The Times of India, Aug. 19, 2002
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
CHENNAI: Superstar Rajnikanth’s spiritual guru Satchidananda Swami, 88, who was present a the preview of Baba, died in a private hospital here early on Monday.
Swami, who was immortalised as the 2000-year-old Babaji in the film, flew down to Chennai for the preview. Soon after watching the film, he swooned and was taken to the Sri Ramachandra Medical College Hospital here.
Though his condition seemed to have improved, it became critical again on Monday morning and he breathed his last at 5.45 a.m. Rajnikanth had spent some time with his guru at the hospital on Sunday.
As per Swami’s wishes, his body would be flown to Virginia, US, via Mumbai, London and Washington on Monday night and he would be laid to rest at his Yogaville Ashram.
Born in Chettipalayam near Coimbatore as Ramaswamy, Swami set up his ashram in Virginia in 1962 after wandering around the world. The ashram also houses a temple – Light Of Truth Universal Shrine – LOTUS. The production company floated by Rajnikanth for the film Baba – Lotus International – is named after the temple.