Om Sairam dearest Sai Family,Dasara greetings to one and all.. The festivity of Dasara has come to an end. Swami out of His immense grace had permitted for Grama Seva which was indeed a 10 days rigorous yagna for the students.
The Anantapur Campus students were awake the whole night for mixing the tamarind rice, for making laddus and for packing. Each packet of tamarind rice weigh about 360 grams. The sisters from Anantapur were given clear instructions to pack the right weight and definitely not less than 360 grams if not more than that.
Every day a minimum of 30,000 packets of tamarind rice were readied for the boys to go around villages for distribution. This year, on the occasion of Swami's 85th birthday and also on request from many villages, quite a few villages were added in the list for Grama Seva 2010 which in total became 170 villages.
It is a mammoth task taken up by the Avatar of this Kali Age, our beloved Swami and the whole programme went on very well and why not, when the Lord Himself has taken up the task of sharing love with our fellow beings.
17th October 2010: Morning Darshan:
The stage was well set for the Poornahuthi programme which signifies the culmination of the 7 days yagna performed in Poorna Chandra auditorium. Dasara festival of yesteryears were completely different to what we saw this year. couple of years ago, Swami used to speak all 7 days which included talks by various speakers. Those were the most memorable days.
This year, thousands of devotees thronged the ashram for the divine darshan. The beautifully decorated Sai Kulwanth hall was also filled up by 7:30 am. All eyes were set on the curtains of the dais of Poornachandra Auditorium hoping to catch the first sight of the beautiful form of our beloved Lord. The priests were chanting the vedas and simultaneously bhajans started in Sai Kulwanth hall at 9pm. Every one were surprised when Swami's chair was brought on the dais and arathi was offered to Swami in Swami's absence 9:30 am in Sai Kulwath Hall.
The scene now shifted to Poornachandra auditorium. The fire in the yagna kunda was burning incessantly. The preists had stopped chanting and were waiting for Swami. Suddenly a word was sent that the morning darshan was cancelled and the Poornahuthi was postponed to the evening. It was little bit shocking for every one. As far as I remember, Poornahuthi was never done in the evening and Swami never stayed indoors, especially on dasara morning. The same thing happened on Gurupoornima morning this year.
17th October 2010:Evening Darshan:
As Swami didn't come out for morning darshan, there was lots of anxiety and anticipation among devotees. All the devotees lined up to get into Poorna chandra hall. by 3:15pm the auditorium was full. This time all the priests were seated in Sai Kulwanth hall, as Swami was expected there first and then to Poorna Chandra Auditorium. It was 4:15, 5:15 pm... time seemed to run very fast and now every one of us started praying more vigorously for our beloved Lord to grant darshan.
It was 6pm, Swami out of His immense grace and love granted darshan as the priests welcomed Him with holy chants into Sai Kulwath hall. Swami after making a complete round, asked all the preists to assemble in Poorna Chandra Auditorium. The priests, the Prasanthi Vedam boys, headed by brother Sri.Veda narayan came to Poorna chandra Auditorium and were seated on the dais. In few minutes, Swami came on to the dais. Immediately, the priests completed the Poornahuthi ritual at about 6:25 pm. The ceremony was very short and simple.
It reminded me of the good old days, when Swami used to sit in front of the fire, bless all the priests and at the end used to materialise gems to be offered into the Yagna Kunda (pit). This year it was entirely different. It was a very short programme. The priests made maximum use of Swami's presence, by taking Padanamaskar. One priest got up and sang an emotional poem praising the Sathya Sai Avatar for coming on to the earth to restore Dharma.The preist while rendering the poem, was eloquent both in poetry and in action.Swami was very much impressed with him and put both His hand on his head.
The priests then surrounded Swami and started chanting Durga Suktham, Manthra Pushpam and Ganapathi Prarthana
It was 6:45 pm and the students brought the prasadam for His blessings. After blessing the same, Swami went inside and all of us thought He would come out as the arathi was not yet offered. In about 10 minutes we came to know that Swami had already gone to His residence.
Dasara 2010 ended without a mangala arathi to Swami even though Poornahuthi was blessed by Swami. The ceremonial sprinkling of the holy water on devotees also didn't happen. This Dasara, has sent a strong message to all of us, probably asking us to come out of the body attatchment, see Swami more in our hearts than the Physical body of Swami. Only Swami knows why, but lets be ready for more surprises like these in the near future....
With Pranams at the Lotus feet of our beloved Lord,
R.Satish Naik
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