Ashadi Ekadashi…
Thursday, July 10th, 2014
What Mother India stands for and what entails her greater glory?.. this was the central theme of a beautiful presentation entitled “Yenna Bharath Tanna Bharatha…” by the Bal Vikas and Youth of Pune District of Maharashtra on the auspicious Ashadi Ekadashi morning herein Prasanthi Nilayam today.
Today is Ashadi Ekadashi, the holy 11th day in the month of Ashada. This is the day when lakhs and lakhs or pilgrims from every nook and corner of Maharashtra flock to the Abode of Lord Vittala at Pandharpur seeking His Divine darshan. Symbolic to this Varkari tradition devotees of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai take up Dindi procession every year, walking on foot from Dharmavaram to Prasanthi Nilayam in three days, presenting themselves to Sai Vittala seeking the bliss of His Divine darshan.
This morning’s programme commenced with the arrival of traditional Dindi procession marked with great spiritual and religious fervour. Soon Sai Kulwant was heard reverberating with the refrain “Jai Jai Rama Krishna Hari…” “Jai Jai Vittala…” bringing the Pandharpur flavour to Prasanthi Nilayam. Over 1100 pilgrims joined this year’s Dindi procession to Prasanthi Nilayam.
The presentation that followed next had the Essence of Bharat’s pristine glory. When Bharat’s own spiritual ideology “Sanathana Dharma” and “Vasudaiva Kudumbakam”, understanding everything as one single family, form part of its ‘constitution’, Bharat promotes the most potent and highest of all teachings of spiritual awakening, Aham Brahmasmi and Sarvam Brahmamayam…that, i am Brahmam and everything is Brahmam, the Truth Eternal.
Unity in Diversity, Bhagawan’s message for a nation with diverse culture, worshipping the Mother as Divine in the Indian perspective, worshipping Cow, Motherland, Vedas, Nature, Mother Earth etc as Mother…, Para Vidya, the Supreme Knowledge or the Eternal Atmic Principle understanding that Life is Eternal and Sathya Sai is the True Sadguru and Bharat’s own specialty being the only land of Avatars etc. were depicted beautifully in the next one hour through segmented presentations, with colourful children dancing to the fore to the tunes of Bhagawan’s own compositions. Popularly known as Padyams, these compositions often preceded Bhagawan’s Divine discourses, entailing essential wisdom in a nutshell.
Bhajans continued and ended with Mangala Arathi at 0955 hrs.
Limitless is the scope of music in adoring and extolling the Supreme Divine as Sri Sathya Sai – talented students and musicians from around the world never stop vying for golden opportunities to ‘croone for the Divine!’ …and Bhagawan’s own students often take big lead in presenting their talents as gratitude offering to Beloved Swami…!!! From Bhagawan’s padyams to music of variety… Continuing the Ashadi celebrations in the evening talented youngsters from the city of Mumbai presented a 90 minute musical offering regaling Bhagawan and the capacity audience. The troupe of 6-talented youngsters included two of Bhagawan’s alumni, Bro Sanket Modi and Bro Nishad Mishra, working as a music faculty at Atharva Music Academy and as a full time composer respectively.
Ms Swarna Tiwari, Ms Deepali Sathe, Ms Kirti Killedar, Ms Ruhi Kuddyady were the other singers joined Sanket and Nishad in the evening. Producing rich music with diversity, ranging from Hindustani to Marati Abhang, Punjabi Folk to Zufi devotionals they regaled the audience for over an hour and a half. Some of the numbers for the evening were: Saanson kii maalaa pe simruun main pii ka naam…an original Mirabai number, one of the most popular songs of legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Hey O’ Vitthale Bhakta Jana Vatsale…, popular Marati Abhang by Sant Namdev, Dama Dam Mast Kalandar…, popular Sufi number etc. The Team – 6 were accompanied by Amit Bhavar on Keyboard, Sandeep Kulkarni on Flute, Dhiren Raichura on Guitar, Ashish Jha on Tabla, Sai Prasad on Mrudangam and Sanket Modi himself on Harmonium.
Bhajans continued and ended with Mangala Arathi at 1900 hrs.
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