The fortnight falling between 3rd October to 17th October had plenty of action, with the sacred Dasara Fesitvity topping the list. Along with Dasara came another Yajna, Grama Seva 2010 that witnessed enmasse participation of students and faculties, serving hundreds of villages with Bhagawan's Package of Love. With the countdown for the 85th Birthday already began, being the 85th year of His Advent, every festivity in the run-up to the big event assumes special signifiance.
Changing phase of Prasanthi schedules, wherein we witness late evening or twlight darshans more often, this years Dasara celebrations, had its impact on Dasara festivity as the Maha Poornahuthi of the seven day Saptaaha Jnana Yajna was offered in the waning twilight, at 1820 hrs. on the 17th October, a practice Prasanthi witnessed for the first time.
Earlier the Yajna got under way on the 11th October at the Poornachandra auditorium, in Bhagawan's benign presence. With hundreds and thousands packed in the spacious auditorium witnessing, the Yajna was lit with the sacred fire created out of friction.
During the seven day long Yajna Bhagawan made His presence on two morning, while most of the evenings were blessed with His twilight darshans, of course, sans Prasanthi Vidwan Maha Sabha, a usual affair for the past many a year.
Grama Seva 2010 got underway on the 9th October with students and staff members from the three campuses engaged in action with great sporting spirit. While the Prasanthi Nilayam and Brindavan Campuses had field days for the whole of the ten days, women students from Anantapur were the real force behind mixing and packing of the tamarind rice packets in huge quantity. They would stay awake in the wee hours, from 1 am to 4:30 am keeping thousands of packets ready for taking to distribution.
There was a special Grama Seva Kitchen allied with other activities entirely managed by Sevadal force from Andhra Pradesh. Over 340 gents and 50 ladies Sevadals were engaged in various activities that included helping in cooking, spreading, cooling, transporting to the packing arena etc, while 28 special cooks from East Godavari district donned the resposibility of entire cooking. There was another set of seventy ladies engaged in laddu making happened in the first floor of South Indian Canteen.
Dignitary visit during the fortnight had Former Loksabha Speaker, Formerly Home Minister of India and currently Governor of Punjab, Sri Shivraj Patil. On the day when Bhagawan set out at 11:30 am Bhagawan, upon returning after the 'safari' blessed Mr. Patil and group before retiring to Yajur Mandiram.
On the 9th October Bhagawan blessed a group of over 120 specialist medicos who have come to attenda high-profile Urology Conference at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences at Prasanthigram.
The first week of the fortnight witnessed a cultural programme by Bihar and Jharkhand, entitled "Maa", a tribute to the institution of Motherhood. !0th of October witnessed the beauty of Himachal Pradesh parading forth with the state taking her stake presenting an hour long cultural presentation. A ten minute folk dance, Karyala, that turned out to be a real entertainer, was followed by a fifty minute dance drama Dashaavatar. Burrakatha, the art form, that was more than lucky to have the touch of the Divine made its entry once again onto the 'Prasanthi Theatre', with the 'originators', the first batch of Burrakatha students presenting the story Shiva Parvathi Kalyanam on the 7th October 2010.
Prasanthi is rivelling in, giving every bit of her life to the folks thronging unto her. The fortnight experienced unusual rush of devotees, especially during the dasara festivity.
Prasanthi continues to rejoice, as the countdown has already begun for the big occasion, 85th Birthday of The Lord.
