December 31, 2010 – Drama by Alumni of Sai University

Students always occupy a special place in Swami’s heart. It is not a coincidence that December 31 and January 1 every year have been dedicated for programmes by the alumni of Sri Sathya Sai schools and colleges. Swami seems to begin the year and end it with the students! In every organisation, the year end is a time of retrospection and introspection. The same was the case with the students’ too as they were presenting a sort of an annual report in a creative manner.

It was at 6:10 p.m. that Swami arrived for darshan in the car. He moved through the ladies’ side and as He arrived to the centre, He had a look at the giant LED screen and the stage that had been placed. Completing the rounds on the gents’ side too, Swami descended from the car and came on the stage. Within a few moments, He asked, “Drama today?” That was the cue for the co-ordinator to come forward and tell Swami the details of the programme. He quickly did so and Swami nodded for the programme to begin.

It is so sweet when Swami acts ignorant and asks simple little questions. For one, He feels so human and it becomes easy for us to get kinship with Him. And if Swami were not to act so, our interactions with Him will simply collapse to near zero for what would be left to interact with the One who knows everything?

The card and bouquets were presented and the drama that day was in continuation of the drama held the previous year in the same venue at the same time. “Karthik” had been made into a representative of all the students and his experiences in the Sathya Sai Institute formed a sample of the experiences of all the students.

It started with a quick flashback with the videos from the past year being presented. This year, the story was to trace His story through his story after graduation. Once again, it was based on real life experiences of a sample of students.

It began with Karthik getting a call from his former room leader in hostel, Varun, inviting him to an alumni medical camp at Brindavan, Whitefield. There, he hears Swami’s declaration in Ooty in 1976 summer course. That declaration is so thrilling that we make time and space to describe it in complete detail.

Swami materialized a medallion with the Indian map on it. 18 spots were there on the map and Swami said that they corresponded to the 18 centres that would be all over India (There was a spot on the current city of Chennai and at that time Sundaram had not yet come up!)  He then said that the medallion has in it the names of all the students and what would be the roles that they would have to perform. Assuring the students He said, “People say that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had great disciples like Vivekananda and Brahmananda. You need not become renunciants. With all your youthful energies, turn to Sai. You need not gape and marvel at this medallion for the Creator of the medallion is with you and yours forever! Be bold and progress.”

Thrilled by this Karthik gets his first chance to be an instrument of His love when he sees an orphan on the railway station. His heart melts and he takes the child home to adopt him. Few other alumni join him and soon the result is Sai Anandam, a home for destitute children. H2H had a beautiful article on the blossoming of this home near Cuttack in Orissa. Please read this here.

Then arises the crisis of educating the children which stitched in the story of the rise of Sri Sathya Sai Jagriti Vidya Mandir in Yamunanagar. This school is now doing very well and is in the forefront of the Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vahini project that was announced during Swami’s 85th birthday.

The story proceeded to trace the water projects and hospitals too that have been set up by inspired alumni. And “Karthik” got all the credit which he surely shares with the hundreds of students that are living His message in their lives. The one-hour presentation ended with a message of Oneness of All Creation with a call to merge in Him to become One!

Swami was completely with the students during the drama. He was either watching it or reading through the pile of letters that the alumni had offered to Him. As the drama concluded, the students prayed to Swami to bless cloth pieces to be distributed to the destitute children who had travelled all the way from Orissa to be part of the drama which unfolded their life stories. Swami blessed them for distribution after which He Himself asked for all to group together. Aarthi was taken and prasadam wasblessed for distribution. Swami then moved down the stage and posed for photographs with all the participants.

It was 7:40 p.m. when Swami moved up the stage and got into the car to leave for His Residence.

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