4TH MAY 2011, NEWS FROM PUTTAPARTHI

4th May 2011

Om Sairam dearest Sai Family,

Its been exactly one week since Swami's Maha Samadhi happened and this day 4th May 2011 also happens to be the 11th day of Swami's divine departure. The ritual which was presided by many priests was attended by brother Ratnakar who did the required prayers on behalf of every one of us. holy water from various rivers were sprinkled at the end of puja. the morning programme concluded at 10 am with bhajans and mangala Arathi to Swami's Maha Samadhi.

This evening programme as scheduled started at 5pm.

A throne for Swami was placed just next to to Maha Samadhi to Swami's right and to the far right of the dais was the speakers podium. The throne was not one with wheels, rather the kind of throne where in He used to sit when He was walking.

There were four speakers scheduled for this evening. The first one to start was Prof.Anil Kumar who gave a hour long talk in telugu explaining the glory of Sri Sathya Sai Avatar, the love that He showered on him, the significance of being His devotees, the duty that we have post Maha Samadhi.
Excerpts from the the talks. ( please remember this is just an essence and completely based on memory and not the exact words said by the speakers. I have tried to give just the essence and not the actual words).

Swami 96 or 85

Prof.Anil Kumar started with the most popular argument of the present days, if Swami was 96 or was it a "premature exit". Prof.Anil Kumar started explaining the Lunar month calender and also explained that Swami was exactly the same age and He left as He "predicted'. At one time, when devotees from Kerala prayerd Swami to come to Kerala He said He will come. When some one from Chennai had the same prayer the answer was the same. Now every one would ask, why didn't Swami go?. Swami only said that He will come, but He didn't say when or how. So Swami's every word has deeper significance which is not easy to understand.

AYYI POYINDI...... SARI POYINDI

Explaining the greatness and majesty of Sri Sathya Sai Avatar, Professor, shared one incident which happened some years ago on one Eswaramma day in Kodaikanal. They had expected only a few hundreds of devotees for Narayana seva as they thought, how many would have the patience to walk that much distance and come to partake the food but to their surprise some thousands turned up where as the food was prepared only for few hundreds.

Some one went upto Prof.Anil Kumar and asked him to inform Swami that the food is AYYI POINDI (finished). When he passed the same message to Him, Swami looked at him bit seriously and said with Swami it is never AYYI POINDI (finished or over) where as it is always SARI POYINDI (enough). such is the perfection of Swami. Of course His divine will made every one to partake the food to the surprise of the organisers.

SWAMI IS THE SHAKTHI:

Prof.Anil Kumar continued, the distance between Bangalore and Kodai is a very long one and Swami usually eats just few spoons of food where as He will ask us to eat stomach full. Inspite of all the food, by the time we reached Kodai, we would be exhausted but Swami used to be as fresh as He was in the morning. No one knows from where He gets that SHAKTHI(energy) inspite of eating so less and oneday Prof.Anil Kumar did ask Swami the secret and Swami replied, I am the SHAKTHI itself and that is why I am always fresh and energetic.

SELECTION-ELECTION

Prof.Anil Kumar urged all the devotees not to grieve on Swami's Maha Samadhi. There is no need to shed even a tear as Swami has not left us. If any one says, or cries that Swami has left us, he has not understood His divinity. We all are very fortunate out of all the billions, we were able to come in His fold. This itself is a rare blessing.There was no election. it was only selection. Swami has personally SELECTED us to come into His fold to enjoy and explore His Avatar hood for which we should be very great ful to Him.

When Swami thanked Prof.Anil Kumar's mother:

Prof.Anil Kumar, even though never broke down during his hour long talk, but did make every one us emotional when he shared some of his personal experiences with Swami. Apparently it was during the wedding of Prof.Anil Kumar's eldest daughter (Smt.Sarojini Kanagala who is now in the USA). Swami after the marriage gave every one a saree. He personally handpicked the colours and gave it to every one. Next day, Swami came out with two sarees, one golden and one blue in colour and asked him to choose one for his mother. Prof.Anil Kumar said, both are nice Swami. He continued to say, Swami you have already given every one in my family a saree each, yesterday and why do You want to give one more today to my mother?Our beloved Lord's reply was so touching. As the sound system in Sai Kulwanth hall was not so good, I didn't understand what was the reply given by Swami and I knew that was very important and touching statement. Immediately after the evening session, I went upto Prof.Anil Kumar who was just leaving the ashram and asked him to explain that incident again and with dampened eyes BUT with a smile on his face he said, "Swami replied, I WANT TO THANK YOUR MOTHER FOR GIVING HER SON TO ME". Wow that was a beautiful statement by Swami and only He can say this. We all know, it was His SELECTION that would have brought even Prof.Anil Kumar to Swami , but only He can tell us the real meaning of GRATITUDE.

FUTURE OF PUTTAPARTHI:

Referring to present hot topic, what will happen to Parthi now that Swami has attained Maha Samadhi. will it retain its past glory? Prof.Anil Kumar said, Puttaparthi is the only holy place which has developed in the immediate presence of the Avatar. Swami has made sure, Parthi has each and every facility needed for a man's survival and all the facilities are WORLD CLASS. He said, no one should have any doubts about the future of Parthi. This place will flourish much better than, Tirupathi, Shirdi or Vatican for that matter.

MECCA OF INDIA

Prof.Anil Kumar then shared one incident that happened some years ago. There was a big group of women wearing white dress with white head scarf. all of them were seated in Sai Kulwanth Hall in one place. Prof. Anil Kumar slowly went upto Swami and told Him about the group of women. Swami looked at him bit seriously asking as why he was looking that side (towards the ladies side). He quickly responded, Swami as they are wearing white dress, they looked like a white ocean and so I was diverted that side.

