Healing with Love: Sai's Healthcare Mission

Centenary Series – Article 5,  “Doctors must become messengers of God through their healing touch”

A Hospital Without a Billing Counter – Sai’s Miracle of Compassion

In a world where healthcare often comes wrapped in bills, insurance claims, and inaccessible costs, Sri Sathya Sai Baba envisioned and manifested something unthinkable—a hospital where compassion is the currency, faith is the prescription, divine grace is the healing force. It is a hospital without a billing counter.

His Super-Specialty Hospitals, located in Puttaparthi and Whitefield (Bengaluru), are not just architectural wonders or medical marvels—they are temples of healing where no one is ever asked to pay, and every patient is treated as a manifestation of the Divine.

World-Class Care, Free of Cost

On 22 November 1991, Sri Sathya Sai Baba inaugurated the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS) in Puttaparthi with these words: “This hospital will stand as a beacon of love and selfless service. Here, healing will be done by the hands of doctors but guided by the heart of the Divine”. (Ref: Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Inaugural Discourse, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS), Puttaparthi, 22 November 1991  (Paraphrased from the original discourse)

A second hospital followed in Whitefield, offering state-of-the-art services in cardiology, urology, neurology, oncology, and more—entirely free of cost.

Doctors from top global institutions serve here, not for salaries or fame, but moved by Baba’s call to selfless seva (service). The infrastructure equals or surpasses many leading hospitals worldwide, yet no billing counter exists.

Lives Touched, Souls Healed

Behind these hospital walls are countless stories of transformation—not just of physical healing, but of inner healing, faith rekindled, and dignity restored.

One patient who underwent open-heart surgery shared with tears in his eyes, “I came here with nothing but a prayer. I walk away with a new life and a heart full of gratitude.”  Doctors, too, speak of being transformed. One senior cardiologist said, “In most hospitals, we treat the body. Here, we are inspired to treat the soul too. It is not just healthcare—it is love care.”

Patients who once saw hospitals as places of fear and financial ruin now speak of Sai’s Hospitals as temples—places where the Divine truly resides in every act of service.

Faith, Prayer, and Inner Healing

Sri Sathya Sai Baba emphasized that true healing happens not only through medicine but through faith, prayer, and divine grace. The atmosphere in these hospitals is peaceful, pure, and deeply spiritual. Bhajans play softly in the background. Patients are encouraged to pray, meditate, and surrender their fears to God.

This integration of spiritual strength with modern science creates an environment of deep reassurance, where healing flows not just through scalpels and syringes but through soothing words, gentle smiles, and silent prayers.

A Model for the World: A Temple of Healing

On 22 November 1991, the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS) was inaugurated in Puttaparthi as a model not just for India, but for the entire world.Guided by Baba’s vision, it was founded on a revolutionary principle: that love alone should guide healthcare, not commerce or profit.

 Later, another followed in Whitefield, Bengaluru. Both hospitals are:

• State-of-the-art super-specialty centres

• Equipped for cardiology, urology, neurology, oncology, etc.

• Run entirely free of cost

• Designed to treat patients not as “cases,” but as divine embodiments of God

Even a heart surgery costing a fortune outside is performed here without charging a single rupee.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s healthcare mission challenges the very foundation of profit-driven medicine. It offers a new model—one based on values, compassion, and divinely inspired service. Governments, NGOs, and health planners around the world are now studying this model, asking: “How can we replicate such a system?”

The answer lies in Sai’s core teachings:

• Love All, Serve All

• Help Ever, Hurt Never

• Service to Man is Service to God

These hospitals prove that when love becomes the motive, miracles follow—not just miraculous cures, but the miracle of a society uplifted by service, where no one is turned away, and every life is valued.

A Temple of Healing

In these hospitals without billing counters, every bandage applied and every surgery performed becomes a sacred act of compassion. In an age of rising medical costs and unequal access to care, Sai’s hospitals remind us of the possibility of a world where healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and where healing begins with love.

As we witness Sai’s vision unfold in steel, stethoscopes, and silent prayers, we are reminded that divine love can truly cure all wounds—of the body, the mind, and the spirit. And thus, we offer this humble prayer at His Lotus Feet:

“O Beloved Sai, Divine Healer of all afflictions, May our hands become instruments of Thy service, Our hearts vessels of Thy love, And our lives dedicated to relieving the pain of others. Bless every patient who walks through these sacred doors with health, hope, and healing. Guide our minds with wisdom, fill our souls with compassion, and let Thy love flow through every act of care. In serving others, may we serve Thee. In healing others, may we find our own redemption.”

— Ravinder Grover

(The ink is His grace; I only moved the pen as guided)

 Sri Sathya Sai Global Council, New Zealand

More info:  https://sssihms.org/