Love
on the March (continued c)
(in 4 parts: (a)
continued
b,
continued
c
and continued
d)
Slice
of all the Maps
"All Roads
Lead to Puttaparthi" was the headline in the
daily papers. Special trains, reserved coaches,
omnibuses, trucks and tractors, scooters and
cycles, horse-drawn vehicles and bullock carts,
all unloaded thousands of pilgrims in a
continuous flux at the
Nilayam.
From overseas, thousands alighted at Bangalore
and taxied to the place. The prophecy that Baba
would be an orange speck in the distant
eminence, well nigh came true. Besides the
construction of seven gigantic sheds, hundreds
of ad hoc shelters hastily contrived, and scores
of tents and pandals were permitted to fill
every patch of available space in and around the
township. 5000 members of the seva dal stayed on
duty night and day, cooking, serving, sweeping,
cleaning, guarding, guiding and helping. Teams
of doctors were stationed in temporary clinics
and at the hospital. Kitchens for serving
eastern and western food were set up.
A rally of bal
vikas pupils (about 1000, selected from every
state) was held. These children had the
privilege of marching past Bhagavan Himself.
More than a thousand bal vikas gurus attended a
two-day conference which was inaugurated by
Bhagavan. For the world conference of office
bearers, 8000 delegates came from over fifty
nations.
On the 18th,
the imposing and inspiring
'Gopuram',
(temple) built by devoted hands in the south
indian style of temple architecture, was
inaugurated. Baba had the ancient temples of
Puttaparthi, rebuilt including the
Gopala
Krishna
temple, associated with its history through the
ages. That day all the new silver idols of the
deities installed in the temple were placed on a
huge chariot and taken in procession through the
village - a great day in the annals of the holy
hamlet. The Vedic rite of
Purushottama
Yajna
was also part of the jubilee celebrations. The
final ceremony of offering the last oblation in
the sacred fire, delighted the huge gathering on
the jubilee day.
The world
conference was an inspiring experience. Devotees
from a multitude of nations and affiliated to
various religions, humbly walked up to Bhagavan
and offered garlands of flowers. Edgar Mitchell,
the astronaut who had watched the tragedy of the
human race from the moon and remarked, "When
will civilization make man realize mankind?"
could have derived faith and hope that day at
Prasanthi
Nilayam.
The huge concourse offered Bhagavan the solemn
pledge of loyalty to His teachings. They
promised to cultivate truth, peace and love, and
progress along the path of duty, devotion and
discipline.
On
Shivarathri
in 1976, Baba announced, while hoisting the
Prasanthi flag to mark the inauguration of the
festival.
"The
Lingam that emerges from the Universal Absolute,
Brahman, is the cosmos - first conceived as a
wish, later formed as an idea and finally
adopted as a will. The cosmos is the will of
Shiva concretised. You, too, are therefore,
willed by Shiva and formed by Shiva from
Himself."
God's
Vesture
During the
last week of March, Bhagavan flew to Hyderabad
and stayed at Sivam. The elite of the twin
cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad were
invited by the Sathya Sai Seva Samithi to share
the grace of Bhagavan. The meeting was presided
over by Shri Mohanlal Sukhadia, then governor of
Andhra Pradesh. He said that the task for which
Bhagavan had incarnated was to "put humanity
back on the rails." In His discourse Baba
emphasized,
"There
is no east or west distinguishable on the
globe. All mankind is one. The cosmos is
energy felt as matter. Man relies on his
sensory experiences and on the inferences
that he draws from those experiences.
Therefore he lacks the knowledge and
awareness of experiences beyond the sensory
world."
On the Telugu
new year day Bhagavan addressed a vast gathering
of devotees at 'Sivam'. He blessed the seva dal
members who had established all over the cities
on that day no less than a hundred first aid
centres for rendering service to the ailing and
the distressed. He inaugurated a boarding school
for children on Castle Hill, where a historic
building had been acquired by the Samithi for
the purpose. The school is run on the lines laid
down by Bhagavan, who insists that children must
learn humility, service and reverence, imbibe
our ancient cultural heritage, be disciplined
and devoted, participate in bhajans and take
only
sathwic
food, even while mastering the prescribed
academic curriculum. Dedicated teachers serve
the children, adoring their assignment as the
'worship of Sai'. Referring to the arrogant
vandalism of modern man which has led to the
pollution of rivers and oceans, the advance of
deserts into arable areas and the desecration of
forests, Bhagavan said in a discourse on 6th
May,
"Nature
is God's vesture. The universe is a
'university' for man. Man should treat nature
with reverence. He has no right to talk of
conquering nature or exploiting the forces of
nature. He must proceed to visualise in
nature, its God. All are but temporary,
short-term tenants in God's
estate."
