Ladies Day Celebrations 2009 in Parthi

November 20, 2009

Om Sairam dearest family,

The 84th birthday celebrations of our beloved Lord Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba had a grand start with the yearly

Rathotsavam. The Venugopal Swami ratham which is taken in procession every year was blessed by Swami personally on 18th morning. Swami came out of

Gopuram gate and blessed the chariot..

All the people were eagerly awaiting for the ladies' day celebrations which is celebrated on 19th november

every year remembering the blessed Mother Eswaramma for her sacrifice and motherhood.

This year's Ladies' day had an extra attraction even in the morning. Swami out of His

immense mercy

blessed the august gathering at 9:20am. This morning while Swami came in His car chair, Sister Chetana

and Mrs.Ratanlal accompanied Swami..

Introducing the programme, Sis Chetana thanked Swami for granting the boon of celebrating Ladies' day

in His immediate presence.

This morning two speakers were blessed to speak before Swami which was followed by a fantastic dance programme

by overseas children.

The first speaker was Mrs. Sharon

Sandwiess, a very well known name in the Sai family. She shared how her husband

who first came to Swami in 1972 got so much transformed. After returning home from India Mr.Sandwiess was so

happy and told the whole family that he has seen God and later on she explained how the whole family transformed into

vegetarians.

The second speaker was Mrs. Harriet Agbozo of Ghana in her mesmerising African accent shared the

miracolous

saving of her husband from a very severe health problem and she thanked Swami for the kindness.

Mrs.Agbozo who also happens to be a EHV teacher in Ghana asked Swami to visit the whole of Africa and fill

every one's hearts with joy and happiness.

After the talks it was the turn of little children from India,

Indonesia, Mexico, Fiji islands, Thailand and South Africa to steal the show.

The first dance sequence was from the Indian children, depicting the service activities taken up by Swami. The little girl in the

group was exceptionally good in the dance and was fortunate to be blessed by Swami with a golden chain.

Later it was the turn of Indonesia, Fiji and Thailand sai school children. The masterpiece of this morning's programme was the

dance by the children from South Africa. The whole atmosphere in the hall changed when the music was played. The zulu dance

had a very fast beat where in brother Karthigesan played the drums.The song seemed bit FASTER for Puttaparthi standards, but the dance was celestial. The dress in particular was so neat and the children danced with lot of confidence and devotion. These are the children who come from Malagazi ( a poor area dominated by blacks) near

Isipingo, Durban. These are the children who, without Swami's grace would not have heard or seen Swami.. They are the ones who were handpicked

for their intense devotion to Swami and regular attendance to Bal Vikas

sessions conducted on sundays.Financially they are very poor but spiritually they are the richest that they made it to the Abode of our beloved Lord. Words of praise are also due to Mrs. Michelle Singh

(malagazi center) for the intense training and also Mrs. Manormani Govender (phoenix center) for

co-ordinating dance movements and brother Kriss of serendipity. The songs chosen were a bit disco type reminding the hindi movie songs of Bappilahari in late 80s. but there was so much of devotion and love in those children and Swami enjoyed the dance to His heart content.

South Africa is such a country which has maximum number of Sai Devotees out side India and the kind of EHV teachers the country has is worldclass and there are

four Sai Schools giving quality education to the children of this beautiful country.

There are thousands of devotees who come to Parthi every year, but never they had any programme in Swami's presence and let us hope this will be

a new beginning for more activities from SA.

A brother once shared an incident that happened in late 90s. Swami came walking towards a big group from South Africa and asked His most FAMOUS

question WHERE ARE YOU FROM? in no time the reply came South Africa and Swami with a smile asked but where are the Africans? 99% of South Africans who come to Swami are all of Indian Origin and Swami's wish to see the AFRICANS was fructified today with the presence of those 12 little

sweet children.

