Chapter Eight

The two most prominent activities dear to Sathya Sai Baba's heart, are health and education. In Andhra Pradesh, the poorest state in India, Baba has established models for both, to be examples for the rest of the country. He has said that the young boys and girls in His schools and colleges, are the future politicians, business leaders and professionals, for the New Age India. They are given this education free, in the first, second and third level schools and colleges, which teach not only the general educational subjects, but also Human Values, which are essential to the character- building of the students. Baba says, "Education must equip man to live happily, without making others unhappy...Education can yield peace and prosperity only when, along with technical skills and objective information, students are equipped with moral ideals, righteous living, and spiritual insight."

Sathya Sai Baba continues on the subject of education, "Students of today must act. They must realise that the moral strength in them is being sapped by Western culture and education. Western culture is the culture of the metropolis, where the multiplication of individual desires has led human beings to misery and unhappiness. The present education system does little for enrichment and spiritual unfoldment. It has merely brought society to the brink of disaster. We therefore require today students with broad minds, people of action capable of selfless service. Simple living and high thinking should be the ideal, not high living and low thinking, which seems to be the maxim of modern education."

In June 1966, Baba was at the High School for Girls, at Anantapur, the biggest town in the District, and its capital, sixty miles from Prasanthi Nilayam, at the invitation of the students there. The plight of the girls, who wanted higher education, were required to travel long distances, needing time and money. This affected Baba and He resolved there and then to establish a Women's College at Anantapur, as soon as possible. This would be the beginning of an Educational Revolution, with long-term ramifications for future students and families.

Sai Baba gives urgent priority for education of women. He has stated in His book "Dharma Vahini", -"No nation can be built strong and stable, except on the spiritual culture of its women. This generation is full of unrighteousness and injustice, malevolence and greed, falsehood and cruelty, because the mothers who brought it up were not vigilent enough or intelligent enough, or because they were not trusted enough by men with the responsibility of chastening and fostering their children. What is past, is past. To save at least the next generation, women have to be educated in a well-planned manner and endowed with the wisdom, fortitude and faith that can equip them for greater responsibility that rests upon them."

The first College for Women was built and inaugurated by Sathya Sai Baba in Anantapur, on July 22nd 1968. This gives young women in India, the same educational opportunities, to qualify as doctors, surgeons, business people, with equal status as their sisters in the West. Few Colleges opened with the imposing array of equipment, books, furniture, and a skilled and enthusiastic band of teachers.

The Minister in charge of Education in the Government of Andhra Pradesh, presided over the public meeting, and stated that the occasion was not only for the inauguration of just one College, but the beginning of many to come; a new chapter in the annals of Women's Education itself. He knew that Baba had announced the establishment of one or two Colleges in every State of India, later to be knit together into a University. Sai Baba stated, "The prompting behind this College is not the search for reputation or the desire to propagate a cult, or hope of monetary profit. Fame is a fickle figment! Reputation rots quite soon. Profit, when it is calculated in terms of cash, defiles. I have allowed this College to rise because it will install into the minds of the students the ideals of Sathya, Dharma, Santhi and Prema, -- ideals delineated in the Vedas, described in the Sastras, illustrated in the Epics, practised by countless generations and confirmed by experience, as best suited for individuals and social progress. Every child born in Bharat (India), has the right to know and benefit by this precious heritage. Agriculture is for living; Atma-culture is for success in life. An educational system that keeps children away from God, -the only Refuge, the only Kinsman, the only Guide and Guard, - is a system where the blind are engaged in blinding those who long for Light."

"Women are the bulwarks of spiritual culture. But, as is evident from the attitude and behaviour of educated women today, they are fast succumbing to the flimsy attractions of froth and frippery, cheap and shoddy literature and sensual films."

So the race is on to establish new Colleges, as Baba views this project with a sense of urgency. For the consequences of starving the spirit, when boys and girls are preparing for the struggle that is life, are serious.

