Published on Saturday, Oct 22, 2010 @ 2000 Hrs. IST
The fortnight falling between 3rd October to 17th October had plenty
of action, with the sacred Dasara Festivity topping the list. Along
with Dasara came another Yajna, Grama Seva 2010 that witnessed
enmasse participation of students and faculties, serving hundreds of
villages with Bhagawan's Package of Love. With the countdown for the
85th Birthday already began, being the 85th year of His Advent,
every festivity in the run-up to the big event assumes special
significance.
Changing phase of Prasanthi schedules, wherein we witness late
evening or twlight darshans more often, this years Dasara
celebrations, had its impact on Dasara festivity as the Maha
Poornahuthi of the seven day Saptaaha Jnana Yajna was offered in the
waning twilight, at 1820 hrs. on the 17th October, a practice
Prasanthi witnessed for the first time.
Earlier the Yajna got under way on the 11th October at the
Poornachandra auditorium, in Bhagawan's benign presence. With
hundreds and thousands packed in the spacious auditorium witnessing,
the Yajna was lit with the sacred fire created out of friction.
During the seven day long Yajna Bhagawan made His presence on two
morning, while most of the evenings were blessed with His twilight
darshans, of course, sans Prasanthi Vidwan Maha Sabha, a usual
affair for the past many a year.
Grama Seva 2010 got underway on the 9th October with students and
staff members from the three campuses engaged in action with great
sporting spirit. While the Prasanthi Nilayam and Brindavan Campuses
had field days for the whole of the ten days, women students from
Anantapur were the real force behind mixing and packing of the
tamarind rice packets in huge quantity. They would stay awake in the
wee hours, from 1 am to 4:30 am keeping thousands of packets ready
for taking to distribution.
There was a special Grama Seva Kitchen allied with other activities
entirely managed by Sevadal force from Andhra Pradesh. Over 340
gents and 50 ladies Sevadals were engaged in various activities that
included helping in cooking, spreading, cooling, transporting to the
packing arena etc, while 28 special cooks from East Godavari
district donned the responsibility of entire cooking. There was
another set of seventy ladies engaged in laddu making happened in
the first floor of South Indian Canteen.
Dignitary visit during the fortnight had Former Loksabha Speaker,
Formerly Home Minister of India and currently Governor of Punjab,
Sri Shivraj Patil. On the day when Bhagawan set out at 11:30 am
Bhagawan, upon returning after the 'safari' blessed Mr. Patil and
group before retiring to Yajur Mandiram.
On the 9th October Bhagawan blessed a group of over 120 specialist
medicos who have come to attenda high-profile Urology Conference at
the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences at
Prasanthigram.
The first week of the fortnight witnessed a cultural programme by
Bihar and Jharkhand, entitled "Maa", a tribute to the institution of
Motherhood. !0th of October witnessed the beauty of Himachal Pradesh
parading forth with the state taking her stake presenting an hour
long cultural presentation. A ten minute folk dance, Karyala, that
turned out to be a real entertainer, was followed by a fifty minute
dance drama Dashaavatar. Burrakatha, the art form, that was more
than lucky to have the touch of the Divine made its entry once again
onto the 'Prasanthi Theatre', with the 'originators', the first
batch of Burrakatha students presenting the story Shiva Parvathi
Kalyanam on the 7th October 2010.
Prasanthi is rivelling in, giving every bit of her life to the folks
thronging unto her. The fortnight experienced unusual rush of
devotees, especially during the dasara festivity.
Prasanthi continues to rejoice, as the countdown has already begun
for the big occasion, 85th Birthday of The Lord.
Text & photo source - copyrights: Sri Sathya Sai Sadhana Trust -
sssbpt.org -
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