Anantapur: The celebrating the Chinese New Year, which marks the beginning of the Year of the Monkey, devotees from Chinese speaking nations presented a glittering cultural evening at Prasanthi Nilayam in the district on Frday.
The session, attended by over 300 Chinese speaking devotees from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, was exuberant, marked by piety and gaiety.
Prasanthi Nilayam is engaged in two-day celebrations comprising varieties of spiritual and cultural offerings. Based on Chinese astrology, each New Year is associated with an animal sign, occurring in a 12-year cycle, this New Year being that of the monkey.
‘Thanksiving, an essential traditional feature of the Chinese New Year, followed next, offered by a group of selected children from the participating countries, who offered traditional Chinese delicacies at the sanctum sanctorum. Devotees from Medan, Indonesia, changed Chinese Buddhist mantras.
Delivering his welcome address, Bro Billy Fong, Chinese New Year coordinator from Malaysia, spoke of the essential message of the festivities and the ultimate goal of man: realisation. He spoke of Sadhana regulations and procedures, prescribed by the Baba.
Devotees from Malaysia rendered bhajans on mouth organs. Bro Alvin Leo, a second general Chinese-Australian and active youth member of Sathya Sai International Organisation, spoke on the Chinese spiritual legacy that points to the Inner Spiritual Essence.
“Sadhana is to be followed as prescribed by Baba, as it is a must for mind control and to amplify the will of inner voice,” he said and narrated a personal experience with Saibaba in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
Bro Alvin is currently media coordinator for Zone 3 and a committee member of the International Youth Programme, of the SSIO.
A medley of New Year songs in Mandarin was followed by a lively rendering of international Sai Bhajans, in a mix of Chinese Mandarin – Prasanthi.
