The Day 4 of the Hadshi-Mumbai visit saw the Jadhav family bid a tearful goodbye to their sweet Lord. The students and other members of the party received gifts from the Divine hands and began the journey to Mumbai via the expressway. After a hearty lunch at Mumbai followed by a well deserved rest, Swami moved to Goregaon where more than 50,000 devotees had assembled in a hall. The singer, Sonu Nigam, received the privilege of performing in the divine presence after which Swami visited the residence of long standing devotee, Sri Indulal Shah for dinner.
In the morning of the third day in Hadshi, Swami spent time with the boys by condescending to their request to watch a few photos of the events of the previous days. At 11 a.m. the devotees were thrilled with His darshan while the Bal Vikas children were blessed with the opportunity to sing bhajans. In the evening, there was a musical treat by “Little Champs” – child prodigies in vocal music from the state of Maharastra. Swami blessed all of them profusely after their performance.
The second day of Swami’s visit to Hadshi was marked with a string of holy ceremonies and a divine discourse of Bhagavan Baba. In the morning, Swami did the prana pratishtha of Ganesha, Shirdi and Panduranga Temples. In the evening Bhagavan called upon Mr. V. Srinivasan, the All India President of Sai Organisations and Mr. Nishikant Barodekar, a talented percussionist who is a faculty member in Sri Sathya Sai Mirpuri College of Music, to speak. After this, Bhagavan delivered His divine discourse to the delight of the thousands assembled in Hadshi.
Last Friday, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Sri K. Rosaiah came here for an audience with Bhagavan. For the last couple of days, Swami has been returning to His residence in the chair itself, with the car having been sent to Pune in preparation for His visit there. This morning, Swami left for Pune by air on a short Maharashtra visit. Accepting Arati from the car itself, He left the Mandir for the airport just before 8 o'clock. There, He unveiled a small Hanuman statue before boarding the chartered flight which took off at half-past eight. From Pune, Bhagavan will move to Hadshi, around 40 kilometres away and stay there for a couple of days.
The devotees from Gujarat celebrated their New Year today. Bhagavan was welcomed into Sai Kulwant Hall just before half-past five this evening as the bhajans went on with a small girl in traditional dress holding auspicious items. After Swami completed His darshan round, He came onstage and sat there till ten minutes to six, when He permitted the musical performance by the Gujarat devotees. Santoor and Jal-tarang recitals for twenty minutes were followed by a half-hour drama by the balvikas children based on Adi Shankara's Bhaja Govindam based on Bhagavan's Chinna Kathas. Swami sent clothes for the participants and accepted Arati at 7.10 pm as prasadam was distributed after He went down from the stage and blessed the group with photographs.
Yesterday, the Union Civil Aviation Minister Sri Praful Patel and cricketer Sri Sunil Gavaskar were here for darshan. Deepavali was celebrated today in some parts of the country, and will be celebrated tomorrow in some parts. When Bhagavan came for darshan at a quarter to five this evening, He asked for silver lamps to be distributed to more than a thousand ladies. After the evening bhajan when He returned to His residence at a quarter to six, fireworks and lamps were readied outside Yajur Mandir. He sat outside His residence watching the fireworks being lit for half an hour before retiring for the day.
The last few days have been quiet at Prasanthi Nilayam. The students have their end-semester or end of term exams and there have been no programmes in Sai Kulwant Hall for the last two weeks. Bhagavan has been coming for evening darshan, and occasionally for morning darshan too. This evening, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra was among the congregation for evening darshan. The Maharashtra devotees are hoping for a Divine visit in the last week of this month. Preparations are being made to welcome Swami to a village near Pune called Hadshi and the Dharmakshetra website has pictures of the Sri Sathya Sai Pandurang Kshetra there.
This morning, Swami came at 9.30 as the bhajans went on and granted an audience to the former Chief election commissioner Sri T. N. Seshan and the Governor of Rajasthan Sri Shilendra Kumar Singh who have been here for the last couple of days. In the evening, He came for darshan at half-past five and accepted Arati at six o'clock after prasadam was distributed.
The Sri Sathya Sai General Hospital at Prasanthi Nilayam celebrated its anniversary today. Bhagavan came for morning darshan after 10.15 while the bhajans went on. After accepting Arati onstage after half an hour, Swami went to the Hospital and spent more than an hour interacting with the staff there. In the evening, He came for darshan at 5.50 and went to the interview room after a few minutes onstage. He emerged at seven o'clock and blessed prasadam for distribution before again moving to the interview room. At 7.15, He came onstage to accept Arati and return to His residence.
The youth from Kerala who are on a pilgrimage to Prasanthi Nilayam in large numbers presented a drama this evening. Bhagavan came for darshan just before five and went to the interview room after His round of the Hall. Emerging at 5.40, Swami asked for the hour-long drama on Saint Tulsidas to begin. After the drama, Swami sent clothes for the participants and called up some of them for photos onstage before going down for a group photo with all of them. Prasadam was distributed and Swami interacted some more with the youth, asking them to chant Vedam. After a bhajan by the students, He accepted Arati and returned to His residence at seven o'clock.
Last evening, Prof. Anil Kumar announced that today the Japanese devotees would be presenting a drama. Accordingly, this evening they were seated in the centre of Sai Kulwant Hall with some space left for their drama. Bhagavan came for darshan just before five o'clock and started their programme after His round of the hall. They began with five minutes of music on traditional Japanese instruments followed by some Vedam chanting and twenty minutes of bhajans, mostly in Japanese. Then their half-hour English drama on Adi Shankaracharya got underway. Swami blessed "Shankara" with a chain as the drama concluded with a recording of Swami singing "Bhaja Govindam". He then went down from the stage for group photographs. Prasadam was distributed as the devotees sang some more bhajans before Swami accepted Arati at at 6.15 pm.
