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The "Swans"
Four long months, staying away from
the physical proximity of Bhagavan Baba! I had missed Darshan of
the Lovely Divine form while I was in USA where I spent a vocation
with my son. And yet, I had the benefit of the Sathsang with many
Sai devotees, and these chances somehow made me conformable, and
gave me immense joy. I could feel the warmth of Love in their
company.
The joy was
much greater when I boarded the plane towards my trip back to
India. At |Frankfurt Airport, Gate No.B42 was filled with Indian
community. Many ladies had their Babes in their hands, and also
many elderly couples, who are returning back to India after
spending time with their dear ones in USA. I was alone in my
thoughts, always centering on Sai. The method of channelizing all
our thoughts towards God in one way or other, is also sort of
meditation..
There were
television monitors on the ceilings of the aircraft, along the
aisle. The screen was displaying the logo of the airlines;
“Lufthansa” This logo indicated the form of a bird flying. It is
widely believed, that the German thinking is akin to the Indian
traditions in many ways, and that Germans had tried to absorb much
of the knowledge from Indian vedic scriptures. “Hansa”
as is known in the Northern parts of India, is spelled, as “Hamsa”
is Sanskrit. The English equivalent word is “Swan”.
Swami has
liberally used the forms of Swan, Lotus and elephants in the
decoration of the temple complex in Prashanthi Nilayam. When I saw
the name “Hansa” and its form in the logo, my thoughts went
to the balcony structure in Sai Kulwant Hall, over the verandah,
where the images of “Hamsa” is depicted along the curved
border. Then my mind started thinking over to identify more places
where we could locate “swans” in Prashanthi Nilayam. Just above
this curved balcony, there is one more semi circular layer on the
second floor position, and here too we can “Swans” lining up from
both sides and converging in the center, face to face. As we enter
inside the Mandir, to our left side is the beautiful
three-dimensional structure of “Gita Upadesh”, (Sri Krishna
revealing Bhagawad Gita to Arjuna). Just above this
conclave, along the beams, we can find more “Swans” lining up!
There could be more of such lovely swans in Prashanthi Nilayam.
While the
gold fixing work was going on, we were directed by Bhagavan to use
minimum gold and yet decorate the swans, to bring out its beauty.
To illustrate this, Bhagavan showed us a beautiful porcelain
flower vase, made in the form of a SWAN”. I have seen this flower
vase in the form of a swan, in the window near Swami’s Chair,
inside the Interview room, The pure white in colour vase, has some
streaks of gold painted along the feathers, and Swami suggested
that this method could be adopted while decorating the swans in
the temple structure.
By these
narrations, I am trying to bring to the notice of my dear Sai
devotees, how the thoughts could be initiated and inverted to
Divine presence even from an unexpected location. While I was
wandering along these thoughts, another Divinely episode came to
my memory.
It was about
eight years or so, when we were in the Divine Presence in
Kodaikanal. Swami was having nice time with the students whom he
had chosen to accompany Him during the Vocation with the Divine.
It was late in the evening and the usual chat with students
commenced. Swami was explaining the story of “Nala &
Damayanthi” whose love affair became fruitful in their
wedlock. There was a small canal running along the backyards of
the palace where Damayanthi was living and further down the
stream where Nala was living. Swami explained that Damayanthi
used to send letters to Nala and a faithful Swan in the stream
used to courier these letters to Nala and bring back the replies.
Just a few days
before the wedding date, Nala accosted Damayanthi who looked very
sad and forlorn. Nala enquired the reasons for her sadness, when
Damayanthi replied that the Swan, which was instrumental in
bringing them together, has passed away recently, and that the
feeling that the swan will be missed during the actual wedding, is
making her sad. Nala too expressed his shock and grief on hearing
the news. He enquired how best he could do something to remove her
sorrow. Damayanthi suggested that he could design a “Mangala
Suthram” (Thirumangalyam or the wedding necklace) having a
pendent in the form of the swan. And Nala fulfilled her desire by
designing the Manga suthram in the form of a Swan. Swami then
enquired whether the students wished to see the pendant of the
Mangala suthram which Nala made and offered to Dhamayanthi.
The excited
students cried in chorus, “Please Swami!!!”
Swami waved His
Divine Palm and created a pendant, and showed it to all of us. We
were wonderstruck with the beautiful design and the creation of
the pendant, which was in the shape of a swan. It was filled with
hundreds of small, small pieces of Diamonds studded all over!!!!
“This is the pendant of the Mangala suthra, which Nala tied
around the neck of Dhamayanthi!!!” declared Swami.
While we route
our thoughts with such Divine experiences, our minds are united
with Swami, and this also forms a great path of meditation. Any
small or probably ‘not-that-much’ important factors which we may
come across in unexpected sources, may give us a cue to enable us
channelizing our thoughts towards Swami.
Sai Ram.
With Love & regards Bombay Srinivasan
Source:
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/SaiGroup-BombaySrinivasan/message/116 |
