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Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai are One
and the Same
By Arjan D. Bharwani
9. ABHISHEKAM OF SHIRDI SAI
IDOL
In Puttaparthi, on the sacred
festival of Vijayadashmi (Dassera) and Maha Sivaratri, Bhagavan
Sri Sathya Sai Baba performs abhishekam (vibhuti bath) of a
silver idol of Shirdi Sai, with His Oivine hands. Often Baba
creates a Llngam which emanates from His mouth. Then with a
circular wave of His hand, Baba creates a necklace of pure pearls
and precious gems with which He adorns the idol. Thereafter an
upturned urn is held over the Deity. Baba puts His right and left
hand alternatively into this vessel and by a rotatory movement
produces an endless stream of vibhuti, bathing the statue in an
abhishekam. The writer had the extreme good fortune to have
personally witnessed this wonderful, unique Divine Leela during
the Maha Slvarathri celebrations in February 1977.
Baba thereafter goes forth into the
entire concourse, sprinkling a nectarine fluid on each and
everyone present, with a wand of Kusa-grass, dipping It repeatedly
into the vessel containing the milky water. As Baba moves amongst
the devotees, they seem to drink the everlasting and everflowing
spring of purity and love, compassion and grace in an atmosphere
surcharged with bliss.
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