Sathyam Sivam Sundaram - Part I (Sl# 39)

June 8, 2006

SaiRam

Prasanthi Nilayam (Continued..)

The grumbling of the engineers did not stop with this achievement. In fact, they became even more exasperated. They asked, "Of what use is all this trouble when it is humanly impossible to hoist them on the walls?" Humanly impossible, yes, but where there is the Divine Will, there is a Way! Laborers were brought from the Tungabhadra Dam, ropes were fastened, pulleys were rigged up, and in order to make the girders lighter, each girder was pulled up amidst shouts of "Jai Sai Ram!" (victory to Sai who is Rama!) from the throats of hundreds of devotees in the Presence of Sai Baba. The girders were set in place and all went well!

The central prayer hall with platform ensconced on either side is the main part of the Nilayam. On the westerly platform is the shrine where two life-size oil portraits are placed leaning against the wall, one of Sai Baba of Shirdi, and the other of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. There is also a silver figure of Sai Baba of Shirdi in the center and a small portrait of Sathya Sai Baba under it. These are kept as aids for meditation and the repeating of God's Name. Except for singing songs of God twice a day, once in the morning and a second time in the early hours of the evening, there is no regular worship as is generally done in places where an idol is installed and consecrated. There are no fixed rites and rituals which have to be performed on certain holy days, nor are there any schedules, prayers or worship which have to be performed. There is no rule that even the figure of Sai Baba of Shirdi should be there. The hall is a prayer hall, no more, no less, with the

portraits of all the various manifestations of Godhead and of all the great spiritual and religious leaders on the walls.

The rooms on the ground floor are mainly used for storing articles and vessels. There are two rooms set apart for private interviews granted by Sai Baba to devotees who come to Him. The rooms on the first floor are the living quarters for Baba. There is a large portico on the first floor from which He gives Darshan to the devotees thronging below and where He speaks on festival occasions. A charming marble image of Sri Krishna playing the flute is placed right in the center of the top floor of the portico. Everyone's attention is drawn toward its beauty and charm.

There is a flight of steps which leads to the top terrace at the center of which, facing the approaching road, is a bust of Sai Baba, kept on a pedestal in front of the flagpole. Sai Baba gives Darshan from near this bust on days on which the flag is hoisted and He blesses the huge assembly with His Hand gesture of "Do not fear." The flag carries on it the representation of the symbol which Baba has materialized in the circle right in front of the building on the ground.

In the very center of a series of concentric circles, there is a pillar which represents Yoga (union with God), with a number of rings to indicate the stages of Yogic discipline. This Yoga leads to the unfolding of the "Lotus of the Heart", whose petals are borne on top of the pillar. The next stage of this consummation of devotion and the blossoming of the heart is the "Flame of Illumination" and "Spiritual Light" symbolized at the top of the pillar. The first of the concentric circles and its intervening space is bare and sandy; the second one, planted with a bushy type of plant that grows in thick clusters which have to be occasionally clipped short, represents the qualities of desire and anger that have to be overcome in order to reach the Yogic stage, according to Baba. The first round, the sandy one, is the desert of desire, the waste land, the purposeless striving after evanescent things; the second, the one with the cluster plant, is anger, which is

difficult to destroy, for as soon as it is clipped, it sprouts again. Then there are two steps, red in color, one low, the other a little higher, symbolizing hatred, which man also has to overcome. One type of hatred is caused when one is thwarted in the effort to achieve the desired object, and another type when pain is caused to one by the action of another. After these three are overcome, the circular space filled with green grass, cool to the eye, reminiscent of contentment and prosperity, represents Divine Love. This is the stage when the mind of man is filled with bliss, due to the absence of desire, anger, and hate, and having achieved the attitude of the state of "Being Equal Minded to All," the very basis of Divine Love. Soon the aspirant moves onto the open space of Peace, where he can sit at will and enjoy the fruits of the discipline he has gone through. The Yoga fructifies and takes him on from one height to another until the "Lotus of the Heart" blooms and

the "Effulgence of Illumination" is assured at last. Around the circumference of the circle there are eight painted pots with flower plants, which Sai Baba explains as symbolizing the Eight Perfections or Divine Faculties which guard the Yogi.

(Prasanthi Nilayam To be continued..)

SaiRam