20th October every year is celebrated as the Avatar Declaration Day at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh, but the significance this year is filled with sorrow as the Baba is no more amidst us to participate. Special prayers were held at Prashanti Nilayam, the ashram and the final abode of Sri Sai Baba.

An official of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust told that devotees spent the day in prayers and quiet contemplation of his often repeated statement: ‘I am divine, but you too are divine. The only difference is I know about my divinity and you are unaware of it.’

In 1940 at the age of 14, on this day he declared he was an avatar, or incarnation of God. Sri Sathya Sai Baba attained Maha Samadhi on April 25, aged 85. Sri Sathya Sai Baba declared he was the second of a triple incarnation, the first being Shirdi Sai Baba, a popular saint who attained Maha Samadhi in 1918, in Maharashtra.

In 1918, Shri Shirdi Sai Baba had reportedly told devotees that he would be born again after eight years in Madras Presidency. Sri Sathya Sai Baba was born at Puttaparthi in Anantapur district, then part of Madras Presidency, in 1926. In 1963, Sri Sathya Sai Baba predicted that he will re-incarnate as Sri Prema Sai Baba in the Mandya district of Karnataka, eight years after he leaves his body.