Divine Bond Of Love - Sai Premamruthum
We are the Balvikas students from Sri Sathya Seva Samithi Ramanathapuram in Coimbatore. In early 2017, our Samithi has adopted two tribal villages of Chinnambathi and Pudhupathi. There is a small temple situated in Chinnambathi. But it cannot be called as a temple as far it is concerned. Its structure was totally ruined. So the very first thing we (Samithi members) decided is to renovate the temple in the village. (All this happened in Nov 2017 due to event of Bhagawan's 92nd Birthday)
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| Such was the conditio n of the temple |
The Renovation of the temple was decided to take place on Nov 19, 2017. Before that, a Pallaku Seva ( rally possesions ) was scheduled to perform in the other adopted village Chennanur. But the event has been canceled due to some reasons. It was Swami's infinite grace that we again got the opportunity to do Pallaku Seva processions in Chinnambathi along with the renovation of the temple . On November 19, after completing the Nagarsankeerthan in our Samithi, a Bus was arranged to take all the members to the adopted village. All the Balvikas students participated in this village service. Alumni students from Sai Baba Colony also came with us. It was during this journey, the beautiful Team of Sai Premamruthum formed.
All of us reached the village and renovation was done graciously and Narayana Seva was done nearly to 700 villagers and rural kids. Then we did Pallaku Seva and processions followed by Bhajans and Mangala Aarthi. Gratitude to Swami for giving us this wonderful opportunity and also for blessing us with the beautiful team of Sai Premamruthum.
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| renovating the temple |
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| renovated temple |
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| Bhajans |
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| Pallaku Seva processions |
Thus on that day, the journey of Sai Premamruthum started. The whole team started by 7 Students with two inspiring and motivating Balvikas Gurus. Later, Swami blessed the new team by granting many opportunities such as we did a drama on 'Nama Mahima' on Sai Kailash in Ooty and we did a medly bhajan for our 28th anniversary of our Samithi, etc...This 93 different place bhajan too was one such beautiful event.
As Swami says, he has not invited anybody to come to Prashanti Nilayam. Yet we can see millions of Devotees gathered in Sai Kulwanth Hall. Then who brought them here? Who invited them? It is only Bhagawan's selfless love that brought everybody here. Love is the only invitation that Swami gives us. It is attracted by that Love, huge number of people gather here in Prashanti Nilayam.
We hope that 'Sai Premamrutham' is too a branch of His infinite Love. The greatest power on earth that supercades even God is Love for God.We pray that this Divine Love should expand more and more.
The Huge scarcity of water
The five elements( Air, Water, Fire, Space, Earth ), which are the basis of creation, will cause a major disaster if there is inequality in any of those elements. For example, if we take the component water, it leads to drought if there is no water and the same will leads to floods if there is overflowing of water. Both are dangerous. The water resource should not be either decreased or increase. Otherwise, it affects the Ecosystem very badly. Therefore, equamnity should be maintained in everything.
As we all know, In 2015, a severe drought began in the Western Cape province of South Africa which resulted in the massive shortage of water which mostly affected the city of Capetown very badly. In early 2018, the city announced for a "Day Zero" where the city will face the extreme lower shortage of water. By March 2018 the city has reduced water usage by more than half to around 500 million litres per day. Such was the condition in Capetown.
Before several months, we all faced this tremendous scarcity of water. People were fighting for water between two states which was soon expected to result in a circumstance where people will beg for water between street to streest. Agriculture was badly affected. There was no sufficient rainfall. Such was the extreme scarcity we all experienced.
Thus, we balvikas students started this 93 different place bhajan with two sincere prayers in the heart - 1) to give enough of rainfall and 2) to maintain peace in the world. We also experienced that God always responds to selfless prayers.
The 93 Different Places
This 93 different place Bhajans started in the month April of 2018. A Narayana Seva was organised by our Samithi as a part of Bhagawan's Aradhna Mahotsavam. Since April 24th is a Tuesday, a full working day, the Narayana Seva along with Buttermilk distribution was planned on April 22nd (Sunday) in the adopted villages of Chinnambathi and Pudhupathi. The whole Sai Premamrutham Team participated in this Seva. Everybody was assembled in the Samithi. A Mini Van was arranged to take all the prepared food and buttermilk to the village from the samithi. Everybody was involved in work by winding things from samithi to Van. It was during this time, the sudden idea of 93 different place bhajan occured.
This 93 place Bhajans were not decided at all. In fac, it started like this,
A boy said " When are we going to do 93 place bhajans." ( In January we just thought of doing it but we left of )
Immediately our Guru said " Let us start from today itself."
And thus the whole event of 93 place bhajans took place. We suddenly took a new diary and wrote the bhajan list. We kept the diary in front of Swami's photo and prayed for two minutes and started of from samithi. We practiced the bhajans while travelling.
