June 13, 2009 – Burrakatha by University students

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June 13, 2009 – Burrakatha by University students

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It

was a beautiful and special Saturday at Prasanthi Nilayam. On June 11,

Swami had asked for three students to present the Burrakatha. However,

He kept postponing the performance till it was finally fixed for June

13. Bhagavan has always encouraged traditional art forms and Burrakatha

tops in this list. Kindly refer to our earlier update for a brief introduction to this unique mode of storytelling.

 

Every action of Swami has the undercurrents of profound wisdom and

Love. The reasons why He does things are multi-dimensional for He

achieves many objectives with a single action. Different people

perceive different reasons and all of them are right if not

comprehensive. One of the reasons of Swami postponing the Burrakatha

recital became obvious with the arrival of the new students from the

Brindavan campus of the university. Having been admitted freshly, they

wanted to start their academic year with a darshan

of Swami. And so, in His very loving and sweet self, Swami seemed to

have planned for a programme when these students too are there in

Prasanthi so that they too could participate in the joy and have a

wonderful darshan too. The students from Brindavan had taken

up their places in the Mandir. The Sai Kulwant Hall was quite full, it

being the weekend. People come to His feet on “weakends†to get

“strengthened†or recharge their spiritual batteries as Swami puts it!

It was past 4:40 p.m. when Swami arrived for darshan.

He took a complete round and then moved into the interview room for a

short while. Soon, He went into the Bhajan Hall where the three

performers sat, costumed and ready for His command to begin their

performance.

 

 

 

 

An interesting fact is to be mentioned here. One of the trio has been

blessed by Swami to pursue higher studies in medicine. This boy has

finished his Masters in Bio-Sciences and is determined to serve Swami

in His hospitals, and Bhagavan has been his pillar of support, in the

face of many trials, financial or administrative. In fact, Swami is

sponsoring the entire medical education of this student and though he

is already 22 years old, he is determined and steadfast in his

objectives and the Lord has blessed him. Swami lovingly enquired about

whether all the admission procedures had been completed.

 

 

 

 

 

The rajakiya (poilitical analyst) of

the Burra Katha trio

 

 

 

The boy told Swami with gratitude that he was the eldest in the class

and that the management had stated their great expectations of him.

Swami advised him to be sincere and good. That is all God asks for

always - sincerity and goodness - and He does everything else giving

the credit to us! Swami blessed them to do well in the Burrakatha. The

warden too was present there and he requested Swami to visit the hostel

once before he retires from wardenship on July 1. Swami nodded His head

in consideration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Narasimha Murthy makes the announcement

 

Blessings before the performance

 

 

At

about 5:15 p.m, Swami arrived on the stage and asked for the warden of

the Brindavan campus to introduce the programme. The three students,

Prabhakar, Aravind Sai and Raghuram, were introduced and so was the art

form. The trio arrived and offering their salutations to Swami, took

their positions. The theme for the day’s performance was the same as

the one on Easwaramma Day, that is , on Mother Easwaramma (Please read

the previous update).

 

 

 

 

 

 

What soulful rendering!

 

 

 

The Burrakatha began with a prayer to Lord Ganesha. After that, the

narrators were garlanded in the manner that tradition demands. Then, it

was the Sai Bhagawatham! However much one may attempt to tell

the story of Mother Easwaramma or Subbamma, one ends up narrating the

story of dear Swami, for, it is Swami who makes lives fruitful and

wholesome. The story of the divine Mother and Subbamma is very

inspiring as they were so closely associated with God. The three

artists narrated how the mothers were privileged to witness the

divinity of little Sathya.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A sublime flow of the Sai saga...

 

They are garlanded as per tradition

 

 

Hailing

victory to Mother Easwaramma, the students gave a brief chronology of

events in her life. She was born in the year 1890 to Sri Subba Raju.

When she was only five years old, the family migrated to Puttaparthi.

Her name now finds a place in the list of illustrious mothers of

Avatars – Kausalya gave birth to Sri Rama, Devaki to Sri Krishna and

Devagiriamma to Shirdi Sai. Swami was born in the Ratnakara Vamsa

(clan) to Pedda Venkama Raju and Easwaramma. Swami was so full of

nostalgia and emotion, it seemed.

When one sees

Swami's reaction to the narratives about His mother, one wonders at the

joy that the Mother would be feeling to be remembered so by the Lord.

There have been many avatars but no avatar has been recorded to have

been so emotionally bonded to the Mother. Of course, He is beyond

emotions and it is merely a pointer and a lesson to the whole humanity

about the respect and position that has to be accorded to one's parents.

