Life At Prasanthi
December 15-16, 1984
Prasanthi Nilayam
Dear Letter-Receivers,
Well, here this body is in the sacred land of India, in the most sacred of all places, Prasanthi Nilayam. I will give you a day in the life of a visitor/resident here.
The day starts for some at 3:30 AM. You get up and at 4 AM go to the Mandir. You circle the Mandir one, three or more times (nine for many Indians). Then you get in a single-file line to wait for Omkar. At 4:45 AM they start letting the lines in (not number-picking, but first come, first in). You sit in the Mandir and at 5 AM the lights are turned off and OM is chanted 21 times. Then the morning prayer Suprabhatam is sung. Then out, and you line up for Nagarsankirtin – singing bhajans walking slowly around the whole ashram
It’s about 6 or 6:15 AM and then and you have a few minutes for meditation or going back to your room, before breakfast at 6:30 AM or 7 AM.
After breakfast you go to the Mandir again, for the morning puja. People come and go for this, so there’s always room.
Puja goes on till 8:30 AM, but everyone leaves around 8 or 8:15 AM to line up for Darshan.
You line up in single-file lines of about 37-40 people each. During and after the Conference I counted 27 lines; now the normal is 16. You pick the numbers (number one goes in first, etc) and line by line goes in, then wait for Sai to come out and walk around where the devotees are sitting.
After Darshan, around 9 AM, I usually go to the lecture hall and meditate until 9:30 AM when the talk begins. The “lecture hall” is also the “reading room” in the afternoons and is specified by Sai to be for foreigners only.
The talk is over at 10:30 AM and you go to the Darshan grounds or back of the Mandir (on the porch) to wait for bhajans at 11 AM. If you get a good place in back of the Mandir (unlikely) or a good place under the 1st or 2nd arch (impossible unless you’re fast immediately after Darshan and claim your space), or outside the grounds, directly behind the 1st or 2nd arch, then you can see a part of Baba’s chair inside the Mandir, where He sits during bhajans.
It’s different every day how long Sai is there – sometimes He’ll come on the 3rd or 4th bhajan, sometimes He’ll talk to people on the verandah or look at us watching in front of the Mandir, for awhile before He goes in. sometimes He’ll walk outside and a car will be waiting. He’ll drive off somewhere and won't be there for bhajans at all.
Bhajans last ½ hour and then arathi is done. Everyone inside the Mandir stands for it but us outside don’t (maybe because it would be too much of a commotion).
After bhajans, at 11:30 AM, you have lunch. Then you have 1 ½ hour break, which goes lightening fast. You have time to do shopping, take a shower, write letters, organize yourself, take a nap, etc. At 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM is a bhajan-leaders class for foreigners. At 2:30 – 3:30 PM is bhajan class for foreigners. 3:30 PM is evening Darshan line-up.
We’re in at 4 PM and Sai comes out sometime between 4-5 PM. Usually in the afternoon He has us wait longer than in the mornings. After Darshan you either stay where you are outside the Mandir for bhajans, or go around to the back of the Mandir and line up to try to get inside the Mandir for bhajans.
In at 5 to 5:30 PM. Bhajans start at 5:30 PM, but many times Sai will come and talk to His boys sitting in front for awhile. Usually 10-15 minutes before the bhajans they’ll have flute or sitar music by the boys in front. Sai is lured in by the music a lot, and stays swaying to it. He goes out when bhajans (and ‘Om’ at the beginning) starts, then returns sometime during the bhajans.
Bhajan end at 6 PM; after, you line up again to get in for a 10-minute meditation for foreigners. Usually all the foreigners fit in. Short but sweet :-) meditation. After all, you’ve just been staring at Sai Baba for the last 15-20 minutes or more; and at that very moment He’s only feet away, on the other side of the wall you’re facing.
After meditation, its 6:30 PM so you go to dinner. More lines! :-) Then you’re done and again you have free time – just tons of free time here (haha!) - until 9 PM when lights out.
No weekends here. The schedule is exactly as above every single day - except on Sunday there’s no bhajan class (on that day there’s a Bal Vikas class taught).
Of course, you can pick and choose what you go to (Darshan everyone goes to; bhajan most go to). I haven’t been going to Omkar or Nagarsankirtin these last few days (actually it’s probably weeks by now!), because, sure I can handle getting up at 6 or 6:30 for meditation, breakfast, puja etc, but 3:30 AM is pushing it a bit - for this body at least. I go to everything else mentioned except the bhajan-leaders class. I'm only in our room 12:30 to 2 PM and 7:30 till the next morning. The rest of here time, at the Feet of Sai! Or close thereby!
A few days ago Sai came and laid the foundation stone for a new canteen for Westerners, in-between the two round houses.
Be prepared to have a dog staring up at you for one or more of your meals. They wonder into the canteen. Be prepared, if you give a dog any morsel, to gain a faithful pet for the next hour or so. Be prepared for dogs nibbling at your ankles and/or jumping on you if you happen to be carrying anything for the bakery. Be prepared for loud dogfights in the middle of the night. And, be prepared for people leaving open the gate at the building entrance, for dogs to come in and spread the garbage cans over the floor for inspection. Be prepared for cute but hungry-looking puppies staring at you and whatever you’re eating. Well… I guess that covers dogs and food!
