Last rites of Sathya Sai Baba performed

The burial of Hindu holy man Sathya Sai Baba began on Wednesday morning within the Prashanthi Nilayam ashram in Puttaparthi as a sea of devotees stood outside in front of large TV screens bidding goodbye to their beloved guru.

Baba was buried inside the Sai Kulwant Hall in a private ceremony, open to key relatives and members of his trust, while thousands of devotees watched it live on the screens put up outside the ashram, waiting with bated breath for the gates to be thrown open again.

For the last two days, the spiritual guru?s body was displayed in glass casket in the 10,000-capacity hall in the world?s biggest ashram as he was visited by scores of people including India?s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The hall was where Baba sat, gave discourses and blessed people. Many years ago, he had apparently expressed desire to be buried within the hall itself. On Wednesday, as the clock struck 9 am – nine being his favourite number – the burial ceremony began.

As devotees watched on, Baba?s body was lowered in a seven feet-deep pit in the hall, which was then then filled with ?Kuruskshetra matti? (soil), salt, silver, gold and navaratnas (nine jewels).

Baba, who died on Sunday morning from cardio-respiratory failure after spending nearly four weeks in a hospital run by his own trust, drew lakhs of devotees to the tiny village in Andhra Pradesh.

The ?darshan? time on Tuesday, earlier set till 6 pm, was extended to go on till 12 midnight as serpentine queues in front of the world?s biggest ashram refused to show any signs of waning, eager to see the Baba?s body before he was buried on Wednesday.

Media reports estimated around 3.5 lakh devotees are already in Puttaparthi and another 5 lakh are expected to show up for the burial ceremony as per the custom of Hindu holy men instead of being cremated.

Millions of people in India and abroad woke up to shock on Sunday morning as news of the demise of spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba, a man hailed as the living reincarnation of god himself, trickled in against his own prediction of dying in 2022.

Born on Nov. 23, 1926, in Puttaparti, and followed by an estimated 20 to 50 million people worldwide after claiming to be a reincarnation of spiritual guru Sai Baba of Shirdi at the age of 14, Sai Baba was to turn 85 this year.