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Report on Holi Celebrations 2006
in Prasanthi Nilayam
Holi, the
festival of love and joy is not dedicated to any deity from the
Hindu pantheon, as are other festivals like Mahasivaratri, Rama
Navami, Krishnashtami, etc. The mythology does make inferences
to Lord Siva and Madana (the God of love) and how the meditating
Siva destroyed Madana with his third eye, when Madana disguised
himself as a nymph to disturb Him.
The legend usually associated with Holi revolves around the
wicked king Hiranyakasipu whose son Prahlada was a devotee of
Lord Vishnu. When the king tried to prevent his son from
worshipping Lord Vishnu, with the aid of his sister Holika, who
had a boon that made her immune to the effects of fire, his plan
backfired and Prahlada escaped unscathed while Holika was burnt
to death. Thus, Holi is the day of victory over the evil forces.
The celebrations officially usher in spring.
Sri Sathya Sai Organisations, Bihar & Jharkhand were fortunate
to celebrate this festival in the year 2005 and this year too
they were bestowed the blessed opportunity to celebrate Holi in
the immediate Divine Presence of Bhagawan. After Bhagawan
granted Darshan to the Devotees assembled in the Hall, Sri
Sathya Sai Organisations, Bihar & Jharkhand began their
programme expressing gratitude to Bhagawan through Navagraha
Stuti (song in praise of the nine planets). What followed was a
medley of different items – songs, dances and Qawali. The
members of the organisation offered their salutations to
Bhagawan on behalf of the devotees of Bihar & Jharkhand through
a song, “You have always been showering Your Grace on us in
abundance. Please give us the power to discriminate. May we all
be of some service at thy Lotus Feet. Do forgive us for our
shortcomings.” Another song ran thus: “He brings about
transformation in the lives of people and shows them the path of
righteous living. The truly devoted, shall surely be liberated.”
“Sairam”, a song with dance gave a vivid picturisation of the
Festival of Holi being celebrated in Prasanthi Nilayam. The
programme ended on a high note with the song, “Tera ham par hai
lakhaon upkar …” “Even if the whole world turns away from me,
let me not leave Your doorstep. May I always have Your name on
my lips. Oh Lord! Please accept our prayers.”
At the end of their performance, Bhagawan granted the coveted
opportunity of group photographs with Him.
Images source
and courtesy:
http://sssbpt.org/Pages/Prasanthi_Nilayam/holi_06_Photos.htm
Source:
http://sssbpt.org/Pages/Prasanthi_Nilayam/Holi_06_report.htm
Report from a Devotee
Sairam to all and Happy HOLI to
the members of this HOLY group
It was a colourful holy in
prasanthi Nilayam.. even though there were no colours sprayed on
others like it happens all over India.. Many people in India
wait for this day, to play with colours, and to many drunkards
it’s a TYPICAL festival to to show their AGRESSIVENESS . But in
Parthi, its entirely different story.. Swamy’s work is also
aggressive, but its SPIRITUAL AGRESSIVENESS a SILENT REVOLUTION…
This morning, Swamy blessed us all
with a beautiful and long darshan. He was there for Bhajans till
10am blessing all. Many devotees from Bihar and Jharkand states
of India were seated right infront of the dias.. Swamy asked
Prof.Kumar to announce that that there will be a play by Bihar
and Jharkand state boys this evening 4pm. Swamy again called
Prof.Kumar and this time Prof. announced that this evening at
5pm Swamy would distribute prasadam PERSONALLY to all the
devotees. This brought cheers and also doubts, Will He
distribute to the 10,000 odd devotees personally or to only to
the boys who are performing..
As expected there was a huge
turnout, including locals, (thank God at least because of this
announcement, the lazy locals came to darshan). Swamy came out
around 3:55pm, after giving a blissfull darshan He came on the
stage, in His mobile thorne… The drama started at 4;10pm after
the lead actor, VIDYAPATHI came on the stage and took blessing
from Swamy…
The play was about Vidyapathi, an
ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, who was hated by many because of
His devotion and simplicity. Once Lord Shiva himself comes as a
SUDRA (lowest caste) begging for alms and Vidya pathi, a rich
land lord himself provides him shelter in his house. Once a king
calls Vidyapathi to visit his palace and Vidyapathi takes the
poor man with him. on the way to the palace, Vidyapathi suddenly
falls down and asks for water. They were passing by a dry barrel
land and it was impossible to get water. Seeing Vidyapathi
pleading for water, Lord Shiva fetches water from river Ganga
which flows in His matted hair.
Vidyapathi after drinking the
water, senses some thing is special about this man and He
recognizes that its Ganga water not ordinary water and He grills
the poor man to reveal his identity and then Lord Shiva reveals
the secret…
The whole play was very well
scripted and the actors were superb and exactly opposite to the
reputation of two states.. Bihar state is number one corrupt
state and all the politicians have cases pending in various
courts.. and Jharkand state has a problem of Maoists (a banned
out fit by the Govenrnment) and it was a great feeling to see
the kids from such states perform so superbly and if there is
any FORCE behind this its Swamy and Swamy ONLY…
While the play was going I was
wondering how Swamy can transform us… He was enjoying the play
every second…. He was laughing, smiling, and at one instance,
the main character said, WE SHOULDN’T FIND FAULT IN OTHERS, IF
YOU DO SO THAT’S ONLY THE REFLECTION OF YOUR THOUGHTS…. when
this dialogue was going on Swamy signaled at students smilingly
probably saying NOTE THIS POINT DEAR ONES….
The boy who acted as Vidyapathi
was so impressive that Swamy asked the boy to come on the dias
and materialized a ring to him…. while the play was still going
on.
The whole show was well written,
directed…Hats Off to the whole unit…. later Swamy took photos
with the boys and asked the boys to sing bhajans and the bhajans
went on for an hour as He blessed with an interview to a family
for 30 minutes and He came out walking as one boy holded His
right hand and Swamy was holding long robe. It was another great
day in the diary of my life in Prasanthi even though prasadams
were not distributed, YOUR DARSHAN IS THE SWEETEST PRASADAM
SWAMY…
SAI MATA PITA DINA BANDHU SAKHA
TERE CHARANOMEIN SAI MERE KOTI PRANAM
Jai Sai Ram
Satish Naik
Source:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saibabanews/message/15087
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