Private observations of Mahashivaratri 2005 in Prasanthi Nilayam:

[Guest guest]

Om Sri Sai RamDear Ones,within this JSR is forwading some private impressions

sent by a Lady Devotee from Parthi. Sure that Your Sai Hearts (searching for

sathyam) will enjoy the Love Lines.Jay Sai Ram

Private observations of Mahashivaratri 2005 in Prasanthi Nilayam:In the morning

of March 8th, we were surprised to see that Swami gave a discourse! There were

talks also before His, and then plenty of mantras & bhajans by the boys

afterwards, as well as the distribution of sweets afterwards. Usually, the

students do bhajans in the morning and Swami gives a discourse in the evening.

Because Swami did everything in the morning itself, we thought maybe the only

thing that would happen in the evening would be the start of Akhanda Bhajan!

Swami also looked weak as He has lately, slow when walking those few steps from

car to chair and again from chair back to the car. There was an announcement

that Akhand Bhjan would commence with the blessings of Swami, at 6 PM that

evening.In the evening of March 8th, Swami arrived around 3 PM. There were two

or three long talks and then Swami’s discourse again! Near the end of the

discourse, Swami suddenly slid back into the chair. It was like He could no

longer stand up. He continued the discourse for some more minutes, with the

table microphone being hand held (below the level of the table) by an assistant

by Swami's side.After Swami's discourse, Swami remained sitting and bhajans

began. I believe it was around 5 PM (one hour early)! After maybe 20 or 30

minutes of bhajans, Swami tried to get up from the chair. His first two

attempts failed but He finally lifted Himself up, with the assistance of two

boys on either side of him. Lately he has really a lot of trouble getting up

after sitting for a long time. After arising, as usual He stayed standing in

one place for several minutes, then took several small steps, looking like it

was very difficult, pausing a long time between each step. Finally He agreed to

the requests of His assistants, and they brought the chair He had been sitting

in (which had wheels on it) and He sat down. The chair was wheeled the short

distance to the golf cart, where Swami was practically physically lifted up by

the two boys and placed in the cart. Swami left the hall and bhajans continued

throughout the night.Swami arrived in the morning about 6 AM. There was tension

around as Swami started to display some of the signs of Lingodbhava. He started

drinking more and more water, with assistants running back and forth to the

interview room, brining more glasses of water. Some water was poured from a

thermos, maybe cooled. Swami started wiping His face and neck with His kerchief

a lot, as if becoming very warm. He started coughing and clutching His throat

with the kerchief. Suddenly, he threw up a large amount of water.That was the

wakeup call for the already anxious assistants. They consulted with Swami who

finally called for arathi. Arathi was preformed. Swami slowly got up and was

helped by His assistants on both sides, holding His arms and hands, as Swami

very slowly and weakly made His way to the golf cart. Swami was already bending

over and looked very uncomfortable. As soon as Swami sat in the golf cart, in an

instant the car went in race car mode and sped off the fastest we ever saw that

car go! Even then, Swami was bending over and looked like the lingam would be

born right there on the car! But the car went mighty fast and soon Swami had

disappeared into the Poornachandra. There was confusion for a few minutes as

people wondered to stay or was it all over, should they just leave? Then an

announcement was made that everyone should remain there for distribution of

Prasad. Soon college boys were brining in the numerous containers of yellow

rice and sweet laddus, and Prasad was distributed to all. Afterwards, several

people approached me complaining why did people pray for Swami to stop the

public display of Lingodbhava? He would anyway do it in private - as the

spontaneous formation of the lingam could not be suppressed - so He would

anyway suffer, whether in front of the public or not. He has been doing it all

these years to give us the Grace of beholding it, but only due to the pressure

of the prayers of many people, He agreed not to do it in public this time. If

Swami anyway wants to give us this Grace, who are we to demand otherwise? That

was only the personal opinion of the few people who approached me.Thus ended

another new and different Maha Sivarathri, with no public lingodbhava taking

place.

Shared by Jay Sai Ram.......

In sai's seva

Deepak Bharwani

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