Bombay had the
good fortune of welcoming Baba on 12th May, the
anniversary of the inauguration of
Dharmakshetra,
which also happened to be sacred Thursday and,
luckily enough, the triple holy day of the
Buddhists - the day Gautama was born, the day he
became the Buddha and the day of His
Parinirvana
(Liberation).
The
Blue Mountains
The 1976
summer course on Indian culture and spirituality
was held at Nandanavanam in Ootacammund, in the
Nilgiri Hills. It was scheduled to last fifteen
days, and the participants, who numbered about
two hundred, were selected from the Sathya Sai
colleges. One feature of the course was that the
role of lecturers was assigned to the senior
students, who spoke on the Vedanta, the
Gîtâ,
the Purushottama Yajna, Ramakrishna,
Vivekananda, Hanuman, the Bhagavatha,
etc., after deep study and reflection, with
clear understanding. Dr. S. Bhagavantham
pronounced the project "a resounding success."
Subsequently the students spread out for social
service to the city bus stand, railway station
and the market area. Their
sadhana
of cleaning the area was so efficient that the
municipal council passed a resolution expressing
its grateful appreciation, and communicated it
to the organizers. When the camp was concluding,
Bhagavan disclosed to the students at a special
meeting, details about His school days, and His
relations with His parents, teachers and
schoolmates, and with the brother who was His
'guardian'. As he was describing the role that
He had planned for the students seated before
Him and exhorting them to cultivate such
qualities as fortitude, detachment, sympathy,
humility and reverence that He Himself had held
forth as a living example even as a child, He
waved His hand and created a silver plaque with
the map of India embossed on it, which had
Puttaparthi, Bombay, Bhubaneshwar, Madras,
Delhi, Calcutta, Shillong, Hyderabad and other
cities marked on it by means of brilliant gems
embedded in the silver. Bhagavan announced that
those were some of the places from where the Sai
message would be propagated by them in coming
years. Bhagavan's discourses were mainly on the
strategy of
Lord Krishna
in relation to the
Kaurava-Pandava
conflict, as depicted in the Mahabharata.
Since we have
Lord Krishna
with us now, and since the conflict between the
two forces of
Dharma
(righteousness) and
Adharma
(unrighteousness) symbolizing
Daivic
(godly) and
Asuric
(demonic) tendencies was even today confronting
mankind, Bhagavan's analysis of His methods and
motives in the epic was part of His present
message itself.
Sri
Sailam
While at
Ootacamund, Baba motored down the
ghats
(slopes) on the Kerala coast to the historic
town of Calicut, famous as the town where Vasco
da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, had landed in
1498 AD. Thirty miles north of Calicut, on a
hill that is embraced by the sea on three sides,
and which was named
'Sri
Sailam'
by
Rabindranath
Tagore
who spent some days there, the Sri Sathya Sai
Trust in Kerala had planned to construct a
Vidya Peeth
(public school) to provide education on Sai
lines. Bhagavan graciously laid the foundation
stone and blessed the project. More than 30.000
people had gathered to be blessed by His
darsan
and sambhashan
(speech).
Gurupurnima, a
time when spiritual aspirants all over the world
welcome their preceptor into their hearts, found
Bhagavan at Puttaparthi. The students and
teachers of the high school which had been
established there to commemorate
Mother
Easwaramma,
who bore the Avatar, were blessed by Bhagavan on
that auspicious day. The state minister for
education declared that it was a significant
step forward in Bhagavan's programme of
increasing facilities for educating rural folk.
Bhagavan proceeded to Puttaparthi village where
a new hamlet of a hundred houses had been built
for the Harijans whose hutments had been washed
away by the angry floods of the Chitravathi some
six months earlier. Bhagavan told the huge
gathering of devotees present that every living
being is a cell in the cosmic body of God, and
that castes that are described in the Vedas as
forming the limbs of God, form an integral part
of the whole. He said that worshipping the feet
of God is best done by serving the poorest and
lowliest among men.
