I write this today thinking of those of you who are Sai Baba devotees whose thoughts were on Puttaparthi today. Today was Sai Baba’s 85th birthday celebration, something that we have talked about and anticipated for the whole year. Five of us left the clinic at 4:30 this morning and walked to the outdoor stadium. No rickshaws allowed in town today and just as well because the street was full of people even at that hour. Everyone was in a celebratory mood and it felt like a birthday party. We five women passed the line of men that reached from the stadium entry to beyond the colleges and hostels. We began to wonder how far we would have to go to reach the end of the women’s line that would go the other direction reaching into town. But when we got to the women’s stadium entry we stopped to look inside and the security people let us in! We jumped the queue and didn’t have to wait at all!! Miracle!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
India Journal November 23 2010
Because we got in before most others the stadium was still fairly empty. Two of us elected to sit on the bleacher seats surrounding the stadium. The rest of us went onto the field and found seats right down front and center. The only difference between us and the VIPs half a dozen rows in front of us was we came at 4:30 and they came at 9AM, otherwise we were just as close. Another miracle! We settled in for the wait and it was a long one, but in the happy crowd we shared food and laughter and met new friends. And Shivani and Vishni, old friends from Tiruvannamalai, just ‘happened’ to sit right behind us. Thoughtful Swami thinks of everything and we were each given a paper visor with the saying "A Festival of Divine Love." I was grateful for that visor as the sun got high.
A prasad of laddus and a spicy potato mixture were distributed, but not to everyone. Because we sat so close to the VIP section we got some too. The majority of the crowd could only watch. The buttery laddus were not wrapped and got passed from hand to hand. Nobody worries here about things like that. Suddenly a push of women came into our section squeezing themselves into any empty spot. They were village women, some of them tribals with gold plugs in their noses and who go topless under their saris. These small wiry village women are as tough as old boots and not wanting a battle we accommodated them and this was Swami’s birthday after all.
At 9AM the vedic chanting started. At 10AM the bhajans started. At 11AM the speeches started. By now we’d been waiting seven hours, the sun was high and we were hot and getting tired of speeches that were often not in English. Then finally the grand procession began bringing Swami into the stadium riding the Golden Chariot. He wore a robe of gleaming silky white. It is an experience no photograph can convey to see Him approach that way. There was a breathless hush over the massive crowd and some were in tears. To a devotee there was no doubt about who He is. Hands were held in namaste salute as He passed, or held high to absorb the divine energy He emanates. Only a devotee would do what it took to be in that stadium today and every one of the tens of thousands of the diversity that we represent were in a unity of love at that moment. It was a most powerful and moving moment.
Then came more speeches from chief ministers of five states, and from recipients of some of the many services Swami has sponsored. In India when it is your birthday you do the giving and Swami’s birthday gift is a big one. We were told that 20% of Indian children get a modern education and 80%, or about a quarter of a million, don’t. These are children in villages and slums and Swami has created an educational project to bring these children into the 21st century. There is a new Sai organization called Vidya Vahini that is using technology to network educators and teachers in every village across the nation to give them modern tools, expertise and support. Moreover, Swami says that academic education without values education is what has gotten the modern world into the current distress and so education in Swami’s principles of truth, right action, peace, love, and non-violence are an important inclusion. He intends that India become an example of a great nation and he wants her children to become men and women not only of skill but of high character. The program is funded by the visionary Ratan Tata of the Tata Consultancy Group. I just learned that it was Ratan Tata who paid for all the free meals given in the ashram recently and is also paying for the construction of the new accommodations blocs.
It was also announced that the Sai Baba moblle clinic that visits villages in the Puttaparthi area will also bring free food wherever it enters a village.
And then Mangala Aarati was sung and Swami departed in his electric Toyota car. As a farewell, a helicopter appeared overhead and poured rose petals and jasmine flowers over us. Helium balloons were released and confetti blowers went into action over the bleachers.
By the time I got home it was ten hours after I’d left and I was too hot, thirsty and tired to return for the evening session. I heard there was a musical program by the students and Swami came in a car around 8PM. At 9PM from the roof of the clinic I watched the searchlights and the fireworks close the day’s festivities.
It’s been a birthday to remember.
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