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Index of earlier Bulletins
August 18, 2006
This morning marked the 9th Day of the Athi Rudra Maha Yajna. Swami came out as usual and took a round of the entire Kulwant hall granting darshan. He went straight to the sofa onstage after getting down at the interview room. He sat down and graced the proceedings of the morning. At about 7:50 am Swami went into the interview room but came out in about 20 minutes time. He then sat till 9:45 am viewing with interest all the proceedings. Every moment for Him is new and every day and moment, His enthusiasm is the same. Swami called and blessed the birthday boys and also asked for the prasadam to be given to all. Maha mangala Aarthi was taken and Swami retired to Yajur Mandiram.
Possibly on the lines of the Sapthrishis and the Ashtalakshmis the Navagrahas must have found their way to Sai Kulwant Hall for day nine of the Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam at Prasanthi Nilayam along with thousands of devotees. The hall was agog with expectation and at 3:14 PM the most awaited moment arrived when Swami drove into Sai Kulwant Hall for Darshan. After driving through His usual path, Swami took center stage at 3:26PM. After the evening session of the Krama paatam of the Rudram was completed, Aarathi was offered to Swami and the Saieeshwara lingam. Following this, Swami asked Sri.Vinay Kumar for the programme for the evening. The evening programme had two distinguished speakers who were to address the devotees.
The first of them was Sri. S. V. Giri, an IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, the 6th Vice Chancellor of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. Addressing the gathering for the second time during the Yagnam, Sri. Giri stressed on the need for Unity and Purity, which would lead to Divinity when present together. He had expounded the real power that the Rudram had, which he explained was highly dynamic and an energetic manthra. Sri. Giri went on to praise the Sri Sathya Sai Education system and how its main focus how to control the mind and thereafter to end the mind. He added that the mind had the potency to drive and evolve itself to higher consciousness. He concluded by recollecting some of the points that Swami had made in His discourses in the past few days especially with regard to the glory of Bharath. Another significant point that he mentioned was one of Swami's frequent injunctions to us, "Self knowledge promotes Self confidence; Self confidence leads to Self sacrifice which earns Self realization."
The second speaker for the evening was Sri. Gunaranjan P. , a devotee of Bhagawan from his childhood, currently the Vice President of an MNC in Banglore. He spoke on the topic "The journey of Sai Youth". He compared this journey of Life to that of one in a BMW car that Swami has given each one of us. He expanded BMW as Body, Mind and Word, and that goodness was to be radiated from our actions, thoughts and words in order to ensure that the "car" does not steer off control. Sri. Gunaranjan very beautifully elucidated that in order to make the road for this journey a smooth one, we need to have three vital components, that is Love, Humility and Service. He concluded saying that in any scientific equation the LHS=RHS ( ie: Left hand side is equal to the Right hand side). And similarly in this case, the equation simplifies to Love, Humility and Service (LHS) is the Royal Highway to Sai (RHS).
Out of His infinite Love, Swami consented to give us His Divine message at 4:25PM.
All the knowledge that you get out of books is of no use if you cannot fold your hands in humility before God.
Today one is not able to speak one's own mother or father tongues. The Bharatiya culture has been forgotten and the innate nature & bliss have been forgotten. People wallow in ego and pride. They do not observe the social courtesies. What is left to be said?
Embodiments of Love,
We are in a fast world today. Time runs faster and the days fly by. 60 seconds make a minute and 60 minutes make an hour and the hours fly by. It is the nature of the mind that is responsible for the fast world. "Mana Eva Manushyaanam Kaaranam Bandha Mokshayoho"- The mind alone is responsible for either bondage or liberation. Mind is a bundle of desires and it has to be controlled. The fate of man is such today that he controls everything except himself! So, offer your minds to God. The mind is God's gift.
When a person is born from the womb, he comes with no necklace or chain of any sort. He only carries the necklace of the fruits of his past actions. God has given you this necklace and it is your duty to take proper care of it. The entire society is nothing but reaction, reflection and resound.
