37. Sathya Sai 96th Anniversary Celebration
In 2021, on November 23, an important event was celebrated – the 96th birthday of Sathya Sai Baba. According to Indian tradition, a newborn child is considered to be one year old. From the Western point of view, when a child is born, he is at the zero point, and in a year, he will be one year old. Therefore, according to Indian tradition, the 96th anniversary of Sathya Sai Baba falls in 2021, but according to Western standards it falls in 2022.
This date is very important for all Sai devotees, because all of his life Sathya Sai Baba predicted he would live exactly up to the age of 96 years.
As we know, he left his body twelve years before this date. Many devotees are trying to understand the significance of his early departure. Sathya Sai Baba himself explained why he needed to end his life earlier. He completed his mission and had to quickly reincarnate in his next form as Prema Sai Baba in order to start a new phase of his divine plan to transform humanity.
There is evidence that Sathya Sai Baba, a few years before his premature departure, told his close devotees he would leave the body earlier than planned. It is completely impossible for an ordinary person to «plan» their death, but for an Avatar it is completely natural.
Many devotees have been looking forward to this day, November 23, 2021, Sathya Sai Baba’s 96th birthday. Some were preparing for some unknown grandiose events. In the year of 2021, a group of devotees arose who began to spread the idea that supposedly Sathya Sai Baba would physically resurrect on that day and continue his mission on Earth in an old body.
On that day, amazing events did happen in Puttaparthi, but they were not what many expected. There was a big flood in Puttaparthi. Fortunately, no one died, but half of the city was heavily flooded. That is why the full-scale holiday did not work out. It seemed that nature itself canceled the celebration in Puttaparthi (the main ashram of Sathya Sai Baba).
There was also no big holiday at the Madhusudan ashram; for unknown reasons, the administrators did not settle followers in the ashram. Thus, the main place of the festival moved to the city of Bangalore. In the holy presence of Prema Sai Baba, the main celebrations of the 96th birthday of Sathya Sai Baba took place.