22nd June Darshan Update

[Guest guest]

Om Sairam dear Sai Family,warm wishes from the holy land of Puttaparthi to all of you...As some politicians and non believers were denying the existence of Ramayana,or a character by name Rama and those who are brushing aside the existance of the bridge built by Lord Rama, with the help of Hanuman and Party to reach the then Lanka and present Sri Lanka, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the same Rama, of the Treta Age showed His compassion by conducting Ramayana Saptaham Yagnam a week long programme depicting various chapters of Ramayana, the holy epic, penned down by chosen sage Valmiki consisting more than 24000 poems and in seven sections,chapters (kandams as theycall in telugu).. Each day, a noted speaker will tell one kandam and today being the first day, it was BALA KANDA, childhood days of Lord Rama, about His parents and the kind of brothers He had..

Each character of Ramayana has a great significance, and only today, those assembled in Kulwanth hall, had an idea as how significance life of Lord Rama is and the lesson one has to learn from this holy epic..

MORNING DARSHAN: This morning, it was very interesting.. All devotees were assembled including the preists who have come for Ramayana Saptaham Yagnam.. It was 9am and every one thought the bhajans should start any time.. Swami's car was still parked infront of the door and all eyes glued to the entrance.. Surprisingly the bhajans didnt start.. Every one guessing as whats going on..

It was 9:30.. 10 o clock and no trace of Swami and no bhajans.. and thus the morning session, which was quite strange one, ended without bhajans..

AFTERNOON DARSHAN: The hall was almost packed in the afternoon session.. Kulwanth hall was beautifully decorated with all the pillars lit up with small lights.. large idols of Lord Rama, Lakshmana, Sita and Hanuman were kept infront of Swami's house and as the clock showed 4:15 Swami blessed the vast gathering with His divine darshan, Swami first went to the idols and blessed them and few preists carried them in procession into the kulwanth hall amidst traditional music and veda chanting.. Our beloved Sai Rama seated in His wheel chair,watched the procession from the entrance of the hall, as the priest took a full round and when they reached the dias, Swami entered into the hall..

The atmosphere was totally electrifying and it was heaven on earth, to see Swami on this beautiful day, how compassionate He is and Iam sure there is a very strong reason as why He has arranged this programme, probably to ignite our minds which is othere wise too busy with other useless issues, for the so called mordern youth, who have no idea who Lord Rama is and Ramayana is beyond our reach..

Swami took a full round blessing all of us, smiling, accepting letters.. As Swami reached the dias the preists kept the idols just before Ganesha on the dias... It was a treat to watch the idols beautifully decorated with fresh flowers, the fragrance making the atmosphere more divine..

After about 10 minutes, Swami signalled for the Veda chanting to stop and the afternoon programme started..

There came a elderly gentle man, he went upto Swami, after offering a rose, taking His blessings started the programme..

Quite surprisingly there were no one to introduce the audience as what the programme was or who is going to speak..

The speaker shared his thoughts on Ramayana, the significance of the name of Rama, His personality and His life.. the speech was in telugu even though non telugu speakers were just sitting with opened mouth, telugu speaking devotees were also in the similar way just immersed in the kind of narration the speaker did.. He was too good and many times, Swami looked at him appreciating his scholarly and indepth analysis of the holy epic.. He said, Rama's life was KARANA JANMA (birth for a reason), he was all praise for Sage Valmiki for writing Ramayana.. The speaker was of the feeling that, above all things Bhakthi (devotion) was very important.. It so happend once, there was an arguement as who is great.. Some one said, Earth is great as it is holding Lord Vishnu, reclined on His bed with Adi Seshu (cobra) above His head, and some one said, no the snake is great as it is bearing Lord Vishnu on it. to this some one said, no Lord Shiva is great as He has the same snake as His ornament around His neck to this they said, no Kailasa Parvatham (mountain) is great as both Shiva and Parvathi live there.. Again it was told, Kailasa Mountain is not great as King Ravana lifted it with one hand so Ravana is great.. to this another arguement was, The arrow which killed Ravana is great and again it was said, it is not the arrow but Lord Rama who aimed the arrow was great. some one argued, Hanuman is greater than Rama as he has kept Rama in His heart thus concluding that Bhakthi (devotion is greater than anything)..

The speaker then did some numerology on Lord Rama's name and ended his 45 minutes talk thanking Swami for giving the opportunity to share his scholarly knowledge on Lord Rama..The audience gave a loud applauds including non telugu speaking devotees, as they felt the speaker had done lot of home work and was just excellent..

Swami then asked the preist to do puja to the idols kept on the stage and later Swami asked for bhajans to start. Being a Rama day, all the bhajans were Rama centric and every one of us, including our Sai Rama, were immersed in the Rama Sagara, as the students were at their best in bhajans.. About 15 Rama bhajans were sung, and around 6:15 pm Swami asked for Arathi and thus ended a beautiful day of my Prasanthi Diary... a day which was RAMA MAYAM.. and what a blessing.... as Swami sings this beautiful verse Chekkara kante teepi..... sweeter than sugar, more tastier than curd, that which gives the taste of Amrit is the name of Lord Rama.. truly, Swami made us taste the AMRIT, that AMRIT, which is unique and special... thank you dear Lord... With humble pranams at the Lotus feet of our beloved Lord,R.Satish Naik..