Addressing students, on one occasion, He said, "You may continue in this College or leave and join some other one, returning home after completing your studies, but wherever you are, I desire that you should shine forth as recipents of the special attention we bestow upon you. Do not enter the fray of political controversies. Politics at present, and perhaps always, is a sordid game, where passions run high, power is sought through devious ways and prejudices are fanned into hatred. You must become a new type of leader. Shaped in the crucible of Seva (service), march into the future with the Light of the past, as one who appreciates the wisdom that has been garnered through the ages."

He further stated in the Prospectus of the College, "Now that you have earned the privilege of being students of this College, under the direct guidance and fostering care of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, make up your minds to be worthy students, remembering Baba's exhortation, 'Education without character is a great danger'."

The day begins in the schools and colleges with bhajans, meditation and prayer, for which students and members of the staff, have to be present. The boys and girls love Baba so much that they obey Him implicitly. They are afraid of His neglecting or ignoring them, even for a moment, that they are constantly vigilant of discipline. The result is that all students of the Colleges established by Baba, revere qualities of goodness, heights of sympathy, depths of learning and shining devotion which few would believe they possess.

Equal devotion and dedication, is dispensed by Baba for the health of the nation. He enjoins all devotees to keep their houses clean, being essential to healthy living, and free of disease. Diet also contributes to the physical well-being of mankind; it is important to be cautious of what we eat. He advocates the non-eating of meats, indeed a total vegetarian diet. Equally, non-smoking and no alcohol. In many ways we are all aware of the righteousness of these restrictions, but find it difficult to come to terms with the "giving-up", even when we accept the validity of the advice. There need be no sacrifice in this effort, as a programme of gradual withdrawal is recommended, should an immediate stop to the practices be too harsh and difficult to attempt. However, the physical and spiritual rewards are great!

One October day in 1957, a hospital was inaugurated on the hillside behind the Nilayam, commanding a magnificent panoramic view of the mountains sweeping down to the banks of the Chithravathi. It consisted of six beds for female patients and six for men. It was fully equipped for surgery and maternity needs, with even an x-ray unit installed; rare indeed for a hospital of this size and at that time.

Sai Baba chose the site, in spite of murmurings from the construction engineers. Speaking at the opening, He said that there were no unbelievers, only those who did not know nor had the opportunity to experience the Lord. "Everyone, rich and poor, pious or not pious, was subject to disease." He said, He planned the hospital for those who had no hospital for miles around, and that those who came to the hospital for their physical ills will naturally turn to Prasanthi Nilayam for treatment and cure of their spiritual ills.

At the Annual Day of the hospital, the Medical Officer in charge spoke of the many miraculous recoveries that had happened through the Blessings of Baba. Baba responded that it was more due to the spirit of Love and Service with which every stone and brick of the building was saturated. The great Teacher had now become the great Healer!

Thirty five years on, the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medicine, known generally as the "Super-Speciality" hospital, consisting of 300,000 sq. ft., was built in record time on a 105 acre site, at Prasanthi Gram, 8 kilometers from Prasanthi Nilayam, was inaugurated on November 22nd 1991. It was twelve months to the day since Sathya Sai Baba announced at His 65th birthday celebrations, before more than a million devotees, including 10,000 from 98 countries, that a new unique hospital rose above the parched, dusty plains of South India. It was an amazing feat by any standards of the West, but an even greater one considering the limited resources of that area. Today a pink and blue apparition, offering hope and comfort to the poor of Andra Pradesh, stands like a vast cathedral in the shimmering sunshine. All treatment at the hospital is free to all patients, be they local or foreign, regardless of race or religion, rich or poor. Who could have dreamed that such a poor South Indian village of modest huts, would boast a modern hi-tech hospital?

Work started immediately after Baba made His fateful announcement. The finance for the project was forthcoming for the most part, from the American millionaire and founder of the Hard Rock Cafe chain of restaurants, Isaac Tigrett. The next person to join the team, on the invitation of Tigrett, was the British architect Keith Critchlow, a professor at the Royal College in London, as well as director of the Prince of Wales' Institute of Architecture. Critchlow, and his team of 15 architects, were presented with the daunting task of designing a unique building which was to be completed and opened on Sai Baba's birthday the following year! A mere twelve months! Several meetings with Sai Baba ensued, whereupon initial designs were finally agreed and Keith Critchlow's Triad Architects, working seventeen hours a day, had complete working plans in an amazing five months!…leaving the Indian construction company seven months to complete it! A similar hospital complex would have taken seven years to build, elsewhere in the world!

