Bishu Prusty
2000 Prasanthi Nilayam

It was a day of deep rejoicing and also a day of tearing anguish. March 20, 2011… The last Sunday when the ‘Sun’ shone with an unexpected brilliant glow pleasantly befuddling everyone. He did what the Sun always does best – giving itself up little by little, silently and systematically, only to spread brightness and warmth all around. On this day however, as everyone felt the ‘Sun’ was ‘hyper active’.

After 7.00 pm, there was movement in front of the Yajur Mandir and that resulted in a wave of inexplicable happiness sweeping Sai Kulwant Hall. On that day – even though it was already dark, and Bhajans had been going on for more than one hour – Swami chose to go round the devotees very slowly, accepting almost everyone’s prayers and letters, stopping His car every few meters to speak to someone, bless the other, drop a Vibhuti packet to the third, and so on. And after the entire hall was covered, as everyone was expecting Him to take to the stage, suddenly the wheels turned and He was with the devotees again. Another complete round!

Imagine the thrill that went down the spine of every soul present that sacred Sunday! And then when He finally came onto the dais, the ‘hyper activeness’ took on another hue.

Swami now beckoned the ‘Birthday Boy’ sitting in front and blessed him profusely. Even as He returned to his seat, another boy with the tray looked at Him prayerfully and the Lord granted PadaNamaskar to him too and showered Akshatas. Now a third boy got up and the scene repeated, it happened for the fourth time, fifth time, sixth time, seventh time… it went on and on! An unprecedented forty boys had one of their most priceless moments of their lives… not to forget the tiny-tot team from the primary school who too sweetly placed themselves at His feet and touched His holy being… that is why it was a day of deep rejoicing.

At the same time, it was a day of tearing anguish too. You could see – well, it was so hard to watch this – the Lord was obviously in pain. You could sense that He had taken the trouble of coming in spite of His body being in a very precarious condition. Every time He raised His hand to bless a Birthday Boy, it was an ordeal; there wasn’t enough energy to even raise His limb a few inches, but He did it and continued to do it scores of times.

“Swami! It’s fine… You can stop now! You have already blessed so many! Just relax and enjoy the Bhajans please!” Your heart cries out. But just like the ever-incessant Sun, He went on and on… destroying His body, bit by bit, to confer delight to His devotees and students. Well, that is what He had done all His life, but today it was extremely hard to witness because now His body’s woes were no secret. “Come what may, I will not listen to My body, I will just give, give and give… till the last ounce of my being” He seemed to have come with that determination that day – it was so apparent. It was simply heart-breaking to take in those scenes.

A few days prior to this, one morning when Brother Satyajit requested Him to come for morning Darshan, Swami said, “Do you know how much this body has worked… pallipallitirigyanura…. ipudi e sareeram weak ayiponyindiraa (I have visited village to village… so many of them… see, now My body has become weak.” Hearing this Satyajit had tears in His eyes and He immediately blurted out, “Swami, now You rest Swami… we will work. You watch us work Swami…”

“My plan is to start institutions in India to train our young men as preachers of the truths of our scriptures in India and outside. Men – this is what is wanted. Everything else will be ready, but strong, vigorous, believing young men, sincere to the backbone, are wanted. A hundred such and the world will be revolutionized. The will is stronger than anything else. Everything must go down before the will, for that comes from God – a pure and strong will is omnipotent.” This is not what Bhagawan said, but what He inspired Swami Vivekananda to say a hundred years ago.

Though, through Vivekananda He had said, “My plan is to start institutions…” in our times He manifested many such mammoth institutions and it has been our fortune to be part of it in some way or the other and to contribute our might to ensure these edifices shine with such splendour that they really revolutionise the world one day!

“If I can show the world one glimpse of my Master, I shall not have lived in vain,” said Swami Vivekananda, but it applies so much to each one of us who have seen this indefatigable ‘Sun’ shine and shine, and shine even more brightly and spectacularly, till He could do no more… in His limited physical apparition. Dear Lord, even now You do not rest! You are actually exerting much more now than before… we can feel that! We experience that! Please bless us so that we too like you at least become little suns ever striving to lighten and brighten the lives of our brethren.

Brother Bishu Prusty is based in Prasanthi Nilayam & serves in Radio Sai. He is a Mandir singer & part of the Vedam group