Memories of the Alumni Meet in January, 2007

Shyam writes :

Sai Ram to all..

just wanna inform that jan 2nd this year was a memorable one for the old students. swami called us into the Bhajan Hall after darshan at around 8:30. He moved amongst us, took letters from us, then he gave his advise and he spoke to some of the OLD students, finally group songs were sung - it was a moving session. padnamaskaram was also granted to many of us.

His message was the following:

1-be self confident. anything and everything can be achieved by that.
2-follow sathya dharma shanti prema at all times
3-come every year on 1st and 2nd. swami will bless.

so this is the call to all from bhagwan..next year onwards let us try to make it to his lotus feet in greater nos.

sai ram..

Hari

Hey Boys and Girls,

I must say that this year began with a surprise. All of it was a surprise. I woke up late in the hour to realise that there were no tickets to Parthi be it bus, train or Air. All of a sudden junior reddy calls me and says anna I have two tickets to Parthi. I jumped in joy and took them both. A friend of mine Raman Shankar, currently in Dubai also joined me. The tickets were the last two seats in the bus frankly at no moment it was an issue. We had a nice journey obviously talking the good olden days etc. We landed in parthi and thanks to chenchu, he booked a room for me and got ready and went to Mandir.

Was so happy to meet all the old boys class mates, juniors and seniors. Was delighted to see Pragnath fully recovered and happily moving around. We went in only to be told that we are not supposed to sit for Darshan but need to go for Grama seva. So we headed to the village where the Grama seva was to be conducted. We were welcomed with Breakfast Pongal and aloo bonda with Sambar. Helped ourselves with the breakfast alongside Bharath's Kadis and hi hi to all brothers around.

Then there was this pallaki seve where we took Swami's photo around the village with Bhajans and vedam. After that started the Grama seva. Frankly Over the years I do not know what's wrong but the charm is lost. It became a routine. We decided to excuse ourselves from there. I for one had always looked forward to Grama seva but this I must say was so mediocre and we left midway.

21kms of countryside drive before we entered Parthi. The drive was nice again filled with talks on ARMY chennai/Mumbai and other Sai orgn activities. We relaxed for a while and went out for Lunch. By about 2:45 we sat down for Darshan and Swami came out by 3:45 and noticed all of us. I was told that Swami came walking to the old students block in the morning as well and generally had a look. The evening program was typical with Bhajans and Aarthi. The evening went off with CHATTING.....continued

Prem :

Nostalgic

These days when it is so rare to get darshan of the Lord other than through the closed window of Porte, this session was just such a boon!

It was almost as good as the Old Times when the Lord moved amongst us and invested so much of His Time on us.

I am sure every one would have now vowed to be there in Parthi every Jan 1st and 2nd.

I cannot think of a better way to start the year off than this one!

Call it the Annual Re-Charge of Batteries!

Ashok

Yes indeed Swami gave the whole morning for us...Let me say more of the discourse :

1. Human values are the jewels we must bring forth from within.
2. Self Respect comes from Self Confidence...He said dont fear
anything...He said in English " DONT FEEL LIKE THAT ".
3.Serve the needy who donot have food....What property do you take when you leave ( Alexander with hands held up ).
4.You are not OLD boys..all are one...How can they call "OLD boys"

Someone asked How do we remember you always....Swami just said the answer in one word....."PRACTICE". ( Isn't that true for anything in life ? ).

This is my grabbing of the Message from our LORD...

Hari :

I am glad some of you are writing about the discourse. Let me concentrate on the other things, most important is obviously the kind of love that Swami showered on us. When you read ecstatic effusions of Love, one wonders what's it all about. The classic example one can quote in this regard is the recent alumni meet. Swami was just pouring pouring and pouring pure Love...all the way.