The challenge was also to construct a hospital which would have the effect of welcoming and reassuring those who entered its portals. The heart-shaped building is indicative of the care and love dispensed with the medical care, and becoming a large tender heart-shaped building, pointing back to the heavens with a flowered lotus on top, and as Keith Critchlow said, "Itself a symbol of the completed consciousness. Because the symbol of health is the symbol of wholeness and unity, the central feature of the hospital should be a symbol of unity. In the human body, the heart, which is shaped like one's hand pointing downwards, corresponds to the physical incarnate state. In the symbol of architecture, we turn the heart around and point it back to God."

When the World Health Organisation learnt of the hospital project, it said it was impossible, that it would not work, for several reasons. The main objection was having a hospital in the middle of an arid desert which would create problems of infection at the possible rate of 20% to 30%, because operations required a totally sterile environment. But the WHO had not reckoned on the Grace of Sai Baba and the devotion and energy of the team involved. At one time as many as 2,000 - 3,000 craftsmen and labourers were employed on the scheme. A senior physician stated at a meeting convened by the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, "This institute was born in the lap of Divinity itself. It is therefore permeated with the fervour and fragrance of spirituality. The practice of medicine in this hospital has a spiritual dimension, a breakthrough in the conceptual aspects of medicine." As Baba has often stressed, "The doctor should think not only of the body, but the mind and conscience also."

Despite its magnificence, the hospital echoes the best in Indian traditional architecture, and is equally functional and solid. "Even the colonnaded end pavilions are designed to be used as sleeping quarters for patients'relatives," Critchlow said, and continues to point out that the hospital aims to make patients and their families feel psychologically and spiritually, as well as physically healed. "An example of this," he said, "is the placing of wards in curved wings, doing away with the dreary hospital corridor. Courtyards on either side of the wards bring air and sunlight into the building, as well as keeping patients in touch with the natural world."

Sai Baba boldly champions the full integration of Ayurveda - India's ancient healing science, based on subtle remedies, when most Indian medicine has totally abandoned Ayurveda in favour of western allopathic medicine. He states, "It is necessary to understand the difference between Ayurveda and allopathy. Though it is not bound by time and space, Ayurveda is bound by mind, intellect and self. Hence, mind, body and Self play a very important role in Ayurveda. While allopathy is an external science, Ayurveda relates to the inner feelings. Doctors have to integrate the essence of the two."

He continues to add that we have to observe more, the laws and the soul of nature to ensure both a healthier body and planet. "The air we breathe is not pure. The water we drink is not pure. The food we eat is not pure. The sound we hear is not pure. All the five elements of nature are polluted. This pollution has caused diseases never heard of before. Any violation of the law of nature leads to sickness. There is a teacher for nature. That teacher is God. We should know the teacher of nature."

An interesting statistic on the hospital, is the extremely low mortality rate of 2% and an infection rate of under 1%, which speaks highly of the calibre of the skilled and experienced specialists employed at the hospital. The current capacity is 350 inpatients and up to 600 daily outpatients, with plans to expand. There has been as many as 17,000 heart, kidney and brain operations. Many western doctors and specialists give their services free on vacation trips to India, and others have taken early retirement, leaving home to take up positions at this remarkable "Palace of Healing".

