The 86th Jayanthi celebrations of Sri Satya Sai Baba began at Puttaparthy in Ananthapuram district on a grand note today.

The 6-day celebrations began with the Venugopala Swamy Rathotsavam as usual even after the Samadhi of the world renowned spiritual guru. This is the first Jayanthi of the Baba after the liberation of his soul a few months ago.

When the Baba was alive, the Satya Sai Central Trust used to conduct the festivities by organizing the Venugopala Swamy Rathotsavam first and the Trust has decided to follow the same tradition even after the death of the Baba.

However, the fact that Sai Baba has slipped into his eternal peace has made the difference this time in a quite big way. When Baba was alive, lakhs of devotees used to attend the festivities and the number of foreign devotees was always running into thousands.

For the first time in the history of the celebrations, the tiny spiritual town of Puttaparthy witnessed a small gathering of only six thousand devotees including a few foreign devotees.

The festivities will end on Nov 23, according to Mr Ratnakar, a member of the Satya Sai Central Trust.