Merry Christmas at Prasanthi

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Merry Christmas at Prasanthi

Christmas Eve: Music Programme by International Devotees

December 24, 2008

Christmas

or Yuletide or Noel or Christ's Mass brings to mind images of snow and

snowmen, candles and candies, Santa Claus and his sprinting reindeer,

Christ and the Holy Cross. The night before, celebrated as Christmas

eve, is that holy night when Jesus the son of God was supposed to have

taken birth. And in Prashanti Nilayam, it is the holy night which is

blessed by the father of Christ!

At

about 4:15 pm, Swami arrived into the "decked with holly" Kulwant hall.

A mention must be made about the elaborate decorations. Kulwant hall

didn't seem as a place in South India. Huge cloth spreads with Virgin

Mary and her babe boy hung from different parts of the hall. Beautiful

paintings adorned the mandir premises and there were lovely blue lights

draping the pillars along with decorative cloths. Tiny bells,

ornamental trinkets and other X'Mas decorations made the whole

atmosphere festive and holy. How the entire decorations came about is a

lovely story in itself which we plan to carry soon hopefully. The large

number of participants for the choir sat neatly arranged in rows in

their respective places. This choir has a wonderful story of its own

and you can read that at

http://sssbpt.org/Pages/Prasanthi_Nilayam/SingingforSai.html

 

Swami observed the beautifully decorated Christmas tree as soon as He

came out. Moving through the hundreds of Christian and Jewish ladies

who had assembled for the occasion Swami blessed all. A huge area in

the centre of the Kulwant hall had been occupied by the members of the

choir. They bowed down to Swami and were flashing smiles of glee and

joy. Passing through them, Swami blessed all of them. He took a

complete darshan round as blessed the boys holding trays as He neared

them. He accepted two letters and a card from the students and those

happened to be the only "collectables" with Him in today's darshan

rounds. Swami moved on to the stage and then lit the three huge candles

that had been specially placed there. That was followed by a round of

applause and then Swami asked for the choir to begin.Christmas Eve in

Prasanthi Nilayam is distinctive over the years with a unique choir

comprising representation of united nations singing His glory in His

immediate Divine Presence. The overseas choir has been a part of the

Christmas celebrations for over a decade now. This unique choir for

this year had over 400 voices singing a spirited collection of songs

basing different cultures from around the world.

 

Swami gave His blessings and the graceful conductor waved her

finger-baton in the air tickling over 400 vocal chords resulting in

three omkars kick starting yet another wonderful Christmas Eve in the

immediate Divine Presence! All men and women, over 400 in number, clad

in white, symbolising purity sang their hearts out in devotional

ecstasy on the Christmas Eve witnessed by the Holy Father and a

concourse of devotees from around the world that filled the Sai Kulwant

Hall to capacity. Some of the numbers for the evening included Christmas is the holy time to celebrate the birth, Almighty God…make me aware and And this is Christmas in Prasanthi.

At His Divine command, they continued…As sonorous notes from an array

of musical instruments rendered the air, with hundreds singing in

chorus, the sun in the western horizon slowly fading off giving way to

a beautiful twilight, they sang…Then sings My soul, My saviour God to

Thee…How great Thou Art, How great Thou Art…It was a befitting evening

paying homage to the Master of masters while remembering His chosen

son, anticipating yet another Divine Advent…a glorious Christmas!!! It

was such a wonderful feeling listening to the overseas devotees and

seeing Swami. All sang in unison, united in their Love for Him. The joy

and power of Unity which Swami always stresses on could literally be

felt especially with the carols since these songs are chord based and

all the counter strains add up to a great symphonic effect. Separately

sung they seem disconnected but when combined, they make an everlasting

impression - just what Unity does to diverse components - bringing

synergy.

There was something

very subtle but interesting that happened as the choir was in progress.

Somewhere at the midway stage, Swami seemed a bit unhappy that no

"Jesus" carols were being sung. It may sound a bit in the face but we

devotees of Swami profess broad mindedness but become unwary victims to

narrow mindedness. What are we saying??!! Well just that, we are so

enamoured by our dear Lord that we feel that singing His glory is

sufficient and it is equivalent to singing the glories of all dieties.