The

three of them narrated about the birth and infancy of Swami. When they

hushed the whole audience into silence to sing the lullaby song to put

the "baby Swami" to sleep, it was such a fulfilling and love-filling

experience. It is said that the baby, at birth, is an exactness of God

till the parents humanise it with their upbringing! Imagining the

divine baby, infant Sathya, and hearing the lullaby was a very special

experience indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further, they described in a beautiful verse, how Sathya, the baby,

was! For those who understood Telugu, it was so elevating and

enthralling, for Swami matched that description even the present day,

after 83 human years! This was another insight as to why God is called

timeless and ageless. Continuing their narration, the students said, it

was Subbamma, the first wife of Mr. Narayana Rao, who named Swami as

Sathyanarayana Raju. One day when Subbamma wanted to feed pakodas

to Swami, she saw all the fourteen worlds in His mouth as Yashoda saw

in Lord Krishna’s mouth in the Dwapara Yuga. Karanam Subbamma

experienced great joy in serving food to the devotees of Swami.

Referring

to the three wishes of Mother Easwaramma, the students said the present

Sri Sathya Sai University, Super Speciality Hospitals and Sri Sathya

Sai Drinking Water Project bore fruit due to the humble wishes of

Mother Easwaramma. In those days, Bhagavan used to do Narayana Seva to

the villagers of surrounding villages while Mother Easwaramma

distributed clothes.

On May 6, in 1972, when the Summer Course was in progress in Brindavan, Bangalore, Mother Easwaramma left her mortal coil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She called out, “Swami, Swami …†And Bhagavan responded immediately. He

came to her, and she breathed her last. When this episode was being

narrated, Swami was very emotional.

 

Looking at Him, it was so difficult to say whether Easwaramma had

mothered Him or He had mothered Easwaramma, for in the glistening

teardrop at the edge of His eye, one could see the reverence of a Son

and the selflessness of a mother, both at the same time.

 

 

 

It was a nearly one hour performance

 

 

 

Mention

here must be made of the wonderful work done by the accompanying

artists on the harmonium, keyboard and the mridangam. They built up the

entire mood and the twain between the east and west was met with the

wonderful chords on the keyboard blending 'harmoniously' with the 'key'

notes of the harmonium! The Burrakatha artists concluded with a

prayer that though 37 years have passed, Mother Easwaramma is still

ever fresh in everyone’s minds. "Oh Mother! Please return to earth

again to see the wonderful transformation that has affected

Puttaparthi. Your sojourn here has blessed us with unimaginable

bounty."

 

 

 

It

is often said that service is more of an attitude rather than an

action. It was indeed a noble act of great service that these three

boys did. They filled thousands of people with joy and Love for the

divine. Their song acted as a balm for stricken hearts and panacea for

the pained minds.

The vibrations were so

holy, pure and joyous that everyone benefitted from the glory of the

Divine story. It was a physical expression of the prayer, "Samastha Loka Sukhino bhavanthu" as the trio did their bit to bring happiness and Love to humanity through their soulful rendering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord is absolutely engrossed

 

 

As

they completed their act, Swami went to the interview room and brought

white safari pieces to gift to each of them. Swami blessed them and

said that He was very happy. They told Swami that the accompanying

artists had also worked very hard. Swami said that He knew and He

called them and blessed them too with the same. Swami asked them

whether they had written the scripts themselves. They said that their

teacher had done so and he was currently working on a script about the

Ramayana. Swami promised to guide him on that script. Then, when Swami

asked as to what he wanted, the lead singer, Prabhakar prayed, "Swami

grant Sadbuddhi (good intellect) to everyone here especially

the students." Such a noble prayer! Swami nodded and said that His

Grace was always there. He asked him to sing an encore of a part of the

Burrakatha. The singer moved down and sang out the verse describing the

beauty of the divine babe Sai. Everyone thundered in their joyous

applause.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gifts from Swami for gifting all melodious music

 

The hasyam, comedian, is so grateful

 

 

 

Again Swami told the three of them to sing in unison and so they did.

The applause was even greater this time. Swami told them that their

voices gelled very well with each other. He granted them group photos.

They prayed that they should get more such opportunities to make Him

happy and Swami promised them that He would surely grant them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A moment to be cherished forever

 

They spent several precious minutes with Him

 

 

Swami then asked for a bhajan

to be sung. "Hari Om Namah Shivaya" filled the air as everyone

enthusiastically joined in the singing. After that He asked for aarthi. Swami had only words of praises for the trio as He received aarthi

and was leaving. He blessed the card that the deputy warden of the

Brindavan campus showed Him. He looked surprised that there was no prasadam to be distributed! But He only gave a sweet smile and blessing everyone, retired for the day at 6:40 p.m.

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