Today, I do not know what to tell you all. Man is composed of the three Gunas (qualities) - sattwa, rajas and tamas. It is the sattwik nature that has to be preserved. A wicked man always entertains wicked thoughts. But all these too are at the level of the mind. Spirituality lies in transcending the mind. Once upon a time, Ubhaya Bharati, the wife of Mandana Misra, was on her way to take bath in a river. She saw a renunciant lying on the river bank sand with a pot as a pillow. She laughed out and said, "I thought that this person is a Vairagi (renunciant). But he is so attached to a pot." When she returned from her bath, she saw that the person had thrown away the pot. She again laughed out and said, "I thought that he is only attached. But he also has the desire that I should think good of him!" Hearing this, the person fell at her feet. He said that she had opened his eyes and started singing Bhaja Govindam. (At this point Swami sang Bhaja Govindam and all of us followed.)
Ubjaya Bharati was a Jnani (one of wisdom) and yet she led a householder's life. She always obeyed her husband. She even debated with the great Sankaracharya. She said - The whole world is full of delusion and attachment to different forms. Everything is our making and we are carried away by bodily attachments. The body alone takes birth and it dies. The five senses belong to the body and the body is a gift of God. The indweller is God.
All the feelings that you have right now are foolish. They are not permanent. A body loves another body, but only as long as they are there. The bodies have not come together nor will they leave together. Today your life may be full of satisfaction. But what about tomorrow? The mind is not under control. The mind is the steering of this car (of the body). The Rithwiks here have their own feelings too but when it comes to God, they are pure. There are so many youth too amongst them. After the Poornahuthi, I shall talk to you and grant your wishes. Whatever the youth ask, I shall grant to them. All of you have Vairagya (detachment) but still some attachments remain. Tomorrow, I shall tell you an easy way to give up attachments.
(To the Rithwiks)The head priest here has assimilated everything and is guiding you well. God is yours and you belong to God. The relation between you and Me is like that of a mother and her child. Tomorrow, I shall also find it hard to part with you. But remember, we cannot be separated from each other. I too will be coming with you! I shall speak tomorrow on ideals.
Swami then called for Sathya, a Primary school student from Iran and asked him to chant the Rudram. The little one in all his innocence and charm made Swami a proud Mother and flawlessly chanted it. Thereafter He called for His students from America and Russia and asked them to chant various sukthams, and then to sing a bhajan together.
What followed next was a total surprise. Swami told something to the boy behind Him and a message was sent out. A lady from a corner of the hall was brought to stage. Swami took Smt. Sowcar Janaki (an actress of yesteryear) by surprise and asked her to speak in His presence. She recounted various instances in her life where Swami showered His boundless Love on her and her family members. She prayed to Swami that this Yagnam should bring about Loka Kalyanam (World Peace) as He has promised.
The fourth speaker was Smt. Anjali Devi (another old time actress). She too was overwhelmed at Swami's sudden shower of Grace. She fervently thanked Swami for having done everything for her, and also expressed a desire that in her next birth too, she should get a chance to serve Swami. She was grateful to Swami for allowing her the role of the divine mother Eashwaramma in the tele-serial, "Shirdi Sai Parthi Sai Divyakatha".
Swami blessed them and we were all touched by the frank and candid experiences of these devotees. The ninth day's proceedings ended when Swami asked for Aarathi and Prasadam to be distributed at 5:30PM.
Images from 18th August as well as the text versions of Bhagawan's Discourses on the 9th, 10th and so on are available at the Book Trust website.
During the Ati Rudra Maha Yagnam, Radio Sai will be broadcasting special half-hour capsules daily: The schedule page lists this programme as "Sounds from the Ati Rudra Maha Yagnam being conducted at Prasanthi Nilayam." We have also started a download service, with these programs forming a pilot run: these programs are available for download from http://stream.radiosai.org/ our download site.
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