The Early days – 20 - A day in the Old Mandir During those days there were no rituals like omkaram,suprabhatam or nagarasankirtan. Swami was everything for devotees. At 3 AM one could hear farmers going to their fields, singing folk songs. That was the Omkaram for devotees those days. At 5 AM one could hear milk vendors saying ,"Please buy my curd, milk and flowers". This was the suprabhatam for devotees. In any case they had to get up by daybreak.
At dawn, Swami would rise, wash himself and drink the hot beverage devotees offered to him, and move happily with them and talk to them also. At 9 Am after Swami had taken his bath, devotees would offer him the breakfast they would have prepared. Swami would taste a bit from each, joke a bit and offer the same as prasadam for everyone. After breakfast, anyone could do padapuja to Swami. There was a old cane-chair in the Old Mandir which would be placed in the hall. Requesting Swami to place his lotus feet on a plate, devotees would wash the feet with scented water, wipe with kumkum. Then they would offer Swami naivedhyem which he would partake a little. Devotees would then offer harathi to Swami and everyone would do padanamaskar. While doing padapuja, Swami would ask devotees to sing with devotion, instead of mechanically. Bhajans would start at 11 AM. There was no regular bhajans those days.....just long songs. Any person could sing during bhajans. Swami would sit on that red stone and also sing. His sister, Venkamma would also sing with him. The hall was very small and men and women sat on either side. Some men sat behind Swami fanning him. Despite that, Swami's robe would be soaked wet due to the scorching heat. At the end of the session, Swami himself would do harathi to please his devotees and then distribute prasadam to everyone. At 1 pm, everyone would assemble for lunch. Swami would take a little food from everybody, mix it, eat a little and distribute the rest as prasadam. Later he would rest for a while. Even in those days Swami never took sweets, ghee, milk or curds. When pressed for a reason, Swami said he had had enough during Krishnavatar. In the evening at 4 pm came the most awaited phase for the day. He would take devotees to the Chitrvathi riverbed. There, he would sing and ask the devotees to sing as well. He would materialise from the sand - idols, photos, fruits etc and give them to the devotees. He would also talk about spiritual matters and give the devotees great joy. On one occasion he took out and apple from the sands and cut it into 4 slices. He started giving them to almost 50 devotees seated there. As he gave them,t he slices multiplied on their own and everyone got a slice. Swami would say, "I am sankalpasiddha, not siddhasankalpa". While returning to the mandir,Swami would walk in front and advice the devotees to follow him singing songs. There would be bhajans for a while in the mandir and after harathi everyone would have dinner. In the night Swami would walk around the mandir with a torch. Puttaparthi was full of snakes and scorpions. They sometimes lived with devotees. No one was bitten by them, thanks to his grace. Even dogs and cats were allowed to move freely inside the Mandir! With Love Regards, MUMBAI SRINIVASAN -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "saimsg" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
