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25th Dec. 2008: Christmas Evening The afternoon session began at about 4:40pm with Swami's arrival. Swami moved to the stage and blessed the proceedings to begin. John Behner sought HIs blessings and began his introductory talk. Thanking Bhagawan profusely for the wonderful opportunity and blessing bestowed upon he divulged into varied details of the back stage operations that made the celebration a grand success. Making a special mention of the wonderful array of decorations made all over the Sai Kulwant Hall and Yajur Mandiam, he said, the preparations for the same started way back six months before Christmas with a dedicated team from the US taking the lead. Various wings of the ashram, the special group of ladies and gents from Indonesia who cooked food for the entire group, the Californian group of devotees behind decoration, sevadals all came in mention for their dedicated and loving service rendered during the run up to the festivity. Talking about the children choir and drama presentation to be followed the next day, Behner narrated the story of young Sathya Sai, as has been the practice during the rehearsal sessions every day to pep little hearts and minds, for the benefit of children, compensating for the miss out on the previous day owing the tight schedule. |
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| The first
speaker for the afternoon was Ms. Gisela Sebastian, a long time devotee from Munich,
Germany, a wonderful singer, member, choir group. Talking about Bhagawan, the beauty
of Christmas in Prasanthi and the greater significance of being in Prasanthi in the
Divine presence to celebrate in Christmas spirit Ms. Sebastian narrated her
wonderful tale of her introduction into Sai fraternity. She was directed to go to
Sai Baba by her doctor at a time when she was in a critical condition. Not knowing
anything about Sai Baba she was reluctant at first but subsequently she met with a
terrible car accident and lost her vision.d her passionate plea, prayer to this
unknown God was heard and she had a dream…and got a promise…an answer to her
prayer…!!! It was an amazing story of total surrender! She concluded with a
mellifluous rendering of prayer to Bhagawan…at Thy Lotus Feet…I hold on to Thy
Feet…Om Bhagawan…Om SaiRam… |
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The last speaker for the session was Mr. Ted Henry, a veteran TV journalist and a news reporter of fame from Cleveland, Ohio, who runs a spiritual oriented programme over TV in the United States. Having travelled all over the world, Mr. Ted Henry was instrumental in interviewing many a devotee and these interviews were published in various Sai Media, including H2H journal and Radio Sai Global Harmony. "We are among the luckiest people on the face of the earth on this Christmas Day…We get to be on Christmas Day, with Jesus Himself" said Ted Henry commencing his rhetoric excellence. Narrating the incident when he sought Divine permission to take Bhagawan's name to the United States of America, to contribute his might as a journalist to the Sai Cause, Bhagawan gave him a firm No as an answer, further advising him to take His Love instead. Henry said he understood the underlying message in it, that first he should be submerged in His love before taking His name across the world. Talking about his own boomerang story wherein through hundreds of interviews, seeing the love of devotees for Bhagawan, tears of joy for Bhagawan the journalist in him has had a transformation…and that was the wonder of Bhagawan. Traversing through the Divine Wonder and His life in true journalistic perception,Ted spoke about His all encompassing love, barring boundaries, bringing in transformation of heart. He prayed to Bhagawan to get them deeper and deeper in to the majesty of His Divine Awareness! And then came the moment all had waited for with bated breath. Mr.Behner requested Swami to deliver His divine discourse. With a sweet smile, Swami nodded and asked for His mikes to be brought. There was a loud round of applause. A brief summary of the highlights are presented below. |
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| Starting His
discourse hailing Bharat for her glory and her spiritual leaning in all matters,
Swami exhorted that all the seen in this world is momentary and subject to change.
The only one that lasts without any change is the principle of Atma, the principle
of Love. With Love one can conquer the whole of the world. And God, being the
witness, does not give you good or bad. Everything is man's own making. With
reference to the recent terror attacks, Bhagawan said that world was finding
restlessness with wicked things happening everywhere. The best solution to counter
this would be to develop self confidence and pray to God. With Self Confidence in
place one could achieve anything. Once we develop self-confidence and lead a life of
love, nothing would ever happen to us. "God is in you, with you, above you, around
you, below you". God is only ONE though He is called by different names and is seen
as different forms. God is the only hero and once we rest our faith in Him, no bomb
or any other artillery could disturb the humanity. God is the most powerful hydrogen bomb within…then why are you afraid of small tiny little bombs, asked Swami to the assemblage of devotees exhorting them to develop self confidence. "In respect of God do not entertain any doubts; one doubt leads to another and multiply spoiling the man. If you want to lead a perfect ideal life of a human being, dispel all doubts." All of you have come from distant lands with full of devotion and steadfastness for God…hold on with that conviction and love. Develop the deep conviction that "I am God". As is the case always, Swami's discourse had a message for each and every soul seated in the hall. It was 90 minutes of sheer profundity as words flowed in an endless stream from the Divine lips. The climax was two bhajans that Swami sang instead of His usual single bhajan. Swami sang both,"Prema Mudhita" and "Hari Bhajan Bina". After that, as prasadam was distributed, Swami asked the students to sing bhajans. Another small episode occured while the bhajans went on. The wooden cover of one of the speakers kept in front of Swami fell off, slipping down the steps. A student went up and put it back in place as Swami watched. However, the problem was the satin cloth that was making the cover slip away. So, a few minutes later, the cover fell again and Swami looked at the student with a smile as if to say, "Nay...not a properly done job." The student went back and set it right, pulling out the "satin slip causer". That was a job well done! Three bhajans later, Swami asked for Aarthi and then retired to Yajur Mandir. |
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Acknowledgement -
Source: photos, text etc. Our humble
thanks to all Sai friends for Sai Baba photos & textual matter,
particularly to www. sssbpt.org - www. sairadio.org for darshans & photo
material and all the other official
& public domain sources - Also, Various Sai
Baba groups ,Forums & individuals etc. In addition, submitted articles,
Darshan account, photos & Sai news by respective Sai devotees from all
over the globe & SBOI group members to Group Saibabaofindia &
www.Saibabaofindia.com website. |
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Christmas 2008 Divine Discourse
