The Annunciation Song
Sai Bhagavatham

The holy poetical Purana famous as the Bhagavatham is a monumental narration of the careers of the Avatars of God, an inspiring guide to pilgrims to the Lotus Feet. Baba has said that the Bhagavatham is a must for aspirants intent on Baagavuthaam (the Telugu word for ‘success in goodness and godliness’). As early as 1956 I had ‘lisped’ an English poem titled ‘Sai Stores’ at the Poets’ gathering during the Dasara festival. It describes the compassion of Baba in accepting our faults, foibles and failings, our illnesses, worries and fears, even encouraging us to offer them at His Feet, and assuring us that He would, in exchange, fill our hearts with confidence and courage, beautification and bliss. Naturally the Bhagavatha poem in Kannada followed this trend of thought. I felt I have a duty to compose the Bhagavatham in the language of Kerala. Very soon I discovered that Bhagawan’s grace could flow through the pen while I ventured into Tamil poetry and put together a Tamil version of Bhagavatham. The genius of these languages are distinct, especially in the field of devotional hymns and psalms; so when I modeled my poems on the outpourings of the mystics of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the structure, style and flow of each differed from the rest.

I could not embolden myself to sweeten the recitation with my music. Baba had once warned me against any such brashness. One night while I was descending the steps with His Blessings for a series of ‘dances’ in Assam, he called me up again and, in a half-serious whisper, debarred me from encroaching into the territory of song. “Dance! But do not sing. Those who come to hear will flee”, was what He said. My son however could sing several Karnatic ragas well and he had a pleasant voice. He was only too glad to recite the Sai Bhagavatham in the Gamaka style. It was a style that we found that could reinforce the impact of the Bhagavatham to a great extent.

This father-son adventure received Bhagawan’s Blessings quite casually one day. Bhagawan was busy with the mail. He picked up a printed announcement of a two-day conference at Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu and His eyes fell on my name and my son’s name thereon. “What are you doing there?” He enquired. “Speaking on Service Projects”, I replied.

“And Murthy?” He asked, “He is speaking on another subject related to Seva”, I said. ‘Why two talks? Present your Bhagavatham there. Have not you got in Tamil? That set the seal. My son sang the stanzas and I narrated the leela and the mahima on the upadesh. While speaking to a Dasara gathering in 1974 Bhagawan spoke of devotees who fight shy of acknowledging that they worship the Sai form and frequent Prasanthi Nilayam, “Follow the Master, face the devil, fight to the end and finish the game”, He advised. He said, “Be firm, be bold. If anyone queries: ‘Does God exist? say ‘Yes’. If asks ‘Where’? do not attempt to cloud the issue and escape responsibility quoting scriptures that declare that He is everywhere. Tell him: God is at Puttaparthi’.

As St. Paul wrote to those whom God loves, in Rome: “We are to use our different gifts in accordance with the Grace that God has given us. If our gift is to speak God’s message, we must do it according to the faith that we have. If it is to serve, we must serve. If it is to teach, we must teach. It it is to encourage others, we must do so. Whoever shares with others what he has must do it generously; whoever has authority must work hard; whoever shows kindness to others must do it cheerfully”. My Gurudev, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has related a parable which also prodded me to launch on the Sai Bhagavatham recital programme. “Four friends tried to find out what was beyond the wall. Three of them, one after the other, climbed the wall, saw the field, burst into ecstatic laughter and dropped on the other side. The fourth man came back and told the people about it”. Baba has a million ‘fourth men’ and this father-son pair is but one of the million.

I can once more quote St. Paul as relevant to the role, for he exhorted others under similar circumstances thus: “As the scripture says, ‘Every one who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved’. But how can they call to Him if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can the message be proclaimed, if messengers are not sent out?” but Bhagawan does not want publicity and nor does He need publicity. The sun needs no fanfare. But how can birds keep silent? They must awaken the sleeping with their chirrups and twitters. We crave to share, we long to expand, we want the I to grow into the We, we shall not drop on the others side of the wall but would fain help all to have a Vision of ‘Truth, Goodness and Beauty’ resplendent on the field.

