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Swami's Visit to Hostel
Swami had been to the hsotel
yesterday. Here is a summary of the visit.Swami had been upset
with the boys for the past one week. The boys started praying
regularly and one evening they surrounded Swami as asked his
pardon. Swami said that he would talk later and went inside. The
next evening (Friday), He called the warden, VC and co into the
interview room.
He enquired as to what the boys
were doing. The Warden tried to explain to Swami, but before he
could finish, Swami explained that as His knees were hurting very
badly, He was not able to sit outside for very long. He explained
that He has no problem in walking or sitting, but the problem was
when He was getting up. He also said that, that was the reason He
stands for a while when he gets up. After Swami explained His
"problem", the warden could not ask anything of Swami. He was too
stunned. It required quite a bit of prodding from Swami Himself to
make the warden ask Him to bless the hostel with a visit. Swami
agreed readily to come on Sunday.
As we had aniticipated a proposed
visit on the 9th anyway, some of the programs were already ready.
The main programs on the agenda were, relay speeches (boys get up
from the gathering and speak spontaneously), a kavi sammelanam,
bhajan quiz, and some solo songs followed by a discourse. If after
the discourse, Swami asked for more, a Burra Katha recital and a
Ramdas bhajan recital were also planned. A class wise group photo
session also was on the cards if Swami consented. Swami was very
happy with the plans and was very excited about the kavi
sammelan.The only difference this time was that, instead of making
Swami sit on the jhoola (as usual) and then make him get up for
the diacourse, A small i feet high pedestal was made for Swami.
The jhoola was dispensed with and was replaced by a comfy chair.
The pedestal was an extended pedestal from which Swami could give
His discourse also. All the steps in the hostel that would be used
by Swami were also modified so that the height was less. The whole
thing was of course in the hostel quadrangle. The thing that was
never discussed was the dinner menu! Whenever Swami visists the
hostel, it is a standard menu (lemon rice, puri, channa curry,
fruit salad, papad, rice, rasam etc...)
Swami had also invited the school
students and the institute teachers and no one else.Swami arrived
at 3.00 pm on Sunday. (A new flight of steps had been erected at
the entrance for Swami). Swami came in His BMW car. He stood for
some time after he got down before He got on to the steps. All the
teachers of both hostel were at the entrance with a rose in each
hand to welcome Swami, We had actually lined up on either side of
the carpet leading to the quadrangle. Swami blessed all the
roses. The procession was lead by Vedam chanting. Swami was
recived by the boys with the song "Swagatham Karthe Tera Sai
Hum..."
Swami proceeded slowly to His
chair at the front of the quadrangle. The stage (in the
quadrangle) had been covered up with a screen. A beautiful
painting of a small girl in Prayer adorned the space behind
Swami's chair. The chair was kept facing all the boys (usually,
swami's jhoola faces the stage and all boys also sit facing the
stage. Onlysome boys get to sit in fromt of the jhoola). As soon
as Swami was seated, the band leader (DJ Das) started the
proceedings with a small speech announcing the pieces the band
would be playing for Him. The band played two bhajans, Rama
Kodana Rama and Sathay Dharmamu Shanthi Premala to. They also
played a usual band piece (superman). This was supposed to be
followed by relay speeches, but Swami wanted to listen to the
poets first! There were about twelve boys selected to recite their
compositions in front of Swami. They were in different languages
- English, Telugu, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Bengali Marathi, Kannada
nad even in French! A poen by a student of the IIIBsc class in
English about young Sathya was very good. The french poem was by
young boy of the 11th class.
All through the program Swami
looked very very preoccupied. He did not even look at the boys
when they finished and offered their salutations. He seemed
lost... This was followed by a Ramdas bhajan recital by our hostel
accountant Sooryanarayana. It was very very good. He had selected
a good set of bhajans depicting the life of the saint and his
experiences with God. Swami still looked lost... This was followed
by a set of relay speeches by various boys on various langauges.
All of them were very short and very good. Most of them spoke
about touching incidents in their lives. The first boy explaind
how Swami ha willed away his mother's sickness and averted a major
and risky operation. Another boys spoke about how Swami saved him
from certain death by drowning (the incident happed on the day of
Ganesha immersion. On that morning, the boys who would be
immersing the idols had gone to the pond behind Sai Geetha's shed.
