Glimpses – Maharashtra Youth Parthi Yatra, 4th -6th Jan 2008

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram, The Maharashtra youth parthi yatra was on 4th, 5th and 6th Jan 2008. Many from all the parts of Maharashtra were there. Morning Darshans: All the morning darshans were after the starting of the bhajans. On 4th the crowd was less thinking that Swami would not be there as He was sometimes not giving darshan in the mornings. But, He came to bless us all with His immense glory on 4th morning to see His kids coming all the way from Maharashtra.

On 5th many devotees came thinking that Swami will be there in the morning because of the youth and He did come that too in His mobile chair much to the delight of all the devotees. We are very very happy to see Swami radiant in His glory giving us the best darshans in our life times. He even came on 6th morning also. Swami used to take Arthi after bhajans and used to leave for yajur mandir. Afternoon Darshans: These are feast to my eyes as I was all the 3 days placed in the first row just only by Swami’s grace, with no one between Swami and me, uninterrupted darshan even in those thousands of thousands of devotees, especially as Swami sat on the dias all the three days for some or other program for very long times, which is almost rare these days. Very very happy to have these darshans. The background music while Swani’s grand entry was from the cassette “Bliss” by unicorn music company (A fantastic instrumental CD/cassette that I always loved) leaving us in bliss with our lord’s darshan JMy eyes drank His glory from top to bottom and they are filled with the nectar of His love in the form of tears J His hands, feet and His beautiful face left us to remember the experiences through out our lives. 4th Jan

afternoon darshan: As it was Friday, Sai Lakshmi was welcomed in to His darbar with Sri Suktam by the vedic pundits. Padma pathraya thakshim as they say, our Lord came in most gracefully smiling, down the car, with His lotus eyes gleaming in the lights from the chandeliers. He looked as if He was descending down the heavens on to the earth when He got down from His porte car, slowly and beautifully with a nice smile that removes all the thoughts from the mind. The one before whom we cannot think of anything, the one before whom your all senses become still, the one before whom tears roll on from the eyes out of love, the one before whom you can be as you are…that SAI’s darshan is

nayan anandakaram. Maharashtra men youth started their enthralling program with “Mahashtra majhaa garja” song after they gave the program protocol to the Lord with roses. I envy these guys who can touch Swami’s feet. (Envy for a very right reason ; ) ) There are other songs that has taken our hearts like vitevari ubhavari, sohum-sai om and other songs. Swami looked very happy. He was moving His hands with the tune for many songs. After these, they sang a medley where they clubbed many bhajans one after the other with out breaks and in different

tunes. There is a village in Gachiroli area where the people are of tribal origin where sunlight hardly passes in to the village. They said that because of Bhagawan there was a great difference in their lives there and that He changed their lives in many ways. The people from this region did a dance called as “Rela” which is in their tradition from ages to express their happiness for all that Swami did for them. It was very nice. After this the Goan brothers performed 2 differenent arthis in their Goan style. One was for Ganesha and

another for Sri Datta Avathar. Both these arthis are arthis sung in the respective famous temples there in Goa. Swami looked happy taking arthi. Saw Him twirling His locks in between beautifully and I tell you, it’s a sight that makes Gods and Demi-Gods envy us as so many people giving arthi is really beautiful. It was a great blessing to all of us who were watching it as many youth and the regular arthi pundit and some others were all giving arthi to bhagawan. Love you bhagawan, for giving this opportunity to see the arthi seva going on to you. I am indeed blessed to see it from a very very close point to leave me blessed and in lifelong memories. Thank you so much Swami. As someone said in the program - “Swami you made us happy and we are very happy to be before you, but we would also like you to be happy with us Swami, please bless us, please bless us.” Its not that we love Swami its also important that How much Swami loves us, how much His grace is on us and so on. I wish He gives all those boons to make our lives mould in a way that makes Him happy. Swami blessed those who gave arthi on that day. Some milk sweet which tastes like khoya was distributed for all in the hall that day. 5th Jan afternoon darshan: All were ready with their programs on this afternoon – US devotees ( I think NRIs, not sure, because I saw many of them

talking in telugu), Maharashtra ladies and also gents. Maharashtra coordinator requested Swami for their program to be started Swami asked Him to wait and gave the permission to the US devotees J A small boy and a girl went to present the protocol for that day to Swami and lo and behold He created a chain for the boy kid. How blessed are these kids. Swami took time in dehooking

