can be summed up in one word love. It is as simple as it is profound not unlike how his devotees see the Sai himself-the embodiment of deep spirituality wedded to simplicity elegance and grace. Yet the Sai phenomenon is less about producing vibhuti from thin air and more about modern-day miracles. Miracles like free schools and universities super-specialty hospitals which provide free treatment to all and revolutionary projects like the one which has brought drinking water to a million villagers in drought-prone Rayalseema. Aitken's study is neither a hagiographic exercise in myth-making nor a dry objective account of the Sai's life. While never shy of expressing his deep love and reverence for Sai Baba he squarely confronts the controversies and criticisms which inevitably dog those who claim acquaintance with the holy. About the Author Bill Aitken is Scottish by birth a naturalized Indian by choice. He studied comparative religion at Leeds University and then hitch-hiked to India in 1959. He has lived in Himalayan ashrams worked as secretary to a maharani freelanced under his middle name (Liam McKay) and undertaken miscellaneous excursions - from Nanda Devi to Sabarimala - on an old motorcycle and by steam railway. Aitken has written on travel and tourism for newspapers and magazines in India for several years and is the author of The Nanda Devi Affair Riding the Ranges and Branch Line to Eternity among other books.