Puttaparthi:
Spiritual leader Sri Sathya Sai Baba's last rites are taking place at the Prashanti Nilayam ashram in his home town of Puttaparthi today.
(Watch)Sai Baba is being buried in the same hall - the Kulwant Hall in the ashram - where his casket was kept for darshan. Ten priests are conducting the private funeral.
(In Pics: Final farewell to Sathya Sai Baba) The actual ceremony is not be open to the general public, but giant screens erected around the town are showing live footage of the event for the vast crowds of followers who have converged on Puttaparthi. Only family members, some members of the Prashanti Nilayam Trust and some important leaders gathered there are inside Kulwant Hall.
Once the burial ends, the public will be allowed to visit Kulwant Hall again.
Darshan hours had to be extended until midnight on Tuesday for the thousands of devotees who wanted to pay their last respects to their spiritual leader. There were nearly 3.5 lakh devotees in Puttaparthi on Tuesday; another 5 lakh are expected today.
The spiritual leader, loved by millions, passed away on Sunday after cardio-respiratory failure aged 84. Since then, his body has lain inside a transparent casket to allow grieving devotees, including poor villagers, foreign pilgrims and celebrities to pay their respects.
Many top politicians are in Puttaparthi today. Among them BJP patriarch LK Advani, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi visited the ashram to pay their last respects.
Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, an ardent devotee of Baba, also visited Puttaparthi on Monday.
Accompanied by wife Anjali and friend V. Chamundeshwarnath, Sachin sat beside the body of Sathya Sai Baba at Kulwant Hall and prayed for him.
He was seen wiping his tears from a handkerchief handed over by his wife. Sachin, who turned 38 Sunday, did not celebrate his birthday due to Baba's death.