There was something different in Kulwant hall. The stage had been raised by a
little more than a foot in height! A lovely wooden platform with a red carpet
had been erected so that all the devotees could enjoy Darshan in a better
manner. The stage awaited the Lord since morning and with the arrival of the
evening, the stage too seemed to be waiting for Him in anticipative excitement.
It was just before 4:30pm that Swami came out of the Yajur Mandir. He too
seemed to reflect the collective anticipation of everyone in the hall. Taking a
detour after the ladies side, Swami arrived directly on to the stage. There was
a wave of applause even as He came on the stage and it was very clear that the
devotees were just loving the platform. Seeing the devotees so thrilled and
happy, a beautiful smile lit up Swami's face and that smile seemed to stay on!
Only a glance at the photograph may do some justice to the description of
Swami's beautiful smile.
Coming to the stage, Swami also seemed very excited to confide something. He
was saying, "5 days"! All the student faces beamed smiling 'question mark'
faces. But seeing Swami's joy, they quickly turned into 'exclamatory marks'.
Swami called for the state president of Sathya Sai Organisations, Delhi. He
promised him that He would visit Delhi soon and probably gave the dates as
well. Mr.Cheema was positively thrilled. Swami gave him a few vibhuti packets
as a token of His grace. Swami called a few of the boys with trays and blessed
them by sprinkling akshatha grains and gave them also vibhuti packets.With the
increase in height, it actually made it
easier for them to show the trays to Him and get blessings - when they stand
and offer the tray, it comes neatly to Swami's lap, over the railing. The
railing only comes to Swami's knee now, so visibility has greatly improved.
Then, He saw one boy trying to show Him a scroll. Swami smiled at him and in
mock reprimand said, "Ay! I blessed you as I came along the lines before!" And
then beautiful smiles lit up both the Lord's and the boy's face.
Adding to the other unexpected things of the day, Swami called the former vice
chancellor, Sri S.V.Giri and told him to fetch something. He got a file in
which were the profile photos of students, staff and teachers. He sat through
sifting through and selecting photos and everyone were in anticipative tension
- "Who are those chosen ones?" It was assumed that these were those blessed
ones who would be accompanying Him to Delhi! And thus it went on- for the next
twenty minutes as everyone watched with bated breath. The devotees in the
meanwhile were blissfully singing bhajans, joyous in the 'elevated status' of
Swami, ignorant of the tensions flowing through the students!
Swami then exited the stage from the eastern end of the stage. He seemed to be
testing the strength of the stage and was quite satisfied. After a short while,
HE came back again to the stage and after a few bhajans, received Aarthi and
retired for the day.
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