We forget what Swami says as, "Munde Munde Mathih Bhinna" (thoughts

differ from head to head). But Swami never allows that, for He has

come to propagate all pathways to the Divine. When it a Buddhist

festival, He ensures that bhajans on Bhagawan Buddha are sung and the

same is the case on Islamic festivals where the glories of Allah and

The Prophet are sung. And so, Swami repeatedly called the conductor of

the orchestra and told her to sing "Jesus" carols. All who witnessed

this were in smiles as Swami seemed like a child insisting on the

traditional Christmas carols being sung. But a little introspection and

we all realize the wonderful unifying message that Swami is sending

forth. There is no single pathway to the Lord and Swami stands for all.

Sing any name, about any form, the same Lord receives it. And so when

there is a gathering of various faiths, we must ensure that our singing

also reflects it.

Taken aback at this

sudden insistent request from Swami, the conductor began to guide the

choir through the carols and songs that they had not practised! O Holy Night the stars are brightly shining and

some of the more traditional carols were then sung. As this was on,

Swami blessed prasadam to be distributed to all. People joyfully sang

sweet songs as they received "sweet" gifts of the Lord. Towards the end

when The choir told Swami that they were done, Swami seemed to ask,

"One more please?" They were simply overjoyed and they burst out

singing one more which concluded with thunderous claps and a sweet

smile from Swami. Swami then looked towards the students and asked them

to sing. It is so beautiful to see how Swami involves the students in

any celebration that happens in His presence. It is a great fortune

indeed to be His students. And as they began singing bhajans with

Aalaap, Swami sat enjoying it. After 3-4 bhajans, Aarthi was taken and

Swami retired granting Abhayahastha to all assembled.

 

 

Christmas Day: Procession, Brass Band Programme, Violin Orchestra & Carols

December 25, 2008:Morning

Christmas

morning is something very very special in terms of the schedule too in

Puttaparthi. Till a few years back, the Lord clad in pure and pristine

white would grant darshan to all the eagerly awaiting devotees from the

shiny silver door leading to the balcony in the mandir premises. Its

been a few years since those days, but the lovely taste and feelings of

those beautiful mornings linger in the hearts of the thronging

thousands as they encircle the hallowed mandir premises singing carols.

The way the Christmas processions have progressed with each passing

year has been symbolic of a spiritual revolution happening the world

over with His presence. Those were the days when Swami would physically

come up in the balcony to bless the devotees. That has stopped now. The

devotees would carry candles and sing hymns glorifying the Father and

His blessed Son Jesus. Today, the candles are absent and carols are no

longer restricted to "Christian" themes as they embrace all being sung

in the glory of the single God. The whole experience represents a

movement from the religious to the spiritual, a movement just like that

of the procession that has happened so gently and willingly.

More joy awaits the watching ones…this

is the way to express the beautiful morning of 25th December. True to

the feeling entailed in the expression, the Christamas morn indeed was

brought forward from the previous evening wherein the spirit of the

festivity was very much ringing in….and the beautiful morning had men

and women clad in white singing His glory in the waking hours rounding

the ashram and at the culmination they sang Christmas Carols for the

Lord in the Mandir. Two screens that had been put up in the mandir

played clips of the times when Swami would bless the thousands with

candles and people rejoiced in that memory and the joy of the

brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God.

 

The celebrations in the Divine Presence got underway at 8:30 am with

Swami's arrival from Yajur Mandir. There was a procession by the

members of the Nativity scene as Swami watched on. A few tiny tots

moved up to Swami offering Him flowers and Love. Swami smiled and

blessed them. Swami was in shiny white and the moment the hem of His

robe was visible to the vast gathering, a rapturous applause of glee

moved through the entire Kulwant hall. The Heavenly Father that He is,

He was seated on a lovely golden throne and He entered the hall forming

the tail as well as the heart of the procession. Soon the procession

moved on and Swami was left back, moving slowly through the joyous

devotees. The Veda chanting was on and it was such a harmonious

commingling of the instrumental carols on the PA system and the Veda

chanting by the students. We can say with surety that such a Christamas

will never be witnessed anywhere else in the world.

 

Swami completed the darshan rounds and then arrived in the portico.

