STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO - 5
The Story of Hamsa, the Swan
(Photo courtesy : SBOI, WEBSITE)
The story of HAMSA - THE SWAN !
(Article posted during the year 2003)
Four long months, staying away from the physical proximity of Bhagavan
Baba! I had missed Darshan of the Lovely Divine form while I was in USA where I
spent a vocation with my son. And yet, I had the benefit of the Sathsang with
many Sai devotees, and these chances somehow made me conformable, and gave me
immense joy. I could feel the warmth of Love in their company.
The joy was much greater when I boarded the plane towards my trip back
to India. At |Frankfurt Airport, Gate No.B42 was filled with Indian community.
Many ladies had their Babes in their hands, and also many elderly couples, who
are returning back to India after spending time with their dear ones in USA. I
was alone in my thoughts, always centering on Sai. The method of channelizing
all our thoughts towards God in one way or other, is also sort of meditation..
There were television monitors inside the aircraft, along the aisle. The
screen was displaying the logo of the airlines; “Lufthansa” This logo indicated
the form of a bird flying. It is widely believed, that the German thinking is
akin to the Indian traditions in many ways, and that Germans had tried to
absorb much of the knowledge from Indian vedic scriptures. “Hansa” as is known
in the Northern parts of India, is spelled, as “Hamsa” is Sanskrit. The English
equivalent word is “Swan”.
Swami has liberally used the forms of Swan, Lotus and elephants in the
decoration of the temple complex in Prashanthi Nilayam. When I saw the name
“Hansa” and its form in the logo, my thoughts went to the balcony structure in
Sai Kulwant Hall, over the verandah, where the images of “Hamsa” is depicted
along the curved border. Then my mind started thinking over to identify more
places where we could locate “swans” in Prashanthi Nilayam. Just above this
curved balcony, there is one more semi circular layer on the second floor
position, and here too we can “Swans” lining up from both sides and converging
in the center, face to face. As we enter inside the Mandir, to our left side is
the beautiful three-dimensional structure of “Gita Upadesh”, (Sri Krishna
revealing Bhagawad Gita to Arjuna). Just above this conclave, along the beams,
we can find more “Swans” lining up! There could be more of such lovely swans
in Prashanthi Nilayam.
Sri Sai Padhuga Trust had undertaken extensive gold fixing job and I was
fortunate enough to be authorized by the Trust, to supervise this intricate
work. We were directed by Bhagavan to decorate the swans, down the mandir
balcony using minimum gold and yet, to bring out its beauty. To illustrate
this, Bhagavan showed us a beautiful porcelain flower vase, made in the form of
a SWAN”. I have seen this flower vase in the form of a swan, in the window near
Swami’s Chair, inside the Interview room, The pure white in colour vase, has
some streaks of gold painted along the feathers, and Swami suggested that this
method could be adopted while decorating the swans in the temple structure.
By these narrations, I am trying to bring to the notice of my dear Sai
devotees, how the thoughts could be initiated and inverted to Divine presence
even from an unexpected location. While I was wandering along these thoughts,
another divinely episode came to my memory.
It was about eight years prior to this, when we were in the Divine
Presence in Kodaikanal. Swami was having nice time with the students whom he
had chosen to accompany Him during the Vocation with the Divine. It was late in
the evening and the usual chat with students commenced. Swami was explaining
the story of “Nala & Damayanthi” whose love affair became fruitful in their
wedlock.
Swami told that there was a small canal running along the backyards of
the palace where Damayanthi was living and further down the stream where Nala
was living. Swami explained that Damayanthi used to send letters to Nala and a
faithful Swan in the stream used to courier these letters to Nala and bring
back the replies.
Just a few days before the wedding date, Nala accosted Damayanthi who
looked very sad and forlorn. Nala enquired the reasons for her sadness, when
Damayanthi replied that the Swan, which was instrumental in bringing them
together, has passed away recently, and that the feeling that the swan will be
missed during the actual wedding, is making her sad. Nala too expressed his
shock and grief on hearing the news. He enquired how best he could do something
to remove her sorrow. Damayanthi suggested that he could design a “Mangala
Suthram” (Thirumangalyam or the wedding necklace) having a pendent in the form
of the swan. And Nala fulfilled her desire by designing the Manga suthram in
the form of a Swan. Swami then enquired whether the students wished to see the
pendant of the Mangala suthram which Nala made and offered to Dhamayanthi.
The excited students cried in chorus, “Please Swami!!!”
Swami waved His Divine Palm and created a pendant, and showed it to all
of us. We were wonderstruck with the beautiful design and the creation of the
pendant, which was in the shape of a swan. It was filled with hundreds of
small, small pieces of Diamonds studded all over!!!! “This is the pendant of
the Mangala suthra, which Nala tied around the neck of Dhamayanthi!!!” declared
Swami.
While we route our thoughts with such Divine experiences, our minds are
united with Swami, and this also forms a great path of meditation. Any small or
probably ‘not-that-much’ important factors which we may come across in
unexpected sources, may give us a cue to enable us channelizing our thoughts
towards Swami.
Sai Ram.
