Each and every day is ordinary; Prashanti Nilayam is here, everything is offered for your spiritual progess, and Swami has left his form; but everyone in Prashanti and Puttaparthi township says, “Nothing has changed, Swami is still here!”
Holi at Prashanti Nilayam
It is the time of the Holi festival, and Sai Kulwant Hall is gaily decorated, with reflective strips, blue, red, green, silver and gold hanging down from the roof. The Sathya Sai Organisation of Bihar and Jharkand are pleased to offer a Holi Celebration of Divine Love in Prashanthi Nilayam. One of the banners reads Khelo Holi with Sai Sannaaidi.
Light from Light
We come here for our transformation; this is the workshop. The car comes in, the engine gets checked, the repairs are made, the oil is topped up, the new parts are fitted to the car, we are sent back out. Everything here is offered for our spiritual progress – I was reminded of this early this morning. I walked outside in the early morning dark to see people sitting on chairs outside in the cool of the morning, and devotees were walking past at 4AM to go inside for prayers, OMKAR, Nagasankirtan, like this. The Omkar bell goes every morning, I have heard it often, this trip.
Evening and Morning: Prashanti Nilayam
After spending a rather fruitless day trying to repair the corrupted registry on my laptop, I gave up and said, “I surrender to you Swami” and got ready for evening bhajans and darshan. “Good. Go! Take darshan, and I will tell you what to do…” said the inner voice. So I went.
It is interesting, the moment you walk into the ashram, you can feel the sheer frustration slipping away from your shoulders.
Four storytellers
During bhajans on Sunday morning a sense of continuity was garnered whilst singing bhajans … during Rama Hare Sai Krishna Hare I felt continuity between then (yesteryear) singing bhajans in the darshan hall, and now – singing bhajans in the darshan hall – as if nothing had really changed and this bliss began to emerge from within and well up to the point where I just about couldn’t sing. The same feeling came during singing of Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara. The primary school children and the women were really leading the singing, their voices rose over the top of all others … even when the power went off, it was the children and the ladies you could hear singing. The men went, well, kinda soft voiced … but the loss of power didn’t stop the young ones, they just went on louder and stronger.
Darshan and The Captain of the Heart
As I was walking down the side of the darshan hall (Sai Kulwant Hall), I couldn’t help but notice everybody outside the darshan hall were joining in the bhajans; seva dal, devotees lined up against the rope, devotees standing in front of East Prashanti (some things never change) … and they were all happy, a joy emanating from their faces as they join in, sing along.
Quiet Puttaparthi
It is quiet in Puttaparthi, and in Prashanti Nilayam ashram. I am surprised, the former floating population, the hustle and bustle, the sense of heightened activity … is gone. A feeling of peace embraces everything here. Peace and inner purpose.
Blogging Puttaparthi
We are en-route to Prashanti Nilayam, currently at Changi Airport. Some of you might ask about the WordPress theme selected. We are all travellers, going towards destination.
Towards destination?
