C. Srinivas quite a respected figure in Prasanthi Nilayam circles even today

Last updated on 20th April 2016

[The post below has been modified significantly in response to an announcement put up here:
https://www.facebook.com/SriSathyaSaiSanjeevaniHospital/posts/1044542778950907.]

Given below is one comment (slightly edited) I made on Terry Reis Kennedy's Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10209398992150565, which I felt appropriate to put up as a separate post.

Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
C. Srinivas (CS) is quite a respected figure even today in Prasanthi Nilayam circles of Sai university alumni-staff who had physical proximity to Divine and inner knowledge about many of the big events in Prasanthi Nilayam including super hospital constructions. The view I have been given/have formed is that C. Srinivas has played a great role in the medical service mission of Swami by acting as a facilitator and top-level manager for many things associated with the medical service mission. BTW I was told that CS had GREAT ACCESS to (physical form) Swami, implying that whenever he wanted to convey something to Swami in person, he could do so (perhaps by meeting Swami in His residence). If true (and I think it is true), that shows tremendous level of TRUST that Swami had in CS.

CS also is reputed to have contacts with VVIPs in India and perhaps acted as go-betweens between them and PN; perhaps he would have a word with Swami (directly or through some top functionary of PN having close physical access to Swami), and if Swami gave approval he would arrange their visits to PN etc. CS is said to be close to top Indian cricket super-stars (Sachin Tendulkar, even M.S. Dhoni somebody said, perhaps Sunil Gavaskar as well), who are like movie stars in India but without the glamour & sensual stuff associated with movie stars, and so were perhaps the top icons from the "outside world" for the student & alumni-staff community in PN. I mean, Swami would not approve of students being fans of movie stars. But he was OK with students being fans of Indian cricketers (or other sporting icons as well). Sachin Tendulkar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachin_Tendulkar, coming on stage on Swami 80th birthday was a very big thing [I think the pic. given below is from the 80th birthday function in the stadium, Prasanthi Nilayam, with Sachin Tendulkar on stage with Swami. If I recall correctly, Yuvaraj Singh and some others of the Indian cricket team also had come. I was seated then along with some teachers & doctors in one enclosure, and saw these cricketers from up close as they were brought in and seated some distance from me in the same enclosure.]



Sachin Tendulkar with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The person standing between Sai Baba and Tendulkar seems to be Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, an Indian sporting icon in the field of shooting, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajyavardhan_Singh_Rathore. Pic courtesy:
http://asiantribune.com/sites/asiantribune.com/files/Baba_with_Tendulkar.JPG.

Perhaps CS was the main person who coordinated the visits of these cricket super-stars to PN, who were a major draw not only for students but also for many devotees as well as Puttaparthi residents.

After Mahasamadhi, CS decided to go his own way, as he seems to have been uncomfortable with some powers in PN, whose powers were now far more than what it was when Swami was in physical form. CS perhaps wanted to have his own projects. My view is that that's fine. This is unavoidable in spiritual movements.

[Deleted a couple of paragraphs on 20th April 2016 from the original comment in the light of the announcement linked to at the beginning of this post.]
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