When the conch was finally blown...

March is a month of gratitude programmes, when students of their final year in graduation or post graduation express their love and thanks to Swami, before stepping outside in the wide world. I have already mentioned about the programme of PG students in my previous posts. The final year undergraduate students were praying for this chance since many weeks.

A few days ago, they showed a card to Swami. He was very happy ad asked them to be ready tomorrow. The next day arrived with a 180 degrees turn in the fortunes of our brothers, as Swami brushed aside our warden’s request to Him to watch the programme. They were broken. God’s delays are not His denials. The students went to mandir everyday, ready with a card and lots of prayers.

Yesterday, the boys sat with all their costumes inside bhajan mandir. Swami arrived at 4.30 pm and proceeded to the bhajan hall. He noticed the boys and replied, “Go outside, I’ll come.” The boys were excited. Swami came out to the portico and was greeted by the resonating sound of the conch blown by a student. The programme began, with speeches interspersed between songs. There was also a humorous skit on the theme “purity of vision”. Swami liked the speeches of boys, spoken in many different languages like Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali and so on. His eyes would occasionally swell with tears while listening to the boys. As one student rightly put it, “Swami has given us pencils, chocolates and lessons of life”.

While reading the lyric of the songs, He would sometimes look up to check whether all the boys were singing. Though I must admit their performance was pretty ordinary, it nevertheless came from a pure heart and that was enough to melt the utterly-butterly heart of Sai. He called the boys and gave them group photographs. Some boys got safari clothes from Swami. As usual, all the boys surrounded Swami and prayed, “Swami please come to hostel.” Swami replied, “This is your hostel. I’m here with you” Even the hostel teachers were called by Swami who blessed them with padanamaskar and photographs.

I wish time could stand still, but then, we can only hope there are more joyous moments with Swami in store for us over the remaining weeks.