Letters from India - Part 2

20. Vijai Sri Stories - May 1990

Vijai Sri Stories

May 1990

Prasanthi Nilayam

Dear All,

Divya conveys her namaskars. How is everything there? Here all is hot & fine.

Construction is busy around here, even without Swami! They are doing repairs, much needed, around Ganesha and the snake statues by the gate. They built two more bathrooms behind South Prasanthi, available to all. An office building (post office) is being constructed by round building #5. The 65-foot Hanuman statue, the talk of the ashram, is arising on the very top of Hill View Stadium.

The huge, imposing museum building (right beside the palace administration building on top of meditation tree hill) has reached its third (and last?) level, a skeleton in sticks and cement. How do the poor workers work, shoeless in the hot sun, gents in only a half-shorts without shirt, ladies in saris?? That is the mystery. They are to be seen on the top of the hill, on top of the skaffolding, with only the hot sun and heaven above them, passing small round bowls of cement, in a line from bottom to top. Up, up, up goes the cement, passed hand-to-hand. Down, down, down falls the empty bowls, as they throw them crashing below.

On small construction sites they make a pile of sand and mix cement in it. On bigger construction sites, they have a tiny cement-mixer in which they throw big stones, water & sand, and out comes hot cement.

They repainted the round buildings in super-bright, florescent blue – most likely to stand the summer heat, and fade by B-day! Meanwhile the pink is still dull and almost white - quite a contrast!

I went recently to get flowers for Venkamma behind the round buildings. I was met with an awesome, staggering, unbelievable sight! There, before my very eyes, was a huge construction site which I can only compare to high-rise building in America! Yes, Swami is building a brand new, modern (300-room) housing complex! Imagine, how big! In comparison, one huge round building has only 62 rooms! The construction stretches from the first round building to the last. On both sides of the construction are mounds of earth that had been dug out, piles as tall as me and twice as wide, for hundreds of feet! Not a construction in logs, bricks and cement. There are huge metal beams that are rising out of the checker-board-dug holes. Workers madly pass cement into the holes, boys run with small wheel barrels to the workers and back.

It’s enough rooms to give the ownership waiting list (over 200 names), all permanent rooms. So that’s why Swami is accepting any money that is offered to Him! Swami gave 160 rooms to UK people!

Recently Venkamma had her room painted (first time, as before she only had it white-washed).

Formally, Venkamma insisted she knew absolutely nothing of her birth information. Well, recently she came out with the information that her sign is Vrishabha. I searched and found that it’s TAURUS!

Swami’s elder brother’s wife has cancer of the stomach and is in the hospital here (she is over 70). Her husband, Seshama Raju, died in 1985 of heart attack. The doctors had told her family to take her home, that it will be a long disease and there’s no use of her being in the hospital. But, Swami sent word to keep her in the hospital. The family thinks she’ll die soon, or Swami wouldn’t have sent word like that. She’s only drinking coconut water and buttermilk now.

So! You like Vijai Sri stories. I didn’t write much before, but I will now, for you!

Now and then Venkamma or Niraja would scold me for abandoning Vijai Sri when she cried for me. She got very attached to me, for some odd, odd reason. Even with Venkamma or her mother around, she would sit on me or play around me. If I happened to get up she’d rise and follow me. The only way to escape would be to slip out when she was looking the other way. Sometimes it would work, and later she’d ask, “Where did auntie go? Where is she?” Or sometimes she’d run out yelling, “Auntie! Auntie!” She’d hysterically run after me! (They scold her if she calls me ‘Divya’ as I'm an ‘elder’ and she shouldn’t be calling elders by first names, though when she was much younger, she only called me “Duvva”)

One time I was transferring my luggage from the ashram to an outside room, and she saw me. Oh! How she cried & screamed, tears running down her cheeks! “Auntie! Don’t go! Auntie! I’ll come!!” She was hysterical. I quickly put all the luggage in the outside room then came back – how she ran full speed with wet cheeks, to me. She thought I would go forever!

Then, once when baby Jai Sri was crying, Niraja joked, “See, the baby is crying, “Deee-vyaaa! Deee – vyaaa!” Vijai immediately took hold of this and remembered it long afterwards! The baby would cry countless times throughout the day. Each time, if I happened to be in the room, Vijai would say, “Sister! Don’t cry! See, Divya is here!” If I wasn’t there she’d say, “Sister! Divya’s not here! Divya’s not here.”

They all came for Vijai’s Birthday on May 6th. (Staying with in-laws in the village) Niraja told me that even in Anantapur, whenever the baby would cry, Vijai would say, “Sister! Divya’s not here, she’s with Grandma (Venkamma)! She’s far away!” Niraja’s husband started to complain, “Who’s this Divya?” He asked Vijai, “Why don’t you go and bring her here!”

Many times I would sit on the back Mandir verandah for bhajans. Vijai would come to the Mandir for bhajans with Venkamma. But if she saw me, she’d quickly come and sit on me quietly! No amount of coaxing would get her to go with Venkamma! This would amuse those on the verandah!

During the ‘OM’ she folds her hands and repeats ‘Om’ loudly also. As soon as Ganesh bhajan would start, she’d begin a dance performance! She would wriggle her hands, look this way then that way with her big eyes, sway her shoulders and hips, and win all hearts! Or she would dash back and forth across the verandah, stopping at each end to dance. When the bhajan would end, she’d stand perfectly still until the next one would begin, then dance again.

Sometimes, after most of the bhajan was over, she would dash outside, plop down on the sand, and play. She’d demand me to come out so she could feed me “rice”. She would get a fallen leaf, heap sand on it, and present it to me with great, grand style. She would proceed to give all the required things for an Indian meal, “Here is ghee (sprinkling a bit of sand), here’s vegetable. Is it too spicy? Take water. Here’s sambar. Here is rasam. Now, I’ll give more rice. Eat curd-rice.” She puts salt by sprinkling more sand. She would play this way for up to an hour, giving me more and more sand, and would ignore the requests of other people sitting nearby, to feed them “rice” also!

May 7th: well, Swami came completely unexpectedly for Easwaramma day. He hasn’t come for the last five years at least! He came at 3 PM on May 5th, and left 10:30 AM on May 7th. He is acting very strange indeed, lately. I suppose with all the construction, He wanted to see it all. He made about 10 car trips during this 1½ day stay. In the Poornachandra, they are sculpting the 9 planet gods, all around the new revolving stage. This is done by one master craftsman, who’s said to have done most of the sculpting in Prasanthi Nilayam and Whitefield ashrams. Swami went about 5 or 6 times there, to talk with the Master sculptor. Also, Swami must’ve visited His sick sister-in-law in the hospital.

In all those four Darshans while He was there, I got 3 last & second-to-last lines, and one in the middle! Boo hoo. He looked at me twice, as if saying, “You’re here, I know.”

Vijai Sri came the night Swami came and she immediately attached herself to me. On the verandah, she refused to go into the Mandir for Swami’s Darshan, even though all relatives went in one by one.

Once I noticed Parvatamma staring at me with this Vijai Sri, trying to get her to go. Vijai sat on me, pressing near to me for dear life. Later she laid down, not even going to the floor but staying on my knees. After arathi, I was forced to place her on the ground. Relatives came and picked her up. She screamed, “Auntie! Auntie!” and cried. I quickly left the area!

Swami walked far in Darshan, not giving much attention. He didn’t even give the relatives namaskar before He left.

He did come to the Samadhi and did puja, although I only saw arathi as the ladies were placed at the side, away from any possibility of view. After, they gave fried rice & sweet rice to all, as prasad.

Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu!

Love,

Divya