SAI BABA PHOTOS 2ND JAN. 2009 - Youth from Maharashtra and Goa

"...the drama on Netaji Subash Chandra Bose... "

 
     
  With the New Year Day festivities just concluding, Puttaparthi was now seeing an increasing habitation by the youth from Maharashtra and Goa. Donning their orange scarves, they filled up large areas in the mandir and today was the day Swami had blessed them to put up their programmes in front of Him. A huge curtain of the Tricolour hung from the ceiling to the floor acting as the giant background. It was at about 5:30pm that Swami arrived for darshan. The most revered "Orange" wended its way through the orange throngs and the youth rejoiced at the close darshan. He passed by the massive backdrops of the red fort and the curtain into the gents side.  
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
   
  Completing the darshan rounds, Swami moved into the interview room. Twenty minutes later, Swami came out and asked for the programme to begin. A train of youth moved up to Swami with various offerings and Swami patiently blessed each and every one of them. He accepted roses, glanced at cards, observed photos and permitted everyone to take padanamaskar. Then, Swami called the coordinator and told him to make the announcement soon and begin the programme. The introduction for the drama on Netaji Subash Chandra Bose was given and then the programme began. It started with the lighting of the Akhanda Jyothi. 27 lamps of divine light which were lit from a single flame from the Divine Precincts of Dharmakshetra and which had travelled through 27 Districts of Maharashtra were presented at a beautiful ceremony in front of Swami. The 27 Jyotis merged into one in the Divine presence and that was used to light a candle which Swami used to light the "Maha Jyothi" as they referred to it. After that ceremony, the drama began.  
   
  Subash Chandra Bose also called Netaji was a colossus amongst the brave men of the world. He was born on January 23rd 1897 in Cuttack as the ninth child among fourteen, of Janakinath Bose, an advocate, and Prabhavati Devi, a pious and God-fearing lady. A brilliant student, he topped the matriculation examination of Calcutta province and passed his B.A. in Philosophy from the Presidency College in Calcutta. He was strongly influenced by Swami Vivekananda's teachings and was known for his patriotic zeal as a student. It was his parents insistence that kept him away from the freedom struggle but not for long as the passion for true "freedom" had been deeply embedded in him. As he later wrote to his mother, he was not fighting only for independence from British for the nation still had to be administered after that and he also desired true freedom in its complete spiritual sense. The drama traced all the major milestones in his life and it was an inspiring watch. Swami too, being specially fond of Bose, watched the drama attentively  
   
     
   
     
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
     
     
  As the drama concluded with the final song with Bose marching out with the INA - the Indian National Army, the Tricolour was waved in thousands by all the members of the audience from the organising states. Swami consented and moved down the stage to grant the participants their cherished desire of a group photo with Him. As He did that, He also spoke to many of the boys and accepted letters.  
   
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
  One particular boy almost broke down telling Swami that though he had been studying and trying very hard, he was not getting a call to do MBA in Swami's University. Swami took his application form and gave instructions that the call letter be sent to that boy! When we are with God, the solutions for problems crop up as fast if not faster than the rate at which the problems arise. Then, moving towards the front, Swami called out for the 3 different aged Boses! He took a picture with the three and said, "This is young Bose. He is elder and that is the eldest one!" There were smiles all around. Prasadam was then distributed as the youth started bhajans. Later, on Swami's command, the bhajan singing was taken over by the students. It was quite late when Swami received Aarthi and left.  
     
   
     
   
     
     
   
 

Photo source: radiosai.org/Graphic Layout: saibabaofindia.com

 
   
     
 
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