SAI INSPIRES - Dec 13, 2025

Admin - SSSGC Zone 1
Dec 14
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Your Connection to Prasanthi Nilayam

SAI INSPIRES Zone 1 Bulletin

Dec 13, 2025

CENTENNIAL EDITION

Centennial Birthday Celebrations of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Sri Sathya Narayana Vratham and Rathotsavam

Loving Sairam,

Hope everyone is doing well and continuing to absorb the divine vibrations of Bhagwan Baba’s Birthday Celebrations. Devotees around the world joined in with deep devotion and enthusiasm. The celebrations at Prasanthi Nilayam were exceptionally uplifting and will be remembered as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Naturally, an event of this magnitude requires extensive planning, and our organizational leaders and sevadals poured their hearts into years of dedicated effort to make it truly grand and successful. We will be sharing all possible insights into the various activities that took place during the celebrations.

"The sacred ceremonies and rituals that the Vedas expound confer joy not only on the participants but on the entire world and even on worlds beyond. The supreme Lord, the source of bliss, is known in the scriptural text as having the Vedic ritual as His limbs and using the Vedic ritual as His vehicle."

-Sathya Sai Baba, Sri Sathya Sai Vahini

On Nov 18 2025, a grand Sri Sathya Sai Sathyanarayana Vratham and Rathotsavam (chariot festival) were held in the Sai Kulwant Hall, Prasanthi Nilayam, as part of the centennial celebrations of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. At 8:10 am, the life and message of Bhagawan was worshipped through a spiritually uplifting vratham and recitation of Sri Sathya Sai Katha by 200 couples from the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organization, India, and Sri Sathya Sai Global Council. Throughout the vratham, a newly made golden idol of Bhagawan was worshipped and thereafter placed on a glorious and also newly made silver chariot. This idol is made of pancha loha (a combination of five sacred metals) and is of 3 feet and 6 inches height. Special sculptors from Bangalore worked tirelessly across over 15 attempts to make an idol that matched the appearance of the physical form of our most beloved Bhagawan. In this form, Swami was taken from Prasanthi Nilayam to Swami's old mandir (patha mandiram) at Puttaparthi village where He began His mission in 1946.

The dazzling silver chariot that carried Him is 27 feet in height, 8.1 feet in depth, and 17.1 feet in depth, with 8 bases and 6 pillars. Made of dandeli teak wood from fallen trees, it was constructed by 17 artisans from Rajasthan, Jaipur, and Udaipur who also had the blessing of making a similar chariot used by Lord Venkateshwara at Tirupati every year. The sculptors gratefully recall that the amount of wood thus collected ended up being the exact amount required, not a piece more or less. The ratham was built in a miraculously record time in the premises of the patha mandiram itself. The woodwork was completed in 5 months and 21 days, the axel in 1 month and 2 days, and the silverwork in just 1 month and 10 days. To the sonorous chants of Vedam, the uplifting beats of energetic bhajans, and the joyous colors and sounds of the folk arts from devotees from various parts of Andhra Pradesh and India, the Lord of Lords was pulled on the silver chariot by devotees enthusiastically shouting "Jai Bolo Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba Ji Ki Jai!" Leading Him was Venugopala Swami, the village deity, and Lord Rama, Lakshmana, Sita, and Hanuman, all carried on beautifully decorated palanquins. Upon reaching the patha mandiram, Mangala Aarthi was offered to Bhagawan who remained on the chariot throughout the day for devotees to feast their eyes on that Divine sight.