There’s always people. I suppose there’s complete silence from around midnight till 4 AM, don’t know. No quiet nighttime meditation because there’s village music, talking, and general noise you hear. Even at the meditation tree you can hear the noise because the village is right below you. Nowhere will you be alone. There’s always someone at the same place you are. I don’t really notice it because after all, we’re all the same jivas, drops of water in the same ocean. But it’s hard to totally close out the physical world when there’s always activity around you.
Be prepared for mosquitoes and insects. You need to leave your windows open for air in your room (plus now, winter time, there’s usually lots of cool winds blowing – yum). But, there’s no such thing as screens so your home is their home. Be prepared to always have a few bites on you no matter what you do.
On 5th December I made an inspection of myself for your information: on my hands and arms I had 12 bites in various stages of healing, and 8 newer ones. Feet: 14 healing and 6 newer. Been doing better since I’ve been putting on insect repellent but in the middle of the night, you have to re-apply. Plus there are those groups of daring mosquitoes and etc., that will bite you anyway. There’s nowhere to hang nets (some try).
While waiting for Darshan or bhajans, be prepared for a situation much like on our dog Suzie and our dog Bennie’s yard on a nice day: HOT and FLY CITY. Be accepting: no matter what you do, there’s going to be at least three or five, to eight flies on you all the time. (And tiny insects flying around your eyes and nose)
Most of all, be prepared to see God Himself in human form, walking inches or at the most 10-15 feet in front of you every day, twice a day! :-)
Sai Baba has been here since June 11th 1984! Usually He’ll go touring to visit other areas, or go to Brindavan when it gets too hot here. No one can believe He’s been here at Puttaparthi for so long of a stretch.
In the Conference room (during our interview) Sai at one point kept saying, “This is my leg (slaps thigh), this is my stomach (pats stomach), this is my chest (ditto), this is my face, this is my kerchief (picks up, waves in air, and throws down on other side of chair), this is mine, this is mine. (Then widens eyes, lowers voice and has a wondering, awe-stricken expression) – WHERE AM I?” What an experience! Sai making you so aware of Him as a physical body then saying, where is the “I” that OWNS all this? I’ll never forget that expression and my own wondering, “YES, WHERE ARE YOU SAI???” Wow, where is the I all of us refer to? And you’re not shocked enough into realization! Fun with the Avatar again…
Well here it is the second week of December and the Christmas crowd is arriving. We’re talking whities everywhere (it's too long to say Americans, Canadians, Europeans, and etc., so I just say whites or whities). Already I’ve been asked, “You come from Germany?” by a German: “Are you Italian?” by an Italian; and “Are you Australian?” by the same. These people, they don’t ask where you’re from; they just want to know if you’re from where they’re from!
Be prepared here for the water and lights to flash off at odd, unannounced hours and either turn right back on or stay off for hours. This happens fairly regularly. Be prepared for your clothes to come back for the dhobi totally faded (they dry the clothes in the intense, hot sun, on the sand). It cost 50 paisas (about 4 cents) per item. Be prepared to wash your own under-items and smaller things, as its risky as well as expensive to send them though.
I started to say before, I'm just enjoying being in Sai’s Presence BECAUSE, BECAUSE I don’t know what He’ll say to me next!! I wrote Him a note saying that I'm putting it in His Hands to tell me what I should do in life when, that I'm not going to ask Him or push Him to tell me; and that I’d rather not be married in the physical sense. I took it to Darshan and He put me in the 1st row so I could give it to Him! When He came by He stopped in front of the row I was in and took it gently from my hand! So, it’s off my back and now I can just relax and ENJOY. Jai Sai Ram!
Soo...one day, I decided to try the famous Prasanthi Nilayam pizza. All ready to bite into it and to my horror I look down: TOTAL ONION CITY. That was awhile ago and today I found out they had a non-onion, non-garlic, non-spicy variety. Should I risk it -?? Pizza is twice a week here only.
Be prepared here to sit long (and short) hours/half-hours in an extremely small area, with minimum amount of moving. We’re talking, cross-legged with others touching you on all sides, in good conditions; and the wonderful legs-to-body, (knees-to-chin) position in bad conditions (again, bodies touching you on all sides).
Be prepared to wait long minutes with the sun beating down on you and the sun shining in your eyes, so it’s hard to see Sai Baba. You sweat but not too much. Be prepared to have sweat dripping down your legs and flies crawling on you as you sit in the sun waiting for Darshan. :-)
Believe it or not (and I think you will believe it because after all, it’s the Lord you’re seeing), you just don’t notice these things much and/or the just pass by your consciousness without clinging to your conscious mind. They’re just the facts of life here so you accept them as easily as you accept the padded facts of life in America. At least that’s the case with me. JAI SRI Sai RAM!!!
Love,
Prasanthi Nilayam child,
Eileen