Media News - Deccan Chronicle, November 23, 2003

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Source:

http://www.deccan.com/features/hyd/template.shtml#'Vibhuti%20fell%

20on%20stage%20as%20Sai%20Baba's%20blessings'

 

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Article published in: Deccan Chronicle

Sunday November 23, 2003

 

`Vibhuti fell on stage as Sai Baba's blessings'

 

By Rajeshwari Sainath

 

I get up on stage, I close my eyes, and as I hear the first strains

of music, my mind opens to an experience that is difficult to

describe in words. As my body articulates the nuances of the raga

and my feet interpret the rhythm of the underlying tala, I move into

a realm that can only be sensed in the innermost recesses of being.

For me, dance is a way to reach that inner realm, where the mind and

heart are one with some greater power.

 

Most people tend to think that dance is about shringara, the outward

expression of beauty and romance. However, dance is also about

bhakti, it is about devotion to that supreme power. Every

performance is a spiritual experience, when I feel touched by some

divine force that takes me in its grip as my feet move across the

stage. The experience is intensified when the forum itself has a

touch of divinity.

 

The first time I performed at the annual birthday celebrations of

Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, I did so with no expectations other

than that I should show my devotion in the best way I could —

through the purity of dance, which is an expression of purity of

mind.

 

Sometime during the middle of the performance, there was a very

slight pause in movement, a brief silence, when a small bowl of

vibhuti suddenly fell from the platform at the rear and the contents

spilled across the stage, around my feet. Though I was startled, I

had to continue with the dance, and it was only at the end of the

performance that I realised what had happened. I saw this as

evidence of Baba's blessings, and it energised me that evening, and

has continued to do so ever since.

 

(The writer is a Bharatanatyam dancer)

 

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Sai Baba in the media:

http://www.saibabalinks.org/saibabainthemedia.htm