| Run – up to the 75th Birthday Celebrations |
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It is only a month away from the 75 th Birthday of our Lord and great preparations are under way for the great event.Come the second week of November and thousands of people will descend on the abode of heavenly peace awakening the quiet township to fortnight-long celebrations. Ever since the year started, there has been a great spurt of activity. Spiritual activities and social functions have been organised in the divine presence at regular intervals. Sathya Sai Centres the world over too, have been engaging themselves in activities of this nature. |
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The other day, 20 th of October, Sai Centres of Anantapur district took out processions and organised programmes in various district towns inclusive of Uravakonda, to express their gratitude to Bhagawan for His mission and for His untiring efforts to bring about social and spiritual emancipation of the masses.This brings us to a very important aspect of a dimension of what our Swami has been doing – creating opportunities for social and spiritual emancipation. By providing basic human and social facilities, He has penetrated the social fabric of human existence. With their quality of life improved, these beneficiaries turn to spirituality as an expression of gratitude to Bhagawan for all that He has done for them. |
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| Sri Sathya Sai Safe Drinking Water Project had earlier catered to 731 villages in Anantapur district thus removing the curse of non-availability of drinking water from one of the most arid districts of backward India. As was well known, this brought about a tremendous resource crunch in the Sathya Sai Central Trust. But Bhagawan was undeterred. Championing the belief that no good work can be stopped He went about creating drinking water resources in the semi arid districts of Medak and Mahboobnagar as well. On the 23rd of November, 2000, when the world will celebrate Bhagawan’s 75th Birthday, people of nearly 300 villages of Medak and Mahboobnagar districts will wake up to drink water provided by Bhagawan Himself. |  |
| In Medak district alone, pure drinking water is being provided to pollution affected villages in Patancheru and Jinnaram mandals, tapping it from Manjeera pipeline which brings water to Hyderabad. Water is also being drawn directly from Manjeera river (back waters) at Pocharam and Kulbagur villages, treated by means of rapid sand filtering units and supplied to villages in Andhole and Hathnoora areas. Water from Kodlair river and Haldivagus is also being tapped for providing drinking water to Dubbaka and Gajwel mandal areas. |  |
In the district of Mahboobnagar, water from the Krishna river is drawn near Parevula and Jurala dam, and after treatment through rapid sand filtration method, will be supplied to about 80 villages in the chronically draught affected mandals of Makthal, Narayanpeta and Narwa. Further, water after treatment from the Krishna river is provided to Jadcherla town and its surroundings. This scheme will enable Jadcherla and surrounding areas to obtain water through pipelines from Mahboobnagar. In another dimension of activity, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, under Bhagawan Baba’s guidance and blessings, has taken up the construction of marriage halls, bhajan halls and schools. To date, the villages of Kovelaguttapalli, Janakampalli, Battalapalli, K. Locherla and Yenumalapalle near Puttaparthi have been gifted with a Kalyana–Mandapam (Hindu marriage hall) each. K. Locherla also has a new school. The small town of Bukkapatnam has now two new Kalyana Mandapams and a temple. There are temples also for Locherla and Peddapalli. The town of Kothacheruvu has a Kalyana Mandapam for Hindus and an exclusive Shadi Hall for Muslims. Besides there is a bhajan room and as expansive Junior College. The total outlay for these construction works in Kothacheruvu and Bukkapatnam mandals is beyond Rs. 50 lakhs. |
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| From the thirty-first of October, students of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning and volanteers of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations will distribute food and clothing to the poor and the needy in villages of the Kothacheruvu and Bukkapatnam mandals. In this massive exercise, the students will go from door to door of the villages and hand over Bhagawan’s blessings to the inmates. |  |
