UGADI 2010 DARSHAN UPDATE: Om Sairam dearest Sai Family,
The holy festival of UGADI, the Telugu new year day was celebrated with festivity and gaiety in the Abode of our beloved Lord, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. In the telugu calendar there are 60 years and this year which is named as VIKRUTHI is the 24th year. The word Vikruthi sounds bit scary. Vikuthi means, Ugly, disaster, to be precise it is opposite of Prakrithi (the nature). Ugadi is celebrated as Gudipadva in the state of Maharashtra and Sindhi community call it Chetti chand which is celebrated a day after Ugadi. The word Ugadi is derived from Sanskrit, which means beginning of a new year. (Yuga - era, aadi - beginning). Coming close on the heels of Holi, the festival of colours, this day marks the beginning of the new Hindu lunar calendar with a change in the moon's orbit. It is believed that Lord Brahma began his creation on this day. The great Indian mathematician Bhaskaracharya proclaimed the commencement of the New Year from Ugadi day. It is said that Lord Rama began his rule in Ayodhya after killing Ravana on this day. In Andhra Pradesh, "Ugadi Pachadi" is prepared with neem leaves, jaggery, raw mango, tamarind juice, green chilli and a pinch of salt. The ingredients symbolise six tastes - bitterness, sweet, tang, sourness, heat and saltiness corresponding to six experiences of anger, happiness, disgust, sadness, fear and surprise. In this time of rumours of mass destruction by 2012 in the world, the coming of Vikruthi year will definitely make every one think that some thing bad is going to happen. In Swami’s divine dictionary there is no word called BAD. Our beloved brother Issac Tigrett’s good old friend senator Algore has been screaming for the past 30 years or so be kind to the nature, to mother earth (PRAKRITHI ). It was a good subject for discussion in the board rooms but in reality no one seemed to care for it. Atleast this new year Vikrithi should remind us not to mess with PRAKRITHI which if neglected will amount to natural disasters like tsunami and earthquakes. As Swami says there is lot to be learnt in the festivals that we celebrate and every festival has an inner meaning to it. This Vikruthi new year I should say came at the right time and with a right message to be good to Prakrithi. Back to today’s programme. Swami blessed the august gathering with His divine darshan around 9:15 am. Swami after making a full round came on to the dais. As it is Telugu new year, there were lots of locals in Sai Kulwanth hall. Mr. Srinivasan introduced to the speaker of this session. Justice Bhagawathi, former Chief Justice of Supreme Court who is also a member of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, was blessed to address the gathering and he shared lot of information about Sri Sathya Sai central trust. He was of the opinion that there is no other trust in the world which is doing humanitarian service like that of Swami’s and it is a great fortune to be part of it. Justice Bhagawathi announced the new members of Central trust which included Sri.Chakravarthi, Sri.Indulal Shah, Sri.V.Srinivasan, Sri.Bhawathi and Sri.Ratnakar. He was all praise for the service and dedication put in by Swami’s former students who are working in the trust. The next talk was by the Bheesmacharya of Sai Family, Sri. Indulal Shah. A simple human being, Sri Shah said he is was very happy to be given the chance to serve Swami at various levels. The highlight of this morning’s programme was Swami blessing us with His divine discourse. Just as a small note, this is the first divine discourse for this year and this came after 3 months since the start of the year 2010. I don’t think there was any occasion that Swami didn’t speak for so long. Probabaly it is a message for us that He is not happy with us.. Over the years He has spoken on various topics, subjects, occasions but we just heard them instead of LISTENING to Him. It is high time for us to get back to business. Follow His teachings, His commands which are only for our own good. Swami started His divine discourse praising the noble and adorable women like savitri, damayanthi, Mother Sita. He said, because of the noble character of these women, India was considered as the spiritual mother of the whole world. Because of the dedication and sincerity of these women, Indians still has values. Swami spoke in length about Sathya harishchandra whose truthfulness is still talked about in India. Swami asked all of us to see God in our fellow beings, adhere to truth. Seated on His mobile throne Swami spoke for about 30 minutes after which Prof.Anil Kumar stole the show with his timely talk in telugu about Ugadi, about Swami and His devotees. Prior to Swami’s discourse Sri. Srinivasan also spoke about Swami’s trust. He reminded all the devotees to stand in firm faith and not give any ear to the false propaganda by jealous people. The morning programme was beautiful. A perfect way to start a new year. A year, which is already blessed by Swami. Let us not worry about the calamities which are told would happen. As Swami said hundreds of times, past is past, future is uncertain, let us live in the present which is OMNIPRESENT. Let us live every second of the PRESENT to our heart’s content by leaving everything in His hands, surrendering everything at His lotus Feet. The morning programme ended with arathi and prasadam distribution at 11:45 am. EVENING PROGRAMME: Swami blessed us with His divine darshan at 5:30 pm. Wearing a Maroon robe, Swami entered the Sai Kulwanth hall with His most beautiful smile. After coming in the middle of the hall, Swami took a short cut to the dais bypassing the gents’ side. After reaching on to the dais, Swami signaled for the evening programme to commence. The students and staff of Sri Sathya Sai Mirpuri College of Music had a beautiful musical programme. The programme started with Mahaganapathi manasa smarami song and the rest was a beautiful and melodious journey of music. Swami was very happy with His favourite Bangaroos. After the programme every student went upto Swami and Swami very lovingly blessed their instruments. The beautiful and lovely Ugadi 2010 came to an end, infact I should say it was just a start of a NEW BEGINNING. That beginning which has lots of hopes and aspirations, that beginning which will witness 85th year of Advent of the Avatar of this Kali Age. This year hopefully will be free from bad happenings and for this to happen it should start from one’s own self… >From tomorrow there will be programme of the sweet story of Krishna Bhagawatha >saptaham which will last for 7 days.Interestingly the bhagawatham rendering >would be in Hindi. For the benefit of devotees who are planning to come in the month of April rather, I should say, those fortunate ones who will be INVITED by our beloved lord to have His darshan just make sure you check as where Swami would be in the month of April. There are (unconfirmed ) news that Swami would be going to Delhi and Shimla in the first week of April. There are also news that Swami would go to Kodai after His north India tour (again this is an unconfirmed news). I have no intention to spread any rumors but devotees make sure you check Swami’s where abouts, before you come to Parthi With Pranams at the Lotus Feet of our beloved Lord,