On all the ten
days of the Dasara festival 1976, Bhagavan spoke
on the mind, its vagaries, its potentialities
and on the sadhana which can straighten and
strengthen it. In the midst of the busy schedule
of the
Vedic Yajna,
Bhagavan found time to meet more than three
hundred district presidents of the Sathya Sai
Seva organization who had journeyed thither from
all the states of India. They had two sessions
with Him during which Bhagavan stressed the need
for discipline and gave them advice on many
aspects of their duties and
responsibilities.
This Dasara
was rendered memorable when Bhagavan defined
what He characterized as the
'Sai
Religion',
while elaborating upon the impact of the
Mathi
(mind) on
Matha
(creed). "The
religion that feeds and fosters all religions
and emphasizes their common greatness is the Sai
Religion,"
He said.
Global
Bhajan
During the
second world conference, held during the golden
jubilee week at Prasanthi Nilayam, a cardinal
decision was taken by the devotees that a
twenty-four-hour Bhajan emanating from devout
hearts gathered in more than 8000 centres in
over forty-five nations from New Zealand to
Iceland and from Taiwan to Trinidad, would
girdle the globe. The day for this universal
prayer was fixed as the Saturday-Sunday
immediately preceding the birthday of Bhagavan
every year. To a Bhajan gathering at Prasanthi
Nilayam Baba said,
"Bhajan
must be as continuous as breathing. In fact,
the breath is ever engaged in Bhajan for it
is constantly repeating the fundamental
mantra, 'Soham' (I am That). Twenty-four
hours is just a wink when measured against a
lifetime. Your life is a song on the glory of
God. Sing it from your soul, sing it aloud,
sing it in chorus so that the atmosphere
polluted by greed, hatred and envy can be
purified by the holy
vibrations."
Swami
sings:
MP3
Murali Gana Lola:
'Player of the flute, giver of joy
Nanda's son, the cowherd boy (Krishna)
Come, come, Radha's joy'.
All the
villages around Puttaparthi now look forward to
the birthday week. For them, this sacred
occasion is heralded by the chariot festival, in
which the idols of all the deities worshipped in
the temples of Puttaparthi are taken in
procession through the crowded streets of the
village to the delight of everyone - men, women
and children - whatever their caste or creed. On
the birthday itself, Bhagavan proceeds to the
Samadhi
(tomb) of His parents and distributes food and
clothes to the villagers.
On His
birthday in 1976, Bhagavan declared that
miracles are the spontaneous and natural
expressions of Avatarhood:
"Rama
means, 'He who confers joy'; Krishna means,
'He who attracts'. Every act of Mine
conferring joy or attracting the heart,
becomes a 'miracle' in your phraseology. The
avatar comes to reform and reconstruct, and
his 'miracle' invariably has this result. The
Chamatkara (miracle) has as its aim the
Samskara (refinement) of mankind. How is that
achieved by the Avatar? Everyone so drawn is
persuaded through love, to love all (since
all are the same Atman encased in distinct
bodies), and to transform that love into
Paropakara (service). As a result, their
minds get sanctified, their intellects
clarified and their hearts purified. Thus
they are able to realise their core, the
Atman, which is but a wave in the ocean, the
universal, eternal, absolute Paramatman. This
is Sakshatkara (realisation), the goal of
human life."
Every
December, on the fifth day of the month, the Sri
Sathya Sai Seva organization celebrates
'Medical
Service Day',
each centre drawing up its own programme
according to the needs of the area and the
resources - human and material - that it can
command. Gifts are made of oxygen cylinders to
hospitals, wheelchairs for the physically
handicapped and Bhajan cassettes and books for
the blind, besides projects of medical check-up
for slum dwellers and rural folk that are
initiated on that day. In 1976 Bhagavan blessed
those who gave and those who received. He
sounded a warning against the indiscriminate use
of medicines and medical drugs. He advised the
people to resort to the cheaper and often more
effective methods of fasting or dieting,
Yogasanas
(postures prescribed by yoga) or physical
exercises, and desist from such deleterious
habits like smoking and drinking.
"Anxiety,
worry and tension have to be overcome in order
to gain and preserve
health,"
He said.
Large numbers
of christians from the east and the west come to
spend Christmas and New Year in the immediate
presence of Bhagavan for, as they have found,
this is the only place where "peace on earth and
goodwill among men" can be
experienced.
"
'Christ' is only another name for the Ananda
principle in the heart of man," Baba said.