A few devotees from overseas who found themselves caught amidst the audience also underwent the Sai Bhagavatham, wondering what was happening to us on the dias and to those on the floor. Murthy was approached by them with the request to sing the poem in English. Allow me to quench your curiosity. Here is the poem in English which emerged after prayers to Bhagawan for guidance. Indeed, the first vision of the Sai Bhagavatham in Kannada was modified considerably when it was clothed in the language of Kerala; it was beautified and bejewelled when it was presented in Tamil; It has become sedate and sublime when moulded to suit the language which is Swami’s first, Telugu. Let me emphasise another point. When the cosmic Sai, wearing the vesture of man, is intent on this Ekapaatra Abhinaya (acting a multi-role play), a running commentary by a witness can only be feeble and fragmentary. The witness will be either too dazed or too delighted to delineate in words the radiant rapture that overwhelms him.

The poem dawns with the rapture of a witness as pictured in the Rg Veda (circa 4000 B.C.)

“Listen to me, ye children of God,”
Said the Vedic Sage centuries ago,
“I am longing to tell of a Vision I had,
A thousand Suns, (a feeble flash!)
The EFFULGENT I saw.”

The Rg Veda hymn continues to designate the Vision as of the Cosmic Person won through Dhyana and to inspire all to attain it through the same process for, “there is no known path other than this.” My poem announces that we can attain it now for Baba is here.

“Listen for a while; some good news I bring:
The God has come again-the Sath-Chith-Anand-Supreme”.

Baba has announced that His name BABA implies, B (Being – Sath), A (Awareness – Chith), B (Bliss – Ananda), A (Atma – Omniwill).

“Truth is His Name; Love His Breath,
Dharma, His Voice; His Presence, Peace.
He has come, for you and me, and all that lives,
Bird and beast (our kith and kin) –
Each of us a Role in His Eternal Play.”

Here I intercede with stories chosen from my experience of His compassion towards cats, dogs, buffaloes and fowls. I quote lines from the impromptu poems sung by Him, characterising us as puppets or actors. The poem then dwells on the unique good fortune of sharing one’s joy with others.

“No man has heard a tale so true-
‘Tis Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram.
No man has sung a song so sweet,
‘Tis Gita, Ganga, Gayathri”.

The tale is unfolding before a million eyes and brightening a million hearts all over the Globe with the blossoming of Truth, Goodness, Beauty and sweetening Heart (Bhakti-Gita), Hands (Karma-Ganga) and Head (Jnana-Gayathri). Sai is omnipresent. He is the charioteer behind all movement and activity. So,

He is nudging me to sing of Him,
But….’tis He who sings through me!
He is urging you to listen to me,
But….’tis He who is hearing me”.

The descent of Avatar has been assured to mankind by God. God, in His infinite mercy had sent His Messengers, Messiahs and Son to save mankind from disaster.

“He has come as Man to liberate man
In varied climes and times!
When mankind wailed, “Lead, Kindly light”,
He has come again with the Lamp of Love”.

Baba has revealed that He has come to accept the surrender of wickedness, vice and greed and to confer instead Ananda to all mankind, to guide all who stray the path into righteousness and goodness, to shelter the poor and the weak. He is inviting all to come, see, experience and be saved.

“Come all who thirst for rest.
Come all who pine for paradise on Earth,
Who seek relief from grief. Ask Him to allay the pain,
Loosen the chain, uproot the parasites that suck you dry.
Bring disaster, disease, distress, defeat
And pile them at His Feet-
Then, light of foot and bright of heart
Skip along the pilgrim road, happy, hopping, free”.

Here I halt the musical to explain that Prasanthi Nilayam, the Abode of Supreme Peace, is Paradise, the Kingdom of God. Baba has said that He is on a mission to make every heart in every country, all over the globe, a Prasanthi Nilayam for He resides therein. Next, the poem evokes a picture of Prasanthi Nilayam itself.

“A ring of hills so brown and blue,
The holy stream Chitravathee
‘Tis sacred Puttaparthee,
Abode of Sanathana Sarathi,
Prasanthi Nilayam, Jerusalem,
(Both words mean the same
To every hungry soul).

Angels hover over the Silver Door,
Devas crowd around the Golden Domes.
The Gopuram – it leads your eye
Up and up and up and up
To omnipotent Om.

