Happy Birthday Swami! - At Leicester Ram Mandir, UK

[Guest guest]

Happy Birthday Swami! This past Friday was a very auspicious occasion, as we celebrated the 82nd birthday of our spiritual guide and teacher, Sri Sahya Sai Baba...Thankfully for Leicester’s large South Asian population, I found a few Sai Centers and got in touch with some devotees here. So on Friday, I attended a program at the Leicester Ram Mandir.I couldn’t believe how many people kept coming and filling the massive hall. Only in India have I seen a larger gathering of Sai

devotees. The program started with about 20 minutes of Veda chanting (chanting of verses from our holy scriptures) by a group of youth boys. Everyone sat with their eyes closed and just meditated to the sound of the chanting. Then the youth conducted bhajans (devotional songs praising God). Many of them sang so sweetly and the musicians played their instruments with such skill – I was really impressed with their talent. The centre had also set up a screen, projecting video and images of Swami listening to bhajans in India from previous occasions so it gave the feeling that he was actually there – well, I know Swami’s always there…but you know what I mean!The SSE children performed an informative but also hilarious play titled “If God had voicemail”! Basically, the premise was set around this girl who felt very frustrated by school, friends and family. So she has a dream that she calls a hotline to speak with God. She reaches an automated recording where the

operator says:“Hello, you’ve reached Guidance On Divinity, also known as GOD. Unfortunately all our Gods and angels are currently occupied. Your position in the queue is 108 – but don’t worry, that’s a very auspicious number! To leave a message for Ganesh, press one, Hanuman, 2, Krishna, 3.”And then they show what all the different Gods are doing…Hanuman is giving this conference on bridge building to several monkey students, and Ganesh is climbing the Himalayas with some friends, etc…it was so cute to see all the little British children dressed up!Of course at the end of the dream, God calls the girl back on her mobile, and tells her that she doesn’t have to call to reach him, but she just has to say Aum (the sound of creation) to connect, and that connection with God is stronger than any other technological connection possible!A former student at the college in Prashanti Nilayam (compound where Swami lives) gave a very candid speech about

his experience living there, and the interactions he had seen and heard of Swami. One of them was about a time where Swami won an arm wrestling match between himself and these two wrestlers. The wrestlers were convinced he had used some kind of divine power to beat them, but Swami explained he didn’t, but infact beat them because since birth, a negative thought had never entered his mind, he had never doubted himself – and so he won by using the strength of his mind. The student also gave the analogy of the Sai organization being like an ocean, where Swami is the epicentre. If a pebble is thrown into the water, it ripples throughout the entire ocean. If Swami says in a discourse this month to meditate more, people across the globe immediately start to mediate more. Anything Swami says or does has an impact on the rest of the world.Of course the best part of the whole evening was the grand finale. Everyone started to sing a special Happy Birthday song for Swami and

a giant cake was brought out, along with balloons, sparklers, confetti, Happy Birthday signs and little children dressed as different planets rotating around a poster of Swami.I felt such peace being there that night. When events run smoothly and are well-organized and rehearsed it truly shows how much love and devotion went towards making it successful. I’m looking forward to attending future events here – it’s such a relief when you can connect with communities like the Sai organization away from home. I guess it’s just having some familiarity in your life that helps to keep you grounded. Courtesy: http://leicesterliving.blogspot.com/2007/11/happy-birthday-swami.html