"Meditate on Him and seek His love for all
living beings. Let Him be born in all His Divine
splendour in your heart. Then you can celebrate
Christmas in humble thanksgiving and sincere
adoration, with penitence and prayer. Do not
desecrate the day with drink and dance, revelry
and gluttony."
He said to the
gathering of devotees on the New Year Day, 1977.
He created a medaillion that had Mary and the
child Jesus on one side and Joseph on the other.
It showed the sanctity of Mary and the sturdy
simplicity of Joseph. It was indeed an
exhilarating moment.
Shivaratri
1977 was celebrated at
Prasanthi
Nilayam.
Bhagavan called upon the devotees
to
"strive,
for that is your duty; struggle, for that is
your assignment; yearn, for that is the
path."
He exhorted
them to overcome sloth, dullness and prejudice,
which hide, in the darkness that they create,
the beauty of the unity of every individual
consciousness in the Divine.
"All
i's are only reflections of the One
I," He
explained. Meanwhile a crystal oval, the
Shivaratri Lingam, emerged from within Him,
interrupting the Bhajan He was singing to
enthuse the gathering. He held it before the
gathering of astonished devotees.
"It
is the symbol of emergence of the five
primordial elements," He clarified.
"The Lingam is the essence of all attributes and
names. It is the formless with form,
the nameless with name, the primal emergent from
the Divine," He explained.
Next morning
He announced the unpleasant news that He had
decided against continuing, in subsequent years,
the celebration of Mahashivaratri, which was
drawing from all over the world countless
numbers of pilgrims eager to benefit from
Darsan
of the Divine manifestation, and to look on the
'symbol
of the cosmos',
created by Shiva Himself. But, seeing that
thousands, unable to get even a near glimpse,
were returning disappointed every year after
journeying long distance over sea and land,
spending large sums of money and suffering much
hardship, Bhagavan, out of His infinite mercy,
directed that in the coming years they might
celebrate the 'Night of Shiva' in their own
native places, where He would certainly be with
them.
Walter
Cowan Block
On 28th April,
the Cowan block of the hostel at the Brindavan
campus was inaugurated by the President of
India, Sri B.D. Jatti, himself an ardent devotee
of Bhagavan ever since the days when he was in
the ministerial cabinet of Karnataka. The hostel
was built within the campus itself, because
Bhagavan could not deny the students of His
college the proximity to Him that they ardently
prayed for. Elsie Cowan was present at the
function and expressed her immense joy at the
name which Baba had given to the hermitage of
Saraswati
(the goddess of learning), to commemorate her
husband, Walter Cowan, whom He Himself had
resurrected. "We, too, who reside in this
hostel, are awaiting resurrection," said a
student in his exaltation that day. The
President was elated at the increasing pace of
the Sai era in education. He welcomed the Sai
colleges which emphasize moral and spiritual
progress, highlight a variety of skills and
promote projects of social service. He praised
all those students who had won high academic
distinctions and, at the same time, mastered
with equal enthusiasm the techniques of farming,
animal husbandry, dairying and canteen
management, besides
yogasanas
(postures described by yoga), elocution, music,
nursing, histrionics and photography.
Architecture is said to be the art of
perpetuating song in stone; the Cowan block is
indeed a Bhajan in brick and mortar. One cannot
but sense the presence of both, penitence and
grace in the dormitories, corridors and halls.
"Fill
your heads and hearts with light and love,
rather than mere facts and
figures,"
says Baba. The hostel is a reservoir of both,
the light of knowledge and the delight of
Seva.
Since some
years, the sixth of May, the day the mother of
the
Avatar
bade farewell to the world, is known the world
over as Easwaramma Day, and is dedicated to the
service of children by children. It has grown
into a week-long festival, with the children
from
Bal Vikas
groups chumming with children from the slums in
games and play, visiting children's wards in
hospitals and singing Bhajans in homes meant for
retarded, ailing and delinquent children. Like
rays of light, they carry the sparkle of joy
into others gloom. They also offer to the
elders, and present to toddlers, the pictures
they paint, the models they make, the pets they
play with and the floral designs they assemble.
They sing and dance, they mimic, recite and
enjoy themselves.
The
Ramayana
The summer
course in 1977 was based on the
Ramayana,
the epic reservoir of dharma. The first seven
days were devoted to an intensive study of
various versions of the
Ramayana
in the languages of India as well as those of
nations to the south and south-east of India.
Bhagavan discoursed on the ideals embodied in
the heroic personalities described in the
Ramayana.
