A musical evening
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| Swami blesses Mr.Subrata Roy (above) and Mr.Shivraj Patil (below). |
Swami had gone to His room after the evening tiffin
session on the first day of our stay at Hadshi. Within a few
minutes, He came down. It was about 5:50 p.m. and there were a few
VIP guests who had come to meet Him. Notable among them were Mr.
Shivraj Patil and Mr. Subrata Roy, the Managing "Worker" (as he
calls himself) and Chairman of the Sahara Parivar, a multi-business
conglomerate.
Link to part 1 is given below and the link to the next part will be at the end of each previous part. Thank you.
(Dear reader,
If you have come directly to this post, I would
like to egg you on to enjoy the full story with its history.
Link to part 1 is given below and the link to the next part will be at the end of each previous part. Thank you.
It is pertinent here that I mention another ‘faulty’
line of thinking that devotees and critics alike adopt with Swami. I
am drawn into this here because apparently, Mr. Subrata Roy has got
himself into some legal tangles. The question that people ask is
this:
How can Swami bless someone who is not
good/unethical/unrighteous and so on?
I say that this is a faulty line of thinking because
we seem to be partial in the application of this line of thinking.
We are convinced that God is only for the ‘Good’ and not for the
‘Bad’. (i put those words in quotes only to indicate that they are
good and bad in our perspective. One man’s freedom-fighter is
another man’s terrorist!) God’s love is for all though He always
encourages the good over bad. And that is because good is definitely
a greater reality than bad. But that does not mean that God deserts
the ‘bad’. If He deserts the ‘bad’ then He is no God at all. The
hypocrisy lies in the fact that we consider ourselves as ‘good’. God
alone knows how many skeletons we have in our cupboards! And so, I
feel, rather than spend time in wondering why certain people receive
God’s blessings, we should focus on ourselves being good and
persevering with it. After this little detour, I move back to the
narrative.
Blessing them all, Swami moved out of the Mandir. As
He came down, the bands and people in costumes lined the entire way.
The temple had been lit and presented a beautiful sight.
Bhajans
were in progress, and as Swami approached the huge stage that had
been set up for Him, songs in Marathi were sung. The
bhajan
singers were the likes of Kunal Ganjawalla and Raviraj Nasery; the
former being a very popular name in the Indian music industry! The
students followed Swami’s car. I ran up the stage to take pictures.
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|
There was a swell of a crowd on
the evening of the 28th of October as Swami came on stage and
moved all around, granting Darshan. |
When Swami was interacting with all of us and was
'inside', Swami was so human; He was like one among us and we too
freely moved about Him. There was this intimacy with Swami, which
sometimes bordered on the casual from our side. However, once
outside, amidst the devotees, a strange, effulgence emanated from
His face. I just watched in awe at the way this radiance transferred
from Him to the faces of all the devotees assembled including
myself! I was overwrought with wonder. "This is God. Don't ever
forget that," I told myself.
Swami was now in the centre of the massive stage,
listening to the songs of the singers who were seated below. The
artists due to perform in the evening were also seated below. After
a few songs, permission was sought to invite them on stage and Swami
agreed.
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| The performers for the evening seek Divine blessings. Kavita Krishnamoorthy's daughter too was present. |
The musicians for the day were Nitin Mukesh, Kavita
Subramaniam (Kavita Krishnamoorthy, as she is popularly known) and
Sapna Mukherjee. They bowed to Swami and began their renditions.
Nitin Mukesh, as he sang, held on dearly to the rose that had been
blessed by Swami. He started the session with a Ganesh
bhajan,
Jai Ganesh Jai Ganesh Jai Ganesh Deva.
The artists had decided to sing in turns, in rotation.
The crowd was overjoyed, for they were having
Bhagavan’s
darshan.
A huge video-mixing console had been set up and there were moving
cameras everywhere. The arrangements were more than elaborate and
devotional songs filled the ambience in this beautiful setting.
About nine songs later, Swami blessed the performers with sarees,
shawls and white safari pieces. He asked Nitin Mukesh to come to
Puttaparthi as well and perform.
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| It was a captivating night scene as Aarthi was performed to Swami at Hadshi, on the grand stage. |
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| The flow of devotion to which we had to become 'walls'! |
Swami then drove back to the Residence. All of us had
a good chance of a close
darshan
as we lined up on the way from the car till the main door of the
Mandir. We were actually doing “Security Duty”. As we formed a tight
cordon around Swami’s car, I remembered how noticing the devotees’
plight, Swami had once played with the term ‘volunteer’ as
‘wall-and-tear’! I was myself becoming one such wall, eliciting
tears of separation from the devotee.
