Letters from India

4. Convocation & Birthday 1984

The doors opened, and people surged forward, even though more doors were supposed to be opened first. We in front attempted to say, “No, no! Stop!” But no banana, everybody was completely mushed against each other and people were already falling on the deep steps that lead to the door, as the crowd surged forward. So we went in, one mad rush. I left before it got bad. This story was different for the night program though, unfortunately…

Because I was in the Poornachandra, I missed the entire Sai-parade around the ashram grounds, with Sai Geeta (Baba’s elephant). See, Sai is smart. He grants everyone Darshan, whether you get in or not, and wherever you may be.

Sai finally arrived – in a faded orange robe! Not even special red or white like usual. Rumor was that He didn’t like the behavior of His devotees getting into the Poornachandra – pushing and shoving, a mob scene, with no thoughts of others.

Anyway, they had this huge, huge blue velvet chair that Sai had to traditionally sit in on His Birthday – He looked sooo funny, like a tiny munchkin! Ha, ha! Baba in Wonderland!! But I just had this overwhelming feeling, here was Father Sai and all His children in the hall. We were all together at the feet of the Father of All.

Sai sat in the chair for bhajans then they brought out His desk. Some other guy gave a talk then Sai gave His wonderful discourse. After the discourse, Sai gave 10 hundred thousand rupees (?) from His Central Trust, to be used in the various states of India in the huge village-adoption projects.

After that, what a day! Sai Himself (to the front 10 or so rows), and some of His college boys distributed laddu sweets to all! Every single person there got one! You should’ve seen the tons and tons of containers the boys brought out, packed with the yellowish round laddus. The scene of Sai gleefully tossing laddus to all in the front rows is etched on my memory! He’d toss the laddu waaaaay up in the air, and they would land perfectly on target. On and on, until He was still near the 1st row but was tossing to the 5th and 6th rows, what a sight! Every now and then He’d stop and shake a finger at someone, “Only one!”

It was over at 11:30 AM, so we all went back to the Jr. College for lunch and rest. Sai was to visit the shrine of his parents (where they’re buried) then lay the foundation stone for a huge planetarium building.

Imagine this: the busiest scene you can imagine, totally and completely solid people. Now imagine this on a one-way dirt road, with several feet of roadside on each side. Now, imagine a huge bus with an ear-piercing horn, honking constantly, as the bus makes its way through the crowd. Now, a taxi stuffed with people honks crazily and speeds up, somehow passing the bus. Behind the taxi speeds three motor scooters all in a row, another taxi, another scooter. People are forced into the road sides, where you have to be careful because its used as a bathroom. See it? This is the scene I witnessed as I walked to the Jr. College at noon. Welcome to Puttaparthi village on Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s Birthday!

I was planning to leave at 1 or 1:30 PM to line up by the Poornachandra for the Jhula (Baba-on-a-Swing) Darshan, but somehow was dumb enough to put it off till 2:45 PM (remember, the function starts at 6:30 PM): BIG BIG Mistake. I got there and the place was totally packed with people. I had no choice but to join the general Indian population, right in the middle. Soon I was in the middle of a mass of Indian devotees, way too many that would be able to fit in the Poornachandra. Because I was a foreigner, I was assured a place near the front (well, after the 1st 1/3 of the hall, anyway), but the trouble was getting in.

Finally, at around 5:30 PM they opened the one door. What followed totally and completely proved that the people I had talked to were right: the Seva Dal delegates were pussycats, extremely well behaved, compared to your normal Indian devotes.