CHAITANYA JYOTI MUSEUM INTRODUCTION: Chaitanya Jyoti Museum was built to commemorate the 75th Birthday of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the Avatar of the Yuga ( the Era). Flanked by rocky hillside and verdant greenery with tall trees, Chaitanya Jyoti appears to visitors like something out of the pages of a fairy tale. Its grandeur and originality is stunning. The purpose of Chaitanya Jyoti is not merely to provide a narration of the life of the Avatar of the Age, but also to bring out the purpose of his advent and how Humanity has benefited and will continue to benefit by His advent in years to come. It was a project sponsored by overseas devotees and conceived, developed and presented under the leadership of Sri Indulal Shah, the then International Chairman Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation world wide. The building houses an exhibition on Baba's Life and Mission, which would inspire, motivate and encourage devotees to follow His teachings and put them into practice. A level site of 65m frontage and 60m depth and 4m above road level had to be created out of a sloping hillside. To achieve this, entailed 3 to 4m of filling of one third of the area and removal of 5000 m3 of rock from the remaining area. The building is 27m higher than the road level, with a covered area of 6000 m2. The architect, Goy Say Tong of Malaysia, designed a unique structure with a fusion of many cultures and architectural styles. The dominant architectural feature is a roof similar to that of a Chinese Emperor's Palace, flanked by two Moorish domes made of Titanium, crowning the semicircular ends which are adorned with Gothic arches and two lift shafts with Japanese style roofs. A most interesting feature is a large KOI fish pool in the front, designed by a specialist from Singapore. The stone balustrades and the decorative pillar topped by a model of the universe supported by Baba's finger, came from China. The Chinese style roof has a triangular feature, which is a Greek architectural feature. The KOI pool has about 350 Japanese KOI fishes of ephemeral beauty. The building took 1 year and 2 days to construct. It was inaugurated by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba on 18 Nov 2000. It is He, who selected the name of Chaitanya Jyoti. As one enters the building, on the left there is a wonderful statue of Sri Sathya Sai Baba against a backdrop of Badrinath temple. The statue is flanked by photographs of the 5 Maths, where Adi Sankara installed the 5 lingas, which were given to him by Shiva at Kailash. These are at Badrinath, Dwaraka, Jaganath Puri, Sringeri and Kanchipuram, where AdiShankara spent his last years. From here one goes up a staircase to the first floor. For those who are physically handicapped there is a lift. For those who cannot walk, wheel chairs are provided and sevadals for pushing them. The exhibition is set out in chronological sequence starting from OM. From OM emerged the 5 elements, Space, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. What they represent, are shown. But each element also has a deeper meaning. Space is the medium. Air or Vayu is energy (of 5 kinds, that is, Prana, Apana, Udana, Samana and Vyana). Fire, Water and Earth represent the 3 states of matter that is, gas liquid and solid. Thus the 5 elements are, in fact, space, energy, and matter After this, a short 8 minute film on Creation is shown. From this one comes to the 10 Avatars. Stage 1 The significance of each Avatar is given in Display Boards. After the 9th Avatar Buddha, a slight diversion is made and 3 major religions that is, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam are shown. We now come to the most important item, which concerns the 10th Avatar. This is based on Baba's Gurupurnima discourse of 1963. Rishi Bharadwaj Rishi Bharadwaj was keen to master the Vedas. Even after an increased life span of 300 years, he could not do so. When he beseeched Lord Indra for another 100 years of life, Indra advised him to perform the Savitra Yagnya, during which he would teach the Rishi the essence of the Vedas, which would confer upon him the same merits as that of having studied all the Vedas. Bharadwaj then went to Kailash to invite mother Parvati (Shakti) to preside over his yagnya. As Shiva and Shakti were engaged in competitive dance, Shakti glanced at him briefly and took no further notice. Shiva warned her of the consequences of neglecting the yearning of the Rishi, but Shakti did not pay heed. Bharadwaj was disheartened and after waiting 8 days tried to return when he had a stroke and fell down, his left side being paralysed. Shiva and Shakti immediately stopped their dance and Shiva revived him by sprinkling water from His Kamandalu and promised him that both He and Shakti would attend the Yagnya. The Yagnya was held with the support of Indra in the presence of Shiva and Shakti. So pleased were they with the Yagnya that Shiva conferred a boon to Bharadwaj that they would take human birth thrice in the Bharadwaj gotra(lineage) in Kali Yuga. First Shiva will come alone as Sai Baba of Shirdi, then Shiva and Shakti will come together as Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi and later Shakti will come alone as Prema Sai. Further Shiva said that as an atonement for Shakti's neglect of Bharadwaj for 8 days, when they both take birth as Sathya Sai, his left side denoting Shakti, will suffer a paralytic stroke for 8 days and on the 8th day He Himself would cure the affliction by sprinkling water. This now leads to the section of other manifestations of God. These are of 2 kinds. First is those who came for a lifetime. Like Sri Ramakrishan Paramahansa and Alwars. The second kind are manifestations of God which are worshipped in various places in different places of pilgrimage. These kind of manifestations are depicted on the opposite walls. Some are manifest as idols while others are worshipped in unmanifest form or symbols. There are 64 main pilgrimage places depicted here. One now comes to the prophecies of the Advent of the Lord, followed by Stage 2. Stage 2 This Stage shows glimpses of the first of the Sai Trinity, that is, Saibaba of Shirdi. The exhibit shows Saibaba sitting in the Dwarkamayi masjid, where He used to give darshan, giving nine coins to Laxmibai Shinde. These nine coins symbolize nine characteristics of a devotee. Also depicted are the items that were kept in the masjid. These were a dhuni, where a fire used to burn at all times, a Satka, a bath stone, a Kolamba where food offered by people used to be mixed and distributed to all, a water pot, a sack of wheat, and a grinding wheel. On the roof there a four hooks, from which Baba used to hang a plank, on which He used sleep. On the rear wall there is TV showing some scenes from the film 'Shirdi Ke Saibaba'. Now one comes to the beginning of the next manifestation, Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi. We start with the legend of Puttaparthi. The village of Golapalli was a prosperous village. The land was fertile and crops grew well. Cows were healthy and gave copious milk. One cowherd found that his best cow came back from grazing daily with empty udders. The incensed cowherd followed the cow one day and found that it went to a putta (an anthill inhabited by a snake) and stood there while a snake came out of the putta and drank the milk from the udder. The enraged cowherd picked up a rock and hurled it at the snake, which was mortally wounded. Before it died, it pronounced a curse that the place will become barren and homes of snakes. And that is what happened. The name of the village changed to Valmikipura and then to Puttaparthi. This is also the place where the dreaded dacoit Ratnakar, did penance and became Rishi Valmiki. A short film is shown where Kondama Raju (Baba's grandfather) is visited by his Guru, Venkavadhuta, who tells him that the time has come for Narayan to incarnate. He would take birth in his family and would love him. This took place on 23 Nov 1926. Now one moves to a small room with some old musical instruments. This is the replica of a room in the house where Baba was born. The date and time of Baba's birth are shown. As one comes out of this room, on the left is an item showing Rishi Aurobindo sitting with his disciples. The date is the day after Baba's birth, Aurobindo announces that his mission is over as Krishna has taken birth. He hands over the charge of the Ashram to the Mother and goes into seclusion. Thereafter he gave pubic darshan only three times a year. On the right there are a few frames showing a brief account of the life of Easwaramma. A scholar asked Baba whether His birth was a normal biological birth or was it something else. Baba called Easwaramma and asked her to narrate what happened to her when she was drawing water from the well. She said that she had just lifted a pot of water when she looked up and found a large blue ball of light rolling towards her. It entered her body filling her with great joy, whereupon she fainted. Baba explained that this is how He made His advent.