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Index of earlier Bulletins
February 5th, 2006
Today being Sunday, the Seva Dals were in the first block, ready for the
day-long Bhajan session. The Bhajans started at 9:30 a.m. At 10.15 a.m.,
the usual hustle started on-stage, heralding Swami’s arrival. In a few
minutes the screen next to the Krishna statue parted and there Swami
was, giving the most benign of his smiles. He came walking to the
railing near the end of the stage and stood for a while. The Porte chair
was trailing him. Swami sat down on the chair for a few Bhajans.
After a little while, Swami got up from the chair and indicated that He
wanted to go down amongst the devotees. Swami made His way towards the
lift, came down, walked a few steps to where Sri H.D. Deve Gowda, the former Deputy PM of India, was
standing, blessed him, and started walking amidst the students. Watching
Swami walk was thrilling as this was the first session when Swami
actually walked amidst the devotees during this visit.
Swami crossed the first block, then turned left and crossed over on to
the ladies’ side, all the while accepting letters from the devotees. Two
brothers had the blessed opportunity to support Swami throughout. Once
He reached the end of the first block on the ladies’ side He turned to
the left and made His way back onto the stage. Only when He reached
on-stage did He sit down on the chair. There were few more Bhajans after
which Swami asked for the Arati to be performed and then retired to
Trayee Brindavan.
The whole session lasted almost an hour and there was so much of Love
radiating from Him and the whole audience was reverberating with joy.
In the evening, the Seva Dal Bhajans were going on and Swami arrived at
5:30 p.m. He came walking onto the stage and sat down on the chair. The
Brindavan Hostel boys had prepared a cultural programme. As soon as He
sat down, He indicated to the students assembled in the front that they
could begin. As soon as Swami gave them the permission, two boys ran up
the stage with a huge card, seeking His blessings.
The programme titled “Ocean of Devotion” was based on the Nine types of
Devotion: Shravanam, Keertanam, Vishnusmaranam, Padasevanam, Vandanam,
Archanam, Dasyam, Sneham, Atmanivedanam; and how the great devotees of
all times had used these different types of devotion to merge with the
Lord. Parikshit had used Shravanam to reach the Lord, whereas Meera Bai
and Thyagaraja had used Kirtanam and so on.
There were anchors for each form of devotion and they explained the
significance of each type of devotion, and gave examples of the devotees
of the Lord who followed that form of Bhakthi. The presentation was
interspersed with beautiful songs, all chosen appropriately to that form
of devotion.
During the programme, the Hon’ble Vice-President of India Sri Bhairon Singh
Shekawat and the Hon’ble Governor of Karnataka Sri T.N. Chaturvedi
arrived. They were seated near the stage and sat through the remainder
of the programme.
There was so much feeling in the songs being sung that Swami appeared
moved by the programme. After the programme Swami took Arati, got up,
walked behind the stage and retired to Trayee Brindavan.
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