News article - Godman to the rescue

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Source:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_355525,00120002.htm

 

Hindustan Times

30 August 2003

 

Godman to the rescue

Khushwant Singh

August 30

 

I do not have much time for godmen or godwomen. I know they bring

solace to a large number of their disciples and open schools,

colleges and hospitals from the offerings they receive. But most of

the time they raise new places of worship and go round giving

darshan to their admirers, sing bhajans and deliver sermons. What I

have against them is that they do not involve themselves in problems

facing our country like telling their followers not to have more

than two children (one would be better) and to plant trees on

birthdays, weddings and in memory of the dead etc. Their word will

count much more than ministers, exhortations.

 

Sri Sathya Sai Baba has always been an enigma to me. He probably has

the largest following in the country, among them highly intelligent

and well-placed men and women, including my friend Nani Palkhiwala,

retired chief justice Bhagwati, retired air chief marshal O.P.

Mehra, retired general Chibber and Ambika Soni. He has set up many

educational institutions and hospitals, as well as Sai temples,

across the country which people throng in thousands. They regard him

as an avatar (incarnation of god) and call him bhagwan. His latest

bequest is to bring potable water to thirsty Chennai.

 

Chennai has had an acute water shortage problem from the time it was

Madrasapatnam and Madras and its population was no more than 4.7

lakh. A British engineer, Fraser, solved the problem by damming a

stream and conserving monsoon water in three reservoirs. Since the

population of the city almost doubled, the search for more water

increased. The two possible sources were the Krishna river in the

north and Kaveri in the south. The Kaveri project was aborted

because of corruption and did not yield a drop.

 

M.G. Ramachandran, then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, made a deal

with N.T. Rama Rao of Andhra Pradesh. Waters of Krishna were brought

to a reservoir on the border of Tamil Nadu. A 150 km long canal was

dug to take the water to one of Chennai's reservoirs. It was given

the grand name, Telugu Ganga Project, and was completed in 1996. It

proved a non-starter: the canal was in fact a narrow ditch which

subsided at many places and farmers en route stole water from it and

so, precious little trickled into Chennai. It was then that Sai Baba

came on the scene. On January 19, 2002, he sanctioned trust money to

open up the ditch and made it into a proper canal, had its sides

lined with stone and brick to prevent seepage and get all the water

to the Chennai reservoir.

 

It is not the government, that had nothing to do with this attempt,

but the people who have given it the name Sai Ganga. At the end of

this month (August), the Sai Ganga Project will be finished. Despite

being a non-believer in godmen or godwomen, I raise my glass to him

with the invocation, "Jai Bhagwan!".

__________

 

Sai Baba in the Media:

http://www.saibabalinks.org/saibabainthemedia.htm