Several cakes and their makers awaited the Lord's attention. Swami

smilingly moved from one cake to another, lighting the candles on them

and gracing them with a gentle cut from the knives. Blessing all the

cakes thus, Swami arrived on the dais. The whole hall was so

beautifully decorated and lit up. Swami blessed the programnme to

begin. The University brass band was the first to perform. It turned

out to be a scintillating band display by the University boys. Some of

the popular Christmas numbers namely, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reinder, Noel etc.

were rendered to perfection by these well trained students. Swami kept

tapping His hands in rhythm to the playing band. The audience too

clapped in unison to some of the lively numbers. After about 5 pieces,

Swami said that it was time now for the Primary school violins to take

over.

The kids rose and with

wonderful co ordination and harmony played a few carols and bhajans on

the violin. Towards the end, they played the famous "Jingle Bells"

piece and with that popped up half a dozen Santas! They moved to the

stage where Swami took chocolates from their bags and threw them to the

students nearby. Then He bid them to go around spraying their

chocolates on all. All the devotees leapt and rushed for the chocolates

foor they had been blessed by Swami and just receiving one made them

feel that they had a part of Him with them! Swami watched these scenes

from the stage and soon two "snow machines" installed on the roof of

the hall began to emit snow flakes adding to the Christmas atmosphere.

As the violins completed their performance, Swami blessed the

University students to begin their carol programme. Swami looked so

beautiful and like the embodiment of purity that He is in the silken

white robe. A mere sight of Him was enough to send thrills of joy

through ones being. People drank in thirstily at His form and the eyes

feasted on a magnificent supper!

 

The students beginnning with the Aumkara, presented a most joyful gift

of Christmas Carols tied together by a thoughtful and informative

voice-over narrative depicting the entire course of the story of His

Divine Advent - the Christmas Story, to all assemblage consisting of a

sizeable number of western devotees.Starting with "Light one thousand candles",

they sang a variety of carols covering all the significant aspects of

Christmas. As the programme went on Swami sifted through the various

letters that He had collected during the rounds. The programme climaxed

with the song, "Come everyone to Santa Claus's Party". It was

at this time that the "senior" Santas came onstage. Swami blessed them

and their bagful of chocolates too. Then they hopped and skipped around

throwing chocolates to all the devotees and students. The programme

continued after that with a few more songs. Swami then blessed the more

"traditional" prasadam also to be distributed to all. The Christmas day

also happens to be the hostel opening anniversary. So a few students

moved to Swami to show the pictures of the decorated hostel. They also

showed Him pictures of His visits to the hostel with the aim of (as

they put it), "making Him nostalgic and inducing another Hostel visit!"

Swami smiled (for no motive is secret from Him!) and blessed the

students. A few more Christmas cards were blessed before Swami received

Aarthi.

 

 

Christmas Evening: Speeches and Divine Discourse

December 25, 2008:Evening

The

afternoon session began at about 4:40pm with Swami's arrival. Swami

moved to the stage and blessed the proceedings to begin. John Behner

sought HIs blessings and began his introductory talk. Thanking Bhagawan

profusely for the wonderful opportunity and blessing bestowed upon he

divulged into varied details of the back stage operations that made the

celebration a grand success. Making a special mention of the wonderful

array of decorations made all over the Sai Kulwant Hall and Yajur

Mandiam, he said, the preparations for the same started way back six

months before Christmas with a dedicated team from the US taking the

lead. Various wings of the ashram, the special group of ladies and

gents from Indonesia who cooked food for the entire group, the

Californian group of devotees behind decoration, sevadals all came in

mention for their dedicated and loving service rendered during the run

up to the festivity. Talking about the children choir and drama

presentation to be followed the next day, Behner narrated the story of

young Sathya Sai, as has been the practice during the rehearsal

sessions every day to pep little hearts and minds, for the benefit of

children, compensating for the miss out on the previous day owing the

tight schedule.