After the programme, Swami came down the stage and spend more than 30 minutes with the children giving them gifts, padanamaskar and speaking to them so lovingly..and very sure, those momentous moments with our Lord will be cherished by those CHOSEN ones, and who knows, they might be the leaders of tomorrow, whom Swami decided to appoint..

The morning programme came to end just after 11 and it was one of the most beautiful SAI mornings, a sweet morning with our Lord, by our Lord..

AFTER NOON DARSHAN..

In the morning Prof. Anil Kumar anounced that there would be a drama in telugu titled

" Draupati Charitra " . Swami blessed the august gathering with His divine darshan

while theprimary school bagpiper band took the lead. Little girls from Swami's primary school were standing with lamps on either side of Swami's path welcoming our Lord..

There was a choir by devotees from Greece and later it was the turn of Draupati Charitra drama.. Excellently done and written. It was performed by devotees (mostly children) of Andhra

Pradesh. Draupati is the wife of five Pandavas and the drama depicted as how she ended up being the wife of five

pandavas. When you think of Draupati the first tragic incident that comes to our mind is the Draupati

Vastraparanam. King Dharma Raju had this weak ness of gambling. In the gamble with Duryodhana and

Dusasana, he promises to give away Draupati if he loses the gamble. Shakuni, the mastermind behind the Kauravas makes sure King Dharma Raju loses.

When it happens, Dussasana catch holds of Draupati's saree and tries to handle her physically by pulling her saree. Then Draupati cries and prays loudly to Lord Krishna and then Lord Krishna enters the scene and as Dussasana removes her saree, Lord Krishna with His power sends more saree and at the end Dussasana gets tired pulling the never ending sarees and Draupati thanks Krishna for saving her..

This particular scene is very well known and in hundreds of mythological movies in different languages, depending on the creativity and skill of the director this particular scene of Krishna sending unlimited sarees with His hand was perfectly shown. It was very interesting to see how this will beshown in Sai Kulwanth hall and if you have to believe me, this scene was THE BEST surpassing all the technology that is used in cinemas. Just before this scene happens, the way Draupati acted to save herself from the evil men was so touching. The dialouge delivery brought tears in every one and some where in the heart, there was some pain as how cruel the Kauravas were to insult a woman

in front of her husbands and other ministers of the kingdom.

Back to the drama.. As the sentimental scene was in progress The Krishna character very quickly climbed over the iron rods and was ready for the scene to come. There was one more man just below the Krishna Character with sarees nicely folded so that it fits the area between Krishna's index finger and the thumb. Below in the drama, suddenly the lights in Sai Kulwanth hall go off except the lights in the dias and there were some special effect lights placed on the characters and then the saree episode starts. There was a vey tiny string in Dussasana's hands and as he pulled it hard, the man sitting below Krishna made sure the sarees went within the small space between His fingers and Draupati was in between them... Every one clapped in excitement as Krishna seated on the top send all the sarees to save Draupati.. It was a very well done drama and first of its kind SPECIAL EFFECTS and our Lord Sai Krishna couldn't stop

appreciating this particular scene and not to forget the heart breaking acting of the girl who did the Draupati role. Swami called her and blessed her with a golden chain and it was the second materialisation of the day..

Swami, like in the morning came down the stage to take group photos with the children and it was so nice to see Swami spending so much time with the children..

Puttaparthi is all geared up for the Birthday celebrations.. The birthday crowd is still expected. Suprisingly there are so many police men

in the whole Puttaparthi. In the ashram every feet you will find Policemen with AK 47s. Many devotees were saying why so much security.. but the Police have their own reasons..

Let us all pray that the whole event goes on peacefully. Hope unlike last year, every one will have chance to get into the ashram to see our Lord and wish Him happy birthday..

With Pranams at the lotus feet of our beloved Lord,R.Satish Naik

Jai Sai Ramsatish NaikBrahmanapalli Thanda villageNear PuttaparthiAnantapur Andhra PradeshIndia 515134Tel:91-8555-289327

MOB:9440857872

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