Prashanti Diary: January 11, 2009 - Sports Day at Hillview Stadium

January 11, 2009

January 11, 2009

Sports Day at Hillview Stadium

All morning, there is a continuous stream of devotees pouring out of the ashram and making their way down to Hillview Stadium. I join them for the brisk walk down to the stadium. All the food carts which ususally come out to Main Road (in the evenings) are down there on each side of the road past the archway, all doing a brisk trade. There is no traffic on Main Road, the road is given over to devotees for safety.

Enter the stadium, and memory comes back to me; I recall the construction of the stands back in 1998 and the shaminas, yes, there are large shaminas for food distribution under the bleachers. Up the steps into the stadium and every seat is taken, men are standing everywhere. Look around, there is another shamina at the Northern end of the sportsground, for the ladies lunches. Far away at the end of the stadium, I spy the Lord sitting in Shanti Vedika, the building constructed by the ever-humble Subramanium Stapathi, who frequently consulted Swami at every step of the construction. Subramanium Stapathi went to Swami at the finish; he did not know how many golden spires to put on the top, and Swami asked him, "What do you want to put?" Subramanium, a truly humble Puttaparthi man, (he is a very,very sweet fellow; I have met him) … confessed he did not know. Swami asked him again, "What do you want to put?" (Mind you, Subramanium Stapathi has built

all the domes atop the mandir and all the other temples around Prashanti Nilayam) … again deferred to Swami's wish. Finally, Swami told, "You can put five gold spires" … and that is the story of the spires atop Shanti Vedika.

So much history comes to me when I visit the Hillview Stadium; Sai Gita used to join the boys in soccer here, true! The students are massed within the green fence, where Kasturirangan and EAS Prasanna constructed an international class four pitch cricket ground. I met with them frequently when they were doing this, and I will never forget Kasturirangan telling me "Swami asks very difficult questions!"

So they are there and all their props, right there on the International class cricket oval. It is a cool morning with a pleasant breeze and fluffy white clouds waft across the blue skies. Ladies one side (on the Hanuman Hill side), men the other side in the bleachers. Children everywhere. Seva Dals move around with water tanks strapped to their backs distributing water.

The stadium is quiet, there are loudspeakers at the other end, and we can hear the narration clearly. This is a very tightly scripted presentation, I can see motorcyclists in Yellow and Black, with similarly coloured motorcycles; more motorcyclists wear red and black, with similarly coloured motorcycles. They have Kawasaki Racing bikes!

There are a number of pavillions adjacent Shanti Vedika; all the official guests and veranda staff sit down there, ditto the ladies side. Swami visible in the centre of Shanti Vedika with an archway behind him. Students dressed in green are doing something down there, I can see people moving in circles. Event after event takes place in that ground immediately in front of Shanti Vedika, girls dressed in white do a dance; girls dressed in green run around; there two, what will I call it, "contraption" looking something like a carnival wheel ride which spins around like a circular yo-yo with students inside doing some acrobatic acts.

Looking up to Hanuman Hill, next to Hanuman I can see the Sai University Flag, and the dish with the Unity Flame is alight and smoke is billowing from the flame. Dotted all around the stadium are large billboards with Swami's face, and the script "Glory to our Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai", these are colour coordinated with Swami's robe, and all very tastefully executed.

Now I see the motorcycles take some laps, at high speed. They do some circular patterns in the middle of the sports ground. Then some huge yellow hoops with two students inside each wheel past Shanti Vedika, they go around several times. Then what must have been 400 lady students dressed tastefully in white and silver sarees come forward and do a presentation. Thereafter, students wearing jungle-green army trousers and grey tshirts come forward and perform some exercises. All the students from all the campuses must be here. My attention keeps returning to the small white Swami, way down there, clearly visible on the Throne Chair, in white.

The motorcyclists perform some stunts on ramps, the ramps are moved, and they race towards each other in perfect synchronicity going across the ramps alternately. Then the ramps are moved into a cross formation and the motorcyclists race towards the ramps and cross alternately left and right in perfect synchronicity. Loud applause from the crowds. Those boys were getting up to nearly 80kph on their bikes.

Seva Dals continue to move through the crowds; they are distributing small packets of food, laddu, burfi, anand, and little boys crowd around them. They put the boxes on their heads and move up to the stands, going row by row, patiently distributing snacks and water to all in the stands. Police and other seva dal try to encourage (albeit lovingly) men standing behind the fence to sit. Not much luck, although they get quite a few to sit.

Out on the sports ground, there is a huge Eagle, on a red ball all of 150 feet high; the red ball has what appears to me to be Chinese decorations. About 200 motorcycles, many bearing green or yellow flags, all these black, red and yellow motorcycles all move forward and do intricate formation riding as the Eagle is brought forward. A song is played over the Public Address. The eagle moves to the side of the ground and a large black Siva lingam mounted on a pedestal is moved forward. The Himalaya Mountains form a backdrop and about 70 Seva Dal push the Lingam and the Himalayas forward. About 150 ladies dressed in Red and Yellow clothing with headdress come forward and dance before the Lingam as it is brought forward. The Public Address plays Om Namah Sivaya as the Ladies dance.

Behind them are all these black auto-rickshaws; each auto-rickshaw has a sporting symbol (all the sports are represented—running, jumping, weightlifting, swimming, ball sports) painted on the back. These come forward in formation and do some formation turning. It looks quite good.

I see Swami has gone somewhere (as He usually does from time to time) so I take my leave and come back to post this for you; I will go back and take the camera and chance my luck.

Sai Ram from Hillview Stadium.

Courtesy: http://saieditor.com/spirit/