The late guru attracted followers across India's religious divide Nearly half a million people have gathered in the southern Indian town of Puttaparthi for the funeral of the revered Indian spiritual leader Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
Sai Baba will be buried, unlike most Hindus, who are cremated.
However, burial is the custom for people Hindus esteem as holy men.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi have been among thousands of mourners paying their respects to the guru.
Sathya Sai Baba will be buried with full state honours inside the public hall in the ashram - or spiritual centre - in Puttaparthi, the southern town where he was born and from where he blessed the millions of devotees who were drawn to him from around the world.
TV pictures showed priests chanting and carrying out the last rites next to the guru's corpse, which has been on display in a transparent casket. Many devotees saw Sai Baba as a living god.
The actual funeral is closed to the public with only family and members of his charitable trust attending, says the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Puttaparthi.
Hundreds of thousands of devotees will be watching the proceedings on a giant screen that has been set up outside.
Huge numbers of Indians and foreigners, among them cricket star Sachin Tendulkar, have bade a final farewell to the guru since he died of multiple organ failure on Sunday aged 85.
Sai Baba's followers believe he had magical abilities to produce objects out of thin air, visit people in their dreams, perform miracles and cure terminal illnesses.
But his critics say that many of these activities were publicity stunts. They say that he was a persuasive fraudster who used his huge popularity to avoid being investigated over allegations of murky financial practices and sexual abuse.
These charges were always strenuously denied by the guru and his followers, and were never proved.
His popularity remained undimmed throughout his life - Sai Baba had ashrams in 126 countries and also ran a network of hospitals, clinics and schools that were often free.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-south-asia-13204914
No comments:
Post a Comment