Over 40 students from Sai colleges spoke to the
large concourse of participants, with a large
sprinkling of learners from overseas, on the
saints and the philosophers of the world. For
thirty days the students, boys and girls from
colleges of India and abroad, lived in the
Brindavan campus, away from the noisy and
polluting distractions of the city, in an
atmosphere of devotion and dedication, of prayer
and meditation, of love and service, of mutual
help and encouragement. Bhagavan would be amidst
them in the lecture hall, at lunch and at
dinner, during their hours of service in the
villages around Brindavan and during the
elocution and quiz competitions on Sundays. As
many students confessed, they experienced both,
"immensity and eternity." On the final day, when
the students were sobbing in sorrow, Baba
comforted and consoled them with gifts of grace,
assuring them that since they had installed Him
in their hearts, He would ever be with them,
guarding and guiding, wherever they may
be.
"Never
forget God...
Never believe the world as reality...
Never be afraid of
death,"
He told them
at the valedictory session. (see also
Swami's
Ramakatha
Rasavahini)
During the ten
days of
Dasara
1977, [see Divine
Discourses on
Dasara]
Bhagavan elaborated on
Santhi
(inner peace) and the means of getting
established in it. His discourses traced the
faults and failings that foul the body, the mind
and the faculty of reason in man. He analysed
the habits and traits that disturbed and
depressed the emotions of man and prescribed the
exercises by which physical, mental, emotional
and occupational equipoise could be gained. He
also referred to the conflicts created by
ethical and philosophical schools, as well as by
fanatical loyalty to particular forms and names
of the one, omnipresent God.
The seven-day
Vedic rite of
Jnana Yajna,
[see Esoteric
Significance of the Veda Purusha Jnana
Yajna]
which forms an important part of the
Dasara
festival, was inaugurated by Sri Govinda Narain,
the Governor of Karnataka. An indication of the
surge of devotion to the
Avatar,
which binds human hearts 'though they come from
the ends of the earth' was the joint recital of
songs on Baba, both in English and Sanskrit, by
Ida Marion St. John from California and Gita
Orescan from Germany. On Vijayadashami,
the tenth day of victory (Dasara), Bhagavan
allowed a few poets to recite their verses
composed in various languages. Mrs. Zeba
Bashiruddin, a professor of English from
Hyderabad, sang a few of her mellifluous Urdu
poems on Baba.
Mention must
also be made here of the announcement that was
made that day about Bhagavan taking under His
benign guardianship a number of educational
institutions of the Loka Seva Vrinda in
Karnataka, to be run on patriotic and spiritual
lines by a band of His own devoted teachers. The
Vrinda was orphaned by the death, in a car
accident, of its founder and promoter, Sri
Madiyala Narayana Bhat, an educationalist who
had sought to reinforce the secularist
curriculum laid down by the State with the
spiritual ideals of duty, devotion and
discipline.
The
Wedding Knot
Dasara
at
Prasanthi
Nilayam
fills devotees with reverence for the heritage
they live in. The birthday inspires them to
reshape their lives as desired by the divine
incarnation. The week was ushered in with a big
bang of blessedness. Baba had made it known that
indigent parents from the villages around
Prasanthi
Nilayam
could celebrate the weddings of their children
without incurring any expense. He would be the
priest, parent and providence. The call was
heard by parents of all castes, who had been
knocking at the doors of astrologers and
moneylenders. When Baba Himself was the High
Priest, no astrologer need be consulted about
the future of the wedded couples. When He
Himself was providence, no moneylender need be
approached to get the funds needed for
celebrating the wedding. Hearing this, young men
hurried to the homes of prospective brides and
saw to it that their parents did not let go this
miraculous chance to have the marriages
celebrated in Baba's presence. One hundred and
thirty four couples were registered at
Prasanthi
Nilayam
in a few days. Baba gifted a wedding
sari
each to all the brides, much to their surprise
at receiving this costly present. The grooms got
dhotis
(men's wear) and angavastrams
(cloths slung over the shoulder) with borders of
zari (brocade). They were also given silk shirts
stitched to size by tailors brought to the
Nilayam for this very purpose. They were then
taken to the
Kalyana Mantap
(a structure raised for the purpose of
auspicious events or functions) on the outskirts
of Puttaparthi village and seated in rows under
a decorated pandal. Girl students from the
Sathya Sai College in Anantapur acted as
'ladies-in-waiting' for the brides, and boys
from the Sathya Sai College in Bangalore were
the 'best men', for the grooms. Vedic hymns were
recited by brahmin priests during the wedding
rite. The couples garlanded each other, symbolic
of union in wedlock. Baba gave each groom a gold
Mangalasutra
(auspicious thread worn by married women), and
as it was put around the neck of the bride and
knotted, He sprinkled on the heads of the
couple, grains of rice. Bhagavan gave each bride
another sari, besides bangles,
kumkum
(vermillion
powder, considered
auspicious),
and haldi
(turmeric) which are all a must for her in
wedded life. He also gave each couple plates and
cups for their new home. Then they poured
handfuls of rice on each other's heads - a rite
to ensure prosperity. The sari and angavastram
ends were knotted together to symbolise the
union of hearts for the joint pilgrimage ahead.
