My trip to Vijayawada - Meeting Sai's Children

[Prasanthi]

I went to Vijayawada to visit my grandpa (my net friend) with my brother. I stayed there for two days, 12th and 13th November. We had a very good time there. It is our pleasure to get such grandparents and to gain their immense affection. These two days are one of the precious moments in our lives.

There is Vanabhojanam (eating out in the garden with a group of friends.) on 13th i.e., yesterday.

Grandpa is the President of Y's Men Club, Vijayawada Town. The vanabhojanam is arranged by Y's Men Club and I am one of the guests.
I also visited Child Aid Foundation(childaidfoundation.org) in Patamatalanka, Vijayawada. I also visited the goddess Kanakadurga and the god Durga Malleswara Swami (Lord Shiva) on the Indrakiladri Hill. The darshan is good and the goddess as usual is very beautiful and bright.

Grandpa usually hires an auto whose driver stays near by. The moment I boarded the auto I found Saibaba's photo with beeja mantram attached to it.

Even when I attended the Vanabhojanam place, the songs that were played are of Baba's, from the movie, Shirdi Sai Mahatmyam.
Yesterday was Ksheerabdi Dwadasi, the day when Lord Vishnu meets Goddess Lakshmi and also other gods after Chaturmasyam (Chatur - 4, Masam - Month; 4 months). On this day people pray Tulasi as goddess lakshmi and Usirika as lord vishnu aka lord narayana. I wasn't there at the time of Pooja  but I performed Dhoopam, Turmeric and Kumkum. I  read Vishnu Sahasranamam after the pooja.

Then there were games and the last game was taking cheats and performing whatever there is written on the chit. One Ms. Lakshmi got to say about the one whom she likes a lot. She said that she likes Lord Shirdi Sai Baba a lot. It was great to hear that. She also said that one Ms. Rohini (who is also present there) is god's gift to her and baba himself drove Rohini towards Lakshmi to look after Lakshmi and also Lakshmi to be as a caretaker of Rohini.

I couldn't find much time to know the details. What I understood was Shirdi Baba came in the dream of Ms. Rohini and showed the face of a woman and  told her that the name of the woman is Ms. Lakshmi and HE can't say how much  happiness she could expect after meeting Ms. Lakshmi. HE also gave some time and challenged her to find Ms. Lakshmi within that period.

From then Ms. Rohini searched for Ms. Lakshmi for many years and with 4 days less than the deadline, she could find Ms. Lakshmi.
Here Ms Lakshmi is a widow. She lost her husband few years back and she undergo much trauma and she used to cry day and night before baba and beg HIM to show someone as HIS roopa to take care of her.
So both the people who are suffering with their own problems became friends and baba united them to look after and take care of each other.

I asked Ms. Rohini (who is a journalist) to pen her experiences and she readily agreed.

Ms. Lakshmi and Ms. Rohini are supposed to come to hyderabad tomorrow and hopefully I could get more detailed information of baba's leelas. I am equally anxious to share the same with other sai children here.

Prasanthi

[Prasanthi]

I also had the privilege of performing the Dwadasi Pooja under the guidance of Grandma. She made me lit Diyas with different oils. Ghee, Coconut Oil and Ginger Oil. I made them float on a dish of water (as we couldn't go to a river).

Grandpa gave me two books. One is Pooja Vidhi (how to do pooja?) and the other is the compilation of the important slokas of BhagavadGita. It is a belief that one Sloka (stanza) in each chapter is significant and we get the fruit of reading the chapter if we recite that one particular sloka of the chapter. Yesterday I read 18 such slokas of Bhagavadgita. I also took the blessings of grandpa and grandma.

I like Karteeka Masam a lot but I couldn't do daily poojas. But I wish to do from today with baba's blessings.

Prasanthi