Gopuram Gate in Parthi Opened for Public in Prasanthi Nilayam
(Please note this is a personal work and the views expressed are not official)
Om Sairam dearest Sai Family
With Swami’s immense grace and blessings, Puttaparthi is getting busier and busier bringing back those memorable days of smiles and greetings all over the place.. All of Swami’s institutions which includes colleges of all the campuses including Primary school and Eswaramma school have re-opened after summer vacation. It was a very hectic and demanding task especially with the admission process for the authorities and the admission process was very transparent to avoid any misunderstandings from any where. Two of my friends who had applied for Bachelors degree couldn’t get admission inspite of clearing the written examination and quite naturally they were upset about it. They went to the college administration with a letter requesting them to re-consider their candidature and to their suprise the college administration showed them and their parents the marks they secured in the written examination, personal interview and their ranks among the aspirants which cleared all the doubts and this was actually a very good move by the college administration especially during such a time where the media is just waiting for one chance to point the finger and blow up a big story.
GOPURAM GATE OPENED FOR PUBLIC:
Any one who had been coming to Parthi in late 80s or so would remember walking freely into the ashram through the Gopuram gate. Later on, for some reason the gate was closed for Devotees and was only used by Swami when He preferred to go out in the car.
This Thursday, June 14th 2012, amidst veda chantings the Gopuram gate was opened for devotees to enter into the ashram. According to few locals, this was done after consulting few vastu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastu) experts who felt it would bring more charm and past glory to Puttaparthi by opening up the north facing Gopuram gate.
This move was welcomed by locals staying closer to the Gopuram gate, who had to take a long walk till Ganesh gate to enter the ashram. The owners of shops and restaurants near Gopuram gate were also happy about the opening of the gate. As of now the exit and entry points near Ganesh gate have not changed.
MODERN KITCHEN IN SOUTH INDIAN CANTEEN
The South Indian canteen kitchen which was under renovation for the past few months was also re-opened on Thursday and this time with state of art cooking equipment which is eco friendly, time saving and nutritional. The modern kitchen has roti makers, rice cookers with specially designed steam ovens which would cook food in less than 15 minutes each time. The kitchen staff were given special training in Tamil Nadu for a week to master these modern equipments.
PRASANTHI SANITATION SEVA:
Every year sevadals from all over India come to Prasanthi for this special seva usually scheduled during the month of May when the schools and colleges are closed for summer vacation. These sevadals divide into batches and start fixing broken pipes, cleaning the grounds, building toilets, walls, painting, attending to the sewage system etc. These batch of sevadals have specialised plumbers, painters etc and this year 200 of them came to Prasanthi to render their services to Swami in His abode.This according to few of the sevadals was the largest group for the past 5 years. In spite of Swami’s physical absence, in spite of the scorching heat, out of pure love for Swami they all came and did this service and what a great boon it is to serve at His Abode which is equal to serve Him directly. Probably the easiest way to wash away few of our sins accrued from our previous births..
PRAY FOR THE VIZAG STEEL PLANT EMPLOYEES:
On a tragic note 16 people died in an explosion in a state-owned steel plant in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.All of them were burnt alive following a huge explosion in the recently commissioned oxygen plant in the steel melting shop on Wednesday night. The impact was such that several cars parked outside the oxygen plant were flung 500 meters away. Vizag steel plant has a
very distinctive role in spreading Swami’s messages. Every year devotees with saffron scarves come to Prasanthi in large groups. In
spite of being employees in a very busy and profit making steel company, with very few holidays, these devotees find time and visit
Prasanthi to have His darshan. This also is the largest group that visits Prasanthi, from an organisation which speaks high about their devotion towards Swami. Here are few lines taken from Prof.Anil Kumar’s Sunday talks this year (sourced from http://www.saiwisdom.com/) where he gives a brief history of this world famous steel plant.
BABAS WILL OF STEEL
“In the time left, I am happy to find a group here from Visakhapatnam, the steel city. Would you please get up? Welcome to all of you. thank you. Why did I ask them to get up? The reason, my friends, is that there is a government-managed steel plant in Visakhapatnam. They can correct me if I am wrong.
The steel plant was running into losses, heavy losses, which led to a situation of closure or merger with another steel plant, which had been doing well in another part of the country. At that time, Baba gave them an interview and said, It will run well. It is still running and making great profits today. What is Baba? Babas will is as hard as the steel certified by the steel plant in Visakhapatnam. May God bless you! We are happy to have you!”
MASS UPANAYA PROGRAMME:
Unofficially there are rumours of a Mass Upanayana Programme (traditional thread ceremony) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana scheduled in the near future in Sai Kulwanth Hall. Even though there are no further details about this programme but i was told that intimation would be sent to all the Sai Centers for registrations etc at a later stage.
May Swami bless us all to be His worthy instruments. Even though we know He is very much with us, in our hearts, may He allow all of us to come to His abode as many times as possible as this will definitely RECHARGE our spiritual batteries which are going flat very quickly, thanks to the world we are living in…. full of HURRY, WORRY and CURRY..
With pranams at the Lotus feet of our beloved Lord,
Thanks to R.Satish Naik for this posting
