Prasanthi Bulletin - December 26th-27th, 2005

[Guest guest]

boys to take Him onto the Ladies side. It was a bonanza this evening for the

lady devotees. He went slowly, moving along the path on their side. As He moved

along, He talked to a few devotees and signaled to a number of overseas lady

devotees, asking them to go into the interview room. Most of them were part of

yesterday’s singing group. This went on for quite some time and Swami had taken

a full round on the Ladies side coming back towards the dais and then completing

a circle by going towards the interview room. He took all of them into the

interview room. While those who went in would have been ecstatic, even those

who did not were overjoyed, for after such a long time, they had a real

close-up Darshan of our beloved Lord! Hence, it turned out to be a win-win

situation! Typical of everything that He does! The lucky devotees were in for a

real long time and came out only at 5.15 p.m. Bhajans had already started. Swami

went into the interview room and sat for a few

Bhajans before He took Aarti at 5.30 p.m. He got into the Porte and proceeded

towards PC. December 26th, 2005 Let us wish all our Jewish brothers and sisters

a very Happy and Holy Hanukkah. Hanukkah as we know is the Festival of Lights or

the Festival of Dedication. The festival is observed in Jewish homes by the

kindling of lights on each of the festival's eight nights, one on the first

night, two on the second night and so on. The word 'Hanukkah' means

"dedication." Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the Miracle of the Oil. At the

re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, following the victory of the Maccabees

over the Selucids, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the

eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight

days - which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate new

oil. This evening, Swami came out at 4.05 p.m. for Darshan. He took a full

round and went straight into the interview room. The devotees from California

and Hawaii were seated right in front of the dais with several music

instruments. We guessed that there was going to be some Music Programme. This

was confirmed when we received booklets about the Music Programme to be

presented by the Sathya Sai Singers from Southern California and Hawaii –

titled “Life is a Song – Sing it”. At 4.15 p.m. the interview room door opened

and Swami’s chair came out. A few feet away, the chair stopped and Swami stood

up. With the help of brother Nitin, He started walking towards the dais.

Overjoyed, all the devotees started clapping. He came to the centre of the dais

and stood for a while holding the railings. Then He sat down and signaled for

the programme to begin. At the outset a lady devotee from Australia came

forward and offered a card to Swami. With Swami’s Blessings, she conducted a

prayer song - Shalom. The Hebrew word Shalom is understood around the world to

mean peace. But peace is only one small part of the meaning of the word Shalom.

A word study in the New King James version for Shalom says: Completeness,

wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity,

perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. It

was a very melodious rendering. Subsequently, the lady conductor for the rest

of the songs got up and went to Swami. She sought Bhagawan’s Blessings and

commenced the singing. Interestingly, the songs they sang were not the usual

Christmas Carols but they were a very beautiful collection of prayers written

by different people. Some of them adored the almighty Lord while the others

sang in praise of Mother Earth with an appeal to save the planet from the

onslaught of the modern man. They sang with all their heart for the next 45

minutes. The music was very soothing and the lyrics were very meaningful and

pregnant with wisdom. It calmed our minds and lifted our

souls. Swami was very much involved in their singing. He kept beat with His Hand

and had a Blissful smile on His face throughout. This filled our hearts with

thrill and joy. At 5.00 p.m. the singing came to a close. The lady conductor

turned around, bowed to Swami and taking a deep breath went to take her seat.

One could witness how involved she was in conducting the singing by her

expression of satisfaction and joy at the end. After she sat down on her chair,

Swami called her front and stood up Himself. Even as He was standing, He rotated

His right Hand and created a chain for her. Our brothers next to Swami helped in

unhooking the chain and placing it around her neck and Swami gave it the final

tug to put it in place! The lady was overjoyed and with a beaming smile

retreated to her seat. Swami then asked them to sing Bhajans. They started with

some English Bhajans and then went on to sing our normal Hindi / Sanskrit

Bhajans rendering the lyrics so well that one

could hardly make out that they were overseas devotees singing our Bhajans. In

the course of their singing, Swami went inside the interview room and came out.

Then He sat outside but now more towards the Primary School children. He kept

beat with His Hand and at times was lost in Bliss with His eyes closed and face

radiating with an inexplicably peaceful smile! This sent a powerful vibration

across the Hall merging all of us in His eternal joy and Bliss! The clapping

became louder, the singing more powerful and all this led us to a different

world altogether! All good things have to come to an end. At 6.00 p.m. after

about an hour of Bhajan singing, which included Hindi, Sanskrit and even

English Bhajans, Swami took Aarti and retired for the day. You can see an

illustrated version of happenings at Prasanthi Nilayam in the Prasanthi Diary of

our monthly e-Journal Heart to Heart. The previous issue of Prasanthi Bulletin

is available here. The Photo album contains photos of events of past Prasanthi

Bulletins. Index of past Prasanthi Bulletins... Source: Radio Sai

Websitehttp://radiosai.org/pages/PB.htm