“But they are also tears of pining”, I consoled
myself. Soon the Lord was in the Mandir.
God is the '1' that gives value to all the 0s that follow
The next moment, the aroma of freshly cooked food
wafted into our nostrils. Swami had dinner with the elders and then
He called out, "Ay
boys! Go and sit at the tables."
As He was on His way back, the inimitable Prof. Anil
Kumar complimented the food saying that the quality of mango pickles
(avakai)
and
gongura
were unmatched! Swami was so happy and they had their little private
chat. Then the All India President (AIP) of Sri Sathya Sai
Organisations, Mr. V. Srinivasan, asked Swami whether the boys
should go for morning walks as was the practice when Swami takes the
boys to Kodaikanal. Bhagavan said that there was no need to do so.
Entering the lift, Swami retired for the day.
We heartily dined and then returned to our rooms. It
was a heavy meal and so Sudhindran, Anand and I went for a walk in
the night. The temple was being prepared for inauguration the next
day, and the whole area had been beautifully lit. The night air was
cool.
An experience that we all felt throughout this trip
was that of "oneness with God". Let me elaborate: All of us received
the same love, reverence and devotion that Swami receives from the
people. And all this was because we had on us the badge that
proclaimed, ‘Bhagavan's Guest’. People would rejoice whenever they
saw us because that, for them, was a sure indication that Swami was
coming. In fact, even in our nightly stroll, we encountered a few
people who asked us if Swami was coming down for
darshan
at that time! Living with God is not only a great privilege, but
also a great responsibility. The adoring eyes can soon turn critical
if we do not conduct ourselves as befitting the divine tag. That was
a lesson that seared itself across my consciousness that night.
However, it was not long before I could also see what
our true status was. A security guard just brushed me aside and said
that I had no permission to enter the gate that would lead me back
to our quarters. I was in my T-shirt and track pants and had
forgotten to carry my badge. I was shocked and did not know what to
do. The very next instant, the security personnel’s behaviour,
metamorphosed into one of humility and love when Anand flashed his
badge and stood by me saying, “He is Swami’s student. Let him in!”
Wow! It is Swami and Swami alone who means everything to everyone.
Else, all of us are nothing! We rise in the eyes of the world, only
because of our association and proximity with the Lord. Without
Swami, we were insignificant nothings. This incident only
demonstrated to me the axiom – “With God, we are heroes. Without
Him, we are zeroes.”
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| The Ultimate Hero_ who does everything and acts as though He does nothing! |
As we returned to the rooms, Sai Krishna came running
to me and said that five of us would be privileged to sleep just
outside Swami's door in the Mandir. That too was part of the
security duty. Would I like to be one of them? It was a rhetorical
question for me as I hurried and picked up my pillows and bed sheets
to go towards the Mandir.
Gopi Sir who was shepherding us, enquired from all of
us whether any of us snored at night.
“I don’t want any of you disturbing BHagawan with
your ‘sound’ sleep!” he remarked. I remembered that my parents and
sister had told me that I snore on some occasions. I just hid that
truth and prayed to Swami that he control my body physiology so that
I don’t lose this chance.
“Dear Swami, I have been given this body to get
closer to you. Let me not do anything with it that takes me away
from you - snoring included”, I prayed.
We were given beds and soon all of us lay down. A
washroom next door was open for us to use and I really felt like a
king as I saw the size of that room! My God, it was bigger than many
living rooms that I had seen so far! When I returned, I thanked
Swami for the many beautiful moments of the day, and bid a happy
good bye to the first day of this lovely trip.
Sunrise - the beginning of the D day
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| Sunrise at Hadshi, silhouetting the Residence. |
The sunrise at Hadshi is so beautiful. Sunrises have
always fascinated me more than sunsets simply because I like the
concept of ‘rising’ more than ‘setting’! Rising seems like birth
while setting seems like death. However, the Truth of life is that
there can be no sunrise without a sunset. And the faster I realize
it, the better.
Since our rooms were on the western side of the
Mandir, as the sun rose it presented a beautiful silhouette of the
Residence. I was actually clueless when Harish told me, "Go up and
shoot the sunrise!" Hurriedly I ran up and searched in vain in the
western skies.
“Oh! Maybe this is another of Harish’s practical
jokes”, I thought, and was about take the stairs down when suddenly
my eyes fell on the gorgeous sunrise and I stood transfixed! I had
foolishly been looking in the wrong direction! The sun was a big
ball and looked so handsome and juicy. No wonder Lord Hanuman
mistook it for a ripe fruit and lunged at the Sun God! The sun was
that stunning orange that is so dear to anyone who knows Swami.