Let me continue from where I left the last message. Let me quickly narrate 1st Jan so that we can go to the crux of the trip/meet(2nd JaN 07). We were all seated in the Kulwant Hall and Swami came in after 8. There was a music program where Spra and Ravi were the notable singers apart from others. The highlight of the morning program was obviously the Institute Brass Band. Man I must tell you the Band has gone places in the recent past. Guys have played extremely well and it is what we can call a perfect show. No off tunes, wrong notes and the confidence levels were so high. I am sure every one sitting there were awe struck. Too good is what we can say. Swami then asked for the Prasadam to be distributed. We also got Calendars that morning.

The evening session was for the Alumni. They sang group as well as solo songs (you may wonder why they and not we...obviously I did not sing-hehehe). Well but for Swami and the captive audience you are blessed with I must say the program was far from the standards. The only saving grace being the Band Program. The Band boys once again stole the show. They were very good that evening. Not so much from the perfection point of view but from the choice of pieces. Their combination of Violin Mridangam, Ghatam etc with the Band was very nice. For the limited practice and dispersed team in various parts of the Globe, the program we must say is just too good. But if you were to compare with the mornings current Band prog, the Alumni Brass Band gets the second place. Apart from the Band there were a few songs and a qawali which were very good. To be continued...

Hari Continued

The rest of the show is filled with the also rans...

One note worthy thing in the whole program is that boys had something or the other every two songs or so to show Swami, be it the cards, the cake or the Alumni details etc.

When boys took the cake to Swami, you must see the eagerness in Swami - the playlike little kid in Swami to be precise. He immediately asked where is the match box. Boys gave the candle and he lit the candles on the cake. He then asked for the knife to cut the cake. I did not have a closer look at the cake but as i understand from other brothers it was a three layered or three piece cake. And Swami asked them to show the second layer/piece and then the third. He ensured that he cut all the three parts of the cake. he has spoken to almost all the Boys who went to Swami and showered so much of love. I understand that he was telling the VIPS repeatedly "My boys have come" and in the inside he told "Boys may have grown old but their voices are still sweet" etc.

Towards the end when boys asked Swami to speak to us He said I will talk to you tomorrow. He then sent Two baskets of fruits for the old boys.

The highlight of the evening program is the Vice chancellors opening talk. Well sitting there at the lotus feet one wonders what he intended to say. objective unknown he spoke something to fill the minutes...Sorry but I am being frank. We can also take it as a capsule to better our spiritual progress as in a patience enabler. Swami had some Anand sweets distributed in the evening for Prasadam.

After the evening program we had a get together in the college auditorium and the pick of that being Prof US Rao's talk. Although very brief it was a no nonsense lecture as usual. He was crisp and to the point. It was all filled with his wit which he rarely gets to show because he avoids public speaking. For those of us his direct students its normal. Man he was awesome. Nice to hear him that day. Hope to hear more from you sir... to be continued....

Hari ...continued...

The rest of the session is all about a little trumpeting. We did this here and that there etc. Not to my taste(may be because I do not do any service in that sense of the term). Following all this was the event which we were eagerly waiting for....Dinner from Hostel and Fruit salad from the fruits sent by Swami and the Cake that Swami blessed...Can u ask for more???

Obviously the dinner had the much coveted "groundnut chutney with onion rice, Pooris with Dal, Payasam and did I miss anything?? I don't think so. That's the end of day two or 1st Jan 2007. A nice beginning made to the New year. As a topping to this most of us took the blessings of Lord Ganesha our dear brother if we can call him so, with the 108s around him. End of day two...

While I start day three in a separate message wanted to share a few of my observations/thoughts here.

On one side we see Swami shivering a little to even hold a hanky in his hand on the other side we see him eagerly coming forward to cut the cake etc in a way only he can execute - absolutely perfect and Royal..

We all obviously know he is God and beyond the body etc. At the same time we worry a lot seeing him struggle in pain. Is it the Love we have for Swami or his Body? Please don't think I am feeling philosophical and giving gyan. That's the least I want to do here...I am just thinking aloud. Swami gave answers to some of these thoughts on 2nd Jan.

OM SAI RAM

emailed on 14.03.07 by KM