We reacehed the village and did the first bhajan in the renovated temple of Chinnambathi. After that, we completed the second bhajan in small temple in the village Pudhupathi. Thus on that day Bhagawan blessed us to complete 2 places of 93 different places.
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| The 1st bhajan in Chinnambathi |
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| The 2nd Bhajan in the village Pudhupathi |
The nest day on April 23rd we conducted the 3rd bhajan of 93 places. 24th Aprl was Aradhnaa Mahotsavam and on 26th April ( Thursday) the whole premamrutham team went for 1 week Parthi Yatra in the night train Rajkot express. And in the train we had the 4th bhajan of 93 places. Then we reached Puttaparthi and had wonderful dharshans. Then we completed the 5th Bhajan in the River Chitravathi. In that 1 week Parethi Yatra, we also visited Mantralayam and Uravukonda. On April 30, we went to Mantralayam by train which is a 5 hours journey from Parthi and visited the Raghavendra temple. And from Mantralayam we went to Guntakal stayed in one of our known Sai Devotee house. There is a Sathya Sai Bhajan Mandali in top of that house. On the next day on May 1, we did the 5th Bhajan of 93 places in that Bhajana Mandali.
Then by 9:30 am in the morning after completing our breakfast we all went to Uravukonda by Bus. It is onehour journey. And there in Uravukonda, we went to the historical place of Bala Sai Mandir where Swami chose to convey his first message to Humanity through a song "Manasa Bhajore Guru Charanam". All were very exited and lost in happiness. We did our 6th bhajan of 93 places in that Mandir. Then we went to the nearby Subramanyam temple in Uravukonda. In this temple, Lord Subramanya is shaped as 5-hooded snake. When Swami was a student, he used to visit this place with his friends. He would tell his friends that he wants to sing a bhajan and in an instant he would start singing " Subramanyam Subramanyam Sanmukhanatha Subramanyam." These are the beautiful places where Swami spent his childhood days. By Swami's grace we had our 7th Bhajan of 93 places in that Subramanyam temple. Then by afternoon, we went to Puttaparthi from Uravukonda by Bus. We reached Parthi nearly by 7:00 pm.
Gods Grace makes everything possible
This 93 place Bhajans are done on account of Bhagawan's 93rd Birthday with two sincere prayers - 1) to get sufficient rainfall and 2) to maintain world peace . Though we completed 7 places, we all had fear that how we are going to complete 93 places. Because 93 is not a normal count. That too, this bhajans are organised and done purely by Balvikas Students. And by June, the school reopens for all the students and Sunday will be he only holiday. Then how is this to end? This was our only cause of worry.
Before narrating what had actually happened, let me narrate a small portion in "Prayer of Surrender" written by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba which exactly apts our situation. Swami says,
"Why get agitated? Let Me take care of all your business. I shall be the one who will think about them. I am waiting for nothing else than your surrender to Me, and then you do not have to worry any more about anything. Say farewell to all fears and discouragement.
Never think: How is this to end?... What is going to happen? If you give into this temptation, you demonstrate that you do not trust Me. Do you want Me to deal with it — yes or no? Then you must stop being anxious about it! I shall guide you only if you completely surrender to Me. And when I must lead you on a different path than the one that you expect, I carry you in My arms.
What seriously upsets you is your reasoning, your worrying, your obsession, and your will to provide for yourself at any price. I can do so many things when the being, in his material necessities as in his spiritual ones, turns to Me saying, "You think of it," and then closes his eyes and rests quietly."
Yes, as Swami said, we just surrended everything to Swami. You wont believe, we thought how is it possible to complete 93 places in a short span of time, but Swami's infinite grace made us complete the bhajans in whole 93 places before 1 and half months of Swami's 93rd birthday. That is to say, we started the first bhajan in April 22nd and completed the 93rd bhajan in October 7th. Nothing is impossible with Swami. With Swami everything is Him-possible. Thus we realised that God's Grace can make anything possible.
Shower of Blessings
We did this Bhajan with sincere prayers to get plenty of rainfall and to maintain world peace. We started canting Varuna Gayatri 3 times along with Sivopaasana Mantra (Vedic hymn) before each Bhajan session. At the end of each Bhajan, a student got up and announced the purpose of this Bhajan and also shared some of his divine experience.
When a lamp is lit in the threashold of the house, it produces light inside the house as well as outside the house. Likewise when we do bhajans, it purify ourselves as well as the atmosphere. In this context, we did these 93 bhajans mostly in temple,s non-devotee houses and many other public places.
As a shower of blessing, by the time we completed 70th place, all the Dams were filled up and there was enough and plenty of rainfall all over Tamil Nadu. Everybody was happy. God always responds to selfless prayers. Prayer is the powerful instrument. It has the power to move even large mountains.