“This is almost like morning
darshan”,
I said to myself and did take a few good snaps. These photos would
be playing a lovely part in an interaction we had with Swami later
on.
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|
The first view of the poolside
breakfast area. The balcony is beyond the glass doors and windows behind the breakfast counter. |
Admiring the sunrise, I came down to ground realities
of morning ablutions. We were all ready and received instructions to
head to the poolside for breakfast. The others in the party
consisted of mainly elders who stayed at a guesthouse, 100 metres
from the Mandir on the eastern side. And there, adjoining the guest
house, was a lovely swimming pool. It was really tempting when I
realized that I had even carried my swimming shorts to Hadshi. But
then, I realized there was no way I could jump in for a swim during
a trip of this nature. I therefore drowned my ‘dripping’ desires.
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| The cool blue waters were an ethereal sight indeed! |
At the poolside, the classic blue of the water was
cooling and refreshing even to look at. There were other interesting
exhibits too like a statue of a boy drawing water from a hot spring
(wherein dry ice was used to create the steam effect), an antique
lantern, and so on.
Even more impressive and inviting was another display
- of
dosas,
vadas,
upma,
bread, toasts, juices, Maharashtrian
poha,
cornflakes in many flavours and the choicest of teas and coffees!
The breakfast spread was sumptuous and the dining tables had been
neatly arranged in a 3m x 50m balcony that afforded a breathtaking
view of the hills and lake nearby! Everything that the eye could see
from there belonged to the Jadhavs and it was a remarkable real
estate holding to say the least. For the first time many boys
requested for pictures of them eating in such a spot of natural
splendour! I did oblige but till the moment the groans in my stomach
allowed me too! The term breakfast was actually not appropriate, for
we were not 'breaking' a 'fast' of any type! If anything we were all
overworking our delighted
Vaishvanaras!
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| Imagine breakfasting here, in the lap of nature, with sweeping views of hills and trees. |
Ganesha temple inauguration
By 8:30 a.m. we were all back at the Residence.
Bravely we went upstairs and waited there for Swami to emerge. We
knew this would be our complete private time with Swami as there was
no one else except us at that hour. At about 9:15 the door opened
and as soon as Swami saw us His eyes opened up wide as He exclaimed,
"Ikkada unnara (You are all here)!”
And then He came towards us and said, "Paandi, paandi
(Move, Move)”.
He wanted us to leave quickly. I wondered what the
hurry was all about and as my mind was racing, my body was not!
Swami saw this and called out, "Ae
photographer...." He left the rest unsaid and my body immediately
joined my mind in the race. Swami then told something to Jagadish
which I am sure he has recorded in his personal diary. Hopefully
someday I will be able to peek into it!
So we all rushed down and out to the
darshan
grounds. The "out" part did not pertain to CG and me
as we stayed back to shoot in the Residence itself. Swami came out
of the Residence and saw the family of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma who
had come to pay their respects. Bhagawan then came on the upper
porch from where the maestro's family could easily take
padanamaskar.
I did take good snaps of those moments. But once Swami saw us, He
said, "Pillalu paandi (Boys go)!” That was message enough and both
of us immediately went down to the temples that awaited inauguration
at the divine hands.
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| Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and his family seek Swami's blessings. |
The temple complex looked beautiful like a bride awaiting her groom. Fountains squirted lending a cool feeling to the entire atmosphere which was lit up brightly by the sprightly sun. The Ganesha temple was at the entrance and there were fountains behind which had been laced with detergent, so they foamed and looked icy. After gathering a few pictures of this picturesque setting with its reflection in the water, CG and I entered the shrine of Lord Ganesha.
A mere glance sufficed to realize why Swami was so
insistent that we go before Him. The complex was packed and I
sighted at least ten photographers and video cameramen in the
premises. Swami's car was like a dam that held back surging floods
behind it and once His vehicle was inside, the temple was almost
washed away by the masses flooding in! There was a
Sarvadharma Stoopa
standing opposite to the sanctum sanctorum - only it was a stout
variant of the one at Prashanthi Nilayam. Swami alighted from the
car near the Stoopa and was flanked by a security perimeter
consisting of security guards and the boys. Through the ramp He
entered the small sanctorum. Fortunately, I managed to squeeze
inside.
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| Swami lights the lamps and then, the eternal 'string-puller' pulls the string to do the life-instilling ceremony. |
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|
Shivajirao Jadhav, as commanded by
Swami puts the neckalace around his wife's neck. |
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| A close up of the necklace that Swami created for Mr. Jadhav's wife. |
to be continued in
Part 5 at the following link:
