With the blessings of Sri Hanumanji, and the inspirational leadership of Her Holiness Sri Sri GuruMaa Jyotishanand Saraswati, we once again started the New Year with 360 hours of non-stop recitation of our holy scripture of Sri Ram Charitra Manas Path from 5 pm on January 1 until 5 pm on January 16th.
All the Lonavala devotees waited for GuruMaa with anticipation after Her trip to the New York Ashram. Her arrival and presence electrifies all the devotees. They eagerly await the Akkhand Ram Charitra Manas Path program every year, as it creates holy and positive vibrations and brings all the devotees together for 15 days and night.
The Ashram is well decorated with lights and flowers. While the blizzard in New York delayed Her departure by over 33 hours, the Lonavala residents were eagerly waiting for Maa's safe arrival and good health. When the program was started many years ago, the organizers had to plead families to come and sponsor the program. Now, there is a queue for finding a spot in the Paath recitation program. The lucky sponsors were: PrabhutiPriya Gupta, YogPriya Sinha, Aayushpriya Srivastava, Malati Agarwal, Rajendra Khandelwal, Indira Rawat, Kiran Khandelwal, Sarla Badiya, Vina Gyan Sahay, Gavade Tai, Khandelwal Family, Bhori Purohit, Gulab Purohit, AgamPriya and AhutiPriya, Devpriya and Bhakti Priya. On the final day, Sri Hanuman Chalisa Path was chanted for 108 times from 12 noon until 4.30 pm, which was followed by Sunderkand Hawan and Blessings ceremony when all the sevaks were blessed by Sri Sri Gurumaa. It was a very festive atmosphere at the Ashram with Prasad prepared at least 3 times every day, sevaks performing seva and devotees absorbing all the positive vibrations from the chanting. GuruMaa's ill health prevented Her from starting the Path every day, but She trained Mr. Sahay to do so. YagyaMitra took the responsibility of conducting Puja and Aarti every day, while AyushMitra took responsibility for the ongoing running of the Ashram and spreading the word about the program.
Once again, Pushpa Khandelwal stepped up for the overall coordination of the program, and helped the sponsors find the readers for night-time. Up to 200 devotees attended the program every day. Pandit Vishva Mohanji of Ahmedabad was invited for the daily Pravachan of ninety minutes. He has previously done so at the New York Ashram too. While GuruMaa, despite Her ill health, ensured that all sponsors and devotees were taken good care of and blessed all the devotees. On the last day, GuruMaa came down to bless everybody personally. The Purnahooti of the Sunderkand Hawan was performed in the presence of GuruMaa. It was like Baba appearing Himself in the form of Gurumaa to bless everybody. The Chandoba was auctioned at the end of the program,.
The lucky receiver is blessed with miracles. AhutiPriya was the lucky person to win the Chandoba auction. Baba's Poshaks were also auctioned. Chappan Bhog was prepared for the Mahabhog on the last day by all the devotees with love, affection, devotion and surrender for Baba. Every person who received the Prasad from GuruMaa was indeed doubly blessed. The Maha Aarti of Sri Hanumanji was performed with 21 decorated Thalis. GuruMaa ended the program by blessing all the sevaks, and showered each sevak with the holy Chunni. The lucky receivers include all the sponsors mentioned above, and Mr. G S. Sahay, Pandit VishwaMohanji, Sumer Purohit, PawanKumar, Om Khandelwal, YagyaMitra, Ankita Sinha, Divya Srivastava, Shashi Agarwal, Chandraprabha Bokey and Prabhatai Gavade. The New York program is now undertaken for 40 continuous days with the blessings of Baba and inspiration of GuruMaa. The Lonavala devotees are confident that we will also reach that goal. Jai Sri Hanuman!