the chain and He Himself has put it on the child. I don’t know how many sacred acts the kid would have performed in his previous births to get this best blessing from Bhagawan. The US devotees started their sarva dharma bhajans and slokas program. Swami heard a few and stopped them in between and gave the permission to the Maharashtra ladies youth to start a program on meerabai, a great devotee of the Sai’s Krishna Avatar. The program was talking about the meera and was with meera bhajans. I cannot stop myself mentioning about something here. The US coordinator asked Swami His permission for their programs. I can see a lot of bliss

on this guy’s face. He was seeing Swami with intense love and he was so much involved in watching Swami rather than watching the program J Lost in Swami’s bliss. Swami has thrown a rose on this person with His left hand while the person was sitting on to the right of Swami making him smile more, playful Sai Krishna J Another thing is, I saw Swami pressing His hand cloth on His cheeks once, may be because of the sweat as it was slightly sultry that day. Immediately the student who came along with the mobile chair and who was sitting besides swami observed this and fixed a fan besides swami. He was very very careful in setting the right speed and also checked so many times whether the air is coming to swami or not and also at what level of Swami it was giving air etc., all the while keeping whatever he was doing, on a very low tone without grabbing any attention from any one. We need to learn a lot from this student, an example as to how to act before Swami whether He is present before us physically or not. Attentiveness, attentive towards whatever Swami is doing/talking and to make swami comfortable and happy in whatever

thing it might be. Once the meera bhajans started, It looked to me as if Swami went in to the meera’s era, as He got reminded of His beloved devotee meerabai. His eyes were up and He was in deep thoughts for a while. Must have gone in to the memories of those days and in to the Krishna Avatar! Then Swami gave permission to a singer called Mr. Raviraj, from Maharashtra. This person talked very briefly before he started. He said that he was getting emotional as Swami blessed him again with singing after 24 years..tooo long! (sabar ka phal meetha hotha hai J). He sang very beautifully. One thing I remember in particular was his song which is like, Swami your darshan in the early morning gives us lot of happiness and your evening darshan gives us lot of happiness and so on. It was nice. Swami gave this person Prasad with His own hands. (It was badusha, a sweet made of wheat/refined flour that day). Again even today there were so many arthis going on before Swami and it was a delight to the eyes. Also, while going Swami blessed with His right hand on ourside, making us forget our sleep with intense happiness that day J 6th Jan afternoon: Again a memorable day. There was a fantastic drama performed by the Maharashtra youth on Shivaji, a great king of Maharashtra. The drama started with

a scene even before shivaji was born and showed how great and devoted was Shivaji’s mother “Jijau Bai” towards goddess Bhavani as well as towards the love to her motherland, that is, the maratha kingdom. There were 3 boys playing as Shivaji king at 3 different ages of Shivaji. It was a very very catchy program. I was pulling my attention to come out of it in between as I don’t want to miss seeing Swami during that time J Shivaji at last told that Sai only saved Him as Vittala (Maharashtrian’s highly devoted God) during a point of time. Swami became very very happy that even before the program

finished he called the boy and created a chain for the boy. This Shivaji is the third boy, who acted as the grown-up/adult shivaji. He was very very happy with the drama and the boy. The boy was also very devoted and was very very involved in his role. Infact, he has put his sword before Swami as a token of respect to Gods or their elders as was the kings earlier J How nice! He asked Swami if he can take padanamaskar and I think he took 2/3 times all the time with Swami’s permission unlike others. How sweet is this kid, blessed is his life, blessed are his parents and all those in his ancestry and his future generations. He very sweetly

requested Swami if He can take a few photos with the group to which Swami agreed and came down the stage. Bhaktha parayana – I felt that God can never say “No” to a real bhakta/devotee. I felt while seeing and also heard from someone that Swami asked the concerned to give admission to all the 3 boys who played as shivaji in to His school!!! The program ended with many arthis going on at a

time making us all happy drenching us in an ocean of happiness. I was very sad that the trip ended so soon. There are no more words to explain my agony or our agony to return back to this world again where we have to play our roles again with a lot of responsibilities that keep us away in the immediate physical presence of our beloved Sai Maharaj. Om Sai Ram, With pranams to the lotus feet of Sai, Sailaja Krishna Mohan Thanks n Regards, Hari Om In the heart of silence one can hear the foot

steps of God Sailaja Krishna Mohan Raj