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Ashram Mandiram:
fortress of solitude

The Sathya Sai Baba is ringed with two concentric
circles of Israel trained and armed security, the
Indian devotees play second fiddle to the
foreign - and he's been a recluse since the
1993 assassination attempt,
says M Seetha Shailaja

Hyderabad, November 29

Beneath the cloying bonhomie, high-flown moral discourses and stampeding praja darshans, the Sathya Sai Baba is ringed by beady-eyed security personnel, close-circuit television, wireless communications and selected Israel-trained volunteers with Uzis slung on
their shoulders.

The 100-metre perimeter around Mandiram, the Sai Baba's residence within the ashram, is guarded by two concentric circles of guards - volunteers as well as
armed personnel - 24 hours a day. No devotee - except
a few personally told by the Baba to hang around - is allowed to stay in the ashram for longer than a day. Foreigners, though, can stay for three nights at a
stretch, but most them prefer to stay more comfortably
at Whitefield.

The Sai Baba is living in a reclusive, people-sanitised universe after the 1993 attack on his life by a group of ashram volunteers. "The Volunteer Corps, which normally operates for a stretch of three to six months, is now allowed to operate for only 30 days," says Rajan, chief public relations officer of the Sathya Sai Central Trust.

The 100-metre perimeter around Mandiram, the Sai Baba's residence within the ashram,
is guarded by two concentric circles
of guards -
volunteers as well
as armed guards -
24 hours a day

When he is at Whitefield
ashram near Bangalore, the
Sai Baba does not give audience to Indian devotees. Indians
can meet him only at Puttaparthi (see Sathya Sai Central Trust: grab as grab can). The
Whitefield ashram has a well-developed infrastructure
catering to foreign devotees,
with a continental canteen and other amenities to fit with the posh guesthouses.

Only foreign devotees who have been screened to their bones by his overseas branches are routed through to him. Most foreign devotees arrive with their families, unlike the Indian devotees, many of who have renounced family and friends. Does it fit some sort of demographic imperative that even when Indian families visit Puttaparthi or Whitefield, they do not stay on in the ashram?

Ever since the assassination attempt in 1993, the
Sai Baba has compacted his sessions with both
disciples and devotees. Excepting the two hours of
sarva darshan (common audience), he has stopped
giving daily audience to people. Some VVIPs have been known to wait for days to meet him. He has also
stopped teaching yoga or preaching Vedanta, a trademark ritual he had earlier never failed to perform twice a week (see Is the Sai Baba's empire beginning to disintegrate?)

Astrologer Uma Shankar Shukla
will be providing
a weekly health
guide for the
Zodiac signs