As Swami Vishwananda asked us not to make a "big thing" out of his birthday, at first we didn't really have an idea how to celebrate this wonderful day in a special way!
The programme here at Shree Peetha Nilaya was as follows: a Yagna in the morning - in the wet, wet tent (it was raining heavily the entire time) ...
...and in the evening an Abishekam and a lot of Bhajans for our Guruji.
... and because it was also Vanamali's birthday- she did the Abishekam to his padukas.
Recently the idea came up that we could make Swami happy simply by making other people happy. In that spirit, we did some research and found some homes for elderly people and disabled children and asked if we could sing for the residents there.
It worked!
We rehearsed a bit and off we went. It was touching to see and feel the joy! .... Not only for the elderly people (we saw some tears and many smiles) it was nice - it also made us happy to feel this joy. We are now considering organising such visits more regularly!