The Legacy of a 100 Years of Love

The 100^th birthday of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, whom we lovingly address as Swami or Baba, is coming up on 23 November, 2025. Devotees from the world over, are congregating at Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, to experience the joy and bliss of the birthday celebrations.

When Bhagawan Rama or Krishna walked the Earth, they were many who recognised and experienced their divinity. But there were others like Ravan, Kans and Shishupal, who did not acknowledge that they were Avatars of Bhagawan Vishnu, and chose the path of enmity with them. Similarly when Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba walked the Earth, there were many who recognised the divinity in him and experienced the bliss of living with God, in his physical form. Many of us were lucky to have enjoyed his Darshan, Sparashan and Sambhashanam. There were others who chose to talk ill about him, but that did not affect him in any way.

Baba was love personified. When He looked at you, it was as if a 1000 mothers together, were showering their love, so it was like being bathed in a sea of divine love.  It inevitably brought tears to the eyes of those who loved him and were cognisant of his divinity. The essence of Baba’s myriad teachings is summed up in four words that are engraved on his Maha Samadhi: LOVE ALL - SERVE ALL. He often said that this is the crux of the Vedas. Having lived a life of simplicity, he set the bar really  high. He led by example. And since He shed the mortal coil, Swami has left us with a vision to fulfil.

Someone had once asked Baba, “Are you God?”  And He had replied, “Yes, I am. And so are you. The only difference is that I know it and you don’t!” This is the greatness of the Avatar. He came to invoke the divinity in each one of us. He came to tell us that we are divine … because we have a minuscule portion of divinity inside us.

Baba taught that the essence of the Vedas is that the Atma (Self) in every being is the same, and the purpose of life is to realize this unity. He summarised the Vedic message as, ‘Brahma Sathyam, Jagath Mithya. Jivo Brahmaiva Naparah.’ (God alone is true, the world is illusory. We the embodied beings, are divine.). The goal is to manifest this innate divinity and realize the self as one with the supreme reality.

Life is all about understanding this truth. Baba said that the purpose of life is to attain Moksha. He said that Moksha is Moha+kshya which means freedom from all desires and attachments. So if during our lifetime, we are able to give up all attachments and understand that everything and everyone around us, are manifestations of God and that creation and dissolution is simply God’s game; we could say that we have attained Moksha!

As the circle of life goes on, each human is born as an embryo from a mother’s womb. The mother feeds on plants, milk etc. So plants and milk are a part of her/our body. We are made of them. Throughout the journey of our life, Mother nature contributes to our growth by giving us food, water and air . After death, the five elements that our body is composed of, i.e. air, space, earth, water and fire are returned to their origins.

The earth element may get absorbed through the roots of a plant and become a new plant. The decomposed elements, further get utilised into new forms of life. If we understand this microscopically, our bodies are constituted of decomposed plants, animals, recycled water and recycled air. The quantum of the five elements is the same as it was, when God created the universe and it stays to be the same. The eternal truth is that we are born, we live and we die, but the soul is immortal. It does not die. Swami has taught us that we should live a life where we, ‘Help ever, Hurt never’ and ‘Love all and Serve all’, because we are all embodiments of the same Parmatma.

I was only eight years old when I had my first Darshan of Baba at Shimla. For me, there has been no looking back thereafter. He is the one to whom all my prayers are addressed. He is the one with whom I share all my joys, sorrows, fears, doubts, love, and more.  He is a part of my journey and as well as my destination. It is a blessing to have someone to lean on, in all the ups and downs of life. Whenever there is something that I am not able to find the way forward to, I just say to Him, “It is your problem. You think of it. You find the way forward.”

I have grown up with Baba and I have given the awareness of Baba to our sons. My husband Sanjay decided that our sons should study for two years each in Baba’s school at Puttaparthi. They were there for grades 11 and 12. Those two years there, made men out of them. It is in that time period that they learnt how to conduct themselves. They learnt the value of hard work, devotion and good character. The educational institutions set up by Baba are verily temples of learning. The emphasis is on holistic learning where they are taught human values along with the course curriculum.

The Sri Sathya Sai organisation has many wings like the education wing, the seva wing, the medical wing, the water project, etc.

There are super speciality hospitals in Puttaparthi and Bangalore, that cater to the poorest of the poor. The uniqueness of these hospitals is that renowned doctors from far and wide come here in pre-decided time slots and do surgeries free of cost. There is no billing section in these hospitals. Everything runs on the corpus that has been created by the trust. The facility offered by these hospitals is world-class. The medical advice and surgical expertise available is second to none in the world. And all this is available to those who are really needy, at zero expense.

The educational institutions set up by Swami; the schools, colleges and the university do not charge any fees. The students come to Sai Kulwant Hall every day, to participate in the Vedam chanting and Bhajan singing after school. They come even during exam days. Baba emphasised that prayers are to be part of daily routine, even if there are exams or anything else going on. These practices are internalised such that the students continue them for life, even after they leave the institution and take up jobs or settle in other places. Baba says that it is important to be a good human. It is only when we are good humans that we can realise that we are divine too.

I am blessed to work as a volunteer in The Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vahini, a unique ed-tech platform that provides values-based teaching resources for teachers and students. The content we create is uploaded to the Prime Minister’s DIKSHA portal and is available free of cost to anyone.

Words are not enough to explain the good work Baba has done and left a legacy for us to carry forward. We are indeed blessed to be blessed by Him. The 100^th birthday celebrations are happening the world over. Do join and partake of the bliss whether in person or virtually.

This piece is published in The Daily Guardian on 17.11.2025 https://epaper.thedailyguardian.com/2025/11/16/e-paper-today-chandigarh-17-november-2025/

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