In a significant gesture, Bhagawan announced on the 6 th of October 2000 that He was interested in embarking on a new project wherein 1000 poor families would be identified and housed in a specially constructed model village. Besides providing them opportunities for basic education, vocational training and access to health centres, the project would entitle the beneficiaries to a fixed deposit sum of Rs. 1,00,000/- per family. The interest accrued from the deposit would be used to meet the expenses of each family.In all these socially relevant activities, Puttaparthi itself has not been left behind. The Sri Pedda Venkapa Raju Kalyana Mandapam has been renovated and expanded in its scope. Besides, an additional Kalyana Mandapam, Sri Sathya Sai Kalyana Mandapam, has been constructed for the poor people at Puttaparthi. What’s new at Prasanthi Nilayam? This seems to be the obvious question. Devotees visiting Prasanthi Nilayam keep their eyes skinned on entry to the holy precincts to spot any new edifice that would come up in their absence. As we enter Vidyagiri now, we see on our left an imposing new building. It is a Music College, reportedly affiliated to Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. The College Complex has two buildings. The first is an auditorium and display hall for various types of musical instruments. The building itself is in the shape of musical instruments – we have the barrel-like tabla set, with violins (or are they guitars?) and local trumpets hogging the limelight in the front elevation. Adjacent to this building is a rather sedate edifice which will incidentally house the classrooms. Bhagawan may inaugurate the building during the Birthday Celebrations though classes may formally commence in June 2001. In the stadium we have a magnificient buiding built in this style of Far–eastern architecture. This buiding, tentatively named ‘Chaitanya Jyothi’ is the 75 th Birthday Commemoration monument depicting the life, message and mission of Sri Sathya Sai Avatar. Occupying an area of 10,800 square feet, the building has seven levels raising upto 75 feet high, with a total building area of 20,000 square feet.The building is meant to present the experience of the devotees of Baba’s times who enjoyed the infinite life of God in human form. Made with the objective of catering to the needs of the future generation, the building will house various types of presentations depicting the life, mission and message of the Lord. The presentations are divided into seven sections, each section dealing with one aspect of the Incarnation. The presentation takes a visitor through the different levels located at different heights from the dawn of creation to the modern age as outlined through Bhagawan’s message. The architecture of the building is a fusion of East and West. The roof, even though appearing like a Chinese roof, has components of European architecture. Two domes of Moorish architecture are made of titanium. The arches are Gothic in style while the Koi pool in front, of Chinese origin , is representative of Singapore and Malaysian culture. To facilitate the inflow of devotees during the celebrations, the State Road Transport Corporation is introducing 500 more buses and special railway coaches are being provided in the Secunderabad-Bangalore and Vishakapatnam-Bangalore lines. Roads are being relaid, additional telecommunication facilities, higher capacity electricity cabling and a number of make-shift dormitories are being set up. A new bus depot is being constructed by the Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation. The bus depot, situated near the Post Office on 3.5 acres of land, can accommodate about 50 buses. Perhaps the most distinguishing feature is the effort to put Puttaparthi on the Indian Railway Map. Puttaparthi has been connected on the Penukonda–Dharmavaram railway line covering a distance of 53 kilometres. The Government is doing this at the cost of approximately Rs.110 crores and proposes to have trains running before Bhagawan’s Birthday. This will facilitate passengers from Bangalore and those alighting earlier at Dharmavaram to come straight to Puttaparthi. Work on 100 railway bridges and 6 underground tunnels on the railway track have been completed. Puttaparthi now has a brand new railway station at Mamilla kunta (near the petrol filling station). It has four platforms, waiting rooms for passengers and a pilgrims’ shed. The station has elevators ten quarters for railway officials, a store shed, a guest house and separate railway reservation counters for ladies and men. The Celebrations at Prasanthi Nilayam will take off on the 18 th of November with the inauguration of the Seventh World Conference of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations. (See programme in box).After the celebrations at Prasanthi Nilayam, there will be another leg of celebrations at Brindavan. As a part of this celebration, a new Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences will be inaugurated. This new Institute aims to provide (like her sister Institute at Prasanthigram, near Puttaparthi) quality medical care and treatment free of cost in the fields of cardiology and cardiac care, Urology/Nephrology and Neurology. Technically superior to its previous avatar, the new super speciality hospital is located on a sprawling campus of 3, 40, 000 square feet with 333 beds, 12 operation theatres, health labs, ICU, CCU, MRI, Gamma knife etc. A mother-child facility, a 500-seat seat auditorium, hospitals for staff, Nursing Training school and Post-graduate Training facilities for physicians and surgeons are in the offing. The total outlay for the initial phase is around Rs.200 crores. To top it all, the architecture of the hospital makes the campus a significant landmark. A Spiritual Impressions |
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