Sri Sangana Basava Swami, head of Basava Yoga Mantapa of Balobal mutt near Gokak in Belagavi district of Karnataka, died of a heart attack on November 6.
The 54-year-seer collapsed in his chair while addressing an audience on his birthday in the mutt. Other swamis and dignitaries on the dais tried to help by shifting him to a hospital. But he was declared brought dead at Gokak hospital. Doctors say he suffered a severe heart attack.
A 10-second clip of him stopping for a brief moment before collapsing in his chair, was shared widely on social media. A devotee had been taking a video of the event on his mobile phone camera.
Just before his death, the seer was speaking about the financial difficulties faced by the mutt and sought donations from devotees.
"We are monks and our focus is philosophy. We left home at a young age to spread Basavanna’s ideology. We don’t know anything about administration. But after coming here, we were thrust with administrative responsibilities. That caused us some mental depression. But still, we managed to run the mutt with donations from devotees. Our senior monks helped us by giving money for salaries and employees' insurance,’’ he said. His last words were: "That is how we have been managing. That is why…."
Sri Chandrashekar Shivacharya of Hukkeri mutt and other seers expressed shock at the demise of the Balobal seer.