The 134 couples then slowly made their way in
procession to the Mandir, with folk dance, pipe,
tom-tom and Bhajan parties in the lead. Later,
along with their kinsfolk, they all had a
wedding feast at the
Nilayam
itself, oblivious of any differences of caste or
economic or educational backgrounds. It was a
heartening experience for all those who have the
welfare of mankind at heart. It was a festival
of love, an object lesson for all those who have
faith in the overpowering impact of love. Now a
large number of Seva Samithis are arranging,
under their own auspices, simple weddings for
poor villagers.
Fury
of Wind and Water
Another event
that preceded the birthday was the 8th All India
Conference of the Sai Seva organizations. While
the celebrations were in progress, it became
known that a terrific cyclone had hit the Andhra
coast. A tidal wave over 20 feet high had swept
over the coast and sped itself about thirty to
forty miles inland. The devastation inflicted by
both wind and water, was enormous. Tens of
thousands died, caught by the waves. A large
number of cattle lost their lives, and coconut
groves over several square miles were toppled.
Scores of villages were washed off the face of
earth. The few who survived were confronted by
disease, despair and decimation. Bhagavan
directed the Seva Dal from Andhra to rush to the
area, even while the festival was progressing at
the Nilayam.
Truckloads of cloth, rugs, garments and whatever
could be laid hold of, were got ready to be
transported by devotees to the affected areas.
More than eight lakh
rupees poured into the bank for relief work.
Four relief camps were quickly established in
the afflicted areas, along with a complement of
trained Seva Dal members, both men and women,
including teams of doctors. Remote spots which
had been isolated by the floods were selected. I
witnessed a massive transport of provisions and
materials, in the form of head-loads, by
devotees. They had to wade through slush and
mire, braving the stench of rotting corpses and
carcasses. Indeed the first task was to bury or
burn the dead, lying in heaps on the ground and
caught in trees and bushes. Kitchens which
provided food for over five thousand forlorn
victims, kept working for more than a month in
four strategic centres - Kattamajeru Gudapalem,
Adavuladeevu, Ganapavaram and Barrankula - in
the region lashed by the furious elements. From
some kitchens, cooked food was taken to even
more remote places, and the victims fed wherever
they were found. Children were given milk and
special foods. Besides these, the Seva Dal
erected hundreds of hutments to enable people to
continue their normal occupations of fishing and
farming. They were given sets of kitchen
utensils and cooking vessels, as well as
garments, reed mats and rugs. Bhagavan assured
the children who were orphaned by the calamity
that He would be their guardian. When the relief
centres were closed, the exhausted Seva Dal
workers gladly noted that the faces of the
village folk around them were lit with
gratitude, contentment and devotion towards
Bhagavan. In order to avoid such colossal loss
of life in future, Bhagavan directed the Seva
organisations to build at each place where they
served, a community hall for the people, which
would serve as a shelter whenever wind and wave
rushed furiously onto land.
When the holy
day of Shivaratri
approached in 1978, the people remembered the
previous year's announcement by Bhagavan
regarding the cancellation of the ceremony. But
the prospect of such deprivation was so painful
that thousands would not at first believe it. So
they continued to stream into
Prasanthi
Nilayam
in time for the occasion. Rumours were afloat
that Bhagavan would be at Brindavan that day.
May be Shivaratri
would be celebrated at Brindavan? Or would it be
at Hyderabad? So thousands also gathered at
Hyderabad and at Brindavan in Whitefield. But
Bhagavan did not oblige. He was in the Nilgiri
Hills, and returned only two days
later.
|Previous
|Next
|
Bhajans
