THE DIVINE HOMECOMING

Prasanthi Nilayam - 8th June 2006. The spiritual town of Prasanthi Nilayam was all agog, ecstatic, bustling with joy of recapturing something so dear… still eluding. It was on 9th April 2006, Bhagawan set out of Prasanthi Nilayam to embark on His summer trip to Kodaikanal…then to Bangalore, with an entourage comprised of students and devotees. For Puttaparthi and Prasanthi Nilayam, these were the days of separation…separation from the Beloved. Expectancy was very much in the air and with the minds and hearts joyful and exuberant; it was yet another day, another occasion for the villagers, for the ashramites and for the entire township to go all agog welcoming the Lord.

Over the years, Puttaparthi, the village designated with the heavenly privilege to host the divine advent had identified herself with the Divinity and that the pangs of separation from the physical frame of Divinity, whenever He moved out, have always had its toll on this spiritually hallowed township. Adding to her woes come the blazing sun with his summer package that always brought her to a virtual naught.

An early monsoon followed by renewed hopes of Bhagawan’s imminent arrival had already bolstered the entire township and it was brimming with ecstasy, with the nature receiving early showers and the guardian hills around this spiritual epicenter adorning lush green tops as if heralding the imminent great good fortune …

8th June 2006 was indeed the end of another ‘soul-search’ for this tiny hamlet whose ‘soul-cry’ was aptly heard and rewarded by the Greater Heaven with His physical presence. Bhagawan arrived at Prasanthi Nilayam at 1:50 p.m. and was accorded a grand traditional welcome with Poornakhumbham and Vedic Recital by the students of the Institute which was followed by a colourfully attired dancing troupe from Higher Secondary Wing and a welcome song sung by students from the Institute. It was indeed an act of greater magnanimity and supreme love and compassion that Bhagawan who had three hours of car journey from Brindavan to Puttaparthi chose to sit for almost fifteen minutes on the podium upon His arrival, showering the bliss of coveted darshan to one and all gathered in Sai Kulwant Hall. Later, Bhagawan received Mangala Aarathi before proceeding to Yajur Mandiram, His Divine Abode.