* Sathya (truth) Dharma (righteousness) Santhi (peace) Prema

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In fact, in most cases a new project is announced by Swami on a 
particular birthday. Almost invariably, the project is inaugurated on his 
next birthday or earlier on a festive occasion.  This brings in a sense 
of wonder even among professionals.  Before L&T got involved in 
Sri Sathya Sai projects, it had the reputation of constructing and 
completing projects at a fast pace, comparable to internationally 
accepted targets.  While L&T might have achieved wonders by 
completing projects fast elsewhere, in the case of Sri Sathya Sai 
projects Swami seemed to have performed miracles through L&T.  
A few highlights are given below to bring out the essential reasons 
which contribute to making  Sri Sathya Sai projects far better in all 
aspects - architecture, engineering & design, contract settlement, 
agency selection, quality control, cost control, project management 
and monitoring, time of completion.  Not the least of these positive 
factors is the commitment of people involved in the project and 
the general happiness and satisfaction that prevails at the end of 
the project. It is hoped that this would provide pointers for similar 
projects elsewhere in the country.
Architecture 
In all the projects which Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has taken 
up, he gives prime importance to aesthetics and architecture right 
from the beginning as well as through the construction phase.  Quite 
often, He asks specialist architects or a company like L&T to prepare 
drawings and a perspective view or a model. He then suggests 
modifications which the  architect could incorporate. In many cases 
the hints given by Swami help shape the building to be quite different 
and aesthetically pleasing, compared to similar projects conceived 
by others.  He has quite often commented that a flat roof structure 
is like a headless man and always introduced either a dome or some 
feature including sthapati work and ornamentation work to make the 
building come alive and inspiring to those who work on the project 
or live in the building.  People may wonder whether he insists on 
vaastu shastra as per tradition.  To our surprise he has never insisted 
on vaastu shastra even though he has commended it as appropriate 
for the time for which it was conceived and the basic concepts 
are no different even today.  But he has always given importance 
to functionality, simplicity and use of modern sciences without any 
dogmatic approach to vaastu shastra or other practices as in some 
parts of the country.  
Small minds select narrow 
roads; expand your mental 
vision and take to the broad 
road of helpfulness, 
compassion and service. 
Architecture of buildings 
abound with an array 
domes, pyramids and 
gopurams.

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Engineering & Design
 
Here again economy in use of materials and knowledge of modern 
techniques are given importance.  Swami has always made sure that the 
architecture and engineering design go hand-in-hand and there are no 
conflicts in realising the ultimate goal of an outstanding building.  Through 
the experience of our many engineers associated with Sri Sathya Sai 
projects, it is a wonder that He used to point out certain technical aspects 
which have to be taken note of or details modified at the appropriate 
time even to those experts who might miss such important points.  This 
also confirms the belief of his followers that his knowledge of science is 
extraordinary, unfathomable and unbelievable. 
Estimates
When the design and engineering are approved in principle, an estimate 
is prepared in such a way that the total cost of the project is much lower 
than conventionally accepted thumb rule estimates. These are reviewed 
in great detail by some of his followers who are in the Trust who give 
an independent opinion on how the costs can be further reduced or 
controlled. These inputs ultimately are taken by the agency to bring in 
maximum economy in terms of cost of materials, labour, construction 
methods and thus the whole project cost.  In this effort the persons in the 
Trust are able to talk to suppliers of major materials and are able to get 
concessional price or sometimes even free supply of materials.  Efforts 
are made to get necessary approvals quickly from the Government to 
save levies like excise duty, sales tax, etc.  All these efforts are made in 
a very short time that the benchmark lowest price is achieved right in the 
beginning to enable monitoring and control of the final total project cost.
Domes of varying styles and 
proportions culminate in beautiful 
pinnacles.

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Every experience that is 
drawn through any of the 
senses has an effect on 
one’s health.  

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44
Selecting the Agencies for Construction
In the Government or even in big corporations, 
agencies are selected primarily based on initial low 
bid and not the lifetime total cost involved in the 
project to be put up.  The process involved in such 
tenders, especially in the Government, is so long 
that precious time is lost and in the meantime due to 
inflation the prices go up and the ultimate cost of the 
project is nowhere near the initial estimates.  This is 
totally avoided in the case of Sri Sathya Sai projects 
by selecting the right agency on the basis of past 
experience and the requirement and entrusting the 
job to that agency, which has shown commitment 
to perform in short time against odds.  After this a 
genuine effort is made to cut down costs as much as 
possible without sacrificing either quality or time.  
In the light of service nature of jobs taken up for the 
general good, the purity of the purpose involved there 
is an automatic interest in all the agencies concerned 
to give the lowest prices possible.  While the contract 
is settled on this basis, the trust keeps enough leeway 
to make changes and adjust the overall project cost 
from considerations of economy and any changes that 
may come about in detailed project design.  Entrusting 
the work to a single agency with overall responsibility 
ensures there is unity of purpose and commitment 
to complete the job within the time and cost without 
sacrificing quality.  
The examples in the following pages highlight some of 
the aspects of project management, which ultimately 
resulted in high quality buildings and projects which 
won international awards and all round acclaim as they 
all represent high aesthetics, unbelievably low cost 
and absolutely short time of completion.  There are 
many instances where critical hurdles, which would 
normally have been intractable, were swept away as 
though by a divine hand.  Essentially, as Swami himself 
described, it is the unity, purity and divinity which help 
projects move rapidly from concept to reality . And that 
is exactly the experience of L&T.
Your thoughts, words, and 
deeds will shape others 
and theirs will shape you. 

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