Today is the first day of Navratri and the commencement of the Grama Seva Project 2012. The day started at 3.30am with the set up of our altar in our Mandir in N6 building. Dawn was blessed with twenty one Omkars and Sri Sathya Sai Suprabhatam followed by the thought of the day and a short discourse by Puppet Sir. The subject of talk was about the divine mother and Navarti. Jyoti meditation and yoga brought to a close the morning session.
At 7.30am, the UK Grama Seva Group was part of the Vedic procession around swami’s maha-samadhi mandir in Sai Kalwant hall. We ultimately bowed down to the lotus feet of master before making our way towards the vehicles. We left prashanti niliyam chanting the name of the lord.
We were allocated the village of Krishna puram in the bukaptam district which consisted of a population of 5400 people, amounting to around 1500 houses. The convoy consisted of six trucks and one tractor with supplies. We joined approximately 100 students from the Sathya Sai institution.
On arrival to the Krishna puram village, the roads were decorated with flowers and rangoli. The villagers reverently stood on both sides of the road welcoming the group. They also broke a coconut and lighted a lamp to welcome the lord Sathya sai baba in their village. We proceeded towards the local temple whilst reciting vedam and Bhajans, which culminated with Swami’s arthi of at the temple.
The supplies which consisted of Pulihora Rice, Ladoo, sarees and dhotis, were off loaded from the trucks. The UK grama seva boys communicated in telegu with villagers and distributed the prasadam door to door.
It took us approximately two hours to complete the seva in our designated geographical area within the village.
On the way back to prashanti niliyam the group stopped under the cool shade of a huge Tamarin tree landscaped by huge Greenland and a hill. We enjoyed eating the same food that was distributed to the villagers within the local region.
The boys took rest for an hour before gathering in the N6 block mandir for the afternoon session, which was held by puppet sir. The topic was the first verse of maha lakshami ashtakam. We then made our way to Sai Kulwant hall for the afternoon Darshan which started by 4.30pm. Vedam was chanted by the Croatia group. The afternoon programme was concluded by a thunderous talk by Poppet Sir narrating the ABC’s of Swami’s teachings through his experiences with Swami which was followed by the Mangala arthi. One of the UK Gram Seva Boys had the privilege of offering the Mangala Aarthi to Swami.
On returning to our accommodations we all had our dinner together. We then finished the day with a group practice for our programme which is scheduled for tomorrow.
We feel incredibly Blessed by Swami for giving us this opportunity. This was an amazing first day of Gram Seva 2012 at Prashanthi Nillayam.
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