As Swami says, " Any might task can be accomplished by prayer. Hence pray to God silently. If your prayers are sincere, they will certainly be answered. There is nothing that God cannot accomplish."
Grand Success of 93rd Bhajan
The invitation for the Bhajan came out beautifully in both Tamil and English. The invitation was fully designed by our Balvikas Gurus.
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| The invitation for 93rd Bhajan |
To sing 93 bhajans, it would nearly take 6 hours. So the bhajans were divided according to time-wise. Maximum 15 songs can be sung in an hour. Balvikas students nearly from 6 other samithi were invited to sing bhajans. So the plan was that the students from particular samithi will sing bhajans from 9 to 10 and the next samithi students will sing bhajans from 10 to 11 and thus the sequence followed until it reached the 93rd Bhajan. We decided to start the bhajan by 8:30 a.m and end the bhajan by 2:00 p.m.
As it said, the concluding Bhajan of 93rd place was decided to organise in a grand manner by offering 93 songs. A meeting was conducted by Sai Premamrutham Team in Samithi on Sep 23, to decide the further proceedings of the 93rd Bhajan. We decided to organise this event in the public place so that non-devotees too can participate in it.Our Balvikas Guru took initiative and went to seek permission in the nearby Chinnapa Thevar Mantapam (Marriage Hall) to conduct the event.
First they asked weather we want it for rent or free. After explaining the purpose of the event, they said that all Sunday were booked except October 7th, And they were also ready to give the Hall for free on October 7th. Thus the date of the 93rd Bhajan declared.
Finally, the most awaited day (Oct 7) arrived. We started the day's proceedings with Omkaram and Suprabhatam followed by Nagarsankeerthanam. Swami's robe was sealed in a rectangular box and taken to nearby Makaliyamman temple. We all went to the temple by 8; 15am. From the temple, Swami's robe with Poorna Kumba Kalasam was taken in a grand processesion from the temple to Chinnapathevar Mantapam. After reaching the Mantapam, again Swami's robe was recieved by Poorna Kumba Kalasam. Then, all the students seated in Bhajan Hall.
By 8: 30 am the actual Bhajan begun by Veda Parayanam. As the Bhajans were going on, Swami's Darshan vedio was displayed on the projector. A devotional song, ' HUM KO TUM SE PYAAR KITNAA' was sung by Alumni Students. The most beautiful bhajan ' LOVE IS MY FORM' was sung as the 92nd song and the last 93rd song was played on the projector as Swami singing ' SUBRAMNHYAM SUBRAMANHYAM'.
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| morning Nagarsankeerthanam |
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| Bhagawan's robe with Poorna Kumba Kalasam |
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| The grand possesion to temple |
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| Maha Mangala Aarthi to Bhagawan |
Then each student in Sai Premamrutham Team spoke about their experience. Vote of Thanks were rendered by the Convenor. After that, prizes were distributed to Group 2 and Group 3 Balvikas Students by the District Educational Co-ordinator as they successfully passed out their examinations. Then Maha Mangala Aarthi was taken by whole Sai Premamrutham Team.
Million Thanks to Swami for giving us this wonderfull opportunity.
(Click the below link to see all the 93 different place bhajan photos)
Gratitude to Balvikas Gurus
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| The two inspiring Balvikas Gurus |
Our Sincere thanks to Balvikas Gurus 'Sai Aravind' and 'Sai Suresh' for taking all initiatives to arrange for Banners, microphone set, a projector to show Swami's vedio during Bhajans, lunch etc...They are the one who encouraged and motivated us. As Swami says, a good student is an offering by a good teacher. So too, the whole Sai Premamrutham Team is been blessed by these two Balvikas Gurus.
Strive to earn God's Grace
As I was reading My Dear Students ( Collection of Discourses by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba ), I came across a beautiful pararagraph which is so inspiring and would be a best conclusion.
" It is only beacause of Swami's grace that you are all here, very near to Me. It is not because of your deeds or your parent's love for Swami. It is only because of Swami's grace, You should realise what good fortune you all are having. You should inquire within yourself as to what could be the reason for attaining God so easily. It is only merit earned for many years. Now that you have obtained Sai, you should ensure that you never loose Him.
If you are not aware of this, you are spoiling your own future. It will turn into misfortune, resulting out of your bad actions. Whatever you have attained, protect it well. How can you protect it? Only through love, you can safegaurd it. There is nothing higher than love." ( Source - My Dear Students, Volume-1 )
Swami, You are the loving mother, ideal father, carrying guru, best friend, etc...You are our only soul refuge. Of whatever cirumstances meet in life, we will never let go of this bondage. Thank You Swami for giving us this wonderfull opportunity.
