Satya Sai Baba had actually fulfilled his prophecy of attaining samadhi by 96

Satya Sai Baba had actually fulfilled his prophecy of attaining samadhi by 96 if one goes by the Indian calendar based on nakshatras than by the Roman calendar, claims Mr Philip M. Prasad, a former Naxalite leader-turned-disciple of Baba. Mr Prasad told this newspaper that Baba always referred to the Nakshatra Kala Ganana (timescales based on stars) in his discourses and so his age should ideally be calculated accordingly.

As per this, a month extends from Aswathi to Revathi stars — that is 27 days. Accordingly, a year would have 324 days and not 365 days as in the Roman calendar. From Baba’s birth on November 23, 1926 to his samadhi on April 24, 2011, there were 30,834 days. “If we take the Indian system as our scale and divide the number of days by 324, we will get 95 years and 54 days,” he said. “This means that Baba was in his 96th year when he attained samadhi and his prophecy has been fulfilled.”

Mr Prasad, who turned to Baba after suffering a jail term in a police station attack, said he had consulted famous astrologer Mithran Namboodiripad of Poonjar regarding these calculations. “And Namboodiripad also agrees with me,” he said. However, another view is that besides the 27 stars, pournima and amavasya add two more days to the lunar calendar. This calendar has 29.5 days according to which an additional 2.5 years are added to Sai Baba’s life. If a 27-day calendar is followed, there would be two intercalary (adhika masam) months every alternate year instead of one adhika masam every three years as is the present practice in the Hindu calendar.