The first

speaker for the afternoon was Ms. Gisela Sebastian, a long time devotee

from Munich, Germany, a wonderful singer, member, choir group. Talking

about Bhagawan, the beauty of Christmas in Prasanthi and the greater

significance of being in Prasanthi in the Divine presence to celebrate

in Christmas spirit Ms. Sebastian narrated her wonderful tale of her

introduction into Sai fraternity. She was directed to go to Sai Baba

by her doctor at a time when she was in a critical condition. Not

knowing anything about Sai Baba she was reluctant at first but

subsequently she met with a terrible car accident and lost her vision.d

her passionate plea, prayer to this unknown God was heard and she had a

dream…and got a promise…an answer to her prayer…!!! It was an amazing

story of total surrender! She concluded with a mellifluous rendering of

prayer to Bhagawan…at Thy Lotus Feet…I hold on to Thy Feet…Om

Bhagawan…Om SaiRam…

The

last speaker for the session was Mr. Ted Henry, a veteran TV journalist

and a news reporter of fame from Cleveland, Ohio, who runs a spiritual

oriented programme over TV in the United States. Having travelled all

over the world, Mr. Ted Henry was instrumental in interviewing many a

devotee and these interviews were published in various Sai Media,

including H2H journal and Radio Sai Global Harmony.

"We

are among the luckiest people on the face of the earth on this

Christmas Day…We get to be on Christmas Day, with Jesus Himself" said

Ted Henry commencing his rhetoric excellence. Narrating the incident

when he sought Divine permission to take Bhagawan's name to the United

States of America, to contribute his might as a journalist to the Sai

Cause, Bhagawan gave him a firm No as an answer, further advising him

to take His Love instead. Henry said he understood the underlying

message in it, that first he should be submerged in His love before

taking His name across the world. Talking about his own boomerang story

wherein through hundreds of interviews, seeing the love of devotees for

Bhagawan, tears of joy for Bhagawan the journalist in him has had a

transformation…and that was the wonder of Bhagawan. Traversing through

the Divine Wonder and His life in true journalistic perception,Ted

spoke about His all encompassing love, barring boundaries, bringing in

transformation of heart. He prayed to Bhagawan to get them deeper and

deeper in to the majesty of His Divine Awareness!

 

And then came the moment all had waited for with bated breath.

Mr.Behner requested Swami to deliver His divine discourse. With a sweet

smile, Swami nodded and asked for His mikes to be brought. There was a

loud round of applause. A brief summary of the highlights are presented

below.

Starting His

discourse hailing Bharat for her glory and her spiritual leaning in all

matters, Swami exhorted that all the seen in this world is momentary

and subject to change. The only one that lasts without any change is

the principle of Atma, the principle of Love. With Love one can conquer

the whole of the world. And God, being the witness, does not give you

good or bad. Everything is man's own making. With reference to the

recent terror attacks, Bhagawan said that world was finding

restlessness with wicked things happening everywhere. The best solution

to counter this would be to develop self confidence and pray to God.

With Self Confidence in place one could achieve anything. Once we

develop self-confidence and lead a life of love, nothing would ever

happen to us. "God is in you, with you, above you, around you, below

you". God is only ONE though He is called by different names and is

seen as different forms. God is the only hero and once we rest our

faith in Him, no bomb or any other artillery could disturb the

humanity.

God is the most

powerful hydrogen bomb within…then why are you afraid of small tiny

little bombs, asked Swami to the assemblage of devotees exhorting them

to develop self confidence. "In respect of God do not entertain any

doubts; one doubt leads to another and multiply spoiling the man. If

you want to lead a perfect ideal life of a human being, dispel all

doubts." All of you have come from distant lands with full of devotion

and steadfastness for God…hold on with that conviction and love.

Develop the deep conviction that "I am God".

 

As is the case always, Swami's discourse had a message for each and

every soul seated in the hall. It was 90 minutes of sheer profundity as

words flowed in an endless stream from the Divine lips. The climax was

two bhajans that Swami sang instead of His usual single bhajan. Swami

sang both,"Prema Mudhita" and "Hari Bhajan Bina". After that, as

prasadam was distributed, Swami asked the students to sing bhajans.

Another small episode occured while the bhajans went on. The wooden

cover of one of the speakers kept in front of Swami fell off, slipping

down the steps. A student went up and put it back in place as Swami

watched. However, the problem was the satin cloth that was making the

cover slip away. So, a few minutes later, the cover fell again and

Swami looked at the student with a smile as if to say, "Nay...not a

properly done job." The student went back andset it right, pulling out

the "satin slip causer". That was a job well done! Three bhajans later,

Swami asked for Aarthi and then retired to Yajur Mandir.

 

 

Boxing Day : Children's Choir and Skit

December 26, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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