Sixtieth birthday celebrations of Sathguru Swami Premanandaji

by Thalatha PERERA

Three months before Guruji’s birthday, Battaramulla devotees planned to do some service in the north of Sri Lanka near Jaffna peninsula where you find so many children who were affected by unfortunate incidents in the past.

Since we don’t know the places in the northern area well, my husband and I visited Devi Shanmuganathan attached to the Colombo centre and requested her to recommend a place for our desired service.

She was very happy to recommend the Mahadeva Ashram in Kilinochchi where there are 285 displaced children.

Immediately we reserved November 17 for our project and obtained information about their needs.

Battaramulla centre has their monthly program every first Sunday of the month.

Gossip

Accordingly, during the September program the devotees discussed about this project and all of them agreed with the idea that I put forward as our group is very united and practise Gurudeva’s teachings.

As a practice we refrain from gossip and join hands without any hesitation for a good cause. Cooperation during pooja’s to help each other is very heartening particularly when one falls sick or unable to be present. We have no class differences and all devotees are treated alike.

They all feel that we are one family under the teachings of Sathguru. Though he is not with us physically we feel his presence during poojas and other times as well.

There are a lot of miracles happening with the flower garlands and flower arrangements which make our devotees faith stronger.

Trip

Getting back to our program we made a trip to Kilinochchi with Devi, his son, myself and Nath on September 17 exactly two months before Guruji’s birthday.

On our way we dropped in at our Pulliyankulam ashram and got the blessings from Lord Krishna who was generating love and blessings from his lovely golden statue which had been materialised by Swamiji in the seventies of the past century being the first statue materialsed by Swamiji.

Program

Gauri mathaji was so happy to see us and we informed her about the program which we are planning to do at Puliyankulam on November 17. From the ashram we proceeded to Kilinochchi.

Some of the committee members were waiting to see us and we discussed the program at length and decided what we can donate to help the children according to our capacity.

From there we left for Jaffna and stayed at Devi’s house which is like a small ashram peaceful and relaxing for the mind.

We started to visit temples. Nallur, Naguleshwaran, durgaamma, Vallipuram and Chella Chandi temples. In these temples our prayer was to make our project a success.

The following day we got back to Colombo. Both ways we were singing bajans and made it a very spiritual journey. Devi’s two sons Murali and Gopi were very helpful and supportive from the beginning to the end of the project.

We at the Battaramulla centre invited the Colombo centre devotees to participate in the project, but some of them not only helped giving their service but also gave some donations.

They also joined us to visit Puliyankulam and Kilinochchi for the project.

We carried the gift packs for 500 children, according to their grades.

Each one had pens, pencils, erasers, sharpeners and rulers.

In addition, it had exercise books, 12 colour pencil boxes, pastels, chalk, clay, single rule, double rule, square rule exercise books and botany and drawing books. All the items were packed in a polythene case.

Plants

All 500 children were given nine varieties of sweets and chocolates some of it made by the devotees themselves and also an apple for each child. Kilinochchi children got a pair of rubber slippers and a grand vegetable buriyani lunch. They were also given musical instruments.

Children at both places were entertained with a magic show by one of the best magicians of Sri Lanka. Kilinochchi ashram children were made to interact with a professional clown who also went from Colombo.

Bajans were sung at both places for which sound and music was provided by two professional musicians.

A large number of fruit plants were taken to the Kilinochchi ashram and Puliyankulam ashram. Some of them were donated by Midula, a leading horticulture company in Colombo from whom we purchased a lot of plants for Swamiji whenever he wanted plants sent from Sri Lanka.

The program at Kilinochchi started with planting of trees. Then Gurudeva’s photograph was taken to the hall and decorated beautifully with garland and flower arrangement taken from one of the best flower shops in Colombo. Bajans were sung by us and the children too joined us in the chorus.

Translated

A small speech was made by the writer which was translated by Devi to tell them about Gurugi and they are not isolated in society and that they should study hard and become doctors and engineers, writers and poets and emulate the children of Swamiji’s ahsram in Trichy who have entered universities and learn different disciplines and above all be good citizens in the country.

After this sweets were distributed while they watched the magic show. Thereafter their gift packs were distributed followed by gifting the musical instrument taken from Colombo.

We were taken to the pooja hall of the ashram where one child performed the pooja for all hindu deities and gave us vibudhi and blessed and thanked.

From there we proceeded back to Puliyankulam and reached the ashram at 8 pm. Lord Krishna was waiting for Gurudeva who was travelling with us.

Swamiji’s large photograph, padam, lingam photograph were all taken to the small kuti where the Krishna statue materialised by swamiji was placed. Lord Krishna was so beautiful and about 18 inches tall.

The Pada pooja for Guruji was followed by aarathi pooja for lord Krishna. As they had done the pooja for Lord Krishna by the time we arrived, started to sing bajans with the sounds and musicians taken from Colombo and the devotees and villagers joined in the chorus.

There was a magic show was done followed by the distribution of 150 gift packs for the children, mosquito nets and plants taken from Colombo.

Translated

A speech delivered by me about Guruji was translated by Gouri mathaji. Swamiji had kept all the ophan children in the ashram before he took them to India.

The importance and the spirituality of Swamiji’s teachings was mentioned along with the importance of Swamiji’s first disciple, Gauri Mathaji.

The following day all the devotees reached Colombo. It was a great program with a lot of love and unity between the two Sri Lankan groups. We pray to Guru Mahadeva to protect our unity and give us the strength and courage to do more service projects in the future.The Battaramulla group has full faith in the management of the Trichy Ashram appointed by the Gurudeva. So we have the strength to develop our centre, according to their guidelines and wishes.

(The writer is Coordinator Battaramulla Centre)