Chinese New Year Celebrations-Day 2

Two-days Chinese New Year celebrations came to a dazzling finale this evening, marked by a series of spiritual-cultural offerings here, in Prasanthi Nilayam today.

This evening, the programme commenced at 1700 hrs with the chanting of Buddhist compassion mantra, chanted by the devotees from Jakarta, Indonesia.

Dr VK Ravindran, Chairman, Zone 4 of SSIO, speaking on the occasion, highlighted on the unceasing blessing of Bhagawan on to the Chinese devotees, that made the Chinese New Year a grant success ever since its inception in 1997.

Recollecting the bliss of darshan on the final and ‘most memorable’ New Year in the immediate Physical Presence of Bhagawan, in 2011, Dr Ravindran then elaborated on the various service activities by the SSIO, in various countries coming under the region.

Special Chinese New Year songs by the women devotees from Lampung, Indonesia followed next. Clad in angelic flowing dress, in sparkling Chinese red, the group of seven sang in a mix of Mandarin-English greeting the arrival of the joyous New Year.

Delivering the guest speech, Ms Isabella Chu, a Judge from Hong Kong, narrated her first miraculous touch of grace that she received explicitly from Bhagawan, when Bhagawan spoke through her in a Hong Kong Sai function helping her deliver her impromptu speech making it a grand success. With Him anything is possible, with us merging with His Energy, exuding greater confidence.

How precious is every moment of one’s life, with Swami at the centre, with a heart pulsating for Sai, in Sai… Isabella’s speech this evening was an eye-opener of this omnipresent ‘Sai’ devotion, wherein a devotee finds Him as the priceless entity in everything around, all in His Love…for His Love.

Ms Isabella Chu came to Bhagawan’s fold in 2012, and ever since she has been actively involved in SSIO activities in Hong Kong.

Even as the session continued, Chinese Cultural – Lotus – Dance followed next succeeded by an exhibition of the famous ‘Eight Cardinal Virtues’ of the Chinese tradition, namely, Filial Piety, Brotherhood, Dedication, Integrity, Propriety, Selflessness, Honour and Discrimination.

The New Year drama next on the theme “Integrity – Foundation For Life” showcased the absolute importance of Integrity in one’s life.

The story depicted an Emperor who was in search of his successor from outside his lineage. A nation-wide search ensued twin rounds of physical and mental endurance tests on a large mass of candidates, finally zeroing in on 100 eligible candidates for the last and final round.

For the hundred selected finalists, the Emperor gave a final test, asking them to sprout a seed each, taking six months before successfully reporting back. At the end of the six month period, except one, all others brought sprouted saplings and the Emperor had no difficulty in choosing his successor, that being the one with the ‘barren’ pot. To test the integrity, that is the foundation of one’s life, the Emperor had given all the candidates an infertile seed each. Except the winner, rest all resorted to cheating in their bid to impress upon the Emperor.

A series of group songs of love and loyalty to Swami, with Multimedia backdrop, lit the waning twilight to added resplendence before the final presentation of the symbolic Chinese Dragon and the New Year’s mascot, the Monkey.

International Bhajans next ended with Mangala Arathi at 1905 hrs.