Christmas & New Year Programe.

[Guest guest]

great heights of devotional ecstasy. While the bhajan singing was going on,

prasadam was brought to be blessed by Swami and then distributed. Swami held a

peppermint candy cane and after some time called Mr. Rafael Ferrero, a saxophone

player from Argentina sitting in the front row, and lovingly gave it to him.

Rafael beamed at this unexpected blessing and took his seat.

After a few minutes, Swami again called Rafael and started talking to him. A

personal interview in full view of the Christmas crowd! After discussing some

personal matters and giving Rafael the most valuable divine guidance, Swami

waved His hand and made the most beautiful pendant for him. It was a circular

gold framed pendant inlaid with precious stones. More discussion and

instructions followed while the crowd sat up agog with excitement. Finally

after fulfilling all his wishes completely the Lord blessed Rafael again and

permitted him to resume his

seat. But a visibly happy Lord had to express His happiness some

more. He called Michael, a guitar and drum player from the United States

sitting next to Rafael and made for him an

exquisite golden chain. He lovingly undid the clasp and personally tied the

chain around Michael's neck. Michael buried his face deep in Mother Sai's lap

suffused with His love that flowed not only to him but also engulfed all of us

sitting in the crowd. Swami then asked Michael "Are you happy?"- perhaps

because Michael had been quite anxious all evening worrying if their music

would please the Lord. What glorious words of assurance from the Lord -

soothing and allaying fears and pouring bliss, unending bliss in everyone's

heart. But the "fireworks" were not over yet. Roger Dietrich, a flute

player sitting next to these two who had already been honored, was the next one

to be called. Swami made a ring for him which He personally slipped onto a

finger of Roger's right hand. Roger was overcome with emotion and speechless.

Swami graciously permitted him to take the much sought padanamaskar before

returning to his seat. After that Swami signal led for the bhajan to

stop and wanted that the arathi be taken. Three of the people who had toiled

hard for the past three weeks to bring Christmas 2005 to a successful

conclusion were honored by being selected to do the mangalarathi to Swami.

After the arathi was taken, Swami turned to the choir again and asked everyone

in the front row "Are you happy?" and then blessed them profusely. While

there was no formal divine discourse this Christmas, by His repeated emphasis

on being happy, the Christmas message was quite explicit and clear - Don't

Worry, Be Happy - for on the road to happiness, happiness itself is the road!

DOUBLE HEADER: TWO MUSICAL PRO GRAMMES BY THE SHALOM GROUP FROM AUSTRALIA AND

THE SATHYA SAI SINGERS OF S. CALIFORNIA AND HAWAII ON DEC 26Th On December

26Th, two musical pro grammes were on offer: first was a group of Jewish

singers from Australia called the Shalom Group

who sang spiritual songs for Swami in Hebrew and the next pro gramme was by a

group of musicians from Southern California and Hawaii who also presented a

musical pro gramme for our beloved Swami entitled Life is a Song Sing it!

The Shalom Group The Shalom Group is a group of Sai Jewish devotees who have

come to the Lotus feet of Swami about 20 years ago, and are now living in

Perth, Australia. The Shalom Group consists of a total of 21 people and 11 of

them had come to Prashanti Nilayam as part of an Australian youth group to

attend the Christmas celebrations. The Shalom group have been singing Jewish

spiritual songs for the last 8 years. These spiritual songs praise the glory

and love of God and pray for peace and

love in the entire world and for all humanity. The Shalom Group had

been trying to come and sing in His divine presence for over 5 years and they

were given the lifetime opportunity on Dec 26Th, 2005. Auspiciously, it was

also the Jewish festival of Chanukah ("The festival

of Lights"), which this year coincided with Christmas and the New Year since it

is celebrated over 8 days. Chanukah is celebrated to symbolize one of the great

miracles of God wherein he kept filling a jar of oil that should have lasted

only 1 day to light the menorah (Candlelabra) in the great Jewish temple in

Jerusalem for a full 8 days! The songs that they sang in the Hebrew language

for Swami were Shalom and Adonolam. Shalom is a song to call the angels to

participate in our prayers and goes on to praise the righteous man that follows

in the path of God with right action. Adonolam calls on the Master of the

Universe, Who is and always will be; Who ruled before any creature existed and

Who with His will created everything. The Sathya Sai Singers Group In

2005 the devotees of Southern California were given the opportunity to travel

together as a group on a pilgrimage to see Bhagavan for Christmas in December.