As they were practising, this boy slipped and fell deep and got
caught in the sands at the bottom. Had he not been rescued on
time, he would have been in danger. The most amazing thing is
that not a drop of water had enterd his lungs!) Another boy poured
out his feelings of gratitude in telugu. One boy shared an
experince of a small bal vikas student in Mumbai. This small child
was seated along with other children to welcome Swami during one
of his visits many years ago. All other children were holdin
groses in their hands. As this child was very small he was not
allowed t sit in the front. The child also wanted to give a rose
to Swami and was holding one anyway.
As Swami crossed the child He
accpeted the offering. He also held it in His hands for the
entire three hours He was there! There were about six speakers
in all. This was followed by a bhajan quiz. By the way, all these
performances were not on any prepared stage. The boys got up and
spoke from where they were seated. For the quiz, four teams were
chosen from the outgoing batches. The teams were aptly named
Bhava, Raga, Tala. There was also a staff team comprising of Dr.
Vijay Kumar, Prof. Rama Moorthy, Sri Gowri Shankar and co. In the
first round the temas were given two words and they were required
to give seven bhajans starting with that word. All of them dif a
good job. (the words were Shiva Shiva, Rama etc.). In the second
round the teams were given a raga and were asked to sing five
bhajan in the same raga (Mohanam, Shivaranjanai were amoung the
questions) In the third round, each team was allowed to listen to
a small piece of a bhajan sung in foreign language. They were
required to identify the bhajan.
In the fourth round the Teams
were given a bhajan and each member of the team was supposed to
sing a line of the bhajan which was to be followed by other
members. They were of course required to sing according to the
raga and thala! The last round was an open round wherein any team
could give the answer to the questions asked (like buzzer rounds).
The questions were like "Can you givetwo bhajans on differen Gods,
but in the same tune", "Name a bhajan that is sung in two
different tunes". An open question to all the audience was "Name
atleast 11 bhajan sung by Swami after His discourses" The bhajan
quiz was followed by a two solo songs by the boys and a qawalli. I
forget the songs now. The tim was already around 5.15 and Swami
had already sent word to the mandir that they can finish bhajans
and give arathi. Since Swami was ready to sit for more time, Three
boys performed a dying art form of Andhra - Burra Katha. This art
from has been dear to Swami and they had practiced for almost a
year expecting to perform in front of Swami. They recited stories
from the ramayana, especially about Hanuman. It was very very good
and appreciated by all. Swami still looked lost... As the burra
katha was getting over, Swami got up to leave! Everyone was
shocked. All boys literally forced Swami to speak for some time.
After a lot of persuasion Swami agreed. His podium was brought and
Swami started his discourse. Swami started his discourse by
saying that He had been in bliss for the past few hours and all
the boys had made Him very very happy by their performances. He
was so happy that He did not want to speak and did no tknow what
to speak!
Swami spoke about Vivekananda and
his relationship with Ramakrishna. He explaind how it took
vivekananda almost six years to understands and trust ramakrishna.
Swami naratted the story of how vivekananda hid some coins under
the bed of Ramakrishna only to be found by ramakrishna even as he
sat on the bed! Swami said that, as youngsters, it is common to
have wavering mind, but one must control it at a young age. He
also said that one must welcome tests from God as they are his
taste. The tests from God help one to progress faster. He said
that students today are very afraid of tests whereas people of
yester years would pray for such tests. He aslo said that one must
give God something to get something in return. He explained this
with an example. If you go to bank and tell the cashier "You have
so mush money. Why dont you give me some" The cashier will refuse
flatly. You need to have an account, a deposit and even then you
have to give him a properly signed check to recive money. Swami
said that we have deposit Love forGod, obtain the check of
attachment and sign it with Love to obtain money.Swami concluded
His short discourse by about 6.10 pm. He then proceeded to the
dining hall was dinner was awaiting all. Swami waited until the
hall was full, blessed the food on His table and after the boys
cahnted prayers, Left. As Swami was looking tired, nobody felt bad
that Swami did not enter the kitchen as He normally does. Thus
ended a memorable day in the history of this blessed hostel.
Source: [Hyderabadcityyouth] |