Diwali Celebrations 2007

Like every year this year too the Diwali celebrations by the Sai Youth were an experience to preserve in fond memories. This time there were additions to the list of venues for celebration of the festival; these being Vejbhai Home, Nagasanpalle Village apart from Victoria Memorial Home.

Nagasani Palli:

After a lot of discussion and planning, it was decided that the villagers needed proper Deepavali celebrations in Nagasanpalle further cemented the bond between the Sai Youth and the villagers. On the day before the festival, it was close to 7pm when Sai Youth reached the village; surprising the villagers who thought that no one would turn up as it was very late on a winter evening!! The festival began on a high spiritual note of Nagarsankirtan through out the entire village. The Villagers participated in this with lot of joy and gusto. The primary school was tastefully decorated. The photographs of Swami and Goddess Saraswathi were garlanded beautifully and candles were lit around the photographs to enliven the spirit of the occasion. One of the Sai Youth members explained the significance of the festival of lights quoting many a story from the scriptures.

Candles were distributed to one and all, young and old. The candles on being lit resembled a beautiful garland of lights in the dark backdrop of night. Children’s faces lit up in joy once the fire cracker session began. The boisterous mood of the children and the noisy crackers kept up the spirit of Diwali till late into the night. After the celebrations at school Sai Youth went to each and every home and distributed Sweets as Swami’s prasadam. This was close to 11 pm and all the villagers were astonished and voiced their appreciation to the fact that we were there in the village for so long and still had to travel several hours to reach home. The high was when some of them offered place for us in their homes (read hearts) to sleep.

Victoria Memorial Home:

Celebrations at Victoria Memorial Home brought out new pearls of understanding about life itself. Sai Youth began debating as to which was brighter, the physical light of the lamps and crackers or the flashes of the smiles on the faces of the tiny ones. It was finally concluded that the smiles on the faces of the 900+ children were infinitely more important and brighter than any physical light from a lamp or cracker. For more than 2 hours children saw the skies lit with fancy burning crackers. Prasadam and other gifts were distributed to each student at a time.

Vej Bhai Home:

The third place which lit up the hearts of Sai Youth was the Vej Bhai home. This place is located about 15km from Hyderabad on the Bangalore Highway. The cute children residing at this home were ready by 6PM seated in a calm posture with vibhuthi dot on the foreheads awaiting their brothers from the city. All of them greeted in unision in a manner that took Sai Youth by surprise. The festival began on a musical note by singing devotional songs. The lamps to decorate the place were lit from Swami’s lamp. This is reminiscent of the quotes of Swami which says “Love can never diminish; it can only grow and spread like the lamps lit from one another”. Close to 63 children came forward and celebrated Diwali like never before. After the session of bursting crackers, food was served. The children were found to be disciplined and their presence of mind to recite their prayers before partaking meal is noteworthy.

Then came the difficult part of bidding good bye. Dutifully Arthi was offered to our beloved Bhagavan. Then Sai Youth took leave of the little hearts. All of the 63 children bid us bye with joyful smiles and pleading eyes to return next time.