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Journey with Sai: Personal Accounts of Devotees
BHAGAVAN’S VISITS TO
TIRUCHIRAPALLI
B
EING AN OFFICE BEARER OF
Sai Organisation since 1962,
I was fortunate to be closely
associated with Bhagavan’s
visits to Tiruchirapalli in 1964, 1965, 1966
and 1984. Earlier, Bhagavan had visited
Tiruchirapalli in 1948.
In February 1964, Bhagavan came to
Tiruchirapalli on the occasion of house
warming ceremony of famous clarinet
exponent, Sri A.K.C. Natarajan. Bhagavan
was accompanied by Prof. N. Kasturi
and came by car from Tirupati, starting
from Tirupati at 11.00 a.m. and reaching
Tiruchirapalli at 10.30 p.m. A few hours
before Bhagavan’s arrival, Sri Natarajan had
announced that Swami would be coming only
at 10.30 p.m., hoping that the huge crowd of
devotees would be dispersed a little. But the
devotees waited patiently to have a glimpse
of Swami even at that late hour of night.
Sri Natarajan received Swami at
Traveller’s Bungalow and brought Him by
car to his residence. Swami was escorted
into the house with great difficulty due to
the huge crowd of devotees. It was partially
due to the advertisement in Daily Thanthi,
a Tamil newspaper, that Baba would be
coming to Tiruchirapalli and a civic reception
would be held by Tiruchirapalli Municipality in
His honour. Swami instructed Sri Natarajan
P. Govindarajan
to conduct Bhajans and announce that
He would give Darshan to all the waiting
devotees. Accordingly, Swami came out
and gave Darshan to yearning devotees. He
also announced that He would be staying
for three or four days and devotees would
be given Darshan in the morning as well as
in the evening. Meanwhile, the Chairman of
the Tiruchirapalli Municipality with a group
of Councillors waited to invite Swami for
civic reception. Swami told them to hold
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To accept that man is related to the
apes or that he is an animal made
of mud or matter is to devalue him.
Man or Manava, as he is called in
Sanskrit, is a spark of Madhava or
God. He can blossom into God. He
is born to be perpetually happy,
but is everywhere in misery. This
is a tragedy; it is like the Dhobi
(washerman) who died of thirst
though he was standing kneedeep
in the running stream; or like
the man who closed his eyes and
stumbled along in the darkness. The
source of happiness is in him; the
source of light is in his eyes. Real
education has to teach man how to
tap this spring of joy and light.
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