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.
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