Om, the Primeval Sound, produced the vibration that is the energy in wave and particle, atom and cell, the all consuming, all subsuming, all sustaining source. The Entrance Tower has Om emblazoned on it in many forms all the way from door to dome…the utmost spiritual lesson, addressed to all who enter. The listener is lead to the Auditorium with scriptures of Divine Forms on each gigantic column, and to the fifty fee high Lotus Pillar lording over the quadrangle to its south.

The Full moon Hall – where all the Gods
That ever man adored
Do congregate to witness Him!
The pillar proclaims what He has come to teach:
“All faiths and facets of the Truth”.
You can kneel or turn a wheel.
Guess Him, formless or with form-
Or see Him, serve Him in man and beast and plant-
Sai is the Journey’s End – whichever path you tread-
He is the Guide, the Goal, the God.

These lines afford ample excuse for explanation of the Sai religion which, according to Swami is the religion that insists on the sincere observance of all Religions. One can elaborate on how Muslims (“We are now understanding the Holy Quran better”), Christians (“The Comforter, the Father revealed to St.John, is here”), Jews (“Prophet Isaiah, 56-7) Buddhists, Parsis, Sikhs, Jains-all find solace and light in Him. As Baba declared to the delegates attending the first World Conference of Sai devotees at Bombay: This Form is one in which every Divine Entity, every Divine Principle, that is to say, all the Names and Forms ascribed by man to God, are manifest.” The song then highlights the impact of the Nilayam on those who seek the Presence.

This Nilayam is the lab where the Alchemist turns leaden
Hearts to Bangaroo!
‘Tis an ashram where the Sadguru
Brings back to life the drooping and the dead.
‘Tis a workshop where He sets aright
The broken heart and mends the damaged mind.
‘Tis a school where we learn a few more D’s
And extra ‘F’s in Atmic Alphabet,
Where Arithmetic is upside down –
Three minus one is – one!
And 1 plus 1 plus 1 plus 1
Adds upto single 1, not four.

While expounding these lines I could tell people that Baba utters the blessing, ‘Bangaroo’, (God) when He showers tender Love. That word has the potency to transubstantiate the lead in the heart and the iron in the soul. I could relate incidents of Bhagawan restoring life to the physically dead, to the mentally drooping. From Baba we learn that D is for Discipline, Devotion and Duty and F is for the four stages of finishing the Game of Life. When Nature is negated as an unreal projection of the mind, the self merges in the Self and the individual in the Universal. This is the basic Truth which Baba has come to teach us after we acquire purity of mind and clarity of intellect through sadhana.

The poem next indicates what the aspirant who has arrived at Prasanthi Nilayam has to do as his preliminary sadhana.

Take your seat on Darshan Line
And Fold your palms and mind
Bid adieu to hate and pride,
Farewell to envy, greed.
Picture His lovely Form and pray
For Darshan, Sparshan and Sambhashan
Three Boons He has vowed to give.

Darshan means, I here comment, not so much the sight of the physical Form and Charm, but the delight at the meditatively acquired insight of Divine Beauty. Sparshan means, not so much the touching of His Feet, but the installation of the Lotus Feet and all that Lotus stands for, in one’s own heart. Sambhashan means praying directly before Him and listening directly to His response. This too is not so much a matter of face-to-face dialogue as conversation with Him in the inner Altar for as long as life lasts.

The song resumes where it left off-the darshan line on which the pilgrim wait.

Lo! There He is – the Orange Robe,
The flash, the flame, the fragrant breeze,
Sunlit Halo Hair!
Fulfilmentof every far fetched dream.
All the Gods, in Sai Form,
Grace, Majesty, Power and Joy.

Men and women from all the nations, from every creed and clime are here, fetched from afar by dreams of cure or other boons willed and granted by Baba, in person or otherwise. As He walks along the serried ranks of people, many find in Him the Form and Figure of the God he adores. I find myself able to quote and the exclamations of those who have experienced these visions:

This is Siva, Sakthi, Krishna, Ram,
Jehovah, Buddha, Jesus Christ!
Clasp those Lotus Feet.
Hold the softness of the Touch,
It will keep you soft for ever more.

No one can be the same again! A surging spring of love bubbles in the heart. The transformation is further effected when the aspirant is chosen for the boon of a personal interview.

Watch! His finger bids you wake!
You are chosen, dear child! Follow Him.
Blessed is the day, the hour. You’ll be born a new.