Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s 90th Birthday Celebrated With Splendor

HOUSTON: The Sathya Sai Centers of Houston celebrated Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s 90th Birthday at the Durgabari Auditorium on Friday November 27. The celebrations were well attended, by over 550 guests. Chief Guest on the occasion was the Consul General of India, Harish Parvathaneni.

The program started with a dance on Human Values by young Sai Spiritual Education (SSE) Students, which is the basis of the Sai Spiritual Education. The highlights of the program were three inspirational plays, presented by the SSE Students. The first play ‘Love is the Source, Path and Goal’, brought tears to the eyes of quite a few mothers, sitting in the audience. The story was about a young man, who tried to pay his mother for his upbringing. Soon after while discussing a discourse of Sri Sathya Sai Baba at the Study Circle in the Houston Sai Center, he learns that it is impossible to put a price on mother’s love and realizes his mistake. He goes to India and brings his widowed mother along with him to the US. In the last scene, the play took a very interesting turn, which showed how God’s love can save one under the worst circumstances.

The second play, ‘Enlightening’, was about the inspirational story of Nikola Tesla. The play showed the struggle and hardships that Nikola had to face, when he did not take the easy way out and chose the path of righteousness. He understood that the path inwards and outwards needed to connect to make his life fruitful. He embarked on a path to understand himself, after he had understood everything he could in the scientific world. His journey inwards, taught him that he should work to use his mind to benefit the society and to add true meaning to his life.

The third play ‘Sadhana- Divinity in Duty’ inspired one and all. It was about the story of the Queen of Jhansi, who fought against the tyranny of the English Company and their rule. Her life was a message of Sadhana, to protect what belonged to her people, even if it meant she would lose all that was hers. She thought her duty was her offering to the Divine Mother and performed it flawlessly until her last breath.

Presentation on the various Service Projects undertaken by the Houston Sai Centers was quite informative as well as inspiring. Besides feeding the underprivileged in the Houston area through several year-long service activities, the Houston Sai Centers are also engaged in providing education to not only the homeless people, but also the young children through certain School Districts as well.

A joyous cake cutting by the young children made the audience smile. The program came to a conclusion with a harmonious devotional singing session. Brother Raviraj Nasery, a highly talented devotional singer from India opened the devotional singing session. Udipi Restaurant served a sumptuous Mahaprasad/Dinner.

Besides the Birthday Celebrations on the 27th November, the Houston area Sathya Sai devotees undertook special sadhanas for last several months, in remembrance of their Spiritual Leader Sri Sathya Sai Baba. 12 Special Devotional Singing Sessions were held, in which 180 devotional songs were sung. Over 9 reading sessions of the biography of Sri Sathya Sai Baba were held, in which the entire book was read in each sitting. Non-stop 24 hour devotional singing sessions were held on a global scale at over 1,200 Sai Centers in over 126 countries. On the 23rd of November, two special devotional singing sessions were held in the North as well as South Houston.

Houston area Sai devotees meet at two locations in the North and South parts of town on Sundays from 3:00pm – 5:30pm.  They engage in weekly activities that include Community Service, Sai Spiritual Education classes for children, meditation, study circle, and devotional group singing.

For further information visit www.sairegion10.org.