Guru Purnima Celebrations in Prasanthi Nilayam

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings of loving Sairam to all of you.
It is with great humility and joy that I have the opportunity to share events from the recent 2013 Guru Purnima celebrations glorifying our Lord, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, our Guru and God. Bhagawan has said Guru is the one who reveals the guri (goal) to the disciple. Guri here refers to the goal of Athmic Prin- ciple. The term Guru means one who dispels the darkness of ignorance and gives the light of wisdom. “Gu” means one who is beyond attributes (gunas), and “ru”means one who is beyond forms (rupas). So when we hold on to Sai He helps us to cross the ocean of samsara and reach the supreme goal of attaining Brahman who is beyond name, form and attributes and transcends space, time and causation. Hence, on this auspicious day of Guru Purnima, spiritual seekers all over the world ex- pressed their love, reverence and gratitude to Bhagawan for guiding them along the spiritual path.

The festival of Guru Purnima was celebrated in Put- taparthi over two weeks filled with inspiring talks by senior devotees, dramas and dances by the young adults and children in Sai Kulwant Hall, music con- certs by accomplished artists and inspiring service ac- tivities including medical camps and Narayana seva (food distribution). I presume that many of you witnessed the live programs from Prasanthi Nilayam via Radio Sai Global Harmony network.

From July 17-20, an international conference with the theme “The Divine Legacy of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba” was conducted by Zone 4 (South East Asian countries). True to the conference’s title, many senior devotees shared their experiences and lessons learned at the divine lotus feet of Bhagawan. The program was uplifting and all the participants of the conference were filled with joy.

On July 22, the morning of Guru Purnima was her- alded by a melodious musical offering by students of the SSSIHL. Sri Satyajit Salian, who is currently the head of the Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vahini Programme, then gave a detailed update of the progress of this Programme in spreading this unique mod- el of education throughout India. Dr. Dalton de Souza Amorim, Professor, Univer- sity of Sao Paulo and Chair of Zone 2B spoke on the impor- tance of practicing His mes- sage in our lives. The morn- ing programme ended with excerpts from Swami’s divine discourse on the Soham prin- ciple. The Guru Poornima celebrations concluded in the evening with guest speak- ers, a video presentation on Swami, and a Carnatic Mu- sical offering by accomplished artiste Ms S Sowmya and bhajans.

Guru Poornima 2013 marks the golden jubilee of the miraculous event when Bhagawan, in His sheer com- passion and love for His devotees healed Himself of a paralytic stroke that He had taken upon Himself. Bhaga- wan subsequently made His historic declaration to the world; Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the Paripurna Shiva-Shakti Avatar.

On July 23, the devotees from Bali presented a dance program entitled “Krishna & Gopalas,” depicting Lord Krishna’s playful pranks with His gopalas (cowherd girls). This was followed by a musical programme by the Mexican choir, which celebrated 40 years of the Sath- ya Sai Organization of Mexico. The Mexican devotees offered a medley of Mexican Folk Songs followed by a bouquet of devotional songs.

A Carnatic concert by Ms. S Sowmya

Sri Sathya Sai Region 8 Newsletter 6

Second Quarter 2013

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