Sathya Sai Baba (his real name is Sathya Narayana Raju) was born in the remote village of Puttaparthi, in south-central India, on November 23, 1926. His official biography is compiled by N. Kasturi. At the age of 13/14, after a kind of "crisis" , he left the family proclaiming to be Sai Baba, reincarnation of a previous Sai Baba (Shirdi Sai Baba, a muslim saint who lived at Shirdi, another little village); stating to have a precise mission, and that his devotees were waiting for him. Many years later, he will add that he will leave voluntarily his body at the age of 96, and he will reincarnate 8 years later in the third and last manifestation, Prema Sai Baba, in a village of Kerala.

From the beginning of his mission, the number of devotees has constantly grown; first between the Indian people, then also between people from the West and all the continents. Thus Sai Baba built up his ashram, Prashanti Nilayam (that is to say "abode of the supreme peace"), which in the years (and thanks to the donations of the most wealthy devotees) has become an autonomous village, modern and well equipped (for the Indian standards). Moreover, with the purpose of fulfilling his mission, Sai Baba founded an organization carrying his own name, that by now is spread all around the world. In brief, Sai Baba claims to have this task: the human kind actually is in a dark age (called Kali Yuga), where the evil has overwhelmed the good, the materialism has crushed the spirituality, etc; he has "come" to restore the supremacy of spirituality and Dharma, that means right living and right action; doing so, he will raise the consciousness of the human kind, and he will take it back on the right path.