At a public discourse in the enormous Poornachandra Auditorium, on July 14, 1992, Sathya Sai Baba said, "We have built the Super-Speciality Hospital here.
Why did we start it? Many people suffer from many diseases. It is difficult to expect everyone to develop Divine feelings of devotion and surrender. Some people have faith in medicines, some in operations and some others in doctors. Whether it is a verandah or a choultry, it is enough if one sleeps. Similarly, here our purpose is that people should get rid of their ailments, given good health and live happily. Further, many experts like Dr. Venugopal and his team from Delhi, and the team from Hyderabad are performing the operations with great devotion and dedication. What is the reason for all these people to come here and carry on the operations? Apart from their faith and devotion, they have the good aspiration to give joy to one and all. They do all this keeping Swami in view.
"Earlier, the heart operation was a very frightening thing and people would shudder at the prospect of this operation. They would be afraid of the consequences. The patients would cry and make their kit and kin cry. But in Prasanthi Nilayam today, heart operation has become an easy thing like removing the thorn from one's foot. None has any fear. There is fearlessness! Even little children come to our Hospital with a smile on their face. When Swami went to the Hospital a little child in the cot who was operated, saluted Him with a broad smile on her face. Neither her parents not relatives were there but she was full of joy. What is the cause? It is because of the environment. Their faith is mainly responsible for this. All the things are going on very joyfully. Everyone thinks of God's work. There is no trace of ego in those who work here.

"Faith is most important for success or failure. It is faith or lack of faith which is responsible. Without this faith if you get into argumentation in the name of devotion, it is only the effect of ego and ostentation.

"If you want to understand Divinity, you should have firm faith that Divinity is everywhere. There is no place or object without Divinity. Gurupoornima (festival) means full moon without any defect or lacuna. Moon is nothing but mind. When the mind is completely perfect, it sheds light. Gurupoornima is not performed by circum-ambulation and offerings to the Guru. What is the real offering? It is the offering of one's love. To know that God exists everywhere is circumambulation. If you understand these terms, everyday is Gurupoornima. There is only one Guru, that is God, and there is no other Guru. Contemplate on that Guru."

To facilitate patients coming to the Hospital from long distances, Sathya Sai Baba had an airport constructed adjacent to it. This is also a boon to travellers to the ashram in Puttaparthi, thus avoiding the long bus or taxi journeys, in the heat, from Bangalore or Madras. The plane journey between Mumbai (Bombay) and Puttaparthi, takes about one and a half hours and is a great energy saver.

A planned innovation is a railway station constructed between Penukonda and the village of Puttaparthi with the first train expected in April 2000. On the 19th October 1999, the foundation stone for the College of Music (International) was laid next to the Prasanthi Nilayam Campus, and it will be ready on October 2000!

Referring to the Music University, Sai Baba stated that it will be a synthesis of ancient and modern art forms. The building complex will have the shape of several musical instruments such as the Mrudangam, the Tampura, a conch in the middle, and a Sitar, etc. Just the mere sight of the building will convey to the viewer that it is a centre of musical excellence!

In the meantime, a generous offer was extended to Sai Baba, by state officials, in handing Him the titles to 70 acres of land for the construction of another Super- Speciality Hospital, this time in Bangalore city, where they will supply water and electricity. Upon hearing they plans, a wealthy American Sai devotee came forward and offered the necessary funding for the project.

Another example of Sathya Sai Baba`s benevolence to the millions of poor people in South India, was demonstrated when He announced the immense task of constructing a free fresh water supply for the drought prone area of Anantapur District. This was inaugurated on the 70th Birthday of Sai Baba, on November 23rd. 1995, and the President of India, Dr. Shanker Dayal Sharma, started the flow of drinking water with the words, "Today, we see before us testimony of what can be achieved by commitment to service and dedication to the people's welfare. A year ago Baba had referred to the acute water shortage in Anantapur District, which is a chronically drought prone area of the State. In providing relief, He was veritably giving a gift of life, for without water, there can be no existence. Quenching the thirst of a people is an act unsurpassed in its nobility."

He continued, "The Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, rose magnificently to meet the challenge of Baba's call. With His blessings, a monumental endeavour was undertaken to provide water to 802 villages in a district covering more than 19,000 sq. kms. and a population of 3.5 million. The enormity of the task was only matched by the speed and efficiency with which the Sri Sathya Sai Drinking Water Project was executed. The entire Anantapur District now has access to drinking water.

I congratulate all those who, inspired by Baba, have given their time and effort to realise this dream."

To alleviate the severe hardship of acute water shortage and arsenic poisoning of wells, the construction involved hundreds of miles of pipe lines, summer storage tanks, reservoirs, canals, infiltration and collection wells. The total cost of the Project was US $70 million!