The devotees were given the opportunity to choose one of four special sadhanas:

a choir group, a bhajan group, a play group or a service group. Each of these

groups met separately one or more times a week to practice their offering to

Bhagavan. The choir group, called the Sathya Sai Singers, met twice a week for

six months in order to rehearse and make the final song selections that they

wanted to perform for the Lord during the Christmas celebrations in Prashanti

Nilayam. They performed at several of the monthly group meetings near Los

Angeles as well as at the December Southern

California public meeting and at a church near San Diego in order to perfect

their presentation for Swami. The bhajan group and the play group also met

weekly to organize and rehearse their offering for Bhagavan. Everyone prayed

that Swami would allow the groups to perform in His divine presence.

On December 26Th, the prayers of the Southern California devotees were answered

as Bhagavan graciously consented to have the choir sing in Sai Kulwant Hall. Ms.

Maryalice Jessup, the choir director, came forward to give Swami a special

handcrafted pro gramme and a red rose on a silver tray. Bhagavan (who was

seated) stood up to greet her and smiled lovingly at her, saying "Very happy,

very happy!" This group of singers from Southern California and Hawaii

presented a bouquet of 7 beautiful songs to bring to a finish one of the most

exciting and beautiful Christmas celebrations in Prashanti Nilayam in recent

times. They started with a beautiful song "For The Children" which pleaded with

everyone to save the trees, the rocks, hills and valleys, the seas and the

planet for the children. Moving on to a prayerful song called "Lord Of Love",

they prayed to Swami

that O Lord of Love, I come to You and give You my life. I Surrender all, and I

make You one with my life. The next song - "You Raise Me Up" - talked about how

Swami's support helps all to get over weary and troubled times. This was

followed by a song from Walt Disney's "Pocahontas" called "Colours Of The

Wind", and is a song depicting the era in United States' history when England

was sending people to explore this "new" land. In this song, Pocahontas, a

Native American woman, is chiding John Smith, an Englishman, for his narrow

views about nature. "In This Very Room" - the next song expresses hope that in

this very room there

is love, joy for all of us; for Baba, Sai Baba, is in this very room. The words

of the song, "How Beautiful Your Songs Of Praise" - How true and steadfast your

ways. Let all that is within me rise and sing. How beautiful Your Holy name. How

marvelous Your saving grace, that You would call me as Your own…how

bebeautifulautiful, left everyone moved to silent tears overcome by the surging

emotions of love for Swami. The last song called "Here I Am Lord" sang of the

glory of God and His promise to tend to the poor and the lame. Swami was

immensely pleased with the heart touching lyrics and the soulful music. He

called the conductor,

Ms. Maryalice Jessup, and manifested a beautiful gold chain with a gold cross

encrusted with blue sapphires and asked her to slip it around her head. It was

a little tight and would not easily go over and the conductor turned to the

audience and humorously remarked, "I have a big head". Swami was touched at

this innocent and pure humour flowing spontaneously as love from the heart.

Swami also blessed Maryalice with a personal audience the next day. Swami then

asked the group to sing bhajans and the group obliged magnificently singing

both English and Sanskrit bhajans. Swami sat for nearly an hour enjoying the

music, before arathi was offered - by one gent each from both the groups (the

Shalom Singers and the group from Southern California) and likewise by two

ladies together - one from each

group. An entire year has gone speedily by. We are now in the New Year -

2006, a year of new challenges and new opportunities. While we mistakenly tend

to view time as discrete independent intervals, we do not always consciously

realize that time is a continuum and thoughts and actions from the past

(samskaras) continue to influence and shape our present circumstances and

thoughts (prarabdha karma). And these samskaras are not just limited to our

present lifetime but go back to many prior lifetimes also. The Vedas also tell

us that there are 8.4 million

different species on earth. Though we have since time immemorial been travelling

and taking birth with different bodies in all these 84 lakh species, this time

around we have been blessed with a human body. Thus obtaining a human body

itself is a very rare occurrence, but to obtain a human body at the same time

the Avatar is also present on earth is the rarest and most fortunate of

circumstances. And of the billions of people on earth, we are the most blessed

to come in the divine presence of the Avatar and have His Darshan, Sparshan and

Sambhashan. This opportunity must not be missed for who knows how many millions

of lives will have to go by before such a rare opportunity comes our way again.

So let us resolve in this New Year to grasp this opportunity and realize the

aim of our life; let us resolve to love Him, pray to Him and listen to whatever

He says. And His message for 2006

seems to be "Always Be Happy!" Jai Sai Ram. (Sharing With Sai Love)

Ram.Chugani)Ram ChuganiKobe, Japanrgcjp

Photos Got holiday prints? See all the ways to get quality prints in your hands ASAP.