Later, the same group was called for interview which also had some gents. Prof.Anil Kumar then went upto one of the gents and asked what happend in the interview room. the man replied, we all are from Iran and on our way to Mecca and we stopped by in Puttaparthi to have Swami's darshan. Swami asked every one of us as where we were going and we replied we are going to Mecca. Swami then asked (as if He doesn't know), where is this Mecca, what is there and the group replied , we all go there to pray to Kaba. Swami then showed His hand (palm) to every one and every one in the group from Iran could see Kaba in Swami's palm. Thrilled and speechless with this DIVINE REVEALITOIN they immediately said to Swami, Swami You have already gave us the darshan of Kaba, we will not go to Mecca. But Swami insisted to go to Mecca.

Prof.Anil Kumar assured every one that Swami is very much with us and there is no need to worry. We should never cry for Swami. It is a moment to rejoice for being SELECTED by Swami, he said.

Thus ended another beautiful session with Prof.Anil Kumar.

The next speaker was Sri.Sanjay Sahani, alumunus of Sri Sathya Sai Institution, infact one of the first batch students. Sri.Sanjay Sahani who is now the principal of Brindavan Campus shared some interesting episodes of Bhagawan. He said, when the news about Swami's hospitalisation reached Brindavan, all the boys started chanting for Swami's speedy recovery. The chanting was very intense and went on even until odd hours in the night. One night while passing through the rooms, he heard some chanting going on and to his surprise he noticed one boy who was fast asleep but was still chanting. Sri.Sanjay Sahani said that is how intense prayers were offered to Swami.

He narrated one touching incident which apparently happened in a village in Chatisgarh state which fell in Tamil Nadu border. When they came to know about Swami's hospitalisation, about 20 poor illiterate villagers collected 2000 rupees and went to one of the district presidents of Sai Organisation in Tamil Nadu and asked him to send this money to Puttaparthi immediately so that quality medical aid can be offered to Swami. this incident does say how much love every one had for Swami and also the kind of sacrifice one can do.

The next speake was Sri.Dr.Narendra nath Reddy, who happens to be one of the fortunate doctors who attended Swami during His hospitalisatoin. Dr.Narendra Reddy who is also a key member of Prasanthi Council said how fortunate he was to be in Sai's fold. Since his childhood, Swami guided him and his family and brought every one out of intense tests in their lives.

Dr.Narendra reassured every one that all the activities will go on even though we may not have Swami physically with us. He said, there is a programme planned for Buddha Poornima and also he said there will be world youth conference in June-July which will be followed by a orthopaedic conference prior to Guru poornima celebrations.

The next speaker was Sri.V.Srinivasan, who is the President of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation and also a key trustee of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust. He said, in this 40 years of proximity to Bhagawan, he never thought that he would have a meeting of this kind in the absence of Bhagawan but he said, it is all the divine plan. Referring to various sections of the media's false stories about the trust and discussions on its future Chairman, Sri.Srinivasan, in a firm voice said, why is every one talking about the future chairman of the trust? Swami is our Chairman not only for life but eternity and beyond. On behalf of the trustees, addressing mainly to the un necessary propaganda that is being spread by vested interests who wanted to defame Swami's trust, Sri.Srinivasan said, all the activities of the trust, which Swami has blessed and started will continue. There won't be any set back to these activities. The schools, hospitals, grama seva etc will function with much more intensity and we have blessings of our beloved Bhagawan.

He asked every one of us not to read any false news which are being circulated in news papers. He said, Swami has said that these news papers are nuisance papers. Don't read any such news.All those who wish to come in groups, those who want to come on Parthi Yatras like before may happily do so and Sri.Srinivasan assured that all the functions, festivals will be celebrated like before without any short comings.

Sri.Srinivasan, reassured every one that Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust will be a ROLE MODEL to all the charity organisations in the world. All the activities will be completely transparent. He even said, they plan to bring out a yearly report which will have all the details of the HIS WORK done during that year by all the Sai Organisations in India and abroad. He also said that all the details of the TRUSTS blessed and approved by Swami, which come under Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, would be placed in the official website for the convenience of the devotees so that no one would be duped.

He also warned all the devotees to stay away from trusts which claim to be blessed by or supported by Swami. He said there are already so many people who are running such trusts/charity institutions and there would be many who would do business in the name of Swami.

Sri.Srinivasan also asked every devotee to stay away from Swamiji's or individuals who claim to be CONNECTED with Swami through so called "inner voice". They say that Swami has blessed them to be His instruments. He said there are so many Swamijis who can even materialse from thin air which is not DIVINITY but just SIDHI. Swami has taught us enough knowledge that we just have to practice them to make Him happy. Swami will never use any other person to pass any message to you. Swami's message is always HEART TO HEART.

Sri.Srinivasan's talk was very very informative and came at the right time and I hope it cleared lot of apprehensions.

The students sang three bhajans this evening. While the bhajans were sung, it was too hard to watch the dais. If Swami was present, how many times, He would have waved His hand, write something in the air, take His handkerchief and wipe His beautiful face wow... cannot forget those DIVINE GESTURES, but as the elders said, we should MOVE ON. Swami has never left us, He will never leave us, even though we may TRY to leave Him.

As we all have seen over the years, prasadam used to be taken to Swami for blessings first and then distributed to every one. today, three boys went upto the maha samadhi, placed the prasadam on the floor, bowed down to Maha Samadhi and started distributing. Such kind of emotional scenes will be a common thing for us, and yes we have to MOVE ON..

Meedi Maadhi Okey Bandamu... Adiye Prema Bandamu...

Jai Sai Ram
Satish Naik..